Chapter 14: This Guy Knows the Most About
Yu Gyeongseong's cold rationality carefully analyzed his opponent.
The question about who owns the Divine Cult had just been thrown right back at him.
Even though he'd deliberately provoked the man's emotions before asking out of nowhere, the Hall Master had instantly suppressed his reaction. On top of that, he wasn't giving easy answers either.
But contrary to what might be going through his mind, his voice ca out calm and collected.
"Well... isn't it the Cult Leader? Just as the title suggests."
"Right."
"..."
Yu Gyeongseong stared directly at the Hall Master. But even under the pressure of that silence, nothing more ca from him. Not a single thought slipped through.
‘This one is not easy to crack.’
He'd hoped to extract at least so information about the Cult Leader and the Six Demons from Hall Master. The guy was a top executive, after all.
But with him being this tight-lipped, there was nothing to learn. Whether he was on the Cult Leader's side, aligned with the Six Demons, or neutral was impossible to tell.
‘…There’s always tomorrow’
At least he'd cleared up suspicions about yesterday's incident, so it wasn't a total loss. Yu Gyeongseong let it go and decided to wrap it up.
"If you have nothing else to ask, I'll be taking my leave."
***
After eting with the Hall Master, Yu Gyeongseong had also t with the Vice Hall Master and the five Elders.
But just like the case with the Hall Master, he didn't learn much. It wasn't that they were being secretive; it was that they were clueless.
Instead, they kept grilling him about why he'd been absent.
So just like with Hall Master, he told them he couldn't rember and couldn’t talk about it.
"Hmm... is that so?"
They pretended to accept it, but he could see they weren't happy about it. From the way they reacted, he figured they weren't exactly his best friends.
After wasting a chunk of his day with them, Yu Gyeongseong finally got to look around the Law Enforcent Hall.
He felt like he’d finally finished his chores. Pointless chores, but finished nonetheless.
‘I must have spent most of my ti here...’
The not-so-large building was bustling with quite a few people inside. But even when they saw his face, none of them showed any particular reaction. Not a single person ca up to say hello or ask how he was.
***
That made it easy to figure out.
He wasn’t friends with any of these people.
‘It is unlikely to be among them, but…’
Still, he had sothing he needed to do.
Yu Gyeongseong brushed past people while muttering sothing in a low voice. But even though it's low, everyone in the Law Enforcent Hall heard it.
"Divine Demon... Divine Demon... Divine Demon..."
"..."
They'd definitely all heard him. The sight of him wandering around muttering to himself must have made him look completely unhinged... A couple of people gave him a quick glance with a look that said, ‘What the hell is that weirdo doing now? ‘
But even those looks quickly faded like candles in the wind.
‘Forget not being close; they don't even care.’
The last place he went was the training grounds attached to the Law Enforcent Hall building.
Yu Gyeongseong walked to the center.
What echoed in his mind right now was what Maeng Heum had said.
[You were pretty much the number one hermit in the entire Divine Cult. And you did it to yourself.]
He'd known it was true, but...
‘…I didn't think it was this bad…’
If this is how it was in his own workplace, what was it like everywhere else in the Cult? He probably didn't even register as a blip on anyone's radar.
Yu Gyeongseong chuckled once to shake off those thoughts and looked around.
No matter how much he looked around, nothing ca back to him.
At this point, he was starting to think he should just forget about ever getting his mory back.
‘I probably trained here, didn't I?’
That's when a voice ca from one side. The sa voice that had been echoing in his mind just monts ago.
"You did train the hardest in the Law Enforcent Hall, you know. Spent more ti in this yard than anyone. Watching you, I always thought you should've been in one of the Six Strike Forces from the start.”
Maeng Heum walked up to him.
“So, you t the Hall Master?"
Yu Gyeongseong nodded.
"I got called in yesterday. Because of you."
"Did you?"
Maeng Heum glanced at Yu Gyeongseong's expression.
"I told them everything as it was. That I returned the money you'd entrusted to . Oh, but I didn’t ntion you’d asked about him. Anyway… nothing bad happened, right?”
Yu Gyeongseong smirked at this clumsy show of loyalty and said casually. “I think you were right about what you said yesterday.”
“Right about what?”
"Your assessnt of ."
"...The hermit thing?"
“No. That you’re probably the closest thing I have to a friend.”
Yu Gyeongseong looked at him.
One thing was certain.
Maeng Heum.
This guy knew the most about his past self.
Plus, he actually answers my questions. It was a relief to have soone like him around.
But first, there was sothing he needed to check.
"Why do you look at like that?"
It felt awkward to bring it up mid-conversation. So he let it slip out casually like he was just thinking out loud.
"...Divine Demon."
“Huh? What was that? Shit-ma? Did you just call a piece of shit?”
(TL Note: Our amnesiac man actually said Shinma (신마), but because he said it low, it actually sounds like the Ssi of Shibal (씨발))
"I’m not cursing you..."
"Then what?"
"Divine Demon."
"Huh? Where the hell did that co from all of a sudden..."
"Never mind!"
Yu Gyeongseong sighed heavily and turned away.
Maeng Heum watched him for a mont, then tried to cheer him up, probably thinking he was losing his mind.
"Don't stress about it so much. So what if you're missing so mories? They probably sucked anyway. Now you can just make new, better ones.”
Yeah. Must be nice to be so carefree.
Yu Gyeongseong answered internally as Maeng Heum continued.
“Are you snooping around here and there because your mories haven’t returned yet? Hoping sothing might jog it?"
"Yeah. Not getting much out of it though. What about you?"
As in, why aren't you working and hanging around here?
"? I’m just heading in for my shift. I saw you over here and figured I’d say hi.”
“You’re just starting now?”
Yu Gyeongseong glanced up at the sky. He'd spent a lot of ti dealing with the Six Demons and the Law Enforcent Hall higher-ups, but since he'd started at dawn, it was just past the Hour of the Horse (11 AM to 1 PM).
"Oh, we work on regular shifts. Day and night. I’m on days this month. That’s noon to midnight.”
Maeng Heum stretched and scratched his side with a loud yawn.
“Man… I’m always starving after my shift. I think all these midnight snacks are making fat.”
“You sure it’s not because you drink all night since you get to sleep in?”
What he could easily sense from the guy was the lingering sll of alcohol that still clung to him.
Maeng Heum grinned.
"I work hard, so of course I get hungry!"
As Yu Gyeongseong half-listened to his bullshit about getting cravings whenever he ca to work, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
“Is there any other place I used to go? Anywhere you can think of?”
Since he knew well, maybe he'd know about things closely connected to my past self?
Maeng Heum chuckled at that.
“Your life was pretty damn boring, Squad Leader. The Law Enforcent Hall is basically your second ho, then you’ll hop onto your real ho after your shift ends.”
"..."
But soon enough, an answer that t his expectations ca.
“There was one place, though. A spot you went to every now and then.”
"Where's that?"
"The Heavenly Lake on Tianshan Mountain. From what I saw, you seed to go there sotis when you felt suffocated. So... since you’re frustrated now, maybe you should check it out? Maybe sothing'll co back to you."
***
Back in the Hall Master's Office
So ti after Yu Gyeongseong left, Byeon Wu entered. He'd been investigating on Hall Master's orders and ca to report his findings.
“So the guy who started that whole ss… was Squad Leader Dong? That Dong Gong, from the Second Squad of Rock Demon Clan’s Strike Force?”
Yes, sir. I thought it was strange too, so I confird it multiple tis."
Hall Master's gaze deepened.
First Wu Wonta, and now this. Dong Gong was one of the high-ranking officials of the Rock Demon Clan.
The Hall Master nodded for him to continue, and Byeon Wu spoke.
"There were three Rock Demon Clan mbers at the scene, including Dong Gong. We tried to et them, but... couldn't."
He didn't need to hear more to understand the situation. No matter how much investigative authority the Law Enforcent Hall had, it was incredibly difficult to push through when the Six Demons refused to cooperate.
"So we secured statents from the restaurant staff. But..."
He seed to hesitate about sothing.
"What?"
“The witnesses said a… a huge gray thing erupted from Squad Leader Yu’s hand. They said Dong Gong just froze like a deer in the headlights and took the hit without even moving.”
...Hand Aura?
That was a supre realm that even Hall Master himself hadn't reached. He couldn't help but be skeptical.
Did I hear that right?
“They also said the gray energy kept changing form. It turned into sothing like a giant hand and grabbed Dong Gong's head."
Shaped Hand Aura?
Now he understood why Byeon Wu hesitated to speak these words. The man reporting found it difficult to believe his own account.
"Based on the combined statents... Dong Gong... seems to have had his dantian destroyed, his tongue ripped out, and his arm severed."
He was from the Rock Demon Clan, not so other third-rate clan. The Art of the Undefeated that the Rock Demon Clan’s Squad Leaders mastered was a realm approaching invincibility. And yet, a man like that… had what happen to him?
‘That level... just what...’
He couldn't make sense of it.
Squad Leader Yu had boasted outstanding martial prowess among the Law Enforcent Hall mbers, but he'd never been at that level.
What suddenly ca to mind was what Yu Gyeongseong had said when they t.
[I received so teachings.]
Could it be...
Did he learn the Soul-Slaughtering Art from the Crushing Demon himself?
If he's that powerful now… when did this happen?
Does this an he wasn't the Cult Leader's man to begin with?
The Law Enforcent Hall Master's office fell silent.
After a long while, a low voice echoed.
"Keep this case strictly confidential. Silence the witnesses too."
***
At the Heavenly Lake on Tianshan Mountain.
A massive lake nestled among the peaks, so huge it looked like an ocean in the sky.
A single figure stood before that majestic nature.
Yu Gyeongseong drank in the full view of the Heavenly Lake.
Blue waves glittering like jade, catching the light descending from the heavens. A sea of snow ford by the eternal snows atop the peaks surrounding the lake. The clouds drifted between the mountains, their reflections so clear on the water's surface that it was hard to tell where the lake ended and the sky began.
It felt like you were standing at the connection point between heaven and earth, a place with a limitless view where you could see everything all at once.
[From what I saw, you seed to go there sotis when you felt suffocated.]
Looking at it now, he could see why. Just the sight of it was enough to make you feel like you could breathe again.
Of course, he still didn't rember a single thing about his past...
In this mont, Yu Gyeongseong nodded inwardly.
Because it felt familiar.
When Maeng Heum ntioned this place, sothing had clicked inside his mind. So, he had already guessed to so extent.
This place was probably the space he'd created when he reversed the Illusion Demon's illusion art.
He had just made it instinctively.
The still lake that swallowed the illusory ocean.
But… how? How could he have created a perfect copy of a real place inside an illusion when he had no mory of it?
"..."
That's why a sense of relief washed over him.
It was the sa feeling he’d gotten when he heard stories about his old self.
It felt like a sign… that the old wasn't completely gone.
‘Maybe I can get myself back.’
It definitely won't be easy.
He needed to figure out what exactly the Great Law was. And why exactly he'd lost his mory in the first place.
But whether he chose this or was forced into it, this was his path now. Who he was now was the result of that choice.
I wonder… did the old trust that I could handle this?
He stood there for a long ti, just staring out at the lake, completely still.
When the day stretched long enough that it felt like sunset would arrive soon, he turned around.
And as he walked away,
The piercing blue waves watched him go in silence.
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