〈Chapter 216〉 Portents (2)
The sunset sky.
The sky slowly dyeing crimson and the hair bathed in the bright sunset glow
reflected upon it.
It looked almost like golden hair.
The reason I was flustered was none other than this.
Unlike usual, along with her uncharacteristically cool and sunken gaze.
It was because the title by which she called me was all too familiar in a different sense.
—Young Master Gu.
It was just like when she called me in my previous life.
‘Did I mishear her?’
But it had been all too vivid to be that.
And it couldn’t possibly be a dream.
I could only look at her, at Wiseol-a, with trembling eyes.
“You… what did you just say…?”
My words lightly stumbled, utterly flustered.
Because my mind was in turmoil.
Could it be.
Could it really, truly be.
The thought that Wiseol-a might have also turned back time like me.
I couldn’t do anything about my heart beating wildly.
‘If that’s the case, what would I do?’
The moment I tried to speak, I thought that inside.
Asking myself what I would do if that were so.
‘Then what would change?’
Thump. I felt my body freeze and stop rigidly, as if turned to stone.
What welled up from within was unmistakably fear.
That she might perhaps have memories of her past life.
Was I afraid of that?
‘Yes.’
The sins I had committed.
That she might remember them all.
That if it came to that, I might not be able to maintain the relationship we have now.
That was what I feared right now.
‘You stupid bastard.’
To think that now, of all times, I was only worrying about such a thing.
It was insufficient to use my younger body as an excuse for thinking that way.
I was simply an inadequate human being.
I simply didn’t want to keep admitting it.
As if suffocating, I couldn’t bring myself to say what I had been about to utter.
I simply gazed into Wiseol-a’s eyes.
‘What should I say?’
If that were the case.
What words should I utter?
Tens of thousands of thoughts flashed through my mind at once, but.
In the end, I couldn’t say anything, and only silence lingered.
Then.
Trickle—
A tear fell from one of Wiseol-a’s eyes.
Strangely, the tears streaming from only one eye, not both,
along with Wiseol-a’s beauty, revealed a special atmosphere.
“N-no… th-that… why…”
Of course, contrary to that, I couldn’t help but be greatly flustered.
Why was she crying so suddenly?
Even though we had been together for quite some time.
Someone’s tears were still difficult for me.
Especially Wiseol-a crying made it even more so.
I was fumbling about, clueless whether it was regression or what, so Wiseol-a looked at me and opened her mouth.
“…Why… did you leave me behind?”
Her voice was full of tears.
Rather, seeing that, I thought it was a relief.
At least, it seemed Wiseol-a hadn’t turned back time like I had.
‘Is she simply hurt?’
Along with her crying, her slowly crumbling expression.
From her sniffling figure, I could see the present Wiseol-a.
“You took Sister with you….”
Her appearance, crying as if she were immensely upset, was unmistakably the present Wiseol-a.
Seeing this, I didn’t know whether I should call it a relief.
Or whether I should say it wasn’t entirely good because I would have to comfort her.
“…I didn’t take her, she followed me on her own.”
“That’s terrible…! Anyway… anyway…! You went together…!”
Who knew she would chase after me and follow?
‘I was the one more surprised.’
Who knew she would suddenly reach the Apex and follow me all the way to the Black Night Palace?
Honestly, I had too many excuses to make.
“Really… you’re terrible.”
With Wiseol-a crying in front of me, I was in no position to say all I could say.
I wasn’t exactly in the right.
‘…Ugh.’
Especially since I had run away, leaving Wiseol-a behind as if abandoning her.
I had somewhat expected things to turn out like this when I returned.
[So you mean you expected it but didn’t worry about it.]
‘…I did worry.’
It was simply because too many things were happening right away that it had been pushed to the back of my mind.
“Why… aren’t you scolding me?”
“Huh?”
At Wiseol-a’s words as she wiped her tears.
I had to make a puzzled expression.
Why would I scold her?
“You called me Young Lord… Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Huh?”
The way she had addressed me just moments ago had been different.
—Young Master Gu.
Was that her asking me to scold her?
“…What? Do you want to get scolded by me?”
Did Wiseol-a have such a taste…?
If so, that was very different from how she looked.
At this, Wiseol-a frowned slightly and said,
“It’s not like that….”
“Then what is it?”
Wiseol-a didn’t answer and turned her head sharply with a huff.
It was as if she was showing me that she was completely sulking.
“…Well.”
What should I say?
I pondered for a very brief moment.
But seeing her turn away and dab her tears.
In the end, there was only one thing I could say.
“Sorry.”
I spoke to Wiseol-a in a voice that feigned calmness but wasn’t.
“I’m sorry for leaving you behind.”
Thinking she might not have heard, I apologized once more.
“It wasn’t for any other reason; it was a dangerous situation, so I felt it was difficult to take you with me.”
The reason I could take Namgung Bia with me, too.
Was not just because she had chased after me.
But because she had become an Apex martial artist.
Once she had reached that level, I could at least worry a little less.
At my words, Wiseol-a asked.
“…Is it because I’m weak?”
“Yes.”
I answered honestly.
It wasn’t a place where I could look after Wiseol-a while moving around.
Above all, it was a space where anything could happen, so I didn’t want to take Wiseol-a there.
Fortunately, Wiseol-a didn’t seem too shocked.
She simply wiped her flowing tears.
And showed no other reaction.
Wiseol-a, who had been quietly moving her lips, cautiously spoke to me as if it were something she had been holding back.
“I… I wish Young Master wouldn’t get hurt.”
“I’m healthy. You can see that at a glance.”
“But why do you always come back injured…?”
“…”
Had I been?
At least this time, I didn’t think I’d been injured.
Though I had almost been hurt.
“I… I’ll work hard.”
“What do you keep saying you’ll work hard at? You’ve always been working hard.”
At least from what I could see.
Did my words not sit well with her? Wiseol-a suddenly shouted.
“There is something…!”
As if I didn’t know.
Then could it be that she meant swordsmanship?
Wiseol-a was holding a wooden sword even now.
But seeing her sword path earlier, she didn’t seem to be doing very well.
I don’t know much about swords, but at least that didn’t seem like a normal method.
‘Then it seems the Sword Venerable isn’t teaching her.’
At least if it were the Sword Venerable, he wouldn’t have taught her in such a way.
Because even to my eyes, it was drastically different from how Wiseol-a had moved in her previous life.
No, perhaps I should say it was similar.
It was somehow difficult to explain.
It wasn’t simply crude; there was something subtle about it.
“So, Young Master too… Please don’t leave me behind from now on?”
It seemed that was what she had wanted to say all along.
“I was so scared….”
I didn’t ask what had been scary.
Because for some reason, I felt reluctant to hear the answer.
“…I’m sorry.”
I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it again.
Because that would be a lie.
I had no intention of pushing Wiseol-a into dangerous situations in the future either.
However.
‘I can’t just leave her to do nothing like this.’
I knew the Heavenly Demon was already in this land.
Moreover, now that I had let the Heavenly Demon slip away with the Black Night Palace Lord.
I couldn’t leave Wiseol-a in peace as if the world were tranquil.
‘…Even if I don’t want her to take up the sword.’
I felt she should at least be able to protect her own body.
Even if she wouldn’t be the Divine Sword running on the front lines bearing all expectations and burdens like in her previous life.
She should at least be able to protect her own body.
For that, it would be best if the Sword Venerable stepped forward.
But the Sword Venerable wasn’t doing so.
‘What is he thinking?’
I couldn’t know.
I didn’t think the Sword Venerable would truly live his entire life as a servant of the Gu family.
I didn’t even know why he was staying in the Gu family in the first place.
I couldn’t understand why the current Sword Venerable wouldn’t place a sword in Wiseol-a’s hands.
‘There must be something going on.’
I had known that the old man called the Three Venerables had his circumstances.
But now I needed to know the details of those circumstances.
Especially when I thought of the Heavenly Demon I had seen in the Mudong mountain range.
Recalling that dark child from back then.
I looked at Wiseol-a, sniffling in front of me.
‘She’s a different person.’
She is definitely a different person.
Even if her smiling face resembles hers.
Even if the atmosphere she gives off is strangely similar.
You and her are different people.
‘Though I can’t say they are unrelated.’
That much I had to think clearly.
“Young Master.”
“Huh?”
“…You’re thinking about something else again…?”
“…No. I’m not.”
Caught.
If this habit of falling into thought so easily showed itself in battle, it would be a disaster.
It was a habit I had to fix.
Though it wasn’t exactly easy.
“Really? You’re not lying?”
“…Of course not.”
“But that’s the face Young Master makes when he’s lying….”
“What the hell kind of face is that?”
“A very strange face.”
“…?”
The sniffling voice was nowhere to be found; in this part, her voice was extremely firm.
How mean.
After that, Wiseol-a sniffled her nose a few times.
The sky gradually turning to night came into view.
The weather was growing colder accordingly.
I hardly feel the cold.
But Wiseol-a likely couldn’t, so we had to start heading down.
“Now, let’s go down. It’s getting cold—”
Plop.
I tried to say we should go, but before I knew it, Wiseol-a had approached and buried herself in my embrace.
I tried to hurry her to go down quickly.
But hearing the quiet sniffling from my embrace, I couldn’t speak and had to stroke Wiseol-a’s small back.
I included heat so she wouldn’t be cold.
As I stayed still, the hands Wiseol-a had wrapped around me gripped tighter.
It felt like she wouldn’t let go easily.
‘Her strength… is greater than I thought?’
The pressure from Wiseol-a was at a level where if I endured a little longer, it would strain my ribs.
An ordinary person without internal energy might really have been folded in half.
“Let’s really go down now. Hongwa will be angry.”
Not at me, but at you.
“…Mmhmm.”
“That means you understand…?”
As if to say yes, Wiseol-a nodded from within my embrace.
Would this be enough?
I wished it would be so.
“Let’s go.”
“…’Kay.”
I took Wiseol-a’s hand in case she stumbled.
Perhaps because of the weather, it felt unusually cold.
Before the darkness fell further, I slowly moved my steps.
And as we descended the mountain, Wiseol-a didn’t say a word to me.
She only quietly sniffled.
At that moment.
Wiseol-a’s hand, which had been gradually warming up even though I hadn’t given it heat.
It bothered me somewhat.
By the time Wiseol-a had finally come down from the mountain and was getting an earful from Hongwa.
Even though she knew Gu Yangcheon had returned to the Gu family, Dang Soyeol was outside the estate.
There was much she wanted to say to Gu Yangcheon, to the point of wanting to find him immediately.
But because of the situation that had unfolded, there was somewhere she had to go first.
This was a marketplace in Shaanxi.
It was a place where Gu Yangcheon would buy snacks whenever he went out.
Hah… hoo.
It was indeed a place with many people that bustled all year round.
But it wasn’t exactly the largest street in Shaanxi.
Since it was near the Gu family’s territory, it might not be wrong to say it was the safest place in Shaanxi.
But in the center of such a street, Dang Soyeol had to swallow her breath as she looked at a building newly under construction.
Hah… they’re really building it?
It used to be the site of a large tavern.
Before she knew it, they had torn it down and were building an even larger building.
And it was a building for a famous merchant guild, at that.
Dang Soyeol knew about this merchant guild.
Not only had she heard of it through letters, but it was a fairly well-known place in the Central Plains to begin with, so there was no way she wouldn’t know.
The building currently under construction.
Was none other than a merchant guild run by the Moyong family, the hegemon of Yoryeong.
While she stood watching such a large building being constructed.
Someone spoke to Dang Soyeol.
“You’ve come early.”
“…You called for me.”
“That’s right. I am the one who called for you, young lady.”
A woman befitting the cold spring night.
The Snow Phoenix of the Moyong family.
Moyong Huia had approached Dang Soyeol.
Contrary to the weather, Moyong Huia, covering her face with a pretty fan, spoke with a smile.
“Even so, I didn’t tell you to come right away.”
“Is that so?”
“…Though perhaps there was a little of such feeling in it.”
Even to Dang Soyeol, who was the same gender, her subtly moving gestures were intensely captivating.
A swamp from which one could not escape once fallen into.
In Dang Soyeol’s eyes, Moyong Huia was such a woman.
“So, may I hear why you called for me, Lady Moyong?”
She had been bewildered when she received the letter.
But because her counterpart was Moyong Huia, Dang Soyeol had not refused.
The only reason her voice now held slight displeasure.
Was because she had not seen Gu Yangcheon even though he had returned.
Perhaps having noticed that.
Moyong Huia’s eyes curved like crescent moons.
“Let’s go inside first. It’s cold outside.”
“Can we go in?”
“Of course. They said the first floor is already finished.”
Finishing her words, Moyong Huia moved her steps inside the building.
Dang Soyeol watched the back of such a woman.
Suddenly, Moyong Huia stopped her steps and turned to Dang Soyeol, adding a word.
“Don’t worry. It will be good news for you as well, Lady Dang.”
“…Yes?”
As if saying she would tell the rest inside.
Moyong Huia entered the building.
After a brief hesitation, Dang Soyeol also followed her into the building.
And the conversation between the two women continued until late into the night.
The hour of the Ox had passed.
The patriarch’s chamber of the Gu family still had its lights on.
Because Gu Cheolun had many matters to handle.
The matters Gu Yangcheon had instigated.
The Martial Arts Alliance moving to wrap up the Black Night Palace affair.
Including the whereabouts of the escaped Palace Lord.
On top of that, matters regarding Gu Huibi, as well as business proposals delivered by the Moyong family.
The letters and documents piled on the desk were stacked higher than ever.
Having left the family estate and been active for quite some time, he should have been tired.
Gu Cheolun’s expression was still blank.
He simply repeated his work silently.
Rustle— Rustle—.
Inside the room, only the lit candles.
And the sound of flipping documents filled the air.
While he had been repeating the same motions for a long time.
Abruptly—
Gu Cheolun, who had been repeating, stopped moving in an instant.
And he set aside the things piled on the desk.
He adjusted his posture slightly.
Because a guest had arrived.
“Please come in.”
Creak.
The door to the patriarch’s chamber opened, and someone entered.
“Sorry for coming at a late hour.”
“It’s nothing.”
The guest who had arrived at dawn was none other than the Sword Venerable.
Gu Cheolun looked at the Sword Venerable who had come suddenly.
His already gaunt face had darkened with even deeper worry.
And perhaps as a reaction, the Sword Venerable’s usually rigid energy felt slightly disturbed.
The reason the Sword Venerable had come to find Gu Cheolun at this dawn.
Gu Cheolun already had a guess regarding this.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t help with what happened.”
“It’s fine.”
He knew that the Sword Venerable wouldn’t involve himself in matters regarding Gu Huibi.
Because during this time, the Sword Venerable had been moving tirelessly in ways seen and unseen.
Gu Cheolun looked at such a Sword Venerable and asked.
“The reason you have come to find me… is it because your preparations are now complete?”
To the calmly asked question.
The Sword Venerable slowly nodded his gaunt head.
“…That’s right.”
A night so quiet it was strange.
In the hollow dawn where not even a single night bug chirped.
The Sword Venerable spoke without opening his closed eyes.
“As soon as the Divine Physician’s preparations are complete… I think I shall leave.”