Chapter 119
Chapter 119
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: Caught in the Net
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Anyway, Hwa-ryeon dismissed Ja-seong's intuition outright.
“Right, even this afternoon you went and grabbed the wrong person for no reason. You’re still going to keep insisting?”
“Ugh... I couldn’t help it. Who would’ve thought someone else would suddenly pop up in that situation?”
Ja-seong swallowed a groan as he recalled Yeon Sa-kyeong wailing pitifully after getting smacked by the scabbard of his own sword.
Hwa-ryeon’s mention of his past mistake naturally sapped the strength from his argument.
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful...”
Ja-seong muttered in a slightly dejected tone.
Seeing this, Hwa-ryeon hesitated for a moment before slyly taking hold of his hand.
“...Huh?”
Startled by the sudden warmth in his hand, Ja-seong turned to look at her.
Hwa-ryeon had taken his hand first?
She’d never done that before... not once...?
Hwa-ryeon turned her head away bashfully from Ja-seong’s wide-eyed gaze and murmured softly.
“Even if that lecher is targeting me, Young Master Goon will protect me, right?”
“Huh?”
Hwa-ryeon bit her lip slightly as she glanced at Ja-seong’s dumbfounded expression.
Feeling her cheeks heat up, she forced herself to meet his eyes anyway.
She’d probably already been caught blushing.
Ja-seong had an uncanny knack for reading her expressions.
“...Because I trust you.”
In the end, she spat out those few short words and turned her head away again.
She wanted to let go and run off, but by then Ja-seong had gripped her hand tightly, making escape impossible.
“Then I’ll have to do my utmost not to betray that trust.”
Hwa-ryeon felt her face flush even hotter at the oddly excited tone in Ja-seong’s voice.
That burning blush didn’t fade until they arrived at the Soaring Heavens Merchant House.
Seol-i even asked worriedly if she was sick, seeing her red face.
Hwa-ryeon could barely respond before fleeing to her room.
For some reason, she felt like she could hear Ja-seong’s stifled laughter from behind her.
She dove straight into her bed and pulled the covers over her head right up to her crown.
And after some time had passed.
Someone knocked on her door.
—Hwa-ryeon, got a moment?
“...Young Master Goon?”
Recognizing the familiar voice from beyond the door, Hwa-ryeon sat up again.
‘We just parted ways, so what now?’
Tilting her head, she opened the door—and there stood Ja-seong, flashing a smile so wide his teeth gleamed in a way that felt oppressively off.
Had he ever worn an expression like that?
Hwa-ryeon tilted her head again before asking his purpose.
“Why are you here?”
“I need you to come with me for a bit. You free?”
“...Right now?”
“Yeah, right now.”
Discussions about how to hunt the lecher had dragged on late into the night, so it was already bedtime.
‘Where’s he want to go at this hour?’
Though puzzled, Hwa-ryeon stepped out anyway.
She figured he must have some good reason.
Led along by Ja-seong, Hwa-ryeon followed behind.
Oddly, there were no signs of people inside the merchant house, but she chalked it up to everyone being asleep and cautiously passed through the main gate into the night.
But after walking for what felt like over an hourglass mark, suspicion began to creep in.
“What’s this all about anyway?”
“Just a bit further. We’re almost there.”
True to his word, Ja-seong soon stopped in front of a lavish pavilion in a deserted area.
“This place...?”
It was an ostentatious building.
The kind of extravagance that screamed the builder’s vanity.
“Come on, let’s go in.”
“Wait a second. Do you even know what this—”
“I don’t know much either. All I know for sure is that the lecher’s hiding here.”
“...What?”
Hwa-ryeon’s eyes widened as she blurted out her response.
The lecher was hiding here? This place?
“How did you find it?”
“I told you. The Jade-Masked Lecher’s after you. I spotted some guy lurking near the merchant house by chance and tailed him. He came right here. Didn’t want to risk losing him alone, so I came to get you.”
It sounded reasonable enough at first glance.
The odd part was why he’d brought her along.
‘The guy who stuck to me all day, worried sick about the lecher.’
Recalling the strange thrill she’d felt upon hearing those words, Hwa-ryeon shook her head to clear her mind.
Ja-seong had a tendency to overprotect her in peculiar ways.
Considering his true nature, dragging her to a lecher’s hideout made no sense.
“What’re you doing? Hurry up and come in.”
Once the first inkling of wrongness hit her, other inconsistencies jumped out.
A pushy, sleazy grin he’d never wear.
An impatient tone.
Movements that felt oddly rough.
Especially the hand yanking her arm—it sent chills racing across her skin the moment it touched her.
Nothing like the gentle, firm grasp from earlier.
Her body knew it first.
‘This isn’t Young Master Goon.’
It looked like Ja-seong, but it wasn’t him.
Which meant the intruder’s identity was obvious.
The Jade-Masked Lecher.
The fiend who’d ruined countless innocent women’s lives was targeting her.
‘He really was after me.’
Stunned that Ja-seong’s intuition had been spot-on, Hwa-ryeon vowed never to ignore it again and sharpened all her senses.
This pavilion was likely rigged as the bastard’s perfect trap.
She couldn’t afford to step inside carelessly.
Her grip tightened on her sword hilt.
‘Can I take him down?’
With the assassination request already issued via official channels, and him being a filthy lecher to boot.
No reason to hesitate drawing her blade.
He’d only changed his appearance to mimic Ja-seong so far—a surprise attack could end him in one stroke.
“Come on in already. What if the lecher slips away?”
Now the Jade-Masked Lecher was practically trying to drag her inside, yanking harder.
Pretending to comply, Hwa-ryeon stepped forward—then unleashed her strike, slashing at the lecher.
—Shrieeeek!
Her sword whistled through the air, aiming straight for the Jade-Masked Lecher’s throat.
‘Got you.’
Certain of the lecher’s death on instinct, Hwa-ryeon’s gaze locked onto his face—the false face mimicking Ja-seong.
‘Ah...’
In that instant, her sword arm went slack.
She knew full well this wasn’t Ja-seong, yet facing that face sowed hesitation in her blade.
And that changed the lecher’s fate, which should’ve ended with his head flying.
“Huhguh!?”
The Jade-Masked Lecher yelped and tumbled backward.
Her hesitation left her sword slicing mere inches from where his throat had been—empty air.
“Guh...!”
Twisting her face in frustration at missing the perfect opening, Hwa-ryeon pressed on with a second strike.
She hadn’t even entered the pavilion yet.
If she cut him down now, she could still—
“...What?”
Hwa-ryeon’s thoughts froze.
The Jade-Masked Lecher, who’d sprawled pathetically, had vanished from before her eyes in an instant.
How?
No talismans, no incantations?
Bewildered by the unexpected turn, Hwa-ryeon heard the lecher’s true voice—raw and venomous—in her ear.
“You damn bitch...! Pretty sharp, aren’t you?”
She spun at the voice behind her, swinging her sword.
But it cleaved only empty air.
“Tch...”
Hwa-ryeon clicked her tongue in annoyance.
The lecher’s voice, now regaining its composure, grated on her nerves.
“You thought you’d be safe as long as you stayed outside the pavilion?”
This time from the right.
She swung again—to the same result.
“Sorry, but wrong. The pavilion’s just the center. This whole area’s my domain already.”
Overlapping voices.
Two Jade-Masked Lechers appeared before her eyes.
“Heh heh heh...! The moment you set foot here, you can’t escape my grasp.”
A third Jade-Masked Lecher emerged, letting out a sinister chuckle.
Then a fourth, a fifth—and their voices began echoing from all directions.
“Now, if you don’t want to get hurt, come quietly into my arms. I’ll grant you heavenly pleasures.”
“...Ha.”
Hwa-ryeon let out a scoff at the sight of the many Jade-Masked Lechers now surrounding her.
Far from afraid, she looked amused.
Dozens of lecherous faces twitched in unison.
Her mockery seemed to prod at something he’d buried deep in his heart.
“Laughing? Don’t you get what’s happening?”
“No, I get it. I’ve been utterly ensnared by some filthy lecher’s illusion.”
Her nonchalant reply visibly irked him, twisting the Jade-Masked Lecher’s face.
“And you still mock me? Think I’ll treat you precious just because I want you? You’ll have to suffer before you wise up.”
“I’m plenty wise right now. And I won’t be the one suffering.”
Hwa-ryeon fired back without yielding an inch.
The true Jade-Masked Lecher’s face, shedding Ja-seong’s guise, warped unpleasantly.
He couldn’t fathom her calm defiance.
Trapped in his prepared illusion, thrashing about—how could she be so brazen?
Grinding his teeth, the Jade-Masked Lecher shifted his thinking.
She was a fish in his net anyway.
No matter how coolly she played it, that wouldn’t change the fact she’d soon be under him.
“Keuheheh, let’s see if you stay calm once you’re pinned beneath me.”
“Sorry, but that won’t happen.”
A voice laced with strange conviction.
At this point, he was curious about the source.
“Why’re you so sure?”
“Because I trust him.”
“Him...?”
As the Jade-Masked Lecher repeated her words, the sound of wind slicing came from behind him.
Turning at the noise—
—Shing!
“...Huh?”
Wind whistled, and then his right arm felt strangely light.
His gaze dropped instinctively to it.
But the right arm that should’ve been attached to his right shoulder was already rolling on the ground below.
“...Aaaargh!?”
Pain crashed in late, along with gushing blood.
Clutching the stump of his severed arm, the Jade-Masked Lecher screamed.
A cold voice pierced his ear.
“Damn, missed. Was aiming for the waist.”
“You—you...!”
The Jade-Masked Lecher’s eyes bulged.
There, shielding Hwa-ryeon, stood the man he’d been mimicking: Goon Ja-seong.