The celebratory banquet continued until dawn.
Everyone drank and talked as though, once they parted today, they would never meet again.
But just as time seems to pass faster when one is with good people, merciless time employed its swiftest footwork. In the blink of an eye, the night had passed, and now the hour of farewell had come.
Han Seol was the first to bid goodbye.
“I’ll pay my respects to the Alliance Leader, stay a few more days, and then return to the North Sea.”
Over the course of the night, she had grown close to Jin Haryeong through their conversations.
She had decided to visit the Alliance Leader’s Hall with Jin Haryeong, pay her respects to the Murim Alliance Leader, stay a few more days, and then depart.
Truly, on this journey, she had experienced meeting all three leaders of the orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic factions.
Bi Sain promised to meet her again.
“I will see you next time.”
A farewell as calm and composed as possible. And because of that, his reluctance felt all the greater.
Han Seol bowed her head and expressed her gratitude.
“Thanks to you, I was able to enjoy seeing the Central Plains.”
Blunt, taciturn, and reserved. She knew very well that such a Bi Sain had tried extremely hard for her sake.
“Next time, I’ll be sure to show you around the North Sea.”
When she mentioned seeing the North Sea once more, as if it had not been an idle remark, Bi Sain’s mood brightened.
“I will look forward to that day.”
Geom Mugeuk, who had been listening, cut in.
“What about us? We want to see the North Sea too! Drink ice wine on the snowy mountains and all!”
Naturally, he expected Han Seol to say, I’ll invite all of you as well.
“Young Cult Leader, you’ve already been there before, haven’t you? And you drank ice wine too.”
Then, after giving a slight bow, she turned away. It was a firm declaration that she intended to invite only Bi Sain.
A smile that Bi Sain simply could not hide slipped onto his lips.
With an expression that said, I can’t let this stand, Geom Mugeuk dragged Jin Hagun into it.
“And you still say you’ll go help the Ice Palace?”
Jin Hagun nodded firmly and said,
“I have to help. She said she’d invite me separately.”
“What? When?”
“Together with my sister.”
Feigning a shudder, Geom Mugeuk said in a low voice,
“Our Cult will strike the Ice Palace!”
“We’re saying we’ll go to help them?”
The Sado Alliance also joined the will of the Murim Alliance.
“We’ll go help too.”
“You’re all so cruel!”
Jin Hagun and Bi Sain laughed together.
Watching them, Geom Muyang suddenly had this thought.
‘If these three become Cult Leader and Alliance Leaders, then perhaps a new era will open in murim, one the previous generation could never have imagined.’
A murim that had never existed before, and would never be seen again.
And surprisingly, Geom Muyang realized that he, too, was secretly looking forward to that murim. He was curious about that gangho.
Jin Haryeong said goodbye to Geom Mugeuk.
“Get back safely.”
She turned away more cleanly than ever.
It was because she felt too regretful. Was it because she had sensed the subtle current flowing between Bi Sain and Han Seol? More than usual, parting with Geom Mugeuk left her feeling reluctant.
Of course, Geom Mugeuk did not let her leave just like that.
“Don’t reveal your hidden ambition to your brother! If he catches you by any chance, run away to us!”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words from behind her, a faint smile formed on Jin Haryeong’s lips.
“So you can catch me and hand me over to my brother?”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“The three of you are always scheming like that. How could I not know?”
And so Jin Haryeong and Han Seol left the place first. Han Seol, walking some distance away, turned back toward Bi Sain and lightly lifted the bear doll.
A bright smile spread across Bi Sain’s lips. For a while, he would probably be hearing, “Did something good happen?” quite often from Ilrang, the head of the Sado Thirteen Wolves.
Now the three successors bid farewell to one another.
At the end, they did not forget the peace of murim either.
“Their leadership is still intact. So don’t forget that something similar could happen at any time.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Jin Hagun and Bi Sain nodded. They had already experienced enough of what their enemies were like.
“If anything strange happens, be sure to contact us. You know, right? You must never try to handle it alone!”
In the past, they would have let those words pass in one ear and out the other, but Jin Hagun and Bi Sain nodded to this as well.
“Then I’ll see you next time!”
After the three exchanged glances, each set off in a different direction.
Geom Mugeuk, who had walked some distance away, turned back and shouted,
“I already want to see you again! When will we meet next?”
Jin Hagun and Bi Sain smiled soundlessly and continued on their way without looking back.
Geom Muyang saw it.
He saw Geom Mugeuk joking until the very end, then turning back again. On his face, the playfulness had vanished, leaving it calm and serious. This was the kind of person he truly was, and yet he was trying so hard.
‘I could never live like you, even if I died trying.’
The two walked in silence for a while.
“Brother.”
When no words followed even after quite some time, Geom Muyang asked,
“Why call me if you have nothing to say?”
“I just felt like calling you.”
They walked for a long while like that before Geom Mugeuk spoke again.
“Brother, promise me one thing. Later, you’ll grant me one request.”
“No.”
“You won’t even hear what the request is?”
“It’s bound to be some absurd request.”
“That’s why I’m asking you. Who else would grant an absurd request like that?”
“……”
Far in the distance, the sun was rising over the horizon.
Naturally, the two stopped walking and watched the sight.
Through this departure from the Cult, Geom Muyang had seen a new side of life.
He had only left the Cult to catch the person who had made the fake hidden weapons. Because he had been furious at the fact that his younger brother had nearly been killed.
Originally, his life had been fixed.
Catch him and kill him.
He had lived this predetermined life along a single path, and he had believed that to be his life.
But this time, he had encountered another side of life.
He had saved the younger sister of the man who made the counterfeit hidden weapons, watched the rain beneath dripping eaves, spied on someone, and played the danso in front of people.
Geom Muyang looked at Geom Mugeuk standing beside him.
The light that flew in to awaken the world brightly illuminated his younger brother’s face.
Come to think of it, his brother had been saying it all along.
Let us live a different life.
Let us not engage in a successor struggle where we kill each other. Let us have a different kind of successor struggle.
When Geom Mugeuk sensed his gaze and turned, Geom Muyang said,
“Shall we run?”
A smile brighter than the sunlight spreading across the world formed on Geom Mugeuk’s lips. It was the first time his brother had ever asked him to run together.
“Sounds good.”
The two unfolded their lightness skills and began to run forward.
Running alongside his brother, Geom Mugeuk shouted,
“Let’s go. Home!”
* * *
At the main Cult, the news they had been waiting for so eagerly was waiting for them.
“The Cult Leader has completed his closed-door training.”
At that news, Geom Mugeuk headed straight to the Cult Leader’s Hall with his brother.
In truth, he had thought the closed-door training would last longer than this. After all, it was training for the next stage of the Guhwa Demonic Art, which had already reached great completion.
Yet he had emerged sooner than expected. Then again, for someone like his father, the length of time probably had no meaning.
Had he truly made progress in the Guhwa Demonic Art?
“At last, my days as temporary Cult Leader are over!”
“Are you sad about it?”
“Sad? Whew, you only say that because you don’t know, Brother. Do you know how much work there is in that seat? Maybe Father ran away under the pretext of closed-door training because he didn’t want to work either.”
“Do you think Father is you?”
“How did you know? I left the Cult because I didn’t want to work.”
Geom Muyang shook his head with an expression that said there was no helping him.
“Ah, after we see Father, there are so many people I need to meet! All right, everyone, form a line!”
Geom Muyang thought he should first go meet Gwak Yeong and his sister. Since he had brought them all the way here, he ought to look after them.
And so the two entered the Cult Leader’s Hall.
Geom Mugeuk and Geom Muyang slowly walked side by side along the Path of Blood.
Their father sat in the taishi chair, unchanged as ever.
‘Father, thank you.’
Now he knew. How precious and valuable it was to have someone remain steadfastly by one’s side.
Someday, that day would come.
The day he would have to walk this Path of Blood alone and sit in the empty taishi chair.
After walking to the foot of the taishi chair, Geom Mugeuk greeted him in a loud voice.
“Father, I have completed the task and returned to the Cult!”
Geom Muyang also greeted him with proper courtesy.
“I have returned, Cult Leader.”
Geom Ujin looked from one to the other, then spoke calmly.
“Did you have a safe journey?”
“Yes!”
The two men’s resounding answer echoed through the Cult Leader’s Hall.
“Congratulations on completing your closed-door training.”
As he greeted him, Geom Mugeuk stared intently at his father.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
At his father’s question, Geom Mugeuk shook his head.
“No matter how much I look, I can’t tell. How did the closed-door training turn out?”
“If I trained, that is enough. What does the result matter?”
“It matters. This wasn’t anyone else, but you entering closed-door training after so long, Father.”
Geom Mugeuk felt a certain confidence in his father’s eyes.
It was a change he never would have noticed before. He had never even looked at his father’s face like this.
But now he could tell. Because he had kept looking, again and again, he could now see that subtle difference. He could see what that confidence meant.
‘Father has gained results!’
The eleventh stage? No. Even before entering closed-door training, his father’s martial arts had risen through continuous training. Then?
Great completion of the twelfth stage!
As his father’s life had changed recently, his martial arts must have changed as well.
Geom Mugeuk’s heart began to pound fiercely.
The twelfth-stage Guhwa Demonic Art! Just what kind of power would it have? Had the evil spirits changed too? And what about the Heavenly Demon Soul?
There had been many changes after his regression, but this was the moment that brought the most powerful change of all.
‘Congratulations, Father!’
It seemed those emotions were contained in Geom Mugeuk’s eyes and expression.
Geom Ujin sent him a look that seemed to say, ‘Surely you noticed?’
Geom Mugeuk answered with a look that seemed to say, ‘Do you not wish to boast?’
‘Please boast to your sons as much as you like.’
Of course, Geom Ujin was not the sort of person to boast like that. Instead, a reprimand came down.
“You caused trouble while I was away! You should have known that the two of you must not leave the Cult at the same time.”
“We knew. That’s why we went with the Demon Venerables.”
His father must have received all the reports from the Chief Strategist, who had surely been anxious the entire time they were out together.
Reports that the Poison King and the Demon Buddha had accompanied them, and that Cult Leader Pungcheon and the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable had joined them as well.
But reports were reports.
Geom Mugeuk reported to his father what had happened outside.
It was something he always did whenever he returned after leaving the Cult. He told him in detail even the parts that could not be known from reports alone. Another kind of conversation between his father and himself. He showed this sight in front of his brother.
Brother, perhaps you might be even better at conversations like this. So watch carefully.
Of course, Geom Mugeuk would never miss an opportunity to tease his brother in this situation.
At the end of his report, he dragged his brother into it.
“Brother saved Master Gwak’s younger sister. In the past, he was the sort of person who would have given an order like, ‘It’s annoying, so get rid of them all!’”
Geom Muyang looked dumbfounded, but their father did not stop the report.
“I believe bringing those siblings back alive was meaningful in many ways, just as much as killing the mastermind this time. We gained a skilled young artisan as one of our own, and what is more important than that is…”
Geom Mugeuk looked at his brother standing beside him and continued.
“It was something that showed Brother has changed.”
A slight look of fluster passed through Geom Muyang’s eyes, but because they were before their father, he did not say anything.
“Lately, Brother is becoming cooler and cooler.”
“What is this? You are praising your brother?”
“He’s right beside me, isn’t he? Insults should be said when he’s not here.”
A sneer formed on Geom Ujin’s lips. At that unchanged sneer, Geom Mugeuk’s heart grew at ease.
‘You have no idea how much I wanted to see that smile.’
When the atmosphere was this good, one had to give a gift.
“Ah, and we have a gift we prepared. It’s a gift Brother chose.”
Geom Ujin’s gaze turned to Geom Muyang.
Geom Muyang took a scroll from his bosom and held it out with both hands.
When Geom Ujin extended his hand.
Srrrk.
The scroll flew through the air and entered his grasp.
Geom Ujin slowly opened the scroll and looked down at it in silence.
Their father stared at the scroll for a long time.
This was the first time their father had ever looked at something for so long.
Because the scroll hid his face, they could not see his expression. But somehow, Geom Mugeuk felt he knew what that expression would be like.
After Geom Ujin finished looking at the painting, he rolled up the scroll and set it down beside him.
“No, please don’t just put it down like that. There was something extraordinary about that painter. If you keep it well, you might be able to sell it for a high price later.”
Geom Ujin silently looked down at Geom Muyang.
The eyes of a father gazing at his eldest son.
From that gaze, Geom Mugeuk felt his father’s long-held regret. At this moment, his father was regretting.
If only he had become successor without killing his brother.
Father, we will be sure to fulfill that unfulfilled wish. We will live our whole lives preserving our brotherly affection.
Geom Mugeuk took something thickly wrapped from inside his robes.
“There is one more gift.”
When he heard that their father had emerged from seclusion, Geom Muyang had seen his brother grab that from the carriage. He had wondered what on earth he was taking so carefully.
Srrrk.
That, too, flew into Geom Ujin’s hand.
“They’re pajamas. Wuhan-brand floral pajamas. If I hadn’t seen them, that would be one thing, but since I did, I simply couldn’t pass them by.”
Geom Muyang was dumbfounded. It seemed he had gone back after all and bought those floral pajamas.
‘You fool, do you think Father would wear those?’
He thought their father’s thunderous rebuke would fall.
But their father wordlessly placed that gift down beside him as well.
Whether he was pleased with the two gifts, his father’s expression was gentle.
“Go and rest.”
Geom Mugeuk and Geom Muyang bowed respectfully, then turned around.
After taking a few steps, Geom Mugeuk turned back as if he had just remembered something.
“Oh, Father. Sometime, the three of us should go hunting together with Brother.”
He could feel his brother standing beside him tense up. He must have been worried that Father might not be inclined to agree. It was truly a needless worry. Their father’s decision was far too quick.
“We depart tomorrow at dawn.”
Of course. Our father was a man who would never take his children’s schedules into consideration.