Did I think the Poison King was trapped in a world of his own?
“Is he not?”
I asked Father in return, as if it were only natural. Did Father not think so? What sort of person did Father think the Poison King was?
But Father had not brought it up to tell me what sort of person the Poison King was, or what the Poison King’s world was like. He had done it to say this.
“And how open is your world?”
Father looked at me for a moment, then went silently back into his quarters.
I stood there, thinking about what Father had said. And then I understood. I understood the meaning contained in his words.
Father was asking me this.
What difference is there between you, crying out for a new Demonic Path, and the Poison King? To others, are you not also trapped in a world of your own?
Of course, he did not mean that I was exactly the same as the Poison King, who disliked meeting people and preferred being alone.
He meant that my approach to the Poison King had been wrong. If I approached him from that perspective, the Poison King would never open the door to his heart.
The Poison King must have felt it. That I was looking at him as though he were trapped in a world of his own. The gazes of countless people must have been like that until now. I had been no different from them. The very pledge asking him to leave the Thousand Poisons Forest had been a mistake.
“Thank you, Father! As expected, Father, you are the wisest and broadest-minded person in the world, and…”
Before I could even finish speaking, the lights inside the house went out.
“…and cold-hearted.”
I bowed respectfully toward Father’s quarters, then turned back to my own.
Giving me a clue put Father at a disadvantage. Even so, Father had enlightened me. Apart from the wager, it was the affection of a parent for a child who had come to him for help.
* * *
The next day, when I went to the Thousand Poisons Forest, the Poison King was not in his quarters.
I looked around the nearby woods in search of him. After a long while, I found him deep in the forest.
He was lying flat on the ground, having a staring contest with a snake.
When the Poison King conversed, he could converse perfectly well, but once he became absorbed in something, he was the sort of person who would not notice even if someone died beside him.
Even now, he had no idea I had come nearby and was sunk in a trance. Seeing him like this, I had thought he was trapped in a world of his own. I had considered him an eccentric, and without realizing it, I had vaguely thought myself superior to him.
This was what Father had made me realize. Do not do that. He was not trapped; he was simply living his own life.
When I approached and looked closely, it was no ordinary snake.
It was a Flower King Seven-Step Snake, a spiritual creature with an extremely deadly poison even among poisons. It was called Flower King because it loved flowers, and Seven-Step Snake because even a martial artist with profound internal energy would die before taking seven steps after being bitten.
Just then, the Poison King spoke to the snake.
“Hey, you’ve gotten big lately and become arrogant. Since when did you start lifting your head so stiffly at me and talking back?”
Then the Flower King Seven-Step Snake, which had been flicking its tongue, lowered its head. It could not possibly be true, but it really looked as if it understood him.
“And you. I told you that whatever else you do, you mustn’t eat ghostfire grass berries carelessly, didn’t I? Why don’t you listen? Do you need to be steeped in fire liquor before you come to your senses?”
The Flower King Seven-Step Snake coiled itself and tucked its head inside. Did it really understand human speech? It had to be a coincidence, right?
I had lived long enough to see all manner of things, but this was the first time I had ever seen a sight like this.
Then another snake passed by beside it. This one was a Yin-Yang Blood Venom Snake, possessing venom no less powerful than the Flower King Seven-Step Snake’s. It, too, was a snake difficult to come across.
“Wol!”
At that, the Yin-Yang Blood Venom Snake stopped and looked at the Poison King. Watching it flick its tongue, the Poison King said,
“You know that Wang is a womanizer, don’t you?”
The Yin-Yang Blood Venom Snake looked at the Flower King Seven-Step Snake and flicked its tongue with a hissing sound.
“If Wang bothers you, come and tell me. Got it?”
I could not tell whether it truly understood his words or not, but when he finished speaking, the Yin-Yang Blood Venom Snake disappeared into the undergrowth.
“You go on, too!”
Then the Flower King Seven-Step Snake vanished into the forest.
Truly, it was a sight difficult to believe even after seeing it.
As the Poison King rose from his place, he saw me and was startled.
“Good heavens! You scared me!”
“I was more startled. What sort of Poison King is so surprised whenever someone is beside him?”
Of course, if someone had approached with killing intent or malice, the Poison King would have realized it at once. One must never look down on those who had reached the position of Demon Venerable in terms of martial arts. A Demon Venerable was still a Demon Venerable. If they went mad and ran wild, no one could know who would defeat whom, or how. They were merely refraining from revealing their true abilities.
“If you asked assassins which of the Eight Demon Venerables they would kill, every last one of them would line up behind the sign with your name on it! Even an assassin on his first kill mission would succeed and leave alive.”
“If he tried, Wang would bite him to death.”
“Don’t tell me you even named the snakes?”
“Is this your first time seeing a Poison King who named a snake?”
The Poison King strode off.
Of course it was my first time! I followed close behind him and said,
“When did you become so friendly with snakes?”
“I was seven when I started roaming around catching snakes. Wang and Wol were there even then.”
“You were young.”
“In our day, everyone started at that age.”
The Poison King’s eyes, as he recalled his childhood, held sorrow and hardship. It was enough for me to understand why he disliked leaving this place.
“If you have been here since you were seven, then this place is your world, Poison King.”
The Poison King stopped walking and glanced at me.
“You said you wanted to take me out of this world, didn’t you?”
“No. Now, I regret saying that.”
“Why?”
“My desire to show you the outside world is still the same, but I should not have said it in that manner. I sincerely apologize for acting arrogantly.”
When one is sorry, one must apologize sincerely. I did not attach excuses to my apology, explaining why I had no choice but to act that way. Reasons were something for the person forgiving to attach to forgiveness.
But whether he heard my words or not, he had already stopped walking and was staring at a poisonous insect clinging to a tree.
Seeing the Poison King absorbed in something again, I smiled without realizing it.
What was he thinking about now? Perhaps he was trying to converse with that poisonous insect.
This is his world, and this is an open world.
* * *
Several more days passed.
I silently devoted myself to the work, and the Poison King still liked sinking into his own world.
What changed over those days was my heart toward the Poison King’s world. Now, I tried to understand his world. The world where a seven-year-old boy had gone around catching venomous snakes.
Today, too, the Poison King was lost in thought as he stared at the poisonous mushrooms growing in a wooden box.
Then, as he turned his head absentmindedly, he shouted.
“You scared me!”
Because I had been quietly standing beside him, looking at the wooden box he had been looking at.
“Are you going to keep startling me?”
“Seeing those poisonous mushrooms growing so well puts my heart at ease. At this rate, haven’t I become a poison man too?”
“How long has it been for you to already be calling yourself a poison man?”
“I might as well just live here. The Thousand Poisons Forest feels like home now.”
“If you think acting this friendly will change anything, you’re mistaken.”
“It’s better if nothing changes. I like you exactly as you are now, Poison King.”
“What?”
The Poison King shouted as he looked at me.
“It won’t work! Petty tricks like this won’t work on me!”
His voice denying me was growing louder little by little. That was proof of just how much closer I was getting to him.
* * *
Sangseon always guided me from the entrance of the Thousand Poisons Forest to the Poison King’s quarters.
“I can go in alone now.”
“Even so, dangerous poisonous creatures may appear.”
That was probably not the only reason. He still guided me in a confusing way through several paths, and he did not lower his guard against me.
I could feel that it came from deep loyalty toward the Poison King. The eyes of someone who genuinely likes and is loyal to another will inevitably show it in some way.
“There is something I would like to ask you, elder.”
“Speak.”
“Since when have you known the Poison King?”
“Since he was young.”
“What was he like in his childhood?”
Sangseon stopped walking.
“Why do you ask?”
“I am curious.”
“He was not very different from now. Intelligent, considerate, cheerful, bright. He had the qualities of a leader as well.”
I forced myself to swallow the words, “Isn’t that completely different from now?”
It was because Sangseon did not seem like he would take my joke as a joke. His affection for the Poison King was not simple loyalty; it was more like that of an uncle, or a parent.
Seeing him made me think of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
* * *
I did not know whether the Poison King was intelligent, considerate, cheerful, bright, and possessed of the qualities of a leader, but one thing was certain. He was cute. And not only because of his fresh-faced appearance. For example, there was this.
The Poison King wore twelve pouches at his waist, and each pouch had a picture drawn on it. They were twelve animals representing the zodiac, but the paintings were anthropomorphized in a colorful, adorable style that might be drawn on children’s clothes. At first, I had passed over them without thinking, but now I could tell.
“You chose these yourself, didn’t you?”
“I drew them.”
I was startled. He had drawn all of these himself?
“No one in the world would know. That the Poison King’s deadliest poisons are inside such cute pouches.”
When one thought of the Poison King’s poison pouches, should they not have evil spirits drawn on them, or, if words were engraved, frightening characters such as Demon, Kill, Evil, or Death? If all those pouches opened, hell would unfold. In truth, that made them feel even stranger and more terrifying.
“Which pouch holds the most frightening poison? Surely it isn’t inside that cute rabbit pouch, is it?”
“Shall we check?”
He tried to put his hand into the rabbit pouch.
“I decline!”
I waved my hands and quickly backed away. Seeing that, the Poison King smiled, then immediately put on a straight face. It was the first time he had smiled brightly at me. He seemed startled himself after smiling. Though I saw all of it, I pretended not to.
* * *
The next day, there was an important poison mixture to prepare.
Unlike usual, the Poison King explained the poison to be made today with a grave expression.
“This Heavenly Heart Poison here is one of the ingredients for the Dark Soul Severing Poison, one of the deadliest poisons I use. A single drop of this Heavenly Heart Poison can easily kill dozens of people. Now, you stand far over there… You have already stepped back.”
I was standing by the door, ready to bolt out at any moment.
The Poison King searched for something on the desk.
“It was here. Where did it go?”
“What are you looking for?”
“My gloves.”
He was looking for the deerskin gloves he used when handling poison.
“Do you mean these, perhaps?”
I held up the gloves I was wearing.
“Why are you wearing those?”
“You said it was an extremely dangerous poison.”
“Then what about me?”
“Why would the Poison King need gloves?”
“Bring them here this instant.”
I quickly took them off and brought them to him.
“What is in your mouth?”
I took out the Poison-Avoiding Beads I had been holding in both cheeks and showed them to him. Seeing me holding not one but two Poison-Avoiding Beads in my mouth, the Poison King shook his head with a dumbfounded expression.
“At this rate, even I won’t be able to kill you.”
Of course, it was his joke. If the Poison King made up his mind to kill me, even if I held a hundred Poison-Avoiding Beads in my mouth, I would not be able to block his poison.
I, too, was playing around with him. It was also part of my effort to become closer to him. If you truly had been a bright and cheerful person when you were young, then somewhere in your heart, those things must still be sleeping.
The Poison King put on the gloves and began making the poison in earnest.
“If the amount is even slightly off, blue smoke will rise. Then it is a failure. You must truly be careful and focused. This is a manufacturing method that only I can perform.”
The Poison King showed me how to mix the Heavenly Heart Poison to make the Dark Soul Severing Poison. Since I had no way of knowing what the other ingredients were anyway, rather than showing me how to make the Dark Soul Severing Poison, he was showing me how carefully this process had to be carried out.
He could have sent me out and done it alone, but it seemed he wanted to boast to me.
“Did you see? How prudent and careful one must be when handling it?”
“Yes.”
Just then, blue smoke rose from behind him.
“Poison King!”
“You hurry outside!”
I swiftly went out. After drinking an antidote from his robe, the Poison King poured a liquid that had been placed nearby onto the smoking spot.
Chiiiiik!
The smoke rose even more.
“Poison King! Poison King!”
Because he did not come out quickly, I hesitated over whether I should run in and save him.
Then the Poison King came outside, waving away the poisonous smoke.
“Are you all right?”
“Of course I am.”
He scattered a wisp of poisonous smoke that came out of his mouth with a fan of his hand.
“The path of poison arts truly is not an easy one.”
“I failed on purpose. To warn you that you must be careful.”
“……”
“……”
“Of course you failed on purpose. Surely the Poison King, the greatest handler of poison in the martial world, could not have failed at making a poison he uses every…”
“Enough.”
“Yes.”
I smiled brightly as I looked at him. The Poison King looked back at me with a face that did not know how to react. Poison King, you still do not know. You still do not know who will be standing in the training ground.
It was at that very moment. Sangseon came running to where we were and swiftly reported.
“An investigator from Hwangcheon Pavilion named Seo Daeryong has come looking for the Second Young Master, saying it is urgent.”