We moved the kidnapped Jeongalgyun to an empty warehouse inside the academy while avoiding the gaze of others.
He was already incapacitated by the blood curse, but just in case, we tied his hands and feet to a chair and removed the sack from over his head.
“Cough! Cough!”
Perhaps due to the suffocating sack blocking his vision, Jeongalgyun kept sneezing now that he was finally free.
Watching this, Baek Yujin gestured, and Cheonma untied the blood curse he had placed on him.
Once he could speak, Jeongalgyun displayed his outrage for the first time.
“What the hell is this! You barged in here and did all this?!”
If he turned out to be innocent after going through all this, we would have to kneel and apologize to him right away.
After all, we had unjustly suspected someone innocent.
Given various circumstances, it seemed most likely that he was the traitor, but since we were proceeding based only on suspicions and not concrete evidence, I still felt somewhat uncertain.
Baek Yujin, with her arms crossed, leaned against a wooden crate in the warehouse and said, “Now, ask your questions.”
Nodding, Dokgorin approached Jeongalgyun.
“First, I must apologize. We kidnapped you because I had something to confirm. If my suspicions turn out to be wrong, I will kneel and apologize then.”
Setting the stage, Dokgorin asked Jeongalgyun with a cold expression, “Are you involved in the annihilation of our Dokgo family?”
At that, Jeongalgyun looked incredulous. “What kind of ridiculous question is that! Why would I get involved in annihilating the Dokgo family! I’ve known Dokgojin for a long time, and Dokgoseok was one of my few young drinking buddies!”
However, Dokgorin continued with her impassive expression. “Then let me ask something else. We were attacked by assassins presumed to be sent from the imperial family during this training camp. Are you involved in this?”
“Assassins came to the academy event?! What kind of nonsense is that! Why didn’t you tell me sooner! If I had known, I would have taken measures! Are you suspecting me because of that incident?!”
Once again, Jeongalgyun denied Dokgorin’s suspicions.
From his expression and tone, he genuinely seemed like he was wronged, which led me to wonder if Dokgorin might be making a mistake.
After all, it didn’t seem likely that someone who wasn’t an actor could fake emotions like that so convincingly.
Eventually, Dokgorin posed her final question to Jeongalgyun. “Do you not feel any pangs of conscience regarding all this?”
“It’s a misunderstanding! It’s really a misunderstanding! I’ve never done anything you think I have! Please, just believe me!”
Jeongalgyun pleaded with Dokgorin, who was suspecting him.
He seemed sincere, which made me wonder if it was time to prepare myself to kneel when Baek Yujin, who was eavesdropping on their conversation while leaning against a crate, spoke up.
“All of that is a lie.”
…Huh?
“Dokgorin, you were right. The traitor within the academy is indeed that old man Jeongalgyun.”
With that, Baek Yujin looked at the tied-up Jeongalgyun with contempt.
*
It felt like I’d just been hit hard on the back of the head.
Were all his actions and words until now just a performance?
As I stared in shock, Dokgorin was now glaring at Jeongalgyun with conviction.
“Is that so? What kind of excuse do you have now, teacher?”
At that, Jeongalgyun, looking truly indignant, snapped back at her.
“No! How can you say something like that! I am friends with your father! How could I possibly be fooled by the tongue of a wretched girl like you into doing something so heinous!”
The sight of Jeongalgyun in that moment appeared so despicable, knowing that his lies had been exposed.
Despite having his deceit revealed, he was still trying to appeal to people’s emotions, making them question if he was ‘truly guilty.’
Had Baek Yujin not had the ability to discern truth from lies, I might have been deceived by that falsehood.
“Teacher, lies are of no use now. If you confess everything calmly, we will let you go without pain… just like Weijichun.”
When Dokgorin said that, Jeongalgyun’s eyes widened in shock.
Even though he was known to possess a brilliant mind, he apparently had never considered that the twelve-year-old Dokgorin could have killed Weijichun.
“W-wait, you killed that friend Weijichun?”
“Yes. With this heavenly poison.”
Holding up a small vial containing concentrated uranium, Dokgorin threatened Jeongalgyun.
“Isn’t it surprising? With the amount in this vial, I could kill everyone in the Cheonmu Academy.”
“…….”
Jeongalgyun looked at the vial Dokgorin held in her right hand with a tense expression.
“If you have any other thoughts, you should give them up. If you continue to lie, I plan to release this poison into the well of the Jeongal family. Just like how you annihilated our Dokgo family, it would be quite a fitting revenge, wouldn’t it?”
“N-no! Please, anything but that!”
The young girl, just twelve years old, possessed a poison so deadly that it could kill even powerful masters, and the thought of it being consumed by his own family terrified Jeongalgyun.
He pleaded with Dokgorin.
“This old man has lived enough, so I don’t care when I die! But please, spare my family’s lives…!”
“…It’s interesting how you so easily killed others’ families, yet yours is precious to you now, isn’t it?”
Dokgorin muttered as she gazed at Jeongalgyun with cold, settled eyes.
I was feeling an eerie chill just watching, so how would Jeongalgyun, who faced that murderous intent, be feeling?
In the end, he lowered his head with a resigned expression, giving up on everything.
“…Alright. I will tell you everything I know.”
Jeongalgyun’s face, in less than ten minutes, looked like it had aged a decade.
*
I realized something was off about Weijichun around twenty years ago.
I knew he wasn’t the hero people said he was, but I never imagined he was a spy planted in the Murim Association by the imperial family.
One day, Weijichun suggested to me first.
He asked if I wanted to seize a great opportunity with him.
When I asked what he meant, he said that the newly crowned Emperor Sun wanted to have connections to a concubine named Mangwibi, and he was inquiring if I wanted to enjoy wealth and glory by getting in with her.
At the time, it sounded too risky, and I declined, but as I watched Weijichun rapidly accumulating wealth, I couldn’t help but feel a tug of greed.
If I had not rejected his proposal then, I thought I could have amassed tremendous wealth alongside him and elevated the status of the Jeong family.
Later, I approached him and asked how I could get in, and Weijichun graciously accepted my request.
From then on, I started working with Weijichun.
On the surface, we pretended to act for the sake of the righteous path in the Murim world, while in reality, we played the role of power-hungry dogs.
After Mangwibi rose to the position of Empress and seized real power in the imperial family, she turned generous towards her own people, providing benefits, as long as they didn’t harbor any dubious thoughts.
My friend and I eagerly feasted on the scraps that fell from Mangwibi’s table.
Thanks to that, the Murim Association grew stronger by the day, and the storeroom of the Jeong family was never short of rice.
However, at some point, Mangwibi, who became infatuated with religion, began coaxing Emperor Sun to gather martial arts manuals scattered throughout the country.
Perhaps seeing her youth fade and her beauty decline filled her with a sense of crisis.
If she lost her current power, she would become a nobody.
From that point onward, we also participated in the act of collecting those manuals.
Specifically, we focused on martial arts mostly related to the longevity techniques Mangwibi desired, particularly focusing on cultivating the lower dantian.
*
The story Jeongalgyun told was shocking.
I knew Weijichun was a puppet of the imperial family, but even more alarming was the fact that the Murim Association was rotting from the roots.
Moreover, it turned out that the previous years’ sect attacks had been orchestrated by the Murim Association.
It honestly felt like I had been struck foolish.
“When did you start suspecting me? I thought I had hidden my true intentions quite well.”
In response to Jeongalgyun’s question, Dokgorin answered calmly.
“The day the Dokgo family was annihilated, the corpses of the Murim Association’s warriors you dispatched were nowhere to be found.”
“…I see.”
“Thus, there are two possibilities. Either you fled in advance after obtaining prior information, or you were one of those who actively carried out the extermination of the Dokgo family.”
As those words struck me, I recalled the conversation I had with the Murim Association’s warriors who were guarding the front gate on Dokgorin’s coming-of-age ceremony.
“Today is the birthday of Lady Dokgorin, right? Is there any chance we might receive some of the scraps from you guys?”
“Yes. After the coming-of-age ceremony, it’s said that the family shares delicious food together as a celebration. We may serve food and drinks to the warriors then.”
“Haha, I’m looking forward to that.”
Looking back, that was a chilling conversation.
If Dokgorin’s suspicion were true, then they had easily killed the members of the Dokgo family, whom they had lived alongside for two years.
“Anyway, let’s end this pointless conversation here. From now on, you must spill every piece of information you have, without exception. If you don’t want to watch innocent family members suffer and die.”
“…Understood.”
Jeongalgyun nodded, his face solemn under Dokgorin’s blatant threat.
