Chapter 86: Chapter 86
– Cheonsan East, Horse Grounds.
On this slope known as the Hill of Famous Horses, a boy sat with a short spear slung across his back, his face heavy with worry.
His name was Maeng Hwi.
The biological son of the Third Elder, Maeng Cheol-yong, and the sixth heir of the Heavenly Demon.
“How do I even bring this up…”
He clearly had something on his mind. He kept pulling weeds from the ground and scattering them in the wind, over and over.
The reason was that the date for the seclusion training Maeng Cheol-yong had ordered was fast approaching.
“Should I throw a fit and say I won’t go? No, that won’t work. He’ll just throw a tantrum. Or… should I just be honest and tell him I want to stay at the Seventh Small Palace for a while? No. He’d break my legs.”
Sigh. No matter how he looked at it, all that came out was a sigh.
According to the rumors, the Seventh Small Palace was currently struggling with the Hundred Commander’s Seal.
Half worried, half excited, he honestly wanted to pack his bags and run over there right now.
This wasn’t simply because of his attachment to Jang I-seo.
It was just that being here suffocated him.
Wherever he went, piercing gazes followed him, making every place feel like a bed of thorns.
‘Even that Jang fellow shoveling horse manure over there keeps glancing my way, monitoring me.’
Naturally, the one who had ordered this was none other than his own father, Maeng Cheol-yong.
No wonder he felt exhausted just breathing.
In that sense, the Seventh Small Palace, where the idiotic Mao and the gentle Jang I-seo resided, was paradise itself.
“What’s got you so deep in thought?”
Right then, a young-looking girl approached him while he was lost in his thoughts.
At sixteen years of age, she wore a bright expression that suggested the world held no difficulties whatsoever.
“Sister…”
The older cousin of the Sixth Young Master, Maeng Hwi.
The Fifth Young Lady, Maeng Won-won.
The two had never been particularly close. To be precise, Maeng Hwi found Maeng Won-won difficult to deal with.
Unlike him, she had always grown up loved, and for some reason, her constant brightness made him uncomfortable.
Especially when she would unleash ruthless lethal strikes with those clear, innocent eyes. It was chilling.
She would laugh it off as a mistake, but the discomfort remained.
‘But I suppose family is family.’
For her to approach so kindly and speak to him when she saw he was downhearted. Given his situation with no one else to confide in, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t touched.
“Mind if I sit?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
She glanced at the spot beside Maeng Hwi. Then, her adjutant, who had been standing at attention behind her, lumbered over with heavy thuds.
Crooked teeth and features.
Arms longer and thicker than his legs.
A head twice the size of any grown man’s, with a frame as massive as five or six men combined.
If size alone were the measure, he was likely the largest man in the entire Demonic Cult.
The Fifth Young Lady’s adjutant, the Great Giant, Wang-u.
Incongruously, he produced a palm-sized cloth and spread it on the ground. A palm to him, but large enough for Maeng Won-won to sit comfortably.
He lumbered back, putting distance between them.
A truly loyal retainer.
“Same as always.”
Maeng Hwi kept stealing glances at Wang-u out of envy.
His own adjutant never showed his face no matter what he did. The man would probably only show up to collect his corpse when he died.
“So. What’s troubling you?”
At Maeng Won-won’s question, Maeng Hwi smacked his lips and worked his mouth.
“Well, it’s just…”
How should he put it? Should he just say he wanted to cancel his seclusion training and go live at the Seventh Small Palace? Pfft. Even he found it ridiculous. She would probably just laugh.
“Come on, tell me.”
But when Maeng Won-won pressed him with those clear eyes, his defenses crumbled.
With a Whatever* attitude, he opened up.
“I don’t want to live the way the Maeng Family wants anymore.”
“Whaaat?”
“Ridiculous, right? I know. It’s a spoiled complaint.”
Looking at Maeng Won-won, who couldn’t close her mouth, Maeng Hwi offered a self-deprecating laugh.
Honestly, he had grown up receiving every possible benefit as a direct descendant of the Maeng Family, and now he was saying this.
From the perspective of Maeng Won-won, a collateral member, how pathetic must it look.
But it was genuine.
“Why? What’s the reason?”
The reason. Maeng Hwi recalled his words.
‘If you live leaning on another’s strength, you ultimately have to live according to their expectations.’
Those words, repeated so often they now felt like a mantra.
Words spoken by none other than Jang I-seo.
Honestly, Young Cult Leader this, Young Cult Leader that. He had never cared from the start.
He had only pretended to be interested because they told him to be.
All Maeng Hwi truly wanted was.
‘My own life…’
To meet many people, experience many things, and live his own life. Like a butterfly drifting freely.
However…
‘Who said anything about giving up! Who gave anyone the right!’
The Family Head, Maeng Cheol-yong, would never allow it.
Maeng Hwi swallowed hard, piercing through his blocked chest, and spoke.
“I don’t want to be the Maeng Family’s puppet anymore.”
Then Maeng Won-won beamed.
“My, our Maeng Hwi has grown up. Then just tell him that.”
“Huh? Well, that’s…”
Easier said than done. Maeng Hwi hung his head with a deflated expression.
“You know as well as I do. Father… no, the Third Elder isn’t someone who will listen to me. He’ll probably lock me up by any means necessary. And I don’t want to be here anymore, either.”
“Then?”
“…Don’t laugh when you hear this.”
Maeng Hwi held up his index finger as if to caution her. Maeng Won-won raised her eyebrows straight and answered.
“Never.”
“The Seventh Small Palace…”
“Pfft!”
“Hey! You said you wouldn’t laugh!”
She had tried, but that was too much. The Seventh Small Palace of all places? Maeng Won-won barely stifled her laughter and spoke.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, serious.”
“Didn’t you hate Mao?”
Truthfully, he had only disliked him because the people above him did. He had never genuinely hated him. Besides.
“It’s not so much because of him… Jang I-seo. I want to be around him a bit more. That man is somehow different from the people here.”
Maeng Hwi’s face flushed slightly. Maeng Won-won started in surprise.
“Jang I-seo… you mean the newly assigned adjutant?”
“Yeah.”
“Good heavens… now I’m curious. Who on earth could have changed you this much?”
“I haven’t changed. I’ve just decided to live for myself now.”
That was changing. You were the type who was supposed to do as you were told. From before you were even born.
“Anyway. So you want to get Uncle’s permission?”
“Yeah. Is there no way?”
“Hmm, there is one.”
That easily? Maeng Hwi’s face blossomed.
“What is it?”
“Simple. Reach the supreme realm.”
“No way!”
He knew that.
“Or accomplish a merit.”
A merit… He hadn’t considered that. When Maeng Hwi showed great interest, Maeng Won-won smirked and spoke.
“Have you heard of the Iron Horse Bandits?”
The Iron Horse Bandits? Maeng Hwi raised his eyes slightly, searching his memory. But he soon shook his head side to side. Judging by the name alone, they were just a bandit group. Not something worth remembering, surely. In any case, it was the first time he was hearing of them.
“I have no idea.”
“They’re a bandit group that recently appeared out of nowhere, and apparently headquarters has been quite rattled by them lately.”
“Does that even make sense?”
He looked skeptical. The cult was no ordinary place. Was it not the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, hailed as the strongest single faction in the Central Plains? Being rattled by mere bandits was absurd.
“They apparently secretly distributed Soul-Befuddling Powder on our side. You know, right? The Slaughterhouse. It seems they acted as the middlemen.”
“The Slaughterhouse?! So that’s why Yong-tae…”
Maeng Hwi suddenly recalled the sack in the annex of the Seventh Small Palace. The pristine white Soul-Befuddling Powder that Yong-tae had brought.
“Oh my, you know something, don’t you?”
“Finish telling me.”
“Mhm, at first the Guardian Dragon Hall launched an investigation, but since the Iron Horse Bandits don’t operate within the cult, they requested the Flying Dragon Hall’s assistance.”
That made sense. External matters were the Flying Dragon Hall’s domain.
Maeng Hwi pricked up his ears and nodded.
“So the Flying Dragon Hall went after them… and they went missing.”
“Who. The Iron Horse Bandits?”
“No, the Flying Dragon Hall.”
“Good heavens.”
Maeng Hwi let out a gasp. The Flying Dragon Hall was no ordinary group.
It was one of the Five Dragon Halls that, alongside the Elder Council, formed the core of the cult, managed by the notoriously exacting and short-tempered Flying Dragon Hall Master.
And they had gone missing.
To a newly formed bandit group, no less?
“What a mess…”
“It is a mess.”
Maeng Hwi and Maeng Won-won sighed in unison. The Flying Dragon Hall Master’s towering pride was second to none. They could almost hear his furious roaring echoing all the way here.
‘Father and the Flying Dragon Hall Master don’t get along. If I solve this, he’d be thrilled to have flattened the Hall Master’s nose. Yes. Then wouldn’t he grant my request?’
A bright gleam settled in Maeng Hwi’s eyes. His mind was made up.
“So. Where are they now? The Iron Horse Bandits. Those insolent bastards.”
They’d gotten cocky already? How simple. Maeng Won-won smirked and shrugged.
“I don’t know. But someone who knows will know.”
“Not the Flying Dragon Hall. I need to handle this before they find out.”
Hmm. Maeng Won-won tapped her lips and spoke.
“Jipha Village. Go to the Bumun Inn. That’s reportedly near where the Flying Dragon Hall went missing.”
The Bumun Inn… He had heard of it. Maeng Hwi offered a bright salute.
“Thanks, Sister!”
Then he sprang to his feet, clasped his hands in salute, and mounted his brown mare, galloping away.
Watching him go, Maeng Won-won thought with a stunned expression that the boy had actually been serious.
“Oh, right. I forgot to mention that the missing members number in the dozens. Good luck, Maeng Hwi. You might die, though.”
Maeng Won-won smiled broadly with a lovely face. Truly a madwoman with innocent eyes.
“Let’s go.”
Thump, thump! At her word, her adjutant Wang-u led a white mare, smaller than himself, over to her. He knelt down, offered his palm as a step, and lifted her onto the saddle.
He stood, took the reins, and turned his head to look at her.
A wordless question of where they were going.
After the briefest deliberation, Maeng Won-won grinned and spoke.
“The Seventh Small Palace. I’m curious who this person is.”
Her next destination was set.
* * *
Meanwhile, the very Jang I-seo that Maeng Won-won was so curious about.
“Sssshhh, haaa.”
With both eyes closed and both arms spread wide, he was breathing deeply like a deviant.
A slightly metallic scent that seemed to enrich the heart and broaden one’s generosity. The scent of money.
“Wonderful. This is wonderful.”
After savoring the fragrance to his heart’s content, he cracked his eyes open. An enormous hoard of gold and silver spread out before him in a cavern shimmering with a blue haze.
The Heavenly Demon Treasury.
He had finally returned.
The site of his serendipitous discovery of the Thunder Circulation Method and White Thunder!
That wasn’t all.
This place was filled with every kind of treasure Jang I-seo had accumulated over more than ten years during his time in the Counter-Espionage Division.
Mountains of silver and gold. And weapons from master smiths, each one enough to make anyone’s jaw drop. An overwhelming volume of goods, no matter how many times he looked.
His only regret was that he couldn’t show it to anyone.
But today’s business lay elsewhere.
“It’s been a while.”
A massive, mystical wall situated deep within the cavern.
Even after learning the Thunder Circulation Method, he had attempted to open it over nine thousand times without a single success.
It was the Demon Wall, engraved with the face of a demon.