“I’m still… lacking.”
Yunseo clenched his fist. The waves of power surging inside his body were clearly different from before, yet his expression only grew harder.
“If I truly want to gain a foothold in this chaotic age. If I want to protect her, and protect myself as well.”
He let out a short breath and gritted his teeth.
“I must surpass the very limit a human can reach.”
The absolute peak of the human realm.
And yet, the current him was already looking beyond it.
When he returned to the hut, Wolhwa had just barely managed to straighten herself up. Her disheveled hair was roughly tied back, and creases still remained in her clothes, but at the very least, she had regained the minimum dignity befitting an empress.
Sitting at the edge of the bed, she spoke with a face that was still pale.
“What is the situation outside?”
Yunseo sat down by the wall opposite her, caught his breath, and answered.
“There are no signs of pursuit. It seems we have completely shaken off the rebels.”
After closing his eyes for a moment to steady his breathing, he added in a low voice.
“We must leave this area before daybreak. Then we need to find a ferry crossing or a town that will allow us to head south.”
Wolhwa looked at him. The way he closed his eyes and regulated his breathing as if in meditation. That breathing was far too steady, and the speed at which his energy recovered was abnormally fast as well.
‘Impossible…’
Her doubts still remained, but now was not the time to question him. As he said, only by surviving could she reclaim everything.
“…I shall do as you say.”
Wolhwa quietly drew up her internal energy and focused on recovering.
Three or four hours passed.
The eastern sky began to brighten faintly.
Yunseo opened his eyes and rose from his seat. After lightly loosening his body, his condition was already close to its peak.
“Your Majesty. We must depart.”
Wolhwa also opened her eyes. Thanks to regulating her energy, her pale complexion had noticeably improved.
Yunseo approached her and knelt without a word.
“The situation is urgent. Please endure it just once more.”
She looked at his back for a moment.
Last night, that back had been the only path that pulled her out of death, and even now, it remained the shield she could trust most.
In the end, she nodded and quietly climbed onto his back. Her arms naturally wrapped around his neck.
After leaving the forest, Yunseo pushed the trait 『Phoenix’s Steps』 to its utmost limit.
His body moved like the wind, and even the rugged mountain path swept past as if flowing by. His speed was incomparable to before.
On his back, Wolhwa found herself increasingly gripped by different emotions.
Unease.
Fear.
And—
A strange sense of stability that covered over all of it.
She could not deny the fact that, in this chaotic world, there was only one person she could rely on now.
At that moment—
[Ding!]
[Psychological stability value of UR target Gang Wolhwa has increased]
[Deepening dependence detected]
[Bond Value +2]
[Current Bond: Trust (72 / 100)]
A faint smile brushed across Yunseo’s lips.
‘Faster than I expected…’
Dependence was choice, and choice became power.
Around noon.
The two finally left the forest and emerged onto an old main road.
Yunseo set Wolhwa down and let her rest for a moment. Then he took out the remaining dried provisions and handed them to her.
“If we follow this road south, we should find a village or a ferry. Please eat first.”
Wolhwa chewed the food little by little as she gazed far to the south.
“…Geumneung.”
After a brief silence, she murmured in a low voice.
“Please, do not abandon me.”
A short while later, they set off again.
This time, she insisted on walking on her own. Their pace was slow, but Yunseo did not urge her on.
He merely stayed one step behind—
Guarding her from a distance where he could draw his blade at any moment.
There were hardly any people on the main road.
The only ones they occasionally encountered were refugees with gaunt faces and empty eyes, wandering with burdens on their backs.
The ruined world was far more miserable than anything she had imagined from within the palace.
Wolhwa’s expression grew heavier and heavier.
At sunset.
The outline of a small village began to appear in the distance. A ferry crossing and a small port had formed along the river.
“It is Imhajin.”
Wolhwa recognized it and spoke.
“It is a place one must pass through to go south.”
However—
The closer they drew, the more Yunseo’s brow slowly furrowed.
An alien presence caught in his senses. The sound of weeping. Shouts. The clang of metal mixed into collisions.
Yunseo immediately stopped and grabbed her wrist, pulling her into the roadside thicket.
“Your Majesty.”
His voice sank low.
“Something… is wrong up ahead.”
“I can sense killing intent inside the village.”
At Yunseo’s low voice, Wolhwa’s heart dropped.
“Have the rebels… followed us?”
Yunseo closed his eyes and focused on the presence. It was strange to call it an army. There was nothing in the presence he heard that could be called order.
He shook his head without hesitation.
“No. It is not the movement of an army. It is closer to defeated soldiers swept up in chaos, or a band of thieves.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than black smoke rose into the sky from the direction of the village. Soon after, cries, screams, and the clang of steel carried on the wind grew clearer and clearer.
Before long, the scene came into view beyond their line of sight.
Soldiers clad in assorted leather armor were brandishing spears and blades, driving dozens of villagers forward. Kicking them and hurling curses as though herding beasts, they were heading toward the ferry by the river.
It was obvious they were trying to seize the boats.
“……Defeated soldiers.”
Wolhwa’s voice trembled. The soldiers entrusted with protecting the nation had now become a pack of wolves preying on the people.
Anger blazed in her eyes.
Yunseo made his decision at once.
“Your Majesty. We must turn back.”
“For now, it would be best to avoid unnecessary conflict—”
“No.”
Wolhwa firmly shook her head. Looking at the people trembling before the blades, she gritted her teeth.
“I am the ruler of Daejeong.”
“How could I turn my back while my people are trampled before my eyes?”
She looked straight at Yunseo.
“Yuk Yunseo.”
“I command you. Save them.”
A brief silence fell.
Yunseo’s gaze wavered for a moment.
Save them.
That in itself was not the problem.
The problem was—
How to save them.
He soon knelt on one knee.
“……I shall obey your command.”
Then he added.
“However, Your Majesty.”
“No matter what happens, you must absolutely not reveal yourself from this place.”
After hiding Wolhwa deep within the thicket, Yunseo slipped into the darkness alone.
There were a little over twenty defeated soldiers.
The man standing at the front was as huge as a mountain, and brutality was etched into his face. With his upper garment hanging open, he grabbed a villager by the hair and shouted.
“Load everything worth money! If you’re slow, I’ll cut you down!”
At that moment—
“Pshuk!”
With a short, dull bursting sound, red blood sprayed through the night air. One soldier lagging behind collapsed without even making a sound.
“Kugh—!”
Another.
And another.
Something moved within the darkness.
“W-what the hell?!”
“It’s an ambush!”
By the time the belated shouts burst out, Yunseo was already burrowing into their midst. His blade flashed like lightning. Fast, precise, and without hesitation.
With each swing, a life fell away.
“Block him! All of you, get on him!”
The leader of the defeated soldiers roared and charged.
Yunseo’s eyes were as cold as ice. He did not retreat.
『Yuk Family Saber Art』
The trajectories engraved into his body connected naturally.
Slash— pierce— revolve.
Wherever the line of his blade passed, flesh tore open, and red blood gushed like a fountain.
Screams erupted one after another, filling the night sky with blood-soaked shrieks.
[Ding!]
[Proficiency in ‘Yuk Family Saber Art’ has increased during real combat]
[‘Asura Physique’ has partially awakened amid slaughter]
[Physical durability has slightly increased]
Yunseo could feel it.
The flow of his energy had become even smoother, and his body was responding far more lightly than before.
These men were not enemies. They were nothing more than whetstones to temper his realm.
In less than ten minutes, the battle came to an end. A one-sided slaughter not even worthy of being called a fight. Corpses lay scattered everywhere, and those who remained threw down their weapons and scattered while wailing.
The leader, too, was sent flying backward by Yunseo’s strike, his weapon broken as he collapsed and vomited blood. There was no way he still drew breath.
Silence.
The people stood there in a daze.
The sight of the young man standing with a bloodstained blade in hand— made him look like a warrior from myth.
Yunseo sheathed his blade.
Then he spoke calmly.
“Do not stay here long.”
“Gather your belongings and each of you find a way to survive.”
Only then did the villagers come to their senses.
“Benefactor…!”
“Thank you, truly, for saving us!”
The sound of people kneeling rang out one after another.
But Yunseo did not look back. What he needed was neither gratitude nor fame.
What he wanted was only one thing—
The “certainty” that must have been engraved deep into the heart of Empress Gang Wolhwa,
who had watched this entire scene from behind the thicket.
In this chaotic age—
The fact that the only one capable of protecting her was this man.