41. Murong Clan (3)
Murong Clan (3)
41. Murong Clan (3)
"Actually, it isn't anything serious. I just need someone to pour Young Master Baek a drink. He would gladly accept a drink poured by a new hyung, of course, but even I, a woman, know liquor tastes best when a woman pours it. Well, I could pour for him myself, but my personality is rather nasty, isn't it? Young Master Baek has put up with my temper longer than anyone. He might choke on a drink poured by me."
Murong Rin spoke with a soft, pleasant smile. Whatever else might be true, if that bitch actually poured me a drink, even a lover of alcohol like me would feel like throwing up.
"Here, Unni. Fill Young Master Baek's cup. You're already married, so surely you can manage that much?"
"Huh...? Uh... yeah."
She must have been more than a little flustered at being told to sit beside a strange man she'd never met and pour him a drink, but she had surely anticipated Murong Rin's utterly shitty personality. As she carefully picked up the wine bottle and respectfully began filling my cup, the corner of Murong Rin's eyebrow twitched.
Fuck. What's she not happy about now?
"Unni. Young Master Baek is an old friend of mine. I hate to ask, but couldn't you show him a little more respect?"
"Huh?"
Already walking on eggshells, Murong Jin flinched at Murong Rin's rebuke and looked at her, thoroughly cowed.
"Our Young Master Baek has spent his whole life at the Murong Clan's mercy. Even now, after leaving Baek Clan Estate, he came all the way here while worrying about offending me."
So she does know. How sad. The story of my life.
"So shouldn't he get to be served by a Murong at least once? Even though you married out, you're still a Murong, aren't you? That's why you shamelessly came back here. Face and pride mean nothing before family. As a daughter of the Murong Clan, entertain Young Master Baek for me.
"Now kneel, mind your manners, and pour for him properly. Being served like this by a daughter of the Murong Clan will give Young Master Baek something to boast about for the rest of his life."
Smiling radiantly, Murong Rin issued an absurd command: kneel and pour his drink. Even at the male-supremacist Yeongsan Sect, no one would do such a thing. It was something only a courtesan at a pleasure house would do.
"R-Rin!"
Murong Jin's face went pale with shock and fear. But if an expression like that could make Murong Rin change her mind, her notoriety would never have spread so far.
"Why? You don't want to?"
"I-I'm already a married woman."
"What does that matter? Does marrying out mean you're no longer a Murong? If so, how could you shamelessly come begging the Murong Clan for help?"
With those cold words, Murong Rin sneered at her pleading look. Unlike Huangfu Gun, who watched with interest, I held my cup without knowing what to do and felt like dying. In the end, Murong Jin gave up, knelt respectfully on the floor, and poured me a drink. Her face flushed with humiliation, and a single tear formed in her eye.
"There, drink up. Thank you all for coming all the way here to celebrate my birthday."
She raised her cup high with that cheerful remark. Unable to resist the mood, Murong Jin and I raised ours as well and swallowed a sip without tasting even the finest wine.
"Phew. How is it, Young Master Baek? Not even the Martial Alliance Leader could drink wine poured by a daughter of the Murong Clan like a courtesan."
"Thank you."
Well... what was I supposed to say in this situation? After all, I was nothing more than a tool summoned here to play the role of humiliating Murong Jin.
"Ah, your cup is empty. Unni?"
"Uh... yes. Please accept it, Reverend Yeongmok."
Again, she poured for me with excessive politeness. I had no idea what to do anymore. Every time Murong Jin felt humiliated, Murong Rin grew more delighted. Fortunately, she issued no stranger commands than pouring drinks, and the gathering continued pleasantly enough.
"Ah, did you hear, Young Master Baek? Heuk Cheon-gyeon. That bastard went and set up some Heavenly Wolf Sect or whatever right in someone else's front yard."
"Yes, I heard."
"Huh? What kind of reaction is that? Liaoxi may be our front yard, but it's much closer to your sect, isn't it?"
"Well, what can I do? It isn't as though I can ask Heuk Cheon-gyeon to move elsewhere, and he doesn't even know our sect exists. You don't remember where it's either, do you, Young Miss?"
"Who are you calling a fool? It's the Tiny Sect, isn't it? I remember that much."
"We really are tiny, but our name is Yeongsan Sect. Brother Huangfu, Madam Murong, neither of you had heard of it before, had you? See? You probably don't even know the Seven Fingers Sect, which is far more prominent than we are, so what influence could a six-member Yeongsan Sect possibly have on Liaoning's martial world?"
Huangfu Gun burst into hearty laughter, and Murong Jin's expression eased a little. Whether they were branch-family members or women who had married out, their roots still lay at the very top of the martial world.
"Six disciples? Then one is the Sect Leader, one is the Head Disciple. Only four ordinary disciples?"
Perhaps the story of such a tiny sect intrigued him, because Huangfu Gun asked another question.
"Yes. I'm the youngest. My senior sister right above me is only twelve years old now, and she's incredibly cute."
"Twelve years old?"
Ordinarily, a disciple that young wouldn't even be included in a sect's headcount, since twelve was not yet the usual age to become a formal disciple.
"How can a sect that small possibly maintain itself?"
"Until last year, we had a fair number of disciples. Then some local thugs rose up and called themselves an unorthodox faction, so we thought it was our chance and set out to subjugate them. But the only sword art our sect had was the Three Talents Sword, so they wiped us out."
At my indifferent words, the three of them were rather taken aback. They had been the ones to rudely discuss my sect first, but it seemed they genuinely found it astonishing that I could speak so casually of my sect's annihilation. Though the fact that our sect's sword art was the Three Talents Sword was surely shocking enough on its own.
"Oh dear. I'm sorry. You said it was last year? Who were those bastards? Though I am merely from a branch line of the Huangfu Clan, I will lend my strength to your revenge."
Hmm. He was surprisingly openhearted. Even a small sect could be tangled in complicated grudges with other factions, yet he offered to help after only a few drinks. He was either generous or thoughtless—the sort who might take it back later.
"I appreciate the sentiment, but they're all dead too. After defeating our sect, they got cocky and attacked some bandits, who wiped them out."
"What? Really? What audacious bastards. A mere unorthodox faction that had just barely established itself dared to mess with the White Tiger Fortress of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds..."
Even the Murong Clan couldn't know every scuffle among street thugs. Murong Rin had jumped to the wrong conclusion after taking an interest in my story.
"It wasn't the White Tiger Fortress of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds. They were just local bandits. I hear they were all caught by the authorities later."
At that, all three of them finally burst out laughing. Even Murong Jin could no longer hold it in.
"Good heavens. They say the martial world is wide, but truly all manner of strange things happen."
"Well, to an ordinary martial artist, people from the Murong or Huangfu Clans would seem far more extraordinary than our Yeongsan Sect. No, I suppose I'm the most unusual one here."
"You, Young Master Baek? Why is that?"
"A man from a tiny sect like mine is sitting at the same drinking table as members of the Murong and Huangfu Clans. Ordinarily, that would be hard even to imagine."
"Honestly, your flattery is first-class. Young Master Baek, you must have lived without fearing anyone in Jilin, so how are you so good at flattery? Your younger brother just stood there stiffly, so I was annoyed and sent him away."
Because I had been assigned to deal with problem customers in my previous life too. Especially assholes like you.
"But Yeongmok, why did you end up in your current sect? We in the Huangfu Clan have heard of the Jilin Baek Clan Estate."
Huangfu Gun asked the obvious question.
"Why else? A woman bewitched him. His sect was in trouble, so a woman came seeking help, and Young Master Baek was so taken by her beauty that he abandoned Baek Clan Estate and followed her like a puppy. She's his senior sister. I've met her. She's a little thin and shabby, but with a bit of grooming, she would be a stunning beauty."
Murong Rin had always loved beautiful things. For her, that was remarkably high praise for Son Yeong.
"Even more than Rinmae?"
Huangfu Gun asked lecherously.
"Who knows? It depends on the man judging. In Young Master Baek's eyes, that senior sister probably looks prettier than Rinmae, his old friend."
She could speak so coolly only because she was confident in her looks. Son Yeong was certainly beautiful, but Murong Rin was no less so. That meant I absolutely could not let her see Jeong-hyang.
"She's that beautiful? Amazing. Rinmae is prettier to me, of course, but little brother, you're more devoted than you look!"
Huangfu Gun laughed heartily at me while openly adoring Murong Rin. Did he know? He might be her lover now, but countless men had already passed through her, and before long he too would be quietly removed from that position.
"What about you, Unni? Huangfu oppa and Young Master Baek may not be much to look at, but aren't they much bigger and manlier than Guard Jang—I mean, Brother-in-law?"
Murong Rin asked Murong Jin, who had been silent all this time, in a suggestive voice.
"Most women would probably think these two young masters looked more impressive than my husband. But we are husband and wife. Even if you are more beautiful than I am, Rin, and even if my husband is unimpressive, none of that matters to us anymore."
Murong Jin spoke calmly.
No. That was the worst possible response.
Murong Rin had only meant to tease her a little. But if Murong Jin slipped away so calmly and honestly, it would set off Murong Rin's shitty personality. Murong Rin smoothed her twitching eyebrow and began smiling radiantly. Huangfu Gun seemed to recognize that expression, because he abruptly tensed.
"Is that so? I haven't married yet, so I must have confused lovers with spouses. Even so, Unni, isn't a couple's sex life even more important than a lover's? Brother-in-law probably tries his best, but his cock is only the size of a finger."
At those words, Murong Jin—and all of us—went pale.
"R-Rin!! N-No..."
"What do you mean, no? I saw it myself long ago. When I was first becoming curious about men, I stripped all the guards, felt them up, and inspected them closely. Brother-in-law has a decent face, but his cock was the smallest of them all. You already know I'm no chaste maiden, Unni, but of all the cocks I've seen, I've never once seen one smaller than his.
"Ah, wait. Our Hyeon—the eldest brother's son who just turned two—is still smaller than Brother-in-law. That will only last a few years, though. Unni, is it really all right? Can you truly be happy in your marriage with a husband whose cock is that small?"
Without batting an eye, Murong Rin wielded her terrifying tongue like a sword and cut Murong Jin down. Damn it. Now the rest of us felt uncomfortable too. She was Murong Rin's cousin and should have known her much better than we did, so why step on a landmine after I'd barely softened the drinking party with stories about Yeongsan Sect? The brief laughter vanished. All four of us sank into a foul mood: Murong Rin, who had shown her temper; me, the weakest person there; Murong Jin, her target; and even Huangfu Gun, who had probably heard the rumors but had now been forced to listen to his lover's graphic sexual history.