Though they were of the Demon Sect, known to be without blood or tears, the air was heavy and stifling.
It was called an interrogation room, but in truth, it was a torture chamber.
Shackles and iron chains hung on the walls, and on one side, torture tools were laid out on a long desk as if on display.
Why were there so many iron needles of different thicknesses?
Sharp saws, daggers, and other strange, unsettling tools whose purpose was a mystery.
And the brazier and branding iron next to the desk were surely not there to roast sweet potatoes.
The moment Gwak Yeong saw them, her whole body trembled involuntarily.
It was a fear that could not be suppressed by will alone.
She forced herself to look away, but this time she saw red stains on the floor.
Looking closer, she realized it was blood.
No matter how strong-willed she was, it was difficult to remain composed in such an atmosphere.
She could not shake the fear that she might be tortured, die a miserable death, and be buried in the backyard.
But soon, she slapped her own cheeks.
"Get a grip, Gwak Yeong! This is the path you chose.”
On the first day she met that man, when she could have escaped with the help of the White Dragon Division Lord, she did not run.
She did not tell them anything.
Going back to the tavern to meet this man was entirely her own choice.
It was a conclusion she had reached after staying up all night.
What was the reason?
As she walked away with the White Dragon Division Lord, she had looked back, and he had been looking at her.
With an impassive gaze that revealed no emotion.
Perhaps it was because of that indifferent expression he showed in a situation where he could have rightly shown irritation or anger.
In that situation, had he been angry or had he laughed, both would have been unsettling.
Just then!
Creeeak.
The sound of the iron door opening startled her.
Her heart pounded as if it would burst.
The thick iron door opened and two people stepped inside.
A pang of disappointment went through her.
She had hoped he would enter, but it was Division Lord Ho Myeong and his subordinate.
"If you follow my instructions, this won't take long."
At Ho Myeong’s words, Gwak Yeong made a request.
"Please call the man from before."
"He is a person of high station."
"Please call that person of high station. I will tell him everything."
Gwak Yeong felt it instinctively.
She could not speak to these people.
What would happen if she revealed everything? They would take all the information and then kill her.
Yes, being demonic practitioners, they were more than capable of such a thing.
Therefore, she had to bet her fate on that man, not these ones.
She had to get a promise from that man.
But Ho Myeong did not listen to her.
He took a small bottle from his robes and placed it on the table in front of her.
"Drink it."
"What is this?"
"A Truth serum."
Although she did not practice martial arts, she worked for the Martial Alliance.
She had heard rumors about this Truth serum.
"I heard that those who refuse to confess until the end can die from the side effects, or become crippled."
Ho Myeong nodded.
The side effects varied.
Sometimes, someone who spoke freely out of bad luck could still die.
As she said, the side effects were more pronounced in those who refused to reveal the truth.
"There aren't many people with that kind of willpower."
"You're looking at one right now."
Gwak Yeong was not bluffing.
She truly had no intention of speaking to these people, and she trusted her own will.
That was why she was genuinely worried she might die from the side effects.
"You don't want me to die either, do you?"
Gwak Yeong tried her best to appear confident, shaking off her fear.
"So please, call him."
Of course, it had no effect on Ho Myeong.
He could have subdued her vital blood point and forced her to drink, but Ho Myeong did not.
He gave a look, and the subordinate who had entered with him lit the brazier and placed a branding iron on it.
Sizzzzzle.
After a moment, the branding iron glowed red-hot.
"Don't think you can scare me with fire. I've been helping in the Iron Workshop since I was young, so I'm not afraid of fire. It's like a friend to me."
"It will hurt more if you're hurt by a friend."
At Ho Myeong's signal, the subordinate picked up the branding iron and approached her.
He brought the branding iron toward her face.
The face was the most effective part of a person to instill fear, especially for a woman.
But Gwak Yeong did not close her eyes.
She did not scream.
She stared at the approaching branding iron, her eyes wide open, and clenched her teeth.
Just before the branding iron touched her face, a voice came from behind.
"Wait."
Thankfully, the branding iron stopped before it could sear her face.
Standing at the open iron door was Geom Muyang.
As he stepped inside, the subordinate with the branding iron exited, leaving only Ho Myeong.
Geom Muyang walked over and stood before her.
"Why did you ask for me?"
Geom Muyang had been listening to her from outside the door.
He could tell by instinct.
No amount of torture would get the words he wanted from her.
With this much resolve, she would indeed die from the side effects of the Truth serum, just as she said.
"I told you in the carriage. I've bet my life and fate on you."
Geom Muyang's reaction remained cold.
"What do you know about me?"
"I told you I trust my feelings."
Geom Muyang looked at the Truth serum on the table and said.
"Drink it."
With a trembling gaze, Gwak Yeong looked down at the Truth serum, then picked it up.
After uncorking it, she looked into Geom Muyang's eyes and drank it all.
A short while later, her face flushed as the potion began to take effect.
Now, the real questioning began.
"What was your reason for approaching me?"
He couldn't rule out the possibility that she had approached him intentionally.
"You were the one who approached me. You came to my table, didn't you?"
Her voice was languid, as if she had just woken from sleep.
"Were you not ordered to approach me?"
"I was not."
"Then why did you come to the tavern again the next day?"
Gwak Yeong's eyes were unfocused and hazy.
"I thought you could help me."
"The reason?"
"It was a feeling. I was glad it was this person who came to capture me."
Gwak Yeong frowned slightly as she spoke.
"Is this what it feels like to drink a Truth serum? I feel dizzy and so nauseous."
Normally, someone who takes a Truth serum answers from an unconscious state.
The fact that she was aware of having taken it meant her mental strength was extraordinary.
At least in this situation, it was not a good sign.
Geom Muyang looked down at her in silence for a moment.
Gwak Yeong smiled faintly and said something unexpected.
"You're handsome."
Geom Muyang snorted with a look of disbelief.
"Don't just you ask questions, let me ask one too. This scar, is it very ugly?"
She was not in her right mind.
She had begun to say whatever came to her mind subconsciously.
"Don't laugh. This is my scar of glory. Do you know how scared I was then? Do you?"
Drip.
Blood trickled from her nose.
"Oh? I'm bleeding. I didn't lie, but I'm bleeding."
Ho Myeong quickly spoke up.
"The side effects are starting to show."
"Give her the antidote."
"Yes."
Ho Myeong gave Gwak Yeong the antidote.
It was a medicine to counteract the effects of the Truth serum.
After a short while, Gwak Yeong regained her senses.
"What happened?"
"The side effects appeared, so I gave you the antidote."
She was relieved at the thought that she had just escaped death.
"Thank you."
"It's not over yet."
"No, it is all over. It was already over when I went to find you the next day. The only thing left is whether you will make a promise with me or not."
"What promise?"
Earlier in the carriage, she had said that since she didn't fire the Piercing Spike, he should make her one promise.
"Please save them."
He naturally thought she meant herself.
"Please save my younger brother."
Now, Geom Muyang understood.
Why she had made counterfeit weapons.
Why she had come to him, trying so hard to make an absurd promise.
She wasn't trying to save herself.
"My brother is being held hostage by them."
She clenched both her fists tightly.
"After my parents passed away, my brother is the only family I have. There's no one in the world as good-hearted as him."
One question naturally arose.
"Why didn't you inform the Martial Alliance?"
As an artisan of the Martial Alliance's Iron Workshop, the Alliance would have surely moved to save her brother.
"They told me. They have an ally high up in the Martial Alliance. They said no matter how secretly I reported it to the Alliance, they would find out first."
"Did you believe that?"
She seemed too smart to believe it so easily.
Then she said something startling.
"I had to believe them. The place I heard it was in my own quarters within the Martial Alliance's inner compound."
The fact that outsiders could freely enter and leave the Martial Alliance's inner compound meant that someone high up was involved, just as they said.
"They said if I made it just once, they would release my brother and never bother me again."
She let out a sigh of regret.
"They broke their promise. Foolish me! It was a promise they never intended to keep in the first place."
The fact that they didn't release her brother meant they intended to force her to make other weapons.
"Why did I bet my fate on you? Because I can't keep being dragged along by them. Even if I am, they will eventually kill my brother. I became certain of that when they broke their promise this time."
Geom Muyang gave a slight nod, as if to say she had judged correctly.
"You can use me, you can kill me. You can sear me with that branding iron, you can make me drink ten bottles of Truth serum. I'll tell you everything I know. But please, you must save my brother."
She did not hide her emotions.
She felt it was better to be honest with this man than to use shallow tricks.
"I should be negotiating with you using the information I have, but you people are too scary for me to do that."
Geom Muyang gave no reply.
Gwak Yeong pleaded again.
"They say the Demon Sect is without blood or tears, but you must have siblings, don't you? If you do, you must understand how I feel."
Geom Muyang, who had been silent all along, spoke to her.
"I am someone who once wished my younger brother was dead."
For a moment, Gwak Yeong flinched.
"Please pretend you didn't hear what I just said."
She pleaded in a different way.
"Then I'll do whatever you command for the rest of my life, make whatever you tell me to make. I don't know how high your position is, but if you take me with you, you'll surely get a promotion."
Watching, Ho Myeong laughed silently.
"My career is finished anyway. How can I continue to live as an artisan after dishonoring the Martial Alliance's Iron Workshop? I will make things for you. You saw it, didn't you? That small Piercing Spike? I made that myself. I'll make you whatever you desire."
Still, Geom Muyang said nothing.
Finally, Gwak Yeong snapped.
"You heartless man! If someone begs you like this, you could at least make an empty promise!"
Geom Muyang said bluntly.
"I do not make promises I don't intend to keep."
Yes, it was because she had a feeling he was this kind of person that she had taken the gamble.
"If you don't help me, I'll die and become a ghost, and I'll appear in your dreams every day to torment you."
She tried threatening him and appealing to his good nature.
Appealing to the good nature of a demonic practitioner.
"If you're not the type to help others, then just for once in your life, try helping someone. Who knows? When you fall into hell, King Yama might forgive you because of that good deed."
But Geom Muyang was unmoved.
She realized this impregnable fortress would not fall to her pleas or persuasion.
'Right, I must be crazy.
A demonic practitioner is just a demonic practitioner.
What kind of premonition was I having?'
She silently looked down at the back of her hand for a moment, then said.
"Do you know what makes me really angry? It's that all of this happened because of my efforts. The effort of staying up at night, hammering away by myself, that effort ended up being the effort that would kill my brother. I feel so wronged and resentful."
She had endured even when the heated branding iron was about to sear her face, but finally, for the first time, a single tear fell from her eye.
The fallen tear traced a hot path down the burn scar on the back of her hand.
'I'm sorry.
Your older sister is sorry.
Still, if we are born again, please be my younger brother.
I will never become an artisan then.
I'm sorry, truly.'
It was truly a misfortune that had come upon her life like a natural disaster.
But as if to say that the world isn't only filled with misfortunes like natural disasters, a single, quiet phrase was heard.
"I will save your brother."
Gwak Yeong's head snapped up.
Geom Muyang said only that one phrase and added nothing more.
And because of that, Gwak Yeong knew.
This man was someone who truly kept his promises.
Geom Muyang gave an order to Ho Myeong.
"Take down the rest of her testimony regarding those men in detail. Do not miss a single thing."
"Yes, I understand."
Then, Geom Muyang turned and walked toward the iron door.
Just before he opened the door to leave, Gwak Yeong shouted a question.
"Why?"
Asking for a reason when he offered to help might not have been a good choice, but she was too curious.
Without turning back, Geom Muyang left behind some unexpected words.
"Let's just say it's because some good iron came in today."