Chapter 362: To Think You Raised Your Son This Well?

TL: FoodieMonster007

"Then I will be on my way."

Geom Mugeuk bowed politely and turned away. The core of this provocation was to turn and walk away. His father would not send him back for a greater cause, but Baek Jagang would.

Geom Mugeuk strode away. His steps showed no hesitation, even as his desperation grew.

Please call me back, hurry up and call!

"Wait."

A triumphant smile formed on Geom Mugeuk's lips at Baek Jagang's call.

Geom Mugeuk turned back to face him.

"What is it?"

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Didn't you tell me to return to our Cult?"

Baek Jagang's small eyes narrowed into thin slits, like sideways lines. If he let Geom Mugeuk go, he would become a man who ruined a greater cause for his pride.

Of course, he knew Geom Mugeuk was provoking him. The problem was the object of comparison, the Heavenly Demon Geom Woojin.

He did not mind losing to others, but he never wanted to lose to Geom Woojin. Geom Woojin was his lifelong rival, a man he loved and hated, acknowledged and despised.

"Did your father really tell you to bow to me ten times?"

How could Baek Jagang not see through his provocation? It was time to be honest. Geom Mugeuk sighed lightly.

"I lied. Father would've been furious."

Geom Mugeuk bowed his head to Baek Jagang.

"I'm sorry for using such a cheap trick."

Geom Mugeuk frankly admitted he had provoked Baek Jagang on purpose.

"So you know it was cheap?"

"……"

Baek Jagang's expression softened slightly at the admission.

"That's how desperate I am."

"If anyone should be desperate, it should be me. Why are you desperate?"

Although he appeared calm, Baek Jagang felt a sense of crisis. The safehouse had been breached, his successor had been attacked, and the Alliance's vice strategist was the prime suspect.

He was not taking this matter lightly. If he were, he would not even be here. He just refused to show his anxiety to the Demonic Cult's Young Cult Leader.

Geom Mugeuk's desperation, on the other hand, was purely personal.

"I consider the Young Alliance Chairman a true friend. I want that friend to safely inherit the Chairman position."

Baek Jagang felt his intuition, which usually warned him of lies, remain silent. His sense worked on many opponents, but not on everyone. He was not a fortune teller, after all.

He would have to make an exception for this Geom Mugeuk.

The Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult telling the truth? That's impossible.

"Why do you want to be friends with Sayin?"

Geom Mugeuk answered without hesitation.

"Because I believe that with him, we can open a new path."

"A new path? What is this new path you speak of?"

"I don't know that either. It's a path the Young Alliance Chairman must find. However, whether it's my demonic path or the Young Alliance Chairman's path, I believe our era will surely have a new ideal."

Geom Mugeuk knew what Baek Jagang was thinking. Before his regression, he had been the same. If some greenhorn talked about ideals, he would have thought the exact same thing.

You only say that because you don't know reality.

He had lived that reality to its very end. He had lived that life, sometimes insignificant, sometimes amazing, overcoming all sorts of pain and hardship.

Of course, he knew that did not mean he could speak the right answer. It did not mean he would live this life well just because he had lived before. He knew that even if he lived a hundred more times, he could not live well without effort. He also knew that having lived before could hold him back and throw his life into an abyss.

Baek Jagang, that's why I'm trying. If I just let things be, a bitter reality awaits where you, me, all of us die, and the Twelve Zodiac Kings rule the murim.

"What do you feel when you think of Father?"

As expected, Baek Jagang's eyes glittered when his father was mentioned.

"First, you get angry and want to fight and win, right? When I think of the Young Alliance Chairman, I feel happy. The first thing that comes to mind is wanting to meet up, laugh, chat, and have fun. Our murim won't be one where we fight and hate each other. We'll be at the beach, hitting on the Young Lady Seos and having a good time."

"That's nothing but a childish ideal."

"Why is that?"

"Because humans with power are never satisfied. You, and Sayin, you'll both change."

Geom Mugeuk looked up at the sky for a moment.

"Before coming here, I sat with the Young Alliance Chairman and looked up at the sky. We imagined a time when our hair would be as white as those clouds. Will we really change?"

Baek Jagang did not answer. His expression seemed to ask, Do I really need to spell it out for you?

Geom Mugeuk nodded.

"Then we'll try to change for the better. We'll try our best to change in a way that's less bad."

Baek Jagang stared silently at Geom Mugeuk. He had to admit, just for making him listen to such ridiculous talk, this kid was no ordinary fellow.

A dream.

Come to think of it, he had never thought about it. How could a dreamer rule the path of the unorthodox? It was a place where you could die just by closing your eyes.

Suddenly, he wanted to hear those words from Geom Mugeuk's mouth. 'You were right, Chairman. My thoughts were nothing but a childish ideal.' He wanted to teach Geom Woojin's son a lesson.

Geom Mugeuk knew that ideals or friendship would not capture his interest. The most powerful way to grab his interest was this.

"Father once spoke about you, Chairman."

Sure enough, Baek Jagang's gaze intensified.

"What did he say?"

"It might be disrespectful, but may I repeat it exactly as he said it?"

"Go on."

After a brief pause, Geom Mugeuk spoke.

"For a bastard from the unorthodox sects, he has big dreams."

Baek Jagang laughed in disbelief again. The words should have offended him, but they felt like an acknowledgment, so it was not so bad.

Yes, if it's Geom Woojin. He's someone who has the right to say such things.

Just then, Geom Mugeuk suddenly asked a question.

"Is the dream you dream, Chairman, the same as Father's dream?"

Baek Jagang flinched for a moment. He knew Geom Woojin dreamed of unifying the murim. He had even warned Bi Sayin about it.

Now, the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult was asking.

Do you also dream of unifying the murim?

It was a question no one had dared to ask, and a topic he had never answered. He omitted the obvious reply, I don't know what dream your father dreams.

He still was not sure what kind of person this young Young Cult Leader was, but he could tell he was someone with whom he could communicate without spelling everything out.

"What if it is?"

After a brief pause, Geom Mugeuk said calmly, "I ask that you dream a different dream."

Baek Jagang roared, spewing his anger.

"That dream, are you trying to let only your father dream it?"

A powerful qi swept over Geom Mugeuk. The Heavenly Demon Defense Art, which he had completely mastered, protected him much more comfortably than before.

"No, I'm going to wake Father up too."

The oppressive qi vanished as Baek Jagang burst into laughter. It was the first time he had laughed out loud since they met.

"You know your father less than I do. The moment you shake your father to wake him, you'll lose your chance to become the next Heavenly Demon. He might just smash your head in his sleep."

That was how the Evil Alliance Chairman saw his father.

Geom Mugeuk sighed.

"Perhaps."

In at least one respect, Baek Jagang was definitely drawn to Geom Mugeuk. It was the way he conceded when he had to. He lacked the useless stubbornness of merely clever people, so he was not frustrating to deal with.

He had another appealing point. He never allowed for a dull moment with his unexpected remarks.

"Chairman, I'm hungry."

This too was something Baek Jagang had never heard since becoming the Evil Alliance Chairman. Who would dare look at him and say they were hungry?

"Please buy me a meal."

The kid knew. It is hard to heartlessly turn away someone who says they are hungry.

Baek Jagang thought of Geom Woojin again, of his incredibly blunt and cold demeanor.

How on earth did a man with that personality manage to raise a kid like this?

Right, I should at least feed him before sending him away.

Baek Jagang spoke into the air.

"Prepare the carriage."

The bodyguard Captain, Ingung, replied.

"……"

While waiting for the carriage, the two silently gazed at the river flowing far below the mountain.

"I like this place. It's quiet, and the scenery is excellent."

"When I have someone I want to kill secretly, I summon them here."

Geom Mugeuk glanced at his feet before looking back at Baek Jagang.

"You're not joking."

"I'm not."

"Was I, by any chance, about to be killed too?"

"It was a close call."

It was not so much that Baek Jagang liked Geom Mugeuk, but that he enjoyed this kind of conversation. He had lived a rigid life ever since becoming the Evil Alliance Chairman.

"Do you still have people you want to kill these days? I'd think someone at your level, Chairman, would have no one left to kill."

"There are still many. Resentment tends to build up with age."

Geom Mugeuk smiled faintly.

Seeing that smile, which seemed to say 'I know all about that,' Baek Jagang thought to himself.

What does a young fellow like him know?

That was why he felt the urge to keep digging at him. He wanted to show him that no matter how clever he was, he was still just a kid.

"Why? Do you think your father doesn't kill? You may only see his noble and dignified side, but bodies are piling up every day in unseen places. Are the orthodox sects bastards any different? They're probably killing people left and right, accusing them of being demons and branding them as unorthodox sects."

This was likely why he did not believe in ideals, why he tried to hold only cold reality in those small eyes.

"In your ideals, I suppose no one dies."

"No. I'm going to kill even more people."

"!"

Baek Jagang stared at Geom Mugeuk with a puzzled expression.

"You're probably wondering what the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult is talking about, but I hate those who have given up on being human. I'm going to kill every last one of them."

Since this was not something the Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult should say, and even less so to the Evil Alliance Chairman, Geom Mugeuk concluded with a playful remark.

"The saying that where there is good, there must also be evil… I have a feeling the evil side made that up, you know? Just to try and hang on. By any chance, was that a saying you created, Chairman?"

Baek Jagang realized something. He was not a man without laughter. He had almost laughed again at the question.

"In your demonic way, it seems we would be the ones to die the most."

"That's why I'm supporting and cheering for the Young Alliance Chairman, to prevent that from happening."

Baek Jagang realized this young Young Cult Leader was not an easy opponent.

Suddenly, he missed Bi Sayin. The thought that Geom Woojin had raised his son so well, while he himself had been complacent, crossed his mind.

Just because he was outmatched by Geom Woojin, he could not let his child be outmatched as well.

Child? Yes, a disciple or a child, what's the difference.

He could not tell if it was his sense of defeat, knowing he could never surpass Geom Woojin, or because he usually thought of Bi Sayin as a son, but at this moment, he was engaged in a parenting rivalry.

Meanwhile, the carriage arrived. Ingung, wearing a bamboo hat pulled down low, drove it. To avoid attention, he had brought a common carriage from the marketplace, not one from the Evil Alliance.

The two men climbed inside. Bamboo hats with veils were prepared inside for their secret excursion.

"Where are we going?"

"Didn't you say you were hungry?"

The carriage took the two men to a shabby restaurant a little away from the market.

"It's a place I come to occasionally."

And so, the two men ate a meal there.

Geom Mugeuk was once again amazed by the surprising experiences life sometimes offered. Eating a meal with the Evil Alliance Chairman in front of the Evil Alliance Headquarters? Could he have ever imagined this when he first set out for this place?

"I also have a favorite spot in front of our Cult. If I get the chance next time, I'd really like to take you there, Chairman."

Baek Jagang gave a slight nod, but he believed that day would never come. Unless a war broke out and he conquered the Demonic Cult Headquarters, but would food even go down then? Young Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult.

While they ate, Geom Mugeuk brought up Hyeok Sagun.

"Until now, Hyeok Sagun has likely played the role of an excellent strategist, better than anyone. Thinking back, he was too perfect, and probably very lucky as well. From now on, look at him as if he were a traitor. You will surely see a different side to him."

He was not worried that doing so would expose him. Baek Jagang was not a man who easily revealed his inner thoughts. Besides, he was also examining other aspects.

"Assuming what you say is true, then the Head Strategist who stepped down due to illness must have been his victim as well."

"Yes, I believe he was poisoned."

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"Because I knew you would figure it out eventually, Chairman."

Baek Jagang looked at Geom Mugeuk. He did not know what kind of face was truly behind that veil, but one thing was certain. Despite being so talkative, he meticulously controlled what he said and what he did not.

At the center of his deepening interest in Geom Mugeuk was Geom Woojin.

He raised his son this well? That cold-hearted man?

This thought kept returning to his mind. He did not want to lose, at least not in this battle.

"When is the day he said he would come to the Alliance?"

"In two days."

"We'll see then."

Baek Jagang changed his mind about sending Geom Mugeuk away.

As he was getting up, Geom Mugeuk said, "Before you go, please give the Young Alliance Chairman a good scolding."

"A scolding? Why?"

"He must feel very guilty for not being able to come out himself. If he hears that you scolded him, Chairman, his heart will actually be more at ease."

Baek Jagang was genuinely surprised.

In a situation like this, he's being considerate of Bi Sayin's feelings? And such an easy-to-miss emotion at that? This young fellow?

Now he understood a little why the word 'bewitching' had come up.

"Don't get used to it."

Geom Mugeuk looked puzzled at Baek Jagang's words.

"What do you mean?"

"Tell Bi Sayin that, and he'll understand."

It seemed to be from a past conversation between Baek Jagang and Bi Sayin.

"I will pass on the message."

After parting with Geom Mugeuk, Baek Jagang climbed into the carriage. The light from his small eyes was so intense it seemed it could swallow the world.

Look at these rascals!

The one added to his list of 'rascals' was, surprisingly, Geom Woojin.

Although it was a battle fought only in his mind, the 'farmers' had now joined the fray, turning it into a two-on-two fight.