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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Cyno
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“Waaait—!!”
Namgung Bin’s loud shout exploded like thunder. If Hong Ryeon had not sealed the sound beforehand, it would have spread throughout the entire Namgung household.
“Slayer! Cover the sky with your palm!”
At those words, Hong Ryeon, who had been brandishing her dagger without care, momentarily froze.
“At the very least, you must keep to the words you yourself have spoken!”
“And I am keeping to them right now, am I not?”
“Stop spouting nonsense!”
Namgung Bin’s eyes flickered nervously to the small dagger in Hong Ryeon’s hand—capable at any moment of piercing his throat—and he desperately began persuading her.
He recited the lines he had prepared, ones he had believed he would never need to use.
“I never sought to kill the Sword Saint!”
“…? What kind of absurd talk is that all of a sudden?”
“You yourself clearly told me! ‘No one but me may be entrusted with an assassination request concerning the Sword Saint!’ That’s what you said!”
“Did I? Hmm, maybe I did say something like that…”
“Don’t make such shameless excuses. Surely you are not so dishonorable as to break your own word.”
Instinctively shifting to protect his neck and groin, Namgung Bin carefully pressed on, exploiting the loophole in her words from the past.
“Hmmm… Fine. Let’s say you’re right. And then?”
“I think you’ve been gravely mistaken.”
“Mistaken?”
“You came here because of my dealings with the Grand Lord, did you not?”
“That’s right.”
“Then my guess was correct. Let me state this clearly once and for all: I never ordered the Sword Saint’s death.”
To some, it might sound like mere wordplay.
“Hm? I saw your contact records with the Grand Lord, and I even heard that afterwards he mobilized the Dongchang and Jin’gwige (Imperial Guards).”
“It is true that I met with the Grand Lord. And true that we discussed the Sword Saint. But I never ordered his death.”
“Then what?”
“I merely told him to properly enforce the punishment that had long been neglected. That is not the same as commissioning the Sword Saint’s assassination, is it?”
For Namgung Bin—who for over a decade had fought under the guise of justice as a member of the Orthodox factions—such methods of resolution were not only important, but second nature.
Of course, the thought that the Slayer’s presence made any future attempt on Namgung Cheol-bin’s life effectively impossible gnawed at him.
But Namgung Cheol-bin was only a secondary target anyway. His true goal was to win Yu So-eun’s heart.
However, there was something he did not know.
“You keep babbling nonsense as though chewing on phantom beans.”
Step—
“W-wait! You only said not to kill the Sword Saint!”
Halt—
Hong Ryeon, who had been stepping toward Namgung Bin, suddenly stopped as if struck by a thought.
She soon wore an incredulous expression.
“Why are you suddenly bringing up ancient history?”
“…What did you say?”
“I clearly told your subordinate, the White Shadow Demon King. I told him not to touch the Sword Saint in any way. Not to plot anything that might tarnish his honor again.”
“…? The White Shadow Demon King? Why are you bringing him up now…?”
Namgung Bin’s voice wavered slightly.
A single frayed thread of memory brushed against his mind.
‘My lord, may you find peace…’
Those were the words the White Shadow Demon King had left him, a few months before disappearing.
At the time, Namgung Bin had thought nothing of it.
“Don’t tell me… the White Shadow Demon King’s disappearance had something to do with you?”
“Disappearance? Hah. You’re just laying groundwork so you can feign ignorance later. Who would believe that?”
“What are you saying! What do you mean, ‘I don’t know’?!”
“Tsk. Always acting. Smooth talkers like you are the most deceitful of all. You’re not worth speaking to any longer.”
“……!”
The truth was this: the White Shadow Demon King, who should have delivered Hong Ryeon’s warning to Namgung Bin, had perished in a cave, overwhelmed by Blood Sect jiangshi after losing an arm to Hong Ryeon.
Only the White Shadow Demon King himself—now long dead—had ever known this truth.
And Hong Ryeon was not the sort to consider Namgung Bin’s circumstances with any sympathy.
Shhhk—!
Slice—!
From Hong Ryeon’s dagger flew two thin blades of wind, sharp and merciless. A crisp sound of tearing air echoed beautifully.
She immediately closed her eyes.
At the same time, Namgung Bin felt excruciating pain from two different places on his body.
“Ghhhhhkkk…!”
But the pain he felt was not only physical.
First of all, his ears rang.
His right earlobe, which he had only recently grafted through blood sorcery, had been severed again, leaving his hearing filled with a shrill buzz.
But even that was only a small part of his agony.
“W-what… what just happened…!”
Swallowing his groans, Namgung Bin forced himself to lower his head.
On the ground lay a severed piece of his ear.
And, of course, that wasn’t all.
“…Wha… wha?”
Between his trousers, a small lump of flesh had dropped to the floor, catching his horrified gaze.
A high-pitched ringing filled the emptiness where his ear once was.
He was in shock so deep he could barely think.
“N-no…!”
Namgung Bin collapsed to his knees, bending forward. His groin seared with tearing pain, but the physical agony barely registered.
The most important thing—perhaps even more precious than his life itself—something he could not lose…
“Nooooooo!!”
It lay there on the floor.
Both testicles and the shaft—severed completely, cruelly, brutally.
Left to sit there in pitiful ruin.
“No! No!! Nooo!! My plans!! Everything I’ve built until now!!!”
Namgung Bin screamed with all his soul, but Hong Ryeon whispered softly, almost lazily.
“Can you not see my eyes are closed? Chop it up finely and throw it away already.”
Her complete disregard for another’s suffering—so befitting a killer.
Tragic, even.
“N-no… It’s not over… I-I can restore it…!”
Unable to bring himself to touch the lump of flesh that had once been his manhood, Namgung Bin muttered in despair.
Hong Ryeon’s words might as well not have reached his ears.
“I-it’s fine… If I master the Blood Arts to their extreme, if I reach the realm of Fire Purification, I can reattach it…!”
He even resorted to denial, refusing to accept reality.
He had no choice.
His ultimate goal had been to steal Yu So-eun from Namgung Cheol-bin and drive the very readers of this story to abandon it in disgust.
In other words, to provoke maximum revulsion.
But now—
“I can reattach it, I can, I must! Otherwise… otherwise…!”
Who would ever acknowledge a man who lacked even the proper parts?
“…No, I can! I’ll trust in the Blood Heaven Divine Art. They said when the Blood Age comes, the mortal world will be cleansed…!”
Even then, Hong Ryeon spoke casually, uninterested in his plight.
To Namgung Bin, it was cruel mockery.
“How long will you cling to it? Do you not see I still have my eyes closed? Must I wait until my neck grows long?”
Since she had vowed never to look upon anything but Namgung Cheol-bin’s, Hong Ryeon kept her eyes closed even now.
Naturally, Namgung Bin refused to discard his severed manhood.
On the contrary—he carefully wrapped it in a cloth, as though trying to preserve it.
“…If you won’t throw it away, then I shall.”
In that instant, the cloth-wrapped flesh burst into bright red flames.
Fwoooosh—!
Hong Ryeon had unleashed the technique of Sammae True Fire with her eyes still closed.
“Ghhhk!”
Crash—!
At the searing heat, Namgung Bin flailed and fell backward in panic.
By the time he staggered to his feet again, his flesh was already burning in a furious blaze.
Crackle, pop—
Sparks flew everywhere, bright and yellow. As though even touching them was beneath her, Hong Ryeon darted nimbly away, avoiding each one.
And still, her eyes never opened. A master of such strength needed only her aura-sense.
“N-no! Nooo!!! Noooooo!!!!”
Namgung Bin’s manhood and testicles burned steadily to ash. His scream, filled with greater desperation than ever, was muffled by the sound-seal Hong Ryeon had laid.
Fwoooosh—!
“Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!”
At last, the flames shot upward like a fire dragon, consuming all there was to burn before vanishing into motes in the air.
It was, in its way, a beautiful sight.
But Namgung Bin could not utter a word.
No matter how much he wished to deny reality, the cruel black ash and the hollow emptiness below his waist filled him utterly.
To him, Hong Ryeon whispered with mocking sweetness.
“Be grateful I spared your life. Were I not training myself for reunion with my enemy-lord, restraining myself from killing, I would have lopped off your pig-like head this very moment.”
“……”
With that, Hong Ryeon turned lightly on her heel.
Namgung Bin, stunned, could not reply.
“Ahh, I wonder what my dear enemy-lord is doing right now?”
And so, while Hong Ryeon skipped away lightly from the Namgung household—
Namgung Bin could only stare at the ashes, muttering senselessly for a long time.
“Come closer!”
“Ugh…! H-how could I, when I don’t even know who you are…!”
“In this situation, what does that matter! Stop babbling and show yourself!”
Yu So-eun, facing off across a wall from the Blood Demon, cautiously stepped forward at the woman’s call.
Tap—
Nervously, she turned the corner of the underground hall.
Her wide, round eyes fell upon a red-haired woman.
“It is you! The Sword Saint’s wife! Or, former wife!”
“…! H-how did you end up in such a state…!”
Yu So-eun gasped at the sight of the Blood Demon’s mangled limbs.
But the Blood Demon cared little for that.
“Never mind! Hurry and read the notebook up there on the bookshelf!”
“W-what? But first, tell me who you are! How can someone like you be living in our clan’s basement in that condition?”
“Useless chatter! Before that Namgung Bin brat comes back, read the notebook aloud! Surely you can at least do that much!”
The Blood Demon’s voice brimmed with anticipation.
Her eyes desperately pointed to a corner of the bookshelf.
Though Yu So-eun remained wary of the stranger before her, her curiosity was piqued by such behavior.
“Y-you mean this one? But wait—Namgung Bin? Are you saying the clan head is connected to this place? Was he the one who imprisoned you here?”
Rustle—
Even as she peppered the stranger with questions, Yu So-eun reached out and took the notebook from the shelf.
It was the notebook carefully stored in the corner of the basement—belonging to Namgung Cheol-bin.
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