Chapter 24
Fate
Se-ah’s mind was in chaos as she listened to Yeon Sang-hyeon’s story.
His story, in which past and future were mixed together, could only be confusing to her.
“Do you intend to carry out that righteous deed you are trying to do, even if countless sacrifices follow?”
Se-ah had thought that even if there were sacrifices, they would only be herself and those who shared her image.
“Even if the things you do cause innocent people, people who have nothing to do with it, to die as well?”
“There is no way that would happen!”
At that answer, So-hyeon turned to look at her.
“What?!”
Se-ah’s pupils widened.
Her eyes were filled with a white mask.
A crude, crooked, snow-white mask, yet at the same time, one terrifying beyond words.
Yeon Sang-hyeon, wearing the mask, slowly raised his hand.
“That must be why. Those who held such goodness deep within them collapsed in vain.”
When he raised his hand, the freezing winter wind brushed past it.
“In the end, to change the flow of the great river called history, that much blood must flow.”
When he waved his hand, for some reason, the wind seemed to grow even stronger.
Se-ah shivered in that freezing wind.
“But those good people cannot bear to watch that absurd number of innocent lives be sacrificed, enough to turn the flow of the river.”
He tried to grasp the cold wind, but the wind merely scattered and flowed on.
“And so, even if their names were left in disgrace and defiled, they sacrificed only themselves.”
After stirring the empty air, he lowered his hand.
“Even though, as a result, nothing changed at all.”
His masked face tilted to the side.
“…Was that a meaningless sacrifice? Was that, in the end, the sisters’ unavoidable fate?”
Se-ah could not follow Yeon Sang-hyeon’s story.
“I do not understand what you are…”
But Yeon Sang-hyeon was already no longer there.
“When I was young, I dreamed of changing the world, but I realized that it was a vain dream.”
His voice was exceedingly gloomy.
“After that, I lived, making a life of peaceful poverty and delight in the Way my lifelong wish.”
Se-ah hurriedly turned her gaze toward the direction from which the voice came.
“…?!”
Before she knew it, So-hyeon was standing atop the wall, looking down at her.
She could not tell what kind of wonder Yeon Sang-hyeon had just performed.
Had the Swordless One of the Luoyang Sword House been hiding his martial arts?
But she sensed a dense shadow beyond simple martial arts.
“But because I had the status I was born with, peaceful poverty and delight in the Way was impossible.”
The distance between him andSe-ah was great, but for some reason, she felt as though she were hearing his voice right beside her.
“So I pursued tranquility. I hoped that if I abandoned myself again and again, I could become free, like the wind passing through a net.”
There was a metallic sound mixed into that voice, as if it were scraping against her eardrums.
“I failed.”
He spread both hands toward the sky with exaggerated motions.
“In the end, I failed to change the fate I was born with. In the end, I knelt helplessly beneath the star that rules me.”
His movements were like those of an actor onstage, exaggerated, yet not comical, drawing out a deep tremor of emotion.
“…However, the fate of you sisters has not yet been decided.”
That was no longer the voice of the Eldest Young Master.
It could not even be called a human voice.
That voice, seemingly made only of a heavy metallic quality, was rough, cruel, and filled with a strangely sorrowful resonance.
“I shall watch the fate of you sisters.”
There were no eyeholes to be found in that mask.
Yet for some reason,Se-ah felt a gaze far clearer than if she were meeting someone’s eyes at close range.
“I shall watch to see whether your fate will cross paths with mine, or whether it may overlap with it.”
His figure, wearing a white mask and dressed in a scholar’s white robes, began melting into the darkness.
“My path is the Netherworld Demonic Path, where a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood stretch across a demonic realm beyond human understanding.”
Into the thick darkness, into the blade-like winter wind, his figure vanished as if melting away, as if scattering.
“May we not meet upon it…”
Were the words he left behind a prayer filled with concern, or a mockery of fate?
As if possessed by something,Se-ah stared endlessly at the wall where the Eldest Young Master had disappeared.
At last, the clouds parted, and moonlight beautifully illuminated the roof tiles atop the wall.
But beneath that soft, gentle moonlight, the Eldest Young Master was nowhere to be seen.
***
As long as the organization known as the Skull Gang mainly operated in the back alleys, rapid losses in manpower were inevitable.
Even so, the Skull Gang was the organization that replenished new members most easily in all of Luoyang.
Luoyang was a vast and splendid commercial city where millions of people lived, and what supported that splendor was an even greater darkness.
Those whom even the government offices did not dare try to count were living in the slums.
‘Do you want to survive in the slums? Then join us.’
The Skull Gang was not some middle-class organization that required a person to have some special talent in order to enter.
In truth, it did not matter if someone lacked one thing or more.
Rather, that was better.
If they lacked things such as compassion, common sense, or mercy, it was far more advantageous for recruitment.
And such “deficient people” were rotting in abundance in the slums.
The rest did not matter.
Once they joined and spent time with their brothers and sisters, they would naturally be completed as fine members of the Skull Gang.
Today, too, their numbers were increasing smoothly in that way.
**
In the familiar scenery of a slum that could be seen anywhere in Luoyang, there was a certain branch of the Skull Gang.
They themselves called it by the grand name of branch, but even being generous, it was no more than a den.
“Hah…”
The hulking man guarding the entrance to that den was also a case of someone who had become an excellent member through the process described above.
His father had worked at an escort agency and lost his life to bandits. At least, that was what he had been told.
While his mother had done her best to survive, he too had done his best on his own, somehow surviving until now.
In the course of growing up, he realized that he lacked far more than he possessed.
And he also realized that this was a law that could never be overturned.
That was why he joined the Skull Gang.
Together with his newly gained brothers, he became obsessed with venting all the resentment and grief he had built up until now.
One by one, the skull tattoos carved into his body increased.
He was grateful that this path suited his nature so astonishingly well.
‘Just a few more jobs and I’ll finally be promoted. Heh heh. Then I’ll take the lackeys I’ll have under me and start by taking that bitch next door…’
He had even formed such constructive plans for the future.
Just imagining himself roaming the streets with the subordinates he would soon have made his chest swell with pride.
Once that happened, no one in the neighborhood would dare look down on him.
In truth, he would not mind being looked down on a little.
That appealed to him even more.
Wasn’t that why he wanted to press down the woman next door even more, the one who had always looked at him as if he were something filthy?
“Is this the Skull Gang branch?”
He had been in the middle of imagining what would happen with the woman next door, and his groin had been growing heavy.
He roughly waved a hand.
“Get lost.”
But the other party was persistent.
“I asked if this is the Skull Gang branch.”
He sighed.
“Brat, we don’t take scrawny little bastards like you, so get lost while I’m still asking nicely.”
“I’m not exactly here to be recruited, though?”
The boy, holding his head stiffly high, shrugged.
Normally, he would have beaten someone wearing such an “unpleasant mask” the moment he ran into him, but right now, he was in a very good mood.
“Fine. This brother here will specially conduct your interview.”
He raised a fist covered thickly in calluses at every joint.
“Try enduring two hits. Then I’ll specially recommend you so you can be accepted.”
From beneath the mask shining white in the moonlight, a sound openly mocking him leaked out.
“I told you, I’m not here to join. What a frustrating fool.”
“You damn bastard, then what are you here for?!”
Beneath the mask covering half his face, the boy’s mouth split open, revealing sharp teeth.
“Huh? Wha…?!”
The hulking man wanted to scream, but no voice came out.
It was not only that his voice would not come out. He could not move his body either.
He could not understand what he was seeing.
“Since you are also a ‘gatekeeper,’ I’ll kindly tell you…”
Before he knew it, that thing had come beside him, rising on tiptoe to whisper in his ear.
Its breath was a coldness that seemed to slice into flesh.
“I came to devour all of you.”
“…?!”
When that thing lightly pushed the hulking man, an immense, irresistible force sent him flying.
He flew lightly through the entrance he had been guarding, passed inside, and only stopped after rolling two or three times down the filthy, narrow corridor.
“Uuuh, wha…”
The impact left him unable even to breathe.
Pain raced through his mind.
While he writhed like an insect, rubbing his back against the floor, that thing approached with light steps.
It looked down at him and smiled.
It was a spotless, pure smile, but inside that mouth, sharp teeth like awls or needles were packed densely together.
From that smile, he felt a fear he had never experienced before.
“Now, now. Sing me a song.”
“Uuugh!”
What song was he supposed to sing in this situation?
Soon, through his own body, he was given the opportunity to understand the thing’s words all too clearly.
“If one were to choose the most important thing when singing, the first would naturally be breathing.”
Its hand crept slowly toward his abdomen.
“And breathing begins here.”
There was something wickedly theatrical about the way it moved, like a performer onstage.
“Now, take a deep breath in—”
The hand that reached the center of his abdomen mercilessly dug inside.
“Kkeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!”
The hand that burrowed into his belly was horribly cold.
Then, immediately after, some terribly hot energy began melting his intestines.
“You have completely mastered the first step!”
The hulking man’s movements ceased as his intestines melted away under the demonic energy of the The Ruler Of Darkness.
“What a pity. You won’t have the chance to learn the second step.”
Giggling, the mask shook and let out a bizarre laugh.
It was the result of an unfinished mask meeting madness and resentment, becoming complete as a monstrous thing.
“Wh-what is that?!”
“What bastard is it?!”
The Skull Gang members, startled by the hulking man’s death cry, grabbed their weapons and rushed out.
His scream had been so dreadful that some had even run out barefoot after being jolted awake from sleep.
But despite rushing out fairly quickly, all of them had no choice but to stop in the corridor.
“Wh-what the hell?!”
Everyone lost their words.
The abdomen of their dead comrade had a gaping hole in it, and his melted intestines and bubbling blood flowed thickly down the slanted corridor.
And that thing, as if it had just crawled out of a nightmare, waved its hand drenched in bright red blood and greeted them.
“Greetings, everyone. Isn’t it a fine night?”