Chapter 240: It's a Misunderstanding
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 240: It's a Misunderstanding
“Agh, you scared me! Why are you suddenly shouting like that?” Tang Soyeong said, clutching her stomach.
Seeing this, Tang Muyeong felt a pang of regret.
No matter the circumstances, how could I shout in front of a pregnant woman?
“…I’m sorry. It was just so sudden.”
“Huh? Sudden? Well, I suppose I never imagined things would turn out like this either.”
As she spoke, a myriad of emotions flickered in Tang Soyeong’s eyes.
How could she have known she would meet Gomodo here and become his disciple?
A faint smile graced her lips as she reminisced about her time with him.
Of course, Tang Muyeong interpreted this very differently.
“How could you… No, Soyeong. Are you truly okay?”
“If I’m okay?”
“I don’t want to speak carelessly, but it must be a heavy burden for someone your age. As your older brother, I want to congratulate you, but I can’t help but worry.”
“Ahem, I only did what was necessary.”
As a member of the Tang Clan—the one with the highest affinity for spirit beasts and the most knowledge about them—it was only natural for her to serve Gomodo.
Once again, however, Tang Muyeong took her words the wrong way.
“What was necessary…”
How could such words come from someone with such a small frame?
He stood there in a daze, utterly shocked, before finally snapping back to his senses.
If Tang Soyeong had gotten pregnant in the 100,000 Great Mountains, there was a high probability that the child’s father was a member of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Come to think of it, hadn’t the Cult Leader mentioned having a connection with Tang Soyeong?
In that case, the father was likely a high-ranking official in the cult, or perhaps even a blood relative of the Cult Leader.
If his sister had been forced, he would have unleashed his poisons without a second thought, alliance be damned. But judging by her reaction, it was clear she was utterly smitten with the man.
Her clothes were neat and her face was glowing, which meant the man was treating her well.
Since the water was already spilled, Tang Muyeong decided to think about the situation as positively as possible.
Contrary to what was known to the world, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult he had seen had a surprisingly human side.
Even the Cult Leader was someone you could reason with.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was a place where people lived, after all.
They would surely welcome a daughter of the Tang Clan who was carrying the child of one of their followers.
This wasn’t what he had intended, but it meant their relationship with the cult had grown even stronger.
Of course, as Tang Soyeong’s older brother, rather than the young master of the Tang Clan, he couldn’t help but feel displeased.
“Cough, I see. So that’s what happened. In that case… may this brother know the man’s name?”
“His name… Well, for now, I call him Hero Go.”
“Hero Go?”
Not Lord Gaga, but a Hero?
Tang Muyeong’s eyebrow twitched.
The man had even given her a ring as a gift, so he clearly had feelings for his sister, yet the title felt strangely distant.
“Yes, Hero Go.”
“…Still, I suppose it’s a relief that you met a man worthy of being called a Hero. The first connection is the most…”
“I’m not the first,” she said, cutting him off.
At her words, Tang Muyeong’s face turned beet red once more.
“Not… the first…?”
“Let’s see… I think I’m about the fourth?”
That would be her rank in the order she joined the Gaegaek Cult.
Of course, Tang Muyeong misunderstood this as well.
“The f-fourth… Not even the first… the fourth…”
“Hey, it’s fine. Hero Go trusts me the most, so there’s no problem.”
Kioong?
There was a saying: Heroes are lovers.
It meant that a capable and strong man was permitted to have multiple women.
Even Tang Seong-ik had five wives, so it wasn’t that strange.
Of course, that saying didn’t usually apply to a man marrying a daughter of the Tang Clan.
Barring special cases, it was one husband, one wife.
And there was the custom that the married man had to come and live with the Tang Clan.
That was why her not being the first bothered him, but it wasn’t the most important thing.
What mattered was how much love she received from her husband.
He couldn’t entirely trust Tang Soyeong’s words, but hearing her say she was the most loved allowed him to breathe a small sigh of relief.
“Cough, right. The order isn’t important… Still, four already. That’s more than I thought.”
“You think four is a lot?”
The number of wives was four.
The number of disciples was four.
They were talking about two completely different things.
“I’m the fourth one, but there are many more. Twenty? No, was it more than that?”
“T-Twenty?”
Tang Muyeong’s face went from red to a sickly yellow.
How on earth could one man have twenty women?
It made no sense, logically, physically, or anatomically.
Are the customs of the Demonic Cult different? Is this something I have to understand, too?
As he wrestled with these thoughts, Tang Soyeong continued.
“And that’s a small number. We’re expecting hundreds in the short term, and thousands in the long term.”
“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Hey, why do you keep shouting? You almost made me drop the baby.”
Hearing those words, Tang Muyeong hastily covered his mouth.
“I-I’m sorry.”
Drop the baby!
“This wretched mouth of mine,” he muttered, slapping his lips lightly.
“…Is there any chance I could meet him, this Hero Go?”
This wasn’t something to take up with Soyeong.
It was a situation that required him to meet the man and speak with him directly.
Tang Soyeong made a thoughtful expression, then conversed with the spiders nearby.
“Hmm… Well, he’s my older brother, so I suppose he can be trusted.”
Kioong.
“You think so too, Spider Lady?”
Kieng.
Watching this scene, Tang Muyeong looked utterly bewildered.
“Oh, these are the second and third.”
The second and third disciples.
Actually, they were the first and second, but since Nephila was always by his side, their ranks had shifted back by one.
Even after hearing her explanation, Tang Muyeong couldn’t understand.
The spiders are the second and third?
“What in the world does that mean?”
“It means these Spider Ladies here are the second and third, of course.”
“You mean… of that man, Hero Go…?”
He wondered if that was even physically possible.
“Is that… is that even okay?”
“Hero Go doesn’t discriminate by species. There’s a wolf, and a snake, too. A bird just joined recently.”
“A wolf… and a snake… and… a bird?”
He tried to imagine what kind of combination that was.
But it was a picture Tang Muyeong’s imagination simply couldn’t paint.
“So… there are humans… and spiders… and snakes… birds… wolves…”
Even as he said it, Tang Muyeong wondered if he was getting it right.
“And you’re saying there are twenty of them… no, that you’re expecting hundreds?”
“Yes. Because it’s Hero Go.”
What in the world is this Hero Go?
And why is she answering so cheerfully about him taking hundreds, even thousands of non-human species as his wives?
“And he can… handle that? All of them, by himself?”
“Oh, please. Nothing is easier for Hero Go.”
Of course, what Tang Muyeong was asking and what Tang Soyeong was answering were on completely different wavelengths, but it was a question to which her answer wouldn’t have changed regardless.
Tang Muyeong pressed a hand to his forehead.
A headache was starting to set in.
He felt as if his brain had just been forced to accept more knowledge than it could handle.
“So, what did… those two, the second and third, say?”
“They said it should be fine to take you to him.”
There was a limit to what he could understand just by hearing about it.
He wasn’t even sure what he was hearing right now.
Tang Muyeong decided that his first priority was to see this ‘Hero Go’ in person.
“Right, this is no time to stand around. Does this Hero Go have anything he particularly likes? It would be better to bring a gift than to just show up. It won’t be easy to find something here, but I did bring some money and valuables…”
“A gift? Hmm, let’s see. He’s not particularly fond of money or valuables.”
Tang Muyeong, having composed himself, let out a sigh of relief.
He couldn’t get a read on what kind of person this was, but not being interested in wealth was a good sign.
“His favorite thing is… well, that’s something you could never give him. After that, I guess it would be food? He seems to like meat, and lots of it.”
“Large quantities of meat? Right, I saw a pheasant on the way here. It was plump and looked truly delicious. It’s a humble offering, but I should go and catch it.”
“A pheasant? Hmm, that wouldn’t even be a mouthful for Hero Go.”
A mouthful?
What does she mean by that?
A plump pheasant was usually so large that a grown man couldn’t finish it alone even if he wanted to.
“He must be quite the glutton. Well, that’s fine in its own way.”
“…I think you’re misunderstanding something. I’m not being metaphorical. It would literally be gone in one bite.”
Tang Muyeong scoffed.
“Hmph, what are you talking about? It’s not like he’s a beast… Hup.”
Tang Muyeong clapped a hand over his mouth.
He had just called his future brother-in-law a beast.
“…This mouth of mine just won’t behave.”
“Huh? No, it’s fine. You’re not exactly wrong.”
Not wrong to call him a beast?
“Don’t tell me… at night, he has a beast-like…!”
“What are you talking about? He sometimes acts like a beast during the day, not just at night.”
“Day and night…! That baaaastard!”
By that point, even Tang Soyeong began to think that Tang Muyeong was misunderstanding something.
And she immediately knew the source of that misunderstanding.
She hadn’t told him Hero Go’s true identity.
Tang Soyeong hadn’t wanted to reveal with her own mouth that Gomodo was here.
It could lead to unnecessary trouble.
So, she had thought it right to leave that privilege to Gomodo himself.
Thinking it over, she decided that being too secretive wasn’t good either, and chose to release a little more information.
“Well, that’s because Hero Go is a lizard.”
A brief silence fell.
Tang Muyeong’s mouth fell slightly agape. He wore a dazed expression, much like his sister’s, and muttered blankly.
“…A lizard?”
“Yes, a really big lizard!”
There was no better way to describe him than a really big lizard.
“So… Hero Go isn’t human, but a lizard?”
“Yes!”
“My little sister… with a lizard…”
Of course, Tang Muyeong, who was laboring under a misunderstanding far deeper than Tang Soyeong realized, received a shock so profound his mind went completely blank.
“Keoheok!”
Staggering, Tang Muyeong coughed up blood and collapsed.
“…What’s wrong with him now?”
*
Crunch!
I looked down at the fallen wild boar.
This should be enough.
If Red Dragon were here, I’d have to catch one more, but she was currently visiting the Mount Hua Sect.
I wonder if she’s doing okay?
I wasn’t too worried.
Even if she failed her mission, she was more than capable of taking care of herself.
A giant spirit beast that flies through the sky shooting fireballs.
They wouldn’t be able to stop her even if they tried.
They’d probably just let her go and beg her to leave.
Even without causing such a ruckus, her martial prowess was enough to defeat Ak Bulhwi, a master of the Transformation Realm. Wouldn’t they just say, “Please, just go”?
It was convenient having Red Dragon around, since she could easily roast meat.
Anyway, how long has it been since I had meat?
Just eating it plain won’t satisfy me.
I need something more stimulating, a taste that will make my soul cry out.
Right, spiciness.
I’m craving something spicy.
The kind of taste that explodes in your mouth and makes your tongue tingle.
…Is there anything like that around here?