‘She's really wolfing it down.’
I wondered if she was hungry, then changed my perspective. Considering how much athletes eat, it's probably normal for martial artists, man or woman, to eat a lot.
But the Clear Wind Inn was built right next to the government office.
Meaning it did business with the officials and military officers who visited Lizhou.
So the quality of its food should have been good.
But a moment later, I realized.
An inn's meals would be a bit different from snacks.
They'd only serve things closer to proper dishes.
Food meant for hospitality rather than for generously filling the belly, like the mackerel served at Jeong Manor.
When I thought back to the three siblings, the eldest was clearly past thirty, the age of standing firm, and the second son looked about my age, in his mid-twenties.
For the youngest daughter, around the age of capping or younger, it wouldn't be strange if she was at the age of eating a lot.
That's what I said to Namgung Ran, just as I'd thought it.
“Ugh……. This is a little embarrassing to talk about.”
This time her face turned far redder than before. In Sichuan, even a market-street chicken skewer is spicy.
But that wasn't necessarily the reason.
For a girl her age, being absorbed in eating alone while someone stood beside her would be embarrassing.
“To be honest, I am satisfied with the inn's food too. I am satisfied, but……. as you said, the portions are a little……. Still, I cannot ask for more.”
And her expression, which had been tinged with embarrassment, suddenly hardened with disappointment.
Disappointment at what?
It didn't seem to be at herself.
“Because a woman of the Namgung Clan cannot do something so undignified.”
“So you're not permitted to buy food from street stalls.”
“Ah, well. Um. It means that too, but. Do you know much about the Namgung Clan?”
“No. Not much.”
“Then I can let this count as the payment.”
No harm in that.
She was already behaving like someone who couldn't even imagine Namgung Hyeon-ri's disappearance. That alone was worth the coins.
I'll sleep more comfortably tonight.
Namgung Ran paused for a moment.
When explaining something that's obvious to yourself to someone else, it's hard to know where to start.
“The Namgung gather the children of the collateral branches once they come of age, and house and feed them. And for a long time, they teach them martial arts and the attitude a Namgung martial artist should have.”
“How long do they do that?”
“At the longest until thirty, the age of standing firm, but if one shows exceptional talent, one may graduate around twenty.”
Not obvious at all, right from the start.
I was already quite puzzled. It was so different from what I'd imagined a clan to be.
Why would they do that?
“The gathered children are supervised by the elders, who evaluate them with merit and demerit points. With accumulated merit points, you can request what you want……. and with demerit points, you receive punishment.”
“Merit and demerit points, are those what I'm thinking of?”
“If you do well, you get merit points, and if you make mistakes or your marks are poor, you get demerit points.”
“Based on the results of duels and such?”
“It is not only martial arts that we learn. Learning and refinement are evaluated too.”
It seemed they even sat exams, much like the civil service examination.
I was bewildered.
I don't know of any martial clan run like this.
Her following account of life in the clan and the process of becoming a Namgung martial artist also revealed a surprisingly strict system.
On top of that, the clan was apparently so big that the main estate even had a fabric shop and hunting grounds.
The currency the children born as Namgung descendants used for all those facilities wasn't money.
It was merit points granted by the clan elders.
The more I heard, the more it was like looking at a kingdom.
And that kingdom seemed to exist entirely as an institution for educating the Namgung children.
With that, a question naturally came to mind.
“If it's run like that, isn't it less a clan and more a military academy, like the Guard Academy? A rather strict and large one at that.”
“I think that is actually true. From what I have heard, the Imperial Guard Academy was modeled after the Namgung main estate.”
The story that followed was also astonishing: even food, clothing, and shelter were graded by merits and demerits.
“For motivation, bedchambers and lodgings are also decided by marks. If you want something……. for example, if you want to go out, you have to collect a lot of points.”
To Namgung Ran, things like sweets and chicken skewers were, on the contrary, precious foods she rarely got to taste.
Not because the clan didn't have them.
Because she couldn't spend her merit points carelessly.
I take back "golden branch and jade leaf." She's just a military cadet.
Then I asked how they ate at the main estate and was bewildered once more.
Plain rice and pickled vegetables were the entirety of the basic meal provided.
Anything more cost merit points.
“Can a martial artist like you, Miss, even keep up your strength eating like that?”
“That is why my eldest Orabeoni, who serves as an Instructor, or the Unnies I am close with, often slipped me food in secret.”
“A custom, then.”
“The elders do not say anything about that much.”
The difference in treatment based on evaluation was beyond imagination.
Isn't touching even meals going too far?
But looking back, the concept of basic human rights was something that had only recently come about, even in the twenty-first century.
In the murim, which should be seen as a medieval world, it isn't strange for the grit-above-all doctrine of "overcome it with willpower" to take hold.
Besides, it's an era when common folk worry even about a single meal.
Strict though it may be, it would be even harder to complain about a life like this, where at least you won't starve to death.
“So even the Namgung Clan's children only eat properly if they earn merit points.”
“Yes, yes……. I heard even the Guard Academy does not do it like this.”
Well, of course they wouldn't do it like that there.
They'd graduate in four years at most and be posted somewhere.
But the Namgung Clan's family tradition, as conveyed through Namgung Ran, was truly far too rigid and mechanically stiff.
And on an enormous scale at that.
“Excuse me, but including the collateral branches, about how many children enter the main estate in a year?”
“I understand it is a hundred at most and at least fifty.”
This is truly an extremely strict military academy.
Only, a school that turns out martial artists instead of soldiers.
And honestly, I doubt even modern military academies go this far.
“This is like a factory that manufactures Namgung martial artists.”
“A place where artisans gather? Perhaps it is similar.”
In this era, a factory means a place where the artisans, of the scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, gather.
We understood it differently, but the meaning got across, so Namgung Ran laughed weakly.
At some point, Miss Namgung's talk about her clan was turning into a lament.
Her own feelings began seeping into what had been a calm description of the clan's structure, and at some point resentment mixed in too.
It wasn't a lament from the start; the emotion gradually leaked out as she talked.
My own bewilderment kept piling up as well.
This world's Namgung Clan is very different from the prestigious orthodox clan martial arts novel readers usually imagine. Had I ever seen a Namgung Clan of this form?
But that also made it interesting.
The graduation she'd mentioned at the start was like that too.
“Then if you don't get good evaluations to the end, you can't graduate?”
“Yes.”
“Then what happens? Do you have to stay inside the clan your whole life?”
“The Namgung Clan is vast. So there are many people who live their entire lives within the clan.”
“So the Namgung martial artists who appear in public are all those who passed.”
“Yes. In some cases, people abandon the Namgung surname, take the military examination, and become military officers. I am thinking of doing that myself.”
That was the truly frightening part.
Even Namgung Ran, publicly the youngest daughter of the Absolute Master called the Sword Star, was driven to the point of considering abandoning the Namgung surname if she failed the evaluation.
Status and future were determined strictly by evaluation.
Namgung Ran described it as painful, and hellish, precisely because the direct line had to face even stricter eyes.
It was a story I'd never heard at all, so I found myself asking again.
“Pardon me……. but do the people of the martial world know the Namgung Clan is that kind of place?”
“I am not really sure about that…….”
It was already so different from the Namgung Clan I'd imagined that I felt dizzy.
“People of the martial world, uh……. um……. probably know roughly, but I do not think they know it in this much detail.”
At those words, I snapped to my senses.
“……Then is it all right to tell me all that?”
“It is not, is it? But if you are not going to throw yourself into the murim, Licentiate, it does not matter. Please do not tell anyone, though. If my eldest Orabeoni finds out, I think I would get a lot of demerit points.”
Seeing her talk about demerit points even here made me smile bitterly.
According to Namgung Ran, those who fell behind seemed to be treated as the family's shame.
The Namgung Clan apparently treated members of the family who hadn't been presented publicly as if they didn't exist.
It was the same for those who became military officers.
So spreading this kind of story in the martial world would mean risking the displeasure of the great Namgung Clan, and naturally it wouldn't have become known.
That must be why I'm hearing it for the very first time.
It was a long story, and the gloom she felt from her own words gradually began to show on Namgung Ran's face.
A gloom mixed from the weight of the direct line and the self-reproach and resignation of being unable to bear it.
Emotions, by nature, pour out at some point once you start confiding. She'd actually begun tearing up, so I kept quiet.
She looked like she needed time to calm down.
For a moment, only the sound of chewing could be heard.
Namgung Ran rubbed away her tears with her sleeve and, her eyes a little red, went on.
“Honestly, I feel wronged. My martial arts are not weak even within the clan. At least, I have never lost a duel to anyone my age.”
“Then why can't you hold on to your merit points?”
Namgung Ran hesitated for a moment.
I was about to say she could move on if it was hard to talk about.
But she opened her mouth slightly and spoke as if whispering.
“They say my sword has too much killing intent……. Everyone says so.”
Killing intent, huh…….
That's a factor a prestigious orthodox clan might dislike.
“So I often get demerit points in training and duels. And when demerits eat away at my merit points, nothing is left.”
“Ah, so the meals are only the basic ration…….”
Now she looked truly dejected.
Hearing it, she certainly had reason to be dissatisfied with her treatment. She's strong, yet her evaluation is low.
And the cause was so unexpected too. Strong killing intent?
Even now she only looks like a very harmless girl.
Does she change when she picks up a sword?
“So, the Namgung can't have killing intent in their swords?”
“Yes, because the sword of the orthodox path must be a life-giving sword that saves people.”
“That's a stuffy notion.”
It's the common justification of knights-errant. I'd heard it often, in novels and at Jeong Manor alike.
Each time, I had doubts.
Isn't it the same in that it kills people? Why make such a grand fuss about a life-giving sword?
And why did the Sword Star from a family like that blast so much killing intent at me?
So I said exactly what I was thinking.
“Even if you kill someone to save someone, you've still killed, haven't you?”
“That is so, is it not?”
“Then why do the so-called elders of the family shun it? Killing villains more effectively would be a good thing.”
I'd grown curious as I listened.
“…….”
Just from her blank expression, it seemed she'd never thought about it.
She bowed her head and pondered for a moment, then barely managed an answer.
“They said that if one's killing intent is strong, one is swayed by it. They said the Namgung sword must become an Azure Heaven swayed by nothing. I think that is why.”
I don't know much about martial arts.
But it's a story that makes me want to say something.
“If that's the nature of the martial art, they may be right. But you've achieved results nonetheless, so it's definitely not your fault, Miss.”
She actually has achievements, and they ignore them just because her killing intent is thick?
There's no unreasonableness greater than that.
It's common in this world, but it's hard for me to stomach.
At my firmness, Namgung Ran hesitated.
“……You think so?”
“Well, you're being this kind to me right now, aren't you, Miss? In my opinion, an ordinary martial artist would draw his sword first on a scholar spouting this sort of thing. Even an orthodox one.”
“Hmm…….”
I'm aware that at some point I've lost my fear and started rambling.
Then let's say something a bit more scholar-like.
“In the Tao Te Ching, Laozi says that when the Way prevails under heaven, horses, those beasts, work the fields. Conversely, when the Way has fallen to the ground, they are sent to the battlefield. Is that their will? It's the fault of the humans who drive them there.”
Modern reason is, surprisingly, built on the sages of long ago.
Laozi taught that the one who wields power matters more than power itself.
And a house of no less than a great clan is blithely ignoring the words of a sage that already exist.
“I don't really know exactly what it means that your killing intent is strong, Miss. But a knight-errant's deeds are killing in the end too. Unless you're going to take refuge in the Buddhist order, isn't the direction it points more important than the murderous intent itself?”
A sound argument is a sound argument because there's no other way to refute it.
The Namgung Clan may have special circumstances, but if it's just as I heard, isn't this simply too much?
“So I feel quite sorry for you, Miss. You're doing well, yet you aren't fairly evaluated. Isn't that unjust treatment?”
“……You think so?”
“You said even within the clan there's no match for you among your peers. The Namgung are mistreating the next Sword Star.”
The martial artists I knew were mostly bewitched by martial arts.
That's why they could throw themselves into the business of killing and being killed.
It's not something I can feel, having never learned it, but if she's doing that well in a renowned sword clan, this Miss must be someone greatly bewitched by martial arts too.
So I thought she'd be pleased if I praised her.
Namgung Ran's eyes widened slightly. Had she felt something at the words "Sword Star"?
“You are right. My family is in the wrong.”
“Without a doubt. As long as a martial artist wields the sword well, and wields it rightly, that's enough.”
“Somehow……. I feel like I understand now.”
And with that, Namgung Ran smiled warmly for the first time. It was the clearest face I'd seen on her.
She smiled as if never once in her life had her achievements been recognized.
How pitiful.
And I pity myself just the same.
In Korea and here alike, I try with all my strength, yet the world won't leave it be.
It's unfair, and unfair again.
There must be many such people, but whether anyone recognizes it is another matter, isn't it?
Maybe that's why I ended up speaking emotionally too.
But what can you do? You still have to live.