WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 12: Chapter Two - First Foray into the Jianghu, and the Demoness (6)
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The hall was in chaos.
Business had not even properly begun for the day, yet troublemakers were pouring in and turning the place upside down.
Mok Ri-won emerged onto the top floor with Hwa Seo and scanned the area below the railing.
‘Where is it?’
He could sense an aura.
Killing intent refined to an extraordinary degree.
Quiet and concealed, it was like a fish swimming beneath a lake, veiling itself as it shot toward this place.
Mok Ri-won spread his Qi Sense farther and sharpened it.
Only then did he find the man standing motionlessly at the entrance of Gyeonghwa Pavilion.
‘...There.’
A large bamboo hat concealed the man's face, but his sturdy build and rough, scar-covered hands clearly belonged to a martial artist.
The heavy killing intent and qi waves rolling from him also showed that his martial arts were far from ordinary.
At that tense moment, the martial artist raised his head.
Mok Ri-won flinched.
His fingertips trembled.
‘...His realm is more advanced than mine.’
Mok Ri-won knew at once.
The man was an expert who had reached a fully mature Peak Realm.
Their gazes met briefly.
The instant they acknowledged each other's presence, the man turned and left the building.
Only then did Mok Ri-won feel the tension leave his body. He turned to Hwa Seo.
Then he had to swallow his surprise.
“Miss?”
Hwa Seo was staring at the place where the man had disappeared with an expression Mok Ri-won had never seen before.
Her pupils trembled helplessly.
Her face had gone deathly pale.
Mok Ri-won knew.
That was the face of fear.
* * *
It did not take long for the commotion to settle.
Once the guards of the pleasure house and Hwa Seo's own escorts stepped in properly, the troublemakers had no way to resist.
Things could have been said to have gone well.
Yet Hwa Seo's expression did not ease when she returned to the top floor.
The reason was simple. Hwa Seo had seen the man Mok Ri-won had spotted as well.
She had not found him through his qi waves or killing intent. She had found him because she already knew who he was.
‘...Pyo San.’
That gloomy, pallid face. The wrinkles weathered by life's hardships.
He was unmistakably the hateful shadow of the family that had followed her throughout her childhood.
“Miss, it is time.”
The voice announcing those painful moments replayed in her mind.
At the same time, the sensation of every organ in her body twisting rose again.
Phantom pain.
It was pain she should never have to feel again. She knew it was an illusion, yet Hwa Seo's body still trembled from it.
‘So I’ve been found...’
They had come all the way here.
Those dreadful people had not overlooked even the smallest clue. They had dug through everything and found her in the end.
‘I've failed.’
Her long escape seemed to be nearing its end.
No, could she even call this an end?
‘It will be the beginning of something even more terrible.’
Now that they knew she had tried to escape, they would become even more relentless.
They would leave nothing at her side and erase even what she had once possessed.
Hwa Seo bit down hard on her lip as she sensed presences above the ceiling and outside the door.
‘...I have to let them escape alive.’
They were people who had abandoned their names and faces for her sake.
At this rate, Pyo San would kill every one of them.
‘At the very least.’
If she could not escape, she had to find a way to make sure they could live.
“Young Hero.”
Hwa Seo called Mok Ri-won.
Only then did he open his mouth, which had remained shut the entire time.
“Speak.”
“May I ask you for a favor?”
“What is it?”
“Please escort my people somewhere safe. Hyang will make sure you are generously compensated. Please.”
Rustling came from all directions.
A moment later, seven masked figures dropped from the ceiling, while another leaped in from the door. They all prostrated themselves before Hwa Seo.
So Hyang, who stood at the front, spoke.
“That cannot be done.”
“It is an order. Obey.”
Hwa Seo did not look at them.
She merely closed her eyes and spoke.
It meant she would accept no objections.
It was cruel, but So Hyang and the masked figures had no choice but to obey.
Hwa Seo was generous in most matters, but once she made up her mind, she rarely went back on it.
“Please, Young Hero.”
She asked Mok Ri-won again.
Mok Ri-won silently looked at Hwa Seo before asking, “What will you do, miss?”
“I will go to them. They will be satisfied if I give myself up. At least these people should be able to keep their lives.”
“Are you giving up? Without even trying to fight?”
Hwa Seo's eyes opened.
Unable to understand what those words meant or why he was saying them, she looked at Mok Ri-won.
The man before her was watching her with a calm expression.
“Why should you give up, miss? And why should they run?”
It was the same guileless question as always, yet Hwa Seo sensed something different in it.
He was not smiling brightly and showing her goodwill as he usually did.
“Young Hero?”
“I know this. You are not someone who has committed a crime. No, you are someone who has built up good deeds. The smiles of everyone in this pleasure house prove it.”
His words poured out as though he were praising her as before, yet they still felt different.
Naturally.
Mok Ri-won was not happy in the slightest right now.
The reason was so simple that even asking why felt unnecessary.
“A good person does not kneel. In fact, it is the opposite. Evil people should be the ones kneeling and begging for their lives.”
The present situation did not fit his sense of what was right in the slightest.
Hwa Seo gave a hollow laugh.
Even now, part of her wanted to sock that mouth of his for spouting such pretty words.
His opinion was one she could have ignored.
She only needed to put money in his hand and tell him to repay the debt he owed her.
Yet Hwa Seo argued back.
A fury whose reason she could not understand had settled inside her.
She hated that frustrating nature of his, that stubborn need to remain upright.
“Yes, you speak such righteous words. But do you know this? The world does not move according to what is right. Great power is needed to make one's will prevail. Look at the current situation. You said there is a Peak Realm martial artist down there, didn't you? Judging by the signs, his martial arts must be stronger than yours.”
Mok Ri-won did not refute her.
His silence was agreement.
Hwa Seo clenched her fists tightly and continued.
“Even if that is how things ought to be, what can you do? Can you defeat that martial artist? Do you think things will improve if we resist and face him? Look here. The martial world is not as romantic as you think. If we fight like this, all that awaits us will be a terrible defeat. Even people who could have been saved will die.”
When had she spoken this much in recent days?
Hwa Seo poured out her emotions until she was left panting for breath.
She still did not know why she was speaking so fiercely.
She did not know what was making her so angry.
...No, perhaps she did know.
Hwa Seo furrowed her brow and smiled bitterly.
‘I've grown attached to him already.’
Perhaps she was worried that this foolish man would chase after such romantic ideals and die somewhere far from home.
Perhaps she simply thought it would be better if his head stayed attached to his neck.
‘Have I become too deeply involved?’
As a sudden sense of futility came over her and she began to regret it, Mok Ri-won spoke.
“You won't know until you try.”
“...What?”
“I said you won't know until you try. No, that isn't it.”
Mok Ri-won rose from his seat.
His expression remained calm.
He stared into the empty air as though thinking something over. Then he turned toward Hwa Seo and smiled.
“I do not think I will lose.”
The nape of Hwa Seo's neck pulled taut.
Her anger had risen past the point where she could endure it. Just as she started to stand, ready to slap him across the face, Mok Ri-won continued.
“There is something you have forgotten, miss.”
Hwa Seo froze.
Mok Ri-won's face filled her vision. It looked far too dependable for someone like him.
“A hero does not lose to evil foes. That is a line spoken by the Sword Hero in the first chapter of Tales of Martial Heroes.”
Tap. Tap.
After patting his chest, Mok Ri-won walked toward the door.
“I'll be back.”
Creak.
The door closed.
* * *
A large estate on the outskirts of Suyang County.
Inside the building, whose gate bore a plaque reading “Illyun Society” in elegant calligraphy, two men sat facing one another.
One was a hulking man with a servile expression, the chairman of the Illyun Society. The other was Pyo San, who had spotted Hwa Seo at the entrance of Gyeonghwa Pavilion.
“S-Sir, for someone of your standing to personally help us, I do not know where to put myself...”
“Stop your nonsense. I already feel ashamed enough simply for sharing a room with Black Path scum like you.”
Kang Byeok-un flinched at Pyo San's attitude.
His heart was filled with resentment.
‘What an arrogant bastard.’
The man had come to offer help first, yet he spoke like that. There was no way Kang Byeok-un could look favorably on him.
Still, he could not voice his displeasure. Even if the entire Illyun Society attacked together, Pyo San's martial arts were strong enough that they could not touch a single hair on his head.
“I-I misspoke...!”
Kang Byeok-un lowered his head even farther.
He had to endure it.
Gyeonghwa Pavilion was the largest pleasure house in Suyang County.
The benefits they would gain from swallowing it whole were too great to ruin over something as trivial as hurt feelings.
Kang Byeok-un quietly refilled Pyo San's cup.
He was forcing himself to smile as he thought about somehow placating the man and finishing this business.
Bang!
The vice chairman guarding the inner hall flung open the door. “Brother! An intruder!” he cried.
Kang Byeok-un and Pyo San looked toward him at once.
“What? An intruder? Who is it?”
“I-I don't know! It's just...”
The vice chairman's face had gone pale.
He looked as though he had seen a ghost.
“...O-One person. There is only one.”
The implication was obvious. A single intruder had broken in, and they had failed to stop that person before the vice chairman came running here.
Kang Byeok-un's face flushed red as he was about to roar in anger, but Pyo San rose from his seat.
“It must be him.”
Kang Byeok-un looked at Pyo San, who seemed to know something.
Pyo San ignored the gaze and said, “I have an idea. I will go and see.”
Leaving only those words behind, he passed the vice chairman and headed toward the source of the commotion.
* * *
Smack!
Mok Ri-won walked deeper into the estate, beating back the Black Path men who approached him with his scabbard.
He had launched the invasion alone.
Yet no one could stop him.
Naturally.
A Peak Realm martial artist was, without question, considered superhuman.
The Black Path rabble gathered there, who did nothing but act like street thugs, had no way to deal with him.
“Where is your chairman?”
After finally knocking down every Black Path man in the courtyard, Mok Ri-won calmly asked someone lying on the ground.
At that moment,
Whoosh!
Something grazed Mok Ri-won's cheek and left a cut on his face.
Mok Ri-won raised his head.
There stood a gloomy-looking middle-aged man in a bamboo hat, the Peak Realm martial artist he had seen at the entrance of Gyeonghwa Pavilion.
“You came all the way here after all. Or should I thank you for sparing me the effort of coming to find you?”
Mok Ri-won's gaze darkened at the man's leisurely words.
The moment he saw him, his suspicions became certainty.
‘...As I thought.’
The aura he sensed from that man was far too pure.
“There is something I want to ask you.”
“Ask. For someone your age to have cultivated martial arts to that degree, I can at least grant you that mercy as your senior.”
Senior.
Mok Ri-won turned the word over in his mind.
His thoughts grew cold.
“You called yourself my senior.”
“That is correct.”
“There is something I have been thinking about on my way here.”
Step.
Mok Ri-won took a step forward.
Then he voiced his question.
“There was something I could not understand. The qi waves I sense from you are exceedingly pure, so why is someone like you helping the Black Path?”
“That is a misundersta-”
“There cannot be one. There must not be one. There absolutely must not be one.”
Step.
Mok Ri-won took another step forward.
His face, calm until moments ago, slowly began to turn cold before settling into a chilling expression.
“You should have nothing to say while daring to stain the Righteous Path, upon which countless heroes have made their names illustrious.”
It was almost a murmur.
It was also almost self-persuasion.
That was right.
What Mok Ri-won felt as he looked at Pyo San was a rage rarely seen from him.
“Someone who does the work of villains and tramples good people should have nothing to say.”
To Mok Ri-won, the Righteous Path had to be sacred ground.
It had to be righteousness capable of making even someone born beneath the Heavenly Slaughter Star into a hero.
That was why he could not forgive Pyo San.
“I will make this clear.”
Shing.
For the first time, Mok Ri-won's sword emerged from its scabbard.
Above it appeared an ink-dark star.
Sword Qi Injures the Person, the mark of a martial artist who had reached the Peak Realm.
“Do not dare speak of being my senior with that filthy mouth.”
At that moment, a blood-red gleam flashed through Mok Ri-won's eyes.
Footnotes:
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