Chapter v15c14

“Should I have listened to Yerin back then?”

She had regretted it countless times. But at the time, her mind had been so consumed by thoughts of him that she hadn’t been able to think straight.

And so, fate had hurtled towards tragedy.

A fierce storm raged, the torrential rain swallowing all other sounds. It was as if the heavens themselves were weeping for what was about to happen. But the heavens could only mourn, not intervene. They were cruel and indifferent.

Her sword, a finely crafted blade, trembled in her hand like an aspen leaf in a gale. It was a sharp sword, a sword she had always taken pride in maintaining. But now, it felt heavy and useless.

“S-Stay back.”

Dokgo Ryeong’s face was streaked with tears, her sword held in a defensive posture. Her eyes, once so bright and full of life, were now dull with despair, fear, and grief. She was a pitiful sight.

Her happy dream had turned into a nightmare.

“Please… please don’t come any closer!”

She cried out, her voice breaking.

Thud… thud…

But the man kept approaching, his face as expressionless as a plaster mask.

“Please! Please!”

She begged, her voice trembling.

“Eun… myeong!”

His name, spoken aloud, felt like a knife twisting in her heart.

But he didn’t stop. His footsteps were steady, measured, and relentless, like the march of death. With every step he took, she took a step back, retreating in fear.

She was terrified. She wanted to run, to escape this nightmare. But all she could do was back away. She had never been so afraid.

She had learned countless sword techniques, she had earned her three-winged emblem, but none of it mattered now.

He was the man she loved. Her first love, her first man. Just a moment ago, she had been blushing, her heart pounding, eager to see him. But then he had spoken those words… those words that had shattered her world. And yet, even now, she wasn’t sure if she had stopped loving him. Her feelings for him had been too strong, too deeply rooted, to be extinguished by a single betrayal.

“Why… why…?”

His lips, tightly sealed, finally moved.

“Because… it is my destiny.”

His eyes, which had been as cold and lifeless as glass beads, flickered with emotion. It was a profound sadness, an abyss of despair.

– I need your eye!

At first, she had thought it was a cruel joke. But it was the truth, a truth more devastating than any jest.

The cold, damp air of the cave pressed against her back. There was nowhere left to retreat. He kept approaching, his movements mechanical, relentless.

She tightened her grip on her sword.

“I’m… I’m going to stab you.”

But his expression didn’t change. His eyes were still filled with sadness, his body still unguarded. It was as if he were inviting her to kill him. She couldn’t do it. Her sword hand trembled.

“You’re a coward! You’re so cowardly! You say you need my eye, you say you need my life, but why are you looking at me with those sad eyes? Why are you so sorrowful? If you’re a villain, act like one! Be cruel! Be evil! I can’t… I can’t stab you like this…”

She cried out, her voice a mixture of anger and despair. But he didn’t stop. He kept approaching, until he was standing right in front of her.

Thud!

The tip of her sword touched his abdomen. She felt the impact, and her head snapped up.

He would stop now… She wanted to talk to him, to tell him that she was sorry for playing such a cruel joke. She wanted him to smile and forgive her. But… he didn’t stop.

He took another step forward, ignoring the sword at his stomach. Her eyes widened in horror.

Plunge!

His body wasn’t invulnerable. The sharp blade pierced his flesh, sinking two inches into his abdomen, tearing through his organs. Blood gushed from the wound. But his expression remained unchanged. He took another step forward.

Pierce!

The sword emerged from his back, its tip stained with blood. Blood flowed from both sides now.

It was madness. Utter madness. And who was responsible for this madness?

He seemed to be struggling to speak, his voice ragged and strained. The pain must have been excruciating, but his face betrayed no emotion. His willpower was superhuman. Only the sadness in his eyes deepened.

“Why…? Why…? Whyyyyyyy?!”

She screamed, her voice filled with anguish. She couldn’t wake up from this nightmare.

“The price… this wound is the price! The price for shattering our memories. And the last vestige of my feelings for you… This wound will never heal. And every time I see it, I’ll remember you. Just like you’ll remember me every time your eye hurts…”

His voice was different now. It was the voice she had longed to hear, the voice of the man she had loved. But it was also the last voice she would ever hear from him.

“If we meet again, I won’t be the same. Farewell, my love! My beloved!”

His right hand slowly reached towards her left eye. Her face paled. She didn’t even think to pull the sword out of his stomach. Her facial muscles twitched in terror.

“Noooooooooo!”

Crack!

An excruciating pain shot through her head, as if a red-hot poker were being driven into her eye socket. It was followed by a wave of despair, as dark and suffocating as night.

“Aaaargh!”

Her scream echoed through the storm.

A bloodstained hand held an eyeball. The eye, detached from its owner, no longer held the glimmer of the night sea.

“Eun… myeong…”

Dokgo Ryeong’s body collapsed, like a tower struck by lightning.

Her left eye never opened again.

Dokgo Ryeong stood on Heavenly Peak, gazing at the moon, her left hand pressed against her aching eye. The pain always returned when she thought about that day.

“Eunmyeong…”

Her memories had been trampled by a nightmare. She had never discovered what had happened to him during that year he had vanished. It remained a mystery.

He had given her both joy and sorrow. He was the same man, and yet, he was two different people. It was impossible to reconcile the two.

Her memories were stained with a dark blot, an indelible mark that would forever mar her past.

The tapestry of the past, woven from the threads of time and fate, could not be rewoven. It was fixed, immutable. And so, the ugly stains remained.

She could only try to ignore them, to forget them, through sheer willpower or the passage of time. And if that failed, she had no choice but to live with them.

The beautiful mandala she had embroidered with the colorful threads of passion, love, light, and joy had been defiled by the black ink of despair.

A tear rolled down her cheek. Her left eye could no longer weep.

‘I thought I had forgotten…’

She had been wrong. It had been a delusion. She could never forget. She had only been avoiding the memory, suppressing the pain.

Because it was too painful, too heartbreaking, too sad…

‘And then he appeared.’

The box she had locked away, the box that held her memories of him, the box she had chained and buried in the depths of her mind, the box that contained her nightmare, had been opened.

The reason was clear.

‘The First Young Master, Bi…’

He didn’t look that much like Eunmyeong, now that she thought about it. He lacked the warmth, the gentleness, the vulnerability that Eunmyeong had possessed. But there was something about him, something that reminded her of him. Her vivid dream was proof of that. It was too significant to ignore.

There was no effect without a cause. Every effect had a cause, a root. It was the law of causality. Buddhists called it karma. If you traced the chain of causes back far enough, you could find the first cause, the ultimate origin. But the web of causality was so complex, so tangled, that it was difficult for humans to comprehend.

Only a god, for whom cause and effect were one and the same, could escape the law of causality.

So was her encounter with Bi a coincidence, or was it fate?

‘What should I do?’

She looked up at the moon, but the night sky offered no answers.

* * *

He couldn’t sleep. He wasn’t the type to be tired after a sleepless night or two. But his face was etched with fatigue. It wasn’t physical exhaustion. It was mental and emotional exhaustion.

“Fate is a cruel mistress…”

She toyed with him, bringing people together and tearing them apart on a whim. She was the worst companion imaginable.

And yet, she was also the most inescapable companion, the one he could never truly leave. For some, life was an endless struggle against this capricious partner.

But there was one way to escape her clutches. It was the ultimate act of mercy, the ultimate release.

There was one way to break free from fate. Buddhists called it “enlightenment,” Taoists called it “attaining the Tao.” Different words, same meaning. Countless practitioners sought this ultimate liberation.

Bi, who had yet to achieve this liberation, was still bound by fate.

And fate was putting on quite a show, flaunting its complexity.

“Doubt, anxiety, regret, worry… Are these remnants still lingering in my heart?”

He couldn’t believe it. It was impossible. It shouldn’t be possible.

“Ridiculous. I abandoned all of that long ago.”

He had discarded it all, along with his humanity, on that day. But had he truly let go?

He had thought he had erased all traces of doubt and worry from his mind.

“Then… if that’s true… what should I do?”

Did he have to sever those ties again? To erase those lingering emotions? To eliminate the cause? Again?

A cruel smile twisted his lips.

“Do I have to repeat that act?”

Even a god’s jokes had their limits.

He walked over to the window and looked up at the moon through the bars.

He wished it would rain. But the night sky was silent, indifferent.

He took off his shirt, revealing his muscular torso. It was a work of art, every line and curve a testament to his training. But there was a flaw, a blemish that marred its perfection.

A pale red scar, a long, vertical gash, ran down his left side, just below his ribs. It was a jarring sight, a reminder of a past he had tried to forget.

He had abandoned his humanity on the day he had received that scar. To become something more, something beyond human.

He traced the scar with his fingers, a permanent reminder of his sin.

His gaze, cold and empty, shifted to the moon.