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Chapter 19
Geum Seolha’s lips slowly parted. It was because Ha Dowoon had accurately grasped the situation despite not having seen it himself.
“Even Vice Captain Eun smelled blood, but he never mentioned any poison scent.”
Eun Seokho had immediately pressed Geum Seolha, asking whether something had happened to her aunt, Madam Baek, after merely catching the scent of blood coming from her.
‘If he had smelled poison too, there’s no way someone with his personality would’ve stayed quiet.’
It was only a guess, but Geum Seolha was certain.
“How exactly did you know poison had seeped into this place?”
At Geum Seolha’s reaction, mixed with doubt and confusion, Ha Dowoon hesitated briefly before answering.
“My senses are somewhat sharp.”
She knew he had never learned martial arts, but she also knew this was far too strange to dismiss as simply having sharp senses.
As Geum Seolha’s gaze gradually sharpened, Ha Dowoon let out a sigh.
“…I’ve encountered this poison before.”
“What?”
Geum Seolha’s eyes widened.
“You’ve… encountered this poison?”
As if wondering what sort of life he had lived, Geum Seolha strode over and grabbed his shoulders.
“What about now? Are you okay now? It’s not the kind of poison that leaves aftereffects, right? Which bastard did it?”
For a moment, Ha Dowoon stared blankly at the flood of questions before snapping back to attention at Geum Seolha’s rough language.
“I’m fine now.”
But even after hearing him, Geum Seolha couldn’t relax.
The image of the man Madam Baek had hidden so carefully, coughing blood over and over, remained deeply etched in her mind.
“I think it was a type of poison that prevented wounds from clotting… and caused seizures too.”
“……”
“And it even caused coughing up blood. Are you really completely recovered without any aftereffects?”
At Geum Seolha’s insistence, Ha Dowoon slowly parted his lips.
“You seem to know a lot about it… so you’ve met someone poisoned by it.”
Ah.
Realizing her mistake too late, Geum Seolha bit the inside of her cheek.
Ha Dowoon’s expression turned serious.
“The person poisoned by this… are they inside the Geum family estate?”
His face had changed drastically from before, becoming grave. Geum Seolha, who had been planning to pretend ignorance, hesitated before speaking.
“Fine. I’ll explain everything.”
“……”
“But in return, Dowoon, you have to tell me what that poison is and what kind of people use it.”
Her tone made it clear she had no intention of saying anything otherwise, and Ha Dowoon lowered his eyes.
Memories from long ago, memories he had forgotten after becoming connected to the Geum family estate, began surfacing one by one.
“This happened before your mother took me in.”
Geum Seolha’s eyes widened. The story went back much further than expected.
She had long guessed that Ha Dowoon’s past was full of hardships. The scars etched across his body, starting with his hands, had already told her enough.
‘I deliberately… never asked.’
She had left it alone, worried about reopening old wounds.
“At the time… I was foolish and reckless.”
“Dowoon?”
Geum Seolha looked him up and down in disbelief.
Ha Dowoon was so calm and composed that imagining him acting impulsively or passionately felt almost impossible.
“Everyone has a period like that.”
Despite his voice speaking as if he understood himself well, Geum Seolha’s expression turned odd.
Of course everyone had a phase like that. But at least Ha Dowoon seemed like the type who would have acted dignified even then.
“What happened that led to you being poisoned?”
“I had some conflict with some people from the unorthodox faction.”
“With unorthodox faction people?”
Geum Seolha’s eyes rounded.
She knew very well where those people stood within the martial world.
“They must’ve been a troublesome group to get involved with if you didn’t have a strong backing.”
The words slipped out unconsciously. She knew Ha Dowoon had never spoken of a sect or a master.
“That’s true. But if you have enough skill, they’re only troublesome, not truly difficult.”
His face remained calm, his voice flat as though merely stating facts.
Geum Seolha’s mouth fell open.
“Dowoon… you’re really strong, huh?”
The sharpest sword of the Geum family head.
She should have realized it sooner from how respectfully Eun Seokho, vice captain of the Hwangryong Unit and the Geum Merchant Group’s finest martial force, had treated Ha Dowoon.
“It’s just a trivial talent.”
Seeing him shake his head, Geum Seolha wore a strange expression.
People who said things like that usually turned out to be strong.
“So you got tangled up with unorthodox people and got poisoned?”
If there was one thing those people excelled at, it was dirty and underhanded tactics.
“Yes. They were rather cunning.”
“What kind of trick?”
“It seemed they intended to use me to strike down warriors from the Evil Dao Alliance who had been dissatisfied with them and planned to take action.”
“The Evil Dao Alliance’s… warriors?”
Geum Seolha repeated reflexively before freezing.
The term sounded familiar.
Then realization struck her mind like lightning.
“The Evil Dao Alliance?!”
Geum Seolha nearly jumped.
Ha Dowoon quietly averted his eyes.
“You clashed with warriors from the Evil Dao Alliance? And you still got away safely?”
Geum Seolha pressed him anxiously.
She had assumed he’d merely clashed with some local unorthodox sect.
‘The Evil Dao Alliance?! They appeared in the original story too!’
Weren’t they one of the dominant powers among the unorthodox factions?
These weren’t some insignificant local groups.
They weren’t mere side characters either.
If the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families stood at the top of the orthodox faction, then among the three greatest powers of the unorthodox faction, the Evil Dao Alliance claimed supremacy.
Noticing Geum Seolha knew far more about the Evil Dao Alliance than expected, Ha Dowoon carefully spoke.
“Nothing major happened.”
“Stop lying and tell me everything that happened.”
Geum Seolha glared at him threateningly.
Ha Dowoon smiled bitterly.
“If I had killed them, things would’ve become truly troublesome, just as you’re imagining.”
“You… didn’t kill them?”
“I wanted to achieve something as a martial artist. I never wanted to become a slaughtering demon.”
Geum Seolha looked at him with unfamiliar eyes.
“That was my own sense of conscience.”
“They must’ve… come back for revenge.”
That was simply the nature of the martial world.
If you failed to completely eliminate your enemies, grudges followed endlessly.
“Yes. They did.”
Ha Dowoon nodded.
“As much as I spared their lives, they wanted to preserve their pride and seek revenge.”
No way.
Geum Seolha blinked.
Not all unorthodox people were alike, but most of them were infamous for their shamelessness.
“You don’t believe me.”
“No, it’s not that I don’t… it’s just surprising.”
“I had made a wager using his reputation.”
“A wager with someone from the unorthodox faction? Dowoon, your guts really were hanging outside your body.”
It wasn’t hard to imagine what those Evil Dao Alliance warriors had demanded after having their pride damaged.
“I was confident.”
“And yet you still got poisoned?”
“When people face death, everyone pulls out one last trump card.”
Ha Dowoon spoke lightly, as if it had been nothing more than a trivial accident.
Geum Seolha fell silent.
“So what happened to that bastard?”
Looking at her murderous glare, Ha Dowoon let out a low laugh.
“Are you planning to take care of him for me, Young Miss?”
“I told you before. I can’t live after being beaten down, and I can’t stand seeing anyone hurt my people.”
“……”
“If someone harms my person, then their grudge becomes my grudge too, doesn’t it?”
Watching his young mistress take his grudges and claim them as her own, warmth entered Ha Dowoon’s eyes.
“It’s alright, Young Miss.”
“What do you mean alright? What’s alri—!”
“If he brought out his hidden trump card, it’d be troublesome if I simply accepted it quietly.”
“Dowoon… you mean—”
“He died.”
Ha Dowoon answered lightly.
“It became a duel with our lives on the line.”
“…And the Evil Dao Alliance warriors accepted the result?”
“They had to. Otherwise their honor would’ve been thrown straight into the gutter.”
At the unexpected vulgarity coming from Ha Dowoon’s mouth, Geum Seolha stared blankly.
“Besides, after I’d been poisoned like that, they probably assumed I was going to die anyway. Even less reason for them to interfere.”
“So they left you alone because they thought you’d die?”
The end of Geum Seolha’s voice trembled.
Just imagining it made her heart sink.
“Young Miss, I’m fine.”
His hand lightly landed on her shoulder, bringing Geum Seolha back to herself.
“But if it was a poison they were that confident in, there had to be some aftereffects…”
As she muttered absentmindedly, her eyes fell upon Ha Dowoon’s arm resting on her shoulder.
The burn-like scars twisted across it made her eyes tremble.
“Dowoon, this arm of yours…”
“It’s fine. It only left scars; there’s no pain anymore. So don’t make that expression, Young Miss.”
Naturally withdrawing his hand, Ha Dowoon lowered his sleeve and covered the scars.
Geum Seolha’s gaze followed his arm.
“Is that also from back then?”
At first glance, it looked closer to burn scars.
But Geum Seolha remembered the expression on his face when she had seen them before.
Her instincts told her those scars had something to do with that incident.
Predicting she wouldn’t let it go easily, Ha Dowoon sighed and admitted it.
“I was fortunate.”
“What?”
Geum Seolha asked in disbelief.
Ha Dowoon spoke again.
“I’d been poisoned many times before, and thanks to that, a trivial little skill I’d learned happened to work.”
