Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Two Shamans
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Hwa-ryeon wore a faintly incredulous expression after hearing my story.
“…Only you would come up with such a bizarre technique using a protective barrier, young hero.”
“Hey now, bizarre technique? This thing is incredibly useful. Right now it's focused on you, but if I expand the range, anyone approaching from the surroundings gets caught in an instant…”
The moment I expanded the Qi Detection Net to refute Hwa-ryeon's assessment, something snagged on it.
Behind us, someone was hiding their presence.
“Young hero? What's wrong?”
When my face suddenly hardened, Hwa-ryeon asked with a puzzled look.
Without a word, I wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders and quickened our pace.
“Y-Young hero?! What…?”
Hwa-ryeon glanced sidelong at my hand on her shoulder and stammered.
In a small voice too quiet for anyone around to hear, I explained the situation.
“Someone's following us from behind. Don't turn around.”
“…!”
Hwa-ryeon flinched but soon resumed walking as if nothing was amiss and asked,
“…You sure? It doesn't feel like anyone's there.”
“It got caught in the Qi Detection Net. They're probably hiding with an illusion technique.”
“Then…!”
Currently in Wuhuan, there was only one person who would wander around cloaked in illusions.
Ha, that bastard. I'd hoped it wasn't true, but he was really targeting Hwa-ryeon?
I gritted my teeth as rage boiled up inside me.
Suppressing the urge to grab the lecherous demon right then and beat him half to death, I kept walking.
“Looks like they're planning to tail us like this, so let's lure them into an alley.”
“…Okay.”
And so, we followed Je-gal Geun-yeong and Elder Gok into a gloomy alley.
Even as we passed through the long alley and the lecherous demon's hideout came into view, the hidden pursuer continued to trail us.
“This is the place. It was here that the young hero of the Goon Family encountered the Jade-Faced Lewd Fiend while she was abducting a woman.”
“Hah, how could someone calling themselves a shaman…”
Elder Gok was shaking his head and scanning the area near the hideout when he suddenly noticed how closely Hwa-ryeon and I were pressed together and let out a hearty laugh.
“Haha, looks like you two have gotten even closer in the meantime.”
“We've always been close, but that's not why we're stuck together right now.”
“Hm?”
As Elder Gok tilted his head curiously, I extended the Qi Detection Net toward the rear.
The opponent was approaching defenselessly, unaware that I'd detected them.
Feeling them draw near—one step, two steps—I slowly released Hwa-ryeon's shoulder.
Then, I spun around and lunged at the hidden lecherous demon.
“W-Wait! Young hero, it's a misunderstanding…!”
Elder Gok's urgent voice came from behind me.
But my hand had already seized someone cloaked in illusion and slammed them against the wall.
I was definitely gripping someone, yet my fingertips felt nothing.
“W-Wait! I'm…!”
A panicked voice echoed from what seemed like empty air.
It was intriguing, but I didn't hesitate and swung my sheathed sword.
The scabbard slammed into their abdomen—or so I assumed.
“Guhk!”
“…Huh?”
Right after, I vaguely sensed that the voice sounded a bit different.
As I furrowed my brow, Elder Gok rushed over and shouted,
“Stop, stop! That friend isn't the lecherous demon!”
“…What?”
The moment I responded in surprise, the person in my grasp dispelled their illusion and revealed themselves.
An elderly man who appeared about Elder Gok's age was clutching his belly, tears and snot streaming down his face.
“Aigoo, I'm dying…!”
I reflexively let go of his collar, and he slid down the wall with a groan, propped against it.
Elder Gok approached and checked on him.
“Yeon Ga-ya. You alright?”
“Not alright. That brute hit me without mercy…! Waaah…”
I was at a loss for words as I stared at the old man weeping pathetically.
“…What in the world is going on here?”
Je-gal Geun-yeong stared at the chaotic scene in utter bewilderment.
*
After the situation calmed down, we sat inside the Jade-Faced Lewd Fiend's hideout, facing each other.
“Hmph!”
“…….”
I stared coldly at the old man, who snorted like he was the world's most wronged victim.
I couldn't fathom what he thought he'd done to act so shamelessly.
“Hey now…”
Somehow squeezed between me and the nameless old man, Elder Gok stroked his beard with a frustrated expression.
Then, as if unable to just sit idle, he turned to the old man and cautiously spoke up.
“Yeon Ga-ya, don't be like that. Let it go. You weren't exactly innocent yourself.”
“I was just minding my own business and got hit out of nowhere—why should I?!”
The old man bellowed as if he bore no fault despite tailing us cloaked in illusion.
I asked Elder Gok, who seemed quite close to the mysterious old man, about his identity.
“…Who exactly is this elder?”
“Ah, right. This friend is Yeon Sa-kyung. We've known each other for quite some time. He came along to help with hunting down the lecherous demon.”
“Why was he hiding with an illusion?”
“He extremely dislikes mingling with people…”
“…But he stepped up to help find the lecherous demon?”
He hates mingling with others?
Does that even make sense?
As I narrowed my eyes at the contradiction, Elder Gok looked flustered.
Then Yeon Sa-kyung, the old Yeon man, stepped in on his behalf.
“I'm the one who offered to help—what have you added to it?!”
Unlike Elder Gok, whose every word carried dignity and refinement, Elder Yeon exuded a prickly, cantankerous vibe in every way.
Judging by his brazen speech, getting into a war of words would only tire me out more.
Not wanting to waste energy on pointless bickering, I let out a resigned sigh and bowed my head in apology.
“Well, regardless… I apologize for acting rashly and striking first.”
“Hmph.”
He snorted again, but after my apology, the tension seemed to drain from his wrinkled face.
Elder Gok gave me a grateful nod as he pitifully watched his friend for a moment.
“…Now that we've sorted out the situation, can we get to the main topic?”
Je-gal Geun-yeong, who had been sidelined until now, awkwardly smiled and joined the conversation.
“Is your friend's assistance regarding illusions?”
“Ah, well…”
Elder Gok hesitated oddly.
He kept glancing at Elder Yeon mid-sentence.
Under his friend's gaze, Elder Yeon rolled his eyes and looked away slyly.
“…Yeon Ga-ya.”
At Elder Gok's quiet call, he finally clicked his tongue and turned back.
He then delivered an astonishing answer we never could have anticipated.
“It seems that lecherous demon is my disciple.”
“…What?”
D-Disciple?
Did he mean disciple in the usual sense I knew?
“E-Erm! To be precise, a disowned disciple?”
Elder Yeon averted his eyes from our stunned faces and added the qualifier like an excuse.
For the culprit behind Wuhuan's lecherous demon crisis, it was remarkably brazen.
“…….”
“…….”
A heavy silence filled the room.
Everyone's icy stares converged on Elder Yeon, and with each passing moment, his small shoulders shrank further.
Finally, a feeble mumble escaped him.
“…How was I supposed to know it'd turn out like this? I definitely sealed away his shaman arts so he couldn't use them. He shouldn't be able to access higher shaman arts…”
Of course, like all excuses, it held little nutritional value.
“…First, explain the full circumstances properly.”
When I demanded more details, Elder Yeon's mouth opened with a sigh.
“Well, you see…”
The story we heard was so shocking it left us beyond astonishment.
Especially from Je-gal Geun-yeong's perspective.
“W-What do you mean? The Jade-Faced Lewd Fiend is someone from the Je-gal Family?!”
Je-gal Geun-yeong's shout, stripped of composure, echoed through the hideout.
Elder Gok quietly addressed him with a face full of shame.
“…Seven years ago, this friend secretly came to me. He said he'd quietly taken a boy crying in a corner of your family.”
“Did you say seven years ago just now?”
Je-gal Geun-yeong, clutching his forehead in agony, suddenly lifted his head and asked.
His reaction suggested he'd realized something.
As he stared at Elder Yeon with trembling eyes, the elder—who had been subtly passing the explanation to Elder Gok—glanced around before confessing the truth.
“…My worthless disciple uses the name Je-gal Seon in the Je-gal Family.”
“Je-gal Seon…! You're saying the Jade-Faced Lewd Fiend is that Je-gal Seon?!”
Elder Gok looked even more ashamed as he watched Je-gal Geun-yeong in dismay.
Je-gal Seon, huh.
At least he bore the Je-gal surname, confirming he was blood kin to the Je-gal Family, and Je-gal Geun-yeong's reaction suggested he knew him personally at minimum.
“Yes. I took the child and taught him shaman arts, never imagining he'd commit such atrocities.”
Elder Yeon nodded weakly with a bitter expression.
“N-No…! How could…?”
Je-gal Geun-yeong trailed off in disbelief.
He flapped his mouth several times before covering his face with both hands.
After a long silence, he lowered his hands with a deep sigh and looked at Elder Yeon.
“…So it was you who took Seon away all of a sudden?”
“Correct. I pitied the boy, born a hunchback in a prestigious martial family and treated like an unwanted outcast, so I took him in.”
“W-Wait a minute? A hunchback?”
I couldn't let that detail pass and interjected into their conversation.
A hunchback was a congenital spinal deformity—in other words, a humpback.
The Jade-Faced Lewd Fiend was a hunchback?