After losing everything to First Master's schemes, the humiliation Cheon Yeohwa endured was beyond words.
Yet, she considered the rage she felt now to be even greater than it had been then.
"What's the second way, I said!"
"Zzz…"
Cheon Yeohwa shook Kang Hyunwoo back and forth with a resentful expression.
But Kang Hyunwoo didn't wake up at all, as if he had swallowed Mount Mihon itself.
Cheon Yeohwa glared down at Kang Hyunwoo, breathing heavily.
Thinking about it again, it was clear he brought up that strange topic of how to infuriate someone just to tease her from the start.
"How dare he play such a prank on this lady…!"
Despicable! Too despicable to bear.
In the end, Cheon Yeohwa decided to punish him.
Before being poisoned, Cheon Yeohwa, once called the Moon Spirit Witch, had unleashed the Moon Spirit Divine Art that spared neither righteous nor evil, creating countless casualties, which now descended upon Kang Hyunwoo.
"Heh heh, you're quite the lecher to be this impudent."
Squish, squish – Kang Hyunwoo's cheeks were repeatedly pinched and stretched like clay.
"Ugh…"
Good heavens, to grab a sleeping person's cheeks and play with them like a toy.
The earth wept and the heavens averted their gaze at the Moon Spirit Witch's cruelty.
While she was playing with Kang Hyunwoo's unawakened cheeks, Cheon Yeohwa's complexion suddenly turned pale.
Slap! A stinging pain rose from her cheek, reddened from a rather forceful slap.
'To become so lax with just one meal and a night's sleep.'
It was an action she would never have tolerated in the past.
What's more, to share a bed with a strange man she had only known for a little over half a day.
"Haa…"
How did things end up like this?
She had changed so much from her past self.
What would her past self and subordinates say if they saw her interacting so intimately with others?
Weakened. Ugly. Changed.
They would condemn her with such words.
Of course, having lost the successor competition, it was undeniable that she could not return to those days.
Then, wasn't there no need to return to her self from those days?
'…What a cheap excuse.'
It was a self-justifying excuse.
The instinct crouching within her was speaking.
To kill him right now, leave this place, and build up her power. Even if she had lost all her forces, she could start again as long as she survived.
Even if all the animals drinking from a lake died, the lake's significance would not disappear.
Eventually, new animals would seek out the lake to drink.
This lady is a lake.
A vast lake that would enrich the barren lands of the Divine Cult.
A lake only needed to be clear and clean.
Mixing in unnecessary filth was unnecessary.
'If I kill him now…'
Would this weak heart, wanting to settle for the present, also disappear?
Cheon Yeohwa stared blankly into space with vacant eyes, unable to come to any answer to her own question. To the point where she couldn't even remember when she had fallen asleep.
***
Chirp chirp-
When I opened my heavy eyelids to the noisy chirping of birds, I felt puzzled.
It was clear that it looked bright beyond the tent, so it was definitely morning, but why was I still in this world?
[Remaining matching time: 13:51:34]
"Why… is there 14 hours left?"
Clearly, Iris gave about 8 hours of leeway for the first matching.
So, it was right to assume that I would be given about 8 hours in this world as well.
I stepped into this world around 1 PM, and I fell asleep around 7 or 8 PM, so my body should have returned to Earth while I was asleep.
I fell asleep taking that into account.
But I was still in this world, and there were a whopping 14 hours left on the matching time.
'Why?'
Ding-
[Tip. Sleeping time is not included in the matching time when matching with a new connection.]
'Really?'
What is this?
There's no way the app would be this kind?
I was suspicious of the app's excessive kindness for a moment, but it was too sweet of a condition to simply reject.
In fact, this was something I had been worried about.
If the time I slept in another world was included in the matching time, I would have to return to Earth every time I slept, or spend a lot of time.
If I returned to Earth like that?
I would have to wait for a matching waiting time of several days again.
When my connection level with Iris was 0, the matching time was only about 8 hours.
But as it became level 1, it increased to 12 hours, and after the last meeting, the connection level became 3.
'If I exclude sleeping time, I've been here for about half a day, so is it about 20 hours?'
It seemed that the connection level was applied separately for each person, but the matching time increased as a result seemed to follow the maximum connection level.
'I don't know why the app is being so kind, but at least I don't have to worry about being pressed for matching time every time… but why is my arm heavy?'
I had been feeling an unknown weight on my right arm since a while ago.
I wondered what it was and turned my head, and there she was.
"Ugh…"
"…?"
Cheon Yeohwa was sleeping soundly, using my arm as a pillow.
'No wonder my arm felt numb…'
I wondered what was going on and looked around, but I clearly hadn't moved from the spot where I fell asleep yesterday.
Rather, it was Cheon Yeohwa who had rolled over to my side.
As evidence of that, there was a fairly large space left behind Cheon Yeohwa's back.
"She's sleep-talking."
Is she really the Divine Moon Cult's young lady?
I've been feeling it since yesterday, but her actions seem a little clumsy.
'Should I wake her up?'
I was hesitant for a moment, but decided to just leave her alone.
If she woke up in this state, she would definitely make a fuss, calling me a pervert or saying that I revealed my true colors, and I was too tired to get involved in that mess from the morning.
Even if my arm was numb, circulating magical power would naturally circulate blood. If I used that, something like numbness was nothing.
"Still, she's disgustingly pretty."
Clear and transparent skin, slightly sharp yet extravagant eyelashes, and even though her hair was the same black as mine, I had dull black hair like crow feathers, while Cheon Yeohwa's hair was like silk.
If Iris had a fragrant scent of grass, Cheon Yeohwa had an infinitely soft perfume scent.
Not an artificial perfume that women use, but a truly pure yet stimulating, contradictory scent.
As I was admiring Cheon Yeohwa's sleeping face for a moment, the words she had given me last night came to mind.
-I thought you were an assassin sent to assassinate me under the orders of First Master.
Thanks to that one phrase, the strange things I had felt from Cheon Yeohwa until now began to be understood one by one.
Why a woman who was the Second Young Lady of the Divine Moon Cult was bathing in a lakeside in the deep forest, why she was wearing worn-out clothes that she seemed to have been wearing for months.
Why she was loitering near Shaanxi, so far away from the Divine Moon Cult's base, the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
All of that could be explained with that one phrase Cheon Yeohwa had given me last night.
'Is it a successor dispute or something?'
Looking at her peculiar personality, it seemed like she was born with a diamond spoon and had lived her life throwing her weight around.
"…She must have lived quite a difficult life."
I had also suffered a lot as a war orphan, but at least I hadn't worried about being assassinated.
Nor had I ever lived like a homeless person in a distant land for an estimated half a year.
At this point, I felt a little sorry for that strong-willed Cheon Yeohwa.
'But why is she sleeping with hair in her mouth?'
I was about to take it out because she was eating her hair in real time, but I accidentally touched her lips.
The feeling was very soft and moist, but…
"…?"
Whether that was the cause, Cheon Yeohwa ended up waking up.
"Oh, did you sleep well?"
"…You."
A very heavy and murderous voice flowed from Cheon Yeohwa's mouth, who lightly chewed away the morning greetings I had given her in a welcoming manner.
"Do you remember the conditions that I, this lady, set for you as a condition for accompanying me?"
"…Walking ahead, answering truthfully to questions, giving chocolate?"
"You remember well. Then, answer truthfully to the questions that I, this lady, ask you."
Cheon Yeohwa, who had risen from my arm, was holding something familiar in her left hand.
"Which do you prefer, stabbing or cutting?"
***
After a commotion in the tent, the two of them walked through the forest towards Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi Province, today as well.
"…"
"…"
Maintaining a heavy silence as usual.
Clearly, the two of them had become a little closer with the short conversation they had last night.
But for over 4 hours, there had been no conversation between the two.
Kang Hyunwoo was upset, and Cheon Yeohwa was embarrassed.
At first, she thought that he was trying to reach out with vulgar hands while she was asleep.
Of course, it didn't take long for her to realize that it was her misunderstanding, but by the time she realized that fact, he had already become battered by the scabbard she had swung.
Even if it was a disaster that happened in a drowsy state while intoxicated with sleep, it was clearly her fault.
But unfortunately, Cheon Yeohwa did not know how to apologize to others.
She only knew it in theory, and Cheon Yeohwa, who had never apologized to anyone even once, did not know how to start or how to end it.
In the principle of the strong prevailing, one of the Divine Moon Cult's laws, an apology was a humble request from the weak to the strong.
For Cheon Yeohwa, who would later become the successor of the great leader, an apology was nothing more than a low-level act that should never be done.
She had been taught that way, acquired it, and lived a life that she had to practice.
In the first place, Cheon Yeohwa was not a foolish person enough to have to apologize to others.
Her judgment was always right, and the subordinates who could not follow her instructions had to prostrate themselves before her and beg for their lives disguised as apologies.
However, after being betrayed by First Master's scheme, she could not even be sure what the right judgment was anymore.
Even whether it was right to apologize to him right now.
'Arbitrarily using his arm as a pillow and sleeping, misunderstanding alone and hitting him with the scabbard were all definitely my mistakes, but…'
Should I apologize?
Then how should I do it?
Should I prostrate myself like my subordinates did?
No matter how I thought about it, it didn't seem right.
Then should I simply say sorry?
'…Is it really an apology with just that?'
Wouldn't trying to brush it off with just one word look even more despicable?
Then should I give him a gift that he might like as well?
But all I have right now is a sword and a worn-out long robe…
Slap!
'I, this lady, must be crazy. To think of offering my body!'
Cheon Yeohwa rebuked herself for even thinking such a thing even for a moment.
Even if she were to sit in the leader's seat, she had no intention of marrying a man.
She had even less intention of offering her body.
But to have such obscene thoughts about a man she had only met a day ago!
In that case, wouldn't I be no different from a prostitute?
"Gosh, what is it? Why are you suddenly slapping your cheek??"
"…There was a bug."
"A bug?"
A martial artist woman slapped her own cheek hard enough to make that sound just because a bug came out?
Kang Hyunwoo couldn't understand, but he couldn't ask further because she said it was like that.
Cheon Yeohwa chewed her lips as she watched Kang Hyunwoo, who was walking ahead again with an expression as if it were nothing.
If I don't say it now, I feel like I won't be able to say it forever.
"…Are you okay?"
A word as heavy as a thousand pounds barely jumped out of her throat into this world.
"About what?"
"Didn't you get hurt because I, this lady, swung the scabbard…"
As evidence of that, Kang Hyunwoo's face was swollen in places.
Even Cheon Yeohwa, the young lady of the Divine Moon Cult, who had the law of the strong prevailing and a gathering of lunatics called the demons, was aware that she had gone too far this time.
He had saved her, and even gave her a delicious meal and a warm place to sleep.
"Th, th-this lady seems to have to apologize to you…"
Cheon Yeohwa eventually bowed her head without finishing her words.
Kang Hyunwoo chuckled at the sight.
"What, were you silent all this time because of that?"
Cheon Yeohwa shook her head up and down with her head bowed deeply.
She didn't want to show her flushed face.
I think he'll make fun of me again.
"You're being considerate in strange ways. I thought you wouldn't care about things like that at all."
Kang Hyunwoo seemed to have understood Cheon Yeohwa a little bit.
"I've already forgotten about it, so don't worry about it."
"…Really?"
"Yeah."
Kang Hyunwoo spread out a mat nearby at the unexpected twist.
"Let's have lunch."
Cheon Yeohwa, who ate the cream pasta that came out for lunch that day, widened her eyes and made a fuss.
Women liking pasta is the same in other worlds as well.
***
A valley near Xi'an.
The imposing Shaolin Sects had all been pushed out of Shaanxi due to the existence of the Mount Hua Sect and the Mount Zhongnan Sect, but a third force had settled here without anyone knowing.
"Great Leader."
"What is it."
"We've found her."
In the past, the Divine Moon Cult, which had failed to conquer the Central Plains twice, changed its direction and decided to establish secret branches in areas where the righteous sects' schools and families were located.
The possibility of being discovered also increased, but all of this was to prevent those guys from uniting under the name of the Martial Alliance in the face of the Divine Moon Cult's great conquest in the future.
Even if the righteous guys discovered the location of the branch, it didn't matter. After all, there were no traces of the Divine Moon Cult here.
All members except the Great Leader had not mastered demon arts. What they had mastered was either the martial arts of the evil sects, or some imitation of the martial arts of the righteous sects.
Those belonging to First Master were stationed at the Third House of the Divine Moon Cult's Shaanxi Branch.
They were tasked with searching for and assassinating the Second Young Lady, who had fled to the Central Plains, in cooperation with the First Master's forces in other branches.
"It's the white wolf."
The Great Leader smiled at the report of the member covered in black clothes from head to toe.
It was a grotesque smile covered in scars.