Chapter 330
I continued to go inside, following Hwang-jo.
While going, I, pretending to be looking around, looked around and familiarized myself with the terrain here to some extent.
Because I might have to fight here soon.
"How much further do we have to go? My legs are starting to hurt."
"I'm sorry. The owner of the manor is always in the innermost room."
"What if a fire breaks out here? Why is he in the innermost room?"
"...... You don't have to worry about that."
I was able to realize one thing from his initial silence.
'There's another door that leads outside.'
He couldn't say there was a secret passage, and he couldn't say there wasn't, so he must have been looking for something to say and ended up being silent.
"Agh. I shouldn't have followed you. My legs hurt so much that I can't go any further, so let's rest for a while and then go."
"We're almost there."
"I'm telling you I can't go. I don't know what I'm doing now when I could be winning money."
I deliberately said to him in an annoyed tone.
I could see Hwang-jo's expression hardening a little.
He was starting to get angry at my attitude.
But, no matter how angry he gets, there is nothing he can do.
Because I am the owner's guest, and he is not a person he can treat carelessly.
"I... understand. Let's sit down for a moment and then go."
He took me to a room somewhere and then pulled out a chair for me.
I, sitting on the chair, looked around and said, "There seem to be countless rooms like this, what is this place for?"
"It's something you don't need to know. You've been asking too many questions from a while ago, so please stop asking questions now."
"A lot? I've only asked two, and that's a lot?"
"...... Yes. It's a lot."
"If you say it's a lot, I can't help it. I wanted to ask a little more."
I deliberately pouted my lips and muttered.
It was to make him even more angry.
I'm not doing this now because I find it fun to bully and annoy others.
No, to be honest, I do like it, but the purpose is not the main thing right now.
The thing I must do when I meet the Green Snake is to put old man Maeng Gwang-gae's Manlihyang on her.
But this bastard named Hwang-jo is likely to be her escort as well.
If he is watching me in a calm state, it will be difficult to seize an opportunity, so I am trying to shake him up like this and create a variable.
"Get up now. How long are you going to rest here?"
"Why are you rushing me so much? I'm not going."
"What?"
"You think I'm a pushover because I'm following you? Am I your subordinate? Your servant? I'm responding to your invitation and following you, but do you think I'm a person who comes when the owner calls and goes when he tells me to go?"
"Th-this person is now..."
"Hey? Are you trying to get angry at me now?"
He, about to burst out in anger for a moment, barely controlled himself and said, gritting his teeth, "If you thought so, I apologize. I meant to save each other's time. Don't you have to meet the owner of the manor for a moment and then go back quickly to win money? I also have a lot of things to do besides escorting you, sir. So I think I was a little sensitive."
"Tsk. You must be suffering from overwork. I see. If I was dawdling when you were so busy, it's understandable that you would be sensitive."
I, speaking as if I understood him, got up from my seat.
"Then let's go. Come to think of it, I think you're right. I have to meet him quickly and come back quickly to win money, don't I? Hahaha!"
He, without answering, just bowed his head slightly and then began to lead the way again.
Judging from the fact that his walking speed has become strangely faster, it seems the situation is really urgent.
When we had walked inside for a long time like that, we stood in front of a huge door that seemed to be twice the height of a person.
'How on earth is this place so long? Did a person make this?'
I don't know if the Evil Faction Alliance made this or if the Demonic Cult made it, but it's a scale that naturally draws admiration.
The fact that it's a group that can mobilize enough money and manpower to make this is enough to make it clear that the bastards are not ordinary opponents.
Come to think of it, money makes money. Because in a subway gambling house built like this, they will be making much more money than what was spent to build it.
"Owner of the manor. It's me, Hwang-jo."
"Come in."
While I was having these and other thoughts, Hwang-jo, after hearing someone's answer from inside, pushed the door open.
The inside was decorated with very splendid decorations, but its size was not that large.
To be precise, should I say it's about the size of one room in the Wudang Sect's Yuyeopdang?
"Hello. I wanted to see you. It must have been quite far, but thank you for coming all the way here."
The woman who was sitting on a large chair in the middle walked towards me and bowed her head slightly to greet me.
She was a woman of great beauty even at a glance.
Although she looked to be only in her mid-twenties by her appearance, I know that she is much older than that.
I don't know if she has applied makeup to the point of disguise, or if she has learned a martial art similar to face-changing, but she was just maintaining her youthful face.
"Nice to meet you. I was curious who the owner of this great place would be, but to think it's such a beautiful woman. I was surprised."
"I am the owner of this place, Ju Yeo-jin. You, sir, look... much younger than I thought."
"I have a constitution that retains my childhood face. Although women envy me for not aging, I am often embarrassed by this face that doesn't even grow a beard and doesn't age."
"Ah! I see."
Ju Yeo-jin, that is, the Green Snake, seems to have fallen for my words.
But come to think of it, it's not a wrong statement.
Because in my past life, I had lived long enough to be called an adult.
"May I ask for your honorable name, sir?"
"A life that drifts like a duckweed, like a cloud. I have long since forgotten the name to call me."
For a moment, a wrinkle formed on her beautiful brow and then smoothed out.
It seems she didn't think I wouldn't even tell her my name.
"But why did you want to see me? As I told that person earlier, I came while I was having a lot of fun, so I'm a little uncomfortable."
"Ah! You were. It's nothing else, but the reason I set up this gambling house is because I love and adore gambling so much."
She said such a hypocritical thing without even batting an eye.
Even though she set it up to make money.
"So, although it's in the Rabbit Room, I couldn't help but be so curious about what kind of person the one called the god of gambling is. If I had known you were such a handsome person, I would have escorted you sooner."
While she was still speaking, her internal energy began to leak out little by little.
That internal energy was so subtle that it was hard to notice even from right next to her. It felt as if she had learned a special martial art to hide her energy.
"I'm just a lucky person. A god of gambling... I'm embarrassed every time people say that."
"You can't get such a win rate at a gambling house with just ordinary luck. But I heard you only play with dice and coins, is there a special reason?"
Her energy slowly approached me, climbed up my leg, and then, after sweeping over my body once, returned to its owner.
I, pretending to be completely unaware, answered her naturally, "Haha! It's embarrassing, but to be honest, I'm not used to gambling. I don't even know how to play mahjong, and I can't do things like Tu-gu because they're complicated. I just play with dice and coins because the method is simple."
"Ah...! I see. But to be honest, you have to know how to play mahjong to win really big money."
"I'm sorry about that too, but I don't want to lose money by trying something I can't do. I just want to have fun like this."
"Hmph. You're a wise person."
She also spoke naturally, as if she hadn't scanned my body at all.
The Green Snake must have scanned me with her internal energy to check whether I had learned martial arts or not.
But her martial arts level is, to be honest, a shabby level.
To be precise, if it were me from a few years ago, it would have been a level where I would have had to fight hard to win, but to me, who has taken many elixirs and gained a lot of enlightenment in the meantime, she is no match.
To an opponent with this much of a skill gap, it's not that difficult to not reveal a single bit of my internal energy.
She will surely think that I have not learned martial arts.
"But you look incredibly sturdy even at a glance, do you do any kind of exercise usually?"
Although I can hide my internal energy, I can't hide my well-trained body.
She, approaching me, touched my forearm and said.
I thought that an ordinary person might be bewitched by her beautiful appearance.
Because her actions were enough to make one feel attracted.
"I have this body because I was a blacksmith. My hands are terrible, aren't they? If you focus on making good weapons by constantly hammering, your body, hands, and everything else will become like this."
"Oh my. Look at these calluses...!"
She, pretending to be surprised, fiddled with my hand.
I, pretending to be embarrassed, cleared my throat and pulled my hand away.
Although I had glossed over it by saying that the calluses from holding a sword were similar to the calluses from swinging a hammer, it was because if you look closely, you might be able to tell that they were caused by a sword.
"Ahem... but I've quit that now too. The master who took me in has passed away. So I was wandering the Central Plains, looking for something fun, and then I found this place."
"I see. I wonder if I've taken up your time because of my desire to see the god of gambling."
"Well. It's alright. Thanks to you, I got to see a beauty up close... I didn't want to go up to the upper room, but if I go to the Tiger Room, can I see the owner of the manor again?"
"Hee-hee. Of course. The guests of the Tiger Room are my special management guests. I manage them myself, so if you want to see me again, please upgrade to the Tiger Room."
"I will definitely do so."
I, after a simple greeting with her, went back the way I came.
Next to me, Hwang-jo is escorting me again as before.
"Hey. I know the way, so why don't you just go about your business instead of going to the trouble?"
"Escorting you back to the gambling house is my business. So follow me quickly."
He showed a colder attitude towards me than before, and I think the atmosphere has become sharper since she fiddled with my hand.
The way Hwang-jo looks at the Green Snake is not out of loyalty, but closer to affection, and it's probably not just my imagination.
'I didn't want to hold hands with the Green Snake either.'
But since she offered to hold my hand first, there was no need to refuse.
In fact, on the way to the Green Snake's room, I had secretly put a few drops of the Manlihyang on my palm.
And since she held my hand, the Manlihyang must have gotten on her hand as well.
'Mission... success!'
I barely held back the smile that was forming on its own.
I felt very good because things had gone better than I thought.
(End of Chapter)