Chapter 474 - For You, Forgotten by Oblivion.
Rrrrip.
Immediately after the Demonic Realm Gate that had swallowed Gu Yangcheon gradually vanished, and even the traces of the rift disappeared completely, Cheonma was quietly staring into the void.
Silence lingered, circling their surroundings.
"Haa... haa...."
Gu Yangcheon had vanished so suddenly. Gazes searching for him could be felt from all around.
Accordingly, Cheonma turned her gaze to Ma Geomhu.
“Ma Geomhu.”
At Cheonma’s call, Ma Geomhu, who had been kneeling, raised her head.
Cheonma could feel it in that gaze.
The regret clearly visible in Ma Geomhu’s eyes.
So she asked.
“Are you regretful?”
“...No, I am not....”
It was a lie. Ma Geomhu was clearly feeling regret.
However, Cheonma did not blame Ma Geomhu for such a lie.
For in the countless lives she had experienced, Ma Geomhu had always been that way.
Moreover.
Mixed within was remorse for not having saved Ma Geomhu’s life despite being able to.
Even if it had been out of necessity, it was inevitably something that subtly irked her.
Therefore, just this once, Cheonma decided to show mercy.
“If you wish, speak.”
Cheonma spoke and pointed her hand at the void.
Then.
Tzzzt—!
“...!”
The void began to tear at the fingertips of Cheonma’s outstretched hand.
“If you wish, I shall send you there as well.”
“...”
The rift grew in size as her hand moved.
Unlike the white rift that had devoured Gu Yangcheon, the rift Cheonma created was filled with a purple light.
“...”
Even so, Ma Geomhu could tell.
That if she went there, she would be able to see Gu Yangcheon.
Because the Lord was not one to utter falsehoods.
If she truly went there, could she see him again?
That thought flitted through Ma Geomhu’s mind.
There were still many things she had yet to ask.
Furthermore, recalling the gaze with which the Gu Yangcheon from just before, rather than the one here, had looked at her, Ma Geomhu could feel various emotions.
She wanted to see those eyes more.
She also wanted to hear why he had come to look at her with such eyes.
She remembered the hand that had reached for her first when the rift approached.
It had been but a brief moment, yet everything remained engraved in her mind like a brand.
But.
“...I will not go.”
Ma Geomhu had no intention of going to find him.
At that resolute answer, Cheonma tilted her head and asked.
“The reason?”
“Because... my... he is here.”
“Hmm.”
At Ma Geomhu’s answer, Cheonma raised the corner of her lips and turned her head.
It was an utterly laughable answer.
Ma Geomhu’s pupils shone clearly. Looking at that, Cheonma thought:
‘My... she says.’
The subtle words she had spat out.
The Gu Yangcheon who had disappeared now was also Gu Yangcheon, but.
The Gu Yangcheon who remained in this era was more important.
It might have seemed to mean that at a glance.
But seeing as she had gone out of her way to call him “hers.”
It was as if she had spat out words directed at the half panting before her, or.
Words uttered for Cheonma to hear.
‘I’m slightly annoyed.’
Killing intent suddenly arose.
Feeling a terrible emotion she hadn’t felt in a long time, Cheonma barely held back a smile.
She wanted to rip out Ma Geomhu’s heart and kill her right now, but.
She couldn’t.
Ma Geomhu still had things she needed to do in this life,
and because it was an answer satisfactory enough, in its own way, to stir killing intent.
Creak.
She withdrew the fingertips that had been causing the rift.
As Cheonma withdrew her hand, the rift closed on its own and vanished without a trace.
“You have spoken words to my liking, so I shall let it pass this once.”
Ma Geomhu lowered her head at those inadvertently spoken words.
At this, Cheonma let out a soft laugh.
Seeing that, it seemed the words had indeed been directed at herself.
She would have normally handed down punishment, but she decided to let it go because it was similar to the intention she herself held.
Moreover.
Because she now knew where she had to go....
After who knows how many times—thousands of repetitions—she had finally found it.
No, perhaps it was something she had already known.
It was something she had postponed due to lingering attachment, wanting to see a little more.
She had wandered for a long time, unable to let go of such attachment.
‘In the end....’
It seemed it could not be avoided in the end.
She had tried every possible method and every effort.
In the end.
‘I must let you go.’
She realized there was no other way.
Only after seeing it with her own eyes could she be certain.
Did she feel relieved?
No, what remained was nothing but regret.
“Ma Geomhu.”
“...Yes, Lord.”
“Return to headquarters.”
“...!”
At Cheonma’s words, Ma Geomhu raised her head in surprise, but she could not utter a word in response.
Because the eyes of Cheonma she looked upon had settled so coldly.
Tread.
Cheonma moved.
She headed in the direction where So Geomseong was.
Immediately after Gu Yangcheon disappeared, So Geomseong had been staring blankly into the void.
“In my heart, I want to end the now and begin the next, but.”
Clutch.
“Urk....”
Cheonma approached So Geomseong and grabbed her by the hair.
Her once splendid white hair had already returned to being blonde.
“A reason has arisen why I must not do that, it seems.”
“...”
“I hate you. So much that I want to tear you to shreds right this instant.”
Because you look exactly like me? Or because his heart is directed toward this half before me?
All of that could be a reason, but.
The essence was somewhat different.
It was simply because something came to mind.
Possessing the same eyes as So Geomseong.
An unnamed woman with this same appearance came to mind, one who had chased after hope.
A foolish someone came to mind who had hoped that with just a little more effort, she could walk alongside her precious one.
That was why it made her so furious.
“Just kill me—”
“Shut your mouth. Those are words you must never dare utter.”
At the very least, she must not beg to be killed before her.
While gripping So Geomseong’s hair, Cheonma glanced at Ma Geomhu.
“Return to headquarters and deliver a message to the Daeju. I shall come to find him within a few days. Tell him to prepare to show his face.”
She did not wait for Ma Geomhu’s answer.
“And you.”
Cheonma went about her business silently.
“Take me to that damned father of yours and mine. For I have something I must say to him in person.”
At her words, So Geomseong’s eyes widened.
Confirming that reaction, Cheonma suppressed her emotions.
How many times from now on.
Or tens of times she would have to repeat this, she did not know.
Since she had made up her mind, she could carry out the “deed” right now if she wanted, but.
Now was not the time.
Cheonma had to endure a little longer.
A little more.
She had to pave the path just a little more.
It was a time she had endured countless times until now.
But looking upon the end she had set, it somehow felt heavy.
If the woman had anything she wished for.
‘At the end of this time.’
When she had finished everything she had to do.
That he would say she had worked hard and hug her just once, like back then in her memories.
She harbored such delusions until the end, but.
Painfully.
She knew all too well that such a thing would never happen.
******************
Hazy.
He felt as though his body was floating somewhere, bobbing gently.
Should he call it comfortable?
Somehow, it was not an unpleasant feeling.
‘Where is this place?’
Perhaps because his body was languid, even his mind seemed to grow hazy.
He barely held his head and struggled to come to his senses.
He recalled before he lost consciousness.
‘...!’
Then his consciousness, which had been on the verge of scattering, snapped back with startling clarity.
Being killed by Cheonjon and.
Fighting with Hyeolgi came to mind.
Including the matter of breaking the vessel and becoming no longer human.
‘... Cheonma.’
Even meeting Cheonma.
The moment he recalled that, his eyes snapped open.
“Hu-ugh...!”
He raised his body the moment he opened his eyes.
Because he had recalled the memory of just before.
‘... The Demonic Realm Gate....’
He was talking about the moment the white Demonic Realm Gate appeared and swallowed him.
He immediately looked around his surroundings.
‘Could it be.’
Had he really returned to the original world as Cheonma said?
He hadn’t been able to do anything worthy of being called a trial in that world yet.
He couldn’t return so incompetently.
‘... Hmm?’
As he thought so and rolled his eyes to examine his surroundings, something was strange.
The arid plains of Sichuan.
Or he thought it might have been the Bigo where he had been before the dimensional shift.
But it was neither of those.
“What is this place now...?”
Unlike what Cheonma had said, the place he was in was not the original world.
It was white.
An alien world tinged with pure white in every direction.
Because of that, it was a space where one couldn’t tell where the walls or the ceiling were.
Here.
Something felt like it was about to come to mind.
Because it was a space that felt somehow familiar, as if he had been here before.
What had happened?
The moment he tried to get up and check the situation first.
“Huh?”
He immediately noticed something strange.
Something that definitely hadn’t been there when he was sitting had appeared before him.
“...”
He recognized what it was the moment he saw it.
Far ahead, directly in front. Someone was there.
Frowning at that, he focused.
Only then did he see.
A woman sitting demurely.
She had placed three teacups on a table incongruous with the strange space.
She had grown her green hair down to her waist,
and the woman sat with her hands clasped elegantly, eyes half-closed.
Seeing such a woman, I cautiously called out to her.
“...Lady... No, Senior.”
The woman who heard my call raised her head and looked at me.
Once I properly saw her face, I became even more certain.
Yes, the woman’s identity was Dang Jemun, the one who had sent me here.
“It’s been a while.”
It was a gentle voice, but my forehead couldn’t help but furrow the moment I heard it.
The moment I saw her, anger boiled up.
At the same time, there was so much I wanted to ask.
“Just what do you want from me—”
“I had been waiting, expecting to see you again someday.... But it took much longer than I thought. For us.”
“No. Right now—”
I tried to ask as if interrogating her, but.
I had to close my mouth when I saw Dang Jemun’s eyes.
Because I realized her gaze was not directed at me.
Where is she looking?
I turned my head following her gaze.
There....
“...Huh?”
Just like before, when I had looked around, there had been no one there, but now a figure was standing.
A tall, skinny old man clad in white martial robes.
There stood a figure with his hands clasped behind his back, his white brows deeply furrowed.
Together with the petal pattern emblazoned on his chest.
Because his appearance was exactly identical to the one I had seen in my mind’s eye, there was no way I wouldn’t recognize him.
“...Noya...?”
The old man was indeed the Divine Noya.
“...”
I looked at Noya with surprised eyes, but Noya, too, was looking at Dang Jemun, not me.
Perhaps because it was a reunion after a long time, conducted so suddenly.
Noya wore an expression of great surprise.
And upon hearing the words Noya uttered next, I couldn’t help but be bewildered.
“...Who might you be?”
“Pardon?”
What...?