Chapter 109: Jaseung, Reveals

“I will speak first.”

Even after saying that, Lee Jaseung couldn’t easily open his mouth.

“What is it that you have to say for you to act like that?”

Because she knew he was not the kind of man to hesitate in word or deed, Baek Seolyoung grew tense inside.

“Don’t tell me you found someone else you like?”

When she asked jokingly, Lee Jaseung shook his head with the same grave face.

“My goodness, you’ve already cheated on me?”

Even with her continued jokes, Lee Jaseung didn’t smile. By this point Baek Seolyoung grew truly anxious.

She had expected him to say something serious, but never imagined he would bring up something like this.

“I am the Lord of the Black Way Alliance.”

At first she thought she had misheard.

Blinking, Baek Seolyoung asked again.

“What did you say?”

“I said I am the Lord of the Black Way Alliance.”

She stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter.

“Hahahahaha.”

Her shoulders ached from having been so tense.

“That is the funniest joke I have heard in a long time.”

When she saw that his face still didn’t change, she laughed even harder.

“Enough already. That expression is priceless. Honestly, you could join a street troupe and perform.”

Still, his expression didn’t change.

Her laughter slowly faded, and her face hardened.

“What is this? It’s not funny anymore. I said stop it.”

Then she saw it, the flicker of guilt across his face. It was genuine guilt.

A chill ran down her spine. The dizzying sensation of looking down from a great height spread through her body. When the thought struck her that his words might be true, fear surged.

Not even when the sword had come flying at her with her eyes blindfolded, had she felt such terror.

Her hand trembled, then her legs, until her whole body shook. Her face was drained of color. Her mind went blank.

Lee Jaseung said calmly.

“I am sorry for deceiving you.”

“Is it true?”

When he nodded, she shouted.

“Are you really the Lord of the Black Way Alliance? Say it again with your own mouth.”

“Yeah, I am.”

Slap!

She struck his cheek hard.

“Say it again!”

“I am the Black Way Alliance’s Leader of this generation.”

Slap!

Again, he didn’t avoid it and took the hit. If blows could settle this, he would take a thousand or ten thousand. Her raised hand trembled violently.

“Then you approached me intentionally from the very beginning?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, she felt something collapse inside.

Lee Jaseung offered no excuses. He didn’t say he had changed his heart later, even though it was true. He didn’t want to excuse himself. Because it was true that he had approached her with intent at first.

Tears ran down her face.

“How could you do this?”

Though he had imagined this moment many times, seeing her tears in reality hurt more than he expected.

Baek Seolyoung cried out,

“So what are you trying to say!? You are the Lord of the Black Way. What do you want me to do about it!?”

Lee Jaseung replied with a weak voice.

“I don’t know myself.”

* * *

Mujin, Ma Young-gi, and Dan Woobin were together in a room.

They had heard from Mook Young that Lee Jaseung revealed his identity to Baek Seolyoung.

Since then, Baek Seolyoung had not left her room, and neither had Lee Jaseung left his.

Dan Woobin asked Mujin worriedly,

“What do you think will happen?”

“How should I know?”

“Why don’t you know?”

“You know me. I like relationships that are broad and shallow. I neither know nor care about matters of such deep affection.”

“I can’t believe you said such a cold thing when this is about our Lord.”

When Dan Woobin gave him a look of disapproval, Mujin replied indifferently.

“A man must handle his own woman. Especially after marriage. He must take the responsibility himself!”

It was not wrong, so there was no way to argue, yet it still made Dan Woobin angry.

“Cold-blooded bastard.”

Yet in truth, Dan Woobin found himself looking at Mujin in a new light.

He had thought Mujin would be the one to chatter the most about this sort of situation, but Mujin kept silent.

He recalled what Mujin had once said.

That he resembled Lee Jaseung in being unable to show his true feelings.

He had thought it a joke at the time, but seeing him now, perhaps it was not just a joke.

Dan Woobin went to the window. The moon had already set and dawn was breaking.

“Yeah, if we wait, some conclusion will come.”

And that conclusion came three days later.

* * *

Three days later.

Someone knocked on Lee Jaseung’s door.

When he opened it, Baek Seolyoung stood there with a sword pointed at him, just as on the day they first met.

She entered slowly, sword still leveled at him. Her face was gaunt from three days of sleeplessness and hunger.

Unlike the day she had raged, tonight she was calm.

“If I had not met you that day, my life would have been different, wouldn’t it?”

“Probably.”

“If not for you, I wouldn’t even be alive right now.”

“That is something no one can know. If we had not met, everything would have been different. You would be in a better place than now at the very least.”

“Do you truly believe that?”

Lee Jaseung nodded.

“You are someone that I cannot picture living an unhappy life.”

“If I tried to kill you right now, would you let me?”

“No.”

She looked astonished. Yes, that was how he was. A man who never lied, and one who never softened his words.

“If I went to the Murim Alliance and told them you are the Black Way’s Leader, what would you do?”

“Don’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because they are more rotten than I. It’s not worth it.”

She looked incredulous again, yet she couldn’t deny it.

“At the very least, I am not that rotten.”

“Can you swear to that?”

“You have seen me until now, haven’t you?”

“It could’ve been all an act.”

“If it was an act… would things have come to this?”

Yes, that was it.

That was exactly why she came tonight.

Though he had deceived her, he had never done wrong to her.

If he were truly wicked, he would have claimed her body the first night, or killed her and seized her clan.

‘If he were really that kind of person, I wouldn’t have any reason to be agonizing like this, would I? No, I probably wouldn’t even still be alive by now, so I suppose I wouldn’t be worrying at all.’

What tormented her most was not that he was the Lord of the Black Way Alliance, but that he had deceived her.

The fact that all between them had been intended and staged was agonizing. She had wept endlessly and wanted to kill him. She had even thought of vanishing.

But today after three days, she asked herself.

Was it really all calculated?

When she recalled his deeds, they were not the ways of one who deceives.

How much had she changed because of him?

It was certain that Lee Jaseung had treated her with sincerity. She wasn’t sure about anything else, but that alone was true.

She knew it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t decide alone.

That was why she visited Lee Jaseung tonight.

Lee Jaseung asked this time. They were words he had never imagined he could say.

“Will you abandon me?”

Her eyes wavered when he asked the question. She had not come with an answer. She came here planning to decide at this moment.

She thought that if Lee Jaseung had tried to persuade her with different words, she might have felt a sense of resistance.

But this man who was always smart and strong, was sincerely asking her.

Was she going to abandon him?

With eyes full of truth, as always.

Her heart trembled.

“If… If I planned that… I would not have come here in the first place.”

With joy, Lee Jaseung took a step closer to her.

She stepped back reflexively.

“But that doesn’t mean I will accept you right now.”

“Ah, forgive me.”

With a trembling voice, Baek Seolyoung spoke.

“Give me time.”

“As much as you need.”

Lee Jaseung felt relieved. More than anything, he genuinely prayed she didn’t choose something extreme.

She gazed at him in silence. The first thought that rose in her was,

‘How could I throw this man away?’

But just as strong, was the opposite thought.

‘How could I love this man?’

The Leader of the Black Way had deceived her and married her. To continue loving him even knowing that? And even if she could, what about the Orthodox Faction? What about the warriors of the Northern Sky Clan that she was responsible for?

She bit her lip.

“What is your true name?”

“Lee Jaseung.”

Yes, she had seen that name in reports.

It was not one who inherited the title from the former Leader of the Black Way Alliance, but one who seized it by force. She had expected such a man to be a brutal savage, yet here stood a young and handsome man.

“Lee Jaseung.”

She spoke the name softly. She had always thought the name Seop Mu-pyeong didn’t suit him at all. Now she understood why. It was not his true name.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-nine.”

She gasped. He was much older than she expected.

“But that will not change how I treat you.”

“I never hoped it would.”

Though she said it, knowing his age made speaking informally to him feel strange. But she continued to speak while pretending to not care.

“I will go now.”

She didn’t say they would meet again. She didn’t know when or if they should meet again. She didn’t know what to think when she returned.

Should she ponder how to live alongside the Lord of the Black Way?

A sigh slipped from her lips.

Just then.

Lee Jaseung suddenly embraced her from behind. She turned, ready to shout in anger!

But then came his words.

“Thank you, truly.”

She wasn’t able to say a word after hearing him. His sincerity reached her.

She was able to feel it.

The breath at her neck spoke of how sorry he was. The trembling in his arms showed how grateful he was.

Tears welled in her eyes.

He was such a good man. She had only just begun to want to love him properly.

Suddenly, she remembered the old fortune-teller’s words, that with love came storms.

And now she found herself thinking the same words Lee Jaseung had spoken three days ago.

I don’t know myself.

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