The Rebirth of Hwan-gol-tae-tal (Part 1)
Jeok Hwa-ryeon?! So-ye?!”
I dashed into the hotel and kicked the door open with a bang.
Except for a few staff members, there were no guests inside. It looked like they had evacuated in advance.
As I pushed the door open, a cold wind rushed in from the wide-open window.
They’re gone.
I instantly sensed that they had caused some kind of incident.
Whoosh—
Thud.
“Huh?”
With a whooshing sound, Jeok Hwa-ryeon landed on the window frame, and our eyes met. She wore a mask, but it was clearly her.
She caught me off guard perfectly.
“Hwa-ryeon.”
“Ah… haha… that’s…”
“Come here and sit.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon knelt before me with her mouth tightly shut.
“Did I not tell you to stay quiet?”
“T-that… the outside was so noisy…”
It made sense. When a gate appeared, sirens and announcements had blared for hours, no matter the hotel.
It was a choice made for South Korea’s citizenry with their severe case of safety deafness.
“What about So-ye?”
“She’ll be here soon.”
Accompanied by a light landing sound, So-ye entered the room. Unlike Jeok Hwa-ryeon, she was incredibly light and quiet.
“…”
Her eyes widened at the sight of me, and she quickly sat down beside Jeok Hwa-ryeon.
“Mom told me to come.”
“So-ye…?!”
Her immediate correction made it obvious she was my daughter.
“Ha… so how was it?”
“Umm… look at this.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon pulled a small toy from her pocket.
“Drop it! Humans!! I am the Third Army Commander, Romanoff…”
The toy, or rather Romanoff, who had been shouting in a sharp voice, froze solid the moment our eyes met.
“Yoyo, Hero!! Why on earth are you here…!!”
“What? You two know each other?”
I looked down at Romanoff and spoke.
“It’s a curse. I thought he’d died, but he can turn this small?”
“Hiiik!! Don’t touch me!!”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon pressed down on his head, and Romanoff yelped and curled up in fright.
“The fact that Romanoff crossed over confirms that the gate connects this world with another.”
We couldn’t leave him like this. No matter how far Jeok Hwa-ryeon had reached the Transcendent Realm, it was too dangerous.
The Demon King could reappear at any moment, and that would be a headache.
The Demon King relied more on the unity of the demons than his own strength. Only when the Demon King appeared did they form a single will and invade the kingdom, thinking only of devouring one another to grow stronger.
“How much longer until the Demon King’s revival?”
“Hero… how did you…”
“You don’t know? I was the one who burst the Demon King’s heart.”
The Demon King hadn’t died. Precisely, he was an entity that could not be killed. He was too close to being the Demon King, the king of the demons and a kind of mother goddess.
As long as demons existed, he would keep resurrecting and eyeing the human world.
The biggest problem was… that in Romanoff’s world, there was her.
Did all the women I met in my three lives come looking for me?
If that were the case, I might not just survive, but actually die.
The Blood Demon who ruled the Murim.
The Road Dragon.
All the mothers of the weirdos.
I had to explain myself to all three of them.
I never thought this would happen.
I had lived my best in all three lives. I never dreamed that the effort I put into living would come back to bite me.
I needed to reclaim the power of the past.
“I guess I’ll have to make a crack about the size of a person’s head.”
“A crack? Got it.”
Without asking why, Jeok Hwa-ryeon pulled out the Blood Demon Sword.
A crack, literally the size of just enough room for a human head, was carved into existence.
At the same time, a deep rumble began in my abdomen.
As expected.
I hadn’t sensed any qi. The qi here was so sparse there was nothing to absorb.
“You two have no issues with inner energy?”
“It takes a while to fill, but as long as I have blood, I’m fine.”
Just like that—Jeok Hwa-ryeon, as long as human blood existed, she could fill her inner energy infinitely.
“I feel like my inner energy recovers a bit slowly. The qi in this world is so scarce.”
So-ye spoke while lifting her small hand.
“That’s right. That’s why you can recover faster through the crack that connects the Murim.”
“So what exactly do you want to do, honey?”
“Reclaim my old martial arts. This weekend, for two days.”
***
At the same time.
Jacob was creating brand-new identification documents.
When I needed money, I met Min-su.
One of the reasons he had quit his mercenary life was a single family member—his sister’s illness.
She had been battling a rare disease that affected only ten people worldwide for a very long time.
I never thought the new medicine would be that expensive.
Even as a broker who made quite a bit of money, the cost of the medicine made my hands shake.
“But… red hair.”
It didn’t look like it had been dyed, and it didn’t have the unique features of an Irish person. It was closer to Asian.
I shouldn’t get too interested since she’s Min-su’s family.
Curiosity is poison.
I had learned that from a long life as a mercenary and broker. Curiosity was a poison in the professional aspect, just like an apple.
“Eh… what is this?”
Jacob’s eyes fell on the smartphone lying on the table.
“It’s probably Min-su’s phone… I’ll hand it over when we meet and get the money and ID.”
Jacob tossed it away without a second thought.
After all, he had planned to give it back when they met.
Unaware that countless messages from Min-su’s family had piled up on the phone, it was left behind.
***
“That’s impossible.”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon didn’t believe her own eyes.
From the crack that had opened to the Murim, the qi spread like a giant whirlpool and converged into Kim Min-su’s abdomen.
The mechanism was simple.
As soon as Kim Min-su sat in front of the crack with his qi gathered, his abdomen moved as if waiting.
So-ye said without even closing her mouth.
“Mom, what exactly is Dad’s true identity?”
“I don’t know. What I do know is that I was still in the peak realm, fretting when he had already reached the super peak.”
Soon a gale swept through the room, and Kim Min-su’s body began to rise into the air.
“W-why is he floating in the air?”
“Eh, Mom, look at that. His face.”
“Huh? His face has always been handsome though?”
So-ye was left speechless by the sudden remark.
Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s instincts were beyond the world.
So-ye pointed at Kim Min-su’s face with her finger again.
“Ah, no, that’s not it. There are cracks on his face!”
“Hwan-gol-tae-tal…? The crack forming in his abdomen wasn’t even an hour ago?”
“Ugh… Hero… it’s scary…”
Romanov, pinned in the corner by the gale, trembled while curled up.
His skin had hardened like stone, then shattered, revealing snow-white new flesh.
When he descended to the floor, he looked like he could be in his twenties.
“…”
Jeok Hwa-ryeon’s chest began to race wildly.
She’s completely the same as the first time I met her.
It felt like my first love had returned.
***
“You bastard, you beat your brother?!”
I remember it.
The moment I was being beaten by a fellow disciple because I had beaten the direct line, a kick flew at me while I was curled up.
Endure it.
I wasn’t strong enough yet to break free from the lord’s hand.
The time will come. Endure it.
I wanted to tear them apart right then, but I gritted my teeth and endured, sharpening my inner knife.
On the day I reached the peak without showing my true power to anyone.
I packed my bags and left the clan.
“Namgung Cheon!! Stop!”
I saw my half-brothers blocking my way.
“Why? I said I was leaving on my own two feet.”
“Did you think leaving the clan would be that easy?”
“Short words… what kind of talk is that, my eldest brother?!”
I looked at my eldest brothers and gave them a dry laugh.
“Ha… you’re barking like dogs. It’s noisy.”
“What?! You damn bastard!!”
“Did I do something wrong? Or because I’m stronger than you, a collateral branch?”
I pointed at Namgung Hyuk, who was being named the next clan lord.
“You… you think you can take responsibility for that?”
Immediately glaring and clenching his fist, Namgung Hyuk faced me and spoke.
“Responsibility? I’ll take it anytime.”
At those words, Namgung Hyuk threw down his gauntlet. I caught it and said,
“We’ll just spar with fists?”
After snapping his gauntlet, I pulled out the heavy sword at my waist.
“Come.”
***
“Enough…!! Stop!!”
Even with the lord’s command, I snapped Namgung Hyuk’s shoulder.
Crack!!
“Kuhuuuuuuk!!”
I stomped on the head of Namgung Hyuk, who was biting back his scream.
“Making my children kill each other in competition to create one outstanding one. Wasn’t that what the lord wanted?”
The lord, Namgung Jin, looked at his half-brothers whose limbs were broken and saliva was dripping and said,
“Insolent bastards!! You thought you could make your brothers like that and still send them out in good health.”
“That wasn’t going to happen.”
I tightened my grip on the heavy sword and answered.
“From the very beginning, I had planned to overthrow you, Lord.”
“What…?”
“This is the perfect chance to show you the forgotten supreme sword form of the Namgung Clan—the final secret of the Imperial Sword Form of the Azure Sky without Limits.”