Chapter 75
Chapter 75
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 75
Chapter Title: Foothold (9)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Let’s go.”
Looking back now, even that had not been his own will.
He had been made to crawl and obey.
There was the scent of blood from Tuno.
It was not the smell of someone else.
It was her blood.
The Black Witch had bound Tuno with blood. With blood, she had linked Cheonwi and Tuno.
He now knew the ancient truth.
The clan members had looked at the relationship between Cheonwi and Tuno with curiosity.
They hadn’t known the reason.
They had marveled at how Tuno cared for Cheonwi with such devotion. It had felt as if things should be the other way around.
It was a very, very old memory.
Reflecting on it, that was how it seemed.
Tuno’s gaze at the beginning had seemed different from now.
Instead of blind loyalty, there had been something else.
Pity, sympathy, or perhaps fear—those emotions had been vivid. Tuno had always worn a complicated expression.
But at some point, it had changed.
Tuno’s face had become simple.
A complex emotion that was neither resentment nor bewilderment had filled his chest. He didn’t know how to describe that emotion. The life he had lived, the life he had known, was not his own. Perhaps Tuno’s life was the same. The only certainty was that it was not a pleasant fact.
Daming Prefecture had ancient city walls.
It was a city that had once enjoyed glory.
And cities that had, even if only for a time, been at the center of history always harbored ruins holding deep darkness.
There was a staircase hidden in the gaps of the city walls.
The air was very thick.
Winter was approaching.
The stairs leading down had not been used for long ages, making them damp and uneven. Tuno descended the pitch-black stairs without light, unflinchingly. He marveled anew at how Tuno could pierce all darkness, just like himself.
“We’ve arrived.”
Tuno spoke into the utter blackness.
The darkness beckoned.
“I shall go.”
Tuno turned back.
In that instant, he realized once more.
He was not Cheonwi’s servant.
He was her slave.
The light in Tuno’s eyes as he turned was the same as Cheonwi’s eyes and her eyes.
She had been watching him through Tuno.
Because Tuno existed, she had always been by his side.
Cheonwi finally faced the truth.
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew.”
Her tone was cold.
In the darkness, she appeared blacker than the shadows themselves. It was as if her very existence absorbed the light.
Her pale face was beautiful, and her exotic eyes looked sad.
She asked.
Her voice was cold, yet warm.
“Thirsty?”
“It’s bearable.”
“…They implanted a ritual here to suppress it? Restrain it? When the craving for human blood intensifies. Animal blood helps. Not beasts that harm people, but ones that eat grass.”
He hadn’t noticed it then.
Her Central Plains speech was fluent, but slightly awkward.
“What happens if I don’t drink?”
“You weaken.”
It felt like confirming what he already knew.
He also knew this wasn’t the first time she had given this answer.
And that she would answer as many times as needed.
“What if I drink human blood?”
“The thirst will worsen. I already told you. Blood changes you. If you drink, drink pure blood. You can tell by the scent.”
“I don’t remember many things. Why is that?”
“I made it that way.”
“May I ask why?”
“So you could live as a human.”
Her words were calm, devoid of emotion.
She wanted to keep her distance. She wanted to hate him.
Yet why did she seem sad? Why had she always watched over him?
Cheonwi had many questions he wanted to ask.
Among them, he posed the most important one.
“Who… are you?”
“We don’t ask each other such things. It’s too difficult. Too big a question.”
Who did “we” refer to?
Were there others like her?
Though he didn’t know, he nodded.
Strangely, her words made sense to him.
“I suppose I’m the same. If asked who I am, I wouldn’t know what to say either.”
He said.
She opened her mouth again.
“If it’s a name, I can answer. My name is Lucia. It’s hard because it’s not the language here. I learned the character Lu (淚). It means tears, they say. I like that character. You can call me that.”
“Lu… you mean.”
“Yeah.”
It was strange.
He had heard that some deliberately chose odd names to ward off bad luck.
But no one would choose “tears” as a name.
What was even stranger was that this conversation was unfolding like this.
It was so different from that time in the cave.
And so, like a child curious about everything in the world once more, Cheonwi asked.
“By any chance, did we originally converse like this?”
“There were days like this, and days of silence.”
“It’s different from before. Right now, you seem like a different person.”
“I was angry then.”
‘She was angry? That?’
He hadn’t known at all.
He had only felt fear and gratitude.
In no moment had he read anger in her.
“I have much I want to know. Asking it all would take all night.”
“Yeah. So don’t ask. If you know too much, I’ll have to erase your memories.”
She had the ability to manipulate memories.
Without asking further, he confirmed one more thing.
“Then tell me just one thing. From childhood, my wounds healed several times faster than others’. I even reattached a severed arm like this.”
Cheonwi raised his right arm and showed it moving perfectly.
She watched without any reaction. Now he could read her expression a little. It was the face of someone hearing and seeing something utterly obvious.
“No matter how complex the movement, I could replicate it perfectly on the first try, and I could spot flaws in seemingly flawless actions. Sometimes I could foresee events happening right before my eyes. When I focused, my abilities sharpened, and I grew much stronger at night. You said ‘who I am’ is a big, difficult question. So let me rephrase. What… am I? Am I human?”
Her expression changed.
This time, he couldn’t tell.
No.
She was pondering. Her pale face showed no twitch, but he could sense her choosing the most fitting answer.
He was coming to know anew the her he had once known.
“That’s not an easy question either. In my eyes, you are human, and not human.”
Cheonwi finally heard the answer to the question he had pondered his whole life.
It wasn’t shocking.
If asked if he was ordinary, he had long accepted he was not. He had grown accustomed to that difference early on and gladly made use of it.
It was merely expected information turning into confirmed fact.
He had prepared long for this moment.
The truth continued.
“Others will answer differently. You are not human, nor are you like us.”
She looked sad.
She had said she liked the name “tears.”
She had grieved for so long that nothing showed.
“I knew I wasn’t ordinary.”
“…….”
She fell silent for a moment.
She seemed to debate whether to say the next words.
At last, she continued.
“We thought of you as the carrier of light. I believed that too. I thought you were his son. You are like a human yet not, a son yet not. I was weakened for so long. I couldn’t see properly. But still, I believe you are another endpoint reached at the journey’s end of our continuance.”
It was difficult.
Her words broke off abruptly, their meaning incomplete.
It was the moment when the ancient truth entered the realm of even older secrets.
Cheonwi spoke honestly.
“…I don’t quite understand.”
“You are the one who sees all. You don’t need to try to know. You will see it in the end.”
She said.
And she raised her hand.
Cheonwi stepped forward. In her outstretched hand was a black wooden box.
He took it and asked.
“What is this?”
It was the first time he had received something from her. No, he had received much more than this.
“Open it.”
Cheonwi carefully opened the lid of the wooden box.
Thump.
His heart pounded strongly.
Inside were three porcelain vials, tightly sealed.
No matter how tightly closed, he knew what was within.
Sweet and fragrant.
It was her blood.
“I called you to give you this. You’ve walked in the daylight since birth. That’s rare. They will come for you. I can’t know what they’ll think of you now. Use it without sparing when needed. Even my blood, infused with my life, won’t last years. After twenty-four months, its power will gradually fade.”
“Who are ‘they’?”
“Travelers of continuance.”
It wasn’t just her expression.
Sadness filled her voice.
It was a sadness anyone could detect.
“Are they a danger to me?”
He had asked wrongly.
Her sadness deepened markedly.
But for Cheonwi, it was a question he had to ask.
“They might be.”
She grieved because it was true.
She added.
“Beware of Erudito… the Scholar. I don’t know about the others, but he is one of great curiosity. He will tear you apart and break you. But to grow strong, you must meet him.”
Her warning was qualitatively different from those of murim folk.
Cheonwi felt primal fear.
So he asked.
“How can I recognize such beings?”
“I told you. You are the seer. You will know when you see them.”
Before pouring out more questions, he wanted to say thank you.
Before he could, she spoke first.
“That’s enough for today.”
Cheonwi knew in that instant.
He wouldn’t see her again for a long while.
He knew this had happened before.
That was why she gave him the blood in advance.
So he wouldn’t face danger.
So that even if he did, he could survive.
She had said she was angry.
When his arm was severed by the emissary of the council.
Cheonwi had nearly died.
That had made her angry.
Like a mother.
Like the kind mother in his distorted memories.
“Then now…”
“Yes. I must sleep. I exist from warm places. Here… winter… cold.”
The sadness vanished from her voice.
Cheonwi finally asked.
“Can we meet again?”
“Probably.”
She turned away.
“Go back now. This time, you don’t need to forget.”
He smelled obedience.
It came from Cheonwi himself.
Like an obedient child.
Unable to ask all he wanted, he had to turn back.
Cheonwi climbed back onto the black earth. A blood-red moon hung in the sky.
Cheonwi prayed as if from a long memory.
May you have a quiet and beautiful sleep.
The darkness of approaching winter was cold, yet warm.
Cheonwi’s shadow melted into the night.