Chapter 43 : Breaking the Egg (3)

Tadak! Tadak!

The candle burned down.

The large yellow candle, which had been the size of a child’s forearm before it was lit, had now sunk so low that it was about to burn the table.

The prison master pondered, with the thick book in front of her.

A Deceitful Assassin was very troublesome. She had to be extremely cautious in making a judgment. Especially in a case like Mongseol’s, who had returned without a single scratch, she had to be even more careful.

There was a reason why a caught assassin was called a Deceitful Assassin.

The most fearsome enemy for an assassin was appeasement.

Cases where they surrendered to the enemy because they valued their lives, cases where they acted as a double agent… it became really tiring.

If they had returned alive and well, she had to check for deceit. No one was an exception.

One Deceitful Assassin could shake the Drunken Flower Garden to its roots.

If an assassin was caught, it was only right that they died.

It was hard to think of an assassin whose martial arts were so strong that they could overwhelm the Living Sword Sect.

From the Living Sword Sect’s perspective, they had to kill the assassin.

She had heard that the Kang Jo family covered about half of the Living Sword Sect’s annual budget. If so, he was a distinguished guest who should have been cherished like a treasure. How could they let the assassin go alive when such a person had died?

The Living Sword Sect would have used all its strength.

Then that meant that Mongseol had returned alive and well even after being surrounded by a million-strong army.

‘Is Mongseol’s story true? It’s too accurate to be a lie. There’s not a single discrepancy.’

That was the very point that made the prison master ponder.

There could be no such thing as perfection in any matter. It had already been over ten days since Kang Jo had been killed. During that time, a big incident had occurred, enough to turn the whole world upside down.

If it was an incident of this magnitude, there should have been some discrepancies.

The fact that it was too perfect, that was the very reason why she was pondering without being able to close the case even though the interrogation was over.

“Haa!”

She thought and thought, but she couldn’t easily make a decision. Only a deep sigh came out.

Before she knew it, the day had dawned.

The bright light of the new day began to pour in through the window.

She had stayed up all night.

Mongseol’s statement fit together perfectly. There was no place to doubt. It matched exactly with what had been confirmed in the prison. But that point made her ponder again.

“I’ll have to watch for a while longer.”

The prison master picked up the book on the table.

Mongseol’s case was unresolved. It was not over yet. She would have to watch for a while.

Thud! Thud!

She walked to the unresolved case shelf.

…Is it really okay to handle it as an unresolved case?

She hesitated once more.

Her judgment was very important. If the prison master cast a suspicious feeling on an assassin, that assassin would not be able to go out on assassinations in the future. They would be monitored by their colleagues in the Drunken Flower Garden.

‘Still, it’s better to be safe.’

The prison master placed Mongseol’s statement on the unresolved case shelf.

The unresolved case shelf!

Among the Deceitful Assassins whose statements were placed here, there were no assassins who had a good end. The prison master’s suspicion always turned into reality after a short while. They all died, resenting the prison master.

In this aspect, the prison master’s intuition was very excellent.

Mongseol too… although her statement fit together perfectly, she felt a sense of doubt for some reason. The feeling that she had not told the whole truth.

Now, when morning came, a secret letter would fly to the main garden. It would contain the content that Mongseol had to be continuously monitored, and a meeting of the elders would be convened immediately.

‘Alright. I’ll check one more time.’

The prison master tapped Mongseol’s statement with her finger and turned around. At that moment,

“Ak!”

A short, final scream rang out from outside.

It was a sound that was heard for a very short time, so she wondered if she had misheard, but it seemed to be a scream.

It was not a scream of surprise from seeing something like a snake. It was a desperate scream, a scream that divided life and death. A scream squeezed out from the bottom of her stomach.

Shwiik!

The prison master quickly picked up her sword.

She instinctively felt that a bad situation had occurred.

‘Who!’

Her thoughts were short, and her actions were fast.

The moment she thought a scream had burst out, the prison master was already opening the door and going outside. But,

“Hook!”

The prison master let out a rough breath and retreated back into the room.

A man, a rough man, was walking. He was walking towards her, towards her residence, without hesitation.

There were no men in the Drunken Flower Garden’s prison. They were all women. The guards and the prisoners were all women. So the man who had appeared in the prison had to be an intruder.

“Who are you!”

The prison master shouted, aiming her sword.

Her shout was filled with true energy.

Although it was a question directed at the man, it rang out loud enough for everyone in the prison to hear.

Even those who had not heard the scream would have heard the shout she had let out.

But there was no movement. The disciples should have come running out from all sides, but it was quiet.

‘They’ve all been hit!’

A chill ran down the prison master’s spine.

What she did best was assassination. She was best at secretly infiltrating, eliminating the target, and coming out. So she knew what this situation was now.

“You guys, who are you!”

A sense of anxiety was in the prison master’s voice.

It was not just one man. They were appearing from here and there. It seemed that there were at least twenty of them.

The men were coming out of the disciples’ quarters.

They were holding blades in their hands, and red blood was dripping from them as if they had just been used.

All the disciples had been hit.

People had been dying right next to her, and she had not known at all.

They were considerable masters. They were not assassins. They did not use things like hiding techniques. They had pushed in with force like a huge wave. They were absurdly strong opponents for assassins to face.

What was even more frightening was that there was no sense of guilt in the men’s eyes for having killed people.

Even when an assassin killed a person, they felt uneasy, but these people were even smiling.

They enjoyed killing!

The man who had been approaching the prison master said with a smirk, “Ma’am. You’re the only one left now. Shall we talk? Or should I crush you?”

“Wh-what are you guys!”

The prison master quickly scanned the man’s entire body.

The fight was unavoidable. If so, she had to gauge the superiority of their martial arts, but she couldn’t read the man at all. She couldn’t even get a feel for what kind of martial art he used.

A blade on his right waist, a sword on his left waist.

Whether he used a blade art, or a sword art… she had never heard of a martial artist who used both a blade and a sword.

The man came up to the front of the door.

“Your answer is wrong. Will you talk, or will I crush you? Don’t you know this kind of empty threat better in the prison? Ma’am, how do my words sound to you now? Do they sound like just an empty threat?”

He was an opponent she could not face. If so, a preemptive attack was the answer. She would strike first and then retreat.

As soon as her thoughts were organized, her body was instinctively thrown out.

Shwaaaek!

The sword swept past the man standing in front of the door.

It stabbed straight at his upper body. Of course, if she got close, the sword form would change. Like a rattlesnake, the tip of the sword would tremble, cut his chest, and then come straight down and split his thigh.

It was a sword form called the Flying Snake Drilling the Lattice. It was also the fastest sword form among the sixteen forms of the Flying Snake Sword.

“Kik! You could have just talked, but you insist on being crushed.”

The man twisted his lips and sneered.

The prison master saw a blade flash up before her eyes. The blade that had been at his waist was suddenly held up in front of his face, and then it disappeared as if by magic. In that instant,

“Aak!”

The prison master frowned and let out a scream.

The blade had already split her thigh. The blade was so deeply embedded that it had dug into the bone.

The man did not pull out the blade.

He smiled faintly, looking at the blade embedded in her thigh.

“You know what to do, right?”

“You! Ak!”

The prison master let out another scream.

She had tried to keep her mouth shut and not let out a scream. But the blade was scraping against the bone and flowing down. It was cutting the flesh. It was not cutting the flesh all at once, but cutting it little by little.

An indescribable pain swirled through her entire body.

Swoosh!

The man pulled out the blade embedded in her thigh.

He held the blade to her arm.

“Next, I’ll slice this place. Aigoo! When did this one get so chipped? It’s become a saw, hasn’t it? This… I’m really sorry to you, ma’am. It’s going to hurt quite a bit.”

The man muttered, holding up the blade.

The blade was not chipped. It was originally a saw-like blade, a geodo.

The man’s expression hardened and he said, “I’m asking. The Deceitful Assassin who returned this time, where is her record? What we want to have is the Deceitful Assassin’s record.”

‘Mongseol’s statement.’

The prison master said with a frown, “What are you talking about? The Deceitful Assassin’s record?”

Peok!

“Ak!”

The prison master let out a scream at the sudden blow.

This attack had been received without preparation. The man had been looking at the blade, but that blade had been struck down from an unpredictable angle.

This time too, the blade had reached the bone.

The blade had not been pulled out, and he was ready to carve out the flesh from her shoulder to her elbow.

‘I’m going to die today.’

The prison master foresaw her own death.

“Ugh!”

“Aaaak!”

Screams continued to be heard from outside.

They had killed all the guards in the prison. And now they were killing the prisoners.

“Get off! You beastly bastard!”

The sound of rape was also heard. No, it was heard a lot. A considerable number of women were being assaulted.

These guys, they had no fear in their eyes.

‘To think that there were such guys in the martial world!’

The prison master ground her teeth.

The incident where the demons had attacked the Sacred Sword Sect and killed the Sect Master and his three sons had had a very big impact.

Heo Dogi had issued a demon extermination order to the entire martial world.

Those who had committed evil deeds, had trained in demonic arts, or had been bandits, pirates, or water bandits were all exterminated at once.

At the forefront of that were the Ten Lesser Swords.

By the time the Sacred Sword Sect was called the Duke Heo’s residence, the seeds of the demons had dried up.

The word ‘demon’ had completely disappeared from the central plains.

Nine out of ten assassin sects had also disappeared. It didn’t matter if it was a big sect or a small sect. It was a time when you would live if you could hide as deeply as possible, and you would die if you were even slightly exposed.

The man holding the blade, such people had all disappeared then.

“The Deceitful Assassin’s record!”

The man asked, his eyes hardening.

The prison master accepted the viper-like gaze and said with a smiling face, “How old are you?”

“What?”

“Your blade is terribly sharp, but what you’re doing is just like a child.”

“Kukukuk!”

“Child, when an adult speaks, there’s a reason. So you should listen carefully.”

The prison master said as if she were scolding him.

In that instant, the man’s and the prison master’s eyes met in the air. Their gazes clashed, sparking.

“Damn it!”

The man let out a miserable groan.

On the other hand, the prison master smiled. She smiled and her head dropped back. Black blood flowed from her mouth along with a foul smell. It seemed that she had bitten the poison pill she had been holding in her mouth.

“Get out of the way!”

The man shouted.

But it was already too late. The prison was designed to explode in case of an emergency. It was an old legacy created in preparation for when the Ten Lesser Swords of the Duke Heo’s residence would push in.

The prison master had activated the mechanism.

When the man’s blade had cut her arm, her hand had been pulling hard on the rope under the table.

The fuse was lit.

If she just bought a little time to exchange a few words, the ones who had entered the prison would not be able to get out alive.

Shwit! Shwitshwitshwit!

The men who had been scattered here and there jumped out like grasshoppers.

(End of Chapter)