You Can Have It Again
The meal was over.
Today, too, the table had been a dazzling feast.
"Your skill has only improved."
"I've been cooking so much, I've gotten better."
Mi Soryeong covered her mouth and laughed, soft and pleased.
"I've been experimenting with all sorts of things lately."
"The refrigerator is so full of ingredients that I find myself looking forward to every meal."
"Oh my. So you're saying you didn't look forward to them before?"
"No... that isn't what I meant..."
Aigoo. If he had only kept his mouth shut, he would have been halfway to safety.
I left Dan Miryu sweating buckets and turned my gaze to Hong Yumin. She, who had brightened at every bite, now leaned languidly back in her chair, rubbing her stomach.
"Did you enjoy it?"
"Mm. Yes. I ate well. I have tasted paradise."
Good. She was satisfied.
"If I followed my heart, I should like to go on eating..."
Hong Yumin looked regretful.
"Among the dishes I brought, some were made by Mi Soryeong."
"Truly?"
"Yes. The porridge you ate at the start was hers as well."
"I see..."
Hong Yumin's expression grew distant.
"That porridge was delicious."
"Truly?"
"Yes. Anytime you wish, so long as you are resolved."
"......"
I watched Hong Yumin's eyes. She was still hesitating.
She must have begun to feel it by now—that the world around her was changing. She felt that change more keenly than anyone, and yet the long years held her by the ankles.
I had every move prepared. I had the original, after all. But without Hong Yumin's resolve, I could not go forward. Unless she was willing to break her own world, the grandest plan in existence would mean nothing.
Hong Yumin's eyes trembled, ever so slightly.
"......No need."
"......I understand."
Tsk. At least she wasn't angry the way she had been before the meal. Was that enough to call progress? Back then I had been so stifled that I lost my temper too. Fortunately, she didn't seem to be holding it against me.
"Master Hong Yumin."
"What is it?"
Mi Soryeong had called to her.
"We're going shopping. Do you have the time?"
"Shopping? You mean the market?"
"No. We're going to a department store."
Mi Soryeong shot the two of us a look.
"Why don't you go along, just this once?"
Dan Miryu was the one who caught the signal.
"And the child's lessons?"
"This is hardly a matter of a day or two, is it?"
"......That much is true."
Hong Yumin seemed to be turning it over.
"You might as well see the sights while you're out."
"That's right. We'll have new clothes fitted for you, too. I'll help."
I tossed in a word of encouragement, and Mi Soryeong pressed the advantage.
"Hmm...... If it is only for a little while, it should be fine......"
"Then let's go right now!"
"Th-this instant, you say?"
"Yes. This is exactly the right time of day."
Caught in a housewife's headlong charge, Hong Yumin was dragged off before she knew which way to turn.
"Could you take care of the cleanup?"
"Have a good time. And bury her in gifts."
"Yes."
The two of them opened the front door and vanished. We set about clearing the table.
"I'm glad it worked out."
"Yes. And thank you, Dan Miryu, for accepting the proposal."
Dan Miryu gave a bitter smile.
"I've been busy of late, so it was no bad thing for me either."
Dark circles shadowed the skin beneath his eyes. He was busy enough to lose sleep, and still he had carved the time out by force.
"Master Hong Yumin seems a good person, from what I've seen. And now there's someone to look after Chuyeon. Isn't that a fine thing?"
He spoke as if it hardly mattered, but a thin thread of distrust ran underneath. That distrust was only natural. Ancestor-linked or not, she was a stranger he had met for the first time today. If the feeling vanished merely because I recommended her, Dan Miryu would be a careless man.
"Hong Yumin is a suitable master for Dan Chuyeon."
Best to ease that distrust, even a little.
"She is an immortal who has lived for hundreds of years. In experience, no one can match her."
"An immortal......"
Dan Miryu sounded as though he could not believe it.
"I did not know immortals truly existed."
"In truth, she is less a real immortal than a superpower that is the immortal."
"Is there a difference?"
"A vast one. A difference of race. Think of the entire concept of the immortal as contained within a single ability."
"......The concept?"
Dan Miryu's eyes flew wide.
"Yes. Hong Yumin can do everything that comes to mind when one thinks of an immortal."
Just as I could, being a phantom thief.
"......I find it difficult to imagine."
"Because it is abstract. And that is precisely why it is powerful. Unlike something won through training, she would come to understand it merely by drawing breath."
"Among the concepts of the immortal, there is also the concept of a master."
"Do you mean the tale of Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan?"
The Eight Immortals of Taoism: Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin. Lü Dongbin had honored Zhongli Quan as his master, and in time became an immortal himself.
"Not only those two. There are Hongjun the Taoist, and the Three Pure Ones as well."
Legends of immortals instructing disciples went far beyond these.
"As a teacher, she leaves nothing to be desired. You may set your mind at ease."
"......I understand."
Dan Miryu conceded, reluctantly.
Well. Of course he'd feel uneasy.
The protagonist was the Dan Clan's only heir. Teaching that heir was, properly speaking, the clan head's charge—but the clan head had no time. Better not to teach at all than to wring out the hours and do it halfway. In the original he hadn't cared about any of that; he had simply gone around cracking villains over the head.
"If I may say one thing for certain."
"......?"
"He is going to suffer. Enormously."
Dan Miryu let out a thin laugh.
"If so, nothing could be better."
Quite so.
In the original, Hong Yumin had been frail and sickly.
Looking after both Akho and the protagonist, her body had never been right. Coughing blood was an everyday affair. She had even collapsed in a dead faint.
That will not happen now.
Hong Yumin would live in health—not as an immortal, but as a person. Proudly, without the weight of responsibility and duty. I would let her laugh, and enjoy her freedom. I would not let her die. I would keep her alive and see to it that she educated the protagonist, one way or another.
Ah. I want to see it.
The protagonist tumbling through it like a man possessed.
Raise him properly. Then work him to the bone.
A high schooler? The world was on the verge of ending. What did that matter? I was sorry for Dan Miryu, but leaving power of that caliber idle would be a loss for the entire world. The protagonist's ability was that much of a cheat—so much so that no one but a legendary immortal could teach him.
"More than that, I worry for Hong Yumin."
"Ah......"
Dan Miryu scratched his head.
"She'll be all right, won't she?"
"Well......"
Once someone appeared whom she could call a friend, she might well run wild. I offered a quiet prayer for the repose of Hong Yumin's soul.
"As expected. With a face as lovely as yours, everything suits you."
Hong Yumin stared at herself in the mirror, struck dumb.
How many times is this?
Her red hair was braided down over one shoulder, her lips stained red, her face made up.
"Um...... Soryeong? Might it not be enough to stop here?"
"Oh, don't be disappointing. There's still this much left."
Hong Yumin's expression hardened as she took in the clothes hanging in a row.
"You mean to put all of those on me?"
"Even so, that would be too much, wouldn't it?"
A lie!
She turned her head, and clothes were piled in a mountain. Dozens of outfits stacked high, while the staff groaned and labored to sort them.
"I'll buy everything stacked over there."
"Th-thank you!"
At the sight of Mi Soryeong drawing a black card and already choosing the next outfit, Hong Yumin shivered.
F-frightening!
She had thought it was ordinary shopping. At the department store the car had suddenly swung around. She had been hauled into some specialist makeup boutique and turned into a dress-up doll; the clothes she arrived in were disposed of, and powder was forced onto her face. Mi Soryeong had looked so delighted that Hong Yumin let it be—and now it had gone on for hours.
"Hmm. This one isn't quite right."
Eyes alight, Mi Soryeong was a hunter sighting prey. It was difficult to object to a look like that. One wrong word, and she felt she would sink into a bog forever.
Th-this, too, must count as experience.
And no common one, at that.
"Everything from here to here, please."
"M-madam, th-thank you!"
The owner trembled and bowed and scraped. Pitiful.
"Has she always been like this?"
She asked the employee helping at her side.
"The owner, you mean?"
"No. I mean Mi Soryeong."
"Ah."
The employee glanced about, then lowered her voice.
"She isn't usually like this, but today she's especially full of energy."
"Energy? She is carrying out a massacre."
"Ahaha......"
The employee let the words trail away.
"What can we do? She's the king of this street."
"A king, you say?"
"You didn't know?"
The employee stole a glance at Mi Soryeong.
"You have no idea how famous Madam Mi Soryeong is on this street."
"Famous enough to be called a king?"
"Of course. Even the wife of a conglomerate chairman and the wife of a party leader don't dare so much as twitch."
The employee launched into a story.
"Last time, while Madam Mi Soryeong was having her makeup done, some other madam threw her weight around."
"In what way?"
"Said she was taking her daughter to a marriage meeting and had no time, and told Madam Mi Soryeong to get out."
"Someone of high station?"
"Fairly high, yes."
The employee looked toward the owner.
"The previous owner had ties to that madam as well, and tried to drive Madam Mi Soryeong out."
"I need not see it to know how that ended."
To lay a hand on the mistress of the Dan Clan. That madam and that owner must have been blown to pieces.
"Exactly. Madam Mi Soryeong placed a call somewhere, and..."
The employee twitched the corner of her mouth, plainly delighted.
"That madam's husband came scrambling in, bowed his head, and the whole place went up in chaos."
Hong Yumin laughed under her breath.
"So the owner changed then as well."
"Yes. The current owner used to be the vice president."
Hence all the bowing and scraping.
"If I may ask, what is your relation to Madam Mi Soryeong?"
"Hm?"
The employee asked it carefully.
"She always comes alone, you see."
Hong Yumin caught her meaning at once.
"Did the owner set you to gather information?"
Struck dead center, the employee's eyes trembled.
"Enough. I have heard an amusing tale, so I shall let it pass."
"Ah."
Relief flickered through the employee's eyes.
"If I must say, I met her for the first time today."
"Pardon?"
"No. Forget it."
"Ah......"
For an instant the employee's eyes went blank. Then they returned. Hong Yumin looked at Mi Soryeong and smiled, bitter.
She has been lonely.
Lonely enough to want to do something—anything—for even a brief connection.
Just like me.
She felt a kinship. There had been a beloved beside Mi Soryeong, and a child. And yet there had been no one to keep company with her. No friend, equal and amusing, who would look after her in return.
A friend......
Then were she and this woman friends? She did not know. The word friend was one she had left behind in memory.
"Would you like to try this one on as well?"
But Mi Soryeong, bright with delight, was not so bad.
"I wish to wear no more."
"Just one outfit......"
"I'm going!"
How much further does she mean to go? I am sick to death of putting clothes on!
"Aww. It can't be helped."
Mi Soryeong stepped back, looking regretful.
"Please have them delivered to this address."
"Th-thank you! Please come again!"
They came out onto the street.
"These clothes cling so close they are rather uncomfortable."
"They're better than that Taoist robe."
"That was a gift from the Dan Clan of long ago, I'll have you know."
"Ah."
"A joke."
"Honestly!"
Hoo hoo. Rather adorable.
"Are we returning home now?"
"No. We still have to go over there."
Hong Yumin looked at the shop across the way. Fluffy clouds were painted across its front.
"What manner of eatery is it?"
"A famous dessert shop."
The moment she turned her attention to it, a sweet scent pricked her nose.
"Ooh. It looks delicious at a glance. Let us go in at once!"
"Yes. Order whatever you like."
Lost in the paradise before her eyes, Hong Yumin never looked behind her.
"Because there's still so much left to do......"
At Mi Soryeong, smiling a wicked smile. At the hell that waited behind paradise. She did not yet know.