Episode 611 — Bioegun.
Right after I thought of a way to find Namgung Bia.
In my heart, I wanted to throw everything aside and rush out, but the information I could gather was too meager, so I had to endure for now.
Not that I would be able to endure for long.
I was already at my limit, after all.
When I left the Palace Lord’s quarters and stepped outside, Baekryeongeom was waiting for me.
“You’re here?”
My gaze toward Baekryeongeom was anything but kind.
How could it be kind?
I had just woken up and gone to see the Palace Lord because I was told to, only to suffer all sorts of terrible things.
Seeing my expression, Baekryeongeom gave an awkward smile.
“Looks like something happened.”
“Yes, I went through something truly shitty.”
On top of being subjected to an interrogation in all but name, I had suffered through all sorts of damnable things.
If only my body had been in better shape, I would have just stormed in and beaten the Palace Lord and everyone else black and blue.
I simply regretted that I couldn’t.
So I didn’t have very good feelings toward Baekryeongeom, who had guided me into this matter, either.
Quite apart from the fact that we were meeting after a long time.
The moment I saw her, I asked Baekryeongeom.
“Did you know?”
It was a loaded question.
Whether she had known that the meeting with the Palace Lord was intended as an interrogation.
And also.
“That bastard is from the North Sea. Did you know?”
That bastard Uhyeok was from the North Sea, and even from some Blue Wolf whatever clan.
Had Baekryeongeom truly known?
I asked her with that implication, and Baekryeongeom spoke to me with a bitter smile.
“I didn’t know what the Palace Lord’s intentions were in summoning you.”
“Do you know now?”
“If you explain, I’ll listen carefully….”
Perhaps she only knew that something unusual was afoot; Baekryeongeom’s expression was not good either.
Seeing that, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
“Forget it….”
I couldn’t press someone who didn’t know any further.
I could argue if I wanted to, but arguing now would just be taking out my anger on Baekryeongeom.
“Please answer from the next question.”
“…”
When I asked about Uhyeok, Baekryeongeom’s lips quivered.
“…If it’s about that child, I haven’t known for long.”
“So in the end, that means it’s true?”
“…”
Uhyeok really was from the North Sea.
Moreover.
“And he really instigated a rebellion, is that what you’re saying?”
“…Yes.”
At Baekryeongeom’s words, I gritted my teeth with a crunch.
‘That bastard, what the hell is he doing?’
When Namgung Bia said she was going to the North Sea, I hadn’t wanted to let her go.
But since Goeseon, Baekryeongeom, and that bastard Uhyeok were going, I had been somewhat relieved.
Uhyeok was a strange guy, but he wasn’t someone who would just commit any atrocity.
I had thought that if something happened, he would somehow manage to fix it.
‘Who would’ve thought that bastard would cause the biggest accident of all.’
My head began to ache.
‘Rebellion, my ass.’
In a perfectly fine, well-functioning nation, what did rebellion even mean?
That guy who didn’t seem to have an ounce of greed, rebelling?
I simply couldn’t understand it.
‘Why on earth?’
Why the hell had that bastard caused something like this?
If it was true that Uhyeok hadn’t merely participated in the rebellion, but had personally triggered it.
‘What could be the reason?’
What reason could he have had to do so?
That was the first thought that came to mind.
If he had caused something like this, there must have been a reason for it.
Because he was that kind of guy.
Ridiculous as it was, I even held that kind of faith in him.
[Go on ahead.]
[Thanks for being my friend all this time.]
“…”
The words and the face he had shown me right before death came to mind.
You damn bastard.
Making it so I could never forget. He could have at least not died with a smile.
Erasing the irritating thought, I asked Baekryeongeom something else.
“Then, that kid…. No.”
I paused for a moment, then furrowed my brow and spat out.
“What happened with Namgung Bia.”
Speaking her name directly had given me pause, but now wasn’t the time to hesitate over such things.
“…That child.”
Hearing my words, Baekryeongeom also seemed to hesitate for a moment, but.
She must have known.
If she didn’t give me a proper answer here, I wouldn’t endure any longer.
I looked at Baekryeongeom filled with such emotion, and she gave an answer.
“…Bia was serving as the Palace Lord’s guard.”
“Guard?”
I could only be bewildered to hear that.
“Guard?”
“…She played the role of the Palace Lord’s guard?”
“At first, she was guarding the young princess and the bloodline….”
“Wait.”
I cut off Baekryeongeom, who had been trying to continue.
There was something I needed to ask first.
“…Why was she serving as a guard?”
How on earth had Namgung Bia suddenly ended up as a guard?
I had to ask that first.
She had left to train; what the hell was she doing playing guard?
I had heard about it before, but it was too absurd.
To that, Baekryeongeom said.
“From what I heard, Hyung-nim personally made a contract with the Palace Lord for it.”
“If you mean Hyung-nim….”
She was probably talking about Mudang Goeseon.
That bastard had made a contract with the Palace Lord to put Namgung Bia into guard duty?
‘Has that bastard gone mad?’
I had finally given her permission to go, and this was what he was doing with her? Not letting her train but making her work.
I felt anger rising automatically.
But suppressing my emotions, I continued to ask.
“So. She also briefly served as the young princess’s guard, is that what you’re saying?”
I had heard.
That she had been active as some White Fox or whatever.
“That’s right. She did that too.”
“Then, the reason things ended up like this.”
So what was the reason Namgung Bia was currently missing?
If she was a guard, she should have stuck close.
Why had she alone disappeared?
“That’s….”
Baekryeongeom’s expression grew somewhat complicated.
That face made me even more anxious.
“In the midst of urgently heading to a hideout due to the aftermath of the rebellion….”
My expression involuntarily furrowed at the continued explanation.
To hide, the Palace Lord had to leave the palace and move.
Even then, enemy forces relentlessly pushed in.
If things continued, the Palace Lord would be in danger.
“She volunteered to act as bait. Is that what you’re saying?”
“…”
So that the Palace Lord could move safely, Namgung Bia had thrown herself forward to draw the enemy’s attention.
And in the process, she was currently missing.
Is that what you’re saying?
Moreover.
“And at the place where the battle occurred, no other traces were found….”
Listening to the explanation, I muttered to myself.
I was angry.
In this land where she knew nothing, that girl had thrown herself away for a useless human being.
It sounded like something along those lines, and though it made my teeth grind automatically, contrary to that, my head felt like it was growing cold.
It grated.
Strangely, it grated.
‘Why did she do that?’
Why had Namgung Bia volunteered to act as bait?
Had she truly done it for the Palace Lord and the peace of the Ice Palace?
That wouldn’t have been the case.
I judged that Namgung Bia must have had another reason for doing so.
Just as I was turning my coldly settled head, trying to grasp the question.
“I’m sorry….”
Through the cracks in my thoughts, Baekryeongeom’s apology reached me.
“If I had been there, it was something I should have done, not that child….”
A voice thick with guilt.
She was truly lamenting that she hadn’t been able to go in Namgung Bia’s place.
Seeing Baekryeongeom like that, I spoke.
“Where were you at that time, Seonbae-nim?”
It wasn’t a question filled with blame for why she hadn’t gone instead.
I wasn’t doubting her either.
I didn’t know Baekryeongeom well, but I believed she wasn’t someone who would resort to despicable methods for the sake of her own life.
“…At the time, I was already moving to the hideout carrying someone else on my back.”
She had moved ahead first, carrying not the Palace Lord but someone else.
So she hadn’t been included in the party at that point.
If so.
“What about Goeseon. What did Seonbae Goeseon do?”
“…”
What had become of Mudang Goeseon, who was currently Uhyeok’s teacher?
If Uhyeok had instigated a rebellion, where was Goeseon now?
Given his position as teacher, I didn’t imagine he was in a good situation.
Hearing my question, Baekryeongeom said.
“…Can you follow me?”
Instead of answering, she guided me somewhere.
We didn’t go very far.
If I had to describe it, it was the upper level of the cave. A quiet space where no guards were in sight.
Walking with Baekryeongeom, the place we arrived at had a single bed.
And I could see someone lying there.
The one lying there was, surprisingly, Mudang Goeseon.
The problem was.
‘What the?’
Mudang Goeseon’s condition was not normal.
His left arm was nowhere to be seen.
His overall appearance was also in terrible shape.
He looked exactly like someone who was barely breathing.
“What the hell is this….”
Why was this bastard like this?
Goeseon was a martial artist of the Hwagyeong realm, a supreme master who could easily rank among the hundred great masters.
Where the hell had he ended up like this?
Just as that question flashed through my mind.
“The day the rebellion broke out.”
Baekryeongeom added an explanation.
“Uhyeok appeared carrying Goeseon, who was covered in blood.”
“Him?”
“Yes.”
My eyes widened at her words.
Uhyeok had appeared carrying Goeseon?
“He appeared suddenly, entrusted Hyung-nim to us, left behind only an apology, and vanished. That was the last we saw of him.”
Disappearing after leaving his teacher on the verge of death?
And that on the very day the rebellion broke out?
‘They said he was the one who started the rebellion.’
Under those circumstances, leaving his teacher here was completely incomprehensible.
What kind of situation was this?
As I was racking my brain in confusion, one thing came to mind while listening.
I immediately asked Baekryeongeom.
“You said earlier you were carrying someone and moving ahead first. Could that someone have been Seonbae Goeseon?”
“…”
To my question, Baekryeongeom fell silent.
That meant yes.
Hearing what was no different from an answer, my mind raced.
Baekryeongeom had headed to the shelter carrying Goeseon.
Afterward, while moving with the Palace Lord, Namgung Bia had volunteered as bait to shake off enemy forces and disappeared.
Was all of this purely coincidence?
I had thought the rebellion was planned for the exact moment.
But with this.
‘Rather than having timed it.’
It seemed more correct to say he had created the moment.
My head hurt.
If Moyong Hui-a or Jegal Hyeok had been here, resolving this would have been much easier.
My meager brain had difficulty piecing all of this together.
It was difficult to see Uhyeok as having caused all these events and processes, but.
‘He’s not unrelated.’
That bastard was definitely involved in this matter.
Moreover.
‘The ending bothers me.’
Regarding the matter of Baekryeongeom and Goeseon disappearing, and Namgung Bia volunteering as bait, I sensed something strange.
Tap, tap!
With no desk to drum on, I had to tap my waist with my fingers.
What was it?
Something was there, so why couldn’t I reach a conclusion?
What the hell was I missing?
While thinking like that for a while.
Tap.
In that instant, my tapping finger stopped.
“First… we are continuing the reconnaissance, so you too….”
“I’ll step out for a moment.”
“Huh? Wai—!”
I went outside without hearing Baekryeongeom out.
Originally, I had planned to go see my companions first.
But I had to put that off too.
I kept wandering through a place where I barely knew the way.
‘I can’t think.’
No matter how much I thought, it was too much to reach any conclusion.
There was too little information, and the situation was far too sudden.
But.
One thing was clear.
‘Uhyeok was involved in Namgung Bia’s disappearance.’
Was this a conviction grasped by tracing the circumstances?
It was not.
The answer that had come from tracing each step was indeed so, but this was based on my gut feeling.
It had always been like this.
After thinking all I could, in the end I went where my gut told me to go.
Now was no different.
It was purely instinct, closer to a guess, yet for some reason I was certain.
That my thoughts were correct.
Then what should I do?
‘What else is there to do. I even told the Palace Lord.’
Go find him directly and ask.
That had been my conclusion from the start.
Find Uhyeok and ask him.
Why he did it.
That was all there was to it—ask and hear the answer.
If the bastard wouldn’t answer, I’d beat it out of him.
‘To do that, I have to find where Uhyeok is.’
If, as I suspected, Namgung Bia’s disappearance and Uhyeok were connected, there was a way related to that.
Oooong!
A presence felt from afar.
A desperate sensation, as if searching for me, was felt directly in my heart.
Over there.
I didn’t know exactly where, but the presence was unmistakable.
I couldn’t be certain that Namgung Bia or Uhyeok would be there, but at least.
‘Leiya is there.’
The Leiya that she had should be there.
Moreover, Leiya was something no one could lay a hand on except for a select few, so whatever the case, it was clear there was a trace of Namgung Bia there.
I would go there first.
Just as I was about to move fueled by that thought alone.
[…Please—! Please open it—!]
I heard someone shouting from somewhere.
It was a voice I knew.
Not far.
A floor above here?
I moved without hesitation.
As I moved, I erased my presence.
Fortunately, the path wasn’t very difficult.
Walking a bit and arriving in the direction of the sound, I saw several figures standing guard with weapons at what appeared to be an entrance.
Good.
I had almost broken through and rushed out because I didn’t know where to go, but it seemed the entrance was over there.
Found it well.
From the direction that seemed to be the entrance.
“Princess… you mustn’t do this—!”
“That’s absurd…. It can’t be. I, I have to check for myself.”
A woman with white hair of a light beige tint was desperately clinging to the warriors and speaking.
It was Yuri.
“…Bioegun couldn’t have done that…! There must have been some circumstances.”
“Princess! That man is a sinner who committed treason. How can you speak like that!”
“He couldn’t have rebelled…! He promised me…!”
At Yuri’s tearful shouts, one of the guards spoke.
“…It seems you are not fully aware of the situation. Escort her politely back to her room.”
They seemed to have judged that Yuri was not in her right mind.
“Yes.”
The one who received the order reached his hand toward Yuri.
He seemed to be trying to grab the resisting Yuri and calm her down.
But.
That hand failed to reach Yuri and passed by as if brushing past empty air, because the soldier’s body had collapsed to the floor.
Thud!
The soldier fell to the floor.
“What in the…?”
The one beside him reacted upon seeing that.
Tap!
“Kuk—!?”
In that instant, the man too took a hit to the chin and passed out on the spot.
“…Huh?”
At the sudden turn of events, Yuri’s face showed surprise.
She didn’t seem to fully grasp what was happening.
I spoke to that Yuri.
“What you were just saying.”
“…!”
Startled by the voice suddenly heard from behind, Yuri jumped and turned to look.
There.
“Say it again.”
I stood there, looking at Yuri.