The Incompetent Hero and Psychological Therapy (2)
"Haa... I'm exhausted."
Finally free of that tiny raft, I managed to set foot on solid ground. Unlike the sea or the deck of a ship, the earth held me up with a firm, unshakable certainty. People really were meant to walk on land.
But something about the atmosphere felt off. The whole city seemed to be buzzing with excitement. I'd been worried that the rough seas during that fight might have whipped up a tidal wave or something — but at least there didn't seem to be any damage. That was a relief, if nothing else.
"Hey, mind if I ask you something?"
"What is it?"
"Everyone seems pretty worked up. What's going on?"
"Ah, that? The Yeom Kingdom army finally wiped out the pirates who'd been harassing Dandong's sailors for ages. That's why everyone's so happy — they're about to throw a festival."
Ah... so the pirates got cleaned out.
That was me.
These sons of bitches. I did all the work, and the Yeom Kingdom army just swooped in and stole the credit? Were these assholes begging to die?
Leaving the festival preparations behind, I headed straight for Dandong's military headquarters.
"You shameless, credit-stealing pieces of sh—"
"Huk!... He's here!!! He's alive~!!!"
"...?"
I'd been ready to open with a full-throated stream of curses, but the moment the soldiers spotted me, they nearly jumped out of their skins and scrambled inside to spread the word. What the hell was this? While I stood there bewildered, the doors of the headquarters swung open and faces I recognized came pouring out to welcome me.
"Doryeong!!"
Baekryeon, back in her usual neat attire, closed the distance in a single bound and threw her arms around me. Behind her, Jong-ui, Yeogi-buk, and a handful of soldiers rushed out to greet me with equal enthusiasm.
"You're alive!"
"Cheon-woo Daehyeop!! I knew you'd come back!!!"
"Uh... yeah. Of course I'm alive. Obviously."
The intensity of the welcome was almost awkward.
...Wait a second. Hold on. My mask and wig were both gone — how did they even recognize me?
I looked at Baekryeon in confusion. She just smiled and said,
"I told them."
"You just went and spilled it? Now I can't use the Azure Dragon Token anymore."
"I do not believe that will be a problem."
"?"
I frowned at her words, and Yeogi-buk stepped in with further explanation.
"Lady Baekryeon told us everything. That Cheon-woo Daehyeop is originally from the Western Continent. But the Azure Dragon Token you gave us is unmistakably genuine. And an Azure Dragon Token is never, under any circumstances, given to anyone who is not a fully appointed Azure Dragon officer. In other words, even if Cheon-woo Daehyeop is from the West, he is still a properly commissioned Azure Dragon officer. So please, don't worry about it."
Really? Well, that was a relief.
That meant I could finally ditch this stifling, irritating mask and wig. Perfect. It had been fun at first, and useful for hiding my identity — but the longer it went on, the more of a hassle it became. The mask and wig were way more suffocating than I'd expected. I didn't have the energy to keep playing dress-up.
Come to think of it, the whole reason I'd put them on in the first place was because a foreigner competing for the Yeom Kingdom army at the Dragon-Phoenix Tournament would have looked weird. The tournament had been over for a long time now. No reason to keep wearing them.
But someone seemed to be missing.
"Right now, the whole of Dandong is buzzing about Cheon-woo Daehyeop's exploits! They're holding a festival to celebrate the complete eradication of the pirates, so if you'd join us and grace the occasion with your presence—"
"Hold on a second. Baekryeon, where's Dan Seollin?"
Right. I'd felt like someone was missing — Seollin wasn't here. Without her usual swaggering entrance, the whole scene felt strangely incomplete.
But something was off.
"Baekryeon?"
"Well... Lady Seollin is..."
"What? What is it? Did something happen?"
"She has locked herself in a room and will not come out."
What the hell kind of nonsense was that?
The place Baekryeon led me to was the temporary poison workshop we'd used earlier while preparing for the pirate raid. Why on earth was she holed up in a place like this?
"Seollin's in here?"
"That is so."
"...Why?"
"Well... Lady Seollin was his direct target, was she not? It seems the aftermath of that has left its mark."
...Yeah. That made sense.
Fukhaedaeseong's power had been overwhelming. And the killing intent he radiated in proportion to that power had been so thick and heavy it had paralyzed everyone present besides me. Knowing that a being who could freeze enemies solid with sheer presence alone — the same way I did when I activated Sword King's Domination — had specifically been after her... most people wouldn't have the mental fortitude to handle that.
"So that's why she's locked herself away?"
"Indeed. At first we managed to calm her somehow, but... the longer Doryeong's return was delayed, the more anxious she became, until she ended up like this."
"...How long did it take me to get back?"
"Hmm... I would say roughly twelve hours after we ourselves returned."
The island to Dandong was about four and a half hours. So the fight had dragged on longer than I'd thought. Or maybe it was just that traveling by tiny raft had eaten up that much time.
...And come to think of it, what the hell was the Sacred Beast Hyeonmu even about?
Why had a god like Hyeonmu come looking for me, and who exactly had she meant when she asked me to take care of someone? I still had no idea.
...Don't tell me "take care of her" meant this?
If she'd read the situation and meant for me to look after this girl...
I wanted more time to think it through, but right now I didn't have the luxury of dwelling on it. She'd come along of her own free will, gotten her psyche wrecked, and shut herself in — but like it or not, she was still one of my companions. I owed her some proper mental care.
"Alright, I'll go in. Baekryeon, you..."
"Understood. This one shall wait outside. Call if you have need of anything."
Creeeak.
I pushed open the heavy door of the poison workshop and stepped inside. Even though it was still daytime, the interior was oppressively dark. Not so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face — but staying cooped up in a place like this would only make an already dark mental state darker.
"Hey, Dan Seollin. Where are you~"
Naturally, no answer came. I hadn't expected one.
I carefully scanned the surroundings. Devices and materials for brewing poison were scattered everywhere. If I started a fire or accidentally knocked into something weird, it could go very badly — so I made my way deeper without touching anything I didn't have to.
It was surprisingly spacious compared to how it looked from outside, but there weren't many actual rooms. I found Seollin curled up in what appeared to be a rest area.
"Hey. What are you doing?"
"...Ah, Cheon-woo?... It is Cheon-woo, right?"
I sat down beside Seollin, who was uncharacteristically buried under a blanket. It was the first time she'd seen me without the mask and wig, and she flinched — then, recognizing my voice, she shot upright.
"Y-you came back?!... R-right! What about that bastard? Did you kill him? You killed him, right?"
"No. I couldn't kill him."
"!"
The moment she heard I hadn't managed to kill Fukhaedaeseong, her whole body started trembling. I noticed, but there was nothing I could do about it right then.
What she needed right now was shock therapy.
"Fukhaedaeseong. That bastard's after you guys — the ones who inherited Imugi blood."
"...Why?"
Seollin's trembling grew worse. It was so obvious you couldn't miss it. She looked ready to bolt and run somewhere far away out of sheer anxiety — but she mustered the courage to speak. She needed to know why they were being hunted that badly.
"He said he wants to use Imugi blood to make some kind of poison — Four Poisons, or something like that. Looks like the Beastman Alliance plans to use it as a weapon against the Yeom Kingdom."
"...!"
Our eyes met for a moment. Fear, anxiety, dread — every negative emotion had dimmed the green eyes that always shone with such confidence.
"Scared?"
"...."
At my words, Seollin's brows twitched and she clenched her teeth. Then she shouted, as if forcing the terror out of herself.
"Yes! That's right!! I'm scared!!! Of course I am!! A monster like that is after me... after us!!!!"
A faint sheen of moisture gathered in her eyes as she spoke. As if every negative feeling she carried was turning into tears and falling free — the tears that had been welling up began to drop, one by one.
"Until now! I've met so many martial artists!... And sometimes even the yokai that roam the lands of Yeom Kingdom! But! I've never felt anything like this before! There were martial artists stronger than me, and yokai too... but this sense of absolute powerlessness crawling up my whole body and choking the life out of me — I've never felt that even once!! The feeling that an unavoidable death is coming for you..."
She had always been so proud. No matter what powerhouse stood before her, as a successor of the Dan family name, Seollin had lived without a single shred of shame. When she met someone strong, rather than cower she would burn with competitive fire, determined that one day she would defeat them. That bold.
'Well now... I thought I smelled Imugi, and look at that — there's a little Imugi pup right here.'
'Come to think of it... they said they needed some Imugi blood... reckon we oughta take her along.'
But that thing had been different. It was a natural disaster. The kind of force no human power could hope to contend with. And so Seollin had despaired. And so Seollin had looked at Jang Cheon-woo, who had stood against that disaster...
"Ugh...!!"
The thought brought her that far, and Seollin clamped her mouth shut. Even when she tried to stop them, the tears kept surging up endlessly — as if every drop of moisture in her body were turning into tears. Through her blurred vision, she somehow managed to look at Jang Cheon-woo.
"It's okay."
"What?... What's okay about any of this?..."
"You can relax. You're not going to die."
"B-but... you said you couldn't kill him..."
Yeah. I couldn't kill him.
Ah, damn it, no matter how I look at it, it's such a waste. If I'd just gotten one more hit in, I would've won.
"Next time, I'll win."
For reasons I still didn't fully understand, Hyeonmu's help had restored both my stamina and my mana. And now that I had a means of recovering mana, the next fight would unfold very differently from this one. Unless that bastard had some hidden third phase up his sleeve, I was definitely winning.
"So if you want to live, stay by my side."
"!"
"I'm only human. I can't protect you if you're outside my field of vision. But if you're within my sight — if you're somewhere my sword can reach — you will never die. I'll protect you. I swear it."
With that, I reached out and stroked the head of the sniffling Seollin. I deliberately ruffled her hair a little, trying to break through the gloomy atmosphere hanging over her.
"...Cheon-woo."
"What."
"...Hold me."
"?"
Out of nowhere?
The moment I moved to wrap my arms around her, Seollin flushed bright red and snapped,
"N-not like that!!..."
"...?"
"...I-I saw. You and Baekryeon... d-doing... that..."
"Ah."
When did she see that?...
No, wait — what did that have to do with suddenly asking me to hold her?
"Baekryeon looked... so happy when you held her... I want... you to hold me too... Hold me... and make this feeling go away..."