Upon returning to the cult, I headed to the Cult Leader’s Hall with the Drunken Demon.
The thought of meeting Father had the Drunken Demon slightly tense.
Once before, the Drunken Demon had gotten drunk and caused a scene in front of Father, begging him not to hate him too much. The misunderstanding had been cleared up then, but that did not seem to mean Father had become easy for him to face.
“You can’t leave first! I’m going to pay my respects and then go.”
He wanted to avoid, at all costs, being left alone to face Father one-on-one.
“Where did that mysterious and frightening Lord Drunken Demon in the mist go?”
“He’s probably drunk and asleep after crawling under some carriage somewhere.”
Even so, he had brought a gift for Father. Before leaving the North Sea, he had stopped by a famous brewery and bought liquor to offer him.
When you looked closely, the Drunken Demon was someone who very much wanted to make a good impression on Father.
And so, together with the Drunken Demon, I entered the Cult Leader’s Hall.
As always, Father was seated in the grand preceptor’s chair. Whenever I entered this place, I was moved by the sight of Father unfailingly guarding that seat.
“Father! Your son has returned!”
At the same time, I also felt fear.
What if that grand preceptor’s chair were empty? What if I had to guard that chair? Would I truly be able to give others the same unwavering faith that Father did?
I was not afraid because I lacked the confidence to give that faith. I was afraid because I could.
Because my past life had confirmed that I, too, was someone who could silently hold that seat as Father did. Because in this life, I wanted to live brightly and freely.
“I have returned after finishing matters in the North Sea!”
I greeted Father in a loud voice.
Beside me, the Drunken Demon paid his respects with solemn courtesy.
“I have returned, Cult Leader.”
Father, looking down at the Drunken Demon, noticed his condition at once.
“Were you injured?”
“I was hurt a little, but I’m fine now.”
The Drunken Demon was already excited simply because Father had asked about his physical state. Though he had not drunk, I could feel heat rising from his face.
“I heard about the North Sea from the Strategist.”
I did not miss that moment and stepped in.
“Lord Drunken Demon personally eliminated the leader of the hidden forces that were attempting to swallow the Ice Palace.”
I had resolved to properly praise the Drunken Demon in front of Father today.
“Of course.”
At the word of course, the Drunken Demon looked up at Father with a startled expression.
Father looked not at the Drunken Demon, but at me, and said,
“He is not the sort of man who would go somewhere, lose, and come back, is he?”
I could tell. Father had already known how strong the Drunken Demon was.
Even without looking to the side, I could feel the Drunken Demon’s emotion. Perhaps this was the first time he had ever been acknowledged by Father like this. And in front of someone else, at that.
“Thanks to him, I was safe. This was the first time I saw Lord Drunken Demon fight, and it was truly magnificent. And more than anything.”
My gaze, which had been on Father, turned toward the Drunken Demon. The Drunken Demon, too, looked tense, wondering what I was about to say.
“He was admirable. Lord Drunken Demon, avenging his friend.”
I was saying it to raise him up in front of Father, but it was also the truth.
I gave Father a detailed account of what had happened in the North Sea. Of course, Father must already have received reports on the process and the result through Tongcheon Pavilion, but he naturally would not know the small incidents that had occurred in between.
It was something I always did when I returned after leaving the cult. When I told him what had happened like this, chattering away for a while, I felt my bond with Father deepen.
Today, I centered the story mainly on the Drunken Demon’s exploits. I spoke so entertainingly that it would not have bored him. I made it feel even more vivid than reality.
“…And so, as a token of gratitude to Lord Drunken Demon, the Ice Palace Master even bestowed upon him the Ice Palace Holy Grail.”
Even if I had not said so, Father had surely already recognized the Ice Palace Holy Grail. A white energy rippled around the cup like a halo, so it could not possibly escape notice.
He could have simply let it pass as something received in gratitude, as I had said, but the Drunken Demon did not let it slide.
“The Ice Palace Holy Grail was given to me because the Young Cult Leader gave up his own gift and accepted this instead.”
It would not have been strange for Father to look at me with eyes that said, He is not the sort of fellow who would give up his own thing for someone else. Instead, Father said something unexpected.
“May I have a cup from that goblet as well?”
“Of course. As it happens, I bought a famous liquor from the North Sea to offer to you, Cult Leader.”
With measured steps, the Drunken Demon walked up to where the grand preceptor’s chair stood.
Then he poured the liquor he had brought into the Ice Palace Holy Grail and offered it to Father. Each of his movements was careful and composed. Until just before entering the Cult Leader’s Hall, he had trembled whenever Father was mentioned, but at times like this, a Demon Supreme was still a Demon Supreme.
Father emptied the cup in one gulp.
“The liquor is good, and the cup is good as well. It makes the taste excellent.”
When Father was pleased, the Drunken Demon was delighted.
“Would you like another cup?”
“Rather than that, have a drink with me. It has been a while.”
For an instant, the startled Drunken Demon’s eyes trembled. This, too, seemed to be a first. Father asking him to drink together.
“I would be honored.”
After answering with a joyful expression, the Drunken Demon glanced toward me and signaled with his eyes for me to hurry up and leave.
Of course, there was no way I would miss such a fine chance to tease him.
—Didn’t you say I couldn’t leave first?
—Go already! I said go!
—Let’s drink as three. No, I’ll call all the other Demon Supremes too!
—No! Do you know how rare this chance is?
Only after teasing the Drunken Demon like that did I respectfully bow to Father.
“Then I will take my leave. I may have spoken ill of Elder Brother a great deal when he wasn’t here, but that doesn’t mean the two of you are allowed to speak ill of me just because I’m not here!”
I was about to turn and leave when Father abruptly spoke.
“Are you all right?”
For a moment, I flinched and turned back toward Father.
What did he mean by that?
My eyes met Father’s. Looking at those eyes silently gazing down at me, I understood why Father had asked. If he had included the words left unsaid, it would have been this.
Lately, you have stained your hands with too much blood. Are you all right?
I could feel what Father’s worry was.
No matter how deserving of death the villains were, continually staining one’s hands with blood was something that wounded a person’s heart and soul.
No matter how outstanding I appeared, to Father, I was still the immature youngest son in his twenties.
“That is why I am not being greedy and trying to do everything alone. I am asking the Demon Supremes for help. To protect myself.”
The Drunken Demon, too, listened to my words with a gaze as deep as Father’s.
“I am still all right. If I ever feel it becoming difficult, I will come to you.”
Father silently nodded.
“Then I will take my leave.”
I slowly moved my feet and left the Cult Leader’s Hall.
Father, please do not worry. Even when I stained myself with dozens of times more blood than this, I stood firm and came all the way here.
And more than anything.
“Young Cult Leader!”
From over there, Seo Daeryong was running toward me with a bright smile. He was so glad to see me that I could feel his heart even from this distance.
With people like this by my side, if I still were not all right, would that not make me far too sorry toward my own life?
* * *
Seo Daeryong greeted me as if a dead man had returned alive.
“I truly wanted to see you.”
He had been worried, and he had missed me as well.
He had become the Master of Hwangcheon Pavilion, and he had become the disciple of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. Even though he was in a situation where he had to fully live his own life, with Geom Mugeuk gone, it felt as though the joy had vanished from his life.
Then he had received word just a little while ago that Geom Mugeuk had returned, so how happy must he have been? He had simply run straight to the Cult Leader’s Hall in a single breath.
“How have you been?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Seo Daeryong answered.
“The same as always. Train at dawn, eat, handle Hwangcheon Pavilion work, go to Master and train, eat, sleep. Every single day is so identical that even if you mixed them all up, there would be no problem at all. Is it all right for a person’s life to be this monotonous? I’ll say this in advance, but I refuse to hear anything like, ‘Ordinariness is happiness.’”
For a guy this talkative, how hard must it have been for him to play the dignified Master of Hwangcheon Pavilion?
“Isn’t it just that you’re the only one who doesn’t know?”
“What?”
“That every day is different. I’m asking if you’re the only one who thinks they’re the same.”
For a moment, Seo Daeryong could not answer. Strictly speaking, they were the same, but they were also days that were not entirely the same. Of course, he did not obediently admit it.
“The cases I handle are the same every day.”
“The prisoners are all different, aren’t they? Their personalities are different, and the reasons they committed their crimes are different.”
“I see the same subordinates every day.”
“Those people’s moods are different each day, their thoughts are different, the dreams they had the night before are different, and what they ate is different too.”
“When work ends, I meet Master and do nothing but train every day.”
“Your Ren and Du meridians were opened, and your martial skill has improved a great deal, hasn’t it? Naturally, your training must have changed as well.”
Geom Mugeuk was right. Recently, the techniques he was learning from his master had changed. As he had grown stronger, the training had become even harder.
“They’re different, aren’t they? Your days.”
“They’re the same, aren’t they? The fact that I can never win against anything the Young Cult Leader says.”
“That alone will never change for the rest of your life.”
“Nor will the Young Cult Leader’s smugness!”
We looked at each other and laughed.
“Now it finally feels like the Young Cult Leader has returned. No one says these kinds of things to me, you know. I have to hear words like this so that I can go, Ah! I see. And nod along as I live. Starting today, every one of my days will be different. I’ve just decided it will be so! Now I’m going to ask my subordinates. What did you eat for breakfast? Did you take a shit before coming? What dream did you have yesterday? What thoughts are you living with these days?”
Together with Seo Daeryong, I looked up at the sky. Beautiful flower clouds in many hues were drifting leisurely by. Seeing Daeryong made me truly feel that I had returned to the cult.
“Go and do your work.”
“Where are you going now?”
“I saw your face, so now I have to make a round to the Demon Supremes.”
“The Young Cult Leader really never gets tired.”
Daeryong, it isn’t a matter of numbers. One loathsome person alone is enough to wear someone out.
“Really, what would you have done if our cult had sixteen Demon Supremes?”
At Seo Daeryong’s joke, Geom Mugeuk answered as he strode away.
“If that were the case, our brother Drunken Demon’s sense of neglect would have doubled.”
* * *
“Elder!”
I ran toward the Blood Heaven Blade Demon with both arms spread wide.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had been reading a book in his room, raised the blade standing beside him in front of himself like a shield.
“How cruel of you!”
From beyond the Heaven-Destroying Great Blade blocking the space between us, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s voice came.
“You should rest at home. What’s so good about seeing a face you see all the time that you come looking for me like this?”
He always says things he doesn’t mean like that. I moved past the Heaven-Destroying Great Blade and lightly sat at the edge of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s bed.
“If you put it that way, what’s so interesting about books you see all the time that you keep reading them like that?”
“This is different.”
As he said that, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon warned me with his eyes, lest I lie down on the bed.
“I returned safely.”
Though the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had not asked, I first told him about my trip.
If I had made the Drunken Demon the protagonist when speaking to Father earlier, this time I spoke mainly about myself.
“And so, right now Father and the Drunken Demon are drinking together, just the two of them.”
“The Cult Leader is drinking with that drunkard?”
Was he perhaps jealous? A slight strange light passed through the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s eyes.
But soon, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon lowered his gaze back to the book he had been reading.
“Is reading books that fun?”
“It is.”
“You’ve read so many, and yet there are still things you don’t know?”
“That’s why it’s fun. The more I read, the more it lets me know how much I don’t know.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon lifted his head and looked at Geom Mugeuk.
“When you have children later, have them read plenty of books. If they take after you anyway, they’ll be born with swordsmanship.”
Will I truly live a life in this lifetime where I have children? Right now, I had no such thought.
“No, Elder, are you telling me to live a life you yourself have never lived?”
With an expression that seemed to say, That is true, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon smiled faintly.
After watching for a moment as the Blood Heaven Blade Demon turned the pages, I suddenly asked him the same thing Father had asked me.
“Do I look all right to you?”
Then, with his eyes still on the book, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon answered.
“You look like you aren’t all right.”
“Why?”
“Because people who are all right don’t ask that.”
Was that why? Unexpected words flowed from him.
“Sleep here tonight.”
He was always chasing me away, telling me to go home and sleep. He was the sort who would not even let me lie on the bed unless I washed first.
“What’s gotten into you?”
“You look like you aren’t all right.”
I smiled broadly and flung myself onto the bed.
“Sounds good!”
I thought he would catch me in midair with Void-Seizing Object, but the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not.
“Ah, this is comfortable!”
Whatever anyone said, lying on this bed was the most comfortable. It must have been because of the specialness of the person called the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
To think that this stiff, fussy old man would become the most comfortable person to me. To think he would become the person I wanted to run to first and see.
Lying on the bed, I gave an answer to a question he had not asked.
“I’m all right, Elder.”
“I know.”
And then came one shocking sentence.
“The one who is not all right is the Cult Leader.”
“!”
I sprang upright and stared at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon. I still could not guess what he meant.
“I wondered whether the Cult Leader has awakened from his sleep and begun to stretch.”
I had already understood what those words meant, but the Blood Heaven Blade Demon explained it more plainly.
“I wondered whether the Cult Leader has begun moving in earnest to realize his dream.”
Father’s dream was the unification of Murim.
“He has also made you his successor, so perhaps he thinks the time has come to move.”
“How long has it been since the tripartite meeting ended?”
That wonderful atmosphere was still vivid. Even now, just hearing the music from beyond the wall made my body sway.
“If he were the sort of person to care about that, he would not have dreamed such a dream in the first place. Rather, he may have been confident he could kill both of them that day.”
“Are you thinking that because he’s drinking with Lord Drunken Demon right now? Couldn’t they simply be drinking together?”
If it was because of that, it seemed like a wildly exaggerated misunderstanding. But that was not the only reason.
“Not long ago, the Cult Leader met privately with the masked fellow.”
“!”
Father met the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon?
If he had met the Fist Demon instead, perhaps I would not have had such suspicions. He was someone who would absolutely obey Father’s orders.
But the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon was someone who would absolutely follow me. Even if it meant defying Father’s command.
And yet Father had met him, of all people? On top of that, he was now drinking one-on-one with the Drunken Demon for the first time in his life? It was only natural that one could make this assumption.
“Father has begun managing the Demon Supremes in order to wage war.”