Geom Mugeuk was sitting on the bed, looking at the painting on the wall.
It was a painting of his and Ian’s wedding ceremony. It showed the two of them in ceremonial robes, holding their wedding, with his father and master beside them.
There was not just one painting. Beneath it were smaller ones: scenes of them dancing with their friends,
parting with those friends the next day, and setting out on their bridal journey.
They were the paintings Jang Ho had drawn and given to him as a gift. Not only the events of that day, but even what happened afterward had been rendered into splendid paintings and presented to him.
Just then, someone behind Geom Mugeuk wrapped an arm around his neck like an assassin.
“To think the Young Cult Leader of the Divine Cult would be so full of openings!”
It was Ian, wrapping his neck while her body was bundled in a blanket. Her snow-white shoulders were visible above the covers. Ian asked in a sweet voice,
“When did you wake up?”
“Just a little while ago.”
“I didn’t even notice you getting up. I don’t know why I’m so tired these days.”
“Are you not training too hard?”
Even after their marriage, Ian had not neglected her martial training.
“Could the ambition to unify the martial world be yours, perhaps?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s joke, Ian tightened her hold on his neck again and answered like a villain.
“Now that you know my ambition, I can’t let you live.”
“I, too, cannot leave a villain be.”
Geom Mugeuk turned around and tried to embrace her.
But Ian was faster, stepping down to the other side of the bed together with the blanket.
“No. Hurry and wash up. We have to get ready to go out.”
“Where are you going?”
“Father called for me. He said he’d buy me something delicious.”
Geom Mugeuk blinked.
“He didn’t say a word to me.”
Ian smiled faintly and said,
“I suppose he wanted to go only with me.”
“He’s leaving his son aside and taking such care of only his daughter-in-law? How many times have the two of you gone out to eat together now?”
Already, Geom Ujin had taken Ian several times to places famous for their food.
“Today, I’m absolutely going with you!”
***
A single carriage stood in the front courtyard of the Heavenly Demon Hall.
The person sitting in the driver’s seat was Hwi. Seeing Hwi drive the carriage, it seemed they intended to leave quietly, leaving the guards behind.
Geom Ujin walked out of the Heavenly Demon Hall. Ian, who had been waiting beside the carriage, greeted him respectfully.
“Father.”
“Have you been waiting long?”
“No.”
“Let us go.”
At first, Geom Ujin had been truly difficult for her to approach, but after eating and drinking tea together several times, she had become much more comfortable with him than before.
Just as the two of them were about to board the carriage, Geom Ujin paused and said,
“Come out.”
Then, from behind a building in the distance, Geom Mugeuk revealed himself.
“Father, I like delicious things too.”
“Then go and eat them.”
“I mean delicious things that you buy for me, Father. You can’t leave me behind.”
Geom Mugeuk lightly launched himself into the air and blocked the front of the carriage.
“Uncle, if you mean to leave, you’ll have to run me over first!”
Hwi, sitting in the driver’s seat, laughed.
His father’s voice came from inside the carriage.
“Get in.”
Geom Mugeuk swiftly climbed into the carriage.
And so, the carriage carrying the three of them set off.
“No matter how they say a father-in-law dotes on his daughter-in-law, do you like your daughter-in-law that much?”
Geom Ujin merely looked out the window.
Ian teased Geom Mugeuk.
“Why did you follow us? I was going to have fun with Father, just the two of us.”
“What on earth do you talk about when you have fun?”
“That is a secret between Father and me.”
Geom Mugeuk was grateful to Ian.
No matter how fond his father was of his daughter-in-law, given his personality, if Ian showed even the slightest sign of feeling burdened, he would never ask her to go with him.
Because Ian enjoyed it and treated his father well, his father surely kept wanting to be good to her.
It was then, as the carriage was passing through Maga Village.
“Stop the carriage for a moment.”
When the carriage stopped, Geom Ujin called to someone outside the window.
“You there.”
The person his father called was none other than the goat-bearded merchant who sold dolls in Maga Village.
“Cult Leader!”
Startled, he came over and bowed so deeply his back seemed to fold in half.
“Is everything I asked for ready?”
“Yes, I prepared it in advance.”
“Give it to me.”
Goat Beard brought over two wrapped dolls.
When Geom Ujin handed him money, the peddler refused to take it.
“This is a gift from me to you, Cult Leader. Because you permitted me to make the dolls, I have been able to make a living until now. Please accept it.”
“Thank you. Sell many.”
The carriage set off again.
Geom Mugeuk was curious about what his father had received.
“What is that?”
Then Geom Ujin gave one of them to Ian.
Ian unwrapped it and was startled when she saw the doll inside.
The doll was none other than a doll of herself.
“I thought it was time there was one of you as well.”
Geom Mugeuk could tell. His father had asked the doll-selling merchant to make a doll of Ian. From now on, Ian’s dolls would be sold in earnest as well.
Ian was so moved that her eyes grew hot.
“Thank you, Father.”
As moving as the fact that he had had a doll made for her was the fact that he had bought two, intending to keep one for himself.
“It’s made so well. It looks exactly like you!”
Ian’s doll was truly beautiful and splendid. It was made so carefully that even the shape of the Ilhwa Sword at her waist had been reproduced.
Geom Mugeuk sighed and said,
“Ah, I’m going to be pushed down one spot in the sales rankings.”
***
The place where the carriage arrived was a noodle shop made of a large tent.
“Ah, this place?”
It was the very place he had once told his father had delicious noodles. The same place where, at the time, his father had said the dumplings used to be delicious.
“Welcome!”
The place was run by a middle-aged couple.
Though it was located in a quiet area, there were quite a few customers.
“Hwi, you eat with us too.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
Today, Geom Ujin told Hwi to join them for the meal as well.
They took their seats and ordered.
“Four bowls of noodles, please.”
“Yes, please wait a moment!”
Just then, an old woman entered the shop and cleared away the bowls from a table that had not yet been cleaned.
“Mother, why did you come out? I told you to rest at home.”
“I’m fine.”
The old woman had come out to help her son and his wife. This had originally been the place where she did business, but her son and daughter-in-law had taken it over.
As she was wiping a table with a cloth, the old woman saw Geom Ujin and flinched in surprise.
“Could it be?”
Geom Ujin said to the old woman,
“Do you remember me?”
“Oh my, of course. Of course I remember.”
The old woman tried to prostrate herself on the spot, but Geom Ujin wrapped her with the power of drawing objects through the air and prevented her from doing so.
“After living so long, a day comes when I get to see such an honored person again.”
“There are times when I think of the dumplings you used to make.”
Whenever he returned from a trip to the Central Plains with the Fist Demon, he would sometimes stop by and buy dumplings.
Back then, he had gone there often, but after ascending to the seat of Cult Leader, he had not come. The old woman, too, had passed the business on to her son as time went by, and so they had lived on, having forgotten.
And yet today, she had met Geom Ujin again.
“No matter how skilled the cooks are, they cannot imitate the dumplings you made.”
The old woman wore an expression of indescribable emotion.
“I will make dumplings right now and serve them to you.”
“It is all right. Today, I came to eat the noodles your son makes.”
The old woman looked at Geom Ujin with moved eyes and said,
“You are exactly as you were in the past.”
At those words, Geom Mugeuk playfully interjected.
“Then that means my father had an old face even when he was young.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
When the old woman became flustered, Geom Ujin scolded Geom Mugeuk.
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Geom Mugeuk smiled at the old woman and said,
“I’m joking, elder. My father is still handsome, isn’t he?”
At the word father, the old woman’s eyes widened. Soon, she seemed to recall someone.
“Now that I look, you resemble that person exactly.”
Geom Mugeuk could tell. His father had once brought his mother here.
“Yes, fortunately, I don’t resemble my father but my mother.”
The old woman recalled the sight of the two of them sitting together in their youth, eating dumplings. It was a memory she had completely forgotten, but upon seeing Geom Mugeuk’s face, it came vividly back to her.
Before long, the noodles came out.
Just as they were eating the noodles together—
Urk.
Ian suddenly retched.
“I’m sorry. Uurk.”
Ian ran outside. She had taken one bite, and nausea had suddenly risen in her.
The old woman and the other woman looked at each other, then nodded.
With a meaningful smile, the old woman carefully said,
“Perhaps there may be good news.”
Guessing what those words meant, both Geom Mugeuk and Geom Ujin were startled.
Geom Ujin abruptly rose from his seat.
“We will come eat noodles another time.”
Geom Ujin walked outside. Geom Mugeuk and Hwi followed him.
Ian was outside getting some fresh air, taking deep breaths, and lowered her head to Geom Ujin.
“I’m sorry, Father.”
“No. Let us return for today.”
“No, I’m all right.”
But Geom Ujin had already boarded the carriage.
As he climbed into the carriage, Geom Ujin said to Hwi,
“Go straight to the Demon Physician.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
When the carriage set off, Geom Ujin’s voice came from inside again.
“Drive the carriage slowly.”
***
Geom Mugeuk and Ian were lying on the beach.
It was that place inside the Space-Time Transposition Art that Geom Mugeuk liked most.
There were not two people lying there, but three. Ian’s belly was noticeably swollen.
Looking out at the sea in the distance, Geom Mugeuk suddenly asked,
“Will I be able to become a good father?”
Worried about whether he would become a good father? Ian was more worried that he would become too good of a father.
“Do you want to be a good father?”
“Of course I do.”
“You know that treating a child well no matter what doesn’t make one a good father, right?”
Geom Mugeuk turned his body toward Ian.
“Then what should I do?”
“Hmm.”
Ian seemed to ponder for a moment.
“We should raise the child with a little insufficiency, with some sense of lack.”
After a brief pause, Ian sighed and said,
“That will be impossible, won’t it?”
Geom Mugeuk nodded.
“With the Heavenly Demon as the child’s grandfather, how could we raise them with a sense of lack?”
The two looked at each other and smiled faintly.
Ian thought of something utterly opposite to the blue sea.
“Ah, I want to see the night scenery of Dongting Lake.”
Snap!
Dongting Lake unfolded before her eyes. They were sitting in a small boat drifting upon Dongting Lake.
“No, the real Dongting Lake!”
“It is the same. Even if we go, it will be the same as this.”
“They say it’s good for the baby if the mother moves around a lot. Let’s go, just the two of us!”
Snap.
A green field spread out before the two of them.
“Now, let the two of us walk. Let us go all the way to the end of that plain!”
Ian could only shake her head.
“Yeon, your father is this kind of person.”
Yeon was the baby’s prenatal name. It was the yeon from Geom Yeon. Because the child had come to them as the most precious bond, they had chosen the character yeon, meaning bond, as the prenatal name.
“How dangerous is the martial world, and you want to wander around while pregnant?”
It was the moment Geom Mugeuk’s anxious nature was properly on display.
“What is there to worry about when you’re going with me? In this martial world, you are the most dangerous one!”
“Let us travel to our hearts’ content later. I will take you everywhere you want to go.”
“I clearly remembered that. Yeon, you heard him, right?”
The two walked hand in hand across the green plain.
In truth, Ian was fine whether it was real or fake. If they could hold hands and go together like this, what did it matter where that place was?
“I wish there were fluffy clouds over there.”
Snap!
***
Aaaaaaah!
Ian’s pained cry rang out from inside the room.
At last, the day of childbirth had come. Geom Mugeuk was pacing back and forth in front of the room.
‘Hang in there, Ian.’
He had asked whether he could go inside and stay by her side, but the midwife had told him to wait outside.
“How long has it been since the labor pains started?”
“Three double-hours have passed.”
The person who answered Geom Mugeuk’s question was the Demon Physician. He was standing guard at the door, fully prepared for any emergency that might arise.
“Isn’t it taking too long?”
“The first child usually takes a long time.”
“Shouldn’t you be inside as well, Demon Physician?”
“The ones inside are the finest midwives of our cult. I would only get in the way.”
“She’ll be all right, won’t she?”
“Do not worry. She will have a safe delivery.”
Geom Mugeuk had believed it would only be natural, but as the labor pains continued, he could not help feeling anxious.
Geom Mugeuk shouted in a loud voice so that he could be heard inside.
"Stay strong! I am right outside!"
Just then, another voice spoke.
"You're frantic. Stop that and come here."
The person sitting in the chair with a calm gaze was Gwonma.
"Yes, forgive me."
Geom Mugeuk sat down beside Gwonma. Even if he pretended to be this calm, he too must be burning with anxiety inside.
And Father, waiting for news of the birth at Cheonma Palace, would surely be no different.
"What is there to worry about? This is a child destined to be born as your offspring. Nothing will go wrong."
You little rascal, stop tormenting your mother and hurry out.
Then it happened. A baby's cry sounded from behind the door.
Geom Mugeuk and Gwonma shot up from their seats.
It was unmistakably a baby's cry.
The two stood frozen, holding their breath as if time itself had stopped.
After a moment, the door slowly opened.
Geom Mugeuk prayed desperately.
'Please, let them both be safe! Please!'
The one who opened the door and stepped out was a middle-aged midwife.
"She has safely given birth to a daughter."
An exclamation of "Ah!" escaped Geom Mugeuk's lips, and he conveyed his gratitude to the midwife.
"Thank you. Truly, thank you."
The midwife stepped aside from the door.
"You may enter."
Gwonma entered the room before Geom Mugeuk.
Another midwife was holding the baby, but Gwonma went to Ian before the baby.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes."
Ian was hidden behind Gwonma's broad back.
Then the midwife holding the baby spoke to Geom Mugeuk.
"Would you like to hold her?"
When Geom Mugeuk nodded, the midwife carefully placed the swaddled baby into his arms.
Geom Mugeuk looked at the baby's face.
It was the first moment he was seeing his daughter's face.
The moment he thought of her as his daughter, emotion surged up within him. Was this real? It felt like an illusion within the Spacetime Transference Technique.
'So I've become a father.'
It didn't feel real. A father? Me, a father?
The special nature of having a child was beyond words. He felt he could gaze upon her all day long. He felt he could hold her like this for a hundred days.
Then a voice was heard.
"She's our daughter."
When he raised his head, Ian was looking at him. Completely drained of energy, there was no strength in her voice.
That strong body of hers seemed shattered into pieces, her limbs devoid of strength. Her hair was soaked in sweat and clung to her forehead.
But in Geom Mugeuk's eyes, she had never looked more beautiful.
Holding the baby, Geom Mugeuk approached Ian. Only then did Gwonma gaze at the baby with an incomparably moved expression.
Geom Mugeuk carefully laid the baby down beside her. At the sight of the baby, tears streamed from her eyes.
The birth of a new life had nothing to do with martial arts prowess.
As the labor pains continued, she had been so afraid. It hurt and was exhausting, but more than that, she had worried the baby was suffering more than she was. She had been terrified that something might go wrong with the baby.
She gently stroked the baby with trembling hands.
"You worked hard, baby."
Geom Mugeuk had always used honorifics with her, even after they were married, but not in this moment.
"You worked hard, Ian."
Relief, joy, and happiness flooded over Ian, whose tension finally melted away.
"She looks like you."
Even though she was a newborn, her distinct features made it clear that she resembled Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk smiled brilliantly and spoke to the baby in a whisper.
"Daughter, I congratulate you on being born into this world."
Swoooosh.
Geom Mugeuk turned his head and looked out the window.
Someone was flying toward them from afar at the speed of light.
Geom Ujin was flying toward them, pushing the Cheonma Flying Technique to its limits.