I frowned at the words of the Heavenly Demon that reached my ears.
"How would I know that?"
What the hell kind of conversation is this?
I think I've just wasted my time.
'What the fuck is this.'
From the start, names were something that didn't matter at all.
Even in my previous life, I hadn't known the Heavenly Demon's name.
She was simply the Heavenly Demon (Cheonma).
A devil descended from heaven, nothing more than the culprit who brought about catastrophes.
Her name didn't matter to me in the slightest right now.
That was enough.
No, it had to be enough.
That's why.
'Don't make that expression in front of me.'
As if she were a different person from the Heavenly Demon of my previous life. Seeing her act like that in front of me was fucking disgusting.
"I feel dirty."
I twisted my waist.
The condensed internal energy felt particularly heavy.
Energy couldn't possibly have weight, so this must purely be pressure.
Could I kill her with this?
I wasn't certain.
But I simply had to act.
"Tam (Greed)."
Swish-!!
Crunch-!
"!"
Tam broke free and tore through the barrier.
Once again, the Heavenly Demon didn't evade, and a space larger than before was created.
There.
I stepped in deeply and crushed the ground, moved my shoulder to align my angle, and gripped the holy spear tightly.
"..."
The Heavenly Demon, seeing that figure, seemed about to say something but then corrected her posture.
It didn't look like she was trying to run.
'Rather.'
She seemed to show a will as if she wouldn't move.
'Fuck.'
Was she telling me to hit her if I could?
I felt like I knew how little she thought of people.
Then I had to show her.
"Yeah, then just die here."
I spat out the words and moved my arm.
At that moment.
"Younger brother-!"
Gu Huibi's voice rang out from the forest behind.
It seemed she had arrived late, but.
It was already too late.
Crack-! I threw the tightly gripped holy spear as it was.
Shiiiiik--!!
The holy spear flew quickly toward the Heavenly Demon.
"No-!"
Gu Huibi, seeing this, urgently tried to intervene and block it, but at her speed, there was no way she could stop it.
And so.
The holy spear finally reached the Heavenly Demon.
Seeing this, the Heavenly Demon slowly closed her eyes.
Wooong-!!
Kwaaaaaah--!!!
An explosion burst forth along with vibrations.
Shiiiiiiaaah--!!
A wind pressure wrapped in heat violently burst and swept through the area.
Thick smoke rose from afar.
I waved my hand at it.
In the aftermath of the explosion, I retracted the flames clinging to the trees with internal energy.
Hwoooook-!!
The flames gathered and accumulated in the heart.
With a deeply furrowed expression, I looked straight ahead.
The Heavenly Demon still stood there just as before. Looking as though she wasn't hurt in the slightest.
Behind the standing Heavenly Demon, the devastated area was visible.
"Haa…."
I wiped my face with a trembling hand.
"Fuck…."
You stupid bastard.
It was a curse spat at myself.
I couldn't do it after all.
To think I couldn't do it even when it was spoon-fed to me.
What kind of trash-like matter was this.
"Yeona...!"
Gu Huibi, who had run up from behind, passed me and approached the Heavenly Demon.
"Hello, unni."
The Heavenly Demon calmly greeted Gu Huibi upon seeing her.
Seeing that, I thought.
Why couldn't I kill her.
'Was it because of the anxiety that I couldn't kill her?'
I had to kill her.
I knew that even this shallow anxiety would disappear if I killed her.
But I couldn't do it.
'…Because she looks exactly like Wi Seol-ah?'
I couldn't say that wasn't it.
But it probably wasn't solely because of that reason.
'Then is it the thought that she might be able to change?'
Could it be that I had some expectation, seeing the Heavenly Demon's very different appearance, that she might change like Jegal Hyeok or Namgung Bia?
I didn't know.
I didn't know anything, but what was certain amidst it all was.
'I'll regret it.'
The thought that I would regret it if I killed the Heavenly Demon now.
If not now, I might not be able to kill her later.
She might someday become a calamity and cause another bloodbath.
There was such anxiety, but overlaid above it was a fear of an unknown regret.
Was I feeling the prick of conscience?
If so, it was something I shouldn't be feeling at this point.
What the hell was the reason for this?
This too, I didn't know.
'…What should I do?'
I asked the foul-tempered old man who was no longer here.
'I don't know the way.'
There was no way an answer would come.
There was no one to ask either.
If it were Noya at a time like this, what would he have said to me?
-'If you think you'll regret it, don't do it.'
Would he have said that?
'Then, I don't know if something will happen later.'
-'If you do, think about it then. You should be able to do at least that. Tsk tsk. How can a man with a dick be so timid? What use is he?'
'...'
-'Do as your heart tells you. That's what's right for you.'
Noya wasn't here.
Yet it felt like Noya was speaking to me.
Recalling this, I looked at the Heavenly Demon.
"Let me ask one thing."
"Hmm?"
"Why didn't you take the mercenary exam?"
I had gone through the trouble of passing her in the first round, but the Heavenly Demon had boldly disappeared right before the second exam.
"Ah."
Perhaps recalling this, the Heavenly Demon widened her eyes.
And then.
"Because they're weak."
"What?"
"Unni said you shouldn't bully the weak. Something terrible would happen if we fought."
"..."
First-class to fully accomplished peak martial artists had suddenly transformed into the weak, but apart from that, it was absurd that the Heavenly Demon would say such words.
"Damn it."
Pat pat.
I dusted off my hands after hearing the answer.
At the same time, I spoke while looking at Gu Huibi.
"Put away your sword, noona. I won't do it anymore."
"..."
At my words, Gu Huibi, who had been gripping the handle, flinched.
She had probably been trying to stop me.
'Making that kind of expression and all.'
Gu Huibi's expression as she looked at me seemed so pained.
She seemed to hate the very act of pointing a sword at me.
She must be one of the worst-tempered people in the world, but at times like this, she's truly human.
"Younger brother…."
"I'm not saying I'll stop blindly. Right now… I just need some time to think."
"You may not see it this way, younger brother, but this child isn't such a bad child…. She just doesn't know the world well yet, so if you stay by her side a little longer-."
"That might be true."
I cut off Gu Huibi's words.
Right. That might be true.
The sight of the Heavenly Demon saying she didn't want to fight and that you shouldn't fight the weak was bizarre even to me.
Leaving aside how it came to be, perhaps the Heavenly Demon could live a different life.
One could see it that way, but.
"But, for me to think that way right now, I have to give up on quite a lot, you know?"
That was truly a difficult thing for me.
There were only a few years left.
In just a few years, the time when the Heavenly Demon descends would come.
It was a point in time where anything could happen before then.
It was too overwhelming to think of anything based on what I had just seen.
"So for now, I'll go."
I needed time to think.
With her right in front of me, I couldn't think of anything.
I looked at the ruined forest and the Heavenly Demon, then turned my back.
'Is it okay to leave like this?'
Could I leave with the Heavenly Demon behind me?
As such questions endlessly arose.
"Goodbye."
"..."
"See you again later."
At the Heavenly Demon's voice speaking in a naive tone, I finally stepped forward.
Hwoook-!
I rose into the air.
The moon was still up in the night.
I caught my breath as I looked at the thin crescent moon.
'What is this.'
What kind of messed up situation was this.
Setting aside the current appearance of the Heavenly Demon and me who had held back upon seeing it.
I recalled the circumstances that had led the situation to come to this point.
'Grandfather….'
My grandfather, the former patriarch of the Gu Family who was known to be dead, had entrusted the Heavenly Demon.
How had the Heavenly Demon, who should have left with the Palace Lord, ended up in Grandfather's hands?
And that to Gu Huibi.
I didn't know.
From the start, it was strange that Grandfather was alive.
'Does Father know?'
Did Father truly know about this?
If he knew, it meant that while Gu Huibi and Father both knew, I didn't.
'…I don't want to ask Gu Huibi right now.'
I didn't want to go back and ask Gu Huibi again.
'Anyway, Father said he would come around tomorrow.'
For now, I would have to ask Father first tomorrow.
Thinking so, I left the forest first, but.
An unexpected problem occurred even here.
The next day.
As scheduled, the Gu Family personnel and Lady Mi returned to Hanam, but.
Father himself could not arrive together.
Not even after seven days and nights passed.
******************
Cold air flowed everywhere.
Suuuu…!
In a place where chill filled the space, someone who had been sitting haphazardly with head bowed slowly raised their head.
"Hmm."
The young man let out a short groan and opened his eyes.
Eerie blood-red eyeballs were revealed to the world.
"Oh dear."
Tsk tsk.
The young man laughed as if amused by the unexpected situation.
"Was it a problem that I let it flow shallow so as not to be suspected…. The child has come to his senses."
Because a vast existence was coiled up.
I had been proceeding so as not to be noticed as much as possible.
It seemed that had been the problem after all.
"How regrettable."
It was truly regrettable.
It had been a chance to easily obtain a precious key.
While the young man was comforting himself from such regret.
A woman wearing a veil slowly approached and knelt before him.
"I greet the master…."
The young man's unfocused eyes turned to the woman.
"Muhui."
"There is something I must tell you, so I sought you out urgently. Please forgive me…."
As Muhui spat out words in a wretched voice, the young man nodded his head.
It meant to speak quickly.
Seeing that, Muhui cautiously continued.
"I have found the Gatekeeper."
At that moment.
Stop.
The young man stopped moving.
At the same time, everything in the space stopped as if time had frozen.
Sound too.
Energy too.
Even the flowing wind.
Everything stopped.
"Keh… keh keh…."
The only thing heard within was the young man's laughter.
Keh keh keh keh.
The young man laughed as if he couldn't contain himself.
Each time, cracks were forming in space.
"Where."
He had long forgotten the regrettable matters from just moments ago.
Vertically slit pupils expressed oppressive pressure.
The existence's energy spread in all directions.
"Where did you see the Gatekeeper?"
Tremble tremble tremble tremble.
Muhui's body trembled violently at the momentum the young man exuded.
Crushed by fear, words wouldn't come out properly.
But she had to answer somehow.
"…A few… a few days ago. I observed the energy at Taeseong Mountain."
"Taeseong Mountain…."
It was a mountain located not far from Hanam.
The young man nodded upon hearing the words.
"Yes…. You finally found him."
They had found the Gatekeeper who hadn't appeared for decades.
'…No, that's not right.'
It would be more correct to say that he had revealed himself.
The young man slowly rose upon hearing this.
Crackle crack.
Each time he moved his body, sounds of something breaking somewhere spread.
The young man repeatedly opened and closed his hand, showing regret.
'It is incomparably trivial. But this is the best for now.'
A human body worse than dust compared to his true body.
But for now, there was no other way.
Until he regained his 'physical body.'
And obtained 'energy.'
"Muhui."
"Yes. Master."
"I shall take a short stroll. In the meantime, deliver the message to Cheonan (Heavenly Eye)."
"…I understand."
"And."
The young man's blood-red gaze passed Muhui and turned toward one wall.
There, someone who had been standing since earlier had their eyes closed.
"Move out soon."
The young man.
At the words the Blood Demon spat out smiling.
Sruk.
"Yes."
The young master of the Paeng Family.
Paeng Ujin opened his eyes and nodded.