I Am the Youngest Disciple of the Martial Arts World’s Mastermind
Chapter 31
Chapter 31
I am the Youngest Disciple of the Murim’s Hidden Mastermind
Episode 31
“……?”
Soso tilted her head, then fumbled at her face as if suddenly realizing something.
“Ah, right! My face!”
“Your face?”
Ryang asked back, bewildered.
Now that he looked, her face was different from the one in his memories.
“Ah.”
Back then, she had been a refined young lady of a noble house, pretty without a single flaw. Now, the slight upward flick at the corners of her eyes drew his attention.
Yet, he could still tell it was Soso.
He had recognized her before he even saw her face.
“My face is a bit different from back then, but…”
Had she used some kind of artifice back then? It didn’t matter.
Soso, however, seemed to mistake his reaction for suspicion due to her changed appearance. She waved her hands frantically, chattering away.
“I’m the girl you saved last time! Haa, did you save a lot of other people besides me? Anyway, I can explain this later, but for now…!”
No, he wanted to say. You were the only one. You were the only child I found the courage to save.
He wanted to speak those words, but his lips felt as if they were glued shut.
Instead, a different question tumbled out.
“Me? Why?”
After seeing him in such a cruel state.
If she had escaped, she should have stayed far away. How did she find her way back here…?
Was it because of him? Truly?
“Why did you come here?”
Ryang managed to ask in a trembling voice. It was as if hearing the answer would be his salvation.
“Uh…”
Soso blinked, then answered without hesitation.
“When you saved me, you said there was no reason for me to die like that.”
Soso’s small hand suddenly snatched Ryang’s.
“……!”
She held his hand—the fingertips stained black and hideous—without a moment’s hesitation. She gripped him tightly with a warm heat, as if she didn’t care that his demonic energy might invade her own body.
“I just thought the same thing.”
“What…?”
“There’s no reason for you to be here either. Let’s escape together!”
“You.”
Ryang couldn’t breathe.
His heart thundered painfully against his ribs. His vision seemed to flush red.
And then, it happened.
“How strange.”
“……!”
A low, raspy voice.
The instinctive terror engraved by the lashings that always followed that voice made the hair on Ryang’s neck stand on end.
Step, step.
“I have no memory of such a girl joining our ranks. How did you get in?”
Pyeonma’s face, covered in jagged whip scars that reached even his bald crown, radiated fear just by sight.
Usually, children brought to the White Horse Cave for the first time burst into tears the moment they saw him.
“…….”
As expected, he felt Soso’s grip on his hand tighten.
That sensation allowed Ryang to barely pull himself together.
I have to stay focused.
Now that they had been caught by Pyeonma, escaping together was a pipe dream, but he had to at least get Soso out safely….
“Are you a servant girl? Why have you come all the way in here?”
Fortunately, Pyeonma didn’t seem intent on harming Soso immediately.
“No, not a servant. I’ve never seen a face like this before….”
However, it was clear he didn’t view her as an ordinary girl either.
“Shall we see for ourselves?”
Pyeonma reached out toward Soso with his hand that wasn’t holding the whip.
“……!”
No. Take me instead.
The moment Ryang tried to step in front of her—
Fwip!
Soso snapped open a fan, and a cloud of black powder scattered from it.
Caught in the gust produced by the fan, Pyeonma took the powder full in the face and grimaced.
“Urgh.”
“Run!”
Covering her own mouth with her sleeve, Soso turned to Ryang and shouted.
“……!”
Ryang’s eyes widened in surprise, but he nodded and began to run after her.
Thud, thud, thud. As they sprinted, a miraculous hope began to bloom in Ryang’s heart.
Could they really… escape from this White Horse Cave?
“Such shallow tricks…”
However, Pyeonma was not an opponent who could be shaken off by mere parlor tricks.
Despite inhaling the poisonous mist, Pyeonma closed the distance instantly and lashed out with his whip.
Crack!
“Kh…!”
The hook at the end of the whip tore away a chunk of flesh.
Ryang swallowed the groan that leaked through his teeth—a pain he was all too familiar with—and squeezed Soso’s hand.
At the same time, Soso, unaware of his condition, leaped high into the air.
She headed toward one of the dozens of narrow, small passages that served as ventilation shafts for the deep, dark cave.
It was a place Pyeonma certainly wouldn’t be able to follow easily.
It was also a path Ryang had always kept in mind, even as he gave up on escaping because of the Gu poison inside him.
‘…But how does Soso know this path?’
The thought lasted only a moment.
“You, this wound…!”
Horror filled Soso’s large eyes. Blood was streaming down from Ryang’s shoulder where the hook had struck.
“…I’m fine.”
Ryang realized then that she had likely never witnessed such a gruesome sight before.
“Soso. You should go back alone. I’m already….”
Because of the Gu poison, I’m a dead man even if I leave.
That’s why I went back to the White Horse Cave so obediently that day.
Just as he was about to say it, Soso spoke first.
Her voice was loud enough to be heard even outside the tunnel where they were hiding.
“…You said it was a shallow trick, yet you missed us, didn’t you?”
From outside, Pyeonma’s incredulous voice drifted in.
“…What?”
“You’re cowardly enough to use a whip on children, aren’t you? But you’ll never catch us! That shiny head of yours can be seen from anywhere!”
“…….”
Pyeonma’s face, initially stunned, began to flush red with mounting rage.
“When I catch you, I’ll separate that little head from your shoulders. What are you doing?! Pursue them at once!”
“Yes, sir!”
Gritting his teeth, Pyeonma ordered his subordinates to hunt down the girl who had infiltrated the cave and the slave who had attempted to escape.
However, the reports coming back were all the same.
“Centurion! We heard footsteps this way, but we found a device installed in the wall!”
“Centurion, over here, an explosive that emits smoke was triggered on the floor…!”
“Centurion, we can’t enter that area because we’re not sure if that glittering object is another trap…!”
“Centurion…!”
Dammit.
Pyeonma bit his lip hard.
The structure of the White Horse Cave was a maze so complex that even Pyeonma, who managed it, occasionally got confused.
It was, quite literally, a demonic den.
‘But how could that child…?’
Despite the guards constantly patrolling the cave, she had managed to set traps everywhere right under their noses. Furthermore, she was escaping without being seen.
“…….”
Pyeonma looked up at the ventilation shaft.
She had bolted toward it as if she knew exactly where she was going.
‘Is there an insider helping them?’
Yes. This would be impossible unless someone had drawn a detailed map and handed it over in advance. The installation of the traps was crude, but the mechanisms themselves were of a rare design….
Did this mean there was a traitor within the Demonic Cult?
“…Stop the pursuit!”
Pyeonma, reaching that conclusion, gathered his subordinates with a voice infused with inner energy.
The subordinates had all been caught at least once by traps that, while not lethal, were enough to bind their feet, and they were fuming with frustration.
“…….”
Scanning their faces one by one didn’t reveal who might have conspired with the intruders.
Perhaps there was no conspirator at all.
In the first place, why should he, a Centurion, be plagued by such worries?
Pyeonma looked over their faces once more before speaking in a harsh tone.
“Enough time has passed for them to have escaped the White Horse Cave already.”
“…….”
“Even if we didn’t lay a dragnet, you lost two brats inside a cave you should know like the back of your hand?”
“We are sorry, sir.”
“Fine. The rest of you, search for any undiscovered traps. I will pursue them myself.”
“Yes, Centurion!”
Cowed by his killing intent, the subordinates bowed low.
Pyeonma clicked his tongue.
They all looked like incompetent fools to him.
Without hesitation, Pyeonma turned and strode out of the White Horse Cave.
Thump, thump.
Outside the cave was a sheer cliff with no sign of life. Below it lay a vast forest….
And as the hazy mist veiled the crescent moon, two pairs of small footprints that could not be hidden were visible under the dark night sky.
“…Hehehe.”
Only then did a smile hook onto Pyeonma’s lips.
They had used quite clever tricks, but in the end, they were just children.
They didn’t even know how to properly conceal their tracks.
Moreover, one of them had been punished by his own hand and should barely be able to walk.
The true hunt would begin now, outside the White Horse Cave.
Under the chilling, grey moonlight, a black shadow swept past.
