Chapter 237: Chapter 237
“So…… you accepted?”
When Dam Ak’s expression stiffened slightly, Gun Yu-hyeon’s expression also hardened along with it.
“Just in case, I told him I would hear your opinion first, Strategist Dam. Did I perhaps make a mistake?”
“……No, that is not it……. I was merely surprised because I was worried about you, Young Master Yu-hyeon. Please do not take it to heart.”
Dam Ak shook his head, but Gun Yu-hyeon still watched his expression.
“It seems I stepped into something unnecessary. I naturally thought it would be of help to you, Strategist Dam, so I accepted……”
“No. It is true that it will help me. I only said that because I was worried that you and your sect might suffer disadvantage after the matter ends.”
Although their hierarchy within the Black Path Murim had now been reversed, the Heavenly Crown Sect and Gun Yu-hyeon were originally no different from benefactors to Dam Ak.
If not for Gun Yu-hyeon, Dam Ak would never have survived the blood calamity at Cheongwa Academy, just like his other friends.
Not only that, Gun Yu-hyeon had lifted Dam Ak back up when he had fallen into despair while cursing the world, and he was even searching for the families of Dam Ak’s academy friends who had gone missing.
Dam Ak was worried that the benefactor who had bestowed such grace, as vast as the sea, might fall into a difficult situation because of Jin So-un’s selfishness.
Gun Yu-hyeon, whose expression had relaxed before long, smiled as usual.
“You do not need to worry about that. Though the Heavenly Crown Sect is weak in influence, it is not so frail a sect that we must act servile wherever we go, is it?”
“……”
If things were as Gun Yu-hyeon said, it seemed there would be nothing to worry about, but was the actual situation not very different?
Even if the thorn in everyone’s eye known as the Murim Alliance’s Envoy Delegation revealed the true culprit, Gun Yu-hyeon might be branded an internal whistleblower and suffer unknown consequences afterward.
If something happened to him……
Just as Dam Ak was about to fall into deep thought.
“Ah, come to think of it……”
Gun Yu-hyeon took a sheet of paper from his sleeve.
“We found the family of a person named Shin Il-seong, one of your friends from the academy.”
“R-really?”
How long had he waited for this?
Dam Ak forgot the concerns he had held only moments before as if they had been washed away, unfolded the paper, and read it.
However.
“……”
With each character he read, Dam Ak’s face twisted little by little.
Gun Yu-hyeon’s calm voice sent ripples through the quietly settled air.
“My condolences.”
“……”
Clench.
Without realizing it, Dam Ak gripped the paper so tightly that his hand turned white.
The news he had wished for so desperately.
……Was news he had never wanted to hear.
“It seems their livelihood was cut off, and they went up the mountain to avoid starvation. There, bandits……”
“Stop, stop…… You do not need to say any more.”
As though barely restraining his emotions, Dam Ak gently closed his eyes.
Gun Yu-hyeon’s face, as he looked at him, also filled with worry.
“I no longer know whether continuing this matter truly helps you, Strategist Dam.”
At that sigh filled with doubt, Dam Ak forced himself to recover his complexion and spoke as though nothing was wrong.
“……Please continue searching for them, for my sake. That is truly what will help me.”
Gun Yu-hyeon slowly nodded.
“Understood.”
Gun Yu-hyeon looked once at Dam Ak, who still could not let go of the paper, then quietly rose from his seat.
After leaving Dam Ak’s quarters, he blankly looked up at the sky and began counting the constellations.
The more gracefully his fingers stirred through the air, the more his worried face slowly relaxed, until in the end, even a satisfied smile bloomed on it.
“Seeing that the star signs are favorable, it will end well. What a relief.”
He lowered the hand that had been counting the constellations and began walking again.
Gun Yu-hyeon disappeared into the darkness.
And when dawn broke, replacing the stars that had vanished before anyone knew it.
Gal Mun-jeong of the Four Dragons Sect was found dead.
In the dim dawn before the sun had risen, Il-myeong was preparing to go to the market.
“I will mainly get emergency rations.”
Ever since poisoned food and water had entered the pavilion, Flame Ghost Consort had harshly interrogated the servants while searching for the one who had added the poison, but the culprit was never found.
Cha Seok-du, who learned that poison had been found in the food provided to the Envoy Delegation, was extremely furious and ordered food to be brought directly from the restaurant of the Alliance Leader’s Pavilion.
However, poison was found in some of the food again this time as well, and in the end, it was proven that the servants were not the issue.
“It is not a very strong poison, so as long as it is detoxified, eating it will not matter.”
Dang Seo-hui said that calmly while eating the poisoned food, but there was no way someone who had cultivated the Sichuan Tang Clan’s poison arts and an ordinary person had the same level of poison resistance.
Because there was even a patient among the group, Il-myeong ultimately had no choice but to use the cover of night to procure food from outside.
“Is there anything else you need?”
“These are needed for the Delegation Leader’s treatment.”
Dang Seo-hui handed over a paper with a list of medicinal ingredients written on it.
Although Ak Byeong-bi had survived through his tenacious vitality, treating him, when his condition was still poor, was also a problem.
If poison had been added to the food at some unknown time, then the medicinal ingredients were no longer safe either.
An uncomfortable situation was unfolding in many ways.
I handed a bundle and the Black Token to Il-myeong, who had just finished preparing to leave.
“If you wear this at your waist and walk around the market, someone will appear and ask who you are, Senior Il-myeong.”
“They will ask that even if I stay still?”
I placed the Black Token in his hand and smiled.
“Showing this Black Token is a mark that you visited ‘somewhere,’ you see.”
Il-myeong tilted his head as though he did not quite understand.
I leaned close to his ear and whispered quietly.
“The Hao Gate.”
“……!”
Il-myeong’s eyes widened in an instant.
“Could it be, Benefactor Jin…… you are a ‘Guest Retainer’ of the Hao Gate?!”
I calmly nodded.
“Yes.”
“……”
Il-myeong looked back and forth between me and the Black Token with eyes full of disbelief.
“No…… How can you talk about being a Guest Retainer of the Hao Gate as if you were talking about becoming a regular at some neighborhood noodle shop……!”
That is not the important part right now, baldy.
I calmed Il-myeong, whose scalp had turned red from excitement, and added,
“If you give my name and tell them what you need, they will obtain it as quickly as possible. And please deliver this bundle.”
“What is this?”
“The only key to resolving this incident.”
“The key……”
Il-myeong stared at the bundle, then hid it deep inside his robes.
It seemed he had finally calmed down a little.
I lowered my head slightly toward him.
“Then please go and return safely.”
A moment later, just as Il-myeong opened the door to go outside.
Thud-
An iron-armored warrior blocked the door and stepped inside.
Even though his body had been pushed back before he could react, Il-myeong asked politely,
“Who are you?”
The man was none other than Hwang Bu-sik.
“……”
Hwang Bu-sik pushed Il-myeong again when he tried to leave once more, and finally entered the room. Then he stared intently at Il-myeong, who stood by the door.
His eyes flashed fiercely, as though they might pierce through Il-myeong’s scalp at any moment.
I took one step toward him.
“What brings you here at this hour before dawn?”
At my question, Hwang Bu-sik slowly turned his gaze toward me.
He looked at me once with utterly emotionless eyes, then shifted his gaze to Blood Battle again.
“……Elder, was Il-myeong here the entire night last night?”
What is this? What is the intent behind that question?
Surely……
Feeling an ominous premonition, I looked at Blood Battle.
Blood Battle, who tilted his head at the sudden question, answered,
“Yes.”
However, Hwang Bu-sik did not easily withdraw.
“……Are you certain?”
“Eh?”
The clear suspicion and distrust on Hwang Bu-sik’s face.
Blood Battle’s voice turned cold in an instant.
“Am I required to answer that question?”
“……”
Hwang Bu-sik turned his head and looked at Flame Ghost Consort.
Although he did not speak, anyone could tell he held the same suspicion toward her.
“You bastard……!”
As Blood Battle’s face grew redder and redder, Flame Ghost Consort let out a small sigh.
“……That is right. Last night, Il-myeong did not move a single step from here.”
Then she took one step toward Hwang Bu-sik and smiled brightly.
“But little brother……. Are you not going to tell us why you are committing such rudeness?”
Seeing Flame Ghost Consort’s smile as she tried to hide her anger, Hwang Bu-sik eventually let out a sigh and lowered his head.
“……I apologize.”
He shook his head as though trying to collect himself, then slowly raised it.
“Last night, Four Dragons Sect Leader Gal Mun-jeong died.”
“……!”
“What?”
Then he glared at Il-myeong and said,
“Clear traces of Diamond One-Finger and Diamond Fist were found on the corpse.”
“Hah!”
“What does that……”
Everyone in the inner room knew.
Il-myeong had not killed him.
But at the same time, everyone thought the same thing.
People would think, “Il-myeong killed him.”
I asked Hwang Bu-sik,
“Were they truly traces of Diamond One-Finger and Diamond Fist?”
“……What do you mean?”
“I am asking whether those traces are certain. I mean, could they be something similar, like someone imitating the Ak Clan’s spear art?”
Hwang Bu-sik revealed killing intent and clenched his teeth.
“They are certain. I was once struck by Diamond One-Finger in the past.”
Hmm, is that so?
I obediently nodded.
“Then it must be certain.”
“……What will you do now? You have even missed the chance to escape.”
Why is he angry when we are the ones who missed the chance to escape?
What a funny man.
I shrugged and said,
“Rather than that, let me ask you for another favor.”
“Do not ask me to open an escape route. I have no desire to become a Public Enemy of the Black Thought Alliance……”
“No! Not that. Please go to the market for us.”
“……The market?”
Hwang Bu-sik looked utterly dumbfounded, as though he could not understand.
I explained further to the dazed man.
“Now that Senior Il-myeong has been marked as an assassin, would it not be a serious problem if he were caught coming and going as he pleased?”
“……”
So you go to the market and do some shopping instead.
The atmosphere of the Black Thought Alliance, which had been condensing rage like the calm before a storm, now changed into a Thunderbolt Bomb just before detonation.
Those who had drowned their inner turmoil in wine, and those who had been waiting for orders from above, all picked up weapons and headed toward a certain pavilion.
A full day had passed since Do Bong-su died.
Before the investigation had even begun, before the exact cause of death had even been determined, Gal Mun-jeong’s corpse was found, and the patience of the Black Path people was finally exhausted.
Moreover, the straightforward and distinct Fist Form found on Gal Mun-jeong’s corpse had spread bit by bit, pointing to Il-myeong of the Envoy Delegation as the culprit.
In a way, it was only natural for them to be enraged by the behavior of their higher-ups, who were doing nothing while the culprits were clearly from the Envoy Delegation, let alone arresting them.
Forgetting even the grand cause of uniting to oppose the Murim Alliance, they poured the rage boiling in their chests into the stones and roof-tile fragments in their hands.
CRASH!
CRASH!
BOOM!
Among them were even those who threw spears and axes supplied by the Black Thought Alliance.
That was a clue showing just how far the Black Path people’s rage had risen to the tops of their heads.
“The Murim Alliance must turn itself in and pay for its crimes!”
“How long will you only keep doing such cowardly things?!”
“What is there to wait for? Let us go in right now and cut off those bastards’ necks!”
Even though deaths continued to occur, the higher-ups stood with their hands behind their backs, and Jin So-un, despite the Envoy Delegation clearly being the culprit, was arrogantly claiming he would catch the culprit. To them, this was no longer something they could tolerate.
“Was not Cha Seok-du, who requested that the Murim Alliance send an Envoy Delegation to the Black Thought Alliance’s Founding Ceremony in the first place, the problem?”
“Cha Seok-du and part of the leadership have already formed a close relationship with the Black Flame Dragon. They must be using the Black Flame Dragon to eliminate political enemies!”
“Let us hang both the Envoy Delegation and Cha Seok-du by the neck!”
The people’s rage began flowing in one direction, and no one opposed it.
To refute this one-sided situation, other evidence was needed, but every piece of evidence was only increasing the suspicion that the Envoy Delegation was the culprit.
Gun Yu-hyeon, who had visited the pavilion where we were staying as promised, looked at the situation outside and cautiously asked me,
“Are you…… all right?”
“Thanks to the hard work of those two absolute masters over there, we are at peace.”
He saw the stones, spearheads, arrows, and hand axes scattered around Blood Battle and Flame Ghost Consort, but Gun Yu-hyeon’s expression did not relax.
Hmm, the inside had become a mess, so did those bastards outside know that the Black Thought Alliance’s money would have to be spent to repair it all?
At my utterly calm appearance, Gun Yu-hyeon instead became restless.
“We cannot stay like this. I will speak to Strategist Dam and ask him to dispatch martial artists from Four Emperors Peak, at least.”
“Ah, it is fine. In the first place, I just stopped those two from going out and breaking the ankles of the bastards gathered outside.”
“……Pardon?”
I rolled my shoulders and smiled brightly at Gun Yu-hyeon.
“I mean, I am going to resolve this now, so there is no need to bother busy people.”
“Resolve…… it?”
“Yes.”
If I had only seen the deaths of Gu Gye-ak and Do Bong-su, I too might have had more difficulty finding the culprit.
However, after seeing the new information I obtained while going around under the pretext of investigating.
And finally, after seeing the clear Fist Form left on Gal Mun-jeong’s corpse, even if others did not know, I could be certain of the culprit.
“Who is the culprit?”
Gun Yu-hyeon, who had always been composed, asked cautiously.
“Ah, I need your help with that part, Young Master Yu-hyeon. Will you come with me?”
Gun Yu-hyeon knew information not only about us, who belonged to the Murim Alliance, but also about most of those staying in the Black Thought Alliance.
Moreover, he calculated so quickly that his mind turned at an extraordinary speed.
Moving together with him would be the most convenient.
At my suggestion, Gun Yu-hyeon made a reluctant expression.
“……Must I go with you as well?”
“Yes.”
He had said he would help, but it seemed even Gun Yu-hyeon hesitated to step forward together in such a dangerous situation.
He is more timid than I thought.
I patted his shoulder.
“You do not need to worry. We have the best guard.”
At my words, Blood Battle, who had been moving his body with all sorts of grimaces on one side, shouted angrily.
“Who is the guard?!”
Gun Yu-hyeon glanced at Blood Battle and cautiously whispered to me.
“Can you truly catch the culprit?”
I could say it with certainty.
I could catch them.
I even had a guess as to their identity already.
To think those bastards had come here.
I had thought they would move only after a full-scale war broke out.
‘Twin-Shadow Vicious Demon Brigade.’
Even among the Demonic Cult’s special units, they were a spy-specialist unit so vile and cunning that just thinking of them made one grind one’s teeth.
To think these damned motherfuckers were currently carrying out a borrowed-knife murder scheme inside the Black Thought Alliance.
Fine.
“I’m not going to catch them.”
“Pardon? What does that……”
This was not only about the grudge from this incident.
It was time to repay them for the grudges from my previous life as well.
“I am going to tear those bastards to death.”