Chapter 6

***

Recently, Bing Eun-seol started drinking.

Once she was drunk, she became so sluggish and lazy that she stopped harassing me with her ice powers. Instead, she stared at me with bloodshot eyes and started to hit me physically. The bruises on my body had started to increase.

But Seoyoung was in an even worse state. Since she tried to protect me, there was never a day without a dark blue bruise on her body.

“Get out! Idiots! I don’t want to see your faces so get out!”

Today, I was thrown out again by Bing Eun-seol and went to the flower garden.

While I was thawing myself under the strong sun that would cause anyone to sweat like a pig, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“You’re outside again?”

“Yes?”

“The Madam again… nevermind.”

After I was abused by Bing Eun-seol, I started to notice that Aku Ryun also came outside to bask in the sun.

Normally he just ignored me. Why was he talking to me today?

Ever since I revealed that I wasn’t an idiot, I realised that I probably didn’t need to pretend to be dumb in front of him.

“The light”

“Huh?”

“Don’t block the light”

“…”

Aku Ryun was in front of me but he suddenly turned and stopped. Then he moved to a place where he wasn’t blocking the sun and took a knee.

I stared at him to make eye contact and looked up.

“Young Miss, give me your wrist.”

“Why?”

Aku Ryun hesitated and then said to me quietly.

“…I will insert some warmth inside you”

Ara? Weren’t you revelling in your schadenfreude just recently?

I must have been looking pretty pathetic for Aku Ryun to notice. But then again I was wearing thick fur clothes in the middle of summer while shivering under them.

Since the daughter of his enemy stole his first kiss, won’t it be difficult for him to pity me?

‘That’s why he’s the protagonist’

Even though I am the flesh and blood of a hated being, it wasn’t possible for him to abandon his compassion.

He probably felt guilty since I was being abused and didn’t say anything about this to anyone.

‘I’m fine though.’

Rather, him keeping his mouth shut was preferable. To be perfectly honest, nobody would take my side anyway. Until Bing Eun-seol caused some real trouble, It was better to wait quietly and build my strength.

“Young Miss, please give me your wrist.”

Aku Ryun hastened.

Believe it or not, I had already gotten used to the cold a while back. Since I had gone through the pain for an entire year, I didn’t feel that cold recently. Sometimes I even felt comfortably cool.

But because of the prying eyes, I kept wearing these thick clothes and shivered. Bing Eun-seol’s cold magic didn’t threaten me anymore.

In the end, I offered my wrist up. Aku Ryun carefully grabbed my wrist and circulated some  warm energy into me.

The energy was warm yet cozy, soft yet strong. It slowly wrapped around my frozen insides.

“Wow…”

Somewhere in my belly, I felt a fluttering sensation. The sense of satisfaction automatically made me close my eyes. With this, Aku Ryun’s feeling of guilt disappeared. I opened my eyes and said

“Sorry don’t do it. I’m fine. I don’t hurt”

At that moment, the warm energy stopped. Not even giving me a chance to miss the warmth, Aku Ryun unceremoniously let go of my wrist. After doing so, he suddenly stood up.

“There’s no need to apologize. I… shouldn’t be allowed to feel that.”

Aku Ryun said that and ran away.

‘… What is he talking about?’

I stared at Aku Ryun’s back which soon disappeared without a trace and shrugged.

Is it puberty?

“Young Miss, I finished making it! How is it? Do you like it?”

Seoyoung pushed the finished flower crown to me. Every time I got beat up by Bing Eun-seol, this woman always tried to cheer me up like this. Though I didn’t have any interest in the crown, I always smiled brightly for her.

“Wow! Pretty!”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes! Put it on me! I want it!”

“One moment… oh dear, our little Young Miss is the cutest thing in the world”

Seoyoung has such a thick skin. I was so embarrassed my fingers wriggled around.

It was right then.

‘Euk!’

From somewhere, I heard a sound of pain. I quickly turned around. I searched everywhere with a hawk’s eye, but I didn’t see anything.

I could only hear the sound of insects. No sound of humans was heard.

Maybe I just imagined it?

It looks like I started hallucinating after being abused by Bing Eun-seol one too many times.

“Young Miss, I think we can go inside now.”

By now, Bing Eun-seol must have drank so much alcohol that she passed out, so it was safe for me to go inside.

“Okay.”

While being carried by Seoyoung, I lost my gift.

——————————————————————————————–

“Ah… you’re back you must have gone to her.”

“Yes I went.”

“Today she was also cute”

“Huuu… as the days go by, she gets more cute, won.”

“I almost had a heart attack earlier.”

“So you made a noise because of that? Our Young Miss is super sensitive!”

“Maybe she has an aptitude for martial arts? Even the most advanced masters fail to notice our presence don’t they?”

“Forget that, it hurts me inside to see her wearing such thick winter clothes in the middle of summer. Maybe she is sick?”

These whispering two were part of a group of bizarre people. Some had dark green skin. Others had dark red skin. They were old men with bent backs and wrinkled skin that looked like cracked tree bark. There were some who were tall, whereas there were those who looked like they would roll around because they were so fat, and those who looked like twins. The ten monsters turned their heads after discussing with each other.

Talking to the quiet Aku Ryun,

“Sogyoju, there wasn’t any problem with Young Miss’ health right?

TL: sogyoju = one of the positions of the Great Murim, referring to Aku Ryun

Aku Ryun closed his eyes.

“If you are curious, why don’t you elders check on her personally?”

“You know how our situation is, right? As soon as we show interest in her, we will be the target of the Murim League.”

To the Murim, they were called the 10 Magicians. The faces of the elders belonging to the magyo darkened. They never regretted their life where they pursued strength and nothing else.

To them, strength was life and the purpose of their life. In order to gain strength, it was natural that they did so by any means necessary. It didn’t matter to them if they saw miserable people  shedding bloody tears.

For them being weak was a sin.

As a result of their philosophy, they were selected as the top 10 magicians by the Murim League. They would snort derisively at such trivial matters even if they were given incentives.

Even if the weak ones flocked to them for help, they just laughed at them. That was until their  precious flower was born.

The birth of the Magyo’s child was an event that hadn’t occurred in 200 years.

For the commoners at the bottom of Great 100,000 Mountain, birth was part of their ordinary lives. But for people at the peak of Great 100,000 Mountain and cultivation, birth was a rare event.

As a result, the elders did not know how to take care of a newborn child. It was obvious that if they showed care for the child, their enemies would hurt her.

After such a precious thing was created, the elders became scared of the people they had always looked down on. So they decided not to express themselves. There was a saying that best describes their current situation: the harder you try to hide, the more conspicuous you are.

If they wanted to give a gift to the child, they borrowed the name of the magicians to send it to her. If they were curious about the child, they used Aku Ryun to find out her condition. Even when the child started visiting the flower garden, they stood from a distance and watched. The elders were satisfied with that alone. Regardless of what they did, it would only harm her, so it was better if they kept their distance.

If they were really curious, they could just send Aku Ryun like today. Aku Ryun was young and wasn’t branded as a villain yet. Even to the outside world, people didn’t know he was the sogyoju. So, even if he got close to the child, there wouldn’t be any big problem.

“Sogyoju, why are you silent? Anything wrong with our Young Miss’ body?”

Even today, the elders had pushed Aku Ryun to approach the child and then nagged him for information. As usual, it was enough to say that there was no problem this time. However, there was one thing that irked them.

The child was being abused by Bing Eun-seol. When exposed to Bing Eun-seol’s ice magic, one’s fingernails would turn white and the cold would be absorbed into the five viscera. But they couldn’t tell what was exactly wrong regarding the child’s condition from that distance.

But that wasn’t the problem. The energy that should not be felt was felt in her dantian. A perfect sound without any impurities. That pure energy was gathered in the child’s dantian. Just like an ice magic master.

“It isn’t possible that the child learned ice magic. Did the child absorb the energy of Bing Eun-seol?”

However, it was not something a child who did not know martial arts could do let alone a child who could barely walk. It’s a weird phenomenon that might seem okay right now, but might become an issue at some point in the future.

‘But… since I alleviated the problem with my powers, so it will be okay now.’

After realizing that he was worried about the child, Aku Ryun chewed on the tip of his tongue.

Why was he feeling like this?

Even though the enemy’s daughter stole his first kiss, he did not hate her. No matter how much he tried to hate her, it was impossible for him.

‘The kid is sinless. That child told me to not be sorry and even smiled.’

‘In the end, that child is also an enemy to be killed. Whether you’re being abused or not, it’s not my business’

His heart was divided and those two halves were fighting. It was evidence that his resolve was shaking. After a while, he opened his eyes. There was a cold, soulless look in his eyes.

He answered calmly.

“Young Miss’ veins were perfectly fine.”

The nervous elders let out sighs at the same time.

“Why were you trying to scare us by staying silent? I was starting to think that there was a big problem.”

“I have heard before that there are girls who have low body temperatures. Maybe that’s the case with our lady.”

“Then, this time, I should give you a hemp that boosts yang.”

“If we had a spirit herb it would have been good… but that stubborn Shaolin Temple is holding it like it’s their egg, won.”

After listening to the elders’ chatter, Aku Ryun suddenly spoke.

“I’m thinking of going into closed-door cultivation.”

The elders tilted their heads at the unexpected words.

“Well… do what you want, but when do you plan to start?”

“I’m going to start tomorrow”

“Huh? That quickly?”

That way, I won’t see the child even for an extra day.

“Yes.”

Or that was what Aku Ryun believed.