Chapter 58: A Ruthless Man

Hwa Yeon-seol was dumbfounded.

How had he asked if she had been well?

It felt more insulting than anything else he could have said.

Emotions surged within her like a storm.

Perhaps her expression gave her away, because Seo Yu-gyeom hastily added,

“Mm, that’s not what I meant.”

Seo Yu-gyeom picked up the candy Hwa Yeon-seol had dropped, popped it into his mouth, and paid the old woman.

While he was doing that, Hwa Yeon-seol’s voice continued.

“Why did you come? To kill me too?”

This time, the old woman dropped the money she had been holding.

Seo Yu-gyeom and Hwa Yeon-seol both looked at her.

At that moment, the chief steward stepped forward and quietly spoke to Hwa Yeon-seol.

“Master of the Trading Company, let us move elsewhere.”

After saying so, the steward glared once at Seo Yu-gyeom.

Seo Yu-gyeom merely shrugged. Ho Yeon-baek was also someone whose face he knew well.

‘Was his atmosphere always like this?’

Seo Yu-gyeom moved along, observing the steward’s changed demeanor.

The three of them slipped into a side alley. It was an alley without shops, sparsely populated.

At the entrance of the alley, Jin Seong-un stood waiting.

Seeing this, Hwa Yeon-seol asked,

“What’s that?”

“That? My friend.”

“Hah…”

Hwa Yeon-seol let out a hollow laugh.

Why had he even brought a friend back to Deyang?

She wasn’t a fool, and recent events immediately came to mind.

“The Four Dragons River Gang. That was your doing?”

“What’s the Four Dragons River Gang?”

Seo Yu-gyeom feigned ignorance.

He had no reason to tell her.

Hwa Yeon-seol and Ho Yeon-baek gave him suspicious looks.

Her voice cut in again.

“So why did you come back? With what face?”

The dagger hidden within her voice stabbed Seo Yu-gyeom.

His expression, rarely seen, hardened.

Something boiled within him.

Was he the only one at fault? Was it all his fault?

Such thoughts rose from deep within his heart.

His gaze naturally grew cold. The sudden shift in atmosphere made both Hwa Yeon-seol and Ho Yeon-baek flinch.

He was not the Seo Yu-gyeom they remembered. In the years past, he had lived as a top-tier assassin of Deathshroud.

“Master of the Trading Company, please withdraw.”

Ho Yeon-baek stepped half a step forward, as if to shield Hwa Yeon-seol.

Seo Yu-gyeom’s brow twitched.

“Why is the steward interfering in the conversation between siblings?”

“Siblings, you say? Do you feel no pang of conscience?”

The steward shouted furiously. Even passersby outside the alley glanced over.

Seo Yu-gyeom let out a small sigh.

Facing the naked hostility of Hwa Yeon-seol and Ho Yeon-baek, he spoke calmly.

“Hwa Yun-tak killed my parents first. Why are you speaking as if I was the only one who did wrong?”

The resentment that had taken deep root in his heart spilled out.

It was a reenactment of the nightmares he had always dreamed.

Hwa Yun-tak and Hwa Yeon-seol hurled blades of words, and Seo Yu-gyeom voiced his sense of injustice.

But there was one difference from the dreams.

“If you had any conscience, you shouldn’t have sought revenge against me. Hwa Yun-tak was the one who—”

Seo Yu-gyeom stopped mid-sentence, noticing Hwa Yeon-seol’s expression.

Her face was filled with shock, as if she had just heard something unbearable.

“You didn’t know?”

Hwa Yeon-seol looked bewildered.

Seo Yu-gyeom’s gaze naturally turned to Ho Yeon-baek.

“But you knew, didn’t you, Steward? That Hwa Yun-tak killed my parents in order to obtain the Heavenly Martial Star, that he raised me for that reason. That once he realized I was not the Heavenly Martial Star but the Heaven-Slaying Star, he practically abandoned me.”

Hwa Yeon-seol turned her head to look at Ho Yeon-baek.

But his face betrayed no emotion.

Then, with an expression of contempt, Ho Yeon-baek said,

“You’re mad. Do you expect us to believe such nonsense? Do you think that by fabricating excuses now, your betrayal of family ties can be justified?”

“…What?”

“How lightly you must regard us!”

Ho Yeon-baek roared again.

This time, however, no one outside the alley heard. Jin Seong-un, standing at the entrance, had spread his Qi to block the sound.

Ho Yeon-baek repeatedly emphasized the word ‘us.’ Hwa Yeon-seol looked at him with a strange expression.

Seo Yu-gyeom gave a hollow laugh.

“Steward, you’ve been clouding her eyes and ears all this time, stirring her anger against me. For what?”

“……”

“Ahh.”

Seo Yu-gyeom’s expression returned to normal.

The raw emotions vanished, replaced by a mask of composure.

A faint smile curled at the corners of his lips.

“It was you. The one who gnawed at Hwa-un Trading Company from within like a worm. It made me wonder. The Hwa Yeon-seol I knew wasn’t a fool, so why was she being helplessly swayed by the Black Path?”

Hwa Yeon-seol’s face twisted with unease.

As if aware of her reaction, Ho Yeon-baek’s face grew angrier as he spoke.

“Master of the Trading Company, you need not heed him. That unfilial wretch spits poison only to shake your heart.”

“I avenged my parents and left cleanly. But you stayed by the Master’s side, clouding her sight and hearing, gnawing her from within. Between the two of us, which one is the real poison?”

“……”

Hwa Yeon-seol was conflicted.

This was the first time she had heard such a story.

It was hard to believe. Even harder because the one saying it was Seo Yu-gyeom, whom she had resented half her life. Moreover, his words were slyly justifying murder.

‘But still…’

If her father had been an ordinary man, she would have dismissed Seo Yu-gyeom’s words outright.

But she knew her father. He had not been a man of integrity.

In fact, what Seo Yu-gyeom said was exactly the kind of thing her dead father could have done.

That was why it was so difficult to steel her heart.

All the more, memories surfaced of how, in recent days, the steward had been trying to curry favor with the Vice Leader of the Heavenly Poison Alliance, even insisting that the Hwa-un Trading Company be handed over.

The uneasy feeling that had lingered in Hwa Yeon-seol’s heart over the past days began to sprout into a seed of suspicion with Seo Yu-gyeom’s arrival.

“Master of the Trading Company, surely you don’t believe his words? Why do you think he appeared now of all times? He’s making his move precisely when the Company is at its weakest, when you are most vulnerable.”

“Oh, that’s sharp.”

“See, look at that! He admits it himself! The one who murdered the previous Master now shamelessly sets his eyes on the Company!”

“Hahaha, if the Hwa-un Trading Company were the same as before, your words might be right. But what use do I have for the Company in its current state?”

The steward fell silent.

Seo Yu-gyeom’s words were true. The Hwa-un Trading Company was already half swallowed by the Heavenly Poison Alliance.

No one would covet the Company in this state. To seize it now would only mean walking straight into the jaws of the Heavenly Poison Alliance.

“But Steward, the air feels different now.”

“Don’t speak nonsense.”

At that moment—

Seo Yu-gyeom suddenly threw a hidden weapon.

Tak.

The steward instinctively caught it.

“St–Steward?”

Hwa Yeon-seol’s eyes widened. To her knowledge, the steward had never trained in martial arts.

Seo Yu-gyeom gave a thumbs up.

“Oh, quick.”

So that was why the atmosphere had felt strange.

It seemed he had been training in martial arts all these years.

Seeing her expression, Ho Yeon-baek hurried to explain.

“Hasn’t the atmosphere in Deyang been turbulent of late? I started training recently to at least protect the Master and myself.”

“Then Steward Ho must be a genius. To reach this level after starting so recently.”

Seo Yu-gyeom chuckled mockingly.

But suspicion still clouded Hwa Yeon-seol’s eyes.

Then, Seo Yu-gyeom suddenly pointed behind Ho Yeon-baek. Naturally, he turned his head—and was shocked.

From the entrance of the alley, a small stone was hurtling toward him. Its speed was truly threatening.

“…!”

Ho Yeon-baek flinched instinctively.

Thwack!

The stone struck his shoulder hard.

Clutching his shoulder, he staggered back several steps.

“What are you doing?!”

Hwa Yeon-seol immediately shouted at Seo Yu-gyeom.

But Seo Yu-gyeom only shrugged.

“He threw it, why blame me?”

Everyone’s eyes turned toward Jin Seong-un.

He looked at them briefly, then said dryly,

“A ruthless man.”

The meaning was clear.

Jin Seong-un had deliberately adjusted his strength, throwing the stone at a speed only someone with the strength of Half Step Master could block.

Ho Yeon-baek had reacted, but chose to take the hit instead—so as to avoid suspicion.

Blood stained his shoulder.

Hwa Yeon-seol looked at him with worry. The suspicion in her eyes had completely vanished.

Ho Yeon-baek knew this was even more dangerous. It meant she had already made up her mind and was now concealing her true feelings.

“I’m fine, Master. But we must leave this place. If we remain tangled with such ruffians, something dangerous will surely happen. Besides, the Vice Leader of the Heavenly Poison Alliance will soon begin seeking you.”

This was the method Ho Yeon-baek had chosen: invoking the Heavenly Poison Alliance’s name to drive the two away.

But to Seo Yu-gyeom and Jin Seong-un, it was hardly effective.

Ho Yeon-baek led Hwa Yeon-seol toward the alley’s exit. The closer they drew to Jin Seong-un, the tenser their expressions became.

But Jin Seong-un’s eyes remained on Seo Yu-gyeom. When Seo Yu-gyeom shrugged, Jin Seong-un stepped aside.

Just before disappearing, the two glanced back once at Seo Yu-gyeom, then vanished completely.

.

.

.

Hwa Yeon-seol and Ho Yeon-baek walked side by side.

They were returning to the Hwa-un Trading Company.

After a long silence, Ho Yeon-baek finally spoke.

“What I said about the Vice Leader earlier was only to help us get away.”

“I know.”

“……”

Ho Yeon-baek closed his mouth.

He wanted to read her expression, but he dared not. If he tried now, it would only deepen her suspicion.

So they kept walking, looking only straight ahead.

Though their eyes were set in the same direction, their hearts diverged.

Who knew how long they walked in silence?

Up ahead, martial artists of Twilight Pavilion appeared.

“Where have you been?”

Neither of them answered.

On Sa Ryeong-geuk’s orders, the martial artists of Twilight Pavilion had come to escort them.

“Damn it. When someone speaks, you answer.”

One of them spat curses as he fell in step beside them. The others spread out, keeping slight distance, hands resting on their sword hilts.

Outwardly, it looked like an escort. But both knew better. The men of Twilight Pavilion were there to keep them under watch.

“……”

Hwa Yeon-seol’s face sank into cold composure.

She revealed no hint of emotion.

After walking a while under their watch, she suddenly gasped, looking up at a rooftop.

Startled by her sudden reaction, the steward and the Twilight Pavilion men also looked.

But there was nothing.

“What is it, Master?”

Ho Yeon-baek asked.

Hwa Yeon-seol stared at the empty roof for a moment, then shook her head.

“It’s nothing.”

The group continued walking.

Hwa Yeon-seol forced her breathing to steady, calming her startled heart.

Still, the voice she had just heard through transmission remained vividly in her mind.

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