WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Damned Transmigration ◈
Chapter 101: Dang Family 4
──────
This wasn't a defeat.
No matter how many times he thought about it, it made no sense for a Poison Human to fight while restraining their poison and killing techniques. Even if Tang Seo-jin had set those conditions himself, they were absurdly unfair in practice.
Besides, this was a spar. It wasn't a life-or-death duel.
“...”
No amount of rationalization could quell his anger. Tang Seo-jin glared at Yuri without withdrawing the Poison Qi swirling around him.
“Ugh...”
His Poison Qi continued to spread. The faces of the lower-tier people in the surrounding crowd gradually turned black.
“Young Master.”
Tang Mu-seok had no choice but to intervene. He approached quietly and lowered his voice.
“If you release any more Poison Qi...”
Tang Seo-jin bit down hard on his lower lip and withdrew his Poison Qi. The White Tiger Gate was in this city. They weren't a sect that could rival the Dang Family or the Salmun, but if he committed a massacre here, it would become a problem not just with the White Tiger Gate, but with the Righteous Heavenly Alliance.
“But... those bastards should be brought to the Dang Family...”
[Young Master.]
Tang Mu-seok sent a Voice Transmission and gave him a meaningful look.
On the roof of the port authority building stood a red-haired woman with a greatsword strapped to her back. Tang Seo-jin's expression stiffened at the sight.
[Cruel Mayhem?]
[Yes.]
He had heard rumors that Cruel Mayhem had been seen dealing with the aftermath of the disturbance at Alderan's magic exposition, but why was she here?
[Did the Mabeld Family assign her as their escort?]
[They arrived aboard their airship, so that is likely the case.]
Alnair Mabeld of that Pride had shown them enough favor to assign a Martial Apex Venerable as their escort? Tang Seo-jin swallowed hard as he looked up at Cruel Mayhem on the roof.
Their eyes met. Cruel Mayhem smirked and waved a hand at him. It meant he should stop being stubborn and back off.
He had no choice but to retreat. If Tang Seo-jin won, they would go with him to the Dang Family. If Yuri won, they wouldn't.
It was a trivial promise he could crush with force whenever he wanted. Yet he couldn't do that. It wasn't just because Cruel Mayhem was watching. He had declared it before hundreds of people, so the honor of a prestigious family was on the line.
“...Impressive.”
What mattered now was finding a way to clean this up gracefully.
“Young Hero, you're far stronger than I expected. You made me think that if this continued, I would die. Hahaha.”
He didn't want to humiliate himself too badly, so Tang Seo-jin praised Yuri's martial skill.
“I apologize for drawing out my Poison Qi without realizing it. When my emotions run high, it comes out on its own. Hahaha. That's how threatened you made me feel.”
This bastard.
“I learned a valuable lesson from you as well, Young Hero. There truly is no end to learning. Someday... yes, someday. I hope we can become close enough to call each other brothers.”
What the hell was he talking about?
“Then... even if it isn't now, please make sure to visit the Dang Family next time...”
“Brother.”
Tang Seo-woo looked at Tang Seo-jin with a twisted smile.
“What are you saying right now?”
“...”
“Have you forgotten what the Head said? He told us to bring Aunt Tang Yu-ryeon and the other guests without fail.”
“I'll explain it to the Head.”
Tang Seo-jin forced a smile and glanced at Tang Seo-woo.
“Besides, the Head never said to drag them here by force...”
“Aunt Tang Yu-ryeon?”
There was no need to listen to this son of a bitch until the end. Tang Seo-woo sharply turned toward Haryeong.
“You heard him, didn't you? It was the Head himself who called for you! The Dark King, one of the Three Hegemons beneath the Martial Apex Venerable, has summoned you!”
The Dark King, Tang Yu-shin.
Haryeong had never called him brother even once. The emotion in his gaze had been contempt and hatred, the sort one might direct at filth. They were half-siblings, but neither of them thought of the other as family.
‘Lowborn thing.’
She had heard words like that since she was old enough to toddle. To Haryeong, the Dark King's cold gaze was a frightening nightmare that had clung to her since the beginning of her memories.
“...”
Haryeong tightly gripped the robe in her arms. It was Yuri's robe. That man had shown her a side unlike anything she had known before. She said she didn't want to go to the Dang Family, and he had made that happen.
“Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Haryeong laughed in halting bursts. It was a self-mocking laugh. The man she had teased for being pathetic had changed beyond recognition. What had she done all this time? Yuri had fought the spar. Yuri had refused them.
“Niece.”
When she had been at the Dang Family, she had never spoken casually to Tang Seo-woo. She had always called her niece, who was years older than her, “Miss,” and endured her contempt.
“Niece?”
Tang Seo-woo's smile twisted. It was a natural form of address, but Tang Seo-woo didn't take it that way. This was the lowborn bitch who couldn't even meet her eyes or step on her shadow when she had been at the Dang Family.
Every time Tang Seo-woo learned poison techniques and concealed-weapon techniques, she remembered as vividly as yesterday using that body for practice, driving needles into it and shoving insects into its mouth. Had twelve years made her forget the past? Tang Seo-woo tilted her head and replied.
“Yes, Aunt.”
“Yes, niece. Go fuck yourself.”
Haryeong answered without changing her expression.
“...What?”
Tang Seo-woo parted her lips, unable to process what she had just heard.
“Auntie's flow is fucking insane.”
“Lady Haryeong truly is something else.”
Yuri clapped in admiration.
“W-wait, Aunt Tang Yu-ryeon? What did you just say?”
“I said go fuck yourself, niece.”
“...”
“I'm not the aunt who used to run errands for you. Whether the Head called for me or not, I won't go to the Dang Family. If he wants to see his little sister that badly, tell him to come find me himself.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“I'm probably perfectly sane.”
Tang Seo-woo glared at Haryeong, her smiling lips trembling. It was Tang Seo-jin who had wagered on the spar. It had nothing to do with Tang Seo-woo.
“I am the hidden youngest daughter of Poison King Tang Ji-hoo, and the Dark King's younger sister, young enough to be his daughter. I haven't kept quiet all this time for the Dang Family's honor, but it isn't anything to brag about anyway, so I don't know why someone from the Dang Family is making such a fuss about it. In any case, if you call me Aunt, then no matter how rotten your intentions are, you've acknowledged me as your aunt on the surface. So you little punk-ass bitch from a lower generation shouldn't try to stop this aunt.”
Haryeong declared it before Tang Seo-woo could say anything.
There was more than one part of that long speech that stabbed Tang Seo-woo in the chest. The final insult in particular shook her smile.
“Miss.”
Tang Mu-seok watched Tang Seo-woo with an uneasy expression. Among the direct-line siblings, the person he had to be most wary of wasn't the older brother, but the younger sister. Even Tang Seo-jin himself watched his sister's mood.
Tang Seo-woo, the Black Enchantress Snake Flower. She was only tier five, but she possessed something special that surpassed her tier. If Tang Seo-woo lost her temper and rampaged without reason, at least several thousand ordinary people in Gwangseo would die even after she was killed.
Knowing that, Tang Mu-seok couldn't understand the Head's intentions. Why had he deliberately sent a ticking bomb like Tang Seo-woo here?
“I believe we should withdraw for now.”
“Fine.”
Tang Seo-woo suppressed her emotions as she answered. What if they kidnapped them outside the city? They had enough strength. Tang Mu-seok, a collateral-family expert, and seven first-class assassins were on their side.
It would be one thing if there were only Cloud Dragon and that lowborn woman, but it was difficult to disregard Sword Dragon's backing. Leaving the city first and contacting the Dang Family was the rational decision. As Tang Seo-jin said, they had never been told to bring them by force.
‘No one expected her to refuse.’
The Head, the Dark King, must have thought the same way as the Dang Family siblings. She was a bitch who had been cast out of the Dang Family and sent to the Salhomun twelve years ago. They must have thought she would wag her tail like a dog if they told her to return.
“If Aunt dislikes the idea that much, I, as her niece, can't force her any further.”
Having decided to retreat, Tang Seo-woo didn't want to face the lowborn woman any longer. She slung the parasol she had put down over her shoulder, composed her expression, and smiled brightly.
“We're family, so we'll meet at home someday. Won't we, Aunt?”
“Yeah, go fuck yourself.”
Haryeong gave each syllable extra force. Tang Seo-woo's carefully composed expression wavered again. Haryeong turned around before the Dang Family could even leave.
“Do you think they'll follow us?”
“Maybe.”
Yuri answered Estor's question and looked back. The hundreds of people who had initially surrounded the Dang Family were gradually dispersing.
The Dang Family had said they would withdraw, and provoking them now might leave someone as the target of pointless anger. Maybe someone without that much sense would stir up the Dang Family and end up eating poison, but that wasn't Yuri's concern.
“What do you think, Lady Haryeong?”
Yuri spoke to the back of Haryeong's head as she walked a little ahead of him. Still holding Yuri's robe, Haryeong was quiet for a moment before speaking.
“I don't know how you felt, Yuri, but Tang Seo-jin is more mindful of propriety than he looks. Unless he was ordered to bring us by force, he won't act without considering the consequences.”
“What about his sister?”
“Tang Seo-woo was raised like a princess in the Dang Family, so she is emotional and violent, but she too knows how to consider the circumstances. For all that, they are both direct descendants of the Dang Family, and they were taught to control their emotions from childhood.”
“For someone like that, Tang Seo-jin fought pretty emotionally.”
“That is because Tang Seo-jin never learned an assassin's martial arts. As a direct descendant, he had no need to become an assassin.”
Yet Haryeong, the youngest daughter of the previous Head and of the same generation as the current Head, had learned an assassin's martial arts. Even then, she hadn't been allowed to learn it properly. That alone made it easy to imagine how she had been treated in the Dang Family.
“Tang Seo-woo may be someone who could lose control and go on a rampage, but Tang Seo-jin and Tang Mu-seok, a collateral-family expert, are with her. No matter how spoiled a princess she is, she cannot ignore both of their opinions and run wild.”
“So there won't be any pursuit?”
“Yes. They will likely wait for word from the Dang Family at a Salmun hideout.”
Salmun hideouts existed all across the continent. Haryeong had effectively been cut off from the Dang Family and sent to the Salhomun, so she had never received assassin training from the Salmun or visited one of their hideouts.
Still, she knew how Salmun assassins carried out requests.
“If the Dark King orders them to bring us by force, the Dang siblings will act accordingly. But I don't think the Dark King will give that order.”
“Why not?”
“If it were a matter serious enough to require bringing us by force, he wouldn't have sent such a small force. That much...”
Haryeong trailed off. She bit down on her tongue, which prickled as though it were covered in thorns, then returned the robe she was still holding to Yuri.
“The Dark King has no need for me. There is no reason he would, and I can't think of one either.”
He was someone who had sent her to the Salhomun for twelve years and never once sought her out. Even after Haryeong crossed to the Western Continent for Heavenly Thunder's request two years ago, no letter had ever come from the Dang Family.
“So I'm confused too. I never expected them to come out to meet us. I suppose I have become fairly famous. That's all thanks to you, Yuri.”
Wearing her usual expressionless face, Haryeong looked back at him.
“Joining you was the right choice after all, Yuri. Thanks to you, my reputation has risen, and I gained an Elixir and martial arts as well. In the life plan I had imagined, it would have taken several more years before the Dang Family noticed me.”
“Lady Haryeong.”
Yuri put on the returned robe as he spoke.
“So what are we supposed to call you?”
“...”
“I know you have many secrets. If this hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have heard your real name until much later. No, maybe I wouldn't have heard it even then.”
“I don't like that name.”
Tang Yu-ryeon was her real name, but she had rarely been called by it.
“Haryeong is a name I chose myself. It is also the name I first told you. Just as you have been Yuri ever since you introduced yourself to me as Yuri, I am the same. I am Haryeong, not Tang Yu-ryeon. So please keep calling me Haryeong, as you always have.”
Yuri smiled without realizing it.
“I never imagined Lady Haryeong was the Poison King's daughter.”
Estor, who had been eagerly looking around the streets of the East, muttered to himself. Yuri suddenly realized something and looked at him.
“Hey. Do you know how old those Dang Family siblings we saw earlier are?”
“As I recall, Dark Soul Poison Dragon is thirty-three, and Black Enchantress Snake Flower is twenty-nine.”
“I see...”
Yuri nodded and picked up his pace, walking ahead of Haryeong.
“What is it?”
Haryeong frowned slightly at Yuri's fixed gaze.
“Lady Haryeong, what is your exact age if Black Enchantress Snake Flower, who is twenty-nine, calls you Aunt?”
“...”
“I figured you were older than me, but are you really over thirty? You don't look it.”
“Yuri, you're really going to get yourself killed one day.”
“I've heard your real name already, so what does your age matter? Since we're at it, just tell me how old you are.”
This was all because of that damned Dang Family and that accursed Tang Seo-woo. That awful bitch kept flattering her by calling her Aunt, a title she had never once used when Haryeong was at the Dang Family.
“...I'm twenty-six.”
“Oh...”
That meant Haryeong had been twenty-four when Yuri first met her.
She had been tier five even then. Reaching tier five at twenty-four with incomplete martial arts was an astonishing talent, one that rivaled most transmigrators.
‘Is that why?’
If she had been born normally into a martial family, that talent would have blossomed and earned her love. But not Haryeong. Instead, that talent must have been another reason for the Dang Family to mistreat her.
“Is there nothing else you want to ask besides my age?”
Haryeong stared at Yuri as she spoke.
Her mother.
Why she had been expelled from the Dang Family.
There were many other things. Haryeong rarely spoke about herself. Yuri had plenty he could ask about.
“I won't ask.”
Yuri shook his head.
“If you want to tell me, Lady Haryeong, I'll listen gratefully. But I don't want to force you to talk about things you don't want to discuss.”
“I didn't want to tell you my age either.”
“The weight is different. Anyway, if you don't want to say it, you don't have to say it yet. I'm such a considerate martial artist.”
“Ha.”
At his joking answer, Haryeong let out a laugh before she could stop herself.
“Hmm.”
At some point, Estor had bought a heap of grilled skewers from a street stall. He nodded.
“There may be a pursuit, and other troublesome matters might arise, so I think we should leave the city immediately. I wanted to experience Eastern cuisine here, but we'll have to save that for next time. I'm a thoughtful swordsman too.”
Estor grinned as he handed skewers to Yuri and Haryeong. Yuri agreed that they should leave the city right away. It wasn't only because of the Dang Family's pursuit. They had caused a scene in the middle of the street.
There was a high chance of trouble, especially now that people knew Haryeong was the hidden daughter of the Poison King, the previous Head.
“...”
Haryeong blankly stared at the skewer in her hand.
The easiest thing would have been to ignore Haryeong's feelings and wishes. Her not wanting to go to the Dang Family was ultimately a personal matter.
But Yuri hadn't done that. Estor hadn't voiced the slightest complaint about Yuri's unilateral decision. In fact, Estor had been the first to get angry, even before Yuri stepped in.
“Yuri, Estor.”
Haryeong felt the corners of her mouth loosen from their usual expressionless state as she continued.
“As you may have expected, my mother was the Poison King's concubine.”
She thought she should tell them this much.
“And my mother is a transmigrator.”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
