The First Time I Took a Step Backward.
As I pointed my finger, the radiant knight wore an annoying smile.
For a moment, I blinked.
When the radiant knight whispered something to the beautiful woman beside him, they both turned to me and laughed.
To be laughed at by a woman and a man together, my anger flared for the sixth time.
Suddenly, someone jumped over from where the radiant knight was and asked me, "Young Master."
A young attendant called out to me.
"What?" The attendant approached and whispered in my ear, "The young master over there invites you to drink. There is another woman in your party. It's a gathering of two men and two women."
I glared at the attendant and replied, "Why me?" The attendant grinned and said, "Because you are the most handsome among the onlookers."
"Nonsense."
When I turned my head, the woman who had been with the radiant knight was nowhere to be seen.
As I stepped back from the crowd of onlookers, feeling like a country bumpkin, the radiant knight approached, flanked by women on either side.
With a smirk, the radiant knight asked me, "Care for a drink?" The woman chimed in, "Let's drink together. Seol-ah, what do you think?" The newly appeared woman, Seol-ah, smiled as she looked me up and down.
"I like it too."
I looked at the three of them and thought, 'Crazy fools.' The radiant knight narrowed his eyes and said, "No need to be scared. They are good kids."
It was nothing special, but I felt an unusual perversion in his tone.
Without needing to think deeply, I realized that the radiant knight intended to take advantage of me, relying on his own skills, eloquence, and cleverness.
A gathering of two men and two women was nonsense...
I nodded, wanting to see how the knight played.
"Let's go."
Without any introduction, I found myself sitting with a lecher and the women who rolled with him.
It was something I had not anticipated.
But what mattered was not drinking, but that I finally met the knight.
In a secluded space surrounded by a curtain, a drinking party was set up.
It seemed to be a place the knight frequented, as everything from entering to sitting down felt very natural.
The women ordered an enormous amount of drinks and snacks.
In no time, the table was filled to the brim with food and drink.
Seol-ah, sitting next to me, said, "Have a drink."
The knight asked me, "Is this your first time here?" "Why?" "No man has stared at me for so long in this place. Perhaps a woman would, but since we are of similar age, let's speak comfortably."
The woman beside the knight introduced the drinking companions.
"Brother Mong-rang, I am So-wol, and beside the young master is Seol-ah. And you, young master?" All of them were aliases.
"I am Gwang-cheol. I am the brother of Gong-cheol."
Seol-ah, looking puzzled, asked, "Who is Gong-cheol?" The knight raised his cup and said, "Come on, drink. No need for long introductions. What does a name matter? What does origin matter? Only when drunk do the true forms of men and women reveal themselves."
Mong-rang, So-wol, Seol-ah, and I, Gwang-cheol, all drank.
I tried to swallow my drink as slowly as possible, observing the expressions and gazes of the three.
It seemed that not only I was watching their expressions, but they were also doing the same.
The way we drank, our breaths, and our upright postures indicated that all four of us had practiced martial arts.
The knight asked Seol-ah, "Do you like Gwang-cheol?" Seol-ah nodded and smiled.
"Yes."
"Then how far can we go today?" "Brother, why are you in such a hurry?" "Hahaha."
I blinked for a moment, listening to the conversation.
Was there a secret code exchanged just now? As useless chatter continued, the drinks circulated without pause.
Just as I was about to drink my fourth cup, the knight stood up and said, "I need to step outside for a moment. I must drink properly today."
"Go ahead."
As the knight left, So-wol shamelessly said to Seol-ah, "Let's go out too."
"Alright."
I chuckled and grabbed Seol-ah's wrist, pulling her back down.
"Our Seol-ah should have one more drink before we go."
Seol-ah, looking flustered, replied, "What?" I nodded at So-wol and said, "You go ahead first."
So-wol, with a stiff expression, replied, "Ah, yes."
As soon as So-wol disappeared, I glared at Seol-ah.
Seol-ah, looking bewildered, asked, "Why are you staring at me so frighteningly all of a sudden?" I held my cup and infused it with my internal energy.
In an instant, the drink bubbled like my heart.
"This fire wine is your first time, right? One cup, let's make it strong."
Seol-ah, with a shocked expression, replied, "Ah, no."
Just as Seol-ah was about to jump up, she reached out and pressed several acupoints on me.
I took out a small medicine bottle that Mo Yong-baek had given me, twisted the lid, and lightly mixed the powder into the fire wine.
What was this? Due to time constraints, Mo Yong-baek had said it was difficult to create poison, but he had demonstrated his skills by providing a colorless and odorless laxative.
I had plenty of experience in the martial world, but this was my first encounter with a colorless and odorless laxative.
Even mixed in the wine, it did not change color or smell, making it the finest laxative in the martial world.
I poured the wine mixed with Mo Yong-baek's laxative into Seol-ah's mouth.
"If you don’t want the antidote, you better do something about it. At that time, you will die. Got it?" Looking at my hand, I noticed some powder had gotten dirty on my face.
I wiped it on Seol-ah's pretty clothes and then sprinkled the colorless and odorless laxative into the knight's and So-wol's cups.
Only then did the knight and So-wol, who had somewhat stiff expressions, hurriedly return.
The knight sat down, looking at me.
"Why is the atmosphere like this?" I replied to the knight in a cold tone, "You bastard, like a courtesan."
"What?" "Were you trying to dump the drinking bill on a bumpkin? Are you a child? You pay for the drinks."
The knight chuckled and replied, "What nonsense is this? Is it because you’re a bumpkin that your personality is so twisted? I never expected to hear such words."
I took a drink of the perfectly fine wine with an unpleasant expression, subtly revealing my intention to confront the knight immediately.
As I glared at the knight and So-wol as if I wanted to kill them, they raised their cups filled with the laxative.
Even then, the knight lowered his eyes, repeatedly checking the color and scent of the wine before drinking.
Only after finishing the wine did the knight realize that Seol-ah's condition was strange.
"Why are you like this?" I explained, "I mistook it for running away, so I pressed the acupoints."
The knight, slowly revealing his temperament, said, "That was unnecessary. Let her go."
I replied while taking a sip of wine, "Being a bumpkin, I haven't learned how to let go. You let her go."
The knight suddenly stood up and excessively groped Seol-ah's upper body, then tapped her in two or three places.
In an instant, Seol-ah let out a gasp and fainted right there.
The knight looked at me with a bewildered expression.
"You really are trying to die, aren’t you? So-wol, take care of Seol-ah and settle the bill. This guy is looking down on me."
"Yes, brother."
The knight nodded at me and said, "You come with me. It’s useless to run away."
I stood side by side with the knight after a long time and stepped out.
The knight spoke calmly beside me, "It seems you came looking to fight, but even someone like you is getting tiresome. Who sent you?" I felt the knight's tone suddenly become arrogant and replied, "Gong-cheol sent me."
"Who is Gong-cheol?" "The one with the broken arm."
"Ah. That idiot."
The knight chuckled.
Suddenly, as he led me to a place with no people, the knight pounded his chest with his hand.
When I glanced over, I noticed the knight's complexion was growing paler.
The knight suddenly lunged forward, stabbing his abdomen with his fingers here and there.
Turning around sharply, the knight glared at me with a fierce look in his eyes.
"Is it poisoned?" I was about to respond when the knight closed the distance in an instant and threw a punch at me.
Bang! After we exchanged punches, we stared at each other.
The knight's face was already pale.
It was surprising that he could take my punch without any issue, but it seemed he was feeling increasingly nauseous.
I spoke to the knight with a calm expression, "What’s wrong, idiot? Speak."
The knight seemed to want to say something to me but quickly turned around and ran off somewhere at a furious speed.
It was truly an incredible speed.
A strange sound came from the knight's mouth.
"Uh..."
I couldn't let the knight escape.
I followed him like a gust of wind.
Before long, as I closed in, the knight spun in mid-air and extended his palms.
As soon as I saw the knight's palms stained white, I countered with my own internal energy.
Boom! As the internal energies clashed in mid-air, the sound of the impact mixed with the strange noise. "…!" "…!" At the very least, this guy was not someone who would be found in the White Path.
If a martial artist from the White Path had soiled themselves in a fight, they would simply declare their retirement from the martial world and throw themselves into the river.
Yet, the knight calmly attacked and defended while reeking of excrement.
This calmness, this coldness, this survival instinct, this strange noise...
He was indeed the formidable opponent I had been wary of, the top candidate for recruitment by the Hao Sect, a martial arts genius, and a "poop thrower."
Even before he became known as such, he had been a top-tier expert who officially carried the title of "demon" (魔) in the martial world.
No matter how much experience I had, I had never fought against an expert who was soiling themselves in real-time.
In that moment, I realized that even my own martial arts had been perfectly blocked while I was fiercely executing my techniques. 'This is absurd.' I simply couldn't step on the knight's soiled lower half with my newly donned pure white shoes.
It would be disrespectful to the new shoes.
Amidst it all, the overwhelming stench made me dizzy.
I had never seen such a strong "poop thrower" in my life, so I focused my mind.