“You sensed me.”

A sword touched the end of my throat. The air had gone cold. An endlessly black figure stood before me.

Wrapped head to toe in black cloth, with even the voice stripped of gender, there was no way to tell whether the intruder was a man or a woman.

“......”

My eyes trembled as I stared at the figure.

What ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) was I even supposed to call this? Nothing showed. That was what made it feel so alien.

This was a position where digging even a little deeper would get me killed.

[It’s the Dark Sovereign.]

Yoo Cheongil told me who it was. Even without hearing it, I had already known.

The Dark Sovereign.

Master of the shadows. Exalted one among assassins.

And that vicious, threatening existence was standing right in front of me.

With my life under the edge of a blade.

Why?

Why was he here?

Had I done something wrong? What could I possibly have done to warrant this from the Dark Sovereign?

I tried to sort it out, but it wasn’t easy. Nothing came to mind.

So what did that leave?

First...

I needed to talk.

I had to get this danger off me before anything else.

“Who are you?”

I asked for the identity first. My voice shook, faintly.

That tremor was intentional.

“......”

There was no response at first. So I stayed still and waited for an answer.

Then—

FSSSS.

The sword tip drew back a little. The Dark Sovereign reacted a beat late.

A moment later, the Dark Sovereign took one step back and spoke.

“You already know, and yet you wag your tongue and play tricks.”

“......”

“Isn’t that right?”

It sounded like there would not be a third question. A chill slid down my spine.

This was dangerous.

“......How did the master of shadows come looking for someone as worthless as me?”

I admitted I knew who he was.

“Worthless? That is a strange thing to call yourself, considering how much noise you’ve been making.”

“Not by choice.”

As I answered, I swept a glance around the room. Nothing had changed. It was exactly the same as it had been before I left.

Which meant the Dark Sovereign had entered this place without touching a single thing.

“Are you here to kill me, perhaps?”

If the Dark Sovereign had come looking for me, then after the Plum Blossom Commander, was I the next one meant to die? That was the thought behind the question.

But—

“Not now.”

The Dark Sovereign answered plainly.

That made it even scarier. Not now meant someday, maybe.

“......”

“I’ll ask you something. How did you sense me?”

The question came as though he was genuinely curious.

That meant I had to think very carefully here.

That line—you sensed me. Did he mean the moment I hesitated before entering? Or...

Or that I sensed the Dark Sovereign was the one who killed the Plum Blossom Commander.

I had to figure out which it was.

My hesitation was brief. There was no need to think long.

Just from the fact that the Dark Sovereign had come here himself, the answer was already obvious.

“......You mean how I knew you were the one who killed the Plum Blossom Commander?”

“That’s right.”

So that was the correct answer.

Of course it was. There would have been no reason for him to come otherwise.

The problem was—

How?

How had he known that I’d noticed?

Was he watching?

Had he been observing while I was speaking with Yeo Hyeok? Otherwise, there was no way he could know.

Terrifying.

A being who hid the entire face and looked like someone who could kill another person whenever he pleased.

That alone was sharp enough to cut.

“I left behind no clue that should have exposed me. And yet you noticed. How?”

TRICKLE—!

Cold sweat ran down me.

Why?

What is this?

The Dark Sovereign wasn’t even holding a weapon. But it felt as if swords were pointed at me from every direction.

It felt like someone had seized my heart in a fist, like a dagger had already reached the end of my throat.

If I hesitate, I die.

I knew it instinctively. This wasn’t just a feeling. It was closer to death itself stepping up to me and issuing a warning.

I couldn’t afford to answer slowly.

So I spoke.

“My master told me.”

[Again?]

Yoo Cheongil reacted like the answer was absurd. As if he’d been waiting for it, he let out a hollow breath at the way I sold him out without hesitation.

What do you want me to do about it? I need to stay alive first.

If I wanted to live, I had to sell anything I could.

And luckily, I had something trustworthy right beside me.

“Your master...”

At that word, the black cloth draped over the Dark Sovereign fluttered.

The movement of that darkness looked like a shadow turning into smoke.

“You’re saying the Sword Saint told you such a thing.”

“......Yes. About the circumstances surrounding the Plum Blossom Commander’s death. My master taught me that the only one who could create a situation like that was the Dark Sovereign.”

“The Sword Saint is not the kind of man who would explain something so kindly. Especially...”

SKRITCH.

My back twitched.

“...if it concerns someone who wanted to kill him more than anyone.”

“......”

What was that supposed to mean?

The Dark Sovereign had wanted to kill Yoo Cheongil? Ah, was this because of that thing Yoo Cheongil stole?

Then I really might die here.

That thought had just begun to crawl up my spine when—

“Even so, something does not add up.”

The Dark Sovereign kept questioning me.

“There was no flaw in how I handled it. What exactly did you see?”

He was asking about the Plum Blossom Commander’s death. So what had been the point of discord there?

The wound where his wrist had been torn open? His abrupt death? The corpse in the prison that made no sense?

I could point to all of that, but none of it would convince the Dark Sovereign right now.

Which meant—

“His forehead.”

“......”

“......I knew by looking at his forehead.”

I dangled bait that only I could know.

And then—

“Hah.”

The Dark Sovereign reacted to it.

Thankfully.

“...You...”

But—

“What are you?”

GRAB—!

“Ghk!”

The reaction was a little more violent than I would have liked.

“You saw that? Someone like you?”

“...Urgh...”

A thin arm shot out and seized my throat.

Forehead.

At that word, the Dark Sovereign reacted sharply.

...Just as I thought.

There had been one thing that had felt wrong.

The spirit trace on his forehead. A thing that should not have existed in a place where no trace at all should have remained.

And with Yoo Cheongil already saying the Dark Sovereign had killed the Plum Blossom Commander—

that meant the Dark Sovereign had noticed something was there.

He just didn’t know exactly what I had seen.

“You sensed that? You?”

“...Kgh...”

“You have not reached that place. So how did you see it?”

Reached?

Reached where?

The question followed naturally, but I didn’t dig into it.

“...You can see it even without reaching it. Because that is what my master wanted.”

“......”

I sold Yoo Cheongil out again.

This was the best method.

“...He gave you eyes that can see it?”

See what, exactly? Spirit traces? Or something else?

The only thing I could see was spirit traces.

“...Yes.”

That didn’t matter.

What mattered was making the Dark Sovereign believe that I really could see something.

“So in the end, that treacherous bastard devised it.”

Discomfort crept into the Dark Sovereign’s voice.

[Hm...]

Yoo Cheongil tilted his head at that.

Then—

Thud.

The pressure in that hand loosened, and I dropped to my knees.

“COUGH! Hrk!”

I hacked hard.

“I don’t know whether I can believe what you said... but I’ll let it pass for now.”

The Dark Sovereign spoke.

“Yes...”

At those words, I raised my head and looked at him.

Did I survive?

That thought had only just crossed my mind when—

Tap.

A letter dropped in front of me.

What was this?

“It is a letter your client sent to you.”

“...My client? If you mean client...”

“The one who asked me to deal with the Plum Blossom Commander.”

“......”

“The commission ended with his disposal and the delivery of this to you. My part in it is over.”

I narrowed my eyes.

If that was true, then the Plum Blossom Commander’s death and my business had been connected somehow.

“Who sent this to—”

Who exactly had sent me something like this?

I tried to ask, but—

“My task is done. So please.”

The Dark Sovereign moved away from me, sounding as though all attachment to this place had already vanished.

“Do hope you never see me again.”

FSSSSSS—!!

“......”

Maybe because his curiosity had been answered, he vanished from right in front of my eyes.

Like smoke quietly thinning away.

“...What the...”

I grabbed my throbbing throat. It still hurt.

Did I live?

The Dark Sovereign had really left, hadn’t he?

I forced my pounding heart to calm down.

So that’s the greatest assassin...

A monster on the level of the Heaven-Beyond-Heaven really was built differently.

What was I supposed to do, even if I’d reached Transcendent Peak? Monsters like that were still out there.

...What a truly rotten world.

The moment I got a little stronger, it reminded me not to get careless.

There was no way to call it anything but a damned world.

“Haaah...”

I let out a long breath at the fact that I was still alive.

At the same time, I looked toward Yoo Cheongil.

[He’s gone. I can’t feel him anymore.]

Yoo Cheongil said the Dark Sovereign had disappeared completely, but I did not let my guard down.

...It was the same with Strange Demon.

It looked like there were limits to what even Yoo Cheongil could sense.

Which meant it would be better not to trust that blindly from now on.

“...So...”

Ignoring the pain in my throat, I picked up the letter the Dark Sovereign had left behind.

“What is this supposed to be...”

Who had sent this to me? The one who had ordered the Plum Blossom Commander’s death, was that what he said?

Why would someone like that send something to me...?

“Huh?”

I unfolded the letter in confusion.

The instant I saw it, my whole body froze.

The sender of the letter.

The seal stamped into it.

And the very first line written on the page.

[Our youngest.]

“......”

Our youngest.

That familiar phrase.

The moment I saw it, I realized who the owner of this letter was.

“...Brother?”

It was my brother.

Of all people.

The Bang Clan’s notoriously useless eldest son.

*****

Caw.

Caw.

A black crow cried ominously. Perched atop a dried, withered branch, it cried as though forcing down the ache of its own hunger.

A place where not a trace of life could be felt.

FSSSSS—.

FSSSS—.

A place that would make anyone recoil and wish to leave at once.

And in that place, a young man stood.

“......”

The young man opened the eyes he had kept shut.

Red.

Vivid red eyes gleamed in the dark.

CREEEEEEAK—!!!

At that moment, a tearing sound rang out from all around him.

FLAP-FLAP-FLAP—!!!

Birds burst into the air, and the young man’s shadow writhed like something gone insane.

There was clearly only one person there.

Yet his shadow looked strangely like countless figures fused together in a single mass.

A grotesque sight.

In the middle of it, the young man turned around. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Someone was sitting there with head lowered.

“I greet the little master.”

It was a woman in a face veil.

The young man looked at her and spoke.

“Dancer.”

“...Forgive me for coming to you like this.”

“What is it?”

The woman called Dancer raised her head slightly. The veil fluttered, but her face remained hidden.

“It seems a problem has arisen in the matter entrusted to Strange Demon and Taema.”

“......”

At her words, the young man’s brow furrowed.

A problem?

“Strange Demon is one thing. But Taema as well?”

“...Yes.”

“......”

CREEEEEEAK—!!!

The screaming grew louder.

It was a sound only the young man could hear.

“How strange...”

What could possibly have gone wrong?

Everything in Shaanxi should already have been finished.

Strange Demon is one thing.

But Taema...

“Is Taema on his way here?”

“...Yes.”

“Then I suppose I’ll know once he arrives and explains it.”

Whether punishment followed, or something else.

That would come afterward.

“And the matter of Destruction Demon?”

“It is proceeding smoothly.”

“Is that so? Then that is something, at least.”

The most important matter had already been reaching its end from the start.

There was no need to concern himself over Taema or Strange Demon.

Just as he thought that—

“And Mount Hua’s plum blossom has fallen.”

“Oh?”

At the woman’s words, the young man smiled.

The plum blossom had fallen.

“So the old monster is dead.”

It meant the death of the Plum Blossom Single Sword.

“So it’s finally time.”

Then the moment had come.

Anything twisted only needed to be torn out and blocked off.

The most important thing had already been achieved, so everything else was settled.

With that thought, the young man spoke.

“Send a letter to Cheonrijinan in Henan.”

At last—

“tell him the DEMON CULT’s new master will be paying a formal visit this time.”

Now, truly, it was time for the night to move.