Cheongho Guest House—
It was the largest and nicest place in the downtown area of Haenam. and the people in the place gathered there always had big or small meetings.
When the weather was good, the seats on the second floor would be full. The food was known to be amazing, and it was one of the places most people who came there would visit.
“Ahem.”
On the second floor of the guest house, sitting at a table near the window, a man glanced out.
His face was plain, but he was dressed right, and he was wearing amazing colored clothes.
The sleeveless overcoat and well painted leather shoes, it was an outfit that everyone needed to look good.
Clack
Contrary to that, the man wearing it looked uneasy. His hands and feet trembled to the point of gulping down the hot tea in the cup, and was diligently dissolving the tension.
“Just do like you usually do with someone you know, is what I told you but…”
A sad voice came from a bit further back.
It was Imugi who came hoping to keep an eye on him, and he seemed a bit disappointed at Yorim’s words.
“See, I said it is useless even if you taught him for a hundred days. The only woman in his life is the one next to me, so what…”
When Yong Jin was saying something worse, Songhwa shut his mouth.
“How many times did he even practice? If he is not a monkey then he can do this much, right?”
“… Hey, you are worse than him.”
At that, Yong Jin looked at Songhwa and said,
“Uh, why me…”
“You are making it seem like he is worse than a monkey.”
“No. That isn’t what I…”
“Fine, let’s just eat what we ordered.”
Unexpectedly, Jeok Song came. The food they ordered was lined up, but they were annoyed and unable to touch it.
“Right. Eat, eat.”
Yong Jin said and soon he turned.
“Master, Master what…”
Seol-Hwi was holding his chopsticks and started.
In martial arts he was skilled, but he knew nothing about dating.
He did not have much to say.
“Well…”
Glancing at Seo Ryeong, he was back to eating.
At first, it seemed that she had no interest in this. And then the eyes of the party gathered on her.
“The face…”
“Hmm.”
“Hmmmm…”
Everyone agreed to just one word.
“Wait. Here they come!”
Before long, they turned again and noticed a woman who was walking in. It was a beauty.
“Oh… is it that woman?”
“Damn it, that much is too much!”
“Hoo.”
Seol-Hwi was surprised to see the woman and Yong Jin expressed his regret.
She had moderately colorful clothes. Her actions were elegant which was hard to find in such places, and her skin too pale. It was a beautiful pale color, and they wondered if she would be introduced as a noble.
The woman who came to the second floor looked around and checked for the table near the window where Yorim was.
“You are…?”
When she spoke, Yorim jumped up from the chair and said,
“C-Cheol Ho.”
He answered with the fake name he came up with when he entered Haenam.
The woman chuckled a little.
“I am Yeon Hee. Nice to meet you.”
“Uh? Y… Yes!”
The woman sat down and Yorim too slowly sat down. Then, the server who noticed them, approached and asked,
“What kind of food…”
“First, bring us a light tea.”
“I understand”
Yorim sent the server back
“I heard you run a business as a lender.”
When the woman asked, he answered with a bright smile
“Ah, yes. I am, it is small.”
“Wha! For real. Then you are rich!”
“Well, a little no, well it is that.”
Yorim had a mischievous smile. And the woman smiled brightly.
“But… what kind of lending do you do?”
“Right. Buildings… a hundred of them.”
“Hundred?”
The woman seemed surprised which made Yorim shocked.
Eh, I was told to say ten.
But he multiplied it ten times over. He did that to show off. But it was impossible to take back now.
“Actually, I bought some land. There are quite a few in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hangzhou in Zhejiang, as well as Haenam.”
“You are amazing. It was totally unknown.”
“What is the moment? It is there one day and not the other. After working hard and being known, it suddenly turned this much.”
“I see.”
The woman looked like she admired him. In front of people who looked good, Yorim was bound to speak a lot.
“And even though I look like this. I am quite confident in martial arts.”
“Martial arts? You don’t look like that…”
“Haha. That is what martial arts is. Having a lot of muscles doesn’t mean you are good at it. Properly distributing internal and external energy is the basics, and it also depends on what kind of training and martial arts you are learning.”
It was from then—
Yorim continued to talk and it was about things which were fake. That kind of talk went on and after some time, the woman looked bored.
“No use.”
“Right.”
Yong Jin said and Imugi shook his head.
Obviously, the explanation of money and bragging about martial arts was working to raise the tension, but Yorim did not stop there. He bragged about it a bit too much and then spoke too much about martial arts.
“Uh, shouldn’t a man with strong martial arts be a righteous one though?”
When Songhwa asked, Yong Jin shook his head.
“It is good if it suits their taste. But he has gone beyond the limit. Money and power. They are nice, but today is their first time meeting and if he boasts too much about himself, it gets considered as a bluff.”
“Ah…”
“And that is a woman from a household. How much will she know about martial arts? A man who keeps talking about things she does not know about would only make her disgusted in him.”
“Um.”
Songhwa nodded like he understood, however, the words which followed were more convincing.
“It is just the face.”
Jeok Song said it.
Clap! Clap!
He was enjoying the food, so they did not expect him to speak. However, even when they were talking like this, one of them could not even smile.
Was it like this…?
It was Seol-Hwi.
For some reason, even if he was in the same situation as Yorim, he did not think he would do any better. So even when everyone smiled, he could feel for Yorim.
“Is it good not to talk about martial arts then?”
When he asked, Imugi nodded without even listening until the end.
“Men find a man who fights well as cool and interesting but not for women, because it is violence. If it isn’t a family which knows martial arts, or a shaman type, they usually dislike it.”
“Money?”
“They hate too much of that too, and too little as well. Who likes a man who ignores people because he has money? They need to be humble and natural like ‘I can just afford this for now.’”
“Humble.”
Seol-Hwi nodded. For some reason, the way Imugi spoke was different depending on the question.
“Ugh…”
Recalling what Jeok Song said, he asked,
“How is my face then?”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
There was silence, like they wanted to say, but they could not.
“Captain is…”
As soon as Imugi opened his mouth.
“Better than you,”
Seo Ryeong pointed out.
“Huh”
“Um.”
Everyone looked speechless.
Seol-Hwi lowered his head, hiding his smile.
Kuk!
He clenched the hand into a fist too.
Right, there is still hope.
He thought that he had no chance, but it seemed like there was a spark there. While everyone was talking as such, the woman got up, and so did Yorim with a bright face.
“Then, let us meet again.”
“We can… um have the meal we…”
“That too, the next time.”
The woman smiled and quickly left the place.
“Ah, Yes! Next time!”
Yorim spoke in a bright voice to the woman who turned around.
And soon he sat down.
“How was it?”
Imugi appeared right next to him and asked.
“What? It worked. We decided to meet next time.”
“…”
Yorim had a bright smile.
“As expected, I did what you said, I think it is already half perfect and she smiled each time she saw me.”
“Then how did you decide to contact each other to meet?”
Imugi asked with a calm face.
“Contact…?”
“…”
“Right, how do I contact her?”
At those words, Imugi sighed.
This was a typical rejection, and Yorim did not seem to have any idea about it.
“Ah. Imugi. Would it be possible for you to get us to meet again?”
Yorim did not seem to think it was strange.
“Sigh…”
Yong Jin, who went there, shook his head.
Clack
Jeok Song and Seo Ryeong were too focused on eating alone.
“…Uh?”
Seol-Hwi was looking at Yorim, and Imugi and then suddenly turned to the window. He felt something was staring back, and it was not a human.
“…!”
It was a familiar cat.
The woman who came with Hyang Gae in the past life, she had this cat with her.
Meow!
The cat who looked at Seol-Hwi disappeared.
“Master?”
Noticing his odd behavior, Songhwa asked.
Seol-Hwi had a chill run down the body.
It will not last more than two years.
“Ah…”
Songhwa felt it, why Seol-Hwi looked like that.
“Hyungs! Everyone run!”
“Uh?”
“What?”
At his cry, everyone turned their heads to him
“Right now!”
“…!”
After a moment’s hesitation they ran out of the entrance but—
“Kuak!”
“Kuak!”
People near the entrance were screaming at the attack of the men dressed in black swinging their swords.
“Kuak!”
“Ack!’
The killing did not stop. People who were struck by the sudden attack screamed, and the inside turned to a mess. However, as if not caring, the people in black continued to kill.
‘How…’
The sword kept moving.
People were being randomly killed. Occasionally there were those who tried to defend with swords, but even they died.
“Kuak!”
“Ack!”
“Stop.”
There was no one who could stop this, and above all the black people continued to grow.
“Master.”
“Captain.”
The subordinates looked at Seol-Hwi.
There was no question of where they were from, because the demonic energy was huge.
“Songhwa.”
Seol-Hwi called stepping back.
“I don’t seem to have even completed the two years.”
“Master…”
Seol-Hwi looked at the enemies again.
There were more than ten Peak Demons. But the problem is that they were not the main force.
The ones who came in last—
Even though he had the ability to hide the demonic energy, the person was revealing it openly.
“Supreme Demon Master…”
And that is because three of such were in the guest house.