Ch.2Chapter 2 – I Became the Terminally Ill Mentor of Heavenly Demon (2)

After Bi-wol left the bathroom where Bing-yeon had bathed, she made an excuse about cleaning up and hurried inside before anyone else could enter.

Then, she locked the door and glanced around nervously to make sure no one was watching.

Her movements resembled those of a small animal fearing predators, but the reason for her cautious behavior was her fear of being discovered by others.

“…Master’s scent.”

After confirming she was alone, Bi-wol began removing her clothes layer by layer until she stood completely naked.

Splash—!

Eventually, Bi-wol immersed herself fully in the bathwater where her master Bing-yeon had washed. She submerged herself completely, with only her head floating above the water.

This behavior was one of her shameful secrets, known only to herself.

Bi-wol couldn’t bear to let the warmth of the man she loved most disappear.

She had secretly pressed her lips to cups he had drunk from after meals and smelled the clothes he had worn—this was simply an extension of those habits.

“Always cold, I suppose that’s because you were born with the Extreme Yin Body.”

Splash, splash. Bi-wol murmured to herself while covering her body with Bing-yeon’s scent. The bathwater was so cold that thin ice had formed on its surface.

Because of this frail body, her master would have a short life, trading his lifespan to reach higher realms.

It was an illness where excessive yin energy blocked the blood flow, preventing proper circulation of qi, causing him to waste away until death.

With her innate sensitivity to qi, Bi-wol could tell that the Severed Nine Yin condition, known as a meridian blockage, was eating away at Bing-yeon’s body like a worm.

“They say now the tree grows faster than the worm can eat it, but…”

If she were to describe Bing-yeon’s current condition, it was like new leaves sprouting just as worms devoured the old ones.

It seemed like he was forcibly extending his life through various rare medicines and spiritual herbs. An ordinary person would have been bedridden long ago from the pain constricting their body.

He had fought against cult leaders until he coughed blood, just to save her.

Saying he wanted neither compensation nor reward.

What kind of person could be so naturally kind?

Unlike herself, born under the Star of Heavenly Murder, he seemed to have been born under a benevolent star.

Bi-wol thought the title “Ice Dragon” that people used for her master was well-deserved.

“…Will this situation continue even when he grows older?”

As she thought this, Bi-wol’s affection for her master continued to grow. She imagined her master in the distant future, with a hunched back and wrinkled face.

“No, that’s impossible…”

Bi-wol shook her head glumly. The weakening of energy with age was inevitable. Without methods like returning to youth or complete bodily transformation, one couldn’t escape predetermined death.

“Master… what should this girl do…?”

Recalling her master Bing-yeon’s touch, Bi-wol stroked her own head while continuing her troubled thoughts.

He was someone who had been more of a parent to her than the parents whose faces she couldn’t even remember.

Unlike the cult leaders who had taught her only to kill, he had taught her to value life.

In a place where she couldn’t sleep unless someone died, he had given her a home she could always return to.

Her master Bing-yeon had become the most precious person in Bi-wol’s heart.

“When I think of you, Master, my heart aches. It feels as though a blade pierces my lungs, making them bleed.”

Bi-wol thumped her chest as if feeling constricted while talking to herself.

Being the one who saw Bing-yeon most closely, she knew well how much pain he lived with.

Whenever he used martial arts, blood would flow from his eyes, nose, and mouth. Almost daily, he would vomit blood like bile—it was heartbreaking to witness.

“Yet whenever I see you like that, you smile brightly as if you feel no pain or worry. I hate that smile, that hypocrisy, that mask.”

He maintained his smile and tried not to show his pain, fearing his disciples would worry.

“As an unworthy disciple of such a foolishly kind master, I feel there’s nothing I can do…”

Bi-wol couldn’t hold back her tears. No matter how hard she bit her lip to stop crying, her emotions kept leaking out.

She hated the thought of her master becoming a cold, lifeless corpse like her friends from the cult.

She hated the thought of her master fading away without leaving anything behind.

She hated the idea that his warm, gentle voice, the scent she now felt all over her body, and his foolish smile would all become mere fragments of memory.

“I… I…”

Grinding her molars, Bi-wol spoke. She hated that she could do nothing while her master slowly died.

She hated being unable to support him. What if they had been similar in age, close enough that she could call him “brother” or even “husband”?

She wished she could give him a reason to live.

She wished he would tell her he didn’t want to die because of her.

“…I truly hate this.”

Blood trickled from her lower lip where she had bitten it hard. Bi-wol seemed not to feel the pain as she bit down even harder.

Bi-wol’s love for her master was somewhat twisted—slightly off from normal, abnormal.

She didn’t know proper love. She hadn’t learned the proper way to love from Bing-yeon.

How could a man who had never even held a woman’s hand properly teach a teenage girl about love?

“Today again, I will sleep wearing Master’s clothes. And using my innate sensitivity to qi, I will be the first to visit his chambers before he wakes.”

Thus, Bi-wol’s first love was slightly sick, obsessive, and had aspects like a burning flame.

“That way, I will have exclusive rights to Master’s foolish sleeping face. That is the special happiness granted only to me.”

Because the karma of her Star of Heavenly Murder couldn’t be channeled into killing, it was being twisted and expressed in this way.

Through the emotion of love, heavier than death.

– Hey, are you really satisfied just watching Master’s sleeping face?

Another voice echoed in Bi-wol’s heart.

It was the essence of the Star of Heavenly Murder itself, which Bing-yeon had thought he had completely removed from this world.

– Master will die soon. And he’ll die because you couldn’t do anything.

Like a snake’s voice, this other Bi-wol whispered, longing for slaughter and blood.

– If you became stronger here, you might be able to cure Master!

Bi-wol could reach a higher realm than she currently possessed.

It wouldn’t be impossible if she consumed all life and flesh on this earth like drinking from a river, and devoured walking, talking medicinal herbs.

“…Be quiet, bad Bi-wol.”

– You call me bad! I’m just giving you realistic advice for your own good.

“……”

More precisely, another personality of Bi-wol—one that had no reservations about expressing love for her master and was more honest—was tempting her.

– After all, I am you, and you are me.

Rather than being different, it was like her true nature that she had carefully hidden following her master’s teachings.

“Shut up. I won’t take lives, just as Master taught me.”

Finding it painful to listen to such honest inner whispers, Bi-wol shook her head vigorously, trying to dispel these distracting thoughts.

– But what if the new sister disciple is more charming than you?

“…What?”

– This is the first time Master has specifically referred to someone as a “sister disciple.”

The other Bi-wol in her mind chuckled, deliberately exposing her jealousy.

“That’s, well…”

– He always brings disciples saying someone on the street is sick or starving from poverty. Don’t you find it strange?

Bing-yeon’s way of bringing in disciples was always similar. He took pity on patients on the streets, people who sold their bodies or organs, or children missing limbs.

– A person who says, “One needs no reason to show compassion to others” specifically wants a sister disciple…

“Perhaps he’s tired of me.”

Bi-wol bit her fingernails anxiously. She feared being abandoned, feared losing the warmth she had found.

– Or maybe he has some other intention.

The other personality in Bi-wol’s mind was gradually amplifying her anxiety.

* * *

Before preparing to leave, I checked the cards I held.

A bamboo slip written in handwriting only I could recognize.

I looked at what I had written shortly after falling into this world, when I realized three of my novels had been mixed together.

‘…Verdandi Astraia has a powerful advantage over characters with evil tendencies.’

It contained information about Verdandi. Meeting her first would make it easier to deal with the final boss who remained.

Verdandi, befitting the final boss in the novel “I Need To Kill The Hero,” was a character thoroughly obsessed with justice.

‘Verdandi has two abilities: “The Scales of Justice” and “Eyes that Know Truth.”‘

When I wrote this novel before, I created a backstory for the final boss similar to Bi-wol the Heavenly Demon, to explain her negative actions.

Verdandi’s mother was raped by a robber and gave birth to her through an unwanted pregnancy, which prevented her from receiving proper love from her mother.

Born with the vessel of a hero, she possessed abilities to see the degree of others’ good and evil deeds, and eyes that could distinguish between lies and truth.

‘…But I made that become poison to her.’

Verdandi discovered that in her childhood, her mother had tried to strangle her to death but failed.

She realized that when her mother told her “I love you,” it wasn’t the truth.

How much better it would have been if she hadn’t known, if she hadn’t realized anything. She cursed her own abilities.

‘I should have created a more ordinary backstory…’

A skilled writer could have created a purely insane villain without such a backstory.

Like Azazel Blackheart, the Outer God’s Saintess from “I was Possessed In Idle Game,” I could have given her a more relatable past, leaving room for persuasion.

In “I Need To Kill The Hero,” true to the title, I wanted to create a justice-obsessed maniac who truly needed to be killed.

I also wanted to include the amateur philosophy that twisted justice and goodness are equivalent to evil.

It was my karma, so I had to fix it.

‘My body currently can’t break through the wall of the Transcendence Realm. Is it really possible?’

I wrapped bandages around my fist while examining my physical condition. The current state of my body is such that even the slightest overexertion twists my blood vessels, causing me to bleed from my eyes, nose, and mouth.

If the original protagonist of this martial arts world, the Diamond Fist King Kim Hyul, saw me in this state, he would call me the Blood Demon rather than the Ice Dragon.

‘…But at least I have Bi-wol.’

I thought as I bit off the end of the bandage. She was a martial arts genius born with the Heavenly Martial Body, someone who in the original work would have had to fight against the protagonist Kim Hyul.

Born with the karma of the Star of Heavenly Murder, which originally meant she had to kill to survive, Bi-wol was now by my side without having committed a single act of killing.

Therefore, I was confident I could also influence Verdandi and Azazel.

After all, I was their father. I was the creator who brought them into existence.

I had to take responsibility.

“…Master, this girl has prepared everything.”

As I opened the door and stepped outside, I saw Bi-wol kneeling demurely before me, having appeared without my noticing.

Goodness! I almost fainted from surprise.

“Were you planning to carry all that luggage yourself…?”

“I only packed the essentials. Have I done something wrong?”

I looked at the huge bundle behind Bi-wol. It was a mountain of miscellaneous items that would need to be loaded onto a horse or donkey.

“This is the cup you often use, Master. And this is the bamboo leaf liquor you like, and that is the fish-fragrant pork you once said you wanted to try. Also…”

“…Enough. Just pack your clothes and some simple food. I’ll prepare what I need to bring myself.”

It seemed my disciple’s reverence for her master was a bit excessive.