The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts - 78
There had been so many things.
Still, Mumyeong and I fought with Sogyo every single day, like cats and dogs over everything from the smallest thing to the biggest.
We were completely incompatible, from the first moment to the last.
Only when Yeom-a, the chief maid, was around did she manage to act as a buffer between us. But that was only possible when we were inside the main mansion of the Namgung Family.
After dinner, the moment we stepped into Sogyo’s courtyard, it became a perfect two-person world.
In other words, I was supposed to handle every single chore she had.
“Uncle! It’s hot!”
“Uncle! Do the dishes for me!”
“Do you even know how to make sweet-red-bean fish-shaped buns?”
With an apron tied around her small waist, I was grilling apples while she watched, and the exhaustion of every single guard in the Gangho felt like it was weighing on me.
“What are sweet-red-bean fish buns anyway?”
“Hmph, right. I wouldn’t know.”
“…?”
Sogyo sat on the floor and kicked her legs.
“Mom made them.”
“Mom?”
“Before I came here. Mom said she used to eat them when she was little. Making them is super simple.”
“…”
I squatted by the stove.
-Kiiiii… kii-ki-ki.
I forced my grip until the iron rod bent all over.
I’m not the type who trains his body for this kind of thing.
I swallowed the words crawling up my throat.
I handed her the fish-shaped mold I had just made.
“Is this enough?”
“Mm, well… it’s a little clumsy, but it’s fine. Mom said sweet-red-bean fish buns taste best in the dead of winter.”
We mixed sweet-red-bean paste and corn flour, both of us completely unskilled.
We were awful at everything.
“Salt, is this about right? No, this is the wrong way to knead, isn’t it?”
“Um, maybe we should add sugar because it’s sweet. How about this for the corn flour?”
“A-ah, to think that warriors would be cooking.”
Sogyo bounced around beside me, delighted.
The quiet house had become noisy.
I carefully poured the corn-flour dough into the fish-shaped mold and poured in the sweet-red-bean paste.
“Uncle! Be careful! You’re a martial arts master, but why are your hands so clumsy!”
“I-I’ve never cooked before in my life.”
We kneaded the dough for a long time, fighting with sugar and salt.
Then I suddenly felt a sense of unease.
“Miss, do we really have to make this?”
I looked at the girl beside me.
Sogyo stared at me blankly.
“Eh?”
“There are tons of other things to eat. You’re not poor, so why not just go out and buy something on the street?”
“…”
Sogyo set down the dough.
-Thud
Then she stormed off into the room.
“Ah.”
I stood there holding the bean paste, staring after her.
On one side of the room, the fish-shaped dough I had made was already leaking out of the mold in a ridiculous shape.
Another night had fallen.
Sleeping on the floor instead of a proper bed was something I had grown used to.
But tonight the atmosphere felt a little different from the usual.
“It’s really quiet.”
I looked toward the wall beyond the courtyard.
The main mansion of the Namgung Family beyond the wall was unnaturally silent.
Starting from this afternoon, nearly ninety percent of the Namgung Family’s members had departed for Musin Yeongneung for the major festival.
Only the bare minimum of maintenance staff remained behind.
In the very center of the Namgung Family, only the Namgung Taewangdan remained illuminated by torches even in broad daylight.
But even that was only the bare minimum force—torchlight alone.
-Fwoo-roo-roo.
The torches flickered in the darkness.
A tall wall separated the Namgung Taewangdan from us.
Between the small house where Sogyo lived and the main mansion there was an even taller, larger wall, with only a single back gate.
She lived in one house yet felt like she lived in an entirely different one.
Three days was short, and yet we had spent almost all of them together, so I knew quite a bit about her.
She had supposedly lived here completely alone for six years.
“Must have been lonely.”
The only way I could express how I felt was with that one short sentence.
I stopped saying anything out loud.
Many parts of her were similar to me.
That was probably why I kept getting irritated by her current situation.
“No, forget about it. It’s nothing to do with me.”
It was a murmur, but it was directed at myself.
Time passed, and three days had already gone by.
When this night ended, only half a day would remain.
It had been a dull existence, but now, with no one else left in this place, the remaining three days would be even more boring, and nothing would happen.
I would protect the remaining holiday and leave, while she would live her own life.
That was all.
I decided not to worry about it.
“…”
I had been so lost in thought that I didn’t notice.
At first I thought it was dust.
“This…”
It was incredibly small, and the moment it touched the ground it looked like it would melt away, but white crystalline particles were slowly falling from the sky, one or two at a time.
“I really hate snow.”
“Hey, it’s fine if I don’t come in, right? It’ll be cold outside.”
The door rattled open.
Sogyo peeked her head out, wearing only a thin nightgown.
“Come in.”
“It’s really going to be cold today?”
“If you get cold while sleeping, knock on the door three times. My hearing is sharp.”
“Are you really okay?”
Blue moonlight poured down in waves.
“I’ll handle the guarding work. You do whatever you need to do.”
“Are you angry? About the sweet-red-bean fish buns earlier.”
“No.”
Sogyo stared at me for a long time.
“Uncle, your line is really clean.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Uncle, what’s your name?”
I exhaled white breath and said, “You said you weren’t curious. And why bother asking again after three whole days?”
“Ah, never mind. Are you a pretty boy??”
“…”
“Pretty boy. There’s a proud pretty boy.”
I sat there facing away without answering.
“Sorry.”
Her voice came from behind.
“As an apology, I’ll tell you my real name.
In an empty courtyard, only the two of our voices echoed.
“My real name is Sogyo too. The chief allowed me to use it. Even though I don’t know my family name.”
We were in the same place yet not looking at each other.
One was sitting on the floor; the other was leaning against the half-open door.
We were simply staring at the blue full moon.
“My father ran away when I was little. Six years ago, right after the famine, it was winter and it was snowing exactly like this. Mom froze to death that winter.”
My shoulders, which had been rising and falling with each breath, stopped moving.
“The only thing Mom ever made for me when she was working to earn money was sweet-red-bean fish buns made with corn flour… Usually she was too busy to make them, but since Uncle was here, I wanted to try once. I was always alone here. I had to hide everything. Uncle is only leaving in a few days anyway.”
Since I had my back turned, I didn’t know that Sogyo had seen my rigid expression.
I spoke in a hoarse voice.
“Did the chief bring you here?”
“I was wandering around the market when I was lucky enough to be found by the chief. I knew she adopted me because I was useful, but I didn’t realize how useful until later.”
Sogyo continued her story in a broken voice.
“My aunt Namgung Yullyeong was the worst. She was greedy and arrogant, but overall the family wasn’t too bad. The only ones who were truly horrible were the middle-aged uncle from the Hwangbo Family who was like a pig, and that strange man from the Blood Sect who threatened to take me as his concubine.”
“The night wind.”
“Huh?”
I opened and closed my mouth.
Licking my parched lips, I forced out the words.
“Go inside and sleep. Close the door.”
Sogyo scrunched up her face and looked at me.
“If you’re a guard, don’t leave. I may be small and may have lived in silence for six years, but—”
She said it casually.
“No matter how much you try to act calm, pretend you don’t feel it, I can still sense the arrogance of the Namgung family, the bullying, the way they look down on those who aren’t pure bloodline… Do you really think I wouldn’t feel any of it?”
In the depths of my sealed soul, an ice pillar had been driven straight through.
Meeting someone who looked exactly like me was more painful and agonizing than anything I had ever felt.
All I could do was, like the first time, sit with my back to her, leaning against the pillar, curled up.
“Aunt Namgung Yullyeong told me I was a cruel girl, that I didn’t care about anything. I don’t have that kind of heart. She was just pretending.”
-Ehh
Sogyo opened the door and stepped out.
I jumped up in surprise.
“Where are you going…!”
“To measure the dew, why! Are you following me?! What kind of perverted uncle is this.”
I hesitated.
“I have to follow you.”
“What? You’re following?”
“Yes, I’m a guard… so.”
I wasn’t even sure if that was true.
I had never actually guarded anyone.
It was just an educated guess based on the situation.
Sogyo stamped her foot in disgust.
“You’re so embarrassing! Don’t come! You didn’t even tell me your name! You clean-line pretty boy!”
“No, why! I can’t! I mean, I’m an exclusive guard… the crow guy always stuck to my heels, right? Wait, thinking about it, what was that guy’s name again?”
Sogyo yelled at the top of her lungs.
“Don’t make up strange stories! He wasn’t even visible!”
“U-um, us? No, rather than that, the thing is that guy’s the bigger problem…!”
In the end, I gave in and decided to watch from five paces away.
The Dew Measuring Pavilion stood in the corner beneath the wall.
Under the blue moonlight, I could see the girl walking toward it.
White snowflakes were steadily growing thicker.
Every sound in the world was fading away.
Tomorrow at sunrise it would melt instantly; it was light snow, but it was definitely falling.
I waited for her to come out and exhale white breath under the blue moon night.
[Huh?]
Mumyeong’s voice rang out.
[What?]
I straightened my body, which had been leaning against the wall.
I unfurled my crossed arms.
Just from the tone and volume of Mumyeong’s voice alone, I already knew what kind of emotion he was feeling.
-Something’s wrong right now.
“What’s happening?”
[A rat? Is it a rat?]
I felt something.
Mumyeong’s perception transcended human senses.
He muttered rapidly.
[No. A rat, but moving this fast? Impossible. And why are there so many of them? One, two, three… at least five. No, six. Eight…?]
“What? Eight?”
My voice sharpened.
[No, that’s—]
Mumyeong sounded confused.
[They can’t be humans. The energy level is way too small for humans. No, I’ve felt this before.]
Mumyeong desperately searched through his hazy memories.
After the Heavenly Demon Jade shattered, his self and past memories had gradually returned with time, but they were still incomplete.
[It’s definitely in my memories from when I was active. Faint, but…]
Mumyeong’s muttering was suddenly cut off like a knife.
[…The First Blood Demon.]
Mumyeong roared.
[Dammit! The First Blood Demon! It’s the First Blood Demon!]
“W-what are you saying? The First Blood Demon?”
Choking out the words, Mumyeong shouted desperately.
[It’s an agent of the Blood Cult!]
-Paa-ba-ba-bat!
Eight human figures shot up from behind the wall against the backdrop of swirling snowflakes.
They were men wearing pigskin.
They wore only the bare minimum of lower garments.
Under the blue moonlight, their tattooed upper bodies were completely exposed.
Their bodies were caked in mud.
Did they even take off their clothes to hide their presence?
In their hands they gripped red energy hooks shaped like sickles.
Amazingly, despite the fact that there were clearly eight enormous adult men right in front of me, I couldn’t sense their presence at all.
It had nothing to do with strength.
Only an elite assassin of the Blood Death Sect like Baekho would have been able to erase his presence to this degree.
-Kiiik.
Sogyo emerged from the Dew Measuring Pavilion.
“Get inside! Do not come out!”
“…!”
Sogyo had spotted them.
At the grotesque sight she turned deathly pale and slumped to the ground.
“A woman.”
The First Blood Demon muttered while looking at Sogyo.
“Right? The target.”
“Let’s take her.”
“What about the man?”
“He’s far away. We can kidnap him before he comes.”
It happened in an instant.
The First Blood Demon charged forward in a tight pack.
Countless hands reached toward Sogyo.
My breath caught.
The distance was five paces.
I gritted my teeth.
I bent my body.
-Kwaddeudeuk!
Power exploded through my entire body and poured into my knees and joints.
The Vajra Demon Subduing Fist’s twelve basic forms, the Hwan-yeong-dae-sin-bo, and the Zhen Tian Sanmao Quan were perfectly absorbed.
The sound of my body twisting was vividly clear.
“Aaaak!”
Sogyo let out a white scream.
The men grabbed her wrists.
At the same time, sparks flew in both of my eyes.
-Jjeo-eong!
My body became one massive spear and flew forward.
The instant the pig-headed Blood Cult group spotted the distance, I roared:
“That distance?!”
-Kwa-roo-roo!
Wrapping my whole body in thunder and flames, I kicked the pig-headed First Blood Demon who was holding Sogyo’s wrist.
-Woo-ji-jik!
The sound of bones breaking rang clearly through the night sky.