Bachelor Swordsmanship Remastered [EN]: Chapter 179

Rustle.

The Young Palace Lord sat across from Unhyun.

Her beautiful figure flickered beyond the bonfire.

“Were you reading the heavens?”

The Young Palace Lord spoke.

Studying the heavens involves researching weather and fortune through constellations.

Unhyun was briefly surprised, then gave an awkward smile.

“No, I wasn’t.”

“That’s a shame.”

The Young Palace Lord said with a faint smile.

“If you had examined the heavens, you would have seen that the road ahead won’t be easy.”

It was a rather meaningful statement.

Unhyun quietly gazed at the Young Palace Lord.

As expected, the Young Palace Lord continued in a low voice.

“In the past, the scar left by the Sword Saint in the North Sea is still deep and large. Perhaps, for those involved, it is still the present.”

Unhyun could understand her words.

“You are the master of Sunset.”

Crackle, crackle.

Beyond the bonfire, the Young Palace Lord’s sparkling eyes were fixed on Unhyun.

“If the Ice Emperor doesn’t step forward as he did then, perhaps you will have to cross a river of blood.”

The expression ‘river of blood’ was by no means an exaggeration.

If Unhyun had to subdue the entire North Sea with his sword, as the Sword Saint had done in the past.

However, Unhyun could discern the sincerity she hadn’t spoken in her words.

“The fact that you’re telling me this means you don’t want that to happen, Young Palace Lord.”

A smile touched the Young Palace Lord’s lips.

“That’s right.”

She readily admitted.

“But it’s best not to trust me too much.”

Rustle.

The Young Palace Lord rose from her seat.

“Because I am not someone to be trusted. No, I am someone who shouldn’t be trusted.”

The figure of the Young Palace Lord, visible beyond the bonfire, flickered like a mirage.

As if she would disappear at any moment.

“Excuse me.”

Unhyun called out to her as she was about to turn away.

When the Young Palace Lord turned back, Unhyun hesitated for a moment before speaking.

“Would it be alright if I asked you something about Sunset?”

The Young Palace Lord’s picturesque eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“Have you forgotten? That sword was passed down to the Sword Saint before I was even born.”

“No, that’s not it.”

Unhyun realized she had misunderstood.

“I’m not asking about the circumstances at the time, but about Sunset itself.”

A strange light flickered in the Young Palace Lord’s eyes.

She pondered for a moment.

“Well? Only the Ice Emperor and my mother, the Supreme Master of the North Sea, know about that sword.”

In the end, it meant the Young Palace Lord didn’t know.

Unhyun was a little disappointed.

“Is that so?”

“However, there is one thing.”

The Young Palace Lord said.

“I’ve heard that Sunset has been passed down from the distant ancient times, along with the North Sea Ice Palace itself.”

Rustle.

With that answer, the Young Palace Lord turned away.

Thanks to this, she didn’t see Unhyun’s face covered in a completely confused expression.

‘What?’

Unhyun couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

‘Sunset has been passed down along with the North Sea Ice Palace?’

Unhyun couldn’t believe what he had just heard.

‘That’s impossible.’

That could never be.

***

“Still, it doesn’t make sense.”

The next day at dawn, Unhyun shook his head while looking at Sunset.

“This isn’t that old of a sword.”

It certainly wasn’t.

The patterns engraved on the scabbard of Sunset and the style of the hilt were excellent and elaborate, but they couldn’t be called ancient.

Even if he was generous, it would be about a hundred years old, even if not accurate.

It couldn’t even show its face in a situation full of hundreds of years old ancient swords.

“It can’t be that the North Sea Ice Palace was built a hundred years ago…”

That couldn’t be.

The existence of the North Sea Ice Palace had been known for at least hundreds of years, and some even said it had existed since a thousand years ago?

“Could it be that the Young Palace Lord knows something wrong?”

Muttering, Unhyun shook his head.

Although she said last night that she was someone who couldn’t be trusted, that couldn’t be what she meant.

Of course, she wouldn’t be someone who never lied, either.

“Hmm.”

Unhyun, who had been resting his chin with a troubled expression, decided to think differently.

“If this sword is really that old, why did it become like this?”

The answer came simply.

“It means the scabbard and handle were newly made.”

Although he didn’t even know the material of the blade, at least the scabbard and handle were definitely recent.

If a very old sword was given a new scabbard and handle, it would probably look like this.

“But would they have touched it so carelessly?”

If it was a treasured sword, especially if it was a sword so important that the North Sea Ice Palace staked its pride on it, they wouldn’t have replaced the handle just because it was a little old.

“Maybe it was burned in some kind of accident and had to be remade…”

If that were the case, they would have restored it to the same shape as the original.

Of course, there was no guarantee that the North’s ideas were the same as the South’s.

“Or maybe the scabbard and handle were meaningless from the beginning…”

Unhyun, lost in thought, shook his head.

“Tsk, anyway.”

It’s something he can’t know anyway.

For now, everything is just a vague guess.

Thud.

Unhyun stood up from his seat.

He only made things more complicated by asking the Young Palace Lord.

“Hoo.”

Unhyun slowly calmed his breathing.

The cluttered mind calmed down, and a sword clearly came to mind.

The sword energy that should be on Sunset was still nowhere to be found, but it didn’t matter.

At this moment, it was enough to be able to practice the sword.

Swoosh.

Sunset began to move like flowing water, following Unhyun’s movements.

Was it because the time was late and the surroundings were bright?

Suddenly, Unhyun thought that the blade of Sunset looked so transparent that it was chilling.

However, the flow of the White Tiger Training Sword did not allow Unhyun to look away.

Whoosh.

Before he knew it, Unhyun had become one with Sunset and was unfolding the White Tiger Training Sword.

And that day, like then, it came suddenly.

Buzz.

‘Ah.’

It was between the sky and the earth.

No, perhaps it should be said that the sky and the earth were within it.

The massive flow was embracing everything.

The earth, the sky, and even the flow of distant stars.

It was the very thing Unhyun had seen for a single moment in his duel with Muje.

‘Ah ah.’

A massive flow like a destiny that wrapped around the world.

Unhyun was speechless before it.

He forgot the stances, the movements, and the breathing.

He even forgot the sword.

That’s why he saw the blade of Sunset turning blue, but he didn’t care.

Everything was meaningless.

Only a huge thrill was running through Unhyun.

Woo woong.

‘What on earth have I been misunderstanding?’

He thought he had to follow the flow.

But that was a misunderstanding.

Because nothing and no one in this world can go against the flow.

Woo woong woong woong.

Tears flowed.

Now, the sense of fulfillment that he had finally found the place he had to return to filled Unhyun.

It was at that moment.

Woo woong woong.

The blade of Sunset, which had been crying since earlier, turned chillingly transparent.

And soon, it began to emit an intense light.

However, Unhyun did not realize it.

No, he didn’t care.

Too naturally and extremely naturally, Unhyun accepted the light of Sunset.

Flash.

The light swallowed Unhyun.

No, Unhyun swallowed the light.

***

How much time had passed?

Whirr.

Unhyun opened his eyes to the sensation of the wind shaking his clothes.

No, he already had his eyes open.

It was only then that his consciousness returned to reality.

“Hoo.”

He breathed lowly.

But the thrill was still flowing through his body.

“Haha.”

Laughter flowed.

But it soon turned into a regrettable sigh.

“Hoo.”

His chest felt empty.

But it wasn’t empty.

Because now Unhyun knew.

What he had been looking for for so long.

How long had he been standing like that?

Suddenly, Unhyun realized that he was still holding the Sunset sword.

‘Ah, come to think of it.’

Unhyun remembered that the blade of Sunset had turned blue like deep water.

And that light had been emitted at the end.

‘Was that the secret of the Sunset sword?’

Unhyun unconsciously raised the sword.

And the next moment, Unhyun was faced with an amazing sight.

“Gasp!”

Unhyun swallowed a dry breath.

“W, what is this.”

Confused, Unhyun quickly examined Sunset.

‘It’s gone!’

It was gone.

The blade that should have been there was not visible.

All that remained in Unhyun’s hand was the handle.

‘No, how could this happen.’

It was an unimaginable event.

For the blade to suddenly disappear was absurd.

‘No, that’s not it.’

Unhyun suddenly remembered that the blade had turned transparent.

Perhaps the blade was still there, just invisible.

Unhyun carefully reached out his hand.

Fearing that he might get cut, he slowly brought his fingers to the side, not the blade.

Swish.

But nonchalantly, Unhyun’s hand didn’t touch anything.

It passed right through where the blade should have been.

“Gasp.”

Unhyun even waved his hand loosely.

But as expected, his hand passed right through the part where the blade should have been.

The blade of the Sunset sword had really disappeared.

Unhyun’s face contorted with dismay as he confirmed that fact.

“…This is a disaster.”

Holding only the Sunset sword, or rather, the handle of the Sunset sword, Unhyun looked like he was about to cry.

Then suddenly, another thought flashed through Unhyun’s mind.

‘Ah, maybe.’

Perhaps the blade had come loose and flown away.

Whirr.

Unhyun quickly looked around.

He couldn’t see anything like a blade, but he couldn’t give up like this.

Unhyun glared and began to search the surroundings.

***

“Hoo.”

Unhyun sighed and moved his heavy steps.

Thud, thud.

The sun was already high in the sky.

Not only had the morning passed, but everyone must have been tired of waiting and angry.

But Unhyun was also desperate.

Because he had lost the blade of the Sunset sword.

He had been frantically searching the surroundings, but in the end, he couldn’t find the blade of the Sunset sword.

His hands and clothes were dirty, but he didn’t care.

‘What should I do?’

He was just overwhelmed with how to tell the Young Palace Lord that he had lost the blade of the Sunset sword.

It’s not that he’s afraid she’ll get angry.

‘No, that’s scary too, but.’

Perhaps the path to making peace with the North Sea has disappeared.

If he says he lost Sunset, the entire North Sea will be furious.