Ch.133133. Ways of Mourning

While Amon was enjoying his time with the demon and AI duo, the Ju siblings, Sunwoo and Sunhwa, were facing off against the head of the Sword Circle.

However, for quite some time after Amon left to deal with the duo, there was no sign of the battle beginning.

As the head of the Sword Circle, the leader knew the siblings’ swordsmanship well.

Sunwoo, as an apprentice who had once admired the leader, knew his sword style well too.

Because they knew each other too well, both sides were cautious about making the first move.

Thus, the standoff naturally evolved into a psychological battle.

The leader spoke, attempting to persuade the Ju siblings.

“You’re in the same position as I am, so why do you remain loyal to the Lee Dynasty?”

Sunwoo and Sunhwa gave different answers to the leader’s question.

“What are you talking about? Because of you, I almost became a wandering ghost in the middle of Mount Geumgang.”

“You abandoned me, and they accepted me. That’s all there is to it.”

Sunwoo’s eyes were filled with anger and disappointment, while Sunhwa’s gaze carried cold killing intent as they both stared at the leader.

The leader’s expression remained utterly calm as he faced these hot and cold gazes.

Their battle finally began when a ghost broke through the defensive line and carelessly charged at Sunwoo.

Bang-

Sunhwa fired an exorcism flare she had prepared just in case.

While this prevented Sunwoo from being possessed, the leader didn’t miss that momentary opening.

The leader swung his sword at Sunhwa’s chest as she couldn’t draw her sword while firing the gun.

However, this wasn’t particularly dangerous for someone whose specialty was iaido.

As her hand moved to her sword, her blade was already drawn and aimed at the leader’s neck.

The leader retreated with a bitter smile at her strategy of sacrificing her chest to target his neck.

“Where did you learn such swordsmanship? The style I taught you wasn’t so barbaric.”

“I’ve been sparring frequently with someone who puts his life on the line.”

The leader recalled a certain fanatical young man and smiled bitterly at her answer.

Indeed, throwing a sword and aiming for blind spots at angles where one might get hit wasn’t swordsmanship that ordinary humans could employ.

“I suppose I can’t go easy on you either.”

The leader discarded the sword in his hand and drew the greatsword from his back.

As the dark blade of the greatsword was revealed, an eerie, malevolent energy dominated the area.

The sword emitted an ominous aura that suggested flesh would rot and fester if cut by it.

It was undoubtedly a cursed blade.

“That’s…”

“This is the original sword that became the model for the one you once drew by chance.”

Just by tilting the sword slightly, countless resentful voices erupted from within.

– Free us

– Curse youuu

– My blood. My boody

Sunhwa displayed disgust toward the sword.

“How many innocent people were sacrificed to create that thing?”

“They weren’t particularly innocent. They were Joseon people who burned a 6-year-old child’s mother to death and tried to stone the child to death too. Just because the child was born to a traitor. Can they truly be called innocent?”

“Did such a thing happen?”

“It’s all in the past. It’s like the lamentations of a ghost trying to burn the world with what remains of the ashes, because it doesn’t want to feel emptiness.”

“That’s regrettable.”

Their conversation was surprisingly calm for enemies facing each other.

This was because, unlike Sunwoo, Sunhwa didn’t particularly harbor ill feelings toward the leader.

The leader, finding this strange, paused the battle to ask a question.

“I don’t sense killing intent in your sword. Why don’t you consider me an enemy?”

“I told you already. I’m stopping you because you abandoned me, and they accepted me.”

Only then did the leader realize his misunderstanding.

“Could it be that by ‘they,’ you don’t mean the Lee Dynasty but someone else?”

She remained silent, but the leader took it as confirmation.

“Is this lord you’ve spoken of so often truly worthy of your service?”

“Well… At least so far, they seem to be a suitable scabbard to rest in for a while.”

“My, you could stand to be a bit more emotional like your brother.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

As she returned her sword to its scabbard, she said:

“I cut away such things when I cut down my own clan with my own hands.”

With those words, her scabbard gleamed.

Clang!

The leader immediately swung his greatsword to parry an attack from thin air.

“Every time I see it, it’s like magic.”

“It is magic, actually.”

Her scabbard gleamed once more.

Between the fluttering folds of her clothes, glowing magical engravings were briefly visible.

‘Not really magic I want others to see.’

She smiled bitterly for a moment.

Recalling the irony that the magical engravings had both revived and destroyed the Ju clan, she attacked the leader.

“Hmm. At this rate, this will never end.”

The leader, who had been parrying her sword from a distance, pulled out a dagger from his left sleeve.

He placed three daggers between his fingers and flicked them toward the ground.

Whoosh.

The daggers extended like three-section staves.

Sunhwa recognized what the leader would do next.

“That’s Amon’s…!”

“He happened to leave me some recordings.”

Like the other Sword Circle members who had invaded the cathedral, the leader threw his sword.

Beyond the swords rushing toward her like arrows, he charged forward.

“Ugh.”

Being well-acquainted, the leader knew the weakness of Sunhwa’s iaido style.

‘To swing once, the sword must first be resheathed.’

Therefore, it was impossible to block three swords rushing at once and the leader charging from behind them.

Sunhwa was well aware of this fact.

That’s why she had someone by her side to compensate for this weakness.

“Where do you think you’re going!”

Sunwoo blocked the leader with his twin hwando swords.

Though hwando were shorter in reach and thinner than katanas, making them less suitable for parrying, they had their own advantages.

The convenience gained by sacrificing power.

Sunwoo was a swordsman who wielded hwando in both hands, trusting in this convenience.

And this characteristic also complemented his sister’s weakness.

While his sister’s attacks were powerful but had long intervals between them, his swordsmanship allowed him to strike and retreat at any time, giving her time to recover her stance.

As Sunwoo kept the leader occupied, Sunhwa deflected the flying swords and returned her sword to its scabbard.

Sunwoo recognized with just a glance that she was ready and created distance between himself and the leader.

Clang!

A heavy collision sound rang out in midair, causing the leader to falter.

Sunwoo seized the opportunity to swing his sword several times before retreating again.

Though no effective hits landed due to the leader’s defensive style, Sunwoo wasn’t impatient.

Sunwoo trusted his sister, and Sunhwa trusted her brother, so they calmly pressed the leader.

During this, the leader began to recite a classical poem.

“根深石亦裂枝長風如刃”

“??”

Sunwoo, who wasn’t familiar with classical Chinese, couldn’t understand the words, but Sunhwa, whose automatic translation function included classical Chinese, could comprehend them.

[Roots deeply planted,

Even rocks will split.]

Understanding the meaning, she urgently called out to her brother.

“Sunwoo, fall back!”

But Sunwoo had already closed in on the leader.

Rustle.

“Huh?”

In the leader’s fluttering left sleeve was a short hwando that Sunwoo had never seen before.

The leader spoke bitterly to Sunwoo, who hadn’t yet grasped the situation.

“Have you forgotten that I taught swordsmanship to both of you?”

Greatsword in his right hand, hwando in his left.

Seeing the leader with swords in both hands, Sunwoo realized his mistake.

‘The leader’s sword wasn’t defensive…’

As when dueling Amon, the leader with his greatsword preferred counters over initiating attacks.

Like a pine tree facing the wind, like a deeply rooted rock.

But that didn’t mean the leader was passive.

Originally, his greatsword played that role.

A shield to parry swords.

The greatsword was simply fulfilling its purpose.

And the leader’s main offensive weapon was the agile and versatile hwando.

‘Ah…’

Sunwoo wore a bitter smile as he felt the warm, damp sensation in his abdomen.

‘I realized too late.’

Perhaps he had been too excited.

In his fading consciousness, he painfully watched his sister struggling to parry the leader’s sword.

*

Clang!

The leader’s greatsword easily blocked Sunhwa’s sword.

Meanwhile, his free left hand exploited openings to target her vital points.

She twisted her body to barely avoid the attack.

“Ugh…”

Was this what it felt like to face someone armed with both sword and shield?

A greatsword that defended against all attacks and a hwando that exploited the slightest opening.

She let out a groan at the unfairness of this formidable combination.

The leader spoke to her with a somewhat bitter voice.

“It seems the story of the Jung clan has been forgotten. Do you not know that the head of your Ju clan was once a disciple of our family?”

Letting his hwando and greatsword hang at his sides, he continued.

“Once, our clan produced the finest swordsmen in Joseon. Perhaps our research into democracy was merely a pretext to strengthen the Lee Dynasty’s power.”

Saying it no longer mattered, the leader swung his greatsword.

The dark blade cut through a nearby pillar like tofu.

“It’s a frighteningly sharp sword. Don’t you think?”

Somehow, the leader’s right pupil had turned black.

She addressed him with something like mockery in her tone.

“You seem possessed. Are you alright?”

“Don’t worry. I will never be possessed.”

“Aren’t you putting too much faith in the demons’ power? What if my friend exorcises that demon? You’ll be in danger.”

“You’re the one who’s mistaken. It’s true that I changed plans and distributed greatswords to the Saljugye members with that demon’s help. But I always intended to use this greatsword myself.”

“Did you covet power that much?”

“To overthrow a country, one must make some sacrifices.”

The leader raised his sword to his face,

and his right mechanical arm began to be corrupted by the black energy.

He muttered.

“I don’t like dancing to the tune of outside entities, but…”

Crackle-

His mechanical arm sparked, then

Bang! The surface shattered, and black liquid began to flow from within.

The black liquid had already replaced his arm, and metal fragments from the broken mechanical arm protruded from his right arm like a hedgehog’s quills.

Sunhwa distanced herself, showing physiological disgust at the sight.

“If this frightens you, you’re in trouble.”

But that wasn’t the end—eyeballs and teeth began to sprout from his right arm.

“You’ve abandoned your humanity.”

The leader didn’t deny her assessment of his monstrous appearance.

“I never cared about the throne anyway. I just need to destroy it. Who sits on it afterward is none of my concern.”

So the opinions of others didn’t matter to him.

Sunhwa finally resolved the last question that had been bothering her.

“I thought the ghosts specifically targeting the current emperor were the demon’s doing, but it was your order.”

“…”

“Were you so jealous of a young child’s happiness? The happiness you couldn’t have at that age?”

“I thought it was all in the past… but yes. Honestly, watching him made me jealous.”

“How ugly.”

“The plan started with ugly motives anyway. Why bother with formalities now?”

“It would be easier if you just showed anger.”

“Didn’t you say the same thing? That you cut away such sentiments when you cut down your family. It’s the same for me. When I sealed those trash who killed my mother in this sword, I sealed my heart along with them.”

“Yet you can still feel jealousy.”

“Humans are naturally ugly, contradictory liars, aren’t they?”

“I can’t deny that.”

Sunhwa gripped her sword again.

The leader also adjusted his grip on the cursed blade with his enlarged right hand.

Their conversation was over.

Once more, their swords clashed.