Chapter 94: We Fight Because We Know

TL: FoodieMonster007

I stopped by the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's residence before meeting the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon. I needed to confirm something with him.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon sat by a window, reading a book in the warm sunlight.

"So you really do read books in your spare time."

"It's just for show. I hear your footsteps from a distance and run to the bookshelf."

He put down his book. "What brings you here?" he asked.

I stood outside the window instead of going in. "I came to ask about someone," I told him.

"……"

"Do you know about the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon?"

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon flinched for a moment.

"Why do you ask about him?"

"I'm thinking of bringing him to our side."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's expression soured.

"Damn it. That loose-lipped woman."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb."

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was sharp enough to realize the Flower Sword Supreme had told me. He was not the type to gossip, so I spoke freely.

"The Sword Supreme told me you persuaded him, not her. She said she did it for your sake, Elder."

"It wasn't for my sake. She just has a moral obsession with cleanliness."

"Why do you two fight so much when you know each other so well?"

"Do strangers fight? We fight because we know each other."

His statement was irrefutable. I couldn't help but laugh softly.

"So, what did you want to ask?"

"How did you persuade the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon?"

I had come to see the Blood Heaven Blade Demon to ask that very question.

Then he revealed a surprising fact.

"He came to me first."

"The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon came to you first?"

"That's right. Why would I go out of my way to ask that unpleasant bastard for a favor?"

"The Sword Supreme was wrong then."

"What did she say?"

"She said you persuaded him because you're both villains."

"What? She lumped me in with a guy like that?"

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon jumped up, offended.

This might seem like tattling, but it was part of my effort to reconcile the two of them.

I have to keep mentioning them to each other like this. I need to show that they haven't forgotten each other, that they still hate each other.

This way, when an opportunity arises, all these pieces will come together, and they'll be able to reconcile. Reconciliation never happens suddenly.

"What were his conditions?"

"He said he'd vote for Cheong Seon if I promised to help him when he asks for it later."

"Did you accept without knowing what he might ask for later?"

"He'll probably ask for something for himself. If he asks for something ridiculous, I just won't do it."

"Why didn't you hold it over my head? You could've said, 'I'm in your debt because of you, what are you going to do about it?' Why did you stay quiet?"

"Hold it over your head? What nonsense!"

When I first met him, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was calculating and meticulous. He was the kind of man who would make a show of everything and demand payment for it all.

But once I opened his heart, I found another Blood Heaven Blade Demon. He was a man who had tossed aside such pretenses to enjoy reading a book in the sun.

"Elder, you have to make a show of these things so the other person knows."

"He doesn't need to know. Besides, it didn't feel like he helped just to ask me for a favor. The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon asking me for something?"

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked at me, his expression clearly showing his disbelief.

If that premonition is correct, then why did he help us?

"Anyway, thank you. I'm going to meet the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon now."

As I said goodbye, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon reopened his book as if he had been waiting.

"Aren't you worried about me meeting the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon?"

"About who? You? Or the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon?"

I smiled and turned away.

I left the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's residence and headed for the Valley of Evil in the northeast of the inner court.

The Valley of Evil was, as its name suggested, a valley.

It was not a natural valley, but an artificial one. Large and small residences for the Faceless Warriors lined both sides of the stream.

The buildings seemed random, but they formed a fortress. The construction followed a thorough plan based on the skill and status of the Faceless Warriors, designed to repel external invasions.

At the valley entrance, I announced I was there to see the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon. A Faceless Warrior in a white mask guided me.

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon's subordinates were called the Faceless Warriors. They all wore white masks with only eyeholes cut out.

The eyeholes were shaped like smiling crescents. The mask's eyes smiled, but the real eyes within did not. This dissonance gave the mask an eerie feeling.

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon's residence was in the deepest part of the valley. The building was modeled after the white mask. Its only window was where the eyes would be, which was probably his quarters.

I felt as if the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon was swallowing me as I walked through the mask's non-existent mouth.

I climbed a spiraling staircase and found the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon's room.

The moment I entered his room, I was struck by an eerie feeling.

All four walls and even the floor were painted completely white. The room was empty. There was no table, no cabinet, not even a chair or a cushion.

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon stood alone in that truly empty space.

He faced the wall, dressed in white robes. If not for the black hair on the back of his head, I might not have noticed him. He was that assimilated with the space.

He continued to face the wall even after I entered, so I slowly walked over and stood beside him.

"What are you looking at?"

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon turned his head toward me. He wore a white mask like the Faceless Warriors. Through its smiling eyeholes, his gaze was clear and cold.

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon's specially made mask was designed to hide his eyes from the outside, but my Divine Eye Technique pierced the darkness and saw them clearly.

Finally, the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon answered. "I wasn't looking at anything."

His low, deep voice was pleasant. His tall stature and long limbs suggested he was handsome. Unfitting for his name, the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon was polite.

He was polite to the point of being eerie.

"It's been a while, Elder."

This is actually the first time in this life. I've only seen him from a distance at official events. This is our first personal meeting.

"Elder? I'm still young. Please, treat me like a friend."

"How many people have died after being deceived by those words?"

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon laughed. True to his name, he laughed often.

"What about you, Second Young Lord? Are you usually the one being deceived? Or the one doing the deceiving?"

"If I had to choose, I'm the type who pretends to be deceived."

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon laughed habitually.

"Isn't it hard to always be smiling like that?"

A strange light flickered in his eyes for a moment, visible through the mask's empty holes.

"Why would smiling be difficult?"

"I just thought smiling might be harder than crying. It's easy to live while crying, but isn't it hard to live while smiling?"

"Finally, someone who understands my hardship has appeared."

Yet he laughed again. This time it was a loud, exaggerated laugh, like a marketplace actor.

I don't trust his laugh.

That laugh is like the lure on a deep-sea fish. If you get mesmerized by the gently swaying, colorful lure, you'll be sucked into its massive mouth before you know it.

I must never forget. He's not laughing because he likes you.

"Second Young Lord, why have you come to see me?"

I can't reveal that the Flower Sword Supreme broke the rules and told me about the vote.

"We've never spoken like this, have we, Elder? I came to seek your guidance and learn what kind of person you are. Honestly, I hoped you would support me instead of my brother."

"Shall we walk for a bit?"

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon began to walk slowly along the white wall.

"This is how I walk when I need to organize my thoughts."

I followed him. The string tying his mask dangled at the back of his head. It was a knot a child could undo, yet no one in the murim had ever managed to untie it.

As he walked, he said, "Answer one question for me, and I'll consider supporting you, Second Young Lord."

"Please, ask."

"How did you kill the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme?"

He tossed out the important question casually. I followed behind him and answered calmly.

"I didn't kill the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme."

"No. You definitely killed her. I'm not curious about whether you killed her. I'm curious about how you killed her."

He's convinced I killed her.

"Second Young Lord, I'll keep it an absolute secret. Just tell me. I'll give you another vote, just as I did for Cheong Seon."

"I'll say it again. I didn't kill her."

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon suddenly stopped walking. He turned and strode toward me. He stopped right in front of me and extended his hand.

"Let's be friends."

I know he's the type to act so impulsively.

And this is the second time I've heard these words from him.

When I returned to our Cult for the Great Regression Technique materials, the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon and I crossed paths. He said the exact same thing to me back then.

"I refuse."

"Why do you refuse?"

Because everyone who became his friend died. Except for one person.

"Because there are three reasons we can't be friends."

"Oh, there are three reasons?"

He eagerly showed his curiosity.

"What's the first reason?"

"If we act like friends, I'll eventually make a mistake. Comfort leads to disrespect. Speaking formally will prevent that."

"What's wrong with making a few mistakes?"

"True. It would be fine if the other person wasn't the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon."

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon laughed loudly.

"Our Second Young Lord, you're even more interesting than the rumors. So, what's the second reason?"

"Because the Sanzu Hall Director and the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon don't suit each other."

"They say good and evil are two sides of the same coin. If you learn evil from me, it'll help you protect good."

"That's probably a saying evil made up."

"What do you mean?"

"How can good and evil be two sides of a coin? Evil lies in a bottomless abyss, while good stands on a high mountain peak. It's just something villains made up to justify themselves."

Of course, what he said is a metaphor for good and evil coexisting in one person, but I spoke of them as separate entities to intentionally create distance.

"Then you must think I'm a hypocrite, Second Young Lord."

"Of course not. How could a man who proudly attaches 'Evil' to his own alias be a hypocrite?"

"Then do you think I'm cool?"

"Evil can never be cool. The only time evil is cool is when it's suppressing other evil."

He laughed heartily, but his eyes were cold and settled within the mask. I wouldn't have known without the Divine Eye Technique.

"The rumors were true."

"What rumors are you talking about?"

"The rumor that the Second Young Lord has become a stiff, frustrating orthodox nobody."

"If you feel that way, it's probably for this reason. At some point, we became worse than those stiff, frustrating orthodox nobodies. So I'm thinking of setting things right, starting now."

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon stopped his soft laughter. "Is this the new demonic way you dream of, Second Young Lord?" he asked.

"You could say that."

"Then we can never coexist. I'll continue to support the First Young Lord."

"I suppose that can't be helped. I'll take my leave now."

I bowed politely and turned to leave.

Just then, he asked from behind me, "By the way, what's the third reason?"

I stopped on my way to the door and turned back to him.

"I don't make friends with people who wear masks."

He should have laughed, but he didn't.

I saw it.

He did not laugh out loud, but his two eyes smiled within the eyeholes. This meant he was truly angry.

He had never taken off his mask in front of anyone. Naturally, no one had ever seen the face beneath it. No one knew what he looked like or how old he was. Asking him to remove his mask was a forbidden taboo.

However, even he had shown his face to another person just once in his life.

He showed it to me before my regression, when I came looking for the materials for the great technique. He showed it to me, the only one who became his friend and survived.

I have seen the face beneath that mask.