Chapter 26
Clang—!
When the blade of the pitch-black sword snapped, the blood-red mist began to scatter.
Whoosh—
Geom Mujin approached the source of the fog.
At last, the vampire of Mount Mui revealed its true form.
“......”
It didn’t have a bat’s skull or wings.
From head to toe, there wasn’t a single monstrous feature on it.
On the contrary, with its small frame, tiny hands and feet, and pale skin, it looked nothing at all like a monster.
“No way, for real…”
He had more or less guessed as much already, but seeing it with his own eyes still left him too stunned to hide it.
Right in front of me, a child was lying there.
I hadn’t been seeing things before I was buried in that thorn grave after all.
Just from the outside, I might’ve thought it was simply a kid with somewhat pale skin.
“And it’s got black hair too?”
With skin that white, the black hair stood out even more.
“...At least it’s still alive.”
Pushing the shock aside, I picked the child up first.
A faint, fragile breath brushed my hand.
Thump.
“Hm?”
As soon as I lifted the child into my arms, something fell at my feet.
It was the pitch-black sword whose blade I’d just cut off.
The blade that had been regenerated by condensing natural qi and yin energy was already dissolving like mist.
“So that was its original form.”
After staring down at the sword for a moment as it returned to its true state, Geom Mujin...
“Ugh, get lost.”
WHUMP!
Remembering all the trouble this thing had caused, Geom Mujin got irritated and kicked the pitch-black sword away without a second thought.
Looking at it, the sword had apparently been controlling that thing, so by that logic this sword was the root of all the mess.
Roll, roll—!
The pitch-black sword, with its painstakingly regenerated blade now severed again, tumbled across the ground.
Considering it had controlled the vampire, drained the mountain’s natural qi, and even ordered zombies around, this was a pathetically miserable fate.
“Hey, kid. Wake up.”
After moving the sword aside, I placed a hand on the child’s back.
Hum—
Through my palm, I gently pushed inner energy into the key acupoints.
“Uhh... uhhh....”
At that, the child’s eyelids trembled and slowly opened.
When the child reached out a hand, I absentmindedly took it.
“I go and save you, and this is the thanks I get.”
A laugh escaped him.
* * *
“So what am I supposed to do with this, then.”
After patting the child, who had cried for a long while before falling asleep, I let out a quiet sigh.
I’d meant to ask a few questions about its identity, but the moment it stopped crying, it passed out.
When I first came here, I’d been in the mood of some fool going to catch a new Pokémon, but I never would’ve imagined the monster demon would turn out to be this.
“Still, seriously. That little brat’s been sleeping like the dead since earlier.”
Even its breathing was so faint someone might’ve thought it was an actual corpse, damn it...
Sleeping like the dead? Corpse?
A chill ran down my spine, and I hurriedly felt for the child’s pulse.
“This is a total disaster.”
Contrary to appearances, the child’s insides were a wreck.
The meridians looked as if they’d been brutally overworked, ragged and frayed, and the pulse was weakening in real time.
On top of that, several organs were sluggish too.
In my twenty years in the martial world, I’d seen plenty of cases like this.
They all had one thing in common: they stood on the edge between life and death.
And most of them ended up dying.
“What the hell! It wasn’t sleeping like the dead, it was actually dying!”
“......”
Flop...
The child’s arms and legs hung limply, dangling uselessly.
After becoming a vampire, the child’s physical abilities had grown stronger every time it fed, but after taking in a massive amount of natural qi and yin energy, it had been swallowed up by them instead.
If not for a vampire’s stubborn vitality, it would have died long ago.
Of course, even that stubborn vitality was only barely keeping its life thread attached at this point.
So that pale skin wasn’t because it was a vampire after all, but because death itself was already draped across its face?!
“I’ve already gone and done work that wasn’t even my job, so I’m not about to let this kid die.”
Besides, there were still too many things I hadn’t asked this brat yet.
This wasn’t something I could fix by poking a few pressure points here and there.
I’m a swordsman, not a physician.
I’ve got some knowledge of treating external and internal injuries, but for something like this, I’d need to show the kid to a proper doctor.
Rather than dawdling here, I needed to get down the mountain fir—
Kiiiieee—!
“Hm?”
Then I heard Sodam’s cry in my head.
Master, the mainland barbarians are heading your way right now!
Through the vision Sodam shared, I could see the surviving Taeho Sect remnants drawing near.
I looked around briefly.
The whole area looked like dinosaurs had gone at each other here.
After a fight that loud, there was no way it wouldn’t attract attention.
Kkiiik—!
You’d better run away quickly!
For some reason, there was a crisp military discipline in Sodam’s cry.
Geom Mujin tilted his head, wondering why the hell that eagle was acting like that all of a sudden, but there was nothing for it.
Sodam had watched him fight every single time, like premium 4K ultra-high-definition footage.
When its overwhelmingly strong master fought, all it could do was cheer from the sky.
But until now, all Sodam had seen was Geom Mujin’s normal swordplay.
Even his already absurdly strong swordplay had been enough to make the world tremble, but this time was different.
The full-force swordplay Geom Mujin had unleashed against the embodiment of yin energy had put the slackened loyalty of Sodam on high alert.
Loyalty, loyalty!
“So which way should I go?”
Kkyaaeeek—!
They’re coming from basically every direction, but I recommend slipping out to the east, sir!
-...over there...!
-There are battle traces here...!
With the sounds of people drawing closer one by one, I was about to leave the mountain when something caught my eye.
It was the sword that had rolled around in the dirt in a miserable heap, now all bleached from pitch-black to brown, like some weirdly “rare” drop.
“......”
After staring at the sword for a moment, Geom Mujin reached out.
Then the sword flew into his hand, drawn by an invisible force.
Come on, you’re coming with me too.
Stuffing the sword roughly into my waistband, I took off.
Fwoosh—!
Stepping on a branch, I leaped into the air.
Goodbye, everyone.
I cast off all the shackles and chains of this world and departed for Heo's Medical Clinic.
Sometime later, when the Taeho Sect members reached the summit, what they found was a scene reduced to rubble by massive sword scars.
For a moment, they were struck speechless, then they sprang into action.
“What the hell...”
“More importantly, find the monster demon’s body!”
“Right! There’s no way the monster demon survived a battle this brutal!”
The Taeho Sect disciples who had barely survived the chaos searched the mountain with burning eyes, but there was no monster demon’s corpse anywhere.
“H-huh! Sect Master!”
“Why is Sect Master lying here?”
“Sniff, sniff. But doesn’t something smell weird from earlier?”
“Maybe so. Wait a second, the state of the Sect Master’s pants is...! U, ugh!”
All they found was the sect master, his right arm cut off by some barbarian, his mouth sealed by pressure-point strikes, and suffering such side effects that he’d soiled himself in his pants.
And so the extermination of the monster demon on Mount Mui came to an end.
The result was the death of seventy percent of the force sent on the expedition and the sect master’s half-death—both physical and social.
The vampire monster demon was saved, and the absurd spectacle of the extermination force seeing blood was all over the place, but they should be thanking Geom Mujin.
If he hadn’t been there, they would all have become the vampire’s meal.
“Haha...”
A hollow laugh escaped their lips.
By then the sun had risen and dawn had broken, but in contrast, their faces only grew darker.
Though the sect’s future would become even darker than their expressions right now.
Hang in there, Taeho Sect!
Awesome, Taeho Sect!
You protected the safety of Gangneung!
Probably.
* * *
At the hour when the chickens laying eggs for scramble eggs were clearing their throats for their good-morning shouting.
A black silhouette vaulted over the wall at speed.
Swish-swish-swish—!
Leaving no footprints behind, the figure moved swiftly toward its destination.
The bedroom in the main hall of Heo's Medical Clinic.
There, Heo Injun was asleep.
Rustle—
A shadow slipped into the bedroom without a sound and draped itself over his head.
Hoo— hoo—
“Physician Heo.”
“Mmm....”
At the whispering voice by his ear, his face twitched.
“Physician Heo.”
“Mmmmm....”
His body twitched again at the second call.
Judging by that reaction, he’d be waking up soon—
Snore...
“Hey, wake up already.”
SMACK!
Just as he was about to drift back into sleep, a palm struck his cheek dead-on.
“W-what the—..! Hngh!?”
Heo Injun clutched his stinging cheek and bolted upright, only for a rough hand to clamp over his mouth.
Here’s the question.
If someone sneaks into your bedroom and covers your mouth, what’s their goal?
Two possibilities came to mind.
Assassination and robbery.
Unfortunately, both meant someone was after my life.
Then a cold sweat and a storm of worries rushed up behind me.
If I died like this, who would walk my daughter down the virgin road when she got married?
No, what am I even thinking? My daughter getting married?
Ever since the Sword Benefactor saved her, she hasn’t said that kind of thing, but before she got sick, she used to say that when she grew up she’d marry Daddy...
And now I was going to hand my daughter over to some guy I didn’t even know?
-Wahoo! Father-in-law, I’ll have lots and lots of grandkids and repay you with big-time filial piety!
My daughter, dressed in a white wedding gown, taking the hand of some blond-haired, brown-skinned bastard who claimed he was her husband and walking away.
It was one of the three great taboos a father of daughters should never imagine.
“Grrrr...”
Foam bubbled at my mouth and my face twisted into something demonic.
I was about to poison that filthy thief to death—
Just then, as madness began to seep into my eyes, a familiar voice reached me.
“Quiet. It’s me.”
“...Y-you, Sword Benefactor?”
Heo Injun’s eyes widened when he recognized the face.
The madness receded.
“Sorry. I came in quietly, that’s all.”
To guard against any possible trouble, I’d concealed my presence.
Geom Mujin, who had been covering Heo Injun’s mouth, removed his hand.
“Have you returned from the monster demon extermination?”
It had been about three days since the Taeho Sect left.
Thinking of the distance between Gangneung and Mount Mui, it hadn’t even been a full day since they’d arrived at Mount Mui.
Had the extermination already ended?
“Mm. Something like that.”
Geom Mujin gave an ambiguous answer.
“Sss... why does my cheek hurt so much...”
“A-agh! Cough, cough! Hey, Physician Heo. Could you take a look at this kid for me?”
Geom Mujin cleared his throat awkwardly and said it.
“Pardon? All of a sudden, what...”
At the abrupt request, Heo Injun received the child and looked flustered.
But only for a moment; as soon as he checked the child’s pulse out of habit, his expression turned serious.
“This is...”
“I’m asking you. Please save this kid.”
At Geom Mujin’s earnest plea, Heo Injun looked back and forth between him and the child.
Black hair.
An adult and a child.
That desperate expression, one that could never come from a complete stranger.
Those three elements blended together exquisitely and arrived at one conclusion.
“....!”
Heo Injun nodded.
“I completely understand how you feel. I had a similar time myself.”
“W-what?”
“But that’s exactly when you need to steady your heart, Sword Benefactor.”
“No, I...”
“Just trust me.”
Heo Injun placed a hand on my shoulder, sending me a look brimming with sympathy and intimacy.
No, what the hell. What’s with that creepy look?