I spent the time soothing the Tyrant King down. Even though he had really gone and dropped to one knee, he wore such a casual expression that it almost made the whole thing look ridiculous.

It was so calm it was like he had never knelt in the first place.

Was this old man actually insane?

“So. That means you’re going to help me, right?”

“...No. Helping you or not isn’t even the point—what exactly am I supposed to do when you come at me like this with no warning?”

“I didn’t have any other method. As long as the result is good, that’s all that matters, isn’t it?”

He was shameless on top of everything else. My head started to throb.

Why is it that every person tied to that old bastard...

...was outside the bounds of normal human behavior?

I was genuinely curious.

Right as that thought crossed my mind—

“Isn’t that so?”

The Tyrant King grinned and said it to me.

“If you won’t talk, I can’t exactly beat it out of you, and I can’t go any further and kill you either.”

“......”

A chilling sensation brushed past me. The killing intent buried in his words was clear.

He was right.

If it’s him...

If it was the Tyrant King, he was more than capable of wringing it out of me by force.

The problem was—

How did he know?

How had this man figured out that I knew something about the armguard?

He was certain.

Certain that I knew. He had even seen through the lie instantly.

Did I give something away?

No way. That much, I was sure of.

I’m not sloppy enough to get exposed by something like that.

My life itself proved it. If I had ever been that careless, I would have died a long time ago.

Then how?

It looked like the Tyrant King had some hidden card on his side.

“You do not seem like the sort who would give me the conclusion I want by means like that, so I merely chose the best method.”

“......”

“So please. Tell me.”

That tone of his—as if he already knew I knew—was the real problem. If I reacted carelessly here, I’d get tangled up in this too deeply.

Besides.

I wasn’t the only one connected to the Tyrant King.

That made it even worse.

What should I do?

I spun my thoughts as fast as I could. There weren’t many options, and there was even less to squeeze out of them.

When you get down to it, there are only two.

Pretend I didn’t know.

Or act like I did.

That was all there was to choose between.

My mind, which had been spinning at full tilt, came to a stop not long after. In terms of time in the real world, it was only an instant.

“Senior Muk.”

“Speak.”

“If I were to help you, Senior Muk...”

“Go on.”

At the word help, the Tyrant King’s eyes lit up.

But—

“What happens with Elder Baek Yeon?”

He froze.

The moment I followed up with that, the Tyrant King’s body went rigid. It had to be because I had brought up Baek Yeon.

Then—

“Hah.”

The Tyrant King let out a dry laugh.

“Well, look at this brat.”

SHAAAAAA...

Cold.

The wind had already been chilly, but suddenly it felt much colder. That was because of the energy coming off the Tyrant King.

“You know more than I expected—”

“Not that much. I simply drew conclusions from what I could see.”

“From what you could see?”

“Yes.”

I sorted my thoughts for a moment, then spoke to the Tyrant King.

“I was wondering why exactly you had gone out of your way to come all the way to Blue Moon Sect. I had been thinking about what that reason could be, and then, seeing you ask me for help just now, I figured it out.”

It was a lie. The moment I learned about the armguard, I had already connected him to Baek Yeon from the very beginning.

“Someone told you that what you needed was here.”

“......”

“That must be why you came all the way here, Senior Muk. And if we’re asking who would say something like that under the current circumstances—”

“And that would be Elder Baek?”

“That was how it looked to me.”

“Hahaha.”

The Tyrant King kept laughing as though he found it fascinating. He let out a short burst of laughter, then said—

“But your argument has a problem.”

“I’m listening.”

“With information like that, it is not enough to tie Baek Yeon and me together. How did you immediately think of Baek Yeon? That part doesn’t resolve itself.”

“......”

He was right. At this point, there wasn’t enough there to make it sound plausible.

But—

“There’s a reason for that too.”

“Oh?”

“Because I’ve been keeping an eye on Elder Baek Yeon this whole time.”

“Why would you?”

“That’s because—”

I deliberately left a pause /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ between my words.

I did it to make him focus on me.

Once I had drawn the Tyrant King’s full attention—

“Because he may be the man who killed my master.”

“......”

The Tyrant King’s eyes went wide the moment I said it.

But—

“What an interesting load of bullshit. Who killed who?”

The look didn’t last.

“Baek Yeon killed the Sword Saint? What a laughable thing to say.”

His tone made it clear. He didn’t believe it in the slightest.

“It seems you don’t know much about your master. He was not someone who could be killed by another person.”

A firm conviction.

Strangely enough, that was what I felt from the Tyrant King.

“The only thing in the world that could kill him was time. And even that, I was beginning to wonder if he had slipped past. But what? Who killed who?”

“Hahahahaha—”

The Tyrant King laughed loudly, harder than he had at any point so far.

“If it’s a joke, it’s a funny one.”

“It isn’t a joke.”

I cut off his reaction.

“My master was killed by someone else.”

“So what you’re saying is—”

“And I am certain there is an accomplice inside Blue Moon Sect.”

“......”

The Tyrant King’s expression twisted when he heard me. No matter how he looked at it, he had realized I was serious.

“Do you have any evidence for looking at it that way?”

“I do. But I don’t think that’s something I should tell you, Senior.”

I drew the line.

I was scared as hell.

Honestly, part of me wondered whether I should be speaking this forcefully at all, but—

“That’s fair too.”

Thankfully, the Tyrant King didn’t seem to care about my tone.

“Yoo Cheongil was murdered... Even if the world split in two, that should be impossible. Still. Fine, let’s say that’s true.”

Even if he didn’t understand it, he looked willing to entertain it.

“Let’s say it is. And among the suspects you had in mind was Baek Yeon?”

“Yes. He was one of the people I had been watching.”

Which meant I already knew Baek Yeon had been trying to use the Tyrant King.

That was how I tied it together.

“Haha.”

When my explanation ended, the Tyrant King smiled again.

“I thought something about you was curious, but this is truly refreshing.”

“What is?”

“Whether what you’re saying is sincere, or true, or neither. Put all that aside—I understand one thing now. I seem to have been mistaken about something.”

“Mistaken about what—”

“You are not like Yoo Cheongil.”

“......”

The moment I heard that, my face twisted.

“Of course I’m not. How could I possibly resemble that bastard?”

Just looking at our faces, we were obviously born different. Yoo Cheongil looked like the kind of man who’d make women run in fear the instant they saw him.

[You little shit.]

Yoo Cheongil growled at my attitude and tried to react, but—

“You say that as if you’ve seen him in person. As far as I know, you shouldn’t have.”

At the Tyrant King’s remark, I froze.

Right. By the time I became his disciple, Yoo Cheongil had already been dead.

“That’s... I’ve heard so many stories about him.”

I couldn’t exactly say I was looking at his ghost, so I glossed over it.

“Stories? Even calling them stories is...”

His face said there was no way bad rumors about Yoo Cheongil would be floating around.

“I’ve met the head of the Tang Clan too... and I also met Mount Hua’s former sect master, so...”

I hurriedly piled on excuses. Even to me, it didn’t sound like a bad cover.

At that, the Tyrant King finally looked like he understood.

“That makes sense. Right. You’ve met those old monsters.”

That seemed to explain it.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t the head of the Tang Clan I had met, but the Poison King’s soul. Still, that wasn’t the important part.

“Right. If you met those lunatics, there’s no way they told you anything nice about your master.”

What kind of life had Yoo Cheongil actually lived?

For a moment, I felt sorry for him.

“Anyway. The point of your question was Baek Yeon, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“...What?”

“I’m asking what you want me to do about Baek Yeon.”

“......?”

Why was he asking me that?

I swallowed the words that nearly came out. I asked what he intended to do, and now he was throwing the question back at me? What kind of nonsense was that?

I stared at him like he was insane.

“I’m trying to give you the choice. Between Baek Yeon and you, I’d prefer to pick the side with more potential.”

“So in your eyes, that side is mine.”

“That’s right.”

“...Why do you think that?”

“Because that Baek Yeon bastard is empty inside—”

Empty inside?

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“He possesses much, but the sky he wants to see is low. And he isn’t the sort to stockpile what would let him climb higher, either. Better than a hollow shell like that...”

The Tyrant King kept saying things I couldn’t understand while glancing at me.

“...is someone whose possessions I can’t even read, whose gaze I can’t tell the direction of, but who has a tower hidden behind his back. Something so huge it can’t even be concealed.”

“...What exactly do you mean by that?”

“It means what it means. So choose. What do you want me to do about Baek Yeon?”

“Mm...”

It really did look like he was handing the choice over to me.

If that was the case, then what I had to choose here was obvious.

“Rather than what I want you to do about Elder Baek Yeon, I want you to lend your strength to my side.”

“Mm?”

“Do you remember what I asked you before? That matter is more urgent for me.”

The request I had made—that he stand as an alliance leader candidate in my place.

That was what I was staking everything on. I had no choice.

I’m pressed too.

If the Tyrant King entered the alliance leader candidacy, Moon Immortal Sword had said he would grant any one request.

That gave me Moon Immortal Sword as a card to play, and it also let me dump this annoying mess on someone else, so there was only one thing I wanted now.

“Without getting tangled up with Elder Baek Yeon in an unnecessarily troublesome way, please grant my request.”

“You’re telling me, in the end, to stand as an alliance leader candidate.”

“Yes.”

“Mm...”

The Tyrant King sank into thought. His expression said he really didn’t like the sound of becoming an alliance leader candidate.

Even after all this?

I could understand why I didn’t want it, but why was he refusing? If I got put up as a candidate, it was obvious I’d never actually become alliance leader and would only get buried in annoyance.

But he didn’t have that problem, did he?

After thinking for a long while, the Tyrant King finally said—

“Fine. Standing as a candidate is at least something I could do.”

“...!”

At last, he gave me the answer I wanted.

“If you make sure I obtain what I want, then I’ll settle matters with Baek Yeon as well, and I’ll say I’ll stand as a candidate in your place. Is that enough for you?”

“Ah, yes. If it’s that much, then I—”

“One condition.”

Just as I was about to nod in satisfaction, the Tyrant King raised a finger and spoke.

“Even if I resolve things with Baek Yeon, that doesn’t mean nothing uncomfortable will happen between you and me.”

“What do you mean?”

It wouldn’t be resolved just because he stopped helping Baek Yeon?

I tilted my head, unable to understand.

“In the first place, do you know what Baek Yeon asked of me when he gave me that information?”

“I don’t.”

I had been curious about that too. I kept wondering what Baek Yeon could possibly want from the Tyrant King.

“That bastard—”

And then the Tyrant King told me.

“He asked me to help in the coming struggle for Junior Sect Master.”

“What?”

“And not for himself. For the daughter of the Cheon Family.”

That was something I could not understand at all.