An icy atmosphere settled in an instant, all because I had cut him off.
What should I do… How could I fix this? While I was fretting over that….
"…was."
The Gyecheon Munju resumed speaking, pretending not to notice.
‘Wow, he’s continuing this.’
I wanted to point it out, but he was going out of his way to give me information, so I couldn’t.
"Do you know how ugly and chilling it is to call such a thing the Orthodox faction."
"Yeah? And so?"
"Don’t be mistaken. You… are not the true Orthodox faction that dreams of righteousness and chivalry."
I could feel him hesitating mid-sentence. He had definitely faltered upon looking at me—an attitude of uncertainty, as if he couldn’t tell whether I was Orthodox or not. It seemed he had gotten tripped up on that.
"If not the true Orthodox faction, then who is?"
Screech. The Gyecheon Munju shot to his feet.
"The Ilcheon Cult. They are the true Orthodox faction that carries on the will."
"Hm?"
How did the Ilcheon Cult suddenly become the Orthodox faction? Before I could even voice my doubts about that….
"…As you say, I shall handle matters thoroughly. However. Do not be mistaken."
Whirl! The sword that had been in mid-air turned and was retrieved by the Gyecheon Munju.
"This is a transaction. Just as you achieve what you desire, so too does Gyecheon Mun…!"
"Yeah. I know. I know."
I waved my hand as if to tell him not to worry.
I knew why the Gyecheon Munju was speaking to such lengths.
Because I had heard it before.
It was precisely this.
"Make us into the Orthodox faction. That’s it, right?"
To be exact, he wanted me to put in a word with the Main Alliance so they could sever ties with the Demonic faction. That was his wish.
In other words.
It meant that Gyecheon Mun wished to escape from the Demonic faction.
******************
After the Gyecheon Munju left. I sat in the room, quietly surveying the ceiling.
While the silence persisted, I let slip a word.
"Please come out for a moment."
"Yes."
"Goodness…."
I flinched and lowered my gaze straight ahead. Someone was sitting in a space where no one had been.
It was Yeonhong… no, the Dark King wearing Yeonhong’s guise.
"Did you call for me?"
"…Ah, yes."
It was difficult to react. The outer appearance was clearly Yeonhong, but the voice was the Dark King’s. That sense of disparity was truly hard to bear, but it felt awkward to point out, so I decided to endure it.
"…Ah, it’s nothing else. I just wanted to say thank you for granting my request."
"Think nothing of it."
"…"
"…"
The conversation ended there.
There was nothing more to add. It wasn’t particularly strange, so I carefully rose to my feet.
With the Gyecheon Munju sent off, now I too had to do what needed to be done.
Thinking so, as I was about to move.
"Are you alright?"
The Dark King spoke to me.
"What do you mean?"
Wondering what he meant by that, I looked at the Dark King.
"Is it alright to send Daehwan away like that? If you wish, I shall deal with him."
"…"
The words he uttered so flatly were spine-chilling. The confidence that he could handle it to any extent if I wished—that was truly frightening.
It was fortunate he wasn’t truly an enemy.
"No, well… It doesn’t really matter."
"From what I observed, his intentions were not good."
"Yes. It seems so, after all."
That the Gyecheon Munju was scheming something was obvious at a glance.
However.
"It does not matter."
It didn’t matter much. I had expected as much anyway.
"It was intentional, after all."
It was something I had orchestrated because I wanted it.
However it turned out, the Gyecheon Munju would ultimately cause an incident.
He had taken my hand because he too had desires; he simply couldn’t leave things be.
The reason I intended to let it be despite knowing that was none other than this.
"I’m going to eliminate both anyway. If I let them stick together for a bit, it’ll be convenient later."
I also needed to lay some light groundwork. Thinking of Ilcheong Sword, I had to set things up in advance like this.
If there was something somewhat worrisome, it was the possibility that the Gyecheon Munju might intervene in matters faster than I expected.
‘From what I saw today, it doesn’t seem like that.’
He seemed to have a much more cautious personality than I thought. Thanks to that, I probably didn’t need to worry about this part.
"But if there is a slight problem…."
I stopped mid-sentence and turned my gaze slightly away from the Dark King.
‘What he’d said about the Ilcheon Cult.’
"You, rotten to the roots, are not the Orthodox faction. You are fake."
I recalled the Gyecheon Munju saying, "The Ilcheon Cult is the true Orthodox faction."
"Hmm."
Why had he said that?
Thinking about it….
‘Ilcheon Cult. The true Orthodox faction.’
I stroked my chin and recalled. As the information gathered, something began to clump together.
Strange. Why mention that it was the true Orthodox faction?
Furthermore, what is the Ilcheon Cult? It was still too vague to recall anything specific.
In that situation, I threw out one hypothesis.
Something that seemed a strange connection to make, yet could be connected if forced.
One peculiarity that he had experienced, or must have experienced.
Wasn’t there a fact known even in my previous life?
‘The fortuitous encounter of Gyecheon Mun and the Gyecheon Munju.’
In my previous life, it was said that those fellows had plundered the Geumcheon Yeon Clan’s secret archive and obtained a fortuitous encounter. Even now, they seemed to have obtained some sort of fortuitous encounter.
Regarding this, I… had been certain it wasn’t the Geumcheon Yeon Clan’s secret archive. The reason was obvious.
‘Because I obtained the fortuitous encounter in the secret archive.’
The space known as the Geumcheon Yeon Clan’s secret archive had been claimed by me in this life, and the fortuitous encounter there had become mine as well.
I had clearly confirmed that the space itself vanished afterward. In this situation, what had become of the Gyecheon Munju? Naturally, I had thought he might have obtained a fortuitous encounter from somewhere else, but….
‘No way.’
If it was true that the Gyecheon Munju had obtained the Geumcheon Yeon Clan’s fortuitous encounter?
And if the identity of that fortuitous encounter was connected to something called the Ilcheon Cult?
‘The name happening to be Ilcheon Cult is also because of that.’
Yeon Il-cheon, the former unrivaled under heaven. It was endlessly uncomfortable that it was the same as his name. Moreover, hadn’t the Gyecheon Munju said as much right here?
‘The Ilcheon Cult is the true Orthodox faction.’
What did those words mean? As I thought deeply, something strangely flashed past.
‘…The Orthodox faction?’
What is the Orthodox faction?
Before explaining its values or meaning. I first thought about who determined the Orthodox faction.
There was no need to search long. Even this place I was in now was that place.
‘The Wulin Alliance.’
In today’s world, whether one was Orthodox or not did not follow the values a martial artist held.
It was overwhelmingly a matter of whether or not one belonged to the Wulin Alliance. And the Wulin Alliance spoken of here.
‘They said Yeon Il-cheon created it.’
It was an organization established by Yeon Il-cheon, who had stopped the Bloody Calamity of the past.
‘…Hmm.’
From the fact that the name of the organization that had popped up was the Ilcheon Cult, to it being connected to Gyecheon Mun, to the words "true Orthodox faction."
Could all of this be a coincidence? Or, perhaps as I suspected….
‘The Ilcheon Cult may be connected to the Geumcheon Yeon Clan.’
Thinking so, I looked somewhere. It was the Dark King sitting before me in Yeonhong’s appearance.
It couldn’t be helped. When I thought of the Dark King’s origins, I couldn’t help but look.
‘I heard the Dark King is a descendant of the Yeon Clan.’
A descendant of the cursed Yeon Clan. I wondered if he might know something, but….
‘If he knew about the Ilcheon Cult, it’s questionable that he didn’t tell me.’
Moreover, I couldn’t fathom why the Dark King would stay quiet if he knew everything….
‘Ah.’
Right. I remembered.
‘The Dark King had said he would investigate the Ilcheon Cult himself.’
It was the Dark King himself who had shown interest and wanted to investigate further.
If so, even if the Dark King said he wasn’t involved, it meant he too had certainly noticed something strange.
‘Had the Dark King sensed something about his own surname in the Ilcheon Cult?’
Was that why he wanted to investigate further? It roughly felt like it fit.
The fact that this place happened to be Sichuan, where the Yeon Clan had been, also helped.
Could the Ilcheon Cult really have something to do with the Geumcheon Yeon Clan?
And did the Dark King know that as well? If that was true, what happened then?
Recalling all sorts of questions, I finally spoke to the Dark King.
"Dark King."
It was faster to ask directly about such things.
At my call, the Dark King looked at me.
Still in disguise as Yeonhong. As expected, it was not familiar. But for now, I ignored that and tried to ask the Dark King.
"Um, about this Ilcheon Cult."
"Yes?"
"Per… Yeo… hm?"
I stopped speaking and made a blank expression. Something strange had stopped me short.
"…Dark King?"
"Yes?"
"Why are you suddenly putting on that voice?"
The strange part was the voice. He had been speaking in the Dark King’s own voice until moments ago, but it had suddenly changed to Yeonhong’s.
Wondering what this was now, I held back my confusion and asked, but the Dark King merely tilted his head in reply.
"What do you mean, my Lord?"
"Huh? No… suddenly what."
I was about to tell him to stop, thinking he might be teasing me.
Then.
Bang!
"…!?"
The barred door suddenly opened, and someone revealed themselves.
"Crazy?"
I was more surprised than when the Dark King had appeared earlier.
What kind of bastard had done such a thing? Hiding my surprise, I looked at the door and spoke.
"Who enters so roughly…?"
But.
"…Huh?"
The face that appeared at the door was one I knew well.
Light streaming from beyond the door, as if to show that it was still bright day. Through it came a single man.
Thud.
Though not particularly large of frame, he was a middle-aged man with exceptionally developed muscles; perhaps from disciplined upkeep.
His face bore a distinctive, kindly impression reminiscent of someone. Yet that kindly impression was entirely crumbling under a deep scowl.
"…Uh… Hm?"
Why on earth was that man appearing here? I stood there blankly, unable to comprehend even as I watched.
"…Young Master Gu."
The middle-aged man alternated his gaze between me and Yeonhong—no, the Dark King—seated before me.
He was, in fact, the head of the clan that had ruled Sichuan. The father of Dang Soyeol, once called the Lord of Poison and Iron and currently the vice-leader of the Seongnyongdae.
The Poison King spoke as he looked at me.
"…Is it a wench again?"
And what’s more, he was saying it while thoroughly enraged.