Chapter 15 (4)
Chapter 15 (4)
"Heung-heung-heung-heung~"
"Are you that happy?"
"Yes! It's finally my first activity as a Murim-in!"
Even though he's a sinful Lust Demon, it's still a matter of killing a person, yet she's this happy. Truly, a Murim-in is a Murim-in.
Me?
Of course it's fun!
Once you get a taste of cracking skulls, you get addicted!
After traveling quickly for a day to the vicinity of the forest where the Lust Demon was hiding, Hye-un and I were taking a break, performing energy circulation and maintenance.
"The chainmail I gave you, not bad, right?"
"It's fine. Good ventilation, lightweight. But......."
"You mean because you're a Murim-in, wearing armor like this feels wrong?"
"Yes......."
There is one gap between her and me that we haven't been able to bridge.
It is the existence of armor to protect the body.
While it is natural for me to wear armor to protect my body, Murim-in are taught from a young age—almost like brainwashing—that they shouldn't rely on external objects, so she feels a sense of rejection.
She keeps avoiding it, saying that relying on such objects prevents one's skills from improving, which makes me feel frustrated.
Relying on armor just because you have it is a problem for those without skill; for experts like us, we can adapt to the situation, so it doesn't matter.
I can't lose my female just because of that kind of pride.
What would you do if someone suddenly popped out and stabbed a sword into your heart?
What if someone ambushed you in an unexpected situation?
They say guarding against and overcoming that is the life of a Murim-in, but if that were possible, why would assassins exist in the world?
That is why I continued to persuade her and strongly insisted that she keep using the chainmail I used to wear.
If I had my way, I would have made protective gear like gauntlets to protect her hands, but she vehemently opposed it, saying it would be like poison to her sword technique, which requires fast dexterity.
If I were to act coercively here, saying, 'Shut up and do it! I won't hear any arguments! Just do as I say!', it would lead to an emotional fight.
How do I know? Because my late father was exactly like that.
He only insisted on his own claims and wouldn't listen to my mother, so they fought a lot.
Because of the experience of being caught in the middle of such marital fights, I don't want to fight with my woman over issues like this.
"I'm doing this because I don't want to lose you. My creed is to never lose my woman."
"I understand. I can tolerate this much, so I'll let it slide."
For reference, she was extremely surprised to learn that I was a skilled blacksmith, possessing medical skills, high-level martial arts, and even blacksmithing techniques.
I couldn't tell her everything, but I thought she needed to know what abilities I possessed so we could work in sync, so I laid out all the abilities I had.
"By the way, we're splitting the money from catching the Lust Demon, what are you going to use it for?"
"Obviously, I'll give it to Sang-gong......."
"Except for that."
"Then......."
I intend to capture the Lust Demon alive.
Expecting that she would naturally give me the large sum of 15 nyang of gold, I refused and induced her to think of ways to spend the money herself.
If someone who knew the old me saw this, they would be shocked.
Because the guy who used to ravage and plunder women, thinking 'your things are mine, and my things are mine,' has suddenly changed.
There is one thing I regretted most when I was training women through countless games.
It was that I turned the women into slaves too thoroughly.
I forced women with different personalities and characters to be kneaded and crammed into a mold I had set.
If they didn't fit, I would train them until they did.
Then one day, while sleeping with various women, I suddenly realized something.
The women created that way were all the same; only their appearances were different. This one was that one, and that one was this one.
I had killed all the unique charms, personalities, and characters that each individual possessed.
Of course, kneading them to fit my mold is necessary.
Without this process, it would be impossible to steal a married woman who has a husband.
However, after gaining that realization, I shifted my direction to keep their personalities and characters as intact as possible, even while putting them into my mold, by changing the mold itself to suit the women who would become mine.
No matter how much I change the mold, it becomes troublesome if the woman has no intention of changing herself to fit into it, so I induce them to be easily transformed by giving them strong pleasure or trauma through shock therapy based on sex.
Why sex? Obviously, because I like it.
Even if there are easier and better ways than this, I will always go down this path!
What? Hypnosis? Mind control?
If you're a man, you should fight fair and square with your dick; why use such cowardly techniques!
I wouldn't take those abilities even if you paid me!
Anyway, discussing the armor and making her spend the money herself were all to ensure that her own personality and charm would not die.
If it were the old me, I would have said, 'Shut up and wear it!' and forced her into full armor, and I would have naturally taken the money, saying I needed to manage it.
Of course, doing it that way would save time, whereas this way takes quite a bit of time and process, but,
"Then, since Sang-gong bought my clothes, I'll buy yours."
"Thank you, Yeobo."
"Th-th-thank you? It's... just something a wife naturally does...♡"
I like that she becomes my woman while revealing her own charm, personality, and values in this way.
When I stroked her face, she acted shy, then grabbed my hand with both of hers, guiding it to continue stroking her face, and made a pleasant expression.
She's cute, like a kitten.
"Shall we head in now?"
"Yes, Sang-gong."
Having raised our condition to the peak, we headed into the forest where the Lust Demon was said to be.
On the way, I occasionally saw other Ronin entering the forest as well.
Well, 20 nyang of gold, 30 nyang if caught alive—it's enough to make anyone lose their mind.
Hye-un and I entered the forest and looked around to find traces of the Lust Demon.
Thanks to my Hunting skill of 100, I could find various traces, but the problem was that there were too many, and I couldn't tell whose was whose.
Still, since there was an absolute lack of clues to track the Lust Demon, I followed the places where many traces remained.
A fight happened here. A light skirmish occurred, the Lust Demon ran away, and the Ronin chased after him.
While I was following the traces visible to my eyes, I could feel Hye-un keeping watch around me.
Thanks to that, I was able to focus only on the traces in front of me.
For reference, the Hunting ability includes not only information about the prey and archery skills but also the ability to set traps and find the traces of where the prey went.
Traces were gathering here from all directions. It meant that the news that the Lust Demon had been found had reached other Ronin, or a commotion had occurred that made it impossible not to know.
"Hmm-teresting."
"Yes?"
"Ah, no. I just felt like I had to say this line."
"??"
Since I've been enjoying playing a game where you control a gray-haired monster hunter with reptilian eyes, whenever I find traces of something, this line comes out before I know it.
Anyway, let's focus again.......
"Puhaha! What are those?"
"Hey, you brats! Does this look like a place for you two to be flirting?"
Ah, damn it.
Which bastards are interrupting my concentration and talking bullshit?
When I turned my head toward the direction of the voices that interrupted my concentration on finding the traces, a group of five men who were moving somewhere were giggling toward us.
"Looks like you young ones are dreaming of striking it rich just by looking at the reward, but wake up! We, the Five Tigers of Pursuit, will be the ones to catch him!"
"This isn't a place for brats like you to come!"
A group of five with ropes, hooks, throwing knives, nets, and all sorts of other equipment.
It was equipment specialized for subduing and capturing people alive rather than killing them.
"Hey, you brats."
Among them, the only one who hadn't spoken, a bald man with a deep scar on his head, opened his mouth as if to give advice.
"I won't say this in a bad way. The Blood Wind Lust Demon is a cruel guy. If it's him, he'll catch you alive and use you as a shield. You should train for a few more years before doing this kind of work."
The bald man, who spoke in a heavy, low voice, said only what he had to say and then headed into the forest, leading the four men he was in charge of.
"Geez, the leader is too naive. Do you think advice like that will work on brats like them?"
"That's right. They'll probably just run wild, thinking their pride was hurt."
"If I can save the lives of young people with that, it doesn't matter. The feeling is ominous, so let's move quickly."
As the group of five disappeared, Hye-un, who had been frowning, vented her annoyance.
"How dare they call us brats......!"
"But you do look like a brat."
"Sang-gong!"
"Especially since you're so young, you don't look like a female expert at all."
This is not a joke.
If I grabbed a passing middle-aged woman and said, 'This woman is 48 years old,' I wouldn't have anything to say if she slapped me, saying, 'Are you crazy, you lunatic ㅡㅡ'.
Most women who have learned martial arts look young, but even considering that, Hye-un's appearance is abnormally youthful.
The reason is that the Taesan Sect's internal cultivation method also acts as a rejuvenation technique.
"You got me treated like a brat because of you, so how should I punish you?"
I lecherously touched her body as she was getting angry.
"Kyaat~♡ W-wait♡ You can't touch there...ang♡"
As expected of her revealing outfit, I like the feeling of her soft skin that I feel every time I touch here and there.
Good, her anger has mostly subsided.
"Don't be angry. Not only is there no value in responding to guys like that one by one,"
I paused for a moment and smiled without realizing it.
"How embarrassed will they be when they see our skills after saying all that? Keuk-keuk-keuk, I want to see that face."
They acted all high and mighty, but when they see that the ones they dismissed as brats are actually incredible experts.
I decided to save the shock and the look of shame as they remember what they did as another pleasure of the Lust Demon hunt.
"But in this wide place, with so many Ronin, how could we possibly meet them?"
"We can meet them."
"Why?"
"Because that is the law."
"Law?"
"Well, don't think too deeply about it. You'll know once you just feel it."
"??"
Hye-un had an expression that she had no idea what I was talking about.
This isn't a problem that can be solved with an explanation, so let's put this issue aside for now.
"Anyway, let's leave guys like that for later and focus only on finding the traces. Please keep watch around us again."
"Yes, Sang-gong."
Protected by Hye-un, I found the traces again and headed into the forest.
There are messy traces left behind where he ran here and there, trying to escape from the Ronin somehow.
After persistently tracking those traces, it was only after a considerable amount of time that I was able to find traces that seemed to be from when he was there recently.
"Huh?"
"Why are you like that?"
"No....... It seems he was here about 10 hours ago. But...someone approached him."
"Could it be the ambushing Ronin?"
"No."
I explained to her that her assumption was wrong through the direction of the footprints and the depth dug into the ground.
"The Lust Demon's footprints and the unspecified number of people who approached nearby didn't fight. The footprints are even and stable. If it were a battle, it should be more messy and dug deeper than this."
"Then...that means he joined up with someone? Who would join up with such a Lust Demon...Ah!"
"Do you know something?"
Hye-un's appearance, as if she had remembered something, seemed like she could explain this situation perfectly, so I listened carefully.
"I heard it when I was Eun-bong. The Demonic Cult recruits public enemies of the Murim who have nowhere to go, even among the Righteous and Evil factions."
Since he touched the daughter of a noble family, it goes without saying for the Righteous faction, and the Evil faction is also part of this Murim, so they wouldn't want to be disliked by people in power.
These Demonic Cult bastards are truly hopeless.
Even if he is a peak expert, they recruit trash like this into the Demonic Cult?
Generally, in other martial arts works, the Demonic Cult is called the Heavenly Demon Cult or the Ming Cult, but the Demonic Cult in this world calls itself the Demonic Cult as well.
I guess religious doctrine or whatever doesn't matter anymore.
Or they changed the doctrine or interpreted it in a strange way.
Even if they are trash like this, they have skills, so gathering them might help their combat power for now, but in the end, it only gives the perception that the Demonic Cult is an evil, pseudo-religious group that cannot be negotiated with.
"But it's strange."
"Yes?"
"The footprints. If the Demonic Cult came, succeeded in recruiting him, and joined him, then it adds up. There are indeed traces of him resting well here. But, you know."
I turned my head toward Hye-un and opened my mouth quietly.
"Why didn't they run away, and why did they split into groups and scatter in all directions?"
"!!"
She became surprised, as if she had realized the meaning of my words.
For some reason, these guys didn't just run away, but split into groups and scattered in all directions.
Kyaaaaak!
Aaaak!
Before I could find the answer, faint screams could be heard from beyond the forest.
"I see. Since they've come this far, they intend to see some blood before leaving."
It seems we didn't run into the Demonic Cult guys simply because we didn't meet them.
"The situation has become more serious than I thought. A normal Lust Demon subjugation has turned into a fight with the Demonic Cult......."
"Hehehe. Heuhahahaha!"
"Sang-gong?"
"I'm happy."
"What does that...Ah......."
I have a veeeeeery strong grudge against the Demonic Cult guys.
"I heard just recently that Ha-yeon is in the Heavenly Demon Cult, and I thought of a good way to call her."
It's to become notorious against the Demonic Cult.
If that happens, they will send people to deal with me, and if I defeat all of them, high-level experts like the Dharma Protectors will come out.
As I am now, it doesn't matter if I fight the Demonic Cult guys.
In the first place, they can't send troops into the Righteous and Evil faction territories in a frontal warfare format, so if I put my heart into it, I can handle groups of dozens.
"It's your first real battle in 20 years, will you be okay?"
The only thing I'm worried about is that Hye-un's first real battle in 20 years is a fight with the Demonic Cult, but,
"Of course. If I were scared of Demonic Cult members who are only at this level, I wouldn't have thought of following you in the first place."
Hearing that answer, I smiled and headed toward the place where the screams were heard.
They took my female, so I have to make them pay the price.
Every single one of those who took my woman, I destroyed them without exception.
Do you think you guys will be any different, Demonic Cult?
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