Chapter 128: Stars, Fall

Stars poured down from the sky.

It would have been more accurate to say it looked like a downpour, but right now it felt right to say they truly fell.

Nights like this existed.

Nights when the stars were unusually dense.

Nights that made you murmur without thinking, so this many stars were up there.

On a night so cool the wind that stroked the blades of grass felt perfect, two people who matched this majestic nature lay there as if they belonged.

Lee Jaseung and Baek Seolyoung lay side by side in a field, naked.

She covered the most important parts with her clothes.

Even so, that alone could not hide a beauty whose curves were more elegant than any line nature could draw.

Her firm abdomen, the fantastic sweep of her waist, her long arms and milk-white thighs, her sleek calves and lovely small feet, just looking at them pushed you past admiration into something dreamlike.

Baek Seolyoung was so happy to make love with Lee Jaseung. She loved his hands brushing over her body.

Did he feel the same?

She could not bring herself to ask, so she did not know.

Lying side by side in a place this beautiful made such thoughts come. She wanted to throw everything away and go live deep in the mountains or on an uninhabited island with him.

Someone would try to seize this Jianghu. They would kill, then kill again.

Fine, you ruthless Jianghu, you can have it all.

I will leave Jianghu and live in nature with my husband, just the two of us.

There, I will bear and raise a boy who takes after him and a girl who takes after me. I will teach the children letters and martial arts.

When they grow, we will become in-laws with some good-natured farmers in the neighboring village.

We will farm by day and make love by night.

I want to grow old like that, in nature.

Someone would probably condemn me for it. Where did that great ambition go? They would call me a foolish woman who threw everything away for a man.

Even so, even if I had to endure such pointing fingers, I wanted to live happily with him like that.

Soon she gave herself a self-mocking smile.

Regardless of what others thought, the wish felt far too selfish.

With a world this wide, was raising the children tucked away in the mountains truly the right path? Would the children really be happy there?

And above all, Lee Jaseung would not want such a life.

He wanted to take Jianghu.

He stood at its center.

Even if his heart changed and he said he wanted to leave with her.

Would this love really not change? Would he not grow tired of it?

Lost in these thoughts, she turned to Lee Jaseung.

She saw his profile as he gazed up at the sky. Starlight filled his eyes.

She asked him.

“What are you thinking about?”

“You.”

“Pfft!”

“Why are you laughing?”

“That is the kind of thing playboys say, it does not suit you.”

Lee Jaseung gave a faint smile and looked up at the sky again.

He meant it.

A moment ago, as he looked up, he had been thinking of her.

How should he live with her from now on?

How could he keep from making her unhappy?

Could he truly protect her well?

What life did she truly want?

He really had been thinking that way.

He thought the heavens might grow jealous and deal them hardship. The heavens had a way of doing such petty, temperamental things.

He wanted to say this to those heavens.

Wake up from your dream.

If, in the end, they had to give hardship, then give it to me.

If it fell upon her, I would truly get angry.

Lee Jaseung turned to her and said,

“I have something to tell you.”

Feeling he was about to say something important, Baek Seolyoung tensed inside. By now she felt she could tell just from his expression or the sound of his voice.

What he said next was something she had not imagined.

“I am going to kill someone.”

“Who?”

“The Murim Alliance Leader.”

A brief silence fell. Baek Seolyoung’s eyes opened wide and she swallowed.

“You are not joking, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Right, you are not the sort to joke about something like this.”

Jang Wonso was corrupt, had even laid hands on his disciple, and on top of that he was abducting innocent women to be sacrificed. Lee Jaseung did not feel like going through each item, so he cut it short.

“He is an eyesore, a big one.”

Baek Seolyoung gave a small laugh. As if Lee Jaseung would kill someone just because they annoyed him. She knew well it was because he had committed sins worthy of death.

Her face hardened not from pity for the Alliance Leader’s life. She worried that Lee Jaseung might be put at risk trying to kill him.

“How will you do it?”

Lee Jaseung lifted Asura from beside him.

“With this.”

She laughed again. Who else but Lee Jaseung would answer a question about how to kill the leader of all the martial world by holding up a single dagger.

Head bowed, Baek Seolyoung fell into thought. No matter how strong Lee Jaseung was, the opponent was still the Murim Alliance Leader. She worried he might be ambushed in return.

The look in Lee Jaseung’s eyes, as he watched her, deepened. At first he had hesitated to marry for precisely this reason. The road he had to walk was one of blood pouring like a river.

But now he did not regret or look back on that decision. So he said to her,

“If you are that worried, then help me.”

She lifted her head.

“Huh?”

“Help me. Let’s kill Jang Wonso together.”

Baek Seolyoung realized he was speaking from his heart.

“My goodness. A husband asking his wife to join him in murder!”

“And a wife smiling so brightly at her husband’s suggestion to kill someone!”

“Hey, when did I smile?”

“You did. Your lips are full of a smile even now.”

“No! I am not that kind of person!”

She thought she might have smiled. No, she probably had.

When he first asked for help, she had been taken aback, but then she felt good.

Whether it was a right thing or a dangerous thing, he would never have said it unless he trusted her.

Well, in any case, it was not something to do together. She would only make things riskier for him.

“Be careful.”

That one word from her gave him strength.

“I will.”

Lee Jaseung brushed a light kiss against her cheek.

Looking at the sky behind him, she spoke in her heart.

Please, watch over this man.

She believed at least one of the falling stars would grant that plea.

* * *

“You did not get cut, I see?”

When Rain turned, it was Water. She was probably the only person in the organization who treated him this bluntly. Even Mountain did not speak to him this way.

“I am not so easily trimmed, you know.”

“Most easy-to-trim people say that.”

Deciding he could not win with words, Rain just shook his head.

Both of them still wore masks. Strictly speaking, masks were not mandatory. The rule was, if you wanted to hide your face, you could.

Far more people wore masks. When many masked ones gathered, they were hard to tell apart, so they added markings.

Of course, there were those who did not. Wrath had gone unmasked earlier. Mostly those without a second identity did that.

“Go do your own work.”

“I always do my work thoroughly. This is just a pastime. By the way, I heard specialists with blades have been summoned from every region.”

“For a pastime, your news is fast huh.”

“Do you really think they can kill the Black Way Alliance Lord with just that?”

Rain flinched and looked at her.

“How did you know he is the Black Way Alliance Lord?”

“What do you mean, how? It was revealed in the summons order. Everyone knows now, why act surprised?”

“There is someone I see. Someone leaking secrets to you.”

“Of course there is. I am not a ghost that knows everything. But do not get so touchy about it. I look like a fool telling you this, you know.”

Rain wore a look of disbelief.

Water smiled and said,

“I am advising you for your sake. That alone will not work.”

“It is not your place to interfere.”

Water’s eyes narrowed.

“You are relying on something. What is it? Don’t tell me you called him?”

Rain stared at Water in silence. Those who knew him said this about him. That his eyes were soaked with sorrow. That his air was very sad.

But when he faced this one woman, Water, that air broke. Her endless jabs finally made him respond.

“That is what I want to ask. What are you relying on?”

“What do you mean?”

“You took Heaven to the Elder in One Fleeting Dream Tavern, did you not? Considering the relationship between Elder Mountain and Heaven, you could not have done that.”

“So now you call Mountain ‘Elder.’ So naturally like that.”

A twitch ran through Rain’s brow.

Before his emotions could ride the rapids of anger, Water swiftly changed the subject.

“What kind of organization would claim to sway the world if it cannot grant the dying a last wish?”

Rain did not know how many made up this organization. He had not met them all. So he could not say for certain that the woman before him was the most dangerous.

But at least within what he knew, she was the most dangerous.

‘Which is probably why I’m drawn to her.’

Rain turned away and said,

“Lee Jaseung dies this time. Without fail.”

Flutter.

Right then, a courier hawk flew down and landed on Rain’s forearm. The message tube on its leg was red, a mark of urgency.

Rain quickly read the letter. In case of mishap, it was written in code.

When he finished, he was surprised.

The message said Lee Jaseung had kidnapped Ban Yeo. The organization had already ascertained that Ban Yeo was not dead.

It was this organization’s way. Information was delivered only when needed. The one who controlled that flow was Mountain.

In any case, Lee Jaseung kidnapping Ban Yeo was a move Rain had not imagined.

“What was in that message for you to react like that?”

“Lee Jaseung kidnapped Ban Yeo.”

Rain told her without hesitation. With her formidable access to information, she would know soon anyway.

Seeing the flash of keen light in her eyes, Rain asked,

“Do you grasp his intent?”

Water answered with confidence.

“It is simple. When would a man challenging the number one seat, need the number two of that organization?”

A thought struck Rain like a blow to the head.

“Huh? He really means to kill Jang Wonso?”

Rain grew urgent. They had not yet found the goods. For that reason, they could not afford to lose Jang Wonso yet.

“I am going to need your help.”

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