Was he lying about giving them a chance?
All kinds of thoughts flashed through my head.
Right then—
“W-wait a moment, please!”
...Huh?
I heard a familiar voice.
I lifted my head to check, and in the distance, Gu Yanghu was running toward us, gasping for breath.
What’s that punk doing here?
He shouldn’t come.
I was about to shout that when I saw Gu Yanghu’s expression.
Urgent. Desperate.
He’d already run all the way up in front of me and dropped to his knees, panting hard.
“P-please... spare my father... spare the family! I’ll become Big Brother’s dog and horse and pay for our sins!”
At Gu Yanghu’s cry, Gu Yanghyeon flinched in shock.
The youngest son he’d always only seen as a child had somehow grown up and was saying something that grand.
His chest swelled.
Then he snapped out of it.
This wasn’t the time to be moved.
“Hu! What nonsense are you spouting! You, become a dog and horse? That’s absurd!”
Gu Yanghyeon clung to me.
“I-I’ll do it! I’ll do anything you say, so punish me. Every sin started with me in the first place.”
As he cried and tried somehow to protect his child, I spoke.
“If you’d treasured other people the way you treasure your son, we wouldn’t be here.”
“I-I will! From now on I’ll live serving others!”
“Really? You’re going to show a different side from now on?”
“O-of course!”
“If you don’t change... then next time, it won’t stop at the pavilions.”
Gulp.
Without realizing it, Gu Yanghyeon swallowed dryly and nodded hard.
“Good. Then I’ll try believing you.”
I turned my body, and Gu Yanghu followed right behind me.
Gu Yanghyeon called out in a panic.
“H-Hu! Where are you going?”
“Didn’t I just say it? I’m going to become Big Brother’s dog and horse. A man’s word is worth its weight in gold.”
“I-I said I’d do that in your stead.”
“What are you saying? You have to run the family, Father. Can’t you see? Every single person here is relying on you alone.”
“Hu...”
“I’ll be fine. I’ll study hard at Big Brother’s side and make a name for myself.”
At Gu Yanghu’s words, I snorted a laugh and said,
“What, you want me to babysit your studies?”
“N-no, sir.”
“Forget it. Stay here, help your father, and study.”
“Big Brother?”
“You really thought it wasn’t me?”
“Anyone can see it’s you, Big Brother.”
“Well, fair.”
What did I even need a mask for, really.
I took off the mask and showed them my face.
Gu Yanghyeon was startled by how young I looked.
“Now that you’ve seen my face, are you going to come after me for revenge?”
“N-no! That will absolutely never happen.”
“Oh, I live at True Martial Sect, by the way. If you’ve got a problem, you can come find me.”
Gu Yanghyeon carved it into his memory.
A place he would declare in the family law must never be touched.
And a family name that must never be spoken aloud.
Gu Yanghu, too, had changed his heart.
He’d realized just how small and insignificant his own existence was, and he’d understood how wrong the things he’d done all this time had been.
It wasn’t that he’d been rotten to the core from the start—everything had happened because he didn’t know what he was doing wrong.
That was why I’d given Gu Yanghu and the Gu Yang Family a chance.
I’d judged that they could change.
If they didn’t change, then I really would have to erase them next time.
The instant they saw my expression turn cold, father and son both felt goosebumps run over their whole bodies.
“I’ll be watching. To see what you do.”
“U-understood. We will never disappoint you.”
“That’s right. It’ll be hard, but I’ll do my best to help make our family one that people praise.”
“Good. Make sure you do. Then you’ll never have a reason to meet me again.”
“No. I will definitely meet you again, Big Brother.”
“...Hm?”
“And then I’ll show you. How the Gu Yang Family has changed. That day, I want to hear you praise us.”
I snorted a laugh.
“Sure. I’ll look forward to it.”
As I waved my hand and strolled out of what had become the Gu Yang Family’s ruins, the family members simply watched my back in silence.
Once I was gone, Gu Yanghyeon shouted,
“All right! From today on, our Gu Yang Family will be different! Deputy steward!”
“Yes!”
“Starting today, you are the Gu Yang Family’s chief steward.”
“I pledge my loyalty!”
“For the time being, we’re moving our residence to our family villa, Manheonru. Hurry.”
“I’ll make preparations at once.”
*****
Humming a tune, I headed somewhere.
Ghost-King Valley—the place where Ghost-Slaying Corps’ main base was located.
Even though it was bright midday, this place was gloomy and dark.
Every so often, a wild beast would leap out to attack me; I casually took them down and grabbed their tails to sling them over my shoulder.
“Would’ve been lame to show up empty-handed, so this worked out.”
Since I’d grabbed them with my bare hands, the hides were still nice and clean.
I walked in for quite a while like that, and at some point, a quiet settled over the entire valley.
Not even birdsong or the chirping of insects.
I smiled.
“Looks like I’m here.”
I looked around.
Somewhere around here had to be Ghost-Slaying Corps’ main base.
I was about to start walking again when I spotted a stone stele.
ENTER THE VALLEY AND YOU MUST DIE.
A stele with that phrase carved on it.
I ignored it lightly and stepped in past it, and a voice rang out.
“You see the stele and still set foot inside? You must have at least two lives.”
“If I don’t set foot inside, no one comes out to greet me.”
“From the way you talk, sounds like you know where this place is.”
“Yeah. This is Ghost-Slaying Corps’ main base, isn’t it?”
I turned my head toward the direction the voice came from.
“Stop hiding and come out. I’m a guest who was invited.”
“By whose invitation?”
“Your Ghost Lord’s.”
“Our Ghost Lord invited you?”
“Yup.”
“Show your token.”
“I’ll show you the token, so come out.”
The moment I finished saying “come out,” five assassins appeared out of nowhere, pointing their swords at my arms, legs, and neck.
“All right, satisfied? Now show us the token that says the Ghost Lord invited you.”
I snorted and pulled the Ghost-King Token out from inside my clothes and showed it.
“Here. The token your Ghost Lord left with me.”
“Gasp! T-that’s the G-Ghost-King Token!”
The assassins jolted in shock and started examining the token closely.
“I-it’s real.”
“How in the world did you come by this?”
They stared at me like they couldn’t believe it, and I tilted my head.
“That’s weird. He clearly told me that if I showed this, everyone would bow their heads and guide me straight to him.”
At my words, the assassins finally seemed to come to their senses and all dropped to their knees at once.
“Follow with the flesh and obey with the soul!”
“Yeah, yeah. Just hurry up and take me to your Ghost Lord, will you? I’m tired from the long trip.”
“A-as you wish. Please, follow me.”
One of the assassins carefully took the lead.
“All right, the rest of you keep doing whatever you were doing.”
When I waved the Ghost-King Token and said that, the assassins all bowed their heads in unison, gave their replies, and vanished.
“They listen well.”
Satisfied, I followed after the assassin in front.
The one leading kept sneaking glances back at me.
No matter how generously he tried to count, I probably looked like I’d just barely passed coming-of-age.
No, maybe even younger than that.
But that calm...
I felt like a seasoned master who’d survived every storm the world had to offer.
What was my relationship to the Ghost Lord?
His son?
Or his grandson?
No, that couldn’t be it.
The way I’d called the Ghost Lord earlier hadn’t sounded like family.
More like... what, calling a subordinate?
‘That’s ridiculous.’
He shook his head, thinking he was getting carried away.
He led me like that into Ghost-Slaying Corps’ main base, and something felt off.
It looked like every assassin of Ghost-Slaying Corps had gathered in the main courtyard.
So he asked a fellow assassin nearby,
“What’s going on? Something happen?”
“It’s chaos right now.”
“What kind of chaos? Did someone attack us?”
“No. The Ghost Lord went crazy.”
“What? What are you talking about, the Ghost Lord went crazy?”
“He says he’s going to disband Ghost-Slaying Corps and do something else.”
“D-disband Ghost-Slaying Corps? Do what instead?”
“He wants to switch us into a guard sect.”
For a moment, the assassin who’d asked just stared blankly at the one who’d answered.
Listening to the two of them, I grinned and looked up at Ghost-Slaying Corps’ Ghost Lord, Jin Muryang, standing on the platform in the distance.
He was faithfully keeping the promise he’d made with me.
It was cute.
Right then, their conversation drifted back into my ears.
“Is he out of his mind? Guard work? We’re people who’ve been killing for a living and now we’re supposed to protect people?”
“Exactly what I said. But the Ghost Lord says we know assassins better than anyone, so we’ll be good at guarding people too.”
“Isn’t guarding way harder? Why is the Ghost Lord suddenly doing this?”
“Look over there. Not just the Five Ghost Generals but even the Hundred-Ghost Killers—everyone’s gathered to protest to the Ghost Lord.”
Following the assassins’ gaze, I turned my head.
A crowd had formed, protesting to Jin Muryang.
“Ghost Lord! Do you really think that makes any sense? Us, doing guard work?”
“What happened out there? What did you see?”
“According to Soul-Slicing Ghost, you were ensnared by some evil art, and when he went to break it, something hit you and you blacked out—was that true?”
“Hey, Soul-Slicing Ghost! You tell us! Was the Ghost Lord really ensnared?”
At that, Soul-Slicing Ghost, gauging the Ghost Lord’s mood, spoke carefully.
“I-it’s true. Right before he blacked out, the Ghost Lord was acting strange. Anyone could tell he looked like someone caught by an evil art.”
It was the testimony of Soul-Slicing Ghost, who ensnared people with illusions to assassinate them.
What more solid evidence could there be?
The assassins became certain.
The Ghost Lord was not in his right mind.
Jin Muryang simply sat there quietly listening to his people, then rose to his feet.
“I’m not forcing anyone. I plan to leave this place and start a new life. Those who want to stay here and keep acting as assassins can stay. I won’t stop you. But mark one thing well. A disaster may fall on those who remain.”
“What do you mean, ‘disaster’? Are you saying you’ll reveal this place to the world?”
“Ghost Lord! No matter how strong you are, do you really think you can take /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ all of us on at once?”
Their eyes were filled with killing intent as they glared at Jin Muryang.
Jin Muryang just smiled.
“I really do love those eyes. This is why I liked this place so much.”
He looked over the main base with a bitter expression, and the people grew even more confused.
When he looked like that, he was exactly the Ghost Lord they knew.
“What’s the reason?”
“I told you. An existence beyond our reach told me to turn our trade to guarding.”
“Who is this ‘existence beyond our reach’ that you’re doing all this? Is it the emperor? Or the Heavenly Martial Emperor?”
“Tch! You think I’d be scared of some old fart like the Heavenly Martial Emperor?”
Jin Muryang bristled at the mention of the Heavenly Martial Emperor.
Right then—
“I don’t really like you calling my grandfather ‘some old fart’ like that.”
At the clearly audible voice, everyone turned their heads that way.
“What the hell?”
“Who is that? Never seen him before.”
“Judging by his clothes, he’s not one of us.”
“How did he get in here?”
The assassins all glared at me with hostility.
All except one—Jin Muryang.