The Divine Archer (2)
I flashed a gentle smile at the dazed young man standing there with a blank expression.
"Stay right there. I won't hurt you."
He glanced at the arrow in my hand and let out a sigh of relief, patting his chest.
Worth rushing over here.
The young man before me was none other than the Divine Archer.
In my previous life, he was the one who had tried to snipe Ak Yeong-gyeong, the Commandant of the Capital Garrison.
But Ak Yeong-gyeong was a man blessed with infuriatingly good luck.
This incident was just one stroke of that luck—the arrow merely grazed his neck.
Thanks to that, the commandant survived, and in the end, this young man was captured and dragged away.
Pitying his story, the commandant forgave him, and even the Emperor deemed his talent too valuable to waste, sentencing him to a light punishment.
Yet he ultimately took his own life.
During the interrogation, he learned things he never knew before.
Unable to bear the guilt, he couldn't go on.
It had caused quite a stir at the time, so I knew the rough details.
I didn't know the exact date of the crime, but upon arriving here today and hearing that the commandant was coming, I realized this was the day.
That's why I'd moved so quickly.
Originally, the Seo-u Warrior should have caught that arrow, but the Divine Archer's skill exceeded my expectations, forcing me to intervene.
I'd pushed the Muheun Step to its limits just to snag it—proof of his extraordinary prowess.
All the more reason I couldn't let him slip away.
I spoke to him with feigned innocence.
"You should be grateful to me. What would have happened if I hadn't caught that arrow?"
"……."
He just stared at me, still dumbfounded.
Then I suppose we start from the back.
"So, who hired you?"
"Hired? I don't know anything about that! I came to stop him!"
Snapping to his senses, the Divine Archer cried out desperately.
"What are you talking about? Didn't you pay me an advance for this job?"
"When did I? Got any proof?"
What a brazen bastard.
I chuckled and swung my fist at him.
"Guhk!"
Grabbing his spun-around face, I said coldly,
"Even bullshit needs to sound plausible for me to listen. This doesn't even deserve it. You came to stop him? If so, you'd be out of breath from running, your clothes disheveled."
"Th-that……!"
By then, my entourage had arrived, and I handed the man over to them.
Turning back to the Divine Archer, I said,
"I just saved your life from ruin, and you won't even treat me to a cup of tea?"
He clenched his fists and opened his mouth.
"Follow me."
A short while later,
we arrived at a shabby thatched hut.
Of course, we'd brought the culprit who'd ordered the assassination along.
The Seo-u Warrior and Yeo Eung-am Warrior felled a thick tree in the woods and drove it into the ground, binding the man to it.
Meanwhile, the Divine Archer brought tea.
"Please have some."
"Thanks, I'll enjoy it."
I took a sip and set the cup down.
Is this really meant to be drunk?
No talent for brewing tea, that's for sure.
Suppressing a sigh, I smoothly changed the subject.
"By the way, you still don't fully trust us, do you? It seems Head Manager Chun is inside, yet you won't let us pay our respects?"
"How… how did you know?"
"I have that much skill. That's how I caught that arrow earlier, right?"
"True enough."
He looked up at the sky for a moment, then lowered his gaze and continued.
"Truth be told, my father has been bedridden for five years now."
"My condolences. You've been through a lot. But now that we're here, shouldn't we at least greet him? It's only proper."
"He can't respond at all, though……."
"It's fine."
At my insistence, he reluctantly led me inside.
A middle-aged man lay on the sickbed.
His face was gaunt and withered.
I sighed inwardly. The aura emanating from him was unmistakably poison qi.
I'd sensed it even before entering the room…….
The information I knew was spot on.
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Eun Seo-ho, young division head of the Eunhae Merchant Group. I have a connection with your son, so I've come to visit."
His lips twitched slightly, his eyes flickering.
Signs of lingering consciousness.
Turning to the Divine Archer, I asked,
"Has a physician seen him?"
"Ah, yes. Fortunately, there's a kind doctor who's been treating my father."
"Don't trust that physician."
He flared up in anger.
"What do you mean? Even if you've helped me, I can't let that slide. He's visited every other day for five years, treating my father. How can you say not to trust him?!"
Catching his breath, he added,
"I want nothing to do with someone who slanders my benefactor like that!"
"Sigh……."
I sighed and asked,
"What did that physician diagnose your father's condition as?"
"Damage to the cervical vertebrae causing paralysis……."
"So he prescribed expensive bone-strengthening herbs. You sold off your assets to pay for them, right?"
His face filled with bewilderment.
It had to be just as I'd said.
"Am I wrong?"
"No, you're right."
"And the job that man gave you—who introduced you? If I'm right, it was that physician."
"……!"
"Your father's illness is poisoning."
"What?"
"He's been poisoned."
"P-poisoning?"
"And those every-other-day visits? In my view, that physician is in league with whoever poisoned him."
"I-I can't believe it."
"Then I'll make you believe."
I rolled up my sleeves.
I'm a walking antidote, after all.
"Jin Yu Warrior and I-pil Warrior, keep that young master from lashing out. Everyone else, protect me."
"Understood."
I circulated my inner energy.
Pure, pristine energy infused into Head Manager Chun's body.
The tremendous surge made my robes flutter.
I carefully examined Head Manager Chun's body.
Fortunately, the poison hadn't reached his marrow yet.
That's why he still had some awareness.
To keep him alive as long as possible, they'd used this method.
"I'm going to detoxify the poison in your body now. Try to relax as much as possible."
I channeled the pure, cleansing energy of the Tae-eum Bing-hae Divine Art into his body.
Its energy drew from the great forces of nature itself.
That's why infusing it caused no harm to the recipient.
Slowly, the toxic qi within him began to purify.
A moment later,
I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.
Speaking to Head Manager Chun before me,
"How do you feel?"
"Ah…… My, my voice…… It's coming out. Thank you so much."
He immediately called for his son.
"Jeong-ah. Jeong-ah!"
"F-Father!"
At my glance, the two guards released him, and he rushed to his father's side.
"Yes, it's you, Jeong-ah."
"Father!"
Tears streamed down the Divine Archer's face at hearing his father call his name after five long years.
"You're safe…… safe, thank goodness!"
His pronunciation was a bit slurred from years of silence, but conversation was no problem.
"Just as this lord said, I've been poisoned all this time."
"What? Is that true?"
"Yes. And that physician wasn't treating me—he was……."
Gasping for breath, he couldn't continue.
"Your body isn't fully recovered yet. You'll need ongoing care, but first, take this."
I pulled a pouch from my bosom and offered it.
"What is it?"
"Cheon Yeong-geun."
"Pardon?"
"A miraculous recovery tonic."
It was the spirit medicine Gold Spirit had gifted me for my birthday.
Using it like this.
"Isn't that incredibly valuable?"
"Isn't this fate? And no spirit medicine is worth more than a human life."
He bowed deeply in gratitude.
"Thank you so much. Truly, thank you!"
Seeing him like that stirred memories of my past life, leaving me with a bitter smile.
Back then, upon learning he'd been deceived by the physician and that the physician's gang had killed his father after his capture—what must his anguish have been?
The Emperor had them arrested, and they couldn't escape execution, but the Divine Archer's heart must have been torn to shreds.
At that moment, the Seo-u Warrior ground his teeth beside me and asked,
"Where is that physician? We can't let scum like him get away!"
Come to think of it, the Seo-u Warrior had suffered from a quack physician too.
In my previous life, it had been too late, and he'd died.
Now, thanks to me, he'd been treated in time and resumed his life as a warrior.
Having gone through something similar, it wasn't just anyone else's problem to him.
That's why even the cautious Seo-u Warrior reacted this way.
Then the Divine Archer stood.
"I'll guide you. I have so many questions for him. And since he wronged me…… please let me handle it myself."
His eyes were nothing like the bewildered gaze from before.
A voice stopped him.
"Jeong-ah……."
"Yes, Father."
"There's something I must tell you."
Sang Deok had already packed his bags.
Once the order came, he had to kill Man Jeong's father and flee immediately.
"Heh heh heh. Stupid fool. Fawning over the very ones who poisoned his father!"
He was a member of an assassination squad.
They weren't top-tier, but they were tenacious, never letting a target escape once marked.
That made them fairly popular.
"Gonna miss this place a bit, though."
It was then.
Swaeaeaek!
An arrow from nowhere pierced his left hand.
It happened so suddenly he didn't even register the pain.
Before he could feel it, another arrow flew.
Swaeaeaek!
Pak!
That one nailed his left thigh to the wall.
Two more arrows in quick succession pierced his right hand and right thigh, pinning him spread-eagled against the wall.
"Kwaaaak!"
Unable to endure the agony, he screamed, and someone appeared.
"Nice to see you, Doctor."
"Y-you…… What the hell is this?!"
The one before him was Man Jeong.
"And what did you do to our father?"
"Wh-what are you……."
"Father has recovered."
"……!"
"And he told me everything. Seven years ago, you came to him, asked him to help assassinate Lord Ak. When he refused, you resorted to this!"
"……."
"Everything you mocked him about in front of him—he remembers it all."
Sang Deok bit his lip.
H-how is he alive? That poison was real!
Seven years ago, Sang Deok's group had taken a hit on Ak Yeong-gyeong.
But he was cautious and meticulous, making opportunities scarce.
Then they learned of a family at the foot of Mount Tai with exceptional archery skills.
The Yun Gang-man Clan.
They approached the clan head, Man Juk, offering a fortune, but he rejected them outright.
Undeterred, they scouted and discovered his son, Man Jeong, was equally gifted.
So they devised a scheme.
Ruin the clan, corner the son, and force him to do their bidding.
It was also revenge for being harshly turned away as "black path scum."
And Sang Deok had deliberately kept Man Juk conscious.
To make him watch his son turn to the dark path with his own eyes.
During house calls, he'd taunted him mentally and physically.
If I'd known, I'd have erased his consciousness too! Damn it!
He tried to coax Man Jeong gently.
"There must be some misunderstanding. Your father just regained his senses; his mind isn't clear yet. That's why he's confused……."
"Shut your mouth!"
Thwack!
"Kuhk!"
Man Jeong snarled, swinging a brutal fist at Sang Deok.
"More curious things, right? How I got here, what happened to the one who gave me the job?"
"……!"
Now that he thought about it, something was off.
He should have heard from them by now…… but silence.
At that moment—
"Ah, you've already handled it."
A pleasant, melodious voice rang out, and a handsome man in splendid robes approached with his group.
I entered the physician's house.
The man who looked like the physician was pinned to the wall in a spread-eagle by arrows.
Wow, what incredible precision.
Shooting arrows to pin a person to a wall at just the right depth isn't easy at all.
"Is that the physician?"
At the Seo-u Warrior's icy tone, the Divine Archer nodded.
"Yes."
"I see."
Come to think of it, what had happened to the quack who'd deceived the Seo-u Warrior and Madam Hong Geum-so?
The Seo-u Warrior asked my permission.
"May I lay hands on him?"
"If the young master allows it."
The Seo-u Warrior turned, and the Divine Archer nodded.
"Of course."
"Thank you."
The Seo-u Warrior clasped his hands in salute, approached the physician, and kicked his shin.
Crack!
"Kwaaaak!"
Ah…… That sounded like bones breaking.