“Welcome, Alliance Leader.”
After greeting him respectfully, Cha Iran looked around at the ruins.
“I’d like to invite you to sit, but as you can see, there’s nowhere to sit.”
Even with her life in danger, she was composed. Having erased the signpost that marked the crossroads between life and death, she had no fear.
The day her steps halted while walking the path she wished to walk—that would be her last day.
“Are you not afraid of dying?”
To Baek Jagang’s question, asked like a death god, Cha Iran answered politely.
“I am afraid.”
At that moment, a chill prickled at Baek Jagang’s ear. She was someone upon whom his sense for detecting lies worked. The fact that it reacted to her saying she was afraid meant she was lying.
She did not fear death?
Ordinarily, he would have thought this woman had a hidden trump card, or that she was unafraid because someone was there to save her.
But Baek Jagang had seen it. In that fleeting instant, the detachment that had passed through her eyes.
Among those he had met before, there had been people with eyes like that.
Eyes he had seen in those for whom the boundary between life and death had collapsed.
They were people who, having abandoned everything, could do anything.
It was unexpected. With such a beautiful and splendid appearance, she had no lingering attachment to life?
Just what kind of life had she lived?
A thought suddenly occurred to Baek Jagang.
Could the reason Geom Mugeuk was trying to resolve this without killing her be because he, too, had seen what Baek Jagang had just seen?
“I know the Young Cult Leader regards you as special. But that is a matter between you and him. It has nothing to do with me.”
After making it clear that he had no intention of showing mercy because of her relationship with Geom Mugeuk, Baek Jagang asked her directly.
“Why are you trying to kill me?”
His earlier warning that he would not ask twice meant that if she did not answer when asked once, he would kill her.
“As you must already know, I am an assassin. So I accepted a commission.”
Though she belonged to the organization behind this, strictly speaking, it was not a superior-subordinate relationship in which she received orders.
The organization had paid her a commission and entrusted her with the task. She had tried to keep even one step more distance from them. Of course, she knew the organization found that displeasing.
“You accepted the commission even knowing that I was the target.”
It was a sensitive point that could provoke the greatest anger, but Cha Iran charged straight through it.
“How could I refuse? For an assassin, it was the commission of a lifetime—one that might not come even once.”
At her honesty, his questions continued without hesitation.
“What did you mean by what you said to the Leader of Sinhwa Gang?”
In truth, the reason Baek Jagang had come to see her today was to ask this question. As the Leader of Sinhwa Gang was dying, he had left behind these words.
“He said you told him that if I did not die, murim would be destroyed.”
When she had said that, she had not known events would unfold like this. At the time, she had not expected Geom Mugeuk to intervene.
In truth, the person who had said those words to her was Hwa Domyeong.
That hateful man was probably hiding far away, watching this situation unfold.
If Baek Jagang tried to kill her, would he simply watch then as well? Or would he step forward to save her?
“I think that is something I should be asking you.”
Baek Jagang’s gaze sharpened, but she calmly said what she had to say.
“Do you intend to destroy murim?”
A brief silence flowed.
Baek Jagang truly had not expected to receive this question from this woman.
Perhaps that was why. Baek Jagang accepted her provocation.
“And if I do?”
She had not asked that question in order to provoke Baek Jagang. Rather, it was the opposite.
“If you were such a person, you would not have come to me and asked like this.”
Cha Iran continued calmly.
“I suppose they said that to persuade me. There can hardly be a better justification for killing someone.”
Finally, Baek Jagang asked the decisive question.
“Even so, do you intend to kill me?”
This answer did not come immediately.
After a moment, she replied.
“Yes. I have already accepted the commission.”
Because no chill prickled at his ear, he knew she was speaking sincerely. Her courage was admirable, but it was not a reason for forgiveness.
“Tell me why I should not kill you.”
Cha Iran sighed and said,
“I don’t think there is one.”
The death god who had only asked questions all this time finally delivered his verdict.
“Then die!”
His hand grasped the hilt of his sword.
As Cha Iran watched him, she recalled the moment Geom Mugeuk had been about to draw his sword. She felt even greater tension than then. Geom Mugeuk had not drawn his, but this Baek Jagang would certainly draw. And he would certainly kill her.
Cha Iran raised her internal energy. Could she really defeat the Alliance Leader of the Evil Dao in a head-on fight? Impossible.
‘Hwa Domyeong, are you just going to keep watching? If I die, this matter fails too.’
But Hwa Domyeong did not appear.
Right. You were only a spectator.
She sensed that her final moment had come. In truth, she was not afraid of death. Rather, it was a moment she had been waiting for since some time ago.
The Alliance Leader of the Evil Dao, her final target.
There could be no one better to deliver her end.
The only regret was that all her subordinates would die as well.
“My subordinates…”
Before the words asking him to spare them could come out, Baek Jagang cut her off.
“I am not a man who leaves future troubles behind. And yet you think I would leave assassins as future troubles?”
A vast energy flowed from Baek Jagang’s body and spread in every direction.
She had never felt such a powerful presence before. It was as if a colossal beast that had been bound was now unleashed, roaring toward the heavens.
Facing that presence, Cha Iran drew her internal energy to its limit. She did not fear death, but neither was she a woman who gave up on life easily.
She drew a dagger. The dagger gleaming keenly resembled the look in her eyes.
Ilgyo and the other assassins, who had been watching from afar, all launched themselves at once and landed around the two of them. Each of them drew their hidden weapons.
At Baek Jagang’s powerful presence, all of them sensed death, but not one woman fled in fear.
Shrrrng.
It was just as Baek Jagang’s sword was being drawn.
Whoooosh.
Someone who had flown in as fast as light landed between the two of them.
The one who had arrived with Swift Steps was none other than Geom Mugeuk.
At his appearance, Cha Iran was startled. She had not expected Geom Mugeuk to appear at this moment. Not only she, but the assassins around her were also surprised.
Baek Jagang’s sword had not yet been fully drawn.
“Fortunately, I made it before you drew your sword all the way!”
At Geom Mugeuk’s relief, Baek Jagang asked,
“Did you come running here so breathlessly because you thought I might kill this woman?”
Geom Mugeuk let out a sigh of relief and answered briefly.
“Yes.”
It was only a single word, but a faint surge of emotion passed over Cha Iran’s face. Even Hwa Domyeong, who called himself her friend, had not stepped forward, yet Geom Mugeuk, her enemy, had done so for her sake.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Baek Jagang. In those small eyes of Baek Jagang’s, Geom Mugeuk read a certain intent.
—Surely not? Did you know I was watching?
At Geom Mugeuk’s sound transmission, one corner of Baek Jagang’s mouth lifted slightly. That meaningful expression seemed to say:
As expected, you understand my intent.
Geom Mugeuk could now be certain. Baek Jagang had noticed that he was watching from afar and had deliberately drawn his sword.
From the beginning, Baek Jagang likely had no intention of killing her. Originally, he had probably meant to ask what he was curious about and simply leave, but the reason he had tried to draw his sword like this was…
To make her owe Geom Mugeuk her life.
He had even made all her subordinates step forward so that Geom Mugeuk could save their lives as well.
Yes, he was not such a reckless man as to thoughtlessly interfere and kill her when Geom Mugeuk had taken charge of Cha Iran. Even if he were to kill her, he was the kind of man who would do it in Geom Mugeuk’s presence.
—Thank you very much, Alliance Leader.
Baek Jagang also answered through sound transmission. As expected, Geom Mugeuk’s guess had been correct.
—Will this be of help?
—Yes. Enough to change the entire board.
—Then that is enough.
Now, not through sound transmission, but in a loud voice for everyone to hear, he pleaded with Baek Jagang.
“For my sake, please forgive her just this once.”
“A woman who says she will kill me?”
“Please endure it just this once, on account of my face.”
Baek Jagang seemed to ponder for a moment. Then he slowly released the hilt of his sword.
“I will consider the debt I owed you repaid with this.”
In truth, saying it like this was an even more certain way to make her indebted.
“Yes. Thank you for your magnanimity.”
Geom Mugeuk bowed his head and sent Baek Jagang a sound transmission.
—You are truly magnificent!
—More than your father?
—……
—Save the word magnificent for then.
After reminding him once again who his rival in his heart was, Baek Jagang strode away from the place. As if saying that it was now Geom Mugeuk’s matter, he did not spare Cha Iran or the assassins even a single glance.
Geom Mugeuk silently watched his back.
Today, for some reason, his black martial robes looked even more impressive. Cha Iran was an assassin who was trying to kill him. Yet Baek Jagang, who disliked leaving future troubles behind, had yielded this much.
‘I will be sure to repay this grace.’
Once Baek Jagang had completely left, the taut tension that had hung among the assassins loosened. Earlier, when they had been captured, they had thought they would die at the hands of the Extreme Evil Little Demon; this time, they had nearly died at the hands of the Alliance Leader of the Evil Dao.
When Cha Iran gave an order with her eyes, Ilgyo led the assassins and withdrew far away. Before retreating, they glanced at Geom Mugeuk.
It was not what Geom Mugeuk had intended, but thanks to the Alliance Leader of the Evil Dao, he had become the benefactor who saved their lives.
Cha Iran looked at Geom Mugeuk with incomprehension in her eyes.
“Why did you save me? If I died, everything would be neatly settled. Without even needing to stain your own hands with blood.”
Only then did Geom Mugeuk look at Cha Iran. She was standing there covered in dust.
“In the end, you ended up wearing the clothes I chose for you.”
At the shop, she had chosen clothes other than the ones Geom Mugeuk had picked out, and now that her clothes were ruined, he was joking that she would have to buy and wear the ones he had chosen after all.
Cha Iran’s eyes trembled slightly. Even knowing that she was trying to kill him, he could still do this much?
“Whew, all this dust.”
Geom Mugeuk waved his hand through the dust that had risen around them as their auras and killing intent collided.
“Let us walk a little.”
The ruined place was not suitable for conversation, so the two of them slowly moved their steps toward the rear garden. There was a small flower garden there.
“You must have been very tense. Sit for a bit.”
Geom Mugeuk sat first on a broad rock placed in front of the flower garden. Cha Iran sat beside him, side by side.
For a while, the two of them looked at the flowers. As if the urgency from moments ago had been nothing at all, the flowers swayed in the wind, indifferent to the affairs of the world.
“By the way, there is someone I want to ask about.”
“Who?”
“A man with makeup on his face appeared before the Lord of Cheonhwa Pavilion.”
For an instant, Cha Iran’s expression stiffened slightly. She had not known that fact either.
“He came and told him that if the Alliance Leader of the Evil Dao was not killed, murim would be destroyed.”
Hwa Domyeong had done that, yet when he had met her, he had not said such a thing. He was clearly hiding some scheme.
She had not told Baek Jagang, but she told Geom Mugeuk about him. Though he demeaned himself as a mere spectator every time.
“He is an important person in the organization.”
Because of that, one more sentence was added.
“It would be better not to touch him.”
Geom Mugeuk glanced at her and said,
“Then does it seem safe to touch me?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s abyss-deep gaze, Cha Iran could say nothing.
But soon, Geom Mugeuk smiled as if it had been a joke and said,
“A joke, a joke. I will take your advice to heart. I should avoid frightening fellows ahead of time. I am not the sort of person who pokes around in grass where a snake is hiding with a stick. I also dislike people who stir things up for no reason and cause trouble.”
Cha Iran asked again.
“You still have not answered. Why did you save me?”
“I told you, didn’t I? I like impressive people.”
Cha Iran snorted. She had already guessed the reason.
“Because if I am alive, the chances that I can make that person leave become greater.”
As if she thought this was her chance, Cha Iran spoke her honest feelings.
“It does not feel good. It makes me feel as though I am just a tool or a sacrifice for that person.”
Then unexpected words flowed from Geom Mugeuk.
“Are you not living as a tool and a sacrifice right now?”
“!”
Cha Iran’s expression stiffened slightly, struck where it hurt. Geom Mugeuk paid no mind to her reaction and continued what he had been about to say.
“If you have to be one anyway, would it not be better to be a tool and a sacrifice for someone you like?”
“What do you know about me?”
“I know enough. You have bad drinking habits. And you do not even know what clothes suit you.”
In the end, Cha Iran laughed. In all the world, only this Young Cult Leader could make a person laugh while saying such unpleasant words as tool and sacrifice.
“And you cherish your subordinates tremendously.”
“Why do you think I cherish my subordinates?”
There was a definite reason he thought so.
“Because I heard your subordinates do not take their own lives even if they fail in an assassination and are captured.”
She truly thought the Young Cult Leader was clever. This opponent really missed nothing.
And beyond that,
“Does that principle of not taking one’s own life apply even if you fail?”
He stabbed at a point she had not expected at all.
“And if it does?”
“Let us make a promise.”
The promise Geom Mugeuk was about to propose was truly something she had never imagined.
“If I stop your assassination, accept my commission.”
“!”
It was a request for her to leave them and join hands with him. It was different from the proposal to help make him leave together. Because it was saying he would give her a chance even after she failed her assassination.
Like this, Geom Mugeuk came one step closer to her.
“Are you saying you will spare the person who tried to kill you just now?”
“I am.”
“Are you an idiot? Or do you think I am enough of an idiot to believe that?”
But she could feel it. Geom Mugeuk was saying it sincerely.
That Geom Mugeuk really seemed as if, if she failed in her assassination, he would smile brightly and say this to her:
Now then, as promised, let us join hands!
Without any lingering resentment at all.
“What if I succeed in the assassination?”
Geom Mugeuk lifted his head and looked up at the sky.
The clouds continued as if about to scatter, slowly moving wherever the wind led them.
As if this, too, was sincere, Geom Mugeuk answered calmly.
“I will go to hell first and wait for you.”