Chapter 17
Seeing the faster ones use their lightness skill to flee, Cheon Ha-seong picked up a sword that someone else had dropped and threw it.
The sword lodged in the back of a fleeing man. It wasn't embedded deep enough to kill him instantly, but it was enough to make it difficult for him to move.
Having caused such a commotion, it would have been strange if people hadn't shown up yet.
At the head of the group was Cho Seok-myeong. His eyes seemed to be asking Cheon Ha-seong, 'You again?' Looking at his face, which seemed to plead, 'Can't I be done seeing you for today?', Cheon Ha-seong also felt a little sorry.
“What is it, Head Instructor Cheon?”
“I attacked the Young Supreme One, but these men didn't try to actively stop me and only sought to save their own skins. I thought having such people by her side was worse than having no one, so I taught them a little lesson.”
‘Where did such a person come from?’ Cho Seok-myeong thought, and sighed.
“Head Instructor Cheon… Do you always solve problems this way?”
“Imagine having people by the Young Supreme One's side who value their own lives more than the person they are supposed to protect. Wouldn't it be unsurprising if they were to point a sword at the Young Supreme One's neck at any moment?”
Cho Seok-myeong couldn't deny those words either. However, he thought that Cheon Ha-seong was truly a handful.
“How should I handle this matter?”
Cho Seok-myeong asked with another sigh, but Cheon Ha-seong didn't think he needed to tell him that part as well. Then, Seo Hyo-eun stepped forward.
“These men did not carry out their duties properly. To say they acted that way merely out of fear is difficult, because they were only thinking of escaping and saving their own skins even before Head Instructor Cheon used his real strength. It seems these men will all have to be investigated.”
“But if you get rid of all of them at once, who will guard the Young Supreme One?”
At Cho Seok-myeong's words, Seo Hyo-eun looked at him with blank eyes, as if she had nothing to say.
“Are you telling me to put swords in the hands of untrustworthy men and place them by my side just because there is no one else to protect me?”
Cho Seok-myeong also realized he had said something foolish.
“No, Young Supreme One. I will take measures accordingly at once. And I will quickly prepare others who can take on the duty of guarding the Young Supreme One.”
He said so, but to Cho Seok-myeong, the task felt daunting.
Separate from his thoughts, Cheon Ha-seong and Seo Hyo-eun were only solidifying their belief that there was almost no one here they could trust.
‘I'll have to move a little more diligently. I have no idea how deep the rot goes.’
The Cult Leader could protect himself as his personal martial prowess was strong, but Seo Hyo-eun could not. Cheon Ha-seong now looked at her, thinking that whether he liked it or not, he had to look after her more.
“Why are you looking at me like I'm a burden?”
“Because you look like one.”
“I can protect my own body, you know.”
Cheon Ha-seong had something he wanted to say, but he held it in.
“After months of nothing like this happening, why is it all exploding at once…”
The sound of Cho Seok-myeong muttering to himself could be heard. Cheon Ha-seong guessed what the reason was.
One day, the Palace-Guarding Sand disappeared from the Young Supreme One's arm, and the Cult Leader doted on the Young Supreme One more than anyone.
Each Marquis has an adopted son, but they had not yet even been granted the title of Young Supreme One, and in the midst of that, the Young Supreme One's lover appeared.
Seo Hyo-eun, being a woman, might not be able to become the Young Cult Leader, but if it were the Cult Leader's son-in-law, the story would be different.
Would the Marquises and the Demonic Clan leadership not be able to think of the things he could? Therefore, it seemed they had also decided to sufficiently shake things up while the Cult Leader's heart was even the slightest bit in turmoil.
Cheon Ha-seong was not a greedy person, but he was also not one to stand by and watch an unqualified person be greedy. Furthermore, he especially would not stand by and watch an unqualified person hurt others while being greedy.
‘No matter how bad I am, I think I'm still better than them, aren't I?’
It seemed some destinies were decided just like that.
***
Inside a lavishly decorated room.
On the consort's couch sat the Second Demonic Marquis, who had a bewitching face.
She was over forty, but if one looked with blurred eyes, she had a face that could pass for being in her early thirties.
The Second Demonic Marquis's circumstances were different from those of the Third or Fourth Demonic Marquises.
The Second Demonic Marquis had become a Marquis before the others came, and she had fought with the First Marquis over the Cult Leader. However, the only one who thought they were fighting was the Second Demonic Marquis; the First Marquis didn't even consider it a competition.
On the contrary, the First Marquis treated her kindly, hoping that the Second Demonic Marquis could fill the Cult Leader's heart after she died.
The Second Demonic Marquis was not a person who could be like that by nature, and she truly hated the First Marquis, who could capture the Cult Leader's heart without doing anything.
Still, she had thought that once the First Marquis died, she would be able to receive the Cult Leader's favor, but such a thing never happened.
Before the First Marquis even died, the Third and Fourth Demonic Marquises arrived, and at that time, the Second Demonic Marquis clearly realized.
That no one could replace the First Marquis.
However, in truth, the Second Demonic Marquis was in no position to resent the Cult Leader for such a thing. Before becoming a Marquis, she had been intimate with another man, secretly given birth to a child, and had hidden that fact.
He was a man who had long pledged his loyalty to her family.
His name was So Yu-yang, and while he shared the same surname, So, as the Second Demonic Marquis, they did not share a single drop of blood. This was because his surname was not one he had gotten at birth, but one that had been bestowed by the Family Head, the Second Demonic Marquis's father, as a reward for his loyalty.
“The Fourth Demonic Marquis's side was faster this time, but from now on, we must be faster, Mother. Even if it means spending more money, we must deploy more skilled people.”
The person sitting in front of the Second Demonic Marquis and speaking was So Jeon.
So Jeon was now twenty-six and, with the full support of the So Demonic Clan and the Second Demonic Marquis, was considered a candidate for the position of Young Cult Leader.
There was nothing special about his appearance, and if he had not been from a good family, he would not have been able to draw the attention of others.
The way So Jeon treated the Second Demonic Marquis was subtly different from how Cheok Gyo-woon treated the Fourth Demonic Marquis. This was because the Second Demonic Marquis was both his adoptive mother and his birth mother.
Although extremely few people knew that fact and it must never be known to others in the future, he was able to grow up acting like a spoiled child in front of the Second Demonic Marquis.
The people of the So Demonic Clan believed that So Jeon's birth mother had died early, but in truth, that was not the case.
“Wasn't the Fourth Demonic Marquis fast just because she was lucky? It was because Cheok Gyo-woon happened to have entered the Martial Arts Academy that she found out Seo Hyo-eun was acting as a Head Instructor there.”
“That is not what I am saying. Wasn't it the Fourth Demonic Marquis who first found out that the Palace-Guarding Sand had disappeared from Seo Hyo-eun's arm? That is why she was able to piece together the other matters starting from there.”
So Jeon always felt an inferiority complex towards Cheok Gyo-woon, who was more handsome and overflowing with confidence than him. And he considered it the fault of his family, not his own. As a result, he was always full of complaints and acted self-indulgently because he was the Second Demonic Marquis's biological child.
However, that only held power in his relationship with his mother; if that fact were to become known to the Cult Leader, then he, along with the Second Demonic Marquis and their entire family, would fall into the abyss.
“I will discuss it with your father and handle it well, so do not be so impatient.”
“Do I seem impatient, Mother?”
“That is not what I meant. I am just telling you not to worry, because everything will be fine.”
“Cheon Ha-seong may not be an easy opponent. Until now, it was enough to deal with the other Marquises' adopted sons, but compared to Cheon Ha-seong, they might be nothing.”
“Yes. I will find a way. I will find skilled people and plant them, so you just devote yourself to pleasing the Cult Leader.”
So Jeon's expression hardened again.
He was good at shifting responsibility to others and complaining, but he found it difficult to do what he himself had to accomplish.
“How is your progress?”
When the Second Demonic Marquis asked, So Jeon stood up as if he didn't really want to discuss it.
“In any case, I will only trust you, Mother, so please make sure we do not fall behind the Fourth Demonic Marquis from now on.”
Then he strode out of the room.
After So Jeon left, something strange happened. A folding screen bent slightly, and from behind it, a man who looked identical to So Jeon emerged.
Not only his face but also the clothes he was wearing were identical, to the point that it looked as if So Jeon had returned from behind the folding screen through a secret passage.
“Mother, Hyung acts more and more arrogant as the days go by; your worries must be deep.”
“You are the only one who understands this mother's heart, Ga-woon-ah. I don't know how fortunate it was that I spirited you away when your maternal grandfather said you must be killed. If I had killed you as your maternal grandfather said back then, there would have been no joy left for this mother.”
An inscrutable smile formed on So Ga-woon's face and then disappeared.
Among the older generation, there was a belief that twins were an ill omen. Therefore, they thought that when twins were born, the younger one had to be killed to prevent an inauspicious event.
The Family Head of the So Demonic Clan was enraged by the fact that his daughter, who was supposed to marry the Cult Leader, had not only had another man's child but had even given birth to twins. He had already been thinking of killing the newborn child, and the fact that they were twins made the event seem extremely inauspicious to him.
However, the Second Demonic Marquis, who was usually terrified of the Family Head, for some reason stubbornly protected her second son at that time.
She had given her hair ornament to the man who was taking her second son away to be killed and had pleaded with him to be sure to save him and hide him away.
The child hidden away like that grew up well and had now become the Second Demonic Marquis's most important strategist.
“What do you think we should do about this, Ga-woon-ah.”
“Despite his young age, there are many martial artists within the Divine Cult who respect Cheon Ha-seong. It is because the record Cheon Ha-seong set has yet to be broken by anyone, and no one has even come close. As long as the value of survival of the fittest continues in the Divine Cult, this is something that will not change in the future.”
“So isn't that more of a problem? Is there no way for us to bring Cheon Ha-seong to our side? Doesn't it seem like the Fourth Demonic Marquis has already met with him separately?”
However, So Ga-woon was full of composure.
“The strategies established by the strong and the weak are bound to be different. Just because the Fourth Demonic Marquis is trying to join hands with Cheon Ha-seong, there is no need for us to do the same. If we strike down one person and pin the deed on another, we will be catching two rabbits at once.”
“Do you have a good plan?”
A look of joy appeared on the face of the Second Demonic Marquis, who had been deeply aggrieved.
Her second son always opened a path through every crisis with such good methods.
“What reason do you think there is for Cheon Ha-seong to remain a mere Head Instructor at the Martial Arts Academy, even with his record of passing through it the fastest, Mother? Could it really be because he has no interest in getting ahead, as he claims?”
A look of question appeared in the Second Demonic Marquis's eyes.