When Villains Betray Each Other
When your mother heads into the island shade to slit throats, the so-called ship houses were usually a chaotic collection of shipbuilders crafting vessels, lenders renting them out, smugglers (written as private trade, read as outright smuggling), and brazen maritime robbers who openly bragged about their pirate hauls. Haegung Daeseon was Gwangju’s premier ship-lending firm.
Between the two gatekeepers foaming at the mouth and rolling on the ground, Cheong looked up at the grand signboard of Haegung Daeseon. A signboard was the face and pride of any organization. Since the executives of Gwangju’s ship houses were both business partners and rivals, they waged subtle, pride-fueled wars among several wealthy men. One result of that rivalry was a signboard so lavish it belonged in a palace.
They had invited famous calligraphers to inscribe the characters, then framed them in the highest-grade red sandalwood, creating a sturdy family heirloom that could be passed down for generations. Because of that very pride, disaster now descended upon the warriors of Haegung Daeseon.
Thud!
A sword drove deep into the signboard. A blade stuck in wood is notoriously difficult to pull free, so while the warriors stood there gaping, Cheong shoved the four massive characters of “Haegung Daeseon” forward with all her strength.
Like a castle wall collapsing inward, several warriors tumbled over at once. Above them the hammer head descended with a whoosh, smashing straight into one man’s pelvis.
Crunch.
Half the pelvic structure caved in with a sickening collapse. Even if he survived, he would last only a few months. And even if luck kept him alive, he would spend the rest of his days with one side sagging—a permanently lopsided ass.
As if sensing that fate, a scream so wretched it chilled the bone tore free. “Aaaagh!”
Whether he screamed or not, the hammer rose again. Then it paused. A dark stain was rapidly spreading from the crotch of the warrior desperately flailing backward.
A look of vivid contempt flashed across Cheong’s face. The hammer instead crushed another warrior’s shoulder, while the signboard’s straight edge drove into the ground like a fortress wall.
Two calves, freed from the tyranny of their knees, rolled across the floor, savoring the liberty their severed bodies had granted them.
“Nets! Throw the nets!”
Cheong flinched, then clicked her tongue in utter disbelief as warriors charged toward her carrying armfuls of bundled fishing nets. Even if they hurled those work nets at the ground, how could that possibly end well?
They never reached her. The nets simply flopped limply across the floor, tangling with the groaning warriors and only adding to their pointless agony. This was what happened when you rushed an intruder and ended up rolling on the ground.
The fear of the unidentified Earth Mother Goddess and the high-level expert who seemed to be her handmaiden now outweighed any grief or rage over losing comrades who had shared the same rice pot. The moment fear outgrew courage was precisely when people began to flee for their lives.
Even amid that every-man-for-himself rout, the so-called guard captain still possessed a measure of spirit.
“I’ll hold her back! Please escape!”
His spirit was the only good part. The guard captain flew through the air after a single exchange. Taking the order to flee completely literally and without hesitation, he slammed into the back of the fleeing Haegung Daeseon House Master. The two rolled across the ground as one.
It was a truly tear-jerking display of loyalty. Even while tangled together, he was still trying to shield the House Master with his own body.
Cheong indifferently kicked the human cover aside. The guard captain, kicked in the stomach, trembled violently and kept vomiting blood, but the House Master seemed far more concerned with his own safety.
“Wait! Spare me—spare me, please!”
“Hmm.”
Right after that, the man who had tried to sneak away while the House Master was down was dragged over by his hair, caught in Gyeon Po-hui’s grip.
A moment later, the House Master and Chief Steward knelt side by side. Their eyes darted around, trying to read Cheong’s mood. Of course they couldn’t see anything through the face veil, but when a man wants to live, he at least has to make the attempt.
Cheong stood at an angle, looking down at the pair. More precisely, she was looking at their accumulated evil karma. It was more than enough to kill them without hesitation.
“Someone here has to die.”
Both men’s shoulders jerked violently at her sudden declaration.
“House Master? Give me one reason I should spare you. Convince me.”
“That’s—”
The House Master opened his mouth in a panic, but thud, the hammer struck the ground and cut him off.
“Chief Steward? Your job is to explain why the House Master deserves to die. Convince me to kill him. Understand? One of you two must die.”
“Y-yes!”
“Good. Let’s begin. House Master first. Why should you live?”
“I-if I’m gone, the fishermen of Gwangju will starve immediately! One out of every three ships in Gwangju belongs to me, so—”
“That’s a lie! If this bastard dies, the ships become ownerless anyway! The reason the fishermen of Gwangju are poor is because of this son of a bitch!”
Renting out a ship wasn’t cheap. And in Cheong’s hometown terms, it wasn’t a flat fee—it required an advance payment plus a balance based on the catch. So the fishermen barely scraped by. After all, they caught fish. If they got truly desperate, they could always eat fish.
This was the Central Plains version of kicking away the ladder. A fisherman’s dream was to save coin by coin until he could buy his own boat, but the lenders made sure that day never came. Why would they give up a profitable business?
Even when a ship returned full, only a few coins reached the fishermen’s hands. The ship owners who raked in massive profits used that money to hire thugs to beat any rebellious fishermen. It was far more satisfying to pay human scum to crack skulls than to share profits with the actual workers.
“Hmm. My heart says I should beat you to death. But is pursuing profit as a merchant truly a capital crime?”
The House Master’s expression brightened noticeably. The Chief Steward, however, shouted in desperation.
“That’s not all! He deliberately damages ships to extort compensation, burns vessels slated for scrap with the crews still aboard, then sells their children to cover the supposed debt!”
“You— you bastard!”
“The number of people he’s had thugs beat until their families needed medicine money, then sold to smugglers, is over fifty! What a vicious bastard!”
“Did I do it alone?! Who was the one gathering thugs and handing out money?!”
“Fuck, if you’re ordered to do it, you just don’t do it?! If I refused, he’d obviously kill me and dump me in the sea!”
Right in front of the robber holding their lives in his hands, the two were now fighting over who was the worse bastard. Every time the Chief Steward exposed an atrocity, the House Master would fly into a rage and scream back—who exactly did I order, who do you think doesn’t know you skimmed the gold and silver for yourself, I overlooked it because you were my Chief Steward and this is how you repay my kindness?
Thus, evil deeds Cheong hadn’t even been curious about came tumbling out and piled up neatly. From what she heard, when the Jin family still held power there had been a few conscientious ship owners. But once the Gwangju ship houses truly began to flex, mysterious attacks and accidents followed, resulting in a string of funerals. And one of the culprits was sitting right here.
“I just don’t understand. Why is a bad guy so genuinely bad? This means I have to kill you.”
As always, the good remained good and the bad remained bad. Especially the bastards of the Evil Faction—they never failed to be twisted. Whether such people became part of the Evil Faction because they were evil, or became evil because they joined the Evil Faction, who could say?
Cheong lifted the signboard. The House Master immediately prostrated himself and begged.
“S-spare me! If you spare my life, I swear I’ll live righteously from now on!”
Cheong’s movement stopped dead. Like someone who had forgotten to breathe, she froze completely, motionless as one of the Four Heavenly Kings standing guard before a temple.
There was no way he was sincere. But what if he was? What if he truly repented right now, turned over a new leaf, and lived as a genuinely good person from this day forward?
It was then.
“Die!”
The Chief Steward drew a dagger from his robes and lunged. The sound of flesh being pierced was the kind you saw with your eyes rather than heard with your ears. The House Master stared down at the blade buried in his own belly with trembling eyes.
“You… you…!”
“Argh!”
The Chief Steward tried to yank the dagger free, but the House Master’s desperate will to live gripped it tight. So the Chief Steward climbed on top and began pounding the man’s face with both fists.
Thud. Thud. The sound of fists striking as if trying to shatter bone, the wet choking noises, the Chief Steward screaming at the top of his lungs.
“Die! Just die already!”
Chief Steward’s Evil Karma has decreased by 4 points.
300 → 298
It was an extremely dramatic shift. For some reason, pfft, laughter burst out of Cheong before she could stop it. It wasn’t just a chuckle—it was an explosion. She laughed alone, hard enough to lose her breath.
Ah! It’s so funny I can’t breathe! Oh my god, where did this masterpiece scene even come from? Was it passed down as a family treasure? Thanks to you I really can’t breathe from laughing. Are you the greatest comedy scholar of the Central Plains? No, you must be the absolute Emperor of Jokes! Please compensate me for my lost belly button! Breathing is impossible—this is murderous comedy! Please, spare my life!
Cheong’s steel-like abs ached, tears welled in her eyes, and her vision blurred with moisture. Her bright, clear laughter rang out at full volume, completely drowning out the warriors’ groans.
The Chief Steward, now terrified, flailed backward until his back hit a wall. He trembled violently, unable to hide the fear in his eyes.
“Haaaa. Yeah. That was pretty impressive—kuh, kuhk.”
It had crossed over from laughter into sobbing territory, so the aftershocks kept making her burst out again. Gyeon Po-hui couldn’t hide the worry in her voice.
“Sworn sister? Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Somehow… I feel refreshed.”
She should have just killed the ones who deserved killing. Why bother worrying about philosophy?
A ferocious glint drew a long arc through Cheong’s eyes, swirling before scattering like fireworks across the night sky. It left a glossy sheen over her entire gaze. The clear, bright winter sky of her eyes now sparkled with an ominous murderous aura that somehow still looked refreshingly cheerful.
“They say laughter brings good fortune after all. Trying to act all strict, solemn, and philosophical almost made me want to dig a hole and crawl into the ground.”
“Who’s digging a hole? Are they digging to run away?”
Gyeon Po-hui looked around but, failing to spot any hole-digging human, simply tilted her head in confusion. Cheong pulled her sworn sister close, tucking her under one arm in a headlock. A white, slender hand slipped naturally into the front of her robes.
Applying the Shadowless Divine Hand and the Divine Thief’s mysterious grabbing technique for instantaneous bosom infiltration.
As expected, breasts really were the best. Not hers—other people’s.
“Kyut, that tickles.”
Despite her seductive appearance, Gyeon Po-hui was ticklish. She twisted with a childlike giggle. Ignoring that, Cheong kept the woman tucked under her arm, kneading her breast, and spoke to the Chief Steward in a gentle voice.
“Chief Steward? That was quite impressive. However, did I say one of you would die, or that only one of you would die?”
The Chief Steward’s face looked like the sky itself had collapsed. He urgently protested.
“T-that wasn’t the promise—”
“Ahem. You should listen to someone until they finish speaking.”
Cheong cut him off, still carrying traces of laughter in her voice.
“I’ve been rather depressed lately, but thanks to you I had fun. I enjoyed a truly splendid display of villainy. My score? Ninety-six points! Congratulations! You pass!”
“Th-thank you!”
“No need to thank me. Since you performed a good deed, you deserve a reward. Never forget this moment. I hope you continue beating bad guys to death in the future.”
“Y-yes!”
“However, you won’t have time to gather your wealth or take care of your family, right? If I see you again, you die. So run far, far away right now. Understood? Promise?”
“Yes! I’ll run away immediately!”
“Good. Now scram.”
The Chief Steward shot up as if every second of kneeling had been preparation for this exact escape. He sprinted away with surprising speed and vanished from sight.
“Ah. Right. Sworn sister? Where did that guy go? The one who guided us here. Um… I never caught his name. Well, I’m not really curious anyway.”
“Oh, that guy? I left him somewhere over there……”
Cheong turned to look where Gyeon Po-hui was pointing. Yet all that spread before her eyes was a scene filled with groans and agony—nothing but critically injured men writhing beneath the fishing nets.