Chapter 6
Wanna bet?
From the next day, Namgung Sanyeong slowly began to extend her claws.
“This was sent by Madam?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right.”
Hyungsam couldn’t even properly meet my eyes, trembling as he held out the tray.
A bowl containing medicinal decoction.
My expression was so dark and sullen that it reflected right on the surface.
「Young Lord!」
‘I know, me too.’
Good grief, do these people have no brains?
How am I supposed to calmly drink this decoction when they’re showing such an obviously suspicious intent?
It was to the point that it was hard to even play along.
This decoction was, nine times out of ten, a poison that induced madness.
So that I would cause some major accident during the clan head’s visitation ceremony.
「We must punish these scoundrels at once! How dare they offer such poison to the Young Lord! Just give the order! I’ll burn it into their food along with these kids and return!」
Well, well?
What a loyal subject we have here.
When I looked at him with a dumbfounded gaze, even the Head Spider seemed to feel guilty and slowly turned his head to the side.
If he had kept acting shameless, I was planning to immediately turn him into a phantom.
Hah. Maybe it’s because he’s already died once, but his sense of perception was surprisingly sharp.
Anyway… what was that elder’s name again?
I kept calling him Spider, Spider these past few months, so I couldn’t for the life of me remember what his actual name was.
Well, it doesn’t matter. From now on I’ll just call him “the one who used to be an elder,” or “Phantom One.”
If he gets frustrated, he’ll say his own name. Not that I have any intention of remembering it anyway. Hehehe.
“L-Lady Consort said that by now Second Young Master must have sufficiently repented for his sins, so she sent this decoction to restore your vitality. She said to focus on recovering your body until the Dark Lord’s visit…”
In other words, don’t drag yourself around sickly and lower the Dark Lord’s impression score.
“And from now on, with every meal, she will send specially prepared nutritious dishes, and she earnestly begged you not to skip them.”
On top of that, he kindly explained that they’d be feeding me poison three times a day, every day.
I barely suppressed the sneer that almost slipped out and waved my hand.
“Fine. You can go now.”
“B-But, that—”
“Why? Do you still have something to say?”
“I was told to make absolutely sure that you drink it all—”
They’re really trying hard, huh.
So, without hesitation, I grabbed the bowl and downed the entire decoction.
Ugh. Tastes awful.
“Happy now?”
“Y-Yes! That’s right. Th-Then I shall take my leave.”
Only after Hyungsam left was I finally able to burst into laughter.
The bitter taste of the decoction still lingered on my lips.
Let’s see… the ingredients were Baeksancho mixed with Honhwajeong, with a little madness-inducing poison added. Oh? They even put in Ojeonghwan? That rare stuff?
This wasn’t just narcotics, at this level it was practically demonic drugs.
Just drinking a cup or two doesn’t show any obvious effects on the surface.
If anything, it seems closer to an elixir. Not only does it restore vitality, but it even swells the inner energy in the dantian.
Since they must have heard that I’ve been diligently training in martial arts ahead of the Dark Lord’s visit, they probably wanted to pretend like they were helping.
And of course, I’ll have to demonstrate some decent martial arts in front of the Dark Lord.
But if this medicine is taken continuously, the poison accumulates layer by layer and damages the brain gate.
And then—
“This even has brainwashing effects.”
「Eh? What do you mean by that—」
“There’s Cinnabar Poison mixed in.”
「Gasp! If it’s Cinnabar Poison!」
“Basically, they’re daring to cast sorcery on me. Puhahat!”
Cinnabar is a material commonly used by sorcerers when making talismans.
It’s the most convenient medium for infusing sorcerous power.
So if it’s properly prepared, it also makes it easy to cast certain spells.
Most likely, they planned to use the poison to drive me into madness and then manipulate me like a puppet.
The problem is—unfortunately for them—the target happens to be *me*.
Hehehe. To think they’d dare pick a fight with me using sorcery. How ridiculous… no, actually, it sounded fun, thrilling even.
“Seems like there’s a sorcerer working with Namgung Sanyeong. Go find them.”
「During all that time we were watching, I never sensed anything like that… Which must mean they have a way to hide and secretly meet with the Nine Dragons Branch. Understood. Leave it to me, Hwan-mo!」
The Head Spider pounded his chest with his forelegs, then scurried up the wall with the little spiders in tow, disappearing from sight.
I sat cross-legged and once again circulated the Dark Dragon Heart Technique.
If there was something Namgung Sanyeong didn’t know, it was that Cinnabar Poison was one thing, but no matter how deadly a toxin they gave me, it wouldn’t even register in my liver.
None of it could compare to the Poison of Phantoms.
Kyaaaaa!
Using the ghostly wails stirred up by the ghostly energy completely fused into my inner strength as a lullaby, I began dissolving the poison from the decoction.
Whoooosh…!
* * *
Namgung Sanyeong’s second move soon came.
“A martial instructor?”
“Yes. For the next four days, I will personally take charge of guiding Young Master’s martial arts. I look forward to working with you.”
Despite saying he looked forward to working with me, his face was full of boredom, as if thinking, “I’ll just kill time here,” showing no real enthusiasm.
Well, I was used to that kind of look, so it didn’t bother me much.
“Aren’t things at Jeongpunggak pretty busy these days? Is it really okay for you to come here?”
The identity of this so-called martial instructor was a bit unexpected.
Dangon, the Fierce Wind Virtuoso.
He was one of the core members of the Stormwind Corps formerly led by Tang hosan, and now even among the Nine Dragons Branch, he was considered one of the top ten masters.
The notable thing was that he wasn’t aligned with Namgung Sanyeong’s faction.
From the start, he had little interest in the succession struggles.
No, it would be more accurate to say he had little interest in worldly affairs at all.
He always liked to laze around, and whenever he had the chance, he’d skip duties, which had often made the head of Jeongpunggak furious.
There was even talk that if it hadn’t been for him saving Tang hosan’s life in his youth, he might have long been kicked out of the branch.
So it was strange that he had come under Namgung Sanyeong’s orders to “monitor” me—
“What are you talking about? Of course I’m busy, which is why I came here.”
Huh?
“From now on, just once! I’ll show you my movements just once. Practice on your own after that.”
Such an utterly shameless attitude.
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
By now, I had finally read Namgung Sanyeong’s scheme.
By assigning Dangon to me, she aimed to gain three major advantages.
The first was to obtain clues about my martial arts level or any possible backers I might have.
The second was that by watching me, she could prepare for any sudden actions I might take during the Dark Lord’s visit.
But the most important was the third.
By assigning me a “real” master instead of someone from her own faction, she gained the justification of having helped with my martial arts training.
Hadn’t she even provided the elixir to restore my vitality beforehand?
Even if her plan later went awry and raised suspicion, she created a loophole to step out of the line of suspicion.
When she had blatantly handed me the decoction to drink, I wondered how someone with such a foolish mind had managed to secure the position of Lady Consort.
Still, it seemed there was a certain careful cunning to her methods.
The problem was that I had read all of her intentions.
Hmm, maybe I’ll play a little trick.
If I do it well, I might even get a chance to leave the mansion.
“The martial art I’m about to show you is called Shadow Step. I think Young Master may have heard of it at least once.”
Oh?
“Surely it was the technique of Tang Yuchang—”
“Yes. It was Amyeong Qi. A qigong compatible with Shadow Step, allowing quiet yet rapid circulation of inner energy, making it very suitable for stealth techniques or poisoning arts. Shadow Step works the same way. Since the Lady Consort insisted that I teach this… well, I had no choice in the matter.”
So she wants to shame me by making me compare myself to her son in front of the Dark Lord?
“Then I will begin.”
Pat, papapapat—
Dangon folded his hands behind his back and slowly moved his feet.
A leisurely pace. But his movements were anything but slow.
Across the not-small courtyard of Baekseokjeon, Dangon’s figure appeared and disappeared repeatedly.
Even moving that fast, you’d expect some wind to stir, but it was incredibly stealthy, like a dark shadow gliding.
For someone like Tang Woon-hwi, whose only properly learned martial art was the Tang Clan Body Qigong, it was an utterly unattainable level of technique.
“That’s it for now.”
Dangon spread dozens of afterimages across the courtyard, then quietly reappeared in front of me.
His steps were still as leisurely as if he were simply taking a stroll.
“I’ve even left footprints on the ground, so you just need to practice as is. If you have any questions, you should—”
“I’ve mastered it.”
“—ask the head of Jeongpunggak… uh?”
Yes. My shameless answer cracked Dangon’s normally languid expression just a little.
“I said, I’ve mastered it.”
“……You’re saying you’ve fully mastered Shadow Step?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Just by watching?”
“Uh-huh. Didn’t seem like much.”
“…….”
Dangon’s face twisted into something grotesque.
He was holding back his anger.
“……Even I, who was called a genius in my youth, needed at least five days just to master the forms of Shadow Step. Other members of the Stormwind Corps took at least ten days. Understanding the meaning behind each move typically required three months on average.”
Calling himself a genius… this guy really has some nerve.
“But if you say something like that—”
“Wanna bet?”
“...A bet?”
“If I’ve truly mastered Shadow Step, thirty nyang of silver.”
“…….”
“They say the monthly salary at Jeongpunggak is about ten nyang, right? Three months’ pay makes a bet worth it. Don’t you agree?”
Dangon now looked like he’d seen every kind of crazy person.
Then, belatedly realizing himself, he cleared his throat lightly.
“Hmph! Martial arts are sacred. The value of Shadow Step, imbued with the spirit of the Dang Clan, is even greater. To be entangled in such gambling—”
“Scared?”
“…….”
“You’re scared. You’re scared.”
“…….”
“A member of Jeongpunggak, a key figure of the Stormwind Corps under Cheongseonghyeolsa, is scared. No matter the title of Fierce Wind Virtuoso, it’s nothing special. Fine. Fine. I’ll train alone.”
Snap! Crackle!
Every time I scraped at his patience, veins popped up all over Dangon’s normally languid face.
Just as I turned to leave, a powerful aura swept through—
Gooo!
“You… you’ll need to fulfill that statement properly.”
Busted!
I flashed the sly grin of a sucker who eagerly bites at bait in a gambling den.
“Bring the money.”
“……Hoo! Every word you speak has a way of infuriating people. Quite skilled, indeed. Now, then, let’s begin—”
Just as Dangon was about to speak,
Pat!
My figure suddenly disappeared.
Dangon’s eyes widened, and in that instant, a subtle wind brushed past his waist.
Startled, Dangon spun around.
His hands went to his waist.
The pouch he had surely taken when leaving Jeongpunggak was gone.
“Looking for this?”
The pouch was in my hand.
As I tossed it playfully up and down, Dangon’s pupils trembled wildly with each movement.
Chronicles of the Reincarnated Demon God
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