Outside the Clan Head's Hall.
A middle-aged man with big, fierce eyes stood surrounded by warriors in white.
His name was Dan Mu-rip.
He was a man who had devoted his whole life to the Baek Clan, and also the one who had taken Kang Woo-jin to the physician yesterday.
And right now, the complaints the warriors were pouring out at him boiled down to a single thing.
"How much longer do we have to put up with the Young Master's reckless antics?"
The Jiangnan Baek Clan's biggest headache.
None other than Baek Do-gyeom.
"......Honestly, at times like this, I am ashamed to be part of the Baek Clan!"
"Watch it!"
At a remark that crossed the line, Chief Steward Dan narrowed his eyes sharply.
But it did not work on the warriors one bit.
"Would I say it if things were not this bad! The entrance examination is right around the corner, so even training all night would not be enough, and yet he pours all his time into tormenting others......"
"Tsk. That is the Young Master you are talking about."
"That is exactly the point! Last time he borrowed my blade, and do you know what he was doing with it?"
So what was it?
"He was slicing raw meat with a grin on his face! With this very White Steel Sword the Clan Head personally bestowed on me!"
That was a bit much. Murmur, murmur. Sparks crackled in the warriors' eyes.
"Is that all? He ordered me to perform a sword dance in front of courtesans."
"Hah......"
Sighs escaped them. For the mighty warriors of the Baek Clan, this was humiliation itself.
"The Young Master is the kind of person who gets a thrill out of watching others suffer!"
"That's right!"
How lamentable. Chief Steward Dan squeezed his eyes shut.
"Well, fine. Honestly, we can put up with all of that for as long as it takes. He is the Young Master of the family we serve, after all."
The real problem lay elsewhere.
"To think the Baek Clan's heir is a talentless boy who cannot even swing a sword properly. That, I simply cannot accept!"
That was the thing. To these men, whatever else might be said of Baek blood, its aptitude at least had to be outstanding.
Clan Head Baek Chan-seong had been famous for his swordsmanship since childhood, and even now he was counted among the renowned masters of Jiangnan.
And what about the cousins? No one from the Baek Clan ever came up short in skill, wherever they went.
But the Baek Clan's heir, Baek Do-gyeom?!
He was a dullard who had downed elixirs like bowls of rice soup since childhood, yet still got so winded after a short run that he could not even make it around the training ground.
"Either he is a good person or he has good aptitude. He ought to be one or the other! This really is not right."
"Hmm......"
Faced with the warriors' outcry, even Chief Steward Dan swallowed a heavy groan. Then he made up his mind.
"Very well. Today I shall offer the Young Master some honest counsel."
Even if it meant being the frog struck dead by a stone, if someone had to say what needed saying, that someone would be him.
"It is time the Young Master learned how heavy a responsibility the child of a martial family must bear."
"Ooooh......"
Dan Mu-rip. Dan Mu-rip. At the warriors' solemn chant, Chief Steward Dan nodded.
"Mind your honorifics."
"Chief Steward. Chief Steward."
In any case, today he would never back down, even if Baek Do-gyeom's blade cut him down for it.
And at last came the moment Baek Do-gyeom stepped out of the Clan Head's Hall.
"Young Master, do you have any idea how everyone sees you right now?"
Ignoring the horror on everyone's faces, he got the words out regardless.
Baek Do-gyeom answered with a chilling look in his eyes.
"Yes."
"I thought as much. Naturally, you would have no ide...... Huh?"
This was not how it was supposed to go.
"They think I'm a scoundrel bastard. I know."
"Pardon?"
"Have you all eaten? Let's go. We can grab a meal together."
"Ah, b-but......"
Dan Mu-rip watched Baek Do-gyeom beckon him with a friendly jerk of his head, and he thought.
The lunatic had apparently gone even crazier.
***
I'd always been the type to adapt quickly to new surroundings, ever since I was a kid.
I was pretty good at reading the room, and I knew full well that if I couldn't accept change, I'd be the only one left behind for it.
"Thanks for the meal."
I cleaned out my rice bowl and set my spoon down with a clink.
That was when I noticed the stunned faces of Chief Steward Dan and the warriors.
One of them was even dribbling the food he'd been eating.
Because the original Baek Do-gyeom wouldn't have so much as glanced at the warriors' humble table, let alone shared a meal with them.
Luckily, it suited my taste just fine. No, wait. The tongue was Baek Do-gyeom's too, so did this guy actually like it as well?
Anyway.
"......The so-called heir has no aptitude to speak of, and he's out causing trouble every single day, so you can't take it anymore. You came to say something like that, right?"
"Gh-ghack!"
The moment I got to the point, Chief Steward Dan spat out the rice he'd been eating and swallowed hard.
"B-but I have not said a word yet......?"
"Your face says exactly that, though."
"Well, that is......"
Chief Steward Dan and the warriors went white as sheets, like men with indigestion.
Watching them, I laced my fingers together and smiled inwardly.
Chief Steward Dan Mu-rip and the warriors of the Baek Clan.
Whatever else I didn't know, I knew one thing for sure.
'They're people of real caliber who wouldn't fall behind even the Six Clans of the Divine Land, the pride of all under heaven.'
Frontier family or not, their strength ran deep.
They were exactly the manpower I needed to survive this brutal Chronicle of Villains.
The harder the world, the better it is to have plenty of people on your side, isn't it?
"......I know. That I have a lot of problems, in a lot of ways. So I'm going to try fixing them."
"F-fix what?"
"Everything, from first to last."
Chief Steward Dan and the warriors traded flustered glances.
Their faces said they'd never imagined a reaction like this.
"Go on, eat. Your food's getting cold."
"Pardon? Yes......"
"By the way, about that guy from yesterday. The one I fought."
"Hic!"
I'd barely brought it up when Chief Steward Dan and the warriors jumped and hiccuped.
"M-may I ask why you want to know that......"
Why else would I?
"I want to go see him. Where did you take him?"
When I answered calmly, Chief Steward Dan and the warriors went deathly pale, with looks that said they'd seen this coming.
"Why that fellow......"
"I told you. I'm going to change things."
So that was why he'd been acting all friendly.
To chase the boy down and kill him!
"It was only a small quarrel. I have dealt with it properly, so there is no need for the Young Master to concern himself any further."
"Come on, how can I do that? Someone got hurt because of me."
Besides, Chief Steward Dan didn't seem to know yet, but it wasn't a minor injury.
He might look fine on the outside, but inside, his qi and blood were blocked, and before long he was fated to become a cripple with twisted limbs.
'And the second he wakes up, his heart's going to be packed full of resentment for me.'
And that was a very serious problem.
Because of all the Seven Evils, the one who held grudges the hardest was Kang Woo-jin the Slaughter Evil.
When I glanced at Chief Steward Dan, he pressed his thin lips tightly together, as if he'd never talk.
I let out a shallow breath and said.
"......About that kid. He wasn't asking for anything grand. He just wanted to live an ordinary life."
"Pardon?"
"While some people are born gracefully clutching a famous sword, that guy was born with a blood-reeking butcher's knife in his mouth. Meaning his family were butchers."
"Wait, what are you......"
"Even when he was treated like an animal and scraping by as a wanderer, he hung on by picking up martial arts over other people's shoulders. Because only by working himself to the bone and getting knocked flat again and again could he live anything like a human being."
"Hmm."
"And that desperate life. Got trampled underfoot. By some scoundrel bastard!"
That was you! Goosebumps rose on Dan Mu-rip and the warriors, but that wasn't what mattered.
It was the prelude to his darkening, so to speak.
"He'll sink into despair and live each day like a broken man. He'll resent me for a long, long time. His rage will pile up layer upon layer, and in the end, he'll set off to find a new path."
"W-where......"
"The path of an assassin."
"Gasp!"
And not just any path, either. It was the monstrous road that made him the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven.
"On top of that, his nickname is Bulldog. He never forgets a grudge until the day he dies. So what happens if we leave things as they are? Someday he'll come looking for me. With a razor-sharp blade clutched to his heart."
He'd be the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven, so hiding wouldn't save me. He'd find me no matter what.
And I'd meet my death at the most horrible moment.
"It's dangerous. Extremely."
I pressed hard on my temples. The air around me was so haggard and gloomy that Dan Mu-rip and the warriors could only gulp.
"So what choice do I have? There's only one way."
"K-kill him to keep him quiet!"
What is he even saying?
"I have to save him, somehow."
"Eh?"
"Well, if it comes to that, I guess there's no helping it."
"Ehh?!"
Because otherwise, I'd come face to face with the Night of the Seven Evils I'd only ever read about, with my own two eyes.
That hellish moment when screams fell like snow under a scorched black sky and corpses piled up into mountains.
"So please, tell me. Where you took Kang Woo-jin. I need to see him first."
When I said it with a faint smile, Dan Mu-rip and the warriors just blinked with blank faces.
"Do I have to explain it all over again from the start?"
When I gave them a cold look, Dan Mu-rip finally gulped and opened his mouth.
"It is a clinic in Hanhyeon Village."
"Thank you. Enjoy the rest of your meal."
I offered a clasped hands greeting and rose from my seat.
Left behind in the dining hall, Dan Mu-rip and the warriors tilted their heads and muttered.
"But was the Young Master always this well-spoken......?"
"Who knows. Well, he is at the age when people change a lot."
Strangely, Baek Do-gyeom stuck in their minds that day.
***
Among the Seven Evils, Kang Woo-jin was relatively good-natured.
Calling the future Greatest Assassin Under Heaven good-natured might sound a bit funny, but it was true.
Once, when arrows rained into a forest all night long, he stood his ground to the very end, knocking them aside, because of all things he was determined to save a deer.
- Are you all...... right?
Of course, when he found out the deer had gotten away long before, he was in for a huge shock.
- Fuck, since when?!
Anyway, he might have been a little slow in the head, but he was a guy who knew how to protect the weak.
So, what I'm saying is.
"As long as he doesn't turn dark, there's no problem."
Before I knew it, I'd reached the clinic in Hanhyeon Village.
Finding it wasn't that hard.
The low houses were packed close together, and most people kindly pointed the way when I asked.
- J-just go that way!
Though every one of them went white as a sheet.
"Still, am I seriously out of breath from walking just this far?"
What a truly pathetic body. After taking a few deep breaths, I looked over the clinic's gate.
"Not open yet?"
There was no clock, so I couldn't tell the exact time, but judging by the sun still sitting in the east, I'd definitely come early.
"Is anyone in?"
Bang, bang! When I knocked, the gate creaked and swung limply open. I couldn't just stand around waiting.
"Excuse me, I'm coming in."
When I stepped inside, medicinal herbs lay heaped on a wooden platform, and cloth-covered jars filled every corner.
So far, it looked about how I'd expected.
But right then.
Whoosh!
With a chilling rush of wind, a dark figure lunged at me like a beam of light.
"......!"
In that moment, I was hit with a huge shock.
For one thing, it was too fast to even react to, and the outstretched palm looked just like a viper lunging at its prey.
On top of that, its angle twisted countless times, so I had no idea what it was even aiming for.
In the end, I could only stand there helplessly, like a condemned prisoner facing execution.
Tap.
And as if mocking me, the viper's jaws slowed down and shoved my chest.
Thanks to that, I landed on my butt in a sorry heap. My attacker snorted and said.
"Who goes there?"
Surprisingly, it was a woman around my age. A stunning beauty, like a celebrity, no less.
She made quite an impression.
How should I put it? She gave off an elegant, mature air, but her eyes were as fierce as a viper's.
Her outfit was unusual too, a green cloth robe like a ninja's and thin gloves on her hands.
One look told me she was no ordinary person.
But that was that.
"Isn't it customary to ask before you attack?"
I dusted off my butt and got up. Was this how people said hello around here?
"For a lout who climbed over the wall without permission, that was lenient."
"I didn't climb the wall, I came in through that gate. And I'm not a thief, I'm here as a customer."
"Is that so? Then you should have said so beforehand."
You could've at least given me the chance.
Whatever, forget it.
"Are you the owner of this place?"
"I am not."
"I came to see the owner."
"Closed today. The master of the house is away on business."
"Then who are you?"
"......A distant relative?"
"Then can you treat illnesses too, by any chance?"
The corner of the woman's mouth twisted up. A look that said how ridiculous. The nerve of this guy, taking her for something like that. That was the feeling I got.
"Your face does look like one that will be dogged by illness all its life. Why, did you catch a cold?"
As if.
"Someone should have been carried in here yesterday. By the name of Kang Woo-jin."
For now, he was just a simple seventeen-year-old boy, but one day he'd be called the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven and the Slaughter Evil.
"Kang Woo-jin......?"
The woman repeated the name and nodded. In truth, she didn't know who he was. But only one person had been carried in here yesterday.
"A half-dead boy did come in."
I snapped my fingers in agreement.
"That's him. I want to save him. Preferably good as new, with no lasting damage."
"Why?"
"Do you need a reason to save a person?"
"True, but you two hardly seem close, do you?"
"I suppose not. I'm the one who did that to him."
Is he out of his mind? That was exactly the look on the woman's face. But what could I do? It was the truth.
"You must have lost your mind."
"I was out of my mind until yesterday. Back then I didn't know it was wrong, and now I do."
"What?"
"So I'm going to set it right."
Because otherwise, I was the one who'd end up dead.
"Ha......?"
The woman let out a breath of disbelief. She seemed to be thinking exactly this.
What's with this calmly crazy lunatic?