I Am the Youngest Disciple of the Martial Arts World’s Mastermind
Chapter 34
Chapter 34
The Youngest Disciple of the Murim’s Hidden Mastermind
Chapter 34
“So, the vermin have crawled all the way here.”
Through the silence outside, a familiar and chilling voice rang out.
Then, the owner of the voice slowly revealed himself.
Pyeonma…!
“……!”
He managed to track me down even after sustaining those injuries?
“It seems you’ve sought salvation.”
“…….”
Reflexively, I stiffened and pressed myself closer to Hyeonhak’s side.
Pyeonma addressed Hyeonhak.
“Listen well. That girl has committed no small number of sins against the Heavenly Demon Cult. If you hand her over quietly, I shall spare your life—on the condition that you join the Demonic Cult.”
“…….”
“I suspect you need time to deliberate. I shall give you the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.”
Even after hearing such an absurd proposal, Hyeonhak whispered calmly.
“A Centurion. You’ve provoked someone quite powerful even within the Demonic Cult.”
“Ugh….”
I know that too!
My head was spinning. The pain in the hand I had injured earlier was still vivid. I’m scared…!
What do I do now? Pyeonma must have brought his subordinates with him.
It might be too much for Hyeonhak, who is a physician, to handle all of them alone.
Right, I still have the paralysis needles inside the Iron Fan Gwangeum gave me. Should I try to help with this?
“What should I do…….”
Just as I clenched my fists tight.
“Pfft.”
I heard a chuckle from above my head.
“……?”
Hyeonhak-sahyeong? You can laugh right now?
I looked up at Hyeonhak. The usual tranquil mask had shattered, replaced by a thin, mocking sneer playing on his lips.
The gap between this and his usual silent, composed demeanor was so vast that I froze involuntarily.
He spoke in a low voice.
“What exactly are you worried about?”
“Huh…? Oh, no. It’s just that Pyeonma is….”
“I am here, am I not?”
“Eh?”
What did he say?
I forgot to reply and let my mouth hang agape.
Hyeonhak stroked my hair once gently with his large hand. Stepping toward the open door, he gave me a final instruction.
“Keep your ears tightly covered.”
“Pardon…?”
Before I even had the chance to cover them, Hyeonhak strode out of the inn.
Outside, Pyeonma—his thigh tightly bound with a red cloth to treat the wound I gave him—stood in formation with other members of the cult who appeared to be his subordinates.
Pyeonma opened his mouth and sneered.
“So you’ve decided to throw away your life after all—”
“You Demonic Cult bastards are just as noisy now as you were in the past.”
And then, it happened in an instant.
Hyeonhak, who had clearly been empty-handed, snatched a sword from one of the men in the blink of an eye.
What was that? That movement?
It didn’t feel faster than Danhwi’s, yet every motion seemed to flow together as one.
As if sensing I was watching blankly, Hyeonhak spoke once more.
“Close your eyes as well.”
“……!”
I hurriedly raised my hands to cover my ears and squeezed my eyes shut.
“…….”
However, covering my ears proved useless.
“Ahahaha! How is it? Am I stronger than you thought? Why the bewildered face, hmm?”
Hyeonhak’s chilling laughter—a sound I was hearing for the first time—seeped right through my palms. I could also hear Pyeonma’s panicked voice.
“No, you… who are you…….”
“I see you still have the breath to speak. Let’s see. If you can block three strikes, I’ll tell you my name.”
Clang, clang, thud!
“Guh…!”
“You couldn’t block it?”
Wow, his personality is something else….
Even though I knew the owner of that voice was Hyeonhak, the provocation was so vicious it made me cower instinctively.
I stared into the void, trying to forget the biting, cruel words flowing into my ears.
…Hyeonhak is definitely a disciple of the Murim’s hidden mastermind, after all.
It felt as though not even the time it takes to drink a cup of tea had passed.
Pyeonma, who had seemed so invincible when I faced him, had collapsed.
I cautiously poked my head through the gap in the door. It was silent outside.
“Sahyeong…?”
“Ah, it’s all finished.”
Hyeonhak, who had been standing tall alone, spoke in his usual calm tone as if nothing had happened.
Hearing that voice, the tension finally snapped and left me.
“Hyeonhak-sahyeooong….”
“Yes.”
“Are… are there no more pursuers?”
“I intend to erase all traces here completely. Then it will be safe.”
Hyeonhak nodded stoically.
Only then did I let my guard down and let out a long sigh.
“Phew, you worked so hard….”
Suddenly looking at Hyeonhak’s face, I saw a bloodstain on his cheek that hadn’t been wiped away.
I looked around and tugged at the hem of Hyeonhak’s robe as he was tidying up the bodies.
“Um, Hyeonhak-sahyeong.”
“Yes?”
“The bloodstain here. You missed a spot.”
“…Ah.”
When I gestured by poking my own cheek, Hyeonhak wiped the blood away with his sleeve.
And then, instead of going back to tidying the bodies….
“……?”
He looked at me.
Why?
When I met his gaze with wide eyes, Hyeonhak remained silent for a moment before asking.
“Are you not afraid?”
“Pardon?”
Is he talking about the bodies or the blood?
Come to think of it, just a few days ago, my whole body was trembling just from seeing human bones. Now, even after seeing a bucket’s worth of blood and bodies scattered around, I wasn’t that scared.
Have I already developed a resistance to the reality of the martial world?
“Uh, I think I’ve gotten used to it….”
When I answered in an uncertain tone, Hyeonhak shook his head and corrected his question.
“No, not of those things.”
“Eh, then what?”
“Of me.”
“…Of you, Hyeonhak-sahyeong?”
“Yes.”
Hyeonhak nodded calmly and waited for my answer.
As our eyes met, I noticed his eyes were subtly….
‘Are they… smiling?’
I carefully organized my thoughts.
I mean, I was certainly surprised.
To think that Hyeonhak-sahyeong, the most gentle and kind of them all, had such a psychopathic, murderous side to him. That sharp laughter still seemed to ring in my ears.
But… that was just surprise.
I didn’t feel dread or terror.
Besides, the way he took care of Pyeonma and his subordinates in an instant was actually….
“…I think you looked cool?”
“…….”
As I spat out my honest impression, Hyeonhak’s expression shifted slightly.
Whether then or now, the thought that Hyeonhak-sahyeong would ever harm me never even crossed my mind.
So.
“Thank you for saving me!”
I gave a bright smile and lunged forward, hugging Hyeonhak’s leg tightly to convey my gratitude.
“…….”
I felt him stiffen beneath my arms, as if he were receiving a child’s hug for the very first time.
Ah, but now isn’t the time for this.
I quickly lifted my head from where it was pressed against him and spoke.
“That’s right! Sahyeong, can we return to Cheongsanbong now?”
“…….”
“As you saw when you looked at him, Ryang is really badly hurt…. Ah, Ryang is that boy’s name from earlier….”
As I rambled and stomped my feet in anxiety, Hyeonhak, who had been looking down at me silently, gave a slow nod.
“Since the pursuers have been dealt with, it should be fine to return now.”
“Yes!!”
Hyeonhak went back inside the inn and came out with Ryang slung lightly over his shoulder.
When I had tried to carry him, Ryang’s body had gone limp like a sandbag full of water, but on Hyeonhak’s back, he finally looked comfortable.
“Now, for the final touch….”
Hyeonhak pulled a small piece of paper from inside his shirt. Just as Master had done, he ignited it with internal energy and handed it to me.
“Soyoung-saje, set the fire yourself.”
“Huh, me?”
I took the rapidly burning paper and looked around before pressing it against the fence surrounding the inn.
Then, amazingly, the fire caught onto the fence instantly and spread to the entire inn, soon covering the bodies and beginning to burn.
The flames even scorched the bloodstains that had seeped into the sandy ground, turning them into black ash to be scattered by the wind.
“……!”
It was a perfect destruction of evidence.
As I stood there with my eyes wide in shock, Hyeonhak explained quietly from behind me.
“I prepared the treatment beforehand, in case we ever needed to leave without a trace.”
Was it some kind of… chemical treatment?
I didn’t dare ask using the vocabulary of an eight-year-old. I simply swallowed hard at the overwhelming majesty of the flames.
“If the time comes for Soyoung-saje to use this in the future, please keep it in mind.”
“Ye-yes.”
Nodding reflexively, I looked once more at the flames that were swiftly and violently consuming the inn and the corpses.
He’s telling an eight-year-old to remember a sorcery that burns away every trace of one’s presence?
…This truly was an education befitting the hidden mastermind of the Murim.
It was around dawn when we arrived at Cheongsanbong.
The sky above the peak was just beginning to turn red, and the bell that signaled the morning had not yet rung.
“Shh.”
“…….”
I followed Hyeonhak, carefully crossing the mountain gate.
I didn’t forget to get one more firm confirmation from him.
“You’re really not going to tell Master, right?”
Even though the request from the start was to keep this operation a secret from Master, bringing Ryang to Cheongsanbong was an unexpected development.
Therefore, I needed to make sure Hyeonhak hadn’t changed his mind.
“Yes. I understand.”
“Phew….”
That’s a relief.
