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Chapter : 07
“This is happiness!”
It wasn’t just Youngcheol and Honggi—every member of the Guardian Unit felt the same way.
No matter what worries they had, when it was time to eat, they ate; when it was time to rest, they rested.
That was precisely why they could be the Guardian Unit.
Watching how much the Guardian Unit members consumed, the hearts of the Reaper Corps members steadily cooled.
The Reaper Corps had long revered the Guardian Unit, imagining only their heroic 모습—standing at the forefront of absolute self-sacrifice, battling the Demonic Cult. But after seeing them up close for too long, they realized a painful truth: even good things lose their fragrance when you’re too close for too long.
As a result, more than a few Reaper Corps members desperately wished to reunite quickly with their comrades they’d split from, wrap up this training, and return to the Alliance.
Before long, the second of the three separated groups arrived at Uido County.
“Huh? They got here first? Then where on earth are our Unit Leader and the Azure Tortoise Commander?”
Youngcheol and Honggi, whose mental unease was now outweighing their physical comfort, stood arm in arm, worrying—until they suddenly shouted,
“Well, new people are here, so new meat! Let’s eat meat first!”
“Woooo! Meat! Meat!”
Among those joining with the second group, the Guardian Unit members raised both arms in cheer and hurried into the inn.
Meanwhile, the third group—still not arrived—was crouched behind dense tree trunks, staring intently at an ordinary-looking mountain village.
After staring for so long that his eyes started to hurt, Gwak So rubbed them roughly with the back of his hand and sighed.
“No, at first you said we needed to learn intelligence gathering, so we should split up, try it out, then regroup and compare which of the three groups found the most accurate and useful information. And then use what we found to plan the next schedule. You remember that, right?”
“Of course I remember.”
The one answering calmly, as expected, was Gu Hee‑ryang.
“…That’s your answer?”
“Well? Even if intelligence gathering was the goal, we couldn’t just ignore Demonic Cult spies who were blatantly right there, could we?”
Then he glanced sideways and nudged Yeonhwa with his elbow.
“Isn’t that right, Azure Tortoise Commander?”
The Demonic Cult had murdered Yeonhwa’s elder brother, Seonyu. Because of that, she loathed anything connected to the Cult with a deadly intensity.
For a split second, killing intent flashed through Yeonhwa’s eyes before she nodded.
Gu Hee‑ryang stared at her for a moment, then suddenly reached out and thoroughly messed up her hair.
Ever since they’d exchanged blows a few times after disembarking from the ship, he’d been acting like this.
Despite Yeonhwa pointing out repeatedly that it was extremely rude—and openly rejecting it—it had done absolutely no good. In the end, she decided to just observe for now.
The person standing in front of her didn’t feel human at all. He felt like a wild beast, and she truly had no idea how she was supposed to deal with him.
Even now.
No matter how coldly Yeonhwa glared at him, Gu Hee‑ryang only looked amused.
“If I’d known you were this cute, I would’ve doted on you from the very beginning. What a shame. Such a shame.”
“Wow… At first you only planned to test her relentlessly, then throw her away if she didn’t satisfy you…”
Gwak So grumbled about his lack of shame, and Gu Hee‑ryang—still crouched—casually stretched out his leg and kicked Gwak So hard in the side.
Even while rolling across the dirt, Gwak So had to tense his entire body just to keep from making a sound!
As Gwak So glared at him resentfully, Gu Hee‑ryang wagged his index finger side to side.
“Well, that’s because at first I thought our Azure Tortoise Commander was just a useless idiot who got pushed around by the current.”
But as it turned out, her expression was indifferent, her eyes were sorrowful, and when killing enemies, she was cold without even a hint of hesitation.
Namgung Yeonhwa was worth the risk of being connected to that arrogant, self-righteous Trio.
Gu Hee‑ryang gently tickled Yeonhwa’s chin. Her jet‑black hair, large eyes, and aloof, prim demeanor made her look even more striking.
“Kitten.”
…K‑Kitten?
Yeonhwa wrinkled the bridge of her nose, and Gu Hee‑ryang chuckled softly before continuing.
“We’re sisters, after all.”
“Since when?”
Having three elder brothers was already more than enough for Yeonhwa.
And now an older sister—one comparable to the Trio?
That was nothing short of horrifying.
But Gu Hee‑ryang didn’t seem to hear her objection and continued speaking as she pleased.
“My master used to call me a wildcat when I was little. Compared to me, you’re smaller and quick—‘kitten’ fits you perfectly.”
“Hah…”
Yeonhwa sighed and sharply turned her head away, clearly signaling she wouldn’t engage. Gu Hee‑ryang immediately grabbed a handful of her hair and called out again,
“Kitten, if you listen well to your big sister, I’ll dote on you even more. And then I’ll teach you how to kill Demonic Cult bastards properly, too.”
Yeonhwa’s eyes instantly snapped back to Gu Hee‑ryang, locking onto him.
Seeing her large eyes focus on him as if she might swallow him whole, Gu Hee‑ryang bared his teeth in a wide grin.
“Hey, hey. Kitten, you like that, don’t you? Until now, all the ‘missions’ you were sent on were in places like Zhijiang or Jingzhou, and you were always stuck in the rear. You never really got a taste of battle. But here—it’s different.”
After the first righteous–demonic war, the martial world had been split into north and south.
The northern regions consisted of northern Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangsu…
While southern Sichuan, Guizhou, Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and everything further south fell into the Demonic Cult’s grasp.
And Hubei—where they now stood—was both the heart of the Martial Alliance and a border region, directly adjacent to the Demonic Cult’s southern outposts in Hunan, established to sustain the war.
“If you just keep your eyes open, you’ll trip over Demonic Cult bastards wherever you go. It’s a whole world full of people you’re allowed to kill.”
Indeed, during their journey, they’d encountered more than a few Demonic Cult members.
More importantly—weren’t they right there in front of them now?
“Someone’s coming.”
Even without Ji Won‑hyung’s warning, most of them were already watching as a group entered the village, suppressing their presence.
“Oh, there really are more than a dozen. They said if we attacked the village before these guys returned, they’d sense something was wrong and scatter, making them hard to catch one by one later. Looks like that was true.”
Gu Hee‑ryang glanced back at the man they’d secretly captured from the village and dumped behind them.
At first glance, the man looked uninjured and clean—but from his fingers to his toes, there wasn’t a single bone left unshattered.
“For a Demonic Cult bastard, he’s pretty smart. If he was going to talk anyway, he could’ve opened his mouth before his spine snapped. Then at least he could still sit. What a waste.”
After adding that maybe he really was stupid after all, Gu Hee‑ryang watched as the man spat blood.
When he tried to groan, Gwak So—apparently unwilling to dirty his hands—grabbed the man’s arm and stuffed it into his mouth.
With every bone in his arm shattered and no strength left, forcing it to move like that caused unimaginable pain.
The man convulsed violently, then rolled his eyes back and lost control of himself.
“Demonic Cult rats only have malice to their name, but this rat’s weak on top of it.”
Clicking his tongue, Gu Hee‑ryang slung an arm around Yeonhwa’s shoulders.
“Kitten, shall we go get a feel for killing now?”
Though Yeonhwa didn’t respond, she didn’t reject him either. Seeing that, Gu Hee‑ryang crooked one corner of his mouth and stood up.
“Kitten, whenever you’re with those useless Azure Tortoise troops, you always stop halfway through swinging your sword. Even on the ship, you could’ve done better, right? I think moving freely like that was new to you, so you couldn’t fully show your ability.”
“Is that why you separated the Azure Tortoise troops from me?”
“Of course. Not just because of you, either. What’s the point of dragging around top‑tier idiots who think the world owes them everything just because the world doesn’t recognize them? It’s less annoying to drop them.”
Shrugging, Gu Hee‑ryang jerked her chin toward the village entrance.
“Want to make a bet? You and me—who kills more?”
This training was special to Yeonhwa.
She’d stepped outside her three elder brothers’ plans, swung her sword by her own will, and met someone who approached her without hesitation no matter how much she pushed away.
But she herself…
“Do not come close to me. Someday, you will be seriously hurt.”
When Yeonhwa warned him, Gu Hee‑ryang scratched his cheek and replied,
“So? You’re not betting?”
Lowering her gaze, Yeonhwa tightened her grip on her sword.
“If I win, never call me something strange like that again.”
With that, she kicked off the ground and shot toward the village.
“Huh? Hey—!”
Gu Hee‑ryang let out a brief, surprised sound, but it quickly turned into loud laughter. In moments, he caught up to her.
“Then you’ll be ‘Kitten’ for the rest of your life.”
He passed her and reached the village entrance first, raising his staff high into the air. His back looked utterly confident.
Maybe… yes, maybe.
Even if that person couldn’t defeat the Trio, perhaps he was strong enough—at the very least—to protect himself from being hurt.
