Naturally, I kidnapped Sama Yuryeon and returned to the inn.
The innkeeper's eyes went wide, but… after I pressed a generous sum for the room into his hand, he closed his eyes with a resolute expression.
"Money really is a fine thing."
"Ah, but it's not quite so simple. The truly important things cannot be settled with money."
"In other words, everything except those few things can be resolved with money."
Even before the regression, back when I was called the Sword Demon, I had never spent money this lavishly.
…No, perhaps I was just an unusual case.
In truth, the amount I earned back then was by no means small. If I had put my mind to it, I could have built a grand mansion and lived a life without lifting a single finger.
It was true that I had struggled while the Iron Blood Faction was still intact, but after Seomun Hwa-rin died and I became a direct subordinate of the Lord of the Black Alliance, I was rather favored.
The compensation I received for handling the Black Alliance's missions was considerable, and there were no shortage of people who came carrying gifts, hoping to establish a connection with the Alliance Lord through me.
The problem was that I spent most of that money on martial arts and spiritual medicine.
In this life, however, I remembered all the martial arts I had poured vast sums of gold into learning, and from the start I had been cultivating an improved Mental Cultivation Method and consuming several spiritual medicines from noble houses, which had resolved my chronic internal energy problems.
By saving the money that would have gone toward acquiring martial arts and spiritual medicine, I was now able to spend it on smaller matters.
…Was it because I had seen Sama Yuryeon's face? I found myself naturally recalling the days before the regression.
As I quietly looked down at Sama Yuryeon, whom I had laid on the bed, Tang So-wol poked me in the side and asked.
"Young hero Cheon. Young hero Cheon."
"Hm?"
"What do you plan to do from here?"
"I'm not sure."
She could dock my pay for violating some ancient rule that no one even enforces anymore.
Or she could nitpick my perfectly sound budget proposal and cut the Iron Blood Faction's support in half.
This was Sama Yuryeon, the same woman who, whenever the Lord of the Black Alliance seemed to pay more attention to me than to her, would childishly stomp on my foot every time we crossed paths.
Now that I had neutralized her, what was I supposed to do next?
"It would make a fine arrow shield for checking mechanism traps when we explore the secret vault."
"Excuse me…?"
Tang So-wol flinched at the honest words that had slipped out before I could stop them. She asked me in a cautious tone.
"This is the first time I've seen the young hero Cheon react so strongly. Usually, you at least hear a person out."
"Usually, yes."
"Do you happen to know each other? The kind of person who makes the young hero Cheon this wary… would normally be someone from the Demonic Cult."
Tang So-wol's eyes narrowed. As if she had a decent poison at the ready, green and purple energy flickered at her fingertips.
I hesitated for a moment. A very brief moment. Then I shook my head.
"He is someone I know, but he is not from the Demonic Cult. So put the poison away for now."
"Very well. …Then, may I ask who it is that the young hero Cheon is so reluctant to get entangled with?"
"There's no reason you can't."
I let out a short sigh. Thanks to the Blood Poison Wine—which she had clearly brought along in advance—my mind was clear, but I pointed at the one who was still groaning, unable to release his vital point, and continued.
"Sama Yuryeon. A woman who brings nothing good to anyone who gets entangled with her."
***
Sure enough. The moment I released the vital point, Sama Yuryeon—who had not even bothered to retrieve her poison energy—leapt to her feet and raised both arms.
Then, with narrow eyes that clearly held some kind of ulterior motive, she opened her mouth.
"I'm not a suspicious person."
"You are suspicious."
"You're suspicious."
"…"
Sama Yuryeon drooped, looking a little hurt by my knife-edged reaction and Tang So-wol's.
But I must not be fooled. Even that is a calculated move. It's easier to assume that every word and action of hers is deliberately staged.
It was precisely because she was capable of such things that she could carry all those burdens—being a daughter, being born out of wedlock—and still get within a hair's breadth of winning the succession struggle.
And even after losing in the end, she stubbornly survived and managed to rise to the position of Chief Steward of the Black Alliance.
I kept my guard up as I studied Sama Yuryeon carefully.
She was wearing clothes of decent quality, yet her movements seemed oddly uncomfortable, as if she wasn't used to wearing them often.
She hid it with well-applied makeup, but her complexion didn't look particularly good either.
Above all, there was that suspiciously suspicious smile. She seemed to be trying to project an air of composure… but I had already seen her bottom once before.
When she heard the news of the Black Alliance Lord's death. She had smiled out of habit, but I clearly saw the tremor she couldn't quite conceal.
In that sense, the Sama Yuryeon before me now was as tense as someone pushed to the edge of a cliff.
She seemed to be trying her hardest not to show it.
Perhaps she was less skilled than the one in my memories… but if there was one thing that could corner this Sama Yuryeon, it would be only one thing.
"It seems something has happened in the succession race."
"…I've been thinking about this since a moment ago, but by any chance, do you know who I am, young master Cheon?"
"Since I don't know you, don't act familiar—call me by my alias, Sama Yuryeon."
"Wait, but you're the one calling me by my name so casually…"
Sama Yuryeon's lips twitched as if she found this absurd.
She barely managed to control her emotions and changed how she addressed me.
"Ah, well, I only said that because, despite the Blood Flower Sword Demon young hero claiming not to know me, you seem to have some inkling about my circumstances."
"And you—you must have had some idea about my situation too, which is why you were waiting here."
"I won't deny it."
"I knew this would happen. Tang So-wol. Contact the Tang Clan right away and have them send someone. I'll have this person bound hand and foot here, so tell them to come collect her quickly and lock her away."
"Huh? Ah… If that is what young hero Cheon wishes."
Tang So-wol looked a little flustered by my eagerness to send her off, but she nevertheless pulled out a spare sheet of paper from her bundle.
At this, Sama Yuryeon was taken aback and shook her head.
"W-wait a moment, please! How can you suddenly do this! Aren't you curious? How I found the two of you, and what my purpose is!"
"I'm not. So don't say it. Go back as if nothing happened before this gets troublesome. Don't drag us into your affairs."
"So there really was some connection between us in the past, wasn't there? And an ill-fated one at that."
"Didn't I say there was nothing? We met for the first time today, and I hope we never have to see each other again."
"Please, just hear me out…"
"Say one more word and I'll send you to the Sama Clan instead of the Tang Clan."
"…"
Finally, Sama Yuryeon fell silent. I raised a subtle Aura toward her—not to truly pressure her, but to remind her of the warning I had given yesterday.
Yet Sama Yuryeon showed no change in expression, only a troubled smile. She had expected this much.
"From now on, I'm the one asking questions."
"You make me feel like a criminal being interrogated."
"If you truly want an interrogation, I can provide one."
"No matter how I tried to talk, I was ignored, and when I finally said something that couldn't be ignored, I was kidnapped and woke up on a stranger's bed. Surely I'm allowed at least this much complaint."
"No. You're not. So let's skip the idle chatter and get to the point."
"…"
"As for our location, there are plenty of ways to find it, so that's fine. But how did you know where the secret vault is?"
"…"
"You show up first, act suspicious, and then claim you're not a suspicious person. What exactly is your game?"
"…"
"Answer me."
"…"
"…You may answer, so answer."
Whether it was payback for being told to keep her mouth shut instead of complaining, Sama Yuryeon, who had been keeping her lips tightly sealed, finally opened them.
"It's a simple matter. It starts with a question anyone would think of after looking into the rumors about Gwiyeong Sin-tu's secret vault and the pieces of the split Jang Bo-do."
"Keep it brief."
"The rumors were artificial, and the Jang Bo-do was well put together, but the ink hadn't dried long ago. That means the current commotion is no coincidence."
"Hoh."
"Where it all began, who started it and for what purpose—if it was a baseless rumor, what would be gained by it. After weighing all of this… I arrived at the conclusion that Gwiyeong Sin-tu himself was behind this incident."
"Continue."
"If Gwiyeong Sin-tu was behind it… then he must have staged this to spread his name far and wide. But since he couldn't give up his spoils while alive, he chose to stir chaos across the martial world after his death."
Sama Yuryeon added that, according to the records she had looked into, Gwiyeong Sin-tu had been quite the showman.
Surprisingly, every word she said was true. She had worked her way from a simple question to this conclusion on her own.
No wonder she was the sharp one.
"After that, it was simple. Someone must have spread the rumors in Gwiyeong Sin-tu's stead after his death and leaked the carefully hidden Jang Bo-do fragments. Even if not, I figured there would be at least some of the laborers who had been brought in to build the secret vault still alive."
"Surely not…"
"Don't worry. If I had harmed them carelessly, wouldn't that have drawn attention and made others suspicious? So I did my best to win them over gently. …As a result, I learned that the two of you have something."
Gently, my ass.
With the resources Sama Yuryeon currently has at her disposal, she probably tricked them with sweet words and pried the information out of them.
Well, it was probably true that she hadn't harmed them. Always leaving an escape route, hiding lies within truths—that was Sama Yuryeon's method.
Tang So-wol, unaware of such circumstances, whispered in a bewildered voice.
"Is that… possible? Of course, I suppose it could be done…"
"If you're asking whether it's possible to see through everything this quickly, learn information about us, and come wait here in advance… For Sama Yuryeon, it is."
After the Heavenly Demon's invasion. The Righteous-Unorthodox Alliance was formed, and the ensuing tense standoff was partly because half their strength still remained… but also because the staff of strategists who utilized it well were competent.
I once visited the place where the Jegal Clan head and Sama Yuryeon were holding their meeting, and I still can't forget the memory of that time.
How could I forget that atmosphere—unsettling, as if ants were crawling all over my body, yet impossible to pinpoint exactly where the itch was?
"Tsk. This is why I can't stand clever people."
"…Does the young hero Cheon have a distaste for intelligent women?"
"No. To be precise, I dislike people who try to deceive me. And in front of you, Tang So-wol, I'm more than happy to play the fool, so you don't need to worry about it."
"How embarrassing, saying such things…"
Even as she said that, Tang So-wol smiled contentedly and patted my arm with a light slap-slap.
At that, Sama Yuryeon's expression, which had been rather desperate, nearly crumbled—but she barely managed to compose herself and spoke.
"There's no point in hiding it any longer, so I'll be honest. Please let me join this secret vault expedition. My martial arts may be lacking, but I'm confident in mechanism traps, so I'll surely be of help."
"That may be true. Then, what do you want in return?"
"Recovering the martial arts the Sama Clan lost, along with a few Gold Coins, should be enough."
The Sama Clan was a fairly old house among the Unorthodox Sects, so it wouldn't be strange if Gwiyeong Sin-tu had stolen something from them.
No doubt her plan was to raise her standing within the clan by retrieving it. But…
After a moment's thought, I spoke.
"Things won't change just because of that much. You know that well enough yourself."
"But I have to try what I can. If I don't even do that…"
If I didn't even do that much, I'd be devoured in an instant.
Just like the countless brothers and sisters of the Sama Clan had been.
…Or like Gwimongmanyeo, Sama Su-ryeon, who had thrown herself into the Demonic Cult.