“Where the hell have you been?”
Jo Sin greeted Geom Mugeuk with an angry face. He had waited a long while at the inn before finally seeing him.
“I went out for some air.”
Jo Sin could never have imagined it. That Geom Mugeuk was returning after meeting his own father, and even the Murim Alliance Leader.
Nor that Geom Mugeuk’s prey was none other than himself. He had come of his own accord and was sticking his head into the tiger’s jaws.
“You certainly have a lot of leisure for a mere attendant.”
He took a dagger from his bosom. It was the dagger he had meant to give Jin Haryeong but had failed to, the one engraved with words congratulating her on her victory.
“Should I stab your master to death with this? It seems like the perfect ending to this affair.”
“The best ending to this affair would be for you to marry Miss Jin, Young Master, and for me to receive one hundred thousand nyang.”
“Then you should earn your keep.”
“I can only earn my keep once I’ve been paid.”
“How much do you think it would be worth, in money, that I’m not stabbing your neck with this dagger right now?”
Jo Sin was growing anxious, worried that the marriage might not go through at this rate. Moreover, he had even blustered to Cheolgon, who had come in person to pressure him about the marriage, so he had to make it happen somehow. That was why a man who had never waited for anyone in his life had waited an entire si-jin for Geom Mugeuk at the inn.
Looking down at the dagger on the table, Geom Mugeuk said,
“What you need is one decisive move.”
“One decisive move? What kind of decisive move?”
“Living as the granddaughter of the Murim Alliance Leader, how many scions of prestigious families do you think she’s seen? They all boast about their clans, their money, their martial arts, but in her eyes, how pathetic and dull must they be?”
Not long ago, Jo Sin himself had boasted about his money and family, so he had nothing to say.
“You need to show her something different from the scions of prestigious clans.”
“So what is that supposed to be?”
“There is one decisive move that works on every woman—pretty women, ugly women, kind women, wicked women, young women, older women, all of them. This is it.”
Geom Mugeuk picked up the dagger and moved as if to stab Jo Sin. Jo Sin swiftly seized his wrist.
“You’re going to kill me? Do you want to die?”
“This is it.”
“What?”
“You save her from danger. A man who saved her life. What more do you need?”
“!”
Jo Sin’s eyes widened. He had the thought that this was it. Why had he not thought of this before? He even felt a belated sense of self-reproach.
“It’s an old-fashioned method that’s been around for hundreds of years, but it’s also the best method because it always works. What in this world is stronger than a debt of life? But you’ll have to plan it well. Miss Jin is quick-witted, after all.”
Geom Mugeuk could already feel it. Jo Sin was already half won over.
“Ah, and one truly important thing! You must entrust it to someone reliable. If the slightest thing goes wrong and Miss Jin is injured or killed, Young Master Jo’s life will be blown away along with it.”
Geom Mugeuk expected it. If Jo Sin had anything to do with the Heavenly Mandate Society, he would ask them for help. He could not entrust something this important to just anyone.
“You absolutely must not use anyone from your own family. If it’s ever discovered later, it will be a disaster. Is there no expert among people completely unrelated to you? It has to be someone skilled enough to subdue Miss Jin. And someone trustworthy.”
The moment Jo Sin heard those words, one person came to mind.
Cheolgon.
If it was that frightening man, he would certainly be suited to this task. Of course, there was no telling whether he would accept, but there was hope. His mission was to make Jo Sin and Jin Haryeong marry as quickly as possible. He too was anxious enough to come in person and apply pressure.
Geom Mugeuk noticed that Jo Sin was thinking of someone right now.
‘As expected! There’s someone around him.’
Pretending not to know anything, Geom Mugeuk said,
“Don’t drag me into such a dangerous matter! I’ve done everything I needed to do.”
Of course, the words were filled with the intention of please, drag me in. Human nature was to want to do what one was told not to do, and right now Jo Sin even had a reason why he absolutely had to include Geom Mugeuk.
“You must help me until the end.”
“I absolutely hate dangerous work.”
Jo Sin imagined it. When this attendant and Jin Haryeong were in danger, he would appear and save them. He would show himself in contrast to this incompetent wretch. Yes, there was no need to think too complicatedly. This would be the end of it.
“And you must bring Miss Jin out. If I take her somewhere and then a villain appears, anyone would think I arranged it, wouldn’t they?”
“Very well. I’ll help. I need to get paid too, after all. If you’re going to do it, you should hurry. If this happens after Miss Jin formally joins the Murim Alliance, the Murim Alliance will begin an official investigation.”
Even without that reason, Jo Sin’s heart was in a hurry.
“Do not leave the inn and wait until I contact you.”
“Understood.”
Jo Sin hurried away. Geom Mugeuk quietly followed after him.
* * *
Jo Sin and Cheolgon met in a shabby warehouse near the Murim Alliance.
“I told you not to contact me unless it was an important matter related to life and death.”
“It is that important. You must help me just this once.”
“What is it?”
“If you help, I can marry Jin Haryeong.”
Just as Cheolgon made a face as if wondering what absurd nonsense this was,
“Please attempt to kidnap her. Then I will appear and save her.”
Cheolgon was so dumbfounded that he almost cursed on the spot.
“See here, Young Master Jo. Are you drunk?”
“I’ll be honest. I talked big to you, but right now Miss Jin has no intention of marrying me at all.”
Jo Sin revealed everything frankly. He had judged that, with this cold and frightening man, pleading outright would be more effective than some other scheme.
“If you pressure me to marry this woman under these circumstances, what ability do I have to make it happen? If it were another woman, I could make it happen even by threatening her, but the other party is the granddaughter of the Murim Alliance Leader. Do you think I’d resort to this method if I weren’t desperate?”
“Do you think such a shallow trick will work?”
“That is why I need you. Someone with the skill to deceive Jin Haryeong. Someone who can subdue her decisively without injuring her.”
“So you mean, after I subdue Jin Haryeong, you will appear and save her. With your skill, if you drive me away, do you think she’ll believe it?”
Cheolgon considered Jo Sin a step below Jin Haryeong.
“Why do you think I’m weaker than Jin Haryeong?”
Jo Sin revealed his aura. It was a sharp force not befitting a rising talent of the younger generation, and it did not fall behind Jin Haryeong’s in the slightest. Jo Sin had a hidden card of his own.
“Isn’t your mission to have me marry Jin Haryeong? If we miss this chance, you will never be able to carry out the mission given to you. To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me. I’m only trying because you people are forcing me to marry her. What do I have to worry about?”
Cheolgon pondered. It was an absurd proposal, but if this method worked and the two of them married, then his mission would be complete.
“You said you wanted me to grow into a great tree, didn’t you? Then shouldn’t you occasionally give fertilizer to the sapling so it grows well?”
After thinking for a moment, Cheolgon nodded.
“Very well. Let us try it.”
When Cheolgon accepted, Jo Sin’s face brightened.
“Ah, and in the process of subduing her, make that attendant bastard a cripple. Cut off an arm, and a leg too.”
With an openly annoyed expression, Cheolgon said,
“If you hate him that much, why not just kill him?”
“I want to see how she acts when he becomes miserable.”
Jo Sin smiled coldly as he imagined the attendant bastard rendered disabled. Would Jin Haryeong pity him and keep him with her for the rest of her life? He was certain there was no chance of that.
“If she shows such a self-sacrificing side, I’ll acknowledge her.”
He simply wanted to see that Jin Haryeong was a shallow, insignificant woman.
To Jo Sin, Jin Haryeong was still a tainted woman who had shown interest in an attendant instead of him. Even if they married, he would never love her.
Cheolgon inwardly found such a Jo Sin pathetic. He did not know whether it was because Jo Sin was stupid or because he was still young, but if it were him, he would never think that way.
“Let me know once the time and place are decided.”
Cheolgon left first, and Jo Sin followed after him.
After they disappeared, two more people appeared in that place. They were none other than Geom Mugeuk and the Murim Alliance Leader, Jin Paecheon. After saying he would enter closed-door seclusion for several days, Jin Paecheon had been moving secretly with Geom Mugeuk.
Jin Paecheon was dumbfounded after seeing Jo Sin’s true nature. Truly, he had barely restrained himself from rushing out at once and smashing him to pieces.
“Why are we not capturing that Heavenly Mandate Society bastard here?”
“He is not our target. Even if he is an expert, in the end he is nothing more than a consumable pawn. No matter how much we interrogate him, he will not lead us to the leader of the Heavenly Mandate Society.”
Judging by what they had seen so far, the leader of the Heavenly Mandate Society was not someone who could be caught by torturing one subordinate.
“Then what do you intend to do?”
“Our target is Jo Sin.”
“What are you going to do with Jo Sin?”
“I will take him to the gates of hell. When we push Jo Sin to the edge of the cliff, let us see how Jo Ibaek reacts. The person who will guide us to the leader of the Heavenly Mandate Society is Jo Ibaek.”
Jin Paecheon was inwardly admiring Geom Mugeuk’s intelligence and his bold drive. Truly, if he had not been the second young master of the Demonic Cult, he would have used any means necessary to make him his son-in-law.
‘What a waste.’
But let alone being his son-in-law, Geom Mugeuk was a potential enemy of the orthodox murim. And one who looked far too dangerous.
Hiding those inner thoughts, Jin Paecheon said bluntly,
“Four days remain now.”
* * *
The next day, Jin Haryeong put on her treasured martial attire and left her residence.
Geom Mugeuk had asked her to go enjoy Dongho with him.
Throughout the ride there, she was in a good mood. At times like this, she could confirm just how hypocritical a person she was.
The better her mood, the greater her regret.
‘If only he weren’t an attendant.’
Behind this feeling lay the thought that she could not marry an attendant, or would not marry one.
And she knew it. She would never be able to cross that line of status.
‘And then you’ll regret it later, won’t you? You pathetic wench, you snob! Just live alone. Live alone.’
Thinking this and that, the two arrived at Dongho.
After gazing silently at the lake for a long while, Geom Mugeuk spoke first.
“Someone once said that you have to be better at parting than at meeting.”
“Why are you suddenly saying that?”
“I’m leaving in a few days.”
“What?”
“Thank you for everything.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, she was startled.
“Where are you going?”
“To my hometown.”
She felt regretful. She liked being alone, so she had few friends, and even among them, none had given her this sense of closeness. The words don’t go rose all the way to her throat.
But it was not as if she would take responsibility for his life. Once she joined the Murim Alliance, she would be busy and would not be able to see him often anyway.
“Become the Murim Alliance Leader one day.”
“What?”
Just as she opened her eyes wide in surprise,
Someone ambushed her from behind. Distracted by Geom Mugeuk, she had failed to notice her opponent’s approach in advance.
The moment she turned around in belated alarm,
Tap, tap!
Cheolgon, wearing a mask, subdued her paralysis acupoints in an instant. There was already a gap in their skill, and since it was a surprise attack as well, she was utterly helpless.
Of course, Geom Mugeuk had sensed him approaching from far away. He had also prepared for the unlikely event of an emergency. After all, some other variable might occur.
Cheolgon’s gaze, after subduing her, turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
At that moment, Jin Haryeong shouted,
“Not him! Don’t kill him!”
Jin Haryeong thought the masked man would kill Geom Mugeuk. If she was his target, there was no way he would leave alive the attendant who had been with her.
“No! Please! Let him go!”
Despite her desperate cries, Cheolgon strode over and tried to cut off Geom Mugeuk’s arm with a single slash.
At that very moment!
Cheolgon’s sword stopped in midair. An enormous presence could be felt behind his back. Before he knew it, every hair on his body had risen at once, and his survival instinct was screaming at him to flee. At any other time, he would have launched himself away and escaped without looking back.
But his body would not move. He was floundering in the sea. Around him was the middle of a boundless ocean, with not a single ship or island to pull him out.
Cheolgon desperately drew up his internal energy and turned his body.
A colossal tidal wave of unknowable height was surging up before him. The Martial Alliance Leader, Jin Paecheon, was standing right behind him.
“……Damn it!”
He desperately tried to turn and flee again, but before he could take even a single step, his paralysis acupoints were subdued in an instant. No matter how much of an expert Cheolgon was, before Jin Paecheon he was nothing more than a man who could not withstand a single move.
Cheolgon could not understand this situation.
‘Why has the Martial Alliance Leader appeared here?’
Originally, after he cut off this attendant bastard’s hands and feet, Jo Sin was supposed to appear and save her. But why?
If things had gone awry, then Jo Sin should appear even now. Then, with a laugh, he should smooth over the situation by saying he had played this prank in an attempt to win Jin Haryeong’s favor. He should say, This man is my subordinate.
But Jo Sin did not appear.
Then a thought sent a chill down his spine.
‘A trap?’
Had he sold him out to the Martial Alliance? Otherwise, there was no way he would fail to appear, was there?
Meanwhile, Geom Mugeuk noticed Jo Sin hiding in the forest far off in the distance.
‘Don’t come out!’
The rift between Cheolgon and Jo Sin was exactly what Geom Mugeuk wanted.
Jo Sin was hiding in the forest, watching the situation unfold. The Alliance Leader’s appearance had thrown him into a panic.
‘It’s over.’
If he went out, what was he supposed to say to the Alliance Leader? That he had faked a kidnapping so he could rescue her? The moment he said that, the marriage would be gone forever. And on top of that, how was he supposed to explain who Cheolgon was?
But he could not simply stay like this, either. He could not just let Cheolgon be captured like that.
He tried to step out, but his feet would not move. He thought it was because he feared the Alliance Leader, but in truth, the energy Geom Mugeuk had released was secretly pressing him back. Panicked and frightened, he did not notice it at all.
‘Damn it!’
In the end, Jo Sin decided to withdraw for now and then find a way to settle the situation. When he stepped back and turned around, his body moved as he wished. Without looking back, he left the place.
Jin Paecheon released his granddaughter’s paralysis acupoints.
“Grandfather! How did you come here?”
“I’ll explain everything later.”
For now, it was important to proceed according to plan.
Jin Paecheon and Geom Mugeuk faced each other and nodded once.
Jin Paecheon tucked the immobilized Cheolgon under his arm, shot up into the air, and vanished from the place in an instant. It was truly a supreme lightness skill that drew admiration all on its own.
Jin Haryeong asked Geom Mugeuk,
“What is all this?”
She sensed that something she did not know about was happening.
“Let’s go back too. We don’t have time for this here. Can you handle dizziness well when using lightness skill?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I’m asking if you can handle it.”
“I’ve never felt dizzy during lightness skill before.”
“If you get dizzy, keep your eyes shut tight. Don’t throw up on my back.”
Geom Mugeuk turned around and lowered himself.
“Get on. We don’t have time, hurry.”
Since the situation was clearly unusual, she first climbed onto Geom Mugeuk’s back. He’s going to run while carrying me? Why? I’m not even hurt. She was in a mood to see just what he intended to do.
“Don’t tell me you were worried I’d get dizzy while you ran with me on your baaaaaaaack!”