Omen. (3)
Wi Seol-ah dreamed for the first time in a while.
Dreams like this had occurred occasionally since she met her 'older sister', but.
Today's was an exceptionally vivid dream.
It was perhaps the most vivid one since that day in the past.
'Where... Where is it?'
By now, Wi Seol-ah had grown somewhat accustomed to this hazy sensation.
The sensation of her body not feeling like her own.
The world viewed from a third-person perspective.
Through several experiences, she no longer felt a significant sense of dissonance.
"Where are you?"
Wi Seol-ah reacted to someone's voice.
A beautiful voice.
Wi Seol-ah knew whose voice this was.
"...I asked where you are."
The woman who spat those words, not hiding the emotions boiling beneath her calm exterior.
had a face as beautiful as her voice.
However, unlike her elegant appearance.
The place she was in was covered in thick dust.
A prison where not a single ray of sunlight entered.
The walls were covered in marks of torture.
And the dried blood created a chilling atmosphere just by looking at it.
With just this, Wi Seol-ah could tell.
That this time, too, was a nightmare.
As such, dreams featuring that woman were mostly nightmares for Wi Seol-ah.
Because people died so frequently.
Whether the woman killed someone.
Or someone died for the woman.
The world crumbling.
And in the midst of it all, the woman silently swung her sword.
From Wi Seol-ah's perspective, who knew her end, just watching it was a hellish
experience.
The woman did not cry.
Even when the one protecting her died.
Even when her beloved family died.
Even when her comrades died, and even when comrades who turned into enemies died.
The woman merely swung her sword in silence.
Wi Seol-ah thought the woman was a cold person.
Because if it were her, she felt she wouldn't be able to keep such an expression in
this kind of situation.
That very woman.
Was rarely revealing her emotions.
'Who...?'
It was blurry.
The person the woman was looking at was not clearly visible to Wi Seol-ah, appearing only
as a hazy, foggy silhouette.
Judging by the body, it seemed to be a man, but.
The man gave no answer to the woman's words.
'Dead... is he dead...?'
Fortunately, that wasn't the case; the man was breathing very shallowly.
He seemed severely injured somewhere, his appearance stained with blood was noticeable.
It ached her heart somehow, forcing Wi Seol-ah to bite her lip.
"You surely must know, right? Where the remaining Demonic cultivators went."
As if she didn't care about the man's state, the woman just kept talking to him.
No.
Wi Seol-ah could tell.
It wasn't that the woman didn't care about the man.
She was just enduring it.
From her body, emotions like anger, regret, despair, and longing.
Emotions that couldn't coexist were swirling wildly.
Enduring all of them.
The woman was merely speaking to the man.
"To you..."
The woman, who was speaking, bit her lip for a moment.
"If you have even a shred of conscience left..."
The words that followed trembled faintly.
Was that anger?
Or was it pity?
Or perhaps both.
The young Wi Seol-ah couldn't know that much.
However, as if confirming the intense emotion.
- Crack.
She could feel the woman tightly clenching her fist.
Blood dripped from her tightly clenched fist, but the woman didn't seem to be in
pain.
"This is the last chance. Everyone is wishing for your death, but if you help me just
this once, I'll stake everything I have to at least spare your life."
The woman's voice began to tremble more and more.
Please, tell me. That she had to do even this.
The woman's heart was surely screaming that.
So.
"...So please."
Tell me.
Through her tightly bitten lips.
The woman desperately held back from spitting out her last words.
The man, having heard all of the woman's words, remained silent.
Or perhaps he was unable to speak.
He merely let out a shallow breath.
And looked up at the woman.
With what kind of eyes, and what kind of emotion was that man looking at the woman?
Wi Seol-ah wanted to see it, but it wasn't visible.
"So tell me quickly. Where are they hiding."
Saying that, the woman grabbed the man by the collar.
Please, give me some kind of reaction.
As if telling him to do something, the woman swallowed the words boiling up inside
her, but.
The man still said nothing.
Then, the woman moved her hand and threw the man to the floor.
As a result, he hit the stone floor hard, but.
The man didn't let out a single groan.
He only showed the appearance of having given up on everything.
Looking at that sight, the woman spoke.
"If I had known you were such a vile human, I would have killed you the moment I
first saw you."
The emotions driving her certainly contained anger, but.
Wi Seol-ah caught a very slight emotion that was losing its center and creaking
within it.
If I had chosen a slightly different approach.
If I had said slightly different words to you.
Maybe it wouldn't have come to this.
Conflicting thoughts filled the woman's mind.
"...I regret it so much."
After spitting out those words.
The woman quietly looked down at the fallen man.
The tumbling emotions coiled as if they would explode right away, but.
The woman simply kept enduring.
Leaving the man behind.
The woman turned around and headed out.
Her steps were full of hesitation, but.
She maintained her firmness as if refusing to show it on the outside.
Right when she wondered if she truly intended to leave like this.
Shuf-
fle—
At the presence from behind, the woman immediately turned her head.
In her returning gaze, the man was creaking as he moved his ruined body.
The woman looked at the man with eyes trembling intensely.
Drip. Trickle.
Whether he knew of that gaze or not.
The man began to write something on the floor with trembling fingertips.
One line.
And another line.
Every time he wrote something down on the floor.
Blood gushed out from the man's mouth.
As if writing that was something he shouldn't be doing.
"What are you doing...!"
The woman, having checked the man's state, raised her voice and rushed over urgently,
but.
Suddenly, the woman's body swayed.
The woman also seemed to be in poor condition somehow.
"Wait..."
As if the woman noticed something from the man's state, she barely regained her
posture and ran toward him, but.
From the man's body, who had written all the words.
Crack—!
With a sound of something bursting, his body collapsed.
The woman used all her strength to support and hold the man.
"Please... Please..."
Urgently, the woman desperately tried to check on the man, but.
From his body growing cold.
And his eyes losing consciousness.
She could tell that the man's life had already ended.
'...Why...?'
Wi Seol-ah couldn't understand.
Someone trapped in a prison like this must surely be a bad person.
The reason why the woman revealed such emotions toward the man.
Wi Seol-ah couldn't know.
The one thing she could know was.
That what the woman was feeling right now was definitely sorrow.
So many emotions were swirling, boiling as if they would burst and cluster in one
place, yet.
What remained with the woman now was solely sorrow.
And a very deep and dark sorrow at that.
'...I want to wake up.'
Wi Seol-ah wanted to wake up from this dream right away.
Because the emotions she was feeling now were too heavy for her to bear.
Just before dying, what did the man truly want to convey to the woman?
Because the woman moved to urgently embrace the man, the words written in blood
on the floor were no longer there.
Surely it was the information the woman needed.
However.
To the woman right now, the words weren't important.
Drop.
Drop.
Waterdrops fell to the floor.
It wasn't blood.
'Crying...?'
Wi Seol-ah could see it.
The woman, who hadn't shed a single tear even in those harsh situations.
Was shedding tears as she held the man in her arms.
The woman, who had been sobbing, slowly began to cry out loud.
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At the same time, Wi Seol-ah couldn't withstand the emotions she felt from the woman
and had to shiver.
Such deep pain was a first for her.
Raising her arm when scolded by Hongwa.
It was different from the pain she felt in her hands while swinging a wooden sword.
The pain felt by the heart was so deep that it was not easily endured.
'I want to wake up... Please...'
Dreams were never on Wi Seol-ah's side.
Just because she wanted to wake up didn't mean she could, so did she have to just
endure it this time as well?
'Young Master...'
Wi Seol-ah squeezed her eyes shut, thinking of Gu Yang-cheon.
Of course, closing her eyes didn't mean the dream would end.
The woman, who had been crying out as if screaming.
Blocked her throat as if digesting her emotions and suppressed her voice.
Because someone had approached.
"Alliance Leader."
At the voice of someone approaching the prison.
The woman cleared her throat and answered.
"...What is it?"
"...The one you were looking for... Ah."
The middle-aged man stopped speaking when he saw who the woman was holding.
"The Demonic Emperor..."
Before the man could say anything.
The woman slowly stood up.
After gently laying the body of the dead on the ground.
The man deliberately bowed his head.
Because he shouldn't face the woman's face right now.
"Gyeol-wang."
"Yes, Alliance Leader."
"If there are any remaining Demonic cultivators, tell them. Tell them the Demonic
Emperor is dead."
"...Understood."
The woman stepped out as if she had no lingering regrets.
Gyeol-wang, left alone, looked at the Demonic Emperor, whose eyes were quietly closed.
"Farewell."
Just those words.
Gyeol-wang spat out the short words and disappeared from the prison, following the
woman.
And Wi Seol-ah, left alone in the room.
Looked down at the man who had died so desolately.
His face was still unseen, but.
For some reason, it felt familiar.
In the place where the woman's deep anger and heavy sorrow had departed.
Originally, they shouldn't have been able to separate from the woman, yet.
Wi Seol-ah found it strange that she was left alone here.
'Why...'
Even though it was a dark and scary place.
For some reason, it didn't just feel terrifying.
Wi Seol-ah, left alone.
Reached out her translucent hand toward the man.
There was no reason.
It was just because she felt she had to for some reason.
Right as her small fingertips were about to touch the man.
- Are you truly sure about this?
As a different voice reached Wi Seol-ah's ears.
Her eyes opened.
She had woken up from the nightmare.
Deep dawn.
With hazy eyes still heavy with sleep, Wi Seol-ah surveyed her surroundings.
Not far away, a small candle was lit.
And two old men were having a conversation.
"I am asking if that is truly alright."
"Is there something wrong with it?"
Perhaps because she woke up in the middle of it.
Sleepiness was still rushing in.
She was curious about what her grandfather behind her was saying, but.
Wi Seol-ah couldn't fight off the overwhelming drowsiness and had to fall back asleep.
Wi Seol-ah, who fell asleep unable to overcome her sleepiness.
Geomjon was quietly watching such a Wi Seol-ah.
"...What are you doing?"
"It's nothing. The child seemed to wake up briefly, so I put her back to sleep."
How Geomjon, who was sitting far away, put Wi Seol-ah back to sleep was unclear,
but.
Sin-ui didn't bother to ask.
Because they had a more important story to discuss right now.
"Though I am presumptuously called the Sin-ui (Divine Doctor), I am certainly no
god."
"I know."
"No, it seems the Alliance Leader does not know well. I am saying there are things
even I cannot do."
"However, the fact that you, Sin-ui, accepted means it is something that can be
done, does it not?"
"...Hah, Alliance Leader..."
Geomjon spoke at Sin-ui's lament.
"I want that child to grow up as an ordinary child."
"That is the most difficult wish."
At Geomjon's words, Sin-ui had to click his tongue inwardly.
The child sleeping in the back.
Sin-ui had to gasp in shock looking at the massive space that child possessed.
It was too vast to be called a human vessel.
It was so wide and high that it appeared to have nothing in it.
Perhaps that was why Geomjon requested Sin-ui.
To please seal that.
To seal that massive vessel that anyone would covet.
Sin-ui couldn't understand Geomjon's words.
"...Please understand that this is not within the realm of medicine."
"I know. That is precisely why I sought you out even more."
Sin-ui.
Or the old man called Tae-ui, his real name was Jegal.
A name that had now disappeared, or been lost.
A prestigious family of the past.
They explored and evolved the realm of formations.
And it was a family that researched and studied the Demonic Abyss.
The fact that Geomjon knew that made Sin-ui feel extremely uncomfortable.
Those who knew of this in the Central Plains could be counted on one hand, but of
all people, it was Geomjon who knew.
"...If you grant this request, I will give you what Sin-ui desires."
"Hah, where on earth do you intend to procure a Grade-100 Demonic Beast Core."
Despite Geomjon's confidence, Sin-ui couldn't easily believe it.
What Sin-ui had been searching for over the past years was the core of a Grade-100
Demonic Beast.
As a Grade-100 Demonic Abyss Gate hadn't appeared for a very long time.
Obtaining a Grade-100 Demonic Beast Core was virtually impossible, but.
Geomjon was saying.
That he could give this to Sin-ui.
"...There are no lies. If you want, you can even place a restriction on me."
Looking at such a Geomjon, Sin-ui let out a deep sigh.
Because he somewhat understood his desperation.
The reason he, too, was ultimately seeking a Grade-100 Demonic Core.
Was because of a granddaughter he cherished more than his own eyes.
"...I'll say it again, but a lot of preparation will be needed. It's even more
impossible to do here."
"I have already told the Gu Family Head. I said we will leave once Sin-ui's
preparations are complete."
Currently, Sin-ui was taking care of the people of the Gu Family.
And Sin-ui was a man who would never leave his patients behind, no matter what.
So if he left, it would be after the current people had all recovered.
Without hiding his reluctant face.
He asked Geomjon.
"Where are you planning to go."
As the matter was far from smooth.
A lot of preparation and expenses were needed.
Moreover, since the task had to proceed in secret, they had to move in absolute
secrecy.
It would be difficult to go to a suitable place.
To Sin-ui's question, Geomjon answered.
"...We will go to Qinghai."
At Geomjon's words, a place came to Sin-ui's mind.
One of the Nine Sects and One Faction.
Qinghai, where the Kunlun Sect is located.
However, the place Geomjon was heading to wouldn't be Kunlun.
Because that place wasn't just the Kunlun Sect.
It was also where the main family of the Jang Family, who are currently in Henan,
used to be located.
Like that, noon of the next day arrived.
"We will hold an Elders' Council regarding the First Young Master."
In the Gu Family, an Elders' Council was convened, led by the Family Head.