Chronicles of the Reincarnated Demon God - Chapter 22

Chapter 22 – Truly Insidious

When I returned to the White Pavilion, Tang Gyu-jin, who had been wandering around the yard, came running up to me.

“Where in the world did you go?! Are you hurt anywhere? How do you feel?” she asked, her eyes full of worry.

“I’m fine,” I replied.

“Why did you chase after him like that when you knew full well what kind of traps he could have laid out?!”

“Haven’t I returned safe and sound?”

“You can say that now, but…”

I was scolded by Tang Gyu-jin for a while.

Keehhk!

Eventually, the parasitic vulture wormed its way between us and gave me a huge hug.

“??”

I looked at it absentmindedly, wondering why it was behaving this way…

Kehk! Keehk! Kehk!

The parasitic vulture looked at me with eyes brimming with tears as if pleading with me for something.

‘What’s with it?’

Ghost No. 15 was sweating profusely.

「I don’t really know, but… it looks like it is trying to plead with you.」

‘Who wouldn’t know that?’

「R-roughly translated, it’s saying that the Tang Clan lass has been tormenting it—」

‘Eh?’

Come to think of it, it was pointing at Tang Gyu-jin with a wing cut halfway through. It looked a lot like it was trying to tattle on her.

But Tang Gyu-jin was glowering at it with sharp eyes, so the parasitic vulture hurried to lower its gaze.

“Sister, did you—”

“Hmph! I was trying to secretly slice its neck, but it was a lot thicker than I thought and wasn’t cutting well.”

“…”

「Ahemhem!」

「The parasitic vulture is a rather high-class beast jiangshi, so seeing how afraid it is… it doesn’t look like it only suffered one or two strikes from her sword.」

The ghosts were rubbing their necks as if they could feel the chill themselves.

I looked quietly at the parasitic vulture as I wondered what to do with it.

It was too large to bring around with me. Its instincts were too wild still, and I didn’t know when it would attempt to escape. Keeping it fed would be difficult too.

Yet just letting its head get cut off would be a waste.

As the ghosts said, it was rather high class, and every time I encountered those Black Bone Ghost Valley punks, they would just explode with anger. There really didn’t seem to be anything better than this parasitic vulture.

「Somehow, it seems the Junior Lord is thinking of something wicke—hum hum! I mean, flaunting his bizarre ingenuity.」

「He’s probably contemplating what measures to take with the parasitic vulture. Isn’t it pretty weak? It’s basically dead weight.」

…Kehk?

The parasitic vulture backed away as if sensing the gravity of its situation before suddenly flapping what little was left of its wings.

Had it been trying to escape, I would have immediately struck its neck with the edge of my hand, but its form was enveloped in a gray light as it transformed into something much smaller.

Giiiyooo!

Somehow, a hawk appeared and circled around me.

「Oh, oh, it can transform?」

「I had been wondering how those Black Bone Ghost Valley guys went around with so many beast jiangshi. So it knows dark arts like this!」

I held out my arm, and the hawk quietly landed on it.

It nuzzled my cheek with its head as if trying to curry favor with me.

“You’re thinking of keeping it alive?”

“Isn’t it trying so hard to ask me that? I’m thinking of giving it a chance.”

Giyo! Ggiiyoyoyo!

The parasitic vulture was so excited by my words that it flapped violently.

‘Don’t dig your claws in. I’ll kill you.’

Ggiyoyot!

It immediately calmed down.

Well-behaved pets were truly the best.

“It’s a beast jiangshi! One made by the Unorthodox Faction! And you know it could target you again at any time—”

I smiled brightly, revealing my sparkly whites. “If it does, then you can save me again. Right, Sister?”

“You, really…”

Tang Gyu-jin looked as if she wanted to say something, but she sighed deeply instead.

She could tell that no matter how she nagged or scolded now, it would do no good. I would not pay it any heed.

“Fine. What more could I possibly say at this point? Then what about that guy?”

I felt no need to tell her the truth, so I said, “He eluded me. I almost caught him, but he had a helper.”

It was not because I didn’t trust Tang Gyu-jin; I just wanted to get a clearer picture.

“Is that so?”

A somewhat bitter look crept up on Tang Gyu-jin’s face.

However, she soon clenched her fists and nodded her head as if resolving herself to something.

“In any case, I’m glad you returned safely.”

“Thanks. Same to you, Sister.”

“I’ll look into this matter separately. I’ll wrap this up as well, so you go rest.”

I nodded thankfully to her.

However, it looked to me like Tang Gyu-jin had no need to do anything.

Because someone had already begun to make a move.

A new visitor showed up about an hour after Tang Gyu-jin left the White Pavilion.

“The White Pavilion’s Tang Woon-hwi greets the branch family head.”

Wooosh!

On the other side of the wide-open window stood a middle-aged man with handsome features carrying a load on his back.

Even the sight of his hair fluttering in the wind looked mystical.

Next to him, Tang Gon was prostrated in full military discipline.

「Hm, I felt it in the daytime, but his presence is pretty commanding, no? It feels like he wouldn’t be any inferior to the elders of the Divine Cult. Hum hum! Naturally, he can’t compare to when I was alive!」

「He didn’t earn the nickname of Wild Wind Rampager, the one who shook up Western Murim, for nothing. It looks like he has not slacked off in his training since then either! But, looking at him, he seems far stronger than you, so what are you talking about?」

「What. Oh, come on!」

Branch Family Head Tang Ho-san narrowed his eyes.

“ ‘Branch family head’? I can understand why you said that in the morning when there were a lot of people around, but if you’re still calling me that when it’s just us two, are you trying to keep your distance from me? It seems as if you are reprimanding me.”

“If that is how you took it, I apologize. However…”

“However?”

“Generally speaking, I believe a father-son relationship begins with the father knowing how to comfort his son’s pain.”

Instantly, Tang Gon, who had been prostrated, lifted his head.

『Se-Second Young Master! Are you crazy?! Hurry and tell him you made a mistake!』

I hadn’t actually intended to hit him with this from the start.

But this old man showed up without notice and irritated me, so should I get pissed? Or not?

「G-gah! Those eyes! It’s that look again!」

「Let’s get away from here—」

When I have this look on my face, people around me always seem to react like that.

There was no other reason for me to be angry at Tang Ho-san.

That shamelessness of his… I thought I could be pretty brazen myself, but there was no way I could compare to him.

Hadn’t he brought this on the moment he came to find me?

And why after fighting Ghost No. 15?

“Did you perhaps come to praise me? I did have to make an effort to fight off an intruder in the middle of the night.”

『An intruder? What are you talking about? Are you saying someone attacked you, Second Young Master?』

It looked like Tang Gon was not aware of any of it.

However, Tang Ho-san stayed quiet as always, like he was wearing a poker face. Clearly, he had already known.

As I thought. The gaze I had felt after defeating Ghost No. 15 had been Tang Ho-san’s.

From start to finish, Tang Ho-san had essentially been keeping tabs on the intruder strutting about.

If either Tang Gyu-jin or I had gone down during that time, how would he have reacted?

“And if I am?” he asked, as quiet as ever.

I responded, “Then that would mean you knew from the outset that Mother was conspiring with external forces.”

“Do you think that’s all I know?” said Tang Ho-san. “I also know that they’re going to do something when the clan head visits.”

“!”

「Wh–what?」

「He’s quite the cunning fox! The Tang Clan’s poison users have always been unrivaled in their treachery.」

“You don’t seem surprised either,” I replied. “It seems you already knew who the intruder’s backer was.”

Tang Ho-san’s face, which had been calm until now, now showed surprise.

He stroked his chin, turned his gaze to Tang Gon, and said, “Tang Gon, it looks like you were wrong.”

Tang Gon, who had not been able to follow our conversation, belatedly reacted. “What are you talking about—”

“My second child has not changed. He has been biding his time.”

“…”

“All this time, he was fooling even me… This child is truly insidious, enough to be considered a member of the Tang Assembly.”

The Tang Assembly. Not the “Clan,” which signified internal family matters, but an assembly of those with the same purpose.

When Tang Clan members referred to themselves proudly, they called themselves that.

Poison arts, assassination weapons, the operation of machinery, formation spells, and so on… From various fields, a new line of work was invented.

And from that line of work came something else.

Scheming.

Members of the Tang Assembly never easily revealed to others what they were thinking, and they knew how to scheme and plot to acquire something bigger.

Because of this, martial artists pointed their fingers at the Tang Assembly and said they were insidious. However, members of the Tang Assembly took that as a compliment.

By praising me like this, Tang Ho-san was saying that he thought me highly proficient in this field.

He was saying that he had been waiting a long time to find out who the secret mastermind who wanted to take down the Nine Dragons Branch Family was, and he was saying that I, too, had deceived everyone so that I could dream of the day I could fly free.

He was saying I had deceived everyone so well that I’d even fooled the branch family head.

It sounded like it should be a compliment, but for me, someone who had lived my entire life well behaved and in good conscience, it was akin to an insult.

「Who does that pathetic man think he is?! How dare he utter such ludicrous statements as the junior lord being insidious or whatever!」

Oh, hey, these old geezers were finally saying something I liked.

「How dare they compare themselves to the junior lord! The junior lord has both the brains and tongue of an insidious snake. He has set his sights past the Divine Cult and wants even the Central Plains!」

「That’s right!! Also, the junior lord is a strong man who never forgets once he has set his eyes on someone, not until he has dragged that person down to hell! Give the command, Junior Lord! I’ll immediately toss that bastard into a ditch!」

…Just wait and see, you ghosts. After I send this old man on his way, it’ll be your turn.

“First, I’ll say just one thing,” Tang Ho-san began. Tang Ho-san’s gaze was different somehow, even though I could not put my finger on the exact difference. “No matter what kind of shady battle you have with San-yeong, I won’t get involved. Following the principle of ‘only the strong survive,’ if you win, I will give you everything of San-yeong’s.”

With that, I was certain: The Nine Dragons Branch Family was in a real, realrealreaaaalll mess.

A wife who was aiming to take her husband’s place and a husband who was going to take down his wife.

However, for me, it was a very welcome situation.

I now had tacit permission to attack Namgung San-yeong in earnest.

Really letting loose would be even better.

“However, don’t interfere with my things.”

“Please specify that boundary.”

“I’m saying don’t interfere with the bastards who are targeting the clan head.”

Immediately, my mind began to race.

Did that mean Tang Ho-san was aiming to strike the Dark Sovereign down by borrowing someone else’s blade?

Or was he laying down a plot with the Dark Sovereign to ensnare all their enemies in one trap?

However, as usual, Tang Ho-san revealed no hints as to his thoughts.

But one thing was clear:

―Turn your eyes away from the Dark Sovereign. If you try to do something, you’ll die.

I held myself back from letting the corners of my lips curl up. Well, damn. I was the type of person who had to do whatever I was told not to do. How could I help it?

“Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

“Good. That’s what I came here to say, so I’ll be go—”

“Before you go, shouldn’t you give me a reward?”

Tang Ho-san, in the middle of turning away, froze. “Reward?” he asked.

I smiled warmly. “Didn’t I take down an enemy who targeted the Nine Dragons Branch Family? If you could do something to praise me, I’d feel reassured.”

“That is true.”

Pft.

A faint smile seeped out from between Tang Ho-san’s lips.

Tang Gon looked surprised.

“When you’re so insidious as to even fool me, nothing would satisfy you… What would be good?”

“May I make a separate request?”

“What is it?”

“I wish to go to the Twisted Forest.”

Tang Ho-san cocked his head, seemingly surprised by my request. “The Twisted Forest?”

“Yes. From what I’ve heard, there are various types of poisonous insects and wicked beasts living in the Twisted Forest. After the clan head’s visit has concluded, I wish to enter secluded training there.”

The Twisted Forest was a forbidden and sacred place that had made the Sichuan Tang Clan what it was.

It was a demonic realm so dangerous that even poison users could die there.

「Junior Lord, you must be trying to acquire “that”!」

Since I’d been reincarnated into the Sichuan Tang Clan, it was something I absolutely had to acquire.

If I only had that one thing, then I could quickly recover my previous life’s level.

“Only the clan head has authority over the Twisted Forest. Even though I have the ability to make a request, I cannot guarantee an answer.”

Was that so? I licked my lips with regret. It seemed I could pursue the Twisted Forest only once the Dark Sovereign had visited.

“Instead, what I can give as a reward right now… Ah, I do have this.” Tang Ho-san took something out from a chest pocket inside his clothes.

A single butterfly sat atop his index finger.

It was so elaborately made, its wings were fluttering beautifully like a real butterfly’s.

Tang Gon, standing by him, reacted abnormally. “My lord, that’s—!”

What is it that he’s reacting like that?

“Would you accept something like this?”

It did not look like he was going to hand it over himself. It was more like “You figure out how to take it.”

I wracked my brain trying to figure out what it could be, but nothing came to mind.

The ghost elders took a peek, but they shook their heads, indicating they had no idea either. They were of no help.

‘Hey.’

「Yes! Ghost No. 15, heading out!!」

But I’d thought there might be something to the butterfly, so I had hidden a ghost secretly. I extended a hand toward it.

The metal butterfly moved its wings energetically and quietly landed atop my index finger.

“H-huhk!”

Tang Gon now looked like he really was going to lose his breath.

“It really was yours.”

Tang Ho-san smiled more beautifully than ever before abruptly disappearing from the room.