Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Sword Demon and the Demonic Sword (8)
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The philosopher Mencius once said that human nature is inherently good.
Is that really true?
Having never studied it deeply, I don’t know its precise meaning or the context in which it was said.
But I couldn’t help but question it.
Is every human truly born good?
‘Then how am I supposed to explain this man in front of me?’
I looked at the thug who was showering me with merciless violence and verbal abuse, my body covered in bruises and wounds, utterly powerless.
His contorted face was not that of a human but of a beast, and the fists he swung held no pity or compassion.
So how could I explain this man?
Was he born good but corrupted by a harsh and cruel world?
Or was he not good to begin with, simply a beast in human form?
Honestly, I hoped it was the latter.
That way, I wouldn’t feel guilty for hating this beast so intensely.
Whatever the case, I had to escape.
To save my life from the beast.
-Thump
Kicked in the stomach, I went flying, yet I struggled to my feet through the excruciating pain.
“Aaaargh! He-help me!”
I cried out for help, but no one intervened.
It was frustrating, but on some level, I understood.
Who would dare stand in the way of that savage beast?
They would only suffer the same fate if they got involved.
Still, I didn’t give up. I kept running, heading for the most crowded place I could find.
Someone had to be there.
A human with a good heart among the beasts.
I ran, searching for a human in a forest filled with only violence and cruelty.
But no matter how far I ran, the end of the forest was nowhere in sight.
There were only beasts on all sides, all of them too terrified to even meet the eyes of the predator chasing me.
After being caught and escaping repeatedly, I finally reached the village inn.
-Crack! Crash
This time, I was kicked in the back, sending me crashing into the inn’s door and tumbling to the floor.
Countless people turned their gazes toward me and the thug.
‘Please, someone… even just a little help, please…!’
I scanned my surroundings, desperately pleading for help, but everyone was quick to avert their eyes.
They were all too scared to step forward.
‘Ha, haha…’
I wanted to ask.
I wanted to ask which one of them was born with a good heart.
-Thwack. Pow.
“You bitch! You did this on purpose, didn’t you? Huh? To screw me over!”
I raised my hands to block the man’s violent blows, but it was futile.
All I could do was wait for someone’s mercy.
But I already knew the truth.
Even this hope was an extravagance I couldn’t afford.
I had ignored it, too.
When my friends were fleeing from the beasts, I had looked away.
Now, I was the prey.
So I had no right to hope for salvation from others.
It was then.
“Today, I’m going to make sure you…”
“Silence.”
A man’s voice, elegant yet infinitely cold, cut the beast off.
So startled was I that I cautiously looked toward the source of the voice with eyes full of disbelief.
There stood a man dressed in a black robe, his face obscured by a bamboo hat with a veil, pulled down low.
He carried something wrapped in cloth on his back, likely a weapon.
I wasn’t the only one looking at him.
Everyone in the inn was staring.
Naturally, that included the thug from the Red Rain Gang who had been mercilessly beating me.
“Hey, pal. What did you just say?”
“My apologies for the interruption. I’m just passing through, so please continue.”
‘I knew it. There’s no way he’d help me.’
But the thug from the Red Rain Gang seemed unwilling to let it go.
“No, no. Can’t do that. I need to hear what you just said to me again.”
The thug approached the man in the black robe with a rather thuggish demeanor.
As the two men faced each other, a thick tension filled the air.
While the thug grew increasingly aggressive, the man in the black robe remained perfectly calm.
In the end, it was the thug who crossed the line first.
“Hey! Didn’t you hear me—Gah!”
-Grab
As the thug reached out to knock off the man’s bamboo hat, his neck was seized.
“Three times.”
The voice that followed, cold enough to freeze the body, was enough to crush the surrounding atmosphere.
“C-choke! You, you!… Do you know who I am…”
“The chances you missed.”
The man looked down at the thug with utterly emotionless eyes.
There was no trace of human feelings like pity or compassion in them.
“You’ve missed three chances to live. Unfortunately for you, there are no more left.”
What happened next was instantaneous.
-Craaack!
The thug from the Red Rain Gang was lifted high by his neck, and then his head was driven into the inn’s wooden floor.
“Gaaargh!”
The floorboards buckled, sending splinters flying in all directions.
The man in the black robe didn’t stop there. He slammed the thug down several more times, making sure to finish the job.
-Slam! Slam! Slam!
He stopped only after repeatedly smashing the thug into the floor until his face was a completely mangled mess.
The man glanced for a moment at the thug, who was twitching on the floor, then dusted off his hands and spoke.
“Let’s go.”
For someone who had just thoroughly brutalized another person, his reaction was remarkably brief and casual.
As if he had done this countless times before.
Afterward, the man casually picked up his fallen bamboo hat, dusted it off, and put it back on before walking out of the inn.
A woman in similar attire followed behind him.
Once the perpetrators of the incident had left, only a quiet stillness remained.
I stared blankly at the fallen thug.
He had been a terrifying presence that I couldn’t dare to oppose, yet against the man who had just left, he couldn’t even fight back.
An overwhelming difference in power.
As if possessed, I replayed the recent events in my mind, completely dazed.
And I wasn’t the only one in deep shock.
Everyone in the inn was speechless, reeling from the shocking scene that had just unfolded.
A moment later, someone, having heard the commotion from outside, rushed into the inn.
“What is it? What happened?!”
“Why is the door smashed to pieces?”
They were all warriors from the Red Rain Gang.
“Hey, what the hell is this guy? His face is completely destroyed. Wait, isn’t he one of ours?”
“What the—this is the guy from Team 3. Why is he in this state?”
“Team 3? The ones who manage the brothels? What’s he doing here like this? Hey! Snap out of it! What happened?!”
“He’s been done in good. He’s barely breathing. Get a physician, quick!”
In an instant, the scene was plunged into chaos.
The men from the Red Rain Gang began grabbing people and demanding to know what had happened, and soon enough, people’s gazes slowly drifted toward me.
I decided it was now or never and immediately dashed through the crowd and out of the inn.
“Gasp…! Gasp…!”
Not long after I left, the thugs, having pieced together the situation, shouted after me.
“Hey, kid! Stop right there!”
“Hey! Grab that bitch!”
My heart pounded, and hot blood rushed through my veins.
I knew exactly where I was going.
“Pant! Pant…! Sir! Sir!”
Barely able to breathe, the air catching in my throat, I called out to a man in the distance.
The man in the black robe who had so easily crushed the thugs from the Red Rain Gang.
He seemed to hear my voice, as he paused for a moment and turned his head slightly toward me.
“Hah, huff! Pl-please, take me with you! I’m begging you!”
Even as my vision blurred, I desperately reached out my hand.
-Thump, splat
“Agh!”
Just as I was almost there, I tripped on a stone and fell. Once the strength left my legs, I found it impossible to get back up.
“Just… a little further…”
As my vision darkened, I kept my eyes fixed forward until the very end.
***
[How pitiful. She’ll die if you just leave her there.]
The Soul-Severing Sword spoke as it looked at the collapsed girl.
Unmyeong also glanced at the girl for a moment before turning his head away again.
“I’ve already helped her once. What happens now is her own business.”
[Yes. Just leave her to be beaten to death by the men chasing her. Someone like you, who despises children, would surely want that.]
“Getting involved any further could jeopardize the mission. So stop spouting nonsense.”
Unmyeong tried to justify his inaction to the demonic sword, but his words only invited more mockery.
[To think saving one girl would jeopardize your mission. Your skills must be quite pathetic. Truly, a master far beyond my worth.]
“I know you’re deliberately trying to interfere with me. Cease your pathetic provocations.”
Unmyeong believed the Soul-Severing Sword had no real interest in the girl’s life.
He thought it was just latching onto the situation to obstruct him, just as it had in the inn.
After all, why would a wicked demonic sword, whose purpose was to break human hearts, care about the life or death of a mere girl?
[Whatever my intentions, the fact remains that you are letting that girl die.]
“Countless people die every day. I, too, have killed countless individuals with my own hands to get where I am. Do you think the life of one girl matters to me?”
[Yes. Then just go. Add that girl’s body to the countless corpses you’ve walked over.]
As the Soul-Severing Sword spoke mockingly, Unmyeong found himself unable to move forward.
[Go on. Hurry. That girl is as good as dead now. Don’t look back, just abandon her. Isn’t that the life you’ve lived?]
Unmyeong pressed his lips together tightly, then turned and leaped toward the girl.
‘Dammit, why am I doing this…?’
Even as he ran, he couldn’t understand his own actions.
‘Normally, I wouldn’t have cared in the slightest.’
Unmyeong quickly lifted the fallen girl onto his shoulder and vanished into the darkness.
The Shadow Form Demonic Step, one of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s supreme stealth techniques, was difficult to detect even for a skilled master using their senses.
To the pursuing thugs, it could only look as though he had vanished into thin air.
“What the—?! Where’d he go all of a sudden?”
“He was right here… dammit!”
“There are no footprints around here. See anything over there?”
“Nothing. It’s too dark to see clearly. Damn it. We almost had her, where did she disappear to?”
The thugs from the Red Rain Gang searched the area where the girl and Unmyeong had vanished, but of course, they couldn’t find them.
Unmyeong ran with the girl on his back, and the Soul-Severing Sword jeered at him.
[What’s this? What whim made you suddenly save that girl? Didn’t you say she was just one of the countless lives commonly lost on the roadside?]
At the demonic sword’s question, Unmyeong remained silent for a moment, then averted his gaze slightly and opened his mouth.
“I only saved her to ask for directions in this area. It means nothing else.”
[Is that the best excuse you could come up with? How fitting for my unworthy master.]
“Silence! I only saved her to spite you because you kept getting on my nerves! I’m going to do the exact opposite of everything you say!”
Unmyeong himself felt a storm of confusion in his heart.
His own childish words and actions, and the inexplicable sense of relief that filled his heart upon saving the girl.
Everything felt unfamiliar.
In response to Unmyeong, the Soul-Severing Sword replied in a slightly softer tone than before.
[Honestly, you’re not a child... And yet... of all the sides you’ve shown me, this was by far the most mature.]