Chapter 28: Should I Kill Them for You?

I headed towards the top of the Moon-gazing Pavilion with a geomungo on my back, to meet the Master of the Moon-gazing Pavilion, no, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate.

In fact, I wanted to carry a blade at my side, but Moon-seok desperately stopped me, so I had no choice.

‘Ah… I’m just taking it for self-defense, really? Self-defense!’

‘Look at your eyes right now. They’re the eyes of someone going to beat someone up…! I’ll guarantee your safety with my life, so please go unarmed…!’

How did he know…

In fact, I was planning to strike the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate on the temple with the hilt of the blade as soon as I saw their face…

But due to Moon-seok’s dissuasion, I had no choice but to head up with only the geomungo.

‘Well… if something happens, I can just hit them with my fist, no… with the geomungo.’

While thinking that, I found myself right in front of the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate’s room.

There was no sign of the gatekeeper or the hidden guards, so I wondered if this was the right place…

“Please come in.”

…Hearing the voice from inside, it seemed like it was the right place.

Creak-.

“It’s been a while since we last met.”

“……”

As I opened the door and entered, she greeted me wearing only thin clothes that looked like pajamas. And in front of me…

“Is this a bribe?”

“If you must know, it’s a reward for your performance.”

…There was a piece of paper money worth 1 tael of gold.

I took it and put it in my pocket. Then I growled at her.

“Do you think money can solve everything that’s happened until now?”

If this were a capitalist society, I might have understood, but this was a Murim society.

What’s more important than money is the fist.

As I raised my fist, the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate smirked.

“I apologize for what happened before.”

“Haha. If an apology was enough, why would we need fists and enemies?”

“Haha, you’re as cheerful as ever.”

Seeing the strange certainty on the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate’s face that I wouldn’t hit her made me even angrier.

But what can I do.

My right fist was crying out to be let loose.

Step-.

As soon as I took a step, she, sensing the danger, spoke first.

“Do you remember the Drunken Immortal Wine you had yesterday?”

“…!”

At her words, I stopped in my tracks.

Yes. It was indeed a wine called Drunken Immortal Wine.

It was an amazing wine that got me drunk in an instant, even though I hadn’t been properly drunk in years.

The Leader of the Lower Filth Gate, as if she could see right through me, continued with a smile.

“The higher your martial arts, the harder it is to get drunk. You felt good after drinking the Drunken Immortal Wine, didn’t you?”

“……”

“I heard your geomungo performance is excellent. Every day at this time, I will give you 1 tael of gold and 1 bottle of Drunken Immortal Wine for each performance.”

“Hoo… Should I accept this or not…”

In fact, I wanted to punish the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate to some extent for cheating in our previous duel.

But her current proposal was quite tempting.

The pleasure I felt from drinking the Drunken Immortal Wine was an experience hard to come by.

I observed the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate to gauge her intentions.

When we first met, she was wearing gloves, but now her hands were bare. And those hands…

“…!”

…Her nails were all gone, and the skin underneath was dark.

Hmm… Could it be…

Realizing the not-so-secret secret of the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate, I threw the geomungo I brought onto the floor and asked her.

“If you had offered 200 taels of gold from the start, I might have accepted. Why did you propose that damned duel?”

“I heard from the Branch Leader of Sichuan that you are very suspicious. If I had offered 200 taels of gold from the start, wouldn’t you have refused? And actually…”

This time, her face showed a bit of sincerity.

“…I didn’t expect to lose. I admit it. The duel back then… was my defeat by cheating.”

The emotion in her fleeting expression was indeed a mix of stubbornness and shame. It seemed she had great confidence in her poison skills.

Having confirmed something, I sat down and asked her.

“Then, since I won the duel back then, can I ask my final question? I haven’t done that yet.”

“Haha, that’s right. Ask me anything now, and I will answer. What are you curious about?”

“Are you from the Sichuan Tang Family?”

“……”

At that question, her usual relaxed smile froze instantly. Just from that change in expression, I was certain.

No, from the beginning, it was obvious she was from the Sichuan Tang Family. Did she really think I wouldn’t know?

I adjusted the strings of the geomungo in front of me and spoke to her.

“I’ve seen someone like you before. He was also a blood relative of the Sichuan Tang Family and had accepted those things like you.”

“……”

“At first, his nails fell out, and later, all his hair fell out, making him bald. And then…”

“…I think you’re talking about my second cousin.”

“Anyway, you’re the same as him, right? Seeing your nails fall out, it won’t be long now?”

Ironically, only after I said that did the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate’s expression return to her usual smile.

“You speak of cruel things so easily.”

“You want to die anyway, don’t you? If that’s the case…”

“……”

“Should I kill you?”

I meant what I said. If she asked me to kill her, I would.

It would be a good deed for her.

But she just shook her head bitterly at my considerate words.

“…I must not die.”

“Why? It would be better to die than to live in that pain.”

“If I die, the poison in my body will burst out and kill everyone around here.”

“Then you can go to a place where there’s no one and die there.”

“There’s no place where no one lives. Even if I die there, the poison will harm the essence of the surroundings and cause damage.”

“Eh, tsk. Your life is really tragic.”

My desire to hit the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate disappeared instantly.

No matter how annoying someone is, who would want to hit a terminally ill patient?

No matter what I do to her, it would be nothing compared to the pain she’s experiencing right now.

It’s understandable because the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate is a Poison Master. A failed Poison Master.

Poison Masters are human weapons of the Sichuan Tang Family, even appearing in novels. The process of making them is detailed, so I know it well.

First, Hand-crafted Fetal Poison.

When a pregnant mother has a baby, she is made to consume poison continuously so that the poison settles in the fetus’s dantian.

After the child is born, they are taught Poison Arts and continuously given all kinds of poison.

This process is repeated until the poison completely settles in the Innate True Qi, making them a Poison Master.

But learning Poison Arts is one thing, and injecting poison from the fetal stage is not an easy process.

It involves immense pain and leads most to death.

The person I met before survived until adulthood but eventually died from poisoning as his body couldn’t fully adapt to the poison.

The same goes for the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate in front of me.

I don’t know how she escaped the clutches of the Sichuan Tang Family and became the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate, but the poison didn’t fully settle in her body.

Her nails fell out, so soon her hair will fall out, and eventually, she will die.

Since she didn’t become a perfect Poison Master, she must be in immense pain right now.

Before playing the geomungo, I asked her one last question.

“Still, you became the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate at a young age thanks to the Poison Arts, right?”

“…Haha, yes. I killed, deceived, and betrayed many with poison. Thanks to that, I’m the youngest Leader in history. But…”

As she turned her head to look at the rising sun outside the window, her expression was different from before.

“…I think I’m a bit tired.”

“……”

Tired.

There’s no better word to describe her current state.

Pitiful and tragic. That’s what I felt seeing her now.

But…

‘There are many people more pitiful than the Leader of the Lower Filth Gate.’

…This world is full of people starving to death.

As a mere mountain bandit boss, I had no reason to help her just because I felt sorry for her unknown story.

All I can do now is play the geomungo for her in exchange for a few bottles of wine.

“I won’t take the gold out of conscience. Instead, give me 5 bottles of Drunken Immortal Wine for each performance.”

“…A bottle of Drunken Immortal Wine is worth 2 taels of gold, yet you speak as if you’re making a concession. Well… I’ll accept it. The Branch Leader of Sichuan praised your geomungo skills a lot.”

“That’s because Uncle Mun-seok tends to exaggerate. So, is there any tune you want to hear?”

“I’ll leave that to your judgment as well.”

“Alright.”

Tung-.

Hearing her words, I started playing the geomungo.

Tadadang-.

I chose the most cheerful tune I knew as a small consideration for her, who was suffering from the poison.