The Principal of the Heavenly Way Martial Arts Academy, Cheon Hyeong-do.
After being away for quite a long while, he had finally returned to Clear Mirror Town.
“Ch-Cheon Hyeong-do......!”
Ha Mok-ryeong, who recognized him belatedly, turned the color of dirt.
Cheon Hyeong-do picked at his ear and slowly turned his head.
“That mug looks familiar somehow.”
“Wh-what are you talking about? This is the first time we've met!”
“For that, you called my name awfully warmly, didn't you?”
Ha Mok-ryeong flinched and shut his mouth.
Cheon Hyeong-do slapped his knee and let out a low exclamation.
“Ah, now I remember. Aren't you the brat who took a sound thrashing from me a while back?”
“......!”
“I thought it'd been quiet for a while, but you're still living like this on the market floor?”
“Ugh...... Why do you always get in the way of other people's business?!”
“Get in the way? You bastards are pointing your swords at my kid, so as his old man, how could I just stand by and watch?”
“Your son?”
Ha Mok-ryeong's gaze turned to Cheon Su-rin.
His indifferent, cold eyes bore a strange resemblance to Cheon Hyeong-do's.
Only then did Ha Mok-ryeong realize they were father and son, and his pupils trembled finely.
“Why are you picking a fight with my son in broad daylight? Huh?”
“Don't misunderstand! Your son picked the fight first!”
“First? My son did?”
“Yes! Your son butted into someone else's business, so I was just going to discipline him a little!”
Cheon Hyeong-do's eyes narrowed slightly.
After scanning Cheon Su-rin's expression and the situation around them, he laughed heartily, as if he had roughly grasped what had happened.
“So that's what it comes down to. You were the one up to no good first, I'll bet.”
Struck right on the mark, Ha Mok-ryeong only opened and closed his mouth, unable to refute him.
Just then, his dark path subordinates readjusted their grips on their weapons.
“Chairman, shall we deal with him?”
At that question, Ha Mok-ryeong could not bring himself to give the order.
If he had the guts for that, he would have swung his sword long ago.
‘I can't beat that monster.’
In the past, he had looked down on the man as just the Principal of a mere academy and attacked, only to be defeated so badly that he could not even gather his bones. That memory remained like a brand.
After that, he had avoided Cheon Hyeong-do's eyes, yet of all people, he had gotten tangled up with his son.
“......Let's go.”
“Sir?”
“Didn't I say we're withdrawing?!”
In the end, Ha Mok-ryeong tucked his tail.
Cheon Hyeong-do had not even drawn his sword. He had overwhelmed them with nothing but a single bamboo pole that had held his luggage bundle.
The best course was to withdraw before suffering even greater humiliation.
“From now on, you'd better remember my son's face well too.”
“......I'll remember it.”
Ha Mok-ryeong spat the venomous words and was just about to turn away.
“Wait.”
Cheon Su-rin's flat voice caught him by the ankle.
Ha Mok-ryeong shouted irritably.
“What now?!”
“Didn't you forget something?”
Cheon Su-rin tapped his own chest with his finger.
Only then did Ha Mok-ryeong remember the silver in his robe, and he gnashed his teeth as he rummaged through his pocket.
“Here, you brat!”
Ha Mok-ryeong flung the silver irritably.
It flew rather fast, but Cheon Su-rin calmly snatched it without so much as blinking.
“You can go now.”
Beaten up and robbed of his money on top of it. It was truly a day cursed with mangy luck.
Ha Mok-ryeong hurried his subordinates along and fled the scene in a rush.
“Here, I'm returning this to you.”
Cheon Su-rin held out the silver to the shop owner.
But the owner's expression was somehow sour.
He did thank him, but an uneasy anxiety lingered in his eyes.
“I'm grateful for your help, but...... next time, it's fine if you just look the other way.”
At the unexpected reaction, Cheon Su-rin's brows drew slightly together.
“May I ask why?”
“Even if they leave, other bastards will come tomorrow anyway. If you're a merchant, you have to pay tribute to someone in the end to do business.”
The ecosystem of the dark path was thoroughly calculating.
Bleed the merchants within your territory, but do not touch one another's territory. That was the unwritten rule.
“The Azure River Society is better, if anything. At least they take less tribute. If you're not going to keep protecting us, just leave it alone. That's how you'd be helping.”
Cheon Su-rin fell silent.
He had failed to consider that his goodwill could become a nuisance to someone.
Then had his destroying the Black Tiger Gang also been a nuisance to these people?
“Goodness, that's a harsh thing to say.”
Just then, Cheon Hyeong-do cut in abruptly.
“My kid did it out of a good heart. There's no need to go that far, is there?”
“Th-then are you saying I'm wrong?”
“Not that you're wrong. Just that you picked the wrong one to blame.”
Hwang Byeong-su, who was beside them, chimed in.
“Hear, hear! At the very least, thanks to the Young Master, I kept my shop and even saved my life. It's the dark path bastards who are in the wrong, so why blame the Young Master?!”
“Why are you doing this too.......”
“Hurry up and apologize to the Young Master!”
Pressed from both sides, the owner's face turned pale.
In the end, instead of apologizing, he hid inside his shop as if fleeing.
“Hey! I said apologize!”
When Hwang Byeong-su tried to go after him, Cheon Su-rin stopped him.
“It's all right, Uncle Hwang.”
“Phew, a man like that isn't even worth helping! Just look the other way from now on!”
“It's not as though everything he said was wrong. What I did was a little hasty.”
“No. It's this world, where the dark path runs rampant, that's wrong.”
Cheon Su-rin just gave a faint smile.
‘The world is wrong.......’
In the end, a portion of that responsibility must lie with him.
He had thought it would be enough to change what was before his eyes one thing at a time, but the karma of his past life was deeper and heavier than he had thought.
“In the short time I wasn't looking, you've become quite the chivalrous hero.”
Cheon Hyeong-do rested a sturdy hand on Cheon Su-rin's shoulder.
“Let's go home first and talk.”
Cheon Su-rin silently nodded.
.
.
Back at the academy, the two caught up on everything that had happened.
“Such a disaster happened while I was away?”
Cheon Su-rin told him about the Black Tiger Gang.
Of course, he left out entirely the fact that he had wiped them out single-handedly.
“Yes. In the process, those Black Tiger Gang bastards killed Du-chil's parents.”
“......So that's why you've been looking after the boy here.”
“I was worried that if I left him alone, they might come to harm him again.”
“Well done. I'd have done the same if I'd been here.”
Now that worry could be put to rest.
At Cheon Su-rin's hands, the Black Tiger Gang had vanished into hell.
Then Cheon Su-rin carefully spoke up.
“If...... if it's all right with you, Father, may Du-chil keep living here at the academy?”
A child with nowhere to go. He was at an age when he desperately needed his parents' care.
Cheon Su-rin wanted to take responsibility for him, at least until the boy could fend for himself.
“Do so.”
“I'm also partly responsible for Du-chil's parents dying...... Did you just give your permission?”
When Cheon Hyeong-do readily nodded, Cheon Su-rin instead looked dazed.
“I did. While we're at it, how about we adopt Du-chil as my son?”
“Adopt him?”
“I've known the boy a long time, and he's close with you as a brother, so it wouldn't be bad to welcome him into our family. What do you think?”
There was no reason to refuse. That would surely be the greatest comfort to Du-chil as well.
“It's decided, then. No, we should ask Du-chil what he wants first.”
“I'll go ask him right now!”
“Yes, go on.”
Cheon Su-rin rose from his seat.
Just before opening the door, he hesitated and looked back at his father.
“Father...... thank you.”
“For what?”
“For taking Du-chil in so readily.”
He knew it had not been an easy decision.
Cheon Su-rin felt deep in his heart that all this consideration was for his sake.
“With just one grown son, I was getting lonely. Raising one more son isn't so bad.”
Cheon Su-rin smiled brightly and left the room.
Watching his retreating back, Cheon Hyeong-do's expression sank into something quite serious.
“By the way, Su-rin, you said you fought those Black Tiger Gang bastards to save Du-chil?”
At that voice, Cheon Su-rin paused.
“Did you, by any chance, kill someone?”
Cheon Su-rin's shoulders flinched faintly.
He kept silent for a moment, then slowly nodded as if he had made up his mind.
“Yes, I killed.”
“......Are you all right?”
“About what?”
“It was your first time killing someone, wasn't it? It must have been very painful for you.”
The father was worried about his son's heart.
As if to reassure his father, Cheon Su-rin answered with a faint smile as usual.
“I'm all right. If anything, I thought it was fortunate.”
“Fortunate?”
“Because thanks to it, I was able to save Du-chil safely.”
Cheon Hyeong-do's eyelids trembled faintly.
He stared into Cheon Su-rin's eyes for a long while, then nodded heavily.
“......I see. I'm glad you're all right.”
“Then I'll go see Du-chil.”
Cheon Su-rin closed the door.
A heavy silence settled over the room.
“......He was smiling.”
Cheon Hyeong-do's voice dropped low.
That was not the expression of one who had killed a person for the first time in his life.
It was a flat smile that only one accustomed to slaughter could make. No, one who had grown numb to the very act of cutting people down.
“The Heavenly Slaughter Star.”
An eerie name slipped from Cheon Hyeong-do's lips.
His usual playful demeanor was nowhere to be found, and only the aura of a ruthless martial artist filled the room.
“If it has truly manifested.......”
The rest of the words he could not bring himself to finish scattered in the air.
Cheon Hyeong-do held his tongue to the end and looked up at the ceiling.
***
The former headquarters of the Black Tiger Gang.
The pavilion that had once symbolized the might of the Black Tiger Gang had now become a base for dark path wolves coveting the chunk of meat that had lost its master.
Today, a meeting was being held here.
Now that the Black Tiger Gang, the predator, was gone, it was a greedy gathering to discuss how to carve up the prey called Clear Mirror Town.
The Chairman of the Azure River Society, Ha Mok-ryeong, had also come here to join that filthy scramble for spoils.
‘Why of all places did they have to gather in this creepy place?’
With every step he took, Ha Mok-ryeong felt a chill run down his spine.
The fact that the meeting place was the top floor of the Black Tiger Pavilion bothered him to no end.
That was because, only a short while ago, Ha Mok-ryeong had also witnessed the gruesome sight of blood and corpses piled up like a mountain.
They said the floor had been scrubbed clean and not a trace remained now, but every time he climbed a step, it felt as if the fishy scent of fresh blood clung to the tip of his nose.
Above all, his greatest anxiety was that the ‘unidentified monster’ who had butchered the Black Tiger Gang in one stroke had not yet been found.
The corpses had all been in a gruesome state.
Regardless of the level of martial arts, it was closer to violence wielded by a starving murderer than the work of a human in his right mind.
‘What are they going to do if that madman shows up again?’
It was not an impossible story.
Is there not a saying that the culprit returns to the scene?
The fact that the person had not touched the valuables only deepened the mystery.
‘Idiots. You don't lay a hand on dangerous money.’
Ha Mok-ryeong had not set his eyes on the Black Tiger Gang's vault.
But the heads of the other minor sects had gone wild and divided up its wealth.
The reason for holding the meeting here was probably the simple fact that the Black Tiger Pavilion looked grand and authoritative.
They did not know that such vulgarity was the very root of why the dark path was looked down upon.
Intending only to settle his own share of territory and get out of this creepy pavilion quickly, Ha Mok-ryeong finally reached the door of the top floor.
“......?”
Just as he was about to open the door, Ha Mok-ryeong sensed an instinctive wrongness.
The air seeping through the gap in the door was far too heavy.
He had clearly heard that a thorough cleaning had been done, yet a thick, fishy smell of blood that stabbed into his lungs came flowing back at him.
‘Don't tell me......!’
Ha Mok-ryeong carefully pushed the door.
Under the lamplight, what unfolded before his eyes was a vivid, blood-colored hell.
The dark path heads who were supposed to attend today's meeting lay sprawled across the floor, each twisted into a grotesque shape.
Their eyes, already lifeless, held the terror they had last faced in life, preserved like something stuffed.
Crack, crunch—.
From somewhere, a grotesque sound of bones dislocating and muscles twisting broke the silence.
Ha Mok-ryeong's head reflexively turned toward the source of the sound.
In a corner of the room where the shadows lay thick, someone was gripping the throat of one of the sect heads with one hand.
It was an indifferent yet cruel grip, like a beast snuffing out its prey's breath.
‘It's him!’
The murderer who had erased the Black Tiger Gang had returned.
In terror that froze his whole body, Ha Mok-ryeong instinctively backed away.
His only thought was that he had to get out of here at once.
“You there.”
An eerie voice scraped at his eardrums.
At the horrible feeling of a cold icicle sliding down his spine, Ha Mok-ryeong had no choice but to stop.
“If you've opened the door, you should come in, shouldn't you?”
“......!”
“And don't forget to close the door once you're in.”
Ha Mok-ryeong knew by instinct that what he had just flung open was the entrance to a hell from which there was no return.