Chapter 142

The first to appear were the collateral members of the Radiant Moon Jin Family.
Jin Si-myeong, the Demon Bell Geuk Family warriors, and Yuk Ja-heung followed behind them.

“This can’t be! You really are alive!”

Jin Si-myeong’s wide eyes filled with shock.
I gave him a faint smile.

“Well, look who it is. I thought I’d never see you again.”
“How did you survive against that phantom beast?”
“Simple. I killed it.”

Jin Si-myeong’s jaw dropped.
He probably couldn’t bring himself to believe me.

“You killed it? Someone like you?”
“Someone like me? Now that hurts.”

Perhaps he realized my composure came from telling the truth.
One of the Demon Bell Geuk Family warriors pointed at me and asked Jin Si-myeong.

“Didn’t you say it was a monster fit for the legends? Then how do you explain this?”

The collateral members began whispering among themselves as well.
Apparently, Jin Si-myeong had gone on at length about how terrifying the phantom beast was.

‘He wasn’t wrong.’

If I hadn’t come up with that ridiculous solution, I might have crossed the Sanzu River myself.

“That part’s true. It was strong and vicious enough to belong in a legend. Why else would Young Lord Jin have run away with his tail between his legs?”
“Ran away? Didn’t you say you personally lured it toward Seventh Young Lord before withdrawing?”

At the Demon Bell Geuk Family warrior’s words, Jin Si-myeong’s face flushed bright red.
His fists clenched tightly.
I added a few words with a sly grin.

“You call ignoring your own kin burning alive and running for your life ‘luring it away’? Five of you went in, and watching you flee alone was quite a sight.”
“Shut up. Grrk.”

Jin Si-myeong ground his teeth but couldn’t argue back.
Because every word of it was true.
Unease spread through the collateral members and Demon Bell Geuk Family warriors.

“Did Seventh Young Lord really kill the phantom beast?”
“The thing even Hyung-nim couldn’t handle?”

Their gazes moved back and forth between Jin Si-myeong and me.
A vein bulged at Jin Si-myeong’s temple.
But he seemed desperate to deny reality.
He turned toward Jin Hwa-un, who was barely standing with his back against the wall, and narrowed his eyes.
His gaze was that of a man desperately trying to make sense of something.

“Strange. Why is that mercenary with Baek Su-gyeong? I distinctly remember him going back into that collapsing place because he insisted on killing Baek Su-gyeong.”

Jin Si-myeong muttered to himself for a moment.
Then, as though reaching some conclusion, the corner of his mouth twisted.

“You knew you couldn’t survive alone, so you used the very man who came to kill you just to scrape by! That’s why the mercenary is in that state!”

Before I could even respond, Jin Si-myeong continued, spitting out the words.

“Just like you. Scheming, manipulating people with your words, groveling before your enemies and begging for your life. Crawling along however you can just to stay alive, that’s your way. You’ve survived this long on petty tricks like that. So how did you coax him this time? Money, I suppose?”

This time, Jin Si-myeong turned his gaze toward Jin Hwa-un.

“How much did he promise you to make you forget your mission and throw in with him? This is why rootless mercenaries are worthless. You can’t trust people who move for money.”

Jin Hwa-un glanced sideways at me.
He seemed to be asking whether it was time for him to step in.
I gave a slight shake of my head and spoke.

“You’ve got quite the imagination for a collateral young lord of the Jin Family. You think money is the only thing that can move someone’s heart?”

Not at all.
Sometimes it was one’s life. Other times, it was the ultimate purpose of that life.
Either could change a person completely.
In Jin Hwa-un’s case, it was probably both.

“You know, I learned something very important while talking with this man. Aren’t you curious?”
“Do you intend to beguile me as you did that mercenary? Don’t bother.”
“It has a lot to do with you too. If you’re as close to the direct line as you claimed earlier, you should know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard the Radiant Moon Jin Family Patriarch has a much younger relative of the same generation. Ever heard of him?”

Jin Si-myeong’s puzzled expression stiffened.
So he knew something.
He stared at Jin Hwa-un, then shook his head.
Apparently, he thought the idea occurring to him was too absurd a leap.

“We’ve wasted enough time on nonsense.”

He raised a hand. At once, the Radiant Moon Jin Family’s collateral members pulled out their spear shafts and attached the spearheads.
The Demon Bell Geuk Family warriors placed their hands on their sword hilts as well.
Jin Si-myeong looked around with a sneer.

“Of all places, you chose this for your grave. You must have thought you could put up a fight here.”

This place was the worst possible environment for the Radiant Moon Jin Family.
There were too many mechanisms and cables tangled around the place for them to freely wield long weapons like spears.
Even now, they had attached only a single shaft section to each spearhead.
They could hardly even be called spears anymore.

“I’ll make sure you’re buried here. Kill him.”

The situation was on the verge of exploding.
The corner of my mouth rose.
It would be a shame to start the fight just like this.
I had already planned something.
I was just about to speak when someone beat me to it.
Yuk Ja-heung.

“W-wait!”

Everyone’s attention turned to Yuk Ja-heung.
He continued in a subdued voice.

“B-Brother Jin, what are you talking about? You said you were only going to teach him a lesson.”

Neither Jin Si-myeong nor I had expected that.
For the first time, Jin Si-myeong and I looked at Yuk Ja-heung with exactly the same thought.
Jin Si-myeong spoke.

“What are you suddenly talking about, Ja-heung?”
“No one told me you were going to kill Baek Su-gyeong.”

Yuk Ja-heung glanced toward me.
Like Jin Si-myeong, I wanted to ask him the same thing.
What the hell was he doing all of a sudden?

Jin Si-myeong’s voice turned cold.

“You knew perfectly well. Don’t tell me you truly had no idea.”
“You said you were only going to knock him down a peg.”
“And yet you accepted my offer so you could watch your junior brother suffer, didn’t you?”
“N-no. I……!”
“It doesn’t matter what you say now. The moment you stand here while Baek Su-gyeong dies, you become an accomplice.”

Yuk Ja-heung urgently looked around at everyone and shook his head.

“I really didn’t know it would come to this!”

I couldn’t help but snort.
Yuk Ja-heung’s intention was obvious.
He wanted to draw a line between himself and them.
He was making himself an escape route in case this became a problem later.

‘Of course. That’s more like him.’

For a moment, I had wondered whether he was trying to explain himself to me.
That he had been wronged, that he had never meant to hurt me.
But I had been mistaken.

What was he trying to do?
Jin Si-myeong shot me an irritated look.
Then his gaze quickly returned to Yuk Ja-heung.

“Actually, this works out well. You can do it yourself.”
“……Do what?”

Jin Si-myeong pulled a short dagger from his robe and held it out to Yuk Ja-heung.
Yuk Ja-heung’s face went deathly pale.
Apparently, he understood exactly what Jin meant by doing it himself.

“Y-you want me to kill my Sajae?”
“Yes. You came this far, so there’s no point pretending your hands are clean now. You’re already involved. Wouldn’t it be better to finish the job properly?”
“B-but.”
“You were always complaining about him. Saying he was insolent. You also said your father tormented you by constantly comparing you to Baek Su-gyeong. End it with your own hands.”
“I-I……”

Jin Si-myeong spoke gently to Yuk Ja-heung as he backed away.

“Don’t worry. That bastard can’t even lift a finger.”

He jerked his chin toward me.

“Look at Baek Su-gyeong. He’s already a wreck. Can’t you hear him wheezing every time he breathes? He won’t even be able to resist properly.”

Jin Si-myeong stepped closer and put a hand on Yuk Ja-heung’s shoulder.

“If you’re afraid, I’ll help you from the side. Ja-heung, all you have to do is finish him off. It’s not difficult.”

Jin Si-myeong personally pressed the dagger into Yuk Ja-heung’s hand.
The hand that accepted it almost reflexively trembled violently.

Watching them, I found myself quietly impressed.
From my perspective, Jin Si-myeong was a bastard I wouldn’t mind tearing apart, but he certainly knew how to talk.
Yuk Ja-heung already looked half-convinced.
Was this what all the people I’d talked circles around had looked like?

‘What will he do?’

I could have started talking too, but for now, I kept my mouth firmly shut.
I was genuinely curious.
What choice Yuk Ja-heung would make.

Then my eyes met Yuk Ja-heung’s.
His pupils were trembling violently.

Yuk Ja-heung’s gaze remained fixed on Baek Su-gyeong.
Ribs crudely bound with cloth, perhaps broken. Labored breathing. Wounds all over his body and a sickly complexion.
He was trying to stand as though nothing was wrong, but anyone could tell at a glance that he was far from fine.
In that state, he probably couldn’t even handle a low-level martial artist.
And for someone like Yuk Ja-heung, who stood on the verge of the Transcendent Realm, taking his life would be easier than lifting a finger.
At least, that was how it looked to him.
But-

Yuk Ja-heung hesitantly took one step forward.
He suddenly remembered the first time he had seen Baek Su-gyeong.
A new Little Demon. A wanderer at that.
He had thought he needed to put the newcomer firmly in his place.
So he had stormed into the Hidden Cloud Pavilion.
Yet the insolent bastard hadn’t been afraid in the slightest.

• Are you counting on Master or something? You must not know how things work. Master never interferes in fights between his disciples. That includes newly accepted ones!
• You sure talk a lot. Just come at me, Sajae.
• You bastard! I’m the Sahyung!

The result had been a humiliating defeat.
He had been slapped across the face several times.

One step.
After that, Baek Su-gyeong accomplished things Yuk Ja-heung could never have imagined.
Meanwhile, Yuk Ja heung became the one everyone compared him against and spent his days enduring humiliation and ridicule.
He was the senior brother, yet somehow inferior to a wanderer who had simply rolled in from nowhere.
If that bastard hadn’t appeared, his comfortable days could have continued.

And yet, he had bought two flasks from that very bastard.
The shameless bastard only called him Sahyung when it suited him and had overcharged him more than a hundred taels for a single flask.
But whenever he wore Master’s flasks at both hips, there had been nothing in the world to fear.

One step.
When rumors spread that Baek Su-gyeong had been attacked and left unconscious, why had he gone to the Hidden Cloud Pavilion?

• Why are you standing there? I heard you were at death’s door.

He had meant to point and laugh, saying it served him right.
But when he saw Baek perfectly fine, strangely enough, he hadn’t felt disappointed.
Why?
He still didn’t know.

At some point, he had started spending time with Baek Su-gyeong.
Drinking together at taverns and wasting time on pointless chatter.
He had complained countless times about not being treated like a senior brother, but in truth, it hadn’t bothered him that much.
Maybe, rather than simply gaining a junior brother, it had felt as though he had finally gained the friend he had never had.

One step.
When his entry into the No-Return Cave was confirmed,
Baek Su-gyeong had held out his hand.

• Want to live?
• Is there anyone who wants to die?
• There might be a way.

Those words had given him hope.
But in the end, he had pushed that hand away.
He had chosen the side that promised a surer chance of survival.

One step.
Before he knew it, Baek Su-gyeong was right in front of him.
Baek Su-gyeong said nothing.
He didn’t try to persuade him, blame him, or hurl curses at him.
He simply watched him calmly.

“……That’s why!”

Yuk Ja-heung’s lips trembled.

“You should’ve listened to me! I warned you. I told you not to come in, that it was dangerous. If you’d just listened to me……!”

The resentment burst out.
But even he didn’t know exactly who that resentment was directed at.
Had he really thought that warning would keep Baek Su-gyeong from entering?
Of course not.
It had only been an excuse to ease his own guilty conscience.
Baek Su-gyeong, who knew that, gave a faint chuckle.

“Stop making excuses and do what you want.”

At that moment, the words he had heard earlier flashed through his mind.

• Being cowardly is one thing. Your problem is that you’re cowardly, pathetic, and petty on top of it.

Yuk Ja-heung looked down at the dagger.
That’s right. This is the kind of person I am.

‘Was a dagger always this heavy?’

His hand trembled.
At last, Yuk Ja-heung raised the dagger high.

Yuk Ja-heung raised the dagger.
Its point was aimed at my throat.

‘So this is your choice.’

I hadn’t expected anything from him, but I couldn’t stop a bitter smile from escaping.
Maybe my relationship with Yuk Ja-heung had always been doomed to end like this.
If he tried to kill me, I would have to kill him too.

“…….”

Yuk Ja-heung stood frozen with his arm raised.
Was he hesitating now that it was time to actually kill me?

“Ja-heung, what are you waiting for?”

Jin Si-myeong’s voice was sharp.

“Kill him already. If you hesitate out of halfhearted sentiment, you’ll be buried in the No-Return Cave alongside Baek Su-gyeong!”

Yuk Ja-heung’s arm tensed.
His own life came before everything else.
There was no threat more effective against him.

At last, as though he had steeled himself,
a resolute light entered Yuk Ja-heung’s trembling eyes.
He raised the dagger even higher.
Then turned around.
He stepped in front of me and pointed the blade at Jin Si-myeong.

Silence fell.
Jin Si-myeong’s face twisted.

“……What’s the meaning of this? Have you suddenly lost your mind?”
“I-I’m not crazy.”

His voice cracked badly.
With his legs trembling, Yuk Ja-heung continued.

“You want me to kill my Sajae? This isn’t right!”
“Ridiculous. You came this far, and now you say that?”
“…….”
“You know better than anyone how useless your father thinks you are. Wouldn’t things be much easier if Baek Su-gyeong disappeared?”

At the mention of the Violet Lightning Yuk Family Patriarch, the strength left Yuk Ja-heung’s shoulders.
But even then, he shouted.

“I-I’m the Sahyung! He can be a damn pain sometimes, but Baek Su-gyeong is still my Sajae, and I’m his Sahyung!”

Yuk Ja-heung’s voice echoed through the cavernous space.

For once, I was speechless.
I knew better than anyone just how cowardly that bastard was.
He trembled before the strong, ran when danger appeared, and would do anything to stay alive.

And now that very bastard was standing in front of me.
His narrow shoulders were shaking.
His legs were trembling too.
Just looking at his back, I could tell he was scared to death.
And yet, he didn’t back down.
Even though he had to know that siding with me would bring him nothing good.

• Do you even know what a ‘Sahyung’ is supposed to be?

The question I had asked earlier.
I hadn’t expected an answer.
I had assumed he wouldn’t know.

But I was wrong.
Yuk Ja-heung knew.
Far better than I had thought.

“……Fine. Then both of you can die.”

Jin Si-myeong erupted with killing intent.
He personally advanced with a short spear in hand, while the Radiant Moon Jin Family’s collateral members and Demon Bell Geuk Family warriors followed behind him.

I watched Yuk Ja-heung’s trembling back for a moment, then stepped up beside him.

“Don’t chicken out. We’re not the ones who are going to die.”
“R-really?”
“Yeah.”

Then I added one more word.

“Sahyung.”