Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 81 - Dark Tread (3)

Chapter 81 – Dark Tread (3)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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They said that when a person fell into extreme terror, the sphincter and bladder ceased to be controllable.

Neung Hwa-yang, who had fainted with her eyes rolled back and foam at her mouth, had even wet herself.

Dribble.

Seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue.

“Hmm. It seems being unable to feel pain and fear are separate matters.”

As Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips in disappointment, Blue Spirit’s voice sounded by his ear.

-Sentient being, I think I now know your true calling.

“Pardon?”

-You would be perfectly suited to be a torturer. If you frighten people like that, there is no one who could fail to break. No, they would confess everything before the torture even began.

“Is that so?”

-You really are good at frightening people. In matters like this, you are truly accomplished.

“I wasn’t only trying to frighten her, though.”

Mok Gyeong-un shrugged and said it as if it were nothing.

-………

What?

Then was he really planning to show her, with her own eyes, the sight of all her skin being peeled off?

If that were the case, it was truly a vile taste.

At that, Blue Spirit clicked her tongue as if dumbfounded.

-In any case, you are not in your right mind.

At that reaction from her, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said,

“It was a joke. A joke.”

-As if.

“No. No matter how much I enjoy seeing blood, I wouldn’t do something that inefficient.”

-Inefficient?

“Yes. One might call it a waste of time. It takes too long. And if they die in the middle of peeling the skin off, it kills the mood.”

-………

What was this feeling that, given the chance, he really might do it?

It gave rise to doubt.

In this fellow’s eyes, was there even any difference between human beings and animals, insects, or objects?

This sentient being, this fellow, had a view of death completely different from everyone else’s.

While that was happening, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“Still, I did learn one thing.”

-What is that?

“Even if there is no pain, it seems fear still can’t be helped.”

Because she had spoken so confidently about not feeling pain, he had tested whether she perhaps also lacked dread or fear.

If that had really been possible, it would have been rather interesting.

But contrary to Mok Gyeong-un’s hopes, Neung Hwa-yang had failed to overcome fear and fainted.

At that, Blue Spirit said,

-For living beings, emotion is a realm that cannot be overcome no matter how much one trains.

“That may be true.”

He could not deny it.

And not only fear.

After his grandfather’s death, the rage hidden in the depths of his heart had not diminished in the slightest as time passed, but had only continued to grow.

It was like bubbling lava.

At this rate, he could not predict what sort of thing he himself might do one day.

“Ahhh. More importantly, why did this person come to my room and try to do something like this?”

-What? Do you mean that she tried to perform a mating act with you, sentient being?

“……..What a direct and interesting way to put it.”

-Why are you pretending to be innocent all of a sudden?

At Blue Spirit’s words, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged.

At that, she said in a mocking tone,

-In any case, whether it was a mating act or whatever else, if she used a honey trap, then it was truly wasted effort.

The sentient being she had observed so far was not the sort of human on whom such things would work.

He never accepted anything purely at face value.

Even if it was goodwill entirely devoid of ulterior motives, Mok Gyeong-un harbored deep suspicion toward it.

In a certain sense, he was the type who was quite hard to deceive in the first place.

“Anyway, I suppose I’ll have to wake her and ask why she tried something like this. It doesn’t seem likely she did this for no reason.”

-On that point, I agree.

From the fact that she had approached him knowing his name, she had clearly come with a purpose.

That purpose was certainly not bodily conversation.

Press!

Mok Gyeong-un pressed down hard on the center of her chest with his foot.

“Now then. Time to wake up.”

At that, the unconscious woman soon awoke, coughing.

“Cough cough!”

As soon as she woke, she stared blankly ahead for a moment, then met Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes and flinched, hurriedly avoiding his gaze.

The fear she had acquired once seemed to have lodged deep in her heart and did not fade in the slightest.

She hurriedly touched her own skin with her hand.

Then she felt relieved.

‘Haa.’

When she opened her eyes, if all the skin of her body had already been stripped away, she truly would not have been able to bear it.

Fortunately, that had not happened yet.

Looking down at her, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said,

“You seem relieved.”

Flinch!

“You have to be awake if I want to see what kind of expression you’ll make when I peel your skin off.”

‘Th-this mad……’

At those words from Mok Gyeong-un, goosebumps rose all over her body.

After gaining a body that could not feel pain, she had thought fear had vanished from her.

But this bastard truly went beyond the bounds of normality.

The way he thought was entirely different.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Her heart began pounding madly again.

Then Mok Gyeong-un snickered and spoke again.

“It would be troublesome if you fainted again.”

At those words, she involuntarily blurted out something she should never have said.

“P-please!”

‘Huh?’

What had she just said?

Had she really begged?

She had undergone that much training in the process of becoming an agent of Dark Tread.

If a situation ever arose in which she was captured by enemies, then no matter what torture she suffered, she must never open her mouth, and in the worst case, she must kill herself.

That was the basic principle for all Dark Tread agents, regardless of whether they belonged to Gap, Eul, Byeong, or Ding.

Grip!

Neung Hwa-yang bit her lip hard.

It was humiliating.

After gaining a body that could not feel pain, her emotions had withered, and she had filled that emptiness with pleasure from the pain and death of others.

Even amid that, she had thought that pain and death held no fear for her.

But apparently that had not been true.

It seemed the emotion called fear had been hiding in one corner of her heart.

‘In the end, I wasn’t any different.’

She too was only an ordinary human with nothing special about her.

Wearing a dazed expression, she finally looked at Mok Gyeong-un and spoke as though she had organized her resolve.

“Just kill me.”

“That seems difficult. The restriction of this gate forbids killing.”

“………”

“But I think I can at least make one promise.”

“A promise?”

“If you answer only the questions I ask, I’ll skip this delightful process and simply let you go.”

His tone made it sound as though he were doing her a favor.

It was a proposal that could make one waver in an instant.

But Neung Hwa-yang gave no answer.

At her attitude, Mok Gyeong-un gave a small laugh and asked,

“The question is simple. Did you come of your own will, or did someone send you?”

“……..”

“Your mouth suddenly grew heavy.”

“…….”

Did he think she would speak so easily, just after she had barely overcome her fear and put her heart in order?

An agent of Dark Tread did not divulge information, even if it cost them their life.

With poison-filled eyes, she moved her lips.

“I’ll wait for you in hell.”

With those words, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue.

Then she tried to bite down on it.

But,

Clang!

“Mmph!”

Something hard wound between her teeth and stopped her from biting through her tongue.

‘Wh-what is this?’

Nothing could be seen.

And yet the thing caught between her teeth was incomparably hard.

What on earth was it?

While she was standing there in confusion, Mok Gyeong-un said something whose meaning she could not understand.

“So-ha. You said you wanted a body, didn’t you?”

‘!?’

What was he talking about?

Was there someone else here besides the two of them?

She could sense no presence at all.

Shiver!

As that was happening, a sudden chill ran through her.

It felt as though something cold and horrifying were touching her hair, and it made her shudder.

At that instant, Neung Hwa-yang doubted her own two eyes.

Smoooooth.

Something with a blurry form appeared upside down before her eyes.

It was a girl with gray-white hair, and the white pupils of her eyes looked so eerie.

As this upside-down girl descended and drew nearer and nearer, no matter how she looked at it, it did not feel human.

‘A gh… a gh…..’

“Mmph! Mmph!”

Neung Hwa-yang twisted her body, trying to rise.

But Mok Gyeong-un was pressing down on her with his foot, and something else was restraining her entire body, so she could not move even a little.

‘Don’t come! Don’t come closer!’

Her fear became so intense that the tiny vessels in her eyes burst and the whites turned red.

Srrrrr.

At last, for the first time in her life, she came to experience something taking root inside her body.

That sensation was on a completely different level from anything felt through the five senses.

“Ughk…. ughghk.”

Not long after, black veins bulged grotesquely all over her body, and her whole body went into violent convulsions.

* * *

There were two people walking quickly with rapid steps.

They were Mok Yu-cheon and Ma Sang, the Dark Tread spy from the Alliance of Justice.

The place they were hurrying toward like this was none other than Mok Gyeong-un’s room.

“Damn it. We can’t be too late.”

Ma Sang muttered in an irritated tone.

At those words, Mok Yu-cheon gave no reply at all.

That was only natural, because in the end he had confessed to Ma Sang that Mok Gyeong-un was his half-brother.

In truth, he had not wanted to tell him.

But he simply could not leave that fellow to have his meridians and dantian destroyed, helpless and unable to do anything, before dying.

So he had even knelt and apologized while confessing the truth.

At first, Ma Sang had been unable to restrain his anger.

[That mad bastard is Yeon Mok Sword Manor’s Third Young Master?]

He had even been utterly dumbfounded.

But with Mok Yu-cheon’s repeated apologies, he had barely managed to suppress those feelings.

Who could have known that the one who had driven the Dark Tread agents into the jaws of death would be the child of a famous orthodox house?

Ma Sang spoke in a whisper.

“Mok Yu-cheon. Can you keep the promise you made?”

“…….I’ll try somehow.”

“‘Somehow’ is not enough. If the circumstances were not what they are, I would have judged him a hindrance to the mission and removed him regardless of your request.”

This was the truth.

Whether he belonged to the orthodox faction or not, they had suffered too much damage because of Mok Gyeong-un.

He was extremely dangerous, and it was right to remove him for the sake of what came later as well.

But there were only four Dark Tread agents left.

The probability of accomplishing the mission had become far too low.

“You must persuade that bastard Mok Gyeong-un. So that the deaths of those sacrificed by his hand do not become meaningless.”

“All right.”

Mok Yu-cheon answered with a firm voice.

What Ma Sang, or rather the spy of Dark Tread, wanted was only one thing.

Not some heartfelt apology from Mok Gyeong-un, but for the two half-brothers to become temporary Dark Tread spies alongside them and complete the mission.

‘Can I persuade him?’

To be honest, he did not merely have doubts. He had no confidence at all.

But he had to do it.

Even if that fellow had changed from before, Mok Yu-cheon did not think his capacity for rational judgment had grown clouded.

If it had, he would never have survived in this place.

‘Even if he changed, he is still a man of the orthodox faction.’

He thought that he could not have forgotten those roots as well.

Mok Yu-cheon judged that he should emphasize this point in order to persuade him.

In a way, this might even be a chance.

If they helped Dark Tread, the spies of the Alliance of Justice, and achieved the great role of bringing down the Heaven and Earth Society, then they might even be able to wipe away the disgrace of Yeon Mok Sword Manor sealing its gates.

‘Yes. He will want that too.’

Mok Yu-cheon organized in his head how he would steer the conversation.

In the meantime, they arrived in front of Mok Gyeong-un’s room.

But then,

‘Huh?’

The two standing before the door looked at each other in puzzlement.

There was no sign of movement from inside the room.

At that, Mok Yu-cheon asked,

“……..Didn’t you say one of your agents had already moved?”

“They did. That is why we hurried.”

They had come in quick strides, hurrying because moving with lightness arts in the corridor would be too conspicuous.

Puzzled, the two of them opened the door first.

‘Huh?’

Sure enough, there was no one inside.

But the bed in the room had been smashed, and the place was in a great mess.

It was immediately clear that something had happened in there.

Seeing this, Mok Yu-cheon said with a darkened face,

“Don’t tell me we’re too late?”

“………”

At that question, Ma Sang examined the room, then replied,

“It is not certain yet. If that woman completed the mission, then that bastard Mok Gyeong-un should be lying on the bed as a half-cripple.”

“But neither of them is here.”

“……..Perhaps she brought him to the captain.”

“The captain?”

“That’s right.”

Among the surviving infiltrators of Dark Tread, there was a captain who commanded them.

He was also the one who gave the order to deal with Mok Gyeong-un.

In a somewhat apologetic tone, Ma Sang said,

“We still don’t know for sure, so endure it just a little longer. Let’s go to the captain.”

“………All right.”

They shut Mok Gyeong-un’s door and went downstairs.

He said that the captain of the Dark Tread infiltrators in this place was staying in the room at the far right end of the second floor.

They themselves were on the fourth floor.

As they were heading down,

Murmur murmur!

A crowd of boys had gathered near the center of the lower floor, and something about it was in an uproar.

They were wondering what had happened when Ma Sang suddenly stopped and could no longer continue down with a startled face.

“Why did you stop?”

“This damned…….”

“What?”

Red-belted warriors were dragging out a boy covered in blood.

And not only that, another boy with one leg severed was also being held by both arms by the red-belted warriors.

Ma Sang looked at them and did not know what to do.

At that, Mok Yu-cheon whispered and asked,

“What the hell is this?”

At the question, Ma Sang ground his teeth and whispered back,

“………Both of them are our agents.”

‘!?’

Those two were none other than Dark Tread agents.

What in the world had happened here?

And while he was thinking that,

“Hahahahahaha! To find the spies, all of this is your merit!”

The red-belted warriors who had captured them were laughing loudly, patting someone’s back and praising him.

That person was,

‘Mok Gyeong-un?’

Mok Yu-cheon’s face stiffened in an instant.