Chapter v10c15

Na Yerin’s Shackles

– Psychological Trauma

The man stood before her, dressed in clothes as dark as the night.

Seeing him, Dokgo Ryeong felt a chilling coldness in her eyes.

“Ugh!”

The moment she saw the man, the eye patch over her left eye burned as if it were on fire. How could she forget the man who had taken one of her eyes? Dokgo Ryeong could never forgive him. The man who deceived her and toyed with her heart! How many sleepless nights had she spent plotting her revenge against him?

Shing.

Slowly, her sword was drawn from its sheath. The killing intent emanating from her sword tip aimed directly at his heart. The long-awaited opportunity for revenge had finally come. But despite the killing intent, he continued to smile. Dokgo Ryeong found that smile utterly detestable. She felt foolish for having once fallen for that smile. She gathered all her inner strength and focused it on the tip of her sword.

“Today, I will erase your shadow from my heart.”

With those words, Dokgo Ryeong leaped and thrust her sword.

Thud!

She felt the sword pierce through his body vividly. But he made no move to avoid it.

“…Why?”

Dokgo Ryeong felt something was off. Her opponent was not someone who would fall so easily to such an attack.

“Hehehe, do you feel at ease now?”

Despite the sword piercing his heart, he wore a strange smile. He grabbed the blade of the sword with his hand. The distance between them was now only the length of the remaining sword blade. Blood flowed down the blade and onto her hand, staining it red. The blood dripped from her hand, forming dark red flowers on the ground.

“Hehehe, even if you do this, you can’t escape my grasp. You belong to me.”

He lifted her chin with his hand. Their eyes met. It was an inexplicably strange situation. He brought his bleeding lips to hers. Dokgo Ryeong tried to resist, but she couldn’t move, like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web. Their lips met slowly. His blood flowed into her mouth.

“Let go!”

Dokgo Ryeong pushed him away and swung her sword again.

Slash!

Her sword cut his body in two. But by then, his figure had already vanished.

“This… this can’t be.”

She stood there, dazed. She looked at her hand, which had been stained with his blood, and touched her lips. There were no traces of blood. But she could still feel the sensation of her sword piercing his heart and the taste of his blood on her lips. She shivered, feeling as if she had been possessed by a ghost. The haunting memory resurfaced, tormenting her.

‘Master! Master! Master!’

She desperately called out to her master, Sword Queen Lee Ok Sang, who was the pillar of her heart.

‘I’ve tried so hard to forget…’

In the end, it seemed to have been in vain. She realized she was still entangled in that event.

“Am I still unable to escape from that demon?”

She clearly saw what was binding her. And she realized what kind of place this was.

“Is Yerin okay?”

Realizing the nature of this place, Dokgo Ryeong suddenly worried about her junior. This place showed the dark shadows within one’s heart.

‘Yes! I remember hearing from Master about a fragrance that has such an effect! To think I only recall it now… to have my heart captured by such a demon…’

“I still have much to learn!”

A sudden thought flashed through her mind.

‘No way! If my junior has to relive that event…’

Her heart turned cold.

“No! I can’t let her go through that nightmare again. Absolutely not!”

Dokgo Ryeong’s heart grew urgent. She had to find Na Yerin quickly. There was no time to be trapped in illusions.

Deep within a person’s heart, a monster resides in the darkness. Sometimes, that monster is so enormous, dark, and terrifying that just seeing it can cause immense shock. Unless one surpasses their own heart and overcomes themselves, it is difficult to defeat the monster within. One must face the darkness, acknowledge it, and accept it, then surpass it. But the problem is that it’s not as easy as it sounds.

“How… how are you here?”

Na Yerin kept stepping back. Before her stood a man she had tried to forget even in her dreams. The middle-aged man in his forties had the same crazed eyes as back then. His eyes were bloodshot with madness, just like before.

Her innate beauty was something that couldn’t be hidden no matter what. Moreover, her beauty had shone since she was very young. Even as a child, her beauty had a mysterious power that ensnared men in relentless lust. Before the flower even bloomed, it already had a fragrance. And that fragrance had an inexplicable power to attract many people. It constantly brought danger to her. The mysterious fragrance kept attracting pests to the flower.

The man standing before her now was no different.

The most dangerous moment for her was ten years ago, caused by this man. That incident left Na Yerin with severe psychological trauma. Since then, her aversion to men had reached its peak.

The one who tried to stain the pure, innocent girl was none other than her uncle, whom she had always trusted, followed, and relied on. Normally, he was a righteous martial artist worthy of respect. But that day, to the young girl, he was nothing but a beast.

“How… how are you still alive?”

She kept stepping back, asking. But there was no answer. He continued to approach her with eyes full of lust, laughing maniacally.

“Hehehe, your eyes are as captivating as poppies, and your smile is more deadly than poison. Your pure eyes drive me crazy. Your pearl-like white skin, your pomegranate-red lips, your ebony-black eyes… Hehehe. Yerin, I can’t hold back any longer. I can’t!”

The same situation was unfolding again. It felt like a nightmare being replayed without the audience’s consent. Her uncle’s eyes gleamed with vile lust, and his twisted, evil thoughts flowed into her heart through her eyes. They were the eyes of a beast, not a human. Na Yerin saw the true nature of her uncle, lurking deep within his heart. A vile, selfish beast that only cared about its own pleasure, disregarding everything else!

She saw such a beast in one of her closest relatives. It was too much for the young girl to bear. Na Yerin wanted to escape this situation by any means. If she had a sword, she would have considered ending her life. But back then, the weak her had no physical means to act. When the body doesn’t obey, the mind distorts reality.

Her mind activated its instinctive defense mechanism. If she could, she wanted to shut off all her senses.

“Come here. Be a good girl. Come into your uncle’s arms, my little bird.”

‘It’s a dream… This is a dream.’

She kept telling herself that she was having a nightmare. With each step he took, she felt herself regress in age, becoming the ten-year-old weak girl again. The nightmare she experienced at ten was being replayed before her eyes, and her past self was being projected onto her present self. She felt goosebumps all over her body. Suddenly, she felt nauseous.

Step, step, step.

She took a step back.

As he approached with dark, filthy desires, she felt fear and stepped back. She was no longer the disciple of Bing Baek Bong, the renowned swordsman, or the successor of the Sword Queen. She was just a scared ten-year-old girl. Her beloved sword seemed frozen, refusing to be drawn.

Thud!

Na Yerin’s back hit the cave wall. There was nowhere else to retreat. He was now right in front of her eyes, within arm’s reach.

“There’s nowhere left to run. Come here, my little bird.”

His vile hand, tainted with lust, began to caress her body. She trembled with fear and horror. Disgust and the sorrow of a woman’s weakness consumed her mind. Men themselves were repulsive and terrifying.

‘Someone, please help me. Help me. Help me!’

She cried out desperately in her heart. She had cried out the same way when she was ten years old. The person who saved her from the abyss of despair back then was her father. Na Yerin still vividly remembered that incident. It was a painful memory that she could never forget.

“What are you doing, you beast! Today, I sever all ties with you!”

Her father’s sword, emitting a white flash, slashed across her uncle’s eyes as he roared in fury.

Slash!

Red blood sprayed into the air.

“Aaaaargh!”

Her uncle screamed like a banshee. Her father’s sword trembled with deep anger. The killing intent from her father’s sword was so intense that it seemed it could decapitate her uncle at any moment. Her uncle had succumbed to lust and betrayed the bonds of family. Her father could never forgive him for that. Even in his irrational state, her uncle seemed to realize how foolish it was to fight her father. Covering his bleeding eye with his left hand, he unleashed his signature technique, the Mad Wind Palm , with his right hand.

Boom!

With a tremendous noise, the fierce palm force swept through the room. Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the palm force, he broke the window and fled. After that, his life and whereabouts remained unknown. That incident was a disgrace and a dark shadow over the family. Following that, her aversion to men reached its peak, and Na Baekcheon became obsessively overprotective of her. The incident was buried and became a taboo topic that no one dared to mention.

It remained a deep wound in her psyche. A lingering bitterness in her heart for over ten years! She still couldn’t shake off the memory of that nightmare.

Had the ghost of the past come back to life?

‘Please, someone help me!’

It was the first time she had desperately sought someone else’s help. Her uncle’s lecherous hand was getting closer and closer. Like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web, she couldn’t move her body as she wished. She huddled, trembling, and cried out with all her might, squeezing her eyes shut and raising her voice.

“Help me! Bi… Bi Ryu Yeon!”

At that moment, a white flash burst before her eyes, sweeping away all the shadows of her nightmare. She remained crouched for a long time.

Tap, tap.

Then, a gentle hand patted her trembling shoulder. It was neither rough, aggressive, nor violent. And soon, a voice followed.

“Did you call for me?”

The voice was like a ray of light piercing through the darkness. One thing she was sure of was that it was not the lecherous voice of her uncle. She looked up at the owner of the voice. It was Bi Ryu Yeon, always wearing a comforting smile.

Suddenly, she felt reassured and calm. The cold, icy expression that made people mistake her for the successor of the Ice Sword was replaced by a bright expression. It was a look that even Bi Ryu Yeon had never seen before.

“Miss Na, are you okay? Did something happen?”

Her tearful, sorrowful expression, as if she were about to burst into tears, was so pitiful that it made him want to hug her. But Bi Ryu Yeon didn’t need to worry about that. Surprisingly, Na Yerin was the one who hugged him first.

“Miss Na?”

Na Yerin’s hands clutched his clothes tightly. Bi Ryu Yeon noticed that her body was still trembling slightly. She was still afraid of something. What it was didn’t matter to Bi Ryu Yeon. What mattered was that she was trembling now.

She seemed to have reverted to a ten-year-old girl. Bi Ryu Yeon held her gently until her trembling subsided. They remained silent for a while.

“How did you find me?”

After a long time, Na Yerin, finally calmed down, asked Bi Ryu Yeon. The Phantom Demon Cave was like a maze, making it difficult to encounter each other. Yet, Bi Ryu Yeon seemed to have found her without much trouble. She found it quite amazing.

“Intuition.”

Bi Ryu Yeon answered proudly.

“Intuition?”

“Yes, intuition. Even if the person I like is trapped in any maze, I can find them. That’s the power of love. Hahaha!”

Once again, Bi Ryu Yeon answered without hesitation. His overly confident answer made Na Yerin smile softly. She didn’t realize that his confident answer was a bluff. The truth was quite simple. Bi Ryu Yeon had attached a Thunder Spirit Thread to the hem of Na Yerin’s clothes. He had followed the thread to easily find her location. But he didn’t feel the need to reveal that, so he called it intuition.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a strong wind blew from somewhere, making her hair and clothes flutter.

“Thank you.”

She said with a gentle smile. It was a radiant smile, like the melting of eternal ice.

“But you’re not an illusion, right?”

In this place, it was hard to distinguish between illusion and reality.

“Have you ever seen such a vivid and fresh illusion, Miss Na?”

Bi Ryu Yeon’s emphasis on freshness made it seem like she was ordering at a fish market.

“That’s true.”

Na Yerin felt a sense of relief and wondered why Bi Ryu Yeon’s presence made her feel so at ease.