Sipchilgyo could tell them apart now.
At first glance, the ten Faceless Guests were impossible to distinguish, but on closer inspection, each had their own individuality. Their heights were different, and so were their builds.
Above all, there were markings on their masks. Small pictures had been drawn along the edges of the masks: some bore tiny foxes, while others had clouds or flames, venomous snakes or spiders.
If those were their individual symbols, then perhaps, she guessed, each of them also had a mask with that image covering the whole thing. A fox mask, for instance, or a flame mask that made the entire mask look as though it were burning.
And on the mask of the Faceless Guest who had saved her, there was a small crescent moon.
As Sipchilgyo stared at the Faceless Guest, her eyes met Ogyo’s. She had been captured together with her, and Ogyo was a senior she respected.
Ogyo looked at her and shook her head slightly.
Sipchilgyo knew what that gesture meant. It meant she should not give away needless personal feelings.
It meant that, both while they had ridden here together in the carriage and even here, she had been looking at him so openly that her inner thoughts might be seen.
Sipchilgyo gave a slight nod.
Yes, what kind of madness was this, in a situation where she might die at any moment? Since it was Ogyo, she would let it pass, but if anyone else found out, she could receive severe punishment for colluding with the enemy.
Just as she resolved not to look at him anymore—
As though fate truly existed, the crescent-moon Faceless Guest, who had been looking out the window, tapped the wall twice and drew everyone’s attention.
It was a signal that someone was coming this way.
Sure enough, a moment later, the door opened and someone stepped inside.
“Is Chief Steward Jo here?”
It was An Hupyeong, the young lord of Shinhwabang. He had heard that the women who had advanced to the main round today were gathering because of the final stage, and had come to look around.
For an instant, An Hupyeong flinched in surprise.
The women were seated in chairs. The thrill of having the gazes of dozens of beautiful women all fixed on him at once!
The problem, however, was the men standing around them. Masked figures stood throughout the guest hall.
Some leaned against the walls, and some crouched in corners. Some stood beside the women with their arms folded. All of them were staring at him. Their appearance alone was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.
At this point, he should have immediately realized that something was wrong.
“Chief Steward Jo is preparing something interesting.”
He had mistaken it for a performance being prepared for the final stage.
“Villains and beauties! Not a bad idea. Who is it? Who’s playing the leader?”
An absurd silence flowed through the hall.
At that moment, Samgyo turned his head and looked at Geukak Soma, and the other assassins followed suit. Samgyo was hoping that his arrival might create some kind of variable in the situation.
An Hupyeong walked fearlessly up to Geukak Soma.
He looked at Geukak Soma and exclaimed in admiration.
“Whoever made it, that mask is quite well done.”
The two eyes behind the mask curved into a broad smile. If anyone there had understood what kind of smile that was, Sacho would never have left in the first place.
Seeing that smile, An Hupyeong even issued a warning.
“These are precious guests, so don’t even think of trying anything foolish.”
As though he had forgotten, he turned back toward the women and revealed his identity.
“Ah, I haven’t introduced myself. I am An Hupyeong, the young lord of Shinhwabang. If anything makes you uncomfortable, come to me at any time and tell me.”
The women merely looked at him, and no one said a word. Even if their mute acupoints had not been sealed, what could they possibly say to this utterly oblivious man?
At the continuing silence, An Hupyeong felt slightly displeased. But soon, he found the reason for this strange atmosphere in himself.
Yes, it would not be easy to speak rashly to the young lord.
After sweeping his gaze over the women one last time, An Hupyeong bid them farewell.
“Well then, practice hard.”
An Hupyeong went outside. No matter how he looked, there were no beauties like Ian or Cha I-ran.
‘Since I’m thinking of it, should I go see her?’
He set off to find Ian.
Then, far in the distance, a figure caught his eye.
An unfamiliar martial artist was walking in front, and Shinhwabang warriors were following behind him. They were trailing after him with their heads lowered, as though they had committed some crime.
“I’ve never seen him before.”
In truth, it was not the first time he had seen him. He was one of the Sado Thirteen Wolves he had seen before when he met Bisa-in.
Because he had only paid attention to Bisa-in and the women that day, he did not remember their faces at all.
At that moment, a martial artist shot out from the building on the opposite side using lightness skill. Seeing An Hupyeong, he shouted urgently.
“Hurry to your father!”
In that instant, a member of the Sado Thirteen Wolves sprang out of the building even faster and subdued him in the blink of an eye.
After that, Shinhwabang warriors filed out of the building one after another with their heads lowered, and another member of the Sado Thirteen Wolves came out last.
Startled, An Hupyeong ran toward the Lord’s Hall.
The Sado Thirteen Wolves martial artist who had subdued the man who shouted merely glanced at An Hupyeong once and did not pursue him.
When An Hupyeong had run all the way to the Lord’s Hall, Bisa-in was standing at the entrance. Behind Bisa-in, the Alliance Lord’s guards were lined up.
“Young Alliance Lord! Please help!”
He ran toward Bisa-in.
“Suspicious people have invaded our sect!”
Before An Hupyeong could even approach Bisa-in, those suspicious people sealed his mute and paralysis acupoints and dragged him away.
Then the door opened, and Baek Jagang emerged from inside the Lord’s Hall.
He walked out with his hands clasped behind his back as though returning from a casual outing, but with him came the thick stench of blood.
The scene inside entered Bisa-in’s eyes.
The lord of Shinhwabang sat dead in the grand preceptor’s chair, and Cheol Hando’s head rested on the table where they had been drinking. Behind that table, Yeom Sageom could also be seen lying as a corpse.
With those corpses at his back, Baek Jagang asked,
“Where is the assassin woman who devised this matter now?”
Bisa-in could guess that the Alliance Lord had heard something important related to her.
“The young cult leader should be meeting her now.”
* * *
When Geom Mugeuk went to find Cha I-ran, she was buying new clothes.
This was the very place where he had once bought clothes with Ian.
“How did you know I was here?”
“Have you forgotten already? When you were drunk and crawling around on the ground, I was beside you.”
Right now, instead of the splendid clothes she had worn earlier, she was wearing an ordinary black martial robe. Was it because it was his first time seeing her in martial attire? If anything, this look seemed fresher and more attractive.
“Fine. Since you’re here, pick one for me.”
Cha I-ran showed him the two outfits she had chosen from the shop.
“Which one do you think would suit me better?”
Both outfits were splendid.
“The martial robe you’re wearing now is fine, though.”
“My martial robe is this outfit. Hurry and choose.”
When Geom Mugeuk pointed to the outfit on the left, she chose the one on the opposite side.
“Because you’ll want Miss Lee to win.”
Geom Mugeuk watched her pay the shopkeeper for the clothes.
‘You won’t be wearing that outfit to the competition.’
After paying, she said to Geom Mugeuk,
“Wait a moment. I’ll change and come out.”
As she was about to go inside, she took something out and placed it on the table.
“Hold on to this for a moment.”
Then she went inside to change.
Geom Mugeuk silently looked at the small box she had left behind.
Wung.
The Bige reacted again. Astonishingly, she had left behind the box containing the bead.
What exactly was she thinking, doing this? Did she really want him to take it?
Last night and now as well, she was blatantly tempting him with the bead.
When Geom Mugeuk lightly waved his hand, the lid of the box opened through remote object manipulation.
Inside was a red bead, the Red Essence.
Wooooong.
The Bige reacted even more strongly.
As he looked at the bead, a powerful temptation arose in him, urging him to absorb its energy at once. The existing energies sleeping within his body tried to awaken.
But Geom Mugeuk waved his hand again, and the lid closed.
There was one thing she did not know.
How difficult it had been for him to obtain the previous beads. This bead was not something that could ever be obtained this easily.
‘So, Bige, let’s endure.’
As Geom Mugeuk calmed his mind, the energy that had been about to awaken fell asleep again, and the Bige also settled down.
A moment later, she came out after changing clothes. Wearing the beautiful outfit, she looked like a completely different person from just before. Instead of asking about the clothes she had changed into, she asked about the box.
“Did you open it?”
“I did.”
“How was it?”
“I wanted it.”
“I wanted it. What sweet words.”
Cha I-ran picked up the box and sat in a chair placed in the corner, crossing her legs. The thigh that was revealed was unbearably sensual.
“Why didn’t you take it?”
“I already did. That box is empty.”
Cha I-ran put it away without checking inside.
“Do you trust my conscience?”
“No, it’s a box that explodes if opened.”
Their gazes became entangled in midair. Their eyes were so deep that by looking like this, neither could ever know what the other was thinking.
“I didn’t know you would come looking for me this early.”
They had drunk all night yesterday, parted in such a drunken state. She had thought she would see him tomorrow at the earliest.
“After you revealed your identity, I suppose my heart felt at ease somehow.”
Of course, that was not why he had come.
The operation had begun. At this very moment, Geukak Soma and the Sado Alliance would each be carrying out their assigned tasks.
What he had to do first was find out whether Ak Gunhak also liked her.
Geom Mugeuk looked after her stomach first.
“Did you have something to cure your hangover?”
“I did.”
“Well done. You have to protect your insides from when you’re young.”
At that, Cha I-ran asked with a strange smile,
“Do you think you or I will live until we grow old?”
“I will live until I’m old.”
“How greedy.”
“That’s right. Greedy for martial arts, greedy for people, greedy for money, greedy for health, greedy for lifespan. I’m the man known as the incarnation of greed.”
Then Cha I-ran said with a laugh,
“I heard the rumors say you’re greedy for words.”
At that, Geom Mugeuk moved his jaw from side to side, loosening his mouth.
“My mouth has been itching so badly all this time I nearly went mad.”
As Cha I-ran talked with Geom Mugeuk, she thought she might come to understand why Ak Gunhak had not killed him.
Apart from her mission, there was one line connecting Geom Mugeuk and herself: Ak Gunhak.
The moment that line snapped, there would be no common topic left between them. Only the matter of whether one killed or was killed, whether the mission was completed or not, would remain.
“Why couldn’t he leave?”
Geom Mugeuk now asked the question he had not asked last night.
“What other reason could there be? The organization wouldn’t let him go.”
“Is there any need to be loyal to an organization like that?”
At that, Cha I-ran raised both eyebrows slightly.
“Loyal? I’m not loyal to anyone. I work and receive payment.”
Her words were sincere. Even in his life before regression, she had died as an assassin until the very end. The fact that her life had only been revealed after her death was surely because of this way of thinking of hers.
The organization had never liked her.
“That sounds as though if I pay the price, I could hire you.”
“If you have the ability to do so.”
“I’ll hire you right now. State your conditions.”
Of course, he had said it knowing she would never accept.
Sure enough, she refused at once.
“If I were the kind of person who abandoned an assignment I had taken and quit midway, I wouldn’t be worth hiring to this extent.”
That was why she would certainly try to carry out the mission she had been given. She would certainly try to kill the Sado Alliance Lord, and perhaps even him.
“Do you know where he was trying to leave for?”
Instead of answering, Cha I-ran asked in return,
“You would know that, wouldn’t you?”
He could tell from her gaze and expression. She truly did not know where he was leaving for. If anything, she was the one curious about it.
“So he didn’t know you liked him.”
If they had truly liked each other, they would certainly have talked about it. No, perhaps he would not have thought of leaving in the first place. Unless they had planned to leave together.
“That’s right. He doesn’t know.”
Cha I-ran did not try to hide that fact. She did not try to use it as a shield to protect her own life.
“Why didn’t you tell him?”
To think she would end up having this kind of conversation with Geom Mugeuk.
“We were both busy. And the organization wouldn’t have liked it.”
But because he was an enemy she had to kill, she could speak more comfortably instead.
“Why would the organization have hated it?”
“Because then there would have been two people saying they were leaving.”
Geom Mugeuk liked her honesty. Her true charm did not come from those smooth thighs.
Cha I-ran asked as though curious,
“Why do you care so much about him? He already left you.”
From Geom Mugeuk came an answer she had not expected at all.
“He was a remarkable man.”
“I admit that.”
“I like remarkable people. When I see people like that, I want to resemble them and learn from them.”
Geom Mugeuk perched on the display stand directly in front of her.
“In that sense, you were remarkable too.”
At her gaze asking what he meant, Geom Mugeuk answered honestly.
“I don’t have the courage to get that drunk in front of an enemy.”
It was a joke, but she did not laugh.
“Why can’t you be honest?”
“What do you mean?”
“The reason you’re paying attention to him isn’t because he’s remarkable. It’s because you want to keep such a powerful master at your side, isn’t it? And since he’s even an enemy, the effect would be doubled, tripled. Am I wrong?”
After staring at Cha I-ran for a moment, Geom Mugeuk suddenly asked,
“Could you keep him at your side?”
Cha I-ran could not answer yes. Because part of why she had liked him was that he had been like the wind.
“From the first time I saw him, he had taken off his shoes. How could you keep at your side a man who walks around barefoot?”
If that was true? If he did not want to possess him, then what reason could there be?
“Then why?”
After a brief pause, Geom Mugeuk said,
“Because I want to let him leave.”
As though those words were sincere, an astonishing proposal followed.
“Let’s help him leave.”