Why Is She Here?
“You can all head to your assigned sections now. If there’s anything you’re unsure about, just ask anytime.”
“Understood.”
The laborers, having already reached the wheat field, scattered swiftly to their respective zones. As Yoo Eunhyeon watched them settle in, Mo Cheol-dong sidled up behind him.
“Don’t get tense. Just do what you’ve always done.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You look worried, is all. Your face has been locked up tight since earlier.”
Mo Cheol-dong mimicked Yoo Eunhyeon’s rigid expression. When Eunhyeon let out a small laugh, the older man finally seemed to relax and continued.
“Just don’t go saying anything unnecessary. Most trouble starts with the mouth, after all. Keep it shut and you won’t earn anyone’s ill will for no reason.”
Yoo Eunhyeon nodded without a word. Mo Cheol-dong grinned and clapped him lightly on the shoulder.
“And didn’t they say some young folk are coming? Haven’t you heard the saying that every martial artist is a peerless beauty? You’ll get an eyeful, that’s for sure. When else are farmers like us going to get a look at the beauties of the Murim?”
At Mo Cheol-dong’s words, sly smiles bloomed among the younger laborers nearby. Yoo Eunhyeon, however, only managed a dubious look. Among the martial artists he knew, none quite fit that description.
“Just in case, even if they’re stunning, keep the staring to a moderate amount. One sidelong glance too many, and if your eyes happen to meet…”
Lowering his voice, Mo Cheol-dong raised a hand like a blade and drew it across his own throat.
“…it’ll end like this, sure as day.”
A few of the others nodded in solemn agreement. Judging by the knowing smiles they wore, something of the sort must have actually happened before.
If you die just for looking, that’d be about the emptiest death there is.
Yoo Eunhyeon himself had little to worry about, but he had no intention of stirring up trouble either. With that settled, he led Mo Cheol-dong toward the wheat field where the laborers were waiting.
“All right, we need this finished by tomorrow, so let’s move a bit faster!”
Having rallied the workers, Yoo Eunhyeon soon plunged into the wheat field himself.
During a brief rest, while they ate lunch in the shade, Yoo Eunhyeon turned to Mo Cheol-dong.
“What time do they usually show up? I’d rather they just came and went quickly.”
He narrowed his eyes. A few of the workers were too busy glancing around nervously to focus properly on their tasks. Mo Cheol-dong peered toward the entrance, then tilted his head.
“Well… that’s odd. Most times they arrive sometime in the morning, look around for about an hour, and leave.”
“Maybe they’re not coming today?”
“Doesn’t seem likely. They’ve never failed to show up before.”
The moment Mo Cheol-dong finished speaking, Yoo Eunhyeon also turned his gaze toward the field entrance. And right then—
“Speak of the devil. Here they come.”
Sure enough, a group was approaching. At the front strode Byeon Ak, his face tight with tension, and a considerable number of people followed behind him. Spotting Yoo Eunhyeon, who had not yet returned to work, Byeon Ak urgently waved him over.
“Break’s over—back to work, everyone!”
At Yoo Eunhyeon’s shout, the laborers filed back down into the wheat field and resumed their tasks. Before long, the visitors came into view. Yoo Eunhyeon, standing at the head of the workers, bowed his head deeply.
“Well now. Everything going smoothly?”
“Yes, sir. Today we’re harvesting the wheat.”
Four people… no, five.
Without lifting his head, Yoo Eunhyeon gauged their numbers by presence alone. Excluding Byeon Ak, there were five in total. One of those auras was familiar—he had sensed it once before.
Chang-hae, wasn’t it? Looks like he’s handling security for occasions like this.
The others paid little attention to the individual farmers, yet Yoo Eunhyeon could feel Chang-hae’s subtle scrutiny fixed on him.
It was not an open stare. Still, he could vaguely sense that the man’s awareness was concentrated in his direction.
Still suspicious after last time, is he? Working too hard might not be wise either.
Having reached that conclusion, Yoo Eunhyeon deliberately bowed once more with exaggerated courtesy.
“I’ll be getting back to work, then.”
He slipped naturally into the throng of laborers. Standing alone would only draw the eye. Just as you hide a tree in a forest, you hide a person among people.
As Yoo Eunhyeon drew near the workers, their whispered chatter reached his ears with perfect clarity.
“Those are the martial artists?”
“Looks like it. Wow—they’re all handsome and beautiful.”
“I thought Geumhyang from the Nokhyang Pavilion was the most beautiful woman under heaven, but she doesn’t even come close.”
Somehow, even while working, they had already managed enough sidelong glances to start ranking appearances.
They weren’t staring openly, and their hands kept moving, so Yoo Eunhyeon saw no reason to stop them. He simply blended in among them and set his own hands to work as well.
“That impressive, are they?”
He had no real interest, but he asked as if he did, just to keep up appearances. The moment he joined in, the others grew even more animated.
“Foreman Yeo, did you see the one at the very back? I only glanced for a second and nearly went blind. I honestly thought my eyes might burn out.”
“Right? Calling her a beauty doesn’t even cover it. You start wondering if someone like that can actually exist.”
“…That much?”
At this point, even Yoo Eunhyeon felt a flicker of curiosity. The only reason he had been carefully avoiding interest was to dodge suspicion—not because he was indifferent to handsome men and beautiful women. What man, after all, is truly uninterested in beauty? Curiosity had nowhere else to go but rise.
Everyone else is already sneaking looks… Would it really hurt if I took one glance? Looking completely uninterested might stand out even more.
Persuading himself thus, he was just about to lift his bowed head when the martial artists’ conversation drifted to his ears.
“This is boring. We’re just watching people cut some unidentifiable grass. Why do we even have to stand here and look?”
“Haha. Young Lady Baek So-eun, that is wheat. Grind it and you get flour.”
“Who doesn’t know that? Stop showing off.”
The grumbling voice of the woman called Baek So-eun floated over. Wondering if she was the peerless beauty the workers had been raving about, he started to turn his head—only for a familiar voice to pierce his eardrums like a blade.
“Learn farming and your martial arts improve? What a load of nonsense. Honestly, I can never figure Father out.”
A manner of speech he had heard somewhere before. And that unforgettable voice. It sliced through his eardrums and slammed into his mind.
“Hahaha. Young Lady Yeo-un, you do love a joke.”
And the instant the name Yeo-un reached him, Yoo Eunhyeon—midway through turning his head—jerked his body down as if struck by a pressure-point technique.
What the hell. Why is she here?
For a moment his breath locked and his mind went blank.
No—of course she’d be here. The Demonic Cult is her home. That part makes sense. But why here of all places? Why this farm?
His thoughts spun into chaos. He had never once imagined he might run into Sa Yeo-un in a place like this.
Of course, having decided to head for the Demonic Cult, he had not completely ruled out the possibility of eventually meeting her. But he had never dared to imagine encountering her like this—completely unprepared.
How am I supposed to meet the person who came to kill me—here? And by now she has to know I lied to her!
Worse still was the fact that he had no idea what Sa Yeo-un would do the moment she spotted him. The thought sent a chill down his spine.
Countless other thoughts flashed through his mind in the space of a breath, but they all reached the same conclusion.
I absolutely cannot let her see me right now.
There was one small mercy: Sa Yeo-un still showed not the slightest interest in the direction where Yoo Eunhyeon stood.
“Foreman Yeo… why are you suddenly smearing dirt all over yourself like that?”
“The sun feels a bit strong.”
As if nothing were wrong, Yoo Eunhyeon scooped dirt from the ground and rubbed it across his face and neck. When someone asked in bewilderment, he offered the excuse with perfect calm. It was a flimsy one, but for the moment it was the best he had.
This should be enough that she won’t recognize me.
Fearing even an accidental meeting of eyes, he deliberately threw himself into the work with even greater focus. Fortunately, Sa Yeo-un and the rest of the Demonic Cult party seemed equally uninterested in the individual laborers.
They don’t even care about farming—why would they care about farmers? They look exactly like students forced to study something they hate.
Only then could Yoo Eunhyeon begin to breathe a little easier. As the panic settled, the conversation he had overheard earlier resurfaced in his mind.
They said watching farming improves martial arts. No mystery whose idea that was. The Lord’s not entirely sane either.
He didn’t need to hear more to know whose head that notion had come from. Sa Unsik had already gained something real from watching Yoo Eunhyeon farm; apparently he had decided to stage large-scale farming in hopes that someone else might achieve enlightenment the same way.
If that logic holds, every farmer under heaven is a potential Murim master. Though at the very least you’d need actual interest in farming, like Brother Dong, before anything would come of it.
While he thought, two full hours slipped by. At last Sa Yeo-un’s party rose to leave. The work itself was nearly finished, and Yoo Eunhyeon let out a long, silent breath of relief that he had not been discovered.
They come every half-month, right? By the next visit another full month will have passed… I won’t run into her then. Yeo-un doesn’t seem to come often anyway, and there are multiple farms. I probably won’t see her again.
Just as he was reassuring himself, Mo Cheol-dong’s voice came from behind him.
“Foreman Yeo, do you have a moment?”