Chapter 154

Flying Swallow hesitated.
After a brief pause, she shook her head.

“I don’t know his exact location. The Ink Scholar never stays in one place.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I don’t know why, but his movements are irregular. Even after settling into one hideout, he’ll suddenly leave again after only a few days.”
“There has to be some reason. Some kind of pattern.”

Flying Swallow wrinkled her nose.

“There is one thing.”
“What?”
“He has a distinctive scent.”

I tilted my head.
What did she mean by a scent?
Flying Swallow said,

“How do I describe it? Hmm. It’s not perfume from a sachet, and it’s not flowers either. If I had to put it into words, maybe a sweet earthy scent?”
“There’s actually a smell like that?”
“There is. Once you smell it, you never forget it. Maybe that’s why it seems so strong. If he’s nearby, you should notice.”
“How nearby are we talking?”
“About thirty meters?”

I frowned.
The wind might carry it farther, but thirty meters was still quite a distance for a scent to spread under normal conditions.
Even so, could I really find someone by smell alone?
That sounded difficult even with the nose of a hound.

“How many Heaven Rebelling Society bases do you know?”

I immediately asked Flying Swallow.
If the number of places we had to check was limited, it might not be impossible.

“I’ve been to two.”
“Where?”
“One is an abandoned mine near the Radiant Moon Jin Family. The other is beneath an ordinary abandoned tomb.”
“Figures a bunch of shady bastards would use places like that as bases. Which one is the main base?”

Flying Swallow shook her head.

“Neither.”
“What? You’ve never been to their main base? You said you met the Heaven Rebelling Society Leader.”
“That was somewhere else. They blindfolded me and took me there. When they removed it, I was already inside.”
“They took you there?”
“I’m only a collaborator. I told you, I’m not one of them.”

Flying Swallow sounded aggrieved.
I let out a small sigh.

“At this rate, you’re not getting a single page.”
“Why?! I’m answering everything you asked!”
“You don’t know nearly enough.”
“Isn’t the Ink Scholar what matters right now? I gave you plenty of information about him!”
“You only know two bases. What am I supposed to do if the Ink Scholar isn’t at either of them?”

Flying Swallow shamelessly replied,

“That’s for you to figure out.”
“And that’s why you’re not getting even one page.”

Then I casually added,

“Who knows? If you actually track him down yourself, I might give you a few pages.”

Thief or not, Flying Swallow was an extremely useful asset at the moment.
She had experience entering Society bases, and her mobility was incredible.

Flying Swallow pressed her lips together and glared at me.
I calmly stared back.
What was glaring at me supposed to accomplish?
In the end, Flying Swallow bit her lower lip and reluctantly spoke.

“Haaah. Fine. I’ll look for him.”
“Really? You don’t have to.”
“Wow, you’re a straight-up thief!”
“Not compared to you.”
“If I find him, give me this many.”

Still bound, Flying Swallow spread five fingers.
I shook my head.

“Two pages.”
“I said five!”
“Fine, I’m feeling generous. Three.”

Even beasts had to be fed if you wanted them to work.
That was how you kept them motivated.
Flying Swallow might be a thief, but she was still human. If she produced results, I could spare that much.

“How can a bastard like you exist?”

Ignoring Flying Swallow’s muttering, I asked,

“Tell me more about the Ink Scholar.”
“Hmm. He’s not right in the head.”
“How so?”
“He’s completely insane. His eyes are strange, and he keeps asking bizarre questions.”

Flying Swallow gave several examples.
Things like, ‘How will you overcome your pitiful and wretched fate?’ or, ‘What role do you wish to play in this grand flow?’

“Grand flow?”
“Yeah. Apparently, it’s something no mortal can resist. But he says that because he knows the future, he can make use of that flow.”

I immediately agreed with Flying Swallow’s assessment.
He definitely wasn’t normal.
Even the expressions and words he used sounded a little unhinged.

‘But what if he really does know the future?’

Even though I thought that couldn’t be possible, something about it continued to bother me.
If he truly knew that the Heavenly Demon would become a demonic fiend, then his claim that he could exploit the flow of events might not be entirely empty.

“And he’s constantly writing things all day long. He writes something, tears it up, writes again, tears it up again. He keeps muttering to himself the whole time. And also-”

Flying Swallow eagerly continued.
I could practically feel her obsession with increasing the number of pages she would earn.

“Oh, right. He has a severe limp.”

Just as I was about to cut her off after hearing nothing useful for a while, something meaningful finally came out.
Knowing physical characteristics could be useful in many ways.
For example, they could offer clues about what kind of martial arts someone practiced or how they might fight.

“If his limp is that bad, how does he move around?”
“I don’t know. Whenever I saw him, he was always sitting down. I heard about the leg from Society members. Maybe that’s why the Ink Scholar seems a little envious of me? I’m great at running around everywhere, and I’ve got such a carefree personality, unlike the Ink Scholar-”
“That’s enough.”

I quickly cut her off.
If I let her continue, she was liable to tell me every irrelevant detail imaginable.
Flying Swallow grumbled at being interrupted, then suddenly asked,

“By the way, are all Little Demons like you?”
“What do you mean, like me?”
“Underhanded.”

I silently stared at Flying Swallow.

“Maybe I should just burn the manual. I’ve memorized the whole thing anyway.”
“N-no! That was a mistake! I meant you’re remarkably seasoned for your age!”

A bitter smile crossed my face as Flying Swallow hastily tried to smooth things over.
Of course I was seasoned. I had already lived ten years longer than this once before.
I let Flying Swallow’s continued chatter go in one ear and out the other as I looked through the window.
Soon, the carriage set off.

We arrived at the Hidden Cloud Pavilion.
Someone was waiting for me.
It was a messenger from the Strategist’s Office.

“Seventh Young Lord, the Grand Strategist sent me.”

I accepted the letter.
It asked me to come to the Strategist’s Office.
I immediately knew what it was about.

‘Flying Swallow.’

There was no way Gal So-ye hadn’t heard after I caused such a commotion at the Iron-Soul Workshop.

“I’m heading out. Behave while I’m gone.”
“What’s with that tone? Am I a dog or something?”
“Worse than a-”

-I stopped myself from saying that she was worse than a dog.
Instead, I left Flying Swallow in Ak Mu-jin’s care.
I told him to watch her closely so she couldn’t try anything, and to subdue her immediately if she showed the slightest suspicious sign.

The Strategist’s Office felt different from usual.
Far more messenger pigeons than usual flew overhead, while strategists and martial artists hurried back and forth.

“The Grand Strategist is in the Central Hall.”

The Central Hall was where the strategists handled their work.
It was even busier than outside.

“Grand Strategist, a report from the Red Wing Division! Suspicious individuals have been spotted in Red Wing Forest!”
“Grand Strategist, there has been another deserter from the Sun Wheel Unit!”

Gal So-ye sat with her eyes closed.
She looked either like someone who had attained enlightenment amid all the chaos or someone completely exhausted by it.
When she was informed of my arrival, she opened her eyes and looked at the person standing nearby.
Yang Woo-yeon.
The strategist who had accompanied me when we pursued the Sun Wheel Unit members.

“I’ll have everything below Grade A compiled separately.”

Gal So-ye rose from her seat and walked over to me.

“Shall we walk for a moment?”
“Sure.”

We walked through the rear garden of the Strategist’s Office.
It was quiet here, as though all the commotion inside had been a lie.
Though plenty of messenger pigeons were still visible overhead.

“The Strategist’s Office is unusually lively today.”
“Because I spent money.”

I tilted my head at the unexpected answer.
How had a comment about how lively the place was turned into a discussion about money?

“After the proclamations appeared, I increased the number of personnel in operation. Naturally, the costs went up as well. Enough to put the budget in danger.”

Only after hearing Gal So-ye’s explanation did I understand.
Then a question occurred to me.

“Do you really need to spend this much when the budget is already tight? You have the Demon Eye Pavilion.”
“The Demon Eye Pavilion isn’t mine.”
“But they move according to your wishes.”
“On the surface.”

Gal So-ye spoke calmly.

“They do not work for me. They only pretend to, while feeding me manipulated information. I have to employ separate people just to verify whether what they give me is true.”

In other words, the Demon Eye Pavilion was outside Gal So-ye’s control.
I hadn’t known that.
I had thought she held the Demon Eye Pavilion firmly in her grasp, but apparently not.

“This time, however, I received information that didn’t need verification. You went to the Iron-Soul Workshop, correct?”

Gal So-ye finally got to the point.
As expected, this was why she had called me.

“That’s right. I finally secured the person who posted the proclamations. Turns out it was a thief called Flying Swallow.”
“As expected of Seventh Young Lord. Did you bring her to the Strategist’s Office?”
“No.”
“Why not?”

Gal So-ye asked as though genuinely curious.

“Didn’t you agree to work with me?”

Flying Swallow’s fate in my previous life flashed through my mind.
She had served as a puppet for strengthening central Cult authority before being tragically discarded.
I had no desire to show mercy to someone who had plastered nonsense about the Heavenly Demon everywhere, but I couldn’t hand her over just yet.
Flying Swallow now had work to do.

“I did. But I obtained some important information.”
“And what is that?”

I briefly explained the situation.
After hearing everything, Gal So-ye gave a small nod.

“So it was the Ink Scholar after all.”
“You know about the Ink Scholar?”
“Only the name.”

Of course. There was no way Gal So-ye wouldn’t know at least that much.
She said she only knew the name, but she probably knew more than that.
Though certainly far less than what remained unknown.

Gal So-ye continued.

“So Flying Swallow said she would locate the Ink Scholar?”
“Yes.”
“Can she be trusted?”
“Probably.”
“You intend to keep this to yourself, don’t you?”
“Who knows.”

I looked away from Gal So-ye’s sharp gaze.

“You intend to meet the Ink Scholar personally?”

As expected of Gal So-ye.
She saw through my intentions immediately.

“Of course.”
“Why? Is that even possible? How will you do it? It will be dangerous.”

Questions poured out without pause.
I raised a hand to stop her.

“I’ll figure out the method from here. And once I meet him, I’ll teach him a lesson.”
“Even for Seventh Young Lord, that is far too reckless.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll prepare perfect safety measures.”
“There is no such thing as perfect.”
“Well, some risk is unavoidable. He dared insult the supreme ruler of the demonic path, the sun and moon of all demonic practitioners, and my one and only master. How could I, as his disciple, simply let that go?”
“That sounds remarkably similar to what I heard last time.”

Gal So-ye immediately called me on it.
She was right. I had used a similar excuse at the Return-to-Origin Pavilion.
I had said that insulting my master was no different from insulting my parents.
Maybe the same excuse wouldn’t work twice.

‘Ah, screw it.’

“That just shows how sincere I am. The same thing could happen a hundred times, and I’d give the same answer every single time.”

Gal So-ye stared straight at me.
Her expression was unreadable.
A brief silence passed.
She didn’t take her eyes off me for an instant.

‘Should I at least pretend I’m going to listen to her?’

Her mind was probably racing through the countless possibilities of plans, assumptions, execution, success, failure, and everything in between.
As Grand Strategist, she might very well try to stop me.

“……?”

But suddenly, my hand felt warm.
Wondering what was happening, I looked down and saw Gal So-ye.
She had grabbed my hand.

“W-why are you doing this?”
“Seventh Young Lord and I are the only ones who truly worry about My Lord. I’m moved.”

……It worked again.
I smiled awkwardly and tried to pull my hand away, but Gal So-ye only tightened her grip.

“There is one thing I want to ask.”
“What?”
“Once you find the Ink Scholar, you’ll hand Flying Swallow over, correct?”

What a terrifying woman.
She never let anything slide.

“Probably? Ah, by the way, how is the Sun Wheel Unit Commander? Has he confessed yet?”

I quickly changed the subject.
Gal So-ye answered flatly.

“Not at all. He is still insisting he has been falsely accused.”
“He’s wasting everyone’s time. I doubt he can hold out much longer anyway.”
“Of course. At the earliest, he will confess by this evening. At the latest, sometime tomorrow morning.”
“That’s a remarkably specific estimate.”
“Because that is the predetermined sequence.”
“Predetermined sequence?”
“You’ll understand when the time comes.”

Gal So-ye spoke meaningfully.
She was right.
Early the next morning, I received an absurd piece of news.

“So what exactly did the Sun Wheel Unit Commander do?”
“He confessed!”
“What did he confess to?”
“He named you as the one behind him, Young Lord!”
“Me?”
“Yes!”

The Sun Wheel Unit Commander had dragged me into it.