The Heavenly Demon's Visit (2)
The moment the name "Heavenly Demon" appeared, the viewers' expressions turned bewildered. "The Heavenly Demon? The only Heavenly Demon I know is the leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult!" "Why would a shut-in who's holed up in the cult come here?"
Baek Hwaryeong must have been the same back then—she rarely left the cult grounds. There was no simple way to define why I had stayed inside the Heavenly Demon Cult. Too many things were tangled together. My lingering attachment to the cult. The countless followers I was responsible for rebuilding it with. The countless eyes that followed my every move. Until the day I realized all those worries were meaningless and finally left, I had been a being bound to the cult. Baek Hwaryeong's circumstances were likely not so different from mine. She and I were different, yet the same kind of person. Without the tempting bait called Baru, she probably wouldn't have set foot outside either.
"That fellow was curious about the kind of person I am, so he came looking for me. We merely shared a meal."
The viewers were probably upset they had missed the entertaining sight of me fighting Baek Hwaryeong. The mood in the chat gradually turned hostile. But really, how could I show others the scene of me fighting myself? The fact that Baek Hwaryeong was both the same as me and a different person wasn't a story they could easily accept. While I was pondering how to resolve this, someone sent a donation.
"I don't understand why you're asking something so obvious. Of course I won."
No matter how frail my current body was, there was no way I would lose to Baek Hwaryeong, who was merely walking the path I had already traveled. I answered as if it were only natural, and as if responding to my words, another donation voice played.
"What did you just say?"
"There's no way I would lie about something like this."
"No. What?!"
The viewers began painting me as a petty person who had lost and was now lying about winning. It was true that I could be petty, but not when it came to martial arts! I was someone who could admit defeat! I tried to refute them, but the viewers refused to believe my claim. Hah. They say three people can make a tiger, but with thousands gathered, they've turned me into a petty loser. I was genuinely a little heated and wondering how to refute them when the door to Mount Hua burst open.
Baek Hwaryeong climbed the stairs, radiating the violent inner energy of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art without any attempt to conceal her presence. When she saw me, she smiled and waved her hand.
"It's been a while. Have you been well... Huh. Why do you have such a murderous look on your face? Did I make some kind of mistake?"
Perhaps the irritation showed on my face. Baek Hwaryeong glanced at me cautiously. Whew. Calm down. Calm down. There was no reason to play along when I knew full well they were teasing me. I stuck my pipe in my mouth and shook my head.
"No. It's nothing."
"If you say so, then that's a relief. Oh. Sitamgyeon. What are you doing here?"
"Greetings. As the strongest of the Heavenly Demon Cult and the great..."
"When have I ever liked such useless titles?"
When Baek Hwaryeong raised her voice, pressing down with her inner energy as if she would devour him, Hak Yeong-chung shut his mouth. The sight of Hak Yeong-chung, who usually moved with such composure, looking frightened drew the attention of the sect members. Good grief. What was he doing, acting like this when he was supposed to be playing the role of a teacher? No matter how terrifying Baek Hwaryeong was, showing his fear so openly wouldn't do. He needed to display composure.
Look. Not only our sect members, but even the viewers were sending disbelieving glances. If I left things like this, the dignity Hak Yeong-chung held as a teacher would be shattered. I dispersed my inner energy to shield Hak Yeong-chung and stepped forward. Baek Hwaryeong's gaze turned toward me.
"This fellow is also one of my sect members. If you've come looking for a fight, I'll accept, but if not, behave yourself."
"Oh dear. My apologies. I did it out of habit."
Once Baek Hwaryeong withdrew her inner energy, Hak Yeong-chung finally breathed again. I couldn't leave Baek Hwaryeong here—there was no telling what might happen—so I would have to take her with me.
"You came to see Baru, didn't you?"
"Yes. You know me well."
When I asked, Baek Hwaryeong's face lit up.
"Didn't you say before that the best way to win Baru's favor was to tempt her with food?"
"I did."
Previously, Baek Hwaryeong had asked me through Han Seo-woo how to gain Baru's favor. She had encountered a beast that didn't fear her and didn't want to earn its dislike. So I had told her the method that worked best on Baru based on my experience—buying her favor with food. If Baru heard this, she would fly into a rage, asking if I was treating her like a child, but what could I do? This was the method that worked best.
"After hearing that, I thought about it a lot. What kind of food does a fox like?"
Listening to Baek Hwaryeong, I felt a slight unease. Wasn't she focusing too much on the "fox" part? She hadn't brought raw meat or something, had she?
"Look! Inside here is tofu skin made by the cult's chef!"
Baek Hwaryeong proudly held up the bundle in one hand and shouted.
...Tofu skin?
"What does a fox have to do with tofu skin?"
"My foolish disciple said foxes like tofu skin!"
Was that so? Thinking back, I didn't recall Baru ever being particularly obsessed with tofu skin. Still, it was better than nothing that she had brought something edible. I couldn't bring myself to douse cold water on Baek Hwaryeong's expectant face as she imagined Baru happily receiving her gift. If what was inside was decent, Baru probably wouldn't dislike it.
After telling Baek Hwaryeong to follow me, I turned to check Hak Yeong-chung's face. He was staring blankly, as if he couldn't believe Baek Hwaryeong's excited demeanor.
"Hak Yeong-chung."
"...Ah. Yes, Sect Leader."
"Go back and continue what you were doing."
"Understood."
"And you, fellow. What are you so scared of when I'm right here? Keep your pride."
After saying that, I gave Hak Yeong-chung's back a light pat and headed toward where Baru was with Baek Hwaryeong.
Baru was dozing on the sunlit roof tiles of a building. The pleasantly warm sunlight seemed to put her in a good mood as she purred, her belly rising and falling. She showed not even the slightest wariness. Even a house dog would be more alert than that. This girl. Had she gotten too used to the comfortable life at Mount Hua lately?
"Baru."
Only after I called her name did Baru slowly open her eyes. Despite having slept for so long, she let out a big yawn as if she was still sleepy, stretched once, then lowered her head below the tiles. The moment she saw Baek Hwaryeong's face, her expression hardened.
"Why are you here again!"
"Didn't I say I would come last time?"
"Is it really okay for the leader of an entire organization to move around so freely?!"
"Of course. I'm just a figurehead anyway. Other people run the cult, so I can wander around without any sense of responsibility."
"Is that something a Heavenly Demon should say?!"
Regardless of whether the viewers doubted Baek Hwaryeong's identity due to her utterly weightless remarks, Baek Hwaryeong was focused on winning Baru over.
"Enough. Rather, look at this. I've prepared delicious food for you."
"...Food?"
"Yes. I had the cult's chef make it. Look. I had it cooked just a while ago, so it's piping hot tofu skin."
The tofu skin Baek Hwaryeong took out didn't look very appetizing even at a glance. I didn't know how they made tofu skin in the cult, but at the very least, the tofu skin I knew didn't look like that.
"That's tofu skin?"
Both the viewers and Baru were feeling the same unease I had felt. Yeah. No matter how I looked at it, that wasn't tofu skin. It wasn't like they had killed tofu and revived it as a jiangshi—what kind of tofu skin was that?! Only Baek Hwaryeong, standing in the middle, was tilting her head as if wondering what was wrong.
Haa. I couldn't ignore the sincerity she had shown by preparing food just to pet Baru once. But I also didn't think Baru would eat that. After pondering for a while, I made a big decision and picked up one of the tofu skins Baek Hwaryeong was holding and tossed it into my mouth. As soon as I chewed it once, the nostalgic yet unwelcome taste of the murim filled my mouth from that tofu skin. To put it simply, it had no taste. To elaborate, the seasoning was weak, it was greasy, parts of it were burnt, it smelled bad, and the quality of the tofu itself—the foundation of tofu skin—was poor. To exaggerate, it was disgusting. Since I couldn't waste food, I forced it down my throat and, with my pipe in my mouth, asked Baek Hwaryeong,
"Hey."
"What seems to be the problem?"
"Be honest. Is there anyone in the cult's kitchen who learned cooking from an outsider?"
"You know how closed-off the cult is. Of course not."
"Then my next question. Did the cult's chef know what tofu skin was?"
"No. He didn't. But my disciple found a recipe somewhere, and the chef made it based on that."
Right. That explained why this came out. I knew very well what the skills of chefs who had lived in the murim were like. Nowadays, modern people had spread cooking methods and raised the overall standard, but the cult, which those methods hadn't reached, hadn't received that blessing. Damn it. My tongue was ruined for nothing.
"This works out perfectly. I was already thinking of going out to eat anyway, so I'll take this opportunity to teach you what tofu skin really is."
When she returned to the cult, I would make sure her body could never be satisfied with that kind of food again.