Chapter 130 : Chapter 130

Chapter 130. Scars (2)

The girl's sword strikes, trying to protect her younger brother, continued.

As expected, it was a clean movement unbefitting of her age.

Was it because her build was similar to my junior sister's?

In many ways, I felt that she was similar to my junior sister.

To be precise, she reminded me of my junior sister before she ate the elixir.

The feeling of not being able to fully display her innate insight due to a lack of internal energy.

Was it because I associated her with my junior sister? A certain rumor suddenly came to mind.

“……No way?”

The rumor that the future master of Red Moon Falling Flowers, the Killing Demon, was a woman.

At that moment, an ominous sound was heard.

Crackle.

Behind the girl, lightning began to rage from Fourth Moon's cursed object.

This was no time to leisurely analyze the girl's swordsmanship.

Fwoosh.

I hastily took a step and lunged at the girl.

Swoosh.

As expected, a clean strike flew in.

It didn't matter.

Although she was outstanding for her age, her internal energy was severely lacking.

Though precise, by my standards, it was slow and weak.

Twisting my body minimally to dodge, I simultaneously struck the girl's neck with my left hand.

Thwack!

As her eyes blurred and she was about to collapse, the girl muttered.

“Brother……. must protect…….”

Catching the girl's crumbling body, I swung the Restoring Name Sword into the air.

A large, circular sword screen formed from the Restoring Name Sword.

At the same time, the lightning gathered on the Moon Elder's staff took the form of a dragon and shot out.

“As swiftly as the statutes and ordinances command.”

The moonlight I drew and the lightning dragon collided.

The sword screen stretched long and wrapped around the lightning.

The sword screen shook as if a strong, giant fish was caught in a net and was thrashing about.

In response, a throbbing sensation rose in my head.

Fortunately, the lightning dragon dispersed before the Moonlight Coiling Sword collapsed.

But there was no time to be relieved.

As I was blocking the lightning, a sharp strike flew in from the side.

I hastily twisted my upper body, but my neck was lightly cut.

It was a strike that would have put a hole in my neck if I had been a little late.

The assassin who had launched the surprise attack swung in a continuous barrage.

Clang!

Throwing the girl assassin I was holding in my left hand, I used footwork to dodge.

Finally, I swung the Restoring Name Sword to block and asked.

“Are you Fourth Moon's Number One?”

No matter how I looked at it, this guy seemed to be the most skilled among the assassins here.

But the man, without responding to my question, just silently swung his dagger.

“……”

In the meantime, in the back, the Moon Elder was shaking his staff and chanting incantations again.

I had to quickly deal with this Fourth Moon's Number One and subdue that old man.

Unfortunately, my eye still did not open.

It seemed I had consumed too much mental energy in the process of getting out of the huge formation.

But it wasn't a big problem.

Clang!

As I faced the assassin's dagger, a strange sense of déjà vu came over me.

“Your martial arts don't seem very diverse.”

The First Moon's Number One whom I had killed last time. It was the same martial art as that assassin's.

In fact, he felt a notch or two inferior to that guy.

Since First Moon was said to be the highest Moon Elder, I thought there might be a slight difference in the level of their subordinates as well.

In any case, because it was a martial art I was familiar with, it was not difficult to face. Even without my eye open.

Swoooosh.

Observing his movements, I moved minimally here and there to dodge the continuous attacks.

I suppressed my impatience and waited for an opportunity. Just like an assassin.

As I endured and persevered, the opportunity I was waiting for arrived.

Swoooosh!

Once again, I unleashed One Sun, Ten Thousand Lights to clash with his incoming dagger.

Clang!!

The dagger he held screamed. The blade of the dagger was ground away, and his posture was greatly thrown off balance.

Taking a step towards his wide-open torso, I thrust the Restoring Name Sword.

Crack!!

The moment I pierced Fourth Moon's Number One's heart, Fourth Moon once again chanted an incantation and shook his staff.

At the same time, the fire qi gathered in front of the staff took the form of a Vermilion Bird and shot out.

I hastily used my footwork.

The fire bird was not aiming for me, but for my companions fighting in the back.

Once again, I drew a large circle to form a sword screen.

The Moonlight Coiling Sword shook, and my head also throbbed.

I was quite satisfied.

The training had not been in vain.

Even though it carried a force stronger than Hyeok Ilso's Heavenly Wind Sword Art, my head just throbbed a little and that was it.

With a little more training, it seemed I would perfectly master the Moonlight Coiling Sword.

The moment the fire bird scattered, I once again used my movement art towards the old shaman.

Boom!

The ground exploded, and the distance closed rapidly.

The remaining distance was now only about two zhang.

As expected, the assassins blocked the way.

Children were also mixed in.

The Moon Elder was chanting incantations again.

The child's clumsy sword strike flew from the front.

I wrapped it with sword qi and shattered the dagger.

At the same time, a single strand of sword qi that had stealthily escaped passed through the gap between the assassins and the children.

Swish!

The right arm of the old man who was diligently shaking his staff was cut off.

“Keuk.”

A faint groan escaped for the first time.

The old man with his arm cut off staggered and staunched the bleeding on the severed part, then hastily picked up the staff sprawled on the ground.

Then he started to retreat awkwardly.

Of course, I had no intention of letting him go.

“I told you, didn't I? You are going to see King Yama today.”

After cutting down one assassin in front of me, swish!, I aimed for the small gap that had opened and used my movement art at full power.

Boom!

The remaining distance closed in an instant.

The old man hastily swung his staff with his left hand, but it was meaningless.

I easily dodged it and successively struck the old man's paralysis points.

“Before you die, you will spit out everything you know.”

Only after subduing the old man did I turn my body and look back.

Beyond the assassins who were rushing towards me, the scene of my companions fighting came into view.

They were struggling quite a bit.

Not because of the assassins, but because they were trying to subdue the children alive.

Nam Geon would often flinch while moving, and the Tang Clan bastard also couldn't easily throw his poison needles.

“First, I should finish cleaning up the trash.”

Swish!

After cutting down the assassin who had rushed in, I took steps towards my companions one by one.

***

While I was dealing with all the assassins and subduing the children, the face of the Fourth Moon, whose acupoints I had subdued, was turning pale.

“Please prepare the Soul-Losing Pills.”

The Tang Clan bastard sighed and replied.

“I only have enough ingredients to make about two now.”

“Dammit. Why didn't you say so earlier?”

If I had known, I could have just killed everyone except for that Moon Elder.

“Do you know how much I struggled to hold back my desire to kill them all?”

The Tang Clan bastard shook his head.

A moment later, I took the two Soul-Losing Pills that the Tang Clan bastard had prepared and went to the Moon Elder.

Fourth Moon, and one assassin I had chosen at random.

I fed them the Soul-Losing Pills and continued the interrogation.

“Where is the Moon Lord?”

“Are there other training centers besides this one?”

Unfortunately, even the Moon Elder did not know the Moon Lord's location.

He answered with a dazed face.

“The Moon Lord……. visits this place periodically……”

The good news, if any, was that this was the only training center.

If they were kidnapping children and raising them as assassins like this in other places too, my anger would have flared up so much that I wouldn't have been able to bear it.

Besides that, I asked and received answers to minor details for a short while.

Soon, the Moon Elder vomited blood and collapsed.

“Tsk.”

I clicked my tongue and turned away.

The subdued children were gathered together.

At that moment, the girl who was in the center seemed to have woken up and raised her head.

The girl hastily got up and drew her dagger.

“It's all over. Sheathe your sword.”

Even at my words, the girl still had her dagger pointed at me.

The other children also followed the girl and aimed their weapons at us.

Instead of approaching them, I asked from a short distance away.

“I am Jin Yuseong. What is your name?”

The girl, who had been maintaining silence, replied in a choked voice.

“Ilyeong.”

I frowned and asked again.

“Not a damn number like that, I mean your name before you were brought here.”

Then, the girl also frowned. It was an expression like the one I make when I try to recall a long-forgotten memory.

Soon, the girl replied.

“Choyeon.”

“How long has it been since you were brought here?”

“Three years.”

Every time I asked something, the girl would reply with an expression as if she were trying to recall a faint memory.

“What about the other children?”

“My brother and I have been here the longest.”

But even while answering, the girl was still looking for a gap in my defense.

The other children were also holding their weapons and emitting killing intent.

To be precise, about half of the children were exuding killing intent, while the other half looked somewhat confused.

The only one who showed a truly assassin-like demeanor, not exuding killing intent despite harboring murderous intent, was that girl.

“Are there no other children besides you?”

“None.”

At the girl's answer, I glanced over the children.

There were only about a dozen.

“The number of learners is smaller than the number of teachers.”

The number of assassins here alone was several dozen.

But the number of children they were teaching was only about a dozen. It was strange.

The one who solved my question was the girl named Choyeon's answer.

“They all died.”

“The training must have been quite rough.”

The girl did not give any answer.

Thinking of the assassins' training, I asked.

“Or, did you kill each other?”

As expected, the girl did not give any answer.

I gazed at the girl.

A little while ago, when I was interrogating Fourth Moon, I had learned about the main executives of Red Moon Falling Flowers, such as the Moon Lord, the Vice-Moon Lord, and the other two Moon Elders.

And I was able to find out one more fact.

The fact that among the current executives of Red Moon Falling Flowers, including the Moon Lord and the Vice-Moon Lord, there was not a single woman.

The future Killing Demon is a woman. If that rumor is true, there was a very high possibility that this girl was the future Killing Demon.

Her skills were ridiculously outstanding for her age and training period.

Above all, her appearance was already close to that of an assassin.

No. It wasn't just about that girl.

Some of them had already killed each other.

Should I let them live?

To find the answer, I asked the girl.

“I'll ask again. Did you also kill children?”

The girl nodded.

“I did. So kill only me.”

Still standing in front of her brother.

My dilemma became laughable.

Whether she was the Killing Demon or not, it wasn't a particularly important matter.

If I thought of the bigger picture.

So I asked them again.

“Do you have any intention of trying to live like a human? Instead of a life where you hide like a cripple and only think about killing people.”

The girl did not utter words like ‘please spare me.’

“What does it mean to live like a human?”

A chuckle escaped my lips.

Yes. These were children who didn't even know what it meant to live like a human being.

Because of the brainwashing and education of things worse than trash.

Suddenly, the conversation I had a few days ago came to mind.

“I don't know either.”

The girl frowned again.

It was a little different from when she was trying to recall a memory.

It was an expression as if she had seen something strange.

It seemed that at least a minimum of emotion remained.

“But someone who knows that, knows.”

If they didn't know because they hadn't learned, then they could be taught.

“Choose. Will you learn how to live like a human? Or will you die now as an assassin?”

The story Brother Sama had told me came to mind.

The assassins who were already steeped in brainwashing would not change even if taught.

But with children, might there still be a possibility?

Could Brother Sama do it?

It seemed I had one more thing to pass on to Brother Sama today.

While the girl was pondering for a moment, her younger sister, who was being protected behind her, spoke first.

“I-if we follow you, w-will you spare us?”

“If you change.”

At my answer, the younger sister tugged on the girl's clothes and said.

“S-sister…….”

Then the girl, who seemed to be pondering, lowered her dagger, and the other children also began to lower their weapons one by one.

I nodded and said.

“Then wait a moment. There is one last thing to do before we leave.”

Saying so, I turned my body again and headed towards the corpse of the Moon Elder.

Was it because I was worried about whether that girl was the Killing Demon?

A good method came to mind. A very excellent method to call out the Moon Lord.

I cut off the upper garment of the already-dead Moon Elder with the Restoring Name Sword.

And I swung the Restoring Name Sword at the exposed chest of the old man.

Swish! Swish!

The cutting sound echoed repeatedly.

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

The Tang Clan bastard, startled, came over and frowned at the Moon Elder's corpse.

A new scar was carved there. The characters for Ghost Sword were carved very large.

Just like how the Killing Demon of my past life had carved the character for 'Flower' on corpses.

“This way, the Moon Lord will know I did it and come out, won't he? Hahahaha.”

The Moon Lord was said to visit this place periodically.

I couldn't just stay cooped up here waiting for him forever.

If I wanted him to come find me of his own accord, I had to leave a trace, didn't I?

At my rational judgment, the petty person shook his head.

“It seems your madness isn't getting better, but rather getting worse by the day.”