The Hidden Knife and the Poison Flower
The voices of the retainers poured out one after another around Dang Pae.
“There’s a problem with suddenly deciding to choose a Young Family Head because of Baek Mugeuk.”
“Exactly. That position should have gone to the First Young Master from the start, shouldn’t it?”
“We’ll speak to the Family Head ourselves! We’ll tell him who truly deserves to stand in that seat!”
But Dang Pae heard none of it. He was only thinking of the martial artist who had just passed by, of Baek Mugeuk.
At first, he’d simply thought he’d give the man a little trouble. So he’d slipped poison on him as he passed. The bastard should have doubled over and collapsed right there.
And yet there had been no reaction at all.
“Interesting fellow.”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind.”
At Dang Pae’s words, all the retainers wore puzzled expressions.
“Pretend you didn’t hear any of that. The Family Head has already declared that the Young Family Head selection contest will be held, so I will not tolerate anyone raising an objection.”
“…Understood.”
Dang Pae stopped before the Dang Family Head’s chamber. The martial artists guarding the door shifted aside to make way for him.
Dang Pae bowed deeply and spoke. His voice was solemn.
“This son, Dang Pae, has completed the mission given by the Family Head and returned.”
“……”
His voice echoed through the entire chamber. But no answer came after that. A little later, the door to the chamber slowly opened.
Even then, Dang Pae did not release his bow. He stood there as rigid as a stone statue until one brief sentence from the Dang Family Head finally moved him.
“Come in.”
Dang Pae stood across from the Family Head’s seat and lowered his head.
“Was there anything troublesome while carrying out the mission?”
“No. I completed it without issue and returned.”
“I see.”
There was not a trace of parental affection in Dang Bo’s eyes as they rested on his son. Only a weary, languid indifference.
“Anything else to say?”
“While returning, I heard that you were planning to choose a Young Family Head.”
“That is correct.”
“May I ask why?”
“The time has simply come.”
“……”
Their conversation was too chilly to call it one between father and son. Dang Pae turned his head slightly, and one of the retainers entered carrying a wooden box.
“During this mission, I managed to obtain poisons that dwell in the southern wilderness.”
“Is that so.”
When Dang Pae turned to look at Dang Bo, the retainer set the wooden box down before him. Yet Dang Bo’s gaze did not move even a single inch toward it.
Only one short question came.
“Anything else to say?”
“No.”
“You may leave.”
“Yes.”
That was the end of their conversation. As Dang Pae left the chamber, the retainers hurried to fall in behind him.
“Family Head, this is really too much. Those poisons took the Young Master so much effort to gather...”
“That’s right. And more than that, hasn’t he flawlessly carried out every mission you’ve assigned without a single slip?”
They praised Dang Pae without pause. Dang Pae looked at them and thought of one word: sycophants.
“Choose your words carefully.”
“We only think it’s unfair...”
“I understand how you feel. But don’t say anything you’ll regret. Above all, the Family Head will soon realize that even a position like this was never needed in the first place.”
“Exactly. This upcoming Young Family Head contest is going to be the Young Master’s anyway.”
Dang Pae said nothing more. He simply let the corners of his mouth curl upward.
* * *
It was a day of perfect clarity, the kind when the sunlight warmed the body. And then, in an instant, that sunlight vanished.
It disappeared behind countless flying daggers that rained down on me, cutting off the sky.
I moved my feet lazily and dodged them. Then I sent my own daggers shooting toward the direction the rain of steel had come from.
Whoosh.
My dagger flew like a single point, then began piercing through the daggers that were falling toward me, carving a line through the air.
And when my dagger finally reached Dang Hye, who had been flooding the sky with blades, the dagger she had thrown barely managed to knock mine aside.
“Oh? So you can block them now?”
“Shut up!”
A rough voice burst from Dang Hye’s mouth. She was usually foulmouthed, but today there was real heat in it. I could understand why. Anyone who spent the entire day with their body soaked in a tub full of poison wouldn’t be in a cheerful mood.
“I was seriously impressed. Why are you getting so worked up?”
“I said shut up!”
Daggers kept pouring from Dang Hye’s hands without end. Their power was vastly greater than when she had first started throwing them.
If things had remained as they were before, my dagger would have pierced through every single one she sent at me.
“But this isn’t the end, is it?”
Crack.
At my words, poison began to leak from Dang Hye’s body. Naturally, it was only a drop in the bucket compared to the poison that flowed from the Family Head’s body, but as a martial artist, Dang Hye was growing quickly.
The poison that seeped from her body rode along the daggers and shot outward, stitching the sky together. She had completed her own version of Myriad Blossoms of Flying Rain, suffusing the technique with poison in her own way.
Dang Hye frowned, looking pained just from maintaining the form. But the corners of her mouth were definitely lifted.
“Die!”
“That’s poison flowers, all right. But the thing is...”
The daggers that filled the sky all began to pour down at once over my head.
“It’s sloppy.”
I lowered my stance and started flicking my daggers out at high speed. The moment my blades and Dang Hye’s blades collided, the air erupted with the screech of scraping metal.
Pow-papapapam!
Daggers stabbed into the ground one after another, and the dirt they kicked up obscured our sight. When the last of them finally fell, the only sound left was Dang Hye’s ragged breathing.
“Huff, huff.”
Slowly, the dust began to settle.
“The Myriad Blossoms of Flying Rain I imagined wasn’t just about throwing a lot of daggers...”
The dust fully cleared.
I hadn’t moved a single step to evade the technique. And yet not one of the daggers aimed at me had pierced my body.
Instead, countless daggers had been planted in the ground around me.
All I’d done was simple: I’d thrown my own daggers to nudge theirs off course little by little in advance.
“Dang Hye, can you avoid a storm without being touched by a single drop?”
“Pant... pant... How would a person do that?”
“Exactly. That’s the Myriad Blossoms of Flying Rain I was thinking of.”
I drew Bright Destroying Sword and, lowering my body, began to swing the blade. The Bright Destroying Sword knocked every dagger embedded in the ground back into the air.
And at the very moment the daggers filled the sky once more, they came crashing down on Dang Hye.
“What the hell...”
Dang Hye tried to move when she saw the rain of steel pouring toward her. But she had poured all her inner strength into unleashing Myriad Blossoms of Flying Rain, and her body would not obey.
“Daggers raining from every direction. That’s Myriad Blossoms of Flying Rain.”
The blades stretched all the way to Dang Hye’s doorstep. And just before they touched her body, they fell to the ground as though their strength had been spent.
“Huff. Huff.”
The instant the daggers dropped, Dang Hye sank to the ground as well. Her body trembled lightly, as though she had faced death head-on for an instant.
“Still, I do like those eyes of yours.”
Even at the very last second, just before the daggers could touch her, Dang Hye’s eyes had remained fixed on them, as though she refused to let a single one escape her.
That gaze would make her stronger.
Of course, the curses that spilled from her mouth after she caught her breath were another matter entirely.
During the day, we repeated combat training using daggers and poison like this.
At night, we trained her body to build resistance by soaking it in poison.
And just like that, fourteen days had already passed.
I moved with Dang Hye to the training chamber. As if she were already used to it, she lowered herself into the water steeped with poisonous herbs.
“Tomorrow’s the day. Nervous?”
“No.”
By now, Dang Hye could neutralize poison and still speak naturally. Her inner power had naturally reached the threshold of the peak realm as well.
The disappointing part was this:
“You told me to trust you, but you still haven’t reached Unpierceable by Ten Thousand Poisons.”
“It’s you who lacks insight.”
“Ha... If you can’t even stop talking.”
Dang Hye still hadn’t reached Unpierceable by Ten Thousand Poisons.
Honestly, was it even realistic to reach the peak realm and attain Unpierceable by Ten Thousand Poisons in just half a month? The fact that she had reached the peak realm alone was already absurd growth.
I wanted to say that, of course, this was possible because she had a good teacher like me, but how could such a thing happen simply because a good teacher existed?
Her talent for swordsmanship was so poor it was practically trash, yet her talent for poison and daggers was the real thing.
That left me with a question. Had the Family Head not known about Dang Hye’s talent?
The Family Head, who had used poison and daggers all his life? He probably had known. Then why hadn’t he raised her?
Thud, thud.
What broke my train of thought was the sound of footsteps approaching Dang Hye’s training chamber.
Normally, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it. But in the half month I had spent coming and going from Dang Hye’s chamber, not a single person had come looking for her.
And the moment the footsteps stopped at the door, I opened it and stepped outside.
Standing there were Dang Pae and Dang Ho-yeop.
“What is it?”
The first to react to my question was Dang Ho-yeop.
“What is it? Is there anywhere in the Dang Family we can’t go?”
“And who are you again?”
“What did you say? I’m Dang Ho-yeop! How dare you claim you don’t recognize me?”
“Ah. You’re easier to remember lying down.”
“You bastard! How dare you!”
Dang Ho-yeop’s face reddened as he reached toward me. But Dang Pae stopped his hand before he could act.
“Ho-yeop. Enough.”
“Brother!”
“We didn’t come here to fight.”
Dang Pae smiled faintly as he looked at me. Then he gave a light bow.
“You must be the Bright Destroying Sword. I’m the Dang Family’s First Young Master, Dang Pae.”
“What brings you here?”
“Ah. We came to see Hye for a moment.”
“Tomorrow is the Young Family Head contest. Why bother coming today?”
“Because it’s tomorrow that we’re here to see her today.”
“Brother. Didn’t you say there was no need to come see someone with such a lowly bloodline?”
“Ho-yeop. Mind your tongue. Hye is also of the Family Head’s blood, just like us.”
At Dang Pae’s slight turn of the head, Dang Ho-yeop clamped his mouth shut.
“Hye. Are you inside?”
“Elder Brother?”
At Dang Pae’s words, Dang Hye answered with a bright voice.
“Just a moment.”
The door creaked open.
It looked as if Dang Hye had hurriedly thrown on her clothes, since traces of unwashed poison still clung to her hair.
She smiled when she saw Dang Pae. But the instant her eyes fell on Dang Ho-yeop beside him, her expression returned to its emotionless state.
“Brother came, and you can’t even greet him properly?”
At Dang Ho-yeop’s bark, Dang Hye lowered her head deeply.
“I greet the First Young Master and the Second Young Master.”
“Ho-yeop. Today I came to see Hye as a brother. There’s no need for such empty formalities.”
“Brother! Even so, there are family rules to follow...”
“I won’t say it twice.”
“Yes...”
Dang Ho-yeop looked displeased, but Dang Pae didn’t seem to care. He stepped closer to Dang Hye and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“I hear you suffered quite a bit while you were away with the Martial Alliance.”
“Not at all. Compared to the First Young Master, this is nothing...”
“Just call me Elder Brother.”
“Yes. Elder Brother.”
“I came today because I wanted to tell you something before tomorrow’s Young Family Head contest. Leave aside the fact that we’re siblings, and show each other our full abilities without holding anything back.”
At Dang Pae’s words, Dang Hye lowered her head slightly.
“Show them everything you’ve prepared until now.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Then I’ll be going.”
Dang Pae left those words behind and turned away as if he meant every one of them. Dang Ho-yeop glared at me and Dang Hye for a moment before following after Dang Pae.
“Dang Hye. That guy’s completely insane, isn’t he?”
“Don’t talk about Elder Brother like that.”
I clicked my tongue at Dang Hye with open disdain.
“I’m starting to think your eyes really are made of knotholes.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You didn’t even realize he came here today to kill you.”
“Baek Mugeuk. If you talk about my brother like that, then...”
“What’s wrong with your brothers? Not one of them is normal.”
“Huff... Huff...”
Dang Hye suddenly clutched her throat. Then she threw her body to the ground and began writhing.