“It’s unjust. I swear I didn’t do it!”
The person pleading his innocence in the interrogation room of the Underworld Pavilion was Bae Jongtak (裵宗鐸), a martial artist of the Northern Heaven Sword Family led by the Ilhwa Sword Venerable.
He had been arrested after being accused of assaulting one of the family’s young maids. In the past, the incident would never even have become a case, but this time Bae Jongtak was arrested immediately on the day after the accusation was made.
“That maid is framing me! Let me confront her! I’m innocent.”
“Why would she frame you?”
“How should I know? Perhaps someone put her up to it, or maybe I made some sort of mistake with her. But at the very least, I did not assault her.”
He truly appeared to be wronged.
“Fine. I’ll let you confront her.”
“Bring her here at once.”
At my signal, Seo Daeryong, who had been waiting outside, brought in a girl who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old. The child was utterly terrified.
“Hey! Why the hell are you doing this to me?”
Bae Jongtak suddenly shouted at the girl.
I raised a hand to calm him down.
“Quiet! If you raise your voice one more time, there will be no confrontation.”
“Yes. I only did that because I’m being treated unfairly.”
I asked the girl,
“Is he the man who assaulted you?”
The girl slowly nodded.
“See that? She nodded without even properly looking at my face.”
“Why would she need to look closely at the face of someone she knows?”
“She can’t look at me because she feels guilty.”
“Are you really saying it wasn’t you?”
“No. I swear to heaven it wasn’t me. If you punish me merely because you believe the word of a child, I’ll be terribly wronged. Think about it. If I had been craving a woman, I could have gone to a brothel. Why would I touch a child that young?”
“How would I know? You tell me. Do you get excited when you see children?”
“Didn’t I say it wasn’t me?”
Bae Jongtak glared menacingly at the girl.
“You don’t know how frightening it is to be charged with making a false accusation, do you? I’ll forgive you, so tell the truth. Say it wasn’t me!”
The girl shrank back as if terrified.
“Look at her! She’s trembling!”
“That’s because she’s afraid. Didn’t you threaten to find and kill even her family back in her hometown if she revealed that you assaulted her?”
This case had not been reported by the girl herself. She had told another maid, who had gone to report it at the Underworld Pavilion branch established across from the Pleasure House on her friend’s behalf.
“Why do you only believe that girl?”
“Because I believe her.”
“Isn’t that terribly biased?”
“Because it’s certain that you assaulted her.”
“Then show me definitive evidence! Don’t just believe that girl’s word.”
When I looked at Seo Daeryong, he went outside. He returned with two more girls. They were slightly older than the girl who had entered earlier.
The moment Bae Jongtak saw them, he flinched.
“You remember them, don’t you? They used to be your maids.”
“Yes, I remember them. You’ve grown so much!”
Bae Jongtak greeted them warmly, but the girls only lowered their heads without answering.
“While listening to the girl’s testimony, I suddenly became curious. If you committed the crime this time, could it be that you hadn’t done the same before?”
After searching for his former maids and investigating, we discovered that they too had been assaulted.
“I’ve already heard all their testimonies. The way you assaulted the girls was identical. So were the threats. You toyed with them for two or three years, then replaced them with another girl.”
Once he realized it was no longer possible to deny everything, Bae Jongtak’s expression changed. The man who had been pleading his innocence disappeared, revealing his true nature.
“I made a mistake while drunk. Please let me off just this once.”
His sudden composure was so different from the man who had been insisting on his innocence a moment ago that it felt like watching the performance of a troupe of street entertainers.
He spoke calmly to the girls.
“Honestly, you enjoyed it too, didn’t you? I even gave you money every time we finished.”
At that, the youngest maid took coins from her clothing and threw them onto the floor. The coins spilled out with a clatter. She had kept every single one without spending a penny and brought them here today.
Bae Jongtak turned his head as if he had not seen it and pleaded with me.
“I heard that in the history of the Underworld Pavilion, no one has ever been sent to the prison for laying hands on a maid.”
“You did your homework in advance. That’s right.”
“I’ll never do such a thing again. I swear it to heaven. If you want me to write a pledge, I’ll do that too. No—in fact, I won’t keep any female maids at all.”
“You’re not going to prison.”
At my words, the girls raised their heads. Every one of them wore a terrified expression.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
The man grinned and looked at the girls, who all avoided his gaze and lowered their heads.
“But you do have to go somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
Whoosh! Thud!
With a single stroke, my sword severed his neck. Without even managing a scream, he died instantly and toppled backward together with the chair.
Startled by the sudden turn of events, the girls cried out. His blood flowed over the coins scattered across the floor.
I immediately turned toward the girls.
“The man who tormented you is dead now. Your families have nothing to fear either. So from now on, live without worrying.”
The girls stared at me in shock.
“You will never forget what happened to you, not until the day you die. If you cannot forget it anyway, then don’t forget what happened today. Cover everything you suffered with this moment, when that man paid for his crimes. Remember only this final end of his.”
This was the best I could do for the girls.
The girls looked at the corpse, then turned to one another.
After a moment, the oldest among them stepped forward and bowed respectfully.
“Thank you so much for avenging us.”
The other girls bowed together with her.
“Thank you, sir. Sob…”
The youngest maid burst into tears, and another girl embraced her. Tears also streamed down the eyes of the girl who held her.
No one cared about how maids were treated. I had been the same way in the past.
“You don’t need to thank me. I was able to punish that man because you bravely testified. This was your retribution. So continue to live bravely and well from now on.”
“Yes.”
“And there is absolutely no chance that his friends or family will retaliate against you. From now on, the Underworld Pavilion will protect you.”
Now even the oldest girl began to shed tears.
“Thank you… truly.”
Father, if we fail to protect these children because we are blinded by the so-called law of the strong prevailing, then our heads will be severed by those orthodox sect bastards you hate so much. No—we deserve to have them severed. We ought to have no excuse even if our heads are cut off.
The investigators came in and took the girls away. I had instructed them to pay particular attention to the children from then on, so the girls had nothing to worry about.
Word of this would spread throughout the school as well, which would reduce the number of fools who dared lay hands on maids. We had to correct the very misconception that such treatment was only natural because they were demonic practitioners.
Ian, who had been watching the investigation, shook his head.
“Until I saw that man denying everything earlier, I really thought he had been wronged. Humans are truly frightening.”
“Humans are more frightening than ghosts.”
“But he belongs to the Northern Heaven Sword Family. Will the Ilhwa Sword Venerable really just let this pass?”
“His subordinate had been repeatedly assaulting young maids. Would he really make an issue of it because we killed someone like that? It would be better if he didn’t.”
“Aren’t you afraid, Young Master?”
“Of course I am. I’m afraid I’ll die before I can clear out all these pieces of trash.”
“Ever since you became the Pavilion Master of the Underworld Pavilion, our school has been growing kinder and kinder. What if it ends up filled with people more virtuous than the Martial Alliance?”
I immediately corrected her joke.
“Not assaulting maids isn’t kindness, is it? It’s the bare minimum.”
“Ah… right.”
“We simply haven’t even been able to do that bare minimum until now.”
Just then, Seo Daeryong returned.
“Pavilion Master, why did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“You deliberately killed him, didn’t you? Your belief has always been that people like him should be locked in the prison and made to suffer rather than killed.”
The prison of our school was a place more painful than death itself.
“That’s right.”
“Then why did you kill him?”
As expected, Seo Daeryong was a perceptive man. I had deliberately handled a case connected to the Ilhwa Sword Venerable myself, and, just as he said, I had intentionally killed the man.
“Killing him this way gives me an official pretext to go meet the Ilhwa Sword Venerable.”
Seo Daeryong was startled.
“The Blood Heaven Demon Butcher is already enough of a headache. Why are you trying to meet the Ilhwa Sword Venerable as well?”
“Because I need a second tiger.”
“What?”
Seeing that Seo Daeryong had no idea what I meant, I gave him an order.
“Send word to the Sword Venerable immediately. Tell him that a problem arose during the interrogation, and that I will personally meet him to explain.”
* * *
An hour later, I headed toward the Northern Heaven Sword Family with Seo Daeryong.
“Do you really have to take me with you?”
“This is an official visit. Can the Pavilion Master go alone? His right-hand man has to accompany him.”
“When did I become your right-hand man?”
“A power-oriented, cold-hearted man, yet a true romantic who loves only one woman; a rebel who alone raises his hand when everyone else remains silent. You’re more than qualified to be my right-hand man.”
“Good heavens!”
“Which description did you like?”
“I didn’t like any of them!”
Before long, we arrived at the entrance to the Northern Heaven Sword Family.
If the Blood Heaven Demon Butcher’s Southern Way Sect occupied the south of the school, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable’s Northern Heaven Sword Family held the north.
“This is my first time visiting the Northern Heaven Sword Family. None of the cases I’ve handled so far had anything to do with them. Unlike the Blood Heaven Demon Butcher, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable has done a good job managing his subordinates. The demonic swordsmen of the Sword Family also considered honor important.”
“Is that so?”
When I responded indifferently, Seo Daeryong asked,
“Do you disagree?”
“From what I’ve seen, demonic swordsmen and demonic blade fiends are all much the same. Do the eyes of people who value honor really look like that?”
The gazes of the demonic swordsmen guarding the entrance were far from friendly.
It seemed they already knew about Bae Jongtak’s death. Rather than thinking, He died because he committed a crime, their feelings were closer to, You killed a martial artist of our Northern Heaven Sword Family just because he touched a maid?
Of course, times being what they were, they dared not provoke me, and soon they all bowed respectfully.
Seo Daeryong spoke quietly to me.
“As a pacifist, I’ve been seeing that look rather often lately. I keep seeing it whenever I’m with someone.”
“I’ll add ‘pacifist’ to the list of titles describing you.”
“Ah…”
A martial artist who had come to guide us was waiting nearby.
“The Demon Venerable is waiting for you. My name is Sa Ujong (沙佑鐘).”
Sa Ujong was known as the Ilhwa Sword Venerable’s right-hand man. He was one of the three strongest people in the Northern Heaven Sword Family, and his presence was indeed as sharp as a blade.
I knew this man well—not because of any personal connection or friendship, but because his end had been rather memorable.
“Good to meet you.”
“Please follow me.”
Sa Ujong led us farther inside. We passed the buildings where the demonic swordsmen lived and proceeded to the deepest part of the family grounds.
There stood a small thatched cottage.
This neat and tastefully arranged place was the residence of the Ilhwa Sword Venerable.
“The Pavilion Master of the Underworld Pavilion has arrived.”
At Sa Ujong’s announcement, the door of the cottage opened, and a woman dressed in white stepped outside.
“Welcome, Pavilion Master of the Sword.”
The soft-voiced woman was none other than the Ilhwa Sword Venerable, So Yeonrang (昭蓮郞).