Lawless Zone (1)

Princess Jang-ok felt bewildered. When she returned to the imperial army camp, there were traces that someone had been to her tent. And one palace maid and the court lady assigned exclusively to the princess had disappeared.

“Find Court Lady Ha. Hurry!”

At Princess Jang-ok’s command, the Eastern Depot operatives immediately scattered in all directions.

“There is a palace maid here.”

In a small tent a little distance away, a young palace maid was found collapsed after having had her acupoints pressed.

The princess checked the young palace maid’s condition. Fortunately, aside from having soiled her clothes, she was unharmed.

“Take her and wash her.”

After handing her over to the other palace maids, Princess Jang-ok turned to Neung Je-gang. Meanwhile, Neung Je-gang had been inspecting the inside of the princess’s tent.

“Did you discover anything?”

“There are the footprints of two people made most recently. Judging by their size, they are determined to be men’s. Two, or more, people infiltrated and took Court Lady Ha, who was sleeping here.”

“Why? Why Court Lady Ha? Could it be that some men were moved by lust……?”

The princess shouted.

“No.”

Neung Je-gang stopped the excited princess.

“Pardon?”

“If they had been moved by lust, that young palace maid from earlier would not have been unharmed.”

“Then?”

“What reason would they have to come all the way to this tent and take someone? They were not aiming for Court Lady Ha from the beginning. They were aiming for Your Highness.”

“For me?”

“They were people who did not know that Your Highness was at the Martial Alliance because of me. They are not insiders, but outsiders.”

“Ah! Then from the Necromancer Cult?”

The princess trembled. If she had not been away, she might have been kidnapped. Then the war against the Necromancer Cult would have ended. The emperor would not give up the princess’s life.

“It seems the one who infiltrated the Martial Alliance and the one who attacked this place were both methods to divert attention for the sake of kidnapping Your Highness. If you inspect the army’s guard net now, there should be another place where something went wrong. To infiltrate, they would have had to break through the guard line.”

At Neung Je-gang’s words, one of the princess’s messengers who had been standing by at the side quickly went outside. For this kind of thing, one had to act briskly even without being ordered to truly be loved.

The princess glanced at that messenger, then turned her gaze to Neung Je-gang.

“We must save Court Lady Ha. She followed me all the way here and suffered because of me. I cannot pretend not to know while leaving her in the enemy’s hands like this.”

Her gaze was extremely desperate. Neung Je-gang sighed inwardly. It was a pleading tone, but this was an order.

‘If I’m told to dig, I have to dig. What else can I do?’

Neung Je-gang nodded. As a subordinate, one had to fulfill a subordinate’s duty.

“Well, that would be good too. We have to avenge the dead operatives anyway.”

“Thank you.”

Neung Je-gang listened to the princess’s words of thanks and went outside the tent. But then a scene entered his eyes. The corpses of the dead Eastern Depot operatives were gathered together.

Neung Je-gang’s steps naturally headed there. By looking at the dead, one could learn the opponent’s skill, and if things went well, even identify them.

“This is Kunlun’s Taicheong Sword.”

After seeing the sword marks on the corpses, Neung Je-gang immediately recognized the name of the sword art the opponent had used. It was a different sword from Byeon Bong’s Taixu Dragon-Slaughter, but it was also one of Kunlun’s representative swords.

“Did Jeong Hwa-ja, the one called Kunlun’s Sect Leader, come in person? Or…… Deung Myeong?”

There was nothing more to see. At the very least, it was the handiwork of someone who had cultivated the Taicheong Sword to a high realm. Sword energy was basic, and perhaps the person had even reached the realm of sword aura.

Neung Je-gang finished examining the corpses and stood up. But as he absentmindedly turned his body, his gaze stopped and fixed on one spot.

He slowly walked toward the place where his gaze had stopped. Then he set upright one person’s head that had been lying at an angle. A severed head, separated from its body, dead with eyes wide open.

“Bear! You were here?”

It was Gwak Ung. Gwak Ung, who had once served as his subordinate and received many scoldings under him. He was the troublemaker Neung Je-gang had called Pig or Bear. He had met an old connection again. But to think they could only meet with his head cut off like this…….

“Is he someone you know?”

Princess Jang-ok approached his side and asked. Seeing Neung Je-gang looking somehow sorrowful, she did not think the corpses were frightening or horrible.

“He was my old subordinate, along with Cheong Yeon.”

“Ah……!”

The princess could not open her mouth. A subordinate with whom he had a connection had died. How could she understand that feeling?

“I do not think there is time. I also have to save Court Lady Ha, so I will go now.”

“Right now?”

“The faster, the better.”

Neung Je-gang bowed his head to the princess and launched himself away. The place he headed toward was none other than Seon-yeong.

Thud.

“We brought her.”

The warriors of Jieun Territory, who arrived where Deung Myeong was waiting, set down the silk sack.

Shiiik, thwack!

“Oof!”

Deung Myeong sent the person who reported flying with a hand gesture.

“How dare you say you brought her? Did you not know that this person is Her Highness the Princess?”

“F-forgive me. We, we escorted her here.”

Shiiik, thwack!

“Keok!”

“You say you escorted her, yet you set her down with such a thud?”

The man, who had opened his mouth for no reason and was hit one more time, completely sprawled out, perhaps having fainted.

“Escort her safely to the bed.”

At Deung Myeong’s words, women came rushing out from somewhere and carefully carried the sack into the bedroom of the inner quarters.

“Withdraw. And do not even give that fellow medicine.”

Deung Myeong glared once more at the person who had been hit and knocked unconscious.

After the warriors of Jieun Territory withdrew, Deung Myeong smiled in satisfaction. At last, he had obtained the future empress. Now the war was as good as over.

“Krahahaha! Grandfather and Father have a tendency to make matters far too complicated. Something this powerful would solve everything in one blow. Krahahaha!”

Deung Myeong laughed in truly good spirits. He had few memories of ever laughing this heartily.

“Then shall I go see the empress’s face?”

There were no longer any other women visible in the bedroom. And on the large bed, the silk sack lay straightened out.

“Tsk, tsk! Those fools should have removed the sack before leaving.”

Deung Myeong clicked his tongue as he saw that the silk sack had not been removed. He liked that the frightened maidservants did as they were told, but they were maidservants with no development beyond that.

“They’re like scarecrows who only do what they’re told.”

As if not even thinking that he was the one who had made them that way, he muttered this and plopped down on the bed.

Deung Myeong reached for the silk cord tied around the mouth of the sack. He pulled one end of the cord.

Srrrk.

As the cord was pulled, the opening of the sack gently opened its mouth. Inside it, the princess’s hair, fine as silk, could be seen scattered here and there.

“Those bastards deserve death, treating her so roughly like this.”

Deung Myeong cursed the warriors of Jieun Territory while looking at the disheveled hair for no reason. Deung Myeong was the kind of man who could not tolerate others treating what was his carelessly.

In any case, Deung Myeong widened the opened mouth of the sack further and gently pulled it downward. As the sack came off, the head emerged, followed by white shoulders hidden beneath the fluttering hem of a silk robe.

Gulp.

Deung Myeong swallowed without realizing it. He had dealt with many women until now, but this was the first time he had felt such tension.

He carefully lowered the sack little by little. Passing the shoulders, the chest emerged, then the slender waist appeared, and the sack briefly caught on the hips and would not come down.

“She, she would bear fine children too.”

Deung Myeong applied a little more force. The sack, tightly caught on the hips, pulled taut as if it would tear, then at one moment slipped off all at once. After that, there was nothing else to catch on. The sack was dragged down helplessly as he pulled it. And at one moment, Deung Myeong saw white thighs clearly revealed beneath the silk robe’s hem, which had rolled upward.

“Huh!”

Deung Myeong sharply drew in a breath. Then his face gradually turned angry.

Whip.

Deung Myeong’s head turned toward the lodging where the warriors of Jieun Territory stayed.

“Those bastards, they must have seen everything, right? How dare they see my woman’s body……. Could there be someone who touched her……?”

Once one suspected one thing, one came to suspect other things as well.

“I thought it was strange that it took them so long to escort the princess here…….”

Bang.

“Just you wait, you bastards. I’ll get rid of you one by one.”

Deung Myeong harbored useless resentment toward Jieun Territory, who had only done exactly what they were ordered to do.

At any rate, the silk sack that had bound the princess’s body was completely removed.

“They pressed her sleeping acupoint.”

Deung Myeong took a deep breath and lightly flicked his finger to release the sleeping acupoint. The woman twitched briefly from the impact, then suddenly sprang upright with her upper body.

“Hwaaaahm! Is it morning already?”

Deung Myeong’s eyes bulged. Some middle-aged woman was stretching and wiping drool from the corner of her mouth.

“Kyaaaaak!”

“Kraaaak!”

Court Lady Ha screamed at the sight of Deung Myeong, and Deung Myeong screamed at the sight of Court Lady Ha’s face, cutting through the silence of the night.