Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 283 - Entangled (2)

Chapter 283 – Entangled (2)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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-Whirrrrrr!

A whirlwind howled as So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, unleashed the True Pursuing Rival Returning Sword with a force as fierce as a storm.

So overwhelming was its power that Im Gyu-wol, the other Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, and all the rest of the officers were swept up in the sword force and sent flying.

Just moments ago Im Gyu-wol had been overjoyed that he had survived, but now his face was nothing short of ‘utterly wretched.’

In that very instant when they were being swept away by the sword force, an untimely thing occurred.

The doorway of mist, which had not yet closed, shut completely.

-Ssssssss!

The moment the doorway vanished entirely, the treasured artifact that had been worn on his index and middle fingers,

-Crrrrack!

shattered into pieces and scattered.

It was clear proof that it was an object that could be used only once.

Mok Gyeong-un, who had been staring at the shattered treasured artifact, slowly turned his head and spoke to So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander.

“……She was your colleague, was she not?”

If she was the head of the Six-Selected Unit, then Im Gyu-wol was the head of the Four-Selected Unit.

They belonged to different units, but they were colleagues in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, holding the same rank, and he had not expected her to suddenly launch a killing blow at one of them.

At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, she answered.

“It seemed better than letting the situation get tangled.”

So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, also had a sense of tact.

It was obvious that if the head of the Underground Forbidden Prison were allowed to escape when there were plainly two escaped prisoners right here, the situation would get out of hand.

For that reason, she had launched the killing blow without the slightest hesitation.

“Would it be fair to say that our respective interests happened to align?”

“…….”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, So Ye-rin silently turned her head to look at Dam Baek-ha, one of the Six Blood Saints of the Old Blood Cult.

Dam Baek-ha pressed her palms together in a formal salute to her and said.

“You are the one who carries that person’s blood, are you not?”

At this question, So Ye-rin briefly glanced around her surroundings, then eventually nodded.

“That is correct.”

At her answer, Mara Hyeon, the masked Thousand-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, let out a sigh of admiration.

From the start, Mara Hyeon had known that the reason his teacher had entered the Embroidered Uniform Guard was to find someone.

But he had not known that the person was a prisoner held in the Underground Forbidden Prison.

Suddenly, Mara Hyeon looked at Mok Gyeong-un with surprised eyes.

‘So there really was a connection after all?’

If one of the two people Mok Gyeong-un had broken out of prison was the person So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, had been searching for, then it would be strange to say the two of them had no connection.

At that, Dam Baek-ha dropped to one knee and spoke with reddened eyes.

-Thud!

“Ah, I have searched for you for so very long.”

“Six Blood Saint. Please, do not do this.”

So Ye-rin tried to help her up.

But Dam Baek-ha shook her head and refused.

“No, my lady. You are the only remaining legitimate bloodline that can carry on the lineage of our cult. How could this subordinate fail to pay you due respect?”

‘The legitimate bloodline to carry on the cult?’

At her words, Mok Gyeong-un looked at her in puzzlement.

Just what on earth was the relationship between these two?

Dam Baek-ha, one of the Six Blood Saints of the Old Blood Cult, had been searching for someone who carried the blood of the main and branch families of ‘that person.’

In the midst of this, Mok Gyeong-un had originally intended to let Dam Baek-ha meet Mara Hyeon, the masked Thousand-Household Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, thinking that he might know something, when it suddenly dawned on him that the person Dam Baek-ha had been searching for was none other than the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander So Ye-rin.

But for Dam Baek-ha, the Six Blood Saint, a remnant of the Old Blood Cult, to suddenly call So Ye-rin ‘the legitimate bloodline to carry on the cult’……

‘Were the main and branch families the family of the cult leader of the Old Blood Cult, which was said to have been destroyed?’

Only then would the pieces roughly fit together.

As he was sorting this out in his head, So Ye-rin also dropped to one knee, met Dam Baek-ha’s gaze, and said.

“I do not have the right to do such a thing.”

“How could you say you lack the right? That person was also the cult leader of our cult. If the lady, who has inherited that person’s bloodline, is not qualified, then who could be?”

“…….”

At Dam Baek-ha’s words, So Ye-rin pressed her lips tightly shut.

She wore an expression that seemed somehow troubled.

Dam Baek-ha then went so far as to prostrate herself before her and said.

-Thump!

“All of this is the guidance of heaven. Please, I beg of you, take in this subordinate and the surviving cultists and raise the cult once more.”

“Six Blood Saint!”

At her attitude, So Ye-rin could not contain her greater embarrassment.

Given that she was a high-ranking member of the Old Blood Cult going to such lengths, it certainly seemed true that So Ye-rin was in some way connected to the Old Blood Cult, which was said to have been destroyed.

But right now was not the time to keep conversing like this.

With the Underground Forbidden Prison having come down and an earthquake having occurred, the situation must have grown serious, and the entire imperial palace must have been thrown into chaos.

They had to use this opportunity to escape the imperial palace quickly.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un interjected and spoke politely.

“I do not know what connection the two of you share, but it seems you have had a moving reunion, so congratulations. However, if we waste any more time here, it will become difficult to leave the imperial palace.”

“Leave the imperial palace, you say?”

At these words, So Ye-rin turned her head, looking back and forth between Mok Gyeong-un and the old woman, the Sacred Fire Leader.

Then she asked Dam Baek-ha, who had been prostrating herself.

“Is this person also a member of the Blood Cult?”

“Ah! No, that young-looking old woman is the one he truly came here to rescue.”

“You came to rescue that elder?”

From Dam Baek-ha’s words, So Ye-rin, who until just now had been wondering ‘surely not,’ came to realize that Mok Gyeong-un had no connection to them at all.

It seemed they had simply met Dam Baek-ha, the Six Blood Saint, in the Underground Forbidden Prison by pure coincidence and escaped together.

At that, Mok Gyeong-un spoke to Mara Hyeon, the Thousand-Household Commander of the masked Embroidered Uniform Guard.

“Thousand-Household Commander Mara. Have you prepared that?”

At Mok Gyeong-un’s question, Mara Hyeon instinctively answered.

“Yes. It has been prepared outside the warehouse.”

So Ye-rin cut in with a look of incomprehension at the sight of him answering so respectfully, as if Mok Gyeong-un were his subordinate.

“Thousand-Household Commander Mara. Since when, exactly, have you been helping that man?”

He was her disciple, to whom she had taught martial arts, and her right-hand deputy.

The sight of him acting as though he were loyal to Mok Gyeong-un was something she simply could not accept.

The Mara Hyeon she knew would never have been the sort of person to submit to anyone.

“Did that man Mok Gyeong-un get a hold of some weakness of yours?”

“Deputy Commander So…… That is……”

Mara Hyeon was at a loss, unsure what to do.

Due to the demonic aura, he had come to feel a natural sense of loyalty toward Mok Gyeong-un, but So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, was his martial arts teacher, his benefactress, and his superior.

Because she was such a special figure to him, he found her interrogation hard to bear.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un interjected.

“Please do not press him too hard, Deputy Commander. The Thousand-Household Commander Mara had been poisoned with gu, and I merely helped him with that weakness. Isn’t that so?”

“What? Gu poison? What on earth do you mean?”

She asked in surprise, looking at Mok Gyeong-un.

At this, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged and answered.

“It is exactly as I said. A man called Director Sang Ik-seo of the Embroidered Uniform Guard poisoned the Thousand-Household Commander Mara here with gu poison and then kept blackmailing him. Am I wrong?”

“……That is correct.”

Mara Hyeon answered with difficulty.

There was nothing untrue in what he had said about this.

At this, So Ye-rin said in bewilderment.

“Thousand-Household Commander Mara. Why did you not tell me that……”

“It was not that I could not say it. If one is poisoned with gu, one is placed under a curse, and merely mentioning it can cost one’s life. It is that you, who should have known, were not attentive enough to those beneath you.”

“…….”

So Ye-rin bit down hard on her lips at Mok Gyeong-un’s seemingly sarcastic remark.

She was inwardly angry, but there was nothing she could say.

She had a belief that, no matter what else, she absolutely had to protect the people who were hers.

And yet, the fact that she had not known until now that her right-hand man, as it were, had been poisoned with gu filled her with a self-reproach she could not escape.

So Ye-rin looked at Mara Hyeon and forced her mouth open.

“Thousand-Household Commander Mara…… I……”

“Deputy Commander So…… It is all right. Truly, it was a situation where nothing could be done. I wanted to tell you, but I did not wish to be a burden to you, Deputy Commander So.”

“How could that possibly be a burden? That you had fallen into such a painful situation, I……”

Mara Hyeon frantically waved his hands off at the sight of her, with eyes reddened to the lids.

It was because the sight of her blaming herself was heartbreaking to him.

“Absolutely…… absolutely, Deputy Commander So is not at fault. All of this happened because I was careless.”

At his words, So Ye-rin stared at him for a moment, swallowed dryly, and said.

“……Are you all right now?”

At this question, Mara Hyeon hesitated for a brief instant, but then answered without hesitation.

“I am all right. If it had not been for Master Mok here, I would have died.”

In truth, there was still a parasitic male gu inside his body.

And the one who controlled that gu had simply changed from Director Sang Ik-seo to Mok Gyeong-un.

There was also a curse that prevented him from speaking of this, but Mara Hyeon, who did not wish to cause concern to his teacher So Ye-rin, had told a lie.

It was better to take this path than to be a hindrance to her.

“Is that truly so?”

“Yes, and thanks to Master Mok, we have also secured evidence of the assassination plot that Director Sang Ik-seo had attempted to carry out. That is in the office over there.”

“…….”

At Mara Hyeon’s words, So Ye-rin silently turned her head to look at Mok Gyeong-un.

If what Mara Hyeon said was true, then she was the one who should be grateful.

She glanced at Dam Baek-ha, the Six Blood Saint, as well.

Whether by intention or not, it was thanks to him that she had been able to rescue Dam Baek-ha, the Six Blood Saint, whose life and death she had been trying to confirm.

Moreover, Ju Un-hyang, the disciple with whom she had ties, had nearly been trapped in the Underground Forbidden Prison and unable to come out, but Mok Gyeong-un had rescued him as well.

When she tallied it all up, she was up to her ears in debt.

At this, So Ye-rin, the Deputy Thousand-Household Commander, pressed her palms together in a formal salute toward Mok Gyeong-un.

“My lady?”

“Deputy Commander So?”

Leaving behind the questioning voices of Mara Hyeon and Dam Baek-ha, So Ye-rin spoke in a solemn voice.

“Master Mok…… I offer you my thanks.”

‘!?’

At her attitude, a strange light came into Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.

He had been worried that things would get even more troublesome, but he had not expected her to express her gratitude to him.

She seemed to have quite a bit of pride, but contrary to expectations, she was quick to acknowledge it.

‘Well, I have not particularly done anything to be thanked for.’

They were simply byproducts that had come about in the course of resolving his own affairs.

But there was no reason to refuse when she was insisting on being grateful.

Mok Gyeong-un returned a formal salute and answered with a polite pleasantry.

“It was not something I did intentionally.”

“Even so, the fact that I owe Master Mok a debt in many ways does not disappear. I will be sure to repay this debt.”

At her words, Mok Gyeong-un inwardly chuckled.

She said she would absolutely repay the debt, but she spoke in a voice so resolute, as if she were declaring she would repay a sworn enemy.

It seemed she could not quite accept that she owed a debt to him.

But thanks to this, he had gained a good card in his hand.

Since he had safely extracted the Sacred Fire Leader from the Underground Forbidden Prison, the remaining issue was escaping the imperial palace.

It seemed he would be able to receive her help here as well.

Mok Gyeong-un smiled brightly and said to her.

“You said you would absolutely repay the debt, so let me ask you this. Would you be willing to help us leave the imperial palace?”

At his words, Dam Baek-ha, the Six Blood Saint, also interjected as if to say it was a fine idea.

“My lady. Why do we not take this opportunity to leave the imperial palace with them? For the sake of rebuilding our cult……”

“Six Blood Saint. I am sorry.”

“Yes?”

“As I said before, I do not have the qualifications you speak of, Six Blood Saint.”

“My lady…… How can you keep saying such things……”

“I am sorry. And I still have things I must do here in the imperial palace.”

“Yes?”

At the unexpected refusal, Dam Baek-ha, the Six Blood Saint, furrowed her brow.

She had naturally assumed that So Ye-rin would come with them, and she had not expected her to suddenly refuse.

No, even if it was not for the rebuilding of the Blood Cult, she had at least assumed that they would leave this place together.

“……Why would you want to remain in a place like this?”

“That is……”

So Ye-rin hesitated, then glanced at Ju Un-hyang, who had fainted.

There was something they had promised each other.

[So what is it that you want?]

[……I will overturn this rotten country from the inside.]

[Ju Un-hyang…… Do you know what you are trying to say right now? That is……]

[Yes, this is a treasonous plot.]

[!!!!!!]