Chapter 202: I’ll Be Back (2)
For a moment, I thought I might have misseen.
Well, it’s understandable, since Wi Seol-Ah shouldn’t be sitting here out of nowhere.
“Why are you here?”
This was the most shocking event I had experienced recently. Perhaps even more so than when I unexpectedly spotted Gu Huibi through the Marble of Celestial Captivation yesterday.
Why is Wi Seol-Ah here when she should be sound asleep in her quarters right now?
“You…”
“Where are you going?”
“What?”
Before I could even finish my question, Wi Seol-Ah shot back.
“Young Master, where are you going?”
Under the pitch-black night, her puffy eyes locked onto mine.
“…Um.”
For a moment, I thought about running off in silence, but looking into those eyes, I found it impossible to do so.
“I’m just going out for a bit.”
“Where?”
“You wouldn’t know even if I told you.”
“…Why does Young Master want to go to a place like that alone?”
Her question left me momentarily speechless.
There was an unusual seriousness in her tone, which made it hard for me to speak freely as I would normally do.
“We were all very worried about you.”
Oddly enough, it felt like she was scolding me, even though the Wi Seol-Ah I knew wasn’t the type to do that.
As I stared into her eyes, grappling with unfamiliar emotions, she continued.
“Young Master, why do you always insist on doing things alone?”
“When have I ever tried to do that?”
“You’re doing it right now!”
“It’s because that place is far too dangerous for you all.”
“Dangerous?”
“Yes. This is unavoidable—”
“Then what about sending me away to such a place all on your own?”
Wi Seol-Ah’s persistent arguments spiraled the conversation into a tangled mess.
I thought about getting angry and asking if this situation was somehow the same as that one.
Drip-
But when I looked at her tear-stained face, my words faltered.
Seeing her cry was far too pitiful.
“I worked hard… I trained diligently… I learned how to use a sword.”
Her tearful declarations made me frown in confusion.
“…What did you learn?”
You trained and learned swordsmanship?
Wi Seol-Ah?
From whom?
Is it perhaps the Sword Venerable?
That was the only name that immediately popped into my head.
In my past life, Wi Seol-Ah had indeed been the Sword Venerable’s successor, and the skills she had wielded were undeniably his. It was practically a given.
The real issue, however, was her choice to pick up the sword again in this life.
That should not have been allowed.
I was, above all, the one who hoped most ardently that she wouldn’t wield a sword in this lifetime.
I believed the life I had now was a chance for that to happen.
She shouldn’t take up a sword in this life.
“Why are you learning how to use a sword?”
“Because… I need to protect Young Master,” she answered.
“What?”
Her words hit me like a blunt object.
Because of me?
Where did this tangled mess of events even begin?
Too many unexpected twists had blurred the lines, and I couldn’t figure out where it all went wrong.
“What nonsense are you talking about? You’re going to protect me?”
Maybe it was different in my previous life, but right now, Wi Seol-Ah was merely a servant.
She was exceptional in beauty and strength for her age, but at the end of the day, she was still just a servant.
That was my only hope. Because even if she lived a life devoted to service, I wanted her to live in peace.
I couldn’t keep her as my servant forever, but for now, that was my wish.
Whether she knew it or not, Wi Seol-Ah continued with a quivering voice.
“I… I can do it… I was told I could.”
“By whom? Your grandfather?”
“…”
Wi Seol-Ah fell silent, unable to respond.
When I considered it further, the only one who could have said such words was the Sword Venerable.
But—
Would he actually have said such things to her?
It was honestly hard for me to believe.
Upon hearing she practiced swordsmanship, the pieces of the puzzle began falling into place.
I now understood why she had been mysteriously disappearing before dinner every day.
Was that all for training?
Then… did she come across me here because she had ventured out to train?
At this hour?
That seemed rather unlikely.
Amidst my racing thoughts, Wi Seol-Ah’s voice cut through the silence again.
“Can you not go?”
Her voice trembled with sorrow, tugging at my heart. But this was my decision, and it wouldn’t change.
This matter was far too crucial.
“You said it’s dangerous. So then, if you don’t go…” Ugh.
As I was starting to explain, Wi Seol-Ah’s words stumbled and stopped.
She swallowed her tears and silenced her tongue.
What was this?
I stared at her, bewildered, and she finally spoke again.
“I understand…”
“What do you understand?”
Was she conceding because she knew I would still refuse?
She wiped her tears.
“If you can’t do that, then maybe we could…”
Suddenly, she flinched, leaving her sentence unfinished.
It felt as if she had thought of another way but then swallowed those words back down.
After repeating this a few times, tears gathered in her eyes, ready to spill over like a cup filled to the brim.
In that moment, Wi Seol-Ah looked oddly unstable.
“Then… what can I even do…? It feels like I’m utterly useless!”
Her state made it hard for me. I wanted to step closer to comfort her.
Bam!
But then I sensed several presences coming from the clan.
They had likely noticed I was missing.
If I kept this up, it could lead to trouble down the line.
Quickly, I pulled an object from my pocket—a beautiful crimson accessory that had been a gift from the Celestial Plum Blossom via the Second Elder.
With some effort, I forced it into Wi Seol-Ah’s hand.
“Just hold onto this.”
“You, Young Master…”
“I’m sorry. Let’s talk more once I come back, alright? I won’t be gone long.”
I gave her a quick ruffle on the head before launching myself away.
As I distanced myself, a nagging worry for her lingered. However, retracing my steps wasn’t an option.
I felt like there were a lot of things I wanted to talk about with Wi Seol-Ah,
But I can take care of that once I return.
For now, I needed to extinguish the immediate flames of this situation.
That was all I could think about.
Once Gu Yangcheon left, Wi Seol-Ah found herself alone, desperately trying to wipe away the relentless tears streaming down her face.
She clutched the accessory he had given her tightly.
As she stared endlessly in the direction he had disappeared,
someone spoke to her.
[Child…]
Upon hearing the voice, she wore a surprisingly furious expression.
“Why can’t I?!”
Her every word dripped with frustration.
[…]
“I can’t ask him to stay, and I can’t follow him either… So why can’t I do anything?!”
The owner of the voice remained silent, acutely aware of her emotions, perhaps more than anyone else could be.
“Big Sis said it herself… that I could achieve my dreams if I worked hard. That I could protect the Young Master. But why am I not allowed to do anything?”
[Right now, there isn’t anything you can do.]
“I don’t understand.”
[Didn’t I allow you to come here to see him because you wanted to?]
Upon learning he was venturing off in secret and having tagged along with the voice’s help, Wi Seol-Ah found herself asking,
“Was it really just me who wanted this?”
[…]
Wi Seol-Ah couldn’t quite grasp it.
“Big Sis wanted this too, didn’t you?”
She received only silence in response, which made her words echo hauntingly.
[I…]
The voice attempted to say something, but the weight of its words kept its lips sealed tight.
Thinking back to her, Wi Seol-Ah said,
“Big Sis, you’re so unfair.”
Indeed, she felt the voice had been unfair.
“You like the Young Master too.”
She truly liked him.
Wi Seol-Ah knew this better than anyone.
In some aspects, the emotions swirling within that voice felt far heavier and denser than her own.
So why do you always choose to hide, Big Sis?
If she truly loved him, shouldn’t she express that?
To young Wi Seol-Ah, her reluctance seemed foolish.
[How fascinating…]
“What is?”
[To think that I could have become like you, had my circumstances been just a touch different…]
The subtle differences in their lives, right from the very beginning, had slowly shaped Wi Seol-Ah into the person she was today.
From the perspective of the past Wi Seol-Ah, her current self seemed entirely different.
She no longer hesitated to speak her mind. She was much more honest and unapologetic about expressing her feelings.
It was as if she believed that even if she directed those emotions toward Gu Yangcheon, he wouldn’t cast her aside or cease to care.
This transformation was solely due to him.
Yet, despite her envy of the present Wi Seol-Ah,
She felt a deep sense of pity.
She had hoped that Wi Seol-Ah would keep her feelings to herself.
Wishing she wouldn’t reveal her emotions, and even desiring a farewell—it was all her choice.
Each decision meant she couldn’t offer any words to her younger self.
Wi Seol-Ah, who had been venting her frustrations, finally fell silent.
She didn’t need to hear more; their shared emotions conveyed everything she needed to know about how her older self felt.
Clutching the accessory given by Gu Yangcheon, she wiped away her last tears.
Her mind drifted to the boy she couldn’t keep from leaving.
“Young Master.”
The memory of Gu Yangcheon ruffling her hair surfaced in her thoughts, causing her to stroke her own hair, the spot where his hand had been.
Although her older self’s words were complicated and difficult to comprehend, and it pained her to witness Gu Yangcheon consistently suffering,
“I miss you…”
All she yearned for at this moment was to see that which had been taken from her.
That was the singular wish of young Wi Seol-Ah.
To the north of the battlefield, there stood a majestic blue mountain, adorned with ancient trees and rugged rocks.
A once vibrant place, now stripped of its lush colors.
However,
The emerald radiance that once enveloped it had vanished, leaving behind a landscape blackened by charred trees and ash-covered bodies.
At the very heart of this colossal mountain, a fierce inferno raged on. The heat was akin to standing too close to a boiling cauldron, capable of scorching anyone who dared to gaze upon it.
Flames swirled in an overwhelming display, their fiery fingers reaching high into the sky.
Hungry and brutal, they ferociously engulfed everything in their wake, wreaking havoc without restraint.
After some time, these flames, which had been obliterating everything, suddenly seemed to dissipate as if they had never existed.
In the instant the flames vanished, so too did the inferno that annihilated the surrounding landscape, fading away like a bad dream.
Once the flames disappeared, a gaping crater was revealed at the center where the fire had blazed.
Amidst the craters stood a fearsome figure—an embodiment of mana—whose mere presence seemed to crush all else around him.
Surrounding the crater lay the burnt remains of those who had failed to withstand his powerful grip, leaving the area littered with charred corpses.
There seemed to be dozens of them, all reduced to nothing but remnants of ash, unable to resist the malevolent force of the man before them.
These were all martial artists from the Black Palace, and this place had once housed a branch of the Black Palace.
Now, however, there was not even a trace left of it, as everything had been turned to dust beneath his overwhelming power.
“… ”
As the man scanned the charred bodies around him, he gradually turned his head to look behind him.
There, someone who had not been present before knelt before the man, carefully offering a message.
“My Lord, a message from the Second Elder has arrived.”
The man, Gu Cheolun, promptly accepted the letter and unfurled it.
The letter contained only a few terse phrases written in the Second Elder’s rough handwriting, yet they were enough to momentarily raise the brow of Gu Cheolun.
For within it lay the information he had ardently sought for so long.
Upon reading the letter, Gu Cheolun immediately issued an order.
“Captain of the First Swordsmen.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“Prepare the troops.”
His previously emotionless eyes now burned crimson.
A suffocating pressure descended upon the surroundings, dominating everything with his presence.
The towering mountains seemed to shrink back in submission to the powerful aura he projected.
As he took a step forward, Gu Cheolun uttered,
“We’re heading to the Muddled Mountains.”
With that, he vanished, consumed by the flames.
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