As Shin Yong stared at his assailant’s beautiful face, the female raised her left index finger to her mouth before speaking in a silent voice.

“Sssh. I’m very sorry for barging in so suddenly in the middle of the night, but I need to use your window to get out.”

While her voice rang out, Shin Yong couldn’t help but feel as if they sounded like a calm stream. Still, even though he was in that kind of situation and having those thoughts, he sensed four figures rushing over to the room.

“You’re being chased, huh?”

At the sudden revelation, the lady’s eyes opened wide in surprise before she quickly replied.

“How’d you know? Anyways, I’m really sorry but I have to leave before they arrive. That way, you’ll be safe too.”

With those final words, she hastily opened the window beside them and rushed out.

While he watched the lady leave with a bewildered expression, the four figures finally arrived at the door of his room and entered with caution. After they made sure no one else was in the door, they finally focused their attention on Shin Yong. One of the figures then stepped forward and spoke in an intimidating manner.

“Where’d the girl run off to?”

“As you can see, she just left through the window.”

Even though he had been slightly mesmerized by the lady who had just escaped, he had no plans to protect her. She really had nothing to do with him, after all. Also, even though she said that’d he be protecting by leaving more quickly, he knew that they wouldn’t leave him be after he saw them.

“I see. Anyways since you have seen us, we really can’t leave you alive. If you stay still we’ll make sure you have a painless death.”

As the man said that the four figures silently walked forward. Seeing their actions, Shin Yong let loose a sigh. He couldn’t understand why assassins always said those kind of corny comments before they killed someone.

When the four were only five yards away, Shin Yong finally went into action as his left hand moved forward in a very quick motion. Even before they four could comprehend that the action occurred, two thud sounds appeared within their ranks as two bodies fell to the ground. When the man who had spoken earlier looked back to see the cause of the sound, he saw two of his colleagues on the ground with lifeless eyes. Right in the middle of the chest, in the exact location where their hearts were, stood two small daggers.

“Shi…”

Just as he was about to yell in surprise, the rest of the words stopped in his threat, never to come out. Surprised, he looked down as he saw a fountain of blood spurt out from his below his chin. Even as he comprehended that his throat had been slashed through, his body had already crumbled to the ground. While his vision was becoming blurry, he saw that the sole survivor out of the four had also hit the floor with a fountain of blood flowing out his throat right after he had fallen.

Shin Yong, who had taken another dagger out from his clothes with his right hand, had moved immediately after his throwing daggers had hit the first two targets. When those two bodies had fallen, he had already arrived where the two were and slashed through their necks in a short moment.

All of these events occurred in less than three seconds. Once he confirmed all four assailants were dead, he slashed downward once to remove the blood drops from his dagger. One could see that on the blade of the dagger the word behemoth carved on it. After putting the dagger back into his shirt and retrieving the two throwing daggers, he finally spoke out to the empty room.

“Moon Geun, take care of these corpses.”

“Yes, my lord.”

As those words were spoken, a figure materialized behind Shin Yong. It was his personal guard and captain of the Gray Shadow Guards, Moon Geun. He had been in the room all along. The only reason he had not shown himself was that he had been able to tell how skillful the assassins were at a glance and knew that Shin Yong would dispose of them easily by himself.

As Moon Geun walked forward, he retrieved a vial from inside his clothes and dropped the contents on the corpses. As the liquid touched the body, the clothes, skin, and bones quickly decomposed. The contents of the vial was a certain type of acid that the Gray Shadow Sect produced that could quickly decompose a body, not even leaving any ashes. The acid was known as Void Acid.

After the bodies had decomposed, leaving no mark of the prior battle, Moon Geun bowed before he slowly faded into the darkness. While his guard had been taking care of the bodies Shin Yong had moved back to the window and taken a seat in the chair that was in front of it. Looking out the window he watched the stars up in the cloudless sky as they sparkled brightly, illuminating the dark night. He also thought about why such a beautiful lady would have assassins chasing her but that thought immediately into the winds.

*****

The next day, Shin Yong, Jong Shin, and the guards once again set off right as the sun was rising. As they continued heading south, Jong Shin started to think about how he had first met Shin Yong.

On that day, Jong Shin remembered how he had tried to stand up to some martial artists who had been talking about his girlfriend with vulgar words and grotesque expressions. While trying to defend his girlfriend’s honor, he had been badly beaten up by those martial artists. After they had enough fun, they had left him on the ground with a swollen face and went to a bar for some drinks. Just as he was cursing his own lack of strength and how he couldn’t do anything, a voice had spoken up.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“It’s infuriating that you’re not strong enough to defend yourself or the ones you love, huh? Grab my hand and become my person. If you do I promise you that you’ll no longer be a weakling and will have the strength to protect the things that are important to you.”

As those words rang out in the surrounding, a hand appeared in front of him. When he looked up, he saw the younger Shin Yong. Confused at first, he looked at Shin Yong with questioning eyes. Shin Yong though, continued to stay in the same posture that seemed to be asking what is he hesitating over? Hurry up and grab my hand so that you can gain sufficient enough power. After thinking it over a little, he finally made up his mind and firmly grabbed the hand that Shin Yong had reached out with. Smiling, he had pulled up the now determined Jong Shin.

’That’s when my fate started to change, huh? It sure is crazy how just one incident can change someone’s fate’

As he was having that thought and recollecting that moment, a voice spoke out from the door of the carriage he was in.

“My lord, we have arrived at the destination.”

When the guard opened in the door, Shin Yong and Jong Shin stepped out the door. Once he saw where they were, Jong Shin’s eyes opened wide in surprise as he suddenly began to stutter out a sentence.

“My.. my lord.. this.. this place is…”

The place that they had arrived at was a tiny cottage that was near a cliff. The cottage looked a little beat up but was still clean and well kept. The scenery was nice as the grass swayed with the light draft of wind that was on the cliff.

When he saw Jong Shin’s expression and how he was stuttering, Shin Yong lightly laughed.

“You’ve been away from her for four years now. It’s time you reunited with her.”

“Bu..but my lord it’s been four years. I don’t think she’ll take me back..”

“Where’d the confidence of my military strategist go? Hurry up and go inside to reclaim your lover proudly.”

As he said that, Shin Yong slightly pushed Jong Shin forward to the door of the cottage. After looking back and seeing that Shin Yong was waving his hand for him to go inside, Jong Shin let a long sigh loose before he entered the cottage.

After a few moments of silence, loud noises erupted from the house, startling the guards. A couple of minutes afterwards, Jong Shin left the cottage with a large hand mark on his right cheek. With a dejected look, he stopped in front of Shin Yong.

“My lord, she said to never appear in front of her again.”

“…How can you just leave like that? Hurry up and go back in!”

While he said that, Shin Yong once again pushed Jong Shin toward the cottage. With his head hung low, he once again entered the cottage. Right as he entered the cottage, even larger noises escaped from the cottage before Jong Shin ran out the cottage again and stood dejectedly in front of Shin Yong again. In unison with his right cheek, there was now a large hand mark on his left cheek.

“My lord. She said that if I ever show up in front of her again that she would kill me.”

“Haa… show her your manly side! Don’t even think of leaving that cottage again unless it’s with Seul Gi!”

Once again, he pushed Jong Shin back to the cottage. After he had released a depressing sigh, he entered the cottage and the sounds once again appeared. Shin Yong, who stayed in the same position, let a light smile appear on his face. Truthfully, he felt really bad for both Jong Shin and Seul Gi. If it wasn’t for him, the two would have stayed together here the whole time and lived happily. The two had to separate for a whole four years because he had taken Jong Shin with him so that he could take over the position of Sect Leader of the Gray Shadow Sect.

Even though he didn’t allow himself to fall in love with any woman, that didn’t mean he wished to put the same fate on his subordinates. They should at least fall in love and be with the ones they loved. While he had those thoughts, Shin Yong raised his head and started to stare at the large blue sky up above.

Around ten minutes after he had entered, Jong Shin finally exited the cottage. This time, a female accompanied him out. The girl was plain looking, wearing a green dress that looked a little worn out. She had plain brown hair along with green eyes.

As she walked out, she spotted Shin Yong and her gaze became a lot darker. When he saw her gaze, Shin Yong smiled helplessly. Of course she was still mad at him. He had, after all, taken her lover away to go fight in a war.

After he slightly nodded his head to greet her, he turned to Jong Shin and spoke.

“You two should have a lot to talk about. I’m going to head back first. Make sure to come back with Seul Gi to the palace in a couple days.”

After saying those, Shin Yong turned around and entered the carriage before the entourage turned around and headed back to the palace.