The Return of the Disciple

The road back to the Black Heaven Cult, or rather, the demonic cult, was comfortable, unlike when I was running away.

If I showed even the slightest sign of exhaustion, the Heavenly Demon would stop and immediately prepare camp.

Thanks to that, the journey back took quite a while.

We mainly slept in the middle of the forest, and perhaps thanks to her Martial arts, we weren’t attacked by wild animals or anything like that. The same went for flying insects.

“Huhu, it’s quite romantic to grill meat like this.”

She made skewers with wild boar meat she had somehow obtained and smiled at me.

She hadn’t let go of my hand while walking from Sichuan to here, and even now, one of her hands firmly held mine.

Occasionally, she would stroke the back of my hand with her small thumb, and whenever she did, I felt a strange sensation and couldn’t help but avoid her gaze.

But she would laugh, saying she liked even that about me.

The Heavenly Demon didn’t care that I had no memories.

Based on my past experiences, I thought she would pry into the details of how it happened, but she showed absolutely no interest.

Her attitude was so cool that I even asked her why.

“Um, I don’t have any memories, but doesn’t that matter?”

“Memories? They’re not important. The memories we’ll build from now on are more important anyway. What’s gone is gone.”

I had nothing to say to her answer.

So, we repeated the cycle of walking, resting, and camping.

When we arrived near Henan, the Heavenly Demon declared that today would be our last camp.

She skillfully began to set up the campsite.

With a few waves of her hand in the air, the trees crashed down, and she roughly gathered them to create a decent place to sleep.

I’ve seen it several times, but it’s still an amazing ability.

“Why are you looking like that?”

As I stared intently, the Heavenly Demon, who was making the sleeping area, turned around and said.

“No, it just seems like you’re very used to it.”

“Of course, you may not remember, but we spent a lot of time outdoors like this.”

“Ah… I see.”

“You always resisted preparing the sleeping area, didn’t you? Every time, I would kick your butt.”

She chuckled as if it was funny.

But even after getting kicked like that, my butt was fine? A kick that could blow Namgoong Soyeon away in one go?

“Haha…”

I didn’t have anything to say, so I just laughed.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“I am. I’m a little hungry.”

In fact, my stomach had been rumbling fiercely for a while. I just couldn’t say anything because I was intimidated by her presence.

“Alright, we’ll be able to get some meat soon.”

“Um… I’m curious, but how do you get the meat? You haven’t been hunting separately.”

When I asked stupidly, she clapped her hands as if she had just realized something.

“Ah! You wouldn’t know. Actually, there’s one more person here right now.”

“One more person?”

I looked around, but it was just me and the Heavenly Demon in the clearing.

“Come out.”

As the Heavenly Demon spoke, a woman emerged from the Heavenly Demon’s shadow, wriggling.

“!!!”

I couldn’t even scream, and my mouth just gaped at this bizarre phenomenon.

“Let me introduce you. She’s a child I cherish in the Cult’s People. You can call her Youngma.”

“Greetings, Young Cult Leader. My name is Youngma.”

“Young Cult Leader?”

The woman surrounded in black bowed her head and greeted me.

“Since you are the Master’s disciple, aren’t you the Young Cult Leader?”

“Uh…?”

“Why are you like that? Of course, you’re the Young Cult Leader. It’s a title you need to get used to now.”

I gestured to the Heavenly Demon with my eyes, asking what this was all about, and she responded as if I was asking something obvious.

“……”

Suddenly being called the Young Cult Leader, I was dumbfounded.

It was a little uncomfortable to have a woman I had never seen before bowing to me in a submissive posture like that.

Come to think of it, her clothes were so tight that the curves of her body were revealed without any filtering.

“Youngma.”

As I was looking at Youngma, the Heavenly Demon suddenly called her name.

“Yes.”

Youngma, who had been bowing, stood up, and the Heavenly Demon swung her arm-

-Thud!

She blew Youngma away. The flying Youngma crashed into a tree, and even though the tree made a cracking sound and fell over, she didn’t even groan and returned to her place.

“I’m sorry.”

“Alright, it’s good that you know.”

“Wh, what just happened…”

I stammered, unable to follow the flow of the conversation, and the Heavenly Demon snorted and said.

“I was just scolding her for disturbing your gaze with her lewd attire.”

“That’s right, Young Cult Leader. I will be more careful about my attire in the future.”

What is this, a comedy skit?

“No, I didn’t really look at her with those eyes…”

“Hmph! I know that your gaze lingered on Youngma’s buttocks. How dare you try to deceive your Master?”

For the first time since we met, she yelled at me.

Her hair was flying around, and it seemed like she had raised her internal energy to shout.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Alright, since you admit your mistake, I’ll let it go.”

The Heavenly Demon set the meat skewered on a branch near the fire and sat next to me.

Was it because of the flames of the bonfire? I felt a sense of heat in her gaze as she looked at me.

“I’m not denying the inherent instincts of men. But, feeling those instincts for just any woman is something only beasts do. Do you understand?”

“Yes… yes.”

As if receiving a pledge from me, she gently stroked the back of my hand.

“You only need to look at me, only feel me, and only desire me. You don’t need any other woman. Do you understand?”

“Yes… yes?”

“Good that you understand.”

“No, wait a minute.”

“It’s noisy. Aaaah, I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you.”

Ignoring me while shaking her head, she approached Youngma and gave her some instructions, and Youngma bowed once and disappeared.

The next day. The Heavenly Demon woke me up earlier than usual.

“The road to the Cult’s People is quite rough, so we need to hurry.”

We left the campsite, where we had roughly put out the fire, and climbed the mountain.

As the Heavenly Demon said, the road to the Black Heaven Cult was very rough.

I didn’t like mountains in the first place, and being told to climb a poorly maintained mountain path was too cruel a punishment for me.

I collapsed in the middle, saying I was going to die, but she was more adamant than ever.

“Get up quickly. The more you sit down, the later we’ll arrive.”

“Yes, yes.”

I became bitter from the continued mountain climbing and slightly rebelled against the Heavenly Demon, but she only smiled at my rudeness and didn’t do anything else.

When we arrived at the point she called the halfway point, the sun had already set.

“The difficult part is over now.”

“You said that at the entrance of the mountain too.”

When I looked at the Heavenly Demon, who was saying one of the things you should never trust when climbing a mountain, with a bitter look, she replied that this time it was real.

Well, whether it’s real or fake, it doesn’t change anything.

“Inho.”

As we were walking along the path aimlessly, she called out to me.

I looked at where she was pointing without a word.

Along the towering cliff, I could see a wide forest spreading out.

The orange sunset illuminating the magnificent scenery of nature.

It felt as if the huge sunset was filling my body, and my heart swelled.

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

She had come to my side and taken my hand, and when she asked, I nodded.

“It’s a landscape that you and I held in our hearts.”

“Me and… Master?”

When I struggled to say the still awkward word ‘Master’, she stroked the back of my hand.

“Yes, it’s the landscape that you and I said we would see together someday.”

Her voice seemed choked up, and there was moisture in it.

“It’s a landscape that I have cultivated for a long time to show you.”

A tear flowed from her ruby-colored eyes. It flowed along her eyes, down her cheek, and gathered at the tip of her chin.

“I’ll ask you one more time. This landscape. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“It’s… beautiful.”

Her figure reflected in the sunset was so beautiful.

After watching the sunset, we climbed the mountain again.

I was worried that the night would come early in the mountains and it would get dark, but contrary to my worries, we arrived at the Black Heaven Cult quickly.

The sounds of bustling people, the sounds of instruments playing, the savory smell of oil.

The various noisy atmospheres enveloped me as soon as I opened the door of the Cult’s People.

“We greet the Supreme of the Black Heaven Cult, the Cult Leader!”

“Congratulations on your return, Young Cult Leader!!!”

An enormous number of people were bowing to the Heavenly Demon and me. I stepped back at the sight of the magnificent human wave.

“Straighten your shoulders and back. You are my disciple. I will not allow you to look unsightly anymore.”

The Heavenly Demon’s voice whispered in my ear. I straightened my posture at her stern voice.

“Yes, keep showing me that side of you.”

As if satisfied, she patted my shoulder a few times and stepped forward.

I followed her closely, and she raised her arm high into the sky and shouted.

“Play the music!!”