The Heavenly Demon Cult’s Strongest Maid - Chapter 65
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 65
“Oh, Tak Ga-ju! You were here?”
As soon as Yeo Gong saw Tak Joong-hak, he stepped inside with delight.
“What a coincidence this is! I was just planning to visit you soon to pay my respects, and to meet you like this!”
“Did Yeo Ga-ju also come because you were craving noodles?”
Tak Joong-hak gladly offered the seat next to him to Yeo Gong.
“The noodles here are quite good. I was just about to try the dumplings.”
“My granddaughter made those dumplings yesterday.”
Shin Geum, who was heading to the kitchen to prepare noodles for Yeo Gong, informed Tak Joong-hak through voice transmission.
“I saved some especially for Tak Ga-ju. So please eat them all.”
“Oh, it seems First Miss has talent not only in martial arts.”
Yeo Gong picked up his chopsticks with admiration. Just as his hand was moving toward the dumplings without hesitation.
Clack!
Tak Joong-hak’s chopsticks blocked the path in the middle.
“These are mine.”
“…Pardon?”
“Yeo Ga-ju’s portion is coming out over there, isn’t it?”
Just then, Shin Geum was walking over carrying noodles and dumplings in both hands.
“The food comes out remarkably fast.”
“In a small shop, having too many helping hands actually makes things chaotic. In that regard, noodles and dumplings can be served quickly to customers if prepared in advance.”
Though somewhat flustered by Tak Joong-hak’s reaction, Yeo Gong quickly turned his attention to Shin Geum.
“My introduction is late. I’m called Yeo Gong.”
“I know.”
“…You know me?”
Yeo Gong’s voice suddenly lowered. But Shin Geum continued speaking as if she knew nothing.
“How would someone like me know such distinguished people? I just heard Tak Ga-ju calling you earlier.”
“Ah, I didn’t think of that.”
Yeo Gong stroked his beard and laughed heartily.
“I’ll eat well. Thanks to this, I get to try dumplings made by First Miss herself. I’m quite lucky.”
“These were made by me though.”
“What?”
“What I gave to Tak Ga-ju were the last dumplings Seolha made.”
Shin Geum added to Yeo Gong’s bewildered face.
“At least my skills as a grandmother are better, so please eat without worry.”
“Are you certain your skills are better?”
Tak Ga-ju said while lifting a teacup full of tea.
Shin Geum glanced at the bowl.
Tak Joong-hak had already finished about half the dumplings.
“I’m saying this because the dumplings taste amazing. I’ve never experienced such flavor in my life.”
“Really?”
Shin Geum tilted her head and replied nonchalantly.
“That child is sometimes better than grandmother. Tak Ga-ju is very lucky.”
At Shin Geum’s quick acknowledgment, this time Tak Ga-ju burst into hearty laughter.
‘Is she teasing me?’
Watching this scene, Yeo Gong felt strangely offended.
He even began to suspect whether the dumplings that went to Tak Ga-ju were really the last ones First Miss made.
But he couldn’t frown over just one dumpling.
Yeo Gong picked up the noodles first with an uneasy feeling and took a bite.
‘Ho.’
And he was genuinely surprised by the taste. Because the noodles were quite good, just as Tak Ga-ju had said.
She said she’d been running a business in one place for 17 years, and indeed it was worthy of such flavor.
“Does it suit your taste?”
“Very good.”
“Then please eat while conversing. I’ll step aside.”
“Not at all. You come sit here too.”
Yeo Gong called Shin Geum over, unusually for him.
“Weren’t you already sitting together before I came? Please let me join in on whatever conversation you were having.”
Yeo Gong smiled brightly while looking back and forth between Shin Geum and Tak Joong-hak.
“It wasn’t much of a conversation. I was just asking him to please take good care of my granddaughter.”
Since the head of the Yeo family told her to sit, Shin Geum of humble status had no choice but to comply.
One worry was what would happen if Yeo Gong discovered her physical condition.
She had heard that the Thousand Blood Demon Seed Mind Technique he mastered reacted sensitively to the flow of qi.
Though Yeo Gong’s martial arts skills were said to be one level below Tak Ga-ju’s, she needed to be careful at such close distance.
“I couldn’t help but admire First Miss’s martial prowess. She’s nothing short of a genius.”
“That child has been good at everything since she was young.”
“Has she never learned martial arts?”
“Yes, of course. What luck she was born with to become the Cult Leader’s disciple – even I find it amazing.”
“No, I mean you, not First Miss.”
“…!”
Shin Geum deliberately widened her eyes in reaction.
“I can sense a danjeon, though faint, so you don’t seem to be just an ordinary person.”
Yeo Gong stared intently at Shin Geum while very slowly chewing a piece of meat from the noodles.
“Oh my, what embarrassing words to say in front of two family heads. I just learned a little over someone’s shoulder for my health – it’s not even at a level worth mentioning anywhere.”
“Is that so?”
Shin Geum tried to hide her bewilderment and touched her hair as if embarrassed.
‘They said he mastered the Thousand Blood Demon Seed Mind Technique, and indeed he’s sensitive.’
Hearing Tak Ga-ju’s words and partially adjusting her qi flow had worked as a clever move.
If she had been in the same sealed state as before, Yeo Gong would have immediately sensed something was wrong.
“Come to think of it, is Yeo Ga-ju’s youngest doing well?”
Tak Joong-hak asked about his daughter, whom he usually never mentioned, to divert Yeo Gong’s attention.
At that, Yeo Gong’s expression immediately hardened.
“…Did you hear about it too, Tak Ga-ju?”
“Seung-myeong seemed a bit worried. Prince Lee seemed to have gone too far. How hurt must the young one have been to show tears even in such a place.”
“She wasn’t supposed to go there in the first place.”
Yeo So-min, who had returned from the Yeong-eun Hall gathering, had been holed up in her room crying ever since.
No matter how immature she was, she was still his youngest daughter whom he had raised like a precious jewel.
When he heard that such a child had been despised and ignored in front of people, especially by Eok I-geon whom she had a crush on, Yeo Gong felt his blood boiling.
“According to our daughter, Prince Lee seems to have feelings for First Miss. What did your grandson say?”
“Prince Lee has feelings for First Miss?”
“Yes. Didn’t you hear?”
Tak Joong-hak and Shin Geum’s gazes met in mid-air. Both were hearing this for the first time.
“So-min might have misunderstood, but she said Prince Lee’s eyes when looking at First Miss were completely different from usual. She called it a woman’s intuition.”
Though he had scolded her asking what kind of woman’s intuition such a little thing could have, seeing her swollen face made his anger boil inside.
“So-min is still young. It’s probably just a passing fancy, so don’t worry too much about it.”
“I really hope that’s the case.”
The sight of Tak Joong-hak and Yeo Gong sitting together eating food and discussing their children’s affairs looked quite friendly at first glance.
However, looking inside, they were thinking completely different thoughts.
Tak Joong-hak was busy pondering what intention Yeo Gong had in visiting Shin Geum’s shop, while Yeo Gong harbored suspicions about the relationship between Tak Joong-hak and Shin Geum.
Though the two might think they had deceived him, Yeo Gong had caught the strange current flowing between Tak Joong-hak and Shin Geum.
I can’t explain exactly what it was, but it felt like their relationship was very amicable.
Yeo Gong was certain there was something she didn’t know.
“Marib.”
“Yes, my lord.”
After finishing her meal at Shin Geum’s shop, Yeo Gong walked leisurely through the streets for a while before stopping at a lakeside.
“Hyeon-wol-dang was surrounding the noodle shop.”
“There were far more than the usual number that guard Tak Ga-ju.”
“Exactly.”
Why was that?
Yeo Gong pondered this throughout her walk.
It was understandable enough to show interest since she was First Miss’s only family.
But today’s situation looked as if they were protecting Shin Geum.
Was it an intention to block contact from other families?
If that were the case, they should have blocked her from the start. Either close the shop or move locations entirely.
When something clear didn’t come to mind, she needed to change her way of thinking.
Yeo Gong erased the facts she knew one by one and tried forming various hypotheses.
Then suddenly, their earlier conversation coiled in her mind.
‘…Did I judge her too much as merely First Miss’s grandmother?’
The faint traces of internal energy she had sensed from Shin Geum.
His sensitive ki perception had momentarily detected pure energy that was hard to encounter at the Main School, then it disappeared.
‘Right, now is the time for a different approach.’
Investigating Shin Geum merely as First Miss’s grandmother might have been wrong from the start.
“Marib.”
“Yes.”
“We need to investigate that old woman Shin Geum more thoroughly.”
“Do you mean to assign more surveillance?”
“That would take too long.”
“Then…?”
“We’ll need to use Jae-hon-seob-ryeong-dae-beob.”
Jae-hon-seob-ryeong-dae-beob was a type of soul manipulation technique passed down only to the direct lineage of the Yeo family.
It was an extremely powerful technique that made anyone who fell under it reveal all their secrets.
Since it could even erase memories, it was perfect to use on Shin Geum now.
“Make sure Hyeon-wol-dang doesn’t notice.”
“Understood!”
The more she reflected on it, the more that strange and alien flow of true energy subtly stimulated her.
She had dismissed it lightly earlier, but if Shin Geum was hiding something, she needed to uncover it.
“Tak Joong-hak…”
Then she might be able to understand why that old man suddenly emerged into the world.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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