I Ended Up Becoming The Heavenly Demon’s True Best Friend, Even Though He’s Shy Around Others

Chapter 51

I'm their senior brother, and you're saying they can just call me that?

As I looked at Pae Maseong with a dumbfounded face, he also burst out laughing.

"Socheong, those guys seem to think that becoming your junior brother is a very easy thing."

At Pae Maseong's words, I nodded eagerly.

That was what I wanted to say too.

The children rescued from that place were a total of thirty-three.

It was the stage where they were kidnapping children before starting the training in earnest, and they said that twelve had already died in the meantime.

The children were still scared, saying that the reason was that they were slow or had cried.

The children of Nether Shadow Valley brought a carriage and put the children who were there on it.

They must have been thinking that when they were rescued by me and Pae Maseong, they had been riding in it.

"It was just the two of us before."

When I said that to Pae Maseong, he also nodded.

"Now we don't even have to lift a finger. The kids are all doing well."

Pae Maseong said with a satisfied face.

The children also seemed to know that they had done well, and two or three of them would stick to one child, talk to them, and reassure them.

"Socheong, there are ninety junior brothers."

Hearing Pae Maseong's words, it was really so.

For some reason, I felt my mind clear up.

It seemed that it would be difficult to even feed the junior brothers by earning a decent amount.

Then I thought again, and it seemed that the first generation could now go out and earn money, and it wasn't something I had to keep worrying about.

'This is good.'

The first generation will raise the second generation on their own, and after another series of twists and turns, if a third generation comes in, that third generation will be raised by the second generation.

'What is this? This is good.'

It seemed that the initial cost would only be for raising the first generation, and should I have Pae Maseong manage the first generation in the future?

Since Pae Maseong was a proven martial talent in the novel, he would teach well on his own even if I didn't interfere, and should I just become a Heavenly Demon and enjoy a life of debauchery?

But since I don't enjoy a life of debauchery, that's not good...

For now, I suddenly felt good, thinking that it wouldn't be bad if it went on like this.

On the way to the mountain bandit stronghold, the newly rescued children also seemed to have their anxiety relieved a lot, and their laughter was now heard from time to time.

On the way, we stopped a few times and exchanged greetings, and the first-generation children also showed the second-generation children the poisonous creatures.

There was nothing better than that.

The second-generation children, while recognizing how dangerous the poisonous creatures were, looked at them with wonder.

And their eyes shone when they heard that they could also train the poisonous creatures.

The first-generation children put in a tearful effort to help the second-generation children adapt, and that effort paid off.

So by the time we arrived at the mountain bandit stronghold, everyone was getting along as if they had always lived together.

"But are there no children among you who want to go back to where you originally lived?"

When I asked, the children looked at each other.

Then they said that most of the children who had homes seemed to have died.

Hearing that, it seemed that was also plausible.

It seemed that most of the children here were children who had wandered the streets and begged, and perhaps because of that, they had been able to give up easily and adapt.

Should I say that they gave up quickly because they had little?

Thinking about it, it was a pitiful and tragic story, but as a result, it became a stroke of luck for the children.

After confirming that there were no children who had to go back, I accepted those children as the second-generation junior brothers.

Pae Maseong was worried about us becoming properly organized, but everyone agreed with the opinion that we should at least have a name.

In the meantime, whenever I talked about my junior brothers to Yeon Cheongha, I had been saying 'the children of Nether Shadow Valley,' so that name was stuck in my mouth.

Pae Maseong and I had also met in Nether Shadow Valley, and our connection from there had continued, and Yeon Cheongha was also an instructor we had met in Nether Shadow Valley.

It was not a place with good memories, but Nether Shadow Valley was now a place that was inseparable from us.

"How about Nether Shadow Faction?"

After saying that, I glanced at Pae Maseong, and he had a slightly worried face.

He must have been thinking about what it meant for me to have a new organization within the huge organization of the Heavenly Demon Sect and become its new leader.

That silence continued for a long time, and the children also seemed to be thinking about it.

It wasn't that I didn't know what Pae Maseong was thinking.

There was also a slightly intended aspect.

The Heavenly Demon already knew about us.

He also knew that the Cho family was kidnapping children and operating an assassin training facility.

I had a sense of antipathy towards the fact that he had not taken any measures until now even though he knew that.

Perhaps that's why I had a desire to give it a name and distinguish ourselves from them.

But apart from what I was thinking, if the children did not agree, I had no intention of forcing it.

So I waited for the children's opinions most importantly.

"I think it's good."

Dan Yujong said, but Dan Yujong was a guy who would say that everything I said was good.

"I also think it's good."

Jeok Soju also agreed, and one by one, they nodded with bright faces.

In the end, Pae Maseong also nodded.

It seemed to mean that if the children had understood the meaning sufficiently and had decided, he would also follow.

Nether Shadow Faction.

What had changed was not great.

We had rescued new children, so the number of people had increased, and we had just made a name.

And yet, I felt as if I had achieved something great.

* * *

A few people quietly appeared in the territories of the Danmu family and the Baek family.

Since each of them was wearing an exquisitely made human-skin mask, no one noticed that it was not their real face.

Such exquisite human-skin masks were difficult to obtain, and each one was very expensive.

That's why the fact that they had given such human-skin masks along with the mission showed in a nutshell how much their superiors cherished them.

"Wandering children are fine, and children from families with parents are also fine. You can also buy them from the children's parents by giving them money. If you gather children in that way, I will give you twenty silver taels per head. I will come again on the fifth of next month, so please gather as many as possible until then. The children don't necessarily have to be healthy. If there are not at least three gathered when I come again next month, I will go through someone else, so please do your best."

That was what the man who had first come to the noodle shop had said to the owner of the noodle shop.

While they were talking, there were many beggars in front of the noodle shop, begging for food and money, and the man pointed to those children with his eyes.

At the words 'twenty silver taels per head,' the noodle shop owner's eyes went wide.

Even just in front of the noodle shop, wandering beggar children came every day.

Until now, he had chased them away by hitting them with a broom, but now it seemed that there was no need for that.

Even if he just said that he would give those children a bowl of soup for free, they would come in on their own, and if he held on to the children who came in like that and handed them over, how much would that be?

The noodle shop owner said that even if he came tomorrow, without waiting for the fifth of next month, he could hand over at least ten, but the man shook his head.

Then he said to gather the children who could be caught in the meantime in one place and hand them over on the fifth of next month.

He said that he was a person who did things on a large scale, so he couldn't stop by every day, but the rings on his fingers and the accessories around his neck were all expensive, so his words were credible.

The noodle shop owner nodded, strengthening his resolve.

Similar people went around to several noodle shops and inns in that way.

It was not limited to such places.

A similar person also appeared at a famous brothel.

A well-dressed man immediately approached the person guarding the front of the brothel.

He thought that that man was strange.

Originally, there were almost no people who came with business to the man who was standing guard in front of the brothel.

After exchanging a brief glance to see if he would be blocked or let in, if he was not blocked, it was the end of it.

But he approached as if he had come to see him from the beginning and said in a low voice.

"If you hand over children around the age of ten by the fifth of next month, I will give you twenty-five silver taels per head. This is a token that I am not talking nonsense, and it is a down payment."

Then he suddenly handed him five silver taels.

He had received five silver taels just by standing still, so there would not be many people who would push him away.

"If I can't find anyone by then, do I have to return this?"

That was all he said.

"No. I didn't entrust the work just relying on this place. I have already entrusted the work to dozens of places. You can either be satisfied with five silver taels alone while other people are making money."

For some reason, it was a statement that stimulated a sense of competition.

The man said that and went into the brothel.

Then he said the same thing to the courtesan who came to attend to him.

The same thing happened in various places in the Danmu family and the Baek family, and a few days later, the news was delivered to the leaders of the families.

It was a rumor that the Cho family was scattering money to find children to fill their assassin training facility. The story that a considerable number of children had already disappeared in that way also spread.

The rumor that spread among them was not just that.

In the Danmu family, a rumor spread that 'the same thing happened in the territory of the Baek family, and they are already preparing to attack the Cho family by forming a martial force. So the public sentiment, centered on the parents who have lost their children, is about to be alienated.'

In the Baek family, the same rumor spread with only the subject changed.

It was rumored that the same thing had happened in the territory of the Danmu family, and they were preparing to attack the Cho family right away.

At first, they thought it was a false rumor and dismissed it as not even worth responding to, but more accurate information flowed in to them.

It was a rumor that children who were to be handed over to the Cho family were being held captive in noodle shops and brothels.

When such a rumor even came out, in the end, each family had no choice but to go out and confirm.

And when the martial forces of the families went to the respective places in question, a large number of children were discovered there.

The rumor was true.

When they pressed the people who had held the children captive, they said that a well-dressed man had promised them money and had ordered them to do it.

They didn't seem to know that the person who had ordered them to do it was a person from the Cho family, but there was no reason for the person who had ordered the work to reveal their identity.

The Danmu family and the Baek family each ground their teeth and were enraged.

At the fact that the insolent Cho family bastards had dared to kidnap children in another's territory and try to raise them as their own assassins, they could no longer just watch the Cho family.

They formed their forces without even imagining that they were being played by the scheme of a single young man of twenty.

While things were going smoothly according to Ya Socheong's will, a person from the Baek family put a brake on it.

It was Baek Yuhwa, the third daughter of the family head.

(End of Chapter)