Chapter 187
Chapter 187
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 187
>Chapter Title: Maitreya Bright Cult (3)
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At the uninvited guest's confident reply, the Red Sand Room Leader's pupils dilated like saucers.
"Ba, backer, you mean, where...?"
The Red Sand Room Leader couldn't finish his sentence.
Ching!
He was too busy barely blocking the single sword strike from the enraged masked man who had closed in.
The Red Sand Room Leader managed to swing his blade to deflect the first blow, but his stance inevitably crumbled.
Into his eyes came the sight of the uninvited guest's sword slowly drifting toward him.
Yet, for some reason, even though the enemy's sword appeared slow, he couldn't block it.
It wasn't that Il-mok's sword had slowed; it was simply that, facing death, the flow of the world had slowed for him.
"Guh...."
With his heart pierced, the Red Sand Room Leader collapsed to the floor with a choked groan.
* * *
Not long after Il-mok stormed into the Red Sand Room, people began gathering around the estate.
They were some of those who had held a meeting earlier on the mountainside near Gorang County.
"Have you lost your mind? Do you know what that place is?"
"He boasted so boldly; at least we have to see it with our own eyes."
"You really believe that man's words?"
They weren't people who had followed Il-mok with conviction.
A few driven by curiosity or faint hope had taken the lead in pursuing him, while the others trembled in anxiety, unsure whether to stop them or cling to them.
They approached the Red Sand Room relying on the moonlight for a short while, then halted at a distance out of fear. Into their eyes came a bizarre sight, belatedly visible.
"Th-there, that. Isn't that the Red Sand Room's gate?"
"The gate's been split in two?"
Realizing late that the Red Sand Room's gate had been cleaved and lay on the ground, their eyes then caught the two corpses slumped before the main entrance.
At that very moment.
"Kuaaaagh!"
"S-save me...."
Screams, slashing sounds, and pleas for life echoed from inside the Red Sand Room.
"Eek."
The residents of Gorang County, watching tensely from afar, paled and stepped back.
But that lasted only a moment.
The noisy clamor fell silent in an instant.
"......"
The residents of Gorang County, who had paled and retreated, exchanged glances.
"He, he didn't kill them all, did he?"
"Shall we go in and check?"
"You fool! What if that masked man got done in instead!"
Amusingly, not a shred of concern for the Red Sand Room thugs was mixed in.
The residents' resentment toward the Red Sand Room ran that deep.
Thus, as they hesitated, unable to advance or retreat, stealing glances at each other for a moment.
Step. Step.
Faint footsteps pierced their ears.
The residents stared tensely at the Red Sand Room's main gate, frozen in place.
Before long, two figures emerged through the widely open gate into their view.
A man wearing an enraged mask and a girl who seemed too young to call a woman.
The girl rescued by Il-mok felt a sense of unease upon seeing the crowd gathered at the Red Sand Room entrance.
Most were faces she knew. She was a resident of Gorang County, after all.
Perhaps because she belatedly spotted those familiar faces, the girl, who had been stiff with tension, finally spoke up.
"Gr-great hero. M-may I ask one thing?"
"Ask freely."
At the masked man's reply, the girl cautiously inquired.
"Wh-what is your true identity?"
No sooner had she asked than the girl witnessed a strange sight.
Beyond the enraged mask, the man's lips curved upward in pleasant amusement.
"I am the incarnation of Maitreya."
"The incarnation of Maitreya...?"
The girl blinked in disbelief at the unimaginable answer, and by then, the masked man's figure had vanished without a trace.
In his place, others began to fill the void.
"Cheong-a! Are you alright?"
"What happened in there?"
The residents who had come to the Red Sand Room bombarded the girl with questions.
In that moment, the girl, dragged to the Red Sand Room for unfortunate reasons, unwittingly became a witness to a religious event.
* * *
Il-mok, who had concealed himself with stealth techniques and traveled, arrived at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's Gorang County branch.
"Hoo."
Letting out a light sigh, Il-mok stripped off his sweat- and blood-stained clothes and entrusted his body to the bathtub he had prepared in advance.
As he soaked in the still-warm water, Il-mok murmured to himself with a sigh of relief.
"That was close."
It wasn't about the battle at the Red Sand Room.
Traveling with stealth techniques while covered in blood and sweat had nearly triggered his hygiene obsession. He had begun transcending the Extreme Demon, but the side effects hadn't vanished.
After thoroughly washing up, Il-mok was humming a tune and donning fresh clothes when presences entering the branch were felt simultaneously.
"Did you bring them well?"
At Il-mok's question, figures clad in black night attire revealed themselves.
Dam-bin and Jin Ha-yeon, Jeong-hyeon and Gu Yang-mun, and Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a.
They had infiltrated the Red Sand Room using stealth techniques right around when Il-mok was causing a commotion there.
And at Il-mok's question, they each presented what they had gathered.
In their hands were gold coins or silver ingots, jewels, or ledgers and such.
Their mission had been to loot the account books the Red Sand Room thugs had compiled or the money they had cowardly hoarded.
Ju Seo-yeon and Baek-cheon had been assigned to remain at the gathering and gauge the crowd's mood.
The Red Sand Room wasn't that large, so five were plenty, and those two weren't suited for such tasks anyway.
'As long as they don't cause trouble.'
Those with attention deficits and interest deficiencies were problematic for covert work in many ways.
One oddity was Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a.
Originally, Il-mok had planned to leave her at the gathering site too. Since she hadn't even entered the Demonic Path Academy yet, he assumed she wouldn't know stealth techniques.
But Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a had demonstratively displayed her stealth skills and insisted on joining.
'Well, she must have learned it from her clan.'
Jeong-hyeon had also been proficient in stealth before entering the Academy, so Il-mok saw nothing special in it.
Il-mok spoke to those presenting him with books and gold and silver treasures.
"Hand these over to the Gorang County Branch Leader. Send one part to the main headquarters, leave one part as activity funds here, and for the rest, check the ledgers and return them proportionally to those unjustly robbed."
"Understood!"
"Oh, and tell the Branch Leader to investigate those called the Nan-cheon Society."
"The Nan-cheon Society?"
"Yes. The Red Sand Room Leader mentioned it before dying. Said the Red Sand Room's backer was the Nan-cheon Society."
"We'll dig up information separately, in addition to the Branch Leader."
Answering Il-mok's orders, Dam-bin directed the group to organize the money and documents in one place.
* * *
After the Red Sand Room crumbled overnight.
"Did you hear that story?"
"The Maitreya Bright Cult?"
The name of the Maitreya Bright Cult began to spread through Gorang County by word of mouth.
"You fool, do you believe such nonsense?"
"You dense one. I saw it clearly that night. The incarnation of Maitreya sweeping away those Red Sand Room scum."
Even without proselytizing that started with "Do you know the Way?"
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's Gorang County branch warriors and Il-mok's escorts, unable to miss the opportunity, bustled about sweet-talking the people.
"Maitreya is surely blessing our Gorang County!"
"Believe! Fortune will come if you believe!"
Among them, the one faring best was Baek-cheon.
Not gathering people with his usual "Ahahaha! Today I'll show you a splendid play!" and causing a ruckus.
Whenever a Gorang County branch warrior casually spread rumors about the Maitreya Bright Cult to the villagers.
"No, is that true!?"
"Heavens. If that story's real, calling him Maitreya wouldn't be amiss!"
He would act from the side as if hearing it for the first time, stirring them up with exaggerated acting.
Because he had fallen for Il-mok's sweet words.
"Acting isn't just about performing plays. Only when you infuse acting into everyday life can you truly be called a master of acting, no?"
Deeply moved by Il-mok's advice, Baek-cheon was devoting himself to proselytizing in a new way.
And the main culprit behind the cult fever in Gorang County, Il-mok, was leisurely immersing himself in training at the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's Gorang County branch.
Once Il-mok, whose internal energy was depleted, sheathed his sword and regulated his breathing, Jin Ha-yeon, who had stayed alone to guard him, spoke up.
"Young Master. There's something I'd like to ask."
"Speak freely."
"Why did Young Master personally step in to deal with the Red Sand Room?"
It might seem like worry over her charge Il-mok venturing into danger, but Jin Ha-yeon's question carried another meaning.
'I have no doubt Young Master is a genius, but he's not one to handle things personally.'
Having been with him since his early days in the cult, she knew well. That Il-mok, contrary to rumors, was quite lazy.
"There are a few reasons, but first, it's because they're pitiful, right?"
"???"
Jin Ha-yeon made a face that said she couldn't comprehend Il-mok's words.
"The people of Gorang County. According to the info from the Branch Leader, they've suffered terribly from the Red Sand Room."
Even with Il-mok's explanation, for some reason Jin Ha-yeon still looked uncomprehending.
It wasn't because she had lost sympathy through the Bare Hand Demon Art. She had been brainwashed separately from sympathy, as doctrine to save the sentient beings.
Simply.
"I didn't know Young Master was the type to personally handle troublesome matters because others are pitiful."
It just felt strange that Il-mok was discussing sympathy.
Of course, from Il-mok's perspective, it was equally absurd.
'Does she think I'm a psychopath just because she is?'
Sensing some misunderstanding about himself, Il-mok shrugged once and replied indifferently.
"You think I have no sympathy?"
"You seemed disinterested in others."
"I act disinterested precisely because I have sympathy."
"???"
"If I get involved and help everywhere, it becomes too bothersome and exhausting, doesn't it? Hearing pitiful stories makes me want to help, so I choose not to hear them from the start."
"......"
Faced with Il-mok's sophistry, Jin Ha-yeon could only make a bizarre expression.
But regardless of her feelings, Il-mok was speaking sincerely.
As he had told the Heavenly Demon back in Peach Blossom Ridge, Il-mok saw hypocrisy as virtue too, and choosing a social welfare civil servant role was in the same vein.
Il-mok wanted to do good deeds moderately, help the needy moderately. Clock in on time, clock out on time—help those needing social welfare only during work hours.
He had no intention of burning himself out or collapsing from exhaustion doing good. Not saintly virtues, but the virtues of an ordinary citizen.
The reason Il-mok stepped in this time was in that same context.
In addition to the Gorang County residents being pitiful.
"Another reason was to hide my identity."
To avoid being hounded by work continuously.
"So that's why you used the mask?"
"Yes. In religious faith, a sense of mystery is important, after all."
He packaged it plausibly.
"For that sense of mystery, from now on, I'll only don the mask for major matters."
Under the excuse of mystery, he planned to dump all the minor tasks on others.