Traveling With The Enemy (3)

Pyeongjeong Mountain in central Henan Province.

Having run full tilt from the Martial Alliance, Neung Je-gang’s party decided to rest here for the night. Neung Je-gang could have gone farther, but Go So-jeong’s inner energy was depleted, and she could no longer run.

Since recovering inner energy would take time anyway, they chose to stop and spend the night.

“How urgent can your business at Kuaiji Mountain be that you’re charging ahead so recklessly?”

Go So-jeong asked as she looked at Neung Je-gang. After circulating qi to recover, she felt aggrieved at how much she was being put through.

But Neung Je-gang didn’t even want to answer.

“Does it have to do with the Ice Essence Crystal?”

In the end, Go So-jeong deduced that the theft of the crystal was tied to that matter. Otherwise, there was no reason to risk stealing something from the Martial Alliance.

The one startled by the mention of the crystal wasn’t Neung Je-gang but Majil. He hadn’t imagined Go So-jeong knew, so his gaze, which had been fixed on her face, slid downward. Since he’d done wrong, he had to watch her mood.

“There is a girl.”

Neung Je-gang finally began to speak. If Go So-jeong snapped and tattled everything, it would be disastrous.

He had no intention of telling all of it, though. He would trim it down and give only the gist.

But at the mention that there was a girl, Go So-jeong was already trembling.

“You bas—…”

She was about to curse him like before, when the words that shut her mouth came out of Neung Je-gang’s lips.

“Have you ever considered becoming a man, Lady Go?”

“W-what kind of nonsense is that?”

At such absurdity, Go So-jeong even forgot to swear.

“Exactly. It’s nonsense. Yet there is a young girl going through just that. At the bright, beautiful age of sixteen, she is gradually turning into a man…”

“Ah…!”

“The Ice Essence Crystal is the only thing that can heal her.”

“T-that’s so pitiful.”

Go So-jeong was a woman too, and at a tender, sensitive age. Perhaps imagining herself becoming a man, she shuddered.

“But if it’s something like that, you didn’t have to steal it. If you’d explained the circumstances…”

“Are you naïve enough to think the Martial Alliance would readily hand over a thousand-year treasure like an Ice Essence Crystal for a matter that has nothing to do with it?”

“…!”

Go So-jeong had to close her mouth.

An organization didn’t move by an individual’s thoughts. Even now, she wanted to say they should go to Kuaiji Mountain at once to treat the girl, but in the face of the Black Alliance’s crisis, how could she say that?

“When you one day sit in a key post of the Martial Alliance, I hope it will be a Martial Alliance that can readily give in such cases.”

At Neung Je-gang’s words, Go So-jeong fell silent. If she said anything, she felt she’d be branded a heartless woman of the world.

Still, curiosity was curiosity. She mustered her courage and spoke.

“But is it even possible for a woman to turn into a man?”

“Do you know the Soul-Returning Divine Doctor?”

“Of course. He’s called a divine doctor.”

“Do you think he would have misdiagnosed it?”

Truly, names decide everything for people; that’s why everyone makes such a fuss about signboards.

Before the name “Soul-Returning Divine Doctor,” Go So-jeong’s doubt became nonsense.

“Boss, aren’t you eating the meat?”

Majil, hungry, looked at Neung Je-gang with a miserable face.

With a faint smile, Neung Je-gang brought to his mouth the fox leg Majil had carved. Majil cut another and offered it to Go So-jeong as well.

Holding one fox leg, Go So-jeong nibbled at it little by little. The rest became Majil’s.

“I didn’t know I could eat fox meat.”

“Meat is meat—you can eat anything. People refrain by choice, that’s all. Humans even eat ‘two-legged sheep,’ so what couldn’t they eat?”

Chewing, Neung Je-gang answered Go So-jeong. It was bothersome, but if he didn’t answer, who knew what grudge her temperament might hold.

‘But why has she changed so much? She’s not even wearing stealth garb like before—did she quit spy work?’

Seeing how much she’d changed, Neung Je-gang found himself speculating about her.

“What is ‘two-legged sheep’?”

“You don’t know that? Even though you were a spy?”

“A spy? I quit. After what happened at Taepyeong Pavilion last time.”

“…Why?”

“I realized then—spy tricks are good against assassins or other spies, but they’re useless against truly strong orthodox martial artists. So I pestered Father and have been learning new martial arts. I was cultivating in the Ice Vault for that… Also, please answer my question. What is ‘two-legged sheep’?”

“Just what it says—a sheep with two legs. To describe people that way… humans truly are a vicious lot. Don’t you think?”

“Two-legged sheep” was a euphemism for human flesh. In the Central Plains, there were more gourmands than one might think who secretly considered it the delicacy of delicacies.

“Ugh!”

Hearing about human flesh while eating fox meat, even Go So-jeong’s stomach couldn’t stay calm.

“Tsk tsk, no manners while others are eating…”

“Is this the time to nitpick manners? Ueegh!”

Go So-jeong retched again and again.

“Let’s not talk about that anymore. It keeps coming to mind. I’ll go wash my face—please clean this up.”

Swaying, Go So-jeong stood and went down along the ridge.

“Why is she asking someone else to clean up what she threw up?”

Neung Je-gang grumbled.

“Hehehe! Boss, I’ll clean it.”

Majil, apparently not thinking it dirty, spoke with a smile.

“Hey… do you perhaps like Lady Go?”

Something seemed off about Majil. No matter how pretty a woman was, what she’d thrown up wasn’t pretty.

“Hehe! As if someone like me… It’s just that she’s pretty, that’s all. What’s wrong with liking pretty things? Don’t you think so, Boss?”

“Well, better than ugly. But once you know that girl’s true nature, you’ll learn that beauty isn’t everything. Hahaha!”

“What’s her nature like?”

Majil asked back, intrigued.

“So you really do like her, huh?”

“T-that’s not it!”

“Then do you love her? If not, there’s no reason to be that interested. Right?”

“N-no, Boss! Love, what love… As if there’s such a thing as love in this world…”

“Why wouldn’t there be?”

Of course, Neung Je-gang didn’t truly believe in love either—or rather, he thought even if it existed, it wasn’t eternal. Having witnessed countless betrayals, to him love was preparation for betrayal.

Yet hearing Majil flatly deny love made him wonder why he thought that way.

“If love exists, why are there so many children abandoned the moment they’re born?”

“Ah…”

All those years later, Majil still couldn’t forget that he had been abandoned—too young to remember, without even a name, cast aside. To survive, he had had to become a clinging leech.

“You brat… But love exists. Surely… It’s just that it never goes all the way to the end.”

“…”

Both fell into deeply pessimistic thoughts.