Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 78

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 78
* * *
Yeon-woo sprang to her feet in one fluid motion.
Her eyes gleamed with crystalline clarity as she faced Am-yeong Majun.
The intensity in her gaze made it clear she wanted to cry out his name—”Am-yeong!”—but held the impulse back.
Meeting that gaze, Am-yeong Majun let out a soft chuckle.
“How are you finding life at Maryong Hall?”
His eyes shifted to study the area beneath hers.
The smile on his lips froze for an instant, though she didn’t notice.
Yeon-woo’s expression softened and bloomed into a smile.
“It’s fun. There’s so much delicious food, and the beds are wonderfully comfortable. And there are lots of funny people there.”
“You’ve already made friends? Without me? Should I be jealous?”
“Friends?”
Yeon-woo blinked.
Friends? Friends…?
“How does that even work?”
Am-yeong Majun blinked.
Then he considered it.
He and Yeon-woo had become friends because he’d said, “Let’s be friends.” He was the one who’d initiated it.
Which meant Yeon-woo had never sought out a friend her own age on her own.
“Well, you could ask them, couldn’t you?”
“Ask them what?”
“Whether you two are friends. Just like that.”
“Oh.”
I see.
You just had to ask.
Yeon-woo nodded.
‘But…’
Who should she ask?
Watching the child wrestle with the problem for a moment, Am-yeong Majun placed a hand on her head.
“…?”
Yeon-woo looked up at him.
His hand patted her head slowly, gently.
“??”
Am-yeong Majun grinned.
“By the way, have you used that yet?”
Yeon-woo tilted her head.
“Used what?”
“That thing you asked me about last time.”
Yeon-woo tilted her head again.
Asked him? Me?
“Don’t you remember asking how to use formal speech?”
“Oh!”
Yeon-woo had never used formal speech since childhood.
In her previous life and in this one, she’d never had proper conversations with her parents—only ever heard cold indifference and informal speech directed at her.
Un-hyeon, who had sensed this dimly, never corrected the child’s manner of speaking.
Am-yeong Majun had always been that kind of person.
“Yes! I did use it! I attached it to the end of my words the way you taught me—’-sayo’—and nobody said anything about it!”
Am-yeong Majun’s eyes widened slightly.
Then he burst into uncontrollable laughter.
The image of Jewang-geom’s expression upon hearing that strange speech pattern flashed through his mind, and he could barely contain himself.
If it was Jewang-geom, he would have known the child wasn’t joking around.
And with his nature, he certainly wouldn’t correct her either—he’d just listen to that strange way of speaking all the way through without protest.
Simply imagining the scene made the laughter burst forth again.
“Why are you laughing?”
As Am-yeong Majun doubled over, clutching his sides, Yeon-woo’s expression turned displeased.
“Why are you laughing like that?”
“It’s nothing, nothing.”
Ah, ha ha—Am-yeong Majun waved his hand, trying to rein in his amusement.
“Anyway…”
Am-yeong Majun wiped away a tear that had gathered in his eyes and drew something from his breast.
“Guess what I’ve brought you today?”
“What is it?”
The moment Yeon-woo realized it was paper, her interest flagged.
But at Am-yeong Majun’s next words, her eyes snapped open wide.
“A letter from Jewang-geom—”
“Give it to me!”
Yeon-woo snatched the letter from his hand at once.
Am-yeong Majun, surrendering it without protest, chuckled and watched as the child hurriedly unfolded and read the letter.
Yeon-woo’s eyes raced across the words.
[The season of Snow Wind has passed, and all things have stirred to life again, vitality brimming across the realm. Yeon-woo, how have you been?]
The child’s eyes sparkled with crystalline clarity as she read the opening greeting.
Grandfather’s voice!
It truly was a letter from Un-hyeon.
Confirming this, the child straightened her posture without thinking and continued reading.
[I heard news that you entered the examination with an outstanding rank.]
“Rank—what does that mean? How do I say that?”
“It means position. He’s praising you for doing well on the first test.”
“Oh.”
[You make me proud. Though I could not watch over you in person, to hear of such remarkable achievement even by letter fills me with genuine joy.]
“Remarkable—”
“He’s saying you’re exceptional.”
“Oh.”
She nodded vaguely and continued reading.
[Yet that place is one where life and death hang in balance. Exercise self-discipline, remain ever watchful, and do not neglect your studies. I worry greatly that you might suffer grave injury. I can only pray that you come to no harm.]
The instant Yeon-woo’s hand moved, Am-yeong Majun spoke.
“He says to be careful. To be careful.”
“Oh.”
Watching the child return her focus to the letter, Am-yeong Majun reflected.
‘Next time I should…’
Tell him to write more plainly.
Having to spell out every little thing like this—what a troublesome old fool he is.
[I long for those mountain days we spent together. As we promised to meet again in the future, let us see each other in good health.]
There the letter ended.
Having read the brief message quickly, disappointment was plain across Yeon-woo’s face.
Seeing the child’s dejection, Am-yeong Majun reached out and stroked her head again.
“Letters can be exchanged anytime, so don’t be sad. There isn’t another soul in all the realm who uses me as their messenger, you know?”
Am-yeong Majun let out a soft chuckle.
Yeon-woo nodded, looking downcast.
“Okay.”
Then she hopped down from the bed and brought back something.
Paper and a brush.
“I want to write a letter too. Will you help me?”
Am-yeong Majun’s lips curved into a gentle smile.
He leaped down from the window ledge where he’d been perched and spoke.
“With pleasure.”
* * *
Tap-tap-tap—
Night had fallen, draping complete darkness across the world.
There was one racing across the roof of Maryong Hall, bathed in moonlight.
It was Am-yeong Majun, who had come in secret to see Yeon-woo.
The light in his eyes, which had not lost its warmth while conversing with Yeon-woo, had now gone cold and hard.
…
His face betrayed no emotion as he ran, until suddenly his gaze fixed on a single point.
At the blatant signal of someone calling to him, he immediately changed direction.
Tap—
Am-yeong Majun descended onto the roof of Maryong Hall’s highest pavilion.
A visitor was already there.
The one who had unleashed his Inner Force to summon Am-yeong Majun was Gwi-ya-gaek, the lord of Maryong Hall.
Whoooosh—
A fierce wind swept across the hem of Gwi-ya-gaek’s robes as he overlooked the entirety of Maryong Hall.
Am-yeong Majun approached his side.
“Why did you call for me?”
At the playful tone of his voice, Gwi-ya-gaek turned his head slowly to regard him.
Above a face bearing signs of exhaustion, his dark eyes gleamed with a chilling clarity.
“No matter that you bear the title of Heavenly Chosen Demon Lord, I find it difficult to overlook any further indulgence on your part.”
Beneath words spoken with perfect courtesy lay a drawn, honed edge to his voice.
His sharp gaze was equally unforgiving.
Before he was master of Maryong Hall, Gwi-ya-gaek was one of the twelve exceptional masters who upheld the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult—one of the Twelve Demon Lords.
He held a rank that in no way yielded to Am-yeong Majun’s position.
Recognizing the intent behind those words, Am-yeong Majun’s expression chilled beneath his mask of cheer.
Then, with apparent displeasure, he twisted his lips and shrugged his shoulders.
“But I didn’t do anything wrong?”
“Scaling these walls as you please is precisely what constitutes wrongdoing. You know full well that Maryong Hall is not a place to enter and leave at your whim.”
Tsk.
That was a fair point.
The walls of Maryong Hall were not something even the Heavenly Demon himself, the master of the Demonic Sect, could cross whenever he wished.
“If you truly cared for that child, you would cease these nocturnal trespasses.”
The smile vanished from Am-yeong Majun’s lips.
He tilted his head askew and spoke.
“Then shouldn’t you have protected her properly in the first place?”
His finger jabbed toward the corner of his own eye.
It was where Yeon-woo had been injured.
“I nearly came face to face with a corpse.”
Gwi-ya-gaek fell silent briefly.
While he had saved her life, the fact that he had failed to protect her completely was undeniable, and so there was no excuse he could offer.
Yet the absence of excuse did not mean an absence of argument.
“Byeok Sa-an’s patron.”
“….”
“That was you.”
At the shortened cadence of his words, Am-yeong Majun’s gaze fixed upon Gwi-ya-gaek once more.
From him now emanated a far rougher aura than before, rising and surging outward.
Yet because that force was directed solely at himself, no one else present—had anyone been there—could have perceived it.
The incredibly precise manipulation of Inner Force made even Am-yeong Majun’s eyes flash with a flicker of interest.
“Tell me why you recommended Byeok Sa-an. Should your reasoning prove unjustifiable, I will deem you complicit in this affair. Surely you harbored such resolve?”
Am-yeong Majun twisted the corner of his mouth upward.
“You look as though you’d tear me to pieces. Well, if you’re asking whether I recommended him knowing he’d do something like this—then yes.”
A low, rumbling growl.
At such frank admission, Gwi-ya-gaek’s aura surged even more fiercely.
Yet Am-yeong Majun paid it no mind and continued.
“I trusted the child.”
“…!”
“Will you believe me if I say that?”
Gwi-ya-gaek’s face turned glacial.
He trusted the child?
“What kind of madness is this?”
“She’s always been so finicky about her food. I thought she’d detect it immediately.”
“!”
That was nothing short of a gamble.
Even if one granted that he had known Byeok Sa-an would poison the food, trusting a child?
He had thrust that dangerous man into Maryong Hall betting that a girl barely into her teens would detect the poison?
“I—”
Something surged within Gwi-ya-gaek and he began to voice his condemnation, but—
“Honestly, I never thought she’d end up hurt like that.”
Watching him grumble as though displeased—’You should have protected her better than that, shouldn’t you?’—Gwi-ya-gaek’s lips parted slightly.

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