Precious Daughter of the Greatest Martial Arts Villain

Chapter 6

Recently, Bing Eunseol had started drinking.

When she got drunk, she wouldn’t bother tormenting me with the cold. Instead, she’d glare at me with bloodshot eyes as she hit me.

Bruises continued to form on my body, one by one.

It was even worse for Seoryeong. In her attempts to shield me, she’d end up with dark bruises all over her body.

“Get out, you worthless fools! I can’t stand looking at either of you, so get out of my sight!”

We were kicked out into the garden today like always. While we were letting the hot sun melt our cold bodies, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“Have you come to spend time outside again today, miss?”

“Huh?”

“Has Her Ladyship—Never mind.”

Ak Wuryeon knew that I’d come out to the garden to warm up in the sunlight once Bing Eunseol was done tormenting me. He would always pass by and pretend not to notice me. Why was he suddenly striking up a conversation?

Since he already knew I wasn’t stupid, I supposed there was no reason to keep up the ruse in front of him.

“Moob. (Move.)”

“Pardon?”

“I neesun. Issa col! (I need sun. It’s cold!)”

He silently stepped back from me. He went to turn away, but paused. In a manner that wouldn’t block the sun, he got down on one knee in front of me.

I looked up at him, meeting his gaze directly.

“Please give me your hand.”

“Eh? (Why?)”

Ak Wuryeon hesitated, then spoke quietly. “I’ll warm it up for you.”

What’s with the change? You seemed happy that I was suffering just like you.

Even he must have felt bad for me.

Well, I suppose anybody would look pitiful if they were shivering in thick fur clothing in the middle of the hot summer.

Even if I was the daughter of his enemy and the girl who stole his first kiss, it was probably hard for him to abandon his empathy entirely.

Maybe that was what made him the main character of this story.

Despite being the offspring of a wretched man, he couldn’t help but feel for my current state. He probably also felt guilty for keeping quiet about me being abused, even though he knew about it.

I didn’t mind.

I actually preferred that he didn’t say anything. I knew no one would take my side anyway.

Until I was strong enough to handle Bing Eunseol, it was better to lay low and quietly build up my strength.

“Miss, please give me your wrist now,” Wuryeon urged.

In truth, I had long since adapted to the cold already. Having endured this treatment for over a year, these days it didn’t even feel that cold. In some cases, it even felt refreshing.

I just wore thick clothing and pretended to shiver because of all the eyes watching me. Bing Eunseol’s ice was no longer a threat.

Nevertheless, when I stuck out my wrist, he cautiously took hold of it and infused warmth into my body.

A warm, cozy, and strong energy slowly spread throughout my body.

Wow...

I felt a soothing sensation somewhere in my lower abdomen and I found myself closing my eyes in satisfaction.

I hoped this would help alleviate the guilt he was feeling. I quietly opened my eyes and spoke.

“Dun fwee bah. Um fine. Issarit. (Don’t feel bad. I’m fine. It’s all right.)”

All of a sudden, the warmth stopped flowing. Before I could even mourn the loss of the heat, Ak Wuryeon dropped my hand and immediately leapt up.

“I’ve never felt sorry for you. I’m... I’m not allowed to feel that way.”

With that, he dashed away.

What the heck was that?

Although he had already disappeared, I stared in the direction he had gone and shrugged. Maybe he had hit puberty.

“Miss, I finished it! What do you think? Do you like it?” Seoryeong asked as she held out a flower crown toward me.

She would try to cheer me up like this whenever Bing Eunseol was in one of her moods. Though I didn’t care for flower crowns, I still smiled brightly.

“Wow! So pwetty!”

“Oh, do you mean it?”

“Yee! Puh eet on! I wanna twy! (Put it on! I want to try!)”

“Just a moment, miss~ Oh my! Our little miss is the prettiest in the entire world.”

I could feel Seoryeong’s deep affection for me. Embarrassed, I fidgeted with my fingers.

“Ack!” a man groaned from somewhere. I abruptly turned around to look behind me.

I scanned my surroundings like a hawk, but as usual, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

The only sound in the air was the chirping of crickets, and I couldn’t hear any human voices. Had I misheard again?

Maybe I’d developed auditory hallucinations from Bing Eunseol’s abuse.

“Miss, I think we can head inside now.”

By now, Bing Eunseol was probably drunk and passed out, so it should be safe to go in.

“Mmhm.”

Seoryeong lifted me up into her arms as we left the garden.

* * *

“Ah... She left.”

“She did.”

“She looked cute today too.”

“She’s getting cuter by the day...”

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack earlier.”

“But still! How could you make a sound?! Do you not know how sensitive Miss Lihwa is?!”

“She most definitely shows promise in martial arts. Not even a master would have detected our presence.”

“More importantly, I find it concerning that she’s wearing winter clothes in the middle of summer. Could she be ill?”

The individuals murmuring together in a huddle had eerie appearances. Some had dark green skin, others deep red. There were middle-aged men with cracked skin like tree bark and elderly men with deep wrinkles and hunched backs as well. There were tall men and men so fat that it looked like they could be rolled around. Among them were two men who looked like identical twins.

After exchanging opinions and thoughts, the ten eerie-looking men turned to stare quietly at Ak Wuryeon.

“Vice Sect Leader, do you know if Miss Lihwa has fallen ill in any way?!”

He lowered his eyes. “If you’re that curious, why don’t you check for yourselves?”

“But you know the situation! If we show interest in Miss Lihwa, the Martial Artists’ Alliance will target her immediately.”

The men were known as the Ten Demons among martial artists, but called elders within the Demonic Sect.

They had never regretted a life of pursuing power. Power was life and the purpose of life itself. It was only natural to spare no means or methods to gain strength, even if it meant hurting others along the way. Being weak was a sin.

Because of this way of life, they were named and referred to as the Ten Demons by the Martial Artists’ Alliance. They had bounties on their heads, but they thought nothing of them. They just laughed at the audacity of the weak trying to team up to attack them… until their precious flower was born, that is.

She was the first child born to the Demonic Sect in two hundred years.

At the bottom of the One Hundred Thousand Mountain, in the village where the followers lived, babies were quite common, but it was extremely rare for the members living at the mountain’s peak.

As a result, the elders didn’t know how to protect the newborn baby. Showing affection for her would attract enemies who would try and harm her.

Once their precious little miss had been born, they had become fearful of those they had previously looked down upon, so they decided to hide their true feelings.

If they fawned over her, they’d be drawing more attention to her, so when they wanted to give her presents, they’d send them by pretending to be one of the followers. If they were curious about her, they’d get information from Ak Wuryeon. Whenever she’d come out to the garden, they’d just watch from afar.

The elders were satisfied with just that. Since they knew approaching her would do nothing but harm, they figured it would be best if they kept their distance, especially since they could send Ak Wuryeon over like they had today.

He was still young and hadn’t been branded as a villain. Outsiders didn’t even know that he was the Vice Sect Leader, so there wouldn’t be any issue if he appeared friendly with the child.

“Vice Sect Leader, why aren’t you saying anything? Has the little miss been harmed in any way?”

After being pushed into checking on the child once again by the elders, Ak Wuryeon hesitated for a moment.

If he were to say she was fine, that would be the end of it, but there was one concerning factor.

The girl was being abused by Bing Eunseol. When someone was subjected to ice qi, their fingernails would turn white and a chill would emanate from their organs. Since she exhibited those exact symptoms, it would be hard not to notice.

However, that was the problem: he could feel an energy flowing from her lower abdomen—something he shouldn’t be able to feel from her.

It was a pure energy, one untainted by impurities, gathered there in her core, as if she was a master of ice qi.

There’s no way she could have learned ice qi. Had she absorbed Bing Eunseol’s energy?

It simply wasn’t possible for a child who didn’t know martial arts to do such a thing.

As strange as it was, she might look fine at the moment, but it could become problematic in the future.

Since I warmed her up with my internal qi, she’s probably fine now.

When he realized he was worrying about her, he bit his tongue.

Why am I feeling like this?

She was the daughter of his enemy and she had even stolen a kiss from him, but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to hate her. No matter how hard he tried to, he couldn’t do it.

None of this is her fault. She’s innocent in all this, and she even told me not to feel bad and smiled at me.

But at the same time, she is the daughter of my enemy, which makes her my enemy, someone I must kill. I shouldn’t care about her circumstances.

His heart was being pulled in two different directions. It was evident that he was conflicted.

Ak Wuryeon closed his eyes to suppress his turmoil.

A moment later, when he opened his eyes again, they were cold and distant.

He calmly replied, “Her pulse was steady.”

The elders, who had been holding their breath, let out a collective sigh of relief.

“Then why did you take so long to respond?”

“I thought she might have been in trouble.”

“I heard some children naturally have low body temperatures. Maybe that’s the case for our Miss Lihwa.”

“Then maybe we should send her medicine that will help her retain warmth.”

“If only we had a great pill of healing... Too bad that Shaolin Sect monk is so uptight about keeping them to himself.”

As Ak Wuryeon listened to the elders talking, he suddenly spoke up.

“I’m thinking about going into isolation training.”

The elders tilted their heads at his abrupt statement. “Well, that’s something you can choose to do at any time. When do you plan on beginning?”

“I will start tomorrow.”

“What? That soon?”

That way, he didn’t have to see her for even one more day. As long as he didn’t have to see her, this turmoil would go away.

“Yes.”

At least, that was what Ak Wuryeon believed.