Chapter 33 : Accomplice

Chapter 33: Accomplice

Traveling only along mountain paths made it impossible to maintain a high speed. The road was rough and narrow, so we couldn’t make the carriage run.

Because of that, it took longer than traveling along the main road.

In the end, we went back down to the main road, but returning to the mountain path didn’t take very long.

Somehow, people poured out from the sects around the main road, cheering and shouting things like “The Butcher of the Hundred Paths” or “Emperor Salyejin,” which caused the delay.

Despite going through all that noisy commotion, the woman seemed to have no proper idea about my identity.

“They’re calling you the Butcher of the Hundred Paths—are you, by any chance, a demonic cultivator?”

The moment she spoke the words “demonic cultivator,” I frowned slightly and asked her.

“Do you dislike demonic cultivators?”

“Honestly…… from my standpoint, there’s no reason for me to like them.”

Well, the Temple of the Mad Gale—where she was being forced into marriage—was also a famous demonic sect.

Even so, her answer left quite an impression on me.

At the very least, I thought it wasn’t easy to be that honest right in front of a demonic cultivator.

Well, being honest wasn’t wrong, so I didn’t mind—but there was one thing that bothered me, and I voiced it.

“Given your situation, I understand saying you have no reason to like them, but your manner of speech is a bit…… judging by your appearance, you don’t seem that old. Isn’t speaking casually a little much?”

“I’ve never used honorifics.”

“What kind of nonsense is that…….”

“It’s true.”

“Then did you speak like that to your father as well?”

“Yeah. My dad said this way was cuter.”

“Cuter…… haa…….”

“It is cute though.”

Seeing her utterly unbothered expression, I could only give a bitter smile.

Then she asked me,

“By the way, what’s your name?”

Only then did I realize that, despite nearly a full day passing since we met, we hadn’t even exchanged names.

“I am Yul Han.”

“I’m Hwa-yeong, Gahwa-yeong. It means ‘flowers blooming in full.’ But what does ‘Yul Han’ mean?”

“It’s a single-character given name. My surname is Yul, my given name is Han.”

“Ah! Which ‘Han’ is it?”

“They say it’s the ‘fierce’ Han.”

“‘Fierce,’ huh…… That character isn’t usually used in names, is it?”

“So it seems. But if they used it anyway, I suppose the person who named me wanted me to be fierce.”

“Who named you?”

“That’s…….”

I didn’t know.

I had somehow brushed past being asked to write my name for Flashing Light Blood, but I’d never asked who had actually given it to me.

It would have felt like confessing that I wasn’t the real Yul Han.

Because of that, I couldn’t answer.

After staring at me for a moment as I failed to respond, Hwa-yeong lightly patted my shoulder.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. You must’ve been an orphan. Who named you doesn’t matter. What’s important is that someone gave you a name at all.”

Even at her words—clearly based on a misunderstanding—I said nothing.

In truth, I didn’t even know myself whether I had really been an orphan.

And so, wrapped in misunderstanding and vague unease, the carriage ran along the mountain path.

What I thought was a journey proceeding reasonably well despite the delay hit an unexpected reef exactly two days after I met Hwa-yeong.

“Why won’t you eat it?!”

At Cold Blade Blood’s shout, Flashing Light Blood and I—who were just about to eat dinner at the campsite—turned toward the carriage.

“I just won’t eat it. So take it away!”

“This is already the fourth meal you’ve skipped. You haven’t eaten anything since last night.”

Perhaps because it was something I hadn’t been aware of, Flashing Light Blood answered cautiously when he caught my gaze.

“Yes. That’s correct. She hasn’t eaten anything other than a sip of water even at lunch earlier. I thought it was just a wealthy young lady’s fussiness with food and ignored it, but Cold Blade Blood seems to think it can’t continue any longer. And to be fair, stamina is far more important than one might imagine on a carriage journey.”

At his words, I rose from the campfire and headed toward the carriage where Hwa-yeong was staying.

As I approached, Cold Blade Blood bowed his head.

“I apologize for causing a disturbance, Vice Cult Leader.”

“It’s fine. But is Miss Hwa-yeong’s condition not good?”

“She pretends to be fine on the outside, but she’s already gone more than a full day without eating. There’s no way that’s normal. The fact that she can barely leave the carriage at all proves her stamina is already at its limit.”

Despite talking about righteousness and principles, I felt ashamed that I hadn’t watched over Hwa-yeong even as much as Cold Blade Blood—the roughest among us.

It seemed clear that righteousness and principle held only in the head had obvious limits.

That realization made my earlier resolve even firmer.

‘With the heart, not the head.’

Reaffirming that resolve, I turned my gaze to Hwa-yeong slumped inside the carriage.

Just as Cold Blade Blood had said, she looked drained of energy. It was hard to believe I hadn’t noticed while riding together—she looked utterly limp.

As I examined her, my eyes lit up slightly.

“Please show me your hand.”

“Why? No way!”

She flinched and hid the hand I’d asked to see.

After looking at her quietly for a moment, I spoke to Cold Blade Blood.

“I’d like you to go down to a nearby city and procure some food. Please make it grains, if possible.”

“Pardon? Don’t tell me you intend to feed that wench—no, that young lady…….”

As Cold Blade Blood was about to protest, I spoke again.

“Please.”

At those words from the Vice Cult Leader, he could no longer resist. He soon headed down toward the city to obtain food, and Flashing Light Blood approached me.

“Aren’t you indulging her a bit too much?”

“The rash on her hand appears to be some sort of meat allergy.”

“What? Ah! Like when eating meat causes hives…….”

“That seems to be the case.”

“No, but why would she hide something like that…….”

To Flashing Light Blood, who looked utterly confused, I replied,

“She may speak harshly, but I think she was afraid of being abandoned. She probably thought that if she became troublesome, she might be thrown away.”

As Flashing Light Blood looked toward the carriage where Hwa-yeong was riding, I continued,

“Let’s deal with the situation first. We’ll need some clean water. It looks like we’ll have to properly clean Miss Hwa-yeong’s hand.”

“Understood. I’ll hurry back.”

After Flashing Light Blood also left with a light bow, only Hwa-yeong and I remained at the campsite.

Perhaps luck had decided to turn sour—at that exact moment, Gye-pil, who had been tracking Hwa-yeong’s trail, burst onto the scene.

Ah! Of course, the one whose luck was bad wasn’t me.

“You crazy bitch, damn it! So the reason you ran away was because you hooked up with some bastard!”

The torrent of curses he spat out the moment he arrived made my eyes narrow.

Startled, Hwa-yeong hurriedly moved close to my side.

Judging by her expression, she clearly knew the man.

And that was why.

Why I was polite toward the one who had begun with nothing but abuse.

“Who are you?”

Ah! Of course, that was polite only by my standards. The other party flinched in visible shock. It was because my gaze was brimming with killing intent.

That reaction only served to further inflame Gye-pil’s anger. Even if only for a moment, the fact that he had been intimidated by my killing intent made him seethe even more.

“Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?! You think glaring like that with your eyes all tensed up is gonna scare someone?!”

Barking out his rage, Gye-pil turned to the subordinates lined up behind him and barked an order.

“Make that bastard kneel, and drag the girl over here!”

The moment the command was given, fifteen martial artists from the Temple of the Mad Gale charged forward.

Even if it seemed like they knew Hwa-yeong, at this point I couldn’t just stand by.

Having made my decision, I unleashed several swift hand and foot movements imbued with the principles of Hand Striking. By the time the motions ended, the Temple of the Mad Gale martial artists who had rushed in were sent flying, crashing disgracefully into the ground in all directions.

Seeing that, Gye-pil snorted sharply.

“Hmph! You piece of trash. So you’ve got some tricks, huh? You’re dead.”

The instant he spat those words, Gye-pil drew his blade and lunged at me.

Then—

Ting. Ghk!

The next moment, Gye-pil found himself dangling helplessly in midair, his throat seized by my hand after I knocked aside his flexible sword. Panic flooded his eyes.

What shocked him wasn’t the fact that his attack had been shattered in an instant, nor that his throat had been grabbed with a single move.

An attack being blocked, even underestimated, could happen. And sometimes that led to having one’s throat seized.

In such cases, all he had to do was make full use of the flexibility of his sword, strike at the opponent’s wrist holding his throat, and escape.

The problem was that this time, he couldn’t.

The moment his throat was caught, all strength drained from his body, and he couldn’t even twitch a single finger.

It wasn’t as though his acupoints had been sealed, yet he was utterly unable to move—an incomprehensible phenomenon.

As Gye-pil stared wide-eyed in shock, I calmly looked at him and then tossed him down as if discarding something.

“Ghk—!”

Only then did he regain the ability to breathe, strength returning to his body as he staggered backward.

Judging that he had calmed down for the moment, I turned toward Hwa-yeong. The trembling traveling through my arm told me just how frightened she was, and I meant to reassure her.

The problem was that the instant I turned away, a cold gleam flashed in Gye-pil’s eyes.

Sssshk!

The sound of air being sliced rang sharply as he swung his blade with ferocious speed.

Because it was so fast, the strike landed cleanly. But at the very moment Gye-pil thought he had severed the neck of the man who’d turned his back on him, both Hwa-yeong and I vanished without a trace.

Gye-pil’s eyes widened in shock, and in his field of view, Hwa-yeong appeared several paces away.

At the same time, he saw me—having set her down—turn back toward him, crossing those same paces and existing simultaneously right before his eyes.

Unless this was the work of a ghost…

“T-This… Instant Transposition!”

A legendary footwork so fast it left afterimages behind. What Gye-pil had just cut down was one such afterimage.

If that was true, then his opponent was—

Gye-pil’s consciousness ended there.

My indifferent sword passed cleanly through his neck.

Thud. Roll.

The severed head rolled some distance before stopping, and at the same time, the blood-gushing body collapsed.

Splat!

I turned away without hesitation from the headless corpse that fell limply to the ground.

Following justice with the heart rather than the head didn’t mean sparing someone who tried to kill me—especially someone who attacked from behind.

Having cut him down without pause, I strode toward the terrified Hwa-yeong.

“Are you al—”

My words never finished.

Staring in horror at the head lying some distance away, Hwa-yeong finally lost consciousness.

As I caught her collapsing body, Flashing Light Blood was returning with a waterskin freshly filled.

After laying Hwa-yeong down inside the carriage, I stepped out. Flashing Light Blood, who had been examining the corpse, approached me.

“That man was Gye-pil, the vice head of the Temple of the Mad Gale. I’ve seen him once or twice in the past.”

“What kind of place is the Temple of the Mad Gale?”

“In the Cheonghae Region, they live with their shoulders puffed out a bit, but from our perspective, they’re just one of the Eighteen Demonic Sects.”

The Ghost Lotus Sect, which I had first come into contact with under the name Yul Han, was also one of those Eighteen Demonic Sects. Therefore—

“So they’re a subordinate sect of the Bright Cult.”

Knowing exactly what I meant, Flashing Light Blood smiled.

“You don’t need to worry. Judging by how that flexible sword was lying around, it looks like the idiot drew his blade on you without knowing who you were. That alone is more than enough reason to die. So, shall we take this opportunity to call the boys and wipe out the Temple of the Mad Gale entirely, set an example?”

“The boys?”

“Quite a few members of the Blood Sword Unit who followed you fifteen years ago are still alive. If you call for them, they’ll drop everything and come running.”

I felt sorry, but his words stirred no great emotion in me. No matter how deep that bond from fifteen years ago might have been, it wasn’t truly mine.

And—

“For now, I have no intention of wiping out the Temple of the Mad Gale. It doesn’t seem like they were targeting me.”

“Then…?”

“It looked like they were trying to capture—no, to find—Miss Hwa-yeong.”

“But if they came for Miss Hwa-yeong, why would they draw a blade on you, Vice Cult Leader…?”

“They likely thought little of me.”

“No way! Even if they had a death wish, how could they dare—”

“They may not have recognized me.”

At my words, Flashing Light Blood realized it as well.

Although I had stayed secluded in my residence for about five years, even the ten years before that I hadn’t been particularly active outside.

In other words, ever since that incident fifteen years ago, the Vice Cult Leader had been almost completely in seclusion.

Naturally, contact with outsiders had been extremely rare. Moreover, it hadn’t even been three years since Gye-pil became vice head of the Temple of the Mad Gale.

Before that, he wouldn’t have been in a position to encounter the Vice Cult Leader, and afterward, I hadn’t left my residence at all.

Realizing there was a high chance my guess was correct, Flashing Light Blood gave a bitter smile.

Then I asked him,

“What should we do about them?”

As I looked at the Temple of the Mad Gale martial artists still groaning and scattered around, Flashing Light Blood replied,

“Since you don’t seem to intend to pass judgment on the Temple of the Mad Gale, if you want this handled quietly, I’ll bury them all.”

I shook my head as I looked at him, speaking of live burial so casually.

“No matter what happened, we cannot treat living lives so lightly.”

“Pardon? Ah! Y-Yes. Of course.”

Though his expression clearly showed he didn’t agree at all, he hurriedly nodded. I continued,

“For now, let’s wake them up. It seems we’ve become accomplices in Miss Hwa-yeong’s runaway, so let’s wake them and have a conversation.”

The moment I finished speaking, Flashing Light Blood began kicking the fallen men awake.

Watching that rough display, I could only shake my head helplessly.