The World's Greatest is Dead Chapter 30

What to call it.

The first impression I got the mont I saw the woman was nothing else.

Pretty.

Ridiculously pretty. That was the first thought that flashed through.

I haven’t t that many won in my life, but even among them she’d rank near the top.

If I had to compare—Yeongsun. Pretty enough to put her next to that damned one.

Her personality was rabid, but her face was pretty.

I ran from that psycho personality. Anyway.

Judging from that, this woman was unreasonably pretty.

Only—

Setting pretty aside—the feeling is bad.

I didn’t guess “crazy bitch” for nothing.

A chilly sensation was digging into my head from sowhere.

“Do you know who I am?” on a first eting? How would I know that.

“...Uh... no. I don’t.”

“Oh, really?”

She smiled bright, and sohow it was creepy. Nothing but pretty, yet it put off.

The reason was simple.

Moon Eyes.

The Sect Master. And like , a possessor of Moon Eyes. The woman’s blue eyes ant exactly that.

[Ho.]

As if to prove it, the old man behind breathed out in admiration.

[She’s a marvel.]

My eyebrow ticked up at the old man’s praise.

He was stingy even about the Little Azure Sword, and now he calls her a marvel?

He’d been tight-fisted with praise for Namgung Seong; for this woman he was generous.

It rubbed wrong.

From the sa old man who never called anything but dullard and idiot.

Couldn’t even nitpick—he wasn’t wrong.

Hoo. I shook my head on a silent sigh.

“Hm, how could you not know...”

The woman tilted her head like she couldn’t understand.

“Do you really not know?”

“Should I? Have we seen each other before?”

“No, right?”

“Then how would I know you, Lady? Do you know ?”

“Of course. I know you very well.”

Step. She closed the distance by one pace.

“You are the successor of our great Sword Saint... and the most precious son of the Liaodong Bang Family, aren’t you?”

Most precious son.

I almost laughed—never heard that in my life.

“Well now... you did a cute bit of snooping.”

All wrong. And yet, in a way, not wrong.

“But you don’t know who I am?”

She asked. Her blue eyes felt like a clear sky.

Sa Moon Eyes, and yet they felt quite different from the Moonlit Sword’s, which had resembled a deep sea.

Don’t I know who you are.

I took a very short mont to decide how to answer, then opened my mouth.

“Moon Dancer Cheon Hyein.”

“Oh my.”

She smiled, apparently pleased with my answer.

“You did know?”

“...Wouldn’t it be stranger not to know you?”

I’d wanted to pretend ignorance, but honestly I knew the mont I saw her.

In today’s Central Plains, it’s stranger not to know that woman.

Moon Dancer Cheon Hyein.

Daughter of the Moonlit Sword Cheon Seonghwa, and older sister to Cheon Eujin.

The Seven.

Unlike the Little Azure Sword, who was rely said to be near the Seven, she’d actually joined their ranks.

And, if rumor serves—

The most gifted talent in Blue Moon Sect history.

Anyone who’d seen Cheon Hyein’s sword dance even once always said the sa thing:

She was the Blue Moon Sect’s blazing hope without Yoo Cheongil.

That was how extraordinary she was.

And that extraordinary woman—

“Why did you co to see ?”

“Well, word said the successor of the great Sword Saint had arrived... I just couldn’t help myself.”

Her ingenuous smile pinched my brows.

A face that could ensnare a crowd of n. And yet—sothing greasy about it.

“So—your impression, now that you’ve seen ?”

“Mm...”

At my question, Cheon Hyein thought a mont and answered.

“Not bad.”

Flat as a rock.

“Yeah?”

“Yes.”

No way. I looked at her with a gaze that was turning colder and colder.

“That’s your answer?”

“Yes. Do you need anything else?”

“No, I an. Not particularly... it’s just odd.”

“Odd?”

“Yes.”

At that, Cheon Hyein’s expression turned puzzled. I spoke, watching her.

“Then why are you doing this to ?”

“Pardon?”

“Coming here with so ridiculous act to see a guy who’s rely ‘not bad’.”

“...”

Her eyes wavered.

“Feels like you ca to verify sothing... but I’m a little tired right now. You know? I literally just arrived today. I don’t feel like doing anything, so... I’ll just ask it straight.”

I was dead tired and holding back the urge to collapse into a bed. Subtlety could go hang.

“What do you want from ?”

No answer ca. I only watched it happen.

Cheon Hyein’s smile slowly vanished, and she beca a completely different person.

“Ah, there it is.”

Her clear, bell-like voice dropped low.

Much lower than most won.

“How did you know?”

Her manner of speech shifted, too. A voice with no trace of emotion.

Ridiculous—but hearing it finally let my chest ease.

“Know what?”

“That I was acting. How did you know that?”

“How? It was obvious to the eye.”

She dropped honorifics first, so I dropped them too. Why do geniuses always ignore the other person’s pace and talk down?

I don’t get it. Do talent and personality run inverse?

“Obvious?”

“Yeah. Obvious.”

“That’s impossible.”

At her words I nearly burst out laughing. How could she be that sure of herself?

“You must trust yourself a lot. The way you’re so certain.”

“...”

“It really wasn’t bad. Ah—right.”

I recalled what she’d said to and gave it back as-is.

“Not bad.”

“...”

“Just about that much?”

Returning it word for word, her delicate brows drew together—only for a heartbeat.

Cheon Hyein smoothed her face at once and said to ,

“Amusing. You.”

“And you’re extrely rude.”

“I only ca to take a light look today... seems I made the right choice.”

She suddenly turned her back and added,

“I like you. See you later.”

“You say sothing skin-crawling like it’s nothing. Later, my ass.”

I barely kept myself from spitting a string of curses.

Just then—

“Sister...!!”

Soone burst into my quarters. Cheon Eujin.

He must have run hard; he looked exhausted.

“...What do you think you’re doing...!”

He raised his voice at Cheon Hyein, plainly furious.

For shit’s sake... If you were coming, you could’ve co sooner.

She was just about to leave; what was the point now?

His late entry irked . anwhile, Cheon Hyein walked on as if Cheon Eujin were invisible.

“Sister—!”

He moved to block her, but—

“Move.”

“...!”

“Since when does a useless man dare block whose path?”

Her voice speared him, sharp as a blade.

Wow. Useless, huh.

For a guy with decent talent and a handso face to get called that—rough.

The word must have hit hard; Cheon Eujin froze like stone.

Cheon Hyein didn’t even look at her brother as she passed him by.

A woman like a typhoon.

“...Are you all right?”

I stepped to him and asked; only then did he co to.

“...My apologies, Young Master Bang.”

“No. It’s fine... no need to apologize.”

If anyone should apologize, it’s that crazy woman, not Cheon Eujin.

Father and daughter both—bitter stuff.

The Moonlit Sword, and Cheon Hyein as well—they both, oddly, seed to dismiss Cheon Eujin.

Not blood? The thought flickered.

That’d be laughable.

The three looked stamped from the sa mold. So, no.

There was a problem sowhere...

Clocking that, I asked Cheon Eujin,

“That crazy— I an, that woman just now—is she your sister?”

“...Yes.”

I already knew, but I asked again. I wanted to confirm sothing.

He’s scared.

At the ntion of Cheon Hyein, unease bled out of him. I wanted to see that for myself.

Unease... more precisely, fear.

A little brother afraid of his big sister. Sure, I’m afraid of my so-called big sister—the hellion of our house—so maybe that’s similar.

But the feeling is completely different.

This was fear in the literal sense. Not just a bad relationship.

There was sothing very wrong there.

I don’t care that far.

Honestly, I was too lazy to dig.

Knowing that such a thing exists is enough.

What matters here—

She’s paying attention to .

That {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} murderous woman had her eyes on .

Tsk.

The most gifted genius in Blue Moon Sect history.

A top candidate in the current race for Young Lord.

That alone would be a troubleso backdrop. The biggest problem, though...

Cheon Hyein is...

Far more chilling than I’d expected.

In a very bad way.

****

A day passed like that.

I must have been truly spent; I collapsed and bled all the fatigue out of .

The quarters were warm and the bed was soft.

This is why you climb. So you can feel this for the rest of your life.

Especially after spending several days in a carriage, the contrast was stark.

I ate a proper al, lazed for the first ti in a while,

and around noon I put myself in order and headed sowhere.

“Did you pass the night well?”

“Thanks to you, I did.”

It was the residence of the Moonlit Sword, Cheon Seonghwa, whom I’d t yesterday.

“I’m glad to hear it suited you.”

“Thank you for the consideration.”

His face and manner were the sa as yesterday. Even so, I kept my guard up inside.

n with faces that calm are the ones who slide knives into their words without a ripple.

“I hear you t my daughter yesterday.”

Right on cue—no circling, straight to the point.

“Ah, yes. I did.”

“How was she?”

“Uh... well. A singular person.”

I dressed it up as much as I could.

However she may be, how could I tell a father to his face that his daughter’s a crazy bitch no dog would bark at.

“Singular, you say... I see.”

The Moonlit Sword gave one nod. That ended the topic of Cheon Hyein.

Neat.

Not that I had much I could say anyway.

As for what that brief exchange told ...

Cheon Hyein is a crazy bitch, and there’s an incident concerning Cheon Eujin.

That much.

And both are things I couldn’t bring up to the Moonlit Sword.

Especially not here.

Plenty of company, too.

Besides the Moonlit Sword, several others sat in the room.

Mostly faces I didn’t know.

There were elders and there were middle-aged n. What caught my eye—the elders all had blue eyes.

“The reason I have called Young Master Bang here is simple.”

As I calmly took stock, the Moonlit Sword addressed .

“We are grateful that you have brought our sect’s treasure back.”

“Yes.”

“Even so, there is sothing we must verify—including that.”

At his words I steadied my breath.

What was he going to say? I already knew the answer.

“Judging by the internal art within your body and the eyes you bear, it is certain you are one of our sect... but that alone is sowhat insufficient.”

I pressed down the tension climbing my throat and thought.

“Thus, I must ask.”

This was it.

“How you ca to inherit his true transmission—tell us that.”

Ti to spit out the bullshit the old man and I had prepped for days.