Chapter 138: Long time no see, brother-in-law. (2)
Nangong Tianjun, who had been scattering thunder qi around the inn, quickly reined in his energy and approached this way.
If he could conceal his energy that easily, then scattering it like that upon entering must have been intentional.
'Seems he enjoys the attention.'
I had no intention of viewing that negatively.
It wasn't like there were only one or two guys like that. Let alone from the Nangong Family.
[He's exactly the same as when I first saw that kid.]
'Are you speaking of Lei Tian Yi Jian?'
[Yeah, that bastard also used to pull that kind of dog-shit act when he was young, so I folded him in half...]
'...In half?'
Why does this old man say such murderous words as if reminiscing fondly?
And if Lei Tian Yi Jian was like that too, I suspected that the insufferable personality was actually a trait of the Nangong Family.
In that moment, I glanced slightly at Murong Xian, and sure enough, her gaze was also directed toward Nangong Tianjun.
This wasn't surprising.
In the previous life, the two were engaged.
[What, so you're saying you mixed bodies with a woman who already had a man? This is complete tras...]
'There was no such sordid situation... And why does every conversation go in that direction with you?'
It seemed like he'd only been interested in the body-mixing part since earlier—was that a misconception?
To be precise, Murong Xian at that time had not been engaged.
The engagement between the two proceeded after escaping the Demon Realm.
Even if Murong Xian had memories of the Demon Realm, would she have gotten engaged?
'She probably would have.'
She was that kind of woman.
Someone for whom manufacturing emotions that don't exist was a trivial matter, when necessary.
—What are you talking about? Not acting but manufacturing?
—...Even if you die, a fool like you would never understand. Do you have rocks in your head instead of a brain?
—You crazy bitch... I talked to you first, so why are you picking a fight? Wanna die?
—Even after crawling on the ground last time, the fire in your mouth just won't die. During the duel, it went out like a candle flame, though.
—Hey, you fucking...!
—Wow, crazy, they're fighting again! Hey! Stop them!
—Let go of me! This time I'm really going to burn that crazy bitch!
—Where's Sogeomhu! Hurry and stop them!
'...'
My head throbs whenever I think of the past.
Why did we really act like that.
They were amusing memories. They were also embarrassing memories.
But for now, they were memories only I possessed.
For a very long time.
No one among the survivors remembers the events of the Demon Realm.
Except for me.
What happened there.
What they experienced for years, and what they had to endure.
How far their relationships progressed, and whether they shed tears for someone.
No one remembers.
That was the nature of the contract.
"Sister."
"...Hello."
Nangong Tianjun spoke to Nangong Bi'a as soon as he came over.
Nangong Bi'a merely waved her hand slightly in greeting as usual.
But because of that, the surrounding commotion grew even louder.
"Miss, didn't the Thunder Dragon just call you sister just now?"
"Then that woman is also of the Nangong Family's blood... oh my..."
"Why are you being like that?"
Thanks to that, attention gathered toward us. Ah, this wasn't a very good situation.
'...The disguise I'd carefully maintained has gone to waste.'
A sigh escaped me involuntarily.
It wasn't like I had put up some grand disguise.
Trying to do something like that at my level would actually draw more attention.
What I had set up around us was a form of concealment technique that used my qi to appropriately reduce our presence.
I just wanted to draw less attention.
With appearances that already attracted a lot of attention from all directions, I had to at least do this much.
'This is meaningless now.'
Once attention is drawn, it becomes useless.
As if to prove it, I could feel gazes from all directions.
Most of them skimmed the surroundings rather than being directed at me.
The vile desires contained in those lecherous gazes were this clear.
It was natural since most of them were greenhorns who didn't know how to conceal their gazes.
I couldn't fault them for this either.
If it were me, I wouldn't have been any different.
Nangong Bi'a pressed her body slightly closer to mine.
Dang Xiaolie and Murong Xian seemed familiar with it, but Wei Xue'a and Nangong Bi'a probably weren't.
I drew up internal qi from my dantian.
I didn't want to stand out yet, but I didn't want to just watch this either.
Hwuuk-!
Pressure composed of internal qi scattered around the inn.
Those who had been making noise cleared their throats and turned their gazes away.
They had recognized that this was a clear warning.
Though the slight heat mixed in added power to that energy.
The problem was that this wasn't something I had done.
I looked at Gu Jiuye, who sat in front of me, with slightly widened eyes.
As if noticing my gaze, Gu Jiuye moved his lips before speaking.
"...Was this also something that would cause a problem?"
The internal qi just now was something Gu Jiuye had done.
Judging by the intensity of the pressure, he must have used considerable internal qi.
I answered Gu Jiuye, who seemed to be gauging my reaction.
"No, you did well."
If it hadn't been Gu Jiuye, it would have been something I did.
Hearing unexpected praise, Gu Jiuye awkwardly averted his gaze.
[Even after being cursed at like that, he doesn't bend his convictions.]
Like Shin Noya's words, I did feel somewhat differently about Gu Jiuye.
'So he's not someone to view entirely negatively.'
I felt the need to look a bit deeper beneath the shadow of the First Elder.
"You were here as well, Young Lady Dang."
"Hello..."
"You seem to have grown even prettier, it's good to see."
Nangong Tianjun said with a smile. With a face that anyone could see was handsome, it should have been pleasant to hear.
Dang Xiaolie's lips were trembling slightly.
She was trying somehow to maintain her expression.
"Thank... you."
Though she couldn't hide her trembling voice.
To others, it would look like she was enchanted by Nangong Tianjun's face.
"And this person is..."
"I am Gu Jiuye."
Gu Jiuye stood up abruptly and greeted Nangong Tianjun.
Nangong Tianjun seemed to hesitate briefly upon hearing Gu Jiuye's surname, but quickly managed his expression.
"Nice to meet you."
Whether it was because meeting the Thunder Dragon was exciting, Gu Jiuye looked somewhat animated.
'Look at that guy.'
From the perspective of an ordinary late-stage candidate, I could feel how tremendous the fame brought by the Five Dragons Three Phoenixes was.
But I wondered if Gu Jiuye could maintain that reaction even knowing Nangong Tianjun's personality.
Eventually, Nangong Tianjun's gaze reached me.
The bastard was still smiling.
"It's been a while."
While Nangong Tianjun spoke to me, my eyes were on Murong Xian.
He asked Gu Jiuye but skipped over Murong Xian.
To say it was just a difference in order, there was clearly an intention to seek me out last.
'Is he intentionally ignoring Murong Xian?'
Murong Xian also didn't seem offended so much as familiar with it.
This should be a time before they were engaged. Did they have a prior connection?
Well, it didn't seem like interactions between the Four Great Families were infrequent.
Considering Nangong Bi'a had lived practically in hiding, that was the stranger thing.
"...I heard you got engaged. Congratulations."
Setting those questions aside, Nangong Tianjun said to me.
Congratulation without any sincerity.
As proof, I could see Nangong Tianjun's lips trembling ever so slightly.
That was a relief. It seemed the bastard's true nature remained unchanged.
Then was he trying to get along now?
'No way.'
It was a story I couldn't believe at all.
I, too, looked at Nangong Tianjun as if returning his smile and spoke.
"Yeah."
Perhaps because my response was so brief, Nangong Tianjun's eyebrows furrowed slightly.
But what could I do, I had no intention of stopping here.
"Long time no see, brother-in-law."
At my smiling words, Nangong Tianjun's mask slipped off slightly for a moment.
"Ah, no, I should say sister-in-law."
With the follow-up delivered with a smile, Nangong Tianjun's face finally contorted. It was a remark that reminded him of the dirty trick I'd pulled on his crotch last time.
But he quickly restored his expression again.
This was quite unexpected.
In the past, he would have done something about it.
Nangong Tianjun merely contained a smile instead.
"That's right. We are going to be family now, after all."
'What's with this guy?'
He seemed to be enduring doggedly, but I couldn't understand why he was enduring it.
For my part, I was glad since it was better if unnecessary problems didn't arise...
Did Nangong Jin say something? Then the timing didn't match. Nangong Tianjun wouldn't have been there when Nangong Jin returned to the family.
"Let's get along well, forgetting the past."
They were very fine words, but would it really be as easy as saying them?
Even I wasn't doing it properly.
It wasn't that I was ignoring Nangong Tianjun... No, I was ignoring him, actually.
But the gaze felt through his smiling eyes showed that Nangong Tianjun hadn't changed.
I was hoping Nangong Tianjun would endure and hold on, suppressing those vile emotions.
'I don't think I can overlook it a second time, Tianjun.'
So please, endure it well here.
Mealtime ended quickly after that.
By the time Murong Xian requested to join the table, they had nearly finished eating.
I wondered if Nangong Tianjun might join them.
Surprisingly, he merely glanced at Nangong Bi'a once before heading up to his room.
After that, Murong Xian also showed proper etiquette before following Nangong Tianjun out.
...
'So her target was Nangong Tianjun after all.'
I was curious about Murong Xian's intentions.
Considering I thought her purpose was Nangong Tianjun, the fact that she didn't show much reaction was somewhat ambiguous.
To put it more precisely, I should say she didn't seem like she wanted to.
It could be my misconception.
She was much younger than when I first faced Murong Xian.
The Murong Xian of that time was a woman who seemed incapable of shedding a single drop of blood, but now she could be a rougher figure.
Even this I couldn't be certain of.
Because I'd suffered so much at the hands of that terrifying woman.
Making someone cry with a mere flick was trivial.
Despite having a cynical voice and way of speaking, she was better than anyone at creating the wistfulness of a woman scorned.
If there was one problem, it would be because of that one constitution of hers.
Meridian Blockage Syndrome.
It would become a major cause of Murong Xian's death in the future.
I didn't know exactly what illness she had.
'She did say from her own mouth it wasn't the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians.'
The Nine Yin Blocked Meridians was the most representative form of Meridian Blockage Syndrome.
It was an incurable disease of the past where yin qi was too dense, preventing proper circulation of internal qi.
Nowadays, it could be resolved using medicinal ingredients with yang qi, such as the beak of the Yan Xi Zhao among the high-grade demonic beasts.
Of course, the value was considerable, but the Murong Family wasn't some small local family, and there was no way they lacked that much money.
So it must be a different problem.
[That's unexpected.]
As I was recalling various things, Noya spoke to me.
"What do you mean?"
[Judging from how you speak, it seems your relationship was a mess, yet you're paying this much attention. Did you unknowingly develop some affection?]
"...That's unlikely."
It was true that our relationship was a mess, as Noya said. So bad I wondered if it could have been worse.
It was probably because a small debt remained.
—I needed your flames. Though looking back now, it was meaningless.
Murong Xian, who spoke bitterly that night, was not lying.
—This is what you'd call a sacrifice. Even if... it is a sacrifice. You don't have to bear it alone!
The sight of her shouting at me in the final moment probably wasn't a lie either.
However, whether she kept this in her heart and lived, that was also not the case.
There were so many things after surviving the Demon Realm that I lived forgetting about it, which was also a reason.
"There's nothing to help with or not."
For me, just protecting those beside me was overwhelming.
It would be good if Murong Xian came as an ally, but that wasn't the purpose of this schedule in the first place.
Distinguishing between enemies and allies was also still premature.
'Seeing her face for no reason just made me think too much.'
I brushed myself off and stood up.
There was no point in worrying about it now.
First, I would do what I needed to do.
"Shall we go train?"
I said to Muyeon, who was waiting outside the door.
Muyeon had a surprised expression as if he hadn't expected me to appear.
Seeing that, I continued speaking as if dumbfounded.
"Hey, I told you that you don't need to stand guard outside the door."
"...Young Master, guarding is originally..."
"Stop if you're going to give a long speech. Look around—who else places a guard at their door?"
As if proving my words, there were no rooms with guards at their doors nearby.
This was the unique pride of late-stage candidates.
It was a way of showing that they weren't weak enough to need guards.
In my view, it was a truly pointless battle of ego.
For me, it was convenient since it gave me an excuse to shake Muyeon off a bit.
"If you're going to nag, then at least come train with me."
"...Understood."
In the end, Muyeon said nothing more and followed me, matching his steps.
Since Bacheon Maru was lodging for the late-stage candidates, there was a training ground prepared in the back.
With more than one or two gazes on us, I couldn't use martial arts, but physical training should be fine.
When things felt slightly complicated, moving the body was surely the fastest method.
I was about to head to the training ground with Muyeon when I also brought along Gu Jiuye, who was likely rolling around idly in his room.
"Why me...?"
Gu Jiuye asked me, looking flustered.
"It's good to train together, isn't it?"
In truth, I just didn't like the sparkling look in his eyes when he saw Nangong Tianjun earlier, so I wanted to roll him around.
Since Gu Jiuye was fairly serious about training and I'd never seen him rest, he followed without complaint.
Around the time we were reaching the training ground.
"Ah, Young Master."
"Yeah?"
"There's some news I heard earlier..."
"Young Master Guuuu!"
Just as Muyeon was about to say something, a voice loud enough to shake the surroundings rang out.
Is that possibly calling me?
Just in case, I also asked Gu Jiuye.
Since there were two people with the surname Gu, I asked just in case, but Gu Jiuye also had a face that didn't understand what was going on.
"Then who..."
Wondering what it was, I turned around, and someone was already standing before my eyes.
Without even giving Muyeon time to draw his sword.
So fast that there was no time for me to react.
"Hey! I missed you so much, it really has been a while."
The young man made a bright face, grabbed my shoulders, and shook me wildly.
It was too violent for someone saying they were glad to see me.
"Ah, wait..."
It felt familiar.
This insane atmosphere, that is. It wasn't very difficult to figure out who it was.
Why was this person here? He should have already been removed from late-stage candidate treatment.
The young man I faced after several months still had his somewhat slender physique that didn't match his surname.
His black uniform and the ring on his finger represented his origin.
The former Divine Dragon. The future Blade Emperor.
And the current young master of the Pang Family.
"Young Master Pang... First, let go... Ah, I said stop shaking!"
It was Pang Woojin.