Chapter 50: Same Words, Different Understanding
Bang!
The elders, who had gathered again to discuss how to overcome this situation, all turned their heads at once toward the door from which the sudden noise had come.
There, pushing past a door that had been torn halfway off its hinges, the Cult Leader entered. And yet……
‘He drew his sword!’
The meaning of that action dawned on the elders at once, and fear filled their eyes.
Looking down coldly at those elders, the Cult Leader spoke.
“Iron Demon and Profound Demon, step forward.”
The moment he named the two and drew his sword without another word, his intent became unmistakably clear.
They should have stopped him, but there was no justification to do so. The elders knew that if they so much as mentioned something like a ‘consolation banquet’ here, every single one of their heads would be sent flying.
This was fundamentally different from dealing with the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, whose intentions were as transparent as glass.
Because of that, Iron Demon and Profound Demon, their faces ashen and lifeless, staggered forward before the helpless elders.
“I could overlook your disregard for the Vice Cult Leader’s judgment and even your treating the Cult Leader’s command like trash. However, you two violated the foremost law of the Bright Cult. You disobeyed the command of the Supreme, and you rejected the will of the strong.”
Might Makes Right.
At the Cult Leader’s words, declaring that they had violated a law no one could shake, all of the elders froze stiff.
“Even beheading everyone here would not be enough, but since the strong one has shown mercy, I will behead only you two as a warning.”
The Cult Leader had already made his decision. Realizing that this was something that could neither be stopped nor stood against, the elders shut their eyes tight, as did Iron Demon and Profound Demon themselves.
Those who thought the two would lose their heads at any moment heard no sound at all.
In that tense silence, the elders slowly opened their eyes.
What they saw was the back of the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult standing in front of Iron Demon and Profound Demon, blocking them, and the Cult Leader’s gaze fixed on him in puzzlement.
“Why?”
Just like the question he had thrown at the Strategist moments earlier, the Cult Leader’s blunt question cut away all preamble. The Vice Cult Leader answered.
“Because they’re comrades.”
“They are criminals.”
“They do not deserve death.”
“They defied the strong and betrayed the Supreme. They are crimes worthy of death.”
“Do you believe a place where one cannot oppose the words of the strong even once, a place where one cannot defy a superior’s command even a single time, can ever develop?”
“Develop?”
“Then are you satisfied with the current Bright Cult, Senior Brother?”
He called him Senior Brother, not Cult Leader.
Strangely enough, whenever the Vice Cult Leader called him Senior Brother, everything became acceptable, permissible, to the Cult Leader.
Just as the Strategist had wondered, and as many others found strange, even the Cult Leader himself did not know why.
It was simply so.
From the time Yul Han was a baby who could barely walk, when the first word he learned and spoke was not ‘Master’ but ‘Senior Brother,’ it had been that way.
As if that word itself contained some strange sorcery, everything simply unraveled and loosened.
This time as well, with just that single word, the Cult Leader’s heart melted like snow, and a gentle smile crept onto his lips.
“Are you planning a better, more advanced Bright Cult, Junior Brother?”
“Yes, Senior Brother.”
At Yul Han’s answer, the Cult Leader sheathed his sword without another word.
“If that is so, this Senior Brother will trust you and wait.”
When the Cult Leader’s gaze turned toward the elders, even as he smiled softly, it gleamed yellow like that of a ferocious beast.
“You were lucky. Do not expect such luck to grace you again next time.”
Leaving behind those savage words, the Cult Leader, who moments ago seemed enraged, gently patted Yul Han on the shoulder with a warm expression and turned to leave.
Behind him, Yul Han respectfully clasped his fists.
It was not respect toward the Bright Cult Leader—the greatest of demon lords, the number one target for extermination among the Hundred Paths—but respect toward a Senior Brother who cherished his Junior Brother.
Moreover, it was also an apology for the fact that this Junior Brother was not real.
Once the Cult Leader had completely departed, Yul Han straightened his back, released his fist salute, and turned around.
“The Cult Leader’s anger was justified. You all know that.”
He continued speaking to the elders, who could not even raise their heads at his words.
“Even so, reflect on why he spared you. Because in this place, I did not speak a single lie.”
After leaving those words behind, the Vice Cult Leader exited as well, and complicated thoughts filled the elders’ expressions.
Among the elders, each lost in their own reflections, the one who seemed especially tormented was the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, who rose and left the council hall.
Walking a path that felt longer than ever before, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords arrived at the Vice Cult Leader’s residence.
As he approached, the Thirteen Bloods, who had been sprawled about here and there, all rose to their feet.
Though the unrest caused from behind the curtain had subsided, the Thirteen Bloods still could not be at ease, and so they were guarding the Vice Cult Leader’s residence.
Seeing them subtly shift to block his path, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords narrowed his eyes and asked,
“You all seem to have plenty of free time, standing around here like this.”
“Well, for us, if there’s no order from those above, what else is there to do?”
At Iron Shatter Blood’s words, which subtly criticized the elders for acting without orders from above, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ expression darkened.
And he lost any desire to continue arguing.
“I wish to see the Vice Cult Leader.”
“There was no word that he summoned you.”
Though they were of the same elder rank, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords clearly stood above the Thirteen Bloods both in strength and in position.
In other words, he was being openly disrespected by an inferior.
If it had been before what happened behind the curtain, it would never have been tolerated…… but not now.
It was because he himself had gone against the will of the strong and opened the curtain behind the scenes. And so.
“Hm…… Go and ask the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult. Tell him that the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords requests an audience.”
As the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords took a step back, Iron Shatter Blood’s gaze turned away. He, too, knew that there was nothing to gain from provoking things further.
Receiving that look, Flashing Light Blood entered the residence to inform the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult of the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ visit.
Sitting face to face with Yul Han, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords kept his head bowed and remained silent. Yul Han spoke to him.
“Did you not come because you had something to say?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Then speak.”
At Yul Han’s urging, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords opened his mouth with difficulty.
“I did not realize that the Vice Cult Leader’s trust…… was sincere.”
“To be honest, it was not that I believed in the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ loyalty toward me.”
At Yul Han’s unexpected words, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ gaze wavered.
The very reason he had been suffering and rushed here was being denied at its root.
Yul Han continued.
“However, I believed in the fear you showed toward me, the pure reverence behind it.”
The difference between loyalty, fear, and reverence was complicated and not easily understood.
But one thing was clear.
The Vice Cult Leader had believed. Wherever the reason lay, he had believed—that much was certain.
The Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, whose wavering gaze steadied once more, lowered his head.
“I apologize.”
“A vessel once cracked is hard to mend, and even if mended, the marks remain. No matter how devoted the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords may be from now on, I will doubt you at every moment, and you will live in constant anxiety over being doubted.”
“V-Vice Cult Leader…….”
To the flustered Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, Yul Han said,
“Rather than walking such a half-baked path, walk the exact opposite one.”
“Pardon?”
“Stand on the side opposing me.”
At Yul Han’s words, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ face turned deathly pale.
It was inevitable. In the Bright Cult, opposing the strong was tantamount to being told to die.
That was precisely why the power behind the curtain—strong enough to even block the Cult Leader at the pinnacle of strength—was so immense, and why the backlash was so dangerous.
Believing that he was facing that dangerous backlash head-on, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords listened as Yul Han continued.
“That does not mean you should oppose everything indiscriminately. If I try to walk a wrong path, then resist with everything you have—risk your life, put your neck on the line, and oppose me. That is what I now expect from the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords.”
“I…… I truly cannot understand what you mean.”
To the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ question, filled with confusion, Yul Han replied,
“As I told the Cult Leader in the elders’ council hall, I intend to make the Bright Cult a better place than it is now.”
“That means……?”
“Any movement to achieve something is inevitably accompanied by change. And in pursuing change, there are times when the means come to contradict the goal. It is like proclaiming justice with one’s mouth while one’s sword walks a path that is neither justice nor chivalry.”
He did not understand a single word about justice or chivalry. Those were terms used by Hundred Paths trash, and they did not resonate with him at all.
Still, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords understood one thing.
The Vice Cult Leader was not telling him to stand on the opposing side in order to drive him into a dead end.
Thus, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords interpreted it in his own way.
“Are you…… giving me a mission?”
At that single question, Yul Han also understood the situation. Indeed, in a place like the Bright Cult, the sect of the Demonic Path, talking about justice and chivalry would never get through. And so.
“A mission…… You could see it that way.”
At the Vice Cult Leader’s words, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords’ eyes came alive.
He had heard that he would be doubted, and he understood that he would live in constant anxiety under that doubt.
But he accepted it. After all, he was someone who had betrayed once.
So he would acknowledge it and endure it.
And now the Vice Cult Leader had entrusted him with yet another mission.
One does not assign a mission to someone one cannot trust—unless one intends to sabotage the entire operation.
Therefore…… the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords believed that the Vice Cult Leader, though worried, was saying that he would try trusting him once more.
Yul Han quietly observed the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, who had understood the same words in a completely different way.
He sensed that his words had not been conveyed exactly as intended, but he did not correct them.
Because he judged that this different understanding would ultimately produce the same effect.
He also learned one thing clearly.
That he could not move the martial artists of the Bright Cult with words like justice and chivalry—words that made his own blood boil and heart race just by hearing them.
Even so, he did not want to bind them using only Might Makes Right. With that alone, the change he desired could not be brought about.
At that moment, a word suddenly pierced Yul Han’s mind. He brought it out as a test.
“This time, I hope you protect your honor.”
“Honor……?”
“It means not to throw the soul of a martial artist back into a cesspit.”
The Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, who had been indifferent even to the word honor, had his eyes shine brilliantly at the phrase ‘the soul of a martial artist.’
“I, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, will engrave the Vice Cult Leader’s grace upon my heart and will protect the soul of a martial artist no matter what.”
“I will believe you.”
At Yul Han’s words, the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords bowed deeply and withdrew.
‘He reacts more strongly to the words “the soul of a martial artist” than to honor…… As expected, they are people who are sincere about martial arts.’
Yul Han’s thoughts deepened.
For reasons unknown, aside from the Lord of the Ten Thousand Swords, whose eyes gleamed boldly, all of the elders lived in constant anxiety after the day the curtain behind the scenes had been opened.
The one most unable to sit at ease was Poison Demon.
Having returned midway through his trials to treat Iron Demon and Profound Demon, he needed to go back again, but since he had just raised opposition through the events behind the curtain, he had no idea whether the Vice Cult Leader’s test was still valid.
At that time, the Vice Cult Leader summoned Poison Demon.
The elders watched with worry as Poison Demon, wearing the expression of someone being dragged to a slaughterhouse, headed toward the Vice Cult Leader’s residence.