The Kidnapping Of Her Highness The Princess (1)

Everyone who had attended the banquet instantly sprang to their feet, their eyes gleaming sharply. They looked so perfectly fine that one could not feel they had been drinking until just now.

Perhaps that sight was unfamiliar to her, because Princess Jang-ok instead looked surprised.

“They all seemed drunk…….”

“A person has only one life. If someone is drunk while drinking, even a weak enemy can take that one and only life. So martial artists drink only to the extent that they can drive out the alcohol in an instant at any time. Among them, there are many like me who do not drink, and there are also cases like Ma-jil, who drinks until he is drunk.”

Unlike the others, Ma-jil was reaching for a wine jar again, regardless of whether the alarm bell was ringing or not.

“Even someone as strong as the Deputy Commissioner does not drink for that reason?”

“I do not drink because I dislike alcohol, but there are also people like Cheong Yeon who deliberately do not drink.”

Princess Jang-ok’s gaze turned to Cheong Yeon. Sure enough, Cheong Yeon’s cup was sitting there by itself, filled to the brim with alcohol. Neung Je-gang had at least moistened his lips, but he had not even done that.

“If that is the case, why hold a banquet at all…….”

“Indeed. Hahaha! But was the banquet not certainly a good thing for the others?”

Neung Je-gang answered the princess’s question while his gaze was directed elsewhere.

Go Won-gi rose from his seat.

“Find out what happened.”

“Yes.”

The warriors scattered in all directions. In no time, the place where the banquet had been held became deserted.

Neung Je-gang and the princess sat back down. Cheong Yeon and Ma-jil approached Neung Je-gang during that gap. To be precise, Cheong Yeon had grabbed Ma-jil by the ear and dragged him over…….

“Chief! Should I find out what happened?”

“It’s nothing much. They were just chased away by the guards, so there’s no need to worry.”

“Pardon? No, how do you know what happened over there just now……?”

Cheong Yeon looked at Neung Je-gang with eyes that seemed to ask just how much stronger this man had become again in that brief time.

“Huhu! I simply encountered a fortuitous opportunity, and my inner energy increased a little. Ah, now that I think about it, I forgot to ask about that. So-yeon!”

“Yes.”

At Neung Je-gang’s call, Je So-yeon trotted over.

“Can you tell what this is?”

Neung Je-gang put his hand into his robe and held out the stone fragment he had brought from Kunlun’s Bottomless Prison.

“Oh my!”

Je So-yeon, who suddenly received it, looked surprised.

“Wh-where did you get this……?”

“Do you know what it is?”

“Of course. This is a kind of jade called Yin-Yang Stone. It’s a treasure that makes people with weak qi healthier if they carry it on their body. But this is my first time seeing raw ore like this.”

“Yin-Yang Stone?”

“Yes, Grandfather has needles made from Yin-Yang Stone. When he treats patients with weak qi using those needles, their condition improves far faster than usual. But at this size, you could make several needles from it.”

Greed glimmered in Je So-yeon’s eyes. A physician coveting such a thing was the same feeling as a martial artist wanting a weapon that pleased them.

“If you need it, take it. Making needles from it would not be bad.”

“Really?”

“Yes. If you need more, tell me. I know where it is.”

“There is more Yin-Yang Stone?”

“Yes.”

“Th-this is incredibly expensive. If it were wealthy physicians, they would probably trade a huge manor for something this size.”

“Really?”

It was unexpected. They said some people break their noses even when they fall backward, but Neung Je-gang, even when he rolled, always seemed to roll over such treasures.

“Then I suppose I no longer need to worry about money.”

Neung Je-gang was pleased. There was the drawback that he had to risk his life, but since he knew where it was, he only needed to bring back as much as he needed whenever necessary.

A short while later, the warriors who had swarmed away after hearing the alarm bell returned. They grumbled that the alcohol they had enjoyed had been sobered up for nothing, then picked up their cups again. In that way, the banquet night deepened.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger changed into plain clothes and infiltrated the Martial Alliance. Thanks to the dozen or so subordinates who had caused a disturbance, he was able to infiltrate easily.

“The Martial Alliance’s discipline is truly a mess.”

The Martial Alliance the Soul-Hunting First Tiger saw was holding a drinking party after slaughtering pigs. It was a scene that made him wonder whether they truly knew this place was a battlefield. First, he decided where to go.

“Where is the kitchen?”

In the case of indiscriminate assassination against unspecified people, there was no better means than poison. The Soul-Hunting First Tiger had prepared poison in advance when he infiltrated.

The Martial Alliance’s kitchen was luxurious enough that one could not think this place was a field camp. As it happened, the place he entered was where meals were made for the elders and the heads of each sect. Naturally, it was clean and well organized, and many of the ingredients were high quality.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger could not easily decide where to release the poison. Water was the easiest method, but it was also easy to discover. Vegetables easily spoiled when poisoned and could be thrown away before food was made, so that would not do either.

“Where is the meat?”

In the end, the Soul-Hunting First Tiger found the place where large chunks of meat were stored. They had been prepared to make food when dawn came.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger took out a thin, long awl from his robe. He made a hole in the middle of the meat with the awl and flowed poison into it. Then he cut a small piece of fat and inserted it to seal the hole. By the time dawn came, the poison would completely seep into the meat.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger seasoned each piece of meat with poison like that, then secretly came outside. There was still no one looking at him suspiciously.

The next place the Soul-Hunting First Tiger targeted was the storage. Just as the Necromancer Cult kept food in storage, the Martial Alliance had also made a temporary storage area and kept rice there.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger found the storage. But he had no choice but to turn back. There were too many guards. Go Won-gi had strengthened the guard even more because he thought the Necromancer Cult might attack the Martial Alliance’s storage, just as they had attacked the Necromancer Cult’s storage.

“Where is the armory? Did they not make a separate place?”

Other than the food storage, there was no other place that looked like a storage building.

Neighhh.

But it was then. The sound of a horse neighing came from far away. A group of cavalry had been smashed by Neung Je-gang, but the Martial Alliance still had quite a lot of horses.

Horses were useful animals. They could be ridden, and they could carry loads. Moreover, if food was lacking, they could be slaughtered to obtain meat. Though there was the drawback that the meat was a little tough, it was not inedible.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger went toward the place where the horse’s neighing had come from. There, a horse pen had been made where a considerable number of horses were gathered. Just the horses that the important figures of the Martial Alliance had each ridden numbered dozens. The Martial Alliance had gathered all the horses and managed them in one place.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger pondered how he could deal with the horses all at once. Sprinkling poison on the horse feed was useless. There was not much poison left from what he had brought, and even if he sprinkled poison, it seemed only one or two horses would die at most.

“Should I just drive them all away instead?”

But if he did that, Martial Alliance warriors would immediately swarm over.

“One by one……!”

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger circled around the fence of the horse pen. He went to the spot farthest from where the horse-pen managers stayed and silently tore out the fence wood one piece at a time. Before long, a hole large enough for one horse at a time to escape was made.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger left it at that and withdrew from the place. If even one horse escaped through the hole, that would be a loss for the Martial Alliance.

After that, the Soul-Hunting First Tiger went to the drinking party that was still continuing. Then he pretended not to know anything and sat in one corner. He planned to look for an opportunity to sprinkle the remaining poison on the alcohol or whole roasted pork and flee.

But he did not know that this was a mistake. As it happened, this banquet was a place where Neung Je-gang, who was an even greater expert in poison than he was, was present, and as it happened, the people participating in the banquet were members of the Martial Alliance’s Investigation Unit.

The Investigation Unit’s work included not only investigating external enemies but also investigating internal corruption and incidents. Because of that, the people who knew every figure in the Martial Alliance best could also be said to be the Investigation Unit members.

“Huh? Who are you? I haven’t seen your face before.”

The person sitting beside the place where the Soul-Hunting First Tiger had approached and sat tilted his head. The Soul-Hunting First Tiger was startled, but he did not make a startled expression. If he were someone who exposed himself over that much, he would never have become the Soul-Hunting First Tiger.

“Haha! You must be quite drunk.”

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger tried to gloss over it, but this place was none other than the Martial Alliance. It was not the Necromancer Cult he had been protecting.

“Do you know what kind of gathering this is right now? Do you know why this drinking party is being held?”

“Haha! W-well?”

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger’s eyes moved quickly. Soon, two people entered his eyes. They were Neung Je-gang and Princess Jang-ok, seated close together. They were sitting at the highest seats of the banquet hall. Neung Je-gang sat there because he was the main figure, and the princess sat there because she was a princess, but the Soul-Hunting First Tiger misunderstood after seeing the two of them.

“Is, is it not a wedding feast? Celebrating the marriage of those two…….”

He had tried to make a guess, but it was an answer that missed completely.

Chang.

The Investigation Unit warriors around the Soul-Hunting First Tiger drew their weapons and pointed them at him. They were all the warriors who had heard the conversation between the two.

“Who are you?”

“Damn it! Was I wrong?”

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger, realizing his answer had been wrong, muttered irritably and launched himself toward one spot. Since he had already been discovered, leaving the Martial Alliance safely was now impossible.

But a final move always existed. He did not know why this drinking party had been made, but it was clear the main figures were precious beings. Moreover, the Neung Je-gang reflected in his eyes looked like a failed scholar who had not learned martial arts at all.

The Soul-Hunting First Tiger decided to take Neung Je-gang hostage as his method of escape.

Whoosh.

His body swiftly crossed the air.

Cha-cha-chang.

But the Soul-Hunting First Tiger had no choice but to give up even that attempt. Dozens of warriors, who had appeared from who knew where, blocked his path. It was the appearance of the Eorim Institute guard warriors who protected Princess Jang-ok.