Dragon and Phoenix Assembly. (1)
"Damn it, really."
I brushed off the thread stuck to the ring and thought.
What should I do with this.
Is this the price of carelessness.
I was paying dearly for underestimating Elder Yi.
For such a large guy, he used a far more cunning method to use me.
It was an unimaginable twist.
"No, think about it. What if this isn't a spiritual artifact?"
What kind of spiritual artifact would be this rusted and lying around in such an unseemly state.
The Hwasan spiritual artifact I touched last time had terrible treatment, sure, but it still clearly looked the part of a spiritual artifact.
The faint but rich aura of plum blossoms was proof of that.
"But this is just an antique."
A ring so rusted that its original color was impossible to determine.
Let alone the central portion where a gemstone should have been—it was empty, far from its original form.
Could this simply be Elder Yi's mistake?
He meant to put in silver coins but accidentally put this in instead. That must be it.
[Isn't it that you want to believe that?]
"Looking at it objectively, does this look like a spiritual artifact to you, Old One?"
A junk ring with no fragrance, no aura whatsoever.
It looked like it would crumble with just a little force—there was no way this was a spiritual artifact.
It shouldn't be.
[Wouldn't it be better to show it to the Alliance Leader first?]
"I'm considering that too."
Going to the Alliance Leader right now and asking directly, "Is this really a spiritual artifact?" could be one approach, but.
'I need to go to the banquet first.'
There was no time to cry out about being tricked while looking at the floor.
Already quite some time had passed since the banquet was scheduled to begin.
First, I put the ring back in my coin pouch, hid it deep within my robes, and hurried my steps.
Fortunately, the guide outside told me I wasn't late yet, and I was guided to open the doors of the banquet hall.
The inside of the banquet hall was filled with bustling noise.
It was already packed with warriors of similar age.
Some who looked slightly past their prime stood out, but most were filled with figures who had just passed twenty.
So if I were to calculate, I'd be in the last generation of the late-period warriors.
It's a subtle thing to recall that not people like these, but the last generation made their names known during the Blood Calamity.
The seats ranged from figures whose families were roughly identifiable to those whose identities were unknown.
As I walked past the large banquet hall, I could see figures from famous noble families.
This was intentional seating arrangement.
From the Baekcheon Pavilion lodgings to the waiting room, and then to the banquet seats.
Visible, clear discriminatory treatment.
It was filled with the psychology of 'climb up with your own hands if you don't want to experience discrimination.'
'Either be born as a high-born bloodline, or elevate yourself.'
How ironic.
They themselves know better than anyone that surpassing those born into noble families from the start is nearly impossible.
'Where is it.'
The seat I was assigned was the very front row.
This too must be the influence of the recommendation letter.
As I walked while looking around little by little, I spotted Gu Jeol-yeop's seat.
Gu Jeol-yeop also noticed me, our eyes meeting.
'SHe didn't get the same seat as me.'
He was seated somewhat higher up, but not in the front row.
It was a position where one could see the gazes directed at the Gu Family.
'Normally, since we're somewhat companions, they could have seated us together.'
It felt like they deliberately separated Gu Jeol-yeop and me.
The slight problem was.
"So you were the Gu Family's brat."
Hwangbo Cheol-wi, who had picked a fight with me last time, happened to be sitting at Gu Jeol-yeop's seat.
Not only Hwangbo Cheol-wi's growling expression, but Gu Jeol-yeop also had a slightly 'we're screwed' expression with furrowed brows, so it didn't seem like a very good atmosphere.
'Just endure until the speech ends.'
Even if I assume Hwangbo Cheol-wi has an ignorant and stupid temperament, the Alliance Leader would appear soon to start his speech.
Once that ended, everyone would move around to enjoy the banquet, so it would be somewhat better.
I withdrew my gaze and moved again.
As I passed a certain point, I could feel the atmosphere change somewhat.
The prestigious families, bloodlines of famous houses, or the children of merchant guilds that paid enormous sponsorship fees to the Martial Alliance every year.
The front row where the bloodlines of those who were the pillars supporting the current Martial Alliance gathered felt different from the start.
The place I was heading to was the very front among them.
I spotted Wi Seol-ah and Namgung Bi-ah from a distance.
Those two had apparently already spotted me and were sending me looks.
I suppressed the corners of my mouth that wanted to rise on their own and quickened my steps.
As I got closer, I could also see Mo Yong-hui-a and Dang So-yeol.
Walking like that, I stopped breathing when I saw the person conversing with Dang So-yeol.
I could see a boy having a conversation with a smiling face in the distance.
For a moment, I fell under the illusion that my surroundings had gone quiet.
Starting from my stopped toes, through my dantian, up my back, a hot breath surged up.
When I exhaled the breath I'd been holding, heat came mixed in.
Reason tried to calm my qi that was somehow running wild, but seeing the bastard before my eyes, reason was gradually being consumed by the heat.
'Meteor Sword.'
In the past, Wi Seol-ah's fiancé.
The man who was a traitor to the Alliance.
And.
The younger form of the man I wanted to kill most was right there.
How could I endure this?
When that disgusting gaze and touch were visible before my eyes.
- Don't keep forgetting your role. Don't forget where you belong.
I remember him saying that with a smile similar to now.
- You crawl on the floor, and hand the dazzling world over to her? What a noble hero we have. You're still just a demonic cultivator, aren't you.
- Don't delude yourself. Nothing is yours—not her, not the world, not even time.
- Nor is it the Heavenly Demon's.
Flames flicker up my back. This is a different life from back then.
I tried harder than anyone to acknowledge this.
Yet I realized once again. That even so, there was nothing I could forget.
- Everything is mine. Because I decided it would be so.
The last words the bastard said to me when we faced each other right before the Heavenly Demon and the Divine Sword clashed.
It's still vivid.
The look in his eyes back then.
His burning desire.
Myself who couldn't do anything while feeling all of it.
All of this was still vivid.
One step.
I took just one step toward him.
I myself didn't even know what I was trying to do to him.
At that moment.
"What are you doing?"
Tap—!
The heat that had surged up instantly subsided at someone's grip on my wrist.
I immediately looked at the person who grabbed me.
Short hair cut to the shoulders caught my eye first.
And I met the same black eyes.
The girl who met my gaze flinched.
Then the girl. Peng A-hui asked me.
"You. What were you trying to do just now?"
"...I wasn't doing anything."
"Fix your eyes and say that again. Do you know what kind of eyes you had just now?"
What were my eyes like. Seeing there was a hint of fear in Peng A-hui's expression, they definitely couldn't have been good.
Killing intent didn't leak out.
Fortunately, it seemed I managed to control that much.
"Do you know him?"
Peng A-hui asks.
She's asking about Jang Seon-yeon at the end of my gaze.
I calmed all the remaining heat and shook my head.
"No, I don't know him."
"You approach someone you don't know with those eyes?"
"He looked like someone I hate, so without realizing it—"
"With that as an excuse...? Your personality is still terrible."
Seeing Peng A-hui frowning as if in disgust, I felt my senses returning somewhat.
Peng A-hui looks at me like that and speaks.
"It's been a while. Instead of greeting me, you're trying to cause trouble right away. Should I say that's very you."
"It's been a while."
"Lying down while receiving Buddhist prayers, huh. Never mind."
The Peng U-jin I met last time had said Peng A-hui would come too. I ran right into her here.
"I met Young Master Peng last time."
"I figured you'd go looking for him since I heard about you from the family until my ears were stuffed... But don't talk about that damn guy. I'm already annoyed as it is."
Peng A-hui, shivering as if sick of it, seemed to still be exhausted from managing Peng U-jin.
I recognized the cold sweat soaking my back and calmed myself.
'That was dangerous.'
Whatever that action was just now, I almost did something without thinking.
'Old One.'
I caught my breath and called out to Old One, but there was no answer.
I bit my lip slightly. I had a feeling this would happen.
Last time at Hwasan too, whenever my emotions spiraled out of control, my connection with Old One had been severed.
After eating the flower I brought from Hwasan, there hadn't been such runaway incidents.
'Is it the effect of the demonic qi dropping?'
I understood that I needed to consume demonic qi to calm the colliding energies in my body.
But could this also affect my emotions?
Even though it seemed like I could hold out for a few months, I felt like the cycle had shortened.
"Where's your seat?"
At Peng A-hui's question, I gestured with my eyes.
Peng A-hui also looked toward where her companions gathered and made a slightly surprised expression.
"No wonder everyone around you is a woman."
"It's a coincidence..."
"Right, you don't exactly have a face that would make women flock to you wherever you go."
"Why are you picking a fight when we haven't seen each other in a while?"
"Must be nice, walking into a flower garden alone. They were already getting attention from all the other bloodlines at once."
Looking around at Peng A-hui's words, it was certainly true. With not just one but several people with appearance that would draw attention wherever they went gathered together.
"Your seat is."
Peng A-hui answered with a hand gesture instead.
Indeed, Peng A-hui's seat was also in the very front row.
"You're late, so go sit down for now. We'll talk later."
At Peng A-hui's words, I had to make a strange expression. Talk later again.
She seemed to have read my expression, as Peng A-hui chuckled.
"I heard you got engaged, but that doesn't mean we need to be awkward with each other, right?"
The broken engagement was from when we were younger than we are now. And we ended things on good terms just a few months ago.
Not to mention we were never in love.
Since the remaining bad feelings had been brushed off, should I say it was rather comfortable?
It was a remark hard to understand with simple thinking.
"And I said it last time too, but I'm the older one. Don't speak casually."
Peng A-hui, having cracked one joke, walked toward her seat.
The Alliance Leader would be coming soon, so I also needed to sit in my seat first.
'Thanks to her, I did calm down.'
As I looked at Peng A-hui's back, my gaze naturally shifted back to him.
The emotions that had boiled up in an instant were easily cooled by such a trivial thing.
The anger, resentment, contempt, and killing intent remained. But it wasn't enough to shake my mind like before.
I could maintain my reason. Though meeting Peng A-hui might have had some influence, it probably wouldn't be exactly like that.
I walked while managing my expression in case any cracks showed.
'I'm worried about Old One.'
He might be absent for a long time like last time.
It wouldn't be strange if he disappeared at any time.
As I approached where my companions gathered, Dang So-yeol also spotted me.
Dang So-yeol's cold, stiff expression quickly softened and returned to her usual bright one.
"Young Master Gu...!"
"I'm sorry. I'm late."
"Y-you worried me."
As I approached, naturally Jang Seon-yeon's gaze also turned toward me.
I spoke to Jang Seon-yeon first.
"Who might you be."
I barely managed to suppress the voice that tried to burst out roughly, but I couldn't manage a smile.
In contrast, Jang Seon-yeon beamed at my words.
"I am Jang Seon-yeon of the Tae-ryeong Jang Family."
"The Tae-ryeong Jang Family..."
At Jang Seon-yeon's introduction, Dang So-yeol and Mo Yong-hui-a's gazes changed.
Of course. That place was the family of the current Martial Alliance Leader, Jang Cheon.
'Why of all times.'
I bit my lip slightly.
Now I understood why the lodgings and the late-period warriors had received more attention than usual from the Alliance.
This was the day Jang Seon-yeon first showed his face as a late-period warrior.
The starting point where he would display his absurd talent and immediately begin making a name for himself.
"Yes, it seemed like there was talk about my father just now... I couldn't help but join in the young ladies' conversation."
At Jang Seon-yeon's embarrassed smile, Dang So-yeol clamped her mouth shut.
It seemed they had been talking about the Alliance Leader.
I glanced over at Wi Seol-ah.
Fortunately, Wi Seol-ah was just inconspicuously yawning, and there didn't seem to be any exchange between her and Jang Seon-yeon.
"Please take care of me. This is my first time in such a setting, so I'm a bit shy."
Saying that, Jang Seon-yeon extended his hand to me.
I quietly looked at that hand, then slowly grasped it.
Squeeze.
"...!"
The pressure entering our clasped hands. Jang Seon-yeon made a surprised expression and looked at me.
"Yes. Please take care of me."
The killing intent that threatened to burst at any moment, I pushed to one corner.
The hatred, below the dantian.
I killed the rough voice, and put reason into the burning gaze.
"I am Gu Yang-cheon of the Shanxi Gu Family."
When I faced a martial artist called a Narsha at Hwasan, he had said something.
- At the very least, I should let you know the name of the person who'll kill you.
Why, I wonder.
That conversation from back then suddenly came to mind.
I looked at Jang Seon-yeon and forced the corners of my mouth up.
"Oh. My."
I ignored Dang So-yeol's strange reaction to that.
And, perhaps because I was suppressing all these various emotions while facing him, I failed to notice.
The cold gaze Wi Seol-ah in the back was directing at Jang Seon-yeon.