Chapter 150 : Seolyoung, Goes

Chapter 150: Seolyoung, Goes

Rain began to pour.

Swaaash!

A single carriage stood in an alley a little ways from the Murim Alliance.

Baek Seolyoung and Dan Woobin sat inside a carriage hung with long beaded curtains.

“It’s likely nothing serious. Please don’t worry.”

Even as he spoke, Dan Woobin realized these words weren’t for Baek Seolyoung, they were for himself.

Baek Seolyoung silently looked out the window. Through the curtains, she saw the rain falling.

After watching the streaks for a moment, Baek Seolyoung suddenly asked,

“This would help, right?”

“Huh?”

“The rain. It helps the two of them slip in, right?”

“Of course.”

Dan Woobin answered as if certain. But in truth, he couldn’t know if the rain would help their infiltration. Once they went indoors, drops falling from their clothes could give them away.

Dan Woobin changed the subject.

“What was your first impression when you first met our Lord?”

Baek Seolyoung answered without hesitation.

“Annoying?”

“Pardon?”

Dan Woobin pulled a slightly incredulous face, then let out a short laugh. But he quickly remembered this wasn’t the time to be laughing and smoothed his expression.

Watching her gaze calmly out the window, he said,

“You seem to have changed a lot from when we first met.”

Baek Seolyoung gave a faint smile.

“Really?? In what way?”

“How do I put it, you seem more mature.”

“Are you saying I look older?”

“No. Of course not. I mean you look stronger as a person.”

“So you’re telling me that I look like a hard, bitter woman.”

“Gasp! Not at all! A-Absolutely not.”

Flustered, Dan Woobin even waved his hands.

When Baek Seolyoung gave a soft chuckle, he realized she had been teasing him.

“Oh, my Lady.”

Dan Woobin scratched his head awkwardly.

He felt his earlier words were right. She had certainly changed, and in a good way.

‘Well, everyone changed.’

After meeting Lee Jaseung, he had changed, and so had Mujin, Ma Young-gi, and Mook Young.

Mujin especially talked about the past whenever he got drunk.

He called it a trash heap of the past.

The word trash didn’t suit Mujin at all.

But when Dan Woobin thought of himself, he could understand what Mujin meant.

He remembered his own weakness, crying because he couldn’t even protect his woman.

‘Even I changed a lot too.’

So much that it was hard to imagine the man he had been then.

Mook Young and Ma Young-gi must have changed a lot as well. Their loyalty to Lee Jaseung ran so deep because he had changed all their lives.

But the one who changed everyone wasn’t here now.

Dan Woobin could say it. The Black Way Alliance could not exist without Lee Jaseung.

If they couldn’t find him, war would be inevitable. The second decision-maker in the Black Way Alliance was a man who wouldn’t consider a single day in the Jianghu without Lee Jaseung.

Swaaaash!

The rain began to fall even harder.

The two of them watched the rain in silence.

Time kept passing like that.

Dan Woobin’s face grew steadily more rigid. Regret welled up from deep inside.

Should they have forced their way in?

If not that, then the day after Lee Jaseung failed to return, they should have sent someone to Jang Wonso to negotiate. If they had threatened to ignite a war between Orthodox Faction and Unorthodox Faction, he might have handed Lee Jaseung over.

He kept sinking into that kind of unreasonable regret.

Lee Jaseung not returning for a day or two wasn't a reason to act like that, and launching a full-scale war in those circumstances would have been a ridiculous decision. He only thought about it because he was so worried.

At last, the promised two hours have passed. Mujin and Mook Young, who should have come back with some results, did not return.

“Time is up.”

At Baek Seolyoung’s words, Dan Woobin nodded, with his expression heavy.

Now was the moment to decide.

When Dan Woobin started to rise to get out of the carriage, Baek Seolyoung spoke.

“Strategist Dan, just a moment.”

Dan Woobin sat down again.

“Please speak, my Lady.”

“Give me a chance.”

“What do you mean?”

“I will meet Jang Wonso alone and come back.”

“That is absolutely out of the question.”

Dan Woobin shook his head firmly.

She had expected opposition, so Baek Seolyoung stayed composed. Her calm persuasion began.

“If you were me, what would you do, Strategist Dan?”

Dan Woobin’s eyes trembled. He would, of course, go to save her.

“Even so, I cannot allow it. This is different.”

“Do you believe in fate, Strategist Dan?”

“Yes.”

“Then do not believe in me, believe in the fate between that man and me.”

“Even so, no.”

“Do I look like a foolishly stubborn woman to you?”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“As you know, I was a woman of the Orthodox Faction. If a war between Orthodox and Unorthodox might break out, and I don’t even try to do anything for this situation, that is far too cruel to me.”

“My Lady.”

“If your only reason is that it is dangerous, then just let me go. The moment that man does not come, and Captain Mu and Mook do not return, we are all truly in danger. You know very well that being outside doesn’t mean we are safe.”

“But what do you plan to do?”

“Jang Wonso harbors impure desires for me. I intend to use that.”

Dan Woobin ground his molars. That was exactly why it was even more dangerous.

He read her resolve. No matter how he tried to stop her, she would go. Yet in this situation, he couldn’t lock her up by force.

More than anything, her earlier words had struck his heart. Regardless of whether Lee Jaseung lived or died, if war broke out as things stood, it would wound her deeply.

And then the decisive words from her.

“Let me be the one to save my husband.”

At last Dan Woobin made up his mind. What he was about to say would probably be the most foolish, most emotional decision of his life.

“Understood. For you, my Lady, I will wait just two more hours.”

“Thank you.”

Baek Seolyoung offered Dan Woobin a bow.

“Just a moment.”

Dan Woobin took something from under the carriage and handed it to her.

“Take this.”

* * *

Through the pouring rain, a carriage rolled to a stop in front of the Alliance Leader’s Hall.

Baek Seolyoung stepped down from the carriage.

The coachman, wearing a straw raincoat, draped a rain cloak over her.

Just before coming here, she had sent word to Jang Wonso. Perhaps because of that, there was no visible guard around the hall.

The coachman remained at the door, and she entered the hall alone.

At the far end of the great hall, on the grand seat, Jang Wonso sat.

Baek Seolyoung walked slowly along the red carpet.

She felt uneasy inside. Mujin and Mook Young had slipped in here, yet it was so quiet.

What had happened to the two of them?

If they had been discovered, Jang Wonso would know of their intrusion. How could he look so nonchalant?

“Were you surprised? That I asked you to drink with me?”

“I was.”

Baek Seolyoung stopped about ten paces away. Jang Wonso still sat on the grand seat looking down at her. The hungry desire that had always lurked in his eyes whenever he watched her was nowhere to be seen. His eyes were only full of suspicion.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

“I am thinking about your purpose in coming.”

“I came to find my husband.”

Jang Wonso’s lips curled up.

“How strange. How do you expect to find your husband by drinking with me?”

Looking at him, Baek Seolyoung answered evenly.

“I am certain you are keeping my husband.”

“That is a very dangerous claim you’re making, you know?”

Baek Seolyoung met his gaze with a provocative look.

“If you return my husband, I will give you what you want.”

A glint crossed Jang Wonso’s eyes.

“Oh? That’s an even more dangerous statement.”

An irresistible, leering smile spread over his lips.

“I never knew you were that kind of woman.”

“A woman lives with many faces.”

At last Jang Wonso rose. He slowly descended from the grand seat.

Then he saw it.

Baek Seolyoung’s body was trembling. It wasn’t an act. When she saw him approach, her body trembled on its own.

If anything, it produced a good result.

‘Yes, bold as she acts, she is only a woman.’

Jang Wonso loosened a strand of tension.

As if he meant to kiss her, he drew his face close. She felt his hot breath. She felt an impulse to draw her sword and slice his throat right then.

But she couldn’t. No matter how much she had improved, she did not have the skill to defeat Jang Wonso. More than that, she hadn’t come here to kill him, she had come to rescue Lee Jaseung.

The instant Jang Wonso leaned in to kiss her, Baek Seolyoung pressed the sword’s hilt to his mouth.

Jang Wonso’s lips brushed the hilt.

“Show me my husband first.”

His eyes twisted slightly. In that look, Baek Seolyoung saw both desire and anger.

Jang Wonso murmured,

“If you are trying to play with me, then you chose the wrong person.”

Baek Seolyoung spoke evenly.

“Unless you plan to have my corpse, show me my husband.”

Jang Wonso smirked. Hearing her address him that informally and drop all formality only aroused him more.

In his mind, he pictured rolling with her on a bed.

“Fine, alright.”

Jang Wonso turned and walked toward the back wall.

Srrrk.

When he worked a mechanism, a hidden door to the underground opened.

“Come.”

Baek Seolyoung stepped onto it.

Guuuuung.

The mechanism began to descend.

Jang Wonso licked his dry lips and spoke.

“You are truly something.”

Baek Seolyoung said nothing.

No, you still don’t know. You don’t know how much I loathe you. You don’t know how far I am willing to go to save him.

The mechanism came to a halt below, and the door slowly opened.

The stench of blood rushed in.