Chapter 166

I doubted my own ears.

“Did you just say we should join households?”
“That’s what I said.”

Gal So-ye replied as calmly as ever and continued.

“I hear the relocation of Hidden Cloud Pavilion is almost finished?”
“Yes.”
“You should have some spare rooms too.”
“I probably will, but are you seriously suggesting we live together?”
“Yes. Why are you so surprised?”
“How could I not be?”

Gal So-ye tilted her head slightly.

“Am I not to your liking?”

Gal So-ye leaned her upper body toward me.
Moonlight streaming through the window illuminated her face.
I had never noticed beneath her perpetual exhaustion, but her features were rather fine.

I cleared my throat softly and answered.

“Well. You seem to have everything you’re supposed to.”
“Be more specific.”
“I suppose your eyes, nose, and mouth are all where they should be?”
“…….”

Perhaps she hadn’t expected that answer.
Gal So-ye blinked, then burst out laughing.

“What kind of answer is that? Eyes, nose, and mouth? This is where you’re supposed to tell me I’m beautiful. You really have no talent for this sort of thing.”
“I’ve never had the luxury.”

Even if I did, there would never come a day when I flirted with Gal So-ye.
She had far too terrifying a side to get that close to.
Gal So-ye shook her head.

“Do you think everyone else dates and marries because they have the luxury? Anyway, joining households was a metaphor.”
“I knew it. I figured that was what you meant.”
“You seemed awfully serious for someone who knew. You even told me your ideal type.”
“I did?”
“Doesn’t she just need eyes, a nose, and a mouth?”
“Well, I suppose you could put it that way?”

A faint smile lingered on Gal So-ye’s lips.
But I could tell.
Her eyes had changed.
They were no longer Gal So-ye’s eyes, but those of the Demon Cult’s Grand Strategist.

“Seventh Young Lord and I need to present a united front.”
“Aren’t we already doing that?”
“No. I mean with complete honesty between us.”

Gal So-ye lowered her voice.

“Seventh Young Lord always produces dazzling results. This time is no different. You killed one of the Heaven Rebelling Society’s four senior executives and even discovered one of their bases. The Cult members will sing your praises. For days, stories about you will pass from mouth to mouth.”
“Isn’t that a good thing?”
“If I were the Heaven Rebelling Society, I would use those rumors.”
“How?”
“There are plenty of ways. They could spread praise laced subtly with suspicion, or praise you so excessively that it breeds resentment. They could compare your achievements to My Lord’s and whisper that perhaps a disciple has appeared who may even surpass his master.”

I frowned.
None of those possibilities was good.
Pure praise could turn into suspicion and jealousy, and the Heavenly Demon’s absolute, unrivaled authority could be damaged because of me.

“And it doesn’t end there. The Seven Demonic Houses have traditionally stood in opposition to the Cult’s central authority. The stronger they become, the weaker the Heavenly Demon’s authority becomes.”

That was true.
As far as I knew, there had been several similar cases in the past.

“But even if every member of the Seven Demonic Houses attacked together, they still wouldn’t be able to handle Master alone.”
“Of course not. That’s why the Seven Demonic Houses will target me.”
“You, Grand Strategist?”
“Rather than attack My Lord’s authority directly, they’ll try to undermine mine as his representative. They’ll wield Seventh Young Lord’s accomplishments like a blade.
They’ll say a single Little Demon accomplished what the Grand Strategist couldn’t. While that Little Demon risked his life and produced results, what were the Grand Strategist and the Strategist’s Office doing?
The very people who were circulating a joint petition not long ago to tie Seventh Young Lord to the Heaven Rebelling Society will suddenly take your side and use you to belittle me.”

I nodded several times.
Every word of it made perfect sense.
I asked her,

“Have you already thought of a solution?”
“To an extent. First, we dilute Seventh Young Lord’s credit by sharing it with the Strategist’s Office, the Guardian Court, the Illusory Hwang Family, and the others involved. At least until the Heaven Rebelling Society is destroyed.”
“Second?”
“It will be difficult to stop rumors from spreading. But we can track who first steers them in which direction. Those people will find themselves charged with apostasy.”
“Is there a third?”
“We rely on each other completely.”
“With complete honesty?”
“Exactly.”
“Fine. Let’s do that.”

Gal So-ye smiled at my immediate answer.

“The alliance we’ve built so far has taken a few more steps forward.”
“Looks like it. At this rate, we’ll end up bound by a common fate.”
“Would you like that, Seventh Young Lord?”
“……Not really. I was joking.”

I closed my mouth, then quickly opened it again.
Something had suddenly occurred to me.

“Right, I have one favor to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“If you find a list of the Ink Scholar’s test subjects at the base, could you let me know?”
“By test subjects, you mean the dolls that put Seventh Young Lord in danger?”
“Yes. There were quite a lot of them. There must have been many innocent victims.”
“I’ll do that.”

Gal So-ye didn’t ask why I wanted it.
Instead, she answered with a faint smile.

“There’s nothing I can’t tell someone I’ve joined households with.”
“……Could you be a little more careful with your wording? People will misunderstand.”
“I’ll consider it.”

Gal So-ye stood.
She returned the chair to where it had been and opened the door.

“I’ll send word as soon as we have results.”

Those were her final words.
The door closed.

I lay back down on the bed.

‘Complete honesty, huh.’

It was a phrase that didn’t suit Gal So-ye at all.
She would use anyone or anything if necessary.
But at least when it came to the Heavenly Demon, I could probably trust her.
Because Gal So-ye was sincere about the Heavenly Demon too.

‘I should get some sleep.’

I closed my eyes again.
A sudden wave of drowsiness swept over me. This time, I felt like I might fall asleep quickly.

But then,
Hwii-
a soft whistle reached my ears.
It came from my third visitor of the night, Flying Swallow.

‘I forgot about her.’

I had parted ways with Flying Swallow in Soul-Bewildering Forest.
She had gone to report the situation to the Strategist’s Office.
I had completely forgotten about her afterward, and now she had finally appeared.

“You didn’t forget about me, did you?”

Flying Swallow slipped through the window as she asked.
I sat up and shook my head.

“Forget you? I’ve been waiting for you to show up. You took so long I almost fell asleep.”
“For someone waiting so eagerly, you seemed to be having a great time laughing it up with women.”
“Having a great time, my ass.”

Flying Swallow stopped about a meter and a half from the bed.
Unlike Im Yeon and Gal So-ye, she didn’t bother bringing over a chair to sit.

“All right, time to settle up.”

Flying Swallow rubbed her thumb and forefinger together.

“What’s that gesture supposed to mean?”
“The money gesture.”
“I don’t have any money.”
“Quit screwing around and take out the manual.”

I obediently took out the Thousand-Li Roaming Body manual.
Flying Swallow’s eyes immediately lit up.

“Hmm, how many pages should I give you?”
“Three!”

Flying Swallow thrust three fingers into the air.

“Infiltrating Soul-Bewildering Forest, keeping watch on the situation, relaying the signal with Thousand-Li Sound, reporting back to the Grand Strategist. That’s worth three pages, isn’t it?”
“Hmm. I don’t know.”

I deliberately stroked my chin.

“Come on. I even risked my life going with you to meet the Ink Scholar.”
“You didn’t risk your life. Who was it that openly said she’d run away if anything went wrong?”

Flying Swallow’s lips pushed into a pout.
When you had no comeback, all you could do was pout.

“Fine. Then give me two pages.”
“Hmm.”
“What do you mean, hmm? Did I say anything wrong? I did enough to earn two pages!”

I silently stared at Flying Swallow.
Her confidence faltered slightly.

“……Was I wrong? Fine. A page and a half. I’m not giving up any more than that. Anything less would shame a family of honorable thieves.”

Her voice trailed off, and her eyes shifted nervously.
Seeing that, I couldn’t help chuckling.

Riiip, riiip, riiip.
I tore three pages out of the manual.

“Here.”

When I handed them over, Flying Swallow’s mouth dropped open.

“W-What? Why three pages?”
“You asked for three.”
“I mean, yeah, but weren’t you trying not to give them to me?”
“I was messing with you to see how you’d react.”
“Y-You’re really giving me all three? You’re not about to yell, ‘Just kidding!’ and snatch them back, right?”
“What kind of person do you think I am?”
“I used to think you were a stingy rogue, but not anymore. You’re a great hero. A Great Hero!”

Flying Swallow didn’t seem to know what to do with the three pages in her hands.
The care with which she tucked them into her clothes was just like when she had received the first page.

‘She earned them.’

Without Flying Swallow, I never would have met the Ink Scholar in the first place.

“Now get going. This great hero needs his sleep.”
“Yeah, all right.”

Flying Swallow hurriedly tucked the loose pages away.
Then she bent deeply at the waist with exaggerated courtesy.

“Thank you for using the Flying Swallow Trading Company. Please use our services again.”
“Do repeat customers get a discount? Like half a page instead of a full one?”
“We are not accepting inquiries about discounts, dear customer.”

Flying Swallow grinned as she put a hand on the windowsill.
As she slipped outside, she left me with one last remark.

“You did good today.”

Flying Swallow disappeared without a sound.
I chuckled.

‘She’s pretty polite for a thief.’

The long day finally came to an end.
The next morning, I climbed energetically into the carriage.
Hellish training was right around the corner, but I wasn’t too worried.
With the help of the physicians at Ink-Needle Hall, I had arranged a special little performance.

The Divine Bandage Art.
A technique of wrapping myself in bandages so I looked painfully injured at a glance.

I wrapped exactly one place.
My face.
Everything but my eyes was completely covered.

If I had my way, I would have wrapped my entire body from head to toe.
But overdoing the performance would only make it less convincing.
So I decided this was enough.

There was only one reason I was going through all this trouble.
To lower the intensity of my training.
Even Ju Ok-hwa, who had reached the level of a divine physician, couldn’t restore my battered body completely in a single night.

The problem was that the Heavenly Demon believed grit could solve anything.
If he worked me as hard as usual, I might end up bedridden for dozens of days.
To gain momentum, I had decided to kneel for the moment.

‘Not that I think this will work.’

Even someone as cold-blooded as the Heavenly Demon might lower the training intensity a little, right?
He was still human.

On the way to Demon Awakening Peak,
Im Yeon kept sneaking glances at me.

“How do I look?”
“Y-You look impressive.”
“Really? I guess even bandages can’t hide the radiance pouring from my face.”
“Y-Yes.”

Im Yeon pressed her lips firmly together.
She clearly found me pathetic, but I appreciated her pretending otherwise.
And so, we arrived at our destination.

“…….”

The Heavenly Demon said nothing when he saw me.
He simply stared.

‘What kind of reaction is this?’

I couldn’t tell exactly, but he certainly looked speechless.

‘Now then, what will the Heavenly Demon choose?’

I waited expectantly.
But the Heavenly Demon’s first words were nothing like what I had hoped for.

“Today, we will train through sparring.”

A clean, complete dismissal.

“Um, Master. Don’t you see anything?”
“I do.”
“Right? You probably received a report, but something pretty serious happened last night. I nearly got blown to death. You have no idea how badly I was injured.”
“You are mistaken.”
“What? About what?”
“Pain is an illusion.”

Dumbfounded, I looked up at the Heavenly Demon.
An illusion?

“I almost died, you know?”
“You didn’t. That is enough.”

Right. Why did I even bother talking to the Heavenly Demon?
I took off the bandages and resigned myself to the beating.
With my body in this condition, it wasn’t ordinary sweat pouring off me but cold sweat.
Several times I genuinely thought I couldn’t continue, but I gritted my teeth and endured.
Complaining once was enough.

At last, the training ended.
I sprawled flat on my back across the ground.
The breeze felt especially cool as I caught my breath.

Today, the motionless Heavenly Demon looked like the Grim Reaper himself.

-The Heavenly Demon has no choice but to become a demonic fiend. That is the natural order.

The Ink Scholar’s voice suddenly echoed in my ears.
That vigorous, energetic, downright vicious man was going to become a demonic fiend?
It was a future I found hard to believe even after living through it once.

“There is insolence in your eyes.”

The Heavenly Demon spoke.
Apparently, he had noticed my expression.

“Wow, was it that obvious?”
“What did the man you met say?”
“……Are you curious?”

I sat up and met the Heavenly Demon’s gaze.
Countless words passed through my mind.
But I let none of them leave my mouth.
It felt as though saying them in front of the person concerned might somehow make them real.

“It’s nothing worth mentioning.”

The Heavenly Demon looked into my eyes for a moment.
He probably knew I was lying.
There was no way someone like him would fail to see through something that obvious.

But the Heavenly Demon did not press me.

“Whatever you heard is meaningless. You need only walk your own path.”
“I’d like to, but my master keeps giving his disciple reasons to worry.”
“Worry you bring upon yourself is equally meaningless.”

‘Of course it is.’

I stood and brushed off the dust.

‘Hm?’

Why was that?
My body felt lighter than usual.
I should have been utterly exhausted and groaning with every movement, but

‘Could it be?’

Peerless masters could manipulate acupoints and regulate the meridians even in the middle of battle.
For the Heavenly Demon, something like that would be trivial.
Had he been unblocking my acupoints while beating me under the guise of sparring?

The Heavenly Demon stood with his back to me, looking down at the lake.
The wind atop the cliff slowly stirred the hem of his robe.

‘Nah. No way.’

I shook my head.
That was far too unlike the Heavenly Demon.
Now that really was an illusion.
I decided it was probably just the medicine taking effect.

“I’m going.”

Just as I took a step away, the Heavenly Demon’s voice reached me.

“Su-gyeong.”

I stopped.
Still facing away from me, the Heavenly Demon continued.

“Live. To the very end.”
“…….”

For a while, only the sound of the wind lingered over Demon Awakening Peak.