Digging a Trap with Aphrodisiacs (1)
"We'll use medicine. What to hide? This is it."
"It's an aphrodisiac."
I sniffed the medicine Dang Yuri pulled out and immediately recognized its true nature.
"Ch-chun, an aphrodisiac?!"
Moyong Seol's face flushed red on the spot. Aphrodisiacs were something people always talked around euphemistically, but their essence was undeniable—it was the kind of drug that naturally turned anyone's cheeks crimson.
"Dang Yuri. Do you even realize how dangerous the drug you've just taken out is?"
"Don't glare at me like that. Hear me out first, then judge. It won't be too late."
Dang Yuri held out the paper packet containing the aphrodisiac right in front of me.
"My plan is simple. We poison Yugiyeon and all the Black Sword Sect women with this aphrodisiac. Then we observe their behavior and respond accordingly."
"Fine, let's hear it."
How absurd could it be?
"If this is supposed to be Cheonma-level scheming, just know I'd be deeply disappointed in you."
"Comparing me to the Cheonma? You trying to throw down right here and now?"
"It just feels like the kind of plot that'd come from the same twisted mind."
"That's too much, really. Even if we grew up in the Magyo, saying our way of thinking matches the Cheonma's is a serious insult."
"Then tell a story that won't earn you that label."
"That's why I'm telling you to listen. Okay, you've been poisoned with aphrodisiac. Lady Moyong?"
"Ah, yes?"
Dang Yuri turned to Moyong Seol with her question.
"How do you think Yugiyeon and the other Black Sword Sect disciples would act?"
"Um, well..."
Moyong Seol scratched her cheek for a moment.
"...They'd go find their beloved and beg him to soothe their bodies, right?"
A perfectly textbook, model answer.
"Exactly. Especially Yugiyeon—she's got that fiancé of hers. So..."
"Cheonma-level thinking."
I pointed at the floor toward Dang Yuri.
"This is a medical hall, and no matter what kind of aphrodisiac it is, I can cure it. You aren't trying to set up a scenario where even I can't handle it, are you?"
"That could be one approach."
"My pride wouldn't allow it."
It was also an insult to my master.
"Then can you antidote this? It's a specially made aphrodisiac."
"Specially made or not..."
I glanced briefly at Moyong Seol.
"Physician?"
"...It's nothing."
Making sure Moyong Seol wouldn't notice, I subtly gestured in the air where only Dang Yuri could see. Tang. The Sacheon Tang Family. Same character as Dang Yuri's family name, but I wasn't referring to her—the abandoned Magyo orphan and collateral branch member. The real Sacheon Tang Family. The source of that aphrodisiac was the Tang Family in Sacheon—one of the Five Great Righteous Families.
"You know it, right?"
"Of course. Isn't it the 'hypocrites'?"
"Yeah. Getting this kind of aphrodisiac isn't hard for them. That's why we use it."
"So..."
"It wouldn't take long for the Black Sword Sect to get here, right?"
Dang Yuri waggled her fingers with a sly grin.
"We poison Yugiyeon and all the Black Sword Sect women, then send them back to their sect. Let them pair off perfectly with their beloveds there."
"If that happens, the only Black Sword Sect spy left in the Moyong Family would be one woman named 'Yuri'."
"Right. I'd be the sole spy remaining in the Moyong Family. But what if they have 'other desires'?"
Dang Yuri turned her eyes to Moyong Seol.
"If Yugiyeon and the Black Sword Sect women, poisoned with aphrodisiac, go begging someone to relieve their affliction?"
"...Hm?"
Moyong Seol's eyes narrowed.
"And not wailing in public for help, but sneaking in under cover of night to pounce—what would you do then, milady?"
"......That."
Moyong Seol's eyes slitted like a serpent's, her mouth curved in a wide smile as her hand rested on her sword hilt.
"First, I'd chop off those lust-crazed hands... Ah."
Moyong Seol startled and looked at me.
"Ph-Physician?"
"Mm."
I turned Moyong Seol's head away.
"Well, at least I know one thing we need to do first."
I snatched the aphrodisiac packet from Dang Yuri.
[Late night, at an inn a short distance from the Moyong Family estate.]
"You sent a marriage proposal to the Sword Saint? Have you lost your mind?"
Ki Wuryang, a martial artist in the middle of heavy drinking at the inn, couldn't believe the words from the young man before him.
"Damn right I did."
The handsome young man laughed boldly, without a shred of shame.
"Did something go wrong?"
"Wrong? It's wrong on every level, you fool!"
Frustrated, Ki Wuryang thumped his chest.
"Why not just march to the Moyong Family and shout for them to kill you instead?"
"Listen, brother. Even if you saved my life, there's a clear line to these things. Isn't that right, Brother Namgung?"
"Mm."
Another young man sitting beside Ki Wuryang set down his cup with a sour expression.
"Call me Namgung. My surname is Nam, given name Gung."
"Then it's like calling you 'Brother Full Name' or whatever. Anyway, Brother Namgung—you think this Heartless Sword Hong Ik messed up too? It's not just me, right?"
"I'd think they all deserved death."
"See? I'm not the crazy one, right, Brother Nam?"
The man who'd just been branded 'abnormal' by both, Heartless Sword Hong Ik, drained his cup in one gulp and ground his teeth.
"No, brothers. How can a man call himself a man if he doesn't challenge the world's greatest beauty?"
"Didn't she get engaged?"
"Not married! Until the wedding, anything can happen, right? That guy's definitely up to some trick."
Hong Ik kept waving his hand in front of his eyes.
"Hypnosis or mind control arts—he used something. Otherwise, how could a mere doctor with decent skills win the heart of the world's greatest beauty?"
"Ha."
"No, because he's a doctor..."
Hong Ik lowered his voice meaningfully.
"He definitely used 'drugs.' Abusing his physician status to drug her and get Lady Moyong hooked!"
"If the Sword Saint hears that, she'll probably want to kill you."
"Why?"
"Because you're sending proposals since you can't stand her going to a man like that."
Ki Wuryang couldn't shake the feeling that 'it wasn't like that,' and the young man Namgung beside him felt the same.
"Haha. As if the world's top warrior, the hero of the martial world, would kill people lightly!"
"......She wouldn't?"
"Back in the Sword Saint's prime..."
"Hey! What slander! That was all Magyo schemes! How could the martial world's greatest hero be some murderous demon swinging his sword at anyone who crosses him?!"
Hong Ik bellowed firmly.
"Hmph! Just watch. When this Heartless Sword reaches 'Heartless Dragon' at the Dragon-Phoenix Tournament, even the Sword Saint will change her mind! Martial artists should marry martial artists—it's common sense. And a strong lover should pair with a strong man to bear strong children!"
"Is that common sense...?"
"It is!"
Hong Ik slammed the table and stormed out.
"Hey, you leaving?"
"Bathroom!"
"Ah, take care."
After Hong Ik left, Ki Wuryang and Namgung awkwardly stared at his empty seat before lowering their voices.
"He's crazy, right?"
"Totally mad."
The two nodded at each other.
"Brother Nam, am I the weird one? Is challenging the world's greatest like that normal?"
"Karma... maybe not, but he's got severe delusions. Though those delusions match the Central Plains martial world's 'common sense,' so us abnormals have to understand."
"We have to?"
"Better than picking fights with guys trying to steal another man's woman for themselves."
Both men sighed deeply.
"They seem to truly love each other—how can anyone force 'jianghu common sense' to tear them apart?"
"He doesn't love women—he loves the fantasy of claiming the world's greatest beauty and getting the Sword Saint's approval."
"Is that manly?"
"Central Plains men call that heroic, lamentable as it is. What can third-rate warriors like us do?"
Namgung's shoulders slumped.
"In the end, in the martial world, might makes right—the strong define justice."
"Stealing another's woman and trampling pure love, calling it heroism."
"That's the era. Truly lamentable."
"If that Physician Seok were strong, maybe none of this."
Ki Wuryang ventured cautiously.
"He's a doctor, but turns out to be a peak expert—lining up all these proposers and smashing their heads in for Lady Moyong. If he's that strong?"
"Then like the Sword Saint in her youth, he'd show his might directly. Unless he wins the Dragon-Phoenix Tournament fair and square, earning a title like 'Medicine Dragon,' challengers will keep trying to split them."
"Ah, what a tragedy. Why does heaven send such trials to true lovers? No divine punishment for those lusting to tear them apart for their own desires!"
"Indeed. If I were heaven—"
BOOM!!
"?!"
"Th-thunder?"
A thunderclap-like roar startled the two men.
"R-rain?"
"No way. This is a bolt from the blue—"
KYAAAACK!!
A scream from outside the inn sent the two swordsmen grabbing their waists' swords and bolting out.
"Waiter! Bill's on the pouch there!"
"Not skipping—we're off to uphold justice!"
Reassuring the waiter, they dashed toward the scream.
"Gasp...!"
"Wh-what...!"
Psssh.
There lay a man charred black like coal. A literal bolt from the blue—he trembled with his pants down. And that man was Heartless Sword Hong Ik, who'd just stepped out for the bathroom.
"Holy shit... Huh?"
"What is it, Brother Ki?"
"Nah, my imagination."
Ki Wuryang felt a glint from the tallest pavilion atop the Moyong Family's grand compound, far off.
"Isn't there... someone standing there holding a sword?"
"......?"
"Guess not. My mistake."
Ki Wuryang looked up at the sky.
"Just a bolt from the blue. Divine punishment. Heaven striking the fool who drooled to split a happy couple."
Ki Wuryang clasped his hands skyward, then offered condolences to the charred Hong Ik.
"May you live next life without coveting another's lover—win an unwed woman's heart instead."
"...Deserved heavenly retribution."
Namgung pointed grimly at something beside Hong Ik.
"That... an aphrodisiac?"
"If those eyeing Lady Moyong in the Central Plains use aphrodisiacs, we should steel our minds and build tolerance."
"Um, Physician...?"
"Lady Moyong."
I slightly opened the aphrodisiac packet.
"These things require building tolerance gradually. Shall we train?"
"......That."
Moyong Seol eyed me slyly with a faint smile.
"What if I get addicted? Who knows what I'd do...?"
"No worries. I'm the physician—I'll fix it."
Confirming directly through Moyong Seol.
"Let's experiment on how wildly women go under aphrodisiac influence."
First, she needs light exposure to build some resistance without getting dosed.
Not because I want to see Moyong Seol undone by aphrodisiac—
'Or whatever.'
I'm a man. Just curious about new sides of the woman I love—no need for excuses.