Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 229 - Desire (1)
Chapter 229 – Desire (1)
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Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Mok Gyeong-un wrapped an arm around the neck of Peng Yi-mun, one of Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s close attendants.
“Cough, cough!”
And he moved to twist the man’s neck on the spot.
At that moment, Imperial Noble Consort Seo, who had been at a total loss amid the chaos, screamed in a voice close to despair.
“Stoooop!”
At that, Mok Gyeong-un, who had been about to snap the neck without hesitation, stopped at the very last instant.
“Ahhh… Lord Peng.”
At that moment, Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot, who had been slammed into the wall by Mok Gyeong-un’s strike, staggered back out, unable to hide his blank despair.
They had dramatically prevented Peng Yi-mun from losing his life, but he understood better than anyone what that cry meant.
‘How could this happen…’
Imperial Noble Consort Seo had shown weakness first.
If that happened, they would have no choice but to be dragged into the game that man wanted.
Sure enough, Imperial Noble Consort Seo, her face even brimming with tears, opened her mouth toward Mok Gyeong-un.
“This consort… This consort has lost. So please, stop.”
‘!!!!!’
At her words, the martial artists stirred.
It was something that should never happen, for Imperial Noble Consort Seo, the mother of the Crown Prince and one of the four people who controlled the power of this nation, to acknowledge defeat before a mere martial artist.
In the end, those whose loyalty ran too deep to simply stand by it,
“Your Ladyship!”
“You must not!”
“Please withdraw those words!”
tried to dissuade her in her moment of weakness.
How could she submit to such a rogue?
It was absolutely intolerable.
So several martial artists who were practically wailing out for Her Ladyship, even without orders, hurled themselves toward Mok Gyeong-un.
“You dare threaten Her Ladyship!”
“Die!”
At that moment, two men stepped in front of the charging martial artists.
They were none other than Seop Chun, Third Guard Captain of the Heaven and Earth Society’s main hall, and Mong Mu-yak, the vice society leader’s son.
-Chaechchaechchaenggang!
“W-what?”
“Their swords?”
With a knife-hand charged with sharp edge energy, Seop Chun instantly snapped or knocked away the weapons of the three martial artists rushing at him.
With his superb movement art, Mong Mu-yak easily avoided the two men’s blades, then struck their pressure points and left them unable even to move.
-Papapak!
No matter how capable they were, they were still only at the first-rate level.
There was no way they could withstand those two, who had reached the Transcendent Peak and bore the title of the Five Tigers, the very summit of the Heaven and Earth Society’s younger talents.
Seop Chun raised his voice at the martial artists whose weapons he had shattered and gave them a cold warning.
“If you aim for my lord again, next time it will not be your weapons that are cut, but your necks!”
“Y-you bastards!”
Overwhelmed by Seop Chun’s presence, they flinched and instinctively retreated.
That allowed the watching martial artists to understand something.
Not only Mok Gyeong-un, but every one of the younger talents the Heaven and Earth Society had sent was an overwhelming master beyond anything they could handle.
‘This is bad. The warriors are losing their will to fight.’
Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot, who had been circulating qi to recover his strength, felt troubled.
Even if he and Peng Yi-mun had failed to match that man, once the Peng Clan’s experts and the soldiers stormed in, the situation would change.
To give up here…
‘…Wait. What is this?’
Junior Supervisor Jang frowned and looked outside the rear garden.
Suddenly, something felt wrong.
It had been quite some time since Peng Yi-mun had blown the whistle signal, so why had the reinforcements still not come?
If they had been far away, it would be understandable, but they should have been waiting just outside the tavern grounds.
And yet, for that, they were far too late.
‘Could it be?’
Junior Supervisor Jang looked at the Heaven and Earth Society side with trembling eyes.
But perhaps the trembling had eased slightly, because Imperial Noble Consort Seo sharply addressed the martial artists.
“Everyone stop! No one is to move until this consort gives the order!”
After rebuking them like that, Imperial Noble Consort Seo said to Mok Gyeong-un,
“What just happened came from their loyalty. So understand that much.”
At those words, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and answered,
“I am not so lacking in understanding.”
-Clench!
Forcing down emotions so violent that even her hands and feet trembled, she bit down hard on her lip and spoke again.
“I will grant everything you meant to request, so let it end here.”
“Y-Your Ladyship! You must not!”
At those words, someone cried out in fierce opposition.
It was Peng Yi-mun, whose neck was still trapped in Mok Gyeong-un’s arm.
Though he was on the brink of death, he could not simply remain silent and watch this unfold.
“Your Ladyship! Our Peng Clan and the Alliance of Justice will protect you from this vile Heaven and Earth Society no matter what! You absolutely must not give in to their de…”
-Crack!
“Urk!”
The words never had the chance to finish.
With his neck twisted backward, Peng Yi-mun’s body went limp together with a final scream.
To any eye, his breath seemed gone.
‘!!!!!!’
In an instant, silence flooded the rear garden.
Because Imperial Noble Consort Seo had acknowledged defeat first and yielded, everyone had believed that at least no one else would die now.
And yet Peng Yi-mun, who might well have been called Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s left arm, had lost his life in a way too absurd to believe.
The shock of it was beyond words.
‘What?’
‘What is he trying to do? A close attendant of Imperial Noble Consort Seo?’
The Heaven and Earth Society’s side, who were nominally on the same side, were equally stunned.
The methods had been somewhat violent, but in any case, Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s side had yielded first, so they had thought there was no further need for sacrifice.
Yet they could not understand why he was escalating matters even further.
Then Imperial Noble Consort Seo, stunned speechless by Peng Yi-mun’s death and only mouthing soundlessly, screamed with the veins in her neck standing out.
“H-how dare you!”
“It is not a matter of how dare I.”
“What?”
-Clench!
At that moment, Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s eyes widened madly.
And the reason was what was unfolding before her.
-Prrrkk! Craaack!
The sound of bones crushing and flesh tearing assaulted her eardrums, and in her eyes she could see the dead Peng Yi-mun’s head being ripped from the body.
At the sight of something so brutally horrific, the anger that had possessed her vanished without a trace.
‘Th-this man is insane…’
-Crack! Squelch!
Having fully separated Peng Yi-mun’s head from his body, Mok Gyeong-un flung it onto the table in the hall where Imperial Noble Consort Seo sat.
-Thud! Roll, roll!
‘!!!!!!!’
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
The palace maids beside Imperial Noble Consort Seo shrieked in horror.
Amid the trembling maids screaming in terror, Imperial Noble Consort Seo staggered as if she were about to collapse.
At the rolling head upon the table, her mind had already snapped.
“Aaaahhh.”
“Your Ladyship!”
-Pat!
The eunuch Yu Bong, who stood right before the hall, hurriedly leaped up and caught her as she was about to fall.
At the same time, Yu Bong, with a pained expression, kicked Peng Yi-mun’s severed head from the table into the pond beside the hall.
‘Lord Peng. Forgive me.’
-Splash!
And so Peng Yi-mun’s head sank into the pond.
The eyes of everyone watching were dyed with shock and fear.
When Peng Yi-mun had first died, the martial artists had still been filled with fury, but now they were paralyzed by fear and pressure, unable to do anything.
‘H-he is insane.’
To rip off the head, even if the man was already dead.
The savagery of it left them speechless.
In the midst of that, Mok Gyeong-un licked the back of his blood-soaked hand with his tongue, then curled his lips up in a sinister smile.
At that sight, everyone felt a chill run down their spine.
The sight of him smiling as he tasted blood was truly like that of an evil ghost.
-Step, step!
Then Mok Gyeong-un began to walk.
His direction was the hall where Imperial Noble Consort Seo was.
Seeing this, Imperial Noble Consort Seo, whose mind had been on the verge of collapse from shock, screamed in terror.
“S-stop him! Stop him!”
There were four martial artists near the hall.
Yet not one of them moved in response to Imperial Noble Consort Seo’s order.
Already broken by fear and terror, they could not even control their trembling bodies.
But not all of them were like that.
“Do not touch Her Ladyship!”
-Pat!
Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot, who had apparently restored some of his strength through qi circulation, lunged forward to stop Mok Gyeong-un.
But Seop Chun blocked him.
“Where do you think you are going!”
“Move!”
-Papapak!
In an instant the two of them exchanged some two moves there on the spot.
If they had fought in proper condition, Junior Supervisor Jang would have been superior in internal power, but thanks to the injury he had sustained from Mok Gyeong-un, their clash was now perfectly even.
‘Damn it. Against a mere brat like this.’
Growing impatient, Junior Supervisor Jang’s hands became even more tangled, and he could not break through the front.
At that,
-Pak!
Imperial Noble Consort Seo shoved away the eunuch Yu Bong, who had been supporting her, and shouted,
“Stop him! I said stop him!”
Driven forward by her frantic push, Yu Bong found himself inwardly at a total loss.
He had already fought Mok Gyeong-un once and lost in a single move, and he had seen with his own eyes that even Peng Yi-mun, who was stronger than he was, and Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot, had been unable to deal with him.
So how exactly was he supposed to stop him?
‘Damn it.’
Watching Mok Gyeong-un come closer, Yu Bong’s eyes shook wildly.
Only half a shichen earlier, it had felt as though everything would go smoothly.
How had it all collapsed like this?
-Step, step!
Mok Gyeong-un came right up before him.
Yu Bong repeated inwardly,
‘I have to stop him. I have to stop him.’
Even if he already knew the result, Imperial Noble Consort Seo had given the order, so he had to obey it.
Yet his limbs refused to listen.
The moment his eyes met Mok Gyeong-un’s, he was seized by a crushing pressure and lowered his head without even realizing it.
-Swoosh!
Mok Gyeong-un passed him as though no one were there at all.
It was humiliation beyond words.
And yet, at the same time, Yu Bong felt miserable at the instant relief welling up inside him.
-Tap!
Mok Gyeong-un stopped about three steps away from Imperial Noble Consort Seo.
-Tremble, tremble!
Once he stood before her at last, the strength left her legs and she felt as though she might collapse at any moment.
Up close, his beauty was extraordinary, but she did not see it.
All she saw was the blood staining Mok Gyeong-un’s hand.
‘Urgh.’
She felt sick enough to vomit.
It even felt as though tears would spill out, yet she somehow held them back.
Then Mok Gyeong-un spoke to her.
“Those whose bellies are full tend to let the memory and feelings of hunger grow faint.”
“…What are you saying?”
“That, of course, can happen. Human beings are simpler than they seem, and they often forget such memories very easily.”
“…”
“So I merely reminded Your Ladyship of those missing feelings with a fitting example.”
The moment the words ended, Mok Gyeong-un reached out toward her.
“Eek!”
Imperial Noble Consort Seo flinched and squeezed her eyes shut without meaning to.
Was he going to lay hands on her too?
-Ssshh.
But instead, Mok Gyeong-un brushed aside the hair that had fallen across her face and said in a gentle voice,
“Your Ladyship. Do you know what those missing feelings are?”
“…”
At his question, she flinched and slowly opened her eyes to a narrow slit.
When she did, all she saw reflected in them was Mok Gyeong-un’s face, filled entirely with malice.
At the sight, she could not control her trembling.
She was a woman who had long felt the emotions with which many people looked upon her through their eyes.
But this was the first time she had ever seen such a thing.
How could a human being be filled with nothing but malice like this?
Just seeing it made her too afraid to bear.
“S-save me.”
Unable to overcome that fear, she finally let even a plea escape her lips.
To her, Mok Gyeong-un smiled pleasantly and said,
“Fear, desperation, earnestness… good. It seems what had been missing has now been filled in a little.”
‘!?’
At those words, she understood.
The death of her close attendant Peng Yi-mun, the savagery of tearing off his head.
Every one of those actions had been meant to carve the feeling of fear back into the proud woman she had become after rising to the rank of Imperial Noble Consort.
‘All this… for such a reason…’
But even understanding it changed nothing.
The fear once carved into her would not be easily released.
For her to escape that bondage, there were only two possibilities.
Either the man who had engraved that feeling upon her died, or she died.
‘But how could I possibly kill this man?’
At that moment, something rose in her mind.
It was,
[Your Ladyship! Our Peng Clan and the Alliance of Justice will protect you from this vile Heaven and Earth Society no matter what!]
the words Peng Yi-mun had spoken before he died.
Yes.
Peng Yi-mun was a man of the Peng Clan of Hebei and a member of the Alliance of Justice.
She knew that the Alliance of Justice, made up of righteous heroes of the orthodox martial world, was an organization hostile to the vile Heaven and Earth Society.
If they learned of Peng Yi-mun’s death, they would never let it pass.
-Clench!
She ground her teeth.
Endure it just a little longer.
If she endured this fear and humiliation for the moment, then she would surely avenge…
-Boom!
At that moment, the closed gate of the rear garden was smashed apart by something and crashed forward.
At once, everyone’s gaze turned there.
‘Could it be?’
Had the awaited reinforcements of the Peng Clan’s experts and soldiers finally arrived?
Yet Junior Supervisor Jang of the Eastern Depot, looking toward the rear-garden gate, had a bad expression.
Because there were hardly any traces of presence.
If hundreds of soldiers and the Peng Clan’s experts had arrived, he should have felt a great mass of presences, but something was wrong.
Then someone appeared through the fallen gate.
He was none other than,
“Lord Peng!”
Peng Seok-im, the younger brother of Peng Yi-mun and an expert of the Peng Clan of Hebei.
At his appearance, the martial artists nearly brightened with relief, thinking the reinforcements had finally arrived.
But something was strange.
Peng Seok-im’s clothes were stained red, and in his hand he held a sword inscribed with a strange pattern that none of them had seen before, and it too was drenched in blood.
-Drip, drip!
Had the Heaven and Earth Society hidden an ambush outside?
Otherwise, how could he have appeared alone in such a state?
While they stood there puzzled, Peng Seok-im swept his blazing eyes around the area and then, apparently spotting Imperial Noble Consort Seo in the hall, curled his lips into a sinister smile.
At that, Junior Supervisor Jang shouted,
“Lord Peng, what in the world happened outside…”
“Shut up, you gelded bastard.”
‘!?’
At his shout, Junior Supervisor Jang’s expression froze.
He had only been about to ask what had happened outside, yet the man had suddenly cursed him.
And while everyone still stood there bewildered, Peng Seok-im looked toward Imperial Noble Consort Seo in the hall and uttered utterly unexpected words.
“Hehehe. Your Ladyship. Are you ready to lie in this man’s arms tonight and cry out beneath me?”
‘!!!!!!’