Did you know you had them?
'She said she trusts someone I know most?'
If the hidden forces included people who were already dead, it was impossible to know who it would be.
But it didn't seem likely that she would answer that she trusted a dead person the most.
If it was a living person?
One person naturally came to mind.
Sword King, Ak Gun-hak.
Because among the people who could be the subject of her answer, he was the only one who had survived his encounter with Geom Mugeuk.
He recalled the last moment when he parted with Ak Gun-hak.
The sight of his back as he walked away, his hair tied up tightly, with his iron sword and shoes hanging from his waist.
The image of him walking barefoot, then turning from afar to look back at him.
"My name is Ak Gun-hak."
Even his shout and the way he smiled brightly with his lonely-looking eyes.
Seeing that this image always came to mind, it seemed Geom Mugeuk missed him.
'The person you trust most is Ak Gun-hak?'
From this answer, Geom Mugeuk could understand.
She was telling him: I know that you know about me.
Until now, she hadn't shown any sign of whether she had such thoughts or not.
The reaction of the Secret Vessel was no coincidence.
She was throwing down a challenge.
Stop me if you can.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Cha Iran.
She was slamming the table and shouting, like a martial artist facing an enemy.
“Come on, bring it on! I'll take any question!”
Then, Lee Ahn stepped forward.
"I will ask the next question."
As they had agreed to drink before asking a question, all four of them emptied their cups.
“I'll ask Miss Cha.”
Lee Ahn had been displeased by her first question, which had asked about Geom Mugeuk's feelings for her.
To ask if he liked her, not when they were alone, but in a place where all the concerned parties were present? It felt like she was treating her relationship with Geom Mugeuk, those feelings, like a game.
However, Lee Ahn did not react emotionally.
She was overreacting because she held the relationship so dearly, but even that would be the result her opponent wanted.
Lee Ahn smiled and asked calmly.
“I want to ask about the person you said you trusted most. Does he know of Miss Cha's trust?”
Cha Iran's expression hardened slightly.
“Why are you asking about him?”
It was because of Geom Mugeuk.
If it was someone Geom Mugeuk also knew, he must be an important person.
She wanted to be of some help to Geom Mugeuk, even if just a little.
Even if she couldn't grasp it herself, Geom Mugeuk would be able to sense her subtle emotions.
“I'm curious. The Miss Cha I've observed seems to be someone who doesn't trust people easily, so I became curious what kind of person he must be for you to say you trust him the most. Does he know as well?”
He would know, or he wouldn't.
It was a simple answer, but without hesitating, she drank three penalty shots again.
She showed her intention not to speak about that person at all.
Lee Ahn said with an apologetic expression.
“I won't ask any more about him.”
“It doesn't matter. There's plenty of wine. Come on, bring it on again!”
Lee Ahn's question was useful.
Because from Cha Iran's reaction, Geom Mugeuk realized her feelings for Ak Gun-hak were quite deep.
'While you were busy digging underground, when did you find the time to steal such a beautiful woman's heart?'
The next turn belonged to Bi Sa-in.
“I will ask Miss Cha.”
Cha Iran smiled and said, “I'm the only popular one here. Miss Lee must be disappointed.”
“I'm not the type to just ignore someone who tells me to bring it on.”
In truth, aside from asking why she was trying to kill his Master, Bi Sa-in frankly had nothing he wanted to ask her.
He only singled her out, thinking that learning anything more about Cha Iran might be helpful in this matter.
“Why are you trying to become the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven?”
It seemed like a mere formal question, but it was actually connected to the question he was truly curious about.
Because she had planned to become the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven to approach his Master and launch a surprise attack.
So, if she were to answer this question honestly, she would have to say it.
To kill the Unorthodox Alliance Leader.
As Cha Iran hesitated to answer, Lee Ahn smiled and said jokingly, “I just went for the prize money.”
But in the end, Cha Iran did not answer.
“Ah, how nice it would be if my reason were that simple too?”
Saying that, she again drank three penalty shots.
She could have answered with something like, "Isn't it a dream any woman might have once in her life?" At the very least, these penalty drinks showed that she was being completely honest and serious about this wager.
From drinking one after another, her face flushed with intoxication.
Her tolerance for alcohol didn't seem very high.
“Are you alright?”
To Geom Mugeuk's concern, she replied gallantly, “Are you worried about me? I haven't even started yet!”
One round of questions passed, and it was Cha Iran's turn again.
He thought she would ask Geom Mugeuk a question, but her target was Bi Sa-in.
“I'll ask the Young Alliance Leader.”
And the question was truly unexpected.
“What does the Unorthodox Alliance Leader like the most?”
For a moment, Bi Sa-in was stunned.
He hadn't expected her to ask such a question.
Lee Ahn, who was beside him, also tried to calm her tense heart.
“May I ask why you are asking?”
Cha Iran replied to Bi Sa-in's question.
“Aren't you curious? What does the Supreme Master of the Unorthodox Faction like?” She provoked Lee Ahn by looking at her. “If I become the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven this time, I'll get to meet him in person at the congratulatory banquet. It would be helpful to know what he likes, wouldn't it?”
Instead of answering, Bi Sa-in drank the penalty shot.
“How dare I speak of the Alliance Leader at a drinking table? Please understand why I'm drinking the penalty shot.”
He was angered by her audacity in asking about his Master, but Bi Sa-in tried hard not to show such feelings.
“I'm sorry, it seems I asked a rude question.”
"It's alright."
Geom Mugeuk could tell.
She had thrown this question to check if they knew she was targeting the Unorthodox Alliance Leader.
Her question was also useful.
It was Geom Mugeuk's turn to ask again.
He singled out Cha Iran once more.
“I apologize that this is becoming a series of attacks on you, but I have another question for you, Miss.”
“A question from Guard Geom is always welcome.”
However, it was by no means a welcome question.
“Who is the person you fear the most, Miss?”
For a moment, he felt Cha Iran flinch.
“A moment ago, you asked who I trust the most, and now you ask who I fear the most.”
Geom Mugeuk, who had asked the question, gave his own answer. “For me, it is my father.”
Besides the two questions he had asked her earlier, there would be many questions for which his father would be the answer.
The person he liked the most, and the person he respected the most.
In the end, Cha Iran raised her penalty cup again.
"Bring it on! Bring it on!"
Lee Ahn continued with that question.
“Then I'll ask a slightly easier question. What is it that Miss Cha treasures the most?”
But Cha Iran was at a loss with this question as well.
“Goodness, you people!”
She shook her head as if she hadn't expected such questions to come flying when she first suggested the wager.
“The thing that is precious to me right now is…” Her gaze turned to her wine cup. “This wine!”
She answered, but as if that wasn't the answer she truly wanted to give, she drank the penalty shot again.
The sound of her putting down the cup grew louder.
Her eyes, drunk on wine, began to lose focus.
Geom Mugeuk suggested they slow down and drink, and said to her, “It seems you have lived a very harsh life, Miss. These were questions that others would have been able to answer without much difficulty.”
Geom Mugeuk's and Cha Iran's gazes intertwined in mid-air.
Soon, a touch of sadness crossed her eyes as she let out a sigh. “It was not a smooth life.”
She didn't hide her emotions.
It was impossible to tell if she was being sincere or just acting drunk.
“Come on, let's go again!”
"Let's take a little break."
"Bring it on!"
From then on, they didn't exclusively direct their questions to Cha Iran.
Lee Ahn asked Bi Sa-in about his biggest regret, and Geom Mugeuk asked Lee Ahn what book she had read recently.
Sometimes the order of questioning changed, and sometimes someone would ask twice in a row.
They gradually got drunk.
Although they were still wary of each other, they enjoyed the pleasure of the drinking party.
Thinking, "If not today, when else can we ask such things?" they threw questions at each other and answered them.
As the questions went round and round, the last coherent question from Cha Iran was this.
She asked Geom Mugeuk with a slurred voice, “What is your biggest secret?”
Her drunken eyes seemed to be asking: Who are you that our organization is being shattered? Who are you that he spared your life? Who are you that I have to go this far? Who are you that…
Geom Mugeuk raised his cup and said in a drunken voice, "Under the influence of wine, I almost revealed my secret.”
When Geom Mugeuk drank the penalty shot, Cha Iran was delighted. “You're finally starting to break down! Come on, let's keep going!”
The words she said most at the drinking party that day were these: Bring it on, all of you!
*
When Cha Iran awoke from her sleep, she was lying on a bed in a guest room set aside in the Radiant Flame Pavilion.
When she turned her head, Geom Mugeuk was sitting in a chair placed next to the bed.
“What did you do to me? You look innocent, but you're quite sly.”
Geom Mugeuk asked with a baffled expression, “Are you pretending not to remember, or do you really not remember?”
“Of course!” Cha Iran said with a faint smile. “I'm pretending not to remember.”
“Vomiting, throwing a drunken fit, screaming your head off, and cursing... do you remember that?”
“Bits and pieces.”
Let's drink without expelling the intoxication! What on earth made her say something like that? He didn't know how much of it was intentional, but at least her drunken antics were not an act.
He had experienced many things in his fight against the hidden forces, no, in his entire life before regression, this was the first time he had seen an enemy's drunken behavior so vividly.
No, it would likely never happen again, so it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“Did you know you had such drunken habits?”
Cha Iran shook her head. “Yesterday was the first time I've ever drunk that much.”
To get the drunkest she'd ever been in front of an enemy, and in front of the Young Cult Master of the Demon Sect and the Young Alliance Leader of the Unorthodox Alliance, no less.
What did she think she might say when she was black-out drunk? He really had to acknowledge her nerve.
And now, it was time to speak of the truths they could not share yesterday.
"Why did you reveal your identity?"
As expected, she did not feign ignorance and ask what he meant.
“You knew about me, didn't you?”
How had she realized that fact? The reason he knew about her was because he had known her in his life before regression.
“How did you know?”
"A woman's intuition."
This time, she asked.
He should have just regarded her as one of the beautiful women competing in the contest.
“How did you know about me?”
“A man's intuition.”
Cha Iran smiled enchantingly.
“I feel relieved, actually. It was so frustrating not being able to speak comfortably until now. Why else do you think I would have suggested such a wager?”
“But you were the one who drank the most penalty shots.”
“I didn't expect demonic practitioners to ask such questions. Someone probably even asked about my childhood dream, right? Who on earth asked that?”
“You remember everything.”
Cha Iran slowly sat up in bed.
Her clothes were all wrinkled and covered in all sorts of unidentifiable things, including mud.
It seemed she had gone outside and rolled on the ground.
“I would believe it if you said those were the martial robes of someone who just returned from a battlefield.”
“You have too little regard for the cleanliness of martial artists.”
She laughed, picked up the water pitcher from the table next to the bed, and drank it down in gulps.
“What would you have done if I had put poison in it?”
“If you were going to kill me, you would have done it while I was sleeping.”
Geom Mugeuk knew.
She was not the kind of person to fall asleep so defenselessly just because she was drunk.
But why had she shown such a weakness?
"Why didn't you kill me?"
“You're not someone who would die easily, so if an easy opportunity to kill you came, wouldn't that be a trap?”
At Geom Mugeuk's words, Cha Iran put down the pitcher and laughed. “You're as smart as I've heard.”
She stretched and walked to the window to look outside.
It was still early dawn.
“Even if you weren't going to kill me…”
As she turned to look at Geom Mugeuk, her figure was exceptionally sensual.
No matter how dirty her clothes were, they could not diminish her beauty.
“I thought you might succumb to the effects of the wine. You even had the excuse of changing my clothes for me.”
To her frank words, Geom Mugeuk laughed and said, “If you hadn't tried to vomit on me, maybe I would have.”
A faint smile on her lips, Cha Iran formally greeted Geom Mugeuk. “Young Cult Master, it's a pleasure.”
Even in a situation where her identity was revealed, she remained as confident as ever.
“I'm the type who doesn't leave enemies alive to cause trouble later. What were you thinking?”
It sounded as if he meant he had been waiting to kill her, but she was not frightened.
“Then I'll die.”
Her eyes showed no fear of death.
It wasn't so much because of courage, but because of her conviction that Geom Mugeuk would not kill her.
“The person who returned after fighting you said so.”
He could tell that 'that person' meant Ak Gun-hak.
"That you let him live and sent him away."
At that, Geom Mugeuk shook his head. “He was the one who let me live and left.”
A smile that said, "I knew it," formed on her lips.
It was a different kind of smile from the ones she had shown until now.
Compared to the enchanting smile that had always been reflexive, it was a slightly stiff and awkward smile.
But Geom Mugeuk could feel it.
That this smile was her real smile.
And one more thing.
She not only trusted Ak Gun-hak the most, but she also liked him.
“Has he left?”
Cha Iran was inwardly surprised.
Geom Mugeuk knew that he was planning to leave.
Ak Gun-hak was not the type of person to tell others that he was leaving.
'What did he see in you, that he would even say such a thing?'
A wind blew in from the window, ruffling her hair. “He hasn't been able to leave yet.”
Geom Mugeuk didn't ask further and just nodded.
“Why don't you ask? Why he couldn't leave.”
If it were an organization one could leave easily, he would not have met him in that underground place.
He wouldn't have even mentioned leaving.
How could it be easy to leave such a dreadful organization?
Geom Mugeuk bade her farewell.
"Sober up well."
As Geom Mugeuk was about to leave, she asked, "Why are you leaving without killing me?"
Geom Mugeuk looked back at her.
Because I still haven't figured out why you want to kill the Unorthodox Alliance Leader.
And because one more thing has come up that I need to find out.
“Is this your mercy, to let me compete in the finals before killing me?”
At her unnecessary show of weakness, Geom Mugeuk firmly shook his head.
'After seeing that awful sight, I won the bet.'
As Geom Mugeuk left the room, he added, “I can't very well kill the person who has to pay for the drinks, can I?”