Chapter 2 For a moment, the assassin lost the ability to speak.
Had he heard wrong?
The delicate lips that had spoken parted slightly, forming a smile directed at him.
"If you write 'I am a pathetic assassin' with your buttocks, I will spare your life."
So he had not misheard after all. The assassin shouted, eyes bloodshot.
"Stop humiliating me and kill me with a single strike!"
The reply did not come from Namgung Soyo, but from behind him.
"Hah. An assassin daring to talk about humiliation? What a ridiculous fellow."
A man grabbed the assassin's neck with a rough motion and forced his face around. The one glaring fiercely at him was Seol-yeong, the retainer who had been driving Namgung Soyo's carriage.
"Enough nonsense. Answer properly. Who sent you after the Young Lady? Was it Namgung Jeok-myeong after all?"
The stiff fingers pressed precisely against the assassin's vital points.
So this retainer is no ordinary martial artist either.
Looks like I stepped in filth.
The assassin gave a bitter smile.
"Threatening me like that is useless. A Gu Parasite has been planted inside my body. The moment I speak the answer you want, my life will end."
"A Gu?"
A Gu Parasite was a parasitic organism implanted within the human body, capable of torturing or killing its host at its master's command. It was difficult to obtain and even harder to control; unless a sect was exceptionally vicious, few would resort to such a method.
Grinding his teeth at the vile tactic, Seol-yeong sighed and turned toward Namgung Soyo.
"…No matter how I think about it, Young Lady, we've gotten tangled in something truly unlucky. Not just unlucky—terribly unlucky. Even if you're born of a different mother, sending assassins after a half-sister you barely met after reaching adulthood? What kind of disgraceful clan does that?"
"Watch your words, Seol-yeong. He has not yet spoken Namgung Jeok-myeong's name."
From what it seemed, they suspected Namgung Jeok-myeong to be the one who commissioned the assassination.
Namgung Jeok-myeong.
As the Namgung Clan's Sogaju (Clan Heir), he possessed the finest martial physique among the three direct sons and had once been a swordsman who stood out even among the younger generation for both virtue and reputation.
But that was only past glory.
The current Namgung Jeok-myeong was nothing more than a wastrel blinded by wine and women.
They suspect someone like that?
He must truly be scum. Still, the assassin's mission had only been to kill Namgung Soyo. He did not know who the employer was.
"We should descend the mountain before it gets any later, Young Lady. I will handle this. Please return to the carriage and rest."
"Do not rush. A daughter of a prestigious clan must always keep the words she has spoken."
"That act of playing the noble clan lady again…"
With a faint smile, Namgung Soyo met the assassin's gaze once more.
"Buttocks."
Damn that ridiculous talk about buttocks…
"Have you forgotten? If you write 'I am a pathetic assassin' with your buttocks, I will spare you."
The absurd demand genuinely left the assassin bewildered.
Just what kind of woman is this?
Did she learn the sword after being cast out of her clan? Then who taught her? And how could someone said to be blind see so clearly?
No—perhaps everything was wrong from the start. Is this woman truly Namgung Soyo at all…?
At that moment, Namgung Soyo raised three fingers.
"Three."
Then two.
"Two."
Finally, only one finger remained.
"One."
…Damn it!
Was the instinct to live truly this disgraceful?
Unable to withstand the threat, the assassin finally sprang to his feet and turned his backside toward Namgung Soyo.
Grinding his teeth, he reluctantly began moving his hips, writing in the air:
I am a pathetic assassin.
After finishing the humiliating act, he forced his expression into composure and looked back at her.
"Is that enough?"
The answer was merciless.
"Insufficient."
"…What?"
"Insufficient confidence. Insufficient pride. Insufficient accuracy. Insufficient speed. Insufficient presentation."
Folding her thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger one by one, Namgung Soyo's expression remained perfectly serious.
"With a total of four insufficiencies, I sentence you to burial. Seol-yeong, dig a hole and bury this assassin. Leave the head exposed so he can breathe."
Even while spouting nonsense, she miscounted.
That was five insufficiencies.
Definitely five…
"Sigh. I told you to just leave it to me. Why go through the trouble of digging a hole? Honestly, Young Lady…"
Grumbling, Seol-yeong nevertheless knelt and began digging into the ground. Humiliated beyond measure, the assassin's face flushed red.
"What is the meaning of this—!"
His murderous shout never reached the sky.
In an instant, a sharp sensation pierced through him as though an acupoint had been struck, and his body collapsed sideways.
Acupoint sealing…
Darkness swallowed the world.
.
.
.
"Gah!"
How much time had passed?
Regaining consciousness, the assassin struggled to rise.
No—he tried to.
"W-what is this…?"
If this was not an illusion, his viewpoint was strangely low.
He fell speechless.
Everything below his head had been buried underground.
The assassin thrashed helplessly before screaming.
"What kind of absurdity is this! I did exactly as you ordered! To break your word so easily—are you not ashamed to bear the name Namgung?!"
Patting down the soil around his head with his foot, Seol-yeong spoke in an utterly annoyed tone.
"Absurd my ass. Since when do people keep promises with assassins who kill for a living? Anyone who believed that is the idiot."
"Shut up! Then kill me instead!"
"You think we want to keep you alive? The Young Lady showed mercy, so be grateful and keep quiet."
Seol-yeong shoved a handful of dirt into his mouth. By the time the assassin spat it out, Namgung Soyo and Seol-yeong had already returned to the carriage.
Moistening his dry tongue, the assassin shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Namgung Soyo! If you leave me alive, you will regret it!"
With her back turned to him, Namgung Soyo hummed as if singing.
"One day, Emperor Wu of Liang boasted before Patriarch Bodhidharma…"
"Do you think you can escape our grasp?! We are not one—we are tens, hundreds! If you spare me, I will reveal your true nature to the entire world! The greatest assassin under heaven will come for you!"
Fear had begun to seep into his voice.
Strength no longer reached his limbs. No matter how he struggled, the hardened soil surrounding him did not budge. Left here in the mountains, he would surely starve to death buried alive.
"Since I ascended the throne, built temples, compiled scriptures, and even aided monks… surely even Bodhidharma would acknowledge such great merit?"
In other words, if he could not live, dying by Namgung Soyo's blade would at least be a better end.
"It won't end with you! Your family will die, your relatives will die, your friends and even their servants will be slaughtered! Kill me, Namgung Soyo! If you leave now, you will doom your own people!"
"And Bodhidharma replied…"
The carriage door closed softly, and Namgung Soyo's voice faded into the drifting mist.
Breathing harshly, the assassin cursed through bloodshot eyes.
"Wash your neck and wait, Namgung Soyo! I will return from hell itself and come for you first!"
At that moment, the carriage door suddenly swung open.
Startled, he looked over—and Namgung Soyo's small face appeared through the gap.
"And Bodhidharma replied."
"..."
"When you come back, bring tanghulu."
The carriage then descended Cheonju Mountain at an unhurried, almost dancing pace.
Around dusk.
While guiding the horse and tightening his collar against the cold, Seol-yeong asked,
"Why did you spare him?"
The answer came only after a long silence.
"Emperor Wu of Liang said…"
"That's enough. Whenever you don't want to answer, you start talking about Bodhidharma again. I'm afraid he'll crawl out of his grave and chase us."
Hearing soft laughter from behind, Seol-yeong shook his head.
No matter how well one might understand the depths of water ten fathoms deep, the thoughts of Namgung Soyo—no, Yeo Il—whom he served remained impossible to fathom.
He simply followed orders as one would serve a master, yet sometimes he genuinely wondered what she was thinking.
Like the day she suddenly declared she would become "Namgung Soyo."
"Seeing this pale mist reminds me of tanghulu, Seol-yeong. That strangely delightful snack."
"Does it? Come to think of it, Young Lady, the reason we crossed Cheonju Mountain a month ago was also because of tanghulu. I never imagined that one snack would lead me to end up serving as a Namgung Clan retainer…"
Yeo Il laughed again at those words.
The memory remained vivid in her mind, as clear as if it had happened yesterday.
As Seol-yeong said, it had only been a month since she began disguising herself as a daughter of the Namgung Clan—all because she crossed Cheonju Mountain in search of tanghulu.
No. More precisely…
It began roughly four years ago—when she became a traitor to Salmak, the assassin organization that once plunged the Central Plains into terror.
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