Schemes Run Rampant in the Unorthodox Path
"Kishishi! I'll pay you even more than before, so come whenever you've got free time!"
"Oh. Even more than before?"
"Indeed! There is a confidentiality fee to consider, after all!"
"Aha… a confidentiality fee…"
In that instant, a brilliant idea flashed through Gong Ryun's mind — inspired by watching Medilla bounce around with her lightfoot technique.
They were already close enough to share a secret like this. And for some reason, her affection for him had already broken through the ceiling.
And with skill like hers…
Couldn't I pull off 'that'?
"Medilla."
"Hmm? What is it, my vassal?"
Whoosh.
Gong Ryun stepped right up into her space — close enough that their breaths nearly mingled. A faint, fragrant scent of black tea seemed to drift from her.
"U-… hwet?"
Medilla flustered. For the record, Gong Ryun's top had been shredded earlier — he was bare-chested.
"Medilla. By now, we've shared a secret. That makes us… truly special to each other, doesn't it?"
"Th-th-that's right?"
Until now they had been nothing more than mercenary and employer. Now they truly were special — bonded by a secret of considerable weight.
"In a way… you could say I'm the one holding your weakness, couldn't you?"
"Th-… that's true?"
The secret was one-sided. Report it, and she was finished.
"So to perfect the trust between us… what if I took payment in something other than money?"
"W-what…?"
"Not money."
This was the perfect pretext — exactly what Gong Ryun had been after.
"I'll take it in your body."
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-what?! You'll take it in my body?!"
"Yes. That's right."
"Surely not!!! You're after that!!!"
"Heh heh heh. Of course. I'd be a fool to let an opportunity this good slip by."
Gong Ryun smiled like a villain.
"Just cooperate quietly. It's good for you too, isn't it, Medilla? You wouldn't keep secrets from someone you're in that kind of relationship with, would you?"
"The way you've been looking at me was suspicious from the start!! So you were after it!!! This body!!! This lady's body!!!!!"
Medilla covered herself with both hands, squeezing her eyes shut in shame as she cried out.
"You're after this body's peerless lightfoot technique!!!!!"
"Heh! Isn't that obvious?! That movement of yours — honestly, I couldn't take my eyes off it! Quietly become my master!!!"
"You've been looking at me with those eyes this whole time?!"
"Nothing beats this for keeping a secret, does it? I won't take money — just teach me martial arts!"
Gong Ryun was a man of the murim now. He was growing steadily more familiar with its customs and culture, and he understood perfectly how precious martial arts truly were.
And when it came to learning martial arts, wasn't a living master obviously better than a secret manual? Just as video lectures were easier than textbooks, and holograms easier than video lectures — a flesh-and-blood human teacher was bound to be better still.
I never thought I'd be angling for a master-disciple relationship here. I've finally become a proper murim man myself! Gong Ryun was quietly impressed by his own insight.
Besides, lightfoot technique was exactly where he was weakest. No matter how many secret manuals he studied, he simply couldn't grasp it. But Medilla was a master of the art. Even Gong Ryun, who had zero talent for lightfoot techniques, was bound to learn something from her. Probably.
If he could just master lightfoot technique properly, he would be able to match an opponent's speed in a fight — chase down those slippery bastards who dodged and weaved like cowards.
"Hand over the lightfoot technique!"
Hearing Gong Ryun's bold demand, Medilla's face went crimson.
"A master-disciple bond in exchange for a secret!! What kind of adult-manga plot is this!!"
"Heh heh heh! Hurry up and receive the nine bows and become my master already!"
Strange. Why did he keep sounding like a villain? It was probably just his imagination.
In truth, the thug-speak of the neighborhood punks from his slave days was leaking out of him unconsciously — but Gong Ryun himself had no idea.
"Huuuuh!!! You truly want that!!! I've never taken a disciple in my life! It would be my first! I have no confidence!!"
"Heh heh heh. Then we'll just be each other's first master and first disciple. Let's make a good go of it, shall we?"
"Th-! That! Each other's first master-disciple bond…! That really is the kind of thing that only shows up in third-rate adult manga…!"
"Make up your mind already! Want me to go shout it all over the neighborhood? Close your eyes and just cooperate!"
"My vassal?! Where did that thug talk come from all of a sudden… Hyaat! Do not shove that bare torso at me!"
"Come on! Look me in the eyes and decide! Are you going to be my master or not!"
"Th-… so…! I!! This lady!!!!!"
…
And so Gong Ryun formed a master-disciple bond with Medilla.
"Kishishi."
A little later, as she walked him out through the sewer tunnels, Medilla wore a soft, beaming smile the entire way.
"That happy about it?"
"I am happy. You are my first disciple, are you not? Taking a proper disciple is every martial artist's dream. That this lady would take a disciple… I never thought such a day would come."
"Why didn't you take one before?"
"My skill was still lacking for taking disciples… and this lady is an underground-waterway specialist who rarely goes aboveground."
"I see."
"More than anything… this lady has never trusted another person in her entire life."
"No one at all? What about family…"
"…Not every parent is a good parent."
"…"
So that was why she had spoken of mothers with such confident bitterness. There had been a story there all along.
"I lived that lonely life, always on the run… only recently have I begun to open my heart a little."
"…I see."
"The first was the tteokbokki-shop unnie. Kishishi."
"Was she the first person you met in this city?"
"She was. I ran into her when I first arrived. We fought a bit at the beginning. Not that she could match me."
Hold on. Medilla had said she arrived here half a year ago…
She had lived alone in the sewers her whole life, and only half a year ago had she begun opening her heart to people for the first time.
…The most dangerous moment for someone who has always lived alone is when they start forming their first good connections. If the first one is good, they assume the next ones will all be good too. They are only just learning to walk in the world of human relationships — every bond feels precious and tender.
That was why she had opened her heart so easily to Gong Ryun as well. To her, he was just as good a friend as the tteokbokki-shop unnie! Her head was full of flowers right now.
If someone ran into a bad connection at a time like this, it was disastrous. They got burned by a weird person, decided the world outside their blanket was too dangerous after all, and crawled back into isolation with wounds that would never fully heal.
"Kishishi… I am glad you are my first disciple."
"Why is your affection for me so high, anyway?"
"Because you, my vassal… are the only person who ever put up with all my scare-pranks. Everyone before you either got angry or couldn't take it and ran away…"
"That's such a small thing."
"People are moved by small things. That is simply how it is."
"Hmph. Is that so."
"It is so."
They both smiled contentedly.
"I am glad. Truly glad."
"Glad about what?"
"Glad that you did not leave forever."
"Heh heh. You liked me that mu—"
"I did not want to have to silence you."
"……What?"
"You are a precious person… and silencing someone like that… would have been truly sad…"
…Silence? What kind of silence?
…
Sarin-myeolgu — kill to silence. Murder to erase the evidence?
Gong Ryun's footsteps slowly came to a halt.
And a single word brushed through his mind.
The Unorthodox Faction.
People who would do anything if they could get away with it.
People who only cared about the ground rules and ignored everything else.
And quietly burying one person in an underground waterway had nothing to do with the ground rules.
"If you had said you were leaving… it truly would have… torn my heart to shreds… to take with my own hands… a friend I had grown so fond of… huuuh…."
"……But you still would have done it?"
"Well, of course… there was no guarantee you would keep the secret… unless you kept working here and we were in the same boat… isn't that only natural…"
Medilla's eyes had grown moist as she spoke.
Of course, the words themselves were chillingly at odds with her wistful expression.
"You think I clung to you for nothing…? That is how much you had grown on me, my vassal…"
Goosebumps crawled up Gong Ryun's spine.
…He remembered the lines Medilla had cried while clinging to his pants.
No…!!! I don't want to lose you!!! I said I don't want to lose you…!!! Don't say you're leaving…!!! You mustn't say you're leaving..!!!
If he had simply said he was leaving back then, he would have died for certain. Medilla would have had no choice but to kill him and erase the evidence.
She had been begging him to live.
Her affection for Gong Ryun had been completely genuine.
In other words — the moment Medilla had grabbed his pants and clung to him had been the single greatest crossroads between life and death he had faced.
A tighter rope than even the Arachne. At least against the Arachne he had ripped off an arm and fought back. Against Medilla… would he even have managed anything resembling a counterattack?
Medilla had truly taken a liking to Gong Ryun. He was only the second friend of her entire life — she had even shared her inner energy with him.
And she would have killed that precious connection for real.
Sadness and what needed to be done were separate matters. She would have carved his body to pieces with the deepest, gloomiest sorrow in her heart. And then she would have been badly burned, left with a wound that never healed.
…What the hell. That was just full-on psycho, wasn't it.
Of all the days Gong Ryun had spent since leaving the Slave Planet and surviving in the murim world, this single moment was the most bone-chilling of all.
"Kishishi. So when you said you would become my disciple, I was honestly so very happy. Now we are of one body — there is absolutely no reason to harm you, and also… hmm? My vassal. Why are you standing there staring into space?"
"…It's nothing. Let's go."
"Kishishi. Very well then."
…
Gong Ryun decided he was simply going to achieve enlightenment about the whole thing and move on.
Whatever else was true, Medilla was not going to come after him to kill him anymore.
"Just what kind of place is the murim…"
"Hmm? What did you say, my vassal… no, my disciple?"
"…Nothing. Ah, hell. Since it's come to this — when do lightfoot lessons start?"
The Unorthodox Faction, where schemes run rampant.
The clumsy cannot survive.
Thud. Thud.
The dim sewer lamps — less illuminating the dark than merely making it slightly less dark — cast their faint, wavering light over the retreating figures of the man and woman walking away.