“F-Father!!”
With that scream, the Main Hall was thrown into chaos.
THUD!
Hegemon Bear Peng Mu-gwang leapt up onto the dais.
When he stamped his foot, the thick ebony floor crumbled like dry firewood.
It all happened in an instant.
Purple smoke had poured out of the box.
In the poison fog that reeked of rotten eggs, the Peng Clan Head had collapsed, clawing at his chest.
“Keu, euuugh......”
Black blood trickled from the corners of Peng Jin-ak's mouth.
His eyes had rolled back to the whites, and the veins on the nape of his neck squirmed hideously like a swarm of earthworms crawling.
Anyone could see he'd been poisoned.
And with a lethal poison so vicious it burned up the heart meridian the moment it touched.
“Father! Come to your senses!”
Peng Mu-gwang howled like a beast.
“A physician! Call a physician right now!”
His roar shook the pillars of the Main Hall and sent dust pouring down.
Lying flat on the floor, I stopped breathing.
The Sealed Breath of the <Yin Kill Secret Record>.
Stop the breath and close the pores.
It was so that any lingering poison qi wouldn't get a chance to seep in.
‘This is insane, what kind of bolt from the blue is this?’
My mind went blank.
She said it was a gift.
A birthday gift for the Clan Head!
So why did poison smoke come out instead of a gift?
I glanced to the side.
Namgung Seol.
She too was staring blankly into the air with a dazed expression.
“How...... could this......”
Her white fingertips trembled.
It was only natural.
A poison that could kill her future father-in-law had come out of the gift box she herself had brought.
This wasn't just a matter of the marriage falling apart.
This was the kind of thing where we'd all get our heads cut off right here and hung up in the marketplace.
“S-seize that bitch!”
Someone shouted.
“Seize her right now!”
The flustered guards drew their swords all at once.
Dozens of razor-sharp blades were leveled at Namgung Seol and me.
CLANG! CLA-CLANG!
Namgung Seol reflexively raised her white jade sword and knocked the blades aside.
But she didn't seem to have any intention of fighting back.
She took a step back and shouted urgently.
“It is a misunderstanding! I know nothing of this! That box clearly held......!”
“Shut up!”
Peng Mu-gwang's roar cut off Namgung Seol's explanation.
He let go of his father, whom he'd been holding up, and slowly stood.
His enormous back twitched.
He picked up something that had fallen to the floor.
A single sheet of paper that had dropped when the poison box went flying.
A letter wrapped in oiled cloth so that the poison smoke wouldn't damage it.
“......”
Peng Mu-gwang's hands trembled as he read the letter.
He looked ready to burn the paper with his eyes alone.
Grind.
The sound of grinding teeth filled the Main Hall.
Peng Mu-gwang turned his head.
The simple, honest face that had been flustered at the sight of Namgung Seol just moments ago was gone.
In its place stood only a beast whose eyes had flipped over with betrayal.
“......You bitch.”
His voice sounded like it had been scraped up from the very bottom of hell.
“How dare you trample my pure heart, the goodwill of the Peng Clan, like this?”
“What are you talking about? I truly......”
“Read it.”
Peng Mu-gwang hurled the crumpled letter in Namgung Seol's face.
The paper fluttered limply to the floor.
With my eyes narrowed to slits, I sneaked a look at the letter's contents on the floor.
The handwriting was flowing, but the contents were a sewer.
[I hereby address the Clan Head of the Hebei Peng Clan.
I, Namgung Seol, am renowned as a beauty unrivaled under heaven.
How could I possibly be paired with an ugly man like a bear?
Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit, and I shudder with disgust.
However, one cannot defy the orders of one's clan.
Instead, I intend to strike off the head of the Peng Clan and make this filthy betrothal as if it never happened.
This poison is my refusal.
You Peng Clan bastards, know your place and back off.]
‘Wow......’
My jaw dropped.
This wasn't just an insult.
It was like gouging straight into Peng Mu-gwang's most painful spot, then pouring salt on it and setting it on fire for good measure.
And to a man who'd fallen for Namgung Seol at first sight and done every kind of trick for her just moments ago, no less.
“Th-this is a fabrication!”
Namgung Seol cried out, almost screaming.
“I did not write this!”
But it was already too late.
“Keureureureu......”
A beast's growl spilled from Peng Mu-gwang's mouth.
The rims of his eyes were red and raw.
Tears, whether of grief or rage, ran down his cheeks.
“I...... was sincere.”
He picked up an enormous great blade that had been standing beside the dais.
The enormous blade, as big as a man's torso, flashed in the yellow torchlight.
Gripping the blade, Peng Mu-gwang spat out his words.
“You hate me because I am ugly? I disgust you because I am like a bear? Then why did you not just say it to my face!”
His voice cracked.
“You should have just spat on me instead......”
“Mister Peng, please listen to me!”
“I need no excuses!”
Peng Mu-gwang's eyes flashed red.
“The price for harming my father and driving a blade into my heart is......”
Peng Mu-gwang raised the blade above his head.
Killing intent raged like a storm.
It was such overwhelming force that even the Peng Clan martial artists in the Main Hall backed away.
“Death alone.”
BOOM!
The heavy iron door of the Main Hall slammed shut.
The way out was gone.
On all sides were Peng Clan martial artists with fire in their eyes.
Straight ahead was the Hegemon Bear, who had lost his reason.
With my head pressed to the floor, I bit my lip.
‘I'm fucked.’
Not only had I walked into a tiger's den on my own two feet, I'd plucked the tiger's whiskers and set it on fire to boot.
Thanks to this precious young lady, my life was about to end right here.
KABOOM!
The floor of the Main Hall exploded.
The blade Peng Mu-gwang brought down split the spot where Namgung Seol had been standing in half.
Debris flew everywhere.
“Dodge it!”
Before I could even shout, Namgung Seol's figure slid backward like a ghost.
Her face was pale.
But her eyes didn't waver.
“Calm yourself! Mister Peng!”
Namgung Seol raised her scabbard and shouted.
“This is a trap!”
“A trap?”
Peng Mu-gwang growled.
“Yes, it is a trap. A very filthy trap that you dug, bitch!”
Peng Mu-gwang charged, swinging his great blade like a windmill.
It was simple and rough.
But the inner arts within it were as heavy as if they were pushing an entire mountain.
Whoom, BOOM!
Whooom, CRACK!
Every time the enormous blade swept past, pillars were cut down like rotten radishes, and expensive porcelain turned to powder.
Namgung Seol didn't draw her white jade sword.
‘Once she draws her sword, there's no going back.’
She knew it too.
If she turned a blade on the eldest son of the Peng Clan here, it would mean all-out war between the Namgung Clan and the Hebei Peng Clan.
But Peng Mu-gwang had no intention of going easy.
“Why do you not draw your sword?!”
Peng Mu-gwang swung his blade like a madman.
“Do I look ridiculous to you? Because I am a big lug of a bear, I am not even worth fighting?!”
“That is not it!”
Namgung Seol gritted her teeth.
“Please, just listen to me......!”
“Shut up!”
Peng Mu-gwang's roar cut off her words.
“I saw how dearly you cherished that box!”
Namgung Seol flinched.
“The whole way to the Main Hall! You never once let it out of your arms. Was that because it was a precious gift for my father?”
His eyes twisted ferociously.
“No, you knew it held a lethal poison, so you were watching to make sure it did not spill!”
His logic was perfect.
It was a misunderstanding, but looking at the situation alone, it was evidence that couldn't be pulled out or pushed in.
Even I, watching from beside her, had thought she was being remarkably devoted.
Who would have known it was a jar holding poison?
“I, I only cherished it because it was a gift for Father......”
“I did not know the Namgung Clan were such vile bastards!”
Peng Mu-gwang's eyes flipped over.
A blood-red energy poured out of his entire body.
An ultimate skill of the Hegemon King Blade.
Blood Wind Slash.
“Die!”
The enormous blade traced a red trajectory, aiming for Namgung Seol's neck.
This time there was no room to dodge.
Behind her was a blocked wall.
CLANG—!
A sharp metallic sound burst out.
Namgung Seol blocked it with her scabbard.
But the difference in strength was too great.
Her body was sent flying.
BOOM!
Namgung Seol slammed into the wall and coughed up blood.
“Cough!”
“Seize her!”
Peng Mu-gwang shouted as if weeping tears of blood.
“Even tearing her limbs apart would not be enough!”
The guards on standby rushed in all at once.
Nets and hooks came flying.
Namgung Seol tried to get up, but it was already too late.
A cramped space.
Dozens of martial artists.
No matter how much of an expert she was, there was no gap to slip through.
In the end, Namgung Seol was pinned to the floor.
Both arms were twisted behind her, and she was forced onto her knees.
“Let go of me! I have been wronged!”
“Shut your mouth!”
A guard slammed the hilt of his sword down on her back.
THWACK!
Namgung Seol's body pitched forward.
Dust and blood stained her clothes, once as white as snow.
It was as if a lofty swan had been flung into the mud.
And then.
“That guy's in on it too!”
Someone's finger pointed at me, cowering in a corner.
“She said he was the porter, didn't she? He's an accomplice!”
‘Ah, damn it.’
The sparks had flown my way.
No, these weren't sparks, they were lava.
In an instant, three or four Peng Clan martial artists pounced on me.
Resisting would be pointless.
I obediently lay flat on the floor and raised both hands.
“W-wait! It's a misunderstanding! I'm just...... urk!”
THWACK!
A foot kicked me in the side.
My breath caught.
“Shut up, you rat!”
“You're probably a spy for the Namgung Clan too!”
I was forced onto my knees side by side with Namgung Seol.
What a sight.
Since I was about to die side by side with a beauty unrivaled under heaven, should I call it a blessed death?
Peng Mu-gwang stood in front of us, fuming.
He was still holding the enormous great blade.
“The antidote?”
Namgung Seol shook her head.
“I do not know.”
“......”
“I did not even know it was poison, so how could I have an antidote......”
“Sticking out a duck's foot to the very end, I see.”
Peng Mu-gwang sneered coldly.
“Then there is only one way.”
He raised the great blade.
“I will just have to cut off your head and send it to the Namgung Clan. Then they will come running with the antidote.”
It wasn't a threat.
It was real.
That guy had now forgotten that the woman in front of him was his betrothed.
To him, she was simply the enemy who had harmed his father.
A chill stabbed into the crown of my head.
Namgung Seol squeezed her eyes shut.
She had given up.
‘No.’
The alarm bell in my head rang like mad.
I couldn't die like this.
After working my whole life as a waiter in the martial world, I was going to die a dog's death here?
Wasn't that far too unfair?
“Wait!!”
My mouth burst open on its own.
At the thunderous shout, the blade stopped in midair.
Peng Mu-gwang's gaze slowly bored down into me.
The look of someone eyeing a bug.
No, it was contempt for something lower than a bug.
“What are you?”
He growled in a low voice.
“Do you want to leave your last words?”
My heart felt like it was going to leap out of my mouth.
My legs were trembling.
But I forced my hand into my robes.
“The Hebei Peng Clan......”
My throat was bone-dry.
Still, I squeezed out my strength and shouted.
“Is it a place that swings its blade at the benefactor of its own clan?!”
“What?”
Peng Mu-gwang's eyebrow twitched.
“A benefactor? You have lost your mind.”
“The Mad Tiger, Master Peng Hwi!”
The moment I spat out that name.
The air in the Main Hall froze.
A name treated as taboo in the Peng Clan.
The second son who had gone missing.
Peng Mu-gwang's uncle.
Peng Hwi.
“There's something he personally gave me!”
Peng Mu-gwang's pupils wavered.
“Y-you dare speak Uncle's name so carelessly?”
With trembling hands, I pulled a thick bundle of bank notes from my robes and held it up high in the air.
It was the very bundle of bank notes Peng Hwi had tossed to me after catching Dokgo Yeong in the bamboo forest.
For high-value bank notes issued by the great money houses of the murim, it was customary to leave an endorsement—that is, a signature—on the back when transferring them, to prevent theft.
The back of the bank notes I held up.
There, Peng Hwi's signature was clearly stamped, stretched out as roughly as the swing of a great blade.
Peng Mu-gwang's great blade faltered in midair.
One of the Peng Clan's Elders standing nearby opened his eyes wide and shouted.
“Th-that handwriting...... there's no mistake. That majestic script, as if carved into rock with a blade...... it is definitely Peng Hwi's!”
The hall stirred.
Peng Mu-gwang glared at me.
Anger, shock, and suspicion were mixing together on his face.
“Where...... did you meet Uncle?”
His voice trembled.
“Are you saying he is alive?”
“On the mountain behind the Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion!”
Seizing my chance, I poured out the words without even stopping to breathe.
“I helped Master Peng Hwi catch Thousand Faces Dokgo Yeong and take his revenge, and he acknowledged it and gave me these bank notes as payment!”
I raised the bank notes even higher.
“If the Hebei Peng Clan is a clan that knows the chivalry of repaying its benefactors, please hear me out!”
Peng Mu-gwang's eyes wavered.
“Think about it!”
My voice grew louder on its own.
“If Miss Namgung really wanted to break off the marriage and assassinate the Clan Head, she could have just sent a letter from far away. Why would she crawl all the way into the tiger's den on her own two feet and hand over a poison box?”
I looked around at the Peng Clan martial artists surrounding us.
“And right in the middle of the Main Hall, with dozens of eyes watching?”
The eyes of a few martial artists wavered faintly.
Good.
It was working.
“And what about the contents of that letter!”
I gestured with my chin at the letter on the floor.
“What reason would she have to go out of her way to insult the Young Master's looks and gouge at the Peng Clan's pride to stoke your anger?”
Peng Mu-gwang's face stiffened.
I looked straight up into his eyes.
I was scared.
Really scared.
But if I looked away here, I'd die.
“It's as if......”
I spoke slowly.
“Someone deliberately wanted to enrage you, Young Master.”
The Main Hall went quiet.
Peng Mu-gwang dry-washed his face with his hand.
News of the uncle he'd long since stopped thinking about.
Thanks to that shock, a gap had opened in his head, which had lost all reason, for my logic to squeeze into.
But just then.
Another martial artist standing beside him shouted.
“Young Master! Don't let that crafty bastard's tongue play you!”
He glared at me as if he wanted to kill me.
“Who knows where he stole Uncle's bank notes? It's a ploy to buy time!”
“That's right!”
Another martial artist shouted.
“The evidence of the poison is clear! There's no reason to keep the Namgung wench alive!”
The martial artists around us spewed killing intent again.
The atmosphere turned ugly once more.
Strength went into Peng Mu-gwang's hand.
“As I thought......”
He gritted his teeth.
“I will have to kill you first and confirm it after.”
Had my persuasion failed?
I squeezed my eyes shut.
Ah, Old Man Wang.
I don't think I'll be coming back.
You'll have to hire a new waiter.
There was the sound of a blade cutting through the wind.
Shiiik—!
“Stop.”
A low, cracked voice rang through the Main Hall.
The blade stopped right in front of my nose.
By exactly the width of a single perilla leaf.
A few strands of my severed hair scattered in the air.
“......!”
Peng Mu-gwang stiffly turned his head.
Everyone's eyes went to the dais.
The Clan Head, Peng Jin-ak, who had collapsed vomiting black blood.
He was sitting cross-legged with his eyes wide open.
His eyes, which had been rolled back to the whites just moments ago, had returned to normal.
The corners of his mouth were still stained black, but his eyes alone blazed with life.
“F-Father?”
Breathing raggedly, Peng Jin-ak pointed at me with a trembling finger.
“What that guy says......”
His voice was weak, but clear enough for everyone in the Main Hall to hear.
“Is right.”