WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 73: Chapter Nine - Mission, Espionage (4)
──────
After safely passing through the checkpoint in Shaanxi Province, the Dragon Phoenix Unit headed to a small estate.
With its quaint pond and unfamiliar flowers, the estate had been secured in advance by the Alliance for an investigation that could last who knew how long.
The estate’s largest room.
Dang Hwa-seo removed her stifling disguise and addressed the unit members.
“As I said before, we must find and arrest the Demonic practitioners hiding here.”
“Arrest them?”
“Yes. It would be best to take them alive. We need to get every bit of information we can out of them.”
Mok Ri-won nodded as though he understood.
Dang Hwa-seo continued.
“We do not know exactly where the Demonic practitioners are hiding. The Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect are conducting an open investigation, but they have made little progress.”
“So we have to begin searching with nothing.”
Il-un’s expression grew grave.
Even the Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect, both rooted in Shaanxi, had failed to find the Demonic practitioners. Being told to find them without a single clue was daunting.
As the mood around him sank, Mok Ri-won racked his brains before voicing a suggestion.
“Could they have driven out the Black Path figures operating here and taken their place? When we went to Wuhan before, did not the Demonic practitioners appear disguised as mountain bandits?”
“Yes, that has happened often enough in other regions. But it is unlikely here.”
“Why is that?”
“Because this is Shaanxi.”
Jegal San answered.
“Because this is Shaanxi?”
“The Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect are both here, are they not? With two Daoist-affiliated sects of the Nine Sects concentrated here, there are not many Black Path figures in Shaanxi.”
“Hmm…”
Mok Ri-won’s troubled expression deepened.
“This is serious. Then you have no plan at present, miss?”
“It is not as though I have no plan.”
Mok Ri-won’s eyes widened.
Dang Hwa-seo gave a small laugh.
“Why do you think we came here dressed like spoiled brats?”
“Ah!”
“We will turn this city upside down. If there are Demonic practitioners in the places where we cause trouble, they will surely target us. They will not want attention drawn to the city where they are hiding.”
No one thought the plan sounded overly hopeful or premature.
“That is right! The minds of Demonic practitioners are corrupted by Demonic arts, so they act on emotion rather than reason! We should strike at what makes them uneasy, correct?!”
“Exactly.”
Mok Ri-won sprang to his feet.
Both fists were clenched tightly, showing just how fired up he was.
“I understand! I shall click my tongue as diligently as I possibly can!”
The other unit members began to laugh.
After making such a determined vow, all he intended to do was click his tongue.
It was so ridiculous and innocent that smiles naturally spread across their faces.
* * *
The next morning, after fully recovering from the fatigue of their journey, the unit members began their proper performance as spoiled brats.
They began at an inn.
“You dare charge money for this rubbish?!”
As Dang Hwa-seo shrieked viciously, Namgung Jin-cheon, wearing the mask of an ugly man, hurled the bowl of food to the floor.
Mok Ri-won clicked his tongue and stared into empty space, while Jegal San turned pale and kept flinching.
Hye-un merely kept her head lowered, while Il-un was once again a footstool.
None of them wanted to behave so cruelly, but they had no choice.
They needed to build a notorious reputation.
A little notoriety would not be enough.
Their reputation had to spread throughout the provincial capital of Shaanxi, widely enough that everyone would know their names and even the estate where they were staying.
It had to be notorious enough to draw the attention of the entire city.
Even after causing trouble at the inn, the unit members diligently continued their spoiled-brat act.
At the marketplace, they kicked fruit being sold by merchants and spat on silk at a fabric shop.
They handled butchered meat with their bare hands and deliberately slammed their shoulders into passersby to provoke fights.
Still, their consciences pricked at them for committing nothing but misdeeds, so the Dragon Phoenix Unit chose to apologize with money.
“What is that look for? Ah, I see. Are you saying I have interfered with your efforts to sell even this worthless rubbish?”
“N-no! How could I…!”
“Enough! You mangy bastard! A lowly thing like you should know your place. Take this and get lost!”
Clink!
After every act of cruelty, Dang Hwa-seo threw silver coins at the merchants along with a vicious remark.
The amount was exactly the price of the goods they had damaged.
The merchants’ expressions turned strange after checking the money, but that did not make them view the unit members favorably.
After all, people were creatures endlessly sensitive to attacks against themselves.
The unit’s plan began to work.
It took precisely five days for the notorious reputation of the “three half-siblings” to spread throughout Shaanxi Province.
* * *
“I am dying.”
In the estate courtyard, Mok Ri-won muttered with a haggard face.
Dang Hwa-seo gave him an awkward smile and patted his shoulder.
“What can we do? It is the mission.”
“Even so, I feel terribly sorry for everyone…”
Mok Ri-won’s tearful face looked almost pitiful.
His appearance played a part, but the true reason was the immense emotional pressure he was under.
Mok Ri-won had never spoken harshly to anyone in his life.
He was also someone who generally approached strangers with kindness.
That was why the resentful looks of others hurt him all the more.
“Are you all right, miss?”
“When I was running from my family, I often received looks like these.”
As if proving her words, Dang Hwa-seo’s expression was not much different from usual.
She did not need to look far. When she had run a pleasure house in Suyang County, Jiangxi, where she first met Mok Ri-won, Black Path figures had framed her and hurled all manner of vicious words at her.
Dang Hwa-seo was far too accustomed to the resentment of others.
“Hmm…”
Pity filled Dang Hwa-seo’s eyes.
Mok Ri-won looked so miserable as he hugged his knees and stared at the pond.
Her next words naturally followed.
“…If this is too difficult, would you like to rest tomorrow?”
“N-no! Everyone must be having a hard time, so how can I be the only one to rest?”
Only then did Mok Ri-won notice Dang Hwa-seo’s expression and straighten his back.
Still, he could not hide his sunken cheeks.
Dark shadows hung beneath his eyes.
Dang Hwa-seo unconsciously reached out.
Tap.
The moment her hand touched his cheek, Mok Ri-won flinched.
As her thumb brushed beneath his eye, his heart felt strangely ticklish.
“You have grown this thin… This will not do. Today, you must eat something besides thin noodles and Bamboo Leaf Green.”
Normally, he would have recoiled and shaken his head at those words.
But Dang Hwa-seo’s touch had made his insides feel so ticklish that he could not properly hear what she said.
All he could do was nod blankly.
Mok Ri-won looked at Dang Hwa-seo, then felt inexplicably awkward at her worried expression and turned his gaze toward the pond.
Thump.
Thump.
His heart pounded hard, and Mok Ri-won was flustered.
He had been raised knowing nothing but chivalrous deeds, so he did not yet know the name of the emotion rising within him.
* * *
A vast estate where lanterns brightly illuminated the surroundings even in the dark of night.
From the outside, it appeared to be a place full of warm life, but the expressions of those living within were dark.
No, they were cowering.
Crunch!
The sound coming from the estate’s main residence was unsettling.
So was the scent of blood drifting from it.
Yet all of it had become familiar to them.
For a full month, a boy had been curled up inside the estate’s privy, where the smell of blood had not faded for a single day.
‘Again…’
Another person had died.
He no longer knew how many times this had happened.
There was no point in wondering who had died today.
Whoever it was, they were surely the family of someone who had dared to think of resisting.
The boy pulled up his ragged sleeve and wiped away his tears.
Yet they continued to well up. He trembled as choked sobs escaped him.
The boy wanted only one thing.
That the person who died in there today was not his mother.
That it was not someone close to him.
It was selfish, but a boy driven into a corner had no room to question such things.
He simply continued to pray.
He did not even know whom he was praying to.
His body trembled as he held even his breath to keep from crying.
Then it happened.
“Found you.”
The privy door flew open.
The startled boy raised his head.
“H-hiik!”
Strength left his legs, and his body plunged into the pit beneath the privy.
Even as he fell, a horrifying sight filled the boy’s vision.
‘A-a devil…!’
What filled his sight were a man’s bulging eyes, as though they belonged to a devil.
* * *
The Dragon Phoenix Unit was putting even more effort into their spoiled-brat act today.
They had grown accustomed to it enough to add their own touches.
Apparently determined to vent the irritation caused by his human-skin mask, Namgung Jin-cheon stood atop Il-un, using him as a footstool again, and threw the fruit in his hand.
It struck another merchant in the face.
“It tastes like garbage.”
The merchant’s face turned red, but he did not dare protest.
Alongside their notorious reputation, rumors had spread that these three siblings were the children of a famous landowner in Jiangxi Province.
What if the landowner became enraged because his children had been harmed?
What if he hired martial artists to take revenge?
The merchant, no more than an ordinary commoner, feared that.
So all he could do was tremble and submit.
“I-I am sorry…”
When the merchant lowered his head, Mok Ri-won frowned again.
His recently haggard face made the expression seem menacing.
Yet Mok Ri-won’s insides were burning.
This was to capture Demonic practitioners.
This was for Chivalry.
Even when he steeled himself with those thoughts, it was hard to watch innocent commoners lower their heads in fear.
Mok Ri-won, who only wanted to make people smile through Chivalry, felt deep disgust at doing something fit for a villain.
‘…For the greater good.’
Was that excuse right?
Was sacrificing the few for the sake of the many fitting for a chivalrous hero?
Mok Ri-won’s thoughts only deepened.
Dang Hwa-seo quickly noticed his state.
She had heard his true feelings only the day before.
Her heart ached, but there was nothing she could do, so Dang Hwa-seo simply took Mok Ri-won’s hand tightly in hers.
She did it secretly, where no one could see.
Mok Ri-won’s fingertips twitched.
Dang Hwa-seo gently stroked his hand and whispered softly.
“I am sorry. Please endure just a little longer.”
There was no better method available.
They were in a situation where it was impossible to draw out the Demonic practitioners through ordinary means.
At Dang Hwa-seo’s continued whispering, Mok Ri-won lowered his head.
“…I understand.”
It was a mission, so he should not insist on his own feelings.
Just as Mok Ri-won steeled himself,
Tug.
A boy grabbed his arm.
Mok Ri-won turned his head, then his eyes widened.
“P-please save me…”
The boy’s face was covered in red bruises.
There was no strength left in his body, and he reeked of blood and filth.
The boy trembled and wept as he forced out the words.
Thud.
Then he collapsed where he stood.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
