Chapter 132
Chapter 132
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 132
>Chapter Title: The Bait Tastes Best When Shaken (4)
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Seo Jae-pil withdrew his smile and carefully opened his mouth.
“Young Master, it seems your role as bait has borne fruit.”
“Any signs of it?”
Seo Jae-pil nodded at Il-mok’s question.
“His words were consistent enough. But in the middle of our conversations, he showed subtle moments of hesitation.”
They were nothing more than fleeting instances of doubt and pause. So brief that others wouldn’t have noticed.
But Seo Jae-pil had spent months as a physician at the Tranquil Heart Clinic, counseling martial artists who practiced demonic arts.
In that time, he had witnessed countless cases of people hiding something or telling lies.
And the reasons they hid things or lied were all much the same.
‘They wanted to conceal their experiences of being overwhelmed by side effects.’
They were all people worthy of being called “experts,” and most had strong senses of pride. Spilling memories of struggling with mental illness wasn’t easy for them.
No, it was embarrassing even for ordinary people to voice their own mental afflictions.
But.
“More than that, it was still early in the counseling sessions, so we hadn’t delved into anything too deep. We only talked about life at the Demonic Path Academy or the disciples. Even so, he hesitated and pondered as if it were a matter of utmost importance.”
If even trivial chit-chat required such deliberation, something had to be off.
“Especially after you started your club experience, Young Master, that attitude became even more pronounced.”
“As expected…”
He kept picking fights with me, so he must have approached with malice from the start.
‘Good grief. They stick a guy on me who shows his hostility so blatantly. What are they playing at?’
Il-mok hadn’t even considered that his own laziness might have irked the other man.
As Il-mok let out a hollow chuckle at Ma Do-young’s pathetic state, Seo Jae-pil asked,
“Then, should we report to the Academy Lord right away?”
For some reason, Il-mok shook his head at the question.
“Wouldn’t that be a waste? Regardless of Ma Do-young being a lackey, there’s another one hiding in the Demonic Path Academy.”
“We can uncover that by capturing Ma Do-young and interrogating him, can’t we?”
“That’s naive thinking. Do you think Ma Do-young will sell out his comrades so easily?”
“…I’m just a physician, so this isn’t for me to say, but the Divine Cult’s interrogations aren’t light affairs.”
“What if he doesn’t just clam up, but feeds us false information?”
Only then did Seo Jae-pil grasp what Il-mok meant, letting out a soft “Ah” of realization.
“That’s certainly a possibility. But even if Ma Do-young frames someone else, won’t the lie come out when we interrogate the framed party and trace their movements?”
“How many innocents do you think will suffer interrogations in that process? We can’t know.”
Seo Jae-pil’s face lit with感動 at the words that sounded like concern for the innocent, but Il-mok’s true intent was elsewhere.
If it were people close to him facing interrogation, that’d be one thing. Everyone else was just “others” to Il-mok. No, less than others. Whether the cultist zealots got interrogated or not was none of his business.
‘In that drawn-out process, if some innocent tries to avoid torture with lies or false confessions, things could get messy.’
Worrying about innocents was just an excuse. He was simply accounting for the risk of false confessions derailing a thorough purge.
‘These are the guys gunning for my head, after all. If we don’t handle it cleanly, it’ll leave a bad taste.’
Of course, without a better solution, he might have just ended it there. But now, he had a splendid card in hand.
“Above all, we’ve already identified one lackey. Why toss away that card?”
“You mean to use Ma Do-young as a pawn?”
“Exactly.”
The idea of turning Ma Do-young against them wasn’t just born from obsession.
‘I never thought a movie would come in handy like this.’
It came from something he’d seen in a movie.
They’d found a drug courier but didn’t arrest him, instead tailing him to track down the boss of the cartel.
‘How did that movie end again…?’
Recalling it, they did find the boss, but far from a clean takedown—it ended in a fierce battle, barely capturing him.
The unsatisfying conclusion lingered, but Il-mok shrugged it off.
‘Whatever. The Academy Lord’s on our side anyway.’
Even if a fight broke out at the Academy, the Academy Lord would clean it up.
The same went for the main headquarters. With the Heavenly Demon—master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—as an ally, what was there to fear?
As Il-mok mulled this over, Seo Jae-pil asked hesitantly,
“But even if we use Ma Do-young to catch another lackey, that one could lie too, couldn’t he?”
He was a physician, after all—his mind worked sharply enough. And he was right: everyone in the Demonic Path Academy was just a lackey. Not the “boss.”
But.
“If we capture multiple lackeys, we can cross-check their stories for verification, right? Interrogate them in isolation to cut off information flow.”
Only then did Seo Jae-pil fully understand Il-mok’s plan and nod.
“That way, as you say, Young Master, we’d minimize false testimonies harming innocents.”
“Well, if they’ve prepped alibis in case of capture, this goes out the window too.”
“…?”
So why bother with this convoluted approach?
Before Seo Jae-pil could voice his doubt, Il-mok threw out an unexpected question.
“By chance, do the Tranquil Heart Clinic physicians use any codes? To hide patient info, or for other purposes.”
“…We do have some.”
Il-mok turned to Seo Jae-pil, who looked puzzled, and said,
“Then, could you give me some paper and a brush? Rewrite what I write next in your clinic’s code. Disguise it as me requesting hand sanitizer again, or counseling notes about some instructor.”
“!!!”
Seo Jae-pil’s eyes widened in shock.
“No way—did you request that hand sanitizer ahead of time, already calculating for this?”
Il-mok shrugged lightly at the question.
“You never know. There might be tails among those traveling between headquarters and the Academy.”
He held out his hand as if to say, hurry up with the paper and brush.
Seo Jae-pil’s eyes bulged as he read what Il-mok wrote at the top of the page.
His gaze mixed disbelief and astonishment.
“Y-You’re going to write that?”
It was a request for the Heavenly Demon’s approval to use a certain item.
“With this, even if they’ve coordinated stories, we can force confessions out of them, right?”
“…Then couldn’t we just capture Ma Do-young alone and use it?”
“If we do, half of what he says will be nonsense, so we’d still need cross-verification. Plus, Master might refuse permission.”
“Ah….”
As Seo Jae-pil nodded in understanding, Il-mok continued writing the next line.
The second line requested reinforcements of a sort.
He needed someone to secretly tail the pawn named Ma Do-young.
But mobilizing too many people risked spooking them into hiding.
It had to be minimal personnel, shadowing Ma Do-young without raising suspicion.
And Il-mok knew just the person skilled in stealth and concealment.
‘She apologized last time for not helping much, so let’s get some assistance now.’
* * *
Two days later.
After finishing my duties, I headed to the Drama Club.
“Hahaha! Welcome, Disciple Il-mok!”
“Hohoho. Looking forward to today as well.”
Seeing Baek Cheon and Bang Mi-hwa greet me as usual, I couldn’t help but sigh.
‘Once I nab the boss, I’m quitting immediately.’
It wasn’t like I enjoyed coming back to the Drama Club.
Being around attention-seekers like Bang Mi-hwa and Baek Cheon just scattered my focus.
If Instructor Ma Do-young weren’t there, Meditation Club would still be the best—for resting, that is.
‘Gotta keep him off guard, no choice.’
Having applied for the club experience to use myself as bait, switching back to Meditation Club now would look too suspicious.
So, I’d returned to the safest option: Drama Club.
I’d considered Flesh Beauty or Doctrine Study Club to surveil other lackeys, but.
‘Stick around there, and I might fall into demonic deviation and rampage.’
If I rampaged, they might use it as an excuse to stab me—so I gave up.
As I thought of those two hellish clubs, Joo Seo-yeon had sidled up beside me.
“Young Master Il-mok.”
Her secretive whisper let me guess what was coming.
“Did you not see Lady Jin Ha-yeon when you went to headquarters for your injury?”
“No.”
Since I’d expected the question, I answered without changing expression. I decided not to dwell on why I could predict a crazy person’s words.
“Really? You’re the one Lady Jin Ha-yeon served, aren’t you?”
“Must be my disciple status. Lady Jin’s probably deep in training somewhere.”
Good thing I’d lied well.
Even denying it got this much prodding—what if I’d admitted traveling with Jin Ha-yeon?
‘She’d cling all day, grilling me on Jin Ha-yeon’s recent looks.’
A true fanatic’s mindset.
Of course, I had no desire to hang with such a stan.
“Disciple Joo. We’re supposed to use ‘disciple’ for each other between disciples. How many times do I have to tell you?”
Instructor Eun-ryeo’s cold gaze fixed on me and Joo Seo-yeon.
‘Why me…?’
Her prickliness toward me seemed to worsen by the day.
‘Old maid neurosis, maybe….’
I didn’t know her side effects, but aside from demonic arts, being unmarried at that age could easily cause such symptoms.
As I pondered diagnosing her via Seo the physician,
Joo Seo-yeon replied boldly.
“Either way, I plan to be Young Master Il-mok’s maidservant after graduating the Academy, so isn’t it right to call him Young Master here too?”
“…Do you really think that makes sense?”
“Yes, Instructor!”
Eun-ryeo sighed and turned away as Joo Seo-yeon beamed innocently.
“…….”
Even old maid neurosis couldn’t handle a stan.
‘Gotta escape soon.’
My desire to flee this hell swelled.
Naturally, my gaze drifted toward the hall where the Meditation Club met.
It wasn’t just nostalgia.
‘Hope the surveillance is going well?’
Someone who’d infiltrated the Academy today was there.