The Loyalty of a Wanderer
There is a certain code among wanderers. “Oh dear. Miss, are you alright?” “Why… why did you only come now!?”
Moyong Juhee screamed and threw herself into Cheong’s arms. The stench rolling off her from whatever ordeal she had endured was so foul that Cheong instinctively wrinkled her nose before letting out a long sigh and gently stroking her back.
“Why did you come so late? I, I… I wanted to die. I wanted to die but I was too scared. It hurts so much. I hate the pain. Why did you come so late… so late…”
In truth, Cheong had only just learned that Moyong Juhee had been captured through a simple bit of entertainment. But she could hardly say, I had no idea you’d been taken, and it looked like no one up there knew either.
Fortunately, since Cheong hadn’t been born in the Central Plains, she possessed a wide array of miscellaneous, useless knowledge that set her apart—even if the savagery of this world was no different from the modern one.
Cheong pulled Moyong Juhee into a tight embrace and whispered into her ear.
“I’m sorry I was late. It must have been so hard, right? But you held on so well until now. Thank you. You did great. You’re truly amazing. I was really late, wasn’t I? It’s all my fault. You didn’t do anything wrong, Miss Moyong. I’m sorry…”
Show empathy and agreement toward the client while offering comfort. Offer alternatives? Don’t do that? It’s been so long since I took that psychology class I barely passed because I messed up my course registration that I can’t remember.
“Ugh…!”
Moyong Juhee finally burst into tears. Even so, the way she kept choking back her sobs, trying desperately not to make a sound, was heartbreaking.
Cheong held her in her arms for what wasn’t a short amount of time, waiting for her to calm down, when—
“……You. Are you Seomun Cheong?”
“Miss Moyong? Have you calmed down a little?”
Only then did Cheong loosen her tight grip. Moyong Juhee pulled back, looked at Cheong’s face, and wore a dazed, blank expression. Then, like a face-changing performer swapping masks, her features instantly twisted into pure hatred.
“What are you? Why are you so pretty? Why do you have everything—everything—while I… how could you do this to me!? Because of you, because of you I… it’s all because of you…!”
Suddenly Moyong Juhee began spewing a torrent of resentment. Her words were twisted and muffled by sobs, making them hard to understand, but it seemed there was quite the story behind it.
After suffering utter humiliation at the Dragon Phoenix Meet, the only way she saw to restore her honor was to defeat Cheong at the Hidden Dragon Tournament. But after losing to a mere wanderer, she became a complete laughingstock. She even overheard her own followers whispering behind her back on the stairs of the Phoenix Society.
She thinks she’s all that. Calls herself the Golden Light Sword Flower or whatever, looks down on everyone, yet she loses to some random wanderer. Honestly, seeing her makes me feel like I’m not that bad, so I just follow her around and act like her maid…
In the end, Moyong Juhee, who had grown to hate everything, left a single letter saying she would return home first and fled in the middle of the night.
Cheong found it all rather absurd. How is any of this my fault?
No matter how much of a young lady from one of the Five Great Clans she was (and a fairly skilled one at that), the world was a dangerous place. Sneaking out alone at night? Of course the Blood Sect bastards watching would think it was a gift from heaven.
Besides, if she left a letter saying she was going home first, wouldn’t the Moyong Clan assume she had been kidnapped?
“Miss, please calm down a bit. Your face is so thin. That bastard probably has some food somewhere…”
Since their shifts were twelve hours long, these guys brought in enough food for an entire twelve-hour watch. The secret of the six rice balls.
As Cheong spoke and started to stand, Moyong Juhee, who had been pouring out her grievances, suddenly crawled forward on her knees and clung desperately to Cheong’s legs.
“Hic, don’t go! No, please don’t abandon me. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. Thank you for coming to save me. Please don’t throw me away. You can’t abandon me. Take me with you too.”
“I’m not abandoning you, I’m just going to deal with that rotten, dog—no. Filthy, um. Disgusting bastard.”
“No! I’m not disgusting! I really held it in and endured! I didn’t do any of those disgusting things! So don’t throw me away. If you abandon me—”
“Ugh, what the hell! What is this! Let go! What are you doing! Fuck! What the hell is this!”
“Kyaaaaa!”
Right then the jailer woke up and started shouting, causing Moyong Juhee to let out a bloodcurdling scream and slam her head against the ground.
“You pig bitch! Fine! Today I’ll make you wish you were dead!”
“No! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please—ack, agh! Urk, heuk, aaaaagh!”
Moyong Juhee flailed like a fish out of water. Her eyes rolled back, drool and snot pouring down her face as she looked like she was about to pass out from the pain.
Ah, I should have removed the Gu first.
Cheong urgently leaped forward and tackled the jailer. One hand clamped around his throat and slammed him to the floor while the other punched straight through the skin of his upper abdomen and dug inside. Even as the choking jailer gasped and twitched, it was useless. He couldn’t overcome the strength of a Transcendent.
Cheong felt around his intestines, focusing on the sensation at her fingertips. Hot blood wrapped around every knuckle and tickled the back of her hand as the man’s heartbeat thumped against her skin—thump, thump, thump.
A shiver ran across her entire body like an electric shock. No, focus. Focus…
Finally, Cheong’s hand carefully withdrew. In her grasp was the Gu—a Double-Line Blood Gu with two black threads. She tossed it to the floor and stomped on it hard.
“Haa, ha, huu, huk, heuk…”
From deeper inside the prison cell came the sound of Moyong Juhee gasping for breath. Cheong pressed down harder on the still-twitching jailer’s neck until he passed out, then returned to Moyong Juhee.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry…”
“Miss Moyong. It’s okay now. Everything’s fine.”
“I did wrong. I did wrong. I did wrong.”
Hmm. This girl is in really, really bad shape.
Cheong looked down with an awkward expression at the back of Moyong Juhee’s head as she kept her face pressed to the ground, rubbing her hands together frantically while repeating that she was sorry.
Pain makes people sick. After getting beaten by that bastard Jijon, Cheong herself had completely lost it. But now, even when she thought back on that time, she didn’t feel any particular irritation or anger.
Cheong knew why.
“Miss Moyong. Could you come over here for a moment?”
“I’m sorry, please, no more pain.”
“Come on. It’ll be fun for you too, Miss Moyong.”
Cheong lifted Moyong Juhee into her arms and headed out of the cell. The moment they crossed the threshold, Moyong Juhee screamed that she couldn’t go out and began thrashing wildly. It was a bit troublesome, but when Cheong simply stood still and held her tightly, she seemed to regain some of her senses.
“C-can I really go out? Livestock aren’t allowed outside. I, I, I…”
“Miss Moyong. It’s me, Seomun Cheong.”
“But… I hate pain. I…”
“It’s okay. Look. See that bastard over there? He can’t hurt you anymore. And now, it’s your turn to take revenge, right?”
“Revenge.”
A murderous glint appeared in Moyong Juhee’s eyes. Thanks to that, her focus returned with crystal clarity.
“That dog-like bastard! That fucking son of a bitch!”
Moyong Juhee pushed Cheong away and lunged at the jailer, grabbing him by the throat. Cheong quickly stopped her in surprise.
“Miss Moyong? You can’t do that.”
“Why! Because of this bastard! Let go! I’m going to kill him!”
Cheong grabbed both of Moyong Juhee’s wrists and spread them apart. She tried to resist with all her strength, but compared to Cheong it was no more than a child’s power.
“Why! I have to kill this bastard. If you’re going to say something like forgiveness then get lost! I—”
“Miss Moyong. Strangling him to death is such a waste, don’t you think? He won’t last long anyway since the Gu poison leaked when I pulled it out. We should make him suffer as much as possible.”
“Huh?”
“Come on. Shall we wake him up first? Watch carefully what I do.”
Cheong flipped the jailer over, untied the cloth binding his hands, then firmly gripped both shoulders—
Crack.
It wasn’t a loud sound, but against the backdrop of a human shoulder crumpling like crumpled paper, it sounded like thunder.
“Aaaaagh!”
The jailer, jolted awake by the excruciating pain, screamed at the top of his lungs again. Even with his shoulders shattered and hanging limp, he still twitched and struggled with surprising effort.
Cheong deftly wrapped another strip of cloth around his mouth to gag him.
“I actually like hearing screams, but it’s too noisy so I’ll block it for now. Hmm. Miss Moyong, would you like to start by pulling out his fingernails? The standard method is to drive thorns in first and then pull them out, but we have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.”
“Huh? I…”
“Come on. Don’t pull away.”
Cheong moved behind Moyong Juhee, wrapped her arms around her, and took her hand, guiding her through the process with kind, detailed instructions.
“Grab it like this, then pull upward. Yes, put some strength into it. Apply force this way and do it slowly. The angle, a little more. There. Can you see it coming out? Ta-da. Cleanly done.”
The jailer’s body jerked violently. Moyong Juhee, who had been shrinking back from the horrible sensation she could feel through her own hand, stared mesmerized at the sight of the man writhing in agony.
“See? It’s not that hard, right? He was just that kind of guy to begin with. He could handle a bit of Gu, but once you remove it he’s nothing but a bug.”
“Yeah……”
“Is there any need to be afraid of something like this?”
Moyong Juhee shook her head.
“Then take your time and enjoy it. Start from the fingertips and toes, the extremities, and crush them one by one. Here, where the nail came out—press here on the finger. Hard. Harder. See how he’s twitching?”
In fact, Cheong was getting a little excited. Humans have a fundamental desire to share the things they enjoy.
“It’s a bit loud, but I recommend taking the gag out. You get to hear the screams, and eventually they’ll say all sorts of things begging for their lives. How about it? Want to try without the gag?”
It was a whisper that, in Murim terms, belonged to a devil, and in Western terms, to a demon itself.
Moyong Juhee nodded as if in a trance.
Cheong had now become something of a semi-expert on Gu. A senior member of the Double-Line Blood Sect had passed on knowledge equivalent to that of a semi-expert. Although it had been a desperate lecture (in fact, one where his life was truly on the line), it had been so disorganized that Cheong’s understanding only reached the level of semi-semi-expert.
In truth, if Cheong truly focused and tried to remember something, she could do so quite well. This was because her Five Senses stat far surpassed that of an ordinary human. However, as is usually the case with brain functions, even the highest specs are useless if the user is sloppy. Paying close attention and properly inputting information was rare for her.
In modern terms, it was like buying the latest top-of-the-line computer with a fortune and then only using it to play Minesweeper.
Anyway, according to the ecology of Gu that Cheong had listened to with unusual interest, they were incredibly troublesome creatures.
Gu basically had no lethal power. Because parasites, with some exceptions, do not try to kill their hosts. They only released venom when threatened. Depending on the species, the level of pain varied, but it was generally enough to make a person lose their mind and roll around on the ground—an excruciating level of agony.
The lethal power of Gu did not come from the venom itself, but from a special organ called the venom sac. It was a deadly poison used as a last resort right before the Gu died, or the deadly poison that leaked from the Gu’s corpse after death.
According to the jailer, up to that point it was the same as the ecology of ordinary poisonous creatures. They simply lived inside an animal’s body; it was just the basic nature of toxins.
What made Gu special was their hierarchy and resonance. Gu were unique creatures that formed a hierarchy based on the toxicity of their venom sacs. Stimulating a higher-ranked Gu would transmit that stimulus to all lower-ranked Gu within a certain range.
In other words, the way the jailers inflicted pain with Gu was by gently prodding the Gu inside their own bodies with internal energy to threaten them.
That was why Gu practitioners followed a vegetarian diet. They even avoided spice-heavy foods that could act as stimulants, meaning they consumed none of the foods that would cause the Gu to produce venom in the first place.
After raising the Gu for about two years while maintaining a vegetarian diet, the toxicity in their own bodies would be completely purged, and the Gu would no longer be able to produce venom. After that, there was no venom left to release. All they could do was transmit stimulation in all directions.
That was the principle by which the Double-Line Blood Sect handled Gu.
In Cheong’s opinion, if you had to live as a vegetarian for life and couldn’t even eat spices just for something like that, it might be better to just die. Power always comes with a price, but wasn’t this a bit too much?