Bachelor Swordsmanship Remastered [EN]: Chapter 81

081. Master of the Setting Sun

“W-what is this!”

The guards and servants protecting the banquet hall shouted, but they were already outnumbered.

They could only raise their voices; the thirty-odd young martial artists stormed into the banquet hall without hesitation.

“What’s going on?”

“What is it?”

The younger generation from various factions, participants of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, frowned.

The intruders seemed uninterested in the younger generation, gathering in groups and sitting down here and there in the banquet hall.

“W-who are you people?”

Some of the lavishly dressed young ladies asked in fearful voices.

Not only the younger generation were present here.

Young people from merchant guilds and influential families, seeking to build connections with them, were also present at the banquet.

“Who are you!”

Sama Geon of the Mount Hua Sect shouted, infusing his voice with internal energy.

His voice echoed through the banquet hall, and the intruding young martial artists reacted.

“You lot? A greenhorn talking so rudely.”

“W-what did you say?”

Sama Geon’s eyes twitched. At that moment, Jegal Ryong of the Jegal Clan stepped forward.

“Who are you, and where are you from?”

“Hmph.”

Instead of an answer, they were met with ridicule.

The young martial artist, seemingly the leader, sneered openly.

“What’s it to you? We’re just here to eat. Hey! Is anyone taking orders here?”

He shouted at the servants.

However, no one believed they were really there for a meal.

“You bastards!”

Sama Geon of the Mount Hua Sect exclaimed.

“How arrogant! How dare you……”

Swish.

Sama Geon’s voice trailed off.

The young martial artist had drawn his sword hilt, pointing its end at Sama Geon.

“Let me warn you, if you call us ‘you lot’ one more time, I’ll rip out your tongue.”

The young martial artist’s eyes emitted a sharp murderous intent.

It was enough to silence Sama Geon, but Jegal Ryong, who was beside him, was not intimidated.

“How bold. But I assume you know that Young Master Sama is a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect?”

Everyone knew the names of the great sects. However, meeting their disciples in person was extremely rare.

Therefore, to ordinary martial artists, the name Mount Hua was akin to immortals frolicking in the clouds.

Thus, Jegal Ryong was certain that they would be surprised.

However, his certainty was easily shattered.

“Mount Hua Sect? Hmph.”

The young martial artist with sharp features smirked.

“Turns out, he’s just Mount Hua’s trash.”

He glared straight at Jegal Ryong.

“And whose trash are you, then?”

“Y-you insolent……!”

Sama Geon was furious.

The sect had been insulted. And he had been called trash.

If he didn’t get angry here, he wouldn’t even qualify as a disciple of Mount Hua.

Therefore, Sama Geon’s anger was perfectly justified.

Clang.

Sama Geon drew his sword without hesitation. Jegal Ryong also moved his hand to his sword.

That was the beginning.

Clang.

The thirty-odd intruding young martial artists drew their swords without hesitation, as if they had been waiting for it.

“Oh!”

The younger generation from each faction, who had been watching, realized that something was amiss.

Already angered by their attitude, they immediately drew their swords and blades as well.

“Attack!”

“Haaaah!”

The young martial artists immediately charged towards the younger generation.

There was no minimum probing or hesitation.

The younger generation did not just stand by and take it.

No matter how sudden, the young disciples, already accustomed to drawing their swords, immediately launched a counterattack.

“Everyone, be careful!”

“Kyaaak!”

Shouts and screams filled the banquet hall.

The banquet hall instantly transformed into a place of clashing swords and blades.

***

Yunhyun found the Young Palace Lord after walking along the shore of West Lake for quite some time.

Just when he thought she might have gone to the opposite side of the banquet hall, Yunhyun spotted the Young Palace Lord standing far away.

‘Ah.’

The Young Palace Lord standing by West Lake at night was truly beautiful.

He knew she was beautiful, but seeing her like this, she was truly a masterpiece of art.

Calming his slightly fluttering heart, Yunhyun quickened his pace towards the Young Palace Lord.

“Scholar Yunhyun.”

The Young Palace Lord noticed Yunhyun approaching.

She gave Yunhyun a gentle smile.

A beautiful woman smiling made his eyes light up.

“Ahem.”

Yunhyun, approaching the Young Palace Lord, cleared his throat and turned his head.

The night scenery of West Lake unfolded before Yunhyun’s eyes, and the Young Palace Lord spoke softly.

“This is a beautiful place.”

“Yes, it is.”

Yunhyun was slightly puzzled by her relaxed demeanor.

‘Isn’t she going to the banquet?’

In his opinion, it was already late.

Yet, the Young Palace Lord showed no signs of hurrying.

“Um, well……”

Yunhyun’s words, about to ask if she wasn’t going to the banquet, were cut off by the Young Palace Lord’s voice.

“It’s alright not to go to the banquet.”

Rustle.

The Young Palace Lord gently turned towards Yunhyun.

Turning lightly as if dancing, she looked up at Yunhyun with captivating eyes.

‘Uh……’

Her appearance was more attractive than Yunhyun had expected.

Moreover, her eyes, looking at him, were more beautiful than the night scenery of West Lake, making it impossible to take his eyes off her.

But that was only for a moment; Yunhyun blushed and quickly turned his head.

“Ahem. Well, why aren’t you at the banquet……”

The Young Palace Lord chuckled at Yunhyun, who barely managed to bring up a topic.

“Because.”

The Young Palace Lord said.

“Even if we go now, all that will be left in the banquet hall are dead bodies.”

“Pardon?”

Yunhyun looked at the Young Palace Lord, involuntarily questioning her.

The Young Palace Lord, with a captivating smile on her red lips, was looking at him.

In that moment, Yunhyun felt something cold spreading down his back.

The Young Palace Lord’s eyes told him that she was telling the truth.

A cold truth, like a blade made of ice.

“What does that……”

“If.”

Yunhyun’s question was blocked by the Young Palace Lord’s voice.

“You continue to deceive me until the end, then that will surely happen.”

So, it wasn’t yet.

But he still couldn’t understand what she meant.

“Deceive? Me?”

Yunhyun asked, but the Young Palace Lord smiled instead of answering.

In a way, she looked like a young lady teasing her lover, but her cold eyes were far from playful.

“Yes. You.”

The Young Palace Lord was neither joking nor teasing Yunhyun.

Yunhyun’s face hardened.

And countless thoughts raced through his mind, heading towards a cold and clear fact.

And the conclusion was one.

“……Are you saying.”

Yunhyun said in a slightly trembling voice.

“That the Young Palace Lord planned this?”

“Yes.”

The Young Palace Lord admitted.

“I did it. So, it will surely happen.”

Yunhyun couldn’t understand the reason at all.

But one thing was clear.

This was neither a bad joke nor a lie.

“Of course, you could stop it.”

The Young Palace Lord said, still with a smile.

“Though you’d have to face Bingsul before that.”

Rustle.

Bingsul appeared from behind the Young Palace Lord.

As always, Bingsul’s expression was blank and silent.

However, in her two hands, she carefully held an antique sword.

Swish.

Yunhyun raised his eyes to look at Bingsul.

The extraordinary aura he had always felt was now being conveyed even more clearly.

‘As expected.’

She, Bingsul, was a woman with an even more terrifying aura than Binghon, as Yunhyun had felt.

Yunhyun turned his gaze back to the Young Palace Lord.

“What is the reason for doing this? And why are you telling me this?”

It was a natural question.

But the Young Palace Lord’s face turned cold.

“Haha.”

The Young Palace Lord laughed, as if in vain.

Yunhyun clearly saw a cold chill rising in her eyes.

“Unexpected. Could it be that you still……”

Grind.

The Young Palace Lord gritted her teeth.

Moving her red lips, the Young Palace Lord said in a cold voice.

“Do you think you can still deceive me?”

The Young Palace Lord’s anger was not false.

For the first time since Yunhyun had met her, the Young Palace Lord was revealing her emotions as they were.

“Young Palace Lord, there’s some……”

Yunhyun, about to say that there was a misunderstanding, couldn’t finish his sentence.

“Stop it now.”

The Young Palace Lord said with cold eyes.

“Aren’t you ashamed as the master of the Setting Sun?”

‘Ah!’

Yunhyun immediately realized the cause of the problem.

Setting Sun was the sword that Sword Saint was going to give Yunhyun in Waryongheon [a hidden place or residence].

A tremendous sword that was clearly extraordinary even to Yunhyun, a layman, Setting Sun.

Perhaps a great misunderstanding had occurred in connection with that sword.

“Hoo.”

Yunhyun breathed a sigh of relief, as if relieved.

And he said politely to the Young Palace Lord.

“You’ve misunderstood something. I definitely returned the Setting Sun Sword.”

However, the Young Palace Lord’s reaction was different from Yunhyun’s expectations.

The Young Palace Lord smiled gently. And she said quietly.

“Only two people in this land can speak the name of that sword. The Sword Saint Lee Geomhak, the former owner of that sword, and the new owner……”

The Young Palace Lord’s eyes looked straight at Yunhyun.

“You, Yunhyun.”

The cold smile on the Young Palace Lord’s red lips sparkled in the moonlight.

“Today, the Northern Sea will take back the Setting Sun.”

She said in a whisper-like, captivating voice.

What was spreading in her eyes was joy.

But at that moment, Yunhyun was in shock.

It wasn’t because of the Young Palace Lord’s words about taking back the sword.

‘Sword Saint? He is?’

It was because he had just realized that the person who had given him the sword was the Sword Saint Lee Geomhak.

“Just now, did you say Sword Saint?”

It was a truly surprising statement. But at the same time, it was overwhelmingly convincing.

The person who had overwhelmed the younger generation with just the aura he emitted from afar.

Who else could he be but the Sword Saint, the one who had instantly made all the experts Yunhyun had met so far seem insignificant?

Suddenly, Yunhyun recalled his appearance when he met him in Waryongheon.

His deep eyes, filled with regret, silently savoring tea with Shinseung, were still vivid in his mind.

“Hehe.”

It was the Young Palace Lord’s laughter that awakened Yunhyun from his thoughts.

“You’re really amazing.”

The Young Palace Lord said to Yunhyun.

“That appearance is no different from the Scholar I’ve known so far. To be so calm even in this situation where everything has been revealed, I can’t help but say you’re really amazing.”

Yunhyun wore a troubled expression.

The Young Palace Lord thought that Yunhyun had been deceiving her all along.

“I……”

He tried to say something, but Yunhyun’s words were cut off.

“Perhaps you really didn’t know anything. But whatever your true intentions may have been.”

A resolute light appeared in the Young Palace Lord’s eyes.

“The fact remains that the lives of the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering participants are at stake right now because of you.”