Chapter 159 - How a Frog Survives

Jo Sin's eyes changed at the word servant.

Had Geom Mugeuk known nothing about him, he might have missed it. But he could see the contempt in those eyes. An intolerably petty anger radiated from him: 'Why is a nobody like you drinking with the woman who is going to be mine?'

'So he was like this even back then.'

No, if anything, his younger self was failing to conceal his true nature. The older Jo Sin had been truly exceptional at hiding what he was.

"Sharing a table and drinking with a servant? You really are as broad-minded as the rumors say."

Jo Sin had intended it as a compliment, but Jin Haryeong countered with a question.

"Does sitting with a servant require broad-mindedness?"

Hadn't sharing a table with a servant been occupying her thoughts lately? More than that, over the past few days, the word taking up the most space in her head had been not "Young Dragon Tournament," but "servant."

"I mean that something as simple as eating with a servant doesn't bother me at all."

"Ah, I see. Treating even your inferiors fairly—admirable. Now, we all know what tomorrow's banquet will be like. Let's have a banquet of our own here, just us young people."

It was an easygoing invitation, complete with a compliment, but Jin Haryeong rejected it outright.

"I'm sorry, but I'll have to decline."

To be honest, Jo Sin was handsome. She did feel some desire to sit and have a drink with him.

But Geom Yeon mattered more than that impulse.

If she drank with Jo Sin, she would have to send Geom Yeon away. If all of them drank together instead, Geom Yeon would get on Jo Sin's bad side.

Neither option appealed to her. In particular, she had no wish to say, "We're going to have a drink, so would you leave us now?"

"This is a first for me. A woman turning down my invitation to drink."

"We'll be seeing each other tomorrow anyway, won't we?"

Jin Haryeong missed it, but Geom Mugeuk saw it. The instant she refused, Jo Sin's eyes changed. 'How dare you reject me?' Something darker and colder than mere irritation rose within him.

As Jin Haryeong was about to turn away, Jo Sin sat down across from Geom Mugeuk.

"I'll have a drink with this servant, then."

She started in surprise, and Jo Sin told her,

"I'd like to find out what makes this servant so charming that he can sit with you when even I cannot."

Irritation surged through Jin Haryeong the moment she heard that. Jo Sin was openly declaring that he intended to torment Geom Yeon. He was going to behave like this just because she wouldn't drink with him? The goodwill his handsome face had inspired vanished in an instant.

'Doesn't he want to make a good impression on me?'

She couldn't understand him. If his grandfather had brought up marriage, surely Jo Sin knew about it too.

She sat back down.

She did so out of concern for Geom Yeon, but that only provoked Jo Sin further.

"What a charming servant you are. You've made Miss Jin sit down again when she was about to leave."

Jo Sin asked Geom Mugeuk,

"What's your name?"

"Geom Yeon."

"A fine name for a mere servant."

"Thank you."

"Do you know who I am?"

"You introduced yourself earlier as Young Hero Jo of True Dragon Manor."

"A good memory, too. Where did you find such a splendid serving cur?"

She frowned slightly at the words "serving cur." Jo Sin was watching the feelings she could not hide, while Geom Mugeuk watched the shifts in Jo Sin's emotions.

"Miss Jin is beautiful, isn't she?"

"She is."

"Enough to think about at night? Well? With her—"

It was obvious what he would say next, so Jin Haryeong cut him off.

"Watch your mouth! You keep crossing the line."

"I thought you were broad-minded, seeing you drink with a serving cur. Apparently your generosity depends on the person."

Their eyes met.

At that instant, an image appeared in Jin Haryeong's mind: a pitch-black venomous snake, its head raised and tongue flickering. Nothing like this had ever happened to her while looking at someone, and it unsettled her.

Then Jo Sin smiled, his face the picture of good nature.

"Did I take my teasing too far?"

He tried to brush it off as a joke, but Jin Haryeong had lost every trace of affection for him.

'Is he trying to boast that he can treat the alliance leader's granddaughter however he likes?'

Jo Sin questioned Geom Mugeuk again.

"I simply can't figure her out. What sort of person is our Miss Jin?"

"I don't know her very well either."

"You don't know?"

"I am a servant, but I'm not Miss Jin's servant."

"You're not?"

Jo Sin was startled.

"Whose servant are you, then?"

"I serve Young Master Seo Ryong of the Western Saber Sect, who is competing in this Young Dragon Tournament."

"Then why were you drinking with Miss Jin? That's even stranger, isn't it?"

Geom Mugeuk, too, sensed something strange.

'Why is he so worked up?'

Even in his youth, Jo Sin had been a cautious man. His behavior today was too excessive to attribute to jealousy alone.

'What is making you run wild like this?'

He seemed caught in an uncontrollable fever of excitement, like a child praised by his schoolteacher, a merchant who had made a fortune, or a martial artist who had achieved complete mastery of his art.

CLACK!

Jin Haryeong set her cup down with an audible rap. It was a silent warning to stop.

Jo Sin's manner changed. He asked her gently, as though they were old friends,

"Don't you find it strange, Miss Jin?"

"Find what strange?"

"The Martial Alliance Leader's granddaughter is sitting and drinking with the servant of a martial artist competing in this tournament. Everyone would be astonished, yet the granddaughter herself finds nothing strange about it. What do you think?"

"And? What's your point?"

"They say that if you put a frog in lukewarm water and slowly bring it to a boil, it dies without even realizing it's dying."

The corners of Jin Haryeong's mouth lifted. Before she could respond angrily, Jo Sin continued.

"What if this man approached you with some ulterior motive? What if he came to slip energy-dispersing poison into your wine before the final? What will you do then? Say you've been deceived?"

Jo Sin brought his face right up to Geom Mugeuk's.

"What are you after?"

Geom Mugeuk said nothing. Jo Sin looked fierce enough to strike him with his palm at any moment, and Jin Haryeong intervened.

"Young Hero Jo."

Her cold, subdued tone made her feelings clear.

"I'll see you at tomorrow's banquet. The water is still a long way from boiling."

Their gazes met. Jin Haryeong stared boldly at the snake with its head raised. She was not afraid of it now.

Jo Sin smiled.

"It seems I've made a mistake on our first proper meeting. My apologies, Miss Jin. I'll see you at tomorrow's banquet."

He rose and gave me a little smile. Not only Geom Mugeuk, but Jin Haryeong as well, felt the intense killing intent contained in it.

After Jo Sin left the inn, Jin Haryeong drank in silence. She seemed to be turning his earlier words over in her mind.

Geom Mugeuk waited quietly for her to speak.

After a while, she sighed and spoke. The coldness she had shown Jo Sin was gone; she was her usual self again.

"It's hard. So hard. Why is everything so difficult?"

"Life has always been hard. Ask someone from a hundred years ago, or five hundred years ago, and they'd say it was hard. The alliance leader would say so, and so would that waiter over there. Even a child born tomorrow will say it once they're old enough to understand."

"This is why. How could anyone not be suspicious when a mere servant says things like that?"

"Do you find me suspicious too, Miss Jin?"

She answered honestly.

"To be honest, I flinched when I heard the story about the frog."

"Fall for that, and you'll be moved from a warm hot spring into a pot where the water really is boiling."

Jin Haryeong shook her head.

"You're far too good with words. You win."

"What do you mean?"

"I'd rather die than trust that man, so I'll have to trust you."

"At times like this, you should trust neither. Why choose one of the two?"

Jin Haryeong looked at Geom Mugeuk. If this man really was evil, she would be in serious trouble. She had a feeling that stopping him would be harder than stopping the snake-like, frightening Jo Sin. Still, she decided to trust her instincts.

"This isn't the time to worry about me. You're in serious trouble. This frog may still be swimming in warm water, but your frog has just been left all alone on a rock in the middle of lava."

She had an innate gift for reading people. She had realized that Jo Sin was not a man who would let a servant live after he sat drinking with the woman Jo Sin wanted to marry. All the more so when that woman had taken the servant's side.

"My young master will protect me."

"No. Even if your young master is skilled enough to reach the main tournament, he can't protect you too. That man's family is no ordinary family. Go back to your hometown right away."

"I can't leave my young master behind. If that man intends to harm me, as you say, would going home let me escape him? I'd only bring trouble on my young master's sect instead."

"You're right."

She sprang to her feet.

"Wait here. I'll at least find you a pole to get you out of that lava."

She left the inn.

Soon afterward, Seo Daeryong sat down in her place.

"This is more entertaining than the matches."

"I thought you were tired?"

"No matter how tired I am, how could I stand not knowing? Who was that bastard earlier? Is this one of those things where a fated romance always has someone standing in the way?"

"To him, I'm the one standing in the way."

"He looked perfectly decent."

"Those are the more dangerous ones."

"Exactly. It's only because he hasn't seen you without your beard, Pavilion Master."

"Meaning I'm more dangerous?"

"How could he compare? In looks or in danger."

Seo Daeryong laughed to himself, as though he thought his own joke was rather good.

"I'll just win the tournament while I watch this fated romance unfold."

"Do that. I'll deal with this business while I watch your fated matches."

I wondered what Jin Haryeong would do.

And when she came the following day, her solution was something I hadn't considered.

"Come to the banquet with me."

She wanted me to accompany her to today's banquet. A banquet attended by the Martial Alliance Leader and Jo Sin.

"I believe I already told you I couldn't go, even at the cost of being called a coward."

"Things are different now. I'll take responsibility for keeping you alive."

"How?"

"You'll see when we get there."

Meet the Martial Alliance Leader?

Could I really conceal what I was from him? I had already reached the realm of Returning to Simplicity and Truth, allowing me to appear as though I had never learned martial arts at all.

But would that work on the Martial Alliance Leader? Could I truly hide the presence I exuded as a person?

Probably not. I might be able to pass off ninth-level martial attainment as the eighth level, but I would not be able to pass myself off as a servant.

Meeting the Martial Alliance Leader meant being prepared to reveal my identity.

"What are you thinking so hard about?"

"I'm considering how to respond once your grandfather learns about me."

Of course, her concerns were entirely different.

"Grandfather won't harm you because of your status. If he gets angry, he'll direct it at me."

"He's an admirable man, so he'll treat even his inferiors with dignity, won't he?"

"Of course."

'Then how would he treat the Heavenly Demon's flesh and blood?'

It was a question I couldn't bring myself to ask her.

Of course, even if my identity as the Heavenly Demon's son were exposed, I wouldn't be killed at the Orthodox Martial Alliance. That could trigger a war. In that sense, the Alliance was safer than the Cult.

Instead, I would be expelled, held responsible for causing trouble with the Alliance, and fail this succession test.

I pondered for a long time. Jin Haryeong understood and waited for me.

At last, I finished considering the various possibilities in depth.

"All right. Let's go."

"Ah, you've made the right choice."

"Meet me at the Alliance entrance in half a watch. I need to get ready for the banquet."

"All right."

After sending her off, I went upstairs to our room and told Seo Daeryong I was going to the Martial Alliance Leader's banquet.

He asked with concern,

"Will you be all right?"

"Do you think I will?"

"You've told me you were going to meet all sorts of dangerous people. Starting with the Demon Army commander, and then the Demon Supremes. And now you're going to meet the Martial Alliance Leader."

"What do you think of having a leader like this?"

"In the past, I would have hated it."

Whenever I'd said I was going to see the Demon Supremes, Seo Daeryong had recoiled in horror.

"And now?"

"Even if I back away in fear, all that's behind me is the tournament platform."

We laughed together. Being alone together in enemy territory was bringing us closer.

"Have a safe trip. I'll be training."

I looked at my reflection in the bronze mirror. Long, disheveled hair and cheap clothes. I tousled my hair even more and left my clothes unchanged.

When Jin Haryeong saw me at the Alliance entrance, she cried,

"You said you were getting ready for the banquet! What exactly did you do?"

"Don't I look better?"

"Not at all!"

"Should I go change?"

"No, we'll be late. Come on!"

As Jin Haryeong and I entered the banquet hall, the gazes around us converged on us.

Among a gathering of heroes, Father's presence looks like blood, like the sole patch of red in a black-and-white painting.

The Martial Alliance Leader's presence was much the same. There were countless people in the banquet hall, but I recognized him at a glance.

It felt as though everyone else was black and white, while he alone was blue.

Truly, the presence of Murim's strongest masters was astonishing.

Far across the hall, Martial Alliance Leader Jin Paecheon, who had been conversing with his guests, slowly turned his head toward us.