Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: TrueDetective
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: 16. In Search of the Excommunicated Disciples (1)
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“You want to meet the excommunicated disciple kids?”
When I asked back, Jaha nodded solemnly.
“Yes. I need to meet them… and see for myself. What kind of state they’re in right now.”
“…….”
It might be faster to just let Jaha see them with her own eyes than to try convincing her otherwise.
I hadn’t seen what kind of ‘state’ they were in myself yet, so it was necessary to meet them at least once.
But on the flip side, since I’d never seen them even once, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to let Jaha meet them.
Jaha was acting like normal.
But that was only possible because she clung to the hope that it wasn’t Sin Tae-eul who had died.
Would Jaha, in such an unstable state, be able to accept the physical defects of those kids…?
The bigger problem was that now that Sin Tae-eul was gone, I had no idea where the excommunicated disciple kids were or what they were doing.
Just in case, I called over Taeguk, who had just returned after finishing his schedule, and talked it over.
“Since Tae-eul… ended up like that, I have no way to contact them either.”
I’d hoped Sin Tae-eul might have left some way to reach the excommunicated disciples. Guess not.
Instead, Taeguk looked like he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask me.
“That thing in the Han River. It really wasn’t Sin Tae-eul?”
It seemed Jaha had already told Taeguk.
When I glanced at her, Jaha puffed out her chest as if she had nothing to be guilty about.
“I thought Taeguk hyung needed to know that I’m in the loop on this now too! And I figured he’d be worried about Sin Tae-eul!”
At Jaha’s words, Taeguk’s expression darkened even further.
“…I didn’t want you to find out like this.”
Jaha bristled at Taeguk’s gloomy mutter and glared at him with fierce eyes.
“Then when the hell were you planning to tell me? No, why didn’t you tell me sooner? You know I can keep my mouth shut!”
I couldn’t agree with her claim of having a tight lip.
Taeguk answered in an apologetic tone.
“I hoped you’d never have to know. I wanted to make sure nothing happened until you finished your activities.”
“What am I, a kid? Why shut me out? I’m super sensitive about being left out!!”
“That’s… I’m sorry.”
The Heavenly Demon, who had been watching the two silently, spoke up.
“Why is this Wudang Sect punk overprotecting the Huashan Sect punk so much? No matter how deficient the Huashan punk is.”
“That sounded like a subtle dig. Was it my imagination?”
Jaha snapped back at the Heavenly Demon and crossed her arms, speaking curtly.
“It’s not because I’m deficient. Taeguk hyung and I are like real siblings.”
“You two are twins too?”
“What kinda nonsense is that? How do we look like twins?”
“I thought maybe you had some secret birth story.”
“We grew up together since we were little. We’re from the same orphanage.”
“Orphanage?”
“You said you don’t have parents either, Heavenly Demon hyung. Same for us! Probably for So too, right?”
Hey, why drag my family history into this?
The Heavenly Demon’s gaze fixed on me.
Feeling a bit awkward, I nodded affirmatively.
“Ah, well… I wasn’t from an orphanage. I grew up with relatives.”
The Heavenly Demon raised one eyebrow as if he couldn’t comprehend.
“In this era without even the Demonic Cult, are there really that many parentless kids?”
“There are parents who abandon their kids in every era. Don’t you get it from our names? No sane parents would name their kids like this!”
Thank goodness the person in question, Dang Sa-cheon, wasn’t here.
“What about the others?”
“What about the others?”
“Are the Alliance Leader punk and the monk parentless too?”
At the Heavenly Demon’s question, Taeguk shook his head this time.
“No. I think Ilgeom hyung gets calls from his parents sometimes. Nahani probably too. His family would bring food during trainee days sometimes.”
“Nahani’s rumored to be some rich kid. I thought it was weird how the person dropping off side dishes kept changing, but people said it was probably the household staff.”
“As far as I know, only the three of us don’t have parents. Namgoong Jun has Teacher Namgoong Ryeo, so…”
“Teacher Namgoong Ryeo?”
Jaha, who didn’t yet know the connection between Teacher Namgoong Ryeo and Namgoong Jun, looked baffled.
“Why Teacher Namgoong Ryeo?”
“Teacher Namgoong Ryeo is Namgoong Jun’s mother.”
A flurry of expressions crossed Jaha’s face upon hearing that.
She looked like she had a lot to say, but in the end, only one came out loud.
“…Teacher Namgoong Ryeo, that’s not a stage name?”
Knew she’d ask that.
Just then, Dang Sa-cheon and Namgoong Moo came in through the door.
“What were you all talking about?”
He’d said he was heading to the Namgoong family estate, but his business must’ve wrapped up quick.
“…But what’s with your getups?”
Dang Sa-cheon and Namgoong Moo had been gone for just over three hours.
Did they roll around somewhere? Their clothes were a total mess.
“You two didn’t fight or anything…?”
“No way. As if that would happen.”
I couldn’t trust Dang Sa-cheon’s words, so I looked to Namgoong Moo, who nodded as if confirming them.
“But on the way back, things were getting rowdy around the Han River.”
These two hadn’t seen the news yet, it seemed.
Even if they had, they wouldn’t know it was Sin Tae-eul.
“…There’s something I need to talk about regarding that. Let’s discuss it separately later.”
“Is it something involving us? Well… if you say so, hyungnim.”
Dang Sa-cheon sat down in the room without much reaction, but Jaha panicked and shot to her feet.
“Wait. Dang Sa-cheon knows everything too? So I really was the last one in the dark?”
“The Alliance Leader and the monk don’t know yet.”
The Heavenly Demon tossed that out to console her, but Jaha’s voice rose even higher.
“No, no matter how you think about it, shouldn’t those two have been told first? They’re the most reliable! It stings that I was told last, but I get it on a logical level. But why not tell Ilgeom hyung and Nahani? Nahani’s lips are a hundred times tighter than mine!”
“…….”
I hesitated.
Should I bring up the Masked Expert here?
But if the CEO murdered Sin Tae-eul, then the one who swung the sword was that Masked Expert.
Sensing my hesitation, the Heavenly Demon stepped in.
“We’ll call those two after meeting the excommunicated disciple punks. You’re not even fully convinced yet, right, Huashan wench?”
“That’s… true, but…….”
As Jaha’s voice quieted again, Taeguk chimed in agreement with the Heavenly Demon.
“I agree with making contact with the excommunicated disciples first. If we can reach them somehow… we might learn Sin Tae-eul’s whereabouts through them.”
“You’re going to meet the excommunicated disciples… the former members?”
Dang Sa-cheon, who’d been listening quietly, asked, and I readily confirmed.
“Yeah. Though we don’t have a way to contact them yet.”
“Perfect.”
“Perfect?”
“I’d thought we should gather once before anyway… Now that we know our lives might be in danger, there’s only one thing we need to do.”
Only one thing to do?
I couldn’t guess what he meant.
But everyone except me said it in unison.
“Train in martial arts.”
…Their minds, remodeled by inner energy, were impossible to follow.
“Uh… Wouldn’t it be better to report to the police?”
Jaha, whose murim brain wasn’t fully developed yet, suggested something sensible, but everyone shook their heads.
“What?! Ignoring the authorities?!”
“Jaha sunbae, what would we even report to the police?”
“Huh? Well… there’s a missing person…? And we might be in danger too?”
“It’d be safer to just leak a story about unfair contracts, labor exploitation, or illegal doping.”
“Il, illegal doping?!”
Forcing inner energy into them could indeed be called illegal doping. Not wrong.
“Dang Sa-cheon’s right.”
Namgoong Moo stepped forward in support.
“The police won’t help. Even if they believed us, our individual strength already far surpasses public authority.”
“But training in martial arts…?”
“We have to deal with a big shot like the CEO in this situation… We can’t suddenly get as rich as him. But learning martial arts isn’t impossible with Heavenly Demon-nim here. So…….”
Namgoong Moo trailed off, hesitated, then pulled something from his bosom.
“I brought this from the Namgoong family estate.”
Before I could even peek, Dang Sa-cheon snarked from the side.
“Brought? You mean stole. Hyungnim, because of this guy, we climbed over walls and got chased by some assassin types…….”
“H-How can you say that in front of Manager hyung?!”
What the hell did you two do?
“A-anyway… I thought it might help…….”
What Namgoong Moo held out was.
“…Imperial Sword Form?”
The Namgoong clan’s manual.
The Imperial Sword Form.
* * *
“Our manual was stolen?”
As Saibi asked that, the corner of his mouth twitched like it was spasming.
Namgoong Ryeo watched him, narrowing her eyes and murmuring softly.
“…Why hold back? Just laugh already, CEO Sa.”
“Kh… Please be lenient, Clan Head. My foot that got axed hurts so bad, if I don’t laugh at something like this, I might go mad.”
“Robbed three times already and you still find it funny? You really have no shame, CEO Sa…….”
“But it’s amusing, the idea. Stealing a clan’s manual.”
Saibi pondered the implication for a moment, then smiled brightly.
“It’s a headache for you, Clan Head… but not bad for me. If those kids become real martial artists, it’d be ideal.”
“You’re fine with them all learning the Namgoong clan’s sword? What about your plan…….”
“The Imperial Sword Form is a form (形). Not a sword technique.”
Cutting off Namgoong Ryeo, Saibi stated firmly.
“With Heavenly Demon-nim here, they won’t need to learn Namgoong swordsmanship.”
Faced with Saibi’s resolute attitude, Namgoong Ryeo paused to choose her words, then opted for a sigh.
“What’s that kid thinking at this point…….”
“That’s parenting for you. Better than when he was just drifting without motivation, right?”
“…….”
Namgoong Ryeo fell silent with a deeply troubled expression, then spoke out of habit.
“Don’t forget your promise.”
At the word “promise,” Saibi wiped the smile from his face and looked at her.
“You said that last time too……. Do I seem like someone who’d break a promise?”
“You promised the Namgoong clan that if I cooperated, you wouldn’t touch my child.”
Saibi gave Namgoong Ryeo a gentle smile.
“Of course. Especially since Heavenly Demon-nim is already here in this world……. I have no plans to do more with those kids.”
That much was true, from Saibi’s words.
Namgoong Ryeo knew Saibi had no reason to attempt another Heavenly Demon summoning.
But still.
This eerie unease, like one wrong step could lose everything.
No, like they were already plummeting off a cliff……
“If you’re that worried, why not tell him to quit now? He didn’t seem that attached to being an idol anyway.”
“That’s… for him to decide. But… what about Uchi-kun now?”
“Uchi-kun?”
Saibi tilted his head at the sudden name.
“Something else happen?”
“He was holed up in fear for a while. Now he keeps contacting me asking if there’s nothing for him to do. Seems desperate to get back in Keychi.”
“Eager, huh. I like that. People with ambition.”
Saibi fell into thought.
She meant it.
People with ambition are good.
‘But if they get scared of their own ambition and screw things up, that’s a problem…….’
Had Uchi… that loose-tongued guy been involved in Geomsoja’s quick reaction to Sin Tae-eul’s death?
Saibi opened her closed eyes and murmured softly.
“I guess I should give a little gift to Uchi-kun, who’s worked so hard.”