The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts
“Puetchi!”
“Uwoo, it’s second-rate. Uncle, did you catch a cold recently?”
I glared at Namgung Sogyo, who was sweeping the yard, her broom sweeping in wide arcs.
“What time is it exactly?”
“Hmm… Let me think.”
Namgung Sogyo rubbed her eyes and stared at the bright winter sky.
The sun was already high in the heavens.
“Still no sign of the chief maid Yema, so it must be Si time. Definitely not Jeong.”
“Won’t you eat breakfast?”
“Ahah, you only got mad because of that?”
“Just… because of that?”
I had to clench my fists to keep the veins from popping on my temples.
Namgung Sogyo let out a yawn.
“You don’t know anything, do you? The Moyong Family always gathers the entire clan for lunch and dinner, but breakfast is different. Each separated branch follows its own rules, and since I live here alone, I skip breakfast.”
“Ah, you don’t eat breakfast? Is that even possible?”
“Wow, your eyes are about to pop out. Go on, put something in them.”
I wondered if I would ever become friends with this little brat, and honestly, if I didn’t kill her first, that would be a miracle.
My status here, no matter how you looked at it, was her personal bodyguard.
In other words, I could only follow where she went, and I couldn’t go anywhere she didn’t.
So if she suddenly declared she wasn’t eating because she was in a bad mood, I was stuck starving.
If she refused to sleep, I couldn’t sleep either.
‘Bodyguard… What a respectable position!’
I gripped the broom handle until my knuckles whitened.
Namgung Sogyo ran her fingers through the messy strands of hair sticking out from her disheveled clothes and tilted her head.
“Now that I think about it, why are you carrying a broom?”
“M-Ma’am, the courtyard looked dirty, so I thought I’d sweep a little.”
I couldn’t admit that I was shivering from the cold and swept just to move.
I judged that this place had too many prying eyes to do proper training.
My martial arts training involved endlessly copying another sect’s techniques until I could fully assimilate them into my body.
Once fully assimilated, the unique traits of the original style became hard to distinguish, but during practice I could still replicate them exactly. A casual glance would reveal the copy.
Other sects probably guarded their training routines from outsiders, but I couldn’t risk exposure. If someone caught me using copied techniques, it would cause massive trouble.
“Hmm… You look cleaner than I expected. That’s reassuring. Ready?”
“There’s nothing to prepare.”
Namgung Sogyo widened her eyes in surprise.
“I told you. Lunch and dinner are when the entire clan must gather. Otherwise, the Patriarch would issue a formal decree.”
Namgung Sogyo moved around the courtyard with the ease of someone who had lived alone for a long time, washing and tidying herself.
She vanished from sight.
I exhaled the sigh I’d been holding.
“Damn it… overnight on the streets for a week is confirmed.”
Even after barely one night, my whole body felt like it was screaming.
I would have accepted it if I hadn’t tasted the luxury once before.
The simple act of bathing alone in a massive hot tub filled with hot water, the kind that could comfortably hold ten adult men, had been an unimaginable luxury.
Once my body had tasted that sweetness, it kept craving it.
‘Just one more time… if I could bathe in even warmer water, my wish would be granted.’
Anyone who had ever shivered through the cold at dawn waiting for the sun to rise would understand how intensely they come to crave warmth.
She returned, her clothes neatly arranged.
She was so small.
Yet somehow she carried herself with grace, and her age was impossible to guess.
“Miss.”
“Hm?”
“Excuse me, but may I ask one question?”
Namgung Sogyo looked at me as if to ask what the question was.
“Excuse me, but how old are you?”
“…”
Namgung Sogyo stopped dead.
She fixed me with a stare.
“You’d better choose your next words carefully.”
“Eh?”
“Was the question because I look young, or because I look old?”
I was cornered.
I had no idea what answer she wanted.
“You look… young?”
“Hmph, funny. It’s because I’m short.”
There was nothing more to say.
“I’m thirteen. I did get some proposals, but they were all older than ten.”
She shot back and strode ahead.
“…What? Thirteen?”
Of course it was young.
But her tiny frame made her look even younger.
“Wait! It’s not like that!”
I rushed after her, panicked.
When Namgung Sogyo stepped out of the gate where she was staying, the world I had forgotten opened before me.
Countless maids and servants hurried past. The clan’s retainers came and went.
Not a single branch of the trees in the courtyard was left untouched.
The stream and the garden view were works of art.
“Miss Sogyo.”
A middle-aged woman with a plump, amiable face waited at the gate, hands clasped in perfect courtesy. She wore the Moyong Family’s signature blue robes in shades of gray.
“Chief maid Yema!”
“I heard about what happened yesterday.”
Her calm eyes matched her steady personality.
Namgung Sogyo waved dismissively.
“Oh, no need to worry. It’s nothing. Well, they were a little overbearing since the beginning, and this time it blew up….”
“Nothing?”
Yema’s voice rose.
“Even if Miss was driven out because of the clan’s decision, you were still proudly the fourth daughter of this family until a short while ago. Regardless of your position, a person should not have been treated this way! Especially after pushing that animal-like arranged marriage and ruining everything…!”
“Enough, stop. I’m fine.”
Namgung Sogyo waved her hands to cut off the excited maid.
‘…Namgung Sogyo was driven out?’
I narrowed my eyes.
“I’m fine. Honestly, the reason I came here was exactly that. She refused outright, so she had every right to be angry.”
“…First, those rude guards will pay. I already told the martial arts management department.”
“Hmm, no need to worry about that.”
“Eh?”
Namgung Sogyo poked my side with her elbow.
“This uncle already took care of those bastards yesterday.”
She glanced at me and frowned.
“So you did that because you thought I was some ten-year-old brat?”
“…”
I couldn’t deny it.
“But even so, it was cool.”
She giggled and mimicked my voice.
“The Moyong Family has plenty of meat, huh~? Crrrueh. So suave! Perfectly elegant!”
I closed my eyes at the finger she pointed upward.
I wanted to bury my head in a hole.
Yema looked at me.
“Could it be that you’re the new guest they mentioned?”
Namgung Sogyo nodded.
Yema’s face brightened.
“Amazing! The Patriarch kept his promise! I thought it was just a courtesy visit since the family opposed it so much!”
“Say hello to Uncle! This is Chief maid Yema. She’s like a mother who raised me from a young age.”
“I’m pleased to meet you.”
I bowed.
I recalled Mumyeong’s advice.
He had told me in a low voice while I shivered through the night.
[To appear like a proper bodyguard, you must act like this. Underline it. Here, act like this.]
I tried to keep a stern expression as I mentally reviewed his words.
Yema smiled brightly and scrutinized my features.
“Pleasure to meet you. My, you have such a strong, rugged look!”
…Although I wore the Innate Mask, its basic structure still followed my own face shape beneath the skin.
It was not creating a non-existent face.
So there was no reason to feel good.
“Haha…”
“By the way, what is your name, Warrior-nim?”
“Ah, right. Uncle’s name.”
Namgung Sogyo laughed cheerfully.
“Now that I think about it, what was it?”
“…”
“Well, call me Uncle. Chief maid Yema can call me that too.”
“Really? That makes it friendly. Your tolerance is amazing. Calling me by name already!”
“…”
The image of a perfect bodyguard vanished into the past.
I counted the remaining days on my fingers.
There were still six days left.
It wasn’t like the training in Amyeondong, where time didn’t drag like this.
“How’s the preparation for the Musin Yeongneung Festival going?”
Following Yema, we crossed the Moyong Family courtyard.
According to tradition, the Moyong Family gathered the entire clan for meals except in unavoidable circumstances.
Yema sighed at Sogyo’s question.
“Today is the last day, so I’m running out of time. As you know, almost every member of the family moves to Musin Yeongneung for a three-day journey to hold the festival.”
A vast, whitewashed space opened up.
This was where the Moyong Family clan ate.
The Moyong Family had many members.
Long rectangular tables had assigned seats, and endless dishes were served.
People sat the moment they arrived.
Namgung Sogyo naturally chose the seat at the very end of the table.
“Will you sit a little farther?”
A middle-aged woman with a heavy bosom beside her shot back at her.
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
Namgung Sogyo bowed slightly and pulled out her chair.
“Now that I think about it, you’re not even clan anymore, are you? Last time you ruined our family’s reputation with that arranged marriage scandal. What nerve.”
“Eh.”
Another clan member at the table gave her a warning glance.
A silent reminder not to stir up trouble at the meal.
“I’m sorry.”
With those words, the middle-aged woman fell silent.
But after that, no one spoke to Namgung Sogyo or pretended to know her.
She might as well have been living in a different world.
‘…’
She quietly fiddled with her utensils as if nothing happened.
[Host.]
“I understand.”
I whispered softly and headed toward the group of bodyguards.
The place where the bodyguards ate was set apart in a corner.
A low screen had been set up, as if the world itself was divided by it.
The upper seat over there, the lower seats over here.
As meal time approached, every seat except the Patriarch’s was filled.
Then the door opened, and Yema entered.
“I’m sorry before the meal. Is Miss Namgung Sogyo here?”
Everyone turned to look at her.
Namgung Sogyo startled.
Yema bowed politely after confirming she was present.
“The Patriarch has decided to have lunch with the honored guests from various sects and families who came to celebrate the Musin Yeongneung Festival at Oryujeong. He asked me to tell everyone to eat first.”
Yema cleared her throat.
“But he specifically requested that Miss Sogyo come to Oryujeong immediately.”
Namgung Sogyo’s face hardened with tension.
All eyes pierced her like daggers.
“Ah, okay.”
She stood up hesitantly and hurried.
I followed her.
If she went, I had to go too.
I set down the fake rice paddle I had been pretending to use and rose from my seat.
“Hey, that fox girl! Look! That girl only trusts her face and keeps following the Patriarch from a young age…!”
The middle-aged woman beside Namgung Sogyo flushed and growled loud enough for everyone to hear.
“…”
I looked at Namgung Sogyo.
I saw her hurried back disappearing around the corner.
She must have heard.
No one could have missed it.
But she was acting as if she hadn’t.
“Hmm.”
Crack.
I broke the tip of the fake rice paddle with my thumb as I stood.
Another Moyong Family member beside the middle-aged woman quickly warned me.
“Sister-in-law, you should watch your words.”
“Why! That’s wrong! If that brat had only married Huangbo Pacho’s fatso, our business in the Shandong region would have grown twenty-five more! And those wolf-like sons from the Moyong Family keep coming down to pick fights! I’m so fed up!”
“That’s true! This time they kicked out the adopted daughter because the arranged marriage was canceled, but with this, our family’s reputation…”
The dining hall instantly erupted into chaos.
Everyone focused on each other.
Meanwhile, no one paid attention to the bodyguard following Namgung Sogyo’s back.
The Plum Blossom Spinning Dagger was fully assimilated.
I didn’t need the Heavenly Demon’s power.
Pfft.
As I followed Namgung Sogyo, I flicked the broken tip of the fake paddle toward the middle-aged woman.
The shard sliced diagonally across the leg of her chair.
Sway.
It slammed into her massive backside, making the chair legs shake.
The agitation boiling over turned the motion even wilder.
I calmly passed them by.
Following the back of the one who had left first, I closed the dining hall door behind me—
“That kind of person who only trusts that body… We shouldn’t have brought her into the family in the first place… Uh—uh!”
“S-Sister-in-law, you can’t pull the tablecloth… Uh—uh!”
—Crash!
—Shatter! Crash!
The sounds of breaking dishes, overturned tables, and screams filled the dining hall.
“Kyahaaaak!!”
—Boom!
The final sound of someone smashing her rear on the floor echoed as if the entire dining hall had been struck.
“You should speak more elegantly.”
I chuckled and quickly followed Namgung Sogyo’s back.