Chapter 486: I’m Sorry, but There Won’t Be a Next Time
Chapter 486: I’m Sorry, but There Won’t Be a Next Time
Myeong Sin stared silently at the coin Geom Mu-geuk held out to him.
He had once said these words to the Murder King:
— You said the Young Cult Leader resembles me? Then you have vastly overestimated me.
Those words shouldn't have been directed at the Murder King. The person who truly overestimated him was standing right here.
Myeong Sin did not take the coin.
"I am not the sort of assassin who accepts a contract for a single copper coin."
Myeong Sin began walking again. Geom Mu-geuk followed close behind.
"Ah, of course. I am well aware that your price is the second highest in the Underworld."
However, a thought contrary to his words flickered through Geom Mu-geuk’s mind.
No, you are exactly that kind of assassin.
It was a matter of the future—the time when he would accept a contract for a single coin.
In that future, he would leave the organization and wander the Central Plains, living as an assassin who accepted a single copper coin from a child as his fee. If someone suffered an injustice, he would avenge their grievance. In exchange, he might accept a single rice ball, or set out on a killing spree after hearing a simple song.
And in the end, he would be killed by the Murder King.
The reason he left the organization was that the Murder King had forced him into a mission that violated his principles.
The Murder King was ruthless. The man he had deceived Myeong Sin into killing, claiming he was a villain, had actually been a virtuous person—a man of peerless goodness, respected and praised by all.
Myeong Sin had investigated the target in his own way, as he always did, but he could not escape the schemes of the Murder King, who had intended to deceive him from the start.
After that incident, Myeong Sin was deeply traumatized and vanished.
The reason he lived as an assassin who helped people was likely because his naturally kind heart was burdened by the guilt of having killed an innocent man. And the Murder King eventually tracked him down and ended his life.
What did the Murder King say when he killed him? Did he kill Myeong Sin after inflicting a great emotional wound? Or did he say something else entirely? There was no way to know.
Regardless, before the regression, the Murder King lived and Myeong Sin died. But in this world, the one who must live is Myeong Sin, and the one who must die is the Murder King.
The two walked in silence for a long while.
Myeong Sin was deep in thought. This was actually an opportunity. In this awkward moment, it felt as though Geom Mu-geuk would follow him anywhere.
Should I take him there now?
Even if he didn't follow, Myeong Sin could just try again later.
Despite this unexpected chance, Myeong Sin hesitated. It was because of what Geom Mu-geuk had said.
— I just thought it would be nice if somewhere in this world, there was at least one cool assassin who killed villains for a single coin offered by a kid.
His heart had trembled the moment he heard those words. Was it because he truly wanted to live as that kind of assassin? Or was it out of rage toward Geom Mu-geuk for trying to bewitch him with such nonsense?
For a brief moment, his emotions had been swayed. If another assassin had been trying to kill him, they would have struck at that very instant.
Whether he noticed this inner turmoil or not, Geom Mu-geuk remained nonchalant.
"Now then, we should have a drink to break this awkward tension, shouldn't we? Let's go."
Instead, Geom Mu-geuk took the lead. Myeong Sin followed behind him.
If I take him there... the Young Cult Leader dies today.
And if he failed to carry out this mission...
I will die.
This was the largest assassination operation in history, one that required summoning even top-tier external assassins. If he ruined it, especially now when his relationship with the Murder King was strained, it would be impossible to escape the consequences.
"What are you thinking about so deeply?"
Whether to kill you or not.
"Can't you just leave?" Myeong Sin asked.
"Why the sudden words?"
Because I want to report to the Murder King that the Young Cult Leader suddenly vanished.
Because he didn't want to kill the only person who had made him look deep into his own soul.
And that wasn't all. From the moment he killed the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, he would have to spend the rest of his life in hiding. The Murder King surely had a clear reason for accepting this task, but Myeong Sin did not. Emotionally, he had no stomach for it.
"Did an order come down to kill me, by any chance?"
Myeong Sin was inwardly startled by Geom Mu-geuk’s blunt question, but he didn't let it show and kept walking.
"I guess it really did."
Myeong Sin stopped in his tracks. "I haven't said a word."
"Don't most people usually deny things that aren't true, if only to avoid unnecessary misunderstanding?"
"What does it matter if I'm misunderstood a little?"
Geom Mu-geuk didn't let a single word slide.
"I've found that people who say 'what does it matter' are usually the ones who hate being misunderstood the most. Just like how people who love badmouthing others absolutely loathe being badmouthed themselves."
He had seen right through him. Myeong Sin had spoken dismissively, but he truly hated being misunderstood. He despised people who spoke carelessly about things they didn't understand.
"The world isn't limited to your experiences," Myeong Sin snapped.
Geom Mu-geuk nodded vigorously as if in agreement.
The more Myeong Sin spoke with him, the angrier he became. As an assassin whose job was to look into others, he found himself constantly being forced to look into himself.
Whether he knew this or not, Geom Mu-geuk relentlessly shook his emotions.
"According to your principles, am I someone who should be killed, or not?"
Myeong Sin remembered that the Murder King had asked this same question.
— You said you wouldn't kill anyone who isn't a villain, right? Is the Young Cult Leader a villain? Or a good man?
Myeong Sin hadn't been able to answer the Murder King, and he couldn't answer the man himself, Geom Mu-geuk.
Based on the gathered information alone, he was not a villain. The only justification for killing him was his status as the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.
What if the Young Cult Leader wasn't a villain? Then killing him would be a violation of his principles. Was he perhaps trying to use the Demonic Cult as an excuse to gloss over the truth? Hoping that all of this would just pass by?
"You tell me. Are you a villain, or not?"
Geom Mu-geuk answered without hesitation. "I'm definitely someone who shouldn't be killed."
"And why is that?"
"If your principle is that you don't kill anyone who isn't a villain, then my principle is that villains must be killed. I'm someone who has gone one step further than your principle. In the end, you could say we're the same kind of person."
Geom Mu-geuk’s principle was hard to believe even hearing it directly, but it was the truth. It had been listed as the most important detail in the information about him.
A Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult who does not forgive evil?
Naturally, Myeong Sin had considered it a deception or a facade. But what if it wasn't? It would be a truly magnificent facade. He kept thinking that the information might actually be true.
The preliminary investigation was proving to be a poison. If not for that, he would never have trusted the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult in the first place.
In the meantime, the two arrived at the marketplace.
"Now, as I said, let's go to the place of your choosing today."
Myeong Sin’s heart pounded.
Should I take him there? Or should I hold back today?
If he had to take him there eventually, was there any need to delay? Even though he knew today was the opportunity, Myeong Sin hesitated.
"I know a tavern a short distance away. Would that be alright?"
If Geom Mu-geuk had suggested eating here, Myeong Sin wouldn't have forced him. But Geom Mu-geuk approached and tugged at his sleeve.
"You should have said so sooner. Come on, let's go. If we're going to have a drink, it should be at a place that tastes good."
Just as he had strode over in the iron workshop, grabbed Myeong Sin’s hand, and pulled the handle together, today too, Geom Mu-geuk was deciding his own fate.
Yes, this is the fate you chose for yourself. Myeong Sin tried to find peace in that thought, but he couldn't.
As they left the marketplace and continued walking, Myeong Sin’s heart remained heavy. The image of the coin resting in Geom Mu-geuk’s palm kept flickering in his mind.
I mustn't get caught up in this.
That coin was nothing more than a demonic hidden weapon aimed at his heart.
As he walked, lost in thought, words flowed from Geom Mu-geuk that brought Myeong Sin to a dead halt.
"Sooner or later, your leader will deceive you by labeling someone who must never be killed as a villain, and he'll have you kill them. What will you do then? Will you kill him? Or will you leave the Underworld?"
"Why would he do such a thing to me, the second-in-command of the Underworld?"
But despite his outward certainty, Myeong Sin was recalling the words the Murder King had spoken.
— If you set such useless principles and make a mistake later? Will you wash your hands of this life out of guilt? Or will you commit suicide?
Thinking back, that mistake would be the Murder King’s mistake. It would be the mistake of giving an order after mistaking a good man for a villain. The Murder King he knew was not a man to make such a mistake. Why had he said those things?
But Myeong Sin soon dismissed this as his opponent’s tactic.
He’s found out there’s conflict between us and is digging into it relentlessly.
Stopping in his tracks, Myeong Sin glared at Geom Mu-geuk. "Are you trying to drive a wedge between me and him?"
He expected a denial, of course.
"I am," Geom Mu-geuk admitted readily. "If I want to bring you over to my side, I have to drive a wedge between you."
And Geom Mu-geuk’s blatant attempt at estrangement was powerful.
"Was the person who saved you really him?"
Myeong Sin’s face hardened instantly.
"As a child, you were the sole survivor of a massacred family. He saved you when you were being crushed to death under a fallen wardrobe."
Myeong Sin was stunned. The Young Cult Leader knew the fact that the Murder King had saved him. And in great detail, at that.
No one knows about this.
To his silent shock, Geom Mu-geuk answered calmly.
"I am the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. If I want to know something, I can find out who the Murim Alliance Leader had a crush on when he was a boy."
What shocked Myeong Sin wasn't just that he knew the fact.
"What do you mean, he wasn't the one who saved me?"
"Let's say someone pushed a person into a river and then pulled them out. Did they save that person?"
Myeong Sin’s eyes widened as the realization hit him.
"The one who accepted the contract to annihilate your family was the Underworld."
This estrangement was powerful because its ingredients were the truth. Myeong Sin was an assassin who had trained countless times to maintain his composure, but at this moment, he could not stop the surge of passion and confusion.
The moment from his childhood flashed back to him. As the heavy wardrobe was lifted, the darkness receded, and light appeared. The boy looking down at him from within that light... with icy eyes devoid of any emotion, the boy had looked down at him in silence.
"Didn't you know as well?"
No, he hadn't. He was only seven years old then. He had lived his life with the vague thought of repaying the debt of being saved. He hadn't even dreamed of avenging his family; he hadn't even had the luxury to dream of it. He had begun his assassin training from that moment. That was how he had lived until now.
But what dominated him now was not a sense of betrayal, but a doubt directed at himself. The suspicion that, as Geom Mu-geuk said, he might have known all along.
Was that why he had never been able to ask until now? Why did you save me then? Why were you passing by that place of all places?
He had never once asked the Murder King. Had he perhaps sensed it? That the Murder King would indifferently say, 'We annihilated your family. As you know, it was just a job.'
Was he afraid of hearing those words? Had he been desperately averting his eyes from the truth?
What am I thinking! Don't fall for such a cheap trick!
It was literally just a clever attempt at estrangement. A tactic by the Demonic Cult based on information that there was a rift between him and the Murder King.
How wicked!
He turned the blade of his mind from himself toward Geom Mu-geuk, but the hand gripping the hilt of that blade was asking: Are you not avoiding the truth once again?
Geom Mu-geuk asked, "Did the wedge work a little?"
Myeong Sin wanted to respond with a relaxed smile, but his words came out in a sharp, emotional burst.
"The moment of driving a wedge must be thrilling, isn't it? But do you know this? With that one moment of thrill, you have lost my trust forever."
Myeong Sin began walking with long strides again. Geom Mu-geuk walked side-by-side with him.
"The old contract ledgers will still have records of your family. If your leader hasn't destroyed them, perhaps he was hoping you would see them one day."
Myeong Sin gritted his teeth. Even while dismissing it as a tactic, he couldn't completely deny it because the Murder King he knew was exactly that kind of person.
Why had that hollow man saved him? Why had he kept only Myeong Sin perched on the icy cliff of his inner self? He had yet to find the answer.
One good thing came out of the emotional battle with Geom Mu-geuk: he was able to lead him to the resting place easily. The small street was bustling with various travelers.
"I didn't know a place like this existed," Geom Mu-geuk said, as if nothing had happened.
Myeong Sin replied in a softened tone, "It's a place I visit occasionally."
But in Myeong Sin’s heart, two desires were clashing. The desire to finish the mission quickly, and the hope that Geom Mu-geuk would suddenly say he’d lost his appetite and leave.
He was a man who made Myeong Sin so anxious and angry, yet Myeong Sin couldn't understand why he kept wishing for him to live.
Go, even now!
But Geom Mu-geuk strode onto the street first. His steps toward the death trap were incredibly light.
A clerk at the cloth merchant.
The owner of a tea house nodding off.
A woman beckoning a running child.
A merchant carrying a stall and hawking goods.
In various other guises, the assassins were perfectly integrated into this street. They were special-grade assassins, the most skilled among their kind.
Could you truly survive this perfect feast of true masters who had reached the pinnacle of killing?
Myeong Sin looked at Geom Mu-geuk. He actually looked excited.
"Since I received a dagger as a gift, I'll buy today. You can buy next time. Let's reconcile and drink to our heart's content today."
I'm sorry, but there won't be a next time.
"Is it that tavern over there?"
"It is."
"The atmosphere is already perfect. You should have suggested coming here sooner."
The two of them entered the tavern. A friendly-looking owner, who had been chatting with customers, greeted them.
"You've arrived?" The owner acknowledged Myeong Sin as an acquaintance. "Please, sit wherever you like."
Geom Mu-geuk said to the owner, "I can tell just by looking at a tavern owner's face whether the alcohol will taste good or not."
Geom Mu-geuk stared intently at the owner's face and decided on the taste.
"This... I think this will be a taste I'll never forget for the rest of my life."
At that, the owner beamed and clapped his hands loudly.
"I'll serve you excellently today!"