Her Ally
To Dang Yeohye, the world had always been a cold and merciless place.
The deadly poison that had seeped into her marrow as a child had stripped her of every pretense of a polite mask and of any patience she might once have possessed. In the ruthless succession struggle of politics and intrigue, she met every provocation head-on, fighting with brutal honesty against everything that came at her.
And so her enemies always outnumbered her allies. People who could not endure the friction of her uncompromising nature turned their backs one by one, until at last only a single maid remained at her side. Believing there was no one else she could trust, Dang Yeohye faced the world with nothing but cynicism and distrust.
Neungsam had always found that side of her young mistress heartbreaking.
Lately, though, something strange had begun to shift inside her. A certain young troubleshooter had been slowly seeping past the walls she had so carefully built, settling somewhere deep within.
She had already thought him decent enough—his blunt way of speaking was as honest as her own, and he brushed off her rough manners as if they were nothing. But still.
Who the hell am I supposed to be to him…? That idiot actually threw his life away for me…
She had never imagined he would leap straight into a poison so lethal it could reduce a man to a handful of bloody water, all just to save her. Dan Mujin had willingly put his own body on the line for the same woman who had done nothing but snap and snarl at him every day.
For the first time in her life, the thought that she might lose someone so meaninglessly filled Dang Yeohye with pure terror. And so she spent an entire week fumbling through nursing duties she had never once performed in her life—alone. Day and night she boiled medicinal decoctions, forced the poison-suppressing medicines down his throat, wiped away the discharge of toxins, and mopped the sweat from his brow, tending him with painstaking devotion.
And then this man—utterly oblivious to how much she had fretted over him for a full week—had the gall, after clawing his way back from the brink of death, to casually say:
"Ugh… that was a good sleep."
She barely managed to shove down the fury that flared through her like a spinal reflex, crushing it with the force of some emotion she could not even name.
There's a saying that Koreans live on the strength of a good meal. After a week spent straddling the border between life and death, the hunger that crashed over me the moment I opened my eyes was almost unbelievable.
Chomp. Crunch.
Which was why, the second I woke, I demanded a meal and was now storm-eating my way through it. Maybe because we had settled the village's vendetta for them, the food on the table was surprisingly good for such a remote place—plenty of meat dishes.
"Mujin, eat this too."
While I was shoveling food like a man possessed, she set a piece of steaming chicken right on top of my white rice.
"Uh… sure."
It was a strangely intimate gesture. For a second it felt exactly like a wife putting side dishes onto her husband's rice. What the hell. Opening my eyes to find her this changed was honestly a little unsettling.
Where had the usual What the hell are you talking about? Huh? attitude gone? Sitting across from me was a demure newlywed bride.
"The rabbit's good, right?"
"Yeah. Clean flavor. It's nice."
"I roasted it myself."
She said it with a faintly proud little look. Had she prepared all of this by hand? There had to be people who cooked around here—why go to that much trouble?
"No wonder these greens taste good too."
"…Those ones Ilhong seasoned."
So the two of them had put the meal together together. Her face dipped into a slight pout.
"Anyway, it's all good, Noona."
The cooking was a little rough around the edges—the kind of flavor you got when people who weren't used to the kitchen still tried their best. Somehow that made me like it even more.
"Hey… so, back then. Why did you throw yourself in front of me like that?"
She seemed genuinely curious about what I'd been thinking, what had driven me. She had been the detective agency's first client, and if I was being honest, there had been some cold calculation mixed in—thinking about accumulating good deeds, about ROI…
"I just didn't want you to die. That's all."
Looking back now, even I wasn't sure what had possessed me. My body had just moved first.
Tsssss—
Whatever the reason, Seongun Simbeop seemed to have judged my attempt to save a life as the correct answer. When I gently circulated the heart method, a warm current from my chest unfurled through my whole body.
You dull-witted fool.
In reply, the Heavenly Killing Star shriveled up again and spat the characters at me in protest. There was even a faint air of disbelief to it. That blazing red energy of hers had probably been what dragged me back when I was half-dead. Like it or not, we were a community of fate—we lived and died together.
"Burrrp. That hit the spot."
I set my chopsticks down and patted my belly, which was pleasantly full. Fuel for the body, topped off. The Heavenly Killing Star's physique, now stocked with nutrients, began rapidly repairing every last trace of the detoxification's aftermath still lingering in my system. The result was a body bouncing back so fast it was hard to believe it had been poisoned for a week.
"What a premium body."
Aside from the fact that the meal efficiency was terrible and the food budget was a nightmare, it was a very convenient physical condition.
"Mujin."
She spoke up as she cleared the table. The second daughter of the Sichuan Tang Family Manor playing nurse in a place this remote—it really did feel strange. Someone like her could have just borrowed a couple of Beast Palace maids and taken it easy.
"Beast Palace wouldn't lend you anyone?"
"They offered. I refused."
"Why?"
"Because no one else could be allowed to see you like that for a whole week."
She had deliberately chosen an isolated spot for the treatment and even turned people away. Maybe the process itself had been venting toxic energy.
"Mujin… what the hell are you?"
Out of nowhere she was asking for my true identity.
"Transcendental Peak realm heartthrob, free-spirited chivalrous hero, all-purpose troubleshooter Dan Mujin, at your service."
"…"
The "heartthrob" part had lost a little luster next to the pretty-boy Ilhong, but I still ranked pretty high in the looks department. Dang Yeohye just stared at me with an expression of pure disbelief at my shameless answer.
"Anyway, why?"
When I asked for the reason, she carefully chose her words, then began to recount what she had witnessed during the treatment.
"I watched you die halfway and come back right in front of my eyes."
It hadn't been mere fast recovery, she said. It had been like watching the legendary rebirth of bone and flesh from the old tales.
"It wasn't something you could explain with poison resistance or constitution. Watching melted flesh and bone fill back in… that was something beyond martial arts, beyond anything a human mind can grasp."
It had been so unreal, she said, that it was as if Heaven itself refused to permit his death. That was why she had isolated me under the pretext of the poison's danger.
Come to think of it, she had watched the whole week. She'd had a front-row seat to my community-of-fate partner Salsung working overtime. No room left for excuses on this one.
"Mmm."
I scratched my cheek with a troubled look, wondering how to explain. She read the discomfort on my face and spoke quietly.
"You've got your reasons, don't you?"
"Yeah. Something like that…"
Hard to explain that I wasn't even from this world, and that I'd woken up with a star jammed into my head.
"Then I'll wait until you're ready to tell me. I won't ask."
Even after seeing something that shocking, she declared she would ask no questions. This kind of consideration—from the same woman who normally threw manners out the window the second she was curious and started throwing punches at anything she disliked? Was this really the same person?
"You know what they say. When a person changes overnight, it means their time is up…"
"I'm being considerate because you're my benefactor, okay? Seriously."
A light jab, and the old her snapped right back into place. Good—same person after all.
"But then…"
"Yeah?"
"All that time, it wasn't that you had poison resistance. You were just… enduring the pain?"
"Pretty much. Pure grit and spite. That's my specialty."
The moment I said it, she seemed to remember every time she had fed me poison under the guise of "experiments," marveling at my constitution. She covered her face with both hands as if wringing it out.
"You should've… ugh… you should've said something…"
"I did."
"I'm sorry. I honestly didn't know. Augh, damn it."
A sincere apology from the tomboy Poison Claw Mountain Blood herself. Rare merchandise, that.
"Anyway, what you saw this time—keep it secret from everyone else."
Hwang Geolgae had drilled it into me not to get found out. She didn't seem to have connected it all the way to the Heavenly Killing Star among the ominous constellations, but she had clearly realized I was no ordinary human.
"Of course. Do I look like the kind of trash who repays kindness with betrayal?"
"No."
There had been a few times when she had grinned and poisoned my food or tea when it had felt exactly like that, but still.
"If you tell me not to talk, I won't. Ever. Even if a blade is at my throat."
Her eyes were so resolute that I was the one left feeling awkward.
"…No, if a blade is at your throat, just talk."
If she died for it, what had been the point of me risking my life to protect her in the first place? The information was inconvenient if it got out, but there was no need to get that grim about it.
"Anyway, go change. Now that you've eaten, you've already spat out more discharge and grown new flesh again."
Once a full meal had completely restored my body, she marveled once more at the bizarre regenerative power.
"It was like this the whole time?"
I pointed at the fluids that had been pushed out as flesh melted and regrew.
"Yeah. Toward the end we ran short on clothes. I even had to do laundry."
If I ever told the others this story, would they even believe me? That Poison Claw Mountain Blood Dang Yeohye had done laundry just to nurse me?
"Wait. Hold on. What did you dress me in?"
A detail I could not simply let slide snagged in my ear. For the week I'd been unconscious, she had let no one else near me—and she had done laundry every day. A certain conclusion followed naturally.
"So Noona stripped me bare every single day and dressed me again?"
I crossed my arms over my chest as I asked. She fidgeted, then answered in a tiny voice.
"…It was a medical procedure."
The tips of her ears had gone faintly red. She insisted it wasn't whatever I was thinking. Of course, she had only seen the horrific sight of my flesh melting off, so it really had been medical care—but watching her flustered like that made a mischievous urge rear its head.
"My word. My word. A grown young lady, hmm? Stripping a boy younger than herself—"
"Shut up, you little shit!"
Thwack.
I took a hit for that one.
Fully recovered, I stepped out for a walk around the village. Having settled their grudge without any help from the hostile Five Poison Sect or Poison Valley, Nanman Beast Palace was in full festival mode. Even a week later, the buoyant energy had yet to settle.
"Oh. Are those the legs of the Human-Faced Spider?"
I muttered as I examined the carcass of the Human-Faced Spider, put on proud display in the middle of the village. Nanman Beast Palace seemed to be boosting morale by exhibiting the demonic beast that had torn through families, relatives, and the village community. A stone stele stood near the Human-Faced Spider, honoring the achievements of unfamiliar outsiders.
"What the—they wrote 'Dog-Beating Staff' instead of 'Dog-Beating Dragon.' Are you kidding me?"
Whoever carved the stele must have gotten confused and botched the name. It felt like the Dog-Beating Staff at my waist had walked off with all the glory instead of me.
"Pfft."
Dang Yeohye, walking beside me, let out a snort of laughter.
"But you secured the poison spring, right?"
"Yeah. Secured it and dried it into powder. Enough to wake Father."
Good. That was what we'd come all this way for in the first place.
"But there's one more problem related to that, Mujin."
I tilted my head. I had thought everything was settled.
"What now?"
"An inner core came out of the Human-Faced Spider."
Well, even the Blood Night I'd run into ages ago had carried one. The Human-Faced Spider had been an even nastier specimen, so of course it would have one. But why was that a problem?