I led the two women and washed my body covered in bodily fluids before getting into the bathtub.
As I entered the warm water, a pleasant sigh escaped my lips. Looking around, I realized that the bathtub was quite large.
It was big enough for five people to fit comfortably, and I couldn’t help but think of the relatively small bathtub in the Magyo gang headquarters.
“The bathtub is big, isn’t it?”
“We have plenty of space here.”
I thought it was just a habit of the Magyo gang, but they seemed sensitive to wasting space, considering their location near the desert and surrounded by cliffs.
But now that I was here, it seemed like there were no such restrictions, and they could make a bathtub of any size they wanted.
“Hmm…”
“Master, my breasts are not toys…”
Lost in thought, I slapped the white, plump breasts and the firm, pink ones, causing them to bob on the water’s surface.
Just looking at the bathtub, it was clear that this project was essential for the Magyo gang. But what did Young-ho Kyung think about me pushing my own agenda?
“He probably wants to avoid any unnecessary risks.”
Young-ho Kyung was careful with his people but indifferent to others. It was possible that he was only tolerating me because I wanted it.
If I wanted to save the three women, I had to convince him. But realistically, could I really do whatever I wanted with those women, as Cha Seo-soo suggested?
“We’ve done this several times already, haven’t we?”
“No, this time is different.”
There were certainly cases where women like Eun So-young, Mae So-hyang, or Cha Seo-soo herself had come willingly or been forced to come.
But this time, there was a reason why it had to be different.
“They’re asking us to turn a blind eye to something that could threaten the entire Jungpa Murim. The stakes are higher.”
“I see your point.”
If we deployed Magyo’s unmanned forces throughout Jungpa and launched a surprise attack, we could wipe out half of the Jungpa forces overnight.
But if it wasn’t just about me, the stakes would be even higher, and the guards would be even tighter. What should I do?
The biggest problem was that I didn’t know much about No Hee-bang.
As the leader of an intelligence organization, she must be smart, but I don’t know anything about her, so I don’t know where to start to persuade her.
“If only I had talked to her more when I was at Fahrenheit…”
But it was already too late to regret.
Unless I was going to give up Jung-pa’s identity, there was no option to meet her and talk to her casually.
“…What’s up?”
“Huh?”
As I was lost in thought, the two women who were enjoying their bath comfortably turned to look at me.
The women who saw my face were pleased with the fact that my expression was bright, even though they didn’t know the details, and they smiled back at me. Their reaction was right.
There was a simple way. It was an unbelievably easy way that I had not thought of until now.
‘What the hell is it?’
No Hee-bang was trapped in a comfortable room that was not like a prison, but she was feeling more uncomfortable than ever.
Of course, she felt uneasy knowing that she was captured by the enemy, who had taken the place of the room’s owner with a woman’s body.
But what bothered her more was that she had done nothing for a whole day, even though she was capable of doing something.
She even thought that she might be neglecting her, but that wasn’t the case, considering that she was provided with food and everything else she needed.
“I don’t have time for this…”
It wasn’t bad for her to spend time like this.
If she spent time like this, she would soon realize that No Hee-bang was missing and come to find her, but the problem was that she didn’t know the safety of the other two people.
Especially, she wanted to know what had happened to Hwangbo Hyo-sun, who she had heard for a moment.
[Hurry up! That son of a bitch is not going to let us go easily!]
Then, a sharp voice was heard in No Hee-bang’s ear. Even at first listen, it was a voice full of emotions, which was not a good sign.
Kkiiik
Then, the iron door that had confined her opened, and two men appeared.
“Get in quickly!”
“Ugh!”
Suddenly, the man behind her kicked the man in front of her, and when she saw the man who was kicked, she realized that it was the young master who had threatened her yesterday.
And when she looked at the man’s face, which was lying on the ground, covered in dirt and blood, No Hee-bang was shocked.
“Kang So-hyeop?!”
Blood was flowing through his clothes, which were torn and covered in dust, indicating how much he had suffered.
No Hee-bang was surprised to see the young master, Kang So-hyeop, who had collapsed and groaned, as if he had exhausted all his energy, and quickly lifted him up and placed him on her lap.
“You, you are…”
As the man’s unfocused gaze failed to properly see her face and wandered off to the wrong place, No Hee-bang raised her head and shouted.
“What the hell is going on? What did this person do wrong?”
“That guy was the one who discovered you were being captured and was trying to escape. Do you have enough leisure time to worry about a guy who was running away, saying that he would only survive?”
No Hee-bang flinched, but quickly regained her composure. Even if the three of them had resisted, they were in a situation where they were caught, so it was right for the man to choose to escape.
Seeing that her expression had calmed down, the young master began to close the door with Kim Saen’s face.
“Wait a minute! Are you going to leave this person like this? You need to treat him…”
“He’s just exhausted. If you’re worried, can’t you take care of him?”
As he spoke bluntly and closed the door, No Hee-bang was stunned, but she couldn’t leave the man like this, so she started to move.
First, she checked his body for any injuries by feeling his pulse, and then checked to see if there were any broken bones.
After concluding that there were no major injuries, No Hee-bang brushed off the dirt and dust from the man’s clothes and laid him on the bed.
Then, she grabbed his pulse again and slowly began to push her inner strength into him. She squeezed her inner strength to the limit, and No Hee-bang lost her words as she felt a sense of emptiness.
“Ugh…”
“Just hold on a little longer. You’ll be fine soon…”
If he was a master of this level, his body would naturally try to gather the energy of nature. Her job was to replenish the minimum amount of energy needed for that.
As if pouring water into a completely dried-up wasteland, her inner strength flowed into the man’s body, and he began to show a sudden reaction, trembling violently.
Wooooooong
“What, what is this?!”
However, the reaction was more than No Hee-bang had expected. The flow of nature’s energy, which had been flowing in the air, began to be sucked into his body as if it had a physical form.
It was a momentum that could make one worry about the possibility of a sudden explosion, but the energy that was sucked in flowed naturally into the man and repeated the process of seeping in and out.
As if he had become a part of nature, No Hee-bang slowly took her hands off his body and swallowed her dry saliva as she watched him digest the enormous amount of energy flowing through him.
“Is this what Unjeol Daehyeop was talking about, his true strength?”
Becoming a master required more than one or two things, and inner strength alone was not the entirety of martial arts.
However, those with exceptional inner strength naturally had an advantage in overwhelming others, while those with insufficient inner strength would find it difficult to become a master no matter how hard they tried.
In that sense, the man in front of No Hee-bang, who possessed an enormous amount of inner strength that could resonate with the energy of nature, had better conditions to become a master than anyone else.
“Sigh…”
No Hee-bang, who was pondering over that fact, was watching the man in front of her with an astonished gaze as his breathing gradually became more comfortable.
She heard a voice.
“…Hyup, So-hyup, can you hear me? Kang So-hyup?”
“Just a little more sleep…”
“…I would like to let you sleep more if possible, but the situation is not favorable now. Please get up.”
I wanted to continue sleeping because my body felt heavy, but I had no choice but to wake up because of the voice trying to wake me up from my sleep.
“Now that you’re awake, are you okay? Any injuries?”
“Who…? …Ah!”
“I think you remember, but let me introduce myself again. I am No Hee-bang, in charge of the Open Door Ship.”
“I’m sorry.”
After hearing her introduction, the drowsiness that had been lingering somewhere in my eyelids suddenly disappeared.
That’s right. I had been trying to approach this woman, and that’s why I had gone to such lengths to get her from Hyeong-wan.
“Do I really have to do this?”
“Yes, if anything happens to the master, please attack me.”
The women didn’t want to turn on me, but I ordered them to attack me if I tried to approach the master.
I said that my martial arts had increased a lot and that I was one step ahead of Hyeong-wan, but it was natural that I couldn’t defend myself if I just stood there, defending and not attacking or dodging.
In the end, I was completely defeated, and I think Hyeong-wan threw me here, where I used up all my inner strength trying to withstand the attacks.
Yes, because my inner strength and energy were completely depleted, my memories of the latter part were blurry.
“Even if I asked for help from my side, it’s a bit too willing. But still, let’s not show any signs of suspicion to No Hee-bang.”
“Oh, is this…? Did No Bangju help you?”
“No, I was also caught by those guys. It may look like this, but… it’s a place where you can’t easily get out of.”
I had already heard an explanation from Yeong-ho-kyeong. It looked like an ordinary room from the outside, but it was a prison made entirely of iron.
He said that unless you broke the seams or used strong energy, you would never be able to get out.
To No Hee-bang, who was calmly talking about that fact, I spoke as if I had lost face.
“I’m sorry. Actually…”
“I heard it from the man who brought Kang So-hyup earlier. He said he was caught by those who were trying to take him out.”
No Hee-bang interrupted me before I could finish my sentence, as if she already knew what I was going to say.
“It’s not something to be sorry about. It was an inevitable situation, and if it were Kang So-hyup, he would have definitely sought help from someone else. You made the right choice.”
I felt a strange pang of conscience. Although I wasn’t involved in these women being captured, I was still deceiving them, yet I was receiving comfort from them.
As if she could read my expression, No Hee-bang opened her mouth to reassure me.
“There’s no need to worry. If you can hold out here, the main force will come to find us. So, let’s conserve our energy until the enemy comes.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I’ll do my best to be of help.”
I replied with a smile, then casually asked another question.
“By the way, why did the Open Door Ship come to Honam Province?”
It was a light question, but it was also an important one for me.
I missed the opportunity to interrogate Hwangbo Hyoseon, but I had to start somewhere, and this was it.
And for a brief moment, I could see No Hee-bang’s expression stiffen.
