After killing the King of Assassins, then the Baekak Mountain King, the very first thing we did was rummage through their corpses.

It was a bit unseemly, but it was necessary to learn why the King of Assassins had suddenly joined hands with the Green Forest Bandits.

The first one I searched was, of course, the Baekak Mountain King. You deal with what is right in front of you first, do you not.

Even headless, his bulk was unchanged. Thinking that Seo Mun-Hwarin had fought a contest of strength against such a frame without yielding an inch, I found myself surprised anew.

It is natural for a martial artist who has reached a realm to overcome the limits of flesh, and for a Flowering Stage master it goes without saying…

But it is not easy to entirely ignore the impression seen with the eyes.

I shrugged and searched the Baekak Mountain King’s clothing from top to bottom. And,

“Huh.”

“Why so, you. Did you find something?”

“I found plenty. How about you, Senior Seo Mun-Hwarin?”

“Mm. This One recovered no more than his emergency stash.”

In a regretful voice, Seo Mun-Hwarin showed me a rosary made only of large gemstones.

No, calling it a rosary is wrong. It was closer to merely tying together big beads of gems so they would not be lost.

If you converted gems that size into gold notes, would it not fill several chests.

Since entering the Tang Family, I had not felt the lack of money, but that much was enough to draw my gaze anyway.

Regrettably, what we wanted was not money but information from which to infer circumstances.

With another sigh, I shrugged my shoulders.

“Mine is similar. Will you take a look at this?”

“Similar, you say. Could it be…?”

I showed Seo Mun-Hwarin what I had found as she blinked.

Some unknown land deed, accessories where beauty or propriety were thrown to the dogs and only expense had been poured in, and even a money pouch stuffed to bursting with gold notes.

“Everything is just things that can be turned into money.”

“Is there any reason to carry this much money on him?”

“Well. It seems there was, for him. If I sprinkle in a bit of conjecture, perhaps he meant to kill us then run off alone somewhere.”

The Tang Family’s motto says, favors are repaid twice over, grudges tenfold. Except for a few special cases, it is a rule that has always been kept.

Tang Sowol would gladly devote her whole life to avenge me and Seo Mun-Hwarin.

In fact, before regression, she was so stubborn that, to avenge the annihilation of her clan, she set out to face the Heavenly Demon, Cheonma, despite my earnest pleas.

And the other members of the Tang Family would gladly join Tang Sowol’s vengeance.

No matter how confident the Baekak Mountain King was in his own skill, he could not face the entire Tang Family.

As during the Demonic Cult’s invasion before regression, he must have planned to take his property and flee once the deed was done.

What he carried on his body was part of that.

It is a pity these are not what we expected, but there is no harm in a lot of money. I will hold onto it for now.”

“Half!”

“Pardon?”

Seo Mun-Hwarin suddenly raised her arm high and shouted that. Wondering what it was, I turned to see her slowly lowering that hand and pointing her index finger at me… no, at the Baekak Mountain King’s goods I was holding.

“Was it not This One who killed him while you dealt with the King of Assassins. Therefore, it is right to split evenly in fairness.”

“I meant to do that from the start, so it does not matter. Are you short on money these days, by any chance?”

“That is not it. Only…”

Trailing off, Seo Mun-Hwarin pursed her lips. After choosing and swallowing her words, what she chose was an awkward smile.

“Ah, we may have much to go out and do. This is to prepare for later. If one is not alone, it will surely cost a lot of money.”

“…?”

I did not catch the last part well, but I had heard the earlier parts enough to understand what she meant.

She must be trying to save in advance for the costs of rebuilding the Seomun Clan.

Even if not at the level of the Five Supreme Clans, if you want to go around calling yourself some Clan, a merely decent house will not suffice.

“Indeed. You are already preparing the Seomun Clan’s future.”

“Future… y, yes, that is exactly it!”

Seo Mun-Hwarin nodded vigorously. For some reason she seemed eager to move on, so I turned my palm up toward the sky.

What she found on the Baekak Mountain King was a single gemstone rosary. It was probably the priciest item, but it was also the smallest and lightest.

Since we would split things after selling and disposing of this and that anyway, right now it was simply baggage.

So rather than adding to my load, it was more efficient to add her load to mine.

Hence I held out my hand.

“Mm???”

With a strange little sound and a tilt of her head, Seo Mun-Hwarin set her hand on top of mine.

It was small and squishy.

“What are you doing?”

“Was it not that you told me to hold out my hand?”

“I meant that I will keep it for now, then later sell or whatever and split it in half, so please entrust me with that rosary for a moment…”

Seo Mun-Hwarin’s face quietly flushed. Squeezing her eyes shut, she put the rosary in my hand and then whipped her head away.

“Y, you would not cheat This One, so This One will trust and leave it with you! More importantly, the King of Assassins is still left, so let us go quickly. Unlike the Baekak Mountain King, something will surely come out of him!”

“Ah, yes.”

By anyone’s eyes, it was a desperate flail to erase what had just happened and switch the subject.

Seo Mun-Hwarin trotted off, but not knowing the exact location of the King of Assassins’ corpse, she returned to me before long.

I gave a wry smile and led the way for a bit. In front of the bisected corpse of the King of Assassins, Seo Mun-Hwarin let out an exclamation.

“You cut him down without even giving a chance to react.”

“If I had given even the slightest opening, there would be a wind hole in my neck, so of course I had to.”

I shrugged, squatted before the corpse, and began to search his clothing.

Unlike the Baekak Mountain King, whose head had simply been blown off clean, the King of Assassins’ corpse was in no shape to look at, so I meant to search it myself, but,

before I knew it, Seo Mun-Hwarin was examining the other half with unhesitating hands.

“Hmph. Did you think that at this point This One would hesitate this much, or say something to you?”

“You caught me. But it is also true that I want to do a bit more of the dirty work for your share too, Senior Seo Mun-Hwarin.”

“Why is that? Do you perhaps not want even a drop of water to touch This One’s hands?”

“There is the difference that it is not water but blood, but it is roughly similar.

Whether we rejoin Seol Lihyang’s group or the two of us return to the Tang Family, either way we will need to rent an inn in a nearby village for the day, and it would be a bit much if we were both caked in blood.

“But since it is already late for that, it would not be bad to wash up simply before heading down.”

“T..Together, you say! Men and women have distinctions, how could you already…”

“I meant washing faces and hands. What exactly are you thinking?”

“N, nothing at all, so hurry and finish what you were doing.”

By anyone’s eyes, Seo Mun-Hwarin had been full of improper imaginings, but what she said was reasonable, so I examined the King of Assassins’ body more closely.

What I found were well-maintained hidden weapons, even lacquered, poisons of unknown types arranged by kind that I had never seen, and besides those, only miscellaneous items that helped the irregular movements the King of Assassins had shown kept coming out.

“You. It seems This One has found something.”

“What is it?”

“A letter from the Heavenly Demon, Cheonma, to the King of Assassins.”

Seo Mun-Hwarin held out a letter to me, its edge stained with blood.

***

I unfolded the letter passed to me by Seo Mun-Hwarin, whose face was solemn.

The content itself was concise. Approach the overall chieftain of the Green Forest Bandits, persuade him that if he is paid an appropriate price he will gladly join forces to kill me.

And when the job is done, assassinate the overall chieftain of the Green Forest Bandits, who had grown fat sucking the lifeblood of the innocent, then take as much of his property as desired and return. That was all.

There was nothing written about how Sal Valley had come to bend the knee to the Demonic Cult, or that, befitting one who showed terrifying prowess, he had some other secret intent.

“This is…”

On the surface, that is.

As I read, a pattern overlapped upon the page.

Before regression. In the days when the Righteous Alliance somehow held on against the Demonic Cult, a code phrase, an Ameo, had been made.

When sending secret letters to allies, guard against discovery by the enemy, that was the basic rule, and the Zhuge Clan and Sama Yuryeon had put their heads together and made it.

That does not mean it was known to all. Only those in positions within the Righteous Alliance who would exchange secret letters could know it.

Even I, who was doing fairly well at the time, only learned of it much later, so security must have been maintained thoroughly to the last moment.

Even so, that the Heavenly Demon knows this…

“Was it a meaningless struggle from the start.”

“Mm. If the King of Assassins had set his mind to kill, no matter how much the Baekak Mountain King tried to flee, he would have lost his life in the end.”

Seo Mun-Hwarin nodded, interpreting my words a bit differently. Meanwhile, the more I thought, the more a chill rose up.

I had thought that the Righteous Alliance had, bit by bit, held out against the Heavenly Demon.

But perhaps… the Heavenly Demon had simply cracked a small breathing hole for the Righteous Alliance. For reasons unknown.

At any rate, there is only one reason to send such a letter to the King of Assassins, who did not know the code of that time.

Because this letter was in fact sent not to the King of Assassins, but to me.

Tracing back my slightly blurred memory, I interpreted the code sent by the Heavenly Demon.

– Do you like this One’s gift. I do not doubt we will meet again soon, but just in case, I have sent something that may help.

As it was decoded and the moment we hid ourselves for a time while waiting for detoxification, the faint sense of discord I had felt proved true.

– You seem to be making efforts to face this One. That is pleasing, so how could I simply watch. From time to time I will send something. At the most desperate moments.

As before regression, he knows that I am aiming for the Righteous Alliance, and whether by sending assassins or using other means, he says he will interfere at several crucial moments like this time.

For a martial artist as great as the Heavenly Demon, it was an awfully petty declaration. But he is one who scatters agents through the Central Plains long before a full invasion. Above all,

– I hope it will be of help to you, Sword Demon. Do not disappoint this One.

If his true aim is not to hinder the Righteous Alliance and kill me, but to foster growth on this side, then all of it makes sense.

I do not know what he is thinking to the extent of trying to make me grow.

“You? Your complexion is not good. Was there something else written?”

“No. It is nothing.”

Due to the mental restrictions, I could not speak of related information, so this was the best excuse. So I thought, as I read the final sentence.

– If you, Sword Demon, accept all of this One’s gifts… I vow this. A way to loosen, if only for a time, the rope of heaven that hangs about our necks.

“…”

The Heavenly Demon spoke to me of a way around the Mental restriction.

***

After taking the Baekak Mountain King’s axe as additional proof of subjugating the Green Forest’s overall chieftain and coming down the mountain, we rented a suitable inn, and from midday Seo Mun-Hwarin and I holed up in our respective rooms.

Say what you will, we had overexerted today, so we needed proper rest.

But I could not sleep at all.

A notice that he would continue to send dangers on par with the King of Assassins. And the Heavenly Demon’s inexplicable favor.

Those two tangled my head, and I do not know how many times I lay on the bed and only sighed.

When the scenery outside the window grew dark, and the people who had bustled about returned home one by one and silence settled,

RRattle.

The door of my room opened, and Seo Mun-Hwarin poked her head in.

“Y, you. Are you asleep?”

“I am not asleep yet.”

“Do you perhaps remember?”

“Remember what?”

“That you promised that if This One allowed you to take the Thunder Heaven Divine Art as you pleased, you would grant This One one wish.”

“Ah.”

Now that she mentioned it, I had said that.

As I nodded blankly, Seo Mun-Hwarin stepped fully into my room past the door and continued.

“I intend to use that wish voucher now.”

Hesitating as she spoke, Seo Mun-Hwarin was not in her usual martial garb, but wore somewhat thinner clothes.

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