Volume 2 Chapter 15 – The Night of That City

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Jeong-ah unpacked the bundle she had brought.

What she took out from inside was Yeon So-hyeon’s thick winter coat.

She approached her master and draped the coat over him with a polite manner.

“The weather is still cold, Master.”

“……Thank you.”

A large amount of blood was smeared all over Yeon So-hyeon’s body, still dripping even now, but Jeong-ah did not seem to mind in the least.

The blood that flowed in that manner gradually became black ash and scattered.

The remaining debris of the woman was also led by white hands and sank into the darkness.

Although it was a bizarre and gruesome sight, Se-ah did not turn her eyes away from the entire scene.

Yeon So-hyeon smiled at her.

“You must have things you want to ask, right?”

Setting aside many questions, Se-ah asked what she wanted to know most.

“……What is the reason you revealed your identity to me?”

“I don’t think I particularly revealed it, though?”

Yeon So-hyeon feigned innocence, but Se-ah was not drawn in.

“But you did not hide it either, did you?”

“……That is true.”

Closing his eyes for a moment, Yeon So-hyeon nodded slowly.

“Indeed.”

Even to him, who had always seemed to have nothing to fear, was there something weighing on his mind?

Se-ah found that side of him unfamiliar.

“……I will need many people in the future.”

Se-ah licked her drying lips.

“Is that as the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family? Or as the Dark Venerable?”

“If the purposes of both the Eldest Young Master and the Dark Venerable coincide, they may be viewed as one.”

This time, the answer was immediate.

“What kind of people do you need?”

At Se-ah’s question, Yeon So-hyeon looked at her.

They were spotlessly clear eyes.

To the extent that a sense of discrepancy was felt, recalling his appearance from moments ago.

“……People who will not bend, people who will not change. People who will sacrifice everything.”

Se-ah paused for a moment, organizing the conversation.

“Are you saying that I am that kind of person?”

“Yes.”

His voice was firm.

As if concluding that she was indeed such a person.

“How can you be sure of that? Do you trust your eye for judging people that much? Even to the point of revealing a secret that might place you in the greatest danger, to someone you met only a few days ago?”

Although she was pressing him, Yeon So-hyeon did not care, as always.

Instead of scolding, he replied with a smile on his lips,

“The Spring of Luoyang.”

“……!”

At his words, Se-ah was left speechless.

It was a name she had never dreamed would come out of his mouth.

And in the next instant, she felt a fierce anxiety.

As if catching her thoughts, Yeon So-hyeon spoke first.

“You do not need to worry. The Sword Family does not know of your existence yet.”

Se-ah’s pale complexion returned slightly.

“How…? How do you know that name?”

Yeon So-hyeon shrugged his shoulders.

“You have not given me your answer yet.”

Se-ah recalled.

The Demonic Path of the Underworld where the Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood of the Demonic Realm Beyond Humanity lay.

Was she prepared to walk the path Yeon So-hyeon walked together with him?

“I…”

Just as she was about to make some reply, Yeon So-hyeon turned back.

“Let’s leave the remaining talk for later. I am hungry, so I must go eat a late-night snack.”

Jeong-ah bowed her head as if she had expected it.

“The Heavenly Maiden has already prepared it, so you can enjoy your meal immediately just by heating it up.”

An expression of genuine surprise appeared on Yeon So-hyeon’s face.

“……Amazing.”

“You flatter me.”

He shook his head from side to side, and soon began to move with lumbering strides.

“Wait…!”

Yeon So-hyeon’s voice cut off Se-ah’s words.

“Think carefully. This is the last opportunity I can give you.”

“……”

Jeong-ah cast a gaze at her sister to offer a greeting, and turned to follow her master.

She saw their backs disappear to the other side of the cave.

Se-ah asked herself.

Was she prepared?

“Pavilion Master!”

From far away, the voices of her subordinates searching for her echoed.

However, her feet seemed nailed to the spot, showing no sign of moving for a long while.

* * *

A very deep night.

Yeon So-hyeon was perched atop the highest roof of the Crescent Moon Pavilion’s safehouse.

From the safehouse on the hill, the immense scale of Luoyang’s entertainment district stretching across the flat land was very well visible looking down.

With a face that could not tell what he was thinking, he was staring at that sleepless city.

Without even turning back, he opened his mouth.

“I did not expect you to seek me out already.”

The one who climbed onto the roof using a ladder was Se-ah.

Stepping carefully on the tiles, she came to stand by his side.

“We went through all that havoc, yet Luoyang remains the same.”

The streets viewed from afar were beautiful.

It felt as if the songs of people overcome with joy and the tunes played by courtesans would reach all the way here.

“It is that vast of a city, Luoyang.”

She squatted down beside him.

“The Black Bone Gang was a major headache.”

Her hair fluttered wildly in the wind.

She tied that hair with a string.

“It was to the extent that just suppressing their growth was beyond our strength.”

Her attitude and tone also seemed much more comfortable than before.

“Hmm.”

“But problems are overflowing in this city. To the extent that the Black Bone Gang is nothing.”

At the fierce winter wind blowing from the hill, her shoulders trembled slightly.

“I, we were always outnumbered.”

It surely was not only because of the cold that her words sounded delicate.

Nevertheless, Yeon So-hyeon draped the winter coat he was wearing over her.

“……Thank you.”

Folding the collar of the coat, she asked Yeon So-hyeon,

“How much do you know about our organization, the Spring of Luoyang?”

“Not much.”

Yeon So-hyeon added briefly,

“Just that it is a secret society where good-hearted people who want to do good things in Luoyang are gathered?”

Se-ah smiled at his humorous expression.

“They are people who could not endure. People who could not bear it.”

“Just hearing about it, they don’t seem like friends who would be very pleasant to hang around with.”

Se-ah burst into laughter.

“Still, we do try to be pleasant in our own way.”

Her laughter soon turned into a bitter smile.

“At first, it was merely that we gathered to try and correct a small irrationality.”

“But soon, you must have realized that to solve that small irrationality, you had to solve a larger irrationality.”

“That’s right.”

“And to solve that large irrationality, an even larger irrationality had to be solved.”

She looked at the distant scenery.

The city of Luoyang stretched to the other side where her vision could reach.

“To provide relief to those starving to death, distributing food to them is not enough. In the end, those who make them starve must be eliminated.”

“But if you eliminate them…”

“others will appear in that spot. Even so, that spot cannot be eliminated.”

Yeon So-hyeon laughed coldly.

“Because that spot is practically the system that composes this society.”

Se-ah looked at Yeon So-hyeon with a surprised gaze.

“……You know it well.”

Yeon So-hyeon burst into laughter.

“Who do you think reformed Luoyang’s relief organization? The one who created the relief system?”

Her eyes widened.

“That was your doing! I…”

“Yes. They were things accomplished under Mother’s name. Actually, Mother also continuously put in a lot of effort.”

However, the entire design was the power of the young Yeon So-hyeon.

“But now, they have all become names only.”

Se-ah looked at him with a bitter gaze.

“Is that why? You started active roles as the Dark Venerable? To punish those who ruin your mother’s city?”

Yeon So-hyeon snorted.

He stood up and looked down at the city.

Although the wind blew wildly, his body did not budge.

“I merely resolved to take all the responsibility I had abandoned until now.”

The corners of his eyes grew fierce.

“It does not matter what appearance I have. Whether that is the Swordless One Yeon So-hyeon, the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, or the Dark Venerable.”

His momentum felt as if it split the wildly blowing wind.

“Since I decided to fulfill my duty, everyone who has responsibility will have to take responsibility.”

A growling metallic sound blended into his voice.

“Whether that is a mere gang of Luoyang’s backstreets, a big hand of the underworld, a high-ranking official, or the leader of a giant sect…”

A bright blue flame sparked in his eyes.

“Even if it is the Emperor who is above all men…!”

The helpless had to exploit those even more helpless than themselves to survive.

Those who spent their entire lives with hunger had to snatch places for others to lay their bodies down to survive.

Because that was all the strong had permitted them.

Because all the rest was the share of the strong.

A world dominated by the thorough law of the jungle.

A world where the strong monopolizes everything.

A world where nothing can be changed because the opponent is strong.

A world where it is the natural order for the weak to have everything taken away.

A world where it is right for nothing to be given to the weak.

If that is the natural order they claim, if that is the world, he would gladly accept it.

He was prepared.

As the chosen one of the ancient demonic entity, the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, and as the Dark Venerable, he himself was the strongest hegemon on earth.

With their logic, he would deal them an inescapable iron hammer.

“In that case…”

Se-ah stood up.

Despite the fierce wind, she managed to balance herself.

She drew the rapier she had equipped for self-defense.

And then she knelt before Yeon So-hyeon.

“I heard this is a long tradition of the Sword Family.”

She offered the hilt to him, holding the rapier in reverse.

Yeon So-hyeon looked at the hilt without a word.

Se-ah spoke, looking at Yeon So-hyeon.

“This sword is now yours.”

Yeon So-hyeon did not say anything, looking at her for a long time.

“……Will you not regret?”

Se-ah looked up at him with an endlessly upright gaze.

“Only one of my eyes remains, but I am not so lacking as to not know whom I must truly serve.”

“Even if it is…”

Se-ah took over Yeon So-hyeon’s words,

“even if it is the Demonic Path of the Underworld where the Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood of the Demonic Realm Beyond Humanity lay.”

No more words were needed.

Yeon So-hyeon accepted her sword.

Yet, for some reason, instead of the hilt, he awkwardly held the handguard.

“Your sword, received by Yeon So-hyeon, the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family and the Dark Venerable.”

The ritual was established.

She was someone who had to survive all alone in the slums after her family collapsed.

In a mere ten years, she became the head of Crescent Moon Pavilion, a mid-sized intelligence organization.

She earned the name Iron and Blood, drawing respect and fear from around her.

And now, she had found her lord.

Se-ah, who had closed her eyes for a moment without saying anything, stood up.

“Come to think of it…”

Watching Yeon So-hyeon holding the sword awkwardly, she let out a chuckle.

“I am the first person to see the Swordless One hold a sword.”

Yeon So-hyeon snorted.

“Your younger sister was first in this ritual.”

“……What?!”

Although a cutting wind blew in Luoyang where winter had not ended, for some reason, she was not cold.

For those who had to worry about the cold from now on were elsewhere.