Chapter 39
Translator: uly
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: The Black-Haired Schemer - 3
Childhood friend.
A word that's just so itchy to hear.
It's a setting perfect for injecting plausibility into pure love stories and a powerful heroine trait in harem stories too. The main problem is that it usually comes with a defeat flag.
I also had a childhood friend back in elementary school.
The place I lived as a kid wasn't a city full of apartments like nowadays, but a quiet neighborhood with clusters of old houses and villas.
These days, there are so many things to see and do, but back then, it wasn't like that. What could a young child living in a quiet neighborhood in such an era possibly do for fun?
If you went to the playground at the same time every day, the kids you saw yesterday were always there without any prior arrangement.
The days when we'd play, wondering what to do today, and only part ways when the sun grew dim. I had a childhood friend I played with.
A girl one year younger who lived next door. Her parents both worked, so she spent a lot of time alone until late at night. I was that child's childhood friend.
We played together a lot as kids—playing house, playing hopscotch, ball games, jacks, building snowmen, and many other games.
Of course, having a childhood friend didn't mean our relationship developed like in the comics.
We played together until elementary school, but with the age difference and puberty hitting, at some point, we became distant.
If we bumped into each other at the neighborhood mart, we'd just exchange greetings. After I moved, we lost contact completely.
Thinking back, it was fine when we were little, but around puberty, I think I avoided her because my facial features were shattering each other's individuality. If I were handsome, maybe I'd still be in touch, not just left with memories.
Anyway, it's a faint memory from childhood. I don't remember the childhood friend's face or voice, but the memory remains.
Now, I just need to paste the face and voice of that memory child onto The Heavenly Killing Star. We're now the pair who played house together in the old neighborhood.
Childhood friend. I hope you're doing well somewhere, but I'm taking this memory for The Heavenly Killing Star now! Thanks!
"Don't lie."
Cheon So-hee spoke to me with an expressionless face. But looking closely, I could see a subtle crack in her expression. She's a bit shaken.
"So-hee. What lie are you talking about?"
"There's no way I had an oppa."
"Haha. So-hee, you don't think I'm your real brother, do you? That joke's going too far. I'm Kang Yun-ho oppa, who played with you long ago. Not Cheon Yun-ho oppa."
I corrected it briefly, though there's no chance of misunderstanding. The family setting is troublesome. What if there's family in what little memory The Heavenly Killing Star has left?
I'm not family with you. I'm the oppa who played house with you.
That's the most basic setting that must be laid down as solid as a rock. If this initiation doesn't work, it's just a lost team fight. Please don't deny it right away.
Please work. Work.
"There's no way I had an oppa... who played with me."
Good! You're not sure. That's more like you. You don't have much past memory, right? You can't say it definitively.
"You don't remember playing together as kids? We played hopscotch, and I collected stones to play jacks, which you liked. Even though oppa was older, you always won at jacks."
I was terrible at jacks. My younger childhood friend always won. Back then, it was so frustrating that I even practiced jacks at home, but I kept losing.
I looked at The Heavenly Killing Star with eyes reminiscing about a nostalgic past.
"I don't remember that."
Cheon So-hee said in a sulky voice. Under my wistful gaze, The Heavenly Killing Star showed a slightly uncomfortable expression.
It's fine. Get used to that look. I've endured worse stares.
"It's been so long, that might be it. It's been over ten years, so it's possible."
I nodded as if convincing myself. I don't need to deny the other's denial. Rather, I should affirm and push my opinion through.
In the old days, if there was a car accident, the loud, shameless guy won. Because it's hard to see objectively whose fault it is.
It's the same now.
It's a memory I don't have, but Cheon So-hee doesn't have it either. A memory no one can objectively confirm. A blank memory. I shamelessly insert my memory into it as if it were fact.
"Don't lie. There's no way anyone from that village is alive."
"Then am I a ghost standing before you?"
"That's why you're lying."
Cheon So-hee, gripping her small dagger, as if even she has nothing more to say.
Hey. You're about to stab me. I need to create empathy she can't deny.
"I witnessed the tragedy of your village myself. It was truly horrific."
I made an expression as if recalling a terrible past that was extremely difficult to endure. Facial acting is also work. Recalling the time I got caught by my family while watching adult videos without locking the door helped me make a realistic expression.
"You, just now you said 'your village'."
Cheon So-hee's eyes lit up. The expression of finding a gap in the prey. The angle of the dagger she's holding changes.
"Yes. Your village. It seems you really don't remember me right away. So-hee. If you don't remember oppa, do you perhaps remember the Kang clan, my family? They wore nice clothes because they were wealthy, so they should be memorable."
Please listen until the end without doubting every time I speak. You b*tch.
Are you already preparing to stab just because I'm The Heavenly Killing Star? I showed that weakness on purpose.
Murong Sang-ah at least hid her sword, but this woman tries to stab at anything. It was a deliberately shown gap, and she couldn't even wait a moment; I was momentarily startled.
"The village I lived in was a poor fishing village. There's no way there was such a wealthy family there."
The blade angle of the dagger at The Heavenly Killing Star's waist was pointed toward me. If she stretched her hand, she'd stab my Adam's apple right away.
I need to continue speaking quickly.
"That's right. The people of the Kang clan weren't from that village. They visited that fishing village for a different purpose."
"A different purpose?"
It really feels like walking a tightrope.
With the Murong Family, I had the leisure to prepare even shoes. Now, the only thing I can trust is my own two feet. But if I want to live, what choice do I have? I have to survive with what I have.
Shall I recite the prepared setting now?
I looked at The Heavenly Killing Star and put on a wistful expression.
"So-hee. Our family was the Kang clan who served as interpreters in Joseon. Our family made money legally too, but we also made money through smuggling. We moved goods by land, but if the quantity was large, we moved them to the Central Plains by ship. However, moving smuggled goods through official ports could get us caught, so we secretly docked ships in quiet fishing villages to move them to the Central Plains."
In reality, the Kang family also conducted smuggling this way. A lie for a single purpose. I mix in facts to add credibility to that lie.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"It's already been over ten years. There was a boy who missed his father so much because his father was rarely home due to business trips. That child realized that waiting for his father at the harbor was a way to meet him sooner than waiting at home. So, a few times a year, he waited for his father in a certain quiet fishing village."
"And that was our village?"
"Yes. I met Cheon So-hee, you, in that fishing village. I used to play with you while waiting for my father in the fishing village. Then when my father returned, I went back to my hometown. That's how I avoided the disaster that day."
In truth, no such thing happened. When my father was away on smuggling business, even at that age, causing trouble around the neighborhood was the daily life of the delinquent Kang Yun-ho.
"......"
Cheon So-hee seemed speechless. How about it? I inserted the DLC setting that I'm from your village; it's a pretty decent setting, right?
"So-hee. Actually, I want to ask you. That day. The day the Wokou raided your village. All the villagers died. How on earth did you survive? And what's with that look now? Why are you in the Central Plains when I thought you died that day?"
If the setting worked, now's the chance for a counterattack. I press Cheon So-hee by mentioning the incident of that day.
"I don't want... to talk about it."
Cheon So-hee's expressionless brow furrowed deeply. Her eyebrows split up and down as if reluctant to recall the difficult events of that day.
Cheon So-hee's Achilles' heel. The memory of that day when all the villagers died. She lost most of her past memories due to that hugely traumatic event.
"I'm sorry. The memory of that day must have been too horrific for you. I was too insensitive."
I pressed my lips together, avoiding The Heavenly Killing Star's gaze and looking at the floor. Since it's a painful memory for both, a brief silence hung in the room.
Though for me, it's not actually a painful memory.
"...Fine. I get that you were someone who stayed in our village."
It worked.
As I thought. Even I found it a convincing setting.
Now, let's shake hands and part ways. It was nice meeting your old neighborhood oppa, right?
Now go back to your main job. I plan to operate in Hubei Province for a while, so please just operate in another province.
"So-hee. Do you finally remember this oppa?"
I deliberately made a happy voice.
"No. I get that you stayed in our village. But if you were someone that close to me, you would have been in my memory."
She's not letting go easily.
That's a fair point. Even if you lost most memories, someone that intimate should remain in some corner of your memory. But I won't be in her memory.
Even though I keep talking about past memories, if no memory comes to mind, it's right to be suspicious. Even if I said I was someone her parents knew, it would be strange to just send me off with a greeting even after hitting the back of my head.
The reason The Heavenly Killing Star is suspicious ultimately boils down to one thing.
Her own memory.
If most of her past memories are hazy, she can't be confident in her memories. She only trusts clear memories.
But The Heavenly Killing Star has no certain memories.
The character The Heavenly Killing Star lost most of her childhood memories.
Rather, because of that, The Heavenly Killing Star treasures her past very much.
The few remaining memories, precious to the person named Cheon So-hee, held dearly in her heart. She has absolute trust in those memories.
Because they are precious memories, she can't help but doubt someone outside those memories blabbering about her past.
No matter how much I rant in front of her that we were childhood friends, she won't believe it.
It doesn't matter whether I actually played hopscotch with Cheon So-hee, played jacks, or played squid game. Regardless of reality, I'm not in her memory.
Because that memory is so certain.
No, because she thinks it's certain.
Then listen, The Heavenly Killing Star.
The memory you hold.
The memory you can call a precious recollection.
I'm going to drop a bomb on that memory right now.