"Ku, krrr... N-no way! T-talma!?"

The Grand Elder trembled with killing intent and pain, stammering with a shocked face.

More than the fact that I had my arm around Gun Hye-rin’s waist, what stunned him was something else.

It was this thing called talma.

I quietly asked Gun Hye-rin about it through the group chat.

『"What is talma? Ah, wait—is it that? Did they just phrase it coyly because it’d be embarrassing ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) to say outright...?"』

But as I was asking, my intuition kicked in.

'Talma.'

Using the character for “to shed” and the “ma” for hemp. As in: stripping off clothes made of hemp.

Meaning, in this era the undergarments are usually made of hemp so sweat doesn’t build up, so it’d mean taking off one’s undergarments.

That’s what it sounded like.

So, not a literal translation but an interpretive one—you took off our cult leader’s underwear, didn’t you? You did, didn’t you.

That was how it came across.

However, the answer I heard was a bit different from what I expected.

"I don’t know what you’re imagining, but talma is the Heavenly Demon Cult’s term for Realm of Manifestation.

Those who learn demonic arts, if they fail to reach Realm of Manifestation, either die later in horrific agony due to demonic qi, or the demonic qi seeps into their marrow, drives them mad, and they rampage until someone else kills them. The word means that one has escaped from that curse of demonic qi—that is talma."

"Ahaha. So it’s a different name for the same thing. And here I was."』

From what I heard, the precise meaning of talma was the Heavenly Demon Cult’s way of referring to Realm of Manifestation.

Then Gun Hye-rin’s question came through.

『"What on earth were you imagining, Master?"』

She seemed curious what I’d thought talma was.

If this were before I became a married man, I wouldn’t have been shameless enough to spell it out to Gun Hye-rin, but after being hounded by Hwa-eun and Gun Hye-rin and the Princess, I could say at least this much without batting an eye.

Or is it because I became a married man?

Back in my previous life, wasn’t there a rumor that married bros and sis’s were deft at lewd jokes?

'Ha... So-ryong’s fallen. But this is absolutely not on me.'

Rationalizing to myself that it wasn’t my fault, I spoke in a slightly brazen tone.

『"Well, since they said talma, I thought of the ‘shed’ with the ‘ma’ for hemp, so, you know..."

"And so?"

"Undergarments are usually made of hemp, aren’t they?"

"That’s true."

"So, I thought it meant: I took off Hye-rin’s underwear. That Hye-rin’s body and heart had become completely mine—something like that."

"Khhm."』

Gun Hye-rin’s face turned bright red at my answer.

She trembled, embarrassed.

I do think Hye-rin being shy is adorable, but her next question followed.

『"Master?"

"Yes?"

"But I think you can stop with the killing intent now. The Grand Elder is quite old..."

"Ah—right."』

I’d been so caught up in useless thoughts that I’d forgotten to withdraw my killing intent.

The moment I swiftly recalled my killing intent, the Grand Elder collapsed right there.

"Kk-heup. Hah... hah... hah."

The Grand Elder panted for breath.

His face was drenched in sweat.

'Hey, he’s not going to die, is he?'

Maybe because I had dragged the killing intent out too long, his complexion was deathly pale.

He’s old, too—this could turn serious, couldn’t it?

That thought made me twitch toward the Grand Elder without thinking, but Gun Hye-rin caught my wrist and gave a slight shake of her head.

『"Master, don’t. Leave him. If you show any attitude of checking his body or worrying over him, he’ll take it as an insult."

"R-really?"

"Yes. The people of the Heavenly Demon Cult feel the pity bestowed by the strong upon the weak to be the deepest humiliation."』

Since I’d put him in that state, checking on him would be the height of giving disease and then offering medicine, but if I checked, they’d take it as an insult.

When I’d gone from living in Korea to being dropped in the Central Plains, the cultural gap had already been quite large; between the Central Plains and the Heavenly Demon Cult, the gap was just as wide.

'This is a completely different world.'

For now, when I put on a calm expression as Gun Hye-rin instructed, she tugged on my hem and, sounding oddly bashful, spoke.

『"Master, shouldn’t you say it now?"

"Ah—right."』

Prodded by Gun Hye-rin, I pulled out from memory the words we’d decided on beforehand.

"Lead us to his quarters."

According to Gun Hye-rin, there was no need to spell out the details. All I had to do was put my arm around her waist, show a burst of killing intent, then say to lead us to his quarters.

Being able to enter the Heavenly Demon’s quarters meant one was permitted—his wife or husband, or someone granted leave. If the Grand Elder guided us there now, it meant we’d been acknowledged.

Obedience to strength, per the Heavenly Demon Cult’s law?

If anyone had complaints, someone would burst out at this very moment, she’d said—but no one did.

Yet we also didn’t get a guide.

'What is this, recognition or not?'

Small wonder: the Grand Elder, perhaps because the killing intent had gone on too long, still couldn’t steady his body.

The one who should guide us, the Grand Elder, was still panting for breath.

『"Hye-rin, what happens in this case?"

"Well..."』

As I wondered what this situation amounted to and asked Gun Hye-rin, the Grand Elder managed to lift his head and look behind him. Then a man rushed in and prostrated himself before us.

"Since the Grand Elder still cannot hold himself upright, I—I will attend you!"

"Ah, and you are?"

The man prostrating before us was the very head of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Armed Force Unit who had first met Gun Hye-rin along with her.

The leader of the six demons who had come to deal with the Heavenly Demon Cult followers rampaging under a run-away demonic qi.

He knew my face, so when he saw me he greeted me as an acquaintance.

"Do you remember me? I am Mu Cheon-pung, Chief of the Black Sword Unit."

"Oh, right. I remember. Er—do remember."

"I will attend you. This way, please."

I already knew his status from what I’d heard from Gun Hye-rin.

Mu Cheon-pung.

One of the two Armed Force Units currently existing in the Heavenly Demon Cult—its chief.

By Gun Hye-rin’s account, it was a status like captain of the royal guard.

"Very well. Let’s go."

Following him, we entered what looked like the village’s largest storehouse.

Then the straw spread across the middle was pulled aside, and a large wooden door in the floor appeared.

—Kiiik.

When warriors disguised as ordinary villagers opened that door, a large stairway appeared. Following him down those steps, a natural cave revealed itself.

"Hoo."

We moved a bit along the torch-lit natural cave, and a vast side-cavern came into view.

There, the real Heavenly Demon Cult lay.

How did they manage to build something like this underground after supposedly being ruined and driven out?

Is this that saying—a rich house lasts three years even after ruin?

Below ground stood towering three-story halls and, lined before them, rows of single-story buildings.

It was practically an underground village.

'This isn’t the Heavenly Demon Cult, it’s dwarves, isn’t it?'

It looked like one of those underground dwarf towns from a fantasy world.

The cave ceiling was covered in crystals, and the light from torches here and there reflected off them, making the whole interior surprisingly bright.

As we followed Mu Cheon-pung down the street, people on both sides prostrated themselves and shouted like fanatics.

"Ten-thousand years to the Heavenly Demon! May demons prosper forever!"

Through the ground floor of the three-story hall, we climbed up to the third floor, where a large chair spread with leopard skin came into view.

A massive chair designed to lounge on at a slant.

The leopard skin gleamed with sheen.

"I’ll take my leave here."

Mu Cheon-pung bowed after guiding us to the door and withdrew. Slowly, the door closed.

Once it shut, Gun Hye-rin led me toward that chair.

"Master, sit. This is your seat now."

It felt like a throne, but Gun Hye-rin was telling me to sit, as if to say, you’re the leader here.

Thanks to my wife, I even got to try sitting in the boss’s chair of this cult.

Thinking I was living in luxury, I leaned back in the chair, and Gun Hye-rin climbed onto my thigh, wrapped her arms around my neck, and whispered softly.

"Master, will you... talma?"

"Talma?"

I was already in the Realm of Manifestation, so what Realm of Manifestation was she talking about again?

As I tilted my head in puzzlement, her shy voice followed.

"Just now. That ‘shed’ tal with the ‘ma’ from hemp."

Wait—was she really suggesting here, in none other than the Heavenly Demon’s throne room, that I embrace her?

My eyes widened at Gun Hye-rin’s proposal.

I thought only the Princess was a succubus, but apparently Gun Hye-rin was one too, in her own way.

This was like, in fantasy terms, the Demon King storming the imperial capital and, right there on the throne, taking the queen...

A colossal sense of conquest—of taking both the nation and its ruler.

'This sense of conquest, it’s...'

It was hard to answer right away, but my hands moved before my mouth did.

Gun Hye-rin’s ribbon ties were loosening under my fingers.

—Srrrk.

***

By the time the Grand Elder, barely having steadied himself, reached the Heavenly Demon Cult’s main hall, he saw Ma Cheon-pung just stepping out.

"H-how did it go?"

"I’ve seen them inside. But... are you all right, Elder?"

The Grand Elder asked urgently, while Ma Cheon-pung wore an expression of duty fulfilled.

At Ma Cheon-pung’s question, the Grand Elder answered with a sorrowful, lamenting face.

"My body is hardly the problem now, is it? Khhk..."

A dark, grief-stricken look, like he was about to burst into tears.

At his words and expression, Ma Cheon-pung tilted his head and asked.

"Why wear such an expression on such a joyous day?"

To Ma Cheon-pung’s thinking, the Heavenly Demon had brought a peerless expert as a consort, so surely only a bright future awaited their sect.

Yes, when they first met, he’d been introduced as the Tang Clan’s son-in-law. But seeing the Heavenly Demon bring him here like this, he thought it clear the Heavenly Demon must have taken him away from the Tang Clan.

After all, there was no way the Heavenly Demon would take a concubine.

Wasn’t this the perfect occasion? A humiliation for those righteous Baekdo fools, and a splendid new son-in-law gained.

But the Grand Elder spoke in a heavy voice, his face grave with frustration.

"Fool. Do you not see what this situation truly is?"

"Eh?"

When Ma Cheon-pung tilted his head, the Grand Elder looked upstairs and explained.

"Didn’t you say when you first saw him that he was at the peak or perhaps just beyond?"

"Yes, indeed. Isn’t it amazing? Not even a year since I first met him, and he’s already advanced past the Flower Realm and reached the Realm of Manifestation. He must be a peerless genius."

"Yes. A genius without doubt. Advancing two entire realms in so short a span—such a thing has never existed in the history of Murim. But do you not see that such a genius has come not as husband, but as conqueror?"

"A... conqueror?"

"It is clear his intent from the start was to wipe us all out."

At the word conqueror, Ma Cheon-pung’s eyes widened.

He had thought the Heavenly Demon had taken for a husband an extraordinary man from another clan, but to call him a conqueror—

And to say he had meant to kill them all.

As Ma Cheon-pung gaped, the Grand Elder’s explanation continued.

"If it were merely killing intent offered in greeting, it would have ended quickly. But that killing intent was aimed to kill me. If not, it would have ceased far sooner.

No doubt he intended to strike me down in front of everyone, to set an example."

"Th-that’s true..."

Yes, indeed.

For killing intent offered merely as a show of strength, it had been far too severe.

And far too prolonged.

Had it not been the Grand Elder but someone else, they surely would have died.

The Grand Elder went on.

"Did you not see? When I was about to lose my life under that killing intent, the Heavenly Demon trembled and suffered.

At the very brink, when he halted his hand and would have struck me down himself, the Heavenly Demon caught his sleeve and shook her head. No doubt she sacrificed herself for the sake of our Heavenly Demon Cult."

"Sacrifice?"

The Heavenly Demon, sacrifice?

Ma Cheon-pung’s face showed disbelief.

And then an even more incredible story came forth.

"You do not know, but I, as Grand Elder, have the means to discern the Heavenly Demon’s bloodline and consorts. It is a method to preserve our line.

When one trained in Heavenly Demon Martial Arts lies with a man or woman, that person’s qi faintly lingers in them, and they in their partner. I can sense it. But the Heavenly Demon was yet a virgin. No one’s qi had touched her. The same for him."

"Then...?"

"Then this is to subdue the Heavenly Demon with our very lives. Certainly, he could simply take her. But to subjugate her body and her heart... No doubt, right now the Heavenly Demon is..."

At that moment—

From the third floor came a faint moan.

"Haang..."

At that sound, Ma Cheon-pung drew his sword and rushed to charge upstairs.

"Khhrgh! That the Heavenly Demon should suffer such humiliation! Even if it costs me my life—!"

Even against one in the Realm of Manifestation, he was ready to die together in mutual destruction.

Even if all he could do was brush a sleeve. But the Grand Elder, weeping, cried out.

"Will you render the Heavenly Demon’s sacrifice meaningless!? Can you not see this is to save us all!? Khhk..."

"Khhrhkk..."

At the Heavenly Demon’s moan, both the Grand Elder and Ma Cheon-pung wept tears of blood, lamenting.