Volume 1, Chapter 13
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The lights went out at the Sincerity Gate.
Bustling since daytime due to the kitchen construction, the night at the Sincerity Gate was all the more silent for it.
Everyone was asleep in their own rooms.
Ihoe, too, lay down and fell into a deep slumber.
It had been a decent day.
Dan Goyul, who had been sullen, had regained his spirits.
They had been forced to order food from a nearby inn because of the kitchen construction, but everyone secretly welcomed it.
Though they couldn't show it outwardly, after days of eating Dan Goyul's disastrous cooking, the inn's food was bound to taste delicious.
The fourth brother had eaten two whole bowls of rice just this evening.
It was hilarious to see him giggling with his belly stuffed full.
He had laughed for a long time with his junior brothers and sisters at dinner that evening.
It was a satisfying day.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in and out, and ended the pleasant day.
How much time had passed like that?
He had a nightmare.
*Thud. Thud.*
In his dream, he heard the faint, thudding sound of footsteps.
The setting of the dream was the Sincerity Gate.
Bloody footprints were being imprinted on the ground.
The sound of the footsteps was even, the distance between them constant.
There were footprints, but their owner was nowhere to be seen.
All he could see in the dream was pitch-black darkness.
Only the ownerless, bloody footprints were stamped across the Sincerity Gate's courtyard. They crossed the yard like that.
And even in his dream, with every new bloody footprint that appeared, Ihoe felt his breath catch in his throat.
A sharp sense of pressure constricted his throat.
Just as he was struggling against the stifling feeling.
*Rustle.*
It wasn't the faint sound of footsteps from his nightmare.
It was a clearer, more distinct sound.
“……?”
The sound pulled Ihoe from his nightmare.
The disciples of the Sincerity Gate all slept in their own rooms.
But the fourth brother, Hohyeon, would sometimes come to Ihoe with his pillow whenever he had a nightmare.
On days he had nightmares, Hohyeon would be so terrified he couldn't say a word, just standing forlornly in front of Ihoe's door.
It was Ihoe's job to notice him first.
He had to realize Hohyeon had arrived, get up, and call him into the room. Then he would pat the frightened boy to calm him down and help him fall back asleep.
The first time Hohyeon had a nightmare, Ihoe hadn't noticed, leaving the boy standing outside the door all night. He had come down with a severe fever.
After that day, Ihoe always noticed first when Hohyeon was at his door.
It was because he kept his ears open even while sleeping.
No, it wasn't a conscious effort to keep them open; it just happened that way.
Perhaps it was out of guilt, feeling responsible for Hohyeon's fever.
In any case, no matter how deeply he slept, he always noticed immediately when the fourth brother came to his door.
‘Is that the fourth brother?’
And so, pulled from his nightmare by the rustling sound, Ihoe wondered in his daze if the fourth brother had come to his door.
It was a thought that surfaced while he was not yet fully awake.
But no.
‘The fourth brother would never come inside on his own.’
Hohyeon had been abandoned by his own mother.
Right in front of his eyes, his mother had sold her child.
It had happened when he was only two, but Hohyeon remembered it.
All of Hohyeon's nightmares stemmed from that memory.
So, on days he had that nightmare, he could never bring himself to open Ihoe's door first.
He was afraid he would be abandoned again if he did.
Hohyeon was a child who feared being abandoned again for opening a door without permission more than he feared the nightmares that plagued him all night.
Then it wasn't Hohyeon.
The rustling sound had clearly not come from outside the door.
“……!”
In an instant, the fine hairs on his skin stood on end.
His eyes, which had been closed, snapped open. The fog in his mind cleared in an instant, as if doused with cold water.
And before his eyes.
“……Oh? You’re awake?”
Stood a person wearing a mask.
And the tip of the blackened sword in his hand was aimed right between Ihoe's eyes.
‘An ambush!’
It was an ambush.
* * * ‘Damn it!’
Just when I thought life was getting better.
I had changed the past I regretted and even brought the fourth back from the dead. Though things were still a bit awkward, my relationship with my Master seemed better than in my past life, and the second now smiles and follows me well.
Everything was unfolding with satisfying perfection.
I had even vaguely mapped out a plan for the future.
To make the second, who would one day become one of the hundred greatest masters under heaven, the Sect Leader, and then live a life of comfort and luxury.
I didn't think it was an impossible dream.
But what was this?
An assassin stood before me.
This never happened in my past life.
‘Who is it? The Chagon Gang?’
The first culprit that came to mind was the Chagon Gang.
They were the only ones with whom I had formed a bad connection since returning to the past.
Among the parts of my past life that I had changed, they were the only ones who would hold a grudge.
They used all sorts of petty tricks in my past life, and it seems that habit hasn't gone anywhere.
‘Those sons of bitches!’
Regret came too late to be of any use.
Besides, I had no other basis for suspicion.
In my past life, no matter what, they never went so far as to send an assassin.
In my past life, the Chagon Gang would openly or covertly steal and torment, but they never resorted to a measure like this.
That was why I had been so unprepared.
“Tsk. It would have been easier if you'd just died in your sleep! Stay still. It'll hurt more if you try to dodge. Well, not that you can move anyway.”
The assassin spoke as if annoyed.
The voice was deep. A man's voice. He was on the lanky side, but his body was too firm and straight-lined to be a woman's.
He moved the sword aimed at the space between my eyes.
‘Stay still, my ass!’
The assassin told me to stay still, but if I stayed still, I would die.
And life had just started getting good.
If you were going to kill me, you should have done it right after I returned to the past.
To show up and tell me to die just as I was finally starting to feel an attachment to life—there was no way I was going to go quietly.
I rolled.
I fell from the bed, creating some distance, but I didn't get very far.
Still, I had succeeded in dodging the tip of the sword.
‘Keuk!’
Along with that, a wave of pain washed over me.
My bones hadn't fully healed yet. No matter how great the Myriad Seas Heart Art was, it didn't have that kind of power. And even if it did, for Ihoe, who had only just opened his Myriad Liberations, it was impossible to fully enjoy its effects.
And in that state, I had forced my body to move.
Twisting and rolling out of bed from a deep sleep—there was no way my broken ribs on both sides would be okay.
“Knghhhh!”
A groan of pain escaped through my clenched teeth.
“How did you move? Was the dose of Paralysis Powder too low?”
While I writhed in pain, the assassin muttered in confusion.
It seemed he had used a paralytic poison beforehand to immobilize me.
But I could clearly move.
‘I don't know what's going on, but!’
It seemed he used a paralytic poison, but when could he have possibly administered it? And why was I able to move even after ingesting it?
I didn't know the answer.
I still hadn't properly grasped the situation.
And this was no time to be leisurely assessing things.
This was a moment of life and death.
I had to find a way to survive.
‘A sound. I have to scream.’
I couldn't face an assassin with my injured body. Even if my body were perfectly fine, it would have been impossible.
My opponent was not Gwak Cheol-u.
This couldn't be handled by dragging it down to the level of a children's fight. Moreover, he was armed with a sword.
So I had to scream.
I had to scream and wake my sleeping Master.
Other than him, there was no one in the Sincerity Gate who could deal with an assassin.
“Ah…!”
Just as I was about to open my mouth.
The assassin's eyes, visible through the mask, curved into crescents.
“The Immortal Cloud Sword's chambers are one hundred and fifty paces from here. And your third junior sister's chambers are twenty paces away.”
A low whisper.
The voice was unhurried and relaxed, but I quickly grasped the meaning behind the words it formed.
“You son of a…!”
A curse almost burst from my lips.
I forced myself to swallow the scream that was about to erupt.
The man was threatening me to keep me from shouting.
“You're smarter than you look.”
The assassin laughed.
The low sound of his laughter drilled into my ears.
“If you scream, your master will come here. And I will go straight to where your third junior sister is. Then I will kill that child. Do you think even the Immortal Cloud Sword could protect your third junior sister in time?”
As his mocking, lilting voice laughed, I gritted my teeth.
“…”
If I didn't, I felt like something foul would spew from my mouth.
I couldn't let that happen.
If I did, Chaehwa would be in danger.
“So, shhh! A good little boy listens well.”
I had to exert superhuman patience to keep from shouting.
“You… son of a bitch!”
I spat out the curse in a low growl.
If I didn't at least do this, I felt like I would explode from frustration.
“Go on. Call me whatever you want. As long as you die quietly, what do I care what you babble? Just die gracefully. Then your junior siblings will be safe. I don't like killing those I'm not paid for, you see.”
The assassin approached.
He slowly closed the distance, playfully waving the sword that had been blackened to prevent light from reflecting off it. He was overflowing with confidence.
It was only natural.
Even if he approached with such leisure, there was nothing I could do.
The assassin knew that all too well.
He knew the distance from my room to my master Yu Hyeonjun's, and the distance to the room where my junior sister slept.
And he also knew that I could not send my junior sister to her death in my place.
Grind!
I clenched my teeth.
I had no choice but to stay still. But I couldn't just stay still either.
‘How can I trust him?’
The assassin had clearly said that if only I died, my junior siblings would be safe.
But how could I believe the words of an assassin?
When I didn't even know his purpose for infiltrating the Sincerity Gate, there was nothing to guarantee the safety of my junior siblings.
So I couldn't just stay still.
I took in the assassin's entire form with my eyes.
And my eyes gleamed.
The distance to the assassin was five steps. Four steps. Three steps.
In that instant, the assassin tensed the tip of his big toe.
“Now, die gracefully.”
And he shot forward with blinding speed.
The sword in his hand thrust forward just as quickly.
He had pretended to be relaxed, but until the very last moment, the assassin was intent on ensuring my assassination.
That was why he had suddenly increased his speed.
However,
‘Now!’
I, too, had not let my guard down until the very end.
I yanked with all my might on the arm. My fingertips were clutching the edge of the blanket that had scattered when I fell from the bed.
A thick cotton blanket.
It was the one the third had brought me after I returned from saving Hohyeon, who had nearly drowned in the river.
The blanket she'd brought so I wouldn't shiver from the cold after falling into the frigid river to save Hohyeon was unusually large and thick. And stiff.
It was so stifling to sleep under that it must have been a new blanket, left unused by anyone after being washed.
And now.
“Kuh…?”
Thanks to that blanket, I was able to startle the assassin.
The unusually large blanket was prone to sliding off the bed with the slightest toss and turn.
So, the assassin had no choice but to step on it.
The same was true as he had been walking toward me.
The assassin's dirt-stained feet had crossed over the thick cotton blanket.
But since I yanked the blanket just as he was about to leap, his balance was bound to falter.
“Keuk!”
Seeing the assassin's surprise, I threw my body forward.
I slammed my whole body into his waist, knocking him over.
To endure the pain flooding from my broken ribs, I bit down on my lip.
And then,
Thrust!
“Kuaaaargh! You little brat!”
As I fell, I grabbed the oil lamp that had been on the table and drove it into the assassin's leg.
The assassin let out a scream.
‘I have to aim for his legs.’
Even in that moment, I repeatedly stabbed the assassin's leg with the lamp.
I have to destroy his legs.
That's the only way to stop him from harming my other junior siblings.
A commotion had broken out, and the assassin had even screamed.
So my Master would be on his way.
To ensure my Master arrived before the assassin could harm the others, I had to cripple his legs, even if it was just like this.
Entangled with the assassin, I tenaciously aimed for his legs.
But that, too, was brief.
“Kuaaaaaargh!!”
The assassin suddenly let out a monstrous roar.
And with superhuman strength, he kicked me away.
“Keok!”
A groan burst from my lips as the force sent me flying to the end of the room, slamming me into the wall.
My back throbbed. But the ribs that had yet to heal hurt even more.
“You tenacious bastard! If it weren't for the contract, I would never have let a brat like you die so easily. You should be grateful for the request.”
In that time, the assassin had righted himself and thrust his sword.
I could see the tip of the blade rapidly approaching my eyes.
‘Am I going to die…?’
I thought of death.
It was too late to dodge. I didn't have the energy to dodge.
‘But my junior siblings will be okay, right?’
Seeing the assassin's bloodied, limping leg, that thought crossed my mind.
It was a shame, but I felt surprisingly calm.
Perhaps it was because I had already experienced death once before.
“…Huh?”
But, at some point, the assassin's sword stopped advancing.
A bewildered sound escaped the assassin's lips.
His eyes, filled with confusion, trembled violently.
Slice!
And then, as if in a lie, a thin red line appeared on the assassin's neck.
The assassin's body collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
“!”
The assassin's death was so sudden it was anticlimactic.
“Are you all right?”
It was then that a familiar voice came from behind the fallen assassin.
“Ma… Master?”
Beyond the open door stood my master, Yu Hyeonjun.
Yu Hyeonjun's gaze swept across the room. He studied my face, the fallen assassin's blood-soaked leg, and the corner of the oil lamp rolling on the floor.
Yu Hyeonjun's face was twisting into a fearsome scowl.
“Follow me.”
The tip of Yu Hyeonjun's sword was trembling.
“I, too… must act like a master, must I not?”
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