‘This is the second time you’ve eaten with me?’
Hwa Mugi, of course, and everyone else at the table were startled.
Everyone’s gazes turned toward Geom Mugeuk.
“What nonsense are you spouting?”
At Hwa Mugi’s baffled reaction, Geom Mugeuk’s attitude toward him became respectful.
“It has been a long time.”
When Geom Mugeuk greeted him politely, Hwa Mugi could tell that the greeting was not meant for him.
“Alliance Leader, you lied to me.”
Everyone understood. Geom Mugeuk was speaking to one of the two Alliance Leaders dwelling inside Hwa Mugi’s body. Just who was he trying to converse with?
“Do you remember the question I asked that day?”
Of course, the person Geom Mugeuk was addressing was the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword.
When he had gone back three hundred years, Geom Mugeuk had asked the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword this:
“Is there a way for us to win?”
Still, he did not remember Geom Mugeuk.
“At the time, you answered like this: There is no special method. We have no choice but to fight and win.”
In that instant, Hwa Mugi’s gaze wavered. As if driving a wedge into that faint, doubtful memory, Geom Mugeuk continued.
“You promised to give a congratulatory speech at the squad leader’s wedding. I suppose you weren’t able to keep that promise either.”
Hwa Mugi sprang up from his seat. Before anyone knew it, his gaze had changed. The one who had risen was the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword.
“How could you?”
At last, he remembered that day.
Back then, just before the final battle, when he had finished his speech and stepped down, there had been a young martial artist who asked him a question.
In that solemn atmosphere, he had asked boldly:
—Is there a way for us to win?
Now that he saw his face, he remembered clearly.
Just as he said, he had, in a sense, lied to him. He had said there was no special method, yet he had brought in the Demon Cult and brought in the Evil Dao Alliance.
That martial artist from back then was the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult three hundred years later?
Faced with this unbelievable truth, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword was flustered and shocked.
Geom Mugeuk looked at him and said calmly,
“Please sit. Let us eat together today, just as we did then.”
Still wearing a shocked expression, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword slowly sat back down. Yes, they had eaten together as well.
Hwa Mugi could have forced the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s soul back inside, but perhaps he too was curious about this situation, for he simply left him be.
“How is it that you, whom I saw three hundred years ago, are here?”
Geom Ujin turned his head and looked at his son. It was the first time he had ever seen him look so surprised. He had not even been this shocked when the Heavenly Killing Star appeared.
The others were the same. Geom Mugeuk had a talent for surprising people, but this went beyond surprise and into shock.
Cult Leader Pungcheon barely held back the joke he wanted to make, that he had known this would happen, and that he had been beaten because Geom Mugeuk was three hundred years old.
Geom Mugeuk answered honestly.
“It may be hard to believe, but the Bigwe, the divine relic of Cheonui Palace, sent me three hundred years into the past.”
The only person who knew this fact was the Sword King. When Geom Mugeuk had returned through the Bigwe, he had told him honestly, since the Sword King had been the one guarding it.
At those words, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword let out an exclamation. “Ah!” Since it was the mysterious divine relic that had absorbed them like this, he could believe Geom Mugeuk’s words.
“I was there that day as well.”
Geom Mugeuk looked at his father.
Without needing any further explanation, Geom Ujin nodded once, his expression saying he understood what had happened. He had realized that Geom Mugeuk had obtained yet another astonishing fortuitous encounter.
The reason Hwa Mugi had not felt unfamiliar to Geom Mugeuk was likely due to the influence of the memories buried in the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s subconscious.
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword, who had been silently gazing at Geom Mugeuk, let out a long sigh that was almost a lament.
“I regret saying those words to you.”
He meant it. It would be a lie to say he had regretted it throughout all the years that had passed, but from time to time, he had thought of that young man.
He had been so memorable that he was difficult to forget, and above all, the fact that he had lied to him had weighed on his heart.
“I am sorry.”
“There is no need for you to apologize to me. I am a man from three hundred years in the future, and I am from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
That fact was also what the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword found hardest to understand.
“Why did you come to me? Was it your choice?”
“No. The Bigwe sent me to you, Alliance Leader.”
If he was a descendant of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, should he not have gone to the Lord of Cheonui Palace? Was it because he had been the one to bring in the Demon Cult Leader?
“I do not know the reason either.”
It must have been related to his regression, so it was not something he could speak of here.
“The reason you called me out must be because you have a request to make of me.”
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s gaze turned toward Jin Paecheon, who was sitting silently.
More than the Young Cult Leader, it was the Murim Alliance Leader of a later generation who had said he respected him most that weighed on his heart. Even now, he was silently listening to the conversation between the Young Cult Leader and himself.
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword felt that he ought to do something, if only for his sake.
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s gaze returned to Geom Mugeuk.
“What do you want from me?”
It was the moment Hwa Mugi could have cut into the conversation. Geom Mugeuk might have asked him to interfere with the fight, or asked him to reveal the secret of the Heavenly Killing Star.
But Hwa Mugi did not. As if he were confident no matter what they did.
Yet what Geom Mugeuk desired completely overturned their expectations.
“I did not call you out as the Heavenly Killing Star, but so that you could eat as the Murim Alliance Leader.”
“!”
“In the end, it may be filling the Heavenly Killing Star’s stomach, but please eat as the Alliance Leader.”
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s eyes trembled.
“Is that all?”
“Yes, that is all.”
Geom Ujin, of course, and all those listening knew that those words were Geom Mugeuk’s sincerity. Their own hearts had been moved by that unbelievable sincerity as well.
But there was no way the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword could know that.
“Is it because you look down on me that you do not seek my help?”
“It is the opposite.”
Geom Mugeuk’s eyes and expression were more calm and serious than ever.
“At that time, I felt that you truly cared for your subordinates. I also felt your regret and anguish over not being able to end the war sooner.
Until then, I never imagined I would meet you again like this, but now that I have, I wanted to treat you to a meal.”
Geom Mugeuk looked at Baek Jagang and added,
“This dish made by the Leader of the Evil Dao Alliance is truly delicious. Please try it.”
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword silently looked down at the food placed before him.
Geom Mugeuk did not urge him any further and began eating the food in front of him as well.
Before long, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword brought out what he had kept buried in his heart for a very long time. His words were directed at Geom Mugeuk, and at the same time, at Jin Paecheon.
“It was not because I was unlucky that I was absorbed into the Bigwe.”
It was a hidden truth that had pained him for three hundred years.
“I was absorbed because I was the same kind as the Lord of Cheonui Palace, the Demon Cult Leader, and the Leader of the Evil Dao Alliance.”
Just thinking about it wounded his pride and enraged him, but in the end, he believed that was the truth.
“The moment I chose to bring them in, I became the same kind as them. I, too, am a wicked man.”
That was why he could not pick up his chopsticks.
“I am not qualified to eat the meal you offer.”
Geom Mugeuk swallowed the food he had been eating, drank some water, and then asked calmly,
“Why are you trying so hard to be perfect?”
At the unexpected question, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword flinched.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Jin Paecheon.
“By the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s standards, Alliance Leader Jin over there must have made a great mistake as well. After all, he came all the way here alone to help the Demon Cult. By your standards, Divine Sword, it was probably an even greater mistake, was it not?”
That was why he had said it to Jin Paecheon at first. That if he associated with them, he would be destroyed.
This time, Geom Mugeuk asked Jin Paecheon,
“Do you think coming here was a mistake?”
Jin Paecheon could understand with what intention Geom Mugeuk was asking him this question. Yes, the matter of the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword was his matter as well.
“It was a mistake. A very great mistake.”
Unlike his words, Jin Paecheon’s expression was at ease. Looking at the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword, Jin Paecheon saw his former self. He felt that he too had once been like that. Becoming a perfect Alliance Leader had once been the entirety of his life as well.
But now, he was a little different from back then. Because he could think this, and even say it aloud.
“I am human too, so what of it if I make a mistake or two? I lived my whole life without making mistakes, so it is only natural to make one at least once.”
As though he had expected such an answer, Geom Mugeuk smiled and replied,
“Your subordinates will like you even more for it. They will think, So our Alliance Leader, who is perfect in everything, has a side like that too. He makes mistakes just like us.”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze returned to the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword. Caring for him was also a reflection of his respect for Jin Paecheon.
“You say you are the same kind as them? No, I think you are completely different from them.”
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s gaze shook.
“You lived your entire life for righteousness and chivalry, and sacrificed yourself to protect the peace of the murim. On the other hand, the Demon Cult Leader of that time was infamous for his cruelty. Just who are you comparing yourself to?”
Geom Mugeuk knew that Demon Cult Leader Hyeok Docheon was listening to this conversation right now, but he did not hesitate.
“If the Bigwe had not absorbed the Demon Cult Leader, I believe the history of our cult would have changed greatly as well. The history of our cult would certainly have flowed in a bad direction,
and as fate changed and changed again, Father might not have become the Cult Leader. I might not be here before your eyes.”
It was, in other words, saying that the event three hundred years ago and the events of the present age were bound together by one great karmic tie.
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword had never once thought of it in that way. He had never dreamed that he would meet the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult like this and have such a conversation.
“Even so, the sin of my having brought in the Demon Cult and the Evil Dao Alliance does not disappear. I said it was for the murim, but in the end, it was a choice for myself.”
“If you had not made that choice for yourself, the war might have gone on far longer. You might have lost the war. Far more people would have died. Your desire saved the murim.”
The Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s eyes trembled.
Those words—he had said them to himself hundreds, thousands of times.
But he had wanted to hear them from someone else’s mouth.
That his choice had, in the end, been good. He had wanted to hear through someone else the thought he had repeated countless times in his own heart.
One time from another person was worth more than a thousand times within his own heart.
And finally, after three hundred years, he was hearing it from the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
“If you truly were the same kind as them, you would not be having this conversation with me now. They would have long since forgotten everything. It is because you have carried that burden in your heart for three hundred years that we are able to have this conversation. You have truly suffered all this time.”
Geom Mugeuk picked up the chopsticks lying there and held them out to him.
“Now, please forgive yourself.”
An indescribable surge of emotion flowed through the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s chest. It felt as though something that had been lodged tightly somewhere in his heart for the past three hundred years was being drawn out.
With trembling hands, the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword accepted the chopsticks.
Jin Paecheon looked at him and nodded. In his eyes, there was still respect directed toward him.
Just as his chopsticks were about to pick up the food—
Crash.
He suddenly grabbed the bowl in front of him and hurled it away. The bowl fell to the floor and shattered into pieces.
His gaze had changed. Before anyone knew it, he had returned to being Hwa Mugi.
Geom Mugeuk did not get angry at him. Though the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword had not been able to eat, he believed his feelings had been conveyed well enough.
“Since I have already met the Alliance Leader, tell the others to come out as well.”
Hwa Mugi did not hide his sneer.
“Why? So you can lure the others with some nonsense, the way you forced your way into the Martial Sovereign Divine Sword’s good graces? Do you think that will make them change their minds and harm me?”
Geom Mugeuk, on the other hand, remained composed.
“That is not why.”
“Then why?”
It was a reason Hwa Mugi could not have imagined.
“Because they must all want to talk.”
“What?”
“I heard you were sealed away for a long time. Inside you, you always conversed only with them, didn’t you? Then wouldn’t they also have something they want to say, not to the people they’re sick and tired of, but to others, to their descendants?”
Hwa Mugi did not readily grant the request.
“You mean to beguile their hearts and get what you want.”
After a brief pause, Geom Mugeuk asked Hwa Mugi,
“Do you know why you obediently came in to eat instead of fighting outside?”
That was because Geom Mugeuk had stirred his curiosity.
“Because I can kill you all at any time.”
But Geom Mugeuk gave a different reason.
“It is because you too wanted to tell your story.”
“!”
“Not to those tiresome people inside your body, and not to the Dark Palace Lord who tried to use you, but to me, to my father, and to the people here. Whether that story is a boast, resentment, or whatever else it may be.”
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze was clear and deep.
“It cannot be that, just because you are the Heavenly Killing Star, all you think about is killing everyone.”
After a moment, Hwa Mugi asked in return,
“What if that is all there is in my heart?”
Geom Mugeuk walked to the kitchen, brought back a small bowl, served some food into it, and set it down in front of him.
“Eat, then search your heart again. When a person is hungry, they can’t see anything else. Eat first, then let’s talk. I haven’t finished eating either.”
Geom Mugeuk began eating again.
At that sight, Hwa Mugi slammed the table down without mercy.
Booooom!
It should have been completely smashed apart.
But the table was unharmed.
Geom Mugeuk’s palm was already resting on the table. He had released his internal energy and protected it.
“Stop throwing a tantrum. Honored guests are still eating.”
Hwa Mugi raised his internal energy even further and struck down again.
Booooooom!
But the table did not break. It was an astonishing amount of inner force, but Geom Mugeuk’s internal energy was no less formidable.
“Heaven has even stuck a grand name tag on you and told you to live by killing people. It must be your fate to keep killing until you are sick of it for the rest of your life. So why are you in such a hurry?
This is a fight that will end today anyway. So let them say everything they want to say. If you spent all those long years together, you should at least show that much courtesy.”
At least when it came to those final words, Hwa Mugi could not refute him.
“Not only their stories…”
Geom Mugeuk looked into Hwa Mugi’s eyes and added,
“I want to hear yours as well.”