〈Episode 281〉 Winter Rain. (4)
Amidst the pouring rain.
In the midst of countless crowds.
The woman moved with hurried steps.
'...Why?'
Even while walking, she asks herself.
Why she is avoiding this place.
Even after facing the one she had so longed to see.
Why she is running away, avoiding him.
'Why on earth?'
She doesn't know.
She still doesn't know.
The moment she met his eyes.
She wanted to get away from that spot immediately.
'I'm scared.'
Yes, it's because she's scared.
The anxiety and fear rising to her throat scatter the sanity she had been struggling to hold.
Why on earth is she so scared?
The woman squeezed her eyes shut.
"Calm down."
Then, a voice rang out in her head as if it had been waiting.
It was a voice that had shown her the way since long ago.
She called the owner of this voice Unnie.
She had trusted and followed her.
And asked for direction when she didn't know the way, but.
'...I told you not to come out for a while.'
To her now, this was not a person she could trust much.
"Are you scared?"
'...'
"Are you afraid he won't recognize your changed appearance? Is that what scares you?"
Hearing those words, the woman couldn't say anything.
Because she couldn't bring herself to say no.
"You seem scared."
'...Don't talk like you understand so easily.'
"How could I not know? I'm the one who knows you best in this world."
"That's exactly what I'm saying—you speak so easily."
Even while denying it.
The woman bit her lip.
Because she couldn't bring herself to deny it.
Her appearance had changed drastically from when she was by his side.
How it would reflect in that person's eyes.
That's what scared her.
Also.
That she might hear resentful words from that person's mouth.
That was what the woman feared.
Asking why she left without a word.
Asking why she had changed so much.
The moment she saw his eyes from afar.
She was so afraid of that.
"He's not that kind of person."
'...I know.'
She knows.
That he's not someone who would bother with such things and utter resentful words.
Even so.
Even so, for some reason, she hides her appearance and avoids him.
Even though it was something she had longed for as much as she had hoped.
Splosh.
Having walked a stretch of rain-soaked street.
Before she knew it, she had left the city and entered a forest.
The people who had densely filled the streets.
Their voices that had filled her ears disappeared.
Only then could she breathe out.
"Haah... haah..."
Panting, the woman thinks.
That in the end, she couldn't exchange a single word.
She had wanted to ask if he had been well.
It seemed her pathetic self couldn't even do that properly.
Just looking at him from afar for a moment.
That was all she could manage.
'I worked so hard...'
The woman grabbed a tree, panting, and looked down at her own hand.
The fair, beautiful palm he had called pretty was now full of calluses.
It was the fruit of her efforts all this time.
Grip.
Looking at her palm, she clenched her fist.
"What do you plan to do now?"
She didn't answer the words she heard.
What should she do?
"If you go outside, many people will take notice of you."
A conversation she had with her grandfather before coming.
Honestly, it couldn't be called a conversation.
She hadn't said a word and only listened.
"That's what this old man worries about. I wish, Seol-a, that you would not set foot out into the world, but that won't be possible."
It was his way of saying he could no longer keep her bound.
As her grandfather wished.
The woman followed silently.
So at least in this, her grandfather had to acknowledge her.
After a long time, when the seal her grandfather had desired was complete.
The Divine Physician had spoken to the woman.
"It will not be as it was before. The presence you have regained will be unfamiliar, and because your vessel has been reduced, you will feel discomfort in your flesh as well."
Just as the Divine Physician said.
The woman had to feel countless discomforts.
Unlike before, her body felt weaker.
The unknown energy was hard to control.
The Divine Physician said.
Even her weakened flesh was incomparably strong compared to others.
That she could feel energy now.
Was because what had been too vast to fully grasp.
Had been slightly reduced, so now she could feel it.
So the woman asked back.
Why they had to go this far.
If how she was originally was better, wasn't there no need to do this.
To this, the Divine Physician answers.
"Your grandfather seems to wish for you to live as a human."
What does that mean?
Even now, the woman couldn't understand well.
She is human.
Born and raised, she is the same kind of human as the one she held in her heart.
Unable to understand this, that night she asked the other woman inside her body.
But at that time, she couldn't give any answer.
To the question of whether she wasn't human.
In the end, she couldn't answer.
Whatever the case.
From the moment she blocked her body's energy, even if unstably.
Only then could the woman finally begin the training she desired.
During the day, she received training from her grandfather.
At night, she filled in the lacking parts of her swordsmanship with another.
Was swinging the sword she had longed for so much enjoyable?
Honestly, she didn't really know.
It would be right to say she felt no excitement.
Because the purpose for deciding to learn the sword was different from the start.
She simply swung it silently.
The martial arts her grandfather taught were beautiful.
Called such because moonlight permeated the sword.
Or so it was called, the Wolseon Swordsmanship.
At first.
The moment she saw her grandfather swing the sword under the moonlight.
It was beautiful enough to captivate her completely.
That alone wasn't bad as a driving force.
For half a year, she swung it to bring forth light from the sword in her hand.
Moonlight settled far too easily on the woman's sword.
She showed it proudly, and she remembered her grandfather had sad eyes seeing it.
Why did he have such eyes? She didn't know.
She didn't want to know.
The woman swung her sword after that day as well.
Just steadily.
Without rest.
If she could reduce it, she cut back on sleep too.
The gluttony that had craved food was somehow no longer felt.
Was it because he was gone?
Or perhaps, as the Divine Physician said, thanks to the excuse of the seal.
It was hard to know if even her embarrassing gluttony had been blocked.
Then one day.
Feeling something different in her body, she asked her grandfather.
He told her that the woman had transcended the wall.
It was when just over a year had passed since she took up the sword.
Moonlight filled the blade.
After her grandfather said she had transcended the wall.
Soon after, changes occurred in the woman's flesh.
Perhaps energy seeped into her pupils, for they turned golden.
Her dark brown hair too gradually dyed into golden color.
Her body grew rapidly.
She came to possess a body different from the past.
The cheek he used to touch, saying it pleased him, had long since disappeared without a trace.
If those who remembered her had seen her.
They wouldn't have recognized who she was for quite a while.
She truly hated that.
She wished she had been as she was before.
So that he could recognize her easily.
"My child..."
The tone was full of pity.
Though that voice felt sincere.
The woman didn't trust her.
From about when she began training with the sword. From the point she started dreaming a certain dream at night.
Furthermore.
From the point she realized that dream was her memory.
The woman could no longer trust her.
Drip, drop.
The rain that fell through the dense forest.
Traced her thin shoulder line and soaked her clothes.
Even so, the woman didn't move.
Because her footsteps felt as heavy as if weights were attached.
"What do you plan to do now? You wanted to see him so badly."
'...'
She wanted to see him.
She wanted to see the gaze that looked at her.
She missed the blunt touch that had stroked her head.
But.
Courage didn't come easily.
'Will it be okay...?'
To face him looking like this.
Would it be okay?
The woman was afraid of that.
While standing in the soaking rain, biting her lip hard.
Whoosh.
Surprised by the heat felt behind her, the woman turned around startled.
Hiss.
The sound of moisture on the ground evaporating from the heat.
Turning around, someone was shaking off their entire body, steaming hot.
"You came all this way to see me, so where are you running off to? Making me chase you around annoyingly."
"...Ah."
Unlike the last time she saw him.
A slightly deeper voice.
Though she had seen him from afar.
He seemed a bit taller.
His frame seemed to have grown a bit.
His eyes were still fierce, but.
Facing the pupils and emotions contained within them.
Her suffocating chest felt warm.
'No.'
Even as she thought this, the woman pulled the cloak covering her face a little tighter.
Because she didn't want to show him.
How did he follow her?
She had deliberately disappeared among the crowds.
Had he drawn out heat?
Water was evaporating from his body to create heat.
Did that mean he ran that fast?
As evidence that he had raised his internal energy, his eyes were tinged red.
Thud.
"...!"
Seeing him take a step closer.
The woman flinched and trembled.
As if unconcerned by that, he approached the woman.
'She's gotten thinner.'
This was his first impression after so long.
Unlike before, her body's lines seemed toned.
Furthermore, seeing the sword at her waist.
It seemed she really was learning the sword from the Sword Sovereign.
Taking one step closer.
The girl flinched and took a step back.
Seeing that, I spoke first.
"Even if you run again, I'll chase you until I die trying to catch you, so just stay still."
Seeing her flinch at my words.
As expected, it seemed she had been trying to run again.
Of course, even if she ran again, I had no intention of letting her go.
What was she so scared of?
The girl tried to cover her face more with what she was wearing.
"Didn't you come to see me earlier? Where are you going?"
She flinched.
No answer.
But I didn't mind.
I just slowly approached.
"You won't even say 'long time no see.' Or do you not want to talk to me?"
"...N-no."
She spat it out bluntly.
Only then could I hear her voice.
It was a voice that seemed a bit more mature.
But it hadn't changed much from the voice in my memory.
Before I knew it, the distance had become close enough to touch.
I could see her shoulders trembling, perhaps from the cold.
Meanwhile, I had to calm my exhausted breathing inwardly.
'Why is she so fast.'
It felt like I had used half my internal energy just chasing her.
It couldn't be helped since I had to heighten my senses to find her.
Besides, no matter how fast she ran, to keep up I had to use energy, so my internal energy was depleted.
It had been a while since I felt tired.
Even so.
'I caught her.'
I followed without losing her.
That was enough.
Slide.
I take another step closer.
Flinched.
The girl's shoulders tremble.
'Where to begin.'
What should I ask first?
Should I ask why she left with just a single letter?
If not that, how she had been?
Why she ran the moment she saw me.
Why she was here.
Why she was trembling so. If she was hurting somewhere.
There was so much I wanted to ask.
Pushing aside tens of thousands of thoughts.
What actually came out of my mouth was something else.
"Long time no see."
"...!"
For some reason, the girl seemed surprised at my words.
Her trembling shoulders stopped.
It felt like the head she had been trying to turn away was slowly coming back this way.
"Have you been well?"
"Ah... ugh..."
A hesitant voice, as if she couldn't answer properly.
I never thought our reunion would feel like this.
"I've been well enough, I suppose."
Of course, this and that happened, and I got engaged too.
I had become able to turn another human into a demon, but.
My body was perfectly fine, so it should be true.
There was much I wanted to say.
But I felt this was enough for now.
I reached out my hand.
The cold raindrops were quite unpleasant.
But that could be dried off later.
Reaching out carefully, showing my palm.
Only then.
Swish.
A white hand came up over mine. Though I had to wait quite a while as it hesitated and wavered.
In the end, it was fine.
Seeing it come up, I slowly held it.
I didn't grip it tight.
Just enough to envelop it gently.
That should be enough.
"It'd be nice if you showed your face now. You came to see me after so long, surely you're not going to hide it?"
I said with a chuckle.
The girl seemed somehow extremely hesitant.
The reason she was covering her face like that.
I wondered if perhaps she wished I wouldn't recognize her.
If she really thought that, it was a huge mistake.
Truly, a huge mistake.
No matter how much time passes.
There's no way I wouldn't recognize you.
After hesitating for a long while.
Her other hand, the one not holding mine, went up.
She grabbed what was covering her face and slowly pulled it down.
Rustle—
Pulled down bit by bit, falling away.
Her hidden face came into view.
Pupils trembling uneasily.
And yet, the gaze that tried hard to meet mine.
I smiled without realizing it.
"Long time no see."
And I uttered the same words as before.
I felt that now the meaning of the words would properly reach her.
" "
Hearing this, she, Wi Seol-a,
"L...ong time no see."
Finally answered me.
Drip.
Drop....
The feeling of the winter rain soaking her shoulders lessened.
Gradually decreasing.
Before I knew it, it could no longer be felt.
The winter rain that had fallen for days.
Had finally stopped.