A Foolproof Provocation
Banya felt like he was going to lose his mind. The situation was just too hilarious. And his wife was so incredibly adorable, he could die.
He felt like grabbing Seo Jang-gyeong's hand and thanking him for giving him such exquisite entertainment.
She's still pricking me. This is driving me crazy.
If his wife so desired, these needles would burrow deep into his flesh, traveling through his veins to inflict excruciating pain. Yet Banya was utterly delighted that the only reason Yeongso had summoned her needles again was simply to stop her husband's embarrassing chatter.
Ah, he was at his limit. He couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Pfft."
Banya barely managed to suppress the burst of laughter. A rather strange sound escaped him, but all things considered, it was a decent save.
"It is nothing. I was merely lost in thought. Come, please, help yourselves."
He continued his meal, resisting the urge to hoist his needle-riddled leg right in front of Baekri Yeong-hyeok and Seo Jang-gyeong. Every now and then, he felt Yeongso glaring at him. However, his calf no longer stung.
To think he couldn't even detect the slightest trace of her retrieving the needles.
Just what kind of woman did I marry?
He wanted to grin until his lips tore.
"Why on earth would you say such a thing in front of my brother?!"
Yeongso stamped her foot, glaring at Banya as he followed her into the inner quarters. Just thinking about what had happened made her feel like dying of sheer mortification and anger.
"How am I supposed to look my brother in the eye now?!"
"...You seemed to be looking at him just fine."
"No, I wasn't! I absolutely was not!"
"My lady, are you throwing a tantrum right now?"
This man had truly lost his mind. Yeongso finally understood what it felt like to have anger boil up to the very crown of her head. She wanted nothing more than to hurl a whole packet of needles straight at Banya's fascinated face.
"Does this look like a tantrum to you?!"
"Or am I getting nagged by my wife...?"
The last thread of Yeongso's sanity snapped.
You said you were curious about my martial arts, didn't you? Fine. Let me show you.
Banya had been curious about Baekri Yeongso's martial arts all this time. Who had taught her? What had she learned? How long could she hold her ground if they fought in earnest? Or, beyond merely holding her ground, could she actually defeat him?
But Yeongso could never reveal her secret to anyone. The secret of her master was tied directly to her mother's secret.
Sixteen years ago, the highly respected heroine of the Gangho, Gang-ssi Buin, had made an irreversible decision to save her youngest daughter's life. And Yeongso had gone a step further, inheriting her master's martial arts in complete secrecy, even from her mother.
If this secret were ever exposed, not only Gang-ssi Buin but the entire foundation of the Baekri Clan would be shaken to its roots. Lives could be lost.
That was why Yeongso had tried so hard to endure.
I worked... so, so hard...
But everyone had their limit.
You wanted to see my martial arts? I won't even use a hundredth of my power, so let's see you handle this.
Yeongso drew up her qi from her dantian. Instantly, every drawer in the room began to rattle. An ominous clattering filled the room, as if the contents inside were about to burst out at any second.
In the next instant, the doors of the large embroidery cabinet behind Yeongso flew wide open. Strands of multicolored thread shot out, flying in a straight line toward Banya.
Banya drew his fan from his robes. He spun the fan, which was adorned with a red butterfly, attempting to slice through the oncoming threads.
But her husband had made one crucial mistake: threads infused with Baekri Yeongso's power were no longer ordinary threads.
Transformed into something closer to incredibly thin, long swords, they were sharp enough to cut at the slightest graze, yet remained perfectly flexible. A hundred strands of thread hovered in the air, stopping a mere hand span away from Banya, waiting for Yeongso's command.
She could easily pierce Banya through and rip the threads back out in a single motion. If she did, anyone who rushed in afterward wouldn't even be able to recognize his corpse.
"First needles, and now thread..." Banya knit his brows, his interest thoroughly piqued. "Shall we see how strong they are?"
The force he channeled doubled. Now, Banya's fan was no longer just "somewhat sharp." Though they wielded thread and a fan, it was, in truth, a clash of sword against sword.
Screeech. Hummm. Hummm.
"Yes, my lady. This is the very sound that has been ringing in my ears. I wanted to mimic it for the Heavenly Killing Star, but there's only so much a human voice can replicate." Banya's red lips curled upward. "I quite like this perfectly restrained killing intent. How do you do this?"
Instead of answering, Yeongso unleashed the hundred strands of thread at Banya. Laughing like a madman, Banya deflected the threads aiming to pierce his body with his fan.
Just as he had cleared about half of them, Yeongso pressed her thumb and ring finger together, thrust her hand into the empty air, and swiftly pulled back. Instantly, blue threads unraveled from the embroidered folding screen opposite them, launching an attack from Banya's blind spot.
Ping! Swishhh.
The blue threads he barely managed to deflect shot past Yeongso, piercing straight through the cabinet doors behind her.
"My lady, attacking from behind? How underhanded. Isn't that a bit too unorthodox?"
Banya grinned brightly and hurled his fan, now laden with sword qi, toward Yeongso. As the fan spun like a disc toward her neck, Yeongso lightly caught it between the index and middle fingers of her left hand. Seamlessly transitioning the catch into a graceful, dance-like spin, she sent the weapon flying back to its owner.
With exactly three times the force, no less.
"Baekri Yeongso, you've gone mad." Banya, who had been flicking away the threads with his bare hands, twisted his lips into a smirk. "Are you trying to kill your husband twice?"
Banya's figure shot upward. The moment the arrow-swift fan grazed his foot, Banya slammed his weight down upon it.
Crack!
The moment Banya shattered his own fan, Yeongso recalled her threads. For a brief moment, the wooden spools spun in reverse with a clattering sound, and then the doors of the embroidery cabinet shut quietly.
Though the only debris left behind was a messy scatter of thread on the floor, the atmosphere was no different from the aftermath of a devastating storm.
"So, to see your martial arts, I didn't need to withhold my help or anything like that..." Banya spoke as if he had just reached a profound enlightenment. "I just had to make Baekri Yeongso absolutely furious."
"A bath... Saying such a thing right in front of my third brother, of all people..." Yeongso's lips trembled violently. "Starting tomorrow morning, I have to plan where to transfer the annex servants with my brothers. What am I supposed to do now? What am I going to do...?"
"My lady," Banya asked, his expression showing absolutely no intention of comforting her. "Are you... crying right now?"
"It's all because of you...!"
"My goodness." Banya crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head slightly. "I'm having a hard time believing you're the same woman who just hurled a fan loaded with sword qi at me. Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I'm still doubting it..."
To think she could look so innocent and pure while on the verge of tears. Banya let out a dumbfounded laugh.
"That fan wasn't something you could block with just any ordinary martial arts. You know that, right? If my skills had been even slightly lacking, my body would have been sliced clean in half."
"Is the fan the problem right now?!"
Yeongso squatted down on the floor. The moment Banya had declared that they did everything together, including bathing, the exact expressions Yeong-hyeok and Jang-gyeong had made replayed in her mind on an endless loop. It was utterly hopeless.
"Do you have no concept of privacy?!"
"Probably...?"
"No! How can you not have one? Build one starting right now!"
At her warning never to mention their private married life in front of others again—especially her own family—Banya wore a peculiar expression.
I feel like I've just figured out a foolproof way to provoke you...
Yeongso's lower lip trembled. Realizing she was truly on the verge of bursting into tears, Banya gently patted his wife's back.
"Ah, alright, I get it. I'll do my best to hold back."
"Absolutely, positively."
"Understood. Ha, seriously, Baekri Yeongso..."
Banya patted her as if soothing a child, marveling at her all the while.