Chapter 394

Chapter 394

Eat The World Tree.

Episode 394: Peace In The Cold War, Change (1)

Early dawn.

Sitting on the veranda, I stared intently at the still dark world, wondering when the sun would finally rise.

Lost in such idle thoughts, I put a toothpick in my mouth.

“Things settled down with Sansuyu. Well, nothing particularly went wrong… but it’s not like there are no problems at all.”

After a long time, Spring Peach Blossom showed its face.

Even though it was called Spring Peach Blossom, it was not the martial arts world nestled in vast mountain ranges like before, but just an apartment with four rooms.

Thinking back to when I was attending the academy, the absence of Sumpee, Roshi, and Bob was noticeable.

With the world in turmoil, those affiliated with Spring Peach Blossom also needed to take care of their own families.

‘I wonder if that bitch Bao met up with Bob.’

I didn’t know.

I hadn’t investigated that far yet. I was just vaguely assuming things worked out.

I rested my arms on the edge of the veranda and placed my chin on them.

Next to me, Baekdo was looking at the world in the same posture.

The same voice, the same face as ever.

Her jade-like skin, even when illuminated by the moonlight, seemed to have no flaws.

If only she kept her mouth shut, she’d be top-tier.

“Ah, where was I?”

“You were at the part where the kid named Sansuyu cried.”

“Ah, right. She felt emotions for the first time. Originally, part of her brain was damaged due to an experiment. It was practically a miracle.”

She woke up a few weeks after collapsing, and her condition was terrible.

But perhaps because she was pushed to her limits, she ended up becoming aware of her own emotions.

There weren’t any particularly dynamic changes in her daily life.

Although she belatedly learned about emotions, she wasn’t good at managing her expressions, so her emotionless face mostly remained unchanged.

“Still, she smiles a little now.”

As I said this with a grin, Baekdo, with a melancholic look, stared intently at me.

“…Is that so?”

“Yes. But maybe because of the emotions she felt so late… she doesn’t like it when I try to go out these days.”

“What? Stopping the busy third-rank disciple?”

“Hey, don’t get all serious over a joke. It seems she’s just become attached to me. Telling me to come back quickly and stuff like that.”

Baekdo fell silent, looking awkward at my words.

-Clink.

The beer can she was holding shook. We hadn’t had many opportunities to drink lately.

Since I visited after a long time, we decided to have a small party.

Baekdo even planned it, and it went quite well.

“Attachment, huh… That’s only natural.”

Baekdo muttered bitterly.

“Huh?”

She quietly glanced at me at my words.

Her red-tinged eyes lightly brushed over my face.

“Wouldn’t anyone who gave up their own life and protected you even when severely injured or mentally broken be loved?”

“Ah…”

“Even if you tell them not to, they keep caring for you until the end.”

It was a perspective I had never considered.

“So, I made another woman cry.”

“Shut up, you’re disgusting.”

When I brushed it off as a joke, she scrunched up her face as if genuinely annoyed.

A joke is a joke, but I really hadn’t thought of it that way.

Honestly, I’d been in a state of detachment regarding romantic relationships for a while now.

Being busy, my priority was just to survive, and I simply acted accordingly.

“But, Master.”

The master-disciple relationship had returned before I knew it.

I slightly lowered my tipsy head, enjoying the lightheaded feeling for a moment.

“Do you know that if you interpret that the other way around, it includes you and me too?”

What Baekdo had said.

It’s natural for Sansuyu to be attached to me.

Conversely, it’s also not strange for me, who grew up little by little surrounded by my master’s care, to have similar feelings for Baekdo.

Baekdo, who had been quietly listening, tilted her head as if she still hadn’t grasped the situation.

“Wha… Ah!”

-Crash!

The beer can in her hand shattered instantly.

The bright yellow liquid dripped from her hand, and even under the night moonlight, a clear blush spread across her face.

“W-W-What are you saying…!!!!”

Baekdo subtly values the master-disciple relationship.

But when I actually bring it up, she gets embarrassed.

Her face turned so red it was almost cute.

“Hey, we bickered a bit, but you know? We subtly take care of each other.”

“S-Shut up!”

“How could I not like Master? You even prepared a feast yourself when I came.”

She didn’t say it was delicious.

Baekdo, who was basically treated well both at the academy and in Dowon.

There was no way her cooking skills would be good.

“…Wasn’t it not very tasty? My cooking.”

Baekdo, feeling dejected, muttered while avoiding my gaze.

I took a step closer and bumped her shoulder.

“Still, you know how people’s hearts can be.”

“……”

Her lips wriggled as if the letters ‘w’ and ‘m’ were constantly connecting.

It was a bizarre expression. Something you’d see in a news report.

Baekdo held the bent beer can with both hands, wiggling her fingers. Perhaps feeling the night chill, she covered her thighs and stomach with her black dragon robe.

Having subtly covered her skin, she lightly bumped my shoulder.

A soft and small body.

It was hard to imagine such a body possessing such power.

“…Is Cheondo still the same? What about Hwangdo?”

Baekdo nodded lightly.

A considerable amount of guilt still remained for Cheondo and Hwangdo.

That’s why I was here with Baekdo now, and although they didn’t completely avoid me, they didn’t show their faces often.

There’s no need to say they didn’t have the face to see me. Seeing them like this, Baekdo seemed to be the most composed.

“Both of them, every time we meet, it’s always, ’Are you okay?… Are you hurt anywhere?… Hehehe. All they do is worry.”

Baekdo’s face was still red.

“That… twelfth-rank disciple.”

My disciple ranking plummeted from third to twelfth in an instant.

Did I do something wrong?

When I turned my head, our cheeks and lips were almost touching with just a slight movement.

Baekdo put a hand between our faces, creating a barrier.

“Isn’t this too… close?”

“Don’t you like it?”

A joke thrown out in a slightly tipsy mood.

There’s no harm in being a little closer in a master-disciple relationship.

“But, you… Hwangdo.”

“How long are you going to keep saying that? I just want to be a little closer. Does hugging automatically mean we’re lovers? Come here, let me give you a hug.”

“Wh-wh-what!”

As I approached with open arms, Baekdo, whose neck and ears had turned bright red, tried to step back.

Her two fists were raised, looking like she was about to land a solid punch if I got any closer.

I stopped approaching for now and clutched my chest.

“Ah… just a moment. Haaah… Is it the alcohol?”

“……”

When I frowned as if in pain, Baekdo’s expression suddenly changed drastically, becoming serious.

“…Are you hurt? A-Are you okay? Come here.”

Hard peaches were firm but sweet when you bite into them.

A little external teasing quickly made her innocent.

-Thump!

As I hugged Baekdo, who approached in a flustered state, her whole body stiffened like wood, realizing she had been tricked.

-Whack!

The ringing in my ears at that moment.

A fist that didn’t look drunk at all peeled the bone and flesh off my jaw.

“Keuk!”

“…Oops.”

Dizzy, I fell to the floor with a thud. Baekdo, more flustered than me, knelt down and gently touched my face.

I was half expecting it, but it hurt way more than I thought.

“See… why did you suddenly hug me?”

“You looked so… serious, so I just wanted to joke around.”

I was unconscious for quite a while back then.

When I told her that, the atmosphere became too serious.

I tried to act cute as a disciple to lighten things up. I didn’t expect to get a clean uppercut.

“…Just kidding. Just kidding.”

Baekdo repeated the words, letting out a heavy sigh.

“…Seventh-rank disciple.”

“Yes.”

“I still don’t like you.”

“Still… you’re happy, right? Ugh! Damn it!”

When she kicked my lower abdomen, my tears vanished instantly.

True to her hard nature, she had a fierce temper.

As I rolled around on the veranda clutching my stomach, the worry reflected on Baekdo’s face deepened.

“…I worried for nothing.”

“Huh?”

“I was going to tell you that your subjugation might proceed soon… but all you’ve done all day is… joke around.”

Her words were harsh, but her reaction was also very upset.

I actually already knew that information.

For some reason, the Korean Hunter Association, under Mugung’s lead, seemed to be pushing for my subjugation recklessly.

Not Sansuyu, but me.

My identity had become known to some extent.

I dusted off my clothes and leaned back against the veranda.

Perhaps because I was drunk, it wasn’t easy to steady myself.

“Don’t worry. I’m Master’s disciple.”

“Stop saying such nonsense.”

“If I die, wouldn’t it be because Master Baekdo didn’t hug me…?”

Hug me!

As I giggled, Baekdo clenched her fist again.

“Stop… if I get hit any more here, I think I’ll throw up.”

“You… seem to have a clingy drinking habit.”

“Is that so?”

I was drunk, but not to the point of losing my mind.

My body was weakened, and my magic power was loose, so I was completely defenseless against the alcohol, and even my voice was hoarse.

As I smiled with half-closed eyes, Baekdo gently took my hand instead of hugging me.

Baekdo’s hand, both cold and subtly warm, held mine tightly.

Interlocked fingers. The blush that spread across her cheeks at just that caught my eye.

“Don’t go dying anywhere. I was worried because I hadn’t heard from you for a while.”

Perhaps, now, truly.

We were no longer just bickering like before.

Such a feeling suddenly came over me.

Despite Baekdo telling me to stay the night, I declined and came home.

I was moved by the captivating look on Baekdo’s face at that time, and although I sobered up a bit, it was actually a good thing.

When I entered my room, Sansuyu was standing unsteadily in the hallway.

“L-”

A single word escaped her lips.

“Shiheon…!!”

My name.

I had lived half-resigned, but hearing it like this felt truly different.

Entering the room, I saw that she had eaten the dinner I had prepared and even done the dishes.

Looking at the floor, it seemed she had also mopped.

“Did you drink?”

“Yeah.”

“…Your body?”

“I’m doing okay. And I told you not to clean up. One magic spell would do it, why do all this when you’re not feeling well?”

Still, I understood her intention to help.

She must have had nothing to do all day at home.

If I thought of it as part of her rehabilitation, it might actually be a good thing.

“…Yeah.”

“No, don’t be discouraged. You did well.”

After that day, Sansuyu suddenly started doing various things to show me.

Hugging me suddenly in the middle of the night. Saying thank you.

She expressed herself both verbally and through actions.

When I gently stroked her hair, Sansuyu’s cheeks slightly flushed.

The corners of her lips twitched like fly wings.

“It’s late, shall we sleep?”

“Yeah. I’ve prepared.”

When I saw what she had prepared, she had even lit scented candles in the room.

It wasn’t anything difficult, but it was touching.

I quickly took a shower and lay down in bed. Sansuyu, hopping over, immediately lay down next to me and stretched out both arms.

“……”

She didn’t ask for a hug anymore.

Instead, she expressed it with all sorts of glances and gestures.

If I closed my eyes without hugging her, she subtly lifted my arm and snuggled into my embrace.

Like a puppy.

Slightly tipsy, I happily opened both arms, and Sansuyu, smiling, nestled into my embrace.

-Snug.

The scent emanating from her as she was embraced.

A soft fragrance that wasn’t dizzying, making me sleepy.

That day, she cried so much that I worried her condition had worsened, but it was unfounded.

“Shiheon…”

“Yeah.”

“Hold me tighter…”

“You want me to hold you tighter?”

When I held her tightly enough to feel slightly constricted, she rubbed her face against my chest.

“…I like it.”

Whether she liked me or my embrace.

Sansuyu, who used to use me as a painkiller whenever she was sick.

The difference between then and now was… that she demanded it all the time now.

It’s not annoying at all. Rather… holding someone like her, the sensation against my chest was, without exaggeration, enchanting.

It’s not just holding her. She subtly rubbed against me. There’s no need to describe that feeling.

“Tighter…”

“Even tighter than this?”

-Nod, nod.

I did as she asked.

The soft and ample sensation without a bra made me subtly close my eyes.