Spring Scenery (2)
Spring Scenery (2)
Not a single ray of light enters this underground prison cell, confined in the very lowest cell of all.
Yet perhaps because there were overflowing fans who wanted to see my face at least once, I had no time to feel lonely.
They all wanted to see me so badly, yet instead of holding a fan signing, all they did was force seolleongtang up my nose and carve knife marks into my body.
Perhaps because they're all uncivilized murim folk, their imagination is utterly impoverished.
Anyway, it had hardly been a day since I was imprisoned.
There is not a single place that doesn't hurt.
Thinking about it, the Demonic Cult seems to get treated a bit too well.
Unlike the terrifying rumors, its original name is simply the Divine Cult.
Moreover, they don't grind people up and consume them as human elixirs, nor do they perform human sacrifices to create demons.****
That sort of thing is what those people over at the Blood Cult or wherever do.
Anyway, contrary to its grandiose name, the Demonic Cult just felt like some bandits who possessed a martial art that nibbles away at the human body a bit.****
The sect I was in was also treated half like bandits.****
The Changun Sect was established by my Master-nim after he was expelled from the Diancang Sect.
Thanks to that, it received treatment no different from a green-forest bandit lair rather than a proper sect.
There were not a few who pointed fingers, calling us a string-puller of the evil factions.
Of course, occasionally, if we spotted a merchant caravan passing through the mountain paths, we would help them voluntarily donate goods to the sect, but it was never by force.
Simply by making them emotionally grateful and causing them to leave silver coins in front of the sect gates, everyone in the surrounding area acknowledged the virtue of the Changun Sect.
Having a heart that helps others is a very difficult thing.
With nothing more than a piece of metal shown, we created that altruism in those wicked merchants.
Therefore, it wasn't banditry, but rather 'cooperation' that we received.
Foolish ordinary people cannot understand this difference.
Thus, I can proudly say that the Changun Sect was a place more righteous than the righteous factions.
Should I call it a kind of unpaid confiscation, unpaid redistribution?
Whenever the wind blew, the memory of the flag hanging above the sect's roof fluttering comes to mind.
The reason that flag was particularly tinted red may have been because of that.
Anyway, the Changun Sect's influence was fairly large.****
Because we taught proper sword techniques without discriminating against people, even the riffraff endlessly climbed the mountain, wanting to learn.
Perhaps the number of disciples was even greater than that of the main Diancang Sect.
But my Master-nim always wanted to return to the Diancang Sect.
One day, he quietly called me to his room.
"Cheong-ah, someday I intend to pass this sect on to you."
"......Yes?"****
I pretended to be surprised, but I had expected this much.
If not me, who else would he pass it on to.****
"And I will send you as a live-in son-in-law to Hyungnim, that is, to the daughter of the Diancang Sect Leader."
"......?"****
And this... I wondered if it even made sense.
But surprisingly, the people on the Diancang Sect side seemed to have accepted that proposal.
To be precise, it seemed only the Sect Leader accepted, while everyone else fiercely opposed it... but anyway, that's how I became connected to So-ha.
Even though the first meeting was a bit awkward, we quickly became close.
We couldn't meet often, but since we stuck together all day at the academy.
Just like now.
"Open your eyes. I know you're awake."
Though the atmosphere is a little different.
"It seems... you still haven't told the Cult Leader-nim's whereabouts."
"If you want to hear it, give me some water first, then we'll talk."
"......Tsk."
So-ha clicked her tongue and then tossed the water pouch hanging at her waist to me.
I uncorked it and moistened my throat.****
"I always wanted to ask. Why you didn't kill me."
The girl looked down at me with red eyes that glowed even in the darkness and spoke.
"You knew as well that if you were left alive, I'd have chased you for the rest of my life. Or did you think someone like me would never be a match for you in a lifetime?"
"I knew all too... well."****
Without even hearing my answer to the end, the girl drew the sword from her waist and stabbed it through the bars into my wrist.****
The water pouch I was holding fell to the floor, water spilling out.
What a waste.
"...Why don't you at least pretend it hurts?"
"I'm already in enough pain and exhausted. If I were going to get angry and suffer over something like this, I wouldn't have killed so mercilessly in the first place."****
After pulling the sword embedded in my wrist out, So-ha stared at me blankly, then let out a sigh and flicked the blood off her blade.
"You, you're going to die."
"I know."
"Aren't you scared?"
I am scared.
Though I doubt she'd believe me if I said it.
"Even now, tell me where the Cult Leader-nim headed. I'll try to make it so you can cling to that meager life of yours."
"Who knows."
"......It's like talking to a wall."****
Saying that, she stared at me for a while, then turned her back and walked away.
A few days later, with bandages just hastily wrapped around me, I was loaded into a carriage and transferred to the Murim Alliance's underground prison.****
I thought they'd have killed me long ago.
Friends who once came by asking if I felt no guilt, if I had no human heart, and spouted such things had become sparse from some point on, and now, perhaps a month has passed.
I feel as if I have become a person completely forgotten by the world.
In that case, did the ending conclude as a happy ending?
While staring blankly at the stains on the damp ceiling and having idle thoughts, I began to hear the sound of constant, measured footsteps.
Judging by the light sensation and the distinct presence, it wasn't even the footsteps of a martial artist.
Soon, the faint flickering of a torch seeped through the thick iron bars.
Someone's presence stopped right in front of my cell.
"So even the infamous Guardian of the Demonic Cult, when locked up like this... is nothing much in person."****
"......Have you-nim also been captured?"****
My cracked voice flowed out raspingly, like scraping rusted metal.
"Do I look that way? And using honorifics that don't suit you at all. You must have had a hard time."
The woman who had guided me to Cheonsan.
The Holy Woman of the Demonic Cult opened the iron bars without hesitation and approached me.****
Kiiii-gi-gi-gik!
The sound of the rusted iron door scraping harshly filled the prison.
Seeing that not a single guard came running despite that... it seems she had already dealt with the martial artists on the upper floors before coming down.
Even though I knew she hadn't learned martial arts separately.****
"It's been quite a while, hasn't it?"****
"It has been a while, but... what about the Cult Leader-nim?"****
"As if there's any way they could be alive."
"......Even if you get me out of here, I can't even walk properly, let alone swing a sword."
"It doesn't matter. Because this is not where you are supposed to be."
The woman, far from helping me up and taking me out, knelt right down on the damp floor without hesitation.
Without caring that the dirty filth was seeping into her fine hem.
Then, she slowly placed my head on her lap, and gently stroked my rotting wounds.
"Were you in pain?"****
"......Who knows."****
"Heu, how pitiful."****
Without questioning further, the woman took out something that smelled of medicinal herbs from her bosom.
She packed the crushed leaves into a small object that looked like a tiny pipe.
Then, she struck a flint and lit the herb.
A subtle fragrance... A fragrance that seemed to calm my heart, which had been pounding as if to burst, and my head buzzing with pain, began to spread.****
"Because you had nowhere to stay no matter where you went... you followed me all the way to the sect's Cheonsan."****
That peculiar smoke slowly, very slowly, began to softly envelop this damp prison.****
"Seeing that it's ended up in such a state like this, don't you regret it?"
Although the woman received no answer, she paid it no mind and carefully took out a small brush and a bottle containing ink that had a slight reddish tinge from her bosom.
She moved aside my torn clothes, and brought the ink-soaked brush toward my exposed chest.
Then, she began to draw incomprehensible tiny letters and strange patterns.
"I really hate such things as the will of the heavens, destiny... Isn't it too miserable that living in lamentation is the will of the heavens?"****
Every time the red ink touched my skin, a faint heat spread along my blood vessels.
"People say the Demonic Cult collapsed because it defied the heavenly mandate, because it lacked even the minimum human morality... that's what the foolish martial artists of the world say, but you must know that it's not so."
As if singing a lullaby, the woman spoke in a small, murmuring voice.
"A mere common man defied the thousand-li way and repeated life several times, ruining everything."
Within Hyeop-un, she, who didn't even have a few lines like me, was speaking about regression.
"Why do you think that...?"
"A perfect human like me reading the heavens is just that."
"......Even at a time like this, you spout nonsense."
She didn't answer and smiled slyly.
"Anyway, if a worthless commoner like him can go back several times, then you can do the same, I suppose."
"So why of all people, me......."****
"Regrettably, because there is no human who is even slightly reliable except for you."****
The woman took out a small dagger from her bosom.
"When I brought you to the sect, you asked. Why I went so far as to take care of you like this."****
Then, she cut her palm, smeared the flowing blood onto the blade, and stabbed my heart.****
I couldn't give an answer easily.
As I tried to open my mouth, I felt the sensation of dark red blood flowing backward, trickling down my chin.****
The woman placed her hand, cut by the blade, over my lips and stroked my lips.****
"It is simply that I am too kind, and I cannot pass by someone's misfortune. Because I wish for everyone to follow the righteous doctrine."
Before long... something much greater than the blood flowing from my mouth began to flow from the woman's eyes, nose, mouth, and even ears.
Even amidst the redness engulfing the person, only the woman's face remained clearly visible.
"Therefore, you too, please do not pass it by."
She was crying, and at the same time, laughing.
Swallowing sobbing sounds into her throat and forcing out a smile.
As my body began to go limp, the woman held my head tightly in her embrace, and carefully pressed her lips to my forehead.
And so, my vision began to blur.
[ED. ?? : ■Cult■■Law]
[Everything is over.]****
[The Demonic Cult, which threatened the Murim, fell with the appearance of a hero.]
[The Guardian of the Demonic Cult, who had drawn everyone's fear, met a gruesome end, and the witch who read the heavens also put an end to her life.]
[It seems order has come to the Gangho.]
[Having finished what needed to be done, the leader of the Diancang Sect pondered for a long time the reason to continue living, and the conclusion was simple.]
[She left the world without leaving a single will, and the Diancang Sect disappeared into history.]****
[This is a branching path that does not exist.]
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[Accumulated karma has exceeded the threshold.]****
[Key figures entangled with you remember you.]****
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*
*
When I opened my closed eyes again.****
It wasn't the ceiling of the prison, but the wide-open sky that entered my eyes.
Stinging my nose was not the smell of mold, but the subtle scent of damp pine rising faintly.
I had returned.