Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 124

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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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Martial Arts AU: Misunderstood Ending Classification Change (4)

Her vision turned red.

“No, Lady Ara!”

“Ara!”

She could hear Saihyeon’s voice calling her name from afar. But it was already too late. Ara squeezed her eyes shut.

‘Bungee jumping in my life, really.’

Even as she threw herself off the cliff packed with strange rocks, she wondered if this was right.

But this was the only way.

Unless she showed them her death before their eyes, Ara couldn’t escape this fortress.

Ara didn’t miss the moment when Jeanavi swayed in the wind. She grabbed Jeanavi and pushed her inside the city wall while simultaneously pretending to lose her footing and fall. Noi, who had transformed into a giant roc riding the wind from below, appeared and pierced her with his beak. She put her heart and soul into making this scene clearly visible.

The flames Noi created engulfed her entire body, and Ara reached out her hand. Jeanavi was crying. Saihyeon, who had been far away, somehow approached and tried to grab her hand.

However, Ara’s body, wrapped in flames, moved away following the flapping Noi.

They wouldn’t be able to catch Noi. Because he was an illusion.

It was the one chance Noi had obtained through a deal with the Fox of Cheonsan. The fox said heaven’s will had changed and acted whimsically, helping Noi and Ara. Without the fox, Ara would never have been able to avoid the countless eyes watching her.

“No, Ara, Ara!”

Saihyeon’s hand never reached her in the end. Ara let out a sigh of relief and was startled.

Saihyeon was crying. No, this can’t be happening. His desperate and sorrowful cry felt like it was tearing her heart apart. This really wasn’t something a person should do. This was why she had tried to cut off her feelings.

But Ara had to run away.

Jeanavi would take everything Ara had.

Jeanavi was pretty and lovely, but Ara felt like she would love and hate her at the same time.

Everything that had been predetermined in the novel came to pass exactly as written. Ara’s 19 years had flowed according to what the novel had decided. This place was definitely the world inside a novel.

Jeanavi had appeared and possessed the power of purification. Saihyeon had discovered her and brought her back.

So surely in the not-too-distant future, someone would want Ara to die…

Someone Ara loved dearly.

That was so frightening.

She wanted to choose death herself before that happened and step down from this stage.

-Since I’m helping anyway, I’ll send you all the way to Luoyang.

The fox had said. Ara squeezed her eyes shut.

***

That was already three years ago.

Ara turned 22 this year.

The Fox of Cheonsan had dropped Ara off in Luoyang.

‘Crazy fox bastard.’

For Ara, who had never once left Cheonsan in her entire life, Luoyang was like a different world. The moment she opened her mouth, people noticed her distinctive accent and treated her like an outsider. The language was understandable but not really. Her appearance was subtly different, and first of all, her clothing was too different. The food and weather were different too.

She decided not to dispose of her remaining elixirs until she found a trustworthy seller, and Ara first looked for employment.

It was fortunate she had saved up some money beforehand, because without a single coin, she would have ended up a beggar.

‘Running away from home to survive only to become a beggar would be a bit much…’

Despite appearances, Ara had grown up as the precious daughter of the Heavenly Demon Sect, receiving a higher education.

She could read and write, and thanks to her past life’s influence, she was also skilled at arithmetic. The martial arts skills that had been dismissed as second-rate warrior level at the main mountain (though of course, that was just how Ara felt – everyone had actually found her small and precious abilities endearing), were more than enough to handle ordinary people just by being able to manipulate internal energy.

She had more than enough qualifications, but the problem was her face.

With her snow-white skin characteristic of the Western Regions, light-colored eyes, and willow-like slender figure, Ara was a peerless beauty. To Ara’s eyes, she was used to otherworldly beauty like Saihyeon and Jeanavi, so she hadn’t noticed, but Ara was also quite a beauty, if not a nation-toppling one.

Most people who wanted to hire a beautiful young woman had impure intentions.

The first place that hired Ara was the inn where she was staying. But naturally, she couldn’t even last four days before getting involved in trouble. Ara only defended herself since she couldn’t just take it lying down, but she ended up being kicked out of the inn that had become a mess.

The second place that hired her was Luoyang’s most famous restaurant. They seemed to want to use pretty Ara to attract customers, but like the previous inn, trouble arose and she was kicked out.

Eventually, Ara used transformation techniques with Noi’s help and became a maid at the Martial Arts Alliance.

At the Martial Arts Alliance, there was no way Ara’s level of resistance would cause a disturbance, and most importantly.

-If you were going to hide your face anyway, didn’t you need to work at the Martial Arts Alliance?

“You don’t understand. Either way, I need to be in the place our family would least likely look for me.”

-Shouldn’t you be somewhere hard to find no matter where you are… And isn’t the Martial Arts Alliance headquarters the place where the biggest trouble would happen if they came looking?

Ara shuddered as she briefly imagined it.

It would certainly be the place where she’d get screwed over the most.

“Who would ever imagine that the Demon Cult leader’s daughter would work as a maid at the Martial Arts Alliance?”

-Normally they wouldn’t.

If it’s normal, that is…

The place where Ara worked was the annex of the Martial Arts Alliance headquarters.

It was a sinecure where hardly anyone came and went unless there was an event. For three years, Ara had been tormented by guilt over whether she deserved to be paid for this job. When there were no guests to serve, all she had to do was cleaning and laundry. Even when guests came, Ara rarely had the opportunity to attend to distinguished visitors.

Her dialect was too noticeable, so she tried not to speak, and the head steward of the annex seemed to think she was a bit slow.

So even during busy periods with many guests, Ara was mostly assigned to clean the empty rooms in the annex.

Like now.

-You still think of yourself as the Demon Cult leader’s daughter.

“I do think that. I love our Holy Church.”

-You sure did such things to the people you love.

“You don’t know anything.”

-Yes, that’s right. Master knows everything.

“Where did you learn such sarcasm?”

-Where else? There’s only one person I have conversations with.

That would be… me…

“No. There’s one more.”

Just as Ara was about to open her mouth to speak, someone entered.

“Does the annex maid have nothing to do?”

“I work only as much as my small and precious wage.”

The person who opened the door to the empty room and entered was the Fox of Cheonsan.

However, he wasn’t in beast form but wearing a human shell. His name was Dangmunhyeok.

As the name suggested, the Fox of Cheonsan was a branch member of the Sichuan Pavilion and currently one of the most promising rising talents in the Central Plains. Every time Ara saw him, she reflected on the frightening nature of the world.

A beast that wasn’t human might be living beside you with a calm face.

Like that man.

But without that man, Ara couldn’t have escaped outside Cheonsan.

When Dangmunhyeok appeared, Noi shut his mouth as if he’d eaten honey. Noi really, really hated the fox.

“The other maids besides you were very busy serving guests.”

“They told me not to appear before guests because my speech is clumsy.”

“Well, your Western Region accent shows the moment you open your mouth.”

“It’s profitable to work less and get paid the same, right?”

“I wonder, usually people prefer serving guests to physical labor.”

That depended on the person.

Ara found physical labor much more suited to her nature. With a body trained in martial arts, she didn’t feel even a bit of fatigue from simple cleaning. Dealing with people was much more difficult.

The guests who visited the Martial Arts Alliance were generally famous righteous sect figures who called themselves heroes.

Most of them had good attitudes toward subordinates and were kind people. But the Martial Arts Alliance was also a place where people lived. Despicable and nasty people existed in the same proportion everywhere. It was only because Ara was using transformation to have an ordinary face that nothing happened. All the pretty maids had become guests’ concubines.

‘Some of the maids want to become concubines of rich families anyway.’

She just needed to help the ones who didn’t want it.

“I wish everyone would hurry home now that the Political Affairs Conference is over. Too many people are walking around the annex with muddy feet.”

“It’s the Political Affairs Conference held for the first time in 10 years. It’s not easy for this many righteous sect martial artists to gather.”

“Well, even the young maids are making a big fuss and getting excited. Which sect’s so-and-so is handsome, this and that.”

“Didn’t my name come up?”

Ara glanced at Dangmunhyeok.

“Ah, well, it did come up.”

“You seem to hear quite a bit of gossip. Then you must have heard who won the Political Affairs Conference too.”

“Well, I didn’t hear that far.”

Was the final today? Ara replied indifferently.

Why would I care when someone else’s party ends?

Dangmunhyeok spoke with a subtle smile.

“Someone unknown, not from the 9 Factions, 1 School or the 5 Great Families, took a single sword and defeated all the late-stage masters to claim victory.”

“Huh?”

Having worked at the Martial Arts Alliance for three years and learning how important one’s background was, Ara was genuinely surprised.

“That man apparently travels with only one woman, and her name is…”

“…Jeanavi?”

And that man’s name would be Saihyeon. Dangmunhyeok grinned.

“Wouldn’t it be better to run away?”

It seems like he came to catch you.

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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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