No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 76

“Crazy…!”

Of course, bringing a knife to a person’s body is a threat. Naturally, since he tried to do it to me first, I had no pangs of conscience. After that, those presumed to be the captured guy’s colleagues dragged in weapons and hesitantly growled low threats, but I kept playing the game of drawing slashes on his neck with the knife aimed at it. Drawing slashes means roughly like this…

“Do you realize whose territory you’ve entered now? If you back off now, we’ll treat you as a guest. But! If you even slightly disrespect our bro…!”

“Urgh… Ugh!”

“…Damn it, stop, stop! I said stop! You bastard… Gentlemen!”

When nonsense is heard, it means slashing the hostage’s neck. Of course, I didn’t go deep because it would reduce the effectiveness as a hostage. Just enough to scratch.

If they were proper thugs, it probably wouldn’t have worked, but for some reason, they seemed to be sworn brothers, calling each other bro and shedding cow-like eyes, so I tried it once and it worked well.

‘Then who told you to openly reveal your weakness?’

I snorted through my nose and listened with one ear and ignored with the other the gang of thugs full of hatred and rancor glaring at me.

However, our soft-hearted Ryuseong—this guy isn’t soft-hearted but frighteningly firm when slaying monsters—seemed to have a hard time being guided to a place that would smuggle us like me.

“…Is this really right?”

I was pretending to be Chinese, so instead of answering in Korean, I nodded my head.

But Ryuseong didn’t stop asking questions.

“Saying it’s not the right thing to do but the thing to do doesn’t make sense…”

[I know what you’re worried about.]

This time I spoke in English so Ryuseong could understand. Instead, I made the accent awkwardly to act like a foreigner speaking English, but Ryuseong probably didn’t notice. The thugs lined up around us were on high alert for every single word I said though.

[But I’m not worried.]

“Why? Do you not have any thoughts?”

[Well, isn’t it because you’ll protect me?]

Saying that, I lightly tapped your chest. Ryuseong didn’t say anything as if lost in thought with a distant face.

‘Why isn’t he saying anything?’

Was it… convincing?

Did this kind of sophistry really work?

***

Cassice Demillang doesn’t know this story, but in fact, Ryuseong was thinking like this.

‘Sigh… this is the guy I call my lover…’

The sophistry worked, but in a different direction. Ryuseong was dimly thinking things like ‘Who else would protect this guy if not me?’

Anyway, the situation was getting bigger and almost all the thugs we encountered in the underground mall were about to follow us. Thugs carrying baseball bats and metal pipes on their shoulders were frowning fiercely and growling, scaring away the merchants and passersby.

If we head to the gate attracting attention like this, won’t the location be exposed? When my thoughts reached that point, the conclusion was easily drawn. It seems they really don’t intend to give us proper guidance.

[I thought you were mobsters who knew about loyalty, so I was going easy on you.]

This was sincere. If the younger brothers can’t do anything because the older brother is caught, don’t you feel like giving them a break? But if they don’t care what happens to their older brother and just attack, isn’t it kind of… not cool?

‘If your life is over, at least keep your pride!’

What are you going to do if you’re a thug without pride! Just as Cassice Demillang was about to say something completely nonsensical, his purple eyes twisted strangely.

His eyes could see. Behind the thugs, there was a trembling cane.

The sound of a weak, hacking cough was also heard… and a thug’s threatening voice was also heard, probably discovering the elderly woman.

“What the! This granny!”

“Can’t you read the situation?!”

“Won’t you move aside?!”

Ryuseong felt that he had to move at that moment when he sensed the thugs might do something to the elderly woman, but Cassice moved ahead of him. To be precise, he twisted the dagger in his hand in reverse and pierced the hostage’s thigh.

Poof!

“…!”

Rather, the thug, who looked as if he was plucked from a comic book, clenched his teeth and suppressed his scream at the large wound. But I didn’t like him pretending to be cool despite being a thug. I twisted and stirred it in place and pulled it out, and along with the blood, a scream poured out, drawing attention. I laughed out loud and gently scratched the hostage’s stomach with the tip of the knife.

[Where do you think is next?]

Ryuseong, who was suppressing the convulsing body with force, didn’t take his eyes off Cassice Demillang’s appearance in a disturbed state. Cassice whispered softly, doubling the fear. It’s unknown what else a person who can do this kind of thing so nonchalantly is capable of. That very fear was overwhelming the thugs.

At the same time, Ryuseong realized that at the moment Cassice confirmed the existence of the elderly woman, his fingertips trembled finely. It’s not that he acts this way because he only has a cruel nature.

[I knew you were acting strange. But you were cute, so I let it slide. But I’m sick of it now.]

I don’t think the line between good and evil is clear. He knew well how heavy a yoke it was to attach the concept of good to humans, as much as beings like himself were regarded as representatives of goodness and spokesmen for justice. In Ryuseong’s thought, good people could not exist, only good choices existed. Making a good choice at the crossroads of choice. That’s what he thought was the only way to do good with a human body, so Ryuseong didn’t think of himself as good.

Instead, he thought evil was a little clearer.

Oppressing someone. Disregarding humanity. Vulgarly mocking and despising. Hateful feelings. Unjust feelings. That is evil. From pre-regression Ryuseong’s perspective, Cassice Demillang was undoubtedly evil. However, after the regression, the pressure exerted on Ryuseong seemed to constantly shout to break the blindfold.

[Do you want to die? If not, you should listen to me, okay? Do you want to be a good kid, or.]

Look straight at Cassice Demillang.

[Shall we all die together?]

The madman with a knife in his hand began to move away from Ryuseong’s side. He is giggling and spraying the blood pooled on the reversed dagger onto the faces of the thugs. It means he is swinging the knife. Moreover, it’s not even a proper sword technique, just sloppily as if a drunk is staggering and dancing.

The thugs step back, drawing a circle around him at the unknowable and therefore even more spine-chilling behavior. Crazy bastard. The same reaction is drawn from the eyes of the thugs. What kind of bravado does it take to throw oneself at a hostile group, relying only on the dagger in one’s hand, even if not barehanded? Even an Awakener dies the same if shot through the heart with a bullet.

Ryuseong raised his senses to a state like a battlefield so that he could be prepared even if a contingency occurred. It was the first time since the regression. Cassice Demillang was giving Ryuseong many firsts.

But then the atmosphere around became strange. He seemed to be trying to go in one direction, but the thugs were strangely blocking his way.

The madman, who raised his eyebrows as if annoyed, was about to smile and thrust his knife when.

“Move aside.”

A booming voice reprimanded. The thugs trembled, saying it would still be dangerous, but the robust voice didn’t stop.

“Are you going to embarrass me!”

But there was internal energy embedded in the voice that burst out. An Awakener? Well, I knew there were also over a dozen others hiding around, but the one who shouted seemed to have quite a bit of skill. Ryuseong frowned. But Cassice, as if saying what kind of threat it would be, smiled brightly and looked back at Ryuseong, then walked lightly into the path the thugs had opened.

“Where are you from? I’ve never seen a face like yours. Which clan sent you!”

Ryuseong also followed Cassice, holding the hostage tightly, chasing the source of the booming voice. At the end of it stood the elderly woman. The very same elderly woman Cassice had encountered on the subway. The person who had been trembling and weakly lying down until just now was now glaring at Cassice Demillang with a tiger-like force.

Ryuseong was startled by the sight and wanted to see Cassice’s expression, but the face that was eventually revealed was motionlessly bright.

[What clan sent me, what a misunderstanding. Do I look like a fool who would do petty work under someone?]

Cassice Demillang, smiling suspiciously, seemed to have known from the beginning that the elderly woman in front of him was the top figure in Korea’s smuggling industry.

***

‘Oh shit, I almost got fucked.’

I, who knew nothing, was dumbfounded by the unexpected development. Why is the elderly woman who was coughing earlier appearing here? Could it be that the elderly woman is the top of the smuggling industry? Aish, fuck, was the coughing as if going to the afterlife all an act too? Then I could have been beaten up if I had rushed to help the elderly woman?

‘Damn it!’

I did well to stop that bastard Ryuseong who was about to jump in at any moment! They say in the martial arts world, the ones you should be most wary of are women, children, and the elderly… Why is this true!

If it’s the person I know, the elderly woman in the emerald green robe also appeared in the original work. However, I was also shocked because I didn’t know that she was pretending to be sickly. But even if I scream inside, the situation won’t change. It’s not like the elderly woman will become sickly again just because I beg, right? Originally, you fight villains with guts. Fortunately, Cassice Demillang is a master of poker face. As I slightly lowered my head and smiled arrogantly, the elderly woman in the faded robe frowned as if thinking of something.

“Treat them as guests, you bastards!”

It seems my guts are stronger.