〈 Episode 582 〉 Nice to See You.
“Ah, Young Master. You’ve come—”
When I returned to my quarters, I could see Dang Soyeol.
Dang Soyeol had been about to welcome me but suddenly stopped short and looked at me.
“Young Master….”
“Hm? What is it?”
“Did something happen?”
Worry lingered in Dang Soyeol’s eyes.
Seeing that, I gave a slight smile.
“What could happen? Nothing at all.”
“But….”
“Have you eaten?”
“…Yes….”
Bringing up the topic as if trying to change the subject, Dang Soyeol answered reluctantly.
She had realized I didn’t want to talk and let it go.
I felt a little sorry for that.
“Have you… eaten, Young Master?”
“Ah. Yeah, I ate.”
I answered with a smile, but of course I hadn’t.
As if food would go down.
‘There’s no way it would.’
I swept my hair back, barely managing to cool my head.
I had already been trying to calm down for some time, but even that wasn’t enough.
Far from cooling, my head felt like it was getting hotter instead.
‘Cheonma.’
Could it have been a dream?
That thought flitted across my mind. No, it was closer to wishing it were so.
But I knew all too well that it wasn’t a dream.
Those jet-black locks.
Those purple eyes that had looked at me.
The wicked aura I had felt from her, too. It was all real.
Though many things had changed due to the big and small deeds I had committed,
what was happening now was probably the greatest butterfly effect of all.
‘Where did it all get twisted?’
Cheonma had appeared in Hanam.
And in a very different form from my memory, at that.
What should it have been like originally?
‘…At least, not now.’
According to my memory, at least one or two years later.
She should have appeared at the festival hosted by the Martial Alliance, opening the Demonic Realm Gate.
It was still vivid.
The sight of her stepping through the torn air.
The sight of her looking down at the righteous martial artists filling the ground.
[This seat is Cheonma.]
The overwhelming strength that forced the Alliance’s experts to their knees as she spoke those words.
I still remembered it vividly.
Of course.
The appearance of the Red Demon had been moved up, the Alliance Lord had changed to the Wudang Sword Immortal instead of my previous life, and so on.
There were already countless things that had changed.
Up to that point, I could understand. Because it was something I had done.
If I tried to bear it, I would try to handle it no matter what.
‘But this is too much.’
To think such a huge problem would erupt.
My head throbbed.
An atmosphere completely different from the Cheonma I knew—though I didn’t want to make the comparison—she had resembled Wi Seol-a, impossibly so, in appearance and aura.
[Why do you hate me?]
Those words she had spoken to me swirled in my head.
Why do I hate her? It wasn’t to the extent of mere dislike.
‘I loathe her.’
I loathe Cheonma.
I kept telling myself that, and yet—
Her appearance just before kept lingering in my memory.
‘Don’t think about it. Your opponent is Cheonma.’
I tried my utmost to erase it from my mind.
I had to keep recognizing who my opponent was.
What I had endured until now for.
What I was living for—I had to keep ruminating on that.
At the same time, I had to think of this:
‘What should I do from now on?’
No matter what had happened to Cheonma, no matter what my current situation was.
Since I had faced her, I had to find a way to break through.
“Young Master?”
I heard Dang Soyeol’s voice.
“Are you really… are you really alright?”
Dang Soyeol approached and held my hand tightly.
At the cold touch, I felt my mind clearing a little.
Summer had already come; why were her hands so cold again?
Her eyes held an extremely worried expression.
It seemed my face was a mess again.
“I’m fine.”
“…”
An expression of disbelief.
Well, even as I said I was fine, I couldn’t manage my own expression.
“…Young Master.”
Dang Soyeol called to me.
“Hm?”
I looked at her as if asking what it was, and Dang Soyeol spoke.
“I… I can be of help to you now….”
Something resolute was contained in her eyes.
Perhaps because of that, I thought I understood her meaning all too well.
“So can’t you tell me?”
The question was extremely cautious.
A voice brimming with anxiety.
I could feel the inner fear of being rejected.
“…”
Seeing that, I let out a sigh inwardly.
This was difficult.
‘This isn’t what I meant by telling you to become stronger to help.’
I just wanted you to endure alone.
To be able to protect yourself in dangerous situations.
Also.
‘Not to sacrifice yourself.’
Not to try to protect something by burning yourself up like in your previous life.
That was what I had hoped for and acted upon.
If Dang Soyeol were to step forward to help me now, that meaning would be lost.
At least.
Please, at least.
‘I wished for these children not to get involved.’
It was something I had started with that wish.
As I sensed her earnestness, I stroked Dang Soyeol’s hair.
I felt the texture of her slightly longer, tamer hair.
“I’m still fine for now.”
At those words, Dang Soyeol’s expression turned sullen.
Even after reaching the Transcendent Realm, she still made such an expression.
It was rather amusing.
She must have gained considerable enlightenment; does a person’s essence never change?
“I really am saying it because I’m fine for now.”
“Yes….”
“If I need help, I always tell you, don’t I?”
“You don’t, though.”
“…”
At the denial spat out without hesitation, I was left speechless.
There was nothing to say, either.
“Well… uh. Yeah.”
I smiled awkwardly.
It was because I had too many past mistakes to deny it.
Perhaps because of that, Dang Soyeol was somehow quite firm.
Hmph.
I snorted briefly.
Still, thanks to that, my dizzy mind seemed to clear a little.
‘For now… I have to do what needs to be done.’
Complicated things were complicated, and that was that.
The more it was so, the more I had to move.
Then, what was it that I had to do now?
Focusing on recovering my body was one thing, but—
‘Cheonma is somewhere in Hanam.’
If Cheonma was somewhere here, there was one thing I had to do immediately.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
I asked Dang Soyeol.
“Where is the Dark King right now?”
At the question, Dang Soyeol’s lips pouted out.
It seemed she reacted that way because the request I had finally brought up was of this sort.
‘Sorry about that.’
This couldn’t be helped.
Because my side was in quite a hurry, too.
“…My teacher.”
My teacher, she said.
Hearing the Dark King’s title change like that gave me a strange feeling.
“You cannot reach him either, Young Master?”
Hearing those words, I tilted my head.
Something about her words caught at me.
“Why, is something wrong?”
I could find the Dark King if I tried, but I had asked just in case.
Why that reaction?
“My teacher… I don’t know where he went right now.”
“Hm?”
“He said the time had come, told me to descend the mountain, and disappeared.”
Disappeared…?
I thought upon hearing Dang Soyeol’s words.
If the Dark King couldn’t be reached by Dang Soyeol, what could be the reason?
Thinking about it, there was one thing that came to mind.
‘Because it’s possible for me.’
It wasn’t impossible just because Dang Soyeol couldn’t.
I would have to send a separate message today.
I hadn’t intended to make contact when it was possible,
‘but I need at least the Dark King.’
Since it was a matter related to Cheonma, I needed to handle things differently.
“Got it. I’ll try to reach out myself.”
“Yes?”
“Ah, is there anything you want me to pass along?”
“Ah, no… it’s just….”
Speaking of the Dark King, a shadow fell over Dang Soyeol’s expression.
“…Tell him to come as late as reasonably possible… no, just tell him to come as late as possible.”
“…”
Hearing Dang Soyeol’s words, I had to smile bitterly.
It seemed she had suffered quite a bit at the Dark King’s hands.
***
The next day came.
I was lying on the floor, staring at the sky.
Yes, it was a rather familiar sight.
“Ah, my back.”
I raised my tired body.
When I tried to sit up, I felt pain in my back.
It seemed I had overdone it a little.
As I held my throbbing back, someone sat down lightly in front of me, meeting my eyes.
It was Lord Pae.
“Tsk tsk… You look pathetic.”
I frowned at the words that seemed to call me pathetic.
“Hey, I asked you to go easy on me, but how can I do anything when you just toss me around?”
The reason I had been looking at the sky was, as expected, due to training with Lord Pae.
No, should this even be called training?
As always, it was closer to one-sided violence.
‘I thought I was gradually getting close.’
When Lord Pae had been at the peak of mastery, I could somehow contend with him,
but when he reached the Transcendent Realm, even that became impossible.
‘Even with the Mind’s Eye open, it’s too much.’
I didn’t know how he was made, but I couldn’t reach him even with the Mind’s Eye open.
Speed was one thing, but—
‘The directions he could go number in the dozens.’
The paths his internal energy could take were far too many.
Dealing with each and every one of them was impossible.
Then what happens?
‘I just get beaten up, what else.’
I had to roll on the floor without being able to react at all.
“Where is there such a thing as ‘going easy’ in training? Every moment must be in earnest.”
“I’m a patient, Elder.”
“Indeed, the Divine Physician went out of his way to tell you to rest; was it not you who insisted on coming here to train?”
“…”
That was true.
It was I who had thought my body had recovered somewhat and asked Lord Pae to help me train, but—
‘…I didn’t know he wouldn’t humor me and would just beat me up.’
There was definitely a part of me that felt aggrieved.
I was a patient, so I thought he’d go a bit easy on me; I didn’t think he wouldn’t.
Just then.
Lord Pae asked me with an expression that showed he was displeased.
“Moreover, with so many distracting thoughts, what sort of training do you intend to do?”
“…”
At those words, I had to smile bitterly.
I’d been found out. I had wondered, and as expected, Lord Pae seemed to have noticed.
“I apologize.”
At the immediate apology, Lord Pae’s eyes narrowed.
“Looking at the state of your face, it seems something is wrong.”
“…”
“With your wretched personality, you wouldn’t bother speaking of it.”
Was my chest laid bare or something?
How did he know me so well?
“At least if you intend to train, cast aside your distracting thoughts. If not, it is no different from meaningless time.”
“…Yes.”
After spitting out those words, Lord Pae rose.
Watching him, I had to soothe my bitter mouth.
‘Cast aside distracting thoughts.’
Easy for him to say.
How could I cast them aside?
When my situation was such a mess.
I had sought out Lord Pae to try something in my frustration and impatience, but—
I knew even that was not the right answer.
Cheonma was somewhere here.
Only that fact was suffocating me.
Was it because of my complicated thoughts?
Perhaps it showed on my face, because I heard Lord Pae sigh.
“Disciple.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“It has always been so, but you think too much for the level you have attained.”
“…”
The Transcendent Realm, which one must reach by obtaining considerable enlightenment.
Even having come there, the point was that my distracting thoughts were so many.
“Unless you cast those aside, you will ultimately be unable to reach the place you desire.”
“…”
“Whether that be a realm. Or the power you seek.”
Transcendence would be difficult, and
even the power I was trying to build now would be difficult to establish.
That was what he meant.
“…I will take care.”
Then all I could do was nod.
I knew it in my head, but acting on it was a different matter.
“Hmph.”
Watching me like that, Lord Pae snorted.
It felt like he was displeased but wouldn’t press the point.
So I, too, raised myself up.
“…Thank you for this morning. First, I shall go visit the Divine Physician for a moment.”
Since morning training was roughly finished,
to check my physical condition a bit more, I had intended to find the Divine Physician.
Just then.
“As for the Divine Physician, he is not here now.”
“Yes?”
At Lord Pae’s words, I widened my eyes.
The Divine Physician is gone?
“Since this morning?”
It was just when the sun was beginning to rise.
Where could he have to go at this hour?
“I heard a guest he had been waiting for had arrived, and he went out saying he would return.”
Questions remained even after Lord Pae’s explanation.
‘A guest?’
The reason the Divine Physician had arrived in Hanam and stayed here was clearly….
‘He had said it was to meet someone.’
Then, did that mean the guest he spoke of now was that very person?
‘Just who is he trying to meet?’
Even the current Martial Alliance Lord had to move himself to see the Divine Physician.
For a figure important enough to make the Divine Physician move personally….
Who could it be?
I was slightly curious.
***
At the time when the sun had just begun to rise.
Around when the coming and going crowd was gradually growing.
A single carriage revealed itself through the gaps in the bustling street.
At that sight, the surrounding people’s gazes gathered.
Though a carriage coming was nothing strange, its exterior was the problem.
Because it was a sight rarely seen in the Central Plains.
At the converging gazes, the woman inside the carriage—
Moyong Huia let out a small sigh.
“It seems we must get down and walk from here.”
If crowds gathered that much, the carriage became a hassle instead.
Moreover, drawing any more attention here was a problem.
Even more so because of the person in front.
At Moyong Huia’s words, the woman in front nodded.
And, as if to briefly survey outside the window, she moved her gaze.
Outside, people were gathered in droves.
The woman found this quite fascinating.
Land where snow did not fall.
The seasonal heat felt to an amazing degree.
All of that was truly fascinating to the woman.
“…So this… is Hanam.”
Moyong Huia nodded at the voice filled with faint unfamiliarity and excitement.
“Yes. This is Hanam.”
Her inner thoughts were not very pleasant, but she must not express this.
The other party was a figure to whom such an attitude must not be shown.
“Young Lady.”
At the carefully uttered address, the woman looked at Moyong Huia.
Within the gently swaying curtain, the woman’s eyes faintly revealed—
were clearly the same blue-green color as Moyong Huia’s.