novelraw Chapter 94 : Feeling the Waves (1)
Chapter 94 : Feeling the Waves (1)
At dawn, when the sun was rising, he left a message to meet at the pier and sent the martial artist back.
The Red Elder cautiously opened his mouth to the Crown Prince.
"He is a rude person. Will it be alright to leave him be?"
The Blue Elder added weight to the Red Elder's words.
"Martial artists are originally untrustworthy beings. I will follow him and kill him."
The Crown Prince opened his mouth while emptying the remaining tea in his teacup.
"Red Elder and Blue Elder, what did you think of that young man's martial prowess?"
At the unexpected question, the two looked at each other and answered at the same time.
"He is first-rate."
"He is first-rate."
"Then, let me ask you one thing. Can a mere first-rate martial artist break through the strict security of the castle, reach here, and speak his mind properly in front of me, who is exuding my aura, and the Red and Blue Elders? And with a burden on his back at that."
"That is..."
"That is..."
"Yes. This means one thing. The opponent is a master who has reached the state of returning to simplicity, who can hide his abilities like me, the Red Elder, or the Blue Elder."
"Even so, if it's the two of us, we can kill anyone."
The Crown Prince purely nodded at the words of the Red and Blue Elders.
These two were beings who had reached the highest level of the Transformation Realm even before they entrusted their bodies to the Imperial Family. And with the vast martial treasures and martial arts knowledge possessed by the Imperial Palace, they were now super masters who had reached the Profound Realm.
"That's right. If it's the two of you, you can kill anyone. That's why I let him go. Because I can kill him anytime."
The Crown Prince recalled the situation just now.
A man who had come to find him, not anyone else, to meet the Sword Empress.
This meant only one thing.
That that man knew a secret that was not known to the public.
Most of the people who knew about the secret were dealt with directly by the Imperial Family. However, there were a few who could not be dealt with, and most of them died of old age or became wandering ghosts somewhere and did not exist in this world.
The number of people who knew the relationship between the Imperial Family and the Sword Empress was now only one, excluding the current Emperor, the Crown Prince, and the Sword Empress herself.
The greatest elder of the Orthodox Faction, the Divine Monk.
A being who, if they tried to kill, the Imperial Family would also have to take a risk.
If the huge variable called the Heavenly Demon had not appeared, they would have killed the Divine Monk long ago.
"The previous Sword Emperor died, and a new Sword Emperor appeared. And the Divine Monk, for some reason I don't know, is with him."
"Don't tell me that young man from before is?"
"From the circumstances, I just thought that might be the case. At an age of just over twenty, to have the guts to not even blink in front of me and you, and to possess martial prowess that surpasses the Transformation Realm, it can't be explained if he's not the current Sword Emperor in this Orthodox Faction."
Contrary to the public's assessment that he was not interested in politics because he was weak, the Crown Prince was already so skilled in politics that he could rule in place of the current Emperor, his knowledge was so abundant that he could debate with the Imperial scholars all night, and his martial prowess was beyond the previous two abilities.
The Crown Prince, who had finished his tea, lay down on the bed again.
"I think I can get a good night's sleep for the first time in a long time. Don't you think?"
The Red and Blue Elders just did their best to read the Crown Prince's intentions.
Whether the two of them did so or not, the Crown Prince had to suppress his excited heart for the first time in a long time.
If... just if... it would never happen, but if the Sword Empress were to set foot on the land of the Central Plains again...
The dissonance that had crept into the Imperial Family at some point.
The ever-quiet Emperor.
The struggle of a single martial artist at best.
A single drop of water that fell into a huge lake...
"What kind of expression will my father make, I wonder?"
The Crown Prince was genuinely curious about what kind of waves it would cause.
The Sword Empress, Ju Hae-ryeong, was his aunt, the Emperor's sister, and one of the sharpest swords of the Imperial Family in the past.
The name the Imperial Family had given her was the Sword of Treason, or the Treason Sword for short.
***
The Sword Emperor, as Namgung Mu-gwang saw him, was the kind of person who lived with his brain taken out.
To think he would actually climb over the castle wall and attack.
What was surprising was that the Crown Prince was really there, and the Sword Emperor, far from paying his respects to such a Crown Prince, shamelessly stated what he wanted.
In a way, he had his own convictions, and in another way, he was just a madman.
Namgung Mu-gwang naturally thought it was the latter.
His actions were unpredictable.
And what was strange was that it was working now.
His intuition was telling him.
That there was something in this situation that only he did not know.
If not, it could not be explained.
Namgung Mu-gwang eventually stopped thinking alone and decided to ask directly. Of course, he did not expect to be told. Because even if there was something, it would be a huge secret that he should not know.
"Is there something I don't know about the Sword Empress?"
The Sword Emperor, who had been meditating with his eyes quietly closed, opens his eyes.
His shining eyes turn to him.
Just looking at this, he was no different from a genius of the world.
Yawn~! With a yawn, tears form in his eyes, and the image from just now disappears without a trace.
"Ah~ that? The Sword Empress is the current emperor's sister."
Huh?
I think I just heard something I shouldn't have...
For a moment, a chilling sensation ran down his back.
His intuition was telling him.
You! Are you confident you can handle this?
Namgung Mu-gwang stealthily looked down at his legs.
His legs were trembling slightly.
Namgung Mu-gwang, with his mouth wide open, froze.
"Close your mouth. A fly might get in."
At those words, Namgung Mu-gwang, who had come to his senses, composed himself and tried to deny reality.
"So the Sword Empress is the current emperor's sister, and the crown prince's aunt?"
There are truths in the world that are better not known. And there were also truths that, the moment you knew them, became poison and suffocated you, and this was it.
"Yeah. That's right."
Upon reconfirmation, Namgung Mu-gwang's mind went on a distant journey. And that, paradoxically, enabled Namgung Mu-gwang to make a rational judgment.
"So, although the Imperial Family hates martial artists to the extreme, they purely granted our request."
"That's right. We've found a way to go to Hainan by using that, so isn't it a good thing?"
"You're quite... carefree, aren't you?"
The reason that had run away was gradually returning.
The Crown Prince had said that if this matter went wrong, he would be beheaded. That was a statement that also applied to him, who had been slung over his shoulder against his will and had followed that madman.
Moreover, if all this was a trap, the moment they arrived at the pier tomorrow, they could be killed by the government troops who were waiting in advance for the crime of attempting to assassinate a member of the royal family.
"You can't know the future even if you worry about it. That's why people are faithful to reality."
The Sword Emperor lies down on the grass. And then he closes his eyes. He was so carefree that he was at a loss for words.
"As a senior in life, I'm telling you, rest as much as you can when you can, and play as much as you can when you can. That way, you won't have regrets later."
"For your information, I'm older."
"How old are you?"
"I'm almost thirty."
"You're still a kid."
You're only twenty, you bastard! I'm at least 5 years older than you!
"Get a good night's sleep until tomorrow morning. Who knows? Something might happen that will keep you from sleeping."
"You're the one who should get a lot of sleep. I'm going to go and train."
There was no way he could sleep comfortably in this situation.
Also, his body was itching to just stay still until tomorrow.
It was then.
"Ah! You have someone who helps you with your training, right?"
"Yes?"
"No need to hide it. I know everything anyway. If you're going to follow, tell them not to get caught. If they get caught, I'll pretend I don't know. Then, I've said all I have to say, so I'm really going to sleep."
The moment his words ended, he really fell asleep.
He was an incomprehensible man.
Namgung Mu-gwang headed to the forest to clear his complicated head.
After a while, his noona appeared.
Namgung Mu-gwang conveyed the conversation he had just had with the Sword Emperor, and his noona just said she understood.
Namgung Mu-gwang, who had finished his training, still tried to get some sleep. Before the sun rose, at dawn, Namgung Mu-gwang woke up from his sleep and prepared to leave.
The preparation was nothing more than just stretching his body.
A short while later, with a rustling sound, the Sword Emperor got up. The image of him sleeping soundly without a single toss or turn from the moment he had closed his eyes flashed through his mind.
How can he be so carefree?
If he also becomes that strong, will he be able to act like him?
At a glance, he looked like a loafer, but his martial prowess was definitely above his older brother's.
"Well, shall we go?"
"Yes."
If he follows that person, will he be able to become stronger?
And someday, when the same thing as that day is repeated, will he be able to not repeat the same mistake again?
He still couldn't find the answer.
***
When they arrived at the pier, fortunately, the scene Namgung Mu-gwang had been worried about was not waiting for them.
Namgung Mu-gwang, who had let out a sigh of relief without anyone knowing, let out a deep breath at the sight of a single ship docked at the pier.
"Wow..."
It was the first time in his life he had seen such a big ship.
"Wow..."
It seemed the Sword Emperor was no different.
The Crown Prince, seeing the reaction of the two martial artists, who were like country bumpkins who had come up to Beijing for the first time and were looking around with wide eyes, opened his mouth with a satisfied expression.
"The name of the ship you are looking at now is Baekgyeong."
The class of a ship is divided by its size.
From the smallest ten-person ship to the largest thousand-person ship.
And the one in front of them now was a two-thousand-person ship, which belonged to the large class among the thousand-person ships.
"Does it mean 'white whale'?"
"Yes. To be precise, it's a name modeled after the blue whale, the largest creature in the sea."
"Amazing."
Yoo Jae-ha finally understood why the Divine Monk had said that no place other than the Imperial Family possessed a ship that could break through a typhoon.
There was no way a single individual could build such a ship.
"Now! Get on. The sailors are all on board in advance."
Come to think of it, he could feel the presence of several people inside the ship. The number was at least several hundred. He could now understand this large number. To move a ship of that size, that many people would be needed.
"Thank you for granting my rude request, Your Highness."
"Oh, you seem to be mistaken. This is a deal."
Yoo Jae-ha, raising his head, answered.
"That's right."
At the same time, Yoo Jae-ha was thinking to himself.
'If things go wrong, I'll just bring the Sword Empress for a while and then send her back to Hainan.'
It wasn't a difficult task.
In the end, the promise with the Crown Prince would be kept.
Then he would have to find another whale instead of the Sword Empress, but what can you do if she doesn't want to?
He couldn't forcibly bring the Sword Empress with his martial power, nor could he suppress the emperor's sister with his status.
For now, he would go and try to persuade her as much as possible, but if it didn't work, it couldn't be helped.
If anything, he thought it wouldn't be bad to bring in the Rakshasa Divine Maiden as an alternative. Although he didn't want to make a coercive request right after advising her to 'regain her freedom and do what she wants' a while ago, no other alternative came to mind.
By the way, where on earth is the Rakshasa Divine Maiden?
If a master of the Profound Realm were to hide their tracks, finding them would also be a very big deal.
'How do I find the Rakshasa Divine Maiden?'
And so, with worries and concerns, I boarded the ship.
And I realized a new fact.
This was my first time on a ship at sea.
"Ugh!"
With the continuous nausea, I was now leaning over the ship's railing with my face hanging out.
As the strong smell of the sea hit me, I felt like vomiting again.
I looked to the side.
"Ugh!"
I could see Namgung Mu-gwang doing the same thing as me.
It was somewhat understandable that Namgung Mu-gwang was seasick. But for me, who had reached the Profound Realm, to be seasick... is this right?
"Ugh!"
After being like that for a while, the sailors came up to me, laughing.
"Hahahaha! How do you feel coming from the land to the vast sea?"
I answered, wiping the corner of my mouth with my sleeve.
"It sucks."
"It hasn't even started yet, what will you do if you like it so much?"
"I clearly said it sucks."
"Raise your head."
I raised my head from the view of only the swaying blue sea.
At that moment, I felt like vomiting again.
Thud.
Namgung Mu-gwang, who was next to me, fainted as he was.
It was understandable.
If you can withstand that, you're not human.
"For the next four days, we will be entering that storm. The swaying will probably be at least ten times worse than now."
At this moment, I was envious of the fainted Namgung Mu-gwang.
My damn Profound Realm body couldn't even faint if it wanted to.
Somehow, it feels like life has become more tiring after reaching the Profound Realm.
I miss it, my Transcendent Peak self.
My ignorant chick days when I only pursued the Transformation Realm.
Soon, a wave bigger than the ship crashed down, and the ship swayed as if it would capsize.
The sailors, who had been laughing and talking until just now, all became serious.
"All hands, hold your positions! From now on, we fight the sea."
"Yes!"
Crash! Crack!
The ship was wrecked.
(End of Chapter)