Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 12

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 12
Chapter 2. What No One Taught Him
Click—
The door swung open, and Yeonwoo stepped out with a wide yawn, his mouth stretched open.
He stretched his arms and legs with a long, luxurious reach, blinking away the fatigue from his eyes.
“Oh? Mister Martial Artist!”
Yeonwoo pointed at the man standing in the courtyard with a startled expression.
A middle-aged martial artist with a deep scar running diagonally across the left side of his face, from above his eye to below the right corner of his mouth.
The man with his grim, forbidding demeanor was a family martial artist sent by the Gwan Family from the city.
The martial artist’s gaze swept over Yeonwoo’s body.
Having assessed the boy without much interest, he turned and spoke.
“Follow me. The family head is looking for you.”
“Okay!”
Yeonwoo slipped on his shoes and followed the martial artist with quick, pattering steps.
Above the house where the two had departed.
Unhyeon pressed his throbbing head as he watched Yeonwoo follow without the slightest suspicion, innocent as could be.
“There’s much I’ll need to teach him.”
Beside him, Amyeong Magun let out a soft chuckle.
“Exactly. The kid’s too trusting, that’s his problem.”
Unhyeon turned to look at Amyeong Magun.
“You’re certain, then? That fellow being a martial artist of the Gwan Family?”
Just moments before, Unhyeon had sensed someone approaching his quarters and had risen to retrieve his sword.
It was Amyeong Magun who had blocked his path.
It was also he who had identified the approaching martial artist as belonging to the Gwan Family.
“You saw it yourself. Yeonwoo followed willingly.”
“The boy’s too young to understand such things. He might have simply followed because he was told to go.”
“Tch—this old man really doesn’t know a thing about the kid, does he?”
He’s far sharper than that.
Amyeong Magun remembered.
The day he first met Yeonwoo, the deep wariness the boy had shown him.
Had he approached with even a hint of malice in his heart, the child surely would never have allowed him anywhere near.
‘How he senses such false intent, I’m not entirely sure.’
But that’s what sets him apart from other children.
“He’s not nearly as naive as all that—”
“Then why aren’t you going? You, of all people.”
Amyeong Magun’s gesturing hand came to an abrupt halt.
Then he pointed to a spot behind Yeonwoo’s house.
“I’m staying there.”
Unhyeon narrowed his eyes and looked toward the place Amyeong Magun indicated.
“……?!”
Unhyeon’s brow furrowed.
Sitting alone not far behind the house was a small dwelling—one he couldn’t say when it had appeared.
The single-room cottage was definitely not a structure he’d seen until yesterday.
“Surely….”
Had it been built? In the meantime?
“I had my men do it.”
“No…!”
Unhyeon erupted, appalled at how brazenly proud Amyeong Magun seemed.
“That’s precisely why I’m asking why you didn’t leave!”
Why were you still here?!
Even after building a house?!
“Ah, it seems there’s more than one or two people after Yeonwoo.”
“…!”
More than one or two people after Yeonwoo?
“I took on the task of handling the assassins, so I caught those fellows and questioned them in a polite manner.”
He interrogated both the assassin who had first attacked the house and those he’d encountered on the way down from the mountain.
Politely, keeping them alive.
“But here’s the thing—the stories they told were subtly different. No matter how I look at it, they seem to have been taking orders from different people.”
“Then….”
“Yes. The Gwan Family isn’t the only one who has made enemies.”
Unhyeon’s expression grew grave.
The fact that those who’d made enemies of the Gwan Family weren’t just one or two meant that there could be more people targeting Yeonwoo than they’d anticipated.
“So you want to keep watch for now?”
“I suppose.”
If that was the reason, there was no need to prevent him from staying close. But more than that—
“Then we ought to hurry.”
If Yeonwoo’s safety was in such danger, there was no time to waste like this.
Click.
“You’re planning to follow?”
Amyeong Magun seized Unhyeon’s arm just as he was about to bolt for the door.
Unhyeon frowned and spoke.
“If there are many targeting Yeonwoo, then isn’t he in danger even now? We need to hurry.”
“That’s true, but—”
Amyeong Magun tapped his cheek lightly, twice.
“Would it be safe to show yourself like that?”
“……?”
“The Main Sect may have been in seclusion for a long time, but they haven’t completely closed their ears to news from Joonggwon.”
That meant there might be those who could recognize Unhyeon, the Sovereign Sword Master.
After all, Unhyeon was among the most skilled masters in Joonggwon and a well-known figure.
When Unhyeon murmured “I see” with an uncomfortable expression, Amyeong Magun smiled slightly and produced something from his robes.
It was a half-mask, the same style as the one Amyeong Magun wore, but black as pitch.
“Care to borrow it?”
Unhyeon stared at the half-mask fluttering in Amyeong Magun’s hand with a creased brow.
* * *
“These incompetent fools!”
Clang—
A sharp, piercing sound shattered the silence of the darkened room.
The masked figures standing in a line exchanged tense glances.
“Killing a mere child—is it really so difficult? You can’t even handle such a simple task, and yet you’ve brought me this shame?”
The man’s breathing grew harsh with fury.
The fist gripping the desk trembled violently.
One of the masked figures standing in formation stepped forward.
“Perhaps Gwan Yoon has seen through our master’s intentions.”
“What did you say?!”
The man glared fiercely at the masked figure.
The masked figure bowed briefly, then continued.
“The old man who was with the child possessed greater martial power than we anticipated. Might he not be a guard that Gwan Yoon placed there?”
“A guard…?”
An old man who appeared beside the child one day.
At first, he seemed nothing more than an ordinary beggar.
And why wouldn’t he, dressed in rags and merely trailing after the boy?
But what if it had been otherwise from the start—what if he’d been placed there as a guard, having already seen through the scheme to kill the child?
What if his appearance as a beggar was nothing but a deception?
“That cunning bastard Gwan Yoon…”
“Leave it to me.”
The man turned to face the masked figure.
The masked figure bowed even more deeply and spoke.
“If you entrust this to me, I shall surely bring the child’s head to our master.”
* * *
Knock, knock.
“My lord, I have brought the child.”
Soon a voice from inside the room called out, “Enter.”
The door slid open with a creak, and the Scarred Martial Artist pushed at Yeonwoo’s back.
“Go in.”
Yeonwoo glanced up at the Scarred Martial Artist once before stepping inside.
Soon the door closed behind Yeonwoo.
At the far end of the room sat a desk.
Gwan Yoon, the head of the Gwan Family, sat in proper posture, waiting for Yeonwoo.
“Welcome. It has been a long time since we last met.”
“Yes.”
Yeonwoo climbed naturally into the chair across from Gwan Yoon.
The chair was high enough that she had to scramble a little to get up, but she didn’t fall.
Gwan Yoon watched the child flop into her seat.
The table was so high that all he could see was the bridge of her nose.
Her eyes narrowed suddenly.
“Where’s the thing you promised?”
Gwan Yoon let out a soft sigh, then reached below the table and set something down on top of it.
On the small tray lay a snack of various dried fruits.
A sharp intake of breath.
Yeonwoo quickly grabbed a handful.
Watching the small child chew the dried fruit, Gwan Yoon’s brows lowered.
“When did I ever promise you such a thing?”
“You said you’d give me whatever I wanted to eat.”
“I did say that, and I offered to have dried fruit sent to your quarters—didn’t you refuse?”
“It only tastes good when I eat it in your room.”
As she popped another piece of dried fruit into her mouth, Gwan Yoon sighed again.
“Well then. Has anything unusual happened?”
“Unusual?”
Yeonwoo thought for a moment.
Then she shook her head.
“No.”
“You still have no desire to learn Martial Arts?”
“Right.”
“Have you looked at the texts I gave you?”
Yeonwoo shook her head.
A bittersweet expression crossed Gwan Yoon’s lips.
He had simply bought a starving beggar child off the streets.
He had brought her in because she was a child who would not mind dying as long as her hunger was satisfied.
He had given her mother a generous sum, and provided the child with three meals a day and snacks as she wished.
But that did not mean he wanted her to die, despite the price he was paying.
No, rather, he had thought that precisely because she was not of the Gwan Family, her chances of survival would be higher.
When she entered the Maryong Academy under the Gwan Family’s name, they would know she was merely a street beggar child.
Still, he had hoped she would at least learn the basics of Martial Arts before she left.
‘To think she’d refuse to learn Martial Arts.’
She refused when told to learn at the family’s training grounds, refused when he sent family warriors to teach her at home.
She said she’d just as soon eat something delicious and die when her time came.
As if she knew her own fate, as if it mattered not whether she lived or died, she refused Martial Arts entirely.
Gwan Yoon exhaled softly.
“What sort of person is he?”
“…?”
“The old man you spend time with. You know.”
The one who said he would teach you Martial Arts.
So when the child asked him to reduce her meals, he had reluctantly agreed, with doubts in his heart.
“A good person….”
She felt a little embarrassed as she said it.
In a way, the one who had been cruelest to her was himself.
“…Is he truly a good person?”
“Yes.”
Yeonwoo nodded without hesitation.
“Grandfather is a good person. He was a good person from the very start.”
“Do you know who he is?”
“Oh! Now that you mention it, I never asked grandfather’s name! He only told me mine!”
Gwan Yoon felt a strange confusion watching the child squirm indignantly.
‘How can she call a grandfather she doesn’t even have a name for a good person?’
“Are you truly certain he is a good person?”
“Yes! Because I only pick out the good things!”
Pick out?
“When you were feeding me and giving me a place to sleep, I found it a bit bothersome.
Feeding and housing me?
“But now he lets me run around freely, and that’s good.”
“…….”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————