The Extreme Evil Soma was seated alone in the white room again today, staring at the wall.
Once I learned that the white wall helped with his martial training, my worries that he might go mad disappeared.
The first words I spoke upon entering his room were these.
“Lord Soma, let’s go fight.”
At the fact that I had obtained permission, Soma’s eyes behind the mask curved in a broad smile. He was the Extreme Evil Soma who had even worn the Immortal Ghost Mask and met my father in order to help me.
“Good.”
The Extreme Evil Soma answered readily. Even though he knew the opponent was Yaryul Han, he showed no fear at all. He was simply delighted to be going to fight alongside me.
“We’re not only going to deal with Yaryul Han, but also the four men under his command.”
The Extreme Evil Soma’s eyes smiled within the holes of his mask. The stronger the enemy, the happier he became. But that did not mean he was arrogant or that he failed to assess his opponent accurately.
“Yaryul Han is strong. This may become an even harder battle than the ones we have fought before.”
The Extreme Evil Soma was by no means letting his guard down. He understood the danger of this matter better than anyone. That was why I was all the more grateful. Even knowing what kind of matter this was, he had stepped forward for me.
“The problem is that we have to kill them without leaving evidence that we did it.”
“Second Young Master is clever, so you will find a way.”
“You have to help me, Lord Soma.”
“I’ll only take charge of the killing.”
He said it lightly, but I felt the light in the Extreme Evil Soma’s eyes deepen. It was an opponent that left one no choice but to think deeply. In a calm tone, the Extreme Evil Soma said to me,
“When I fight, there are times I forget who I am. That is when it is most dangerous. The Second Young Master I have seen knows who he is better than anyone. That is why I am not worried.”
“I’m not worried because you’re with me, Lord Soma.”
We looked at each other and laughed. We treated each other with goodwill, and were grateful for the other’s kindness.
I suddenly felt like bantering with him. I wanted to joke around too.
But I held back. Mistakes were made precisely at times like this. Because courtesy was something that had to be upheld precisely because one was close, yet became harder to uphold the closer one grew, I treated him with even deeper respect than before.
“Ah, and another Demon Venerable will be joining us for this matter.”
“Who is it?”
“By Father’s order, the Poison King will be going with us.”
At the mention of the Poison King, the Extreme Evil Soma’s eyes showed a slight look of discomfort.
“I have no personal ties with that man.”
Who did? That applied to both the Poison King and the Extreme Evil Soma.
“In the process of making this matter happen, I came to know a little about the Poison King. I thought he was a decent person.”
The Extreme Evil Soma still seemed uneasy. Liking me was one thing, but his relationships with the Demon Venerables were another.
The Extreme Evil Soma walked to the opposite wall and stood before the line he had drawn there.
“With the Poison King, he would be about here.”
The Extreme Evil Soma pointed to the starting point of the line.
“At least he’s on the line.”
At my words, the Extreme Evil Soma laughed. Since it had already been decided, he accepted the situation.
“We can only hope the Poison King’s poison doesn’t accidentally kill us.”
I, too, could not quite picture the two of them together. Combinations of Demon Venerables were not easily matched. Which two would be the best fit together?
“When can you depart?”
“Any time is fine with me.”
“Then let’s leave tomorrow morning.”
“Good.”
I was about to turn and leave when I said to the Extreme Evil Soma,
“This matter is thanks to you, Lord Soma. Thank you once again.”
“If we fail to return alive, you will have to use the word responsibility instead of thanks. Save your gratitude until after the matter is over.”
Having finished speaking, Soma looked back at the wall.
I stared at that white wall with him for a moment, then bade him farewell and left the room.
As I walked out of the Valley of Villains, the gazes of the Faceless Guests I encountered held even more goodwill than before. There were even some who bowed and said they had liked what happened earlier. After barking in the Great Training Ground, my popularity had risen even more. In any case, they were people who liked strange antics more than anything.
* * *
After leaving the Valley of Villains, I went straight to the Thousand Poison Forest.
The Poison King was in the middle of packing. I had come to tell him that we would leave tomorrow morning, but as if he had already expected it, he was busy gathering this and that.
“How did you know? That we would leave tomorrow morning.”
“It’s a chance you obtained after causing such a commotion. Of course we would leave right away.”
“As expected, you are clever.”
“If I were clever, would I have fallen into this crisis?”
To him, the crisis was not facing Yaryul Han. Leaving the Thousand Poison Forest was the crisis.
The Poison King packed poisons into a bag he could sling over his shoulder. Poisons in pouches, in containers, in bottles. He gathered all sorts of poisons.
“Is there any need to bring this much poison?”
Even the poison the Poison King normally carried on him would be enough to kill an enormous number of martial artists. And yet the Poison King packed what seemed like an excessive amount of backup poison.
“Who knows what might happen?”
Regardless of how much he hated going, he was thorough in his preparations. That was his nature. Without such meticulousness, he would never have been able to create so many poisons and antidotes.
The Poison King put on a thin long robe to conceal the poison pouches at his waist. Several pockets were sewn into the inside of that robe as well, and he tucked poison into those too.
“I’ll be carrying a leather satchel, so if you pack some for me, I’ll carry it too.”
“Are you planning to destroy the Evil Dao Alliance? Forget it.”
“You already look like you have enough to do that.”
Pretending not to hear me, he packed something else. This time, he wrapped a leather belt around himself, into which some twenty poisoned daggers had been stuck.
“You throw daggers too?”
“Better than you do.”
There was no way that was true, but I was surprised that the Poison King used daggers.
On top of that, the Poison King also packed a fan.
It was the Poison King’s unique weapon, called the Wujian Fan, and he mainly used it when administering poison. It was not difficult to scatter poison and kill everyone. What was difficult was killing only one person with poison in a room full of dozens.
One would have to be careful whenever the Poison King gently waved the Wujian Fan. There was no telling where the wind that led to hell would blow.
In later years, the next Poison King would evaluate his master, this very Poison King, as follows.
The greatest master of poison arts in three hundred years.
“I’m telling you in advance, but I’m not killing Yaryul Han. I’m just going along. I’ll only watch!”
“You say you’re only going to watch, so why are you packing so much poison?”
“So I can watch with peace of mind.”
This was his nature. Both his meticulousness and this anxiety.
“How long will it take?”
“I don’t know. I intend to deal with it as quickly as possible, but I don’t know what the situation will be like when we arrive.”
“Let’s deal with it and return as quickly as possible. Understood?”
“It will be faster if you help.”
“I don’t know about anything else, but I’ll have to deal with that fellow Jindok Geosa myself.”
The Poison King seemed irritated about this incident.
“If he was going to sell medicine, he should have made it properly before selling it. This is why we get cursed. It’s the reason the Cult Leader dislikes me.”
“But you must not leave any trace that you used poison arts, Poison King.”
“Am I going to leave corpses behind to put on display?”
He meant that he would melt even the corpses away without a trace.
In any case, if the Poison King dealt with Jindok Geosa, I would not have to reveal that I was impervious to all poisons.
“Then I will see you tomorrow morning.”
Leaving him behind as he busied himself packing poisons he might have missed, I left the Thousand Poison Forest.
As he led me out of the Thousand Poison Forest, Sangseon said,
“Please take good care of the Poison King.”
I knew well how much Sangseon worried about and cherished the Poison King. Since it was the first time in a long while that he was leaving the cult, he would be even more concerned.
“I believe that is a request I should be making of the Poison King, but yes. I will serve him well and return.”
“Today is the last time I will guide you. From now on, come on your own.”
He, who had always guided me along different and confusing paths, led me out today by the easiest and best route.
* * *
After leaving the Thousand Poison Sect, the place I stopped by was the medical hall.
At last, I was able to say these words to the Demon Physician.
“I leave tomorrow to kill Yaryul Han.”
The shocked Demon Physician stood there blankly, then staggered. I released my internal energy and wrapped it around his body. I seated him and brought him water.
In a trembling voice, the Demon Physician asked,
“How did you know it was him?”
He had asked me to kill one person, but he had not yet told me the name.
I said nothing. Soon, the Demon Physician let out an exclamation of “Ah!” He had once asked my father for this and been refused, so he must have thought I had naturally heard it from my father.
“Did the Cult Leader permit it?”
“Yes. The six Demon Venerables helped me for this matter. My visit to the Poison King this time was also to obtain permission for it.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“I wanted to tell you after receiving permission.”
Emotion surged across the Demon Physician’s face.
“I lived only for this day.”
His was a life spent treating patients as if abusing himself, dreaming of revenge while suffering the agony of having lost his family before his eyes and survived alone. He must never have slept comfortably in his entire life. Even when he ate delicious food, he likely never thought it delicious.
I had never had a child, but if I were to witness my child being murdered before my eyes, I could not even imagine how great and deep that grief and resentment would be.
“I could kill him and return to tell you the result, but the reason I am telling you as I leave is because I know how important this matter is to you. That is why I am telling you from the beginning. That it is beginning now. I want you to take part from the very start, Demon Physician.”
The Demon Physician would tremble, feel anxious, and worry until the day I returned. He would be unable to sleep. Even so, I believed telling him was the right thing to do for him.
The Demon Physician recalled that day, the day he so desperately wanted to forget, yet could never forget.
“It was when I was young. While I was treating a critically ill patient, Yaryul Han barged in. He told me to treat the person he had brought immediately. I told him I could not. That if I stopped treatment now, this person would die. Even with a blade pressed to my throat, I upheld my conviction as a physician. And that day, I saved both of them. I saved the person I had been treating, and I saved the person he had brought.”
“Then why?”
“He said he had never let anyone who defied his orders live. He said that was his own principle. He said he would be sure to uphold it in the future as well. Since I had saved his subordinate, he would spare my life. Instead…”
Tears flowed from the Demon Physician’s eyes.
“I regret it. I should have just done as he said. Dozens, hundreds of times a day, I regret it. If only I could return to that day… I would obey him. Even if the patient I was treating died, I would obey him.”
I said nothing. Because I knew that no words could comfort him.
He led me to his bedchamber in the medical hall. The room was so narrow and shabby that it was hard to believe it belonged to the Demon Physician. A single hard bed. A small desk and one chair were all the room contained. The few books on the desk and one old lamp seemed to show the life he had lived.
There was a secret door in that room. He opened a small door hidden in the wall and went inside.
Within the hidden space, the Demon Physician’s former home had been recreated exactly as it was.
The place where his wife had cooked, the place where his son had run and played, and the room where the family of three had slept.
He was still there, in that place, on that day. Not even for a single moment had he been able to leave it.
“My young son always wanted to play with me. Each time, I said his father was busy. That his father had to save patients. That his father had to go buy medicinal herbs. I delayed it, and delayed it again. And yet my son did not hate me. That little child said to me, ‘When you aren’t busy, you’ll play with me, right? Right? You’re working like this for us, aren’t you?’ I still cannot forget the way he looked at me that day. At times like that, my wife would say, ‘Please do not overdo it. Take care of your own health first.’ What kind of physician am I, when I could not even save my own child and my own wife!”
In the end, the tears he had been holding back streamed down the Demon Physician’s face. He tried hard to suppress them, but the more he did, the more tears flowed. It was the first time I had ever seen the Demon Physician cry.
I approached and embraced him. I held him tightly and patted his gaunt back. He squeezed his eyes shut and wept without a sound. I was not embracing him as the Second Young Master. I, who had lived longer than him before my regression, was embracing a younger brother living this painful and lonely life. Demon Physician, suffer no more. I will end it for you.
A little while later, the Demon Physician calmed himself.
His gaze and mine met in the air. In a way, his face looked relieved. It was a pain he had kept buried alone for far too long.
“…I am sorry. For making you do something so dangerous for the sake of my revenge.”
I spoke to him firmly.
“I will kill him and return, without fail.”
Today would be the last time I saw his face wet with tears.
“He will not even remember that I exist.”
That fact would drive him even more mad with rage.
“I will make him remember.”
I was someone who tried not to attach any meaning to the deaths of villains, but this time was an exception.
“And so, as he dies, I will say it into his ear. That this death is your answer, Demon Physician, to that ridiculous principle of his.”