“...Lord of Haomun!”

We hadn’t even found a bite to eat or a single sip of water, but someone outside the inn was desperately calling for me.

I didn’t answer and simply looked at the three people inside the inn.

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

If the people aren’t on our side, it’ll be hard to get even a sip of water in Dongho.

Honestly, I didn’t expect the fight to turn out like this. Of course skill is important in a battle, but now we’re fighting to eat, drink, and sleep as well.

I was once again reminded that every fight between people always rests on the foundation of public sentiment.

“Lord of Haomun!”

The Lecher chuckled and looked at me.

“He’s desperate. Just answer him, will you?”

When I didn’t respond in the end, the voice outside got straight to the point.

“...I am Gwiryong, who spent my childhood with Bi-gaek. Come out. This is one-on-one. Regardless of the Number One of the Evil Path, I challenge you to a duel of life and death to avenge Bi-gaek, whom you killed. Between that and your destruction of Black Fragrance, which had nothing to do with you, my grudge runs deeper. There will be no interference or hindrance. Come out.”

I briefly explained the situation to the others.

“There’s no way I can trust that there won’t be an ambush. Feels like some kind of hidden mechanism or concealed weapon might show up. What do you think?”

The Drunk nodded.

“That’s possible. If you’re not up for it, I’ll go fight him first.”

I ended my rest and stood up.

“I’m the one who killed Bi-gaek, so I can’t let that happen.”

When I stepped outside, the streets were quiet, and the front of the inn had turned into a wide dueling ground. But scattered all around, whether close or hidden in the buildings, were watching eyes glinting faintly.

I looked at Gwiryong standing alone.

He looked to be in his thirties, had a curved blade on his waist, and his skills didn’t seem bad.

I scanned the surroundings.

There were spectators everywhere, and I couldn’t even guess where a hidden weapon might fly from. The distance between us wasn’t much anyway, and to experts, it was meaningless.

I sat on a chair in front of the inn and tried to gauge the situation while addressing Gwiryong.

“It’s true I killed Bi-gaek. Before that, he’d already made it onto the Martial Criminal Registry. It’s not easy to end up there, you know.”

Just like at the Ja-Ha Guest House, I looked to the other Three Great Villains sitting near me and continued.

“To get listed as a martial criminal, you have to do all kinds of depraved shit. Even if I didn’t kill him, he’d have died at the hands of some expert from the Martial Alliance. Are you really Bi-gaek’s friend? Then my condolences. But does calling him your friend mean you committed similar crimes? Then I’ll send you to join him. What do you say? Before I kill you, I should know what kind of person you are. I came here to fight the Number One of the Evil Path—so why are you the one stepping up? Is it really for revenge? That takes guts.”

Even though Gwiryong stood before me, I was still fighting public sentiment—and the Number One of the Evil Path.

“What if I’m suddenly hit by an arrow during the fight? That’d be troublesome. You're not counting on something like that to win, are you?”

Gwiryong replied,

“Cut the bullshit and come out.”

At that moment, the Sword Demon opened his mouth.

“Hey, you...”

When Gwiryong looked at him, the Sword Demon asked in a dull tone,

“Are you here to die? Just answer yes or no.”

I let out a quiet sigh.

Sigh...

Now, even if I wanted to spare him, I couldn’t.

Gwiryong drew his curved blade and pointed it at the Sword Demon.

“Stay out of this.”

At those words, the Lecher and the Drunk both let out short sighs.

“Tsk.”

The Sword Demon stood up without a word and walked toward Gwiryong.

Since the eldest had stepped up, we could only watch.

Honestly, even I didn’t know how far the Sword Demon had progressed. It almost felt like a waste to reveal his strength here.

After all, too many eyes were watching.

The Sword Demon just walked straight toward Gwiryong.

It was only a brief moment, but Gwiryong’s expression rapidly shifted through a range of emotions before turning pale.

Still, he must’ve had some courage left.

Gwiryong shouted something and swung his curved blade fiercely at the Sword Demon, who hadn’t even drawn his sword yet.

I watched wide-eyed as the Sword Demon calmly drew the Bright Sword and, without even changing his walking posture, drove it straight into Gwiryong’s stomach.

The only reason this worked was because he’d caught Gwiryong’s blade precisely with his left hand.

“Gaaaaargh!”

A screech like a pig falling into a well rang out as Gwiryong, impaled by the Bright Sword, flailed in midair before collapsing like a rag.

In that moment, the Sword Demon tilted his head to the left.

Though nothing was visible, something faintly glittering lodged itself into Gwiryong’s forehead. His dead head jerked backward.

The Sword Demon yanked out the Bright Sword, tossed the corpse aside, and turned with a dull expression to look up toward a certain building to our left.

“......”

The Sword Demon’s body shot into the air like a streak of light, and an instant later—

KWA-A-A-A-AANG!

I didn’t bother getting up to watch.

The sound of a building wall collapsing echoed out, followed by screams, the sound of things being sliced up and falling, and chaotic noise that soon gave way to silence.

A short while later, there was a thud—and the Sword Demon landed back on the ground and returned to where we were.

The Drunk spoke.

“Good work.”

The Sword Demon gave only a slight nod. Even in the midst of it all, the Lecher peeked at the Sword Demon’s face, coughed dryly, and spoke.

“So they really did try to ambush us. I didn’t even see the hidden weapon.”

The Sword Demon replied.

“It was a small poison needle.”

After flicking the blood from the Bright Sword, he stared at the blade and muttered.

“...If we get hungry, let’s go fishing in Dongho later.”

I nodded.

“Let’s do that.”

There wasn’t even any real exposure of our full strength. Everything was killed in a single strike anyway.

I then spoke loud enough for the hiding eyes to hear.

“...Listen up. There may only be four of us, but the Number One of the Evil Path cannot resolve this situation with subordinates, hired vagabonds, allied forces, or random assassins. It won’t work. We’ll go fishing in Dongho and cook the fish while they’re still alive, so poison won’t work on us. We’ll solve our drinking water issue then too. Trying to send assassins through the night to disturb our sleep? That’s pointless. I have chronic insomnia. Never been good at sleeping. More importantly, I don’t want to kill your subordinates one by one. You’re all still trapped in lives of following orders. Now that I’m here, I hope you can break free. This fight ends only when the Number One of the Evil Path dies. Think it over. There’s no reason for all of you to die too.”

The area around the inn fell into an eerie silence.

I let out a deep sigh and spoke in a heavy tone.

“...Who the hell am I talking to?”

The Lecher nodded.

“You always mutter to yourself. No one even responds.”

Then, we all simultaneously looked to the right.

“Hm.”

A man with a large pack on his back was striding briskly toward us, not looking our way but staring straight ahead.

His face was tanned almost to the color of clay, his build was small, and his eyes were sharp.

His clothes and demeanor were strange—like someone who had just finished delivering messages on a battlefield after hundreds of days.

When the man reached us, he suddenly stopped, then sharply turned to face us.

I thought, Is this guy here to die too?, and felt a bit startled.

“...!”

But then the man standing in front of us clasped his fists in salute, bowing one by one to the Sword Demon, the Drunk, me, and the Lecher. Then he tapped his chest twice.

Where the hell did this lunatic come from?

He suddenly pulled out a book, raised its pitch-black cover, and showed it to us.

It read:

“I am Deungnyang. As a sign of alliance, please show me something identical to this.”

He took out a black dagger from his coat. Recognizing it as a Muga Dagger, I pulled out the same item from my own coat and showed it.

Deungnyang nodded at me and flipped to the next page of the book.

“I have prepared your meal.”

After quickly tucking away the book and dagger, Deungnyang briskly walked over, bowed slightly toward us, and began unpacking his bundle beside the table.

“Hm.”

He pointed to two tables, then joined them together with his hands.

Then he began pulling out small cloth-wrapped bundles from the pack. Some were round, others elongated.

Deungnyang motioned for us to open them, then tapped the remaining bundles in the pack and pointed toward the inn.

Seemed he meant to store the rest inside. So I replied,

“Go ahead.”

Deungnyang nodded and went inside to drop off the supplies while the Lecher and I began opening the bundles.

Inside were bamboo leaves—wrapped around ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) carefully made, small rice balls. Not just rice, but tiny dumplings the size of plums, lightly salted meat, and small fruit as well.

It was a beautifully arranged bamboo-leaf lunchbox.

When the Drunk opened the long bundle, he found several bamboo tubes containing water and liquor, separated.

I’d never seen such a thoughtful delivery meal in my life.

Even the Sword Demon, visibly impressed, said:

“This is Dansahojang.”

The Lecher asked,

“Master, what does that mean?”

“Welcoming soldiers with bamboo-packed food and drinks in jars. It’s an unexpected alliance’s supply drop.”

“I see.”

Deungnyang came back out and opened the book again. This time, it read:

“Please enjoy. No need to see me off.”

Naturally, I got up to do just that. At the same time, the Sword Demon said:

“Even if you say it’s not needed, our hearts feel uneasy. Accept our send-off. Mongrang, accompany him to a safe distance and return.”

The Lecher stood up.

“Understood. Please eat first. If there’s an ambush, we won’t get another bite.”

Since I was already up, I saluted Deungnyang.

Deungnyang looked around at us once, smiled broadly, and pointed at the table.

Our eyes turned toward it—

And in that moment, Deungnyang launched into light footwork and vanished before the Lecher could even react.

A cool breeze swept past.

“......”

From the motion of his hand and the way he disappeared, it was clear this wasn’t his first time doing something like that.

The Drunk murmured in awe.

“A ghost-like footstep indeed.”

Even the slightly startled Lecher stared after him.

“He’s fast. Totally got us.”

The Sword Demon said,

“Let’s eat. He’s gone—no helping it.”

“Yes.”

Inside the bundles were even steel chopsticks with pointed ends.

How thorough could you possibly be?

I marveled at the steel chopsticks.

“He even gave us hidden weapons. Wow, this is insanely meticulous.”

The Lecher asked,

“Aren’t they just chopsticks? You’re overthinking.”

“You idiot. Why would he bother sending chopsticks made of steel?”

Since Deungnyang hadn’t spoken a single word, I didn’t mention the name Muga either.

Naturally, the other Great Villains didn’t say it aloud either. Instead, we quickly popped the small rice balls into our mouths and shared the bamboo-tube water.

Could anything taste better than this?

We still worried someone might attack us mid-meal...

But the corpses from earlier were still warm, having died brutally and pathetically—so no more poor fools came to throw their lives away.

If another fight broke out here, they’d be pitiful for showing up to die, and we’d be pitiful for having to stop eating mid-bite.

We were bastards, not pitiful ones.

As the Lecher picked up a tiny dumpling with the steel chopsticks, he said,

“This is insanely good.”

The Drunk replied,

“There’s honey inside.”

“What?”

“There’s honey. Honey dumpling.”

“Bullshit.”

Thinking it was nonsense, I checked myself—and sure enough, there really was honey in the center of the dumpling.

Seriously. A honey-filled dumpling?

I accidentally locked eyes with the Sword Demon, but since there was nothing to say, we just nodded.

Even he let out a chuckle as he chewed the honey dumpling.

“A remarkable alliance. The Lord has certainly reaped the rewards of wandering Jianghu.”

“Indeed.”

In the end, even this problem of food was solved through connection.

Come to think of it, the Muga are true masters of defense and preservation. They don’t show up during battle, but deliver the perfect supplies right when needed—and slip away.

They don’t join in the killing but still support their allies. That’s the Muga way.

We polished off every last bite of the Muga’s lunchboxes and shared sips of liquor from the bamboo tubes while quietly watching the bustling streets of Dongho.

Even though war loomed, there wasn’t a single thing to envy in the world.

Because the liquor inside those tubes was Dugang Liquor.