Minmin had paid for four days’ worth of inn fees. He probably thought four days would be more than enough not knowing that he would have to go to Donglim with Yumoon Yeon.

I notified a worker that I would pay as I left if I extended my stay after four days and left the inn with elder sister.

The surroundings screamed winter but only elder sister and I were in spring. Even if it wasn’t to my level, elder sister also seemed to be strong against the cold.

Come to think of it. Elder sister doesn’t seem like a regular person either.

I only started calling her with that title but it came out naturally.

It might not seem like much to others but it was a great change to me. It was the first time I trusted someone else like this after all.

My mom couldn’t be called ‘others’ since she’s family but it was more fitting to call her a housemate more distant than family compared to other families.

It seemed possible for elder sister to have a closer relationship with me than my mom.

“That’s the path heading to the Seomoon clan.”

“The Seomoon clan?”

Looking where elder sister was pointing, I could see bare trees standing on both sides of the road and a tall wall.

The wall was white but blue and white snakes were drawn at equal distances.

Right. The symbol of the Seomoon clan were blue and white snakes.

As expected of a clan with a long history in poison and hidden weapons, their symbol was a blue snake with poison and a white snake that represented the cure.

“I’ve heard they were richer than the imperial family but it seems that’s not an unfounded rumor.”

Elder sister revealed astonishment at the wall that didn’t have a single crack as she led me by the left side wall.

“They’re richer than the imperial family?”

“Yes. The Seomoon clan is famous for their Poison Arts and hidden weapons as well but they are also famous for their various antidotes and medicines.”

So they became rich selling medicine.

“So they’re a pharmacy?”

“Whaaat? A pharmacy?” Elder sister laughed hysterically.

A few people who seemed to be on their way out of the Seomoon clan passed by glancing at her.

“Whether it’s poisonous drugs or medicinal drugs, they’re both drugs so they’re a pharmacy. The type that gives a disease and medicine.”

“You’re right. It is a pharmacy.”

She laughed for a while until we started walking again. Her cheeks were red from laughing too much.

I heard she was 30. She looked like she was in her mid 20s.

“This looks larger than the imperial palace.”

“No way… it’s not to that degree. It would be contempt of his imperial highness if it was the same or larger than the palace.” She said with a smile.

“Aha.”

“It’s about half the size of the palace. Instead, if the pharmaceutical facilities were taken into account… it might be similar?”

I had heard that even during the Chosun Dynasty, a person who wasn’t the king wasn’t able to make more than 100 rooms.

That was why the phrase ‘a house like a palace with 99 rooms’ appeared. I’m thinking that’s the same here.

“No matter how much money they have and how powerful the Seomoon clan is, they couldn’t compare to the emperor, right?”

“Of course, the emperor would win.”

He would huh?

The emperor in Sword Soul hadn’t officially appeared in the main story yet. When I had been playing, the focus was on the Sage Realm, Chaos Realm, the various forces of the Vast Realm, and the monsters changed by the Black Stone so the emperor’s appearance seemed far away.

Sword Soul had only revealed a small portion of what was developed. The map would widen and the imperial palace’s intervention would be a matter of course later on.

The imperial city was an open area but the palace was off limits so I only looked around from a distance.

It was really big and fancy even from the outside.

There would be a ton of stuff in the treasure vault of such a palace. There might even be an item I need in there.

“No matter how rich the Seomoon clan is, it can’t compare to the emperor’s repository. It’s said that it’s full of various unimaginably precious things.”

“How can we enter the repository?”

Elder sister stroked my head with a smile.

“Of course, you can enter if you become the emperor. Who would they trust to go in and out of it when it’s full of amazing things?”

Deep inside, I wanted to immediately charge into the repository and look for information that could help me.

“The repository is protected by a special army so no one besides the emperor can enter. No, in the first place, the people who can enter the imperial palace itself is limited.”

They say you should dream big. Should I try for the seat of emperor since I entered the world of Sword Soul?

“Yeomhui… You look like you want to immediately sit on the imperial throne.”

“Ah… me?”

Were my eyes too full of greed? I rubbed them with the back of my hands.

“Be careful. The emperor won’t bat an eye whether the Chunmu Alliance and Demon Sect wars for a hundred years or a thousand years but they find those that threaten the throne incredibly well.”

“Yikes….”

“Sects and clans are dominating but that’s only possible because the emperor is turning a blind eye to it.”

I nodded and said I got it. But that didn’t mean I understood. Even the Chunmu Alliance had countless powerful experts. Not to mention the Demon Sect.

How could I possibly meet the emperor?

I had nodded my head with such thoughts but elder sister stroked my head saying I was smart.

“I can see the workshop sign over there. Let’s go!”

Elder sister pulled me by my hand. I might be able to get a weapon since it’s a weapon workshop! I followed with fluttering feelings.

The weapon workshop was large enough to be easily found. It was a scale that made more sense to call a weapon shop.

There were more people coming and going the closer we got to the first floor entrance. They were all people who came to the workshop.

Looks like it’s an incredible place.

Heat struck me as soon as we entered the first floor. I could smell the steel heated in fire.

There was a closed wooden door behind the employee guiding people to the second floor. That was probably where the weapons were made.

“Have you come to buy a weapon?”

Elder sister replied that she came to retrieve a weapon.

“Please head to the left on the second floor. Manufactured weapons are being sold so please take a look as well.”

I began looking around at the displayed weapons while elder sister left to get the weapon.

My class was an assassin in Sword Soul. I used various weapons but I usually used small weapons that were easy to carry around like daggers, shurikens, and short bows.

There probably aren’t any weapons enhanced by talismans here, right?

There was a possibility. Thinking about the talisman for not letting sound leak out and the one for storing the Black Stone fragment, couldn’t it be used on weapons as well?

I was looking around for a while when elder sister came back with the weapon.

“Yeomhui. Tell me if there’s something you like. I’ll buy it for you.”

“Hm…. It’s alright.”

“Why? Does nothing catch your attention?”

I nodded. It was pretty disappointing. I thought they would have a decent dagger in a workshop of this size.

It’s full of garbage.

The weapons here mostly emphasized decorativeness than practicality.

Although they were fancy, the blade seemed sharp enough. But from my eyes as a former(?) assassin, it looked like a weapon for suicide.

“It was a place that made quite the good quality weapons in the past though… Did they change in the time I wasn’t here?”

She quickly scanned the weapons nearby.

She should understand my disappointment if she was on the level of ordering one. She would definitely have the same response as me.

I suddenly worried about her weapon. I didn’t know what she had ordered but if it had a gaudy appearance like the ones displayed here….

“Oh my~! Dear me! How pretty!”

“…??”

Her reaction completely surpassed my expectations. She began looking at the weapons with glittering eyes instead. She would have taken one of each type if there was a shopping cart.

“It’s full of new articles that weren’t here before. Yeomhui. How’s this? I think it suits you well.” She recommended one pointing at a long sword with a white hilt and large red jewel.

Even just the single red jewel made me uncomfortable but gemstones of various colors were densely stuck around it.

“Haha… that’s a bit…. I’ll have to refuse.”

“So Yeomhui doesn’t like fancy things.”

“It has to be used in actual combat so it’s burdensome if it’s too fancy.”

“Really? Then it can’t be helped.”

We left the weapon workshop as she quickly grasped my preference.

“Is this the only weapon workshop?”

“This entire alley is full of weapon workshops but… Seomoon is quite the center of fashion so it might be difficult to find weapons Yeomhui wants.”

“Ah….”

I nodded in understanding. I quietly let go of my will to find a weapon that suited me.

I could tell why the weapons we saw just now were so flashy. This was the Seomoon that had the Semoon clan who were famous for being rich.

It was also a connecting point to the Central Holy City where the emperor stayed. Being overly flashy would mean that’s the imperial palace’s current trend.

“It’s alright. I can still use Fire Arts without a weapon after all. But what kind of weapon did elder sister order?”

She took out a red folding fan. Its folded form was thinner and longer than the one she had been waving until yesterday.

And flashy. It wasn’t even unfolded but it gave off a sense of splendor.

“Tada. It’s a new fan with an added function.”

A fan 1.5 times larger than before opened with a swish.

“Wow…. It’s so beautiful.”

It wasn’t flattery but genuinely pretty. The dense inner leaves were black but became glamorous with red silk added. There were bamboos drawn on the silk but they weren’t drawn in green but gold so it looked classy as well.

In other words, it was a very expensive looking fan.

And that’s supposed to be a weapon?