Lotus Flower (2)
Lotus Flower (2)
The cleanup of what happened at the Academy could have been left to the family members, but Yu So-ha insisted on taking that man's corpse to a remote place and burning it.
"...You're going to take that with you?"
Watching her not grind the bones to bury them somewhere, but instead start putting them into a pale-colored ceramic jar, Namgung Rin, the youngest daughter of the Namgung Clan head, said with disgust.
"Yeah. Is there a problem?"
"Didn't you hate him?"
"Even if I hate him, he's mine. He has to be by my side."
"......Ha. You crazy bitch. Do whatever you want."
Yu So-ha did not answer.
The days when it mattered what others said had long since passed.
In her mind, Baek Yeon-cheong was her own fiancé.
That fact had never once been broken.
Even when he killed her sect members, even when he killed her father, he had never once brought up the word 'break up'.
Therefore... he had to be by her side.
Regrettably for the Diancang Sect leader who had died, she had intended to forgive Baek Yeon-cheong.
To her, a married couple meant people who loved and understood each other, and even if there was a fight, they would reconcile and become even closer.
If only he hadn't killed everyone on the Diancang Sect grounds that day.
If only he hadn't killed her father.
If only he had come to her, confessed everything, and begged for forgiveness.
If only he hadn't returned to the Academy, smiling calmly as if nothing happened, even after killing so many people.
If only he hadn't returned to the Academy calmly, killed countless rising stars, and fled to the Divine Cult.
If only he had reached out his hand, saying he only needed her.
If only he hadn't killed her close friend right in front of her eyes.
If only he had remained quietly by her side.
If only he had just forcibly taken her away, saying he only needed her.......
That is how she sometimes has those meaningless, faded fantasies.
She understands that there was no way to fix things from the moment he killed the Diancang Sect leader, but understanding and emotion are in different realms.
Even if Yu So-ha had shielded Baek Yeon-cheong, everyone would have eventually tried to subjugate that man who had become a public enemy of the Murim, but she always deceives herself, thinking it would have been okay somehow.
Even if it's an unrealistic story, in the end, she ends up believing it.
However, after returning, she felt as if that absurd story had slightly touched reality.
The thought that perhaps he also wanted to be with her.
A Murim warrior naturally knows, just by crossing swords for a little while, whether they have the skill to defeat the opponent or not.
Therefore, Yu So-ha decided to think that even if things had gone too far astray, Baek Yeon-cheong must have wanted to fix their relationship as well.
Because otherwise, there would have been no need for him to let himself be hit by her sword on purpose.
So she tried to save him somehow.
Even if he had no arms or legs, even if he had no tongue to speak, it would be enough if he just stayed alive by her side.
The Murim Alliance wouldn't begrudge a piece of meat that was barely alive.
They would have tossed something like that to a hero who attacked the Divine Cult and occupied the Heavenly Mountain as if it were charity.
The whole Jianghu knew that Yu So-ha, the Diancang Sect leader, had lived to kill that man and lived to kill that man, so she took that for granted.
That was how greedy she was.
At first, she was greedy to kill him and make him entirely her own, and then, because it seemed like she could hold him in her hands, she was greedy to keep him alive.
But the heavens never give you what you are greedy for.
Rather than empty titles like hero, beauty, or things like that... she just wanted to have Baek Yeon-cheong.
She thought that the heavens had taken him away because she had desired that man so much.
After seeing Baek Yeon-cheong, whom she had tried so hard to save and keep from dying, abandon her again and leave for somewhere else.
Even with a woman other than her.
When she saw him dead with a whore who served the evil god of the Divine Cult, the feeling she felt was just profound.
It wasn't that anger was rising, nor did she feel sadness.
It was just, how should she put it, the feeling that something obvious had been denied.
If she were to die, she should have died by that man's hand.
If that man were to die, he should have died by her hand.
That thought was always in Yu So-ha's mind.
However, once it was denied along with reality, something important that had been in a corner of her heart melted away.
After that, nothing remained for her except pain.
She doesn't mean it in the sense that revenge is empty or meaningless.
In the past, there were things of value to her too.
Family, sect members, and even friends she made at the Academy.
But now, she simply cannot think of anything of value other than Baek Yeon-cheong.
Because she had lived her whole life for that man.
The life she had lived was hard to explain without Baek Yeon-cheong.
Since she had lived to love that man, to kill him, to keep him alive, and to keep him by her side, it was only natural.
That man had to be in her hands.
He had to die by her hand.
He had to live only by her side.
Once that fact was denied, Yu So-ha continued to think endlessly.
Why on earth does that man always have another woman by his side?
Why is it always someone else by his side, and not her?
After agonizing for a long time... she finally realized.
She had been dreaming.
A fleeting nightmare.
When she chose death herself and returned again, she thought she was still having a nightmare.
When she returned to the past where everyone in the Diancang Sect was alive, where her father was alive, she felt no joy, no relief, and no sense of duty to save them.
Because it had disappeared along with that man's faults.
Because her whole life, everything she had lived through, had disappeared with time.
Even if her body returned, her empty heart could not be filled.
Then where should her sadness, her agony, and her hatred be directed?
She knows that it's piled up deep in her heart and will never disappear, so she can't just get rid of it.
It has melted and stuck so persistently that it will never fall off in the future.
All her sadness, agony, and hatred had ceased to have any meaning.
Then what was left for her that had any meaning?
A useless title of being one of the heroes who brought peace to the Jianghu and subjugated the Divine Cult.
She decided to cling to that.
To recover the opportunity she had been robbed of, even if it was in a dream.
That is why Yu So-ha headed to the Academy.
Not to run to the Diancang Sect, but to punish the villain who burned the Central Plains and destroyed countless clans and sects.
Just in time, a close friend who had lost someone precious to that man also remembered what he had done.
It makes no sense, but luckily, it was so.
Yu So-ha traces the past.
In the past, that man killed everyone on the Diancang Sect grounds, didn't leave a single righteous warrior he encountered on the road alive, washed his body in a nearby river, and then calmly returned to the Academy.
After that, he killed countless people and, as if it were laughable, broke through the encirclement and fled to the Heavenly Mountain.
But if all of that had become something that never happened, had that man's sins also disappeared?
Even though the things that man did still remain in her heart.
That is why she did not hesitate to kill the man.
To recover the opportunity she had been robbed of.
Thus, she succeeded in reclaiming what had been taken from her by another woman.
Even though he was with someone else, it was as good as her killing him.
Since the ceramic jar containing his ashes is in her room... now she will be able to keep the promise she made in the past.
The words they shared when they were young, to be together for their whole lives until they died, in whatever form.
Yeon-cheong, contained in the ceramic jar, cannot kill her father or sect members, nor can he burn the Central Plains and destroy countless sects and clans.
He cannot slaughter the common people for the reason that they do not believe in the Divine Cult.
So they will be able to be together for the rest of their lives.
Because in this state, he won't be able to push her away.
Suddenly, while hugging the ceramic jar, a thought flashes through her mind.
When she died unjustly, would Yeon-cheong have burned the world for her?
She thinks for a long time and comes to a conclusion.
It didn't seem like he would.
Rather than someone like her... surely his only blood relative would have been precious to him.
That must be why he abandoned her, left, and went to the Divine Cult.
If he had at least forcibly taken her, she would have pretended she couldn't win and followed him.
That is why she is a person of no value.
Since they say the world is full of strange stories, she thought that this kind of hell must also exist.
That is why she did not regret killing Yeon-cheong.
At least until yesterday.
Yesterday, that is, after half a month had passed since she started living with Yeon-cheong, a letter arrived from her father, whom she had thought had long since passed away.
She read it for a long time, crumpled it up, threw it roughly into a corner of the room, and then brought the ceramic jar in her room onto her lap and hugged it tightly.
Along with the sensation of her heart pounding and being crushed, suddenly, she stopped hearing sounds.
Yu So-ha asked herself a question.
Should she regret it now?
Since she killed him without hearing a word from him for something that didn't happen, should she feel guilty and suffer?
If that person is not a heinous villain, then what on earth does that make her?
After thinking for a long time, Yu So-ha realized that the answer was simpler than she thought.
She is Yeon-cheong's wife.
She has never denied the promise made in her childhood, so they are a married couple.
Even now, they are staying under the same roof, in the same room.
And married couples are supposed to be together even in hell. Since the two of them must be one.
With a clear head, So-ha took the ceramic jar, left the city center, and walked to a remote riverside.
And she scatters the contents she had cherished so much into the river.
It flowed down the river, pure white.
So-ha walks slowly, following what is flowing away, then draws her sword and looks at its tip.
The Diancang sword is the fastest sword in the world.
It shoots out faster than anyone else's, piercing the hateful opponent.
The Diancang Sect leader grabbed the hilt with both hands, aimed the tip precisely... and pierced her own heart in one stroke.