Regressed by the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 11

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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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I had been sent back by the Heavenly Demon.
White Spirit Tree (1)
“Have a drink.”
After descending to the first floor of the inn, I adjusted the face mask again and gestured toward the cup in front of Seol Ha.
“I shouldn’t drink while on guard duty.”
“The important business is done, and this is a celebration feast, isn’t it? Put the guard duty aside for now. We’re staying at this inn tonight before we leave.”
The reason I came here in the first place wasn’t simply because of Geon Pyeong’s provocation.
It was because of Baek Mungyu.
By fortune’s favor, I’d joined hands with Baek Mungyu and become his partner—and now, after my Regression, one of the major threads I’d considered was firmly within my grasp.
I was quite satisfied.
“I can’t fathom what you’re thinking. You’ve even entrusted such a large sum to my responsibility.”
“It’s a substantial amount, true. If I happen to fail, I’d ask nothing more than for my sister to live without worry with that money.”
“Young master!!”
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen. Right now, I draw a lot of attention at Hwanggeum-jang, so I was simply hoping to ask my sister for some help. Don’t burden yourself with it.”
At that moment, Seol Ha lowered her gaze.
Then she spoke in a hushed whisper.
“I like you, young master.”
As I brought the cup to my lips, I felt my body stiffen for a moment.
A faint blush crept across Seol Ha’s face.
“It’s not only because of the favor I owe your mother. I want to protect things precisely because I don’t want to lose them. So please, let me face whatever hardships come with you.”
“I don’t have the wit to explain everything, but I understand what you mean. I know the fear that comes when my choices seem to change so much. But you see.”
I filled Seol Ha’s cup to the brim.
“For every bitter thing, there will be something just as sweet.”
Seol Ha gulped down the drink in one go.
Her eyes widened, and then she smiled brightly.
“It’s sweet.”
“Already?”
“I don’t think there will be any bitterness.”
“How embarrassingly easy you are to persuade.”
Seol Ha pushed her empty cup toward me.
“One more?”
“Where did that guard-duty bound woman go?”
“I can’t turn down a celebration feast.”
Somehow Seol Ha was growing more brazen by the moment.
*
*
*
…….
Looking at Seol Ha sprawled across my bed, I let out an exasperated laugh.
Why was she so terrible at holding her drink?
Just five cups.
After confidently tying up her hair and sharing drinks with me, Seol Ha collapsed flat on her back after merely five.
“Could this be her first time drinking?”
Given that she didn’t even know her own tolerance, it seemed quite possible.
Now that I thought about it, Seol Ha was that kind of person to me.
Like a warm spring breeze that passed by briefly.
A woman who never had the chance to properly share a single gentle cup of wine with me—only to leave too soon, having sacrificed herself to shield me from bitter trials.
“It was a first for me too.”
After draping a blanket over Seol Ha, I gazed quietly at her, bathed in the soft moonlight streaming through the window.
Everything that lay ahead would be a first for both Seol Ha and me.
And that was good.
I sat down in the chair beside Seol Ha’s bed and leaned back against it.
“Sweet.”
This night, today.
*
*
*
“You’re certain that bastard is here?”
Jeong Hongseon, the eldest son of Jeong Geommun, pointed at the Yeonho Inn.
Then a man with a sinister expression emerged from the darkness.
“Without a doubt.”
It was Geon Pyeong, his entire face swathed in bloodstained bandages.
Geon Pyeong had only just regained consciousness before encountering Jeong Hongseon and Yeon Gyubaek again, and it was that chance meeting that had brought them here.
Yeon Gyubaek himself appeared with his injured left arm bandaged—a clear sign that his thirst for revenge had reached its peak.
“Can we truly do this? He is still the second son of the Hwanggeum-jang master. Even if Geon permits it….”
Of the three, Jeong Hongseon—the least wounded—spoke cautiously, gauging their mood.
“What, you think our younger brother will sit this one out?”
Yeon Gyubaek’s eyes, calm in expression as he posed the question, already brimmed with murderous intent.
“Not at all. When I think of that arrogant face, my blood boils backward.”
Jeong Hongseon, who had hesitated a moment, finally shook his head in assent.
The killing aura radiating from Yeon Gyubaek felt far more threatening than the faint unease he’d felt seeing Geon Pyeong’s gruesome state.
Above all, the humiliation he’d endured at the banquet hall stirred him anew.
“We won’t kill him. We’ll simply let him experience what befalls those who dare challenge our authority. The price for what he’s done to our blood must be paid.”
Geon Pyeong, who had lost most of his front teeth, let out a whistling sound through the gaps.
“Of course. We’ll cripple him so thoroughly he’ll never swing a sword properly again.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t summon one of our house’s own without reason. No matter how skilled, he’ll be reduced to pulp in no time.”
Before Yeon Gyubaek had even finished speaking, a lean-featured man with a sword strapped to his back emerged from the darkness. The air itself grew chill merely from their eyes meeting.
“This is Deung Yeo. Our house deliberately keeps him without a grand title, entrusting him solely with my personal guard. He ranks among the top ten swordsmen in our family. Had he been present at the banquet hall, that wretch would never have dared show me such disrespect.”
“Indeed, his very presence is commanding.”
“Soon enough, he’ll be begging for mercy on his hands and knees. Hehehehe.”
As the three men reveled in their anticipation, Deung Yeo gave Yeon Gyubaek a brief bow of acknowledgment.
“It won’t take long.”
“Yes, just work over his hands and drag him before me.”
“Understood.”
Deung Yeo vanished into the inn like a shadow.
*
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*
An hour passed, then another quarter of an hour.
Jeong Hongseon and Geon Pyeong exhaled white plumes of breath as they stole glances at Yeon Gyubaek.
The cold had grown sharper now that dawn was approaching.
When Geon Pyeong began to shuffle his feet nervously, Yeon Gyubaek reacted with visible irritation.
“Why all this fussing? What’s so cold about it?”
Yeon Gyubaek’s speech had grown slightly slurred, his lips numb from the chill.
“My apologies.”
“Brother….”
“Wait a moment. Deung Yeo has his reasons, I’m sure. Given his cautious nature, rather than ending it all at once, he’ll likely work through the joints methodically, breaking him down spiritually one limb at a time. By the time he’s brought before us, the wretch will be trembling and whimpering for favor.”
Yeon Gyubaek added casually, touching his bandaged left arm.
“Hehehehe.”
“Quite the spectacle it will be.”
Confidence returned to settle among them once more.
Another quarter hour elapsed.
Roosters crowed from scattered corners, and a pale blue twilight descended around the inn as dawn approached.
“Brother, isn’t this taking rather too long, even for caution…?”
……
Yeon Gyubaek could not answer.
White frost had already gathered above his eyebrows, and his shoulders trembled miserably, stiffened by cold.
“Shall I go in and check?”
“No. I’ll go.”
It was then that Jeong Hongseon and Geon Pyeong were raising their voices in protest.
Creak—
The inn’s main gate, which they had waited for so long, swung open.
All three men’s eyes widened.
Yeon Gyubaek forced apart his frost-bound lips and spoke in an eager whisper.
“There, what did I tell you? I said Deung Yeo was thorough. How he must have tormented and broken that wretch—I can hardly wait to see….”
But the one who walked through the doorway was not Deung Yeo bearing news of victory.
Deung Yeo held not a sword but a broom, and his lips curved into a smile so eerily gentle it seemed almost grotesque.
“…Deung Yeo?”
Yeon Gyubaek called out to him, his voice hollow with shock.
Deung Yeo looked at Yeon Gyubaek and bowed with deliberate courtesy.
“Welcome, honored guest. Thank you for visiting our humble inn so early in the morning. What may we prepare for your meal?”
“Listen, what are you doing now! What about those people inside!!”
Yeon Gyubaek grabbed Deung Yeo by the shoulders and shook him, and in that instant Deung Yeo’s vacant eyes snapped into focus.
“Ahhhhh!! Get away!! I said get away!!!”
Deung Yeo cried out pitifully and wrenched free from Yeon Gyubaek, bolting down another alley.
In a flash, the three of them stood bewildered, staring at one another like a kite with its string snapped.
Unable to bear it any longer, Jeong Hongseon asked carefully.
“Sir, could Deung Yeo have lost his mind?”
“Lost his mind? My father established him as the finest bodyguard he could provide me! Did you not hear that?”
“I beg your pardon.”
Geon Pyeong spoke with a stricken expression.
“We cannot return like this.”
Yeon Gyubaek gripped his sword with all his strength.
“No, we cannot. Absolutely not!!”
“What will you do?”
“I don’t know what happened in there, but that bastard surely used some forbidden sorcery. Deung Yeo was caught off guard.”
Yeon Gyubaek wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand and drew his sword.
“Come on. Let’s go.”
Yeon Gyubaek entered the inn first.
But how far had he gotten?
Before he could even fully enter the inn, the footsteps of those following behind vanished.
It was at that moment, sensing something amiss, that Yeon Gyubaek turned his head.
In the courtyard of the inn, Geon Pyeong and Jeong Hongseon were collapsing backward, blood spraying from their mouths.
“You… you!!”
Sword in hand, Yeon Gyubaek clenched his teeth as he watched the two men lose consciousness in an instant.
“Geon Aseong!!”
“Hah, you’re making quite a fuss at dawn.”
“What sorcery have you used!!!”
“A price must be paid for disturbing my sleep.”
“What do you—”
Yeon Gyubaek lost consciousness before he could even properly perceive the man approaching.
That was his last moment of awareness.
*
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*
“You’re awake?”
As morning sunlight fell across my eyes, Seol Ha drew near.
“Yeah.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“They probably got drunk all at once and collapsed. It was a quiet, uneventful night.”
“But how would you know if you were drunk?”
“Because nothing happened.”
“There was quite a commotion outside, though?”
“Was there?”
“I heard some naked people, apparently drunk, were tangled up together and sleeping in the inn’s courtyard in this cold weather. Completely naked!”
I stretched lazily and clicked my tongue.
“Idle fools. Let’s get another bowl of meat noodles and head out.”
“But Geon Pyeong was there too? Are you really telling me you don’t know?”
To Seol Ha, who seemed to be fishing for something, I simply shrugged as if I had no idea.
“I don’t know. He must have gotten drunk and made a scene. He’s the type who’d come out fine from that anyway.”
Seol Ha sighed briefly, then followed as I got up.
*
*
*
We returned to the Hwanggeum-jang manor in the carriage we’d come in.
After using the Soul Manipulation Technique for the first time in so long, a mild headache lingered.
Still, thinking of those men in their panicked state made me smile.
The Soul Manipulation Technique is something I learned to defend against—it occasionally proves useful.
The Soul Manipulation Technique encompasses various methods of mental control, and for it to work properly, delicate conditions and circumstances are necessary.
Moreover, it is a technique with significant side effects.
If the caster is careless, it can cause severe backlash. That covers everything.
The fact that a man like Deung Yeo, unprepared for the Soul Manipulation Technique, fell under its influence owed much to my giving him only the most limited and simple instructions, but even more to the man’s naturally weak constitution to begin with.
By now he’ll have shaken it off and regained his senses, remembering nothing of what happened.
Thud.
The carriage lurched to a stop—we’d arrived at the manor.
It was just as Seol Ha and I were stepping down from the carriage and heading into the compound.
Geumhwa-bu Junpyo, who never showed his face unless I summoned him, came rushing up before the carriage.
“Young Master.”
“What is it?”
“The Lady has sent for you regarding a matter concerning the eldest young master of the Sacheon Yongbong-hoe.”
Yes, it was about time they called on me again.
Since I’d anticipated this, I nodded without showing any particular reaction.
But what Junpyo said next irritated me.
“And a marriage proposal has come for you, Young Master.”
“A marriage proposal?”
Had there been a significant marriage proposal for Geon Aseong around this time?
I’d find out once we went inside.

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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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