Chapter 36: Intoxication (2)

A world painted entirely in black and white.

In a stark corner of this monochrome world, I was waving something around.

It was bizarre to watch myself, yet I felt no sense of strangeness.

I just stood there, blankly observing what I was doing.

As I continued to watch, I finally realized what I was wielding.

A brush.

Then it dawned on me. The world wasn't made of black and white.

I was the one painting the white world black.

"This isn't right!!"

And then I—the one wielding the brush—screamed in frustration, blacking out what I had written before writing new characters.

'Man… What a nutcase.'

That was my first thought as I watched my other self, accompanied by an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

The scene was familiar.

Lately, I had been repeating that very same antic every single night.

After realizing the onset of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword's side effect, I'd been trying to figure out a fix.

But I couldn’t come up with a way to get rid of them completely, so I settled for the next-best thing.

If obsessive-compulsive disorder were inevitable, I might as well channel it into a specific outlet.

Essentially, I wrote my diary every night while obsessively correcting my handwriting.

The idea was to stop any other obsessive symptoms from popping up.

The raving lunatic before me was, in essence, me—or rather, a version of me consumed by the worsening side effect.

I still get urges to fix things now and then, but because I’ve funneled all that crazy into my handwriting, it doesn’t happen very often.

I’d actually been feeling pretty good about it, but maybe deep down I was scared of turning into… that.

And as soon as I thought that, what was happening right now suddenly made sense.

'Is this what they call Qi Deviation?'

But I quickly dismissed the thought. I wasn’t meditating or circulating energy.

Drawing on my hazy memories, the last thing I remembered was going to bed.

Which meant...

'This is just a nightmare.'

The moment I realized this was all a nightmare.

"Phew."

The image of my frantic self vanished, replaced by darkness.

The reason for the darkness was simple. My eyes were still closed.

Flick.

I opened my eyes forcefully to shake off the unsettling nightmare, but strangely, everything remained pitch black.

Was I still dreaming? Or was today particularly dark?

As these thoughts crossed my mind, a faint moonlight filtered through the paper windows, as if the clouds had finally parted.

The light bounced off something small and faint that had been hiding in the dark, and it caught my eye.

I narrowed my eyes and peered at it for a second, trying to figure out what that tiny flicker of light was.

It didn't take long to realize what it was.

Eyes.

Tiny, narrowed eyes, inches from my own, stared with unsettling intensity.

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

I cursed in shock, jerking upright as if having a seizure.

As I moved, the eyes hovering near my face retreated.

Goosebumps erupted across my skin at the terrifying sight of disembodied pupils floating in the air.

"Th-this is fucked."

I thought this forsaken cult only housed madmen, but were there ghosts too?

Then the darkness below those ghostly eyes split open, and a faint light leaked through.

It was human teeth.

"Are you alright, youngest?"

And the voice that emerged from the ghost's mouth was quite familiar.

"Third Brother?"

It was the voice of Third Brother, the delusional assassin plagued by paranoia.

He used to visit me at night, but he’d stopped after I asked him to come during the day.

Right then, two assigned guards rushed in and called out.

"What's wrong, Young Master?"

"Are you alright!?"

A heartbeat later, Jin Hayeon’s voice followed.

"Young Master!"

Only after hearing their voices did I finally gather my wits and respond in the calmest tone I could manage.

"Don't worry. Third Brother came to visit, and we were just having a conversation."

I answered while reminding myself that I was essentially a hostage.

If I were to call for help here, Third Brother would slice my throat faster than they could burst into the room.

But oblivious to my predicament, Kwan Mu-yeol's voice boomed from beyond the door.

"Third Young Master, sneaking in at such a late hour shows disrespect to us!"

Why were these supposed guards provoking an assassin who had come in the dead of night?

As cold sweat ran down my back, Third Senior replied in a gloomy tone.

"I merely came because I suddenly had something to ask our youngest. I'll be more mindful next time."

Hearing Third Brother's apology, the guards and Jin Hayeon eventually withdrew.

Breaking the silence that fell between just the two of us, I cautiously asked.

"So, what brings you here at this late hour?"

'Why the hell are you here again, you crazy bastard?!' almost slipped out of my mouth, but I managed to hold it back.

I'd already cursed in my surprise, but since it was in Korean, it would likely go unnoticed.

"Because of what happened during the day."

"During the day?"

When I asked with a puzzled expression, Third Brother nodded in the darkness and replied.

"During the day, I felt awkward. I thought everyone was praising me. But tonight, I keep thinking, I wonder if you were all making fun of me for being so easily flustered. Were you all secretly laughing at me, thinking, ‘Is this all you are proud of?’”

"......"

They say people become more emotional at night, but it seems Third Brother became more paranoid instead.

'Well... Progress… I guess??'

The man who had been depressed all day now was only depressed at night, so that was progress of sorts.

Come to think of it, his stealth skills seemed to have improved compared to when he first started visiting at night.

Back then, I could at least vaguely discern his shape in the moonlight.

Now, even bathed in moonlight, only his eyes glinted faintly. And that was only because he’d leaned inches from my face.

While I was lost in these thoughts, Third Brother brought up something out of the blue.

"More importantly, are you alright?"

"???"

"Actually, I was going to wait until you woke up since you were sleeping so soundly. But you were whimpering as if you were having a nightmare. So I was debating whether to wake you and then you woke up."

"Ah..."

So that's why he had his face so close. And here I thought he was contemplating how to kill me.

"Ahem. I did have a nightmare, but it's nothing serious."

"That's truly a relief."

"Yes. And don't worry. Everyone's congratulations earlier were genuine."

"Hmm. If it's coming from our youngest who is sharp enough to read even Master's thoughts, it must be true."

Satisfied, he nodded and turned to leave.

But just before leaving the room, he turned back as if suddenly remembering something and asked.

"By the way, what was that word you shouted when you woke up? Si-pal? Shi-bal? It was my first time hearing it."

"......"

Survival instincts kicked my brain into overdrive.

"Th-that was a local expression from my hometown. It's, it's a kind of dialect. Like 'Oh my!' or 'Good gracious!' That sort of meaning. Y-yes, that's exactly it. Ha, hahaha."

“Oh really? An expression. Fascinating. Ssi-bal. It rolls right off the tongue."

And with that, Third Senior kept muttering ssi-bal to himself like a foreigner practicing Korean for the first time.

Feeling a sense of dread, I quickly started talking again.

"Ah! Come to think of it, while Eldest Brother and the others might not be interested, why don't you try talking with Ouyang Mun?"

"You mean that energetic fellow we saw earlier today?"

"Yes. Didn't he say he wanted to see your Shadowless Fourteen Moves firsthand? If you two spar a little, you’d have a better understanding of whether he was mocking you or being sincere. Ha. Hahaha."

“I see. That’s not a bad idea at all.”

Nodding as if pleased, Senior opened the door and left.

‘…Rest in peace, Ouyang Mun.’

There was a chance that a maidenless young man might evolve into a virgin ghost tonight.

* * *

The next day.

I couldn't tell if it was good news or bad news, but neither my Third Brother nor Ouyang Mun paid me a visit.

And neither was Sixth Brother.

Thanks to their absence, Windrock Palace was much quieter, but I couldn't shake off an uneasy feeling.

'Don’t tell me one of them is actually dead.'

There was a ninety-nine percent chance it would be Ouyang Mun if someone had died, but that didn't explain why Third Brother hadn't shown up.

'Is he busy disposing of the body…’

I wanted to ponder this grim thought, but...

“Hahaha! And so, what I’m saying is—”

"So, that’s what happened. Hahaha."

Eldest Brother and Hang Geon's constant chatter prevented any serious contemplation.

The topic of their conversation was the school program they were in charge of because of me.

What puzzled me was why they felt the need to come report to me about it almost every day.

Hang Geon was understandable; he’s my subordinate after all. But I am not Eldest Brother’s superior.

I figured it was part of his weird plan to get my approval so he could become my liege someday, but—

‘…This whole approach is just wrong.’

Not only did the approach feel wrong, but I had no intention of serving Eldest Brother as my liege.

In fact, once I entered the Hall of the Demonic Way, I planned to slack off and enjoy life. I had no intention of serving anyone as my liege.

"Hahaha. That was a brilliant decision, Eldest Brother."

Of course, telling the guy with the anger management issues what I really thought was a terrible idea, so I just played along with some flattery.

After they finally finished their little report—or maybe it was just bragging, I couldn't tell—and left, only the usual resident remained.

I asked Jin Hayeon.  "By the way, didn't you say Eldest Brother also entered the Hall of the Demonic Way as the top seat?"

If a guy with a complex about being dumb could enter at the top, I had to wonder just how high the bar was set at that academy.

It made me wonder if I really needed to study and train this hard.

"Despite the First Young Master's inferiority complex concerning his wisdom, he wasn't inherently lacking. He just didn't meet the standards expected of the Supreme One's disciple."

So he had average intelligence at best.

"The Hall of the Demonic Way's entrance exam involves an interview and a duel. The First Young Master barely scraped by the interview, but his martial arts prowess secured him the top rank."

I nodded in response to the explanation, concluding that it made sense.

'The interview is one thing, but isn’t the duel basically a free pass??'

It seemed the stronger you were, the more bonus points you received.

'Well, Eldest Brother did reach the Extremity in his early twenties and earned the title of Mad Demon for rampaging across the Central Plains like it was his own backyard.'

Now, in his early forties, he'd mastered the Raging Demon Sword Art. His martial arts talent was indisputably exceptional.

Just as I was digging into the dirt on my senior brother's college admissions fraud…

"The Heavenly Demon Descends! Ten Thousand Demons Obeys!"

Jang Hwi's shout came from the entrance of the Windrock Palace.

It meant Master was coming for his scheduled visit.

As soon as she heard the call, Seon-ah, who'd been glued to my side, got up to leave.

"I greet the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons."

“Hohoho. Return safely, little one.”

Master and Seon-ah exchanged brief greetings. Then, he produced a small box from his sleeve.

"Here's the Explosive Demonic Pill I promised."

"!!!"

A legendary elixir. The kind of thing you read about in every martial arts story, but I’d never actually seen one in real life.

However, instead of being overjoyed, I was a little suspicious.

"Master, last time you said my skills were still lacking and it was too early for me to consume the Explosive Demonic Pill."

"Hohoho. Haven't you built up a solid foundation by now? Of course, your dantian is still too small to fully handle the Explosive Demonic Pill properly. But I don’t want to keep delaying your reward, so I'll personally guide your absorption process with True Qi Guidance."

I prostrated myself at Master's explanation.

"Your grace is boundless!"

"Hahahaha. Excessive formality is unnecessary. Get up. I’m not doing this solely out of my affection for you. This is part of your reward for your excellent suggestions regarding the school program."

Master went on and on about his justification for it, but none of that really mattered.

What mattered was that I was about to consume an elixir.

What was an elixir?

If you compared martial arts to modern sports, it was like doping.

Performance enhancement!

Of course, elixirs weren't always good.

Compatibility was key. The wrong elixir for the wrong constitution could be disastrous. Hence the need for specialists to tailor the dosages and ingredients to each individual.

In that sense, having Master personally assist with the elixir absorption was an incredible stroke of luck.

After all, he was the leading expert in this field.

"Take the Explosive Demonic Pill and sit in lotus position."

I took the small pill from the box Master handed me and assumed the lotus position.

'Hehehe. Once I absorb this, passing the entrance exam is a sure thing.'

According to what I'd just heard from Jin Hayeon, the duel carried more weight than the interview. With sufficient strength, simply avoiding utter failure in the interview was enough.

"Once you swallow the pill, absolutely do not open your mouth. Also, you must not lose consciousness, and maintain focus on the energy flow I will be guiding.”

Following Master's warnings and instructions, I swallowed the Explosive Demonic Pill I'd been holding, and Master placed his palm on my back.

As the small pill I'd swallowed began to dissolve and release an enormous energy, an equally powerful force invaded my body through Master's palm on my back.

I focused my mind, determined not to die a pathetic death from consuming an elixir.

But a nagging feeling lingered in the back of my mind.

That I had forgotten something really important.