Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 203 – Water Demon (5)

Three years ago, one day.

[Hyeon-ah.]

[Yes, Fa…]

[When it’s just the two of us, you can call me Dad.]

[Yes, Dad.]

[Our little spitfire has turned seventeen this year, becoming a grown lady.]

[Heh. A lady as in a graceful and beautiful lady?]

The one called Hyeon-ah bragged about her elated mood, twirling her colorful skirt.

The middle-aged man with a refined and elegant appearance smiled and said,

[You’ve been studying the Book of Songs.]

[Yes. The Book of Songs says, “A graceful and beautiful lady is a good match for a gentleman.”]

The Book of Songs states that a graceful and beautiful lady is a good match for a gentleman.

It means that a gentle and chaste woman is a fitting partner for a virtuous man.

[But I don’t want to become a graceful and beautiful lady.]

[Why is that?]

[Half the world is women, and they’re told to be graceful and beautiful ladies. I don’t want to become so old-fashioned.]

[Then what do you want to be?]

[Men can have three wives and four concubines, so is there a law saying I can’t do the same?]

[………]

At her words, the middle-aged man shook his head.

Since she was his only daughter, he had spoiled her, so it worried him sometimes.

This child was still under his protection, so she had nothing to fear, but both this place, full of conspiracies and power struggles, and the world were exceedingly treacherous.

[Hyeon-ah.]

[Yes.]

[You don’t need to concern yourself with being a lady or chaste. However, now that you’ve grown up, your father has one piece of advice.]

[What is it?]

[Everything you enjoy now stems solely from your surname and that blood. You have a nobler bloodline than anyone else and deserve to enjoy it. But…]

[But?]

[The world isn’t so easy.]

[What do you mean?]

[Don’t be overly confident in the power of your surname and bloodline.]

[…….. Why are you saying this?]

[Right now, your bloodline and this father serve as a sturdy fence for you, but there will come a time when that fence will be of no use.]

[……..]

[When that fearful and confusing moment arrives, in the end, the only thing that can protect you will not be this father or this surname, but your own judgment.]

***

-Thud!

Her legs weakened, and she unintentionally knelt down.

She had lived her entire life without fear or worry.

However, the unprecedented terror stemming from another’s malice shredded her heart and made her tremble incessantly.

-Tremble tremble!

Seeing her uncontrollably shaking hands and feet, she suddenly recalled her father’s words.

Her father, who had always been lenient, had advised her with a stern face for the first time.

[When that fearful and confusing moment arrives, in the end, the only thing that can protect you will not be this father or this surname, but your own judgment.]

At the time, she thought her father was in a bad mood.

So she didn’t take it seriously.

Would such a moment, as her father mentioned, ever come?

She firmly believed that she had an absolute bloodline and surname, so no one could touch her unless they shared the same blood.

However, upon venturing outside and facing a dangerous moment where all of that was useless, she inevitably collided with the wall of reality.

The bastard’s voice reached her ears.

“You’ve knelt, so all that’s left is to apologize.”

These words caused her eyes to tremble violently.

‘I… I have to kneel and apologize to such a lowly thug?’

She had the noblest bloodline in the Central Plains.

For someone like her to suffer such humiliation was unthinkable.

Even if it meant death, it might be right to maintain face for the sake of this noble bloodline.

However, reality wasn’t so simple.

“It seems difficult for you to say those words. It would inconvenience everyone here.”

As soon as Mok Gyeong-un finished speaking,

The people inside the inn glared at her with resentful eyes and whispered.

‘Damn it. Is it that hard?’

‘Just apologize and be done with it!’

‘Why do we, who have nothing to do with this, have to suffer like this?’

‘Who does she think she is!’

They were murmuring quietly, but all those voices strangely rang in her ears as if they were pounding.

This drove her into a corner, making it impossible for her to maintain her pride.

She lifted her head with difficulty and looked at someone.

That someone was Elder Beom.

“Argh…”

Elder Beom, who had suffered an injury where his shoulder bone was broken and pierced through the flesh.

Suffering in agony, Elder Beom desperately tried to say something to her.

‘You… must… endure…’

-Clench!

At Elder Beom’s words, she bit her lower lip hard.

Enduring humiliation at every moment was painful and infuriating, but if she let it all out here, she and everyone else would die.

‘………’

The lowly ones in the inn could all die for all she cared.

However, not only her own life, belonging to a noble bloodline, but she couldn’t let Sir Beom, whom her father had assigned to her, die in a place like this.

As a result, she opened her mouth with the determination to endure humiliation.

-Gnash!

“I… to you, sir… have committed… a great… sin… ugh…”

-Drip drip!

Her pride was so wounded that tears wouldn’t stop flowing as she spoke.

[In the end, the only thing that can protect you will not be this father or this surname, but your own judgment.]

However, pondering her father’s words, she finally finished speaking.

“Please… forgive… me.”

Finally, after submitting and completing her apology, all eyes in the inn turned to Mok Gyeong-un.

Everyone had tense looks on their faces.

They feared, what if that fellow broke his promise and killed them all?

At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un licked his lips and said,

“Unfortunately, I’ll have to end it here.”

‘Unfortunately?’

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, Elder Beom sincerely clicked his tongue.

It was no different than saying he really intended to slaughter everyone in the inn if the young lady had held out until the end.

He hadn’t expected it, but this fellow had a truly vicious nature.

‘Young lady…’

Elder Beom was truly proud of her.

If she hadn’t endured and had let out her anger and maintained her pride, everything would have been over.

In that sense, this incident might have been medicine rather than poison for her.

At the very least, she had realized the reality that her noble status and bloodline didn’t protect her from everything.

-Swish!

Elder Beom carefully looked at Mok Gyeong-un.

Mok Gyeong-un then grinned and signaled to Mong Mu-yak, saying,

“Sheathe your sword.”

“Yes.”

As the order was given, Mong Mu-yak removed the sword from her neck.

With the sword removed from her neck, the woman who had endured humiliation and apologized inwardly vowed.

She would take this incident as a stepping stone and never again allow herself to be in a situation where she had to kneel or suffer humiliation.

And,

‘I won’t forgive you.’

That man who had subjected her to such humiliation.

She would never forget him.

Since he had inflicted such humiliation and disgrace upon her, the one who inherited the noblest bloodline in this country, he would definitely pay the price.

Enjoy it while you can.

But before long, you will beg me in the most miserable way.

She raised her head and looked at the people in the inn.

Everyone was relieved and happy that the situation had ended peacefully because she had knelt and apologized.

Seeing them like that made her feel disgusted.

Those bastards were all the same.

They only cared about their own safety and couldn’t say a word to the one threatening them, instead cornering her.

‘How dare these lowly ones!’

She couldn’t forgive these bastards either.

They had contributed to her humiliation and witnessed it without missing a single detail.

She glared at them.

As if sensing her gaze, they all avoided meeting her eyes.

‘Just wait a little.’

Once those fellows left this place, she would have to tell the guards to kill them all without leaving a single one.

Although she hadn’t revealed her identity, she didn’t want this shameful incident to reach anyone’s ears.

Seeing her murderous expression, Mok Gyeong-un raised the corners of his lips.

Then he lightly tapped Elder Beom’s uninjured shoulder and headed towards the inn’s entrance.

***

-Whoosh!

As they distanced themselves from the inn, Mong Mu-yak glanced back with somewhat worried eyes.

Seop Chun asked him, puzzled,

“What’s wrong?”

At his question, Mong Mu-yak looked at Mok Gyeong-un, not Seop Chun, and said,

“My Lord.”

“What is it?”

“Is it alright to just leave like this?”

At this question, Seop Chun was about to ask why but then nodded his head in agreement and said,

“Actually, I have the same thought as Mu-yak.”

“About what?”

“Although she submitted under the pressure of power, she seemed to have considerable pride. And the way she kept mentioning her identity…”

“She seemed to be the child of a high-ranking government official or someone from the imperial palace.”

At Mong Mu-yak’s speculation, Seop Chun tilted his head and said,

“The imperial palace? But isn’t that going too far? If she were a member of the imperial family, wouldn’t she have had more guards than that?”

“She had an old master who had reached the peak-stage of the Transcendent Realm and eight first-rate warriors as guards. Isn’t that quite a lot?”

“Still, if she were a member of the imperial family, I think she would have brought soldiers as well.”

“Well, who knows? She might have come out quietly for a secret mission.”

At Mong Mu-yak’s words, Seop Chun frowned.

If what he said was true, there could be repercussions from ending it like this.

Therefore, Seop Chun said to Mok Gyeong-un,

“My Lord. Since things have already happened, it might be better for us to…”

“There’s no need for that.”

“What? Why?”

“Have you heard of the phrase ‘killing with a borrowed knife’?”

“Killing with a borrowed knife?”

Killing with a borrowed knife.

It means harming others by using someone else, like borrowing a knife to kill.

He didn’t understand why Mok Gyeong-un was saying this.

As he was puzzled,

-Aaaaargh!

A scream came from the direction of the inn.

Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak turned their heads with confused expressions to look in that direction.

***

As Mok Gyeong-un and his group left, she hurriedly rushed to the injured Elder Beom.

She asked worriedly,

“Sir Beom, are you alright?”

“Haa… haa… I’m fine. I can endure this much.”

“Still…”

Seeing the bone broken and piercing through the flesh, she wasn’t sure if she could call this fine.

However, Elder Beom was a formidable master of martial arts recognized even by her father.

As he said himself, he could overcome this much without difficulty.

“Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Please don’t worry too much.”

At Elder Beom’s answer, she whispered in his ear,

“Alright. Then, Sir. Can I ask you a favor?”

“What is it?”

“After you recover, can you take care of all the people in this inn with the help of the guard warriors?”

‘!?’

At her words, Elder Beom’s pupils trembled.

He had sensed that she was in a bad mood to some extent, but he never thought the repercussions would extend to the people in the inn.

Of course, it wasn’t incomprehensible.

She, with a great bloodline, had shown everyone the sight of her suffering humiliation.

‘There’s no other choice.’

He couldn’t blame her for this cruel decision.

Therefore, Elder Beom was about to nod and agree.

Right at that moment,

-Swish swish!

‘!?’

At the sound ringing in his ears, Elder Beom hurriedly tried to move his body.

However, perhaps due to the injury in his shoulder, his body wouldn’t listen to him as he wished.

Thus,

-Thud thud!

“Ugh!”

Elder Beom used his body as a shield to block the incoming objects with his back.

Judging from the burning sensation on his back, they were definitely hidden weapons.

However,

‘What’s wrong with my body?’

Although his right shoulder injury was severe, it shouldn’t have made his body this heavy and uncontrollable.

Come to think of it, the sensation in the shoulder that vicious fellow had lightly tapped was strange.

As if he had been poisoned by something…

Right at that moment,

-Startle! Thud!

The startled Elder Beom twisted his body with all his might.

However, a sharp sword pierced through his abdomen and protruded out.

-Stab!

Seeing this right in front of her, she was so shocked that she screamed.

“Aaaaargh!”

-Swish!

“Ah!”

Elder Beom urgently pushed her forward and turned his body to execute a claw technique.

-Bam bam!

“Ugh!”

-Whoosh!

Someone who was struck in the chest by Elder Beom’s claw technique was pushed back.

That someone was none other than one of the wanderers who had been watching the situation inside the inn.

But it wasn’t just one person.

The wanderers had already drawn their swords and surrounded Elder Beom.

‘…These, these people, how?’

Elder Beom’s complexion rapidly darkened.

***

-Whoosh!

At the same time, outside the inn.

Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said,

“I casually mentioned to one of the wanderers there. I asked if that esteemed young lady would leave them alone after suffering such humiliation.”

At these words, Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak immediately clicked their tongues.

They understood the meaning of “killing with a borrowed knife” that Mok Gyeong-un had mentioned.

The inside of that inn would now become a bloody battlefield with their own fight.

“Shall we go now?”

Mok Gyeong-un turned his body as if he was no longer interested in this matter.

Seeing his back, Seop Chun and Mong Mu-yak genuinely felt fear towards Mok Gyeong-un.

He was completely manipulating the situation as he wished, like flipping the palm of his hand.

If such a person became an enemy, it would be truly terrifying.