The Blood Fang gang looked at each other with bewildered expressions.
In particular, the man with a ferocious face, who seemed to be the captain, looked around to see if there were any unknown variables.
'Why the hell is the young master acting so unruly?'
There was nobody around.
The general population had already retreated. Not even any enlisted soldiers of Dmitry were visible, and the surroundings had become utterly empty.
There were only two people facing the Blood Fang gang.
Only Roman Dmitry and his servant, Hans.
"Young master, I understand that you are a child of aristocrats who does not know much about the world, but it will be a problem to show such a disrespectful attitude towards others outside the castle and even more towards us, who have fang tattoos. In this low life, protecting your pride is what puts food on the table. So, if we just step down, we will lose face as the members of the Blood Fang, even if the opponent is the son of the Dmitry family."
Slide.
All the gang members behind him pulled out their weapons.
Showing their fierce eyes, they had the will to attack immediately when the commander's command was given.
Roman laughed.
"This makes me sure."
"What do you mean?"
"You guys are literally trash. If you treat this land's owner like this, I don't even have to find out how you treat the others."
"Trash? This son of a—huh?!"
The captain couldn't even swear.
The moment the captain's face turned red at his remarks, his pupils widened at the sudden change in the appearance of Roman.
"Attack him!"
"Haaaa!"
The Blood Fang gang members rushed in all at once.
With the dagger he held in his hand, the captain also attacked Roman's vital points without hesitation, but he dodged the attacks with a hair's breadth.
His black hair blew beautifully in the wind. Roman's sharp eyes met the captain's.
At that moment.
Thud!
"Keuk, Kugh."
The captain, whose neck had been pierced by a branch, tried to stop the leaking blood.
The situation happened so quickly.
The Blood Fang gang members attacked Roman in desperation.
At the attack of nearly ten men, Hans stomped his feet fast, hurriedly grabbed a large stone around him, and tried to help Roman.
Surprisingly, he soon realized he didn't need to.
Roman, who had dealt with the captain, was able to dodge all of his men's attacks with a movement that almost seemed inhuman and finally dealt with them one by one.
It was curious enough to see him fight a dagger with a branch, and every time he attacked with the branch, a hole was punctured in the vital points of one of the men.
"He's a monster, a monster…!"
"Is this really Roman Dmitry?"
The men were perplexed.
At first, they risked their lives to fight, but they were terrified when they saw their comrades dying helplessly.
However, the tides of the fight had already turned.
The men fell one after the other.
When the last remaining man was about to run away, Roman's tough hand grabbed the man's hair.
Grasp!
"Ahhh, let go, let it go!"
The man was furious.
At the sight of his colleagues' unconscious bodies scattered around him, his face became pale and tired.
Roman said, "You have violated Dmitry's law. However, you tried to cover up the situation by threatening me instead of reflecting on it. In order for an organization to carry on in the right manner, it is necessary to abide by the law. I will not take your life, but I will show people the fear of the law by setting you as an example of what they shouldn't become."
A man who was called the Heavenly Demon.
In Murim, Roman was the law.
As a lifelong leader, Roman knew what choices he had to make for the law, even if he was cruel.
Shove.
"Ugh."
He knelt the man down.
Then he tilted his head back, and with his other hand, he pulled his tongue out.
"The sin of playing with the tongue in the wrong way. Pay the price accordingly."
"Euu… euuuu, euuuuk!"
The man struggled desperately.
However, there was no way he could escape.
Roman's tough hand strongly suppressed the man's body, and Roman grabbed the dagger that had fallen on the floor and cut off the man's tongue. His blood splattered. The man groaned, and his voice roaring in pain echoed around him. The villagers tightly closed their eyes at the brutal scene. However, Roman had already cut off the man's tongue neatly without the slightest change in expression.
Thud.
The cut-off tongue fell to the ground.
The man lowered his head.
He wept with a bewildered look on his face, and his palms struggled to stop the gushing of blood from his mouth.
"My name is Roman Dmitry. If you don't like the punishment you've been given, you may come to me at any time."
The Heavenly Demon Cult.
In the world of the survival of the fittest, the price of breaking the law was always paid with blood.
Roman looked at Hans.
When Hans saw the young master's changed appearance for the first time, he was startled and stepped backward.
"Call the guards. Report today's events to them, and send troops here to do a follow-up."
"Ah, I see… Gulp, it's disgusting."
Hans hiccuped.
He checked their corpses once and hurried to the castle with a pale expression on his face.
An overwhelming victory.
However, Roman's expression was not good.
'You have such a garbage body.'
Roman.
No, Baek Joong-hyuk.
In Murim, he was the one who reached the top.
Hundreds and thousands of warriors were slaughtered because they could not handle one Baek Joong-hyuk, and when the blood flowed as large and wide as a river, the Heavenly Demon Cult admitted that he was the ruler of Murim.
As a man with the spirit of Baek Joong-hyuk, he could not help but be dissatisfied.
'The flow of energy is messed up. The amount of qi he has in his body is so small.'
It was the worst.
Still, there were traces of training in martial arts, but it was close to someone who had no training in Baek Joong-hyuk's expectations.
'I have to start over with my body every now and then. Fortunately, I have past experiences of honing my martial arts skills as Baek Joong-hyuk. If I set the right direction from the start and practice martial arts, I can get meaningful results even in the worst conditions.'
He had various thoughts in my mind.
First of all, it was necessary to quickly gather information and proceed with the metamorphosis of the bones to create the basis of the body.
It was then.
"Young master, thank you very much for your help."
He was the boy who had been beaten earlier.
He bowed his head and showed manners while limping his legs, perhaps because of his lack of mobility.
A pitiful sight.
Nevertheless, Roman's voice was cold.
"I didn't help you out of pity. I executed the Blood Fang's punishment because they broke Dmitry's laws, and you can't escape that responsibility either. So, explain your situation without the slightest lie. If your words are judged to be false, even your tongue will not be safe."
"…I understand, young master."
The boy's expression calmed down.
He was quite determined.
It was impressive that he did not shed a single sound even when beaten, but it certainly looked unusual.
"As you know, Blood Fang is a group that lends money with high-interest rates. My parents borrowed money from Blood Fang to rent the land; if the crops were harvested normally, the money could be fully repaid. However, due to the intentional interference of the Blood Fang, the crops were ruined. At first, I didn't know why they did this, but I later found out that they did it because they coveted my sister. Young master, I feel sad. Although we don't have a lot of money, we don't do any harm to others. There is no lie in my words. Please save us from the abyss of this evil."
The boy bowed his head.
The words were coherent, and there was not even a slight tremor in the boy's voice announcing the situation.
Roman responded with interest.
His face was black and skinny, without muscles, but the boy's eyes showed a sense of brilliance.
'I found the Crazy Demon, one of the Four Heavenly Kings1, in such a shabby environment. At that time, he was just a little boy, but later, he grew up and became a stronger ally than anyone else. It's kind of like I'm seeing him again.'
"What is your name?"
"…It's Kevin."
"Kevin, hmm. I will remember your name and within a few days, I will make sure this case is handled through the right process."
"Gasp! Thank you! Thank you so much!"
The boy named Kevin expressed his gratitude several times.
Roman grinned.
A new life.
A new relationship.
Already, his heart was beating excitedly.
After sorting out the situation, Roman put on a robe with the help of Hans.
Soon, it was time for Lawrence's daughter to arrive.
She was a typical aristocratic young girl, and he couldn't meet her wearing clothes stained with blood and filthy muddy water.
And in the process of changing clothes, he could hear the story of the two families' engagement through Hans.
"To be honest, this marriage is an arranged marriage in which mutual interests are met. The Lawrence family has recently waged several wars due to strife with neighboring estates, and their financial situation has become very poor. So, to solve the financial problem, they proposed an arranged marriage to the Dmitry family. The good news is that the young master actively supported this marriage. The young girl of the Lawrence family had a good reputation as a beautiful woman in the vicinity, so the young master saw her and fell in love at first sight."
It looked like a painting.
The two houses, Lawrence and Dmitry.
Lawrence needed money, and Dmitry needed the background to establish himself as a particular aristocratic family.
It was a mutually beneficial transaction.
The only problem was that Lawrence wanted the second son of the Dmitry family, but Roman Dmitry actively expressed his intention to marry, and the two set to be married.
And today was the day the two would meet for the first time.
Roman had only seen Lawrence's daughter from afar at an aristocratic party, so the two never met and talked in person.
'Marriage huh.'
In fact, it was something that Roman did not even want to do.
He allowed himself to go with the flow because of the reality he had faced; however, he was already willing to overthrow this marriage.
'Marriage is something that happens when both have feelings of love for each other. In the process of forming a lifelong relationship, conditional issues such as family background are not important. I'll have to look for an opportunity and find a way to break this marriage.'
The esteemed daughter's beauty and her background.
Neither of them mattered to Roman.
Surprisingly, the problem was quickly resolved.
That afternoon, as scheduled, Viscount Lawrence's daughter visited Dmitry.
"My name is Flora Lawrence."
As rumored, she was a beautiful woman.
The blonde hair that had grown down to her waist was luxurious enough to arouse admiration from the viewers, and nothing was lacking in her features.
A typical beauty. In particular, the clear and calm eyes, like a lake, made me feel like I was being sucked in as soon as I saw them.
He seemed to understand why Roman Dmitry wanted to marry her.
She was already a woman of considerable value with just her appearance alone.
Flora asked to walk separately.
Then, as she reached a quiet space where no one was watching, her face turned cold.
And she said, "I wish that our marriage doesn't happen."
Breaking the engagement.
That was the reason Flora Lawrence had visited the Dmitry estate.