Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 44
>Chapter Title: History is Made at Night (2)
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Gwan Mu-yeol's pupils, contracted like those of a man at the peak of tension, were fixed on the finely ground powder drifting from his fingers into the Dragon Well tea.
And just before all that powder could sink into the tea and mix.
Snap.
A finger shot out from the darkness, lunging toward Gwan Mu-yeol's acupoints.
"!?"
Gwan Mu-yeol noticed the ambush too late and tried to swat the finger away, but he was a step behind.
He had been so focused on the Dragon Well tea and the poisonous mushrooms that he had only just sensed the enemy who had snuck up on him while hidden.
Whoosh!
The black-clad figure moved his hands like the wind, instantly striking Gwan Mu-yeol's movement-sealing acupoints and then his speech-sealing ones, completely subduing him.
As the pouch of mushrooms and the cup of Dragon Well tea slipped from Gwan Mu-yeol's paralyzed hands toward the floor, the black-clad figure swiftly snatched them both up.
Securing the two items, the black-clad figure hoisted the now-collapsed Gwan Mu-yeol over his shoulder and melted into the darkness, heading somewhere.
* * *
"Urgh."
The languid relaxation from Jin Ha-yeon's Pushing Palaces and Passing Meridians mixing with chills from the cold created a strange groan.
Snap.
Suddenly, a black-clad figure vaulted over the wall of Wind Rock Hall.
"Who goes there!"
Jang Hoe drew his spear in alarm and shouted, while Jin Ha-yeon, who had been performing Pushing Palaces and Passing Meridians on my back, shifted into a battle stance, radiating cold energy.
But upon seeing the face of the figure who emerged from the shadows, the two could only wear bizarre expressions.
"...Third Young Master. Care to explain the situation?"
The one who had suddenly appeared by leaping over the wall was none other than Third Senior Brother Seo Wan-pyeong, who was supposed to have left the main headquarters for a mission.
But the reason for their odd looks probably wasn't just his sudden appearance.
"I wanted to come through the front gate, but I didn't have a free hand."
Absurdly, Third Senior Brother had Gwan Mu-yeol slung over his left shoulder, gripped with his left hand, while his right hand held a tray laden with some pastries and a teacup.
'Wow... not a single drop spilled in all that.'
He had scaled the wall without using his hands, yet not a drop of tea had spilled from the tray in Third Senior Brother's right hand.
While Jang Hoe and Jin Ha-yeon gawked in disbelief, I alone leisurely admired Third Senior Brother's lightness skill.
I had known he hadn't left the main headquarters. Though I hadn't expected him to show up looking like that.
I slowly rose from my prone position for the Pushing Palaces and Passing Meridians and asked Third Senior Brother.
"Did he show any suspicious behavior? Senior Brother."
Third Senior Brother nodded, plopping Gwan Mu-yeol onto the ground as he spoke.
"After grabbing some pastries from the Pastry Hall, instead of heading straight back to Wind Rock Hall, he slipped into a dark corner and tried to secretly mix this into the Dragon Well tea."
With that, Senior Brother pulled a small leather pouch from his sleeve and tossed it to me.
Snap.
I caught the pouch lightly and untied the string at the opening, revealing colorful mushrooms inside.
'Wow... anyone can tell those are poisonous mushrooms.'
Jang Hoe and Jin Ha-yeon sidled over to peer into the pouch with me, their expressions darkening.
"Then we should interrogate him first."
"The circumstances leave no room for doubt, right?"
I shook my head at Jang Hoe's remark.
"There's no way this guy acted on his own to target me."
"Ah..."
While Jang Hoe let out a belated sound of realization, Jin Ha-yeon and Third Senior Brother nodded as if they had expected as much.
Third Senior Brother then cautiously approached Gwan Mu-yeol and released his speech-sealing acupoint.
He left the movement-sealing ones intact, and to guard against any tricks like the man biting his tongue, Senior Brother positioned his hand right in front of Gwan Mu-yeol's mouth.
But such precautions proved unnecessary. The man didn't choose suicide. Instead.
"It's, it's a misunderstanding!!"
Absurdly, even now he was claiming innocence.
"You were about to put this in the tea for me, and you call it a misunderstanding?"
I let out a hollow laugh and shook the pouch of mushrooms in his face. Gwan Mu-yeol replied in an uncharacteristically urgent tone.
"That tea wasn't meant for you, Young Master! I, I was going to drink it myself!"
"That's ridiculous..."
Before I could point out the absurdity, he shouted more excuses.
"Th- think back to our talk about the side effects of demonic arts, Young Master! I told you I've been doing something else lately, didn't I?"
True, I remembered consulting with him because he was suffering side effects similar to those from the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword I practiced.
At the time, Gwan Mu-yeol had blushed as he admitted to self-harm when his compulsions became unbearable.
He had later mentioned trying something else recently, but it sounded distasteful, so I hadn't pressed.
But that something else was eating poison?
"No matter how I look at it, it seems like a hasty fabrication. You think eating poison eases compulsions?"
At my question, Gwan Mu-yeol answered with a face like he might explode from frustration.
"The truth is, those poisonous mushrooms are poison, but not poison!"
"Enough of your nonsense."
"Then just make me drink that tea!"
"!?"
I couldn't help but look dumbfounded at Gwan Mu-yeol's offer to drink the poisoned Dragon Well tea himself.
But the absurdity passed quickly. It was a reasonably convincing method.
At that moment, Jang Hoe eyed him suspiciously and said to me.
"Young Master, he might be planning to poison himself and die as a ploy."
"Jang Hoe!! What are you saying!! Are you doubting me too!?"
As Gwan Mu-yeol and Jang Hoe bickered, I turned to Third Senior Brother, who was still holding Gwan Mu-yeol down.
Catching my meaning, Senior Brother nodded and said.
"I'll keep a close watch on him. If he tries anything suicidal, I'll intervene right away."
In the end, we decided to let him drink the tea.
It wasn't just blind trust in Gwan Mu-yeol's words.
'The circumstances are suspicious, but they're almost too suspicious to make sense.'
The last assassination attempt had been pinned on the Martial Alliance by these guys. And now they resort to something so crude and obvious?
It could be desperation, but something felt off.
As I sorted my thoughts, Third Senior Brother prepared antidotes and carefully tilted the teacup to Gwan Mu-yeol's lips.
We watched his reaction briefly after he sipped the Dragon Well tea laced with mushroom powder.
Suddenly, Gwan Mu-yeol's condition turned strange.
"Heek. Heh heh."
The face that was always stern and impassive slackened, his unfocused eyes grinning idiotically as he let out bizarre laughs.
For a moment, he giggled grotesquely, babbling like a fanatic speaking in tongues.
"......"
As if the mushroom's effects had worn off, Gwan Mu-yeol returned to his usual stoic face.
No, slightly different.
His face flushed red, as if ashamed of exposing such an ugly side to others, on the verge of bursting.
He tried to mask the embarrassment with a stern expression, but it had no effect.
Everyone has sides they'd rather hide. We might have just forced a viewing of what Gwan Mu-yeol most wanted to keep secret.
"Ahem. Sorry about that."
But I felt wronged too. Seeing such an ugly display wasn't pleasant for me either.
"Why put it in the Dragon Well tea I was about to drink, then?"
"...As I said, it was for me."
Gwan Mu-yeol forced out the words, enduring his shame.
"Weren't you fetching night snacks for me?"
"I planned to sneak a sip of tea, then claim I spilled it by accident and get more from the Pastry Hall."
"Why at a time like this?"
"...Because it was a time like this."
"???"
As everyone wore puzzled expressions, Gwan Mu-yeol let out a deep sigh and explained.
"Didn't I fail in my duty to protect you, Young Master? My compulsions have been worse than usual because of it. I felt like I was about to succumb to heart demons and go mad. But I couldn't self-harm while on guard duty, so this was my fallback."
Hearing his explanation stirred unease in me too.
'His side effects are the issue.'
And since I practiced a demonic art with similar issues, it wasn't someone else's problem.
I let out a light sigh and asked.
"Does eating this mushroom ease the compulsions?"
"...It's a mushroom deadly in one big bite, but grinding a small amount into powder and mixing it with water or tea makes you feel good. The compulsions fade temporarily, so I use it for emergencies."
"Do others know about this mushroom?"
"...How could someone who trains in the Divine Cult's arts admit to relying on something like this due to side effects?"
It seemed more than just shame at looking drugged.
He was probably more ashamed of depending on poisonous mushrooms because of his side effects. Having others witness it must have deepened his self-loathing.
Of course, relying on something weird didn't look good either.
From Gwan Mu-yeol's view, it was medicine, not poison.
'Poisonous mushrooms as medicine...'
It felt oddly familiar.
I'd heard it often: What is poison to one may be medicine to another, and vice versa.
As thoughts tangled on demonic art side effects, mental illness, poison, medicine.
"Hm?"
A buried memory surfaced in my mind.
"Senior Brother. That night I was ambushed. Did you eat your night snack?"
"As you know, junior brother, I suffer from insomnia and eat night snacks almost every night."
Hearing his answer turned my suspicion into certainty.
Seeing my expression, Senior Brother seemed to grasp my thinking and said.
"But there was no poison, junior brother. Do you think I wouldn't notice something that minor?"
As paranoia threatened to flare again, I quickly replied.
"It's not poison."
"???"
"Not poison, but to you, Senior Brother, it's no different from deadly poison."
What I recalled was a memory from my life as Seo Ji-hoon before reincarnating as Il-mok.
Specifically, from the day I was stabbed to death by a complainant: a memory involving Officer Lee Ji-yeon, who was tussling with the man.
From early in her assignment, Officer Lee Ji-yeon spent days in tears, but eventually suffered from depression.
It lessened after she fully darkened, but during her worst depressive phase, she avoided certain foods.
Because they worsened her depression.
In other words.
"Even non-poisonous foods or teas can make people sensitive or depressed, Senior Brother."
Depression-worsening foods exist, and Third Senior Brother was a severe depressive with extreme paranoia.
"...Non-poisonous foods that depress people?"
Senior Brother tilted his head in confusion, and the others wore strange looks too.
"Yes. Just as that poisonous mushroom acts as medicine for Officer Gwan, what is medicine for one can be poison for another. And don't ordinary teas or foods sometimes cause issues when combined, even if fine separately?"
Up to here, it was common knowledge even in this era, so everyone nodded in understanding.
"Also, some foods or teas make the body languid and relaxed after eating. Or ones rumored to boost vigor and virility."
"Hmm. In the folk tales, foods rumored for virility are said to dry up one's seed."
Third Senior Brother, often away on missions, nodded as if getting it.
Jin Ha-yeon frowned at the talk of virility.
"Conversely, some foods aren't 'poison' but make people edgy. For normal people, they sharpen the mind and boost focus, making them good. But for those already sensitive and sharp, they're no different from poison."
"I see..."
Third Senior Brother, aware of his own sensitivity and depression, nodded in acceptance.
But true to his sensitive, depressive nature, he didn't let it go.
"But how do you know about such things, junior brother?"