novelraw Chapter 59
Chapter 59
Chapter 59
It seemed that if he were his son-in-law, he really might go all the way there to buy dumplings.
“If it's too difficult to go together, shall I go and buy them for you? How about going and inviting the chef over? That would be good too, wouldn't it?”
When his son-in-law spoke, he glanced at his daughter, and a look of anticipation briefly appeared in her eyes before disappearing. She must have thought it would be wonderful if that could happen, but then wondered who would agree to follow them all the way to a place like this.
Seeing that, the Cult Leader felt sorry for his daughter for no reason. Just because they lived in such a remote place, didn't she have to give up on things she wanted to eat?
However, Cheon Ha-seong, as if thinking that wasn't the way, immediately began to lay out a plan.
“Is there anything else you want to eat? It seems you've tried that kind of food because you've been outside the Divine Cult with the Cult Leader, Head Instructor Seo? That's good. That you know of such food. It would have been really hard if you didn't even have a food you wanted to eat at a time like this.”
The Cult Leader was moved by those words.
He thought he might be resented for taking her outside and letting her eat dumplings, making her think of them at a moment like this, but why was this son-in-law so kind-hearted?
“Think if there's anything else. We can ask the chef to come here and cook for just three or four months and say we'll pay them a lot, wouldn't that work?”
Then, Cheon Ha-seong looked at the Cult Leader.
“Why are you looking at me, son-in-law?”
“Please lend me some money, Cult Leader.”
At those words, the Cult Leader laughed out loud, then thought it was strange and asked again.
“Why ask to borrow when you can just ask for it?”
“I am trying to bring a chef because she is having a hard time carrying my child, so I should be the one to pay.”
“It's upsetting to hear you say that. She is my daughter, so shouldn't I be the one to do it? You don't have to worry about the money, but I don't know if the chef will really agree to come. Instead of that, just strike his acupoints and bring him here.”
“We can't do that. That person must have a family too, how can we do such a thing?”
Seo Hyo-eun thought things were getting too big. And she felt that it had become this way because she had needlessly mentioned the dumplings. However, once the dumplings from Cheonghaeru had popped into her head, the thought would not leave.
It felt as if she could eat a great many of them if they were right in front of her.
The Cult Leader also looked at his daughter's face and earnestly wished for the plan to succeed.
Hadn't she become half her size since becoming pregnant?
“I don't know how fortunate it is that we didn't go as far as Sichuan when I took Hyo-eun out. They say Sichuan cuisine is very delicious; if we had gone to Sichuan and tasted it, my son-in-law might have had to bring back a chef from Sichuan.”
“The dumplings from Cheonghaeru are enough for me, Father.”
Watching Seo Hyo-eun go that far, Cheon Ha-seong completely firmed his resolve. The usual Seo Hyo-eun would have tried to hold back herself so as not to give him a troublesome task. But seeing her true feelings keep popping out and her genuinely wanting to eat the dumplings from Cheonghaeru, there was no longer any reason to hesitate.
“Cult Leader, if you have the money now, please give it to me at once. I must depart immediately.”
“Right away?”
Saying that, the Cult Leader began to rummage for his money pouch. There was a generous amount of high-value bank notes inside, and the Cult Leader handed them all over without even trying to count them.
“These are bank notes that can be used in the markets of the Central Plains. You won't have to worry about not being able to bring him back because you're short on money. And this is.”
Saying that, the Cult Leader took off the ring he was wearing on his finger and gave it to him.
“Show this when you leave and enter the Divine Cult. They will know it is my ring, so no one will stop you. And I will also prepare all the travel passes and identification you will need to go outside the Divine Cult.”
The matter had grown bigger and bigger all because of a single dumpling, but Cheon Ha-seong felt a greater sense of mission than for any other task.
“Cult Leader, it won't take long in any case, but I leave Head Instructor Seo in your care while I am gone.”
“What is there to say. Don't you worry about a thing, and just have a safe trip, son-in-law.”
At that moment, the Cult Leader and Cheon Ha-seong were of the exact same mind. They were both experiencing what it was like to have another person they could trust as much as they could trust themselves.
Especially for Cheon Ha-seong, his faith in the Cult Leader had grown even stronger after seeing him kill the Family Head of the So Demonic Clan, the Second Demonic Marquis, and So Jeon. It was just that he hadn't had a chance to properly confirm the Cult Leader's martial prowess before. Now that he knew what kind of person the Cult Leader actually was, his mind was at ease.
“Have a safe trip, Head Instructor Cheon. And I'm sorry.”
When Seo Hyo-eun spoke, Cheon Ha-seong smiled brightly and patted her shoulder.
“You're the one suffering alone with the child, Head Instructor; it's good if I can be of help even in this way. And it gives me something to hold over this little one's head when they're born.”
“Alright. I'll be sure to tell them this story.”
Cheon Ha-seong, after checking if there was anything else needed, left at once.
It was his first time leaving the Divine Cult.
He had vaguely thought that an opportunity to go outside the Divine Cult might arise someday, but he had never imagined he would be going for a reason like this.
Cheon Ha-seong slowly came to realize why the ring the Cult Leader had given him was necessary.
If he hadn't had it, it seemed he wouldn't have even been able to get outside the Divine Cult and would have been captured and injured by the guards.
Just as the treasury guards protected the Secret Treasury, there were many who protected the surroundings of the Divine Cult. They were all carrying out the Cult Leader's command with their lives on the line, so Cheon Ha-seong could not attack them either.
Fortunately, he noticed their presence before they noticed his. And while there was still some distance, he imbued his voice with inner power and announced that he was on a mission with the Cult Leader's ring.
Thanks to that, Cheon Ha-seong, who left the Divine Cult without any conflict, took the first step on an unexpected journey.
***
The fact that Cheon Ha-seong had gone outside the Divine Cult was mostly unknown and was kept top secret.
Even the people who guarded the Divine Cult's border and made his identification did not know that he was Cheon Ha-seong.
Although he trusted the Cult Leader, it was because he thought that the Cult Leader's opposing factions might try to do something foolish, taking advantage of the gap while he was not in the Divine Cult.
For that reason, they all tried to maintain strict secrecy, but there was one person who keenly noticed that fact.
He had used a wicked art to hide his form and had slipped past the Divine Cult's martial artists as Cheon Ha-seong was leaving the cult.
The Divine Cult's martial artists, not even imagining such a thing, were each guarding their posts.
‘After turning the So Demonic Clan's residence into a wasteland, now you're sending that Head Instructor bastard outside the Divine Cult? What is the Cult Leader thinking?’
The one who had revealed his form after undoing the wicked art was wearing a martial uniform commonly seen in the Divine Cult. However, no one in the Divine Cult knew his face. A very long time ago, there might have been people who knew him, but as the years passed, they had all returned to dust.
It had been a truly long time. He now thought that there was probably no one left in the Divine Cult who even remembered his name.
He thought so, being completely unaware that Seo Hyo-eun and Cheon Ha-seong had spoken of him.
Danmok Yeon.
The man who had disappeared a hundred and several tens of years ago, from a collateral branch of the Danmok Demonic Clan, had finally revealed himself.
***
Cheon Ha-seong found Cheonghaeru without difficulty.
Anyone he asked in the vicinity knew where Cheonghaeru was.
When he asked where Cheonghaeru was, everyone answered similarly.
They told him to go straight for about fifteen minutes, then ask someone else where Cheonghaeru was, and then go as that person told him.
By doing just that, Cheon Ha-seong found Cheonghaeru in about an hour.
When he saw the large signboard of Cheonghaeru, he was so pleased that he smiled to himself, as if he had met a long-lost family member.
‘Now I just have to find the chef, right?’
Cheon Ha-seong was about to go straight into Cheonghaeru. However, the attendant, who saw his attire, stopped him at the door.
Seeing his extremely humble-looking clothes, he had judged in advance that Cheon Ha-seong had no money.
“Do you even know where you've come? This is Cheonghaeru. The price of a single plate of dumplings is over two taels of silver.”
Cheon Ha-seong was surprised to hear that, but he had to go inside, no matter how much money it cost. To meet the chef, he had to go to the kitchen, didn't he?
“I have money to pay for the dumplings.”
“Then show me the money.”
Cheon Ha-seong had silver, so he could have just shown him, but he really didn't like the way the attendant was acting.
Cheon Ha-seong let out a small sigh.
“Is this how you normally treat people in shabby clothes here? I have done you no wrong, so how can you be so rude? Isn't it enough to let me inside, take my order, and then ask me to pay? If I can't pay then, you can kick me out at that time.”
At that, the attendant waved his hand with an annoyed face. It was an unpleasant gesture, as if he were shooing away a fly.
“If you do business here for a long time, you get to know everything about a person with just one look. And that is also a virtue of a resourceful attendant. What if a person like you comes in and takes up a seat, and another customer thinks there are no seats and just leaves? That's why an excellent attendant like myself has to filter out people like you in advance so that our customers can use the restaurant comfortably.”
His pride seemed immense, but his words had clearly crossed a line. When he glanced inside, it wasn't even as if all the seats were taken; there were many empty ones. And it wasn't as if a line of people was forming behind Cheon Ha-seong to get in.
“I have money.”
Cheon Ha-seong said, and took out five or six taels of silver from his money pouch to show him.
It was strange that the Cult Leader's money pouch contained such a small amount of money. Normally, his escorts would handle all the payments, so it seemed there would have been no reason for the Cult Leader to even carry a money pouch, but it was also strange that he happened to have brought it on that day.
He could only think to himself that perhaps he had wanted to stroll through the market intimately without any escorts and buy things for them.
The attendant glanced inside Cheon Ha-seong's money pouch in the brief moment that he opened it.
He had worked as an attendant at Cheonghaeru for a much longer time than Cheon Ha-seong had been a Head Instructor at the Martial Arts Academy.
Therefore, he could guarantee that he had a certain expertise in the skill of checking the money in another's pouch.
In an instant, his eyes went wide. In his opinion, Cheon Ha-seong didn't look like a person who would have so many bank notes.
If so, it was likely that he had either found them on the street or stolen them from someone else.
After seeing Cheon Ha-seong's money pouch, the attendant's mind worked brilliantly.
While working as an attendant in a place like this for a long time, he had gone through many things until now. And he knew all too well that when an opportunity came, he must never let it go.