Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 23
Chapter Title: Ignorance Isn't a Sin
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Heuk Do-san directed his gaze toward Bing-seol, who sat across from him with the campfire in between. The others followed suit and looked at her as well.
As the stares poured onto her, Bing-seol hunched her shoulders tightly. Even so, she spoke up.
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“Whether it’s Daldan or Arasa, as long as it’s under the sky we lived in, anywhere is fine. But if it’s a world we don’t know, then we absolutely have to find a way back home. That’s the reason you’ve survived this long.”
“I know you saved me twice. I’m grateful for that. I’ll repay you if the chance comes. But that doesn’t mean you get to control my life.”
“First, I didn’t save you. Second, I won’t kill you. I might just leave you to die. Third, if you think you owe me, then find a way back home.”
“Let’s both think hard about where this is and how to get back. I want to go home just as much as you do.”
Even after the conversation ended, a tense staring contest continued between Heuk Do-san and Bing-seol.
Heuk Do-san’s face said, “I know you know something.” Bing-seol’s expression replied, “No matter how much you threaten me, I won’t budge an inch.”
The men grew a bit flustered.
From what they’d observed, Heuk Do-san hadn’t hesitated to hurl insults and mockery at them, but he showed relative courtesy to women. He always addressed them as “you,” and they even felt he was particularly favorable toward Bing-seol.
But now, he was treating her like a tool. As if he’d only kept her alive out of necessity.
‘That bastard I want to rip apart!’
‘More vicious than a wild dog!’
‘The guy who stole my Throwback Elixir!’
Those were the thoughts of Gong Cheon-ak, Hyeon-gak, and Yeom Jin-sang.
Dang Yak-ran felt a strange sensation.
There was no killing intent in Heuk Do-san’s threats toward Bing-seol. It was completely different from the intense hostility he’d unleashed against Hyeon-gak just half a shichen ago.
If anything, it felt like he was trying to protect her. By emphasizing her importance, he was making sure no one else dared think of killing her.
‘Was he interested in the witch?’
Jealousy suddenly welled up.
‘Why her and not me? She’s way older. What does she have that I don’t?’
Then she snapped out of it.
‘Yak-ran, are you crazy? Who cares if that idiot falls head over heels for a witch and gets possessed?’
“Amitabha. So what do we do now?”
Hyeon-gak asked, as if wrapping up the situation.
“I saw lights beyond the forest.”
“You said... lights just now?”
“About thirty li away, I’d say.”
“What kind of lights?”
“Could be a slash-and-burn farmer’s campfire, or hunters’ bonfire. We’ll know when we go see.”
“Ah...”
Soft exclamations burst out here and there.
If people lived there, they could find out where this place was. Knowing the location would make finding a way home possible too.
“I thought it was all over when the ship sank. Buddha hasn’t forsaken this body yet. Amitabha, Kwanseum Bosal.”
Hyeon-gak said.
“To reach land and meet people right away. Demon God, I give thanks.”
Gong Cheon-ak said.
“Turning disaster into fortune, and twice over.”
Yeom Jin-sang said.
The thought of getting home gave them strength they didn’t have before. They started tearing into the shellfish meat again with renewed vigor. Occasionally scooping up broth with small shells.
“Ugh, I can’t eat any more.”
Heuk Do-san patted his bulging belly and pulled back. It felt like shellfish meat was crammed up to his throat. Looking up at the night sky, it was packed with stars like salt had been sprinkled across it.
“Time’s gotten this late already.”
Heuk Do-san pulled out his axe and stood.
The startled group dropped their broth-scooping and grabbed burning firewood bundles. It was an instinctive move as martial artists.
Contrary to their worries, Heuk Do-san started digging a pit in the sandy ground about half a zhang from the campfire.
The others thought,
‘What’s that guy making now?’
Soon, a pit long enough to lie in like a coffin formed. Heuk Do-san then scraped a bunch of heated stones from the campfire into the pit.
He covered them thickly with sand, lay his body on top, and finally—like a turtle that had just laid eggs—used his hands and feet to bury himself in sand.
“What are you doing?”
Dang Yak-ran asked.
“This way, I can stay warm until dawn.”
“...!”
The group recalled what Heuk Do-san had said on the galleon.
Cold sinks downward, heat rises upward?
Even without quoting him, it was obvious that heated stones would retain warmth for a long time. The sand covering his exposed body would act like a blanket too.
‘That’s why he told us to heat the stones.’
That’s what flashed through everyone’s minds.
They’d been wondering how to endure the night’s chill, and here was this ingenious method.
That only made them more curious about Heuk Do-san’s true identity. What kind of person was he?
“If you’ve eaten your fill, clear away the shellfish pot. If the broth boils down completely, it can explode like a bomb. Back warm, belly full—sleep comes naturally.”
With that, Heuk Do-san pulled over a log for a pillow and lay down.
The group glanced at the shellfish pot. The broth had long since reduced to just a bowl’s worth in the center.
Exactly the situation Heuk Do-san had warned about.
Shellfish exploding like a bomb?
“Puhaha.”
Gong Cheon-ak suddenly burst into mad laughter.
“In all my life, first time hearing shellfish explode...”
Boom!
At that instant, a deafening roar tore through their eardrums, unleashing tremendous explosive pressure. Half-burnt logs, ashes, and embers flew everywhere, along with sharply shattered shellfish fragments raining down.
A moment later, beneath the drifting embers and ash, the group’s figures emerged.
Their soot-blackened faces blinked with wide white eyes. Every one wore an expression of “What the hell just hit us?”
Heuk Do-san clicked his tongue.
“Tsk tsk tsk. Ignorance isn’t a sin.”
* * *
Heuk Do-san woke from sleep feeling chills. The sun was already high in the midday sky. He’d dug the pit around ha-shi, so he’d slept a full six shichen.
Maybe because his back had been warmed for once? His body felt light as if it could float away.
Turning to his side, he saw Dang Yak-ran half-buried in a sand pit right by the campfire, fast asleep.
What a sight it was. Apparently the stones were too hot, so she’d pulled one leg out and draped it across Gong Cheon-ak’s chest in another pit. Gong Cheon-ak clutched her slender ankle tight, as if it were a treasured sword.
Exhausted as they were, both faced the sky with mouths agape, snoring loudly.
‘Are they enemies or siblings?’
Across the campfire, two shiny bald heads rolled around. One stamped with eight tally marks, the other etched with a snake tattoo.
Hyeon-gak and Yeom Jin-sang.
They’d apparently collapsed after guarding each other all night by the fire. They couldn’t hold out against four days without sleep.
But was that all?
‘Their wariness is fading.’
Suddenly, his throat felt parched and cracked.
They’d boiled and eaten whole king clams full of salty seawater, so thirst was inevitable. Plus, how much of that hot, reduced broth had they slurped down?
Heuk Do-san tossed a few logs onto the dying fire, then stood.
The sea had revealed a vast expanse of white beach overnight. Luckily, low tide had returned.
He hadn’t noticed in the dark last night, but the beach was much wider than he’d thought. Large and small rocks dotted it too.
‘Even better.’
More rocks meant more clinging plants and animals.
Confirming his dagger and axe were secure at his waist, he started walking. That’s when he spotted Bing-seol standing far off, glaring piercingly at the eastern forest.
‘No wonder there were fewer heads.’
She didn’t notice his approach. Heuk Do-san turned to look at the forest where her gaze was fixed.
The forest of dense white-barked birch trees looked as if it had been blanketed in heavy snow overnight. It felt not just mysterious, but almost divine.
“You’re awake?”
“Why are you up so early?”
“I slept plenty.”
‘The rumor that witches of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult don’t sleep must be true.’
“What were you doing here?”
“Nothing. But where are you headed?”
“Taking a lap around.”
“Can I come along?”
“...?”
“I was just thinking of a stroll myself.”
* * *
As expected, the rocky walls were covered in chitons from small ones to fairly large shellfish clinging densely.
Bizarre seaweeds grew thickly too. Bing-seol pointed to one and asked.
“Why is this kelp so thick? It’s gross.”
“That’s kelp—kelp. Looks like seaweed but it’s a different kind.”
“Edible?”
“Of course. You can blanch it, or add it to soup for broth—it gives a nice umami.”
“I see.”
Rounding a rock outcrop, tiny creatures the size of thumbnails scurried under rocks.
“Ah, crabs.”
Bing-seol dashed forward and caught one. Fist-sized babies threatened with their claws, putting up a fight.
“Why are these crabs so small?”
“They’re babies.”
“Oh my, so cute.”
‘Maybe because she’s a spirit medium who communes with souls—such rich sensitivity.’
“Can we eat these?”
“...?”
“No?”
“No reason not to.”
“Good.”
Like a puppy, Bing-seol scampered around catching baby crabs and piling them in her hem.
In the process, she found a bigger one. To grab a crab that had slipped under a rock, she rolled up her sleeve and reached in. Her slender wrist gleamed white in the morning sun.
“Why bother catching something not even a mouthful? No meat—just gets stuck in your teeth.”
“Small grains of rice gather to make a steamed bun, they say.”
“Then eat steamed buns from the start—why gather grains pointlessly?”
“Find anything to eat?”
Bing-seol turned back brightly.
Heuk Do-san was dumbfounded.
“You ate so much yesterday and you’re hungry again?”
“I’m fine, but I can’t let the Seventh Star Lord skip meals.”
In the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, the Cult Leader was like a god. How could she slack when serving a Star Lord who inherited his divine lineage and bloodline fully?
But that was Bing-seol’s view. Heuk Do-san couldn’t comprehend it.
She seemed pure-hearted, so how had she fallen for the Demonic Cult’s deceptive doctrines that misled the world?
He knew well the terror of words aimed at weak human hearts.
But when the autumn leaves fall from every mountain, she’d realize how much one leaf had obscured.
‘If she lives that long.’
While Bing-seol caught crabs, Heuk Do-san picked up a large shell nearby. It spiraled round and round like a gourd. And it was gourd-sized too.
“What’s that?”
“Never seen a whelk shell?”
“So this is a whelk. Pretty.”
If she’d lived in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult since childhood, it made sense she’d never seen one. Especially as a woman—how novel and beautiful it must seem.
But her next words...
“Put crabs in here and boil soup like yesterday.”
‘Of course.’
Excited, Bing-seol scurried around and soon gathered five large whelk shells. She turned them this way and that, checking for holes.
“That’s enough.”
“Were you collecting whelk shells?”
Bing-seol trotted after him, asking.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“To drink water.”
“Water comes out of whelk shells?”
‘What is with this girl?’
How could someone think water comes from a whelk?
Suddenly, he grew curious about Bing-seol’s past.
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-three.”
‘She’s a year older than me.’
“And you?”
“Thirty-four.”
Heuk Do-san added two years on purpose.
“You look much younger than I thought.”
“...!”
It was all because of the war. Constant life-and-death on the battlefield had aged him prematurely.
Damn it.
“How’d you end up in the Demonic Cult?”
“How’d you end up enlisting, young master?”
“...?”
“Some things in life come regardless of your will. The people here joining the war was like that too. They might think it was for some small reason, but really, tiny connections from long ago gathered into a great fate. Boarding that galleon together and shipwrecking was just another small link in an even greater fate ahead.”
“...?”
“When I was little, I nearly died. My mother said I really did die, just for a moment. From then on, I started seeing things invisible to normal eyes.”