Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Part 15: That City's Night
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Jeong-a unwrapped the bundle she had brought.
From within, she drew out Yeon So-hyeon's thick winter coat.
She approached her master and respectfully draped the coat over his shoulders.
"It's still cold out."
"......Thank you."
Yeon So-hyeon's entire body was splattered with blood—still dripping steadily even now—but Jeong-a showed no sign of concern.
The flowing blood gradually turned to black ash and scattered on the wind.
The remains of one woman were drawn by pale hands into the darkness.
It was a bizarre and gruesome scene, yet Se-ah kept her eyes fixed on it all without turning away.
Yeon So-hyeon smiled at her.
"You must have questions."
Se-ah pushed aside her many doubts and asked what she wanted to know most.
"......Why did you reveal your identity to me?"
"I don't recall actually telling you."
Yeon So-hyeon played it coy, but Se-ah didn't bite.
"But you didn't hide it either."
"......True."
Yeon So-hyeon closed his eyes briefly before slowly nodding.
"That's right."
Even he, who always seemed utterly unflappable, had something weighing on his mind.
Se-ah found this unfamiliar side of him strange.
"......I'll need many people going forward."
Se-ah licked her parched lips.
"Is that as the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan? Or as the Dark Heaven Lord?"
"If the Eldest Young Master's goals align with the Dark Heaven Lord's, then they're one and the same."
This answer came without hesitation.
"What kind of people do you need?"
Yeon So-hyeon met her question with a steady gaze.
Her eyes were flawlessly clear.
The disconnect from her earlier ferocity was almost jarring.
"......People who won't break. Who won't change. People willing to sacrifice everything."
Se-ah paused, gathering her thoughts before responding.
"You're saying I'm one of them?"
"Yes."
His voice rang with certainty.
As if he had already decided it for her.
"How can you be so sure? Do you trust your judgment that much? Enough to bare your most dangerous secret to someone you've known only days?"
She pressed him, but as always, Yeon So-hyeon brushed it off.
Rather than bark back, he curved his lips in a smile and replied.
"Luoyang's Spring."
"......!"
His words sealed Se-ah's mouth.
A name she never imagined passing his lips.
In the next instant, fierce anxiety gripped her.
As if sensing her thoughts, Yeon So-hyeon spoke first.
"No need to worry. The Sword Clan has no idea you exist."
Color slowly returned to Se-ah's ashen face.
"How......? How do you know that name?"
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged.
"You haven't answered me yet."
Se-ah remembered.
The otherworldly demonic realm. The path of the underworld magic way, paved with mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
Was she prepared to walk the road Yeon So-hyeon tread?
"I......"
As she began to reply, Yeon So-hyeon turned away.
"We'll finish this later. I'm starving—time for a late-night bite."
Jeong-a bowed her head, as if she'd anticipated it.
"The heavenly ladies have already prepared everything. Just warm it up, and you can eat right away."
Genuine surprise flickered across Yeon So-hyeon's face.
"......Impressive."
"You're too kind."
He shook his head with a wry smile, then sauntered off.
"Wait......!"
Yeon So-hyeon's voice cut her off.
"Think it over carefully. This is the last chance I can give you."
"......."
Jeong-a shot a glance at her sister by way of farewell, then turned and followed her master.
Se-ah watched their retreating figures vanish into the cave's depths.
She turned the question inward.
Was she resolved?
"Leader-!"
Her subordinates' calls echoed from afar.
Yet her feet stayed rooted to the spot, unmoving for a long while.
* * *
Deep into the night.
Yeon So-hyeon sat perched atop the highest roof of the Crescent Moon Pavilion safehouse.
From its hilltop perch, the sprawling entertainment district of Luoyang below came into perfect view.
His expression inscrutable, he gazed out at the city that never slept.
Without turning, he spoke.
"I didn't think you'd come find me so soon."
It was Se-ah who had climbed the ladder to the roof.
She stepped carefully across the tiles and came to stand beside him.
"We went through all that chaos, and yet Luoyang goes on unchanged."
The distant district was beautiful from up here.
Drunken songs from revelers and the courtesans' melodies almost seemed to drift all the way over.
"That's how vast Luoyang is."
She squatted down next to him.
"The Black Bone Gang was a massive headache."
Her hair whipped wildly in the wind.
She bound it back with a cord.
"Just holding back their growth was overwhelming."
Her demeanor, her tone—both far more relaxed than before.
"Hm."
"But this city overflows with problems. The Black Bone Gang was a drop in the bucket."
Her shoulders shivered faintly in the hill's biting winter gusts.
"We were always outnumbered."
It wasn't just the cold thinning her voice.
Yeon So-hyeon draped his winter coat over her.
"......Thank you."
She tugged the collar tight and turned to him.
"How much do you know about our group, Luoyang's Spring?"
"Not much."
Yeon So-hyeon added curtly.
"Just that it's a secret society of do-gooders who want to make Luoyang better?"
Se-ah smiled at his cheeky phrasing.
"People who couldn't take it anymore. People who'd had enough."
"Sounds like a grim bunch—not the fun type to run with."
Se-ah burst into giggles.
"We try to be fun in our own way."
Her laughter soured into a wry smile.
"At first, we just banded together to fix little injustices."
"But soon you realized small fixes meant tackling bigger ones."
"Yes."
"And those big ones required fixing even larger ones."
She stared into the distance.
Luoyang stretched as far as the eye could see.
"You can't save the starving just by handing out food. In the end, you have to get rid of the ones making them starve."
"But get rid of them, and......"
"Others pop up in their place. And you can't erase the position itself."
Yeon So-hyeon laughed coldly.
"Because that position is the backbone of society."
Se-ah eyed him in surprise.
"......You get it."
Yeon So-hyeon guffawed.
"Who do you think overhauled Luoyang's relief agencies? Set up the famine aid system?"
Her eyes widened.
"That was you! I never......"
"Right. All in my mother's name. And she poured real effort into it."
But the master plan had come from young Yeon So-hyeon.
"Now, though, it's all become empty formalism."
Se-ah gazed at him bitterly.
"Is that why you started acting as the Dark Heaven Lord? To punish those ruining your mother's city?"
Yeon So-hyeon scoffed.
He rose and looked down on the city.
The wind howled fiercely, but his stance didn't waver.
"I've just resolved to shoulder all the responsibilities I've shirked until now."
His eyes grew fierce.
"It doesn't matter what mask I wear. Swordless One Yeon So-hyeon, Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon, Dark Heaven Lord."
His aura seemed to cleave the raging wind.
"Once I've committed to my duty, everyone responsible will answer for theirs."
A metallic growl edged his voice.
"Be it some alley gang in Luoyang's backstreets, an underworld kingpin, corrupt high officials, or the head of a colossal sect......"
Blue flames sparked in his eyes.
"Even if it's the Emperor himself, lording over all......!"
The powerless survived by exploiting the even weaker.
Those gnawed by eternal hunger survived by seizing the very spots others slept.
Because that was all the mighty permitted them.
The rest belonged to the strong.
A world utterly dominated by the law of the jungle.
A world where the strong devoured all.
A world where nothing changed because the foe was mighty.
A world where the weak losing everything was the natural order.
A world where the weak deserved nothing.
If that was their proclaimed natural order, their world—then he would embrace it gladly.
He was ready.
He, the eternal demon, practitioner of the Extreme Heaven-Purging Scripture and Dark Heaven Lord, was himself the world's mightiest overlord.
By their logic, he would hammer them with inescapable retribution.
"Then......"
Se-ah rose to her feet.
She held her balance against the gale.
She drew the fine sword kept for self-defense.
Then knelt before Yeon So-hyeon.
"I've heard this is the Sword Clan's ancient tradition."
She inverted the fine sword and offered him the hilt.
Yeon So-hyeon silently stared at it.
Se-ah looked up at him and spoke.
"This sword is now yours."
Yeon So-hyeon said nothing, gazing at her for a long moment.
"......No regrets?"
Se-ah met his eyes with unyielding resolve.
"I have only one eye left, but I'm not so blind as to miss who truly deserves my loyalty."
"That......"
Se-ah took up his words.
"Even if it's the underworld demonic path of mountains of corpses and seas of blood in an otherworldly demonic realm."
No more words were needed.
Yeon So-hyeon took her sword.
Yet for some reason, he gripped the guard awkwardly, not the hilt.
"I, Yeon So-hyeon, Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Clan and Dark Heaven Lord, accept your sword."
The rite was sealed.
After her house crumbled, she had survived alone in the slums.
In a mere ten years, she rose to lead Crescent Moon Pavilion, a solid mid-tier intelligence outfit.
She earned the moniker Iron Blood, inspiring awe and dread.
And now,
She had found her liege.
After a silent moment with eyes closed, Se-ah stood.
"Come to think of it......"
She giggled at the sight of him awkwardly clutching the sword.
"I'm the first to see the Swordless One holding a blade."
Yeon So-hyeon snorted.
"Your sister beat you to this ritual."
"......What?!"
Winter's edge hadn't left Luoyang, its winds knife-sharp, yet she felt no cold.
Others would now fret over the chill.
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