“Fuck!”
I bolted forward at the same time he did.
From all around behind me, countless men suddenly surged out.
Fuck! Fucking hell!!
My blood ran cold, and terror crashed over me.
Even so, I was desperately spinning my head as fast as I could to keep my wits about me.
Where should I go?
Up? Down?
Do I have any weapons? Should I throw some rocks?
No, first and foremost...
“Help!!”
I ran while shouting louder than anyone else.
“Help!!”
I was banking on the hope that someone would hear.
It wasn’t far from the Emei Sect.
Maybe I could get help from Emei Sect disciples.
There was no downside to screaming.
I had to keep yelling until they caught me.
“Stop!!”
“Leave the donkey and go, you bastard!!”
Would you just hand it over?!
This donkey was my lifeline...!!
I needed it to escape later!
Plus, I’d loaded it up with a ton of travel expenses, silver, leather gear, and all sorts of tools keeping me afloat on its back.
I absolutely couldn’t give it up.
Unless I was one step away from being caught for real.
“Help me!! Evil bandits are trying to kill someone!!”
“Who said we’re killing? Just leave the donkey and go!!”
“Put that sword away before you talk shit!!”
I set my mind on heading up the mountain.
I knew the donkey could push harder going uphill more than anything.
Besides, they followed too well when going down.
My only shot was to outlast them with stamina climbing up.
On top of that, while climbing the slope, I could grab rocks from the ground.
I hurled those rocks backward whenever I had a moment, thrashing desperately as I went.
“Huff...! Huff...!”
But in the end, I was just an ordinary guy.
They might be third-rate or second-rate... but martial artists were martial artists.
No matter how hard I struggled and fought, I couldn’t overcome the innate gap.
Just like I could never beat a gorilla no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t shake off their pursuit.
“Fuck...!”
Suddenly, a bandit blocked my path ahead.
Behind me, the pursuers closed in.
They formed a large circle, starting to press in on me.
Only then did my feet stop.
Everyone here was panting heavily.
Think.
Think, how am I going to survive this.
“You rat bastard...! You were gonna get caught anyway, but you had to make us work for it...!”
One bandit slowly approached me.
He seemed like the leader of this gang.
Blood was streaming from his forehead—probably from the rock I’d chucked at his head.
“You’ve got good stamina too. How far did you even run...? Haah... haah...”
I raised both my hands.
“Please spare me. Take the donkey, whatever you want.”
“You should’ve just handed it over from the start. Would’ve been so much easier.”
He cackled and stood right in front of me.
His face was covered in scars.
A hulking, brutish body.
Thick, shaggy hair.
Less than a step away.
Just a few days ago, I’d been wiping out hordes of scum like this.
Now they had a blade to my throat, proving disasters really do strike in the blink of an eye.
Without Dang Soran here, their intimidation terrified me.
Anyone would quake in fear before them.
The bandit eyed me and smirked.
“But I’m not in the mood to let you live today. Do you even know whose forehead you scarred?”
“G-Great hero, please don’t do this, let’s talk it ou—”
“—Shattering Gold Hand Yeom Bo! Surely you’ve heard of me?”
Yeom Bo? It rang a vague bell...
...Ah, fuck. This asshole’s that famous rapist from a few months back at the Yunnan-Sichuan border.
The prick Gwak Du Uncle had been gunning for.
Of all people, I had to run into this lowlife...
“W-Well then, are you that great hero who made a name in Yunnan...?”
“Haha! You know me! At least you’re a guy who gets it!”
I kept talking to draw his attention however I could.
“G-Great hero, what brings you to the area around Mount Emei? Ah, even so, it’s gotta be dangerous near the Emei Sect...”
“...Are you threatening me?”
“N-No, I’m just worried!”
“You’ve got a silver tongue. Right before death, wanna play a little?”
“I-I’m really just worr—”
“—Hmph. Dangerous? How dangerous could it be? Besides, it’s been way safer around here lately. Nuns aren’t gonna go around killing people.”
“Huh?”
“There’s this rumor about some monster rampaging everywhere, slaughtering folks, so we came this way.”
“...You mean some crazy bastard like tha—”
At that moment, Yeom Bo’s face went ice-cold.
—Slash!!!
I flinched hard.
Red blood began flowing down my body.
“...Ah... aaah...”
...But it wasn’t my blood.
A sword blade protruded from Yeom Bo’s chest, spurting blood in time with his heartbeat.
Hot, sticky blood reeking of iron splattered across my face.
“Gahk... ck!!”
The greenwood bandits who’d been hemming me in pitifully exposed their backs.
The protruding blade didn’t stay still.
—Crunch...
It twisted half a turn, snapping Yeom Bo’s bones with a jerk.
Yeom Bo spewed ragged breaths from his pierced chest before collapsing.
“...Ah.”
And there she was—the infamous murder ghost.
Cheongwol.
Cheongwol hadn’t quelled her rage yet and began hacking at Yeom Bo’s corpse with her sword.
—Slash! Slash! Slash!!!
Madness still gleamed in her eyes, the madness I hadn’t been able to forget.
Having turned a man to mincemeat in an instant, Cheongwol finally looked at me.
The madness in her eyes slowly faded.
—Swish...!
The sword slipped from Cheongwol’s hand.
“Sh-Shopkeeper.”
Dropping your sword was taboo for a martial artist.
But she acted like she couldn’t care less.
“A-Are you okay? Hurt anywhere? Uh...? You look even handsomer... Ah, no, that’s not what I—!”
Looking around, every single bandit who’d cornered us was already down dead.
I was reminded again of the prowess of a first-rate martial artist, and Cheongwol’s abilities.
Cheongwol patted me down like she was searching for wounds.
“Huh? You’re not hurt, right? S-Say something!”
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
“Ha, haah...”
But this time, I’d never felt such relief.
Even as gruesome deaths terrified me, the thrill of survival overwhelmed it.
Scared or not, I had to say what needed saying.
“...I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see you like this—”
“—Shopkeeper.”
Then Cheongwol’s demeanor shifted again.
—Grip...
...Huh?
Strength tightened in Cheongwol’s hand gripping my wrist.
...It kinda hurts? Why so tight...
“...Cheongwol?”
“...”
“...”
Cheongwol, who’d called me, gave no reply.
Her dilated pupils trembled.
“...Ha.”
Cheongwol let out a hollow laugh.
“...Wow.”
She marveled in disbelief.
She nodded silently too.
...Scary.
Scary, scary, scary...!
I didn’t know what it was, but it terrified me.
The fear Yeom Bo had instilled in me was nothing compared to this.
I glanced slightly at what used to be Yeom Bo.
The gruesome, grotesque sight deepened my terror even more.
Unthinkingly, I stepped back.
Cheongwol pursued me like a hunter cornering prey, still holding on.
****
For a long time, the joy of reuniting with Han Seojin.
The rage at the bandit scum trying to harm him.
Even the deep relief of saving him.
All paled before the emotion surging now.
I believed it.
No, I’d tried to believe.
The traces all pointed to one fact: that Dang Soran and Han Seojin were together.
Until I confirmed it, I tried to suppress my feelings.
I deliberately ignored ominous imaginings, and from then on, my pent-up frustration poured out wildly on those evil bastards.
I didn’t want these feelings aimed at Han Seojin.
To me, Han Seojin was my one true confidant.
My one true friend was Han Seojin too.
The one I sought out, the one I vented to, the one before whom I could bare my weak side, my ugly side, my shameful side without hiding—it was all Han Seojin.
I wanted it to stay that way.
If he’d just stay by my side, supporting only me from here on... we could overcome any hardship together.
A beggar-turned man who’d set up a shabby Leather Room on the outskirts of Mount Emei.
The world didn’t recognize him, but I saw.
A pearl shining alone in the mud.
I didn’t need anything else.
As long as Han Seojin smiled by my side, it was enough.
We could keep supporting each other as friends, right?
Since I was a loner, and so was Han Seojin.
Why not lick each other’s wounds?
In the future I dreamed of, there were moments of sharing laughter, passing time in peace.
“...”
But what was this?
Faced with this dizzying, unbelievable truth, Cheongwol felt one last surge of energy.
...Dang Soran’s vivid energy, firmly rooted in Han Seojin’s dantian.
Their qi bound tight, as if flaunting their bond.
—Tremble tremble tremble...
Cheongwol’s hands shook with a rage she’d never felt before.
Wow.
...Wow.
This insane fury, this sense of defeat—it was all new.
So dizzying, so utterly absurd.
Dang Soran, who had everything and cherished nothing.
She, who suited the word “waste” best.
Had scribbled her name on the one thing I possessed, like it was a joke, and left.
On Han Seojin’s body, it was written like this.
...Property of Dang Soran.
Then, the person Han Seojin had been with all this time was...
...And during that time... he’d given his body to her this much.
It felt like something precious I’d held close had been forcibly ripped away.
Forty days.
After forty days of return, this was the trace left on him.
This betrayal—it was driving me mad.
“...Shopkeeper.”
Before I knew it, Cheongwol had pinned Han Seojin against a tree.
Han Seojin coldly gazed down into Cheongwol’s eyes.
Cheongwol slowly placed her hand on his lower abdomen.
“...You threw me away.”
Right now, she felt the impulse to shatter this dantian.
To burn away every last trace of Dang Soran left inside Han Seojin.
But first, she had to ask.
To confirm if this was truly his choice.
“...And chose this?”