Part 6 - Encounter
Jeong-a hurried along the 'back way', making for Wongakjeong—the First Young Master's residence.
The back way was a path meant for those of low birth or status.
From lines of ox carts piled high with sacks of grain, to servants traveling in little clusters while gossiping, to strong-looking men shouldering chests as they rushed about—aside from the lack of loud, bellowing merchants and the countless beggars, it was no different from the market streets outside.
This endless stream of people moving with purpose and haste felt like the very lifeblood of a giant called the Luoyang Sword Clan.
Jeong-a had pulled a long cloak over herself and was walking in the shade beneath the walls.
"Hey, look over there. She's unbelievably pretty, isn't she?"
"Idiot. Eyes front. She's obviously someone of high standing—don't go looking for trouble!"
"Y-yeah, I guess… But why would a highborn young lady be walking the back way?"
"What's it to us ignorant lot if we know?"
"No, I just…"
From a distance, two servants were chattering about the beauty glimpsed beneath her cloak.
In a back way as noisy as this, it wasn't a conversation an ordinary person could've heard.
But their words were visible to Jeong-a's 'eyes'.
The shape of their lips, the roll of their eyeballs, the tiny gestures—everything conveyed their conversation vividly.
And not just them. Everyone Jeong-a had passed so far had already gone through her 'eyes'.
Good. Changing clothes wasn't a bad call. No tail.
It was hard to imagine the Second Young Master or Third Young Master assigning people to keep watch over someone as insignificant as a mere maid, but Jeong-a didn't let her guard down.
Not until she stepped beneath the First Young Master's roof.
Like azalea seeds on a spring day, she could only be tossed about wherever the wind blew—that was her position.
Ignoring the familiar glances that stole quick looks at her beauty and figure, she quickened her pace.
***
After walking and walking, she finally reached her destination.
So this is Wongakjeong…?
Jeong-a felt a jolt the moment she arrived beneath Wongakjeong's walls.
She'd long heard of it—the enormous grounds set aside for the First Young Master alone, tucked away in the furthest corner of the Luoyang Sword Clan.
But seeing it with her own eyes was different.
Walls stretched endlessly to either side, and beyond them rose towering trees—so dense they formed a vast forest.
I can't even tell where it ends…
Judging by the fact that even her 'eyes' couldn't easily measure its scale, it had to be among the largest residential spaces in the entire famed Sword Clan.
But… why is there no one here?
The back way that had resembled a marketplace only moments ago grew emptier the closer she came to Wongakjeong—until now, it was so silent it was unsettling.
This wasn't an exaggeration.
It wasn't merely sparse. There was literally no one.
Not even a single servant carrying ingredients—nothing.
A lesson once given by the reception hall mistress flickered through Jeong-a's mind.
"Jeong-a. It's the same in any household. If you want to peek at a family's wealth, look at their back way."
By that measure, Wongakjeong was a place where wealth had dried up.
…It's not like I didn't know.
Swallowing hard, Jeong-a moved on.
After following the wall for a long while, she stepped onto the broad road leading to the main gate.
Unlike the back way, the broad road was where only important figures of the Sword Clan walked—guests, guards, and the like.
Another teaching from that day surfaced.
"If you want to feel a family's power, look at the front of their main gate."
For the first time since the day she arrived at the Sword Clan, Jeong-a saw the broad road completely empty.
Even if the First Young Master is in seclusion… I never thought it would be this bad…
She'd mocked those who gossiped about him behind his back. She'd sneered at them.
But now that she was seeing it for herself, she couldn't even laugh at them anymore.
All she could see were a handful of guards stationed at the main gate.
Worse, they looked like they'd been dozing while leaning against the wall.
The way they awkwardly snapped into posture at her appearance wasn't even funny.
"Uh—y-yes. W-what business brings you here?"
Jeong-a swallowed a sigh at the guard's clearly half-awake response.
"I'm here by order of the Head of the Steward's Office."
Instead of adding needless explanations, she held out the Steward's Office order.
"The Head of the Steward's Office?"
At those words, the leader—who'd been stifling a yawn behind her—hurried forward and took the order.
While he examined it closely, Jeong-a sighed again in her mind.
The massive main gate—built wide enough for carriages to pass smoothly—showed no sign of upkeep.
The paint had peeled away. Rot had eaten through it in places. It was hard to believe it belonged to the Sword Clan facilities she knew.
And the wall she'd walked alongside—how had it been?
It was dauntingly tall, yes, but parts had collapsed and been crudely patched with what looked like mud plaster.
Broken roof tiles—so old she couldn't even guess when they'd cracked—were left lying around without care.
A heavy tightness crept into her chest.
…Was choosing the First Young Master a mistake?
If this were the main entrance to the Second or Third Young Master's office at this hour…
Surely brilliant carriages and people in expensive silk would be lined up, waiting for permission to enter.
And at their gates, personal guards loyal to them would stand at attention—letting a quiet aura seep out as they worked with disciplined precision.
Nothing like these pathetic guards who napped on duty—
That was when a cold shiver erupted along the back of Jeong-a's neck.
It felt as if several blades had brushed past her body.
The only reason she managed not to scream was simple.
She'd felt this sensation before—many times.
Qi-sense!
That's right.
It was a kind of qi-wave, something released by those whose internal energy had reached a certain level.
And the source of that qi-wave was unmistakably the very guards she'd just dismissed as pathetic.
These guys…! They're not ordinary guards! They're experts!
They'd replaced a physical search with a sweep of qi.
Whether she possessed internal energy.
Whether she'd hidden weapons.
Whether she concealed killing intent.
Of course, an ordinary maid would never sense it—so Jeong-a focused on acting calm.
Right. Of course.
Cold sweat slid down the back of her neck.
No matter how ignored he is, the First Young Master is still of the Sword Clan's legitimate line.
It would be absurd for the main gate of his residence to be guarded by common men who knew nothing of martial arts.
Then the guard leader—an expert disguised as a captain—approached her after finishing his review of the order.
"The order has been verified."
With the same politeness as when he'd taken it, he returned it.
Jeong-a barely managed to steady her trembling fingertips as she accepted it and tucked it into her clothes.
"Open the gate for her."
As Jeong-a passed through the main gate, the captain's voice followed behind.
"Ah—come to think of it. I forgot to tell you this."
When she looked back, he spoke in a calm tone as if it were nothing at all.
"Under no circumstances, leave the forest path."
Jeong-a didn't understand why, but she nodded and continued forward.
Once she seemed far enough away, one guard snickered and shook his head.
"A new maid for Wongakjeong. The Swordless needs a new maid, does he?"
"I don't really know, but aren't maidservants something important people need for 'outside work'?"
Another guard traced the outline of Jeong-a's figure with a hand gesture and grinned.
"A Swordless without a 'sword'—maybe that sword's still twitching, huh?"
Raucous laughter burst out.
As expected…
Hearing them from afar, Jeong-a bit her lip.
Within the Sword Clan, the contempt directed at the First Young Master came in degrees.
Among martial men who worshiped wu—martial might—it was especially severe.
If the two pillars holding up the Sword Clan were wealth and martial power, then the First Young Master, branded with the slur 'Swordless', was as good as having completely lost one side already.
Even experts advanced enough to use qi-sense guarded his main gate only because it was their duty.
No one seemed to hold even a shred of loyalty toward him.
…The road ahead is long.
Even if the Head of the Steward's Office was right—if the First Young Master truly had 'changed his mind'—what could he possibly do?
"…!"
And then she realized it.
She was standing in the middle of a formation so vast and so densely woven she'd never seen anything like it.
It's the forest! These trees—no, the entire forest is constructing a formation!
Her 'eyes' showed the formation with frightening clarity.
It wasn't that she'd never seen formations before.
From simple ones that made trespassers lose their way—set up to keep guests from wandering where they shouldn't—to anti-personnel killing formations that glittered with slaughter intent around defensive positions for emergencies.
But none of them—none—had ever possessed a density as terrifying as the one she was seeing now.
It felt as if the formation itself could crush a person like an insect merely for looking at it.
Except for one thing.
Only a single path—the one she was walking—remained untouched.
Every other area, the entire forest beyond it, looked pitch-black.
Even with her 'eyes', she couldn't dare attempt to interpret it.
"Under no circumstances, leave the forest path."
Only now did she understand the guard captain's warning.
And she understood something else as well.
Just like the experts disguised as guards at the main gate…
This horrifying formation was the same.
She was approaching one of the core figures of a great clan whose ferocious might shook the entire continent.
No matter how much he was ignored.
No matter how much he was mocked and despised.
He was still the First Young Master of this family.
Then her vision began to flicker.
She saw the forest—then the formation—then the world brightened—then darkened again, repeating in pulses.
And then—
The First Young Master was suddenly standing before her.
"A strange child."
Standing quietly in the middle of the forest path, he spoke to Jeong-a.
The voice sounded like a boy's voice, and also like a young man's—like a beast's howl, and also like a demon's screeching laughter.
"How are you seeing Wongakjeong's barrier?"
He—it—leaned an impossibly pale face close and tilted its head.
Its eye sockets were hollowed out as if someone had gouged them clean, and inside they connected to Avici Hell.
From that bottomless abyss, it let yellow pus-mixed blood tears spill out.
"And how are you 'seeing' me?"
It was 'looking into' her with those empty sockets, but even with her 'eyes', Jeong-a couldn't properly see, or understand, a single thing.
It was something that could never be seen.
Something that must never be seen.
"Ah!"
With a strangled scream, her consciousness snapped into darkness.