A mysterious light flowed from the Mistress of Cheonhwaru’s eyes.
In the way she looked at him, Geom Mugeuk sensed many emotions.
Surprise, dread, terror.
And the final emotion born from that mingling of negatives was hesitation.
“What did you see of me?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru did not answer. Instead, she even avoided his gaze.
At her reaction, Ian felt a sense of foreboding. In this situation, what could there be that she could not say?
‘What on earth did she see?’
Geugak Soma was silently staring at her. He could easily have said a word, telling her to speak to the Young Cult Leader.
But he did not force her to speak. He merely waited for her choice.
Geom Mugeuk lifted the sunken atmosphere.
“I’ll try to guess the prophecy. Did you perhaps see me standing at the vanguard of the Demonic-Righteous War? Striking the Murim Alliance, striking the Sado Alliance. Striking here, striking there. Did I perhaps end up unifying Murim? Were thousands, tens of thousands of heroes prostrating themselves and worshiping me?”
At that, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru slowly shook her head, as if to say that was not it. Still, she could not meet Geom Mugeuk’s eyes.
“That’s a relief. To be honest, I was worried you might have seen that.”
Geom Mugeuk guessed again.
“Then you must have seen something like this. You saw me slowly climbing a flight of stairs. At the top, there would have been a grand preceptor’s chair. The moment I sat upon that seat of power, the surrounding scenery finally came into view. Corpses piled up on all sides, blood flowing like rivers. And at the end, I must have looked over those corpses and laughed coldly. Right? That’s the sort of scene you saw, isn’t it? That’s why you can’t tell me?”
But as if that was not it either, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru shook her head.
“I almost wish I had seen that instead.”
In that instant, the smile vanished from Geom Mugeuk’s face. Ian and Geugak Soma also grew tense. Her words meant that what she had seen was something even more terrible.
With everyone’s gaze fixed on her, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru spoke in a low voice.
“The Young Cult Leader was killing someone.”
“!”
There was no room for even a single joke to intrude upon those words. Just who had he killed, for her to say that a scene strewn with countless corpses would have been preferable?
“Whom was I killing?”
If he had been killing some passing villain, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru would not have been this grave.
Her gaze slowly turned toward one place. The person she looked at with trembling eyes was Geugak Soma.
“You were killing Brother.”
“!”
At that moment, everyone was startled. A heavy silence descended, born of shock and disbelief.
‘I kill Soma? Impossible!’
Geom Mugeuk was certain that would never happen. It was an utterly absurd prophecy.
Then one thought suddenly occurred to him.
‘Could it be? Did she see that moment?’
The moment in his life before his regression, when he had killed Soma!
It occurred to him that perhaps that might be the case.
If not, there was no way he would ever kill Geugak Soma. Nor would Geugak Soma ever do anything to deserve such a thing.
But the prophecies of the Divine Maiden Palace were surely meant to show the future. They had shown the past, and not just any past, but the past before his regression? That, too, was impossible to understand.
Geom Mugeuk broke the silence with a smile.
“What on earth did you do? No, what are you planning to do?”
Geugak Soma lightly accepted Geom Mugeuk’s joke.
“When you kill me, please send me off without pain.”
Looking at each other, the two men laughed.
They were composed, but Ian alone could not be.
She knew that what she was about to say was terribly rude, but since no one else had brought it up, she had no choice.
“Can a prophecy be wrong?”
At that, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru answered with a sunken gaze.
“A prophecy may fail to descend, but it is never wrong.”
Words that she did not want to say, and no one wanted to hear, followed.
“What I saw will definitely happen.”
If that was truly the case? Ian’s heart began to pound violently.
At that moment, though she felt sorry to Geugak Soma, she was more worried about Geom Mugeuk than about him.
If such a thing happened?
Could Geom Mugeuk simply let it pass that he had killed Geugak Soma? It would remain as a wound for the rest of his life. No, it might even change Geom Mugeuk. Into something very dark and gloomy.
“But fate can be changed, can’t it?”
At her words, Geom Mugeuk nodded vigorously.
“Yes, it can be changed.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke confidently to the Mistress of Cheonhwaru as well.
“That will not happen. So please do not worry.”
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru lowered her head and showed no response. Perhaps her heart was complicated, for she still did not look at Geom Mugeuk.
“You must be tired from receiving the prophecy, so rest. We’ll go get some air.”
Geom Mugeuk rose from his seat and left the room, and Ian followed him out.
After the two of them left, Geugak Soma asked the Mistress of Cheonhwaru,
“Will you have a drink?”
“Yes.”
Geugak Soma rose and brought over the liquor from the wall cabinet. There was liquor he liked, and liquor the Mistress of Cheonhwaru liked, and he brought the one she liked.
Ttororong.
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru emptied her cup in one breath.
Was it because she was worried that Geugak Soma might die? She emptied cup after cup.
Geugak Soma silently filled her empty cup.
Then, after she had been sunk in thought for a long while, a certain resolve settled in the Mistress of Cheonhwaru’s eyes.
“Brother.”
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru opened her mouth with difficulty, her voice trembling. Never in her life had she felt such fear as she did now.
“Brother, I lied. The prophecy… I told it differently.”
Even at that shocking confession, Geugak Soma’s eyes behind the white mask did not show the slightest surprise.
“You knew?”
Amazingly, Geugak Soma nodded.
“How did you know?”
“I know you. How could I not?”
In truth, there had been a decisive reason. She had supposedly seen him die, yet Yeojeong had been far too calm. The Yeojeong he knew was not that sort of person.
Especially since she was someone who believed prophecies were bound to come true, she would have thought that his death, too, could not be avoided.
On top of that, she had been unable to meet the Young Cult Leader’s gaze. It was not that she could not look because he was the man who killed someone she loved; he had clearly sensed guilt in her.
“Perhaps the Young Cult Leader noticed as well. He is exceptionally clever and quick-witted.”
“I’m sorry, Brother.”
“It’s all right. You must have had a reason.”
Geugak Soma filled the Mistress of Cheonhwaru’s empty cup again and asked,
“What did you see in the prophecy?”
Now was the moment when the true prophecy she had received would be revealed.
“It wasn’t the Young Cult Leader.”
After a brief pause, shocking words flowed from her mouth.
“Brother, you killed the Young Cult Leader.”
“!”
Through the eyeholes of the white mask, Geugak Soma’s startled eyes were visible.
He had laughed when she said he would die, and he had laughed when she said she had lied. But now, he did not laugh.
“Brother stabbed the Young Cult Leader in the heart with a dagger.”
* * *
Geom Mugeuk and Ian walked through the inner garden of Cheonhwaru.
It was a beautifully arranged place, but none of it entered Ian’s eyes.
“If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have come. I ran away to escape one worry, so how could I have known this kind of worry would be waiting for me?”
She had been worrying over the conflict between Squad One and Squad Two, and now she had come to worry over Geom Mugeuk killing Geugak Soma.
“That’s why you have to look out at the world. Now that you’ve come out, that worry seems like nothing, doesn’t it?”
“What do you mean, nothing! It’s a conflict between the direct units under the heir of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult! It’s just that this problem is too enormous!”
Geom Mugeuk laughed as though amused, but Ian did not laugh.
“Why? Are you afraid such a thing will really happen?”
“Then you’re not scared?”
“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”
“Of course it won’t, but still.”
What weighed on her heart was the fact that the one who had made the prophecy was the Mistress of Cheonhwaru.
If it had been anyone else, she would have dismissed it as nonsense and refused to believe it. But the Mistress of Cheonhwaru was not someone who would make a false prophecy.
“Ah! Let’s go back in and ask.”
“Ask what?”
“Where you kill Lord Soma. Then we just never go to that place. That would change fate, wouldn’t it?”
“Oh! That’s clever.”
“If I were clever, I would have asked earlier. We’re always the sort to realize what we should have done only after it’s passed. Come on, let’s hurry and ask.”
But Geom Mugeuk did not move from where he stood.
“But what if you defy fate like that, and fate changes?”
Ian flinched, and Geom Mugeuk spoke with deep eyes.
“What if Lord Soma ends up killing me? What then?”
For a moment, Ian could not say anything. Geom Mugeuk dying? That would surely be the moment her world ended as well.
“What do you mean, what then? I’d shout, ‘I’m finally free!’ and cheer.”
“Then that’s settled.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled and began walking, and Ian followed behind him.
‘What do you mean, settled? If you die, Young Master, I die too! So even for my sake, you absolutely must not die!’
When the two of them had walked once around the inner garden and returned, Geugak Soma and the Mistress of Cheonhwaru were waiting in front of the residence.
When they had left the room, it had not seemed like they would meet again so soon.
Geugak Soma said to Geom Mugeuk,
“She says she has something to tell the Young Cult Leader.”
At that, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru knelt on the spot.
At the sudden act, Geom Mugeuk and Ian were startled.
“I lied to the Young Cult Leader. The prophecy I saw was a different scene.”
This time, she did not avoid Geom Mugeuk’s gaze as she told the truth.
“The prophecy I saw was a scene of Brother killing the Young Cult Leader.”
The moment Ian heard those words, she froze in shock.
“I was so shocked and flustered that I lied in the moment. I am sorry.”
Geom Mugeuk neither grew startled nor angry.
“Please stand.”
Geom Mugeuk hurriedly helped her to her feet.
“I understand. I would have done the same.”
From Geom Mugeuk’s calm reaction, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru could tell.
‘Just as Brother said, the Young Cult Leader knew as well.’
This lie was so great that she would have had nothing to say even if the Young Cult Leader killed her for it.
It was a lie made over the life of the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Yet he had already noticed, and had pretended not to know. If she had never spoken the truth to the end, Geom Mugeuk would have pretended not to know to the end. Geugak Soma would have done the same. Really, these men.
“Whether I kill Lord Soma, or Lord Soma kills me, it is the same thing in the end. There is no need to distinguish between the two.”
Geugak Soma’s eyes were smiling. Because he felt the same.
Thinking about it, this was also a matter upon which all four of their fates depended. If one person died, the aftermath would shake all three who remained.
“Thank you for telling me the truth.”
At Geom Mugeuk, who was thanking her instead, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru bowed her head.
Geugak Soma walked over and lightly patted the Mistress of Cheonhwaru on the shoulder. If there had been no one watching, he would have embraced her.
A short while ago, in the room, when she had asked whether she should tell the Young Cult Leader, Geugak Soma had said this to her.
—What I learned from the Young Cult Leader was how to create a relationship without misunderstandings.
That was why Geom Mugeuk told him everything. This time as well, when he returned after leaving the cult, he had told him everything that had happened at the Murim Alliance.
We win by knowing. Problems always arise when we do not know.
Geugak Soma had told her of that conviction of Geom Mugeuk’s.
—The moment we decide to handle it ourselves, things will become tangled.
At those words, the Mistress of Cheonhwaru had immediately risen from her seat, come out here, and waited for Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk guessed that Geugak Soma was behind this swift confession.
“Thank you, Lord Soma.”
“I am the one doing the killing. There is no need to thank me.”
At Geugak Soma’s joke, Geom Mugeuk smiled.
The two men were composed, but the women were not in the least.
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru looked at Ian. Ian stood there wordlessly, her face pale. The Mistress of Cheonhwaru knew better than anyone what she must be feeling now. She herself had lied for Geugak Soma’s sake.
The Mistress of Cheonhwaru approached Ian and said,
“I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry.”
Ian felt truly sorry to the two of them. When Geugak Soma had said he would die, she had not been this shocked. She should not have shown such selfishness in front of them, but it had not gone as she wished.
The mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion silently held her hand tightly.
Just then, Geugak Soma took a dagger from his bosom. It was the ten-thousand-year cold iron dagger he had received from Geom Mugeuk.
“Was this the dagger that killed the Young Cult Leader?”
The mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion slowly nodded.
Geugak Soma looked down at his dagger.
Of all times, at the very moment he had received the ten-thousand-year cold iron dagger as a gift, and even the martial arts manual of the Sohyang Dagger Art, a prophecy had shown him killing Geom Mugeuk with a dagger.
Geugak Soma could not simply let it pass, so he handed the dagger to Geom Mugeuk.
“Please hold on to it for a while.”
When Geom Mugeuk accepted the dagger, Ian’s face brightened.
“Ah! If the dagger is with you, young master, then that will absolutely never happen.”
But Geom Mugeuk thought differently.
“Wouldn’t that lead to an even worse result?”
For he knew better than anyone that the thing called fate was not so easy to deal with.
Geom Mugeuk returned the dagger to Geugak Soma and said,
“If you and I are entwined in a single fate, let us face it head-on and unravel it. Even if I am stabbed by that dagger, I will survive.”
Geugak Soma looked at the dagger. He could see the character so (笑), “laughter,” that Geom Mugeuk had personally engraved on it.
Yes, just as they had done until now.
Geugak Soma accepted the dagger with a smile.
“I am ready.”
Ian knew she could not stop the two of them. They were not people who avoided fate. So she said it in her heart. I’m ready too.
Geom Mugeuk asked the mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion,
“Do you perhaps know where the place you saw in the prophecy was?”
The mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion closed her eyes for a moment and recalled the scene.
“It was a place with countless people watching from around a high platform.”
“Was it a sparring stage?”
“I think so, but I’m not certain. What I saw was that there were truly many people there.”
“Fortunately, it would not have been a lonely death.”
Just as Ian was glaring at Geom Mugeuk for his pointless joke, someone entered.
It was the chief steward of Cheonhwa Pavilion.
He approached and handed a letter to the mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion.
“What is this?”
“It is an invitation asking you, Pavilion Mistress, to serve as a judge.”
“Me? As a judge?”
If judging was required, then it meant there was a competition.
The mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion unfolded the invitation. Her eyes widened as she checked its contents.
“Where did this invitation come from?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, the mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion held out the invitation so everyone could see.
Only then did they all understand why the mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion had been invited as a judge. The name of the competition was written at the very top of the letter.
The World’s Greatest Beauty Selection Competition.
The moment they chose to face it head-on, fate had sent them an invitation.