“The safest place in the martial world?”

Juyang did not take those words as mere boasting or empty bravado but received them like this:

She understood what kind of feeling that was. She had felt the same. For her, her father’s embrace was the safest place.

Like a revolving lantern, memories with her father surfaced.

The times when he taught her martial arts when she was young.

The imposing figure leading the swordsmen of their family.

That back view of him standing alone in the courtyard, gazing at the moon.

Even the image of him ill with disease before passing away.

Among those many scenes, she was never the one who took initiative. She never suggested first to eat with him, nor did she ever take the lead to go on trips with him like those people did.

When she was young, there were so many things she wanted to do with her father, but as she grew older, those desires faded. Maybe even if she had wanted something, she had postponed it for later. Because she always believed her father would be there beside her.

“Father, I miss you.”

Her gaze turned to the person who today made her long for her father so much—the one who silently reached out and took the agreement paper.

When she first saw him in front of the guesthouse, an indescribable emotion suddenly rose and then disappeared. The first feeling she had ever felt. Was this the reason they had become connected?

Now that she thought about it, she realized she had never properly thanked him. She stood up abruptly and bowed politely to express her gratitude.

“Thank you very much for taking charge of the agreement.”

Geom Woojin lifted his head and looked at her.

“It’s alright.”

A short phrase, but it sounded incredibly reassuring and gentle.

Geom Mugeuk noticed that the way she looked at her father was different.

If he let it go now, he wouldn’t be Geom Mugeuk.

—What if I’m more popular with women than with my son?

At Geom Mugeuk’s transmitted words, a sneer appeared at the corner of Geom Woojin’s mouth. Surprisingly, that sneer did not deny his son’s words.

“You mean your father is a man too, right?”

Looking at him with such eyes, Juyang, who was beside them, said to Geom Mugeuk:

“It seems you like your father very much, sir.”

“Can you tell?”

When she nodded, Geom Mugeuk raised his voice toward his father.

“Did you hear that? The whole world knows how much I like my father.”

Of course, that desperate echo did not reach his father. Geom Woojin, looking disinterested, said to Hwi:

“Bring me some tea there.”

Hwi respectfully poured from the kettle into Geom Woojin’s cup.

Though all three were in the same place, they seemed to be in different worlds.

That was why this trip with his father was enjoyable every moment.

“Since even a kid like me understood, it’s enough.”

“By the way, I don’t even know your name.”

“Geom Yeon (劍煙).”

He used the alias he always used, adding the usual explanation each time.

“It’s ‘yeon’ as in fate, not ‘yeon’ as in smoke. We met like this and will vanish like smoke.”

Geom Mugeuk introduced his father and Hwi.

“As you already know, that cold-hearted man is my father, and that person is my uncle.”

At the mention of “uncle,” Hwi flinched noticeably.

He must have expected to be introduced as a family or bodyguard swordsman, so being introduced as the father’s brother must have been quite a surprise.

Though embarrassed, his father showed a face of approval.

“Uncle Hwi, you may be called that. You deserve it.”

“If there was a silence contest, you two would be champion and runner-up.”

Juyang smiled in agreement at Geom Mugeuk’s words. They truly were taciturn.

Especially the uncle didn’t say a single word. Yet, one thing was clear. He was seeing and hearing everything.

“Of course, I am speaking on behalf of you both.”

Juyang laughed. She certainly talked a lot. Then she suddenly became serious. This wasn’t a time for laughing; she had been laughing without thinking.

Meanwhile, the newly ordered dish arrived.

The new dish was placed before Juyang, and Geom Mugeuk ate the remaining food he hadn’t touched earlier during the conversation. His father and Hwi had reserved some food separately for him.

Although time passed as they talked, the food remained warm.

Geom Mugeuk realized that his father had reheated the leftovers with kindness.

During this trip, Geom Mugeuk gradually saw new sides of his father.

Juyang silently ate her food. Though the place brought a strange comfort, she carried worries in her heart.

Could Geom Mugeuk not sense such feelings?

“Are you worried?”

“To be honest, I don’t know what to do going forward.”

That was also a statement that tarnished the honor of the Joo family sword school. Such worries should be shared with her mother or the family’s masters after returning.

But she already imagined what the situation would be like once she returned.

Her mother would be displeased not only that the meeting broke down but would create an uproar hearing that the first person to see the important agreement paper was a stranger. She imagined her mother shouting and getting angry.

But her mother wouldn’t understand. The suspicion that the alliance with the Hwangdo Trade Guild was a wrong choice came from a lack of trust in her mother.

The distrust was caused by her mother’s habit of often spilling her feelings unfiltered onto her children.

This distrust proved accurate again. Her mother had misjudged the opponent. Moreover, although unable to grasp the exact intentions, the situation was more serious than ever before.

Feeling that, she did not want to leave this place. The moment she left here, that grave situation would become her reality.

She wanted to rely on these people. Though she knew she shouldn’t, she wanted to escape again and again.

“Prepare yourself when you return.”

Juyang looked up at Geom Mugeuk, who had been silently staring at the food.

“The enemy has bared their teeth to devour you. Then you must be ready to fight.”

Though she had to draw strength from his words, worry only rose instead.

“My mother won’t believe me.”

That one sentence made it possible to guess the relationship between her and her mother.

Geom Mugeuk, after staring at her for a moment, said unexpectedly:

“Parents usually don’t believe their children. Do you know why?”

“Why?”

“Because they have lived through those times. They watched us say nonsense, insist, lie, rebel. They witnessed all our growing pains, didn’t they? How can they believe us when we say we’ve finally grown up? Even if we say we have mastered the world’s greatest lightness skill, they’ll still tell us to watch for carriages when crossing the street. They remember us rushing ahead without looking left or right.”

Juyang smiled faintly.

“You sound like someone who’s raised three children.”

“Parent and child is a two-way relationship. We keep forgetting that.”

For some reason, upon hearing those words, Juyang thought of her mother.

Geom Mugeuk looked at his father.

“My father doesn’t believe me either.”

It was something said before, when he kept his distance during training in the Nine Flames Martial Arts.

Then Geom Woojin casually said to Juyang:

“Don’t believe that guy either.”

At those words, Juyang couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re too harsh!”

Despite the words, the way Geom Mugeuk looked at his father was gentle.

You can slowly come to believe. After this trip, later, much later, even five years from now, you can say, ‘I believe you.’

Geom Mugeuk spoke to her again.

“So go back and talk to your mother.”

“I don’t have the confidence to convince her.”

“The merchant who just left will also try to convince someone when he goes back.”

“What do you mean?”

“Since the agreement failed today, he will explain and persuade someone. Ask them to entrust the matter again. Promise that next time it will succeed. Even the enemy who is in a better position than you makes such efforts. Why do you want to give up so soon?”

“!”

It was an unexpected rebuke.

“You’re just guessing roughly. Don’t do that.”

Geom Mugeuk got up and went to where Hwang In and she had been sitting, taking the brush she was about to sign with.

“Write it all down. What you will say and how. How to start the conversation, and what to do if your mother responds like this. Write everything.”

Juyang looked at Geom Mugeuk with a surprised expression. At first, she thought he was joking, but he was serious.

“What if it still doesn’t work?”

“Write that down too. What to do then.”

“!”

“Even if it looks easy, convincing someone is one of the hardest things. Convincing family is even harder. Because you know each other too well. So don’t try to persuade her; talk as if you’re catching up on overdue conversations. Have you ever asked your mother what she’s worried about lately? If she’s eating properly?”

Juyang was speechless.

At some point, she had only watched her mother’s mistakes and longed only for her father.

Juyang stood up. The words that the merchant would be persuading someone else, and that it wasn’t about convincing her mother but about talking, made her stand suddenly.

Right, this is not the time to escape. I will not become such a weak person.

“Thank you for the advice.”

She looked at Geom Woojin. Over his figure, her father appeared again. Father, I will be strong.

“Thank you very much for today.”

As she turned to leave, she glanced back briefly and said:

“By the way, can I find the safest vault in the martial world whenever I want?”

For the first time, she made a joke, and Geom Mugeuk laughed in response.

“Look at that face and decide for yourself. For now, I can’t open it.”

She truly looked as if she was about to judge that, quietly stared at Geom Woojin, then bowed politely and left the guesthouse.

Now only the three of them remained in the guesthouse.

“If she has the composure to joke, I think she’ll do well when she goes back.”

Apart from that, Geom Woojin had other concerns.

“The Hwangdo Trade Guild is not someone the Joo Sword School can handle.”

That made it clear. The Hwangdo Trade Guild was somehow behind this incident.

“Probably so.”

“Why did you provoke her even though you knew?”

“We will handle this matter ourselves anyway, but they also need to change. If they don’t, someday others will devour them.”

A silly joke followed.

“She’s a woman who likes my father more than I do, so I have to help. I felt my father’s popularity this time. After all, I must be my father’s son!”

Just like before, that joke didn’t land.

Nonsense! He seemed like he was about to say. Instead, his father wore an expression like ‘I was popular when I was young too.’ No one could match that proud and smug expression.

“What will you do now?”

Geom Woojin asked his son’s opinion first.

“They’ll probably come to snatch the agreement first?”

It wasn’t just speculation because of their connection to the backers.

It was because of what Hwang In said earlier.

—“I’m someone who makes sure of give-and-take.”

Though disguised with a merchant’s smile, he was someone who could not endure owing debts.

“They look cautious and will try to investigate our identities first.”

Predictions poured naturally from Geom Mugeuk’s vast experience.

“Since we emphasized that we are just merchants, they probably won’t intervene directly. Instead, they will have an ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ informant try to find out our identities.”

It was absolutely unacceptable for the identity of either his father or himself to be revealed.

“I intend to act on the informant in advance. To make sure our fake identities leak to them.”

Geom Woojin silently nodded. Watching this, Hwi felt that the leader was pleased with his son’s judgment.

Though he had served the leader for a long time, he had never seen him reveal his feelings so well recently.

Hwi understood this change in the leader.

He had heard all sorts of information about Geom Mugeuk—where and whom he had eliminated.

But the Geom Mugeuk he heard about and the one he experienced firsthand were completely different.

He now clearly felt through this trip that the Little Pill Master was someone whose process shone even more than the results.

If the Heavenly Demon Sect only knew the results of this matter, they would only know that the Little Pill Master helped the Joo Sword School against the shadow of the Hwangdo Trade Guild.

If that were the case, all these things would have been omitted.

The fishing bet on the way here, the walk and martial arts training with the leader, the advice given to Juyang—even the effort to find his own place as a bodyguard.

All those exchanges of emotion would have been skipped and unknown. Without experiencing it together, they would never have known how brilliant it was.

The leader is now experiencing such a son. The five years the Little Pill Master demanded are passing even at this moment.

Before this trip, Hwi thought it was an unreasonable gamble for the Little Pill Master. He believed the leader’s mind would never change.

But during this trip, he increasingly felt that it might not be so.

“We will disguise ourselves as the Seodo Sect from Gamsuk.”

Whenever he used the name Geom Yeon, he always disguised himself as that sect. Since it was a sect actually operated by the Heavenly Demon Sect, the more one investigated, the more solid the disguise became.

“An orthodox sect, huh.”

As expected, his father looked displeased.

“When else would you get the chance to act as head of an orthodox sect?”

Geom Woojin chuckled.

“What next?”

He was curious what choice his son would make.

“There are people behind them we have to find, aren’t there?”

As if that was true, Geom Woojin quietly awaited the next words.

“Handling the interest collectors is easier than flipping one’s palm. But if we act recklessly, the backers will hide well or prepare.”

They had to approach them naturally and infiltrate. For that, the Hwangdo Trade Guild might actually be an opportunity.

Geom Mugeuk revealed his plan.

“So I want to make them write another agreement. One where the stronger side is absolutely favored.”

That meant they would bring in the Seodo Sect, the sect they were disguising themselves as.

“We will sign exactly as the agreement states.”