This is Death (2)
Morning. The top floor of a nine-story pavilion slightly removed from the Moyong family estate.
"......So the day has finally come."
The old Taoist with a white beard flowing like that of an immortal—Taesangjingun, leader of the Murim Alliance and sect head of Kunlunpa—gazed at the morning sun and let out a long sigh.
"The day Moyong Seol comes of age. The day she turns exactly twenty years old since being born into this world."
He looked down from the pavilion.
"......The day death finally begins to claim those afflicted with Gu-eum Jeolmok."
The area in front of the Moyong estate was already bustling with people from morning.
"Everyone's wearing masks on their faces."
"Master. How can you call them masks?"
Behind Taesangjingun, a graceful black-haired woman stood beside her teacher and asked.
"Jin-hyeon. My disciple."
"Yes, Master."
"On the day you die, could you ask everyone to celebrate your death with smiles?"
"......."
The woman, Jin-hyeon, silently shook her head.
"Indeed. It's not easy. Moyong Seol must feel the same. Even the heavens seem to know this—the sky is so clear and bright, without a single cloud in sight, let alone storm clouds."
"Do you pity her?"
"I do. Death is always a pity. And you?"
"Is this the lament of Kunlunpa's sect head, or the Murim Alliance leader?"
"......."
At his disciple Jin-hyeon's question, Taesangjingun quietly closed his eyes.
"A truly difficult matter. The arts of mediation I learned while resolving conflicts between palace officials and senior Taoists have led me to a position overseeing the entire murim world."
"A direct descendant of the Moyong family is dying. Many from the branch families will eye the family head's position."
"Yes. That's why they can smile so hypocritically, at least on the surface. The person herself asked them not to cry but to smile at minimum."
Murim Alliance leader Taesangjingun placed one hand over his chest.
"I too must wear such a mask before them. Hide my sorrow, smile, and celebrate the death. That is politics, the seat of the Alliance leader."
"......."
"So, my disciple. In this moment, not as Kunlunpa's sect head or Murim Alliance leader, but as one person mourning a life—and as a father who has already lost a daughter—I wish to offer my condolences to the Sword Saint and his daughter."
Taesangjingun clasped his hands together as if in prayer.
"May she forget all the pains of this life."
Tears streamed from Taesangjingun's eyes.
"And live to a ripe old age in the next. ...Ha. A great star of murim falls before it can fully bloom."
Today was the day Moyong Seol would die.
"The daughter of the world's greatest, who felled the Cheonma without spilling a single drop of blood."
"From a murim perspective, isn't it fortunate she dies?"
"True enough."
Murim Alliance leader Taesangjingun slowly opened his eyes.
"If she lived, men from all over would slaughter each other just to claim that flower."
There is the fastest way to get murdered in the world.
It's suicide, but if you're scared to do it yourself, there's a way to get killed faster than anyone else.
Say something weird about his daughter in front of the Sword Saint.
-Aigoo, she won't live long because of Gu-eum Jeolmok. What can we do?
That's fine. No matter his true feelings, Sword Saint Moyong Cheon is a noble man, the very model of a righteous murim warrior.
-Give me your daughter.
That's dangerous.
-Since she's dying anyway, before she goes, let me give Moyong Seol a night she'll never forget...
Slice.
One of Jeomchangpa's younger disciples got his throat slit like that.
People thought it might spark all-out war between Jeomchangpa and the Moyong family, but it was neatly resolved as the personal deviation of a Jeomchangpa disciple.
"Since she's dying anyway, let's OO through Moyong Seol."
Say that in front of Moyong Cheon, and you're dead. That's common sense in murim.
I committed it.
Since she's dying anyway, I spent the night with Moyong Seol.
Even if it wasn't what I wanted but what Moyong Seol herself desired, I accepted her proposal.
I planned to die.
After Moyong Seol's birthday passed and she died, I was a dead man walking anyway.
-You just let Moyong Seol die like that. Cause of death: Gu-eum Jeolmok. Unforgivable.
By the mad Cheonma.
To survive, I should have defiled Moyong Seol, assassinated her, and told Moyong Cheon, "A Magyo assassin killed Moyong Seol," to deliver a mental blow.
But I didn't.
If I was going to die whether I succeeded or failed, I figured I'd at least stir up some chaos against Magyo, who kidnapped me and implanted Godok.
-Keep taking this medicine, disciple. It will suppress the Godok's activity and blind loyalty to Magyo.
My master helped.
My master, Maui Baekmyeon, settled in the Moyong estate and developed a drug to counter my brainwashing.
She's gone now. Magyo bastards came to the Moyong estate and killed her.
No place to run. Even if I flee to Haedong, I'll die.
Then just die by the Sword Saint's hand.
They say his sword is so fast and precise that the dead don't even realize they've been cut.
So, resolved to die by the Sword Saint.
And as a man, wanting to at least hold the woman in my heart once, I decided to share her final deviation on the last day of Moyong Seol's life.
If it got out, I'd die.
If I woke up, I'd die.
I'd be dragged somewhere Moyong Seol couldn't see and killed outright.
Or killed right after she died.
I imagined that most horrific morning.
But the horror I imagined was nothing.
"Physician Seok Mu Wol."
"Yes, Family Head."
Physician Seok Mu Wol. My name, and "physician" is my title.
The one I called Family Head was, naturally, the head of this Moyong estate—Sword Saint Moyong Cheon.
"How is my daughter's condition?"
He spoke from behind me.
I sat in a chair, and he stood silently behind me, asking.
From a position where he could kill me at any moment.
But he didn't, because I was sitting right next to Moyong Seol's bed.
And because the woman whose wrist I was diagnosing by pulse was his daughter, Moyong Seol.
"Ah... Ahem, Father."
"Thanks to the physician, I survived. Why are you pressuring him like this?"
"Pressuring? Seol-ah. It's not like that."
The world's Sword Saint was at a loss for words at his daughter's rebuke.
Having lived here for three years, I could clearly tell the Sword Saint was deeply confused right now.
Since he hadn't killed me yet.
"Family Head. As you already know, her body temperature has already surpassed normal levels."
"Continue."
"Her heartbeat is quickening, color is returning to her face, and warmth is spreading to her hands."
"Isn't that... because she's holding the physician's hand?"
Moyong Seol beamed.
That smile made my heart race, but it quickly stopped under the pressure from behind, then barely resumed.
This wasn't a joke.
The Sword Saint was subtly emanating killing intent toward me alone right now.
"In my opinion, no matter how I look, the Gu-eum Jeolmok seems... resolved. Theoretically, Jeolmok Jeong is caused by excess Yin Qi suppressing the meridians."
"In short, then."
Clench.
"You're saying my daughter recovered because you took her virginity, normalizing her meridians?"
The Sword Saint's right hand rested on my shoulder.
"In effect, yes."
"......It's a pity Demon Physician Baekmyeon, your master, isn't here."
Grip.
"If she were alive, I could have her examine instead."
It hurt. For real.
"So. You slept with my daughter."
It looked like he just placed his hand, but internal energy spiked like thorns from his fingertips, digging into my shoulder.
"From midnight until dawn."
It probably wasn't intentional.
"The two of you, completely naked."
If it were, my shoulder would already be crushed.
"Ah, no, Father."
Moyong Seol swatted the Sword Saint's hand aside.
"S-Seol-ah?"
"Don't do that."
"Ahem, yes. I'm not myself...."
"That's the spot I scratched yesterday and wounded."
"......."
Is this woman plotting to get me killed?
Now that she's healed, I'm useless, so she's getting her father to finish me off?
"The physician's 'treatment' hurt at first... but then heat rose in my body.... Hehe."
At least, seeing her blush and grip both my hands tightly, it didn't seem like that.
"Thanks to that, I woke up this morning without vomiting blood."
"......."
"So, Father. Physician Seok is... my lifesaver."
Moyong Seol pulled my hand.
"Please stop getting angry all the time. I know why you're mad, but I asked him to do it."
"Seol-ah."
"If you're reporting to the authorities, report me."
Moyong Seol clasped her hands, offering them as if for binding ropes to the Sword Saint.
"I violated Physician Seok."
"Seol-ah!"
"Shall I say it more directly? Even though Physician Seok kept refusing, I forcibly pushed him onto the bed and then force-fu—"
"Moyong Seol."
I grabbed Moyong Seol's hand.
"How can you make yourself a criminal?"
"Physician. But."
"A man and woman fell for each other and consummated. No one forced it."
That's exactly what happened.
If I'd resisted to the end, Moyong Seol would have quietly returned to her room.
"If I'm at fault, it's for not speaking first."
"Physician...."
Honestly, I hadn't planned to go this far, but my shoulder hurt like hell.
"I believe it's not a momentary improvement. As a physician and a man, I hope the young lady lives on."
"Then, you'll need to keep examining me."
Grip.
"You'll keep watching my 'examinations,' right?"
Moyong Seol gripped my hand tight, refusing to let go.
"You'll keep 'treating' me, right?"
"Of course, young lady. Until the day this life ends, I will stay by your side."
I didn't know what expression he wore behind me.
Nor did I want to.
"......Physician."
The Sword Saint stood beside me, his voice strained as if holding something back.
"Thank you. Sincerely."
"?!"
The Sword Saint bowed to me in gratitude.
"I thought it was my daughter's last day, but you've let me see her face bloom with color for the first time in her life."
"That...."
His words were subtle. As if she wasn't fully cured yet.
"Of course. As you say, we must observe."
"Father."
"Seol-ah. I don't want to think that either. But... isn't it Gu-eum Jeolmok?"
I understood the Sword Saint's thoughts.
"An incurable disease. Just because she's better for now doesn't mean she won't vomit blood and collapse again."
As a father, he'd want to believe the illness was cured instantly, but the martial knowledge of a "Hyeongyeong supreme expert"—in other words, murim common sense—was breeding anxiety.
Return light, reflection shine. The final burst of vitality before death.
What if this life force was her last Yang energy? What if Gu-eum Jeolmok yielded just one last day for Moyong Seol?
I felt the same worry, so I couldn't speak carelessly.
"We'll watch. For now... the banquet must proceed as planned. The celebration for your birthday."
The Sword Saint turned his gaze to the window.
"The adult rite at noon, when Yang energy peaks—"
Grind.
"......You've already held your own adult rite, so officially or not, privately it will be a day celebrating your birth."
The Sword Saint smiled while grinding his teeth.
"Daughter. Is there anything you desire? I'll send someone right away—no, I'll go fetch it myself."
"Then."
Moyong Seol, with a radiant smile devoid of any malice, gathered her hair.
"For my adult rite and birthday gift... buy me a hair pin."
"......."
A hair pin.
A woman wearing a hair pin symbolized, in the past, expressing her status through adornment.
Married.
A symbol that she belonged to someone.
"......."
Drip.
Did he bite his tongue? Or clench his lips too hard?
"I... understand."
Blood dripped from the Sword Saint's mouth as he turned away.