“You never know someone’s place while they’re there, but you feel it when they’re gone. Without Martial Artist Lee, it really does feel empty.”
Jang Ho agreed with Seo Daeryong’s regret.
“Her absence is keenly felt.”
They were on their way to the Pungryu Tavern in Maga Village.
Jang Ho was huge, while Seo Daeryong was small, so the two made such a striking contrast that passersby glanced at them at least once.
“To think I’d miss Martial Artist Lee more than the Pavilion Master.”
They used to drink as a trio, including Ian, but last time only the two of them had drunk together. It had definitely been less fun than when the three of them drank.
Ian and Seo Daeryong had led the mood with all manner of chatter, but with her gone and only the taciturn Jang Ho left, the atmosphere was bound to settle down.
Of course, there were good points as well. In place of the fun they had given up, a seriousness had entered, giving them a chance to learn about each other. After all, it was only this time that Seo Daeryong first learned Jang Ho’s childhood dream had been to become a painter.
“Martial Artist Lee must be doing well, right?”
At Seo Daeryong’s question, Jang Ho was certain.
“Of course she is. Think of who she went with. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried. I’m jealous. All sorts of situations I could never even imagine must be unfolding before Martial Artist Lee. I envy her. I want to be there too, being surprised together with her!”
“Do not forget that the Extreme Evil Soma is beside her as well.”
“Now that I think about it… perhaps having Lord Jang by my side is better.”
Jang Ho gave a faint chuckle. Seo Daeryong thought that manly laugh alone was enough to make this drinking session worthwhile. If nothing else, he wanted to resemble Jang Ho in the way he laughed.
Thus, sharing this and that in conversation, the two arrived at the Pungryu Tavern.
Just as they were about to go inside,
the owner, Jo Chunbae, came out and made a shushing gesture.
“You mustn’t go in right now.”
“Why?”
“The Demon Venerables are here.”
“Who?”
Seo Daeryong poked his head in slightly and looked toward the second floor of the tavern.
At the very place where they usually drank, his own master, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, and the Demon Buddha sat facing each other, drinking.
Startled, Seo Daeryong hurriedly withdrew.
“We’ll drink somewhere else today.”
“Yes, please do.”
After sending the two away, Jo Chunbae went back into the tavern.
He looked up at the second floor. Even from a distance, he could feel the strange tension flowing between the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and the Demon Buddha.
“Why did you ask to see me?”
At the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s question, the Demon Buddha gave no answer.
It was unlike the Demon Buddha as he usually was. Instead of his prickly temper, there was an indefinable weariness about him. The Demon Buddha emptied his cup alone.
“It isn’t as though you and I can’t share a drink, Senior.”
“Senior? After going around badmouthing me as a traitor, what ‘Senior’?”
“A traitor is a traitor.”
“Aren’t you the traitor now? Seeing as you left the First Young Master and came to find me.”
“You’ve always acted as though you knew everything since the old days. That’s why you looked down on me so damn much.”
The corners of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s mouth curled up. But instead of shooting back a retort, he emptied his cup. Until not so long ago, that was exactly how it had been. Whenever he saw the Demon Buddha, he found him pathetic. A tiny little man, yet full of nothing but greed.
But that arrogance had changed after meeting Geom Mugeuk.
“It isn’t easy, is it?”
At the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s words, the Demon Buddha raised his head. He searched for the intent behind them, but the Blood Heaven Blade Demon merely filled his cup.
It did not seem like something said to mock him, so the Demon Buddha unwittingly let the words slip out.
“…It isn’t easy.”
The moment he said it, the Demon Buddha regretted it. He had given the Blood Heaven Blade Demon an opening to say something mocking. Sure enough, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon prodded at his nerves.
“You’ve lived all this time thinking you were the First Young Master’s right arm, but you’re not, are you? You’re more like a fish he’s already caught and kept in a basket. A golden carp, perhaps.”
“Even having a pleasant drink with your junior is hard for you, isn’t it? That petty, twisted heart of yours won’t even allow that much, will it?”
“You should have behaved better normally. And if you’re going to call me Senior, call me Senior to the end. If you’re going to call me ‘you,’ then call me that from the start.”
“You’re a bastard to the end!”
Bang!
The Demon Buddha slammed the table. The table shattered, and everything on it fell to the floor.
“Next time, don’t break things. On our side, we follow a demonic path that doesn’t break tables.”
“What are you talking about? Have you gone senile?”
The Demon Buddha left in irritation.
‘Damn it!’
The moment he broke the table, he had already lost. Why had he come to see the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, just to put on a good show?
He hated that the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had seen through his troubled heart. The thought that the Blood Heaven Blade Demon would look down on him even more from now on enraged him.
‘Fine, you dried-up old bastard. Look down on me all you want.’
Watching his retreating back as he left the tavern, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon also rose from his seat.
But there was not the slightest trace of the contempt or mockery the Demon Buddha had imagined in him. Rather, the sigh-laden words the Demon Buddha had uttered earlier now flowed from him as well.
“Yes, it isn’t easy.”
As the Blood Heaven Blade Demon left the tavern, he gave Jo Chunbae money. It included the price of the liquor and the cost of the broken table.
“It’s all right.”
When the Blood Heaven Blade Demon glared at him, he quickly accepted the money.
“Do not tell the Second Young Master about the broken table.”
“Pardon? Yes! Of course, don’t worry.”
And so the Blood Heaven Blade Demon also left.
Jo Chunbae looked after him for a moment, then went upstairs to clear away the broken table.
Even without the Second Young Master, people were still coming. Not long ago, the One-Flame Sword Venerable had come alone and sat for a while before leaving. He had ordered liquor, but had not drunk a single cup.
Jo Chunbae knew.
They did not come to his Pungryu Tavern because the liquor tasted good, or because the food was delicious, or because the atmosphere was pleasant. They were all missing someone.
* * *
I was sitting on the cart I had parked in the clearing, looking up at the sky, when I saw Bisa’in and seven of the Thirteen Wolves of the Heretical Dao walking over from afar.
They had chosen the meeting place this time as well.
An open clearing, exposed on all sides. I could tell they were worried about an ambush.
I understood him. When you kept receiving threats to your life, every nerve would be on edge. Yes, he had to be careful. Even after being this careful, he had died in the end.
Seeing that I had come alone, Bisa’in looked puzzled.
“You came alone?”
“I did.”
The Extreme Evil Soma had entrusted this matter entirely to me. I had left Ian behind when she said she would come along.
Bisa’in’s expression stiffened slightly.
It seemed his pride had been hurt. Though he was not yet the formal successor, he was still of the Heavenly Demon’s bloodline, and yet his opponent was going about alone like this. Meanwhile, he himself was moving around with seven of the Thirteen Wolves of the Heretical Dao, so of course he must have felt like a coward.
I wanted to tell him. That paltry pride is all useless. Feeling wounded in your pride is itself something that wounds your pride. This is all because you’re young.
“Surely you haven’t already found a clue?”
“I have.”
He must have come expecting it to some degree, but when I answered that it was true, Bisa’in could not hide his surprise.
“How did you find it so quickly?”
He asked with suspicion in his eyes.
“I didn’t find it. They came to me.”
I lifted the straw mat covering the cart. Five corpses lay loaded inside.
“As Young Master Bi warned me, there was a surprise attack.”
I did not tell him they had targeted the master of Cheonhwaru. Whether they knew of Cheonhwaru’s existence or not, I judged it was not something I needed to deliberately mention.
“These are the Blood-Hand Five Shadows of White Night Valley.”
“How did you learn that?”
“Do not underestimate our cult’s intelligence network. We know as much as we need to know about you people.”
Bisa’in’s face twisted. He had only frowned slightly, but his expression warped as though he were angry. The scars on his face were too deep and hideous.
“White Night Valley took on this commission. If you go find them, you should be able to learn who is behind it. As for what method you must use to make the Valley Master of White Night reveal the client, that is for you to think about. What do you say? Is this much not sufficient as the clue I promised?”
Bisa’in gave no answer for a while. He must have wanted to say that this much was not enough somehow, but would I allow that?
“Surely what you wanted wasn’t for me to find the one behind it and bring you their head?”
“There is no need to provoke me like that. This is enough. As of today, the Baekgye Merchant Guild will withdraw from Guizhou. I will also calculate and send compensation for the losses over the past two years.”
“As expected of the successor to the Heretical Dao Alliance! Well then, let us meet again next time.”
Just as I was about to turn away, Bisa’in’s voice transmission reached me.
—Second Young Master.
But the transmission ended there. As though I had misheard, as though it were the voice of a ghost carried on the wind, no further words came.
Bisa’in had tried to say something to me in secret, then changed his mind.
I stared at Bisa’in’s face. I did not look at his scars. I looked only at his eyes.
Because of the scars on his face, he looked far more vicious and strong than the heart he truly possessed, but I could see it. The figure of a young man struggling desperately to survive.
Speak, Bisa’in. Whatever it is, if you want to change your fate, speak.
But Bisa’in turned away without saying anything to the end. The Thirteen Wolves of the Heretical Dao pulled the cart and followed behind him.
I watched his back for a moment, then left as well.
* * *
When I returned, the Extreme Evil Soma was walking through the courtyard of Cheonhwaru. He seemed calm, but I could feel it. He was still angry, and he was trying to calm that anger.
I walked alongside the Extreme Evil Soma.
“The Baekgye Merchant Guild has agreed to withdraw from Guizhou. They also agreed to compensate for the losses over the past two years.”
“Second Young Master, you resolved in a few days what had been troubling me for two full years.”
“They merely accepted our proposal because they fear you, Lord Soma.”
“There is no need to be humble. Thank you, Second Young Master.”
After expressing his gratitude, the Extreme Evil Soma stopped walking.
“I will kill the one who gave the order to kill the master of Cheonhwaru with my own hands. Even if it means I am confined for several more years because of it.”
The Extreme Evil Soma looked at me. To the look in his eyes that asked what I thought, I conveyed my thoughts.
“Of course you should kill them. They tried to kill someone you care for. Naturally, you must kill them with your own hands. I would kill them too.”
As though it was an answer he had not expected, the Extreme Evil Soma’s eyes shone pleasantly.
“Do you not want to return to the cult? Then you could escape responsibility for whatever trouble I cause.”
“I was so absorbed in looking around your world, Lord Soma, that I forgot why I came out here in the first place.”
“Shall we go back?”
“No. Show me more of your world, Lord Soma. Show me more, kill the bastard behind this, and then let’s return.”
I was knocking endlessly on his door. I did not hope for that door to be flung wide open, as I did with the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
I only hoped it would open halfway, so that we could face each other at that point where we were neither friends nor enemies.
I know who you are. As you died, you regretted your life. That empty life filled with evil.
Are you now the same as you were then?
“Second Young Master, there is nothing more to see in my world. This is all there is. Now I must go meet the ones who manage the gambling houses, and meet the heads of the underworld gangs attached to us. You dressed up my world grandly, as though there were something more to it, but in the end, my world is about frightening people and receiving tribute money. In the process, I sometimes cut off the arms of those who embezzle money, and I sometimes kill those I dislike.”
You have changed. In the life before my regression, you were never once this honest.
The you I met before my regression were old, and older still, someone who could no longer change.
How had I been able to become your friend?
Perhaps I, at that time, had been the same as you.
Hardened like a fossil by the single-minded obsession of obtaining the materials for the Great Art, my life and I—perhaps you felt a kinship with that version of me, and that was why you liked me so much.
“There is only one way for the Extreme Evil Soma’s world not to become dull.”
“What is that?”
“Only when war breaks out. The world will become a sea of blood, and you, Lord Soma, will be flying through the skies. I do not want to see that sort of world. I still want to see this world. How you deal with the gambling house managers, how you deal with the underworld bastards.”
In the Extreme Evil Soma’s eyes, a certain passion I had never seen before flashed and vanished.
I walked a few steps ahead, then looked back at him and said,
“Now then, shall we go? To cut off the arms of those who skim money.”