A luxurious inn with a sweeping view of the sunset.
I sat by the window with my chin propped on my hand, looking bored.
I hadn't come because I suddenly felt like some fresh air.
"Hahaha! When that butcher bastard went down puking blood, I seriously thought we'd screwed up for real, you know?"
I'd sat down with these half-witted friends(?) of mine to cut ties with them.
In the original they were bit players who flashed past, but around here they were punks with some clout.
Geum Su-hwi of the Butterfly Geum Clan.
Jo Cheol of the Six Blades Gate.
Wang Don of the Golden Dragon Merchant Guild.
They had some skill, but their tempers were as vicious as they came.
And they were leeches who bowed and scraped to Baek Do-gyeom in hopes of getting on the Baek Clan's good side.
You could call them the perfect friends for a useless scoundrel to boss around.
Anyway, I couldn't settle things with them inside the house, so I'd followed them out.
But.
"Ha, that cocky butcher bastard. We should've snapped his arms and legs so he could never crawl back up again. When I heard he walked out of the clinic today, I thought, oh, crap."
I was the one who'd brought that dying butcher back and had him walking out.
I'd already known they were trash, but they were even more rotten than I'd thought.
To think garbage like this were sons of distinguished orthodox families. It was unbelievable.
"Oh, please. Be honest, you were freaking out that the bastard was totally fucked."
"Hey, when did I ever......!"
"Do-gyeom, this bastard thought the butcher had actually died, so he went and hid in Nanjing. Scared his old man would chew him out. Heh-heh, what a lunatic."
Ah, so that's why none of them had shown so much as the tip of their noses all this time? To dump everything on me?
"Hey, damn it! Busted?"
"Hahahaha!"
I could guess what their friendship was worth. Go ahead and keep yapping your worthless nonsense among yourselves.
Bang! I slammed my hand down on the table and said.
"Having fun?"
"Huh?"
"Because I'm not having any fun at all."
"Hey, what's gotten into you?"
What's gotten into me, my foot.
"Don't come looking for me anymore. Don't even act like you know me. That's what I came out here to say. I didn't eat anything, so you can pay the bill. See you."
Talking with them any longer would only be my loss. My business done, I got up right away.
Then Geum Su-hwi, who looked the most venomous of them all, every bit as nasty as his name, gave a slimy smile and said.
"Aw, come on, cut us some slack. At the Baek Clan, Chief Steward Dan cleans up after you, but if we get caught, we're done for. Cool off. Besides, you're the one who told us to do it."
"What, you punk?"
"Hang on. I figured this would happen, so I brought something really fun."
Fun, what fun?
"Hey, bring him in."
At Geum Su-hwi's nod, his bodyguards dragged a man in.
Judging by his clothes, he wasn't a man of the Murim, just an utterly ordinary-looking fellow.
"Remember him? The guy who got away because that butcher bastard butted in."
Butted in, he says.
"I told you. His sister's to die for, right?"
What?
"P-please, let me go."
"Then why'd you go and run off on us, huh? Did you think you'd never have to see us again?"
"Hhk......"
"Hey, this bastard's blubbering again."
Geum Su-hwi waved his hand in irritation, and a bodyguard's fist slammed viciously into the man's gut.
"G-gahk!"
The man dropped to his knees with a thud, drool dribbling from his mouth.
Were these guys crazy bastards? But no one in the inn stepped in to stop it.
Of course not.
The whole inn was packed with the bodyguards those guys had brought.
"Please...... Please let me go......"
As the man crawled over, sobbing and wailing, Geum Su-hwi smiled like a devil and said.
"Like I said, just bring me your sister, okay? I'll have a little fun with her and even send her home with some pocket money. So why do you keep playing hard to get?"
"My sister is still young. She is not even fifteen yet, so how could you......"
"Listen to how this bastard talks? What, so I'm old? I'm seventeen too!"
Seriously? I'd have pegged him at thirty. Anyway, I got the picture.
These trash punks had picked a fight with that man, coveting his sister, and Kang Woo-jin had seen it, stepped in, and gotten dragged into the fight.
At this rate, the name Seven Evils suited these punks better.
My faith in humanity might be gone, but I was no saint who'd just look the other way at scum like this.
"Looks like you guys are hopeless."
The moment I spat that out with a straight face, Geum Su-hwi laughed as if to tell me not to worry.
"Just wait. The real show hasn't started yet. Oh, here he comes."
"What?"
And a moment later.
"Hey, you crazy bastards—!"
A boy with a familiar face burst into the inn.
Spiky hair and a long, lean build.
The boy who had almost become the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven one day!
"Kang Woo-jin?!"
"Told you he'd come, didn't I? How about that. Fun, right?"
The ill-fated bond I'd worked so hard to cut had come back.
All because of Geum Su-hwi, a beast lower than any beast.
"Good grief."
I clapped a hand to my forehead and pressed hard on my temples.
"W-Woo-jin......"
"Brother Hong-seok."
Kang Woo-jin narrowed his already thin eyes even further and coldly swept his gaze around.
Then he spotted me and sneered coldly.
"Baek Do-gyeom. So this was your doing after all? Figures. Is this why you saved me? So you could see this?!"
"What's that supposed to mean? Why would Do-gyeom save you?"
"Answer me, Baek Do-gyeom!"
"Do-gyeom. What's that bastard talking about?"
Shut up for a second. My head's a mess right now too.
While I was lost in thought, Geum Su-hwi snorted as if satisfied and stepped forward.
"Anyway, glad you came. You really are in one piece. Ignorant trash sure heals fast. I really thought you'd croaked."
"......Let Brother Hong-seok go."
"Oh, loyal as ever! Last time, too, you came charging in with fire in your eyes the second we touched this bastard. You're taking his side because you live in the same neighborhood? Stray-dog bastards huddled together on burned-out fields, looking out for each other? When your own nose is running three feet long."
"I said let him go!"
"Fine. I'll let him go. But first, get down on all fours and bark. Woof woof. Then I'll think about it."
"You son of a bitch......"
"No? Fine."
Smack! Out of nowhere, Geum Su-hwi slapped the man named Hong-seok across the face.
Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
"No? No? No? Still no? Keep it up. No?"
"S-stop!"
As Hong-seok's face swelled up and his eyes lost focus, Kang Woo-jin finally cried out and dropped to his trembling knees.
"Ha, you little bastard. Should've done that sooner. My palm fucking hurts. If mutts want their master to love them, they have to obey. Bastards like you only ever listen after you get the crap beaten out of you, huh?"
"Stop it......"
"What. Feel cheated? If it's so unfair, you should've been born better! Who told you to be born a mutt?"
Kang Woo-jin's face quivered. At the same time, his eyes filled with venom.
"Whoa, this bastard's eyes are still alive. Good. That's what makes it fun. Last time we didn't have the experience, so we were way too clumsy. Today I'll make sure you end up a gimp. So you can think about how far out of line you were to stand up to us. Go home tonight and cry over it. What are you waiting for? Grab him."
At Geum Su-hwi's nod, the warriors seized Kang Woo-jin's arms from behind, wrenching them back roughly.
"Wh-what do you think you're doing!"
"What does it look like? Let's start with the arms. Hold him tight."
"Let go! You crazy bastards!"
Kang Woo-jin screamed, and Geum Su-hwi stepped forward with a vile grin.
And just as he raised a club high to bring it down on the fully extended elbow!
"Hey."
Someone grabbed Geum Su-hwi's wrist from behind. With a deeply displeased look, no less.
"Baek Do-gyeom......?"
Yep, it's me.
"Crippling his limbs crosses the line. You have no idea what hell I went through to stop exactly that."
"What are you talking about?"
"What I'm talking about is, you need a beating."
I yanked him by the collar, tipped my head back, and slammed it into the bridge of his nose. WHAM!
"Gahh!"
Geum Su-hwi burst into a double nosebleed and plopped down on the floor.
"B-blood?!"
"Phew, now my head's cooling down a bit."
At the sudden move, Hong-seok, the trash, the warriors. Even Kang Woo-jin.
Every single one of them was stunned.
"A-are you crazy?"
You're the crazy ones.
"I knew it, a person's fate doesn't change that easily. I went to all that trouble to save him, and we ended up right back in the same situation."
"What?"
"Then again, why do you think the Seven Evils were born? Because way too many guys like you were strutting around Chronicle of Villains."
"What kind of bullshit is that!"
"So what I'm saying is......"
I let out a sigh, picked up a wine bottle in a reverse grip, and said with a grin.
"At least this time, the Slaughter Evil was right."
"What?"
SMASH!
"Kgh!"
The bottle cracked over Geum Su-hwi's head, and he went sprawling again.
"Y-Young Master!"
That sent his bodyguards into a frenzy, and they came charging.
Freed from their grip, Kang Woo-jin gaped at me, still dazed.
"Why would you......?"
Why else?
"Looks like everyone here except you and me is on the same side. What do you want to do?"
"What?"
"We could be on the same side too."
"Whaaat?!"
They were closing in from all sides, out for blood.
In the middle of it all, I let out a little laugh and held out my hand.
Kang Woo-jin studied me with wavering eyes.
And.
"Goddammit!"
I clasped hands with Kang Woo-jin.
The shadow of Death, who might become the Greatest Assassin Under Heaven. No, who was originally supposed to.
Kang Woo-jin, the Slaughter Evil.
"Get them!"
WHACK!
"Kgh!"
At the same time, Kang Woo-jin sprang to his feet, spun around, and slammed a warrior in the jaw.
"Get that bastard!"
What followed was a dogfight, pure and simple.
"You cheap bastards, come at me one at a time! Hey, Baek Do-gyeom! You're fighting too, right?!"
As if.
"Ugh, I'm out of breath."
I backed off, sat by the window with my chin in my hand, poured myself some water, and enjoyed the show.
'He's definitely pretty sloppy.'
The Slaughter Evil's movements in the memories I'd gained from the spirit nexus were a whole lot different from this.
Far cleaner, far quieter, and when he sank his teeth into an enemy, unstoppably powerful.
Like a killing ghost incarnate.
Especially when he flung anything in his hand like a dagger, no matter how far away the target was, it bordered on the miraculous.
'I think he did it something like this.'
I snapped a wooden chopstick from the table in half and tossed one piece lightly. Swish.
It shot off like an arrow and sank right into someone's butt.
"Ow!"
"Huh, it works?"
My eyes went round. This was Kang Woo-jin's aptitude. He'd always had a gift for throwing knives.
"Baek Do-gyeom, you, you......?!"
"Ah, my bad."
It just happened to hit that guy's butt, of all places. I guess I still wasn't very good at it.
Anyway, now that I had something I could do, I couldn't just sit there.
"Die—!"
"Aaaaagh!"
Just as a bodyguard was about to bring his blade down on Kang Woo-jin, sprawled across a table.
Whoooosh!
I sent the little cup I'd been drinking from flying like a dagger.
"Gaaah!"
This time it hit the bodyguard squarely between the eyes and knocked him flat on his back.
Meanwhile, Kang Woo-jin ran over and planted himself in front of me. He'd pulled the chopstick out of his butt, too.
"Now what? Those bastards look seriously pissed. You're not planning to take them all on, are you? You wouldn't have started all this unless you had a plan."
Smarter than he looked. Of course I had one.
"Did you forget? Who I am."
"Huh?"
"However big they are around here, they're nothing next to the Jiangnan Baek Clan."
"Oh?!"
And I called out in a calm voice.
"Chief Steward Dan."
At that, everyone flinched and stopped in their tracks.
"......"
A moment of silence passed.
"Chief Steward Dan?"
"What, why isn't he coming?"
He should definitely have been downstairs. Scratching the back of my neck, I stuck my head out the window and peeked down.
"Where'd he go?"
"A-are you out of your mind?!"
Rage flooded back into the faces of the guys who'd stopped mid-charge. Then, slowly, they started closing the distance again.
"Looks like we need to change the plan."
"To what?!"
What else?
"Just hit them!"
"Damn it!"
Screams of Aaaagh! and a clattering Crash-bang! rang through the inn on that bright spring day.