Chapter 716

They say it’s scarier when someone who’s usually quiet gets angry.

Ju Hwaran was proving the point.

Clatter.

Wooden splinters rained from the hand of the Yongbong Escort Bureau’s precious jewel. She was the human air purifier who had kept this jalapeño pepper party—reeking of old men and getting downright spicy—bearable.

Her usually gentle eyes and voice had turned sharp as thorns.

“Young Hero Taishan.”

Taishan, her first target, flinched.

“Do you have any idea how much the Pavilion Master—how much Young Master Jin has gone through for us? How could you say something like that?”

“Ta-Taishan was wrong.”

“I know you have an enormous appetite, but if you say anything ominous like that again, I really will muzzle you, just as Elder Namho suggested.”

At Ju Hwaran’s stern warning, Sama Pyo narrowed his brows and opened his mouth.

“Young Lady Ju, Taishan isn’t a beast.”

“Then should I muzzle you instead of Taishan?”

“……”

“Well?”

Sama Pyo considered this for a moment, then answered with a solemn expression.

“Come to think of it, an occasional muzzle might help him manage his diet.”

“Be more careful from now on. I know you meant no harm, but that was too much.”

“……Understood. I’ll have a word with him.”

With his proposed muzzle bill narrowly defeated, Namho muttered mournfully, “I’d hoped to see that bastard muzzled before I died……”

But he couldn’t escape Ju Hwaran’s attention either.

“Elder Namho.”

“H-huh?”

“You’re an elder. You should act like one. Swearing like that in front of a patient who hasn’t even recovered isn’t a good look.”

“What? A patient?”

Namho eyed my face, positively glowing after all those level-ups and days of rest. He looked unconvinced.

“Never mind that. Where would you find a worse foulmouth than Jin Taekyung? Why are you coming after me all of a sudden—”

Tap.

I saw it clearly. Just as Namho was about to continue his protest, Hyuk Mujin discreetly jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow.

Translated into modern terms, that little gesture said:

Don’t kill the mood. Just say “for real, lol.”

Namho had decades of spy work behind him. His eyes darted around before he bowed his head in resignation.

“Understood. I’ll be careful.”

“Good. Next, Young Hero Hyuk—what are you doing?”

“I’m massaging the Captain’s shoulders to help him recover from all his hard work.”

Right. They didn’t call him Hyukroach for nothing.

Ju Hwaran smiled approvingly at the sight of Mujin deftly massaging me, then turned to the last person in the room.

“Captain Song.”

A tremor ran through Song Ilseom’s pupils. He had remained silent from beginning to end.

“I haven’t said anything.”

“I know. Keep it that way.”

“……Understood.”

With her final target dealt with, Ju Hwaran looked at me.

The moment our eyes met, my mouth opened on reflex.

“I’m sorry. I apologize. I was wrong.”

“What?”

“Yes?”

“What are you apologizing for?”

“Oh. Nothing. I just……”

I felt like I had to. Survival instinct, maybe.

I shot a look at Hyuk Mujin, who was now diligently massaging my legs.

What happened? Why is Young Lady Ju like this?

He answered with a look of his own.

She was worried sick about you, Captain. Just let it go.

Even so. The air feels different. The air.

If you can’t read the room, at least keep your mou—

“What are you two doing?” Ju Hwaran asked suddenly.

“……!”

“……!”

Mujin’s hands flew twice as fast.

“What do you mean? I’m massaging the Captain’s legs. Oh, these muscles are really knotted up. Should I press harder?”

Something felt wrong. I cautiously caught his arm.

“That’s enough. Stop.”

“Huh? Why?”

“No, it’s… fine now.”

“Our Captain is doing it again. You like it because it feels good, don’t you?”

“No. I said it’s fine. You must be tired too, so stop.”

“Don’t be shy. I, Hyuk Mujin, can do anything for my Captain as his right-hand man. You saw that, didn’t you, Young Lady Ju? That’s how well our Captain takes care of his people.”

As Mujin turned to Ju Hwaran and laughed heartily, I sent him a Sound Transmission in despair.

—That wasn’t my leg just now…

“……!”

—So get your hand off me right now, you bastard. Before I break your wrist.

After a brief silence, Mujin slowly withdrew his hand.

I wanted desperately to smack the back of his head as he stared at me with a gaze filled with a mixture of awe and fear, but I barely managed to hold myself back in front of everyone else.

Then again, maybe…

No. That’s going too far.

I let the thought go and looked around at each of their faces.

Only a few days ago, I’d thought I might never see them again. Our situation had been that bad. Everything ahead of us had been lost in fog.

But now that we were all gathered together like this, alive, I was overcome with emotion all over again.

The fact that not one of them had died filled me with joy.

“I’m glad. Really.”

At my single sentence, which broke the brief silence, everyone’s eyes widened. Then they smiled faintly.

That was enough.

We’d grown close enough to understand what the others felt.

It took a while to hear the whole story.

We’d lived through the same stretch of time, but in different places, facing different things. Their story also covered the seven days and nights I’d spent unconscious.

“I really thought we were going to die. You weren’t there, Captain, and we were tied up. Then that Blood Monk we’d only heard stories about stepped right off the swift ship. I mean… wow.”

“If we hadn’t recognized Great Hero Jeok, there would have been a fight. The Nanman warriors with us were itching for one.”

“I thought it was all over. We were supposed to be bringing reinforcements to save you, and instead a fiend called the Blood Monk appeared.”

They gave me more detail than Jeok Cheongang had.

The Nanman warriors hadn’t believed the Blood Monk’s identity at first. Then the bandits from the Water Dragon Stronghold—all of them sporting bruises around their eyes—stepped forward to confirm that he was the Fire King. The fight ended before it began.

Jeok Cheongang rushed to the Nanman Beast Palace with all his strength. By the time the Fire Dragon Pavilion members and Nanman scouts arrived a step behind him, everything was over.

“When we saw you collapse, Captain, I really thought you’d died. You were covered in blood, and there was nothing around you but blood and corpses……”

I was about to interrupt Mujin. If the state of my perfectly healthy body came up, how could anyone not be suspicious?

But before I could speak, Ju Hwaran went on.

“Great Hero Jeok reassured everyone. He said you’d only collapsed from exhaustion.”

I asked, feeling uneasy.

“……What exactly did the Old Master—no, my master—say?”

“Hmm. I’m not sure. Everyone was in such a panic. But I remember him saying you hadn’t been seriously injured because he’d arrived in time. Palace Lord Yayul agreed.”

Namho nodded and chimed in.

“It was heavenly luck. Heavenly luck. No matter how powerful that bastard is, how could he have survived that hellscape? Two of the Ten Kings had stepped in. Even the Southern Heaven Demon Empress wouldn’t have been able to do anything.”

That wasn’t quite what had happened.

I nodded anyway.

This was unmistakable protection. Jeok Cheongang and the Beast Miao King had taken action to conceal my secret and keep people from becoming suspicious.

The Baekcheon Unit survivors will keep quiet too. Their loyalty is to the Beast Miao King.

The dead couldn’t talk. Most of the fighting that day had taken place in the Inner Palace, and most of the people there had died.

As long as the survivors said nothing, the secret would hold.

Even though I’ve grown close to them, I can’t tell them.

In the modern world, people called things they couldn’t explain Magic or miracles.

Here in Murim, they would use another word.

Demon.

Supernatural powers beyond anyone’s understanding were bound to inspire fear. I wanted as few people as possible to know about the System—about this ability of mine.

Though what was done was done.

I had no idea what consequences my unavoidable choice that day would bring. Still, I was glad the person who’d seen it up close was Jeok Cheongang. I knew what kind of man the Beast Miao King was, too, and that put me at ease.

“Captain?”

“Huh?”

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

I must have been lost in thought for a while. Mujin was watching me suspiciously, so I waved a hand.

“Nothing. My mind wandered for a second. Go on.”

“Oh, right. Where was I?”

“……Did you hit your head?”

“No. Maybe it’s from someone smacking me in the back of it so often.”

He glanced at me, leaving no doubt who he meant.

“I think I told you we gathered the dead and cremated them. You know all the chieftains who sided with Baeksang and then ran away were thrown into the underground prison, right?”

“More or less.”

“Oh, and I heard Great Chieftain Yohi asked to be punished herself.”

“Yohi did?”

“Yes. Great Hero Yayul seemed willing to forgive her, but she voluntarily entered the underground prison.”

I hadn’t expected Yohi to go that far. In a way, though, it made sense.

She’d repented too late, but she had joined Baeksang for wealth and power. Nearly dying must have taught her something.

She chose it herself. She must have thought it was the right thing to do.

I listened as they went on.

More Nanman people than ever were staying at the Nanman Beast Palace, working to restore the ruined Inner Palace and repair the considerable damage to the Outer Palace. Young Palace Lord Yayul Mok was so busy he barely had a moment to breathe.

“We sent word to him, but I don’t know if he can come right away,” Mujin said. “Lately, we can barely catch a glimpse of him.”

“I can imagine. The Beast Miao King must be just as busy.”

“Great Hero Yayul…… You probably won’t see him either—not just us, but anyone else.”

“What?”

“He disappeared two days ago. I hear the leadership is already in an uproar.”

“……!”