Azure Peak’s investigation detail guarded Return Inn’s gate until the following morning. Ma Yeongsun charged even the men who had spent the night standing outside for their breakfast porridge.
Once the porridge pot was empty, she called Ryu Dan behind the counter.
“You said you would tell me last night.”
Ryu thought of the first open guest room and the six doors still closed. If he told Ma everything, he might not be protecting her at all. He might turn her into a target for seven sects. If he told her nothing, he would begin by betraying the promise he had made the day before.
“I know a little of what is going to happen. I may be wrong, but I’ve seen the inn destroyed. I’ve seen you hurt.”
Ma did not smile.
“And where did you see that?”
“I can’t tell you yet.”
“Then you have three days. During those three days, if you mean to use that strange power in my house again, you tell me first. If you are still silent after three days, you surrender every key you have.”
Ryu bowed his head.
“I accept.”
To draw a sword inside Return Inn, one needed two things.
A legitimate reason, and enough money to pay for the table.
Nam Sogun believed he possessed the first. Ma demanded the second in advance.
“The token belongs to Azure Peak.”
“At present, it is inside my box.”
“Which constitutes theft.”
“If keeping something that fell from the hand of a poisoned man is theft, does your sect collect every person it finds lying on the road and teach them martial arts?”
One of the younger disciples behind Nam choked while trying not to laugh. Without looking back, Nam extended his hand.
“I will inspect the jade token and return it immediately after confirming its identity.”
“Write that down.”
Ma set paper and brush on the table. The ink was already ground.
Watching her, Ryu thought of the failed future. Azure Peak had taken the token and the body. Return Inn had been left with an owner whose knee was ruined and a shattered wine jar. The same people had come this time, but a single table placed in the middle of the courtyard was changing the result.
Nam eventually wrote the receipt. It recorded the token’s shape and scratches, the time of handover, and who would answer for it if it was not returned. Only after Ma made him revise two sentences did she open the locked box.
At the sight of the blue-jade token, Nam’s face tightened.
“It belongs to Junior Brother Baek.”
Inside Ryu’s head, future Baek said, *I was the senior brother, not the junior.*
“You seem to be young at the moment.”
*Twenty-two is not young.*
“You’re two years older than I am.”
*Which means I am not young.*
Another party of riders approached the courtyard. A young man in blue robes dismounted. His sword bore no ornament, and his clothes were plain. Yet every member of the investigation detail, Nam included, straightened at once.
Baek Mugyeol at twenty-two.
Ryu remembered the Sword Saint fifteen years later, covered in blood and ash. This face was smooth and unscarred. The gaze was just as direct—and just as eager to take responsibility for everyone else’s choices.
The Baek inside his mind fell silent.
The younger Baek inspected the token, then looked at Oh Gak.
“He’s alive.”
“Are you disappointed?” Ryu asked.
“Relieved. His testimony must still be verified.”
Tang Soryeong scoffed from her room inside the inner inn.
*Did he always speak like that? Would thorns grow on his tongue if he said he was relieved first?*
*Medical judgments are your responsibility.*
*And asking whether a patient’s survival is unfortunate is yours.*
Ryu tried to ignore both voices. Nam pointed to him.
“This is the man who subdued six Black Tooth members using methods derived from Azure Peak’s foundational sword art.”
The younger Baek’s gaze settled on Ryu’s right hand. The tremor had eased since yesterday, but had not vanished.
“Have you ever studied the sword?”
“No.”
“Yet you knew the breaking technique for the Three Powers Sword?”
“My opponent used it badly. If a customer tries to eat noodles with a scabbard instead of chopsticks, anyone can tell something is wrong.”
“Not everyone can tell precisely what.”
The younger Baek did not become angry. Curiosity moved before suspicion. It was a habit he shared with his future self. When he encountered a structure he did not understand, his first instinct was to dissect it, even before deciding how dangerous it was.
“Exchange three moves with me.”
“Junior Brother Baek,” Nam warned quietly.
“It is the fastest way to determine whether his skill truly comes from Azure Peak. I will not use internal energy.”
Ryu did not want a fight. He wanted three days, the manpower necessary to investigate the warehouse, and lawful recognition that the poison evidence could remain at Return Inn.
“If I win, promise me three things.”
“Name them first.”
“First, we return the token according to the receipt, but Oh Gak gives his testimony here at Return Inn. Second, Ma keeps the Green Vein Poison sample until a physician arrives. Third, for three days, we conduct a joint investigation of the eastern warehouse.”
“Jointly with whom?”
“The Tang Family.”
Unease passed through the investigation detail.
The younger Baek did not answer at once.
“And if you lose?”
“I accompany you on suspicion of stealing the token and your martial arts. But you do not touch Ma’s ledger.”
“That ledger was never under our jurisdiction.”
“I’d be grateful if you wrote that down, too.”
Ma pushed another sheet of paper across the table.
For the first time, the corner of the younger Baek’s mouth moved.
“Agreed.”
They cleared the inn courtyard. Ryu took up the round tray he used to serve tea instead of a sword. The younger Baek borrowed a wooden practice blade.
Future Baek overlaid a sword path across Ryu’s vision.
*His opening technique will be Blue Clouds Part the Road. He leaves the left shoulder open and advances with the right foot. Brace beneath the tray and turn his wrist.*
“You know which technique you’ll use?”
*I am myself.*
Tang laughed.
*That confidence is how we lost.*
The first exchange.
The younger Baek’s right foot moved. The wooden sword swept low, then rose. It matched his future self’s description exactly.
Ryu flattened the tray, pressed the side of the wooden blade down, and slipped half a step closer. The tray’s rim stopped one inch short of the younger Baek’s chest.
The spectators drew a collective breath.
The younger Baek stepped back. He did not smile, but his eyes grew brighter.
“You know my sword.”
“I knew that one.”
On the second exchange, he did not use Blue Clouds Part the Road.
He dragged one foot and reversed the blade. It was still a foundational Azure Peak technique, but the connection did not appear anywhere in the sequence future Baek remembered.
*He’ll link it into Flying Mountain, Severed Cliff. Three steps to the right.*
Ryu took the first step. The younger Baek immediately shortened the sword. Instead of Flying Mountain’s sweeping horizontal cut, he drove the end of the hilt into the tray’s center.
Clang!
The impact traveled up Ryu’s arm. He slid back two steps. The younger Baek glanced at the new dent in the tray’s rim.
“You memorized the response after seeing my sword once. Then I need only use a sword you have not memorized.”
Future Baek closed his mouth.
Tang sounded delighted.
*Your younger self is better than you are.*
*That was improvised optimization under the assumption that an opponent had appropriated my foundations.*
*Yes. That is what I meant by better.*
Ryu opened and closed his fingers. The right hand he had injured yesterday throbbed. He had slept through the night, so Baek’s core could open again. But if he crushed the younger Baek with borrowed power during a three-move test, what would that prove? Ryu did not need obedience. He needed limited cooperation.
Before the third exchange, Ma crossed the edge of the courtyard carrying a pot of tea. The spectators blocked her route to the customers inside.
“If you’re going to fight, at least pay for a meal.”
She set three cups on an empty table. One table leg was uneven, and the tray tilted slightly. Ryu’s eyes followed the movement.
If one forced a tilted load upright, all the strain gathered in the wrist. Shift one step and pass the weight into the next foot, and the dishes found level again.
The younger Baek charged.
Future Baek shouted, *A feint. Ignore the sword point and strike the shoulder!*
Ryu did not listen.
He did not block the wooden sword. He met it with the tray held at an angle and accepted the impact. Following the direction of the tilt, he drew back his left foot. Rather than being driven away, his body curved around the younger Baek’s flank. The force he had received traveled through his waist and right foot to the far side of the tray.
Ryu passed the weight onward.
The tray’s rim tapped the younger Baek’s wrist. The wooden sword fell. At the same moment, Ryu’s toe scraped across the ground and caught the blade before it touched the dirt.
He returned it with the hilt turned upward.
“Three moves.”
Silence filled the courtyard.
Future Baek was silent, too.
The younger Baek took back the wooden sword. He could have disputed the loss. He had not used internal energy, it was not a real fight, and Ryu had known his first technique in advance. All of that was true.
“I am stronger,” he said.
“Yes.”
“But within three moves, you won.”
“That is also true.”
“That last footwork was not Azure Peak’s.”
“I learned it from those teacups just now.”
The younger Baek looked at the tilted table. For the first time, his expression held the honest disbelief of a twenty-two-year-old.
“Are you saying I lost to a teacup?”
Ma inserted herself into the conversation.
“The tea costs extra.”
This time, the investigation detail laughed openly.
The younger Baek returned the practice sword to Nam.
“I will keep my promise. But you have three days. After that, the evidence goes to Azure Peak.”
“Not unless you have reached an agreement with the Tang Family on its medical disposition,” Ryu said.
“Are you in a position to add conditions after the wager?”
“Does poison distinguish martial artists before it kills them?”
The younger Baek’s gaze chilled.
“And if the Tang Family uses the poison as an excuse to monopolize the evidence?”
“That is why neither side should be allowed to take it alone.”
Ryu pointed to the sealed sample in Ma’s custody.
“A patient’s body and the poison inside it fall under medical authority. Who stabbed him and where the poison was transported fall under investigative authority. Do not use one as a reason to swallow the other.”
Future Baek spoke quietly.
*At the time, I believed both were my responsibility.*
Which was how you lost both, Ryu thought, but did not say aloud. The younger Baek knew nothing of his future crimes. He did not deserve to be judged for them.
Nam stepped forward.
“A joint investigation requires field command. If orders conflict, it may be more dangerous than going alone.”
The younger Baek looked at him. In the first warehouse raid of the failed future, Baek had listened to Nam’s report and then personally assigned every route. Nam failed to redirect the civilians, not because he lacked ability but because he lacked authority.
Future Baek said, *I must command. If the warehouse contains traps derived from Azure Peak, I cannot place them in another person’s hands.*
Ryu asked the younger Baek, “Who best knows the roads and Black Tooth entrances in this area?”
“Senior Brother Nam.”
“Who is better with a sword?”
“I am.”
“Then Young Hero Baek can take the places that need a sword, and Hero Nam can take the places that need roads.”
The younger Baek turned toward Nam.
“Senior Brother Nam. For the next three days, please take charge of the outer routes and deployment. I will deal with threats inside the site.”
Surprise flashed in Nam’s eyes. He immediately cupped his hands.
“I accept the command.”
“It is a delegation, not a command,” Ryu said.
The younger Baek glared at him.
“Must you dictate the wording as well?”
“It should be clear enough that you cannot seize the responsibility back later.”
“You truly do not behave like an inn boy.”
Ma gathered the receipt and agreement into one stack.
“He is an inn boy. Knowing where to set another person’s burden so it won’t topple is part of the work.”
Heat rose in Ryu’s chest. Future generals and Poison Sovereigns had called him a mediator. To Ma, he was still the boy who carried other people’s burdens. Perhaps the two were the same job.
The token was returned to the younger Baek according to the agreement. He ran his thumb over the scratch on its back and fastened it at his waist. Return Inn ceased to be the site of a suspected theft and became a temporary evidence repository. Nam left to map the three roads leading to the eastern warehouse.
Oh Gak watched from where he leaned against the shed door.
“Never thought I’d see the day one word from me moved Azure Peak.”
“They don’t believe you yet,” Ryu said.
“Couldn’t you let me enjoy it?”
“After you pay the ten taels for treatment.”
Oh Gak lay back down.
Near sunset, a horse stopped hard before the inn.
A young woman in gray physician’s robes entered carrying a medicine case. Tang Soryeong at twenty-one. Her face was rounder than the future Poison Sovereign’s, her eyes gentler. Yet the instant she saw the sealed box and the Azure Peak disciples, her gaze sharpened to a blade.
“I am Tang Soryeong, physician of the Sichuan Tang Family’s eastern clinic.”
After showing Ma her identification, she turned to the younger Baek.
“I’m told you have a sample of Green Vein Poison. Everyone from Azure Peak will step three paces back from the seal.”
The younger Baek answered, “That sample came from a man carrying our token.”
“Were you planning to diagnose the poison with your sword?”
Inside Ryu’s mind, future Tang murmured, *Was I really that mild?*
Future Baek laughed for the first time.
*You are astonishingly unchanged.*
Before the second fight could begin, Ma slapped a bead across her abacus.
“Settle the examination fee first.”
Inside Return Inn, neither Poison Sovereign nor Sword Saint could alter the order of things.