Today, I brought all of my people with me.
From the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had proposed this method, to the Ilhwa Sword Venerable, Ian and Seo Daeryong, and even the Demon Army Lord Jang Ho.
I did not tell the others why we were visiting the Pungcheon Cult Leader. I did not want them to try to do anything deliberately. Today’s gathering needed no persuasion, nor any need to move anyone’s heart. They only had to show themselves as they were.
“Such honored guests have come together. Welcome, all of you!”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader, greeting us with both arms spread wide, looked happier than he had ever looked since I had met him.
He had made a grave slip of the tongue with the shackled man. Had they already reconciled?
“I suddenly felt inclined to pay you a visit, and so I came with the companions who were with me. Please forgive the discourtesy.”
“It is quite all right. Is this not an opportunity to mingle with the heroes of the Divine Cult?”
“Your heart is as vast as the sea.”
The first among those who came with me to offer greetings was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
“Good to see you.”
“Welcome.”
Naturally, the Pungcheon Cult Leader was well acquainted with the Demon Venerables.
“I heard that you have grown quite close with the Second Young Master recently.”
“You heard wrong. It is not that we have merely grown close. I am the Second Young Master’s left wing.”
Among ourselves, we had exchanged jokes about wings easily enough, but I had not expected the Blood Heaven Blade Demon to say it to someone else.
Perhaps he meant to show the shackled man that this was how much he trusted Geom Mugeuk. Even I had not expected him to show such a side, so how shocked must the Ilhwa Sword Venerable, who had come with us, have been?
I knew she would not be eager to attend this gathering, but I had asked her to come so that she might see the Blood Heaven Blade Demon even one more time. There was also my own will to make her one of my people.
After staring at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon with a startled expression for a moment, the Ilhwa Sword Venerable said to the Pungcheon Cult Leader,
“That does not mean I am the right wing.”
It was her determination not to be entangled with the Blood Heaven Blade Demon in any way, but the Pungcheon Cult Leader took it as a witty joke and expressed his gratitude to her.
“I heard you gave great help in Cheongseon becoming a Demon Venerable this time.”
“I did it because I trusted the Second Young Master.”
She gave the credit to me. And then added one more thing.
“And the one who gave truly great help was the Blade Demon. I obtained an abstention, but Senior Blade Demon obtained a full vote.”
Though she did not mention a specific name, she made it clear that we had gained one vote thanks to the Blade Demon. No matter how much she disliked the Blade Demon, her nature was such that she could not simply sit by and take credit for another’s merit.
It was the first I had heard of it as well. Naturally, I had assumed that the Ilhwa Sword Venerable had secured one vote, while the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had created an abstention.
But the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had secured a vote? This eccentric old man had done that and yet had not come to me even once to boast about it.
I sent a sound transmission to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
—You said you were being ostracized, did you not?
—Perhaps someone helped me out of pity.
—If you are ostracized just twice more, you will have all the Demon Venerables kneeling.
—I will never again go around asking for favors.
—Thank you.
—Enough.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader cupped his fist to the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and expressed his gratitude.
“You are better than my friend.”
“Was it not strange to seek friends in the jianghu to begin with? People meet and part according to necessity at the time. Living that way keeps life clean in many respects.”
“I will not forget your good teaching.”
With that, the two Demon Venerables finished exchanging greetings, and this time Jang Ho greeted him.
“I am Demon Army Lord Jang Ho. It is an honor to meet you.”
“To meet the valiant Demon Army Lord like this—rather, the honor is mine.”
“I pestered the Second Young Master to let me meet the Supreme Beyond the Passes.”
“It is nothing but an empty name. I only hope you will not be disappointed.”
Jang Ho had heard my request and followed me without even asking the reason. This dependable quality, the sense that he would silently carry out any task entrusted to him, was something unique to the man called Jang Ho.
Next, Seo Daeryong offered his greeting.
“I do not know whether I belong in such a gathering, but I am Seo Daeryong, an investigator of the Hwangcheon Pavilion.”
“I know well of you. They say you are our Second Young Master’s right arm?”
At that, Seo Daeryong’s eyes widened as he looked at me. His expression seemed to say, Did you really say even that? I smiled and said,
“Seeing that he knows even without my saying it, I suppose everyone truly does think so.”
The last to greet him was Ian.
“I am Ian, who assists the Second Young Master. It is an honor to meet you.”
“Eyes brimming with living spirit. It has truly been a long time.”
“Thank you for looking kindly upon me.”
Her aura, immersed in the ecstasy of training these days, was like a single blade.
A sharp aura that seemed ready to cut anyone.
How to lessen that keen edge would be her task from now on.
“If Investigator Seo over there is my right arm, then Ian here is someone like my heart.”
When I said that in front of everyone, Ian was flustered. Her face flushed red, but I spoke proudly, as though making a proclamation.
“All of you, know this. Ian is my heart.”
What one says when alone together and what one says in front of others are as different as heaven and earth. If they are words one can say when it is just the two of you, then one should be able to say them in front of everyone. That is a true relationship.
But in ordinary cases, it is not easy to encounter such a relationship. Truly, it is not easy.
In that sense, meeting Ian could be called a great fortune for me. Not merely because of the life debt from before my regression. As I had told my father, it was because she was an excellent person.
A person who, while saying she hid as many as nine tails, could sacrifice her own life for someone else.
Because she had grown close to me, she had revealed those words. Otherwise, she would have hidden the fact that she was a fox for the rest of her life and fulfilled her duties like a bear.
“That said, you do not need to throw yourself away for me. Just because someone values me highly does not mean you need to sacrifice yourself for that person. You must not forget. Those two things are clearly separate.”
That was my view on superiors and subordinates.
Though the words were spoken to Ian, at the same time, they were also spoken to the shackled man.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader exclaimed in admiration.
“I envy you for having someone you can praise like this.”
Beyond his shoulder, I could see the shackled man. What was he thinking?
“Since the Second Young Master is boasting of his subordinate like this, I cannot simply sit still either. Now, I shall introduce one person as well. The one wearing those shackles over there is this man’s right arm.”
Inwardly, I was surprised. Until now, the Pungcheon Cult Leader had never once introduced the shackled man, yet today he had. Moreover, he had even called him his right arm. Something must have changed between the two of them after that slip of the tongue.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon asked openly,
“How is it that you keep your right arm bound in shackles?”
“He is someone who would ascend to the heavens if I took my eyes off him even for a moment, so I have held him here by force.”
“Should you not let one who is meant to ascend ascend?”
“That is not as easy as it sounds.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon nodded with an expression that said he understood everything.
“Indeed. These damned imugi are so willful that humans like us cannot handle them easily.”
As he said that, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked at me. While saying that one should release those who must be sent away, he was also praising me by saying I was a dragon who would ascend.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon truly was quick-witted and good at reading the atmosphere.
If only he were ten years younger—no, twenty years younger—I might have made the Blood Heaven Blade Demon my strategist. Of course, he would leap up and insist he would never do it.
In the meantime, a table of drinks was set.
We sat around it and poured drinks for one another.
I do not think fate controls everything about human beings. Fate merely provides us with opportunities. Judging and seizing those opportunities is up to people.
I had investigated and prepared a great deal for my regression, but the shackled man had been left out of that. Even though he might become someone who would play a truly important role in my life after regression.
But that was all right.
Rather, because I had not known and prepared in advance, a gathering like this had come about. A gathering where I could show who I was, and in the end, make him look back on himself.
The one to open today’s gathering was Ian.
After several rounds of drinks had gone around, Ian stepped forward cautiously.
“Would it be all right if I offered that person a cup of wine?”
The person she meant was the shackled man. It was not something I had told her to do. Previously, because I had given him wine, the Pungcheon Cult Leader had made one great verbal mistake.
Ian, who did not know that, was making the same suggestion.
Unlike the reaction he had shown me earlier, the Pungcheon Cult Leader smiled and said,
“He will like it as well.”
He had certainly changed. What on earth had happened?
Ian took a wine bottle and cup over to him, poured him wine, and asked politely,
“Martial artist, are you guarding this bell?”
I thought he would not answer, but unexpectedly, the shackled man opened his mouth.
“At first, I was… but now, the bell is protecting me.”
Whether Ian knew how precious that answer was or not, she continued the conversation.
“That is similar to me.”
The shackled man lifted his head slightly and looked at her.
“At first, I protected the young master, but now the young master protects me.”
I saw it. The faint smile that formed at the corners of the shackled man’s mouth. Perhaps that was why Ian could continue speaking so naturally.
“That bell does not tell you to leave, does it? Our young master keeps telling me to leave. He says he wants me to live my own life. Is that really why? Or is he trying to send me away because he dislikes me?”
At that, the shackled man answered her question again.
“He would not call someone his heart in front of everyone if he meant to send her away because he disliked her.”
It was a new side of the shackled man. He had already answered Ian’s questions twice.
Just as Ian’s question had been from the start, I wondered if the shackled man’s answer was also not directed at Ian, but at me.
“Ah, I thought so.”
Ian looked toward me. I felt that she was unfurling yet another of her tails. Her intuition must have told her that the reason I had brought them all here had something to do with this man. Otherwise, she would not have held such a conversation with the shackled man.
I tapped my heart twice, then pointed at her with my finger.
Ian smiled brightly.
“It felt like a joke because you keep doing that too much.”
At that moment, Seo Daeryong, who had been sitting down, picked up his cup and went over to join them. His movement was so natural that there was no question of stopping him or not.
Seo Daeryong sat beside Ian and said,
“I think it is because he worries too much about this martial artist.”
“About me?”
“Yes. From what I have observed of the Pavilion Master so far, his desire for his subordinates not to die is great. It is like the heart of a parent who wants them to leave behind the perilous mountain of blades and forest of swords and live well. I also think he had me learn martial arts from Master because of such worries.”
“Ah! Perhaps that may be true.”
Ian looked at me again. Since she had received the Bicheon Sword Art, of course those words must have sounded plausible to her.
I said to her,
“That is a misunderstanding. I am teaching you so I can work you properly from now on. If you are that innocent, you will be used for the rest of your life!”
Then Seo Daeryong answered in her stead.
“When one works, there are times when being under someone who works you properly is more comfortable. It is harder under a clumsy and indecisive leader.”
Ian extended her cup as though she agreed, and Seo Daeryong clinked his with hers.
“Investigator Seo, why do you like our young master so much?”
“Does it look as though I like him?”
“If not, you would not have come over here, would you?”
Ian had seen through Seo Daeryong’s personality at a glance.
She was right. For him, who hated standing out and hated danger, voluntarily going to sit beside Ian was an act of courage in its own way.
“Because I am his right arm.”
He said it like a joke, but that one sentence contained much of Seo Daeryong’s feelings.
It was then. The shackled man raised his head and asked quietly,
“What will you do if someone tries to take that place as the right arm?”
It was not an answer to a question, but something he had brought up first. Those first words were extremely provocative.
At the unexpected question, Seo Daeryong was startled. The shackled man’s eyes, visible between the locks of hair hanging down, were intense.
A complicated state of mind showed on Seo Daeryong’s face as he wondered how to answer, but soon he replied calmly,
“I am timid and fearful, so I do not think I would be able to stand and fight. Tell them to take it. In preparation for such a day, I am working hard and sweating to become someone else’s right arm. Fortunately, every person has a right arm.”
At that answer, the provocative light in the shackled man’s eyes settled calmly.
Meanwhile, because he knew that he was the subject of that glib remark, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon wore an expression of disbelief. I looked at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and said,
“Raise him well.”
“I refuse.”
At that moment, Demon Army Lord Jang Ho looked toward them and said something unexpected.
“I am next in line as a candidate for the right arm. Investigator Seo may be good-natured enough to hand that place over, but I will not hand the position of right arm to just anyone.”
It was the moment Jang Ho revealed a new side of himself.