Chapter 1155: Scorched World.

I think.

“Hmm.”

I think again.

“Ummm……”

I wanted to cross my arms and ponder, but that seemed a bit much. For now, I racked my brain as much as possible.

Rolling it over and over, I thought of a way to break through this situation.

“Hmm!”

If there was anything I thought of like that.

‘Nothing. This is already screwed.’

There’s nothing. There’s no way to undo this. No matter how many times I think about it, a hundred times, a thousand times, it’s the same. This is.

‘Screwed.’

Screwed. And badly, too. Seeing the situation, cold sweat dripped down my back.

It wasn’t just me.

“……Wife?”

It was the same for Gu Seong-yeol, who had been threatening and fighting me.

“……Oh, dear.”

Gu Ryun, who had spoken, was the same.

And me too…….

“A son……?”

Jin Yeon-ryeong, who looked this way with startled, pale eyes, was the same.

“Great Master-nim. What are you saying……?”

“N-no…… that is…….”

“A son? This Young Hero Baek…….”

Jin Yeon-ryeong looked at me with trembling eyes.

“……His son?”

“Madam Jin…… it’s not that…….”

Just as Gu Ryun was about to say something.

“Tsk…!”

He bit his lip as if determined about something. Huh, I didn’t know what it was, but I felt like I shouldn’t let him make up his mind.

“Hey, Il Jang…… No! Great Master-nim, just a moment……!”

I tried to stop him quickly.

“That’s right…! That child is indeed the Master’s hidden bloodline….”

“Damn it.”

Gu Ryun didn’t stop and spat out all the words. The shocking truth burst forth.

“……What?”

Meanwhile, Gu Seong-yeol had a dumbfounded look, unable to comprehend the situation.

It was because the story came out of nowhere.

“What is this…… No.”

Gu Seong-yeol urgently said to his wife.

“No.”

“……Huh?”

But Jin Yeon-ryeong just stared at me with vacant eyes.

“Not true……! Stop making excuses!”

Perhaps displeased with Gu Seong-yeol’s attitude, Gu Ryun flared up and grabbed his collar again.

“It’s not just anything, the Blood Wheel Bead activated. I confirmed it with Cheol-un’s blood. That much light wouldn’t be possible unless it was a relative. Are you still going to deny it?”

“……The Blood Wheel Bead activated?”

Hearing this, Gu Seong-yeol glanced sharply at me.

“……”

“……”

“Ah.”

Silence passed, followed by a brief reaction.

Light filled his blazing red eyes.

-Answer me.

Telepathic communication reached me.

-Who is your father?

“……”

He seemed to have caught on to something. Hearing that, I clicked my tongue inwardly and replied.

-……The gentleman who is your son. Grandfather-nim.

-…….

The Master’s brow furrowed upon hearing the answer. As I revealed that my father was his son, Gu Seong-yeol let out a quiet sigh.

Hearing that, Gu Ryun, seemingly furious, pressed him.

“Don’t evade the situation, Master. If you’re a man, you must do what needs to be done! Are you still going to deny it? Let’s see. Bring the bead again to confirm-“

“There’s no need for that.”

Thump.

Gu Seong-yeol pushed Gu Ryun’s arm away.

“What?”

“……It means it’s confirmed.”

Gu Seong-yeol said with a frowning face.

“He is my child.”

He said that, mixing in a sigh.

“Ah……”

Hearing that, Jin Yeon-ryeong swayed and collapsed.

“Whoa!”

I quickly flew over and caught her.

Jin Yeon-ryeong had already lost consciousness.

“……Take her to the physician.”

Gu Seong-yeol said that with a heavy expression, seeing this.

“And……”

He then looked at me.

“You, come to the Master’s chamber.”

“……”

“Because it seems we have things to discuss.”

It was a phrase that felt quite similar to when I was scolded by my father.

---

After taking Jin Yeon-ryeong to the physician as she was. I headed to my quarters, following Gu Seong-yeol.

Creak.

Closing the door and coming inside, a familiar scene unfolded. It was the Gu family’s Master’s chamber, which I had seen even in my previous life.

Thud.

Gu Seong-yeol approached, sat in the chair, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Inside the dark room. All that could be seen were Gu Seong-yeol’s red eyes.

Watching this, Gu Seong-yeol spoke to me.

“……Light a flame. The room is dark.”

“……”

He was someone who knew I could handle the Nine Flame Wheel Technique. I had no intention of hiding it, so I obeyed.

Snap-!

As I snapped my fingers, blue flames attached themselves to the lamp.

Fwoosh-!!

“……”

Seeing the different color, Gu Seong-yeol nodded.

His expression clearly showed a hint of reluctance.

“Something inhuman has mixed in.”

“It happened somehow.”

“You should be keeping away from that more than anything else. The Gu family clan involved with the inhuman? What did you go through?”

“……?”

I was suddenly scolded. The Gu family clan shouldn’t get involved with the inhuman?

“What’s with that expression?”

“No. It’s just that I’m hearing this for the first time.”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

At my words, Gu Seong-yeol instead made a face of incomprehension.

“……You. Don’t you know anything about the Gu family?”

“No. I know as much as I need to.”

“Up to what point?”

“How much do you, the Master, know?”

“……”

“Just kidding.”

Anyway, this is a family where jokes don’t land.

“The very reason for the Gu family’s existence. I know up to that point.”

“……Hah.”

Hearing that, Gu Seong-yeol let out a breath.

“You mean to say that even knowing that, you haven’t even become the Young Master?”

“……Well, no.”

I was the Young Master in my previous life. It’s just not now.

The problem is.

‘Even if I were the Young Master, I wouldn’t have known that much.’

What I could know was the reason for the Gu family’s birth, the truth of our blood, and.

‘The things underground.’

Countless inhuman beings whose identities were unknown.

The part where they existed beneath the ground.

“I can’t understand.”

Gu Seong-yeol reacted as if he couldn’t understand it instead.

Now, I was the one who was more bewildered.

“……Is this something one is supposed to know originally?”

“Didn’t that bastard Cheol-un tell you anything?”

“We weren’t exactly a father-son pair with deep conversations.”

I had never heard.

About not getting involved with the inhuman. Or deeper stories about the Gu family.

I had never heard from my father.

Why? As I was failing to understand.

“Then……”

Gu Seong-yeol said to me, his face contorted.

“……The karma that couldn’t be carried, is that child bearing it alone?”

“Huh?”

“What a foolish choice……”

Gu Seong-yeol bit his lip. The look of regret was evident.

“……What are you talking about? Or rather, fundamentally.”

By this point, I had to ask.

“Do you believe my identity?”

I blurted out that I was your son’s son, and since he seemed to believe it without issue, I asked.

To such a question, Gu Seong-yeol looked at me with gleaming eyes and said.

“Even if the situation is strange. The heat and karma dwelling in your body prove it. Moreover, even if stranger things than this happen. This is a world where such things aren’t too strange.”

“……”

It was a statement that made sense.

“For what purpose did you come? What is the reason you came here without fulfilling your karma?”

“……I didn’t exactly want to come here either.”

I was just pushed here.

Should I explain the situation? Thinking that, I tried to open my mouth.

Gulp.

“……”

My mouth opened and then closed.

My throat got stuck, and nothing came out.

“Ah, darn it.”

I scratched the back of my head.

‘I can’t speak?’

I learned something I didn’t know. It seems I cannot speak the reason I came here.

It was something I hadn’t realized because I hadn’t even thought about saying it.

“I don’t think I can say it.”

I said honestly. Hearing this, Gu Seong-yeol frowned.

“A restriction?”

“Well. I don’t know, but it seems likely.”

It wasn’t certain, but it seemed so.

“No matter how I look at it, I can’t understand… How on earth did you become scorch and come here?”

He mentioned scorch again.

I’d lost count of how many times I’d heard that.

“……That damned scorch. What exactly is it?”

“……You don’t even know this?”

“Is this something I need to know too……?”

Does this mean my father didn’t tell me this either?

“Scorch, literally, is something that harms what the world has created. Things that scorch the barely maintained barrier. Generally, beings that deviate from reason are called that.”

“……”

Something that deviates from reason.

Things that shouldn’t have come to this world?

‘That’s me?’

It was definitely me. But.

“……How did you recognize that right away?”

“That is the Master’s karma, so naturally, I couldn’t help but know.”

“……Huh?”

The Master’s karma? I was surprised to hear that.

‘The Master’s karma had something like that?’

Beings deviating from reason appearing in the world.

The Master’s power is to know that?

‘……Huh.’

My head went slightly blank.

Then.

‘The reason my father, despite being the Master, often went outside the clan.’

Was it perhaps because of this? I had only heard that he went out to handle the Great Demonic Mirror Gate or the Demonic Mirror Gate.

If it wasn’t that…….

‘If he went out because of things like this……’

The strangeness makes sense.

“Scorch doesn’t follow time or eras. It’s just recognized by its existence. And it just so happens to be my grandson.”

“……”

“If you didn’t come here for some purpose. Go back. This is not a place for you.”

At Gu Seong-yeol’s words, I swallowed dryly.

“……Yes. I know that well too.”

I know. I want to go back too.

But I just can’t.

I tried to say more for this, but.

“Master-nim!”

A voice came from outside.

“Madam Jin has woken up……!”

“……!”

Hearing this, Gu Seong-yeol shot up.

“……I’ll hear the rest later. Wait here.”

“Huh? Yes?”

He rushed out the moment he heard his wife had woken up. He was a person full of annoyance and discomfort.

Suddenly, his face was filled with a bucketload of worry.

His love for his wife seemed quite intense.

“……No.”

Suddenly, I was left alone. Is it okay to just leave me like this?

As I was wondering.

‘Ah, come to think of it.’

One thing came to mind.

I reached into my chest and took something out.

It was a letter. The correspondence that the Azure Dragon Great Master-nim had told me to read upon arrival.

He said it was about a top-secret mission.

“……Hmm.”

Honestly, I had forgotten.

Since I was left alone, I thought I might as well check it, so I opened the letter.

“Huh?”

I stiffened upon reading the words written there.

The letter read like this.

[Investigate any anomalies at the front line.]

“……?”

The front line.

At that utterly familiar phrase, I had to contort my face.