The backstreets of the Sado Alliance were no different from Maga Village.
Merchants laughing, chatting, and shouting among the passing crowd. If one looked only at this scene, excluding the auras of the martial artists, one couldn’t tell whether this was in front of the Murim Alliance or the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. It was a sight that made one automatically say that places where people live are all the same.
“What are you looking at so curiously?”
“I’ve been so devoted to training that it has been a long time since I’ve come out here.”
“If you’ve worked that hard, I suppose you serve the Young Alliance Lord at such a young age.”
Pyo Gigwang took Geom Mugeuk to a regular diner.
“It’s a place I come to often. The food is decent.”
But the owner and the waiter treating him had expressions nothing like those reserved for a regular.
“I’ve gotten into a few fights here.”
The fact that he could say such things naturally was because he felt comfortable with Geom Mugeuk. Could that happen in just one day? Moreover, he was someone who had been walking around with his quills raised like a hedgehog.
As anyone could see, that was indeed the case. He felt comfortable with Geom Mugeuk.
“Getting injured must have been a great blessing for the owner of this place.”
“What do you mean?”
“If it hadn’t happened, wouldn’t this place have been blown to pieces?”
Since he was someone who listened to his words so earnestly and even made such jokes, how could being together with him not be enjoyable?
An order reflecting Pyo Gigwang’s mood followed. He ordered good liquor and several of the most expensive dishes at this diner.
“Aren’t you overdoing it?”
“If I die anyway, it’s money I won’t be able to spend, isn’t it?”
“Please save it. As long as I am protecting you, you will never die.”
“Your confidence alone is something else.”
Instead of picking up his chopsticks, Pyo Gigwang poured alcohol into his cup.
“That person is not someone you can handle.”
For the first time, something about the one behind this came from his mouth.
“Even if I can’t handle it, don’t I have my fisherman?”
To the question asking what worry there was when he had Bisain, he drank his alcohol in silence.
Geom Mugeuk could sense it. That Pyo Gigwang thought Bisain would not be able to handle the one behind this matter.
“The food is delicious.”
As expected of a famous restaurant in the area, the food was truly good. If Jo Chunbae had been here, he would have joked around asking him to evaluate the Sado Alliance’s cuisine as a representative of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“Please eat your meal instead of only drinking.”
“You eat plenty.”
Pyo Gigwang had no appetite. Thinking that he might die soon, his appetite had dropped away as if it were a lie.
And the one to bring back his appetite was not a skilled cook, but Geom Mugeuk.
“How did you rise to become the Black Dragon Commander?”
“You wouldn’t know how hard I worked.” Opening with those words, Pyo Gigwang gauged Geom Mugeuk’s reaction once more.
As if to show he wasn’t asking merely out of courtesy, Geom Mugeuk listened attentively to his words, his eyes sparkling even as he ate his food.
As he recounted past events, Pyo Gigwang became more and more exhilarated. How could he not be? He was boasting about the greatest achievement of his life.
“My competitor at the time was someone from a very good family. You couldn’t even imagine how much political scheming he did.”
“You overcame him with only your skill.”
“You could say that.”
“How could someone who relies only on backing and acts recklessly defeat someone with experience and effort built up from the bottom?”
A smile naturally formed on Pyo Gigwang’s lips.
Words saying his was a life that overcame obstacles through skill—come to think of it, he had never heard them even when he was a commander before getting injured. Was it because he had led an ill-fated life? Even though there were so many people around him, not a single person had uttered those words to him.
To the point where he felt as though he had endured such neglect for the past ten years just to meet this person today, Geom Mugeuk’s words pleased him.
“Please tell me another story.”
Geom Mugeuk understood Pyo Gigwang’s feelings very well. When he lived as a wanderer, the people he met most often were martial artists who had become wanderers after being injured. Those whose dantians were damaged so they couldn’t use internal energy, or those who had lost arms or legs.
After being expelled from their organizations, what other work could those who had eaten sword-rice their whole lives do? And so they lived on as third-rate wanderers.
When drunk, they would always boast about the times when they had been doing well. It wasn’t boasting, but rather a way of venting.
“Is my story interesting?”
“It is.”
Pyo Gigwang stared at Geom Mugeuk. This youngster kept showing him sides different from his expectations.
“Do you know what my first impression of you was? I thought you talked a lot. When I heard that the character was from ‘performance’ rather than ‘fate,’ I thought you would be talkative. Yet you are someone who listens well.”
“No, I talk a lot. I’ve just hidden my tongue because we’re not close yet.”
Perhaps because those words were amusing, Pyo Gigwang laughed. To think laughter could come when death was right before his eyes.
“Will we really have time to grow closer?”
To the self-deprecating question, Geom Mugeuk answered confidently.
“I will protect you.”
“Rather than that, let me hear your story now.”
“My story is too long.”
How could he know the meaning contained in that meaningful smile?
“You seem to have had a hard life.”
“Don’t even mention it.”
Geom Mugeuk waved his hand as if he didn’t even want to think about it.
“With your personality, it seems like you would have many people around you.”
“That’s why I’m lonelier.”
“More lonely?”
“When there are so many people, yet no one to actually meet. How sad it is when no one takes care of me. Everyone makes such excuses. They thought someone else would take care of me. That’s why people like me end up with a black hole in our hearts.”
“A black hole?”
“It’s something someone I like said. They said everyone has a black hole in their heart. A hole you must not fall into, nor look into for too long.”
Pyo Gigwang thought the young lad was talking nonsense, but on the other hand, he thought of his own hole. He had one too. A deep and large hole that was so big he couldn’t help but fall into it, no matter how he tried not to.
He wished he had met this lad a little earlier.
If he had, would his fate have changed? Could he have lived a different life, rather than a fate of being silenced?
“If you’re done eating, let’s go now.”
“Let’s go.”
The two left the diner and headed home.
“Go get some sleep.”
“I cannot. I must protect you.”
“How long can you stay awake and protect me?”
He truly couldn’t understand the Young Alliance Lord. They should have sent at least someone to take shifts.
“Hey, did you perhaps make a mistake toward the Young Alliance Lord?”
I did. If you knew how much I embarrassed and teased him, you would faint.
“I told the Young Alliance Lord that I expected a magnificent Sado from him. Could that have been a mistake?”
Pyo Gigwang made an absurd expression.
“A new martial artist to the Young Alliance Lord?”
“Then when could I say it? The more senior one becomes, the less one can do such things, no?”
So this was why he had fallen out of favor. Those sparkling eyes must have been an eyesore. A figure that shone brighter than himself.
But to discard such a fine lad like this…
Then Pyo Gigwang suddenly had this thought.
A fine lad? Was he already thinking of him that way just because he listened to his words?
Pyo Gigwang could feel anew just how lonely he had lived.
Lost in such thoughts, it was when they had turned onto a secluded path.
Four masked figures blocked their path.
It was not something promised with Bisain.
The one behind this affair had sent people to silence Pyo Gigwang permanently. Judging by the revealed auras, they were hired assassins.
Pyo Gigwang’s heart sank.
‘The inevitable has finally come.’
That moment had arrived far sooner than he thought.
Fate is a cruel bastard. To bestow death at the happiest moment. Couldn’t it have come a few days later?
His gaze turned to Geom Mugeuk standing beside him. He wanted to hear more of this lad’s story. He still had stories he wanted to tell.
And more than anything, he was sorry.
‘This young man is going to die because of me for no reason.’
Pyo Gigwang spoke to Geom Mugeuk.
“It seems the fisherman is pulling in his net. I’m sorry. Truly sorry.”
To the sincere apology, Geom Mugeuk drew his sword and spoke.
“If it were my fisherman pulling, perhaps; but I have no intention of being pulled up by that fisherman’s hand.”
At the same time, the assassins leaped forward.
Two came at Geom Mugeuk, and the other two rushed at Pyo Gigwang.
Pyo Gigwang closed his eyes. Since he had already resigned himself to death anyway, he did not put up a clumsy resistance. He would end his life gracefully and coolly.
Swhiiish.
He heard the sound of sword wind flying toward him.
The moment he thought it was finally over.
Puh-uk!
He thought his body had been pierced, but it had not.
Geom Mugeuk had stepped in front of him and stabbed the opponent a step faster.
He felt another sword flying at him from behind. The one who had rushed at Geom Mugeuk to kill him had changed targets and attacked.
‘This time I’m done for.’
The moment he thought that, his body was pulled.
He was pulled toward Geom Mugeuk, dodging the flying sword.
Puh-uk!
Geom Mugeuk’s sword pierced the heart of the assassin who had attacked from behind. His movements, without a single superfluous motion, were truly fast and clean.
The remaining two assassins flew at Pyo Gigwang simultaneously. It was an attack with the resolve of mutual destruction—determined to kill Pyo Gigwang even if they died in the process.
‘Ah! This time I’m really dying!’
But this time too, both attacks missed and sliced through empty air. Just before being pierced by the swords, Pyo Gigwang fell over from an unknown force, causing the attacks to miss.
The price for that one-sided attack was death.
Geom Mugeuk’s sword, after piercing the left assassin’s neck, was instantly withdrawn to stab the right assassin’s heart. This continuous movement was as natural as if performing a prearranged sparring match.
Of course, Pyo Gigwang, who had fallen over, did not see this artistic move.
‘I survived again?’
Pyo Gigwang got up from the ground and looked around. The four masked figures who had blocked their path were all lying dead.
“What happened?”
“Didn’t I say I would protect you?”
It was right then.
Shi-shi-shi-shik!
Projectiles flew from the treetops.
Geom Mugeuk swung his sword to deflect the projectiles and shouted at Pyo Gigwang.
“Jump behind that tree!”
Pyo Gigwang ran frantically with Geom Mugeuk and hid his body behind a large tree.
Geom Mugeuk held out his sword to check the enemies reflected on the blade.
“There are three on the eastern tree. Another two are hiding behind the bushes beneath it.”
Of course, if Geom Mugeuk displayed his original strength, he could kill everyone here in an instant.
But he didn’t. Right now, to both Pyo Gigwang and the enemies, he was a martial artist of the Thirteenth Wolf of Sado. The youngest who had been hiding his skills—he was displaying exactly that level of ability.
“It’s still not too late. Leave me behind and go.”
Pyo Gigwang never imagined he would say such words to save a fledgling he had met yesterday—no, not a fledgling in skill, but someone who wasn’t even a day’s acquaintance.
“You took down four of them, so the Young Alliance Lord will understand.”
Then someone dropped down from the tree.
Swhi-ik!
Because it was a concealment he had never expected, this time Pyo Gigwang thought he was truly done for.
‘I’m really going to die!’
But just before the opponent’s sword struck his head, Geom Mugeuk gently pulled him.
He felt the falling sword brush past his ear. Then wouldn’t it hit his shoulder? Just as he thought that.
Puaaak!
Spewing hot blood, the assassin who had ambushed him rolled on the ground as a corpse.
How he had dealt with him, Pyo Gigwang could not see properly this time either.
‘I survived again? How in the world?’
Before he could ask anything, Geom Mugeuk grabbed him again.
“Behind that rock over there!”
Pyo Gigwang ran with Geom Mugeuk. He was confused. Since he wasn’t alone and Geom Mugeuk was with him, he couldn’t not run, yet this evasion wasn’t what he wanted either.
Pak-pak-pak-pak-pak!
Throwing daggers flew and embedded themselves at the feet of the two running men. No matter how excellent an assassin’s throwing skills were, could they hit even one while Geom Mugeuk was pulling him along?
Narrowly avoiding the attacks, the two safely hid behind the rock.
“Leave me behind, I said!”
“Why are you accepting it when they’re trying to silence you permanently?”
“You don’t understand my heart.”
Leaning against the rock, Geom Mugeuk looked at him.
“Is it because of loyalty to the Alliance?”
Naturally, Pyo Gigwang looked at Geom Mugeuk with eyes that said it was.
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned toward the corpses lying in the distance.
“Those are hired assassins. What kind of alliance in the world sends hired assassins after a subordinate they ordered to do a task? Where in this filthy situation is there any room for loyalty?”
“!”
Then another assassin climbed over the rock.
Swhack!
Just as Geom Mugeuk cut the assassin’s throat—
Assassins who leaped out from behind the rear trees threw projectiles.
Shi-shi-shi-shi-shi-shi-shi-shi-shik!
Seeing the dozen or so projectiles flying toward him, Pyo Gigwang thought this was finally the absolute end.
‘Please, at least you must survive!’
Puk-puk-puk-puk-puk-puk-puk!
Opening his eyes at the sound of tearing flesh, Geom Mugeuk had already killed the assassin who had climbed over the rock and was standing before him using the corpse as a shield. All the flying projectiles were embedded in that corpse.
‘What, I survived again?’
Before he could say anything, Geom Mugeuk grabbed him and started running into the mountain.
“Run!”
Behind them, assassins who had fully revealed themselves began chasing in a swarm.
Running frantically with Geom Mugeuk, Pyo Gigwang had only this thought:
‘Why do I keep surviving?’
Absolute Regression, Episode 349.