“Construction isn’t finished yet.”
The next day, Cha Iran took Ian to show her around the rear garden behind the Hero Inn. Construction was in full swing there. The main building was magnificent enough, but they were even putting up an annex beside it.
“Our goal is to make it the largest inn in the Central Plains.”
“Your drive is incredible.”
“Try going into business with a leisurely man who waters water with water and wine with wine. If I hadn’t taken the lead, we still wouldn’t have decided where to begin.”
Ian laughed at Cha Iran’s words. She thought both Ak Gunhak and Cha Iran were remarkable. To start a new life so bravely like this.
“You look happy.”
“That is exactly what I should be saying to you.”
Among the workers at the construction site were some familiar faces.
“It has been a long time.”
The ones who greeted her respectfully were, to her surprise, Ilgyo and the other assassin women.
“Have you all been well?”
They had once been her subordinates, but now that Ian had left the Ghost Shadow Unit, she treated them with courtesy.
When Cha Iran left the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, all the assassin women except for Sipchilgyo left the cult as well.
Cha Iran had given her subordinates their freedom. She let each of them live a new life.
Even so, about a third of the assassins, including Ilgyo, remained by Cha Iran’s side. Cha Iran did not force even those women to leave.
Working at the Hero Inn was a new life, too.
Instead, she told them they were free to leave whenever they wished.
And as much as possible, she did not give them work that involved killing people. She handled it herself, and buried them herself.
Even when Ilgyo said every time that she would take care of it with her subordinates, Cha Iran would not entrust it to her. She told them to try living a life without staining their hands with blood.
That was why Cha Iran’s sleeves were adorned with drops of blood.
After looking around even the area under construction, the two of them began walking again. Up ahead at the front gate of the Hero Inn, Geom Mugeuk was talking with Ak Gunhak.
“Do you regret opening an inn?”
“I’d need time to regret it if I were going to regret it. You saw, didn’t you? Every day is so busy I can barely think.”
“When you look back on your life at the moment of death, won’t you regret the things you never got to do more than the things you did? So you did well. If it gets too hard, you can always quit.”
“Easy for you to say.”
The two looked at each other and laughed.
“Ah, I don’t want to go back! I want to stay here with you forever, Brother Ak.”
“Then don’t go.”
“Should I really live here for just a month? I’ll open the inn doors and close them myself!”
“I told you I’d give you the best room.”
Ak Gunhak could guess what Geom Mugeuk was feeling.
“Why? Are you scared?”
“Of what?”
“Are you afraid now that you’re going back and starting a new life?”
Geom Mugeuk flinched and looked at Ak Gunhak.
“You hand new lives to other people so readily, but now that you’re the one starting a new life, you’re scared, aren’t you?”
Geom Mugeuk did not hide his feelings from him.
“I’ve come to like her even more than before, and love her even more…”
“And you’re afraid you’ll lose Miss I then?”
Geom Mugeuk said nothing.
“Aren’t you afraid of losing her without ever having loved her properly?”
“!”
“You said people regret what they never got to do when they die, didn’t you? You just said it.”
Geom Mugeuk teased Ak Gunhak as he looked at him.
“How do you know so much? You’ve never even been in love!”
“Who says I’ve never been in love?”
The two laughed together.
“If you ever fight with Miss I later, run away here. At least you won’t be able to fight for seven days.”
At Ak Gunhak’s joke, Geom Mugeuk worried about him.
“Where will you hide if you fight, Brother Ak?”
After a brief pause, Ak Gunhak also revealed what was in his heart.
“I’m a far more selfish person than you. It’s because I’m selfish that I can go around barefoot. It’s because I’m selfish that I can decide to leave.”
But he would not leave anymore. Geom Mugeuk knew well just how strong Ak Gunhak’s sense of responsibility was.
“If that sickness of wanting to leave flares up, make sure you come to me.”
“And if I do?”
“I’ll tell you this. Where are you trying to run off to? Even if you go, there’s nothing there! If you can’t find it here, you won’t find it there either!”
Ak Gunhak knew those words were meant for him, and that Geom Mugeuk was saying them to himself as well.
Just then, Cha Iran spoke from behind them.
“What are you searching for so hard?”
When they turned, Cha Iran and Ian were walking toward them together.
Geom Mugeuk answered with a smile.
“Who else would it be? The only one I search for is Miss I.”
Cha Iran said to Ak Gunhak,
“You should watch and learn jokes like that.”
“A joke? That was my true heart!”
And so they exchanged farewells.
“Brother Ak, let’s meet again.”
“Go safely.”
“Then I’ll come visit again next time.”
At Ian’s farewell, Cha Iran smiled an inscrutable smile and said,
“I’ll be waiting for good news.”
“I’ll return those words to you as they are.”
And so the two of them left the Hero Inn.
As they were walking, a martial artist passed them together with a woman.
“It’s over there, my lady. If we can just reach that place, we can live.”
Though the man did not show it, Geom Mugeuk could tell he had suffered internal injuries.
The whispers between the two reached Geom Mugeuk’s ears clearly.
“Do you really think such an inn exists?”
“We can only hope the rumors are true. If we endure for a few days, people who can save us will come. Let us go, my lady.”
“You need to be treated first.”
“No, your safety comes first, my lady. I must not let it show that I am wounded.”
After they passed, Geom Mugeuk looked back. Beyond the two people walking with difficulty, he could see the Hero Inn.
In that place, someone will be waiting who will call a physician for you even if you do not say a word.
Geom Mugeuk began walking again with Ian and asked her,
“Miss I, how was this trip?”
Ian could tell that the time had finally come to return to the cult.
“It was wonderful. It was the most enjoyable trip of my entire life.”
This time, Ian asked,
“How was this trip for you?”
Since Geom Mugeuk had absolutely forbidden her from calling him Young Cult Leader or Young Master anymore, she called him you.
“It was a journey I, too, will never forget.”
The two looked at each other and smiled.
“Then shall we return now?”
Ian smiled brightly and nodded.
“Yes, let’s go back now.”
***
After returning to the main headquarters, Geom Mugeuk did not go straight to the Heavenly Demon Hall.
The place he took Ian was unexpected. It was the old training ground Geom Mugeuk had used a very long time ago, one that was no longer in use.
When the two of them opened the doors to the training ground for the first time in ages and stepped inside, time there had stopped.
Was this place always this small?
That was the first thought that came to mind. In his memory, it had seemed much larger than this.
It had been empty for a long time, but because it was the training ground once used by the Young Cult Leader, it had been kept clean and well maintained.
Against one wall stood wooden swords. They were the small swords Geom Mugeuk had used in childhood.
Geom Mugeuk picked up a wooden sword. Seeing the sword worn smooth by his hands brought back memories of training here as a child.
Beside them, wooden training dummies were placed throughout the room, their bodies gouged in many places.
Those marks were the traces of his yearning to become stronger, and the traces of his fear that he would die if he did not.
Ian had often come here, too. She had guarded him from outside the whole time Geom Mugeuk trained.
“It’s really been a long time since I came here.”
“Do you remember it?”
“Of course. You trained here a lot, didn’t you? Ah, back then, you were really…”
Adorable.
She could not bring herself to say it. But the little Geom Mugeuk who had held and swung a wooden sword really had been adorable.
Then Geom Mugeuk suddenly said something she had not expected.
“This is where I first saw you.”
How could she ever forget? The memory of that day was vivid even for her.
Over the figure of the present Geom Mugeuk, the Geom Mugeuk of childhood overlapped.
Into that place, her childhood self was entering together with her master.
—This is the child who will guard the Second Young Master from now on.
Thinking back on it now, she had been raised from that moment to be the Young Cult Leader’s shield. After learning the Full-Body Petrification Art, her fate was to remain always by the Young Cult Leader’s side, then throw herself forward at the final moment. She had been raised for that fate.
“I remember being so frightened. Back then, the Young Cult Leader said this to me.”
This was something even Geom Mugeuk did not remember. He only remembered seeing her that day.
“I’m Mugeuk. I’ll be in your care from now on.”
Before Ian’s eyes stood the young Geom Mugeuk of childhood. The moment he smiled brightly at her was also the moment she resolved to live for the Young Cult Leader.
Geom Mugeuk spoke the words she had said exactly as they were.
“I am Geom Mugeuk. I will be in your care from now on.”
Just as the two of them in childhood had stood facing each other, the two of them now stood in that place and faced each other.
Geom Mugeuk put into words the apology he had never been able to convey to her until now.
“Forgive me for not comforting you when you suffered the side effects of the Full-Body Petrification Art.”
He had not tended to her wounded heart. Even when he saw her come out after crying all night, her eyes swollen, he had not been able to ask if she was all right or comfort her.
Ian shook her head. This was not a matter of forgiveness or not.
“You were young then, too.”
Yes, he, too, had been young then.
“Then accept the apology of the me who has become an adult now.”
“You don’t need to apologize. You were never indifferent or cold to me.”
Dealing with his father and older brother, Geom Mugeuk had had no room to pay attention to anything else. Only Ian, who had watched him from beside him, knew that.
“In your childhood, you were fighting a harder battle than anyone.”
Ian stepped closer and embraced Geom Mugeuk tightly.
“If you have to apologize for that, then I have to apologize, too. Back then, I was too young, and so I couldn’t truly be of help to you. I’m sorry.”
The two conveyed to each other the apologies they had kept deep in their hearts for so long.
Held in his arms, Ian felt Geom Mugeuk’s heart begin to beat faster.
Slowly pulling away from her, Geom Mugeuk spoke the words that would change both his fate and hers.
“Miss I, will you marry me?”
With a thud, Ian’s heart dropped.
Her fingertips trembled, and the shiver that followed spread through her entire body.
Yes, perhaps she had hoped that something like this might happen.
But imagination born from vague expectation and reality were far too different. For the first time, she learned what it felt like when tears and laughter collided at the same time.
After standing there blankly, she let out a long breath as though she had forgotten how to breathe.
Ian looked at Geom Mugeuk with trembling eyes.
If this trip had not happened, she would not have been able to accept those words easily. She would first have thought that someone like her did not suit such an extraordinary man.
And so she might have blurted out these words first.
How could I possibly marry the Young Cult Leader?
But Ian in this moment was not Ian, but Miss I. And because of that, she pushed all negative thoughts far away. Though countless words rose in her mind—
“Yes.”
It was permission in a single word, but in that instant, Geom Mugeuk raised both arms high and rejoiced.
He jumped all around the training ground. He was so genuinely happy that the thought came naturally: could he really like it this much?
It was a sight that did not suit Geom Mugeuk.
He had never once shown himself so delighted.
Ian could tell. Geom Mugeuk was expressing his joy with his entire body for her sake.
I’m this happy, so don’t think even a single negative thought.
Ian was happy. Not because she would become the Demon Empress. She was happy because she would become the woman of a man named Geom Mugeuk.
Watching Geom Mugeuk, who had been running around like a child, come stand in front of her again, Ian said bravely,
“Yes. I want to marry you, too.”
***
By the time they arrived at the Heavenly Demon Hall, that bravery had vanished.
“Wait a moment. I’m not ready yet.”
Ian leaned against a pillar because the strength had left her legs.
“Are you really going to tell him today?”
“You know, don’t you? That there are no secrets in our cult.”
If she had not been in this situation, Ian would surely have made this joke.
Weren’t most of those secrets let out by your mouth? You’re the one who made the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult a place with no secrets!
After taking several deep breaths, Ian nodded. Yes, if it was something she had to go through anyway, there was no point putting it off.
“Let’s go.”
They entered the Heavenly Demon Hall. Toward his father, visible far in the distance, Geom Mugeuk shouted louder than ever before.
“Father, I’ve returned.”
The two walked side by side down the path of blood.
Was it because Ian was there? The voice that greeted them was softer than usual.
“Did you return safely?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Yes, thanks to your concern, I have returned safely, Cult Leader.”
Normally, Geom Mugeuk would recount every little thing that had happened upon returning from outside, but he omitted it all for the moment.
“I have something to tell you, Father.”
Geom Mugeuk, who had been gazing steadily at his father, spoke the most important words of his life.
“I wish to marry Ian.”
Silence fell for a moment.
Ian felt as though she could hear her own heart beating. She felt her ears burn and her face flush.
Just what would the Cult Leader think of her?
Even if her identity as the bloodline of Binggung was revealed, even if she had become Gwonma’s adopted daughter, to the Cult Leader she would be nothing more than the young cult lord’s bodyguard.
Geom Ujin, who had been looking quietly at Ian, rose from the high seat and began to walk down. With each step he took, it felt like a hammer striking Ian’s heart.
Eventually, Geom Ujin walked over to Ian.
“Ian.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
Answering with a trembling voice, Ian raised her head to look at Geom Ujin.
He was looking at her with gentle eyes. Astonishing words flowed from his lips.
“Would my worthless son be acceptable?”
“!”
Since it was something she had never imagined, a tempest of emotion surged through Ian’s chest.
The Cult Leader said nothing else.
He had simply granted permission with those words.
Ian fought hard to hold back her tears. Now was not the time to show tears, but to show her heart.
“That worthless person looks the best in my eyes.”
A smile formed at Geom Ujin’s lips.
That smile grew stern when directed at his son.
“Go and receive permission from the one who will be your father-in-law.”
“Yes, Father!”
Geom Mugeuk looked at Geom Ujin.
He could not even imagine how difficult his father’s love must have been, meeting his mother who belonged to the orthodox faction and even marrying her.
It was the moment when such a father readily permitted his son’s love.
Geom Mugeuk bowed his head politely to his father.
“Thank you, Father.”
Ian also bowed her head politely alongside him.
“Thank you, Cult Leader.”
Because of Geom Ujin’s deep love, she would never forget this moment for the rest of her life.
To his son, who was walking away into the distance with Ian, Geom Ujin spoke.
“That person might not give permission.”
“That would be troublesome. If the strongest fist in Murim opposes it.”
Geom Mugeuk added with a smile.
“Even if I take a beating from that fist, I will be sure to obtain permission and return.”
As the two left Cheonma Hall, Hwi’s voice was heard from thin air.
“Congratulations, Cult Leader.”
“Thank you.”
Geom Ujin had experienced many things in his life that he had never imagined, but he had not known a day like this would come.
“I truly never imagined I would become in-laws with that person.”
Geom Ujin briefly recalled the moment he first met Gwonma. Those young days felt as if they were only yesterday.
“Gwonma will come by later, so prepare the liquor that person likes.”