Chapter 105 - It Isn’t Easy

“They say you may not notice someone’s arrival, but you certainly notice their absence. It feels awfully empty without Warrior Yi.”

Jang Ho shared Seo Daeryong’s regret.

“She leaves a big gap.”

They were on their way to Merry Life Tavern in Demon Family Village. Jang Ho was enormous, while Seo Daeryong was slight; the contrast between them was striking enough to draw glances from passersby.

“Who would have thought I’d miss Warrior Yi more than the Pavilion Master?”

The three of them had always drunk together, Yi An included, but last time there had been only two. It definitely hadn’t been as much fun. Yi An and Seo Daeryong used to keep things lively with their endless chatter. With her gone and only the taciturn Jang Ho left, the mood was bound to become subdued.

Of course, there had been an upside. In place of fun, a more serious atmosphere had given them a chance to learn about each other. Only now had Seo Daeryong discovered that Jang Ho’s childhood dream had been to become a painter.

“Warrior Yi is doing well, isn’t she?”

Jang Ho answered Seo Daeryong’s question with certainty.

“Of course she is. Think who she’s traveling with. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried. I’m jealous. She must be experiencing all sorts of things she never even imagined. I envy her. I want to be there, marveling at them with her!”

“Don’t forget that the Wicked Laughing Demon is beside her, too.”

“On second thought... perhaps I’m better off with you beside me, Commander Jang.”

Jang Ho gave a quiet chuckle. Seo Daeryong thought that manly laugh alone made their drinking sessions worthwhile. If nothing else, he wanted to learn to laugh like Jang Ho.

Chatting about this and that, they arrived at Merry Life Tavern.

Just as they were about to enter, the owner, Jo Chunbae, came out and gestured for silence.

“You mustn’t go in right now.”

“Why?”

“The Demon Supremes are here.”

“Which ones?”

Seo Daeryong poked his head inside and glanced up at the second floor. In their usual drinking spot, his master, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, sat drinking opposite the Demonic Buddha.

Startled, he hastily backed away.

“We’ll drink somewhere else today.”

“Yes, please do.”

After seeing them off, Jo Chunbae went back inside and looked up at the second floor. Even from a distance, he could feel the strange tension between the Blood Heaven Saber Demon and the Demonic Buddha.

“Why did you ask to see me?”

The Demonic Buddha gave no answer to the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s question. This wasn’t like him. Instead of his usual sharp temper, there was an indefinable weariness about him. He drained his cup alone.

“Surely we’re not so estranged that we can’t share a drink, Senior?”

“Senior? After all the nasty things you’ve been saying about me, calling me a traitor, you have the nerve to call me Senior?”

“A traitor is a traitor.”

“Aren’t you the traitor now? Leaving the First Young Master to come see me?”

“You’ve always acted as though you knew everything. And treated me like shit because of it.”

The corners of the Blood Heaven Saber Demon’s mouth curled upward. But instead of snapping back, he drained his cup. Until very recently, that had indeed been how he felt. He had found the Demonic Buddha pathetic—a tiny little runt filled with nothing but greed.

But meeting Geom Mugeuk had changed that arrogance.

“It isn’t easy, is it?”

The Demonic Buddha raised his head, searching for the intention behind those words, but the Blood Heaven Saber Demon merely refilled his cup.

It didn’t seem to be mockery, and the reply slipped out before he knew it.

“... It isn’t.”

He regretted saying it. He had given the Blood Heaven Saber Demon an opening to mock him. Sure enough, the old man touched a nerve.

“You’ve spent all this time thinking you were the First Young Master’s right-hand man, but you aren’t, are you? You’re just a fish he’s already caught. A golden carp, perhaps.”

“You can’t even enjoy a pleasant drink with a junior, can you? That petty, twisted heart of yours won’t allow even that much?”

“You should have treated me better before. And if you’re going to call me Senior, keep calling me Senior. If you want to drop the respect, do it from the start.”

“An asshole to the bitter end!”

CRASH!

The Demonic Buddha slammed his hand onto the table. It shattered, sending everything on it tumbling to the floor.

“Don’t break it next time. Our demonic path doesn’t break tables.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Have you gone senile?”

The Demonic Buddha stormed out.

‘Damn it!’

He had already lost the moment he broke the table. What good had he expected to come of visiting the Blood Heaven Saber Demon?

He hated that the old man had seen how troubled he was. The thought that the Blood Heaven Saber Demon would look down on him even more now made him furious.

‘Fine, you shriveled old bastard. Look down on me all you want.’

After watching him leave the tavern, the Blood Heaven Saber Demon rose as well. Yet there was no trace of the contempt or mockery the Demonic Buddha had imagined. Instead, the same sigh-laden words the Demonic Buddha had spoken escaped his lips.

“Yes. It isn’t easy.”

On his way out, he handed Jo Chunbae money, adding the cost of the broken table to the bill.

“That’s quite all right.”

A glare from the Blood Heaven Saber Demon made him accept it at once.

“Don’t tell the Second Young Master about the broken table.”

“Pardon? Yes! Of course. Don’t worry.”

Then the Blood Heaven Saber Demon left too. Jo Chunbae watched him go for a moment before heading upstairs to clear away the broken table.

Even without the Second Young Master, people kept coming. Not long ago, the Single Flower Sword Supreme had come alone, stayed a while, and left. She had ordered wine but hadn’t drunk a single cup.

Jo Chunbae knew.

They didn’t come to his Merry Life Tavern for the quality of the wine, the delicious food, or the pleasant atmosphere. They were all missing someone.

* * *

I was sitting on a cart parked in an open clearing, gazing up at the sky, when I saw Bi Sain and seven of the Thirteen Wolves of the Unorthodox Path approaching in the distance.

They had chosen the meeting place again: a clearing open on every side. Clearly, they were worried about an ambush.

I understood him. When your life was constantly under threat, your nerves were bound to be on edge. Yes, he needed to be careful. Even with all this caution, he had died in the end.

Bi Sain looked puzzled to see me alone.

“You came alone?”

“Yes.”

The Wicked Laughing Demon had entrusted this matter entirely to me. Yi An had wanted to come, but I had left her behind.

Bi Sain’s expression stiffened slightly. Apparently, his pride was hurt. Though I wasn’t yet the official successor, I was still the Heavenly Demon’s own flesh and blood, and here I was traveling alone. Meanwhile, he had no fewer than seven of the Thirteen Wolves accompanying him. Naturally, he must have felt like a coward.

I wanted to tell him that such pride was utterly useless. Having his pride hurt was itself something to be ashamed of. It was all because he was young.

“Don’t tell me you’ve already found a lead?”

“I have.”

He must have come expecting it, but hearing confirmation still left him visibly surprised.

“How did you find it so quickly?” he asked suspiciously.

“I didn’t find them. They came to me.”

I pulled back the rough straw mat covering the cart. Five corpses lay inside.

“There was a surprise attack, just as you warned me, Young Master Bi.”

I didn’t mention that they had targeted the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion. Whether he and his men knew about the pavilion or not, I saw no reason to volunteer that information.

“These are the Five Blood-Hand Shadows of White Night Valley.”

“How did you identify them?”

“Don’t underestimate the Cult’s intelligence network. We know a fair amount about your people.”

Bi Sain’s face twisted. He had only frowned slightly, but his expression contorted as though he were furious. The scars on his face were terribly deep and ugly.

“White Night Valley accepted this contract. If you go to them, you’ll be able to find out who’s behind it. How you persuade their lord to name the client is for you to decide. Well? Isn’t this enough to count as the lead I promised?”

Bi Sain said nothing for a moment. He might want to insist that this wasn’t enough, but did he really think I would allow that?

“Surely you weren’t expecting me to track down the mastermind and bring you his head?”

“There’s no need to provoke me. This is sufficient. As of today, the Hundred Admonitions Merchant Company will withdraw from Guizhou. We’ll also calculate the losses from the past two years and send compensation.”

“Just what I’d expect of the Unorthodox Alliance’s successor! Well, until we meet again.”

Just as I was about to turn away, Bi Sain’s voice reached me through sound transmission.

“Second Young Master.”

But that was all. No further words followed, as though I had misheard, as though it had been a ghost’s voice drifting on the wind.

He had started to tell me something privately, then changed his mind.

I studied his face. Not his scars—only his eyes.

Those scars made him look far fiercer and stronger than he truly was inside, but I could see him for what he was: a young man struggling desperately to survive.

Speak, Bi Sain. Whatever it is, speak if you want to change your fate.

But in the end, Bi Sain turned away without another word. The Thirteen Wolves followed, pulling the cart.

I watched them go for a moment, then left as well.

* * *

When I returned, the Wicked Laughing Demon was walking through the courtyard of Thousand Flowers Pavilion. He looked calm, but I could feel it: he was still angry and trying to bring his anger under control.

I fell into step beside him.

“The Hundred Admonitions Merchant Company has agreed to withdraw from Guizhou. They’ll compensate you for the losses from the past two years as well.”

“You’ve resolved in a few days what plagued me for two whole years, Second Young Master.”

“They only accepted our proposal because they were afraid of you, Laughing Demon.”

“There’s no need for modesty. Thank you, Second Young Master.”

Having expressed his gratitude, he stopped walking.

“I will personally kill whoever ordered the mistress of Thousand Flowers Pavilion’s death. Even if it means being confined for another several years.”

He looked at me, his eyes asking what I thought, and I answered.

“Of course you should kill him. If someone tried to kill a person I cared about, of course I’d kill him with my own hands. I would do the same.”

Perhaps he hadn’t expected that answer. His eyes shone with pleasure.

“Don’t you want to return to the Cult? Then you could escape responsibility for whatever trouble I cause.”

“I’ve been so caught up in exploring your world that I’d forgotten why I came out here in the first place.”

“Shall we go back?”

“No. Show me more of your world. Show me more, and kill the bastard behind this before we return.”

I kept knocking on his door. I didn’t hope for it to open wide, as I did with the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

I only wanted it halfway open, so we could face each other at that point where we were neither friends nor enemies.

I know who you are. As you died, you regretted your life—that empty life filled with evil.

Are you still the same man you were then?

“Second Young Master, there’s nothing more to see in my world. This is all there is. Now I have to meet the people who manage the gambling houses, and the leaders of the underworld gangs beneath us. You’ve dressed my world up in grand language, as though it were something special, but in the end, all I do is frighten people and collect tribute. Sometimes I cut off the arm of someone who pockets the money. Sometimes I kill someone I don’t like.”

You have changed. In my life before the regression, you were never this honest, not once.

The man I met back then was old, and had grown older still, until he could no longer change.

How had I managed to become your friend?

Perhaps I had been much the same as you then.

My life and I had hardened like fossils around the single obsession of obtaining the materials for the great art. Perhaps you had recognized a kindred spirit in me, and that was why you had liked me so much.

“There’s only one way for the Wicked Laughing Demon’s world not to seem mundane.”

“What is that?”

“War. The world would become a sea of blood, and you would be flying through the skies. I don’t want to see that kind of world. I still want to see this one. How you deal with the gambling-house managers. How you handle those underworld bastards.”

An intensity I had never seen before flashed through the Wicked Laughing Demon’s eyes, then vanished.

I walked a few steps ahead, turned back to him, and said,

“Well, shall we go? We have arms to cut off—those bastards who pocket your money.”