I Became The Academy’s Blind Swordsman - Chapter 222: East, Hwaseong (10)

The three women were threatening a half-transparent ghost, and Sierra’s explanation echoed in my head as I tried to make sense of the mess.

Perhaps these three were following me.

If so, why didn’t I feel them?

It must have been the pink haired girl over there.

She could sense my aura.

It was a big deal that I hadn’t realized they were following me, but it wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened to me in Hanzo’s tomb.

I tried to think of it as a positive, as if this experience had taught me to be more careful if they were following me.

It wasn’t exactly dangerous, since it couldn’t harm Hanzo, but it was still embarrassing for him, so I quickly explained the ghost’s identity to them.

“So you’re saying that this is the Great Ninja Hanzo…?”

“How is he still alive?”

“Not exactly alive.”

Kaen, who was waving his hand through Hanzo’s spirit body, answered Aizel’s question.

They couldn’t see Sierra, but they could see Hanzo, and that was because Hanzo’s spirit was contained in this great tomb, and those who entered it could always be in contact with him.

“Then… Why did Zetto lose his mind…?”

Yuri asked, extinguishing the flames in his palm.

“Umm… I was tired for a while…”

I couldn’t tell them that I was going through the memories of my previous life.

“Why are you here?”

“Well, the people I met on my walk turned out to be grave robbers, and they took me away, claiming that since I was blind, I must be good at crystal mending or something…Well, halfway through, I became intrigued by the tomb of Great Ninja Hanzo and ended up here…But more than that, why are you guys here?”

“”……””

The three exchanged glances at my counterattack.

Judging by their reactions, they didn’t have a pre-planned answer.

“I guess you guys met the grave robbers too, huh?”

“Didn’t we…? We were out for a walk, too, and we just happened to…”

“Ahaha…I wonder why there are so many grave robbers… I think there are more than ninjas.”

I extended my hand of salvation to them, and Yuri and Kaen gave me the benefit of the doubt.

“……”

Only Aizel pouted and made a face that said she didn’t like it.

But it wasn’t because I wanted to lie. It was unavoidable for the sake of smooth progress.

“Hmph…Are we done talking?”

Hanzo coughed and looked around.

Apparently, he had missed the main character.

“I apologize, sir. I was rude to you. Please forgive me.”

“That’s fine. Now that I have a general idea of the situation…”

Hanzo narrowed his eyes and squinted at me.

His subsequent explanation made it clear what he meant by having a general idea of the situation.

“That young man told me about the situation. He told me that the country is in trouble because of the outbreak of the divine beasts, and that’s why I asked him to take on the job.”

Hanzo paraphrased so I wouldn’t be embarrassed.

“Work?”

“I have a reward for you, so don’t show your reluctance. I have a device here that can locate the divine beasts. Will you deliver it to the shrine maiden for me? It will be of great help to them. There, the pink one…yes, you.”

“Oh, me? My name is Kaen.”

“Kaen…will you follow this old man to deliver the goods?”

Hanzo then called out to Kaen and left the alcove with her to retrieve the compass.

“Hmm…Well, it looks like things got done somehow.”

At this rate, she’d explain where she got the compass without me having to, and I’d gotten close to her past life and gained a skill at the same time, so I’d say I’d done okay.

“The only thing left to figure out is the connection between Kaen and Dao Hua.

I’d already checked, but they looked very much alike.

Dao Hua and I had no children, so unless Dao Hua had siblings, it was impossible for her to be Kaen’s ancestor.

‘Did she reincarnate too?’

Could the threads of fate be twisted in such a way?

If she did reincarnate, she wouldn’t have any memories so she must be in a similar situation to me.

Like me, she might be able to touch the past and get her memories back, but it seemed unlikely.

In my case, I was reincarnated with the power of Heneryes, so it is said that I have a record of it etched into my soul, but in a normal reincarnation, the case would be different.

Regardless, I had to assume that Dao Hua and Kaen were connected, even if I didn’t know exactly what that connection was.

‘The only question is…’

Quickly organizing my thoughts, I glanced back at Yuri and Aizel, who were curiously examining the alcove.

Their overprotection was getting worse by the day. Of course, this time they were probably following me out of curiosity.

I’ll have to be more careful when I go off on my own in the future.

But then Yuri, who was looking at a scroll on one of the desks, asked me a question.

“So, Zetto went through all these mysterious gates just like the rest of us, right?”

“Gates, yes. Lord Hanzo said they were prepared for ninja training.”

“Then I’m curious, do you remember the first gateway?”

“The first gateway?”

“Yes. It was called the Gate of Illusion…Did anyone come out of it?”

Yuri rattled off, and Aizel turned to me, looking interested…

[Ahem, I can see the question in her eyes.]

Sierra was right, it was a very revealing question. It was the kind of question that made me wonder who they might have met in disguise.

It was a question that should not be answered in the interest of fairness, something Geppeti had been emphasizing ever since I declared my intention to embrace everyone.

“…Who did Ms. Yuri meet?”

“Uh… well…”

“We didn’t see anyone.”

It was an unexpected answer, but it was a lucky one.

I smiled and opened my mouth to speak.

“I didn’t see anyone in particular, either. Were you supposed to see anyone?”

“…Well.”

Aizel responded with a small click of his tongue. It wasn’t the answer she was expecting, and she was disappointed.

‘Kaen’s a little late, by the way.’

It’s not like she’s just going to get something.

***

She was walking down a dark passageway with a bluish ghost behind her.

“…Do you believe in reincarnation?”

The old ghost turned around and asked her.

“Reincarnation? You mean like reincarnation or something?”

“That’s right.”

“Do I have to believe in it?”

The question caught her off guard.

Up until that point, she had thought of it as the kind of thing that interests ghosts whose bodies have long since worn out and disappeared.

“I would believe in it, if I was the reincarnated one.”

Hanzo shrugged, spitting out something rather meaningful.

“I wonder if you’ve ever heard of the Conquering King.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Hmm… Anyone from the East would know about him, but aren’t you from the East?”

“It’s not often that an orphan knows her hometown.”

“Oh… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind.”

Hometown and birthplace, those things were too far away, especially for me.

By the time I had a clear idea of who I was, I was already living on the road with my grandfather.

When I grew a little older and realized that I was an orphan, that I wasn’t related to him by blood, I once asked him a question.

‘Grandpa, what kind of people were my real parents?’

My grandfather stuttered, clearly flustered by my question.

‘Gah, why are you asking such a question all of a sudden, Kaen, did someone tease you?’

‘Not really, I was just wondering about my roots.’

‘Roots…?’

‘Humans, they say, tend to value their roots.’

‘Who told you that…?’

‘A friend of my grandfather’s we met the other day.’

‘Juliut, that wretch! How dare he tell a child something so difficult…’

‘And my mom and dad? Were they close to grandfather?’

‘No, I don’t know who your parents were, I just saw a newborn baby on the road and picked it up.’

‘Heh…’

‘But it’s a good thing that you got to be my granddaughter, right? This grandfather is quite a famous man, isn’t he?’

‘That’s a lie, no one recognizes you.’

‘Hmph, it’s a good thing they don’t recognize me. It saves me a lot of trouble.’

At the time, I used to think of my grandfather as an adult with a slight lack of responsibility, but when I saw him leave me in the care of an acquaintance during the war with the demons, I changed my mind.

He was not only responsible for taking care of me, an orphan, in the first place.

In fact, his sense of responsibility was so strong that when he encountered a problem, he couldn’t ignore it, so he lived his life away from the public eye.

After that conversation, I stopped looking for my roots.

I thought my roots were enough to be a disciple of the Sword Saint, and my grandfather’s granddaughter.

I didn’t care where I was born or who my parents were.

But why was Hanzo asking me this?

As I continued to listen to the explanation of the Conquering King, I realized that he wasn’t exactly a person from the same Hwaseong Kingdom like Hanzo.

He was the king of a country called Moon Country, the one and only king who unified the East.

What does that have to do with reincarnation?

The answer came soon enough.

“He had a queen, and I was very close to her in my lifetime.”

“Hmm…He must have been a contemporary of yours.”

“And you resemble that queen.”

“…Like what?”

“Your appearance.”

“Aha, so that’s why you speculated that I might have been reincarnated. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with me. In life, you might meet someone who looks a little like you.”

Honestly, at this point, I was worried that the ghost of Hanzo had grown old.

“It’s not speculation, it’s fact.”

“I see and I’m eager to get the thing and return home.”

“You have that blind young man in mind, don’t you?”

“…So?”

“If I told you that the young man was the Conquering King in a previous life and that you were his wife in a previous life, would that interest you?”

“That’s a ridiculous statement.”

It was definitely a rant, but it didn’t really resonate with me, and it didn’t have any evidence.

“Here, this is the compass. All you have to do is give it to the maiden.”

“Sounds easy.”

Hanzo pointed me to where the compass was, and I quickly picked it up.

It wasn’t an ordinary compass.

It was an oddly shaped compass with unidentifiable characters written all over it.

“And your reward…”

Hanzo scanned the warehouse and pointed to a stack of papers.

“What is this?”

“An amulet. It’s supposed to be effective against demons.”

“Well, it seems to have some use.”

“It’s a great ninja’s amulet, but your reaction is rather cool.”

“Thank you.”

Considering Zetto’s situation, it seemed to be a satisfactory reward, as we might have more encounters with demons in the future.

“And…This.”

The next thing Hanzo pointed to was a sword.

The sheath was white and unblemished.

At the end of the hilt was a metal ornament in the shape of a crescent moon.

“What is this sword?”

“It’s your sword.”

“…Just by looking at it, it seems like a valuable sword, so I can’t believe I’m suddenly…”

I said, but my hand had already picked up the sword.

-Grrrr.

The rust-free blade emitted light.

It was a strange thing, considering it had been in his possession for what must have been hundreds of years.

On the blade there were words that were hard to read.

“This is…”

“It’s an ancient script from the East. It reads “Wol-young.”

“Wol-young…”

“It means moon shadow.”

“It’s a sword of such quality that it could be called a master sword or a treasure sword, but can you give me something like this out of the blue? I haven’t done anything to deserve it.”

I knew I wanted a sword as good as my grandfather’s or Zetto’s, but I never thought I’d get one for doing nothing, so I wondered if it was a demon sword or something.

My grandfather had once told me that there’s a reason for every favor.

“What need is there, you are the owner of the sword.”

“You’re still saying that reincarnation thing…”

Hanzo’s ramblings continued, and whether it was because of my mood or not, the weight of the sword in my hand or the feel of it in my grip was familiar, as if I had experienced it before.

“The sword is called the Moon Spirit Sword. It was wielded by Baek Dao Hua, the wife of the Conquering King, and it has already been proven that you are the reincarnation of Baek Dao Hua.”

“What does that mean?”

I frowned unintentionally.

I didn’t understand how that inference could be true when it hadn’t been proven, and no evidence had been produced.

“The Moon Spirit Sword you’re holding is the proof, and it’s enchanted with a powerful magic formula. No one but Baek Dao Hua herself can take it. You didn’t even bother to check the blade a moment ago.”

“……”

“Believe it or not, it’s all true, and I’m just trying to help you. It’s a shame you can’t remember your past life.”

“Whoa… Wait. So you’re saying that I was a queen in a past life, and my husband was the Conquering King, and that’s Zetto’s past life?”

“Exactly. My head is spinning, and so is yours.”

It felt good to hear that Zetto and I were connected in a past life, but I still didn’t believe it.

“Does Zetto know about this?”

“Sadly, like you, he doesn’t seem to remember anything.”

Hanzo shook his head in sympathy.

“Still, I’m glad you’re interested. If you want to learn more about your past life, I suggest you look up the Moon Spiritual Society in the Moon Country.”

“What’s the Moon Spiritual Society…?”

“It’s an organization founded by Baek Dao Hua in the past. She gathered powerful people from all over to protect the Conquering King, Baek Cheong Seon. I don’t know if it still exists, but I’ll see if I can find any records.”

The Moon Spirit Sword and the Moon Spirit Society.

Baek Dao Hua and Baek Cheong Seon.

It was all a little hard to make sense of, but for now, I decided to get back to where they were before I aroused anyone’s suspicions.

I turned to Hanzo with one last question before entering the alcove.

“The one thing I don’t understand is why Lord Hanzo is going out of his way to help me.”

“It’s this little ghost wish. The end of Baek Dao Hua and Baek Cheong Seon was not good, and I don’t know if it’s a twist of fate, but here they are once again…”

Hanzo closed his eyes and trailed off, as if reminiscing about the past.

“…So this time, it should end well.”

A connection to Zetto that only I know.

‘Maybe this is a chance.’

I thought to myself.

‘The Moon Festival…’

I’m even going to the Moon Kingdom on this trip.

I’m not one to believe in reincarnation, but I couldn’t deny that I wanted to find out more.