I Ended Up Becoming The Heavenly Demon’s True Best Friend, Even Though He’s Shy Around Others

Chapter 83

"Should I help you, Pae Maseong?"

Ya Socheong asked, as if to test him, feeling uneasy about leaving it to Pae Maseong alone.

"I told you no."

"If you've made up your mind, leave it, but if you can't and it keeps coming to mind, tell me then. You always say that I'm your only friend. As your only friend, I can't not step up and solve such a problem. And don't talk yourself down so much. You're the senior brother of the children of the Nether Shadow Faction."

At that, Pae Maseong smiled and nodded.

"Yes, that's right. I had forgotten that."

Is that all?

The one who would become the Heavenly Demon, called the Red Heaven Demonic Emperor.

That was Pae Maseong.

"Socheong, you've become really strong in the meantime. I can see how hard you've trained."

At Pae Maseong's words, Ya Socheong also said what he had felt.

"You're the one who's like that. All I've done is follow you by your side, but since I didn't give up and followed you, it seems that I've finally come this far."

"That alone is amazing. I'm not trying to boast, but I'm a person who is said to be a talent that comes once in a thousand years. I'm surprised that you, who don't have such a constitution, could continue to train without giving up. If you had been a great person that everyone recognized, I wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Let's have a match when we have a chance later."

"That would be great."

He was genuinely curious about what would happen if he had a match with Pae Maseong.

He didn't think he could win, but now he didn't think that he would 'naturally lose'.

On the way back to the Yeonwang Manor, the fifth prince stopped by the places where his supporters lived and had a friendly chat with the people there.

Although the fifth prince was sorry, Ya Socheong learned a lot while following him during that time.

Some of these forces would have been given by the emperor, and some he would have found or made himself.

The fifth prince also told Ya Socheong such stories later.

Stories about his forces.

Stories about how he had drawn them to his side.

The fifth prince said that he had first looked at the people, and if he felt that he could absolutely not give up, he would go and ask for their teachings no matter how many times.

Ya Socheong thought that if it were him, he would not have been able to do that.

The Heavenly Forest of the Cho family was an organization created for such a purpose.

An organization to eliminate those who could not be drawn into one's own forces.

The Cho family, which had tried to rise to the top by defeating and destroying the people who would benefit their political enemies, could no longer maintain its name in the Heavenly Demon Sect.

'Is it right to go like the fifth prince, even if it's slow?'

Thinking that, Ya Socheong realized that he was already seriously thinking about such things.

At first, he had thought that it was a story that had nothing to do with him, but as his exchanges with the Danli family and then the Baek family deepened, and then as he even participated in the junior sect leader competition, he had come to be curious about what the fifth prince was doing.

* * *

The fifth prince's strategist, Yu Wonhyeong, had already come to the Yeonwang Manor early.

There had been no news from the third prince from the beginning, and since it was a story he had made up, it was not difficult to fabricate the movements.

He, hearing the news that the fifth prince was returning, began the work he had prepared.

First, it was to pretend to be sick, and the other was to introduce the beautiful young woman he had brought to the fifth prince.

The fifth prince had been weak-hearted since he was young and was not bold at crucial moments.

And yet, the emperor seemed to have the fifth prince in mind, and the fifth prince had become the most troublesome existence for the third prince to ascend to the throne.

He couldn't have noticed that he had been feeding him poison, but since he didn't know, he had to be careful and careful about that in the future.

For the time being, he decided to focus on recovering the fifth prince's trust without using poison, and he took various strong things himself.

That way, when the fifth prince returned, his body would look as if it were completely sick.

If he knew that this had happened after he had gone to check on the third prince's movements at the fifth prince's order, he might not be able to stay still due to his personality and might try to nurse him all night.

He might even annoy the people of the manor, telling them to find out the symptoms and find a way to cure the disease.

There was something that was bothering him.

He had thought that the demonic sect members would go back, but they were said to be coming again.

Still, he tried to take it lightly, thinking that nothing special would happen, but for some reason, it kept bothering him.

'I'm almost there. If I take the opportunity and make him take the poison again, the fifth prince will eventually collapse. Before that, if I just leave the manor first for personal reasons and pretend to have nothing to do with the fifth prince's death, I will be able to receive all the rewards that His Highness the Third Prince has promised.'

He recalled his future that would unfold after that.

He was the offspring of a humble family.

His humble status had always bound him and held him back.

In the meantime, he had caught the eye of the third prince, and the third prince had recognized Yu Wonhyeong's talent.

If it weren't for that, he wouldn't have entrusted him with such a difficult task.

Learning poison early was the best thing he had done.

Even while thinking such things, time passed.

Now, time would solve everything.

His body was gradually getting sick.

The fifth prince would arrive soon.

The fifth prince would hear his news as soon as he came to the manor.

Since he had made arrangements for that, even if the fifth prince did not look for him, people would tell him about his illness.

But Yu Wonhyeong's thoughts could not continue any further.

He was so tired that he fainted.

When the fifth prince arrived at the manor, Ya Socheong stood by his side like a totem pole.

It was not difficult for Ya Socheong to imagine what tricks Yu Wonhyeong had used.

If he were Yu Wonhyeong, he would have thought about how he would attack, and the answer was there.

One of the people who had welcomed the fifth prince tried to approach him.

He had a face as if he had something urgent to say.

Ya Socheong, thinking that he must have been instigated by Yu Wonhyeong, looked at Pae Maseong.

Then, when he pointed at that person with his eyes, Pae Maseong approached him.

He, not knowing why Pae Maseong was doing that, kept trying to approach only the fifth prince.

But Ya Socheong, while guarding the fifth prince's side, blocked that person and attended to the fifth prince.

When Pae Maseong approached and asked what was going on, the man, who had become like a dog that had been chasing a chicken, stared blankly at Pae Maseong.

Then, as if he thought he had to tell him, he stammered.

"The strategist has returned, but his body is very ill. I don't know what happened on the way, but he has been very ill for several days and nights since he arrived at the manor."

"Is that so? If you don't know what happened and why he is sick, isn't it a strange disease? Is it okay to just leave a person with a strange disease in the manor where His Highness is?"

He was flustered, wondering what Pae Maseong was talking about.

"It seems you don't know well, young master, but His Highness cherishes the strategist very much. He consults with him on everything, even the trivial things. I was going to tell him because I thought His Highness would be curious, but I couldn't."

"If he had been curious, he would have asked first. I will report that, so please go back. Were you with that person by any chance?"

Now, as if he were being treated as a person who had also been infected with the strange disease, he was angry.

But Pae Maseong no longer even dealt with him and moved far away, then went back to the fifth prince.

He, wondering what to do, went back to Yu Wonhyeong.

Yu Wonhyeong, who had heard the news, stared blankly into the empty air.

For a moment, his focus returned, but the person who had brought him the news did not know that.

Yu Wonhyeong was dumbfounded and felt wronged.

If the fifth prince didn't acknowledge it, there was no reason to be sick, and when he thought about what he had been doing until now, he was angry.

In the meantime, Pae Maseong went to Ya Socheong and told him about that.

Ya Socheong laughed to himself and called Pae Maseong to one side.

"The strategist, Yu Wonhyeong, is probably a person of the third prince. While having a foot in both camps, if he harms His Highness the Fifth Prince, he will be promised a great reward from that side. He probably didn't just guarantee his own future, but also opened the way for his family's future. He is a person who has harmed His Highness's body for his own future. If we just find a way to use him to attack the third prince, it will be firmly decided that His Highness the Fifth Prince will inherit the throne. Even if he just becomes the crown prince, he will be able to firmly protect that position after that."

Pae Maseong listened to those words as if he were amazed.

Now, it seemed that Pae Maseong could also make that much of a guess.

But that was just a guess.

But Ya Socheong, with the same grounds and evidence, seemed to have a stronger conviction.

It seemed that the driving force was different there.

The things that Ya Socheong had said so far had all come true.

When he thought about it later, he had known the same things as Ya Socheong from the beginning, but he just hadn't been able to put them together.

No matter how much he tried to follow and imitate, it didn't work well.

"Then what should we do?"

"We have to let him suffer. It would be better if he died, but he probably didn't take enough medicine to die. Since he is a person who knows poison very well, he must have adjusted the amount well so that only the symptoms he wanted would appear."

Pae Maseong burst out laughing.

He imagined how angry that person would be, having taken a poison that caused pain to arouse the fifth prince's sympathy, only to receive no attention from the fifth prince in the meantime.

Ya Socheong had taken revenge in such a small way, and it was so funny and satisfying.

"What do you do next?"

"If a fire falls on his feet, won't he go to a person he can trust, if only out of fear? After doing that, it seems that we can find out that he is making contact with the third prince."

The gazes of the two met.

It was because it seemed that it would be fun, and they were wondering who would follow Yu Wonhyeong.

"Pae Maseong, from now on, it is a very important task to distinguish who can be trusted by His Highness's side. You know, right? It's not that I'm saying this because I think this will be fun."

Pae Maseong hesitated for a moment, but since that was also a really important task, he agreed.

Ya Socheong, on a whim, went to see the fifth prince.

When he talked with the fifth prince, it became natural to put up a ki barrier.

"If it becomes a situation where you cannot put up a ki barrier, it may be safer to communicate in writing, Your Highness."

At Ya Socheong's words, the fifth prince nodded.

Hearing such words, he was once again reminded that the situation he was in was not good.

Ya Socheong told him his future plans, and the fifth prince nodded silently.

(End of Chapter)