novelraw Chapter 174 : The Stirring Darkness (2)
Chapter 174 : The Stirring Darkness (2)
Chapter 174: The Stirring Darkness (2)
Sewoon had already spent a full day since he left the mountain gate of the Emei Sect.
In that time, the atmosphere of the Emei Sect—once chaotic and noisy from the many incidents—had calmed down like a still lake.
-“From today onward, I strictly forbid any slander against the Clan Head of Tang.”
It was because Boyeon Shinni’s attitude had changed completely after her meeting with Sewoon.
Gone was her enraged appearance; the calm, composed Boyeon Shinni’s words and demeanor toward Tang Sewoon reminded one of her disciple, Geumhwa Satae.
In other words, an overwhelming trust had been formed.
Yet not a single elder pointed it out or raised an objection.
-“The Sichuan Tang Clan and its Clan Head have bestowed a great favor upon the Emei Sect. We must never forget that.”
This was because the elders also knew that Tang Sewoon had helped treat the Crown Prince, and that he had delivered to them the body of Geumryeong Satae, who had gone missing.
To them as well, Geumryeong Satae had been like blood kin.
The Emei Sect quietly placed Geumryeong Satae’s body inside the coffin brought back by the Tang Clan, and sealed it deep within the Repentance Hall.
When it was time to place her inside, everyone wept in muffled sobs, but there was nothing they could do.
They could never let any outsider know that she had become a jiangshi.
Because of that, the Chondojae (the memorial ritual praying for the deceased’s soul to be reborn in heaven or a better realm) was not held.
Her body had returned, but her soul had yet to.
-“Until we punish the enemy who caused Geumryeong to become like this and save this child’s soul, the Emei Sect shall devote all its strength.”
-“And since the Clan Head of Tang has readily agreed to walk our path together, we too shall aid them.”
No outsider knew it, but in that moment, the Tang Clan gained an unshakable ally within Sichuan.
‘……Is this really something that makes any sense?’
Do Hayeong blinked repeatedly in sheer astonishment.
On the main road, a breathtakingly luxurious carriage—one you couldn’t buy even for ten thousand gold—was rolling along.
“Haha! Come now, have another cup! My friend!”
“Indeed, pour me one more! My confidant!”
Inside, a rowdy, lively drinking feast was underway.
And the ones downing their cups with flushed faces were—
“Y-your Highness, p-please calm down a little. You have only just recovered… I fear excessive drinking might harm your body.”
“Tang Gongja… why are you like this?”
None other than Crown Prince Juyudo and Tang Sewoon.
At Oh Gonggong’s attempt to dissuade him, Juyudo instead raised his cup high and shouted.
“Hohoh! This is the monumental day when I, for the first time, have gained a true friend! How could I not get drunk, Oh Gonggong!”
“That’s right, that’s the spirit. Come now, Lady Do, have a cup as well.”
“Hiiik! I-I’m fine!”
When Sewoon casually extended a cup her way, Do Hayeong shook her head frantically in panic.
When she had followed Sewoon under the orders of Boyeon Shinni and Geumhwa Satae—who said it would be more helpful than remaining on Mount Emei—
She had never imagined she would witness Sewoon treating the Crown Prince so informally, as if they were genuine close friends.
Of course, this happened because of last night’s proposal.
-“Your Highness, how could a mere martial man like myself become your friend?”
-“Hohoh! Are you saying a man speaks two words with one mouth? If you refuse, then I shall retrieve the Danseocheol-gwon…!”
-“Come now, can’t you even take a joke? Friend.”
Sewoon had accepted Juyudo’s offer of friendship without hesitation.
‘It’s not like I asked for it; he said it himself. There’s no reason for me to refuse.’
Of course, Oh Gonggong—who had been witnessing it all—had turned pale as a sheet, desperately begging the Crown Prince to reconsider.
But in the end, no one could break the Crown Prince’s stubbornness.
After drinking celebratory wine together all night, the two decided to depart with the procession leaving the Emei Sect at dawn.
With a single order from the Crown Prince, instead of a simple palanquin, a gigantic carriage had been brought to the foot of the mountain.
“Y-your Highness, but we must part ways now. The road back to the Imperial Palace is entirely different from the Clan Head of Tang’s destination.”
“Hm, where did you say you were going again? Back to your family estate in Chengdu?”
“No, I’m heading near Guizhou. I have something to do there.”
“Puhuhu. Sounds like you’re planning to stir up trouble again.”
“Exactly right. I need to sneak inside Guizhou Province without the enemy noticing.”
“Hm, that makes it even harder for me to part with you.”
Juyudo snapped his fingers as if an idea had suddenly struck him.
“There’s no need to sneak in. I have a method.”
“……A method?”
“Now then, Oh Gonggong, come here for a moment.”
After calling Oh Gonggong over, Juyudo whispered in his ear.
‘Hooh?’
Hearing that, Sewoon’s eyes gleamed with intrigue.
Though the Crown Prince was whispering, Sewoon heard it clearly.
If things went as Juyudo had just said, everything would unfold far more easily.
As the cups continued to be passed around—
With heat rising in his face again, Juyudo pulled aside the curtain blocking the view outside the carriage.
“Huu, night has already fallen again?”
Bright moonlight streamed into the carriage.
Before such a beautiful night sky, none of them spoke.
In the silence that settled—
“Sewoon, I will become emperor.”
Juyudo spoke in a voice utterly different from before—calm, heavy, and resolute.
At first glance, it was a natural thing to say.
A Crown Prince ascending the throne was the natural course of things.
But Sewoon silently looked into Juyudo’s eyes.
Because Juyudo’s words didn’t sound like a simple statement of fact—they sounded like a declaration that he himself would carve that path open.
The drunken haze had vanished from Juyudo’s eyes, replaced only by a burning clarity.
“The current court is rotten to its core. Noble families look only after their own interests, repeating wicked deeds, and the people starve and suffer in misery.”
“……!”
In that moment, Sewoon’s gaze changed as well.
Juyudo was looking at something far larger.
“People who retreat into the mountains to protect their lives become bandits, and those too powerless even for that resort to begging in the streets.”
In the Crown Prince’s voice—spoken like a sorrowful sigh—anger simmered.
Sewoon listened carefully.
To discern whether these words were genuine, or merely sweet talk to use him.
“……There was a day when I broke.”
Then, in a sorrowful tone, Juyudo continued.
The expression on his face as he recalled the memory looked unbearably painful.
“It was the day I dressed in shabby clothes and went out on a misang (secret excursion) with a light heart.”
“One official was stealing the people’s property and moving it into his own manor. A man supporting his elderly mother protested and was struck, and he died right there on the spot. The mother fainted from weeping in agony… but what shocked me even more came afterward.”
For a moment, Juyudo closed his eyes.
“…No one around them grieved. They simply walked past as if nothing had happened. Such things have become far too ‘natural’.”
“…….”
Everyone inside the carriage, including Sewoon, lost their words.
Though the murim was said to be in an age of peace, the world itself was anything but tranquil.
Those who grew fat on comfort wielded cold, merciless blades toward the powerless.
“Since that day, I realized something. What eats away at the world is not chaos, nor plague. It is the strong who ‘naturally’ strip the weak of everything.”
Juyudo’s voice steadily grew stronger.
He was showing Sewoon the dream he held. No—he wanted Sewoon to see it.
“So I made a vow. If the day comes when I ascend the throne, I will uproot all evildoers. And I will become a new shield for the people.”
“……!”
“Even the common folk need at least a small shield to block evil when it swings its blade toward them, don’t they?”
A shield to protect the powerless who suffered.
Sewoon felt something resonate in his heart at Juyudo’s words.
Because the root of everything he had done since his return to the past was exactly that same purpose.
And finally, Juyudo slowly spoke.
“And on that path… I want you to walk with me, Sewoon. I from the authorities, you from the murim—together, joining our strength to create a new world.”
“Y-your Highness!!”
“……!!!”
Oh Gonggong looked as if he might faint on the spot, and Do Hayoung’s eyes widened to the point of bursting.
It was truly astonishing.
The Crown Prince of the Great Ming Empire—
The man who would soon sit above ten thousand, becoming emperor—was asking Sewoon to stand with him.
And it wasn’t a demand for Sewoon to become his subordinate.
He was asking him to walk side by side—one from the government, one from the murim.
A proposal that had never existed before.
It meant Juyudo believed Sewoon’s worth stood high enough to justify such a vow.
“…….”
But at those words—
Sewoon fell silent for a long time.
His expression, caught in deep thought, was terribly serious.
Before his regression, the world had collapsed.
It had no choice but to collapse.
When the Blood Demon appeared, he used all those who had already decayed from within the land.
Sewoon knew this truth.
That unless he slew the Blood Demon and changed the world twisted to its core—
The same tragedy would repeat.
“I have seen the world crumble.”
Sewoon’s voice was thin, but the deep sorrow within it could not be hidden.
Before his eyes, the vivid memory of the Blood Demon and the Blood Cult’s fiends slaughtering people resurfaced.
“A world where the strong butchered the weak, an era where evil taught what was righteous. I saw the end of it—filled only with blood and despair—with my own two eyes.”
“……!!”
Juyudo’s pupils quivered as if struck by an earthquake.
Looking into Sewoon’s eyes, he realized the young man’s words were not a mere metaphor.
Just what exactly had Sewoon seen?
At that moment, Sewoon slowly continued.
“Soon, a colossal evil will descend. One so ferocious that it will burn and devour not only the Imperial Palace, but the entirety of the heavens and earth.”
“……!!”
“Even if the world’s destruction is a destined fate… I will defy that fate.”
Sewoon raised his head.
Resolve filled his gaze.
“An agonizing road that promises nothing but suffering. Even so… will you still walk it with me?”
As his words ended, a heavy silence filled the carriage.
It was Sewoon who had turned the question back toward Juyudo.
Anyone in the Imperial Palace witnessing this would have immediately invoked imperial law and pointed blades at Sewoon.
But the Crown Prince, Juyudo, was instead looking at him with utmost sincerity.
A faint smile.
Then the stillness broke along with Juyudo’s bright expression, as he reached out a hand toward Sewoon.
“They say even a shield becomes lighter when two people hold it together.”
“……!”
That was a “vow”—one between man and man.
As their eyes met—
“Yes, this is how my friend should be.”
Sewoon clasped Juyudo’s outstretched hand.