On the Way to Anhui – 3

It’s hazy. A massive screen is before my eyes.

Light from a projector far away illuminates the screen, and images flash by rapidly.

-I see. Since there’s no dimension you desire, I’ll choose one for you.

Something pale with white wings speaks.

The screen changes.

-It seems some correction is needed. Sleep for a while.

I feel a prickling sensation on my neck, and someone whispers from afar.

The screen changes.

-Then I’ll have to come again. With Inho.

Someone sits next to me, smiling faintly, but their face is hard to see.

I floated in the darkness.

Flailing, I thrashed my arms and legs, but there was nothing to grasp.

Is this what it feels like to be an astronaut abandoned in space?

Suddenly, anxiety washes over me.

-Yes, you are Soyou’s.

Where am I?

What am I even doing?

How can I escape from here?

My flailing limbs grow heavier and heavier, refusing to move as I will them to.

My consciousness is awake, but my body is unable to move.

A sense of suffocation and terror, an indescribable emotion, assails me.

Save me. Get me out of here.

Did I just make a sound, or did I just think it?

I feel like I opened my mouth to speak, but there’s no sound reaching my ears.

I pour all my strength into my fingers.

Move, please…

Move!

My head is spinning. I want to get out of here quickly.

Please, get me out of here.

-Nim.

Get me out of here.

-Gang Gongja.

Please!

“Gang Gongja. Wake up.”

“Ah… a dream?”

Was I having a nightmare? My back was soaked with cold sweat.

I’m lying down, and someone is looking at me.

Who is it?

Information about her face slowly comes to me, and memories return like water gushing from an opened dam.

“Kind Soyeon was giving you a lap pillow~”

A monster with Namgoong Soyeon’s face is looking at me.

Having regained his senses, Inho stared blankly at the ceiling, still unable to distinguish between dream and reality.

Namgoong Soyeon, sensing that his gaze was strangely off, pushed her face closer to his.

“Don’t you feel good? With my lap pillow.”

At Namgoong Soyeon’s question, Inho was finally able to assess his situation.

Namgoong Soyeon, kneeling on the stone floor, possessed an elegance befitting a young lady from a prestigious family, but Inho had other thoughts.

‘Crazy bitch…’

He wasn’t foolish enough to voice his thoughts.

The crazed look on Namgoong Soyeon’s face as she strangled his neck with bloodshot eyes immediately came to mind.

He didn’t dare provoke her.

He intended to find a way out without upsetting her as much as possible.

The Heavenly Demon’s obsession was a somewhat controllable aspect.

It wasn’t just that he understood the Heavenly Demon’s feelings well, but at the very bottom of the Heavenly Demon’s obsession lay affection and concern for Inho.

That’s why they could communicate and discuss points of compromise.

But Inho knew at once that he wouldn’t be able to do that with Namgoong Soyeon.

Regardless of why she was obsessed with him, the basis of her obsession was delusion.

She had created a relationship between Inho and herself that didn’t exist,

and she perceived that she had heard a title she had never been called.

Namgoong Soyeon, who applied her delusions to reality, had become an entity that couldn’t be reasoned with, no matter how much one spoke.

Conversely, the more one tried to damage her delusions, the more she would be ‘corrected’ to act according to her delusions.

“G, good. A lap pillow.”

He smiled awkwardly, matching her mood.

Namgoong Soyeon gave the innocent smile she had shown during their trip to Sichuan and stroked Inho’s nose.

“I’ll do it for you often from now on. Now, get up. We have a long way to go.”

As Namgoong Soyeon grabbed Inho’s hand and pulled, he shot up like a fish caught on a hook.

The sudden rise made his head spin.

“Where are we going?”

Inho asked as he was dragged down the hallway by her hand.

“We have to go to Anhui. We decided to go to the Martial Arts Alliance.”

Namgoong Soyeon replied, as if wondering why he was asking something so obvious.

‘Ah, that’s right.’

He remembered that they had decided to go to the Martial Arts Alliance together around Sichuan.

Inho, trudging along and dragged by Namgoong Soyeon, came out of the Disciple’s Palace and widened his eyes at the sight of the collapsed Black Heaven Cult.

“Why is it like this here…”

“They were terrible people. I can’t believe they annihilated the Azure Dragon Unit. The Cult’s People rushed in, and the leader used poison. A very vicious group!”

The burning pavilions, the collapsed Heavenly Demon Palace and other buildings.

The gardens where Yeonhwa grabbed my sleeve and dragged me along.

All defiled.

“Ah…”

The entrance to the Black Heaven Cult. Numerous people were sprawled out.

Mostly those wearing the clothes of the Black Heaven Cult. Decayed and discolored skin, blood flowing from their eyes, noses, and mouths.

“What on earth happened…”

“It’s poison. Everyone became like this because of the poison used by the enemy leader. To use Poison Art knowing that his own Cult’s People would be caught up in it. He’s a truly cruel person.”

“Gang Gongja, don’t get too close. There might still be poison left.”

Namgoong Soyeon stopped Inho, who was trying to get close to the corpses.

Even with his hand held, Inho tried to head that way, but he couldn’t break free, like a dog on a leash.

“Hmm… I shouldn’t have shown Gongja something so unpleasant… I was thoughtless. Just a moment~”

Namgoong Soyeon, releasing his hand, waved her arm, and the corpses began to fly.

For some reason, the corpses flew and piled up in one place like a mountain.

Inho’s pupils shook violently each time the corpses gathered.

And as a very familiar figure flew in, he collapsed to the ground.

“That’s the enemy leader.”

A lump of meat with its head and body separated, as well as a large hole in its chest, flew in limply and was placed at the very top of the mountain of corpses.

Inho saw it clearly.

The face of Jegal Hwi, who couldn’t close his eyes as if he was resentful, and the face of Maehwa, who had half-melted, and the faces of the Cult’s People of the Black Heaven Cult who greeted him as they passed by.

“Uh… uh… no way…”

“Fire would be good to thoroughly clean up, right?”

As Namgoong Soyeon snapped her fingers, flames erupted at the bottom of the mountain of corpses.

The flames devoured the flesh and clothes of the Cult’s People and Azure Dragon Unit members, slowly spreading upwards.

Watching it become one giant pyre, Inho couldn’t hold back his tears and burst into tears.

“Noooo… Chief Manager… Maehwa…”

Sobbing, Inho slammed his fist on the stone floor.

Thump, thump, thump.

Blood flowed from his fist each time he slammed the stone floor with all his might.

“I’m sorry… I’m… sorry… because of me!”

A cry and cough that seemed to spew out his intestines. Namgoong Soyeon grabbed his hand, which was covered in tears and snot.

“How much heartache must he have suffered to cry like this…”

Namgoong Soyeon met his gaze and hugged him.

As a mother soothes her child, she patted his back.

“It’s okay now. I’ve taken care of all the bad things. Rest assured.”

Namgoong Soyeon, facing him, smiled faintly and brought her hands to either side of Inho’s face.

-Squeeze

Namgoong Soyeon, holding Inho’s head firmly, used both thumbs to lift the corners of his mouth upwards.

“It’s a happy day. Smile.”

A forced smile.

His tears continued to fall, but his mouth continued to smile.

Until the mountain of corpses was all ashes, he cried and laughed.

“Okay, happy smile~”

Seemingly pleased with the sight, Namgoong Soyeon giggled.