The Ruler of Darkness

The soldiers’ armor reflected the red glow of the sunset, dazzling the eyes.

Watching the troops of the Second Royal Guards Brigade uniformly retreating through the window, Deputy Treasurer nun let out an inward sigh of relief.

‘Whatever it was, it seems to be over now.’

Following the orders of the Treasurer, she had somehow managed to join the young master’s procession, but having no idea how things were unfolding, her insides felt like they would burst from frustration.

‘Moreover, I couldn’t even contact the Treasurer all day.’

The thought of the Treasurer’s furious face when she returned made her stomach churn already.

***

The first to notice the anomaly was the carriage carrying Proctor nun.

“Yes, indeed! I don’t see the carriage carrying the Daseollang children!”

The martial arts nun, who had poked her head out to check each carriage while the procession was speeding along, shouted.

“And I don’t see the horse carriage carrying the Sword House’s young master either!”

“Tuck your head back in! Isn’t that dangerous?!”

Even Proctor nun, who was scolding her, felt the confusion.

‘Were the Daseollang children not present from the beginning?! And the Sword House’s young master didn’t join the procession either? Just what is happening….’

However, her thoughts and worries about Daseollang didn’t last long.

“Wh-what is the meaning of this?!”

It was because only the carriages carrying the Emei Sect had separated from the procession at the intersection of the main road.

Proctor nun opened the window on the coachman’s side and shouted, but only a cold response came from the young master’s maid holding the reins.

“It would be best for you to stay put.”

At the blatantly threatening words, Proctor nun’s face filled with unease as she realized things were going terribly wrong.

And as one often experiences in life, an ominous premonition is never wrong.

What awaited them as they entered the castle city of the Luoyang Sword House was a shocking revelation.

Proctor nun cried out as if screaming.

“Ah, did you say an assassination plot?!”

“It is as you heard.”

Behind Yeon Ha-eung’s calm words, Deputy Treasurer nun and the administrative nuns from the headquarters were being escorted away.

“Deputy Treasurer! Is this truly the case?!”

“….”

The Deputy Treasurer nun, with her head lowered, was taken away without any response.

The administrative nuns from the headquarters generally had confused expressions, but none of them strongly denied the accusations either.

And that sight was no different from an answer given to the nuns left behind.

“What… what is this…?”

Proctor nun momentarily grabbed her trembling knees.

‘They were trying to kill those children? Just what on earth was our Emei Sect doing behind our backs?!’

She knew that the higher-ups at the headquarters were coveting the business entity called Daseollang.

However, as someone belonging to the academy, there wasn’t much she could do in that situation.

‘That’s why I had repeatedly urged those children to be careful and cautious with their conduct….’

She had done her part to ensure the children wouldn’t give the nuns at the headquarters any reason to fault them.

That was why she had always been stricter with Daseollang.

Since the headquarters treated the children’s families like hostages, she had been anxious that the children might cause trouble inadvertently.

She had hoped that the matter between Daseollang and the Emei Sect would be resolved smoothly without any major issues.

‘But for the headquarters to engage in such nonsensical acts!’

The sound of teeth grinding escaped her mouth.

The joy of first joining the Emei Sect, the pride she had built while teaching the children at the academy, and her dedication to the Emei Sect.

The more she was exposed to the dark side of the Emei Sect, the more precarious all of those things had become lately.

Now it felt as if they had all crumbled and been trampled in an instant.

And it was done by none other than the sect itself.

“…Amitabha.”

It seemed she wasn’t the only one feeling that emotion, as the sound of nuns continuously chanting the Buddha’s name could be heard among the remaining academy nuns.

They, too, were ordinary people who had turned a blind eye and pretended not to see the sect’s behavior to a certain extent.

But now, a moment had arrived where they could no longer avert their eyes.

“Sorry for the long wait.”

At that moment, Yeon Ha-eung, who had confirmed that the Deputy Treasurer nun and the administrative nuns from the headquarters were being properly escorted, returned.

“Excuse me…!”

Proctor nun asked him.

“Are Daseollang, those children, safe?”

“Of course. After all, it was merely an attempt.”

Sighs of relief escaped from here and there at those words.

“Then, perhaps the reason we didn’t see the Daseollang children today was…?”

He readily nodded and answered.

“The young master of the main family is protecting them.”

“I knew it….”

It was a moment when one question was resolved.

‘Well, it wasn’t just for protection….’

Yeon Ha-eung inwardly gave a bitter smile and changed the subject.

“The ones remaining here are all nuns belonging to the academy, right?”

At his question, about twenty nuns all nodded their heads.

“From now on, you will be ‘confined’ in the quarters here until you are transported to the capital.”

“…!”

Only then did the nuns realize their predicament and raise their heads.

“Ah, transportation?! We did not participate in any of this!”

Yeon Ha-eung nodded at Proctor nun’s outcry.

“Considering that you are not from the headquarters and not high-ranking, this confinement takes that into account. And the determination of guilt will not be made by the main family, but through investigation and trial in the capital later, so there’s no use saying anything to me now.”

Investigation and trial.

Although they were unaware of the political struggles happening above, they could sufficiently sense that the current situation was not ordinary.

‘Just a moment ago, when he showed the documents, there were clearly the seals of the Proxy Group, the Temple Group, and the Capital Branch…!’

Each of those names was terribly heavy, something an individual could never bear.

Anyone could tell that if they were transported to the capital, what awaited them would not be a favorable outcome.

Even if they faced an unjust result, who on earth would help them?

“Then, as long as you don’t leave these quarters, you can stay comfortably until you leave.”

Having said what he needed to say, Yeon Ha-eung turned around in a regrettably neat manner.

“Wait a moment!”

Proctor nun cried out as if screaming.

“I understand that it can’t be helped! But is there no way, even if it’s a slight chance?!”

It was an outcry that made one question whether the content was properly conveyed due to the urgency.

However, Yeon Ha-eung had no choice but to understand it as if by magic.

It was the words he had been waiting for.

“Ah, come to think of it…!”

He rummaged through his bosom and pulled out a document.

“Hmm. The eldest young master said there was something you could help with.”

“The eldest young master of the Sword House…?”

He smiled brightly and continued.

“He explained that it was a matter requiring your deep faith in Buddha, as well as the compassion and sympathy welling up from deep within your hearts.”

“What is that…?”

Yeon Ha-eung pretended to read the document and took his time before revealing the decisive words they wanted to hear.

“If you cooperate with this matter, he said he would personally send a petition to the capital on your behalf.”

Putting the document back into his bosom, he smiled.

“Oh my. Actually, this petition is just a way of saying that someone of the young master’s status in the main family would grant you immunity.”

He slightly opened his narrow eyes and asked.

“Are you perhaps interested…?”

After a brief silence, everyone clamored that they would do it.

“Now, now, I understand. First, please calm down a bit….”

Yeon Ha-eung stretched out his hands to calm them down while inwardly giving a deep, bitter smile.

‘The eldest young master never lets go of those who fall into his grasp.’

It was a point that Yeon Ha-eung, who had been spending days where even ten bodies wouldn’t be enough, was feeling to the bone.

‘Well, I voluntarily got involved, but still….’

He muttered to himself while controlling the Emei Sect’s nuns.

‘Twenty Emei Sect warrior monks…. Considering the current situation in the Valley of Sins, it’s too valuable a force to let go.’

Watching the Emei Sect’s nuns standing in a line according to his instructions, signing the documents in order, he tilted his head.

‘Come to think of it, this is also voluntary in a way, I suppose.’

Anyway, Yeon Ha-eung inwardly sent them cheers stemming from a strange sense of kinship.

***

North Mang Mountain, the Gong family’s residence.

“Ooh….”

An elderly man blinked his eyes.

Yeon So-hyeon withdrew all the acupuncture needles and laid the former patriarch of the Gong family flat on his back again.

“Does it seem to have some effect?”

“Good! It’s very good!”

The former patriarch of the Gong family shouted loudly but soon ended up coughing and wheezing.

Nevertheless, he struggled to sit up, leaning against the bed.

“…It’s not an illness that can easily improve in just a few hours.”

Yeon So-hyeon looked at the old man with a sympathetic gaze and spoke as if to soothe him.

When he arrived at North Mang Mountain today and visited the Gong family first, he performed a treatment for the old man before moving on to the next family.

Now that it was time for the effects of the treatment to appear, he had returned to the Gong family.

“Illness?”

The old man scoffed with a phlegmy sound.

“This is not a mere illness.”

Yeon So-hyeon read deep regret and reproach in the old man’s eyes.

“This is the price I must pay for my sins.”

The old man spoke as if spitting out the words.

“It is the heavenly punishment bestowed upon me by the heavens for failing to prevent that accursed war.”

The old man, who had endured alone in the imperial capital, which was like a den of demons, for many years, was blaming himself.

“…Rather than that.”

The old man raised his gentle gaze to look at Yeon So-hyeon.

That gaze held more warmth and pride than when looking at his own grandson.

“To think that the boy who had argued for the greater good with such dignity in his letters at such a young age has grown up like this. And to be able to see him with my own eyes….”

His frail hand trembled as he grasped Yeon So-hyeon’s hand, which was pulling up the blanket to cover him.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

Yeon So-hyeon gave a bitter smile at the old man’s bottomless gratitude.

“I will come and perform the treatment for you as often as you need in the future.”

The old man shook his head with difficulty.

“No. That’s not what I meant.”

He had to cough a few times before he could continue speaking.

“I am grateful that you did not succumb to early aging.”

“…!”

The old man’s deep eyes looked straight at Yeon So-hyeon.

“I thought that you, who were so brilliant, had chosen seclusion out of disappointment with the world at too young an age.”

“That is….”

The old man’s hand warmly patted Yeon So-hyeon’s hand.

“Whatever the reason, you have returned. You have returned to the world with such dignity.”

He laughed heartily.

“I am so grateful for that.”

The old man, who had been defeated at the end of a lonely battle and had even contracted a severe illness, endlessly expressed his gratitude to his old comrade.

‘No, Elder Gong….’

Yeon So-hyeon bowed his head deeply.

Regardless of the reason and the process, he had already turned his back on the world and laid down.

The one here now was not the Yeon So-hyeon that the old man remembered, but the Yeon So-hyeon who had taken the hand of Dark Heavens Scripture and gained a second chance.

‘I apologize for coming to you so late.’

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