This Is Insane (2)
"M-Move... is that possible..."
Dang A-ran couldn't believe it. She had rushed forward to bring down that disgraceful woman and force the arrogant loser to her knees. But then—why was she the one on her knees?
Only confusion filled her mind.
Then—phuuuuck...—a clear, unmistakable sound of laughter pierced her ear.
"Truly pathetic..."
Dang So-ryeong looked down at the fallen Dang A-ran with cold eyes. The moment the fight began, she had easily dodged A-ran's clumsily flung Shadow Needles. Then she had simply scattered the anesthetic powder she had been carrying.
'I didn't think she'd have zero tolerance...' She hadn't known her resistance would be this nonexistent. It was barely even worthy of the name poison art—just a mixture of basic medicinal herbs you could buy at any market.
'A sprinkle of powder like that and her legs just gave out?' Just because she was direct blood of the Dang family, that's all.
Dang So-ryeong knew. She knew that Dang A-ran had been neglecting her poison arts training. Well, more accurately—she had been dismissing martial arts training altogether.
But she hadn't imagined it would be this bad. Dang A-ran had avoided poison training because it interfered with her beauty regimen, and frankly, she had just abandoned it entirely.
On the other side—ughdudeek-
"How can you be so useless!"
Watching the fight, Dang Jung-hyeok gnashed his teeth with a twisted face. His direct bloodline, a member of the Dang family, had been defeated by that servant-like woman who couldn't even properly cultivate martial arts.
"I didn't push her to train since I was planning to marry her off anyway, but—! How could she be this incompetent!"
She'd used the family's prized Shadow Needle so clumsily it was almost embarrassing! Shadow Needle—the Dang family's core assassination technique, where needles forged from black iron that reflected not even moonlight pierce through shadows and sever the enemy's throat! And Dang A-ran had actually performed it so stupidly!
First of all, you needed to use needles forged from black iron that didn't even reflect moonlight. Instead, she'd thrown gaudy, gold-plated needles that she'd only half-heartedly learned to use! And that wasn't even the worst of it! If she'd at least thrown them properly, it would've been different!
The key to Shadow Needle was deploying it stealthily, erasing even the sound of piercing. But she'd screamed "Die, you worthless bitch!!" and flung them with all the fanfare in the world! Where in the world is there such an obvious and noisy ambush? It was pure third-rate garbage martial arts that looked like something a neighborhood thug would pull!
'And on top of that, my own bloodline—just a little anesthetic powder and she's finished?!' If Do-gwang hadn't been there, Dang Jung-hyeok would have charged into the fight right then and grabbed A-ran by the hair and beaten her half to death from sheer rage.
But even so—
'But that... how did she dodge it?' He couldn't help being amazed by Dang So-ryeong's movements. Dang A-ran's throw had indeed been pathetic. But it had still been a foundation-level technique of the Dang family. Servants and lackeys were easy prey. And yet she'd dodged it so casually...
'So... her basic aptitude was just that different...?' A memory flashed through Dang Jung-hyeok's mind. Before the former family head, the Poison King Dang Jin-kyeong, entered closed-door training, he had passed through the garden one day and muttered upon seeing young Dang So-ryeong:
"The reason I must reach the Star Realm has become even clearer now. Otherwise, it seems the only thing our family can rely on is this child."
At the time, he'd thought his father was being needlessly strict about his children's education. But now—
'Without properly learning even a single martial art, she dodged that so easily... and on top of that...'
It was her first real fight, yet she demonstrated flawless adaptation. She had subdued Dang A-ran in an instant with the anesthetic powder she'd been carrying for medical purposes.
Grind. Grind. Grind. Dang Jung-hyeok could only clench his teeth harder.
Not only the Dang family elders had witnessed the humiliating result—far away, the Martial Alliance officials and spectators had watched it all too. And most of all, he had painfully realized just how poor his judgment of people truly was.
"Kruuuuuh..."
Dang Jung-hyeok suppressed a wretched groan and squeezed his eyes shut. It was unbearably shameful. But the results wouldn't change no matter how much he denied them, so he forced his mouth open to declare the fight over.
"The winner is..."
But then—click.
"Miss, it's my turn now."
Dang So-ryeong pulled a sharp Medical Blade from her bosom.
"Huh...?"
Dang A-ran let out a stunned yelp. Before she could even process the situation, Dang So-ryeong thrust the blade tip forward.
"W-Wait...!"
Thwack—!
"Kyaaaaaahhhh!!!"
The Medical Blade pierced through Dang A-ran's thigh without mercy. Dang Jung-hyeok's eyes went wide with shock as he stepped forward.
"W-What are you doing! Stop..."
He tried to hastily call off a fight that was already over. But then—
"Ah-gari."
Do-gwang's icy voice sliced through the air.
"Y-Yes...?"
"Why are you trying to stop it?"
"Th-That's what I mean, sir! The fight is already..."
"Then the head?"
Do-gwang raised his steel rod, his indifferent eyes gazing down.
"We're having fun right now, so why would you stop? Do you really want to die?"
"Kyahaha~ Can I kill them?"
Dohwa grinned brightly as she drew her short sword.
The two of them radiated such an aura that if he so much as resisted their momentum further, they would have smashed his head in on the spot.
'These... insane people...!'
In the end, Dang Jung-hyeok could only shut his mouth and stand frozen.
THWACK—!!!
"Kyaaaaaahhhh!!!"
A cold blade edge sank into Dang A-ran's other thigh.
"Stop it, you worthless bitch!!!"
She writhed in agony, cursing through her pain. Dang So-ryeong twisted her lips into a grotesque smile.
"Hehe... hehe..."
This time, she didn't stop. She stabbed the blade into A-ran's arm in rapid succession.
Thwack—!! Thwuuuck—!!!
"Kyaaaaaahhh!!! Stop it! Stop it, I said!!!"
Dang A-ran wept tears of blood, pressing her forehead to the floor. But Dang So-ryeong couldn't care less about her screams.
Ah... ah... She was euphoric.
And for a moment, she remembered. Before the fight began—
"Don't worry about the aftermath. Do whatever you want." Do-gwang's offhand remark.
"He... he trusted me." That I was better than her. That the girl who had been treated like dirt in this wretched corner of the family, who had never even dreamed of martial arts because she was treated like a slave—
She had always wondered. "Why do they do it that way?" Watching the Dang family members train in the practice hall, the feeling that arose was confusion. Here, they moved their hands delicately, extended their arms smoothly. It was clearly more efficient to use your waist and legs, so why did they move so clumsily? Why were they only this capable? Why was the level this low?
"If it were me..." She would have executed it far more perfectly. But as an illegitimate daughter, she couldn't train in martial arts. All she could do was watch from afar and imagine in her mind. That was all.
That was why she had always craved it. "Ah... I want to try it." Even though the martial arts of this repulsive family were loathsome and hateful—
"With my own hands..." She wanted to unleash them. This was the chance. She had to.
"To prove myself to the person who trusted me."
Thinking this, Dang So-ryeong lowered her stance.
....Not a single thread of killing intent leaked from her body. But—
Thwuuuck—!
"Kyaaaaaahhhh!!!"
The Medical Blade, now released from her hand, pierced through Dang A-ran's remaining arm with pinpoint accuracy. Not the pathetic display A-ran had just shown—but the true Shadow Needle, perfectly deployed, splitting the darkness!
"Hehe... hehe..."
Many emotions crashed into her like a storm. But none of them were complicated or unpleasant. They were all pure exhilaration. Pure ecstasy.
"Miss..."
Dang So-ryeong slowly approached Dang A-ran.
"You know where comes next, don't you?"
She pulled another Medical Blade from her bosom.
How dare you interfere while the Master has taken an interest in me? What exactly do you trust? That pretty face of yours? Then I'll make that pretty face...
"Even prettier... hehe..."
That's right—I'll make it so pretty you'll never forget it for the rest of your life.
"A... Aah...!"
Dang A-ran trembled in terror, shaking her head. Not the face. Absolutely not the face.
'I've already drawn every ounce of hatred from Father...!' She knew it well. Her father appeared to dote on her and find her pretty, but it was never sincere. He was, more than anyone else, a calculating and cold-hearted man. The proof was clear—hadn't he just beaten her like a dog without hesitation?
But if her last remaining asset—her face—got slashed to pieces by that blade?
'I'll definitely be abandoned...!' She couldn't lose the value she had as a woman!
"S-Sorry... big sister...! I was wrong about everything...!"
Dang A-ran wept tears and snot, pressing her face to the floor. It was humiliating, but it was a desperate struggle to survive.
But Dang So-ryeong's blade didn't stop.
"Hehe..."
"Big sister, please...! I was wrong about everything...! I'm sorry...!"
Dang A-ran bawled with everything she had, grasping at any straw. Dang So-ryeong sneered coldly.
"Really?"
"Y-Yes! I was wrong about everything!"
Dang A-ran spat out her words with desperate fervor, as if clinging to a lifeline.
"I'm so sorry for treating you harshly, big sister! I didn't actually want to, but you know, because of the family atmosphere... I had to pretend for the sake of surviving too!"
At that excuse—
"......"
Dang So-ryeong's hand froze in midair.
Dang A-ran's lips curled into a barely perceptible smile.
Stupid. Naive. I know all about you. On the surface, she had always pretended to endure it stoically. But she had craved her family's love and affection more than anyone.
How dare a lowly illegitimate brat talk to me like that...! Dang A-ran drove the nail home.
"I was always hurting too! I didn't want to mistreat the big sister I loved...!"
Wriggle... Dang So-ryeong's shoulders trembled.
Dang A-ran erupted with silent celebration inside. She's buying it! Just a little more and I can get out of this!
But unlike her expectations—
Saaaaaaaaa—
Dang So-ryeong's expression turned terrifyingly cold as she looked down at her.
"Huh... big sister...?"
Dang A-ran instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
"...Love?"
Dang So-ryeong repeated the word in a frigid voice.
"Y-Yes! That's right! I love you, big..."
"Then why did you do it?"
"Huh...?"
Dang A-ran stammered in panic.
"Well, like I said before, because of the family's scrutiny..."
She tried to rehash the same flimsy excuse. But Dang So-ryeong cut her off before she could finish.
"Why did you kill our mother?"
An unexpected question. Dang A-ran's pupils trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
"Th-That's... what do you mean..."
"What do I mean...?"
Blood surged to Dang So-ryeong's knuckles. Her grip tightened on the Medical Blade.
"You're the one who poisoned our mother's food."
Since the Dang family was widely renowned across the land for its poison arts, its members not only handled poison well but also possessed resistance to it themselves. That was why direct bloodline members began consuming trace amounts of poison from a very young age—mixing minuscule doses into their meals, adjusted for the child's age and constitution.
But no matter how minute the poison, it was still a Dang family poison. For an ordinary person without martial arts training, it was a deadly toxin.
That poisonous meal—
Five-year-old Dang A-ran had smiled and offered it to Dang So-ryeong's mother.
"Come eat with me, Little Mother!"
"N-No...!" Dang A-ran had shaken her head frantically, her face drained of all color.
But Dang So-ryeong pressed the blade tip closer.
"...What do you mean, no."
Dang A-ran clawed at her own hair in madness.
"No, I didn't! I didn't!"
The family elders had strictly scolded Dang So-ryeong's mother, telling her never to go near the girl. But Dang A-ran had always liked her—so warm, so kind, unlike her cold and strict birth mother. So even when scolded harshly, she would always sneak off to find her.
But unlike herself, who dressed in flashy finery and ate delicacies from across the land, that woman's table was always so meager and bare.
That was why—
"I really... did it because I wanted to share the good food I eat with Little Mother..."
She had only wanted to share a meal with her. She hadn't known. She was only five years old. She hadn't known that the ordinary meal she ate every day contained poison capable of killing another person.
That ordinary meal she had shared with her—the result was that Dang So-ryeong's mother had coughed up blood and left this world.
"Ah... this... with me...?" The memory still came back vividly. The face of the woman who had smiled awkwardly and sadly when A-ran suggested eating together.
Could she have already known the food I brought was poisoned? Then why? Why didn't she refuse to protect her life?
The answer came quickly.
"The young miss took care of everything cleanly so we wouldn't have to get involved."
"Shh! Watch your mouth. Even if she's just a lowly concubine, she's still the family head's child-bearing woman."
"So what do we do? The elders told us to handle it quietly. This one probably knew already too—she knew she'd be quietly disposed of before long, didn't she?"
"Then just keep quiet! If you make a mess in the upper echelons' names, what are you gonna do?!"
When she had secretly overheard the servants murmuring while handling the body, little Dang A-ran couldn't understand any of it. But understanding it didn't take long. Not at all.
She went back to her room. For the first time in her life.
"Well done, my daughter. I didn't even ask you to, but you neatly handled that troublesome woman's business for me. Your birth mother, who was always so cold, actually held you and stroked your head."
Remembering that wretched past, Dang A-ran's tears fell in drops.
"It's true... I was stupid... I was wrong about everything except that...!"
She wailed desperately, pleading.
"...Ah..."
Dang So-ryeong's eyes trembled with confusion. Because Dang A-ran's tears didn't look false in the slightest.
The reason Dang A-ran had kept the Dang family's foundation—its poison arts—at a real distance. The reason she had kept her distance and bullied her harshly at some point, treating her like dirt.
"Could it be... because of the shock of having killed her mother...?"
And the reason she had been pressuring her, as if trying to bury her guilt, by tormenting her.
"Was she trying to suppress her guilt by tormenting me...?"
The Medical Blade in Dang So-ryeong's hand trembled.
It was in that moment—when she was lost in confusion, unable to grasp the truth, wavering—
"Mmm-byung."
A cold, detached voice split the space open. The owner of that voice was—
"This is insane."
Do-gwang let out a hollow laugh, as if the whole thing was utterly absurd.