Myeong Shin stared silently at the coin Geom Mugeuk held out.
He had said something similar to the King of Assassins.
-Did you say the Young Cult Master is like me? If so, you have greatly overestimated me.
Those words were not meant for the King of Assassins.
The one who truly overestimated him was right here.
Myeong Shin did not take the coin Geom Mugeuk offered.
“I am not the kind of assassin who accepts a contract for a single coin.”
Myeong Shin began to walk again.
Geom Mugeuk followed him.
“Ah, of course. I am well aware that you are the second most expensive assassin in the Underworld Ledger.”
But a thought different from his words crossed Geom Mugeuk’s mind.
‘No, you are precisely that kind of assassin.’
His acceptance of a contract for a single coin was an event yet to come.
In the future, he would leave the organization and wander the Central Plains, living as an assassin who would accept a single coin from a child as his fee.
When someone suffered an injustice, he would avenge them.
In return, he would sometimes receive a rice ball or set out on an assassination mission after hearing a song.
And in the end, he would be killed by the King of Assassins.
The reason he left the organization was that the King of Assassins had forced him to carry out an assassination mission that violated his principles.
The King of Assassins was merciless.
The person he had tricked Myeong Shin into killing as an evildoer was, in fact, an admirable man.
An exceptionally good person who was respected and praised by all.
As always, Myeong Shin had investigated the contract target in his own way, but he could not escape the scheme of the King of Assassins, who had been determined to deceive him.
After that incident, Myeong Shin was deeply shocked and went into hiding.
The reason he lived as an assassin who helped people was likely due to his inherently good nature, compounded by the guilt of having killed an innocent person.
And the King of Assassins eventually found him and killed him.
What did the King of Assassins say when he killed him?
Did he inflict a deep emotional wound before killing him? Or did he say something else? That was unknown.
In any case, before the regression, the King of Assassins had lived and Myeong Shin had died.
But in this world, the one who must live is Myeong Shin, and the one who must die is the King of Assassins.
The two walked in silence for a long time.
Myeong Shin was contemplating.
This was, in fact, an opportunity.
In this awkward moment, it seemed Geom Mugeuk would follow him wherever he went.
‘Should I take him there now?’
Even if he didn’t follow, he could always arrange for another time.
Despite this unexpected opportunity, Myeong Shin hesitated.
It was because of what Geom Mugeuk had said.
-I just thought it would be nice if somewhere in this world, there was a cool assassin who would accept a single coin from a child to kill an evil person.
The moment he heard those words, his heart trembled.
Was it because he truly wanted to live as such an assassin?
Or was it due to anger at Geom Mugeuk for trying to beguile him with such words?
For a brief moment, his emotions had been swayed by Geom Mugeuk's words.
If another assassin had been trying to kill him, they would have seized that moment.
Unaware of this complex inner turmoil, Geom Mugeuk was carefree.
“Now, to resolve this awkwardness between us, we need a drink, don't we? Let’s get going.”
Geom Mugeuk even took the lead.
Myeong Shin followed behind him.
‘If I take him to that place… the Young Cult Master will die today.’
If he failed to carry out this mission.
‘I will die.’
It would mean ruining the largest assassination mission in history, one that even brought in top-tier assassins from the outside.
Moreover, at a time when his relationship with the King of Assassins was strained, it would be even harder to evade responsibility.
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
Whether to kill you or not.
“Can’t you just leave?”
“Why do you suddenly say that?”
The Young Cult Master has suddenly left.
That was what he wanted to report to the King of Assassins.
He didn't want to kill the only person who had made him look deep into his own heart.
And was that all? The moment he killed the Demon Sect’s Young Cult Master, he would have to live in hiding for the rest of his life.
The King of Assassins might have a clear reason for accepting this job, but he did not.
It was a task he was emotionally reluctant to perform.
“By any chance, has an order been issued for my death?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s sudden question, Myeong Shin was inwardly startled but showed no sign of it, merely continuing to walk.
“It seems it really has.”
Myeong Shin stopped.
“I haven’t said a word.”
“Don’t most people say ‘no’ when something isn't true, just to avoid being misunderstood?”
“What does it matter if I’m misunderstood a little?”
Geom Mugeuk did not let a single word pass by.
“People who say they don’t mind a little misunderstanding are usually the ones who hate it the most, just as people who love to criticize others hate being criticized themselves.”
He saw it clearly.
Though his words suggested otherwise, Myeong Shin hated being misunderstood.
He despised people who spoke carelessly without knowing the facts.
“The world is not defined solely by your experiences.”
Geom Mugeuk nodded vigorously, as if in agreement.
The more Myeong Shin talked with Geom Mugeuk, the angrier he became.
For an assassin whose job it was to see into others, he was constantly being forced to look into himself.
Unaware of these feelings, Geom Mugeuk relentlessly shook his emotions.
“According to your principles, am I someone who should be killed, or not?”
Myeong Shin remembered the King of Assassins asking the same question.
—You said you wouldn’t kill anyone who isn’t an evil person, right? Is the Young Cult Master evil? Or is he good?
Myeong Shin could not answer the King of Assassins, nor could he answer Geom Mugeuk himself.
Based on the information gathered, he was not an evil person.
The only justification for killing him was his status as the Demon Sect’s Young Cult Master.
What if the Young Cult Master was not an evil person?
Then it would mean breaking his own principle.
Was he now trying to gloss over it, using the excuse that he belonged to the Demon Sect? Hoping that this would all just pass.
“You tell me. Are you an evil person, or not?”
Geom Mugeuk answered without hesitation.
“I am someone who should not be killed.”
“Why is that?”
“If your principle is to not kill unless they are evil, my principle is that evil must be killed. I am a person who has gone one step further than your principle. In the end, we can be seen as the same kind of person.”
Even hearing Geom Mugeuk’s principle directly, it was hard to believe, but it was true.
It was stated as the most important detail in the information about him.
The Demon Sect’s Young Cult Master who does not forgive evil?
Naturally, he had assumed it was deception and pretense.
But what if it was true? It would be a truly magnificent deception and pretense.
The thought that the information might be factual kept surfacing.
The preliminary investigation was becoming a poison.
If not for it, he would never have believed the Demon Sect’s Young Cult Master in the first place.
In the meantime, the two arrived at the marketplace.
“Alright, as I said, today we go to a place of your choosing.”
Myeong Shin’s heart pounded.
‘Should I take him to that place? Or should I hold back for today?’
If he had to take him there eventually, was there a need to delay? Though he knew today was the opportunity, Myeong Shin hesitated.
“If you know a better place than this town, let’s go there.”
Although a storm was raging in Myeong Shin's heart, his expression was as placid as a mirror lake.
“There’s a tavern I know a little ways from here. Would that be alright?”
If he had suggested they just eat here, he had no intention of forcing him.
But Geom Mugeuk came closer and tugged at his sleeve.
“You should have said so earlier. Come on, let’s go. Even if it’s just one drink, it has to be at a good place.”
Just as he had strode out of the Iron Workshop, taken his hand, and pulled the handle together, today too, Geom Mugeuk was deciding his own fate.
He should have felt relieved, thinking, ‘Yes, this is the fate you have chosen for yourself.’
But as they left the marketplace and walked on, Myeong Shin’s heart was not at ease.
The coin that had rested on Geom Mugeuk’s palm kept coming to mind.
‘I can’t get drawn in.’
That coin was nothing but a demonic practitioner’s hidden weapon aimed at his heart.
As he walked, lost in thought, a comment from Geom Mugeuk stopped him in his tracks.
“Soon, your leader will deceive you, telling you that a person who should absolutely not be killed is an evil man, and he will make you kill him. What will you do then? Will you kill him? Or will you leave the Underworld Ledger?”
“Why would he do such a thing to me, the second-in-command of the Underworld Ledger?”
But contrary to his certainty that it could never happen, Myeong Shin recalled what the King of Assassins had said.
-What if you make a mistake later after establishing such a useless principle? Are you going to wash your hands of it out of guilt? Or perhaps, commit suicide?
Thinking back, that mistake would be the King of Assassins' mistake.
The mistake of mistaking a good person for an evil one and issuing an order.
The King of Assassins he knew was not someone who would make such a mistake, so why did he say that?
But soon, Myeong Shin dismissed this too as the opponent’s tactic.
‘He has found out that there is a conflict between us and is relentlessly exploiting that point.’
Stopping his steps, Myeong Shin glared at Geom Mugeuk.
“Are you trying to drive a wedge between him and me?”
He had expected him to deny it, of course.
“Yes.”
Geom Mugeuk readily admitted it.
“To bring you to my side, I’ll even resort to sowing discord.”
And Geom Mugeuk’s blatant attempt at sowing discord was powerful.
“Was the person who saved you really him?”
Myeong Shin’s face hardened instantly.
“In your childhood, you were the sole survivor of your annihilated clan. You were saved as you lay dying, pinned under a fallen wardrobe.”
Myeong Shin was surprised.
The Young Cult Master knew that the King of Assassins had saved him.
And in great detail.
‘This is something no one else knows.’
To his unspoken question of how he knew, Geom Mugeuk answered calmly.
“I am the Young Cult Master of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect. If I wish to know something, I can find out everything, even who the Martial Alliance Leader had a crush on and at what age.”
What surprised Myeong Shin was not that he had found out that fact.
“What do you mean, he wasn’t the one who saved me?”
“Let’s say you push someone into a river and then save them. Did you truly save that person?”
A horrifying thought made Myeong Shin’s eyes widen.
“The ones who accepted the contract to annihilate your clan was the Underworld Ledger.”
This attempt to sow discord was powerful because its ingredients were truth.
Myeong Shin had undergone countless training sessions to maintain his composure as an assassin.
But at least in this moment, he could not stop the torrent of passion and confusion that erupted within him.
A memory from his childhood surfaced.
As the heavy wardrobe that pinned him down was lifted, darkness receded and light appeared.
In that light, a boy was looking down at him.
With ice-cold eyes devoid of any emotion, the boy silently stared down at him.
“You knew it too, didn't you?”
No, he didn't know.
He was only seven years old then.
He had lived with the vague notion of repaying the kindness of being saved.
He didn't even dream of avenging his clan.
No, he didn't even have the luxury to dream.
He had started his assassin training right after that.
He had lived as an assassin ever since.
But what dominated him now was not a sense of betrayal, but a doubt directed at himself.
A suspicion that perhaps, as Geom Mugeuk said, he might have known.
Is that why he could never ask?
Why did you save me back then?
No, why were you passing by that place of all places?
He had never once asked the King of Assassins.
Could it be that he had a premonition?
That the King of Assassins would nonchalantly say, we annihilated your clan.
As you know, it was just a job.
Was he afraid of hearing those words?
Had he been deliberately turning a blind eye to the truth all this time?
‘What am I thinking! Don’t fall for such a ploy!’
It was, literally, a clever attempt to sow discord.
A scheme by the Demon Sect based on information that a rift had formed between him and the King of Assassins.
‘How vicious!’
He turned the blade from himself toward Geom Mugeuk, but the hand holding the hilt was asking.
‘Is this not also you avoiding what you are facing?’
Geom Mugeuk asked.
“Did the discord-sowing work a little?”
Myeong Shin wanted to reply with a relaxed smile, but now his words were blurted out, laden with emotion.
“The moment of sowing discord is thrilling, isn't it? But do you know what? With that single moment of thrill, you have lost my trust forever.”
Myeong Shin started walking again with long strides.
Geom Mugeuk walked alongside him.
“There should be a record of your clan in the old ledgers. If your leader hasn’t destroyed it, perhaps he was hoping you would see it someday.”
Myeong Shin grit his teeth.
Even as he considered it the opponent's ploy, he couldn't completely deny it, because the King of Assassins he knew was that kind of person.
Why did that empty person save him?
Why did he let only him cling to the ice cliff of his inner self?
He had not yet found the answer to that.
There was one good thing about the emotional battle with Geom Mugeuk.
He was able to bring him to the resting place with ease.
The small street was bustling with various travelers.
“I didn’t know a place like this existed.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke as if nothing had happened, and Myeong Shin replied in a softened tone.
“It’s a place I come to occasionally.”
But in Myeong Shin's heart, two minds were clashing.
The desire to finish the mission quickly.
And the hope that Geom Mugeuk would suddenly say, ‘I’ve lost my appetite for a drink,’ and leave.
This person was so unsettling and infuriating, yet he couldn't understand why the desire for him to live kept welling up.
‘Just go, now!’
But Geom Mugeuk strode ahead into the street first.
His steps towards the death trap were far too light.
“Fresh silk just came in yesterday. Come and see!”
As a clerk at a cloth merchant's shop.
As the owner of a tavern, dozing off.
As a woman beckoning a running child.
As a merchant with a display stand, calling out to customers.
And in other forms,
the assassins had perfectly blended in with this street.
They were top-tier assassins, the most skilled among their kind.
Can you truly withstand this perfect symphony of those who have reached the pinnacle of killing?
Myeong Shin looked at Geom Mugeuk.
He actually looked excited.
“Since I received a dagger as a gift, I’ll treat today. You can treat next time. Let’s make up and have a great time drinking today.”
I am sorry, but there will be no next time.
“Is that the tavern over there?”
“Yes.”
“The atmosphere is already perfect. You should have suggested we come here sooner.”
Thus, the two entered the tavern.
The good-natured owner, who had been chatting with customers, greeted them.
“Welcome.”
The owner acknowledged Myeong Shin.
“Please, sit wherever you are comfortable.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke to the owner.
“I can tell just by looking at a tavern owner’s face. Whether the wine is good or not.”
Geom Mugeuk stared intently at the owner’s face and then decided on the taste of the wine.
“My, my. I have a feeling this will be a taste I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
At that, the owner smiled brightly and clapped his hands together with a loud smack.
“I will serve you spectacularly today!”