Rest
“How about we go hunting? After drinking nothing but water for four days, I’m starving.”
I agreed with Gapjil Jijon’s suggestion.
“That sounds good. It’s been days, and Shaolin still hasn’t shown any reaction.”
Along with me, Gapjil Jijon and Cheondok Noong had pushed forward without a moment’s rest, snatching only brief naps over the past four days. The only thing we’d consumed was water from streams whenever we passed them.
After a short exchange, Gapjil Jijon and I met each other’s eyes.
Gapjil Jijon looked at me and said, “Then why are you just sitting there instead of going out to hunt?”
“...Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to hunt, Gapjil? I’ve never hunted before.”
“If you’ve never done it, then do it now. Why are you sitting there like a stone statue when you have such fine martial arts? Do I, an old man, have to go? Or should you, the young one, go?”
“Should the manly man go, or should the frail young girl go?”
Gapjil Jijon’s face twisted in frustration.
“No! This wench keeps talking back at every turn! Looking like a courtesan, yet you’ve got no respect for your elders whatsoever!”
“Your manly man’s tolerance is awfully narrow. You’re nothing but a petty little man. All you can do is throw your age around?”
“....”
“Your silence means I’m right, doesn’t it? Then stop sitting there and go catch a rabbit or something.”
“You little—! You’re asking for a beating! Want me to show you my Gapjil Divine Art today? Craving a bloodbath, are you?!”
Gapjil Jijon jabbed his finger at me, spitting as he shouted.
“Oh my, how terrifying. If you’ve got the strength to hit me, you might as well go hunt.”
“Grr! I’m really going to hit you!”
While our endless back-and-forth continued, Cheondok Noong, who had briefly disappeared, returned carrying something.
“Enough with the nonsense. Eat this. You too, Madwoman.”
Cheondok Noong set down several wild fruits that looked rather unappetizing.
“What are these, Cheondok?”
“Stone pears and hawthorn berries. They don’t taste like much, but hunger makes the best seasoning.”
I fiddled with the hard stone pear and the red hawthorn berries.
“When did you even see these? I wouldn’t know if they’re edible even if I looked at them.”
“I spotted them while we were passing by earlier. Since we can’t start a fire yet, eat these for now.”
Cheondok Noong picked up a stone pear.
“We can’t keep surviving on water alone.”
As expected, Cheondok Noong was the most useful among the demonic elders. I grabbed the hard wild fruit called a “stone pear” and bit into it without hesitation. Seeing this, Cheondok Noong tried to say something in a hurry, but my action was faster.
[Crunch!]
‘...Crunch? Not crack?’
“Ow! My tooth! Is this a pear or a rock?”
“Tsk... It’s called a stone pear. Right now it’s only astringent and tasteless. You should at least roast it over a fire first, you ignorant girl.”
Gapjil Jijon offered his congratulations on my misfortune.
“But you said we couldn’t start a fire! Why would you roast fruit?”
Cheondok Noong spoke with a pitying look.
“I called it a stone pear. If ‘stone’ is in the name, you should’ve realized it would be hard. What did you expect, biting into it so boldly?”
“You should’ve told me that earlier! Why say it now?”
Cheondok Noong sighed.
“My apologies. It’s astringent and tasteless, but force it down anyway. Bite carefully this time...”
‘No matter how hungry I am, do I really have to eat this?’
Suddenly, I found myself missing the thin porridge we’d eaten in the Repentance Cave.
‘...No! I can’t be longing for something like that!’
I shook my head to drive the thought away. After forcing down one fruit, I picked up a hawthorn berry, small and red like a cherry.
‘This one should be fine.’
Without hesitation, I popped it into my mouth.
“Kaaack—!”
An extreme sourness! Saliva poured from my mouth, and my shocked brain felt like it had been struck by lightning.
“...Very sour, isn’t it? Still, it’s good for the body, so just taste it.”
Cheondok Noong’s calm voice came from beside me.
“Cheondok... What is this? Are you trying to poison me?”
“Eek! I can’t eat this. Bleh!”
Gapjil Jijon had forced down the stone pear, but after tasting the hawthorn berry for a moment, he immediately gave up.
“Hiss... Cheondok, are you trying to assassinate me? Damn it, my mouth’s still watering.”
At my words, Cheondok Noong merely shrugged.
“Given our situation, we should be grateful for even this. Once we reach the main road and head to Chengdu, we won’t have money anyway. We’d only be scavenging spoiled food. Fresh fruit like this is better.”
‘Well... he’s not wrong.’
At least calling it fruit made the hunger more bearable than water alone.
“Gapjil, we’ve come this far without any signs of pursuit. Why don’t we rest here for today? The sun’s setting, and we haven’t slept nearly enough. If we keep cutting back on sleep, our bodies will suffer.”
Gapjil Jijon readily agreed with Cheondok Noong’s suggestion.
“You’re right.”
Hearing the elders’ words, I finally relaxed my body. Once the tension eased, my whole body itched. Come to think of it, I hadn’t bathed once since falling into this world. My skin felt sticky with sweat, and suddenly I couldn’t bear it anymore.
Back in my original world, I used to shower twice a day. I’d even loved hot springs. To think that someone as fastidious as me had endured such poor conditions all this time... I was rather impressed with myself.
A clean stream lay right in front of us. I should wash up. There was no one around to see, anyway. I’d held back long enough.
I stripped off my filthy traveling clothes. Even the primitive undergarments came off, leaving me completely bare.
‘Might as well wash the underwear while I’m at it. It’s disgusting.’
I hadn’t washed my underwear in two months, and the smell was horrendous.
“Aaaah! What the hell is that crazy wench doing?! My eyes!”
“Good heavens! Why is a grown woman stripping down like that?!”
Our demonic elders cried out in shock.
‘Ah! I forgot the elders were here...’
They’d blended into the background so completely that I hadn’t considered them.
‘Not like it matters now...’
I snorted.
“We’ve all seen each other’s shit and piss. Why act so surprised?”
“Look at how she talks! So shameless!”
Gapjil Jijon clicked his tongue in disbelief.
“Gapjil, let’s just move aside. We should wash up downstream too...”
“Wash what? Bathing once a year on holidays is enough! Why bathe and invite misfortune?”
Cheondok Noong tried to leave, but Gapjil Jijon remained stubborn as ever.
“Why should I go?! That courtesan-looking wench is mocking me, and I refuse to back down!”
Gapjil Jijon glared at me with wide eyes.
“You think I’ll lose? Not a chance! I won’t look away!”
“Gapjil... Why are you getting so competitive here? Please, let’s just go down. Goodness...”
Gapjil Jijon glared at me as if he wanted to kill me, while Cheondok Noong fidgeted, deliberately looking away.
“Ah~~ Fine. Do what you want.”
I ignored whether Gapjil Jijon was watching or not and plunged into the water, beginning to scrub myself clean.
Back in the Repentance Cave, privacy had been nonexistent. There were no toilets in the cells. We washed, drank, and relieved ourselves at the spot where underground water flowed through one side of the cell. It was a fully public kitchen, sink, and toilet all in one.
Moreover, the Repentance Cave was a sealed cavern. Even the slightest sound echoed loudly. In the normally quiet cave, if someone needed to relieve themselves, the sound would reverberate like an alarm for everyone to hear. When anyone urinated or defecated, the entire cave knew in real time. It was a place where the sounds of shit and piss were broadcast in graphic detail.
We’d all seen everything there was to see in that environment. Why start being modest now?
As I deliberately scrubbed every inch of my body, a pained groan finally escaped Gapjil Jijon’s lips.
“Damn it, you rotten wench... I lost. I lost...”
Turning around, I saw Gapjil Jijon being dragged away by Cheondok Noong, his face twisted as if he’d bitten into something foul.
‘Yeah. Enough with that nonsense about only bathing on holidays. Go wash up, old man.’
I chuckled and focused on finishing my bath. The water was ice-cold as autumn deepened, but circulating the Heaven-Shattering Divine Power Art made it bearable.
Then, suddenly, my left shoulder began to bother me. Against my wet skin, strange patterns stood out vividly. A black tattoo of intricate geometric shapes resembling a magic circle. It stretched grotesquely across my entire left arm, left shoulder, and part of my neck.
‘...The Heavenly Demon Soul-Snatching Scripture.’
Guyu Majon. The final legacy that old man had left me, the mark of an absolute demonic art.
‘Ah! That’s right. Guyu Majon is still alive! So it’s not really a legacy.’