The next morning, the Demon Lord didn't wake up.
He died sitting in his chair, facing the window, watching the sunrise over the dark mountains.
Dan-Bi didn't scream. She didn't faint. She calmly checked his pulse, closed his eyes, and then walked out to call the servants.
"The Sect Leader has ascended," she announced to the guards.
Chaos erupted instantly.
But Dan-Bi felt like she was watching a play she had already seen. She let the servants dress her in white mourning robes. She let them tie the white ribbon in her hair.
Then came the funeral.
The Great Hall of the Dark Moon Sect was a cavernous space, filled with black pillars and dim candlelight. Hundreds of disciples knelt in rows, their heads bowed. The air smelled of burning paper money and hypocrisy.
Dan-Bi stood near the altar, looking small and pale in her oversized white robes.
And there they were. The cubs.
Standing in a line, separated from the rest of the sect, were the four children Wi Cheon-Hwang had left behind.
Wi Jin-Hyuk stood at the front. He was fifteen years old, but he was already tall, with the broad shoulders of a swordsman. He wore deep black robes, his long hair tied up in a severe knot. He wasn't crying. His jaw was set so hard it looked like it might snap. He gripped the scabbard of his sword—a blade too heavy for a boy his age—until his knuckles turned white.
The Strongest, Dan-Bi thought. In five years, he will cut the head off the Murim Alliance Leader.
Next to him was Wi Min-Ho. Thirteen. He was slighter, softer-looking, with a face that could trick angels. But even now, at his father's funeral, his eyes were darting around the room, counting the exits, analyzing the Elders, calculating who was a threat.
The Schemer. He will bankrupt three nations just because he was bored.
And the twins.
Wi Tae-Yang, eight years old, was vibrating with energy. He wasn't sad; he was angry. Sparks of uncontrolled Yang energy—fire qi—popped off his fingertips, singing the edges of his sleeves. He looked like he wanted to punch the coffin for daring to take his father.
Wi Su-Ah stood beside him, clutching the sleeve of his robe. She was tiny, with large, doll-like eyes that blinked slowly. Around her neck, a small green viper was coiled like a necklace. She stroked its head with her thumb, staring blankly at the burning incense.
Dan-Bi looked at them, and a wave of complicated emotion hit her.
In her first life, she had feared them. She had seen them as monsters in the making.
But now... looking at them huddle together against the hostility of the entire room...
I envy you, she thought, the realization tasting like ash. I envy you so much.
They weren't even his real children. They were strays. And yet, that terrifying man had built a fortress around them. He had given them a name. He had given them a home.
My father gave me a price tag.
She clenched her fists inside her sleeves.
Just then, the heavy doors of the hall slammed open.
The air pressure in the room dropped.
Three elderly men walked in, followed by a retinue of elite guards. They wore robes embroidered with silver moons—the High Elders of the Sect.
Elder Ma, the leader of the trio, marched straight up to the altar. He didn't bow to the coffin. He didn't acknowledge the children.
He stopped in front of Dan-Bi.
He was a withered man with a long white beard and eyes like a vulture spotting a dying deer.
"Lady Han," Elder Ma said, his voice loud enough to echo through the silent hall. "This is a tragedy. A true tragedy."
"It is, Elder," Dan-Bi said, keeping her head lowered.
"However," Elder Ma continued, stepping closer, invading her personal space. "The Sect cannot be leaderless. And these... children... are too young. They are not of the Wi bloodline. They are strays the late Leader picked up on a whim."
Wi Jin-Hyuk stepped forward, his hand tightening on his sword. "Watch your tongue, Elder."
"Silence, boy!" Elder Ma released a wave of cultivation pressure.
Jin-Hyuk gritted his teeth, his knees buckling under the invisible weight, but he refused to kneel. He was only fifteen. He couldn't fight a master of the sect.
Elder Ma turned his sneer back to Dan-Bi.
"Lady Han, you are young. You have your whole life ahead of you. It is cruel to keep a flower buried in this dark mountain."
He pulled a heavy pouch from his sleeve and tossed it at her feet. It landed with the heavy clinking sound of gold.
"Here is your severance. Take it. Leave the seal of the Matriarch. We will handle the children's... relocation."
The hall was deadly silent.
This was the moment.
In her past life, Dan-Bi had looked at the gold. She had looked at the scary, glaring children. She had looked at the terrifying Elders.
She had picked up the gold and ran.
And because she ran, Jin-Hyuk was beaten within an inch of his life. Min-Ho was thrown into the dungeons. The twins were sold to a poison master for experiments.
They survived, eventually. They escaped and burned the world down. But they lost their humanity that day.
Dan-Bi looked at the pouch of gold on the floor.
Then she looked at Jin-Hyuk. The boy was trembling, fighting the pressure, but he had positioned his body in front of his younger siblings. Even facing a mountain he couldn't move, he was trying to protect them.
That is what a family does, Dan-Bi thought.
A sudden, hot anger flared in her chest. Not fear. Not panic. Anger.
Why did these kids get to have a protector, and she didn't?
Fine, she thought. If I can't have a protector... I'll become one.
Dan-Bi bent down.
Elder Ma smirked. "Wise choice, gir—"
Dan-Bi grabbed the pouch of gold.
And threw it directly into Elder Ma's face.
THWACK.
The heavy bag of coins hit the old man square in the nose. He stumbled back, blood spurting onto his white beard, his eyes wide with shock.
The entire hall gasped. Even the weeping stopped.
Wi Jin-Hyuk's jaw dropped.
Dan-Bi straightened her back. She swept her gaze over the stunned crowd, then turned and walked up the steps to the high seat—the throne of the Sect Leader, which sat empty behind the coffin.
She didn't sit on it. That would be treason.
Instead, she reached for the object resting on the stand beside it.
The Black Dragon Ring. The Signet of the Sect Leader.
"You..." Elder Ma sputtered, clutching his bleeding nose. "You dare! You insolent little—!"
Dan-Bi slid the ring onto her thumb. It was too big, but she curled her fingers into a fist to keep it in place.
She swirled around, her white mourning robes flaring like the wings of a crane. Her eyes, usually soft and timid, were burning with a cold, frantic light.
"Insolent?" Dan-Bi's voice rang out, clear and sharp.
"My husband died four hours ago. His body is not even cold. And you dare come into his house, insult his children, and try to bribe his widow?"
She took a step forward, raising her hand to show the ring.
"Wi Cheon-Hwang told me I was his wife in name only," she declared, looking straight at the shocked children.
"But he never said I couldn't be his widow."
She glared at Elder Ma.
"Get out."