I'll be back. (2)
For a moment, I thought I had seen wrong.
That was because it was a situation where Wi Seol-a shouldn't be sitting here out of nowhere.
"Why are you here?"
It was the most flustered I had been among recent events.
Perhaps I was even more surprised than when I saw Gu Hui-bi's side yesterday due to the Bead of the Heavenly Path.
Why was Wi Seol-a, who should be asleep in her quarters by now, here?
"You..."
"Where are you going?"
"What?"
Before I could even ask, Wi Seol-a asked back.
"Young Master, where are you going?"
In the dark night where even the moonlight didn't shine properly, Wi Seol-a's swollen eyes met mine.
For a moment, I thought I should just run away without a word, but looking into those eyes, I absolutely couldn't do that.
"Just... I'm going somewhere for a bit."
"Where?"
"Even if I tell you, you wouldn't know."
"...Why do you go alone to a place even I wouldn't know?"
At Wi Seol-a's words, my mouth, which had been eagerly speaking, firmly shut.
Somehow, it felt a bit more serious than her usual childlike tone.
Because of that, I felt uncomfortable opening my mouth, which usually spoke so easily.
"I, and the older sisters too, were very worried."
"..."
Somehow, it felt like Wi Seol-a was reproaching me.
The Wi Seol-a I know shouldn't be someone who would do that.
As I looked at Wi Seol-a while feeling a subtle emotion,
Wi Seol-a continued speaking, looking at me like that.
"Young Master, why do you always try to do things alone?"
"When did I try to do things alone?"
"You're trying to do it alone right now, too."
"This is a dangerous place for you guys to go."
"A dangerous place?"
"Yes. This is unavoidable..."
"Then what about me, who is sending the Young Master alone to such a place...?"
The back-and-forth conversation went on endlessly, biting its own tail.
Eventually, I was about to get angry and ask how this and that were the same, but...
*Trickle.*
Seeing Wi Seol-a's face, I couldn't bring myself to speak.
Because the sight of tears rolling down her cheeks was deeply pitiful.
"I, too... worked hard. I trained hard... and I learned the sword."
At the meaning contained within Wi Seol-a's tearful words, I had to furrow my brow.
"...Learned what?"
Trained and learned the sword?
Wi Seol-a?
From whom.
'Don't tell me, the Sword Lord?'
The only person who came to mind right away was the Sword Lord.
In my past life, Wi Seol-a was naturally the successor of the Sword Lord.
And the martial arts she used were also the Sword Lord's. In a way, it was an obvious story.
The problem was that she had taken up the sword even in this life.
However, that shouldn't happen.
I was the one who wished the most for her not to take up the sword in this life.
I even thought that the life given to me now was for that purpose.
She shouldn't have taken up the sword by now.
"Why did you learn the sword?"
"I have to... If I do, I can protect you, Young Master."
"What?"
At Wi Seol-a's words, I felt dizzy as if I had been struck on the head with a blunt weapon.
'Because of me?'
Where exactly did this thread start tangling?
There were so many knotted parts that it was impossible to find the start even if I tried to slowly trace it back to untangle it.
"That's nonsense. Why would you protect me?"
Putting the past life aside, Wi Seol-a right now is at most a maid.
She has outstanding beauty and superior physical strength compared to her peers, but
Even so, she was ultimately a maid.
And, even if she had to live such a life,
I wanted her to be in peace.
I couldn't keep her as a maid forever, but
At least for now, I did.
Whether she knew my feelings or not, she continued speaking tearfully.
"I can too... I can do it too... They said I could."
"Who? Your grandfather?"
"..."
At my question, Wi Seol-a couldn't answer and fell silent, but
The only one who could say such things to Wi Seol-a was, no matter how I looked at it, the Sword Lord.
However.
'Did he really say such a thing to Wi Seol-a?'
Honestly, it was a story that was hard to understand.
Meanwhile, after hearing that Wi Seol-a had been training in the sword.
I felt like I knew the reason why Wi Seol-a used to disappear every evening in the past.
Was it all to train?
Then... did she come out to train now and happened to find me?
'At this late dawn?'
That didn't seem likely.
While I was having many different thoughts, Wi Seol-a spoke to me.
"Can't you... not go?"
Her tearful voice made me waver, but that didn't mean my answer would change.
Because it was something that had to be done.
"If you go... you said it's dangerous. Then can't you not... ugh."
At Wi Seol-a's words, I was about to say that I couldn't, but
Wi Seol-a's mouth, which was continuing to speak, firmly shut.
She held back the tears that were about to fall and closed her mouth on the words she was about to say.
What could it be.
As I looked at her with a question in mind, Wi Seol-a opened her mouth again.
"...Okay..."
"What...?"
Did she say okay because she realized I was going to refuse?
Wi Seol-a wiped the tears from her eyes.
"If this doesn't work, then together..."
Wi Seol-a, who was speaking, suddenly flinched and shivered.
Soon, as if recalling another method, Wi Seol-a spat out words again, but
She cut off even those words herself and closed her mouth.
After doing so a few times, the tears welling up in her eyes were so full that they looked like they would burst at a touch.
Wi Seol-a right now looked somehow unstable.
"Then... what can I do...? If it's like this, it means I can't do anything!"
Seeing Wi Seol-a like that, just as I felt something was off and thought about approaching her first,
"...!"
Presences were gradually felt from the direction of the estate.
It seemed they had noticed my disappearance.
If it continued like this, it was obvious things would become troublesome.
I first grabbed an object from my chest pocket and forcibly made Wi Seol-a hold it.
This was a red ornament I had received from Elder Yi as a gift through the Plum Blossom Fairy.
"At least hold onto this."
"Young Mas..."
"I'm sorry, let's talk again when I get back. I'll be right back."
I roughly stroked Wi Seol-a's hair and kicked off the ground to leap away.
As the distance widened, Wi Seol-a behind me weighed on my mind, but
I couldn't go back.
I felt like there were many things I had to talk about with Wi Seol-a, but
'We can talk about it when I return.'
First, putting out the immediate fire was the priority.
For now, that was all I could think.
As Gu Yang-cheon moved far away,
Wi Seol-a, left alone, was wiping away her endlessly flowing tears.
While tightly clutching the ornament Gu Yang-cheon had given her in her hand.
As she looked endlessly in the direction he had left,
someone spoke to Wi Seol-a.
[Child...]
Hearing the voice, Wi Seol-a made a very rare angry expression.
"Why can't I?"
The questioning words were quite sharp.
[...]
"Telling you not to go doesn't work, and following you doesn't work either... Why can't I do anything?"
At the words spat out as if resentful, the owner of the voice had no choice but to remain silent.
It was even more so because she was in a position to know Wi Seol-a's heart better than anyone.
"You said so, sister... That if I work hard, I can do it. That I can protect the Young Master.
But why can't I do anything...?"
[Right now... there is nothing you can do.]
"I really don't understand."
[Because you wished so earnestly, you even came to see him like this now.]
From the moment she knew Gu Yang-cheon was leaving somewhere.
She had come here with her help to see him somehow, but
"Did only I really wish for this?"
[...]
Wi Seol-a couldn't understand.
"...It's something you wished for too, isn't it?"
At Wi Seol-a's question, she couldn't say anything.
Because Wi Seol-a's words weren't actually wrong.
[...I.]
She tried to say something, but her heavy lips couldn't easily part.
And recalling such a her, Wi Seol-a spoke.
"Sister, you're cowardly."
Wi Seol-a thought she was cowardly.
"Sister, you like the Young Master too."
She did like him.
Wi Seol-a could know this better than anyone.
Perhaps, it was a denser and heavier emotion than the one she herself felt for Gu Yang-cheon.
"But why do you keep hiding, sister...?"
Because of that, Wi Seol-a couldn't understand her holding back her feelings.
If she liked him that much.
Wouldn't expressing it according to her heart be the right thing to do?
To the young Wi Seol-a, she just looked like a fool.
[It's truly amazing...]
"What is?"
[That even with a different situation, I could have been like you...]
The subtle differences that had changed from the very beginning.
Created the current Wi Seol-a.
In her eyes, the current Wi Seol-a
was a completely different person from herself.
If she had something she wanted to say, she didn't hesitate.
She was honest with her own feelings and didn't hesitate to express them.
As if she was certain that Gu Yang-cheon wouldn't hate her even if she did so.
And that he wouldn't push her away.
What created this young self was the current Gu Yang-cheon, but
Even so, while she envied the current Wi Seol-a,
she felt sorry.
Hoping that she would hold back her words in the name of doing it for him.
Hoping that she wouldn't reveal her feelings first.
Even hoping for this parting was all her doing.
She had no words she could say to the young Wi Seol-a.
"..."
Wi Seol-a, who had been blaming her and saying something, also closed her mouth in the end.
As much as they shared each other's feelings.
Wi Seol-a could know what kind of emotions she was looking at her with.
She just suppressed her tears and tightly gripped the ornament Gu Yang-cheon had given her.
Wi Seol-a recalled the back of the boy she couldn't bear to hold onto.
"...Young Master."
Recalling Gu Yang-cheon's hand that stroked her hair at the last moment,
Wi Seol-a roughly stroked her own hair with her hand.
Her words were difficult and hard to understand.
It was heartbreaking to see Gu Yang-cheon always getting hurt while moving busily, but
"I miss you..."
For now, she just missed him who had left.
The young Wi Seol-a had only such simple thoughts.
The blue mountain range to the north of the front lines.
The mountain range, mainly composed of huge ancient trees and rocks,
was a place brimming with the vividness of pure green light.
However, now.
Most of the green light that formed the vast terrain had disappeared.
Only the blackened fallen ancient trees and the pitch-black traces of burnt life remained.
The center of the mountain range.
At the center of the huge mountain range where not even a trace remained now.
A fiery heat that seemed like it would burn anything just by looking at it was swirling fiercely.
Flames were soaring into the air riding on the heat.
It was like a massive vortex.
The flames, gradually devouring the surroundings and expanding their range,
were cruel and without hesitation.
Like that, after soaring for a long time and turning the surroundings into scorched earth, the flames gradually oxidized and disappeared in an instant.
As the flames disappeared, the thick flames that were burning the surrounding mountain range also vanished like a lie.
All the flames disappeared, and at the center where the vortex had been,
a large pit had been dug out, and a fiercely looking man stood inside it with his hands clasped behind his back.
Around the pit, it was full of blackened corpses, so unrecognizable that their shapes couldn't even be made out.
There were easily dozens of people.
They all ended their lives without being able to resist even once against the man's hand.
They were all martial artists belonging to the Black Night Palace, and this was originally the place where a branch of the Black Night Palace was located.
But now, not even a trace of it remained.
Because it had turned to ashes at the man's hand and disappeared.
"..."
The man, who was inspecting the charred corpses around him, slowly turned his head and looked behind.
There, someone who wasn't originally there was kneeling on one knee towards the man.
The person, showing proper etiquette, carefully handed over a letter to the man and spoke.
"Patriarch, a letter has arrived from Elder Yi."
The man, Gu Cheol-un, immediately took the letter and unfolded it.
Inside the letter, it was briefly written in Elder Yi's rugged handwriting.
After reading the text, Gu Cheol-un's eyebrows twitched briefly.
The letter contained the information that Gu Cheol-un had so desperately wished for.
Gu Cheol-un, having read this, immediately gave an order.
"Commander of the First Sword Division."
"Yes, Patriarch."
"Prepare your forces."
Gu Cheol-un's two eyes, which had consistently been expressionless, gradually dyed red.
Soon after, a heavy energy descended as if to crush the surroundings.
The huge mountain range had to hold its breath in front of the presence the man exuded, as if it were nothing.
Gu Cheol-un took a step forward and said.
"We are going to the Mudong Mountain Range."
With those final words,
sparks flew, and Gu Cheol-un disappeared.