Because it was the way of the Extreme Evil Soma, one might have expected it to be unspeakably cruel and wicked—but today, it was the opposite.
The Extreme Evil Soma asked Geom Mugeuk this.
“Do you wish for me to subdue them and bring them back alive?”
It was a statement that would astonish anyone. They had thought even finding the assassins would be no easy task, yet instead of finding and eliminating them, he was going to subdue them alive?
Was he trying to take an already impossible task and push its difficulty to the very limit?
It was enough to make one think so.
Geom Mugeuk smiled and said,
“How did you know that was what I wanted?”
“I had a feeling you would.”
They had yet to confirm the relationship between Chai Ran and Ak Gunhak. Handling the matter without killing her subordinates, if possible, would be the choice that prevented any regret that might arise later.
That was why he had intended to ask separately, but the Extreme Evil Soma had read his heart and spoken first. As expected, Lord Soma was Lord Soma.
“Please do so.”
“I shall obey your command.”
As expected, there was not the slightest hesitation.
The one who spoke on behalf of how the Extreme Evil Soma felt was Ian.
“To put your subordinates in danger! That’s too much!”
She had said it to lighten the mood. She knew Geom Mugeuk would take the joke well.
“If it feels unfair, become the young cult leader yourself.”
Though he said that, the emotion in Geom Mugeuk’s eyes as he looked at the Extreme Evil Soma was not brazen shamelessness, but trust.
Trust that he would accomplish at least this much. Firm trust that this order would not place him and his subordinates in danger.
On top of that, he did not forget to toss a joke to the Faceless Guests.
“Even if they get on your nerves, don’t kill them. Since they’re women, don’t hit their faces either.”
Laughter bloomed in the eyes of the Faceless Guests as well.
Bisain, who had been watching, inwardly admired him.
The order had already been given, after all.
If so, words like that would raise the Faceless Guests’ morale more than telling them to be careful. They were words that preserved their pride.
Ian said to the Extreme Evil Soma,
“If you ever need my help, I will assist as well.”
Since the Extreme Evil Soma had refused before, she could not bring it up again openly, but she meant that she could tell him about the assassins she had identified in the waiting room.
No matter how she thought about it, there seemed to be no easy way to find them except by that method. Moreover, an additional order to capture them alive had now been issued.
Are you truly all right, Lord Soma?
The Extreme Evil Soma sensed the concern she felt for him.
“Do you know why I refused your proposal?”
Truly, she had never imagined that this would be the reason.
“I already know who the assassins are.”
“!”
“So far, I have found sixteen.”
He meant that he had identified definite assassins. Sixteen of them, at that.
Startled, Ian looked at Geom Mugeuk.
Did you know, Young Cult Leader? At the look in her eyes, Geom Mugeuk shook his head. This was something even Geom Mugeuk had not known yet.
“May I ask how you found them?”
At Ian’s question, the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion stepped forward and explained in his stead.
“The Demon Sovereign investigated the other two judges besides me first.”
After arriving at Shinhwa Clan, the Extreme Evil Soma had not merely spent his time in the guest hall.
Since they would be sitting beside the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion, he began by investigating those who had come as judges.
“As expected, both of them were closely connected to the Shinhwa Clan Leader. They were people who owed him a great debt and were in no position to refuse his request.”
There was one thing she could not understand.
“I still do not know why they called me as a judge.”
She looked back and forth between the Extreme Evil Soma and Geom Mugeuk.
“I can only vaguely guess that it was because of Lord Soma or because of the Young Cult Leader.”
Then Geom Mugeuk said calmly,
“It may have been because of you, Pavilion Lord.”
He did not explain the reason in detail, but the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion understood what Geom Mugeuk meant.
He meant that they might have called her because she was a descendant of the Divine Maiden Palace.
The Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion continued her explanation.
Though she did not know why they had called her, the reason they had called the other two was clear.
“From the preliminaries, I watched carefully how they gave their scores. There were times when, despite there being a clearly more beautiful woman, they gave higher marks to someone else. Of course, every person’s eye differs, but coincidentally, whenever that happened, the two of them made the same choice.”
She had not only been judging the stage; she had also been judging the judges’ seats.
“I found the women they deliberately selected, but the problem is the women they may have overlooked.”
There must have been assassins who made it to the main round through sheer beauty. Like Chai Ran.
Then a question naturally arose.
“Then why did they enter so many people into the competition? If they were going to choose them anyway, wouldn’t seven have been enough?”
In truth, even the final stage was unnecessary.
“No, choosing just one would have been enough.”
Because only the greatest beauty under heaven would attend the celebratory banquet with the Sado Alliance Leader.
“I wondered about that as well. But when I saw this, I understood.”
The Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion held out a folded sheet of paper.
“It is the seating arrangement for the day of the final stage.”
Special seats had been prepared behind the stage for the women who had advanced to the main round. The final stage would proceed while they watched from behind.
“They are planning to do something on that stage that day. When the Young Cult Leader intervened, their plans changed as well.”
Ian’s gaze deepened.
The prophecy the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion had seen had also taken place on the stage. They were certainly planning some sort of plot there.
And that plot was connected to her as well. The person standing on the final stage would be her.
What if Chai Ran and the assassins attacked her all at once? It would not be easy to stop Chai Ran alone, and if the assassins helped her as well?
In the end, Geom Mugeuk would leap onto the stage to save her.
A killing that could never be prepared outside could happen on that stage. Because that would be the moment when Chai Ran and the elite assassins of the Beauty Sect were all on the stage.
The one who broke the heavy silence was the Extreme Evil Soma.
“They will have to change their plans again.”
He would surely carry out the mission Geom Mugeuk had given him.
“Because on that day, there will be only one assassin on the stage.”
* * *
Chief Steward Jo hurried along.
As the person responsible for this competition, he had been busy day and night lately. Preparations for the finals two days later, and afterward, the celebratory banquet to host the Sado Alliance Leader. These were events where a single mistake could lead to disaster.
When Chief Steward Jo entered his office, he flinched in surprise. For a moment, he thought he had entered the wrong room.
Someone was sitting at his office desk, looking through documents.
“Who are you?”
At Chief Steward Jo’s startled question, the man sitting there lifted his head. He gestured for him to come inside.
Chief Steward Jo recognized the other party at a glance.
‘This man?’
He was the martial artist in charge of guarding the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion. The gauze veil with a single flower drawn on it was distinctive, and even though he wore a veil, his features were so handsome that he was hard to forget.
In any case, he was someone who should not be here.
Just as Chief Steward Jo spun around to flee—
He collided with someone. Before he knew it, someone was standing in front of the door.
Since the other person caught his hand to keep him from falling, he naturally thought it was a martial artist of Shinhwa Clan.
But it was not. When he lifted his head, he saw here too a gauze veil with a single flower drawn on it.
An indifferent gaze looked down at him from above the veil.
It was all the more frightening because that coldness was so at odds with the act of holding his hand to keep him from falling.
When Chief Steward Jo turned back again, the Extreme Evil Soma was looking at him.
The moment their eyes met, Chief Steward Jo could feel it.
‘He is different.’
Different even from the gaze he had seen earlier when he took him for a guard, and different from the countless gazes he had seen until now.
Having served as chief steward of Shinhwa Clan for a long time, he had met all sorts of martial artists, including countless martial artists of the unorthodox factions.
But this was the first time he had felt such a chill digging into his heart. It was entirely different from the familiar fear that came from violence and roughness.
“I have something to say. Come here.”
At the calm yet irresistible command, Chief Steward Jo staggered forward toward the Extreme Evil Soma. The other man was even more frightening because he spoke with courtesy.
“What do you want from me?”
Then the Extreme Evil Soma held out the documents he had been looking at.
“Contact them and tell them all to gather.”
When Chief Steward Jo looked at the documents, they were the personal information of the women who had participated in the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven competition and advanced to the main round.
“Why these people?”
“You need not know.”
He could call them. They had been keeping track of where the competition participants were staying so they could be contacted at any time.
All of them were staying in inns or rented manors near Shinhwa Clan.
But he could not simply do as he was told without question.
“I do not know the reason, but later, the Clan Leader will investigate this matter.”
He was indirectly saying that at that time, they would have to face all of Shinhwa Clan. No matter how frightening you may be, surely you fear the Shinhwa Clan Leader—he had said it with that thought, but—
The Extreme Evil Soma stared silently at him. A single thread of a smile formed in his eyes.
It was not the radiant smile he showed Geom Mugeuk.
It was Soma’s smile, the one that called death.
The moment Chief Steward Jo saw that smile, a terrifying fear, so intense he could scarcely breathe, constricted him. It was as though he could hear a soul being torn apart, screaming from some dark and deep place.
“Did you know?”
It was a question with everything before and after cut away, yet Chief Steward Jo’s heart dropped.
‘So it has come.’
It had been strange from the start that the Shinhwa Clan Leader had suddenly organized such a competition. He was not the kind of person who would even think of raising Shinhwa Clan’s reputation by holding an event like this.
This was certainly not an idea that had come from the Shinhwa Clan Leader’s own head. Chief Steward Jo knew him better than anyone in that regard.
It had also been strange that after organizing the competition, he had summoned the Flame Serpent Sword and the Iron Cold Blade. If there had not been some fear in his heart, he would not have called them in. On top of that, out of nowhere, he had invited the Sado Alliance Leader to the celebratory banquet.
He had noticed that something was being set in motion, but Chief Steward Jo had merely pretended not to know and done what he was told. Just as he always had.
“I… know nothing of this.”
The Extreme Evil Soma looked down at the documents on the table and said,
“Then prove it.”
There was no situation left in which to hesitate. He had already felt death in the other man’s smile.
“What should I say when I call them?”
“Tell them there is a seating assignment for the final stage.”
Chief Steward Jo said with a frightened expression,
“But such a matter requires the Clan Leader’s permission.”
Then the Extreme Evil Soma said calmly,
“Your Clan Leader will have no leisure for that today.”
“!”
Chief Steward Jo understood what that meant. His heart pounded as if it would burst.
“It is a competition you prepared, is it not? Then should you not see it through to the very end?”
It meant that if he obeyed, he could live.
“Yes, understood.”
As Chief Steward Jo gathered the documents, his gaze fell on the personal information set aside separately beside the desk. There appeared to be about a dozen sheets, and they too belonged to women who had advanced to the main round.
“Why are these women being left out?”
From the Extreme Evil Soma, who was looking out the window, came words he could not understand.
“Those people have already been called.”
* * *
Old Bachelor No, who sold all sorts of miscellaneous goods from a cart in the marketplace, had been in a good mood lately.
Because of the competition, countless people filled the streets every day. And just how beautiful were these women?
In the past, he had hated getting up in the morning, but these days his eyes snapped open because he wanted to go out and sell.
The woman choosing goods before him now was also exceedingly beautiful.
‘How wonderful would it be if I could marry a woman like this?’
He felt as though he could live his whole life carrying her on his back if he had to.
“If that one is not to your liking, please look at this.”
Mr. No found another ornament displayed on the cart and handed it to her.
“Huh?”
Mr. No looked around with a startled expression. The woman who had just been browsing in front of the cart had vanished without a trace.
Dudududu.
That woman was inside the carriage that had just passed in front of the cart. No, to be precise, she had been loaded into it. Her paralysis and mute acupoints had been sealed, so she could not move even a finger.
As though unable to believe this situation, she stared wide-eyed at the man seated across from her.
The man was wearing a pure white mask as he gazed out the carriage window.
‘A Faceless Guest!’
The woman knew who he was. She too was no ordinary woman.
Seventeenth Bridge.
She was the seventeenth bridge of the Beauty Sect.
She had been careless. She had truly never dreamed that a passing carriage would kidnap her.
But though she had been careless, the other party’s skill had been far too proficient.
The moment the carriage passed behind her, the carriage door opened, and in an instant, her paralysis and mute acupoints were sealed. At the same time, she was loaded into the carriage. It had truly happened in the blink of an eye.
‘Where in the world is he taking me?’
The Faceless Guest could have spared her a glance, but he only looked out the window. He truly seemed like a country bumpkin sightseeing in the city.
How long had they traveled like that? The carriage stopped before a building.
From the coachman’s seat, someone tapped the rear wall. Taking that as a signal, the Faceless Guest in the passenger cabin got out of the carriage. She could sense that the man in the coachman’s seat was also getting down.
When they got off, they covered the window curtains, so she could not tell what was happening outside.
Seventeenth Bridge waited anxiously and tensely.
A short while later, the sound of weapons clashing came from outside. In that instant, she intuited it. The Faceless Guest was fighting one of her comrades.
‘Please! Please!’
Soon after, the sounds of fighting ceased, and the surroundings grew quiet.
A tense moment.
The carriage door opened with a clack.
When Seventeenth Bridge confirmed who it was, joy spread across her face. The woman standing before the carriage was none other than Fifth Bridge. She was a senior Seventeenth Bridge liked, and one whose skill, at least, was fully acknowledged.
She had completed twenty-four assassinations without a single mistake.
‘As expected! You dealt with them and came to save me!’
It was right then.
She was shoved inside. Fifth Bridge, whose mute and paralysis acupoints had already been sealed, was seated side by side next to Seventeenth Bridge.
“……”
“……”
The Faceless Guest who had pushed Fifth Bridge in sat down and tapped the wall toward the coachman’s seat.
At that signal, the carriage set off.
Without giving the women a single glance, the Faceless Guest only looked at the scenery outside, and the carriage once again began racing toward the next bridge.