Chapter: 458
‘… Sigh.’
No matter how much I think about it, I still don’t get it.
What is the way to return to the original world?
What is the regret that Tang Jaemoon spoke of?
Is it related to the things I did in my past life? If not…
‘Is it about the Demon Sword Master?’
I thought while feeling the heartbeat of the Demon Sword Master on my back.
It’s about the choice that the Tang Jaemoon spoke of.
What on earth should I choose?
I had vaguely guessed it would be about the Demon Sword Master’s death.
Given the timing, I thought that was the only choice I had in this situation.
‘If that’s the case… are you telling me to stop it?’
I don’t know.
It was clear that the death of the Demon Sword Master was one of my regrets.
‘If I manage to stop it in this world… will my regrets really disappear?’
I don’t even know if it’s something I can prevent.
Not to mention that I’m not even sure if it’s okay to stop it. Even if by some chance I did manage to stop it…
What about the aftermath?
In any case, since it’s something happening in another world, stopping it wouldn’t make my regrets disappear in my world.
‘I don’t know.’
No matter how much I thought about it, nothing came to mind clearly.
“Ugh….”
I could feel the breath of the Demon Sword Master. Ignoring my ticklish ears, I picked up the pace a little more.
My back is wet.
The blood from the Demon Sword Master is soaking into it.
Feeling that made me swallow hard.
Even though I thought I had stopped the bleeding, it seems to be a lot worse than I expected.
For now, instead of such complicated thoughts, it’d be better to return to the main office and treat the Demon Sword Master.
“…!”
Something catches my intuition.
I twisted my body.
Crunch-!
A tree is cut down and falls behind me.
I hit the ground and rolled.
I wrapped the Demon Sword Master in my arms to minimize the impact.
Immediately afterwards, I raised my energy to its maximum and filled my heart with magic.
In that split second, I raised my stance, sweat streaming down my face as I stared straight ahead.
“Impressive.”
The owner of the flying sword strike approaches.
“I intended to cut off your leg, yet you sensed this.”
“… Who are you?”
The wind blew.
Accordingly, the old man’s dark robe flutters. His presence was vague.
No, it was blurry yet incredibly vast.
Phage crackle—!
My brain feels alive.
The energy surrounding the old man felt similar to that of the Demon Sword Master, but it felt more refined.
With trembling eyes, I looked at the old man.
“Hehehe—”
The old man smiled and spoke to me.
“I seem to have made a mistake.”
“…”
The old man.
I gulped a dry swallow as I understood the meaning of the mistake that the Heavenly Lord was talking about.
That blow just now was one I couldn’t possibly have felt.
If nothing had changed, it would have been normal for my leg to be cut by the old man’s sword.
But I managed to avoid it.
The reason is simple.
“… Simma really is pitiful.”
Because I felt a terrifying murderous intent before the strike even flew.
‘This is insane.’
I licked my lips bitterly as I looked at the old man.
The last Namgung.
One of the three great men of the world and the most powerful from the Namgung family.
Heavenly Lord.
An immense amount of murderous energy was radiating from his body.
My fingertips trembled.
It was a pressure that came from the difference in rank.
‘This is genuinely dangerous.’
That murderous energy is real. The Heavenly Lord truly intends to kill me.
‘What are you planning?’
My eyebrows knitted together.
Since we are undoubtedly in the realm of the Four Heavenly Kings, if the Heavenly Lord comes out, the Heavenly Demon can intervene.
The Heavenly Lord must know that as well.
‘Are you intending to disregard the Heavenly Demon’s warning?’
Is this going to lead to war?
It wouldn’t be strange. In fact, during his last life, the Heavenly Lord broke his vows and started a war.
The issue is…
Why must that moment be now?
Use it.
I carefully set the Demon Sword Master down on the ground and raised my body.
It’s too sudden a situation for me to grasp.
“… Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
I asked the Heavenly Lord with all my senses focused on him.
“This is Sacheon… Have you forgotten the leader’s warning…?”
Phew.
“…!”
I tried to navigate through the situation by invoking the Heavenly Demon’s warning.
A sharp sensation pierced my chest.
I looked down.
The blade was lodged deeply in my chest.
Coolook-!
As soon as I realized the situation, blood gushed out of my mouth.
Chook—!
The sword was pulled out, leaving a trail of blood on the floor.
My knees buckled weakly.
“Ugh….”
With the support that was holding me gone, my vision slowly began to darken.
I recognized this sensation.
It’s death.
Death was approaching.
… Just like that, all of a sudden?
“Ugh… gasp….”
As my upper body slowly collapsed, the Heavenly Lord stepped past me in a dry gait.
The target appeared to be the Demon Sword Master.
I reached out.
Even while my eyes were closing, I attempted to block the Heavenly Lord’s feet.
Thud.
I didn’t reach.
All I felt was the cold, hard floor.
The last thing captured in my fading vision was the scene of the Heavenly Lord reaching for the throat of the Demon Sword Master.
No. I had to stop him somehow, but I failed.
I couldn’t stop the encroaching darkness.
In the end, I had to face a sudden death.
A building burning and collapsing.
The blood soaking the floor.
The day the seeds of the Namgung family, once elevated above the world, faded and dried.
The Heavenly Lord remembers that day.
How could one forget?
The grandson, who was called the family leader, was left with nothing but a body rolling on the ground.
It was the day the Namgung family, which was supposed to dominate the skies, vanished overnight.
The Heavenly Lord could never forget that day.
“… How tragic.”
A dry voice escaped the old man’s lips.
“Isn’t that right?”
The one yearning for an answer kept their eyes closed and their mouth shut.
Before the Heavenly Lord was the face he had longed to see.
The enemy who destroyed everything about the Namgung family, and the last remaining branch of his bloodline in this world.
This is also why the Heavenly Lord lived.
“I wanted to ask.”
Why on earth did you do that?
The Heavenly Lord wanted to ask her this. Why did you turn the Namgung family to ash with your own hands?
Did you harbor enough resentment to sever your father’s head?
What twisted you into such a monster?
It was a question that had once burned in his heart, but now it no longer mattered.
“…”
The Heavenly Lord’s gaze shifted to the handle grasped tightly in the Demon Sword Master’s hand.
Despite being unconscious, she wouldn’t let go of the sword.
It was a symbol of the Namgung family, resonating with the will of their ancestors.
A person recognized by the Heavenly Lord.
He is the rightful owner of the Namgung family.
These were the final words left behind by Noechonilgeom.
Crack.
The Heavenly Lord clenched his teeth.
“…How absurd.”
It was nothing but a fabrication from the ancestors.
The Heavenly Lord thought this.
Isn’t it impossible for something like that to occur?
The Heavenly Lord could not wield the Heavenly Demon. Still, he carried out his duties.
Because he was the strongest.
The same went for the generations that followed.
The grandson known as the Sword King was unable to draw the sword of the Heavenly Demon but still became the head of the family.
The discussions regarding the Heavenly Demon had become irrelevant to deciding matters of the family.
But…
‘What about you?’
The great-granddaughter standing before him effortlessly wielded the Heavenly Demon.
And how could one who could do so have eradicated their own bloodline?
This is something that the Heavenly Lord could never comprehend.
It lingered as a torturous regret that gnawed at the Heavenly Lord.
That night.
If only he hadn’t heeded the words of the Sect Elder and gone to the Murim Alliance.
Or…
“I should have killed you the moment I first laid eyes on you.”
Then perhaps, such a calamity would not have occurred.
The Heavenly Lord mused.
When the Heavenly Demon was reclaimed, it coincided with the birth of this child.
The true form of the Heavenly Demon surged forth, radiating brilliance.
He recalled the fervent aspirations of the head of the family, and the jealousy that emanated from him.
“…”
Where did it all go wrong?
No, it no longer matters.
The Heavenly Lord slowly stretched his hand toward the Demon Sword Master.
The slender, white neck easily yielded to his grasp.
One must not set foot in the territory of Sacheon.
This was a warning given by the Heavenly Demon of the past to the Three Lords.
Thus, the Three Lords indeed refrained from stepping into Sacheon for several years.
There was a reason why the Heavenly Demon’s show of power was so despairing and frightening.
The most significant reason being that the dancer herself had strictly commanded him not to go.
Now was not the time.
There would undoubtedly be an opportunity.
The Heavenly Lord, who had never obeyed anyone’s commands, humorously didn’t go to Sacheon when prompted by those words.
He understood.
He had secretly yearned for a justification.
Having been frightened by the Heavenly Demon and decided to retreat, he must have needed an excuse to not engage in battle with the Heavenly Demon.
Truly pathetic.
He felt it was an embarrassment to bear the surname Namgung.
So, was there a silver lining?
The current Namgung had vanished, leaving only himself and the child before him.
“… gasps….”
The Heavenly Lord forced out a wry smile.
In the end, this is who I am.
The essence of contradiction. The entire faction engulfed in flames, yet brimming with vengeance.
A petty soul, paralyzed by fear of the Heavenly Demon, hesitating at every step.
A figure consolidated by arrogance, pride, and a sense of entitlement.
That is who I am.
A deepening remorse gnawed at him.
The Heavenly Lord wanted to conclude this.
This killing motive that had kept him alive until now.
“….”
Just as the Heavenly Lord was about to twist the neck of the Demon Sword Master, a sudden sense of foreignness washed over him, causing him to halt.
“… Something….”
Something felt off.
Just moments earlier, he had hesitated in fear of the power of the Heavenly Demon, so why was he now within the territory of Sacheon?
Also….
‘… Why right now….’
More than the vengeance for his clan.
Where had the old man’s desire to perish on the grounds of Namgung gone, immediately after the war concluded?
It should have been so, yet why was he clutching the Demon Sword Master’s neck here?
In this perplexing sense of incongruity, the Heavenly Lord felt dizzy for a moment.
Why is this happening? How did it come to this?
The Heavenly Lord sought to remember how he had wound up in this place.
I don’t know. The sensation of having his mind clouded felt suffocating to him.
In the midst of that blurry haze, the one clear thought was…
-I allow it.
The unmistakable sense that someone had given permission.
The moment that thought flickered in his mind, the Heavenly Lord’s eyes sharpened, and strength returned to his hands.
As if entranced, he set out to enact his vengeance once again.
Crack!
“…!”
The Heavenly Lord felt something and swiftly turned his head back.
But there was nothing behind him.
Am I imagining things? Just as I started to think that way.
“Eh?”
The Heavenly Lord swiftly recognized that it was no mere illusion.
The reason being that there must be ‘nothing’ there.
There should certainly be a corpse lying there.
It was obvious since he had stabbed his heart with his own hands.
Nothing remained in the direction the Heavenly Lord was facing.
Not even the blood that had spilled.
The traces of having fallen.
Nothing at all.
At the moment when the Heavenly Lord was about to confirm the absurdity of the situation—
Woo-ooom!
A vibration coursed through the air.
The direction was to his left. The Heavenly Lord’s head swung around.
“…!!”
In the spot where he sensed an unknown vibration.
The Heavenly Lord’s face contorted in astonishment.
Something was there.
Under scrutiny, the lifeless doll appeared to be staring directly at the Heavenly Lord.
The uncertainty in his gaze stemmed from the fact that—
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
Azure flames engulfed the doll’s body, consuming it entirely.
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