WOOOOAAAAH!!

A faint roar carrying from far off.

It felt like a different world.

No. For a moment, it was a roar that carried him back into the past.

Yoo Geonwoo, running for White Blossom Hall, stopped without meaning to.

He pulled in a fast breath and put down the feeling rising in him.

‘Get cold. Get calm.’

Like ice.

[Live forgetting, child. Forget every one of these bad memories, and only survive. You’ll grant your mother her last request, won’t you?]

Do not forget.

His mother’s last charge to him.

Yoo Geonwoo let the breath out long and started moving again, slowly.

A familiar compound came into view.

White Blossom Hall.

The pleasure house Baekwha had built with her own hands.

From that time on it had been his new home, and his refuge.

And into a place like that.

An uninvited guest had dared to walk.

Yoo Geonwoo stepped through the gate, which stood wide open.

The Gok Clan’s warriors, drawn up in two long lines.

And Gok Taejun standing between them.

Yoo Geonwoo held down the urge to draw on the spot and walked forward.

Gok Taejun noticed him belatedly, and a smile with blood in it settled at his mouth.

“Heheheh. You’re late, O lofty White Dragon.”

Yoo Geonwoo ignored him and looked first to Aengwha, who was frightened.

“Young Master Yoo…”

She did not appear to be hurt anywhere.

“Sowha came to find me.”

“Ah…”

A small sound escaped Aengwha.

She was the young courtesan who had begged Aengwha to send for Yoo Geonwoo before the Gok Clan’s warriors came through the gate.

While everyone’s attention was on the warriors, she seemed to have slipped out the back door and gone to him.

Aengwha hid whatever she was feeling and bowed her head.

“I’m sorry, Young Master Yoo. There was nothing I could do to settle this…”

Yoo Geonwoo let out a small sigh and patted her shoulder.

“Don’t worry. I’m here now.”

Yoo Geonwoo turned and looked at Gok Taejun.

“We seem to run into each other often these days. I’d be too ashamed to go out much, in your position.”

He was dredging up the time Gok Taejun had been put down inside this very hall.

Gok Taejun’s face buckled at once, but a sneer came soon after.

“Heheheh. I’m curious how far that arrogance of yours will go.”

“Haah. Explain what justification you have for being here. If it’s a thin one, prepare yourself. What you get this time won’t be the same as last time’s embarrassment.”

Yoo Geonwoo was radiating killing intent, and Gok Taejun was unbothered by it.

He only tipped his head at a subordinate standing at his side.

The man stepped forward and held out a sheaf of papers.

“Ahem. As you can see, we have bought up White Blossom Hall’s notes. So we are exercising our rights.”

Yoo Geonwoo skimmed the papers from where he stood, and the anger came out between his teeth.

“There’s no filthy trick you people won’t stoop to. Even if the Gok Clan bought the notes, the payment date is tomorrow. Which means you have no right to come storming in here.”

“Tsk, tsk.”

Gok Taejun clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Listen to the naive talk. What am I supposed to do if these women run off in the middle of the night? And have we harmed anybody? We were merely giving notice — settle the payment, or hand over the house if you don’t have it.”

Yoo Geonwoo made a low sound in his throat.

It was plainly a trap.

And a hard one to answer on the spot.

Yoo Geonwoo swallowed it once more and spoke.

“I’ll pay it in their place. On the honor of the Four Black Dragons. So… withdraw.”

“Hmm. I wonder. I’m not sure the honor of the Four Black Dragons is worth that much.”

Offering to buy the notes off him would not work either.

For these people the target was White Blossom Hall and himself, not money.

‘Endure it for now. Hear the Military Advisor’s counsel first, and then—’

Hard as it was to bear, he read as much of the situation as he could.

Yoo Geonwoo turned his head and looked at the women.

“Go inside.”

“But…”

“It’s all right. Go inside.”

“I’m sorry, Young Master Yoo.”

Aengwha said it apologetically and was about to do as he asked. There was nothing they could do standing out here anyway.

But.

“Aaaah!”

A scream came, high enough to tear.

Every eye turned toward it.

A woman who looked to have just passed twenty. Hongryeon, the most sought-after woman in White Blossom Hall of late.

Which meant men gathered like clouds, sparing no amount of gold for even an instant’s look at her.

That was why Aengwha had hidden her deep inside the hall before going out to the gate.

And now she was being dragged forward by a Gok Clan warrior.

They must have decided from the start to search every corner of the place.

Which was how she had been found so easily.

“Hongryeon—!!”

Aengwha cried out, appalled, but Yoo Geonwoo could not move carelessly.

A Gok warrior’s sword was resting against her throat.

Yoo Geonwoo set his teeth and glared at Gok Taejun.

“What… exactly are you doing?”

Gok Taejun studied Hongryeon’s face at his leisure — she had been dragged all the way to him by now — and stroked his chin.

“Doing? What reason is there to look for a courtesan in a pleasure house? Heh heh. They say you’re the finest courtesan in White Blossom, and the sight of you does not disappoint. Now I understand what they mean by a beauty who topples kingdoms.”

Hongryeon was trembling, terrified. The frail sight of her stirred the urge to protect her all over again.

Gok Taejun took her from the man with a smile spread across his whole face.

“Heheheh. I think I’ll spend the entire day with you. And if you serve me well, who knows? I might take you as a concubine. Then you could live in comfort under the Gok Clan’s protection for the rest of your life.”

He laid a hand on Hongryeon’s shoulder and glanced at Yoo Geonwoo.

As though daring him.

Yoo Geonwoo endured it one more time.

“White Blossom Hall… is not like other pleasure houses. Stop this disgraceful display and let the girl go.”

“Heh heh. Don’t be so stiff about it. Suppose I take a liking to this one — couldn’t that shave something off White Blossom Hall’s debt?”

Saying it, Gok Taejun ran his eyes once over the subordinates ranked to either side.

“Ah. Right. None of you have seen White Blossom Hall’s finest courtesan either, have you? Let me give you a treat.”

Gok Taejun’s hand moved toward the tie of Hongryeon’s robe.

And.

That was as far as it went.

Yoo Geonwoo’s patience.

Whoosh!

Shhing!

He kicked off the ground and drew.

Frost formed on the blade, and white vapor rolled off it.

Yoo Geonwoo closed the distance in a single stride.

And brought the sword down without hesitating.

In that instant.

Even wrapped in fury.

Even with nothing in him burning but the intent to kill Gok Taejun.

Yoo Geonwoo saw it clearly.

The smile with blood in it deepening on Gok Taejun’s face.

And the strangeness of the man pushing his chest forward to meet the blade.

‘A trap—!!’

Yoo Geonwoo pulled his internal energy back and turned the sword.

Dazzling reaction speed, in the smallest fraction of a moment.

CLAANG—!!

With a bright, clean sound.

He cut Gok Taejun’s chest, very shallowly.

At most it had to be a light break in the skin.

But the result was not what he expected.

Shhwaaack! Pshhht!

Blood shot up like a fountain and washed over Hongryeon and Yoo Geonwoo, standing in front of Gok Taejun.

Gok Taejun staggered back, and then went over backward.

“How dare you—!!”

As though it had been arranged in advance.

Once the Gok warriors’ outrage had gone off.

Shhing—!!

Their swords came out.

And that was not all.

Shhk—! Tak—!

Dozens of warriors came over the compound wall as though they moved as one body.

They had Yoo Geonwoo surrounded in a moment.

Meanwhile, some of them collected Gok Taejun and carried him out of White Blossom Hall.

A hollow laugh came out of Yoo Geonwoo before he could stop it.

The feel of it through his hand had told him plainly. Gok Taejun’s injury was nothing close to that.

‘So I walked into the trap.’

It had been an obvious provocation, visible from a mile away.

And he had still failed to hold.

Because they had touched his family, and not him.

‘I have to choose.’

Yoo Geonwoo swept his eyes quickly over the men surrounding him.

One of them gave him a warning.

“The crime of harming the Tyrant Blade Gok Clan’s heir. It is not a light one. Not even a place among the Four Black Dragons will protect you. Throw down the sword. Do that and it will be taken into account.”

Not worth calling talk.

They were the sort who would seize the chance and pile on crimes he had not committed.

Should he run, then?

He could not.

What he had just done had told them outright.

What his weakness was.

Yoo Geonwoo looked at the women watching him with fear all over their eyes.

He could not.

Abandon his family. Not again.

Clatter.

Yoo Geonwoo dropped his sword.

At that the Gok warriors rushed in as though they had been waiting for it and bound him.

Yoo Geonwoo, face down on the ground, taking the humiliation.

But there was a smile at his mouth.

Because he had seen it in the last moment.

His other family.

Bae Seokjin and Muk-yeong of the Four Black Dragons, coming in through the gate of White Blossom Hall.

Those two would hold White Blossom Hall, whatever became of him.

The Gok warriors pulled Yoo Geonwoo back to his feet and hauled him away.

And so they passed Bae Seokjin and Muk-yeong.

Looking at the flat, settled quality of their eyes, Yoo Geonwoo smiled once more.

“Too late…”

Watching Yoo Geonwoo being taken off into the distance, Bae Seokjin made a low sound in his throat.

The urge to go and get him out right now came up, but the smile stopped it.

It had been a smile unlike him — full of unqualified trust in his companions.

Bae Seokjin made another low sound and looked at Muk-yeong.

Muk-yeong was examining the blood spattered on the ground.

He touched a little of it, brought it to his nose, and then moved his hands.

— Not human blood. Pig’s blood, I think.

Bae Seokjin made a low sound in his throat.

Even a rough reading of it told him Yoo Geonwoo had walked into a trap.

Bae Seokjin turned to the courtesans of White Blossom Hall.

“I’m going to need an explanation.”

Aengwha stepped forward.

“I… I’ll explain.”

Bae Seokjin nodded.

“Good. But not in front of me.”

“What? Then—”

WOOOOAAAAAH!!

A roar came suddenly from far off. Bae Seokjin turned his eyes toward it.

“Before the new sky of the dark path.”

Because this trap was beyond what even he could handle.

“Awake?”

Seo Woojin said it to Cheon Suryeon, lying on the bed.

Cheon Suryeon opened her eyes slowly and lay there blank for a while.

Then she moved only her eyes and looked at him.

“Why… didn’t you kill me?”

Seo Woojin took a moment to choose his words.

Whatever he said, would the woman accept it?

Seo Woojin let out a small sigh and spoke, slowly.

“You are a hostage.”

“…A hostage?”

“Yes. A hostage to hold the Cheon Clan in check.”

Cheon Suryeon slowly sat up. Then she wore a bitter smile and shook her head.

“I’m sorry to say it, but I’m not worth enough to be the Cheon Clan’s hostage.”

Seo Woojin shook his head.

“The mere existence of a demonic art is a dagger at the Cheon Clan’s heart.”

“There’s no proof. And I’m an adopted daughter besides. If they claim I learned the demonic art before I entered the Cheon Clan, how will you argue against it?”

Seo Woojin frowned.

Because there was something strange about how she was taking this.

Ordinarily, being told to your face that you are a hostage is enough to sour anyone, and there was no sign of that in her at all.

“Do you want revenge, by any chance?”

Something wavered in Cheon Suryeon’s eyes.

Her lips parted, and then closed tight.

Seo Woojin let out a small sigh and went on.

“Proof doesn’t matter. The word demonic art isn’t simple enough for anyone to weigh whether the proof is there. If your demonic art becomes the question, it stops being a dark path matter. The Murim Alliance is certain to step in. The Cheon Clan will claim innocence and I will shout the Cheon Clan’s guilt. Well? Which of us do you think the Murim Alliance sides with?”

“…”

“The Cheon Clan knows it too. That the moment the demonic art is out, there is nothing waiting for them but ruin.”

“But… if the Murim Alliance steps in, you’d also—”

Seo Woojin nodded.

“The Dark Alliance Lord’s authority would be finished. I’d probably take a lot of blame as well, for handing the Murim Alliance the pretext to intervene. Which is why a hostage like you only works as long as you’re being held. Without the resolve to take it all the way, both sides have to acknowledge it and give ground.”

“Ah…”

“Only that much. Holding the Cheon Clan in check only that far is enough, and that is why I made you a hostage.”

Cheon Suryeon gave a forlorn smile.

“Do you think I’ll play the quiet hostage? Do you think I’ll be grateful you spared my life? For all you know I could sit at your side and spy on you. I could become the assassin who takes your life.”

Seo Woojin shrugged.

“Do whatever you like. I’ll bear it. And even if you did any of that, I wouldn’t kill you.”

Something in Cheon Suryeon rose up, and she could not get another word out for a while.

It was a long time before she managed to speak.

“The Cheon Clan may actually be relieved. They failed to kill me, but they’ve handed you a charge that could go off at any time.”

Cheon Suryeon’s worries had no end, and Seo Woojin was unbothered as ever.

“That’s true as well. You will most likely lose your reason, the way you always have. Not far from now you may become a demon who chases nothing but slaughter.”

“Then will you shut me away in the deepest cell you have?”

A short laugh escaped Seo Woojin.

“Of course not.”

Seo Woojin folded his arms and lifted his chin.

“You were curious about the Crazed Fiend’s martial arts once, weren’t you?”

“What…?”

“The Elder told me a demon who can’t keep hold of his wits has to be run into the ground without stopping.”

The corner of Seo Woojin’s mouth climbed. There even seemed to be mischief in it.

“If you’re going to become a demon anyway, how about becoming the greatest demon in the Central Plains?”

Cheon Suryeon had no idea what he meant, and could only blink her wide eyes at him.

(End of Chapter 51)