“I want to play a little longer.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Mabul nodded.
“Then play some more.”
Mabul staked all his hopes on changing Geom Mugeuk’s mind.
“But let us leave this place. I have no desire to wander around somewhere teeming with venomous insects without the Poison King.”
“Let’s do that.”
Geom Mugeuk and Mabul retraced the path by which they had come.
Once the Poison King was gone, Mabul’s expression looked much more at ease. It seemed Mabul, too, had been uncomfortable around the Poison King.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“You came all the way here to find me, didn’t you?”
“You seemed to be having a hard time lately.”
“I swam for the first time in a while, and took a walk. I feel much better. What about you, Lord Mabul?”
“I enjoyed it as well.”
But Mabul was not actually in such a good mood. When even the Poison King declared his support for Geom Mugeuk, Mabul’s sense of urgency only grew. Now there was only one method left: changing the mind of Geom Mugeuk himself.
“They say those who know how to play are the ones who play well. I meant to have a grand time playing with you today, Lord Mabul, but even that isn’t easy.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s candid words, Mabul replied.
“You are young, so you may feel that you must do something for it to count as playing, but when you get older, resting is playing.”
Mabul stopped for a moment and looked up at the sky.
“It has been a long time since I rested like this.”
That Mabul was someone who lived constantly on edge could be seen even in this brief moment of gazing at the sky. He looked as though he had risen from the deep sea to take a short breath. When he spat venom beside his brother, he had seemed like nothing more than a vicious Demon Supreme, but…
“The Blade Demon always tells me this. If it is hard, rest before going on.”
Mabul looked at Geom Mugeuk and asked.
“Do I look like I am having a hard time?”
Then came an unexpected answer.
“Whenever I see you, Lord Mabul, I think you must have lived more earnestly than anyone else.”
It was not the Divine Art of Flattery. It was sincere.
“You have endured much until now.”
Though Mabul would likely take it as flattery.
This was precisely what Geom Mugeuk had been striving to keep to lately.
If there was something he ought to say to someone, he would not put it off, but say it.
Mabul, too, must have wished for someone to truly recognize his hardships, and so Geom Mugeuk expressed it like this.
You’ve had it hard, Mabul.
Mabul felt it. What was contained in Geom Mugeuk’s gaze was sincerity.
Mabul tried hard not to reveal his emotions, but a storm of feeling flashed through his eyes.
‘Damn it!’
How could someone so young look at a person with such depth in his eyes?
Mabul moved first, and Geom Mugeuk quietly followed behind him.
The two walked in silence for a long time before stopping for a while at a place with a fine view.
“Let’s rest here for a bit before we go.”
“Let’s.”
Geom Mugeuk dipped his feet into the clear stream flowing past.
“It is cool and feels wonderful. Lord Mabul, you should dip your feet in too.”
“Are you not afraid?”
“Of what?”
“They say the Thousand Poisons Forest has all manner of poisonous things. How do you know what kind of poison might be in that stream?”
“I heard it from the Poison King before. He said there are no poisonous things in running streams. Come on.”
“I am fine.”
“When was the last time you dipped your feet in a stream?”
Mabul could not even remember. Other than when he was very young, when had he ever dipped his feet? Had he perhaps never done it at all?
“It is my wish! Please dip them in with me just once.”
“You have so few wishes to make?”
“I want to brag about it later. When I was young, you see, I even dipped my feet in a stream with Lord Mabul, took walks with him, and made bets on finding poisonous herbs. I did it all.”
Mabul laughed with an expression of disbelief.
“They are feet that have only splashed through places where blood flows. Sometimes they should enjoy such luxury too.”
When Geom Mugeuk forcibly pulled him along, Mabul pretended to give in, took off his shoes, and dipped his feet in. They were small, shining feet.
“I have truly done all sorts of things in my life.”
The same was true of the Poison King. The Poison King had said it was the strangest among strange things.
“It is nice and cool, isn’t it?”
Mabul stared intently at Geom Mugeuk.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“At times like this, you do not seem like a young man.”
“It is because I grew up watching my father’s moods from an early age. You know, don’t you? What kind of man my father is.”
“He is not an easy man.”
His father was a cure-all, in a way. If something was hard to explain, using his father as an excuse made people understand to some degree.
“When in your life were you the happiest, Lord Mabul?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Mabul fell into thought for a moment.
When was it?
The years past flowed through Mabul’s mind like the stream in which his feet were soaking. But happy memories did not readily come to mind. Surely there had been some.
Instead of answering, Mabul asked Geom Mugeuk in return.
“What about you?”
“I have had several recently. As you know, I have been causing quite a stir. If I had to choose just one among them, I enjoyed the time I went hunting with my father.”
How could that have been the only happy time? He simply did not tell Mabul about what had happened with the Demon Supremes.
“What did the Cult Leader say when you went hunting?”
“Whenever I say anything, he always sneers at me. You know that, don’t you?”
Geom Mugeuk imitated his father sneering. At that, Mabul nodded.
“That is similar.”
“I have suffered it so often that I am good at imitating him now.”
Mabul still had not managed to recall a moment when he had been happy, so Geom Mugeuk thought up other joys.
“It was fun when I left the cult and pretended to be someone else. Ah, there is an Inspector Seo, my right-hand man. It is fun to tease him too. You know those kinds of people, don’t you? People who accept everything when you tease them. Not because they are fools, but because their hearts are big. Ah, there is more. I have a subordinate named Ian, the prettiest in the Central Plains. Her face is pretty, but she is also clever and kindhearted. Just thinking of her makes me happy. And… I enjoy being quietly alone too.”
Even during all that, Mabul could not think of anything.
“What about you, Lord Mabul?”
“I am fine.”
“No matter how happy you were, if you cannot remember it, it simply passes you by, doesn’t it? That is too much of a waste, isn’t it? So try to think of just one thing, even if it is trivial.”
Geom Mugeuk was persistent.
“If it were me, I would answer with anything at all just because it was annoying.”
It was right then. Mabul suddenly blurted out.
“A cave.”
Mabul recalled his childhood from a very long time ago.
“There was a mountain behind my home that I often climbed when I was young. There was a small cave there. I felt good when I was inside that cave.”
Mabul’s gaze deepened.
Small from childhood, he had been different from other children. He could endure his friends mocking and ostracizing him. But the fact that even his parents and siblings treated him no differently from strangers left a deep wound in Mabul’s heart.
The day he first discovered the cave was the day he was beaten by his younger brother for the first time. Because his body was so small, he could not match even a younger brother several years below him in strength. What had angered him and made him feel wronged even more than being beaten was that his watching older brothers did not stop it.
He wandered the mountain alone, crying.
What he discovered then was that cave. Because he was so small, he could enter. The entrance was so narrow that even children would have difficulty getting in, but Mabul could. Once he passed through the narrow entrance, there was a small space inside where the young Mabul could sit. And there was a crack through which he could see outside.
Being there made his heart feel at ease and reassured him.
From that day onward, that place became Mabul’s hiding place.
“I remember feeling good when I was in that cave.”
Geom Mugeuk felt pity. He had asked about a happy moment, and Mabul had to go all the way back to that childhood?
“Could you describe that cave and the scenery around it in detail?”
“Why?”
“Just because.”
When Mabul gave a rough explanation, Geom Mugeuk asked and asked again until he heard the details. Only after he had heard enough to draw a picture did he stop questioning him.
“Why on earth did you ask?”
“Do not be surprised.”
Snap!
The moment Geom Mugeuk snapped his fingers, the two of them were standing in front of the cave.
Mabul was startled. It was that cave from his childhood. The sanctuary of his own, where he had crawled inside and hidden from the world.
“Is this illusion art?”
Mabul’s voice trembled. He knew Geom Mugeuk’s martial arts were outstanding, but he had not known he could even use illusion arts.
“It is a martial art called Space-Time Illusion Art.”
When Geom Mugeuk answered honestly, Mabul asked in a trembling voice.
“By any chance, is it the martial art of Cult Leader Pungcheon?”
“That is right.”
“Ah!”
Having once been the closest to Cult Leader Pungcheon, he knew of his martial arts as well.
“He passed this on to you?”
“Yes. Other than Cult Leader Pungcheon, only one Demon Supreme knows that I learned illusion arts. It is a secret even my father does not know.”
“!”
Mabul was astonished.
“Why tell me such a secret?”
“Because I had to tell you in order to bring you to this cave, Lord Mabul.”
At that, Mabul pulled his feet from the stream and sprang to his feet.
“Second Young Master!”
He was truly angry.
“This is what worries me. This emotional side of yours! This impulsive emotion of yours, telling such a secret to me, your enemy!”
Still gazing at the stream, Geom Mugeuk said,
“Why are you my enemy, Lord Mabul?”
“!”
“You will become my Demon Supreme, Lord Mabul. Just like the other Demon Supremes.”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze slowly turned toward Mabul.
Their eyes met in the air. Geom Mugeuk was seated and Mabul was standing, yet their eye levels were similar.
And so Mabul could see clearly. Geom Mugeuk’s eyes were firmer and more intense than ever. The glib Geom Mugeuk was gone, and there stood the Geom Mugeuk who sought to become the next Heavenly Demon.
“Please become my Demon Supreme.”
The moment he heard those words, Mabul’s chest surged. An overwhelming emotion and an emotion denying those words mingled together.
Geom Mugeuk continued calmly.
“That is right. There are Demon Supremes I like more. They are people I follow like my parents or my master, and people I think of as brothers or friends. Even the Poison King just now was someone I was willing to become a dog with and bark alongside.”
“Yes, and yet why? Even if I am not your enemy, as you say, among the Demon Supremes you cherish, I would be standing at the very end of the line. Why did you tell me your secret?”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze returned to his two feet submerged in the stream.
Splash, splash.
Moving his feet as though playing in the water, Geom Mugeuk spoke calmly.
“To be honest, I do not know either. Whether I should say something grand to you like, ‘This is my decisive move!’ or whether, as you said, it is nothing more than an impulsive emotion, or whether it is respect for the loyalty you show my brother, Lord Mabul.”
Geom Mugeuk’s splashing feet stopped.
“Or perhaps it is the cheap sentiment my father said would get me killed. I do not know either.”
Mabul said in a low voice,
“One day, you will make a great mistake because of such emotions.”
“Then when that time comes, please stop me, Lord Mabul.”
“!”
“I am working hard so that you and I can become that kind of pair. When I said I cleaned the Poison King’s residence, did you tell me to be selective about what work I do? No. Even after I become the Heavenly Demon, if necessary, I will clean the rooms of the Demon Supremes. That is the kind of Heavenly Demon I will become. Please stay beside such an emotional Heavenly Demon and stop him. Say, ‘You must not do that, you emotional Heavenly Demon bastard!’”
After a brief pause, Mabul refused.
“I do not want to.”
He was still the man who devoted his single-minded loyalty to the Eldest Young Master.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Then Mabul suddenly said,
“Make the cave entrance bigger. I will go inside once. Ah, and there was a small crack in front of the cave, so I could see the village below.”
Geom Mugeuk changed the cave as Mabul had described.
Mabul crawled inside.
“Do you like it?”
“Not at all. It is narrow and stifling. I can hardly breathe.”
What had he liked about such a cramped cave that made him come here every day?
For a while, he looked out at the village from there. Geom Mugeuk had made it so carefully that smoke was rising far away from cooking fires.
He used to sit like this, then leave the cave and look down from where Geom Mugeuk now stood at the path leading up here. With the slightest expectation that perhaps his mother or his older brother might come looking for him, telling him to eat. Of course, not once had that expectation ever been fulfilled.
Then one day, instead of going down the mountain, he descended in the opposite direction and left his hometown. He had never returned to his hometown since.
Mabul looked at Geom Mugeuk through the narrow crack. Geom Mugeuk was sitting with his back turned, looking down at the village.
“If you think about it, I am sure there were many times you were happy. Surely this old memory cannot be the best one? Like when you first learned martial arts, or the day you became a Demon Supreme. There must also have been a day when someone truly acknowledged you, Lord Mabul. There must have been many happier days that you simply do not remember now. What about today? Was it not enjoyable?”
A golden radiance poured out through the narrow crack in the cave.
“Who on earth are you?”
Still with his back turned, Geom Mugeuk said,
“I am the one who will become your Heavenly Demon. So now, please come out of that narrow, stifling place.”
It would not have been strange for words beginning with, “Good grief, Second Young Master!” to come out, but Mabul emerged from the cave without a word. Then he sat down beside Geom Mugeuk.
The two of them looked down for a while at the village in the distance. Then, when they looked up at the sky, a bird was flying there.
“That is the bird from back then. You bastard, I am not jealous of you at all anymore!”
At Geom Mugeuk’s shout, Mabul had this thought. It truly seemed he needed to find something to call him besides a madman.
Geom Mugeuk flopped backward onto the ground.
“I am going to lie down for a bit.”
A large, billowing cloud was drifting across the blue sky.
“Look at that cloud. I made it myself, but is it not truly incredible? Ah, this is nice.”
Recently, he had looked up at the sky with Mabul several times, but right now felt the most relaxed. He could feel the ever-taut tension in Mabul loosening.
Yes, this was enough. That looseness was enough.
Geom Mugeuk was not doing this in order to become the successor. Mabul, too, was someone who would become his Demon Supreme, and that was why he cherished him.
He only hoped that this heart of his would reach him.
It was right then.
Mabul, too, slowly lay back.
After supporting his head with both arms, he lay there and looked up at the sky.
Then he closed his eyes.
He recalled the moments when, as a child, he had lain here and looked up at the sky. The feeling of the grass tickling his back, the birdsong he had heard then, the sound of the stream. The ants tickling his feet. As those memories merged with his present senses, they rose vividly in his mind.
Watching a faint smile form at the corners of Mabul’s mouth, Geom Mugeuk also closed his eyes with a peaceful heart.
A cool breeze blew, and drowsiness gently came over him.