You ask whether I could handle you?
Cha I-ran silently gazed at Geom Mugeuk.
He was a man who said that a life spent fishing with his father was harder than unifying the murim.
He was a man who would arrange such a place for a subordinate—one who was not even his own, but a mere assassin.
He was a man who ran far off to buy wine, hoping the two of them would elope in the night.
He was a man who reached out his hand to someone who had tried to kill him. And that man’s identity was the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
In all her life as a martial artist, she had never seen anyone like him. How could she possibly handle him?
“You don’t need an assassin corps, do you?”
She thought that if this Young Cult Leader before her truly wanted such a life, then he would not like assassins.
Geom Mugeuk readily admitted her guess.
“That’s right. I don’t need an assassin corps. I need you.”
“Why me? You must have countless experts who can carry out your orders.”
“To be honest, at first I was concerned because I liked Ak Gunhak. Then I admired your courage in boldly abandoning the commission. And now you’ve saved my life.”
In truth, that alone was reason enough, without needing any further explanation. But there was more.
“You’re beautiful enough to contend for the title of the greatest beauty under heaven, and your martial arts are excellent as well. And more than anything, there is one reason I like you.”
Cha I-ran wondered what it was. It felt as though everything had already been said. No, so much had been said that it was almost embarrassing.
The decisive reason Geom Mugeuk gave was something she had never imagined.
“Because you are a leader who says that if someone has enough strength to bite down on a poison pill, then they should clench their molars and struggle to live until the very end.”
“!”
“I want someone like that as one of my people.”
Cha I-ran could now understand clearly why Ak Gunhak had not killed this man.
No, she even began to think that perhaps, as Ak Gunhak had said, this man had been the one who had not killed him.
Of course, that did not mean she could accept the proposal on the spot.
“Would someone like me truly be necessary in that ordinary life you seek?”
“Did I not say earlier? That life feels harder to me than unifying the murim.”
Even after eliminating all the forces behind the scenes, that would not be the end.
His promise with his father.
If he could not persuade his father, war would break out. Geom Mugeuk still believed preventing that would be more difficult than eliminating the people behind it all.
“I’m not trying to deny the life you’ve lived as an assassin. If you walk with me and come to think that this is not your path, then I will truly let you go.”
It was an offer he made because he needed her, but it was also for her sake. Since their fates had already become entwined, he hoped she would try living a life that was not that of an assassin.
In his life before regression, she had lived her entire life as a nameless assassin. If she was someone who could silently endure such a life, he believed she could live another life just as well.
“If your subordinates weigh on your mind, then give them the choice.”
He meant that those who had no desire to devote themselves to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult should be set free.
“Give me time to think.”
“Take your time. In any case, for now, we must return to the main cult together.”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned again toward the pavilion on the lake.
Sipchilgyo and the Crescent Moon Mumyeongaek were still there. He had thought they would soon end things because it would be awkward, but whatever the two were talking about, they remained there still.
When Geom Mugeuk used the Divine Eye Art to look, he saw Sipchilgyo laughing. What on earth could that blunt Mumyeongaek have said to make an assassin laugh?
“Ah! I’m dying of curiosity. I need to hear what those two are saying! Are you sure there’s no secret assassin technique for eavesdropping from far away?”
* * *
That night, lost in all sorts of thoughts, Cha I-ran could not fall asleep.
In the end, she left her quarters to get some fresh air.
She was not the only one who could not sleep late into the night.
In the courtyard of the inner compound, Ian was looking up at the night sky.
When Cha I-ran walked toward her, Ian greeted her first.
“You haven’t gone to sleep yet?”
Ian’s gaze toward Cha I-ran was infinitely gentle. There was good reason for it.
“I didn’t know earlier. That Miss Cha had risked danger for the Young Cult Leader’s sake.”
Ian bowed respectfully to Cha I-ran.
“Thank you so much for saving the Young Cult Leader.”
At that deeply courteous greeting, Cha I-ran could tell. This woman truly cared for the Young Cult Leader.
Young Cult Leader, you are greedy indeed. To have someone like this and still try to take me in as a subordinate.
“I did it for myself as well, so there’s no need to mind it so much.”
Even so, Ian’s eyes were full of gratitude, so Cha I-ran looked up at the sky and changed the subject.
“What were you looking at so intently?”
“No matter how busy you are, look up at the sky once a day! That is something the Young Cult Leader always says. I forget it every day, so there are many nights like this when I end up looking at the stars late.”
After staring at the stars like that for a while, Cha I-ran suddenly asked.
“What sort of person is the Young Cult Leader?”
Perhaps because the question was sudden, Ian could not answer easily.
“I asked too abruptly, didn’t I? If you don’t want to say, you don’t have to.”
That was not why Ian had not answered.
“No. It’s not that I don’t want to answer. It’s just that he’s someone difficult to define in a single phrase.”
Cha I-ran understood Ian’s words. Yes, Geom Mugeuk was not someone who could be explained easily simply because one had known him for a long time.
“The Young Cult Leader made me an offer. He said he wanted to take me as his subordinate.”
Ian nodded with an expression that said she had expected it.
“Did the Young Cult Leader perhaps tell Miss Ian?”
“No.”
“And yet you’re not surprised.”
“Because I think I would have done the same if I were the Young Cult Leader.”
After looking at Ian for a moment, Cha I-ran said,
“You’ve learned something bad from the Young Cult Leader. Saying the things the other person wants to hear.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
Ian stared directly at her and said,
“It means you’re making an effort, doesn’t it? At the very least, it means you thought in advance about what the other person might want to hear. If those words cause harm to the other person, then it would be bad. But becoming the Young Cult Leader’s subordinate—I don’t think that is a bad thing.”
Cha I-ran felt a slightly different impression from Ian than what she had seen until now. When Ian spoke of matters related to the Young Cult Leader, light shone in her eyes.
“Are you perhaps afraid of your past life changing?”
At Ian’s question, Cha I-ran gave no answer. Yes, if she was hesitating, that would be the greatest reason.
After living the life of an assassin, she was now to become the blade of the Young Cult Leader of the Demon Cult? The words that she would readily do so did not come easily. No matter how special Geom Mugeuk felt.
“I lived my whole life as the Young Cult Leader’s guard. It was work I loved, and I had never even thought of any other life.”
Whether she had resolved herself today or not, Ian spoke far more than usual. At first, it was because if Geom Mugeuk wanted her, she wanted to help him even in this way.
But as the conversation continued, her sincerity came out before she knew it.
“But the Young Cult Leader changed that life for me. Now I am not the Young Cult Leader’s guard, but the captain of the Ghost Shadow Unit. Do you know what I felt through that process?”
“What did you feel?”
Ian’s gaze, turned once more toward the stars in the night sky, deepened.
“A life spent doing what you love is, rather than enjoyable, truly arduous.”
That was precisely what she had felt after quitting her duties as a guard and becoming captain of the Ghost Shadow Unit.
“Because it’s something you love, you want to do it well. And because you want to do it well, you have to work truly hard. You have to grit your teeth and endure things you hate. I thought that if you did something you loved, it would always be enjoyable, but it is such a difficult thing. It is difficult because you love it.”
Ian’s gaze, which had been looking at the stars, turned to her.
“Do you know what I think these days when I open my eyes in the morning? Ah! I don’t have to protect anyone today. I only have to take good care of myself and live. You have no idea how much relief that thought gives me. It was an emotion I never knew at all when I was actually doing guard work. I also learned this time that there are some emotions you can only feel after you stop doing that work.”
Those words stood in contrast to the way she had so diligently protected the Lord of Cheonhwaru. But that effort, and the words she spoke now, were both sincere.
At Ian’s honest words, Cha I-ran thought inwardly. What would a life without commissions be like for her? Would she, too, feel that sort of relief like Ian?
“Try feeling what that state of mind is like at least once. Even if you end up living as an assassin again, I am certain it will help you, Miss Cha.”
Cha I-ran could feel that Ian sincerely wished for her to become Geom Mugeuk’s subordinate.
“Why are you saying all this to me? If I become the Young Cult Leader’s subordinate, there’s nothing advantageous in it for you, Miss Ian.”
“If you mean that the Young Cult Leader’s affection might be divided.”
Ian smiled and added,
“Then you still do not know the size of our Young Cult Leader’s heart. His heart would have room to spare even after holding the entire world.”
“Is it not Miss Ian’s heart that is great?”
“I am only pretending it is.”
Ian bowed her head in farewell, then walked away.
After walking some distance, Ian turned back and said,
“Oh, and don’t worry that you may become unable to leave. The Young Cult Leader is someone who somehow always tries to send the people around him away.”
At first, he had also told Ian to leave for the sake of her own happiness.
And Cha I-ran already knew that as well. He was someone who tried hard to let Ak Gunhak go.
All of Ian’s words today had ultimately been for the sake of saying this.
“So when he holds on to you, grip that hand tightly.”
* * *
The next morning, Sinhwa Hall was in the midst of preparations for departure.
Geom Mugeuk and his party were preparing to return to the cult.
Several carriages had been readied. Apart from the carriages for the leaders, the remaining carriages carried the wounded.
The uninjured Mumyeongaek and the assassins of the Gain Sect all rode horses and guarded the carriages. Every one of them wore bamboo hats and veils.
Before Geom Mugeuk departed, Bi Sain came to see him. It was to say farewell and to express his gratitude.
Thanks to that, the assassins of the Gain Sect were able to witness the rare sight of the heir to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the heir to the Evil Dao Alliance standing side by side, conversing.
Bi Sain expressed his thanks.
“I am grateful again this time.”
Had he not informed them in advance about this incident as well, there was no telling what might have happened to the leader of the Evil Dao Alliance.
“For this matter, I should be the one thanking you. Because the Alliance Leader entrusted me with this task, I gained a great deal.”
Bi Sain truly liked this honesty of Geom Mugeuk’s. Living in the murim, one came to realize it. People tried in every possible way to take credit, and in every possible way to make others indebted to them.
But Geom Mugeuk was different. There was no distortion in his debts and grudges.
“I still believe that the plot aimed at the Alliance Leader is ongoing. So you must pay close attention.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Bi Sain nodded. Until the full story of this incident was revealed, he intended to guard Baek Jagang together with the Thirteen Wolves of the Evil Dao.
“If Tongcheongak obtains any information related to the Alliance Leader, I will send it at once.”
“Thank you. We will respond in coordination as well.”
The two faced each other and exchanged reassuring looks. Seeing the mischief rising in Geom Mugeuk’s eyes, Bi Sain spoke first.
“Don’t do it. Just go!”
Of course, Geom Mugeuk was not someone who would simply go.
“You need to be this quick-witted to have a secret romance.”
After teasing Bi Sain to the very end, Geom Mugeuk climbed into the carriage. Sticking his head out of the carriage window, Geom Mugeuk called out loudly to everyone.
“Now then, let’s go home!”
* * *
The ceiling was high.
Large stone pillars supported the domed ceiling.
What was painted on the walls and ceiling were constellations. Countless stars had been drawn there as though the night sky itself had been moved inside, and among them, the stars that held special meaning in martial studies were depicted most prominently.
And in this place, there were two things Geom Mugeuk would have recognized at once had he come here.
First, in a corner of the space, there was a large secret chest. The very object Ak Gunhak had carried back had been stored here.
The second was the pattern painted on one wall of the space.
It was the very pattern Geom Mugeuk had seen beneath the Huanglong Martial Hall.
Six round circles surrounding the secret chest in the center.
From four of those circles, a faint light was emerging.
Black, blue, white, and yellow.
Astonishingly, those colors were the colors of the beads Geom Mugeuk had absorbed.
Before them sat a middle-aged woman. Filled with a calm yet sacred aura, she was the descendant of the Divine Maiden Palace and the current Palace Mistress of the Divine Maiden Palace, Jia Yi.
Before her was placed a large bowl, and it was filled with blood.
In the darkness before Jia Yi, an old man sat. The old man’s back was straight, and his two hands rested calmly before his dantian. Even in the darkness, his two eyes shone, and his black pupils were a darkness that pressed down upon darkness itself.
Just then, the secret chest painted on the mural behind Jia Yi seemed to glow.
Whoooosh.
The fifth circle began to shine red.
Jia Yi spoke in a calm voice.
“The energy of the Red Path has appeared in the world.”
Astonishingly, this mural was announcing that the energy inside the bead had emerged outside.
Then the old man in the darkness spoke in a low voice.
“Now the Young Cult Leader will absorb even the energy of the Red Path.”
His voice had a deep resonance, like the sound of an ancient bell.
“The Secret Blood Thread must have entered the Young Cult Leader’s body riding upon the energy of the Red Path.”
At Jia Yi’s words, the old man in the darkness nodded.
For this matter, they had used the Secret Blood Thread, which could only be used once in a generation. If this succeeded, their past failures and sacrifices could all be made up for.
How much time passed like that?
Sssssss.
The bowl of blood placed before Jia Yi began to turn black. Looking down at it, Jia Yi’s eyes widened in shock.
“The Secret Blood Thread has died.”
At her report, the old man’s eyes in the darkness shone intensely. Unable to withstand the energy shooting forth from him, Jia Yi closed her eyes and lowered her head.
“If the Secret Blood Thread has died, then this matter has failed as well.”
At the old man’s words, Jia Yi could only look down at the blackened water with trembling eyes. She still could not believe it.
At that moment, a low murmur of concern flowed from the old man in the darkness.
“In the end, must we awaken him?”
At that, Jia Yi prostrated herself before the old man.
“You must not. Without the Six Paths Primordial Qi, he cannot be controlled. If you release him as he is……”
Whatever else might be uncertain, Jia Yi was certain of this one thing, and so she added firmly.
“This murim will become a sea of blood.”