The Terminally-Ill Side-Character Inside of a Martial Arts Novel

I didn’t know about the events of that winter when Moyong Sowol was alive. It was a part hidden in secrecy that was never mentioned in the novel.

I didn’t know how she died or what kind of life she lived. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t know the characters who appeared there.

I may not remember every detail, but I remembered the characters who frequently appeared.

Among them was Shin Yubin. She was the second daughter of the Cliff Rivers Shin clan and at the same time, a woman whose pride was second to none.

She took after Shin Hohyeol’s personality exactly and trembled at the thought of the Righteous Sect. In fact, when Moyong Do thought her talent was a waste and tried to capture her alive, she never bowed her head. In the end, she chose to die.

Rather than bowing her head to the Righteous Sect, she thought it was better to die. That was Shin Yubin.

“Are you… asking me that?”

And I was asking such a woman if she would submit to me. Of course, she wouldn’t submit. She had no intention of submitting. In the first place, Shin Yubin didn’t even consider me as her superior.

I slowly nodded my head at her gaze looking at me with a stiff face.

“Shin Yubin is extremely worried about the Demon Cult. You love the Demon Cult so much, and from your perspective, the daughter of the Righteous Sect, me, has entered, so you seem to have a lot of concerns as I’m a stone that rolled in. That’s why you were worried about the Crimson Lotus Festival and tried to help with this and that, right?”

Isn’t that right? As I tilted my head and smiled, Shin Yubin’s brows narrowed. She seemed to haven’t expected to hear such words, so she pondered for a long time. I reduced the words I was rapidly pushing and gave her time to come to her senses.

However, Shin Yubin’s mouth didn’t open even as time passed. She was stubborn. Shin Yubin tried to control me by bringing up legitimacy, justification, and the framework of the Demon Cult’s customs.

So if I faced her with the same legitimacy and justification, Shin Yubin had nothing more to say.

If she denies it when I say I’ll use the logic she presented, it would be like denying her own plan. That also meant that I didn’t have to participate in the Crimson Lotus Festival.

In the first place, I had no reason to participate in the Crimson Lotus Festival. Now that my health was more important, there was no reason for me to walk into a dangerous place voluntarily. So, I needed sweet bait to risk the danger.

If it was Shin Yubin of the Cliff Rivers Shin clan who kept pressuring me, it was quite a plausible reward.

Shin Yubin’s gaze, which had been fixedly staring to the side, finally examined me with a resigned face. Her mouth opened slowly.

“Good results… If you even win the Crimson Lotus Festival, the women of the Demon Cult will bend their knees to you, Young Madam.”

“Does that include Shin Yubin too?”

“Yes. It includes me.”

I could see the conviction in her resolute face that there was no need to think further. She couldn’t refute my words, so she drove the nail in with the word ‘win.’

Winning the Crimson Lotus Festival.

Shin Yubin was convinced that I couldn’t reach that point.

“…Good.”

But that was something we wouldn’t know until we opened the lid. It was a sword I had never crossed with anyone else before. The result will tell whether it’s sharp or dull.

I got up from my seat. I nodded my head to Joo Hwarin, who asked if I was going back, and headed to the door. When I tried to go out through the door the maid opened, a voice flew from behind.

“Young Madam.”

I stopped walking and twisted my waist. As I looked back, Shin Yubin had risen from her seat and was staring directly at me. Her mouth moved a few times as if hesitating, then opened slowly.

“You should be careful.”

“…”

Why do I feel like laughing?

I swallowed the laughter that seemed to spill out of my mouth and lifted the corners of my mouth. I lightly nodded my head.

“Thank you for your concern.”

But I’m sure it’s not concern for me.

* * *

The Crimson Lotus Festival was prepared step by step under the guidance of the inner palace and Shin Yubin.

Upon hearing the news that Moyong Sowol would participate in the Crimson Lotus Festival, which was being held after a long time, many members of the Demon Cult were on edge. A woman wrapped in secrecy whose face few people knew.

Only the leadership had seen her a little, but in the Demon Cult, she was referred to as a snow woman who appeared in myths, so her participation drew a lot of attention.

Moreover, the fact that she was a person from the Righteous Sect made the interest even more intense.

The people of the Demon Cult talked about Moyong Sowol’s participation and predicted the results, naturally forming factions.

“But still, she’s a member of the Cult Leader’s family… She won’t be eliminated weakly in the first round, right?”

“What nonsense are you saying? Then do you mean it would be good for that Righteous Sect bitch to beat up the Demon Cult’s martial artists and win…?!”

“Is this person drunk? Can’t you distinguish who the person you called the Righteous Sect bitch is?”

“Ha! Is it such a wrong thing to call the Righteous Sect bastards as bastards? Those who preach righteousness and cooperation on the outside indulge in the filthy acts of lusting after women and exploiting the weak. Knowing their hypocrisy, are you still defending that bitch now?”

In the past, regardless of what happened, there were people who hoped Moyong Sowol would achieve good results since she was now the Young Cult Leader’s wife, but the majority desperately wished for her to be eliminated. Especially, the more the martial artists gnashed their teeth at the mention of the Righteous Sect, the more intense that tendency was.

When Moyong Sowol was living under the protection of Hyuk Dojin, the Vice Cult Leader, and the Blood Soaked Joo clan in the inner palace, distrust towards her and dissatisfaction with the Demon Cult’s leadership were sprouting in the Demon Cult.

* * *

“Even just a hundred years ago, in a world where strength was everything, those who had nothing couldn’t even think of speaking recklessly.”

The bald old man, Lee Seonghak, who was leisurely walking down the street with his hands clasped behind his back, grinned widely.

“I didn’t like that. Even if the heavens change, strength doesn’t change, but a world where the weak raise their voices… I thought it was utterly disgusting. But thinking about it now, such a world isn’t bad either. Don’t you think?”

Lee Seonghak turned to look at the young man following him. He bowed his head deeply. Lee Seonghak chuckled thinly.

“Even if we don’t open our mouths first, they express their dissatisfaction with the heavens on their own, so how is that not excellent? In the past, we would have immediately smashed their skulls, but since they’re only saying the right things, I guess the world has changed.”

Laughing, he twisted his body, opened the tightly closed door, and entered. With the sound of the flying door, the inside came into view. About twenty men’s eyes flashed at Lee Seonghak’s appearance.

“You…!”

“Kill them all except that guy.”

As soon as Lee Seonghak’s words ended, the young man who had been following behind rushed out. He struck the heads of those holding swords with his bare fists. One person with each swing.

Whenever his fist swung, the men collapsed to the floor, only letting out their last breaths. In the end, only the man who had spoken first remained, and only then did Lee Seonghak step inside.

“S-spare me…!”

The man, who had fallen to the floor, hurriedly crawled to Lee Seonghak’s feet and tried to beg for his life, but Lee Seonghak’s foot kicked his stomach first.

With a scream, the man clutched his stomach, and Lee Seonghak clicked his tongue at him. The man following behind grabbed him and lifted him up to match Lee Seonghak’s eye level.

“Ugh… Ugh!”

“I heard you have a lot of Vein-Bursting Powder.”

“T-that’s…”

“I won’t make it long. If you hand over all the Vein-Bursting Powder you have, I won’t make you end up like those guys whose skulls were smashed.”

The man hurriedly nodded his head. As Lee Seonghak clicked his tongue, the hand holding the man loosened. He hurriedly crawled and took out a jar from a box in the corner.

“H-here it is, elder!”

Lee Seonghak opened the box, sniffed it a few times, then looked down at him.

“Is this all?”

“Y-yes. The amount that can be harvested in a year is very small. This is all I’ve collected since the Demon Cult bought a large amount ten years ago.”

Lee Seonghak frowned. The man, thinking he had survived, asked Lee Seonghak cautiously as he relaxed his sad expression.

“But… I know that Vein-Bursting Powder is highly lethal among poisons, but I heard it’s not very preferred because it leaves a lot of traces. The Assassin’s League must have many poisons that leave fewer traces and have excellent lethality than Vein-Bursting Powder, so why this…”

While the man was continuing his words, Lee Seonghak slowly bent his knees and met the man’s eyes. Lee Seonghak opened the lid of the box and scooped up the powder with his hand. Then he opened the man’s mouth and, before he could even struggle, poured it into his mouth.

“Mmph!!”

Lee Seonghak closed his jaw and hit his neck, and the powder that had been on his tongue completely went down his throat.

And at that moment, his eyes rolled back, and he screamed in immense pain, foaming at the mouth with blood mixed in, and struggled. Lee Seonghak pushed him away with his foot so he wouldn’t touch him, then grinned.

“Why do I use Vein-Bursting Powder? It’s simple. It’s colorless and odorless, and the only way to know it’s been ingested is by eating it… But that’s not all.”

“Cough… Cough!”

“As far as I know, it’s the worst poison that can cause the most extreme pain and kill slowly. It kills not only the person who suffers from it but also the person watching from the side.”

He slowly turned his gaze away from the man who was dying and went outside. The sky was clear. The man who had followed out quietly opened his mouth behind Lee Seonghak.

“Elder. Elder Baek Geon said to hurry. The Crimson Lotus Festival is starting soon.”

“Rushing for what? What’s so important about who goes there and who wins?”

He held up the box he had in his hand.

“The result is already determined anyway.”

Anyway, with the end of the Crimson Lotus Festival, Moyong Sowol dies. In the most painful, miserable, and ugly way, and Hyuk Dojin, touched by his own anger, will also suffer as he watches that sight and eventually his heart will die.

Not just once, but twice.

How would he feel losing his wife to the same poison that drove his mother to death? Just imagining it made his whole body tingle.

“Tsk, from the beginning, it was a mistake to expect anything from the foolish Shin clan who only know how to calculate and the ignorant Southern Manchuria Do clan. It’s the same this time and in the past. In the end, it’s not the Hyuk family that leads the new sky.”

He looked up at the clear sky and savored the air.

“There’s always another sky above the sky.”

Lee Seonghak’s eyes shone as he recalled the young monster who had strangled his neck and shattered his pride. Killing Moyong Sowol was the best revenge and warning he could give him.

“Now, it’s time for the Holy Stream League to stand tall above the Hyuk family.”