Footprints Around the Salt Lake
…Where is this?
The rustling sound startled her. Her whole body felt as if it would shatter to pieces.
I…
She could not even lift her arms properly. She tried to recall her last memory. Things like this had happened countless times. It was nothing unfamiliar. Countless events had occurred, and countless events had swept through her mind as if they had never been.
Though flustered, she tried not to panic. She closed her eyes. She forced strength into her finely trembling hands and held them steady.
It’s okay, So Yeomgyo.
It’s okay.
I’m not afraid.
I am the Divine Killer.
I am the Flame Eye.
I have lived as such. I will continue to live as such. I have witnessed death. I have made death my companion. So I am always prepared to face it.
Haa, haa, haa.
Even if, the very next moment she tried to open her eyes, they would not open, she decided she would not panic. She made up her mind that way. And she opened her eyes.
“….Ah.”
Her eyes opened, her whole body soaked through with cold sweat. A white ceiling came into view.
-Chirp, chirp, chirp…
Sunlight was streaming in. It was dawn. Far in the distance, a golden dawn shone faintly. Where the dawn did not reach was so dark and damp that the boundaries of objects could not be seen. In contrast, through the open window the morning sunlight entered, a calm yet brilliant golden dawn seeping in like something living. Birdsong announcing the morning drifted from afar.
“Was it a dream….”
“Two days. It’s only been two days.”
Baekho stood at the foot of the bed.
-Scrape, scrape, scrape….
He was peeling a red apple. From the fruit in his hand the peel came away continuously, thinner than paper, thinner than half a pinky nail. It was closer to knitting meant to forget the troubles of the mind than peeling fruit to eat.
“There was a letter full of conviction that Young Master Biryu would wake, so I wasn’t too worried. And indeed you woke in two days. Some might say it’s only two days. Some might say that if your limbs are intact and you opened your eyes in two days, isn’t that free? But for me.”
-Scrape, scrape….
Baekho’s gaze stayed on the apple. His scarred hands kept turning it.
“As someone who lives a life where I cannot even promise the next life as an assassin, I couldn’t say such things even as empty words. Moreover, just earlier you tried to open your eyes once and failed, and that feeling of opening them with all your strength while taking deep breaths—”
His hands stopped.
“That feeling of flinging open a coffin lid—I know it better than anyone.”
Baekho spoke in a choked voice.
“Welcome back. Munju.”
“…Baekho.”
Only then did the memories return one by one.
“Why am I alive?”
Flustered, she pushed herself upright. And once upright, she was startled. Compared to the injuries she estimated from her memory, her body was far too light. Of course her present wounds were serious, yet measured against all the hardships she had endured, even if she lived she should have been at least half-dead. Now there was only the pain as if her whole body were shattering, and if she pushed herself she could move.
“How… is this possible.”
And at that moment.
“Ah.”
“Young Master Biryu… apparently lent a hand.”
The instant the jewel of Ilmanhyeolje touched her mouth, her body began to recover. Though she could not move, she could vividly remember and observe everything around her. Thanks to that she had been able to preserve and retrieve even the memories that had shattered to pieces before and after. And at the end of all those memories—
There was a clumsy man. The hair at the back of his head was always messy. At first he had been arrogant. She had not known why. She had always lived on the border of death. She had lived using death as the weight on the scale of making money. When she first met that man she might already have become a monster itself. And in between, countless things had happened. And at the end. At the end of those countless things. There had been a brilliant golden light like the scenery now. Under that golden light. That man, having cast everything aside, his whole body in rags, sitting on a rock, had smiled unsightly at her and said weakly,
‘Good work.’
She tried to spring up. She thought she had to go. And she stopped again.
‘That’s right.’
That everything was over. That the whole story was over. That the home she could return to was gone again—she realized it anew.
“….”
Tears slipped from her eyes. Her blinking pupils were redder than ever, jewel-like.
“…Munju, are you all right? Munju.”
“No, no. Ah, yeah. I’m fine. Baekho. Just… after opening my eyes after so long, my eyes sting a bit.”
She thought she would be all right again. Because she was the Divine Killer. Because she was the Flame Eye. She looked out the window. Golden dawn was pouring down.
“Munju?”
“Ah.”
And she fished up a fragment of a forgotten memory.
“Baekho, I have a request.”
“Yes?”
She looked at Baekho.
“There’s a place I need to go right now.”
“…Yes?”
Baekho’s expression turned bewildered.
“Whoa, what’s this now. There’s something like this? Unbelievable.”
It was the night they were preparing for the martial arts tournament. In front of her, Biryu had paused in polishing the Chiljong-heukjusa-gap and was letting out continuous exclamations of admiration. His hair was still wet from a bath just finished. Even so he had randomly pulled a book from a corner of the room and was reading with his nose buried in it, completely absorbed. He hated reading books terribly. Yet if he somehow managed to start and the thing proved interesting, he would fall into it with frightening intensity. The problem was that he had the habit of reading while spouting exclamations of wonder. He himself did not seem to notice.
“What the heck has been so unbelievable since earlier?”
Thinking she had lost, she closed the Theory of Happiness she had been reading for the third time and raised her head.
“No, look at this. There’s a salt lake named Yeomcheongdangsan. Last time for some reason I went to a place called Inhyeon Gorge. And it’s not even that far from there. There’s a place of such peerless scenery there!”
“…Inhyeon Gorge?”
At that utterly unfamiliar name she tilted her head.
“Isn’t that the neighborhood with the unique terrain where they built a dam between mountains? No, but… aren’t you getting a little too excited. You’re like a kid, Biryu. Act a bit more adult.”
It was rare to see this man get this worked up. It was strangely funny, and she felt like teasing him for no good reason. Curious what phrase could be written there, a silly laugh tried to escape. She hid it with all her strength. Biryu seemed annoyed.
“So Yeomgyo, have you ever seen the sea.”
“No.”
“The desert.”
“No.”
Biryu snorted.
“What, the know-it-all Munju. Acting like you know everything, like you’ve seen everything.”
“I’m just an assassin at the very bottom of this Jianghu where surviving the day is hard enough. What about you?”
“Of course I’ve never seen them either. I was a country bumpkin lucky not to starve to death.”
Their gazes met. She muttered,
“In the end… this world is wide, but both of us at this age have never been anywhere. Funny, somehow.”
Biryu pointed at the book again.
“How about going there later? I don’t know about other things, but I like listening to stories from dilettantes sometimes. But I’ve never seen a place described this splendidly. I don’t think you’ll regret it.”
She frowned.
“Are you an idiot? There’s not even a single picture. Want to show your country-bumpkin side. If you go around like that you’ll get scammed.”
Even so she took the book he thrust before her eyes, pointed with her finger, and read carefully.
“There are five islands and five peninsulas formed by melted water in the lake, and the Zhaxi Peninsula with its bizarre rocks is the most worth seeing. Especially the rocks of all shapes and sizes harmonizing with the forest boast a secret realm. There’s a legend that if you circle the lake a hundred times eastward as if circumambulating a stupa, exactly one person will surely be able to become happy….”
-Clack, clack, clack….
With regular noises So Yeomgyo limped forward on crutches.
“We’ve arrived. From here on… you can go alone. For reference, tigers swarm around here, so ordinary people’s footsteps have been cut off for decades, they say.”
Baekho spoke quietly and stepped back.
“Haa, haa, haa…”
When she left the Blood Death Sect her skeleton and various injuries were still scattered through her body, and the physician had told her absolute rest was vital. She let every recommendation go in one ear and out the other.
‘You have to stop her! No, the patient is going out—why aren’t you stopping her! Are you her subordinate? What are you doing, not grabbing her! Your superior is going out!’
The physician frothed at the mouth and jumped up and down. But the only one who could stop her, Baekho, simply watched with a regretful expression.
“Haa, haa!”
-Clack, clack, clack.
So Yeomgyo advanced. Limping on the crutches she advanced. Leaning on them she advanced.
“….!”
Behind her some members of the Blood Death Sect chased after her in great shock.
“-! -!!”
Baekho shouted. The members who had been about to pursue froze as if iced. At his hand signal they scattered. No one followed her.
So Yeomgyo walked out alone. She walked out quickly.
-Clack, clack, clack….
At first the crutches moved swiftly; gradually they slowed. Her body was far from normal. Cold sweat soaked her from head to toe. Leaning on the crutches she panted for breath. Under the golden dawn her shadow stretched long across the ground.
“Like a fool.”
So Yeomgyo blinked.
“There’s no way that guy would be waiting here.”
She advanced, still panting. The salt lake with the name Yeomcheongdangsan carved into the rock face came into view.
“Haa… haa….”
It was beautiful. She had never seen anything like it in her life. There was no one around. A blue wind blew. The place was colorful, the blue lake lush and full. In this world only she alone was walking. There was no one else, and only the sound of her footsteps echoed.
-Clack…. clack…. clack…
She walked. Three steps, then she had to rest because it was too hard. Even so she walked. She climbed the slope. She climbed and climbed. Sweat beaded on her forehead. At last, below her vision after the climb, a blue lake appeared. A huge green lake.
-Splash, splash….
It was a vast lake where green waves rolled in, quiet waves rolling in. Primordial silence slept there; not even bird cries could be heard, no human presence felt in any direction. It was the feeling of standing alone in the entire world. A world filled only with the green lake under the blue sky. And in that lake—
In that lake where human traces should never have existed—
“Ah…!”
So Yeomgyo fell to her knees. In this lake where no one would hear, she burst into silent tears.
In the lake of Yeomcheongdangsan there remained the footprints of just one person—traces of circling hundreds, thousands of times, wishing for one person’s happiness.