Never Turning Away from the Weak
Namgung Wan, his face deeply furrowed, called my name with a somewhat fierce edge.
"Baek Ri-yeon, what are you saying? Didn't you hear everything we've discussed? Come here right now!"
"Uncle, Father. Please, just hear me out once."
"······."
Namgung Wan glared at me, his eyes bulging wide. A sharp aura stabbed at me relentlessly, and honestly, it was a little scary. As everyone else hesitated, unsure what to do, Ak Jung-hae spoke up cautiously.
"······Um, Senior, maybe we should at least hear her out?"
Unexpectedly, Ak Jung-hae had taken my side. Namgung Wan's piercing gaze shifted to him, and the oppressive energy pressing down on me eased slightly. I carefully opened my mouth.
"I know you're worried about me······" cough, cough.
Perhaps from the tension of that crushing aura moments ago, a sudden fit of coughing erupted. Father's expression darkened. The others in the room looked at me with eyes full of concern.
'No, no! Don't worry! It's just a cough! The timing couldn't be worse······.'
I hurriedly waved my hands as if it was nothing and spoke calmly.
"I appreciate your worry for me. But I'm still fine for now. Rather than me, who isn't in immediate danger, I want us to save those kidnapped and sold off without knowing why first."
"······Yeon-ah."
Father called my name in a sigh. In the past, this mission had ended in failure.
'No, failure would actually be fortunate.'
This wasn't just a simple human trafficking case. It was a murder case. One tied to a demon whose infamy shook the martial world.
I looked at the Yongbong Assembly members. Among them, Ak Jung-hae was staring at me with his mouth agape like a bit of a fool.
The reason Ak Jung-hae's name never came up in the future was simple.
'Because he dies here at the demon's hands.'
Ak Jung-hae: deceased. The other three barely escaped with their lives. Two of them, excluding Dang So-yong, suffered such severe injuries that they could never wield a sword again. Devastated by this, Dang So-yong left the Yongbong Assembly and returned to the Tang family village where his clan gathered, never to emerge again. The demon vanished, and the Murim Alliance failed to track him down. Later, the fleeing demon would be slain by Namgung Ryu-cheong.
That's right. This incident was a subplot meant to highlight the villainous demon's cruelty. The more infamous the villain, the greater the fame of the one who crushes them.
A villain who clipped the wings of the Murim Alliance's shining young talents—how ruthless was that? And most importantly······.
'The cleanup for this mess falls to you, Namgung Wan!'
I clenched my fists tightly and said,
"I've heard you never once turned your eyes away from the weak in your life, Father. And I've always wanted to be someone like you. But if we ignore those in peril just because my situation is urgent, I could never say I want to be like you anymore."
Even as the two exchanged sound transmissions, Namgung Wan continued bellowing at the child no taller than his waist. Finally, in a burst of fury, he slammed the table and stormed out.
"You—don't regret this!"
Dang So-yong jabbed Ak Jung-hae, who scrambled after him in a fluster.
"Se······Senior!"
I lowered my head and bit my lip.
'If you leave now, you'll be the one regretting it.'
In the past, upon hearing news of the Yongbong Assembly incident, Namgung Wan handed over the token of the Divine Doctor and turned back. Inevitably, Father and I arrived at the Divine Doctor first. But even with the token, the Divine Doctor refused treatment. He kept delaying, insisting he wouldn't believe it until someone from the Namgung family came personally. An utterly absurd excuse······and yet, Father believed him!
Then, one day while waiting for Namgung Wan, the Divine Doctor vanished without a trace.
'Hoo, isn't this side character backstory way too meticulously cruel for a mere villainous extra?!'
The protagonist, Namgung Ryu-cheong, falls off a cliff and emerges from a cave with a fateful encounter! But the extras' lives were needlessly arduous.
In the end, people died, the demon escaped, and I never got treatment. A journey of utter failure. Neither Father nor Namgung Wan ever expressed regret to me about it. But I knew. They regretted not staying.
'Well, it'll be fine now.'
I glanced at the creaking red door.
'Uncle Namgung Wan seems really angry.'
Father approached me. Now it was time to convince him. With my energy already drained, the thought of persuading Father made my vision blur honestly.
Father placed a hand on my shoulder and said,
"I know that if it's for your sake, we shouldn't do this. But······."
I steeled my resolve, lifted my head to meet Father's eyes—and froze. His eyes sparkled brilliantly, like moonlight reflected on a dark night lake.
"I'm glad for your choice."
What? In all our time together, Father had never looked at me with such satisfaction.
Startled, I was pulled into a brief embrace. Father's robes fluttered as he followed after Namgung Wan. I stared blankly at the swinging door flaps.
'What······what just happened?'
Moments later, the deputy leader approached and ruffled my hair with his thick fingers.
"You're Yeon, right? How does such a young child come up with such admirable thoughts? As expected of Baek Ri-gang's daughter."
Baek Ri-gang's daughter······. Words that had haunted me until death. But this was the first time they felt like praise. My face inexplicably heated, my heart racing. Awkwardly fidgeting my fingers, I asked,
"B-But they said over fifty kids went missing, right? If not even one has been found, doesn't that mean they're all already······dead?"
To my seemingly impertinent question, the deputy leader explained with a kindly face.
"Hiding over fifty bodies isn't easy, child. This area has been thoroughly searched by Yeongjongmun disciples, so if they were truly dead, we would have found them."
"But if it was human trafficking, there'd be sales routes, and tracking fifty kids would be much······."
The deputy leader cut me off.
"Didn't I say we searched thoroughly? Do you doubt Yeongjongmun? Can you take responsibility for your words?"
"······."
At my silence, his sharp reaction softened back to benevolence.
"If not, leave such matters to adults."
My chest tightened. How could I explain this wasn't an ordinary disappearance?
Then the deputy leader said something unexpected.
"And we found a missing child from the traffickers."
"······Really?"
Found one? That couldn't be. But the deputy leader wouldn't lie. Reluctantly, I backed off.
'If I'd known, I should have looked into it more back then.'
What happened to the kidnapped kids? How was the demon found? How did Ak Jung-hae die? In the past, I had no interest in this event. Neither Father nor Namgung Wan were the type to gossip, and the novel glossed over it briefly.
'That demon is a heaven-defying villain who kidnapped and murdered children long ago and killed the Murim Alliance's later-generation talents!'
Something like that—just a short mention to build the demon's infamy. Though he did boast about cornering Namgung Ryu-cheong in an assault, using the same method he used to kill the Alliance juniors.
'So this time, he'll use the same method he did to ambush Namgung Ryu-cheong.'