Unexpected Reunion
Who is this woman?
“Hic… hic… ugh… hic… Master… Master…”
Hyangbi clung to my body, tears streaming down her face without stopping.
She had the appearance of a Westerner—more precisely, a blonde-haired, pale-skinned foreign girl from the Western regions. Because of that, she had endured a life of discrimination.
In this world, among the few people who considered me precious, Hyangbi was one of them.
Seven years ago, I had accidentally found her in the market. Simply because she had the appearance of a Westerner, she had been living in constant discrimination and had been unsold. I had emptied my pockets to buy her.
There was no reason for me to hold prejudices against that side, since I had come from the modern world, but above all, seeing a girl of a similar age to my younger sister Dohwa in such a state had been unbearably pitiful.
Through that chance encounter, Hyangbi had become my maid and, in fact, someone who was like a sibling in this world, always by my side.
However, no matter how much Hyangbi followed me and I cherished her, in the end, I had no choice but to abandon her at the last moment.
It was a pity for her, who had built a bond almost like that of a real sibling, but now that she had reached the peak stage of martial arts beyond her teenage years, unlike her, who had become a strong warrior capable of surviving alone, I still had my younger sister Dohwa, who was only ten years old and needed help.
Because of that, I had thought that after the battle with the Heavenly Demon ended, I would immediately return to the modern world where my sister was, and eventually, despite Hyangbi’s desperate pleas, I had parted ways with her.
And now, with that schedule disrupted and staying in this world with Dohwa, I had decided to return to this place, which had been one of my main bases in the past, to catch my breath for now.
During that process, I had accidentally reunited with Hyangbi.
Well, to be honest, I had secretly hoped for this, hadn’t I? After all, since I had decided to stay here, there was no reason to abandon Hyangbi.
So, while having a reunion with the younger sister-like figure I had thought I would never see again, which was both heartwarming and slightly unexpected, I naturally stroked her hair as I had done until now.
“I’m sorry… I made you worry. From now on, I won’t let anything like that happen again.”
“...Master...”
Hyangbi, with a tone filled with apology, clung to me even more strongly.
At that moment.
“Oppa? Who is this woman?”
“Huh?”
“Ah...”
At the next moment, looking at us hugging each other, Dohwa asked with a slightly stiff voice.
In response, I recognized that I had introduced her too late and released Hyangbi’s body, and Hyangbi, feeling a bit of regret, stepped away from me with a slightly cold expression and looked at Dohwa.
“So… this older sister is your subordinate, oppa?”
“Subordinate… Well, more like a sibling. That relationship no longer exists.”
“What are you saying, Master? As I said before, I have sworn to serve Master forever, just as I did in the past. No matter how much you break the contract, my body and heart belong to Master forever. Please retract that statement.”
Since I had already settled the master-servant relationship, I tried to correct it here, but Hyangbi seemed not to have any intention of doing so at all.
Probably because, from Hyangbi’s perspective, the relationship that had continued for the past seven years was almost half of her life, she still felt a reluctance to break away from it.
Well, she’s still young, in her mid-teens after all…
So, thinking that if her will was like that, there was no need to force it right away, I decided to think about this issue with more leeway.
Meanwhile, right after her own issue was resolved, Hyangbi looked at Dohwa, who was clinging tightly to my side, and said in her usual calm yet slightly cautious voice.
“Then, the Dohwa young lady here is Master’s younger sister… is that correct?”
“Yeah, that’s right. In the past, she was forcibly sealed because of the Heavenly Demon, but now that the bastard is dead, I can find her. Her age is the same as when she was sealed, ten years old.”
No matter what, explaining the modern world or transmigration to Hyangbi wouldn’t help her understand, and it would only complicate the situation more, so I told her the story I had prepared in advance, setting Dohwa’s background appropriately to match.
“In any case, it’s truly fortunate. Master safely defeated the Heavenly Demon… Honestly, I thought during that time that Master had returned home during the Heavenly Demon extermination.”
Hyangbi smiled with genuine relief as she spoke to me.
In response, I gave her a wry smile and said, “Well… Honestly, I was thinking the same thing. But it was fortunate in many ways. In fact, I returned alive from the brink of death.”
I was telling it as if it was a miracle and coincidence that I returned alive from the edge of death.
But this was actually a perfect lie I had made up just to match the story. It was a bit unfair to Hyangbi, but I had told her such stories before I left because I had planned to return home after the Heavenly Demon extermination, not because I had considered defeat.
Originally, I hadn’t intended to charge into a battle with no chance of winning, and my personality was such that I only moved after completing thorough planning and preparation for the fight. That was the reason I had been able to snatch victory without experiencing a single defeat despite the Orthodox faction’s interference, and it was the same for this Heavenly Demon extermination battle.
During the battle with the Heavenly Demon that had unfolded… to be precise, while watching his ruthless massacre from a safe distance as much as possible, I had been able to gauge his combat power and abilities to some extent. Based on that, I had successfully completed all the preparations I could to defeat the Heavenly Demon.
Thanks to the special ability of this other world, using my outstanding talent, I had continuously trained myself to obtain power equal to the Heavenly Demon, and in the process, I had developed the best martial arts suitable for me and mastered it perfectly. After all that hardship, in the situation where I had obtained power almost equal to the Heavenly Demon, I had participated in the Heavenly Demon extermination battle prepared in the Murim world, enduring the unreasonable demands of the unfortunate Orthodox warriors who disliked me, to ensure a more certain victory.
During that process, I had suffered quite a bit because of those bastards who were unusually stubborn, but it was something I could endure to achieve perfect victory and return home. As a result, I had successfully created a situation where I could face the Heavenly Demon, who had used about 30% of his power, 1:1 with the five top experts in the Murim world in front of me. As expected, I had successfully snatched perfect victory.
However, although the Heavenly Demon, the worst disaster in the Central Plains, had been dealt with without serious crisis, due to the various situations that had unfolded afterward that were far from expectations, I had found myself in a rather difficult situation.
“But no matter how you look at it… you were too hasty, Master. Making such a statement to the big shots of the Murim Alliance from there.”
“Haa… I know. I don’t know why I did that even now. At that time, I was also a bit confused because the battle with the Heavenly Demon had just ended.”
Hearing the real story I had committed, unlike the previous lie, Hyangbi spoke with a bitter voice.
While empathizing with her words, a deep sigh had to come out from my mouth.
Damn… If I had known this, I would have just endured it a bit more and gone along with their nonsense until the end.
Just before the last moment, when I was about to use the spatial movement to meet Sangje, I had poured out curses on those bastards I thought I would never see again, venting the resentment I had held until now.
Originally, I had really planned to just endure it quietly and move on, but because those bastards had suddenly started acting friendly after everything was over, it was extremely disgusting. Of course, even that was a small price compared to the nagging they had done until now, but given their narrow-minded nature, I couldn’t be sure what kind of mischief they would try to do to me. No matter how much I had the power of the world’s greatest person, I didn’t want to get involved in bothersome matters separately from that. Especially now that I had Hyangbi and my younger sister Dohwa by my side, I needed to seriously pay attention to the actions of the Murim bastards and stay low for a while.
“So, what do you plan to do from now on, Master?”
“Hmm…”
Upon Hyangbi’s words, I began to seriously consider it. There was some food and a small amount of hidden treasure for emergencies here, but even so, it was impossible to survive here in the mountains forever. Decisively, this place was a location that had been exposed during my time as a member of the Murim world, so there was a risk that those guys could come at any time.
Of course, since they had seen my power with their own eyes, they wouldn’t come out aggressively like that, but one never knows about people…
Decisively, leaving my young sister locked in the mountains to live was not good for her education. Since I had come to this world, I wanted her to live a normal and happy life, interacting with people and making friends, so I decided to leave this place first and carefully select candidate locations. Not someone like the world’s greatest person. But a place where I could quietly rely on my body. And finding such a place wasn’t surprisingly difficult.
If it’s that person, it should be reliable. After all, I owe them something from before.