The World's Greatest is Dead

What had I just heard?

...Did I hear that wrong?

The words I’d heard from the Yucheon Gil in front of me. The moment I recalled them, a cold sweat ran down my back.

...I must have heard wrong.

My ears had to be the problem. Otherwise, this situation made no sense.

If not...

The Yucheon Gil inside the dream-vision—

he recognized me.

Because that meant his reaction really had been the reaction of someone seeing me again after the last time.

My hands trembled. I narrowed my eyes and forced my frenzied heart to settle.

Even as I struggled to calm myself down—

“If someone greets you, shouldn’t you answer?”

Yucheon Gil spoke to me with a faint smirk.

Hearing that, I asked him:

“...Do you remember me?”

“Oh. So you’re not mute. Right, talking to myself would be a little disappointing. Ah, what was the question? Whether I remember you?”

Slowly,

Yucheon Gil rose with that massive body of his.

“Who knows. I feel like I’ve seen something like you before... though I’m not sure. But I have seen you, haven’t I?”

“...”

“You’ve opened Moon Eye. Are you someone from the Azure Moon Sect?”

“Close enough.”

“Then I don’t know why you’re wearing these bastards’ clothes.”

It was certain.

This is different from last time.

His reaction was worlds apart.

Instead of charging straight at me and swinging his sword, this time he was far too calm.

That’s bad.

That made it worse, not better.

...Now the calculations don’t line up.

That was the biggest problem. The calculations I’d already made no longer fit. I’d prepared while factoring in even Yucheon Gil’s response.

It’s a variable.

A huge variable had appeared. This was something my plan had never accounted for.

“Hmm.”

Yucheon Gil looked around. Every time those blue eyes swept past something, a chill crawled over my skin.

“How strange.”

He smiled.

That smile made the backs of my knees go weak.

“Where is this?”

Damn it.

He was beginning to realize it on his own. Inside a dream-vision, the central figure of the dream-vision was becoming aware of what it was?

What kind of rotten nonsense is this?

I had never experienced anything like this before. What was I supposed to do?

What am I supposed to do in a case like this?

I tightened my grip on my sword. Against that absurd being, should I just fight first?

Hss.

I swallowed the sound in my throat. In a dream-vision like this, what kind of response was even right?

...Why am I hesitating?

There was only one answer anyway.

Shrrng.

I drew the Divine Sword. Just as I was about to charge Yucheon Gil—

CRRRAAAACK—!!!

“Huh?”

The space began to warp. Cracks spread everywhere, and then—

KWA-DOOM!!

The space collapsed.

*****

“...”

I opened my eyes at once. Holding my forehead, I pushed myself upright.

“...What?”

What kind of situation was this?

The dream-vision had broken on its own.

That young Yucheon Gil seeming to remember what had happened before and recognizing me—that too.

“What did he do?”

Had Yucheon Gil done something? If not, I couldn’t make sense of it.

A thought-form inside a dream-vision awakening on its own.

Could something trapped inside an endlessly repeating frame really start remembering on its own?

“This is driving me insane.”

It had already been hard enough, and now it felt even worse. Tch.

How was I supposed to deal with this from now on? Just as my head started spinning—

“You’re awake.”

“...Hm?”

I heard a voice. A familiar, cold voice at that.

“...What?”

I raised my head. Someone was standing in front of me.

A middle-aged man with sharp eyes and a cold impression.

The Moon Immortal Sword.

“...?”

The Moon Immortal Sword was suddenly standing inside my quarters. Looking at him, I nodded.

“I’m still dreaming.”

I must not have fully woken up from the dream-vision. Right. Sometimes, when you failed to wake properly from one, you got nightmares like this.

“Just my luck. A nightmare this terrifying...”

“...”

With a sigh, I lay back down again. All right, now let’s wake up.

“...”

“...”

A little time passed.

After that brief stretch of silence, I carefully lifted myself up again.

Ah. So this was—

“...This isn’t a dream, is it?”

It seemed to be a reality that felt like a nightmare.

*****

Two cups of tea sat on the table as I faced the Moon Immortal Sword.

An awkward silence brushed past us. It was a remarkably burdensome stretch of time.

A moment passed like that, and then—

“...So, why are you here...?”

Why had the Moon Immortal Sword come to see me this early in the morning?

When I asked that question—

“I came to examine your condition.”

The Moon Immortal Sword gave me an unexpected answer.

“My condition...?”

“After rebirth, the body undergoes drastic changes. It seemed possible that problems might arise if things went wrong.”

The Moon Immortal Sword looked me over.

“But that doesn’t seem to be a concern. Your balance is stable.”

Problems that occurred during rebirth...? That was the first I’d heard of it. Then again, the evil bastard who should have explained it all to me had vanished, so how would I have known?

“...Ah, yes...”

Stable balance, huh. Fortunately, it seemed there were no issues.

“You don’t appear to have any problems, so that is enough.”

“You really came just to check that?”

“As if.”

The Moon Immortal Sword said it with a smile. Wow. So that old man really could smile.

That’s terrifying.

He was clearly smiling with that handsome face of his, yet somehow the air felt colder.

“Then...?”

If he hadn’t come to examine my condition, then why come at all?

When I asked that—

“Tomorrow.”

The Moon Immortal Sword spoke calmly.

“Tomorrow?”

“Yes. The Azure Wolf Festival begins tomorrow. You must have already heard, so there’s no need for explanation.”

“...”

He was certain I would have looked into it on my own. Ridiculous.

Though I did, in fact, look into it.

What exactly did the Moon Immortal Sword think I was?

It made me feel a little awkward.

“...Yes. I did find out a few things.”

“It is tomorrow.”

“Was it always scheduled for tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

The Moon Immortal Sword nodded evenly.

“Tomorrow.”

Even though I already knew, he kept repeating it. Was he trying to hammer it into my skull that badly?

“Yes, I understand. So... Sect Leader, you want me to appear there?”

“Do you think it unnecessary?”

“No. It’s not that I think it unnecessary. I’m questioning whether it is necessary.”

They called it the Azure Wolf Festival, but in the end, I’d heard it was effectively the contest for Young Sect Leader.

Yucheon Gil doesn’t seem to think too highly of it either.

The very existence of a Young Sect Leader in the Azure Moon Sect hadn’t existed in the distant past.

If you wanted to become Sect Leader, you didn’t need to pass through the post of Young Sect Leader. You simply seized the position through a duel to the death with the Sect Leader.

So I wondered what exactly there was to gain from becoming Young Sect Leader here.

Though they do say it lets you open something important.

Was that really such a major advantage?

To begin with—

I have Yucheon Gil.

Opening the Azure Moon Sect’s library to obtain martial arts did not mean much to me. I already had something far greater than that teaching me.

“You seem overflowing with confidence.”

“Confidence... I don’t know. Hmm.”

“Then can you defeat the Silver Moon Sword?”

“What?”

Why had the Silver Moon Sword suddenly come up here?

When I looked at the Moon Immortal Sword with puzzled eyes—

“That child is my masterpiece.”

“...”

A firm declaration burst from the Moon Immortal Sword’s mouth.

A masterpiece. Quite a pleasant phrase to hear.

“A masterpiece...”

For the Moon Immortal Sword to say that much—

Certainly.

The Silver Moon Sword was strong. Strong enough to count among the very best martial artists I had met in that age bracket.

Even more so compared to the other Seven Prodigies.

Even compared to the monsters called the greatest of the younger generation, he stood several steps above them.

If anything, it was almost strange that someone with that level of skill had stayed so quiet in the Central Plains.

“At one point, I even thought that in the future, he would surely kill me and ascend to the position of Sect Leader.”

The Moon {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Immortal Sword’s words about the masterpiece that would kill him carried a faint scent of blood.

Because it meant he was raising the very person who would one day kill him.

“That is why I am curious.”

His sharp eyes turned toward me.

“Between you, who inherited the Sword Saint’s will, and my masterpiece—which is superior?”

“...”

That vivid curiosity in his eyes. More than anything, the purity of that emotion made me feel strangely pressured.

“...You’re curious about something very strange.”

“It is a pure curiosity. Just who...”

The Moon Immortal Sword’s eyes glowed blue.

“...will cut off my head first.”

“...”

At those words, I froze. I had no choice but to.

What kind of expression is that?

The expression on the Moon Immortal Sword’s face was one I had never seen before.

Madness, maybe. No. No matter what word I tried to force onto it, it was hard to describe.

Putting on a calm face with some effort, I asked him:

“...And if one of us tries to cut it off, you’ll just quietly let it happen?”

A duel to the death with the Sect Leader.

At those words, the air around the Moon Immortal Sword suddenly turned heavy.

“As if.”

The words that came from him carried absolute certainty.

“Do you know what the greatest regret of my life is?”

“I do not.”

I didn’t know the Moon Immortal Sword’s life, so how could I know his regret?

Perhaps reading my mind, the Moon Immortal Sword answered immediately.

“That I was unable to have a duel to the death with the Sword Saint. That is the greatest regret of my life.”

“...”

Ah.

Right.

The moment I heard that, I remembered.

The Sword Saint was known to have died of natural causes, and because of that, the Moon Immortal Sword had never gotten to fight a duel to the death with him.

He had ascended to the position of Sect Leader simply because, aside from the Sword Saint, he had been the strongest martial artist in the Azure Moon Sect.

And that’s his greatest regret?

That he couldn’t fight the Sword Saint.

That he couldn’t reach the position of Sect Leader through a duel to the death.

That was his greatest regret?

These people are insane.

I laughed inwardly at those words. It hit me again.

As expected... this place is a den of lunatics.

Choosing a Sect Leader through a duel to the death was absurd enough.

But now the man who had already become Sect Leader was saying that the regret of his life was failing to have a duel to the death with the Sword Saint.

“You really are something.”

The words slipped out before I could stop them, and the Moon Immortal Sword’s expression vanished.

Damn.

Did I cross a line? I stiffened and looked at him—

“So show me.”

The Moon Immortal Sword said, looking at me.

“How far the Sword Saint’s will truly reaches. Whether that will...”

Slowly,

the Moon Immortal Sword raised his hand to his own neck.

“...is a will great enough to reach my throat.”

“...”

To his throat.

...Right.

Yucheon Gil had told me before.

That I had to become the greatest under heaven.

And before that, that I had to ascend to the position of Azure Moon Sect Leader.

Now, I could truly feel what those words meant.

If I want to become Sect Leader—

I have to kill the man in front of me.

I felt it clearly. The ridiculous part was that the Moon Immortal Sword wanted that too.

Probably—

Yucheon Gil did too.

That was probably why he had been angry about all this Young Sect Leader nonsense.

“...Hmmm.”

Back then, I would have questioned why I had to do something so bizarre and terrifying.

This is driving me mad.

But one thing I knew for sure.

I’ve gone mad too.

I didn’t hate this situation.

Me too—

I was starting to be stained by that monstrous old man.

“...Which masterpiece is superior, you ask?”

So I spoke, the corners of my mouth lifting.

“Me, obviously.”

It could only be me.

“I have the greatest man of all time behind me.”

No matter how strong the Moon Immortal Sword was—

behind me stood the master of the world.

Even if his personality was rotten beyond belief.

At that answer, the Moon Immortal Sword smiled again just as before.

And maybe it was only my imagination, but—

-...I never called you a masterpiece, did I?

Somehow, I thought I heard the kind of grumbling Yucheon Gil would make.

Annoyingly enough.