“SECT MASTER—!!”

The moment Seongheon suddenly collapsed, everyone nearby shot to their feet.

“What the—!”

“Get the Sect Master out of here, now...!”

Not just the elders—even the Plum Blossom Swordsmen who’d been set in formation around us moved to secure him. Seongheon’s body was already limp, and someone threw him over a shoulder.

“Go find a physician, right now!”

The Plum Blossom Commander barked it with furious eyes. The face looked—no matter who saw it—like someone genuinely shocked.

“What is this...?”

“Poison? Don’t tell me HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE fed poison to the Sect Master....”

“There’s no way...! This is Mount Hua!”

“Hah...!”

Mount Hua pride. The moment someone said it, the Plum Blossom Commander’s eyes flared.

“And # Nоvеlight # what if it’s Mount Hua?”

“Commander...?”

“Two unorthodox hideouts were sitting in the county, and now we’ve got talk of spies inside the sect itself—do you really think being Mount Hua means it’s safe?”

SSSSSHHH—!!

A presence poured out of his body.

“Get a grip! The Sect Master collapsed!”

At the shout, the elders’ faces tightened.

Watching it, I almost admired it.

Wow. Look at this guy.

Had he played politics before?

The way he was tearing the board open was sharp as hell.

This is ridiculous.

Using the moment like that.

If you get angry first, people naturally look at you less suspiciously.

Was that the intention?

Even the elder who’d raised that doubt—

From the looks of it, he carried HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE aura.

It wasn’t a stretch to think this was a board they’d already set.

...Hmmm.

As I frowned at that—

“Moon Knight. Sorry, but I think we should end this meeting for now.”

The Plum Blossom Commander spoke to me.

“The Sect Master’s condition comes first, so please understand.”

“Ah, yes. It’s fine.”

I nodded.

While the Plum Blossom Commander moved to break the room up—

I shifted my gaze and stared at nothing.

Empty air.

While every elder was panicking—

[.......]

“.......”

In that empty air, Seongheon’s living spirit was watching all of it.

With a face so tangled it looked painful.

*****

After the meeting got wrecked by Seongheon collapsing, the mission naturally went into standby.

The investigation mattered, sure—

But with the Sect Master like that, it was the kind of moment where everything had to freeze.

“Are you really okay with this?”

I asked it—at Seongheon, not Yoo Cheongil.

Seongheon’s real body was in the medical hall, being examined.

But Seongheon, with a stiff expression, was hovering in my quarters.

“Shouldn’t you go back and check?”

[It’s fine.]

“If you leave it like that, you don’t know what they’ll do.”

HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE had influence even inside Mount Hua Sect.

Hell, even the Plum Blossom Commander—called the guardian of Mount Hua—was part of that force.

Who knew what kind of nerve they had to come out like this.

And—

“Then tell me to help you.”

I was the one facing Seongheon’s life force directly.

If Seongheon wanted, I could—

...Well.

No, honestly, I probably wouldn’t have.

How the hell was I supposed to block every threat digging into Seongheon?

That was just impossible.

But still—

I would’ve tried something.

A request was a request.

Even if I didn’t know whether it would work.

But Seongheon didn’t want it.

Because one of the things Seongheon had demanded from me was exactly this:

No matter what happens, do not interfere with anything that happens to me.

It was a ridiculous demand.

It was basically: Even if HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE does something to me, don’t care.

And in the first place...

What Seongheon wanted was already a problem.

He’d asked me to kill him.

Of course, that “kill me” wasn’t a direct murder—

There were other conditions, so I accepted it.

Even so, it was still the same kind of insane.

“......You’re really saying you’re fine?”

[Yes. This, too, is my karma.]

“Karma?”

[The karma of an incompetent, stupid old man who didn’t even know what was happening around him.]

“.......”

[Maybe because I spent my whole life in Mount Hua staring at plum blossoms. I only saw the tree—so I never saw the forest at all.]

A shadow fell across Seongheon’s face.

[What was I trying so hard to treat as holy...? I don’t even know anymore.]

“So you’re saying it’s fine if you just let them kill you?”

[Even if I changed my intent, they’re still Mount Hua people in the end. If that is their choice, I understand it.]

“That’s your choice now—after you’ve seen everything.”

The bluntness slipped out before I could stop it.

“Your choice while you’re alive might be different.”

[No. It won’t.]

It was a firm answer.

[Because I already know—and I’m still staying still.]

“......What did you say?”

My eyes narrowed.

He already knew and still got hit?

“What do you mean? You knew there was poison and you still took it?”

[Yes.]

“......What kind of idiot does that?”

The words came out before I could even remember manners.

What kind of bullshit—

“And that’s because of atonement or something?”

You’re going to drink poison from the disciples and martial brothers who betrayed you and call that “atonement”?

What—some noble, stupid suicide?

My temper flared.

Choosing to end your own life.

I hated nothing more than that kind of thing.

“If you’re going to do that, then stay alive and fix it. If you act like that because it’s ‘atonement,’ what changes?”

Mount Hua was falling apart.

Mount Hua—the thing you claim you cherish.

It was being ruined this badly, and you’re talking about atonement?

“What kind of goddamn bullshit is that?”

That wasn’t atonement.

That was running away.

I spat it at him, angry.

And after I’d been breathing it out for a while—

[......Maybe you’re right.]

Seongheon’s voice came back, thin and miserable.

[But even without the poison, my body had already reached its limit long ago.]

“...What?”

[Even if I didn’t take poison, I knew my body would collapse before long.]

A body that would fall even without poison.

I clicked my tongue.

I could tell from his life force.

I knew that much.

Even if Seongheon hadn’t taken poison, it would’ve happened anyway.

But—

“Still. You shouldn’t have given up.”

That wasn’t what I was angry about.

“No matter what your life is like, no matter how your disciples come at you—you shouldn’t have given up.”

Giving up on life so easily.

That was what made the irritation crawl up my spine.

Even if you’re about to die, picking poison as “atonement”—

I didn’t get it.

My heat rose and I was about to keep going—

“You should’ve at least thrashed around a little—”

I stopped mid-sentence.

“.......”

Something was off.

My eyes narrowed.

Because what I’d just said meant—

He knew it was poison and took it, and he’s going to die soon anyway because he’s sick.

Why?

Why did Seongheon do that?

My skin went cold.

“Sect Master.”

[Yes.]

Seongheon answered.

I looked at him and lowered my voice.

“There’s more, isn’t there?”

[.......]

Seongheon shut his mouth.

“You.”

The respect dropped out of my mouth.

“There’s something you didn’t tell me. Right?”

[.......]

“Don’t you dare stay quiet.”

[Ahae.]

“Old man, stay out of it.”

I stopped Yoo Cheongil from butting in.

Then I asked Seongheon with cold eyes.

“There’s more. You didn’t ‘choose’ to drink poison. This is... you were forced into a situation where you had to.”

Because the logic didn’t go:

My body’s failing, so poison doesn’t matter.

It went:

My body’s failing, so poison is convenient.

It sounded like the same thing if you flipped it around—

But it wasn’t.

Not here.

“You’re using your failing body to drink poison. And it isn’t because of atonement. You’re in a situation where you have no choice but to drink it.”

Seongheon had said he knew it was poison and still took it.

That line drilled into my head.

“What did you put on the line?”

[......!]

“To make you drink poison—who put what on the line? That’s what I’m asking.”

Seongheon’s eyes widened.

And then the look he made—

[Heh... This...]

It was written all over his face.

He got caught.

And that was the only answer I needed.

Someone was feeding poison to the Plum Blossom Single Sword.

Not secretly—openly.

And the Plum Blossom Single Sword knew and still drank it?

That meant there was a reason that had nothing to do with atonement.

A reason he had to drink it.

And the person feeding it—

I’d seen the elders.

I’d seen the disciples.

But—

The one whose intent was the clearest.

And the one best positioned to reach the Sect Master.

“...Plum Blossom Commander.”

[.......]

“So he’s the one feeding you poison.”

Seongheon’s expression hardened.

But that wasn’t the end.

I wasn’t curious about the culprit.

The more important thing was the other part.

Even if the Plum Blossom Commander was feeding Seongheon poison—

Why...

Why was Seongheon letting it happen?

There was only one answer I could guess.

Because everyone knew what Seongheon treasured.

“Yuyeon.”

I said the Sword Phoenix’s name.

“That girl is your leash, isn’t she?”

[.......]

Seongheon’s spirit-body shook hard.

******

“Sect Master! Please—wake up!”

Inside, Mount Hua disciples moved like they’d been drilled.

The Sect Master lay collapsed, bleeding.

People rushed in, but—

“Enough!”

The Plum Blossom Commander barked a shout.

“The Sect Master must rest. Don’t cause discomfort—everyone return to your positions!”

He poured out presence with an enraged face.

The shock looked real on him, too—plain as day.

At the Plum Blossom Commander’s command, they hesitated and stepped back.

“What are you doing—hurry the treatment...!”

The Plum Blossom Commander pressed the physician, then shut the door.

And immediately—

UUUUUUNG—!!

A plum-colored barrier spread around the quarters.

To cut off sound.

The noise from inside vanished behind it.

Only then did the room go quiet.

The physician, who’d been sweating cold, shifted expression.

“......Hoo.”

And the Plum Blossom Commander’s face—raw a moment ago—cooled into something icy.

“So it’s finally time.”

He looked down at Seongheon, unconscious.

“Senior brother.”

There was a rough presence in that voice.

“So it’s finally this time.”

Madness lived in those eyes.

A faint greed clung to the Plum Blossom Commander’s gaze.

“You stayed up here a long time. Didn’t you?”

On this straight, high peak of Mount Hua—

He’d been there far too long.

In the seat that should’ve been mine.

“I’ll keep the promise.”

The Plum Blossom Commander spoke with a smile held on his mouth.

“I won’t touch my senior brother’s last disciple.”

If that was Seongheon’s dying wish, then as a martial brother, I should honor it.

But—

“I’m saying...”

What others did—

That was another story.

And besides—

“...All right. Now I can clear it out, can’t I.”

The other existence that got in my way.

Moon Knight of Blue Moon Sect.

It was time to kill him.

I need to go find Strange Demon.

Before I made my move, I needed to ask something.

With that thought, the Plum Blossom Commander slowly loaded killing intent into his eyes.