The Rogue's Code of Honor
Rogues have their own code of honor. Surprisingly, the Central Plains had long maintained a tradition of sedentary living. People slept in beds and sat on chairs. The cross-legged meditation posture that martial artists called the lotus position was quite different from the simple "nobleman's cross" from Cheong's homeland. This one involved tucking both feet onto the opposite thighs—a feat bordering on acrobatics. In short, it was a horribly uncomfortable position. If one asked why anyone would bother with such a stance, the answer was that it was a form of ascetic training to prevent dozing off during meditation. The lotus position originally came from Buddhism, and the roots of ancient Buddhism lay in self-mortification. Therefore, for the warriors of the Pavilion of Worthy Guests, sitting in lotus position was uncomfortable but by no means impossible.
Although they were unaffiliated—rogues by origin—they were not rootless wanderers without any internal energy training. Thanks to the Murim Alliance's strict character examinations, they had earned respectable reputations for chivalry in their respective regions. Because of that, only Dorrae was left feeling awkward, lying flat on the floor by himself.
"Lady Seomun? Can't I just sit like everyone else?"
"Aigoo. Please stay comfortably lying down. Comfortably. Young Hero Do deserves special treatment, after all."
How on earth was this supposed to be comfortable! Nearly every unaffiliated warrior in the Pavilion of Worthy Guests was sitting cross-legged on the floor inside the room. Only Dorrae was lying flat on the ground. At this point, it felt less like special treatment and more like targeted harassment. It almost seemed like they were holding a grudge because he'd fed her that wicked Blood Essence pill.
"So, every single one of you took the Sleep Orchid Pill without exception. Hmm. What's done is done, I suppose."
The unaffiliated warriors avoided her gaze. Cheong continued speaking.
"The human-derived pills will be disposed of after the proper rites are performed. Come on, everyone, take them out. First, let's start with the appearance of the bastard who gave you the pills—"
"This isn't right. Why are you talking about confiscating them, Lady?"
"Huh?"
Cheong turned to look at the warrior who had jumped up in indignation. It was Young Hero Wang Nopil, the one who used a chair as a weapon.
"What do you mean? Are you saying you'll keep eating pills made from ground-up people?"
Wang Nopil faltered for a moment.
"Isn't it already made? It's tragic for the sacrificed victims, but wouldn't they rather have their deaths mean something by being used by someone instead of being discarded in vain?"
What kind of twisted logic was this? Cheong's irritation flared.
"What grand righteous deed do you think you've done to talk about 'meaning'? You ate that crap before a martial tournament—what's there to be proud of that you're shouting so confidently? Did you really think a bright red suspicious pill handed over by some shady bastard was legitimate?"
"That is..."
"Everyone, speak up. Don't give me that 'I trusted it because the Divine Thief gave it to me' nonsense. Did this so-called Divine Thief even flash you an official Divine Thief certificate issued by the government? You're all gathered here obediently, sitting in these uncomfortable positions because you have something to feel guilty about, don't you? Ah. Young Hero Do, you stay lying down. I said stay comfortable."
The warriors avoided her eyes again. Poor Dorrae, who had been trying to sit up awkwardly, lay back down in discomfort.
Roughly calculating, Cheong figured each pill had raised her karma by thirty points. But eating it unknowingly wasn't a sin, was it? It's not like someone had shoved it down their throats while they slept or held a blade to their necks and asked, "Eat or die." According to Nana, the bright red pills themselves looked so ominous that people avoided them. Yet these idiots had happily gobbled them up when some stranger offered them with a grin.
The Divine Thief? That was just an excuse. They had simply wanted to believe it was a good medicine from the Divine Thief because they were desperate to perform well in the tournament.
Was the source suspicious? Yes. Was the medicine suspicious? Yes. Was using it honorable? No. In that case, there was nothing to say even if their karma rose.
At that, Wang Nopil suddenly shouted.
"You wouldn't understand, Lady! You grew up comfortably, eating spiritual herbs and learning divine arts from a young age! How could you possibly understand our hearts! You have no idea what this tournament means to us rogues! Isn't that right, everyone!?"
At Wang Nopil's resentful words, the other warriors' eyes filled with indignation.
There were originally two ways to make someone angry. The first was to stop talking mid-sentence, and the second was—
However, those were everyday methods. They weren't the secret techniques for arguments and verbal battles. The ultimate dual-purpose attack that simultaneously provoked anger, blocked the opponent's words with a sense of injustice, annoyance, and rebelliousness, and caused their blood pressure to explode was something else entirely.
It was to seize the moral high ground and hammer down on the opponent's flaws.
Cheong realized she had slipped up. No matter how sharply she snapped back in irritation, instead of making the opponent feel ashamed, it only provoked resistance. It was just a sword swung from her own mouth to feel refreshed. To persuade the other party, one had to guide them through empathy. Or money. And Cheong's preferred method was violence.
She softened her momentum and changed her approach, speaking gently to soothe them.
"I'm trying to resolve this quietly here because I understand everything. Honestly, I'm not running off to tattle to the high-ranking members of the Righteous Faction about the Sleep Orchid Pills or the tournament, am I? It's because I understand how desperate all of you are."
"Hah. Understanding, you say. How amusing. What could you possibly know, Lady? How could a disciple of the Goddess Sect understand the sorrow of wandering without a proper sect or background?"
"Well, that's because I was a rogue too. It's only been a few years since I was fighting with beggars over spots while eating garbage off the streets."
"...Then wouldn't that make you a beggar rather than a rogue—"
"Aigoo. Rogue or beggar, what's the difference? If you take with a blade, you're a rogue. If you beg without one, you're a beggar. Isn't that right? You've all slept on the streets, gotten beaten up by beggars, and felt overjoyed when you found a scrap of meat like royal ribs in the food waste, right? And also..."
Once she started talking, the resentment she had bottled up came pouring out. If not now, when would she ever get to vent to someone? Thinking she had finally found people who could relate, Cheong poured out all the sorrow she had kept inside.
The expressions of the rogue warriors grew awkward.
"Uh... Um."
"Even catching a rat was a feast, and to keep the beggar bastards from stealing it, I'd eat it raw. Damn it, just thinking about it makes me angry. Before leaving Geonpyeong, I should've set the bridge on fire. Maybe I'll go back after the Murim tournament ends."
The warriors exchanged glances. No matter how much of a rogue one was, they hadn't lived quite that pathetically. Even working odd jobs at a third-rate martial hall, swinging a sword, would at least get you cold rice and a place to sleep.
"Y-you've been through a lot..."
"What? Why are you looking at me with such pity? Isn't this normal for rogue types?"
"Lady, actually that's not a rogue, that's a... Ahem. No, you've truly suffered greatly."
Wang Nopil had been about to say something when a colleague poked him in the side, and he quickly changed his words.
With that, Wang Nopil's attempt at incitement fell apart. Rather, after hearing Cheong's sorrow-filled tale, they felt comforted that their own lives as bottom-tier sewer warriors weren't so bad after all. After all, if someone could display martial arts respectable enough to be known for chivalry in their hometown, their life couldn't have been that much of a complete disaster.
In the end, wooden boxes piled up neatly in front of Cheong. When she opened them to check, each contained two pills with two slots empty. It seemed they had diligently taken two doses during the main tournament so far.
"Hmm? What's this? Who here only took half? Someone went out after eating one and a half?"
Then Cheong found a pill that was only half and asked about it.
"That one was originally a half-dose. They say first-time users should start with half, so one was split from the beginning. I've taken it once before, so..."
The warriors nodded in agreement. So the box had contained three and a half pills, not four.
What? They even adjusted the dosage for first-time users? For someone pulling such a wicked scheme, wasn't that strangely considerate? Even though it was an evil pill, it was said to be the real deal with excellent effects and almost no side effects.
Thinking that the world really had all kinds of strange people, Cheong brought up the main topic.
"From now on, we need to catch and deal with the bastard who spread this wicked drug."
"You mean the Divine Thief? How could we possibly..."
"He deliberately spread a horrific substance made with Blood Essence. Whether he's the Divine Thief or not, do you think he did it out of goodwill? If he wasn't trying to ruin your bodies, he was at least trying to ruin your reputations."
"Ruin our reputations...?"
"The unaffiliated warriors have been doing remarkably well in the tournament. What if someone suddenly appears and says, 'Those bastards ate pills made from ground-up humans and won through cowardice'? Your reputations would be destroyed, and the Murim Alliance's reputation would be dragged down with it. That's what I think. What do you all say?"
This was the opinion of Cheong, a specialist in reputation assassination. As the supreme authority on destroying face, she could roughly see through other people's schemes.
The warriors' expressions grew serious. There was no such thing as goodwill without reason in this world. They had simply thought, Well, the Divine Thief is such a weird guy, and he's weird enough to suggest stealing victory together, so maybe that's it. But in truth, the unaffiliated warriors who had achieved good results in the tournament and were desperate to turn their lives around had simply wanted to believe it so badly.
Only after hearing Cheong's words did they realize that their belief had been nothing but a baseless fantasy.
"As I said before, I understand how desperate you all are. Honestly, in my opinion, is there really that much difference between a realm achieved by eating spiritual herbs from birth and one gained by slightly shortening your lifespan? I don't want to call one right and the other wrong. Not if that Sleep Orchid Pill wasn't a damn thing made by grinding up people."
The warriors nodded gravely.
"That's why I don't want this matter to come to light and have you all pointed at. You've worked incredibly hard without any backing to get this far. You're renowned chivalrous experts in your hometowns, after all."
Thirty karma points per pill. After subtracting sixty points of evil karma, half of them were tilting toward good karma. Even adding sixty more points, none of them exceeded a hundred, which proved the Murim Alliance's character verification was accurate. Righteous faction martial artists really did have it easy living virtuously, didn't they?
But living a difficult life (though not as difficult as Cheong thought) while protecting one's karma was hard. Therefore, these people shouldn't be criticized or pointed at just because they succumbed to a moment of temptation. At least, that's what Cheong believed.
"So shouldn't we catch the dog bastard—or dog bastards—who spread the pills and deal with them so you can all sleep with your legs stretched out comfortably?"
The warriors nodded once more. Cheong spoke in a gentle voice.
"Then let's put our heads together. Let's figure out how to catch and crush them."