Chapter 21: 21. The Scent of a Disciple to Soothe the Heart Demon
Arin, covered head to toe in blood, opened the bathroom door with dragging steps.
After washing the blood and dust from her body with the cold water that had been left sitting for hours, she casually splashed a potion she had taken from her subspace storage over her head.
Glug, glug, glug, glug.
"..."
Crunch!
Glass shards and potion spilled over Arin’s head as the bottle shattered in her raised hand.
Perhaps she disliked how the potion only came out little by little through the narrow mouth of the bottle. Or perhaps the dark emotions hanging over her heart had prompted that sudden action.
Judging by the way she stared blankly at her own hand, it was probably the latter...
Fortunately, her body, having surpassed ordinary realms, suffered not a single wound even as she stepped on the broken glass and headed outside.
When Arin emerged into the living room with vacant eyes, her gaze stilled.
More than her emptied dantian, exhausted body, or the internal injuries wracking her insides, what tormented her was Cheon Hwayeong’s vicious tongue.
[The way he eagerly bucked his hips while calling her big sister...]
"..."
Right in front of her, her disciple stood in the living room, smiling beautifully as he affectionately called her Master...
"Big sister...?"
Arin stared expressionlessly for a long while at Ryu-o, who was not even here.
Light streaming through the gap in the window erased the image of Ryu-o caught in Arin’s eyes.
When she turned her head to look outside, she saw the training dummy her disciple had struck so diligently.
[He moaned so obscenely in that low voice of his.]
Outside the window, Ryu-o, who had carried her on his back and smiled mischievously, was training.
He had fawned over her, saying she was not heavy at all... that she was as light as a feather...
Yet out there, with Cheon Hwayeong...
Was it because they had always gone to eat after training? Arin’s steps naturally carried her toward the kitchen.
There sat the empty bottle of Wonhongju that her disciple had bought by painstakingly saving his meager earnings.
The child who had blushed in embarrassment, saying he had put the bottle on display as a keepsake, had actually...
[After you gave him expensive liquor, he came crawling between her legs, fawning all over her.]
I drank liquor bought with money my disciple earned by eagerly bucking his hips.
Without knowing any of that, I gladly accepted the liquor and drank it.
As Arin sank into a heart demon, the most painful words of all flashed through her mind.
[I do not understand why you are so angry. Is he not your disciple?]
‘That’s right... he’s my disciple...’
The decision she had thought would be the best choice of her life was, for some reason, squeezing her heart tightly.
She had worked tirelessly not to commit the sin of dishonoring her ancestors, yet that child had already...
As if possessed, Arin headed for Ryu-o’s room.
"Ah..."
It was full. Far too full of her disciple’s scent and traces.
Arin placed a hand on the blanket her disciple had neatly folded before leaving.
As the blanket compressed and released its lingering scent, tears streamed down Arin’s cheeks.
Arin, whose heart had burned black, began to resent her disciple.
"Did you like women’s bodies that much...? Did you buy this with money earned from selling your body...? Did you go around smiling like that, pretending not to know anything...?"
If her disciple had already been tainted by depravity... then as his master, should she not correct him?
Should she not make it so he could not even think of another woman?
Since he had been indulging in obscenities outside, perhaps it would not be so bad to tie him up for just a while... only a very short while, and lecture him.
Arin, forcibly giving justification to the actions she intended to commit, grabbed the neatly folded blanket and crushed it beneath her. Lingering there...
The blanket exhaled her disciple’s scent in abundance as the air was pressed from it.
Arin sneered as she rolled around atop it for a long while.
Accompanied by the sound of liquid that should never have been heard.
**
Whoosh!
"Aaaah!"
"Shh! Keep it down as much as you can."
"Ghk!"
This was difficult. Using a movement technique in a confined space with such a narrow field of vision left me with too much information to process in every instant.
Fortunately, I could change direction in midair, so I did not slam into any walls.
But the problem was...
"Krrrreeeek!!"
I wished they would ignore us at least once, but the monsters made savage by the dungeon break spotted us and relentlessly gave chase.
The ones pursuing us from behind were no problem, but monsters that occasionally appeared around corners kept pounding at my thighs and shins.
Thud! Thud!
"Aah! Y-you little bastards!!"
I let the goblins wielding blunt weapons hit me more or less freely, while carefully dodging anything sharp, and it felt as though the difficulty had doubled.
As for the hobgoblins, twice as large as ordinary goblins...
Skrrraaaape! Swish!
Splat!
"Eek!!"
I drove my hand into the wall and dealt with them using the Bug Sword.
I had damaged the blade badly by jamming it in so hastily, but this was no time to be picky.
This method also killed too much of my momentum, so I probably could not use it often.
From here on, I would have to break through with my own skill.
When we entered a fork in the passage, a pair of hobgoblins spotted us and charged.
The wall was beyond the reach of my outstretched arm. It was still too high for me to leap over...
[The faster you circulate your inner qi, the better. In that respect, you have a body blessed by nature, child.]
I focused my mind and concentrated on my dantian.
Warm energy spread evenly through my body in an instant, bringing a refreshing rush of pleasure.
Inner qi spread through me like water soaking into a sponge, strength gathering in my grip.
[Cloud-Treading Phantom Step contains the principle of circulation. It is a martial art developed to ascend into the sky.]
Conversely, I had to release the strength in my body. Until I could feel myself go limp.
[Empty yourself and become light. So you may sink into the earth, so you may be carried away on the wind.]
I did not need to worry about my body collapsing. The inner qi I had cultivated thus far was sustaining my body’s form.
[There are no stages to the forms. That is what circulation is: turning and turning again without sequence.]
My lightened body, aided by the movement technique, suddenly received an enormous burst of acceleration.
"Hyaaaah!"
The faint wind that rose extinguished the torch, but that did not matter.
[Do not worry about the sword path for now. Just swing. Fluttering, yet true.]
[? Fluttering, yet true... Master, honestly, I do not understand.]
Whoom!
I split both of them at once, and blood sprayed out, but the faint wind shoved the fountain of blood aside.
Splaash!
Fluttering, yet true... I had not understood what that meant, but now I felt like I finally did.
‘As though pushed along by the wind, yet the body controlling it remains true.’
Ding!
[Intelligence +1]
I had no time to rejoice at the status window’s official confirmation of my enlightenment. I ran toward the exit.
**
Ding!
[Level Up!]
As I charged forward, cutting down monsters, I soon began to see a portal far in the distance.
But the problem was...
Clang! Clang! Splat!
"Fuck, what is going on?! Why is there suddenly a dungeon break..."
"Shut up and guard this place! If we leave without catching the young lady, we’re all dead!"
"Fuck!!"
"Krrrreeeek!"
The mercenaries and goblins were locked together in a chaotic melee.
I cut through them easily with every swing, but perhaps because I had drawn all the aggro, they were packed together thick as ants.
The young lady glanced back and whimpered.
"H-how..."
"...Whew. Hold on tight."
I poured all my remaining points into Strength and Stamina in an instant, then planted my feet into the wall and ran.
Thunk!
"Huh? Wh-what? Aaahhh!"
...Enduring the pain shooting through my ears, I planted my feet in the wall and raced onward diagonally.
A mercenary who spotted me stood there blankly, then had his throat pierced by a hobgoblin’s dagger.
"Th-there? Uh, there..."
Stab!
"Marshal!"
When the male mercenary looked up toward the place his companion had pointed to with his last breath, our eyes met directly.
"Th-there! The ceiling! She’s on the ceiling!"
"What bullshit are you talking about?! Focus!"
"The young lady is on the ceiling!!!"
It was already too late. I had passed them and was racing toward the portal.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Every time I drove my feet into the wall, my Stamina drained rapidly.
"What the fuck is that?!"
"Stop them! If we can’t stop them, we’re all dead!"
The mercenaries and goblins tangled together as they chased after us.
I grabbed the strap of the young lady’s armor...
"Hang in there a little longer!"
"Huh? What do you mea—"
[The return portals that appear every five floors are green. The next floor’s portal is blue.]
I threw her toward the return portal.
"Aaaah!"
"Just hold on for five seconds!"
Seeing the mass of enemies charging the young lady, I drove my hand into the ceiling.
Pulling free my legs and trapped hand, I thrust the Bug Sword down at the mass below.
Swoooosh!
Splat! Hissss!
"You’re insane!"
Ding!
[Level Up!]
When the front line shattered, clubs and blades flew toward the startled mercenaries’ legs and waists.
Stab! Crunch!
"Aaargh! Damn it! Break through the front! We’re escaping too!"
When I glanced back, the young lady had already escaped.
I summoned an oil barrel and threw it at the mercenaries charging toward me while tangled with goblins, then ran for the portal.
Fwoosh... Fwhaaa!
"Aaargh! You goddamn bastard!!"
The mercenaries rushed me as I stood with my body inside the portal.
5
"Aah! Fire! Put out the fire!"
"I’ll kill you!"
4
When I swung my sword, the portal rippled and clung to my body like soft jelly.
3
Without even time to panic, the mercenaries and I wildly swung our weapons.
Clang! Crash! Crunch!
2
I was slashed and lightly stabbed, but I activated my martial arts and split them diagonally.
"Aaaah!"
1
I pulled another large oil barrel from my inventory and cut through it along with the mercenaries...
0
Ding!
[Transmigrant Title Activated! Agility +3]
With a title activating for no apparent reason and the mercenaries engulfed in flames before my eyes, I successfully returned.
**
"Ow, hot! Fire! Put out the fire!"
It was good that I had made it out, but I was on fire too, and just as I hurriedly tried to tear off my shirt...
"H-he’s here! You there! Put out the fire on him, quickly!"
At the young lady’s gesture, a flustered soldier dumped water over me.
"W-what the hell?!"
Splash!
Fwoooosh!
"Not water, you idiot!"
Naturally, the flames flared up even more. As I hurriedly threw off all my clothes, the other soldiers sprayed me with firefighting equipment.
Sshhhhhhh!
Thankfully, this world seemed to have fire extinguishers too.
"Ow... It stings..."
My skin was burning, so I washed my body with water and liberally splashed myself with potion.
"Gulp! This is crazy..."
"Hngh...♥"
...? Wondering what that sound was, I looked ahead and found the young lady’s face filling my vision.
I caught the young lady as she ran over and threw herself into my arms.
...? You could move?
"Hey! Waaaah! Th-thank yooou... waaah!!!"
Ah, it had not gone smoothly... but I had managed it in the end.
Warm satisfaction filled my chest. I patted the back of the young lady dangling from my neck.
"Selena Ain Velatus."
"Eek!"
"...?"
When I looked toward the source of the voice, a young lady who seemed considerably more grown-up approached us with a fan in hand.
Beside her, the guild master had gone pale, and judging by the soldiers lined up behind the carriage...
"You look like a complete mess. How undignified..."
The young lady climbed trembling down from my arms and spoke in a tearful voice.
"Uh... Sister..."
The second young lady trembled pitifully, while the First Young Lady raised her arm high.
Without thinking, I slipped my hand beneath the young lady’s armpits and lifted her toward me.
The First Young Lady’s hand cut through empty air.
Whoosh!
The second young lady dangled in the air.
"Huh?"
I froze in confusion.
"Ah."
"...?"
The First Young Lady looked at me as if to say, ‘Who the fuck is this bastard?’
...It seemed I was in serious trouble.
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