Muk-yeong and Bae Seokjin returned after daybreak.

When Seo Woojin asked Song Biryeong what they had been up to, she told him readily enough.

The moment Muk-yeong had slipped out of the inn the previous evening, he had begun gathering information on the Dragon Tiger Sect. In that short window of time, he had uncovered a great deal. They were former bandits. They had struck a large trading caravan, made off with a considerable fortune, and settled into the village — using it as a base to terrorize the locals as they pleased. He had even tracked down who was backing them.

Armed with that intelligence, Song Biryeong had gone straight to the Dragon Tiger Sect and wiped them out.

Bae Seokjin’s role came after.

He had already been certain there was someone protecting the Sect from above. There was no other explanation for why the local authorities hadn’t moved against a pack of armed men openly shaking down civilians. Fortunately, Muk-yeong had identified the corrupt official pulling the strings — and Bae Seokjin had gone to find him directly.

And delivered a very brief threat.

[The Dragon Tiger Sect will cease to exist by tonight. You will bury this incident quietly. If you refuse — I’ll have to visit someone above you. Someone who would be very interested to learn that you’ve been in bed with bandits.]

The official had wept and sworn on his life to cooperate.

The fact that no news of the Dragon Tiger Sect’s annihilation reached them before they departed suggested he had no intention of pulling anything clever.

“Well. That’ll only buy a few days, really. Muk-yeong already planted the evidence the Dragon Tiger Sect left behind. It won’t be long before someone higher up deals with that official. And the one who’ll take the blame for killing the Dragon Tiger Sect?” Song Biryeong smiled. “The official himself. The story will be that the Sect tried to blackmail him with the bribes he’d paid them — so he hired warriors to silence them permanently.”

Seo Woojin couldn’t help but be impressed.

The irony was almost elegant — the official’s very attempt to bury the incident would make him look all the more guilty. The fact that they had pulled off a near-flawless resolution in such a short time made him feel, not for the first time, that the title of Four Black Dragons was not given lightly.

‘……I can’t afford to be optimistic.’

He had told himself that once he reached home, escape would be easy enough. But now, a quiet unease had settled in. It might not be so simple after all.

With that worry trailing behind him, Seo Woojin and the Four Black Dragons arrived at their destination.

Liu’an County, White Cloud Village.

A small village tucked into the western edge of Anhui Province. Poor — but full of people with generous hearts.

And right beside the village stood Cloud Pavilion Mountain.

Named for the clouds that frequently draped themselves around its peaks, it was as tall and unforgiving as its name suggested. The most it ever saw of visitors were the White Cloud villagers who came now and then to gather medicinal herbs.

Seo Woojin had grown up on that mountain.

With his grandfather. Just the two of them.

“Hah. That’s a climb.”

Yoo Geonwoo remarked in a tone somewhere between admiration and complaint. Song Biryeong drifted up to Seo Woojin with a teasing smile and reached out to brush his shoulder.

Sss.

“Hehe. Is that why your legs are so quick? Growing up somewhere like this?”

Seo Woojin’s head ached from the perfume — but he managed a strained smile.

“Haha…… Well. Why don’t the rest of you rest in White Cloud Village for now? I’ll go up alone.”

“Hehe. Why so cold? We’ve come this far together — we should see it through to the end, shouldn’t we? I’m curious what kind of home our Young Lord grew up in.”

He still had no idea why she kept calling him Young Lord when she knew full well he wasn’t — but Seo Woojin cleared his throat quietly and removed her hand.

This was the moment that mattered most.

He had to shake them here. Losing them now was the only way out.

“Since you put it that way — I won’t hide what I’m thinking. As you know, I am not the Dark Alliance’s Young Alliance Lord.”

Song Biryeong clicked her tongue softly.

“Hmm. That’s not really what I want to hear right now.”

Bae Seokjin, who had been quiet until then, stepped in.

“We are aware that our mistake put you in a difficult position. But my understanding is that an arrangement has already been made with the Military Advisor. Under those circumstances, I cannot allow you to go up alone.”

“I’m going to pay my last respects to my grandfather. And my grandfather — while he was alive — did not care for warriors of the Dark Path.”

A rather pointed thing to say.

The Four Black Dragons’ expressions didn’t change.

“I’ve been a terrible grandson my entire life. And now I’m about to commit the greatest act of filial impiety of all — becoming the Dark Alliance Lord, of all things.” He let out a short laugh. “If my grandfather were still alive, he would have thrown himself in front of me to stop it. But since I’ve already struck a deal with your Military Advisor — the least I can do is not bring people like you into the space where he rests.”

A brief silence followed.

It may have been his blunt words leaving them at a loss, or it may have been something closer to offense. Bae Seokjin let out a quiet sigh and shook his head.

“I’m afraid I cannot——”

Seo Woojin barely managed to swallow his own sigh.

‘As expected. Then I suppose I have no choice but to bring them close to the house at least——’

He was just resigning himself to go along with Bae Seokjin when Yoo Geonwoo cut in.

“What’s there to argue about. It’s a bit much for all of us to go tramping up there anyway. Just send one person.”

Bae Seokjin looked at him without a word.

Then let out a quiet sigh and turned to Seo Woojin.

“Would that be acceptable?”

There was no reason for Seo Woojin to refuse.

Four was harder than one.

“That’s fine with me. Then which of you would——”

“I’ll go.”

Yoo Geonwoo stepped forward himself. That surprised Seo Woojin.

“You personally, Yoo Warrior?”

This was the same man who had been grumbling about the journey the entire way here — and now he was volunteering to climb a steep mountain?

‘Is he up to something?’

Perhaps the plan was to catch him off guard once he was relaxed and——

Seo Woojin shook his head firmly.

‘I told myself to let go of that kind of thinking. How long ago was that?’

He cleared his throat and nodded.

“If no one else minds, I have no objection.”

Bae Seokjin wrapped things up.

“Then the rest of us will wait in White Cloud Village.”

“Understood. We won’t be long.”

And so Seo Woojin and Yoo Geonwoo set off up the mountain. Just the two of them.

They walked in silence.

It was a steep climb — but it didn’t trouble Seo Woojin at all. He had been making this trek since childhood, up and down between the village and the mountain. His body knew it by heart.

Yoo Geonwoo kept pace just as easily. His gait was light and unhurried — the same fluid movement Seo Woojin had marveled at before. A mountain like this was nothing to him.

Seo Woojin glanced over and spoke.

“Thank you.”

Yoo Geonwoo’s characteristic indifferent eyes found him.

“For what?”

Seo Woojin offered an awkward smile.

“At first I wasn’t sure — but thinking about it, you did that to give me some space, didn’t you? Because of you, I’ll be able to see my grandfather quietly.”

Yoo Geonwoo smirked and shrugged.

“Not quite. I just didn’t want to be stuck with those people. Not sure if you’ve noticed, but a good portion of my complaining on the way here was because of them.”

Seo Woojin’s smile softened.

“Is that so? Though it seemed like you only ever argued with Song Warrior.”

“That’s because she’s the volatile one — we’re always clashing. Muk-yeong can’t speak, which is endlessly frustrating in its own way. And the Chief knows how to talk but keeps his mouth shut on principle. Honestly, I’d take the big sister who just talks nonsense over any of them.”

Seo Woojin blinked.

The smile on Yoo Geonwoo’s face right now wasn’t the cold, sardonic one he usually wore. It was something warmer.

“I’m curious about something.”

Yoo Geonwoo tilted his head.

“About what?”

“What it would take to make you draw your sword.”

Yoo Geonwoo huffed a short laugh and shrugged.

“You’re still thinking about that? I was too harsh back then. Wasn’t trying to be.”

“No, I’ve already forgotten about that. Call it pure curiosity.”

At the sincerity in Seo Woojin’s eyes, Yoo Geonwoo let out a quiet sigh.

“I have a weakness for that kind of look, apparently. Hmm…… I said it was about interest back then — but honestly, I draw it when I have to. Orders, mostly. That sort of thing.”

Seo Woojin heard the lie in it.

Well — not exactly a lie. He would draw his sword when ordered. That much was probably true.

But the times he had genuinely wanted to — those had never come.

Seo Woojin smiled faintly, something rueful in it.

“I know someone with the same eyes as you.”

“Pardon?”

He hadn’t seen it until now.

In ordinary moments, Yoo Geonwoo’s eyes were the color of ash. But just now — when he had spoken about the Four Black Dragons — a different light had moved through them.

And Seo Woojin had recognized it.

His grandfather’s eyes.

A gaze utterly cold toward the world — and utterly different toward his own people.

The way Yoo Geonwoo looked at the Four Black Dragons was the same way his grandfather had looked at him.

And people who carried that kind of look——

Were usually carrying grief.

Seo Woojin let out a quiet breath and shook his head.

“Never mind. I said something strange. Ah — there it is. That’s where I lived.”

He stepped ahead. Behind him, Yoo Geonwoo’s brow furrowed.

He wasn’t particularly curious — but having something left unsaid like that nagged at him.

He shook it off and followed.

A worn-down thatched cottage. A fairly wide yard. Firewood stacked on one side, various weapons and training equipment on the other.

How long had it been?

It hadn’t been that long since he’d left — but it felt like returning after years.

Seo Woojin led Yoo Geonwoo around to the back of the cottage.

There, a grave. Without even a headstone.

He stood in silence for a long moment, looking at the bare mound of earth.

‘I’m sorry, Grandfather. I promised I’d come back and carve you a proper stone marker.’

Looking back — there were so many promises he had broken.

The promise to train diligently. The promise to stay home and keep the place safe.

It had been defiance, probably.

His grandfather had taught him martial arts while telling him never to dream of the murim world. That contradiction had always grated on him. The old man had spoken of chivalry in one breath and survival in the next. The contradiction had always felt like hypocrisy.

He had wanted to prove him wrong.

And so, the moment his grandfather’s funeral was done, he had left for the Murim Alliance examination. To refute the old man’s claim that his martial skills were fit only for dying in a ditch. He had wanted to pass — to stand with his head high and shout it out loud.

That your grandson turned out to be someone worthwhile.

That you don’t need to worry as much as you always did.

So please.

Rest easy.

‘I’m sorry……’

He hadn’t managed any of it.

And after today——

He wouldn’t be coming back here either.

Seo Woojin exhaled slowly and turned his head.

Not far away, Yoo Geonwoo stood with his head bowed.

As if offering a quiet prayer for the old man’s peace.

‘I think I owe you an apology too.’

The road ahead for him wouldn’t be smooth either. He would have to bear the full weight of having lost the Young Alliance Lord.

Thinking of the hardship that awaited someone with his grandfather’s eyes — Seo Woojin wavered, just for a moment.

But he steadied himself.

He had made a habit of breaking his grandfather’s words his entire life.

Today, he intended to keep them.

Survival first.

Seo Woojin walked over to Yoo Geonwoo.

“I’m sorry — would you mind waiting just a moment? I need to gather a few things from inside.”

“Of course. I’ll wait by the door.”

Leaving Yoo Geonwoo outside, he stepped into the cottage.

This was it.

The real reason he had accepted Woon Seorin’s proposal without hesitation. The reason his only condition had been this visit. The reason he had tried so hard — by every means available — to shake the Four Black Dragons loose.

It all came down to one thing.

If he could get inside this house——

He was certain he could slip free of their grasp.

Seo Woojin crossed to the far corner of the room. He pressed against one section of the wall.

Shrrrrk.

With a quiet groan of stone on stone, a portion of the floor slid sideways.

Steep steps descended into darkness.

A passage leading underground.

Seo Woojin listened for a moment — no movement from outside — and quietly stepped in.

Shrrrrk.

The floor slid back into place behind him.

The room fell silent. As if no one had ever been there at all.

Outside.

Yoo Geonwoo stood by the cottage door, his face expressionless.

Eyes fixed on the thatched walls.

Saying nothing.

(End of Chapter 6)