The World After the Massacre
When I opened my eyes again, Gyeong-a noona was fast asleep, leaning her head against my shoulder.
“……”
I gently moved her head so she could rest against the nearby pillar, then carefully stood up.
How many hours have passed?
Being underground made it impossible to gauge the time. It felt like quite a while had gone by, but human perception of time was relative at best. Not exactly reliable.
Gurgle—
Right on cue, my stomach clock went off. Following what Dokgo Rin had told me before we slept, I headed toward the jar containing the fasting pills.
Next to the fasting pill jar was a well, probably drawing from an underground water source. I drew some water with a bucket, quenched my thirst, then opened the jar lid and took out one of the pills.
“So this is a fasting pill…”
It looked exactly like the dung balls a dung beetle would roll, but in reality, a single pill could replace an entire meal. An ultra-high-calorie superfood.
Since this was my first time trying one, I stared at it with a mix of doubt and curiosity before popping it into my mouth.
Chew chew.
The initial taste was bitter, but thanks to the honey mixed in, it was more edible than I expected. At the same time, you could clearly taste the natural flavors of each ingredient. It really did feel like eating some kind of health supplement.
The only downside was how incredibly dry and powdery it was, since it was just a bunch of ground ingredients clumped together. Even though I’d just drunk water, I immediately took another sip.
After finishing that quick “meal,” I returned to my original spot. That’s when I grew curious about what Dokgo Rin was doing.
I walked over to where she’d been reading earlier and found her still in the exact same position, completely absorbed in the book. The only difference was that two-thirds of the pages had been turned.
Did she seriously not move once in that position?
If so, her concentration was nothing short of monstrous.
Not wanting to disturb her, I quietly turned to head back to my seat when Dokgo Rin suddenly lifted her head.
“Ah, yes.”
I answered reflexively, then added with an apologetic look, “I’m sorry. Did I disturb your reading?”
With those words, Dokgo Rin closed the book she’d been reading and stretched with a long nnngh!
“So, did you find anything useful?” I asked.
As she spoke, Dokgo Rin waved the Nine Heavens Mysterious Sword manual, which was about two-thirds finished.
“And?”
“He… modified it to suit his own taste?”
“Consideration? Is cultivating the upper dantian that difficult?”
The upper dantian is connected to the brain. One wrong move during cultivation could leave a person crippled for life. That was probably why he deliberately excluded it.
“……I see.”
I gave a wry smile at Dokgo Rin’s comment. My brain knew that a fairy appearing in a dream was ridiculous, but if we were going to nitpick about what made sense, the fact that I’d died and transmigrated into a novel was already completely absurd.
Maybe fairies really do exist.
Once I thought about it that way, the manual in front of me suddenly looked incredibly impressive. If Dokgo Pae’s words were true, this was a martial art personally passed down by a heavenly fairy.
That was probably why those people outside had attacked the Dokgo Clan.
Dokgo Rin shared her speculation and set the book down on her lap. I looked back and forth between her and the manual before cautiously speaking up.
“If it’s such an amazing martial art, shouldn’t you try learning it, my lady?”
“Yes. After all, the root of the martial art you’ve been practicing is the Nine Heavens Mysterious Sword. Wouldn’t it be much more advantageous than starting from scratch?”
Dokgo Rin gently stroked the cover of the manual and replied,
“Ah, I see.”
If she said so herself, there wasn’t much I could say. I awkwardly looked away, only to notice her stomach let out a gurgle. I quickly spoke up.
“Then let’s go eat something first. You’ve been starving yourself while reading.”
Dokgo Rin stood up, brushing off her clothes. I followed her toward the jar of fasting pills.
A lot more time passed after that.
I wasn’t sure exactly how much, but by the time we’d eaten nine meals whenever our stomachs growled to keep track of time, we could no longer endure it and decided to leave the secret training ground.
“…Is there really no chance the young master is still alive?” Gyeong-a noona asked before we left, clinging to a sliver of hope.
I gave a bitter smile and answered, “It’s a cruel thing to say, but if the young master were alive, he would have come running first to open the door to the secret training ground.”
But the door had never opened. That meant there wasn’t a single survivor from the Dokgo Clan.
Having the fact that Dokgo Seok was dead hammered into her once again, Gyeong-a noona looked downcast. But honestly, there was nothing we could do about it. False hope only led to greater disappointment.
To exit the secret training ground, Dokgo Rin pressed the inverted scale on the eighth of the nine dragons drawn on the wall. With a heavy grrrruuung, the statue blocking the entrance began to move.
“Yes.”
In case of a surprise attack, Dokgo Rin took the lead, Gyeong-a noona stayed in the middle, and I brought up the rear.
It was midday outside. The moment we climbed the stairs, blinding sunlight poured down on us. Having spent so long in darkness, I kept blinking rapidly to adjust to the light before slowly looking around with recovered vision.
“……”
It was a truly horrific scene.
Burned-down buildings and corpses scattered everywhere. Some bodies were charred pitch-black like lumps of coal, while others that had somehow escaped the flames still retained their original appearance. It was winter, so the cold was a blessing. If it had been summer, the place would have been swarming with maggots.
“Ugh!”
While looking around with Dokgo Rin, I finally couldn’t hold it in and vomited. It was only natural. Every single one of these cold corpses rolling on the ground had been alive and moving just days ago. And they weren’t strangers, either. Every face was familiar.
Gyeong-a noona seemed to feel the same way. Her face had gone deathly pale as she ran toward a corner.
The only one who remained completely composed was Dokgo Rin.
“……”
With a somber expression, she scanned the surroundings. Once Gyeong-a noona and I had somewhat recovered, she suggested we head to the ancestral shrine.
I nodded and rinsed my mouth with the water we’d brought from the secret training ground. Maybe because I’d only eaten fasting pills underground for days, there was nothing left to throw up.
As we moved from the main building entrance toward the ancestral shrine, an even more gruesome sight unfolded. Honestly, if I could have, I would have squeezed my eyes shut. But I didn’t. I needed to burn this horrific scene into my memory.
Passing by mountains of piled corpses, we finally entered the shrine. Traces of the fierce battle from that night were everywhere. Broken ancestral tablets, sword marks gouged into the floor, Dokgo Jin and Tang Mi-ryeong dead with swords still buried in their chests. Dokgo Hyeok and his wife Chae Yun-seol sprawled on the ground with deep wounds across their chests. And finally, Dokgo Seok, dead with a spear driven through his abdomen.
Just as expected, there wasn’t a single survivor.
“……”
Dokgo Rin, who had not once looked away from the gruesome sights on the way to the shrine, finally spoke.
“Pardon?”
I stared at Dokgo Rin’s lonely back for a moment, wondering if I should leave her alone. But I soon headed for the clan’s storage shed to fulfill her request.