"I'm in your debt."
I offered a clasped hands greeting to Tang Seo-rin and Old Kang, who had come out to the gate to see me off.
They said Kang Woo-jin had watched me sleep for a while before he left.
The shock must have been too much for him.
Of course. If I heard that the guy who'd wrecked me was the one who saved me, I wouldn't believe it either.
"So is it all over now?"
Walking the road alone, I glanced up at the sky and thought it over.
Honestly, I wasn't sure. It felt like the ending had been snipped off, so it didn't really sink in.
It would be great if Kang Woo-jin just stayed out of trouble and never walked a villain's path......
"If things worked out that easily, it wouldn't be Chronicle of Villains."
I shook my head despite myself. A calamity might come first, or he might find a fortuitous encounter first.
Either way, Kang Woo-jin might get swept away by the waves of fate all over again, like an ant flailing in a whirlpool.
"Still, one thing did change. The chain of the ill-fated bond between me and Kang Woo-jin is broken! Hmhmhm."
A smile spread across my lips on its own. Yeah, that was enough.
Let the guy become the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven or whatever else he liked.
He'd never get tangled up with me in a bad way again.
Kang Woo-jin, I'll cheer your life on from far, far away. Let's never see each other again. Ever.
"Well, time to head off."
I set out with a much lighter step.
***
"Are you really going to let him go just like that?"
Meanwhile, Old Kang watched Baek Do-gyeom leave and muttered in an ominous voice.
He had good reason.
"That man has made the Heaven's Table Ginseng his own."
For the Tang Clan, this was a rather big problem.
A Poison Adept was, at root, one who built immunity to every kind of poison and in the end poisoned even their own cultivated power in order to kill enemies.
In that sense, the one who had made Heaven's Table Ginseng his own, and could neutralize any poison given time, was either the ultimate prodigy for a Poison Adept or its natural enemy.
In short, he had become a man to watch closely, someone whose mere existence put them on edge.
"You look very unhappy."
"Ahem!"
When Tang Seo-rin asked with a smile, Old Kang looked sheepish, as if she had hit the bullseye.
"How could such a precious spirit herb end up in someone with no aptitude at all......"
Honestly, it would be a lie to say it wasn't a waste.
However.
"No need to feel it was wasted. He might have far more aptitude than we think."
"Pardon?"
Old Kang let out a breath of disbelief.
"Surely not. Baek Do-gyeom was born with vitality that does not circulate properly through his body. How could someone like that......"
"Could you, Old Kang, dodge my Viper Palm with a single step? A surprise attack carrying seventy percent of my cultivated power, mind you."
What was this all of a sudden...... Old Kang answered firmly, as if there were nothing to think about.
"Impossible. It is so unpredictable that stepping in at all cannot be done."
Right. That would be the natural thing to think.
But it was the wrong way to think.
The way to break the Viper Palm wasn't to dodge backward but to step forward and shut it down at the source.
And Baek Do-gyeom had done exactly that.
Yesterday she had put it down to her own exhaustion, but the more she chewed it over, the less that held up.
Baek Do-gyeom had clearly seen her Viper Palm and instinctively stepped into the exact point that broke it.
That meant one of two things.
Either he had a genius eye that saw what others couldn't. Or he had been blessed with once-in-a-lifetime luck.
"Keep it quiet for now that Baek Do-gyeom took the Heaven's Table Ginseng."
"Young Lady!"
"That family is in marriage talks with me. It won't be too late to be wary after we learn a little more."
"Why are you doing this? He is wicked by nature."
"Do you really think so?"
"Pardon?"
"It was clean."
"I am not sure what you mean......"
"He was caked in dirt and blood right down under his fingernails. And yet the pouch holding the Heaven's Table Ginseng was as clean as new."
Which meant he'd had a desperate will to protect someone that came before his own safety.
"A scoundrel couldn't do that."
"Young Lady......"
Tang Seo-rin smiled brightly and looked at the empty space Baek Do-gyeom had left behind.
She still wasn't sure what kind of person he was.
But one thing was certain.
"Tell Father. I'll watch a little longer before I decide on the marriage talks with the Baek Clan."
He had definitely caught the eye of one of the Two Beauties of the Righteous Heaven Academy.
'Baek Do-gyeom. I'll be waiting at the Righteous Heaven Academy.'
Of course, no one could know what that would lead to.
***
Not long after I set out, a magnificent white wall came into view.
The Jiangnan Baek Clan, as everyone called it.
The place that had become my home.
"Nice place, I'll give it that."
At first, everything had felt strange. Maybe it was the few rough days I'd had, but even the old walls felt welcoming now.
"Who goes there!"
Though those guys apparently didn't feel the same way yet.
The warriors only sensed me once I was right on top of them, and they were so startled they went to draw their swords.
"It's me. Put those away."
"Gasp! Y-Young Master......?!"
I got there first, lightly pressing their hands down to stop them.
"When did you even......"
"Father's inside, right?"
I patted the shoulders of the warriors, whose jaws had dropped in shock, and went in.
"Father, it's me, Do-gyeom."
"Come in."
When I entered the Clan Head's Hall, Father was trimming his orchids as always.
"What brings you here?"
The way he asked without even glancing at me showed just how deep in his bad books I was.
"Your son came to pay his respects, so you could at least look at me."
Who was it that said a smile works best for mending relationships? When I said it with a big smile, Father finally sighed and raised his head.
And then he jumped in horror.
"Wh-what on earth happened to you!"
Ah, I'd forgotten to wash up first.
"Something almost happened to me, but nothing actually did."
"Wh-what?!"
"Did I not tell you? That I would set everything right. I'm just on my way back from finishing that. I thought you should be the first to hear it, Father."
"You finally went and killed that boy?!"
"No, how did you get that from what I said?"
Unbelievable.
"I didn't kill him, I saved him. He should be safely back home by now."
"What......?"
"If you don't believe me, send someone to the clinic to check."
Baek Chan-seong was speechless, as if in shock. Saved him? Who? His own son?!
"But are you all right?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that orchid."
"Oh!"
Only then did Baek Chan-seong realize the leaf in his hand had been crushed to powder.
But once again, what he heard next left him no room to care.
"Anyway, don't worry. From now on, I'll take responsibility for this family."
"Do-gyeom, you......"
"Then I'll take my leave."
Baek Chan-seong could only stare blankly as his son turned and walked out boldly.
"Does he mean...... to run the family into the ground?!"
Chewing over words he could not understand.
***
Meanwhile, having stepped outside, I shook my head.
"Not easy, just like I thought."
Because the distrust in Father's eyes, right up until I left, had been so plain.
After all the years Baek Do-gyeom had spent living as a scoundrel, what did I expect?
That didn't mean I was disappointed.
"There's still plenty of time."
***
Morning came.
The moment I opened my eyes, I let out a sound of admiration.
"Wow. I feel great."
Back on Mount Jangak I'd been half dead, and I'd even passed out the moment I reached Tang Seo-rin.
"Is this the power of Heaven's Table Ginseng? That stuff really works."
My body felt light enough to fly, and my mind was crystal clear.
Of course.
"The really good part is something else."
I now had aptitude I'd never had before.
It was a far stranger and more special experience in daily life than I'd expected.
For example, things like this.
"Were tree rings always this easy to see?"
Like glancing idly at a wooden pillar and knowing at once that the tree had been thirty-two years old.
Or instinctively feeling which boards of the wooden floor sat higher or lower, where I'd normally have walked across without a thought.
Little things like that stuck in my head as if the world's resolution had been turned up several times over.
"But that isn't all there is to the Seven Evils' real aptitude."
From every kind of weapon art and the eyesight for training, to a knack for spotting weaknesses and the sharpness to tell truth from lies.
I hadn't tested all of them, but even the ones I knew about added up to more than I could list.
Above all, some of them were special talents beyond imagination.
"Just like the Seven Evils only manifested theirs at decisive moments in the original, mine don't seem to have awakened yet......"
Either way, my potential for growth was wide open.
"Hm?"
That was when it happened.
"Someone's coming."
I sensed someone entering my quarters. Calm, careful footsteps.
Three, two, one.
Rattle.
"Young Master, may I come in...... Gasp!"
When I threw open the paper door, a familiar middle-aged man stood there, looking startled.
Eyes that only got bigger and fiercer the more startled he was.
Dan Mu-rip, Chief Steward of the Baek Clan.
"What is it?"
"Ahem!"
Right now, he was badly shaken.
'How did he know?'
The Young Master had never once noticed his presence first.
But the real surprise hadn't come yet.
"......I have just heard the news. That the one carried to the clinic walked out on his own two feet."
"Ah, that. Didn't I tell you? That I'd save him."
"Huh!"
So it was really true.
"Why, did you actually think I'd kill him?"
"Not exactly...... Well, yes. To be honest, the thought did cross my mind."
"I like your honesty."
"I have watched the Young Master's conduct for a long time."
"You can beat a person up with words, too. You're a Chief Steward, all right."
"Hah......"
When I answered his serious words with a joke, Chief Steward Dan sighed, as if caught off guard yet again.
"I cannot tell whether I have misjudged the Young Master all this time. Or whether the Young Master has changed."
"So you don't like it?"
Chief Steward Dan nodded firmly.
"Honestly, I do not."
"Excuse me?"
"Before, scoundrel or not, I could at least guess what you would do. Now I have no idea what you will do, and that frightens me."
"Hey, now."
"If you are planning some nasty prank, please tell me now. So that I can at least clean it up before it shames the family. I beg you."
Chief Steward Dan bowed his head. He meant it. More than anything, this man was worried about the family.
It stung a little, but one thing was clear.
The Jiangnan Baek Clan.
I didn't know what became of them in the original.
But whatever happened, they wouldn't have fallen easily.
Not as long as loyal retainers like Dan Mu-rip were alive.
"Please, straighten up. There won't be any pranks like that."
"Pardon?"
"I mean it."
I gave Chief Steward Dan, wide-eyed as a startled rabbit, a smile without a shred of falsehood and walked past him.
"Ah, but there will be a lot more surprises."
"Th-that sounds even scarier?!"
As I stepped out of my quarters, I saw a warrior running toward me from a distance.
"Young Master, your friends have come to see you."
"Friends?"
A moment later, a group of people walking this way came into view.
Guys whose expensive silk robes were at odds with the way they swaggered along like street thugs.
"You guys......"
"Do-gyeom, long time no see!"
It was them. The guys who had nearly dragged me into the abyss!
- Told you, you should've checked who you were messing with before you jumped in. Hey. You crying?
- Heh-heh-heh. Isn't this bastard about to piss himself?
Baek Do-gyeom's friends, who had helped him beat Kang Woo-jin to a pulp.
"Huh?"
I'd forgotten. That I had more ill-fated bonds to settle than just Kang Woo-jin.