"What the hell is going on all of a sudden...!"

Dragged out of nowhere, Gubong let out a frustrated groan, but the grip on his collar didn’t loosen.

He tried desperately to break free, but the strength holding him was so overwhelming that he couldn’t move an inch.

"Urgh!"

Before he had fully woken up, he was already somewhere else.

Only then did Gu Yangcheon release him, causing Gubong to tumble to the ground.

Though he managed a clumsy landing, it wasn’t exactly graceful.

Gubong quickly got to his feet, frowning as he glared at Gu Yangcheon.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Are you awake now?"

In response to Gubong’s outburst, Gu Yangcheon simply chuckled.

"What the hell is this about...?"

"I told you, didn’t I? Let’s do some work."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?"

Being dragged out first thing in the morning to “work”? It was utterly nonsensical and incomprehensible.

‘How can someone be...’

...this shameless and rude?

Gubong clenched his teeth. He was already in a bad mood from dreaming about the past.

‘Is this really the person the Sect Leader waited for so long?’

Biting his lip, Gubong glared at Gu Yangcheon.

He didn’t want to accept it.

Especially not this man.

-You ran away, didn’t you?

Those words echoed in his mind, wrapping around his thoughts.

"If you want to do something, at least explain—"

He was trying to hold back and speak rationally when—

"Ah, you talk too much."

Once again, Gu Yangcheon cut him off, his voice laced with irritation.

"I figured you’d be the most knowledgeable, so I’m asking you to help. Don’t worry; I got permission from your precious Sect Leader."

"Permission from the Sect Leader?"

Gubong’s eyes widened at Gu Yangcheon’s words.

The Sect Leader gave permission?

"For what...?"

"I asked to borrow you for a bit, and he said sure."

"..."

“Borrow”? As if he were an object?

That word alone made Gubong’s blood boil, but the mention of the Sect Leader’s approval stifled his retort.

The Sect Leader had permitted it.

That one phrase was enough to bind all of Gubong’s actions.

"Hmph."

Gu Yangcheon glanced at him, as if amused, and added,

"Just so we’re clear, I didn’t ask you because I like you or anything."

"Then why...?"

"You were simply the best option."

"..."

What did he mean? If he didn’t like him, why not just ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) choose someone else?

Why go out of his way to declare that Gubong was the best choice?

"So stop sulking and get up. I’m busy, too."

"What exactly are we doing...?"

Gubong staggered to his feet, and Gu Yangcheon replied,

"Nothing too complicated."

It really wasn’t.

"We’re going to crush some nobles. I don’t have much information on them."

"What?"

"You know about them, don’t you? Fill me in."

It wasn’t "nothing" to Gubong.

"Nobles... What did you say about nobles?"

"I said I need to clean them up. I just don’t have the details."

Oh. So he hadn’t misheard.

"No..."

But why hadn’t he misheard?

Gubong stared at Gu Yangcheon, his face full of disbelief.

"Why on earth would you deal with them so suddenly?"

Struggling to maintain his composure, Gubong asked. To which Gu Yangcheon answered,

"Because they’re annoying."

It was the most irrational answer imaginable.

"Aren’t they annoying to you, too?"

"That’s not the point..."

Gubong wanted to explain that this wasn’t about whether they were annoying or not.

As he’d noticed earlier, this man was like fire.

Relentlessly blazing. Just standing near him made Gubong feel like he might burn, too.

"The nobles... The aristocracy..."

Determined to calm things down, Gubong tried to speak, but—

"I thought you, of all people, would understand."

"..."

That remark made him freeze.

A seemingly casual comment carried a sharp edge.

Gubong looked at Gu Yangcheon, but the latter simply smirked and turned his gaze away.

"Never mind, then."

"About the nobles—"

Did he know something about him?

Gubong’s voice trembled slightly as he tried to ask, but—

"Who’s making a racket in front of my house this early?"

A new voice interrupted their exchange.

Gubong’s eyes widened as he recognized who it was.

"Elder?"

It was the turtle. Only then did Gubong realize where they were.

The place Gu Yangcheon had dragged him to was none other than the Elder’s teahouse.

The turtle elder, his long eyebrows twitching slightly, looked at the two of them with an annoyed expression.

"Do you know what time it is? Disturbing an old man’s sleep at the crack of dawn..."

Clearly irritated, the turtle elder grumbled.

"If you’re going to fight, do it somewhere else."

He waved his staff dismissively as if telling them to leave.

Seeing this, Gu Yangcheon stepped forward and said,

"We’re not fighting. I have some business with you, Elder—"

"I have no business with you."

The turtle elder cut him off firmly and turned to head back inside. But—

Thud!

"...What?"

The door that was about to close was caught by Gu Yangcheon. The turtle elder let out a breath of disbelief.

Caught?

"You... How did you...?"

"About that thing you did last time. Can you do it again?"

"What?"

"You know, the ears and tail."

At Gu Yangcheon’s words, the turtle elder looked him over.

Now that he thought about it, the enhancements he’d given him were completely gone.

"...What? Where did they go?"

The elder was clearly taken aback.

It had only been a day. Even at the earliest, they should have lasted three days, yet they were already gone?

"Oh, about that," Gu Yangcheon said with an awkward laugh.

"I was fiddling with them last night... and accidentally undid it."

"You what?"

Undid? What did he mean by “undid”?

The turtle elder, clearly confused, asked again.

"You’re saying they came undone?"

He’d warned that extreme force could unravel it, but for it to happen so soon was unusual.

It didn’t make sense.

The enhancements weren’t meant to unravel easily.

Not unless someone like the Sect Leader, a complete lunatic by any standard, was involved.

At that, Gu Yangcheon raised his hands in defense.

"Oh, no. I undid them."

"...You undid them?"

"Yes."

"How?"

The enhancements weren’t designed to be undone so easily.

They were a type of curse.

It wasn’t something that could just be removed on a whim.

Yet he’d undone it?

When the turtle, completely baffled, asked for an explanation, Gu Yangcheon awkwardly clicked his tongue and replied,

"Well... I thought it’d be useful to know how it works, so I fiddled with it a bit... and it just came undone. Hahaha..."

"..."

The turtle stared at Gu Yangcheon like he was some kind of lunatic.

It just "came undone"? His curse?

Impossible.

"That’s impossible. It’s not the kind of thing that just comes undone because you mess with it."

"Exactly! It shouldn’t have come undone, but it did. So I thought you might be able to redo it for me..."

"...What?"

What nonsense was this?

The turtle had plenty of things he wanted to point out, but he stopped mid-sentence.

Only now did he realize something.

‘Right... How can anyone even judge that monster?’

What exactly was standing before him?

It was something even he couldn’t comprehend.

As he’d told the Sect Leader, it was balanced on a razor-thin edge.

If that edge twisted even slightly, it would overflow.

An unstoppable catastrophe.

The fact that it was being contained at all was strange.

By his logic, it shouldn’t have been possible. But if he had to grasp at a reason...

‘The quality of his soul.’

A soul that shone brighter than anyone else’s.

A vessel so radiant and vast that it could cancel out laws of nature.

Gu Yangcheon might not have known it himself, but the turtle understood it better than anyone.

‘It’s a shame.’

That’s why it felt like such a waste.

‘If only he had been born in my world.’

If that monster had been born in the turtle’s own world instead of elsewhere...

Perhaps there could have been hope.

That thought crossed his mind, but—

"...The Sect Leader’s request ended yesterday. Get out of here."

It was a meaningless fantasy. The turtle shook his head and pushed the door to close it.

But—

"..."

"..."

The door didn’t budge. No matter how much strength he used, it refused to move.

Finally, the turtle shouted at Gu Yangcheon.

"Let go of the door already!"

"If I let go, you won’t do it. Please, just help me out. It didn’t look that hard yesterday."

"This damned brat!"

The turtle’s face turned red with anger.

Gu Yangcheon reminded him of someone else—a resemblance so uncanny it sent chills down his spine.

As the argument dragged on, Gubong finally stepped forward to intervene.

"Master Gu! What are you doing to the elder?!"

"What do you mean? Should I just leave things as they are? I can’t do that."

"Where exactly are you trying to go this early in the morning?"

"Where else? Back to where we were yesterday. They’ll all be there."

"...You’re not seriously saying you want to return to Yawol Palace, are you?"

Gubong’s question made Gu Yangcheon frown.

"Why do you think I’m going through all this trouble? Do I look like I’m doing this for fun?"

"..."

If only it were for fun. Gubong thought silently.

Gu Yangcheon silenced Gubong with a glance before turning back to the turtle.

"The Sect Leader approved this. Could you just do it for me?"

At this, the turtle’s expression darkened.

"The Sect Leader approved it?"

"Yes, he told me to retrieve what I need. Said you’d help."

What kind of nonsense was this?

"That’s ridiculous. The request ended yesterday. The Sect Leader wouldn’t have forgotten that."

He was genuinely upset.

There were boundaries they were supposed to respect. The Sect Leader wouldn’t cross that line, so what was this?

The turtle gripped his staff, ready to reprimand Gu Yangcheon, but—

"Oh, he also said if you helped, he’d extend the plum tea agreement by a month."

"This time, for three days again?"

"Yes? Oh, yes."

At the sudden change in the turtle’s demeanor, Gu Yangcheon stared at him in disbelief.

The force pushing the door had vanished entirely.

What was so special about plum tea?

It was just a decent tea, nothing extraordinary.

If he’d known, he would have mentioned the tea from the start.

The turtle picked up his staff and muttered.

"Do you not need it for the girl this time?"

He was referring to Cheonma.

Gu Yangcheon nodded in response.

"Yes, I’m not taking her."

After all the teasing she’d done yesterday, he had no intention of bringing her along.

Besides, she hadn’t been around since morning, so leaving her behind seemed like the best option.

"Hmm."

The turtle nodded and waved his staff.

At that moment—

Thump!

A strange sensation brushed past Gu Yangcheon’s heart.

He focused on it.

It didn’t spread through his body.

Instead, it swirled around his heart, lingering there.

It felt foreign.

Unpleasant, yet bearable.

As he concentrated—

Saaaaa—!

Beast-like ears and a tail sprouted from his body again.

Unlike before, when they appeared without him noticing, this time he could feel it clearly.

Squish.

Touching his ears, he felt the same soft texture as before.

Squish, squish.

Amused, he played with them for a while.

Seeing this, the turtle swung his staff irritably.

"It’s done. The warnings are the same as before. Now get out of here and don’t come back—"

The turtle stopped mid-sentence.

Fwoosh!

The ears and tail Gu Yangcheon had just gained dissolved into smoke and vanished in an instant.

"What—!"

The turtle’s eyes widened in shock. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Had he made a mistake and cast the wrong spell?

No.

‘He dispelled it.’

Gu Yangcheon had just undone the curse on the spot.

Now he understood that Gu Yangcheon’s claim of undoing it before wasn’t a lie.

But to undo something he’d just gone to the trouble of casting?

"You... What have you done...?"

The turtle began to speak accusingly, but—

"Oh, I’ve got it now. So that’s how it works."

Gu Yangcheon clapped his hands as if he’d figured something out.

Clap!

And with that, his ears and tail reappeared.

This time, it wasn’t the turtle’s doing.

"...You... you..."

The turtle stammered, his composure shaken.

Meanwhile, Gu Yangcheon looked unusually pleased, his face lit up with excitement.

"Now I get it. Oh, I knew if I tried it one more time, I’d figure it out. Perfect timing."

"Wait—"

"Now that I’ve learned it, I won’t need to come back. Thanks for everything. Let’s go."

Gu Yangcheon stepped away from the door and approached Gubong, looking completely satisfied.

"..."

The turtle could only watch in stunned silence.

His name was Sul, the fallen king of sorcery.