The Waiter of the Dilapidated Inn
Seo-ah stared at the Left Guardian. What would happen if I refused? The Left Guardian was obsessed with the previous Divine Maiden, and he had brought her here to uphold the woman’s legacy. Whether it was to escape the shadow of that predecessor or to prove that he had fulfilled his duty as ordered, the Left Guardian was insisting that she pay her respects to the former Divine Maiden.
If she refused, would he use force to suppress her and drag her away? Would he try to command her with the authority of his position? Or perhaps, he would simply kneel and refuse to move until she agreed to go. He might actually give up, surprisingly. Whether she was truly the Divine Maiden or not, to the Left Guardian, she was already the Divine Maiden of this generation. Regardless of whether others accepted it or not. After all, the "predecessor"—whom she didn't even know—had said so. She felt, with a sort of "intuition," that he wouldn't easily lay a hand on her.
As Seo-ah’s silence stretched on, the Left Guardian’s eyes seemed to tremble. After a little more time passed, Seo-ah opened her mouth.
“Will it take a long time?”
“It will not take long. Perhaps, at most, no more than a month.”
“No-ya, what do you think?”
“Hmm… why are you asking me that?” No-ya, who had been leaning against the wall and watching the exchange between Seo-ah and the Left Guardian, asked in confusion.
“You said you had places to introduce me to and much to teach me. Is a month okay?”
“Ah. That’s right. Do as you wish.”
Seo-ah looked at the Left Guardian. He seemed pleased, yet he didn't show an excessive reaction. It was as if he were a man who had expected this to happen. He looked like someone who had been agonizing over the possibility, only to finally have his fears confirmed.
Seo-ah asked the Left Guardian again.
“So, where are we going?”
“Mount Kunlun. The tomb of the Divine Maiden is at the peak of Mount Kunlun.”
Seo-ah’s reason for accepting the Left Guardian’s request was simple. First, she felt a shred of pity for the pathetic old man who looked at her so desperately. Second, she calculated that granting his request wouldn't be a loss.
It wouldn't be bad to owe a debt to the highest-ranking person in the Cult.
Surely, it would return as a great favor someday. If the price of putting the Left Guardian in her debt was just one month of her time, she didn't mind paying it. It wasn't even a difficult request.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen the sun.”
Seo-ah looked at the Left Guardian.
“You should come out and soak in the sunlight more often.”
“Actually, I dislike the sun.”
“Is that so?”
“Rather than that, I had no opportunity to leave the cave because I had to maintain the sorcery within.”
“Come to think of it, what kind of sorcery was that?”
As they exited the cave, Seo-ah recalled the mysterious sight of the characters on the wall being sucked into the Left Guardian. The Left Guardian spoke plainly.
“It was a Forbidden Technique that allowed one to glimpse the secrets of Heaven at the cost of my own life.”
“……Are you sure you’re alright?”
So that was why the cave felt so unpleasant—because it was a forbidden art. It was also the moment she realized how the Left Guardian seemed to know everything and how he had guessed her name without her ever telling him.
“Of course. It is not enough to cause the Divine Maiden any worry, so you need not concern yourself.”
“I told you, I’m not the Divine Maiden.”
“Yes, Seo-ah-nim.”
“…….”
Seo-ah looked at the Left Guardian with a subtle expression, then turned her gaze toward No-ya.
“But, No-ya. How could you just tell me to listen to such important information directly?”
The Left Guardian chimed in from the side.
“Indeed. Sword Saint-jon. Honestly, aren’t you being too irresponsible? I didn't know the Divine Maiden would be this flustered. You should have at least explained the situation.”
No-ya didn't even respond to the Left Guardian, speaking instead to Seo-ah.
“Now. Let’s be honest. If I had just stood you there and said, ‘You are actually the Divine Maiden,’ do you think you would have believed me?”
“Well… I suppose not.”
“See? Even if I had explained it and you met the Left Guardian, you would have asked me the same thing you are asking now. Why didn't I explain it in more detail?”
“…….”
“I am not the Left Guardian. I only know that I brought you here after hearing that you were the Divine Maiden. What more could I have explained in detail?”
“Still, you should have given me a hint. You shouldn't have just thrown me in front of the Left Guardian like that….”
No-ya pressed his lips together, having nothing more to say. He looked like he was pouting. With that, Seo-ah and the Left Guardian boarded the carriage they had left in the forest. No-ya, the owner of the carriage, watched them from the outside with a sullen expression, still looking a bit sulky.
Seo-ah poked her head out of the carriage window.
“I’ll be back.”
“…….”
“Are you really pouting just because I said a little something? Are you really not going to say goodbye?”
“Who’s pouting? Forget it. Go on. Be careful not to be rude to the Left Guardian like you are to me… and don't wander off onto strange paths….”
No-ya began to nag her with the concern of a parent releasing a child into the world. Seo-ah listened to him quietly. She was afraid he would pout even more if she didn't. However, she didn't dislike the nagging. Since she had entered this life, these were the first words of genuine concern she had heard from an elder. The parents who had sold her off—those people who weren't worthy of being called parents—had never been that kind to her.
No-ya added one last thing.
“Ah. You haven't forgotten what I told you, have you?”
“That the power of decision lies with me?”
No-ya nodded, looking satisfied.
“Of course. ‘Master,’ I’ll be back. Even though I haven't learned much yet.”
“When you return, I’ll make sure to work you until you beg me to stop, so don't you worry.”
Fortunately, whether it was because of the word "Master" or because she had listened to his nagging, his mood seemed to have lifted. Seo-ah closed the carriage window. The carriage departed.
Immortals live on Mount Kunlun. It is said that the lofty mountain, which touches the sky, is filled with spiritual energy and has been home to immortals since ancient times. Not the Mount Kunlun that usually appears in martial arts novels, but the one from legends. Seo-ah stared at the towering Mount Kunlun, which rose above the clouds.
Immortals, huh…
Do real immortals live up there? The reason Seo-ah was contemplating such an absurd question was simple. Qinghai, where Mount Kunlun is located, functioned as a neutral zone for martial arts factions to avoid offending the immortals. In other words, whether it was the Demonic Faction, the Evil Faction, or the Righteous Faction, large-scale conflicts akin to war were publicly impossible, excluding minor disputes. This was the very reason the Righteous Faction, which hated the Demonic Faction, had no choice but to leave the Sun Moon Demonic Cult alone. If they started a war, Qinghai would not be safe from the aftermath. If that happened, a divine judgment might fall, disrupting the cultivation of the immortals on that high mountain.
That’s what they say publicly, at least…
Seo-ah cut off this fruitless line of thought at an appropriate point. She wouldn't have any reason to encounter the immortals anyway. Seo-ah looked at the Left Guardian sitting next to her.
I thought we could talk in the carriage.
Seo-ah had wanted to ask the Left Guardian many things. How he came to serve the previous Divine Maiden, how one learns sorcery, about the Il-sin-gung that attacked the Gyomaguan, and so on. But, to conclude, Seo-ah couldn't ask him anything. Inside the carriage, the Left Guardian spent most of his time sleeping as if he were dead. A few days passed like that, and Seo-ah arrived at a village at the foot of Mount Kunlun without having gained any information.
The Left Guardian, who had woken up from his sleep after a long time, said,
“It’s a small village, isn't it?”
“Yes, it is.”
“This is my hometown.”
“Left Guardian-nim… were you an outsider, too?”
“Come to think of it, you haven't been in the Cult long, Divine Maiden-nim. I suppose you didn't know. The fact that I was an outsider was quite widely known in the past.”
“I told you, I’m not the Divine Maiden….”
The Left Guardian didn't even respond to her claim that she wasn't the Divine Maiden, instead pointing to a dilapidated inn.
“I used to be a waiter at that inn.”
This was an interesting story. The leader of the Demonic Faction, which shares power over the three great forces of the Central Plains, had been a waiter at an inn.
“It’s been almost a hundred years now.”
“A hundred years?”
“I am younger than I look. Let’s go in.”
The gaunt Left Guardian threw out an absurd joke and entered the inn with a sly expression. The inn was quite crowded. Since he said he had been working here a hundred years ago, perhaps it was famous as a local hotspot. They sat in a corner and called for a waiter. As soon as the Left Guardian sat down, he said,
“The plain noodles here are delicious. Is there anything else you’d like to eat?”
“I’ll take your recommendation, Left Guardian-nim.”
“Give us two bowls of plain noodles here.”
“Yes! Two bowls of plain noodles!”
Before long, the noodles were served in front of them. It’s tasty. It wasn't an incredibly profound flavor, just cheap and delicious noodles. Seo-ah looked at the Left Guardian in front of her. He was eating his noodles silently, looking around with a face lost in memories.
After a long time, the Left Guardian opened his mouth.
“Being an inn waiter is a harder job than it looks. It’s not that the work is difficult, but… it’s easy to lose your life getting caught up in the rampages of martial artists.”
Seo-ah nodded silently.
“It was here that I met the previous Divine Maiden.”
“Oh… really?”
Seo-ah listened intently, as the story she had wanted to ask about in the carriage had finally come up.
“It wasn't a grand meeting. It was the kind of meeting that could happen anywhere in the martial world. Ah… it was a day just like this back then. I was working as passionately as that waiter over there.”
Seo-ah looked at the waiter working passionately.
“Then suddenly… Bang!”
— Bang!
No sooner had the Left Guardian finished speaking than the sound of a door being smashed filled the inn.
“The door was broken, and a group of thugs from the Evil Faction came in.”
A bald man with a face full of scars shouted as he entered the inn. Behind him, several men in black, who appeared to be his subordinates, followed.
“So-hyang-ah!! Your husband has come, yet you do not welcome him. Where are you hiding?!”
The Left Guardian said,
“That part is different. Back then, they were here to collect the innkeeper’s debt.”
Seo-ah looked at the Left Guardian with a startled expression. The Left Guardian was laughing with a bright face, as if something were very amusing.