Light Novel: Volume 11 Episode 5
Heuk-ho touched the wall with his thin fingers.
His fingers were so scrawny as if it’s just made up of skin and bones.
But what most people don’t know is that these thin fingers, which looked like they would break with the slightest force, are actually the hands of a demon. They are capable of easily taking a person’s life.
The only people who know this fact are those who belong in the same industry.
What Heuk-ho is currently looking for is the coded message left by Dark Ghost.
Dark Ghost’s whereabouts remained unknown since yesterday.
Heuk-ho expected that Dark Ghost would return last night, but he didn’t.
Assassins like them usually act independently, but when carrying out a common mission like this, the subordinate absolutely had to obey the order of the superior.
It was no different with Dark Ghost. He had no choice but to follow Heuk-ho’s every order.
So the fact that Dark Ghost did not follow through his order and did not return on time, is not something he could easily overlook.
‘Did he get attacked by Hong Ye-seol?’
Such a thought naturally passed his mind.
If Hong Ye-seol knew that she had been followed, it’s possible that she could have attacked Dark Ghost in anger. But she couldn’t have killed him.
The rules of the Hundred Wraith Union are very strict. It’s absolutely unacceptable for assassins belonging to the Hundred Wraith Union to take another member’s life without a legitimate reason.
Even an assassin belonging to the top ten is not exempted from this rule. So that includes Hong Ye-seol. She couldn’t kill Dark Ghost life just because she found out he was following her.
‘Then if it’s not Hong Ye-seol…’
There was only one person left.
‘Could it be Pyo-wol?’
Heuk-ho’s face became distorted.
He didn’t have any other person in mind except for him.
If Dark Ghost was really attacked by Pyo-wol then it’s a big problem.
‘But even then, if Dark Ghost’s been killed, he wouldn’t have just been helpless.’
As assassins, it was in their instinct to leave evidence about their opponents no matter the circumstances.
If Dark Ghost managed to escape, then he would most likely go to this place and leave behind a coded message.
But no matter how much Heuk-ho looked, he could not see any messages written by Dark Ghost at all. No, there are actually some. But those messages were something he wrote way before he was in contact with Heuk-ho.
After looking at the wall for a while, Heuk-ho suddenly noticed that there was a spot that looked as if a piece of writing had been erased.
The other places are fine. Only this particular area had traces of writing. It looked as if it had been rubbed with something.
Heuk-ho took a closer look and channelled qi to his eyes, trying to enhance his vision. However, no matter how hard he strained his eyes, he couldn’t tell what was previously written on the erased area.
‘Did Dark Ghost leave this behind?’
Heuk-ho touched the wall with his finger. The force behind his touch was enough to leave a mark.
Goosebumps suddenly crawled up Heuk-ho’s spine.
He suddenly thought,
‘What if Dark Ghost was really attacked by that guy here?’
Just imagining it was already terrifying.
Heuk-ho hurriedly looked around. Then, he saw bloodstains around the area. Although the blood had dried and become black, it couldn’t have been older than a day or two.
Furthermore, the amount of blood couldn’t have come from killing Dark Ghost’s alone. Only when at least a dozen people have been killed could this amount of bloodstains remain.
Kkiic!
At that moment, the door of a nearby mansion opened and a man who appeared to be a servant came out.
Heuk-ho hurriedly approached the man and asked,
“Did something happen here yesterday? Or the day before yesterday?”
“W, Why do you ask that?”
Instead of explaining, Heuk-ho pointed a dagger to the man’s neck.
“Just answer my question.”
“Eek! T-The night before yesterday, warriors of the Golden Mountain Manor were murdered here.”
“The Golden Mountain Manor?”
“Yes! More than 10 people died near that wall. But the Golden Mountain Manor warriors had already collected the bodies.”
“Really?”
“Yes! I’m telling you, there’s no one around here who doesn’t know that.”
The man replied, blood drained from his face.
He was just an ordinary man. His liver is not big enough for him to lie when he’s being threatened with a dagger at his neck.
He relayed to Heuk-ho exactly what the Golden Mountain Manor warriors said while collecting the body.
As soon as the man finished speaking, Heuk-ho disappeared like a ghost.
He literally disappeared right in front of the man’s eyes.
“Hiiik! It’s a ghost!”
The man scrambled and ran back to the mansion.
Heuk-ho didn’t pay any more attention to the man. He just proceeded to jump over the fence and headed for the Golden Mountain Manor.
The Golden Mountain Manor is not that far from the man’s mansion.
It only took him a few minutes to arrive.
Even with the numerous warriors standing guard all over the Golden Mountain Manor, no one managed to notice Heuk-ho’s presence.
After looking around the manor for a while, Heuk-ho soon found a warehouse. Two warriors actually stood guard in front of the warehouse, but Heuk-ho still managed to successfully sneak in without being detected.
There were dozens of dead bodies piled up in the warehouse.
He assumed that all of them were warriors responsible for escorting Geum Suryeon.
The faces of the warriors were all stained with blood, making it difficult to recognize their original appearance. Furthermore, their faces started to swell because their bodies started to decompose.
For that reason, the Golden Mountain Manor could not distinguish their identities. They could only store their bodies in the warehouse.
Heuk-ho examined the faces of the corpses one by one.
The Golden Mountain Manor’s warriors didn’t have the confidence to inspect the dead bodies of their colleagues, so they skipped it, but Heuk-ho was different.
This kind of work isn’t enough to faze him at all.
He examined the features of the corpses closely.
“Hoo…”
When he finished examining the last corpse, Heuk-ho let out a sigh.
The last body was the most horribly mutilated corpse.
The face was disfigured beyond recognition, and its abdomen was split long causing its intestines to leak out.
However, Heuk-ho recognized the identity of the body at once.
“Dark Ghost!”
This was clearly the corpse of Dark Ghost.
Dark Ghost, who had been missing for a while, was found among the corpses of the Golden Mountain Manor warriors.
Heuk-ho couldn’t understand the current situation.
“What the hell happened? Why is Dark Ghost’s body here?”
Dark Ghost clearly moved on his own. There was no reason for him to be with the men of the Golden Mountain Manor. Him being with the Golden Mountain Manor meant that he had a point of contact with them somewhere.
“Wait, if all the warriors who escorted Geum Suryeon are here… Then who is the man who carried and brought her to the Snow Sword Manor?”
In an instant, goosebumps ran through his whole body.
The worst possible scenario came to his mind.
“No way—?”
* * *
Ice Slayer’s residence is a small house far away from the attendant’s office.
He stayed in an area near the residences where the workers who built the Snow Sword Manor stayed. Most of the houses were already demolished after the construction of the Snow Sword Manor, but among the few which still remained, they were used as lodgings for the workers.
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