“As they say, life is easier when you get in the right line.”
From her looks alone, she seemed like someone who would not exchange a single word with others, but the woman spoke to them with ease.
Ian silently gazed at her.
Seeing someone this close should have revealed at least one flaw, yet this woman was perfect.
Even her clothes were impeccable, and her makeup was done so well. Truly, Ian almost wanted to learn how to dress and apply makeup from her.
Ian wondered whether this meeting was really a coincidence.
Because the woman gave off far too special an impression to be dismissed as someone they had simply met while standing in line.
Ian looked around at the other lines nearby. The line they were standing in was still the shortest.
“We don’t know yet whether we chose the right line.”
Ian looked toward the front of the line she was in and continued.
“You never know what problem might arise up ahead, do you? If you’re unlucky, they might cut it off right before your turn.”
At Ian’s words, the woman gave a subtle smile.
The gazes of the two women tangled in midair.
Like two absolute masters facing each other, their opposing beauties stood tautly against one another.
Everyone around them held their breath and watched the two.
Geom Mugeuk was watching them from the closest distance of all.
The woman’s gaze turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
Her bewitching eyes were different when she looked at a woman and when she looked at a man; she was a woman who instinctively knew how to seduce men.
Ian poked Geom Mugeuk in the side.
“What are you staring at so blankly?”
Only then did Geom Mugeuk smile awkwardly and say,
“You were so beautiful. I was rude.”
As though she did not dislike those words, the woman smiled, and Ian repeated exactly what Geom Mugeuk had said in the carriage.
“It’s vexing, but I have no choice but to admit it.”
Then she sent a voice transmission to Geom Mugeuk.
—Please kill this woman.
It was an extension of the joke that he should kill any woman prettier than her. It meant this woman was more beautiful than she was.
—Isn’t killing her going a bit too far?
—You should say that while looking at me, not at that woman.
—Someone in the carriage once looked at Lord Soma like this.
—Now you understand how I felt then, don’t you?
She said that, but she thought the case of her staring at the Extreme Evil Soma and Geom Mugeuk’s case were different.
The Extreme Evil Soma was someone she knew, and someone who definitely had a person he liked.
But this woman? She was someone they did not even know.
‘Did she really catch his fancy?’
This was the first time Ian had seen Geom Mugeuk stare so intently at another woman. So she was inwardly surprised.
‘Well, the young master is a man too.’
How could he not look when she was that beautiful? Even Ian, a woman herself, could not help admiring her. Yes, it was understandable enough.
If Ian could feel it, how could the woman herself not have felt it? At Geom Mugeuk’s gaze, confidence flashed through the woman’s eyes.
Ian changed the subject and asked,
“Did you come here alone?”
“Yes.”
She was clearly a woman who had learned martial arts, but Ian could not accurately discern her skill. Whether it was because her ability was outstanding or because the martial arts she had learned were special, Ian did not know, but the other woman was extremely adept at hiding herself.
“You’re so beautiful, yet you travel alone. That’s surprising.”
“I’m not easily frightened.”
The woman introduced herself first.
“My name is Cha Iran (車利蘭).”
“I’m Ian.”
Geom Mugeuk introduced himself last.
“I am Geom Yeon.”
Cha Iran smiled with her eyes at Geom Mugeuk and said,
“What a fine name.”
“Thank you. Your name is beautiful as well, Miss Cha.”
Cha Iran asked Geom Mugeuk,
“What is the relationship between you two?”
At Cha Iran’s question, Geom Mugeuk answered,
“She is the person I serve.”
Cha Iran, who had been staring fixedly at Geom Mugeuk as if to bore through him, tilted her head.
“You don’t look like someone who would serve anyone.”
As she said that, she glanced at Ian.
“Where can one find such a splendid martial artist?”
Would you look at this woman?
Her gaze toward Geom Mugeuk, and now these words too. She was openly seducing Geom Mugeuk.
Ian glanced at Geom Mugeuk. Don’t you dare stand there grinning like an idiot!
Ian spoke to her crisply.
“You won’t be able to find one.”
“You never know.”
Cha Iran looked at Geom Mugeuk and added,
“There’s no guarantee a person has to protect only one person for life, is there?”
Protect me instead of this woman.
Only after saying everything she wanted did she smile brightly at Ian.
“I’m joking.”
Ian did not get angry. In this fight, getting angry meant losing.
“You’re right. If he finds someone new he wants to protect, I should let him go at any time.”
Only when someone had begun to truly wedge herself between the Young Cult Leader and her did Ian realize how she had thought of Geom Mugeuk.
Until now, she had thought this way.
If the Young Cult Leader found someone he liked, she would sincerely bless them and be happy as if it were her own affair. Of course she should. That was how she had felt.
No matter how much the Young Cult Leader called her his heart.
Even if the Cult Leader had permitted her to learn the Flying Heaven Sword Art.
Even if she had become the Fist Demon’s foster daughter.
Even if she had become captain of the Ghost Shadow Unit.
Her heart had always remained in the days when she had served as Geom Mugeuk’s guard.
And today, through this woman, she realized.
She might not be able to sincerely bless him after all.
“If he goes, will you truly let him go?”
At Cha Iran’s question, Ian shook her head.
“No. How could I let someone like him go? If he says he’s leaving…”
Ian looked at Geom Mugeuk.
“I’ll kill him.”
Geom Mugeuk stared at Ian with startled eyes.
Soon after, Ian looked at Cha Iran and said with a smile,
“I’m joking too.”
They were both saying it was a joke, but between the two women, an unknowable, taut energy was swirling.
In the meantime, the line gradually shortened, and at last, it was Ian’s turn to apply.
Geom Mugeuk handled the application on her behalf.
The martial artist receiving applications asked without raising his head.
“Please tell me the name of the participant first.”
“Ian.”
The martial artist wrote the name on the document.
“Ian, and you are a martial artist?”
“That is correct.”
“A martial artist, then your affiliated sect or family?”
Then words no one could have imagined flowed from Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.
“The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
The martial artist wrote it down on the document as he heard it.
“The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and next…”
After he had written it all down, the martial artist flinched in shock.
“What did you just say?”
Then four syllables came through clearly.
“The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
The martial artist’s expression hardened as he raised his head.
If you make such a joke, you will be punished!
He was about to scold them sharply.
But he could not. First, Ian, who wore a veil, was too beautiful.
And he instinctively knew that Geom Mugeuk, standing beside her, was no ordinary person either.
“I heard one could apply regardless of origin. Was that not the case?”
“That is correct. Are you truly from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?”
“That is correct.”
He had not expected the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult to participate in this contest, and he had expected even less that they would reveal their identities so boldly.
The martial artist asked in a trembling voice,
“May I ask your position within the Divine Cult?”
“I cannot tell you that much.”
“Yes, understood.”
In truth, Ian was just as surprised. No, Ian was even more surprised than the martial artist receiving the application.
She had naturally thought he would hide their identities and give a false one.
And that woman was even listening from behind them.
‘Surely he isn’t doing this to look good in front of that woman, is he?’
She thought Geom Mugeuk would never do such a thing, but the woman was so beautiful that he might have been moved to it.
The martial artist at the reception desk handed over the participant token.
“The preliminary round will be held three days from now.”
Then he said to the people standing in that line,
“Please wait a moment.”
He left his seat and ran off somewhere.
Ian turned around. Cha Iran must certainly have heard the words Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, yet she did not look very surprised.
“You don’t seem surprised.”
“I told you I’m not easily frightened.”
The gazes of the two women tangled in midair.
“Still, you chose the wrong line today.”
After saying that, Ian strode away.
As though wanting Ian to hear, Cha Iran spoke to Geom Mugeuk as he followed after her.
“Let’s have a meal together sometime.”
Geom Mugeuk gave a faint smile, bowed his head slightly in greeting, and followed Ian out.
Only after the two left the grand training ground and came completely out of Sinhwabang did Ian finally speak.
“An unparalleled beauty asked you to eat with her. Why didn’t you make an appointment?”
“We’ll end up eating together later anyway.”
At Ian’s gaze, asking what he meant, he said,
“That woman will approach us again.”
At those words, Ian’s steps stopped. Her stiff expression completely loosened.
“Right? That’s it, isn’t it? That woman knew our identities and approached us deliberately, didn’t she? You knew, didn’t you? That’s why you revealed our identities.”
When Geom Mugeuk nodded, relief washed over Ian’s heart.
“Ah, I was nervous. I thought you had fallen for that suspicious woman, young master.”
It was an untruthful statement. She should have said beautiful woman, not suspicious woman.
“But there’s another reason I revealed our identities.”
“What reason?”
“Because of you.”
“Pardon?”
Just as Ian blinked with an expression that said she did not understand,
a reason she truly had not expected flowed out.
“Even if you become the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven, it means nothing if it is under a false identity, does it?”
“!”
“Ian of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult is the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven. That is how it should be known to the world.”
Ian could tell Geom Mugeuk was sincere. And there was one more reason.
“That way, you won’t be bothered by troublesome matters as you live.”
If people knew that the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven was from the Demonic Cult, who would dare trouble her? Even if some lecher of the murim felt tempted to go see the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven just once, would he dare go if she were from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?
‘Ah! You revealed it because of me.’
Ian was moved. He was a Young Cult Leader who thought of her this much, and yet she had misunderstood him.
“But how did you know that woman approached us deliberately?”
The reason was simple.
Because she was someone he knew.
She was one of the Twelve Zodiac Kings.
The Seventh King of the Twelve Zodiac Kings, the Flower King.
She had been the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven during the time when the Twelve Zodiac Kings ruled the world.
With her overwhelmingly beautiful appearance, she drew the attention of the martial world, but no one knew her true identity.
All sorts of rumors spread. Some even said she must have risen to the position of one of the Twelve Zodiac Kings because of her beauty. There was also a rumor that one of the Twelve Zodiac Kings had loved her and seated her there.
But that was nonsense born of ignorance about her.
“She is an assassin.”
“!”
Ian’s eyes widened in surprise. Not for a single moment had she imagined that such a beautiful woman could be an assassin. If Geom Mugeuk had not told her, she would not have believed it easily.
A true assassin unknown to the world.
During the time when the Twelve Zodiac Kings ruled the murim, the most famous assassin known to the world was the Fourth King, the Assassin King.
But she had operated in secret until the very moment of her death.
She had lived under the dishonor of being called the flower of the Twelve Zodiac Kings, and only after she died did the martial artists of the world come to know that she had truly been an exceptional assassin. Why she had lived such a life was never revealed to the world.
She had been the most beautiful assassin in the history of the murim, and the assassin with the greatest skill.
Though the Assassin King possessed all the fame as an assassin, she had not wanted that fame.
In that sense, she was the true blade in the darkness.
The reason Geom Mugeuk had stared intently at her earlier was because he had been surprised at first, and later because he had thought she had approached in order to use a beauty trap on him.
“So she approached with the Young Cult Leader as her target.”
Ian grew tense at once.
An assassin and a bodyguard.
An opponent who, by fate, stood at the opposite point from her.
Fortunately, the target was not Geom Mugeuk.
“Her target isn’t me.”
What if he had not chosen the Dream of the Divine Maiden from the Martial World’s Treasury? What if he had not given it to the Cheonhwa Pavilion Master? And so, what if he had not left the cult to meet the Cheonhwa Pavilion Master? He would not be here. Coming here had been entirely his own choice and will.
But this contest had been decided on far earlier than that.
In other words, separate from her approaching him now, the purpose behind holding this contest and her participating in it lay elsewhere.
Geom Mugeuk stopped walking.
He looked at the poster for the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven contest pasted on the wall.
Only then did Ian understand.
“The target was the Alliance Leader of the Evil Path.”
If one became the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven, one could attend a banquet where the Alliance Leader of the Evil Path would be present as the prize. If it was her, she could certainly become the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven.
Geom Mugeuk nodded. If it was an assassination she had to carry out personally, then the target was likely the Alliance Leader of the Evil Path. Of course, it might not be, and even if it had been, the situation might change now that he had intervened.
Geom Mugeuk intended to respond with every possibility in mind.
“The way to stop it is simple.”
“You can kill that woman, Young Cult Leader.”
“Nothing has been confirmed yet, has it?”
“Ah, right. Then how do we stop it?”
At that, Geom Mugeuk smiled meaningfully and said,
“You just have to become the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven. Then that woman won’t be able to attend the banquet. Ian, the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven, saves the Alliance Leader of the Evil Path!”
“Stop teasing me!”
Could she really defeat that woman and be chosen as the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven?
Ian recalled the sight of her walking toward her earlier. Even thinking back on it, she still could not believe that woman was an assassin.
“It seems being entangled with us was fate too. Of all times, she came in when our line happened to be the shortest.”
It might seem fated that they ended up standing in the same line, but Geom Mugeuk knew that was not the case.
The secret assassin organization led by the Flower King, Gain Bridge.
The assassins of Gain Bridge were all women. And it was said they were made up only of beautiful women.
“I don’t think it was a coincidence that our line was the shortest when she came in.”
“What do you mean? Surely…”
“Yes. The assassins she leads stood in the other lines and manipulated their length. So that she could naturally stand behind us.”
“!”
Geom Mugeuk could now understand clearly why they had held a contest to select the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven instead of a martial arts tournament.
Because in this place, crowded with countless women gathered from the Central Plains, the assassins of Gain Bridge could naturally blend in without drawing any suspicion.
He could not know how many of them were here, but of one thing he was certain.
“This street is now filled with beautiful assassins.”