The Fragrance of Despair and the Path of the Strong
"Ehu..." I finally managed to meet the delivery quota by the promised date. Letting out a deep, weary sigh, I straightened my battered body and looked around. The workshop was a mess; flower petals and herbs were scattered everywhere, looking like a neglected street vendor's stall. 'I need to clean this up... but my body hurts so much...' I tried to move my creaking joints, but it was no use. My body was a wreck, but I still managed to drag myself out to the living room, staring at the empty liquor barrels strewn around the dining table. That man I call a husband must have gone out to gamble again.
'I'm so lonely...' Watching the barrels roll, I sank into a deep, melancholic gloom in the silence of the house. 'How did I end up like this?' In the chilling, desolate air of the home, I just stared blankly at the barrels and pressed my hands to my face. "Ugh, it hurts..." A pained moan escaped my lips. The memory of my husband, who had resorted to violence last night while demanding money, surfaced once again. I hadn't felt the pain as acutely before because I had been preoccupied with urgent work, but now, the throbbing agony from where he had struck me began to set in. It wasn't the first or second time he’d hit me, but it had been a long time since he’d struck my face.
To check the state of my face, I rummaged through the cluttered room and finally got my hands on a bronze mirror. The woman in the reflection looked so haggard I could hardly believe it was me. Looking closer, I saw the area above my tear-filled eyes beginning to swell. My affection for my husband had long since withered away, but a part of me still wondered... what if he returned to how he used to be? 'That’s impossible.' I shook my head, pulling myself back to reality. He hadn't always been like this. He wasn't the most reliable man, but he had courted me with such fervor. I had accepted him, and our early married life had been somewhat happy. But that life didn't last long.
Our situation turned sour after it was discovered that he was infertile. Azoospermia... Once that was revealed, he slowly began to avoid me. Then, six months ago, to make matters worse, bandits ravaged the village. After he lost his job, he started turning violent, accompanied by a barrage of insults. After he unfortunately injured his leg, the violence became a daily occurrence whenever he drank... A painful, agonizing existence. I had almost no motivation or hope left... I was just slowly rotting away in a corner of this ruined village. I knew it was wrong, but a weak woman like me desperately needed someone to lean on. Even if he was a rotting tree, didn't I still have a husband? Wasn't I better off than the widows in the village who had no one?
Trying to comfort myself, I returned to the workshop to organize the herbs when a floral scent caught my nose. It was a familiar scent, one I hadn't smelled in a long time... The strange aroma reminded me of a man's semen. Before I knew it, I found myself rubbing my thighs together. I could feel the space between my legs growing damp, soaking my clothes. "Ugh... ugh..." I gently stroked my buttocks. Squish... The wet, sticky sound coming from my fingertips made my face flush. As I moved slowly, every time I flicked my fingers, lewd, wet sounds filled the air.
After losing myself in self-pleasure for a while, I finally came to my senses and fell into a pit of self-loathing. 'Wh-what am I doing... I’ve truly gone mad.' What if someone saw me like this? That worry crossed my mind, but looking at the silent house, I fell back into deep loneliness. 'How long do I have to live like this? Surely not until I die?' I tried to suppress the ominous thoughts rising in my mind, but deep down, despair coiled like a snake. My husband wouldn't change. The feeling of love had already faded, but there was no remedy for the loneliness that gnawed at my heart. Still, if I gifted him the perfume I had given him when we first met... if he realized my loneliness... wouldn't he return to how he used to be?
I still vividly remember how happy he was when he received that perfume, even years later. Because it required extremely rare ingredients to blend the special scent, I hadn't been able to make it, but I had luckily acquired them recently. I knew it was a futile hope, but I had no choice but to cling to that sliver of possibility. The sunset was already visible, and the thought of being beaten again by my husband when he returned made tears well up. "Sob... ugh, why... why me?" I swallowed the last words, unable to finish them, and only the sound of her stifled sobbing echoed through the lonely house.
Based on the information I have, I don't know if the original protagonist, Jin Sechan, exists in this world, but it would be better to act as if he does. 'If I let my guard down thinking he isn't here, I might get stabbed in the back...' My goal is to first go to Tianjin to gather information, travel through the Murim to obtain a few fortuitous encounters and artifacts, and then infiltrate the Demonic Cult to steal the Udumbara Flower. It sounds simple, but I have no idea how long it will take. With my mediocre martial arts, I wouldn't even be able to get close before being caught and killed by the cultists. 'At least the Transformation Realm?' I don't know how long it will take to reach the Transformation Realm, but it's a fact that the Righteous-Demonic War will happen sooner or later, so I must act quickly. I should move to regions where my path won't overlap with the protagonist's as much as possible. I have to be careful, as my actions could trigger a butterfly effect.
I had been descending the mountain for a while, but there wasn't a single soul around, only sunlight filtering through the dense trees. 'Did I come down too slowly? If it gets dark, I can just use the Wind God Steps to descend, right?' Still, it was slightly strange that even though it was still daytime, I hadn't seen a single woodcutter. Just then, my sensitive senses picked up two people. 'Are they woodcutters? Or villagers? I'll meet them and ask for the location of the nearest village.' I started walking, but then...
'Ha...'
"Kwahahaha! Where are you in such a hurry to go?"
"Hehehe... Hey there, buddy, strip off your gear and clothes and stick your neck out. We'll send you off without pain."
Bandits, of all things. To think my glorious first encounter would be stolen by these low-life bandits... I wasn't expecting a beauty addicted to aphrodisiacs or an unconscious female martial artist, but I didn't expect to meet bandits who looked like they had hair growing on their glans from the start. I silently clenched my fists.
A storm of continuous, crushing strikes that leaves no room for retaliation.
* * *
"What kind of guys are you?"
The two men, covered in bruises from the beating, were bowing their heads to the ground with military discipline. 'Ah... now this feels better. This is how a bandit should behave!'
"...We are just hunters living in this area, catching animals."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"Oh, mercy... Great Hero, we were just trying to scare you and chase you away! It's the truth! Please believe us!"
From 'buddy' to 'Great Hero'... Strength is truly a mysterious thing. But I didn't believe them. Given the situation, does it make sense for 'hunters' to be carrying nothing but a single sword? I stared at them blankly and said, "If you know any useful information or anything that can help me, speak up. If I like it, I'll spare you."
Killing them is easy, but they might have information I don't know. The two men rolled their eyes, looking desperate as they thought. "According to recent rumors, the Blood Demon has appeared!! That's why the entire Murim is..."
"Do you happen to know the location of a nearby village, Great Hero? If you go down along this ridge, there's a large village..."
Damn, has the rumor about the Blood Demon already spread? I listened for a while, then relaxed my hands and said, "Anything else?"
"Oh, how could there not be? There's a master of the evil path called the Great Drunken Hero..."
They started competing to spill information. Oh, for a bunch of bandits, they had more useful information than I expected. "Good... better than I thought. You may go."
"R-really, Great Hero? Thank you! Thank you!!"
As soon as the greetings ended, the bandits disappeared as quickly as herbivores chased by a tiger. I didn't particularly need to spare them, but they hadn't caused me any major harm, so I just let them go. If someone else runs into them... well, they can handle it themselves, right? As expected, having strength is good. I'm still a long way from roaming the world, but at least I won't be taken advantage of by idiots like that. After that, I continued down the mountain, enjoying the scenery of small wild animals and large trees, having a decent time.
As I quietly descended, I suddenly felt the flow of the wind. Had I been too impatient all this time? As a little bit of ease entered my heart, I felt like I was seeing things I hadn't noticed before. 'Was this the natural flow of the wind?' Why hadn't I been able to feel something so natural until now? Only then did I understand why my master had been so frustrated. Feeling the scent of the forest grass and the flow of the wind, I climbed onto a small rock nearby, set up a clumsy barrier, and internalized my realization. Soon, I opened my eyes.
This is a disaster.