Shadow Unit (4)

The man who was said to be Lady Cheong-yeon’s father introduced himself before our whole squad.

“I am Hae Unbaek, Cheong-yeon’s father.”

Hearing that finally let me resolve a long-standing curiosity.

“Ah, then Lady Cheong-yeon’s family name is also ‘Hae,’ right? Hae Cheong-yeon.”

She smiled and nodded.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“No wonder! I was sure her surname wasn’t ‘Cheong.’”

While I was rejoicing at solving that little puzzle, Bi Sayoung, standing beside me with a dazed look, asked me:

“Pretty sure that’s not the important part right now? Does nothing come to mind after hearing his name?”

Sayoung had just returned after single-handedly dealing with more than twenty Gangwi.

It was the very definition of staggering growth.

Then Captain Seol Pung, face set hard, swallowed and asked:

“Could you be… the Sword Saint of Heavenly Righteousness, Grandmaster Hae Unbaek?”

Captain Seol Pung had, by himself, killed all nine attackers, including two at the Pinnacle Realm.

According to Lady Na, he hadn’t needed help—there hadn’t even been an opening to help.

At the captain’s words, Lady Cheong-yeon’s father stroked his beard and nodded.

“I am called that at times.”

We all froze in place.

The Sword Saint of Heavenly Righteousness…

We were so shocked that words wouldn’t come out.

The Sword Saint was one of this era’s absolute masters, counted among the “Three Saints” within the hierarchy that included the Two Kings, Three Saints, Four Demons, and Five Freaks.

In other words, he stood as a peer to the likes of the Seductive Demon Son Eunsang, the Blood Demon, and even the Murim Alliance Lord.

And as the epithet “of Heavenly Righteousness” suggested, he was famed as the foremost chivalrous hero under heaven.

An idol to every righteous warrior in the Murim—that was Hae Unbaek, the Sword Saint of Heavenly Righteousness.

And Lady Cheong-yeon was his daughter.

After a long, stunned silence, squadmates began speaking, awkwardly, one by one.

“C-Cheong-yeon… is the Sword Saint’s daughter?”

“S-Sis, let’s um… stay close from now on.”

“Ah, L-Lady Cheong—no, Lady Hae. If I’ve done anything wrong before, even now I…”

I sighed, staring at them in disbelief.

I’d always believed a person’s worth was decided by themselves.

Who your master was, whose daughter you were, what house you came from—none of that mattered.

So even if Lady Cheong-yeon were the Sword Saint’s daughter, there was no reason for me to act any differently.

Right?

Whether he was the Sword Saint or anyone else, I had no need to curry favor or shrink back.

I addressed him as confidently as ever.

“Venerable Sword Saint! I’m Seonu Jin, the one who saved Lady Cheong-yeon before! It was a bit life-threatening, but nothing too grand!”

“Hmm? Hahaha! Yes, I’ve heard. Cheong-yeon told me she owes you much.”

“You honor me! I will continue to do my utmost!”

I decided to ignore the thunderstruck looks my squadmates were giving me.

After brief greetings, we turned our attention to the leader of the raiders.

While fighting me he’d been bitten by venomous insects, unable even to open his eyes; in the meantime, he had suppressed the toxin somewhat through breathing meditation.

The Sword Saint spoke to him.

“Do you recognize me?”

The man fell to his knees, tears spilling down.

“How could I possibly forget the Venerable Sword Saint?”

It turned out the reason the Sword Saint had stayed his blade was that he knew the man.

In the past, as an unknown warrior, the man’s talent had impressed the Sword Saint, who introduced him to take the Murim Alliance entrance test.

“At the time, I thought—polished well, this one would shine like a gem. How did you come to be doing something like this?”

At the Sword Saint’s pained question, the man bowed his head and could not answer, tears dripping.

Lady Cheong-yeon interjected.

“I don’t think he wants to be doing this. Judging from the operation they used tonight, he seemed reluctant to kill unrelated people. If he’d relished killing, he would have joined forces to take Captain Seol down first.”

Then she asked him directly:

“If you refuse this work, what happens to you?”

After a brief hesitation, he answered.

“Warriors without pedigreed sects must serve ten years in the Shadow Unit to qualify for an official strike force. And every Shadow Unit warrior signs a pledge accepting execution without complaint if we disobey orders. So…”

The Sword Saint groaned, low.

“What… how could the Murim Alliance…”

But Lady Cheong-yeon nodded and said:

“It’s a way to keep secrets while training warriors stripped of independent moral judgment to be loyal only to them. And it weeds out potential troublemakers in advance. For them, it’s killing three birds with one stone.”

Then she turned back to the Sword Saint.

“Father, part of this is your responsibility.”

Startled, the Sword Saint asked:

“Hm? My responsibility?”

“If you had stood behind him as patron, even Uncle Zhuge couldn’t have sent him into this ‘Shadow Unit.’ From Uncle Zhuge’s perspective he must have been a mouth-watering talent—endorsed by the Sword Saint himself, yet with no backing.”

“So… because I recommended him into the Alliance, this outcome was all but inevitable?”

“Yes. No one knows better than Uncle Zhuge that you purposely cut off involvement so your name couldn’t become an unfair advantage.”

It rang true.

The Sword Saint’s fairness was famed; in the Alliance, he would break off all follow-up to avoid his name becoming anyone’s leverage.

Ironically, that had made such warriors ripe for exploitation.

“And judging from how he hasn’t dared meet your eyes since before, I’d say he joined the Alliance because he admired you. Isn’t that right?”

Unable to answer, he lowered his head further.

But everyone could tell it meant yes.

As the Sword Saint looked on with regret, Lady Cheong-yeon said firmly:

“So you need to take responsibility for him from now on.”

We all jumped at her words, the man—Sag Muhun—jerking his head up in shock as well.

The Sword Saint asked, puzzled.

“Take responsibility? What do you mean?”

“Take responsibility. You left someone, who joined the Alliance just for your acknowledgment, unattended until he ended up here. Make him a retainer, or train him as a disciple—one way or another, take responsibility.”

At that, Sag Muhun bowed again, murmuring:

“A d-disciple… How could I dare…”

Yet a touch of color had returned to his face.

The Sword Saint regarded him silently for a moment.

He seemed unsure.

To me, Lady Cheong-yeon’s demand was a stretch.

Whatever the circumstances, he had made his choices, and his deeds wouldn’t vanish.

But if Lady Cheong-yeon said this knowing all that, she must have had a purpose.

I asked her:

“Do you have another plan in mind, my lady?”

She smiled and nodded.

“Yes. This could’ve gotten complicated, but if he cooperates with us, we can handle it very simply.”

Sensing something, the Sword Saint told Sag Muhun he would accept him, for now, as an unnamed disciple and watch him.

Naturally, Sag Muhun wept with gratitude.

Now that he was on our side, Lady Cheong-yeon had him submit a report to Zhuge Jigang stating that he had succeeded in killing her.

Then, with the Sword Saint, she went to Vice Division Captain Heon Yeongbo and had him file a report that she’d been abducted by the Demonic Sect.

Of course, upon learning she was the Sword Saint’s daughter, Heon Yeongbo wouldn’t dream of refusing.

Thus, she was officially a dead person.

“This will let us blind them for a while. In the meantime, Father, quietly gather information. This has gone on at least ten years—since the front’s establishment. So you must not act rashly.”

The Sword Saint rumbled a thoughtful sound and asked:

“Mm… You’re saying Zhuge Jigang isn’t acting alone?”

“Of course. If anything, the odds are higher that Father alone was out of the loop. Almost everyone involved when the front was established is likely tied in.”

She stressed again and again that he must feign ignorance and collect proof first.

The Sword Saint still seemed dissatisfied, but decided to trust his daughter’s judgment.

It seemed he had deep faith in her extraordinary mind.

Thus we were able to close the book—for now—on the attempt on Lady Cheong-yeon’s life.

But even then, I failed to realize:

While dealing with something that hadn’t happened in my last life, I had neglected to watch for things that had.

Ma Yugyeom hesitated over Mae Yeogyeong’s note, which asked him to meet her somewhere secluded.

He’d pretended not to notice, but he knew she had all but become a shell of herself lately.

Her inability to accept the breakup frustrated him—but then he thought of his own inability to forget Tang Yeo-eun, and could not bring himself to ignore Mae Yeogyeong as coldly as before.

No, not even the same. How dare I, the Blood Demon’s grandson, look down on anyone.

Perhaps his newfound uncertainty about himself was to blame.

Smiling bitterly as he debated what to do, he suddenly thought of the manual the Blood Demon had left.

The Suggestion Arts written within.

A thought occurred:

If I could plant a suggestion in her—that she can live well without me—wouldn’t that be good for her too?

It seemed possible.

And the notes said it worked best on those whose hearts were wide open—or broken. She could not have been a more suitable target.

Even if it’s a Demonic technique, used for good, it’s not necessarily evil. A sword’s morality depends on the hand that wields it.

With that, Ma Yugyeom reopened the manual and began memorizing and practicing the Suggestion Arts.

But he soon realized he didn’t need to.

For some reason, he already remembered everything in it. Not just the suggestion method, but the other sections as well.

He let out another wry laugh—Was his memory always this good?

He never considered that this too might be the Blood Demon’s suggestion.

Mae Yeogyeong had called him to the back of a small rocky hill in the forest, a secret spot they’d sometimes used for trysts.

With brush pulled across the recessed entrance, it became a hidden space invisible from outside.

There, Mae Yeogyeong waited anxiously.

When Ma Yugyeom entered, she cried out with a face near tears, overcome with joy:

“Captain, you came!”

He sighed inwardly at her fervent reaction.

The way she adored him, like a dog greeting its master without thought, was suffocating.

But he chose to hide it for now.

To plant the suggestion, either he had to subdue and immobilize her, or make her completely defenseless with her heart wide open.

He forced a gentle smile and spoke.

“You don’t look well, Yeogyeong. Have you been eating properly?”

At his concerned tone, Mae Yeogyeong finally burst into tears.

“Uuuh… Captain.”

Ma Yugyeom slowly stepped forward and held her.

She went limp in his arms, melting into him.

There seemed to be no walls left in her heart.

He judged it enough.

Now, he would meet her eyes and plant the suggestion.

As he readied his mind, the sobbing Mae Yeogyeong mumbled in his arms:

“Captain, I love you. Even if you’re the Blood Demon’s grandson, I don’t care at all. I’ll stay only at your side.”

His whole body shook as if struck by lightning.

It felt like his heart stopped.

Face blanching, he asked her:

“W-what did you just say?”

Tears still spilling, Mae Yeogyeong smiled brilliantly.

“I don’t care, Captain. I’m only your woman.”

Only then did Ma Yugyeom remember—she had the key to his room.

And the day he first read his mother’s letter, he had recklessly left it on his bed when he ran out.

His vision went white.

Mae Yeogyeong, as if to reassure him, added:

“Don’t worry, Captain. As long as you don’t abandon me, I’ll never betray you.”

She knew.

She knew his secret.

That he was the Blood Demon’s grandson…

Ma Yugyeom felt like his brain exploded in that instant.

He could see nothing.

He could think of nothing.

Only fear.

Fear of his identity being exposed…

Mae Yeogyeong’s body was found a few days after Lady Cheong-yeon’s incident was resolved—withered and shriveled as if drained by a vampire.