Chapter 12

“Ugh. How long is it going to take to walk to the Elder Council again?”

The banquet was being held at the Elder Council.

It was a fair distance from Silver Cloud Pavilion, so I packed light and headed out.

That Elder Council Lord—he’s the problem.

If you invite someone, you should send them a carriage—or at least a horse. It’s not like he doesn’t know my situation.

Silver Cloud Pavilion had been vacant a long time.

I only moved in yesterday, so lots of essentials were still missing.

I did not even have a horse for me to ride on. I had no idea where the one I rode on from Nanzhou ended up.

So what else could I do?

Even if it was far, I’d have to walk.

“Huh? What’s that?”

Grumbling my way toward the Elder Council, I saw it.

A carriage.

It had a gaudy trim and a tiger banner embroidered with the character for Five.

It was the carriage of the Heavenly Demon’s Fifth Disciple, Yuk Ja-heung.

‘This is it!’

I dashed up and called out.

“Hey!”

The window slid open and Yuk Ja-heung stuck out a scowling face.

He looked pale. It seemed that yesterday’s injuries were still lingering.

“What is it? Is it Baek Su-gyeong?”

“Yeah.”

“‘Yeah’? Try ‘Yes, that’s correct.’”

“Bit stiff for our relationship, no?”

His expression wrinkled further.

“And what relationship is that?”

“What do you mean? We’re Sahyung and Sajae.”

“Don’t make me laugh. You don’t even mean that.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Ugh, you shameless brat. Driver, stop the carriage.”

The carriage halted.

I stood by the window and asked,

“Where you headed?”

“To your welcome banquet of course. Big shot you must be, dragging even me out.”

I nearly snorted.

In my past life, no one enjoyed those banquets more than this guy. He tormented me the worst.

Yet now he acted like he was being forced to go.

Had my change rubbed off on him?

“So what are you doing? Why are you walking?”

“Why else? I got no ride of course. Anyway, perfect timing—I’ll hitch a lift.”

He frowned.

“Why would you ride mine?”

“I’m not feeling that great. The part you hit when you ambushed me yesterday still hurts.”

I rubbed my leg theatrically.

We had plenty of bad blood, but you got to use what you can use.

“Hey, you didn’t even take a single hit!”

“No, I did. Look.”

I rolled up my pants to show my calf.

Naturally, it was fine, which made Yuk Ja-heung stare in disbelief.

“What even are you?”

“I’m Sahyung’s Sajae.”

“Hah. You want to ride in his carriage that badly?”

“Yeah.”

“Then keep calling me Sahyung properly like that and I’ll consider—hey, what the!”

While he babbled, I climbed in.

“Thanks, Sahyung.”

“I haven’t agreed yet.”

“Don’t be stingy. Show some sahyung-ly generosity. Driver, go!”

I rapped the carriage.

Yuk Ja-heung stared, speechless.

He soon shook his head, resigned, and muttered,

“Tch, damn. What a weirdo, crawling in here calling himself a Sajae.”

I let it pass and whistled.

The breeze through the window felt nice.

While we rode in silence,

I noticed the gourd flask at his waist.

Just as I’d told him, a jade ring looped the narrow part of the gourd.

“You’re wearing it well.”

“Don’t eye it. It’s mine.”

He subtly tried to hide it.

“Who’s eyeing it? Keep it for life—it suits you.”

“Heh. Does it look that way to you too?”

His lips twitched between pride and a grin.

“Honestly, it does. I admired myself in the mirror. I felt like a different person. People seem to look up to me more, treat me more politely.”

“…Isn’t that in your head? A flask changes how people treat you?”

“I’m telling you! They instinctively feel it belonged to Master.”

He rambled, excited, for a while.

It was all about how things had changed since getting the flask.

It was ridiculous, but at least he was happy.

He popped the stopper and gulped the liquor.

“Ahh. That’s good. Hey, what I’m drinking isn’t wine. What I drank was the loneliness of the world’s number one.”

“That was my line.”

“It’s my line now. The banquet will go crazy. When the Elder Council Lord realizes whose flask this—”

He clamped his mouth shut.

“Why stop mid-sentence? ‘This’ what?”

He just looked at me with an unreadable gaze.

“Hey.”

“What.”

“I felt it yesterday too—why are you so carefree?”

“Shouldn’t I be?”

“No. Don’t you know why the Elder Council Lord is holding the banquet?”

“I do.”

“You ‘do,’ huh. Want a tip from your sahyung?”

“No.”

I refused flatly.

He scratched his cheek, awkward.

“Don’t be like that. Listen. Whatever happens, don’t defy the Elder Council Lord at the banquet. He’s gunning for you.”

I eyed him oddly.

It was evident that this guy disliked me.

Yet he was giving me advice?

Advice that would’ve been useful—if I weren’t a regressor?

I couldn’t understand.

‘That flask really works wonders.’

I guess it was worth the hundred twenty taels he paid.

“Let him gun all he wants. I’m not scared.”

“Then you’ll die before Master can save you. The Elder Council Lord is scary, but the man behind him is worse. Do you know who? Great Sahyung!”

A familiar title.

Behind the Elder Council Lord stood Great Sahyung Geuk Mu-hyeok, called the New Demonic Dragon.

There were many epithets for him.

The strongest candidate for the next Cult Leader.

Young Clan Lord of the fiercest among the Seven Demonic Houses.

A peerless talent rivaling the Heavenly Demon.

The first is true, the second too.

The third was absurd.

In my past life, the Heavenly Demon alone toppled the Cult, piled corpses across the Central Plains, and slew the Ten Great Masters.

No talent in the world compares to the Heavenly Demon.

Even so, objectively, Great Sahyung could not be dismissed.

Sly, cruel, cunning.

More than anything, he wasn’t alone.

Of the Seven Demonic Houses, five had produced Little Demons.

Not only the two that hadn’t, but even some that had were aligning with him.

Countless other groups within the Cult were under his sway.

And the Elder Council Lord was the chief figure willing to do anything to make him the next leader.

This banquet was part of that.

To control any variables that might arise in the succession.

“Great Sahyung’s in the Central Plains right now. He won’t know there’s a cheeky new Sajae. So the Elder Council Lord is going to test you first. If you defy him at the banquet—what do you think happens when Great Sahyung returns? Man, it’s terrifying just imagining it.”

Yuk Ja-heung shivered.

He’d always feared Great Sahyung’s cruelty—since he was trash who killed anyone who irked him.

I used to think so too.

I had worse history with him than with Yuk Ja-heung.

Come to think of it, he coined that lovely nickname “Seven Minute Invincible” to mock my severed meridians.

“Whatever, do what you want. Not my problem, now that I think about it.”

“Seriously? Are you going to be like that? Doesn’t a sahyung have a duty to protect his sajae?”

“Duty my ass. I’m different from the Illusory Hwang Clan.”

My ears perked at the sudden name.

“Illusory Hwang Clan?”

“One of the Seven Demonic Houses, idiot. They don’t like Great Sah—wait, what am I saying?”

He clapped a hand over his mouth.

Then smacked his lips in panic.

I raised my palm.

“Want me to smack it for you?”

“Don’t you dare! Forget you heard that, got it? It’s a secret. If word gets out Yuk Ja-heung said someone hates Great Sahyung, we’d both die. No—you’d die. By me!”

I brushed off the threat and thought.

‘The Illusory Hwang Clan resents Great Sahyung?’

So far, I’d only planned to screw with the Elder Council Lord.

But hearing this, I could go further.

The Illusory Hwang Clan was a place I had to visit soon.

There was something essential there to help treat my severed meridians.

That had me stumped.

I’d thought they were aligned with the Elder Council Lord—since in my past life I’d only seen them serve Great Sahyung together.

If what he said was true, a foothold might exist.

‘I’ll test their reactions later.’

Adorably, helpful without knowing it, Yuk Ja-heung was still smacking his mouth.

I asked,

“Is Great Sahyung that scary?”

“I told you didn’t I?!”

“Then why give me advice?”

“Why?”

His eyes darted.

Then he put on a needlessly cool face.

“Because I’m your sahyung, You punk.”

“Some sahyung you are.”

I snorted at the bravado, yet felt strange.

Maybe because that was something I’d wanted to hear in my past life.

Meanwhile, the carriage arrived at the hall.

We’d taken our time, so the appointed hour was near.

The front was packed with the Elder Council’s warriors, sharp auras bristling.

They had probably intended to intimidate me before I even entered.

“……”

I stepped down.

Standing at the entrance, memories surfaced.

Pretending to treat me well, they poured me drinks, tested me, baited me into mistakes, treated me like a fool.—

‘—and beat me down.’

“Why the glare?”

Yuk Ja-heung, a step behind, flinched.

“You feel my killing intent?”

“What are you on about?”

“Just watch yourself.”

“Watch what?!”

Either way, he would not be the one hitting me.

But someone else would step up to test me.

The Elder Council Lord would make sure of it.

‘Let’s focus on the Elder Council Lord first.’

Half of the Elder Council Lord’s authority came from Great Sahyung, but the other half was thanks to his own underlying power.

Cross him and trouble abounds.

All I had was three and a half years of internal energy and memories of a past life.

But that was enough.

I’d show the Elder Council exactly what I was.

And make everyone here realize the lifeline they grasp need not lead to Great Sahyung.

When I walked out again, my standing would be very different.

“Let’s go in.”

I took the lead.

Yuk Ja-heung grumbled behind me about being the sahyung yet not leading.

I ignored him and entered the hall.

‘Quite the turnout.’

Tables and attendees packed the vast hall.

Far more than in my past life.

Yuk Ja-heung and Wi So-rang—

Rumors I’d beaten both had spread.

Even the indifferent wanted to see me firsthand.

‘Heads of the Seven Demonic Houses, the Guardian Hall Master, the Ghost-Soul Corps Captain, Blood Demon Command Captain…’

The Cult’s mainstream had all but gathered.

I studied the Illusory Hwang Clan’s Clan Head.

Was disdain for Great Sahyung hidden behind those rigid eyes?

Then I’d help him realize—

That there existed a Little Demon without a backing, one who might change his fate.

Today would be a small appetizer for that.

“The guest of honor has arrived. Welcome, Seventh Young Lord.”

The hall fell quiet.

The Elder Council Lord’s voice, infused with internal energy, rang out.

“Many here may not have seen him. Well? Is his presence not lofty? And that dignified visage—truly a figure all demonic cultivators can revere.”

I was mildly impressed.

Attacking me the instant he saw me, without pausing for breath.

Those words could roughly be interpreted as this—

—As you can see, he’s a pitiful nobody. Isn’t it truly regrettable that the Cult Leader took such a man as a disciple?

Sure enough, snickers rose across the hall.

“Seventh Young Lord? I thought a menial had wandered in. Hahaha!”

One man crossed the line—

A young dandy fanning himself.

‘Jin Si-myeong.’

I asked as if I didn’t know him,

“You there—your name?”

He smirked and replied,

“I am Jin Si-myeong of the Radiant Moon Jin Clan. You, being new to the Cult, likely have not heard.”

“I know a little. Which division is the Radiant Moon Jin Clan in again?”

“The Kangmu Division.”

The Kangmu Division was one of the Cult’s twelve divisions.

I gave a big nod.

“Ah, the Kangmu Division! The Illusory Hwang Clan is famous there.”

“……”

Faces, including Jin Si-myeong’s, froze.

The Illusory Hwang Clan and the Radiant Moon Jin Clan were old rivals. Because their estates were located so close to each other, quarrels between them had become an everyday affair.

The Illusory Hwang Clan side I glanced at wore faint smiles.

Thanks, Jin Si-myeong—free points.

Feigning ignorance, I said aloud,

“Wow. I’ve heard of the Violet Lightning Yuk Clan, the Demon Bell Geuk Clan, the Illusory Hwang Clan, and others—but the Radiant Moon Jin Clan? It’s my first time hearing of it. My apologies.”

His face flushed red.

He glared, cold.

“Perhaps our customs are strange to you, but such discourtesy can be dangerous. I hope you never have to experience the Radiant Moon Jin Clan’s power firsthand.”

Well, well. Look at him.

I might be a newcomer without a faction, but I was still a Little Demon.

And he threatened me here, in public?

‘Big mistake, you brat.’

I searched my memory.

A certain incident involving him surfaced.

Smiling, I walked up.

Close, I whispered to the man baring his eyes at me,

“Excuse me. What’s that yellow powder on your sleeve?”

“…!”

He, who had stared like he’d eat me, hastily covered his cuff.

His face turned very pale.

He must’ve thought I’d spotted something forbidden.

Even in a den of lunatics like the Demon Cult, some things were strictly banned—

Like drugs that overly cloud the mind.

And Jin Si-myeong, who was seemingly lacking something, was addicted to them.

How do I know? Later, the Cult was thrown into turmoil over it.

He barely crawled out alive thanks to his clan and bribes.

But—

“Perhaps customs are strange to you as well, but neglecting sleeve hygiene can be dangerous. Someone like me might notice things.”

“……”

“Answer.”

“Y-you are right. I will take care.”

“Good.”

I smiled, satisfied.

I had no idea if there really was yellow powder.

Neither did he.

But he surely understood one thing—

That I had a way to twist his life at any time.

“Behave yourself from now on.”

Tak, tak.

I patted his shoulder.

He nodded like a man under a spell.

“What’s wrong with Young Master Jin?”

“What did they whisper about?”

Everyone in the hall stared, puzzled.

They had no idea why the swaggering Jin Si-myeong had become a lamb.

I sat in the empty seat beside the Elder Council Lord.

“This is my seat, right?”

“…Hm? It is.”

I lounged and swept the hall with a triumphant gaze.

The mood had shifted—dampened compared to my entrance.

‘Go on—someone else try me. I won’t let it slide.’

I chuckled and tapped the empty table, looking at the Elder Council Lord.

“Well? Where’s the food.”

“…!”

The change of expression over the Elder Council Lord’s face was well worth seeing.