Chapter 315: Vigo of the Dragon. (6)

My vision is hazy.

My view, filled with reddish-pink leaves.

It felt somewhat stifling, yet somehow comforting.

‘Ah.’

It’s distant.

It felt like my complicated thoughts from just moments ago were clearing up, even if just briefly.

‘Complicated thoughts?’

What was I thinking about?

I felt incredibly scared about something.

I can’t remember well. Still, the thought that I mustn’t forget it…

I turn my head, full of a headache, trying to recall.

‘…!’

I had momentarily dozed off, lost in comfort, but…

it came back to me quickly.

-You are a calamity.

That’s what Yeon Ilcheon told me.

-Haven’t you ever thought it strange about your regression?

It digs deep into my chest, taking root.

-That is destiny itself.

My insides, which had felt even slightly comfortable.

felt like they were being painted dark again.

‘Calamity.’

The Blood Demon called it a calamity, and…

if calamities are passed down through karma…

unlike how I thought of the next calamity as the Heavenly Demon when Yeon Ilcheon spoke of it.

he called me a calamity.

‘Am I a calamity?’

It’s something I’ve never even considered.

I regressed through death.

Having regressed, I wanted to try living a different life now.

Did I wish for a peaceful life for myself?

Or perhaps, a safe life?

If not even that…

‘…Did I wish for a life where you would be happy.’

Did I wish for a life where she, not I, would be happy?

Whatever the case.

If there’s some secret to my regression.

and if that secret causes calamity…

What should I do?

Thoughts like those fill my mind.

With a conversation that was barely even a moment.

I wondered if the mental grip I had could really loosen this much, yet…

the mental grip I had…

I also wondered if it wasn’t actually due to flimsy hope.

‘Am I scared of guilt now?’

Did I want to live forgetting that I was an evil person and a demon?

Did the hope that I could erase the things I had done and would do inflate so much?

Living like that…

and then hearing that I was the problem all along…

Was I that indignant?

‘Ah, you damn idiot.’

I let out a hollow laugh.

Since when was I ever a good guy?

I never even intended to play the hero after regressing in the first place.

‘Tell them to eat shit.’

I’m a person who always lives as I please.

The reason I endure things I don’t want to do…

is because there’s value in it.

But who marked me as a calamity?

And if my regression also contains someone’s purpose…

‘Screw that, I’m not doing it.’

I don’t know who it is, but…

I’ll stubbornly refuse. What’s more, I’ll find them and beat them up.

If that’s destiny.

and if they say I can’t break it because I can’t help it…

I will find a way.

If I were someone who would give up saying it’s impossible…

I would have run away as soon as I regressed.

and lived hidden away in the mountains, farming.

I wouldn’t be going through all this hellish suffering.

I will break free, even if I have to smash my way out.

Just like I always have.

‘Besides, it’s not even certain that I am a calamity.’

There’s only suspicion.

There’s no proof.

In the previous life, it was clearly the Heavenly Demon who brought back the bloodbath.

Meaning, it wasn’t me.

As I was organizing my thoughts like that…

I felt something stroking my hair.

“…Hm?”

It was a rough, coarse hand.

The touch stroking my hair felt like how Iljangro used to pat my head.

The feeling of him grabbing and shaking it.

It was a sense of dizziness I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Wondering what it was, I shifted my gaze.

The plum blossom leaves filling my surroundings seemed to take human form.

and were stroking my hair. What is this? It’s scary.

This… could it possibly be…

“…Noyya-nim?”

[Seeing you acting so pathetic, I considered smacking your head, but since I liked the way things ended, I’ll let it slide.]

“…Where have you been? And what’s this situation?”

It’s been well over a year.

When I underwent the punishment my father gave me, spending nearly three months in seclusion.

Noyya-nim had to disappear for about a year back then.

The problem is, this time it was much longer than a year.

“Have you been hibernating until now?”

[Hoho, you wake up and I worked hard to save your life with my old body, yet your mouth is still as insolent as ever.]

“…It’s my way of showing I’m glad to see you.”

[If I showed gladness twice, I feel like I’d fold you in half, brat.]

Kkuhkuhkuh.

The old man’s voice, dry and piercing.

Although his tone was still rough for a Taoist master,

it was quite welcome to my ears.

Anyway…

“…May I ask what the situation is?”

[What situation?]

“The current situation, and…”

…the situation where I met the remnant consciousness claiming to be Yeon Ilcheon just before.

I asked Shin Noyya-nim.

Noyya-nim answered me.

[How would I know that?]

“What?”

[You’re asking trivial things to someone who just woke up. If I knew that, I’d be a shaman, not a Taoist master.]

“…”

Aren’t shamans also a type of master…?

A trivial thought crossed my mind.

“When did you wake up?”

[From the moment you set foot in the Observation.]

If that’s true, it means it hasn’t been long.

Then, a memory flashed by.

What I felt in the Observation.

The presence of someone else inside my body, not that beast.

That must have indeed been Shin Noyya-nim’s presence.

“…But why didn’t you react?”

[…]

Noyya-nim paused for a moment at my question.

As if choosing his words, he then…

Noyya-nim gave me his answer.

[Because that guy was watching you, brat.]

Speaking of ‘that guy’.

Surely the man with the deep blonde hair.

He must mean Yeon Ilcheon.

“Is that bastard… no, is that person really your colleague, Noyya-nim?”

[If you’re going to curse, be sure about it.]

“Even so, cursing someone to their face is a bit…”

Although I felt like shit, I couldn’t curse Yeon Ilcheon in front of Noyya-nim.

He’s supposedly a friend, after all.

“So, is that person really Kwon Cheol-geumwang?”

[I don’t know.]

“…What?”

Noyya-nim’s answer made me flinch.

‘I don’t know?’ What does that mean?

“Didn’t you clearly act like you knew him back then?”

I heard Shin Noyya-nim clearly say to the remnant consciousness that it was good to see him at the end.

[It means I was glad to see his face, nothing more.]

“What does that mean?”

[What else could it mean?]

This is absurd.

[What’s certain is that it was indeed a remnant consciousness left by Ilcheon.]

“But you’re saying you don’t know if it was him or not?”

[That room and the consciousness were Ilcheon’s power, but a remnant consciousness is just a remnant consciousness.]

“…That’s confusing. So is this Noyya-nim’s power?”

The plum blossom leaves currently surrounding me.

And the unbelievable Taoist energy felt around me.

Is this Noyya-nim’s power?

Noyya-nim speaks to my question.

[That guy said it. He said that place was an arrangement prepared for me.]

“…Yes.”

Not just that Observation area, but…

perhaps all the unknown encounters I’ve experienced…

might have all been prepared for Noyya-nim.

[This is that arrangement.]

“This is it?”

The Taoist energy enveloping me, and the aura taking human form as if expressing Shin Noyya-nim.

Even a glance told me…

how immense the pure power contained here was.

“…Is this, then, Noyya-nim’s original power…?”

[You’re talking nonsense.]

“Aren’t I?”

Noyya-nim chuckled incredulously at my words.

[Did you really think this paltry power was all I had?]

“…”

[I am not someone this weak.]

‘Paltry power?’ I was stunned for a moment.

The energy I’m currently feeling is truly immense.

If it weren’t supporting and enveloping me.

If this Taoist energy were to become blades right now and tighten around my neck.

At my level, I’d be torn to shreds in seconds without being able to hold out.

That much power…

Is ‘paltry’ in Noyya-nim’s eyes?

‘…Just how strong was he?’

I can’t imagine what Noyya-nim looked like when he was alive.

Even as a master of the past. Given how many records were written historically…

At best, I thought he was on par with the current Three Venerables.

‘Could it be, he was stronger than that?’

If he describes the current energy like that.

It’s possible.

Maybe, he was on the level of Wi Seol-ah, known as the Divine Sword…

‘No, that can’t be it.’

I erased the thought from my mind.

That would mean there were five humans on that level.

‘What kind of being was the Blood Demon, who dealt with humans of that caliber?’

And there was Yeon Ilcheon, who became the number one under heaven after surpassing Noyya-nim like this, being a regression user himself.

Dealing with such people, and in the end, not even death.

They could only end it with a mere sealing.

Unless the Blood Demon was truly a god, it was nearly impossible.

[You’re thinking too much again.]

“…Because I heard something unbelievable.”

Kkuhkuhkuh.

I was dying of complexity, but Noyya-nim just laughed.

“You can laugh?”

[How could I not laugh? Your expression is utterly ridiculous.]

I’m dying of complexity. As if it’s someone else’s business…

No, it’s not someone else’s business; seeing as it is, Noyya-nim seems quite involved too.

[Don’t waver.]

The hand stroking my head grew rougher.

[There is nothing more dangerous than you losing yourself.]

“…I know.”

[You know. Humans are humans precisely because they can’t help but act despite knowing.]

“Noyya-nim, did you know?”

[Know what?]

“About the calamity and destiny he spoke of.”

That this world was destined to be destroyed by the Blood Demon’s hand.

And even if the Blood Demon was sealed and stopped.

another calamity would eventually appear.

Just as his colleagues knew.

Did Noyya-nim also know?

[No, I did not know.]

“…What?”

[The reason I was sleeping within your body during that time was to regain my memories.]

“Your memories?”

Ever since I first saw Shin Noyya-nim.

Noyya-nim had said.

That his memories were blurry, full of fragmented and broken parts.

Because of that, I even teased him, calling him a fake and whatnot.

[It took longer than expected to recover them.]

“All of them… Did you find them then?”

I asked, hoping for some information I could hear, but…

Noyya-nim’s form shook his head, indicating negation.

[I recovered most of them, but… I can’t recall the final moment.]

“The last moment?”

[The end of my memory was the battle with the Blood Demon.]

A massive battle fought by five warriors and one Blood Demon.

That was the last thing Shin Noyya-nim remembered.

“…That’s…”

[That’s right. I too know that my end wasn’t then.]

Shin Noyya-nim did not die in the battle with the Blood Demon.

According to records, the Volcanic Sword Saint returned as the sect leader of Mount Hua after stopping the bloodbath.

And lived out the rest of his life.

[I was supposed to reincarnate and find the Observation. That’s what they said.]

Huang-a Bul-yeong, of course, and Kwon Cheol-geumwang, along with…

even the voice of Namgung Myung, the Thunderous Sword, told Shin Noyya-nim to find Lei Ya.

All of them…

were speaking with Shin Noyya-nim’s reincarnation as the starting point.

[I don’t know secrets of the world.]

The Central Plains, which should have perished but continued to live.

The Blood Demon called a calamity, and the Heavenly Demon who would come later.

[That might be why those damned bastards tried to reincarnate me.]

[Ilcheon was always full of secrets. That monk guy was sly yet too kind, Myung guy was an unlucky bastard, and Jemun guy wasn’t sane either.]

It’s like…

the people called heroes were all lumped together as not being normal.

It felt quite strange.

Within those words.

A faint nostalgia was hidden, so I couldn’t bring myself to question it.

[I have a cranky personality and a rough way of speaking for a Taoist master, but…]

He knew…?

He knew about that.

[…At least once I took the bait, I never let go. It’s possible they knew that and threw me in here to suffer.]

“So in the end, you just passed the buck.”

[Thinking about it like that, they really are sons of bitches.]

Well, I didn’t mean it quite like that.

[But ultimately, that attempt did not succeed.]

“…What makes you so sure?”

A soul that couldn’t even properly retain its memories.

And doesn’t know information properly.

It’s possible.

Shin Noyya-nim, like Yeon Ilcheon, was merely close to a remnant consciousness right now.

It’s possible Noyya-nim’s reincarnation succeeded, but he might have been killed while growing up.

[Ha!]

Shin Noyya-nim burst out laughing at my suspicion.

[If I truly succeeded in reincarnating, the Central Plains would be making great noises by now.]

“Why is that?”

[Looking at the martial artists now, they’re all idiots. How could it be quiet when a genius like me was born?]

“…”

What is that insane confidence?

[If I were reborn, I’d already be known by a name like the Number One Plum Blossom Sword.]

“Even if you reincarnate, you seem to be a Taoist of the Mount Hua Sect.”

[You’re stating the obvious.]

Sarak.

A single plum blossom leaf fell and landed on my nose.

[I was born in Mount Hua and left my soul and loyalty there, so even if reborn, I would have been Mount Hua’s child.]

Although the reason was flimsy, it was filled with conviction.

[I am Mount Hua’s divine iron. That doesn’t change, even if my memories are blank. Or even if my life ended and I became this form.]

[So don’t you waver either. What will happen if you don’t believe in yourself?]

“…!”

Hearing his final words to me.

A part of my chest felt like it had resonated slightly.

He must have said those words for me, who couldn’t calm down and was wavering.

[Even though we meet after so long. Seeing your state, you haven’t grown much. How old are you, yet you’re still childish, tsk tsk.]

“…If you hadn’t said that last part, it would have been quite cool.”

Kwang!

“Gack!”

As I uttered one more word, I felt an impact on my head.

He had changed the stroking hand into a fist and smacked my head.

[I really wanted to hit you once. It feels so satisfying.]

“…Ugh…”

[Instead of worrying about calamities or whatever, focus on what you wanted to do.]

“…”

[Rather than stopping because you don’t know where to go, you should walk whether it works out or not. You, brat, already know this.]

“…Yes.”

Sarak.

As I spoke my answer.

The plum blossom leaves filling my vision gradually moved.

The rough hand stroking my hair also stopped.

[Get up soon. You have to work for my share now too. Thanks to you, I’ll be very busy. Kuhkuhkuh.]

His words were a bit strange.

“…Why do I have to work for your share, Noyya-nim?”

[If I can’t do what I wanted because I ended up like this, shouldn’t you do it instead?]

“No, what does that mean.”

[Come on, this old man saved you using his strength, so do it as a favor. Anyway, what you do is similar, and you’re a boy who talks too much, tsk tsk.]

He meant to deal with the Blood Demon as well, while stopping the Heavenly Demon.

It was truly the height of shamelessness.

This guy doesn’t even pay rent, and now he’s trying to pawn off his own work onto me.

‘I was going to do it anyway, but it feels weird.’

However, thanks to him, my head felt clearer.

Whether I am a calamity or not.

I am myself.

And if I don’t want to become a calamity.

I had to believe I could be anything but that.

Noyya-nim, with his trivial tone and situation.

He must have wanted to convey this to me.

As Noyya-nim said, how old am I?

I don’t know why I’m still receiving guidance.

I guess I still have a long way to go before I grow up.

Saiaaaaaa….

[Cheer up.]

Along with Noyya-nim’s voice that suddenly reached me.

The plum blossom leaves gradually disappeared, revealing the sky.

The sky was still night, and the moonlight floated in the center, shining upon me.

“…Ah.”

I immediately pushed myself up.

Since the last place I was was inside the Observation, I had to assess the situation, but…

For some reason, I was now in the middle of a patch of grass.

More precisely, at the entrance where I had gone into the Observation.

I was lying there.

“Oh, you’re awake.”

As I tried to assess the situation, a voice came from somewhere.

It was Jamryong’s voice.

Fortunately, it seemed he escaped the Observation safely…

But why was I sleeping here?

“Now that you’re awake, can you save me?”

“…Huh? Save me from what?”

At Jamryong’s troubled voice.

As I turned my head towards where the voice came from.

“Ah.”

There was Jamryong, grinning foolishly.

And in front of him…

Geomhu and Cheonghae-ilgeom were looking at me with strange expressions.

“…”

This looks pretty screwed up, doesn’t it?

“Hoo…”

I quickly turned my head.

I had to find it. A way to get past this situation.

“…!”

…It came to me.

I quickly pointed at Jamryong and shouted towards Cheonghae-ilgeom.

There was no hesitation.

“He suggested it! I just followed along!”

The ultimate secret technique: Selling out your friend.

It was a skill I had honed over my life, but…

“…Are you calling that a proper statement?”

Because I didn’t have friends, I couldn’t use it often, so the effect was weak.

As expected, it didn’t work.

Damn it.