Why Are Women So Strange? 2
I was just about to lay the unconscious, limp Baek Yeon down on the bed when a cold, razor-sharp gaze stabbed into my back through the gap in the open door.
When I turned, Jin Sohee was standing there.
"Jin Sohee?"
She was trembling so violently it looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment, her face drained of all color.
Her eyes swept from Baek Yeon in my arms to the disaster that was my room.
Even Baek Yeon's clothes were disheveled from the aftermath of our violent spar, and there I was, carrying her and trying to lay her on the bed in what could only look like a deeply suspicious scene.
"…Ah."
A short, strangled sound slipped from Jin Sohee's lips.
"Didn't you clearly leave earlier?"
My voice came out louder than I intended, pure panic making me sound sharp. But my panic must have reached Jin Sohee in a very different way, because she stumbled backward and muttered in a thin, shaking voice,
"I… I guess I really was clueless. Asking you to spar like that must have been a nuisance for you… I'm sorry for everything up until now…"
"What are you talking about? It's not like that!"
"Then what is it like? I wanted to spend even a little time with you, but you were in here with another woman on the bed…!"
I hurriedly set Baek Yeon down on the mattress and stepped toward Jin Sohee, but she clutched her sword and backed away as if to reject my approach.
She's completely taking me for some kind of pervert!
From Jin Sohee's point of view, it was an easy misunderstanding to make.
Broken furniture, a mess of bedding, and a woman with her clothes all disheveled and unconscious.
I forced myself to explain as calmly as I could. In my past life, I doubted I'd ever sweated this hard over anything.
Honestly, I'd rather be mistaken for some wicked black mage than for a lecher. That was just insulting.
"Jin Sohee, listen to me. I didn't bring that woman here. She broke into my room and attacked me without warning.
See those broken pieces of furniture? This wasn't anything indecent—it all got wrecked during the fight."
"You don't have to lie for my sake…"
It wasn't for her sake. It was for mine. If this ended here, I'd be branded a degenerate by everyone in my group and pointed at for the rest of my life. I had to fix this somehow.
"That woman said she's the Blood Demon Lord's third disciple. Her name is Baek Yeon, and I just met her today!"
"Why would the Cult Leader's disciple come looking for you?"
Damn it. My private meeting with the Blood Demon hadn't been made known to the trainees.
She'd also come quietly to find me, and I'd never felt any need to brag about it, so of course no one knew.
"After the Black Valley matter was over, the Cult Leader called me in and we met. That woman came because she wanted to check for herself after hearing that the Cult Leader had taken an interest in me.
She charged me the moment she arrived, so I knocked her out, but I had no idea what else to do with her, so I was just going to put her on the bed."
"…Is that true? You really don't know her?"
Jin Sohee's eyes wavered. Now was the time to drive the point home.
"Of course. To begin with, I hate women like that."
Baek Yeon, to put it bluntly, was a madwoman.
She came to 'check' on me and then attacked without warning. What on earth was going through her head?
A madwoman who thought the world revolved around her. Who would want someone like that as a comrade?
"Then what kind of person do you like?"
Why was she suddenly asking that? Still, if I wanted to avoid the pervert accusation, I had to answer.
"If I had to choose, someone like you would be better."
That was sincere. Jin Sohee had ability and actually did what she was told.
Sure, asking me to spar with her was a pain, but there probably wasn't another comrade as useful as her.
"Someone like me…"
Jin Sohee's face reddened as she shut the door.
"Fine. I'll believe you."
"Then why are you closing the door…?"
She strode into the room, dragged over a perfectly ordinary chair that had been tossed into a corner, and sat down beside the bed.
"I trust you, but just in case you're lying, I want to see for myself what that woman says when she wakes up."
"No, why go that far…"
"You don't like it? If you don't, I'll go out right now and tell the others that you brought a woman into your room."
Jin Sohee crossed her arms and stubbornly held her ground.
I had no idea what exactly she intended to confirm, but I couldn't afford to let rumors of me being a pervert spread, so I had to endure it.
And then, while that strange and awkward silence hung in the room, Baek Yeon groaned on the bed and shifted.
"Ugh, ngh…"
"Hey, are you awake?"
"That was way too hard…!"
It was just sleep talk. Who talked in their sleep like that?
At once, Jin Sohee's stare sharpened like a knife.
What kind of crazy woman was she, trying to make someone look like a pervert?
My temper boiled over. I couldn't take any more.
"Hey, wake up!"
I figured I had to rouse her properly. It felt awkward to touch a woman's body in front of Jin Sohee, so I lifted away the blanket pinning her down.
Thud!
"Ow!"
As I pulled the blanket off, she slipped and fell off the bed, and the shock finally dragged her awake.
Frowning, she pushed herself up, her gaze passing over me and landing on Jin Sohee as well.
"…Where am I?"
"My room. Are you awake now?"
At my question, Baek Yeon stared blankly at me for a moment, then seemed to remember what had just happened. Her face flushed, and she bit her lip.
"I… I lost?"
Her voice was full of disbelief and humiliation. Still, as one of the Blood Demon Lord's disciples, she accepted it with surprising cleanliness.
"…Yeah. I won't make some pathetic excuse—I admit it. I lost.
To think I'd lose to a mere trainee disciple. How shameful."
Baek Yeon looked at me with eyes gone cold.
"I didn't put anything on the line, but since you won, I'll grant you one request."
At that, I fell into thought for a moment. She was the Blood Demon Lord's third disciple, after all.
Someone of her rank should have information, and probably all sorts of treasures too.
Just as I was staring at her, wondering what I could squeeze out of her, Baek Yeon suddenly wrapped her own arms around herself.
"My, I did say I'd grant you a wish, but don't tell me you want my body?"
A cold killing intent from beside me prickled my skin.
Veins bulged on my forehead. If I didn't speak fast, I might kill that madwoman myself first.
"I'm curious whether the legacy of the Third Blood Demon still has anything left."
The Third Blood Demon was the root of my martial arts. Right now, all I had learned was the Death Blood Demon Art.
If she was the Third Blood Demon, she might have left other things behind.
But Baek Yeon apparently hadn't realized I had inherited the Third Blood Demon's line.
"The Third Blood Demon's legacy? Why would you ask about that?"
"Looks like you haven't heard about me yet. I've inherited the Third Blood Demon's teachings."
"What!?"
Baek Yeon looked startled for a moment, then nodded.
"Well… that would explain why you seemed so strong."
Baek Yeon got off the bed and straightened her clothes before answering.
"I've only been the Master's disciple for a short while, so I don't know all the secrets yet.
I haven't even been assigned any major duties, so I've never gone into the sect's inner vaults.
Still, I do know the Third Blood Demon's legacy has more in it."
"You don't know what it is?"
"Not exactly. But there are plenty of rumors that the vault beneath the Cult Leader's Palace stores the legacies of the Blood Demons through the generations.
Go win the martial arts tournament this time. Once you make it into the top ten, you're allowed to choose your reward, and if you win first place, wouldn't they at least hand something like that over?
After all, the Third's teachings were cut off long ago and are treated like an unusable burden nobody can do anything with. If you ask for them, I don't think they'd refuse you outright."
Baek Yeon had a point. If I demanded the Third Blood Demon's legacy right now, they'd probably laugh in my face.
But if I won the tournament?
With an accomplishment like that, I'd probably earn the right to ask for it. And if the request was too much for what I'd achieved, then I'd just have to achieve more.
"What, nothing else you want to ask for? If you like, you can even have my body…"
"Shut up."
Baek Yeon came closer with a teasing smile. Then she glanced toward Jin Sohee by the door, deliberately took my arm, and whispered in a languid voice, as if trying to provoke her on purpose.
"Still, that energy just now was really hot and intense. I think your traces are still left all over my body."
"What!? Traces? Hot?"
Jin Sohee shot to her feet as if having a seizure, her face blazing red as she stared at me.
I got chills and tried to shove Baek Yeon away, but she pressed a kiss to my cheek and then hooked herself out the window.
"Next time we meet, let's spar somewhere more discreet. That way no one can interfere."
Baek Yeon grinned, thoroughly provoking Jin Sohee one last time before disappearing outside.
Silence settled over the room. Jin Sohee's eyes were already burning with rage.
"Wang Saryeong…?"
She was calling my name, smiling on the outside while her hand rested on her sword.
"I think I need a very, very detailed explanation for what that woman just said."
"No matter how I look at it, she was obviously messing with me on purpose!"
But it seemed my explanation wasn't reaching her ears at all.
She gripped her sword tight and muttered,
"Fine. So if you enter the tournament, you can get what you want, right?
Then I'll enter too. I'll win first place and ask them to let me fight that vixen one-on-one."
I pressed a hand to my forehead. Jin Sohee's eyes had gone completely insane.
At this rate, wasn't she going to end up like that madwoman too?
I shook my head and began preparing for the martial arts tournament that was coming our way.
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