“So-ryong!”
“Young Master!”
It happened just as I was smiling in satisfaction after capturing Hoja.
From both ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) riverbanks downstream, my adoptive father, the Dragon Fangs, and warriors of the Martial Alliance suddenly appeared.
They surged in using lightfootwork, swarming toward us.
They arrived while stabbing swords and spears into the backs of the Five Venoms Sect bastards lying all around us.
They looked to number at least two to three hundred. It seemed they had formed some kind of death squad once the spirit beasts crossed the border to assist me.
“Father!”
“So-ryong, are you all right? The bride is hurt!? Let me see!”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m all right, Father-in-law. Just a minor injury.”
“Hwa-eun, are you okay? What happened!?”
“Yes, unni, I got hit on the shoulder, but it’s not serious.”
My adoptive father and Seol-noona were startled by Hwa-eun’s shoulder wound.
While I reassured them, Ji-ryong came running up, scanning the surroundings and asked,
“Young Master, what happened to the enemies?”
I answered with a smile.
After all, it was a huge win.
I don’t know if medals exist here, but this was at least worth one.
“I seriously injured the Five Venoms Sect Lord, but when the kids swarmed him, he fled in that direction. It hasn’t been long.”
“You seriously injured the Sect Lord!?”
“Yes. He was stung by the venom of the Crimson Poison Harpoon Snail. No matter how skilled he is with poisons, even as the head of the Five Venoms Sect, it won’t be easy to neutralize.”
I’d put the sect leader in a Schrödinger’s cat situation—not dead, not alive. If that’s not an accomplishment, what is?
‘Maybe it won’t kill him outright, but surviving won’t be easy either.’
The Five Venoms Sect may be experts in venom and venomous creatures, but they mostly deal with five types:
Snakes, toads, spiders, lizards, and centipedes.
And with poison, the best way to develop an antidote is to have encountered it before. But Yeonji and Yeoncheon had only recently awakened from hibernation.
The chances that the Five Venoms Sect had studied the Crimson Poison Harpoon Snail’s venom were slim.
No matter how proficient they are in poison techniques, they would have a hard time handling that venom.
Even if he didn’t die, he was guaranteed to suffer for a while.
And that wasn’t all.
We’d also cut down the allied forces of the Five Venoms Sect and the Blood Cult.
While I was enjoying my own smugness, a few men who had come with Ji-ryong looked toward the direction the enemy had fled and shouted,
“This might be a once-in-a-lifetime chance! We must give chase!”
“He’s right. We should pursue them!”
“Ji-ryong! What do you think!?”
They seemed to be high-ranking Martial Alliance figures, and they were all urging pursuit, thinking this might be a rare opportunity.
The Five Venoms Sect Lord was currently poisoned by a spirit beast—pursuit really did seem like a good idea.
In modern warfare, landmines aren’t used to kill, but to wound.
When one soldier is injured, another has to help them, meaning both are taken out of combat.
The Five Venoms Lord wouldn’t be able to circulate his internal energy or move swiftly, so someone would have to carry him.
If we rushed in with full-speed lightfootwork, we might actually catch them.
‘But wouldn’t pursuit be risky?’
There was a problem. Even though we knew the Five Venoms Sect’s location and had superior numbers, we hadn’t attacked them directly.
That was because they were across the border in the Daewol Nation, wasn’t it?
Provoking Daewol might lead to war. Just the fact that hundreds of us had crossed the border already meant we had overstepped the line drawn by the Imperial Court.
Ji-ryong rubbed his chin and fell deep in thought.
But before he’d even had time to finish a cup of tea, the crowd started badgering him.
“Ji-ryong! We need a decision!”
“There’s no time to be standing around thinking!”
“Act now, think later!”
Voices rose in anxious anticipation.
Ji-ryong, thankfully, emerged from his thoughts quicker than expected and addressed the crowd.
“You’re right. We might not get another opportunity like this. Too many of us may have crossed the border, but I believe this is a risk worth taking.
Let’s go! From this moment, we pursue them! Those with slower footwork, stay behind and help tidy things up here. The rest, move out!”
“Good decision!”
“The Martial Alliance’s Flash Tiger Unit will begin pursuit now!”
People immediately launched themselves in the direction the Five Venoms Sect had vanished.
Watching them, I turned to the kids.
“Yo-hwa, bind Hoja a bit more tightly, okay? Especially the jaw—make sure that’s secure. It might snap your threads.”
—Kssit. 『Understood, Brother.』
“Moji, Soji—if anyone’s injured, take care of them. Also, patch up our friend Hoja a little.”
—Myuu, myuu.
“Cheong-yu Sojeo, please look after this little one.”
—Shia. 『I’ll take care of it.』
I told Yo-hwa to reinforce the bindings on Hoja, and asked Moji and Soji to treat any wounded kids or Hoja’s injuries.
Then I asked Cho and Yeondu to fly ahead of the retreating Five Venoms and Blood Cult forces and scatter venom to block their escape.
If we were going to be serious about pursuit, someone needed to fly ahead and cripple their movement.
I decided to go as well.
“Cho, Yeondu, let’s go. Let’s fly ahead of them and scatter venom from above or trip up their feet.”
—Tssrrrr. 『Okay, Dad!』
—Shaaa! 『Yes, Master So-ryong!』
“So-ryong!”
“I’ll just drop poison from above!”
Leaving the worried Hwa-eun behind, I soared into the sky. Below me, I could see the Martial Alliance and Beast Palace warriors speeding across the ground with their lightfootwork.
In the far distance, the tiny fleeing specks of the enemy.
‘Wasn’t it fun when you were the ones chasing? Now it’s your turn.’
Cho and Yeondu followed behind me as we closed in from the rear—
And without a word, Jeokwol noona was trailing silently behind.
***
Boom!
“What is the meaning of this!? I gave you permission to cross the border to rescue our young master, and now you’ve stirred up a full-scale pursuit inside foreign territory!?”
After the chase ended and we returned to the Beast Palace, we were greeted by none other than a general from the Imperial Iron Cavalry.
He was absolutely furious—raging to the tips of his hair.
He even slammed the table as he roared at us.
I wasn’t sure how he found out, but he already knew we had engaged in pursuit beyond the border and was fuming over it.
I cautiously asked Ji-ryong via sound transmission:
[Who is that man?]
[Ah, that is General Jo Cheol-ung, the White Tiger General of the Imperial Iron Cavalry. After the princess was attacked by members of the Five Venoms and Blood Cult, the Imperial Court designated both factions as heretical sects and declared an open purge. General Jo was dispatched here to support us at the border—
Though officially it’s to assist us, he’s also here to monitor us. To ensure that the martial world doesn’t provoke a war by crossing the border.]
[I see. That makes sense.]
Currently, both the Five Venoms Sect and Blood Cult have been designated heretical by the Imperial Court—any member spotted can be executed on sight.
All because the princess declared that she had been attacked by their forces.
That’s why even in Sichuan, where the Tang Clan resides, they had coordinated with the Imperial Iron Cavalry. This man seemed to be in charge of this region.
Though he offered support due to the commotion at the border, it was clear his main role was surveillance.
“I apologize. My son struck a severe blow to the enemy’s leader—it was not something we could simply ignore and walk away from.”
“Indeed, General Jo. How could we hold back when given the chance to sever the throat of the one who dared attack the princess?
As loyal subjects of the Emperor, we could not turn a blind eye to the one who endangered Her Highness.”
My adoptive father and a senior Martial Alliance representative offered apologies while invoking the princess and patriotic sentiment—
Yet General Jo remained unmoved, his voice sharp and unrelenting.
“Even so, there’s still the matter of possible diplomatic backlash from the Daewol Nation! If they file a protest, His Majesty could be enraged... and I would bear all the responsibility!”
At that, Ji-ryong asked me through sound transmission:
[Young Master, would you mind sharing a bit of the credit?]
[Credit?]
[Yes, the merit of injuring the Five Venoms Lord—how about letting the general claim a portion?]
Ah, spooning in.
At first, I didn’t get what he meant by “sharing the credit,” but he was suggesting we let the general put his spoon in the stew, so to speak.
In my past life, politicians and senior bureaucrats loved doing that. Showing up after everything’s been done just to take photos and bask in the glory.
Since the general was effectively a civil servant, this was about letting him do the same.
Not like I was expecting to receive any honors, and I’d already secured Hoja—so I had no complaints.
I quickly sent Ji-ryong my response via sound transmission.
[Go ahead.]
[Understood. Thank you.]
Upon hearing my reply, Ji-ryong turned to the general with a practiced smile and began.
“General Jo, I understand you’re angry, but what’s done is done. Might I suggest another approach?”
“What kind of approach?”
“If the Daewol Nation protests, we report that yes, a small number of our men did cross the border—
But they did so in pursuit of invading enemies who had crafted horrifying biological weapons. We can also say the incident has been resolved and the offenders punished.
We happen to have the corpses of those creatures. Salt them and send them to the capital as evidence. That’ll help deflect blame.
And if there is no protest, we simply report that there was a minor clash at the border, and thanks to your decisive action, the enemy’s leader was severely injured and is now missing. How does that sound?”
As Ji-ryong spoke, the general’s sharply raised eyebrows slowly lowered.
It seemed the suggestion struck a chord.
He sipped from a teacup that had spilled a third from the earlier table slam, then cleared his throat with an awkward expression.
“Ahem... it’s not that I care about credit or anything... It’s just, if war breaks out, the people suffer. That’s all I’m trying to prevent, you understand.”
“Of course. Who’s more devoted to the people than General Jo?”
“Exactly! Everyone here knows it well.”
“I’ve heard many great things about you from my father as well.”
After a round of flattery from all sides, General Jo finally smiled.
“Haha, so you heard that, eh? Ah, I suppose you’re not a ‘young master’ anymore now that your wedding is coming up. Either way, making a scene at a household preparing for a wedding would be impolite... Let’s go with that plan.”
Textbook bureaucratic response.
Just as I was thinking we’d dodged the worst, I heard the general mutter to himself in regret.
“Still... not catching their leader... We really should have. That would’ve sealed the credit nicely. Tsk.”
‘Yep. Politicians and bureaucrats are the same, in any world.’
As I remembered the chase from earlier, I couldn’t help but agree.
It really had been a shame.
We caught up to them in surprisingly little time.
With me raining poison from above and disrupting their path, the Martial Alliance’s pursuit force managed to close the distance quickly.
But maybe because the Five Venoms Sect members knew that if their lord died, they’d be next, they were absolutely desperate.
They sacrificed parts of their force to delay the pursuers and kept fleeing to the bitter end.
Then, when we caught up again, one of them suddenly pulled out something strange.
“Unleash the Apocalypse!”
At the Five Venoms Lord’s command, one of the warriors pulled an object from his robes and charged toward the Martial Alliance side.
Sensing something was off, the warriors quickly subdued him—
But in that instant, the porcelain jar in his hand shattered.
The moment it broke, a spherical zone of twenty meters around him melted in venom, as if erased by a giant eraser.
The Martial Alliance took heavy casualties and had no choice but to retreat.
“General Jo, since we’ve all gathered, shall we have a drink?”
“Let’s.”
“I had some fine wine saved for my son’s wedding. Consider this a sneak taste.”
“Wine? Sounds good.”
As the adults shifted to talking about drinks, I quietly slipped away to my quarters.
I still had to remove the venomous stinger from Hoja’s head, after all.
