By Zephyria Choice (3)
After leaving those words, Baek Ryeo-il left without any regrets, leaving his Senior Brothers gaping blankly.
“Baek Ryeo-il! You won’t be able to come back here!”
“I’ll go after him.”
Jang Han-soo hurriedly chased after Baek Ryeo-il and disappeared.
“…….”
Sang-geol sighed deeply and slumped into a chair, rubbing his tired eyes.
“Senior Brother Baek is a man of his word, isn’t he? What are you going to do now? Are you really going to expel him?”
One of the disciples asked, and Sang-geol let out a bitter laugh.
‘Expel him?’
He had said it in a fit of anger, but there was no way he could really kick him out.
Baek Ryeo-il was the most promising disciple in Mount Hua. Losing him would be a fatal blow, shaking Mount Hua’s future.
Absolutely nothing like that should happen.
‘……Why are you going this far? What is it about him?’
A moment later, Jang Han-soo returned with a stiff face. Just by looking at his expression, one could tell that he had failed to stop Baek Ryeo-il. From the start, Baek Ryeo-il was not someone who could be stopped by being told to stop. He would only listen, or at least pretend to listen, if his master, Ma Jin-cheon, told him to.
“Senior Brother has entered breath regulation.”
Jang Han-soo opened his mouth heavily.
“……So he’s going to disobey, no matter what.”
Baek Ryeo-il had consumed a considerable amount of energy because he had been moving busily since dawn. Once he had recovered all of his inner force and energy through breath regulation, he would immediately carry out his intentions.
‘What should I do about this?’
There wasn’t much time.
He had to make a decision before Baek Ryeo-il finished his breath regulation. It was clear that the Demon Slayer Unit was lying in wait outside, so he would try to restore his condition to its best. If so, he had about one or two hours to spare.
‘……I should have gotten rid of him sooner.’
His stomach churned as he thought of the pale Young master who had been stirring up Mount Hua with his slick face. Wasn’t it a foregone conclusion that he would become a misfortune for Mount Hua from the moment he first set foot here?
It was a mistake to watch him with half-hearted sympathy when he had requested asylum from the enemy camp.
‘Even now…….’
A cruel light flashed in Sang-geol’s eyes as he clenched his fist.
“…….”
Meanwhile, Jang Han-soo’s stiff face, as he looked at his master, did not relax.
He knew very well that his master cared deeply about Mount Hua. Whether it was Baek Ryeo-il or Seong Mu-yeon, he would not condone any actions that would harm Mount Hua. He would stop them by any means possible. Literally, ‘any means’.
‘I have to do something…….’
At this rate, not only the alliance but also Mount Hua would be a mess due to internal strife.
As he came out of the room, Baek Ryeo-il’s residence came into view. Several Senior Brothers were guarding the place with reluctant expressions. Breath regulation was a delicate practice with a high risk of Qi deviation if external stimuli were applied during the process. No one agreed with his opinion, but they couldn’t leave him exposed to danger, so they were reluctantly guarding the front of his residence.
Jang Han-soo felt his stomach churning with anger and quickly moved his feet. The place he headed to was the residence where Jegal Un was holed up.
Before anyone could stop him, Jang Han-soo ran to the door and knocked wildly.
“Jegal Un! Come out! How long are you going to stay like that!”
The Jegal Clan retainers, who were taken aback by the unexpected situation, tried to stop him.
“D-Daoist! You can’t do this! This is the Young Clan Leader’s…….”
“Young Clan Leader or whatever, tell him to come out if he’s alive! Tell him to come out and say something! Or fix this mess! Jegal Un!”
Jang Han-soo shook off the people who were grabbing his arms and legs. The retainers, who had not learned martial arts, were helplessly knocked down by his surprising strength. Only after four or five warriors, who had run over after hearing the commotion, clung to him were they able to stop him.
“What is this rude behavior! Not only are you illegally occupying the prison, but you’re also threatening the Young Clan Leader!”
“You guys……. When you’re showing off as the Jegal Clan or whatever, where is your precious Young Clan Leader now that this is happening in his own house? It seems like he likes the rights but doesn’t want to take responsibility?”
As Jang Han-soo sneered, the face of the clan elder, who was trying to stop him, turned red and blue.
“Watch your mouth! You are insulting the Jegal Clan right now!”
“If you don’t want to be insulted, bring the Young Clan Leader before my eyes right now. Then I’ll treat you a little more politely.”
“Is Mount Hua really……!”
“Uncle, it’s okay.”
The atmosphere became as quiet as if cold water had been poured on it when the door opened and Jegal Un appeared. In a short time, the area under his eyes had become sunken and dark.
Jang Han-soo felt a pang of guilt at the sight of his obviously poor condition, but he cleared his throat and maintained a haughty attitude.
“The precious one has finally shown himself.”
Jegal Un, who would have normally burst into anger, simply stared at him with sunken eyes.
“I’m sorry. I should have come out sooner. It’s my responsibility. Let’s go inside and talk.”
Jang Han-soo shook off the people who were holding his arms and legs and followed Jegal Un inside as if to show off. The inside of the room was clean without a speck of dust. No, it was beyond clean, to the point where it was hard to think of it as a space where people lived, showing a morbid obsession with cleanliness.
“I’m sorry for the poor hospitality.”
Even in the midst of all this, Jegal Un even brought out tea, which gave him goosebumps.
“……Is there a problem?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
Jang Han-soo watched Jegal Un’s restrained movements as he poured tea into the teacup and sighed.
“It feels strange. Who would have thought that I would be facing someone I fought like a madman with just half a day ago and drinking tea like this?”
Jegal Un’s hand stopped.
“……Did we fight?”
“……You really don’t remember?”
Jegal Un stared blankly into the air with a dumbfounded expression. As a result, the tea overflowed from the teacup. Only then did Jegal Un come to his senses and hurriedly wipe up the spilled tea.
“I’ve had times when my memory has been blank for the past few weeks.”
He smiled bitterly after quickly cleaning the table.
“For example, I’m in my room and suddenly I come to my senses in the Training hall. Even then, I only realized it after concentrating and retracing my steps. At the time, I didn’t feel anything strange.”
“…….”
Jegal Un, who had been silently sipping his tea, opened his mouth after a long time.
“I don’t know what’s going on. I feel like I’ve been very busy, but I can’t remember what I’ve been doing, so my heart keeps pounding like I’ve lost something important, but I don’t know where to go, so I feel like I’m just going around in circles.”
“…….”
Jang Han-soo, who had lost his will to be angry, only let out a hollow laugh.
“Is that true?”
This time, Jegal Un asked.
“Young master Seong Mu-yeon is your older brother…….”
He paused as if in pain, then continued after a long time.
“Did Young master Seong Mu-yeon really kill Young master Peng Yuan-jin? When I came to my senses, my brother had already collapsed…… but I heard that many people saw it directly. Did Daoist also witness it directly?”
At Jegal Un’s question, Jang Han-soo shook his head.
“No. I lost consciousness before that, so I didn’t see it directly, but my martial uncle and Senior Brother said they saw it.”
“I see…….”
The two of them tilted their teacups side by side.
The reason why Jegal Un had been staying in his room was not to avoid guilt, but to sort out his fragmented memories.
‘What can I get from this person?’
Jang Han-soo, who had come to get answers, became more confused as he talked, and his mind was troubled.
Compared to him, he was in a better situation. At least he hadn’t lost anything.
“I heard that Mount Hua has occupied the prison.”
Jegal Un said. It was the same casual tone as usual, but Jang Han-soo flinched and put down his teacup. After all, Jegal Un was the owner of this manor, and he was facing the person who had taken a building from him.
“That’s…….”
“I didn’t mean to blame you. It can’t be helped that the order of the house is disturbed because the owner is not standing upright. That’s all, I should do what I have to do.”
It was the most welcome sound he had heard. As Jegal Un neatly cleaned up the teacups and went outside, Jang Han-soo followed him.
“Young Clan Leader, are you okay?”
Outside, many people, including the clan elder and the chief manager, were worried about him and couldn’t leave, and when the door opened, they ran over in an instant.
“I’m fine. I’m sorry for worrying you, Uncle. How is the situation going?”
“……We’re recovering the bodies and treating the injured. Daoist Jang Han-soo, who is here, woke up quickly, but one Outer Sect Disciple belonging to Mount Hua and Yang Ha-gakju have not yet regained consciousness. We are currently working on identifying the dead. And Seong Mu-yeon…….”
The clan elder glanced at Jang Han-soo, conscious of him.
“That’s enough. I’ll go take a look at that side, so finish what you were doing.”
Jegal Un waved away the people who were trying to follow him and turned his steps lightly. Jang Han-soo, who was going in the same direction, carefully followed him.
It was fortunate that Jegal Un had left his room, but seeing that the sharp Jegal Clan’s Young Clan Leader of the past was gone and he still had a dumbfounded expression as if he was broken in one place, he couldn’t help but worry.