Chapter 75 - Song of Light and Shadow (1)

1.

“The Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven originally comprises nine sword forms.”

After watching my bout, the Heavenly Demon offered her assessment.

“The Flowing Sword of Death by Starvation you demonstrated is the first form. You know that, I trust.”

“Yes.”

“Following the Form of Death by Starvation comes the Form of Death by Thirst.”

Death by thirst.

“So, thirst.”

“Indeed. Child from beyond the borders, your demonstration of the Flowing Sword of Death by Starvation was quite decent. Devote yourself to your training, and you will become a fine member of the Demonic Cult...”

“Hold on.”

I raised my hand sharply.

“Please wait a moment.”

Sorry, but I couldn't help raising my hand. The person sitting cross-legged in front of me was trying to glide smoothly over the issue like a snake slipping over a wall. From where I stood, though, that wall was a little too high.

“... What is it?”

“What did you just say? [Quite decent]?”

The Heavenly Demon pressed her lips together.

“Huh, that's odd. I thought I did pretty well. But to you, Heavenly Demon, it was merely quite decent... Oh! Sorry. My pride and confidence are suddenly vanishing. You know, I can feel my spirits just collapsing.”

“You little...”

The corner of her mouth twitched.

“... Very well. I acknowledge it. You demonstrated the Flowing Sword of Death by Starvation skillfully. Just don't go swaggering about, claiming you've mastered the Divine Art of the Demonic Heaven.”

“Sorry? What was that? [Skillfully]?”

“Do you intend to mock me with word games?” the Heavenly Demon demanded.

“I suppose you won't be satisfied until I bow my head and perform the Rite of Nine Bows before you. You truly have no sense of moderation, child! You be the master, then! I'll be the disciple.”

Okay. I had a bite.

Like an angler, I acted perfectly casual.

“Oh, so you're saying you've accepted me as your disciple? Right? Not a disciple of the outer household, but the inner household. A genuine, bona fide chief disciple taught directly by you.”

“...”

Once again, the Heavenly Demon couldn't answer immediately.

One second. Two seconds.

Only after a brief pause did her lips slowly part.

“Enough of these digressions, child. I am about to bestow instruction upon you, so pay attention.”

Hmm.

'So that really is it.'

She had just forced herself to ignore what I said. That obstinacy came from stubbornness, and stubbornness came from her true feelings. I could tell where those feelings were holding her back.

'She won't say she'll take me as her disciple, even if it kills her.'

The bond between master and disciple.

In her heart, the Heavenly Demon had already chosen me as her disciple. Yet she steadfastly refused to say aloud, [I shall accept you as my disciple].

I often failed to appreciate it, busy as I was bickering with the Sword Emperor, but perhaps the bond between master and disciple carried that much weight for the Heavenly Demon—for the people of the martial world.

'A weighty bond... can sometimes become a frightening one.'

That was why this woman of the Demonic Cult would not declare us master and disciple.

She hesitated.

Over me. A child she had never met before, who wasn't even from the martial world of the Central Plains. Whether she should truly allow such a child—allow me—into her heart.

Whether she could embrace a little more hope in life.

So Baekhyang, the Heavenly Demon and leader of the Demonic Cult, was wavering, unable to decide.

“Listen carefully. If you can perform the Flowing Sword of Death by Starvation at that level, you are at least qualified to steal the teachings of our Cult by listening in. However...”

Outwardly, she could not have looked more impassive.

'Character window.'

But the inner thoughts visible to me told an entirely different story.

+

Name: So Baekhyang

Affinity: 51

Preferred Genres: [Martial Arts Fiction]

Disliked Genres: [Classics], [Myths], [History], [Fairy Tales]

Preferred Characters: [Common People], [Rivals]

Disliked Characters: [Oppressors], [Deceivers], [Idlers]

Preferred Plots: [Contests Fought with All One's Might]

Disliked Plots: [Escape], [Oblivion], [Meaningless Death]

Mental State: *'A disciple? Perhaps the time has come for me to decide... N-no. What a dreadful thought! I must be content with fighting that bastard Namgung Un. To take a disciple now, when my life has reached its twilight years, is excessive greed! The ugly greed of old age.'*

+

Yes.

I smiled inwardly.

'Please wrestle with it.'

The Heavenly Demon's indecision was a green light to me.

'Please waver even more.'

After all, I was the one who had placed this crossroads before her.

Would she continue the Great War Between Orthodox and Demonic Forces with the Murim Alliance Leader, without any hope? Or would she take a disciple and ensure that the doctrine of the Demonic Cult survived into the next generation?

Which path truly offered an escape from [Meaningless Death]?

'Please don't let go of life like this.'

Words were light.

Empty.

With light words, you could only take responsibility for someone equally light.

No, that was no different from taking no responsibility at all.

'Please live.'

What hollow words.

'Even if the world ends and you are left alone in Murim, I still want you to live. I want you to stay alive.'

Would piling on more words lend that plea any weight?

'I hope I can become a reason for you to live a little longer.'

Empty, empty words.

I did not say them aloud.

The Heavenly Demon's reason for not declaring our bond as master and disciple was probably the same as mine.

The lightness of words could only be pinned down by the weight of actions. Only then would they not fly away.

Neither she nor I had yet done enough to say the things we wanted to say.

「It is not yet time to decide.」

So the Heavenly Demon thought in her heart.

'I haven't persuaded her to decide yet.'

So I thought in mine.

“...”

“...”

The Heavenly Demon and I looked at each other.

“Child from beyond the borders, your eyes do not look attentive. Are you listening to me?”

“Yes.”

I was watching closely.

“Of course I'm paying attention. What do you mean?”

“You had better mean that, rather than be jesting.”

“Absolutely. I'll swear it to anyone you like, whether it's the Jade Emperor or the King of the Underworld.”

We exchanged glances. Unlike the touch of hands, gazes could overlap yet still miss one another. In that way, they were a little like people's hearts.

After our gazes had missed each other several times, the Heavenly Demon spoke.

“Very well. Seeing how confident you are, I suppose we can proceed directly to the next test.”

She rose, brushing off the snow, then abruptly headed off somewhere.

“Do not follow me. I must move quickly.”

That was all she said before leaving. She walked across the snowfield without leaving any footprints. Only her slender shadow slid over the ice. Treading Snow Without a Trace. She was showing me the technique I had heard mentioned on my first day in this world.

That was when the attendant spirit spoke out of the blue.

“I want to fight her.”

“Even one bout would do. I want to take her on. Seriously.”

I turned to him without thinking.

'Sorry?'

“Are your fucking ears rotting? I said I want to have a damn sparring match.”

And for the first time, I saw that expression on the attendant spirit's face.

“Damn. Goddamn it, damn!”

The Sword Emperor was genuinely frustrated.

“Do you know, Zombie? The Demonic Cult was weak as hell in the Murim world I was born in! Beating up its minions was about the only fun I had! There was some bastard who had the nerve to call himself the Heavenly Demon, but the moment I planted his asshole in a hole in the ground, he changed his nameplate to Earthly Demon! Fuck! I made hundreds of those shits strutting around as great heroes of the martial world change their surnames. Ah! Seriously!”

This was different.

It wasn't the face he had made when he lost our bet.

He had thrashed around in frustration then, too... But the expression he wore now—

“I'm so fucking jealous of the Murim Alliance Leader born in this world!”

—was far more intense.

“If it were me, huh? We'd have ourselves one duel to the death! I'd say, ‘Ah, shall we find out whether this death is yours or mine?’ and we'd settle it once and for all! Then we'd climb some snowy peak, have a bowl of cloudy rice wine, and munch on a piece of sweet-and-sour pork. Ahh! That's the true pleasure of looking down upon the martial world!”

Competitiveness. The hunger to win. Fighting spirit.

His face had become as raw and vivid as uncooked meat.

“Seriously! If only I weren't a ghost!”

“...”

I quietly shut my mouth.

Before I knew it, I was deep in thought. I lowered my head and propped my chin on my hand. My head was so full of thoughts that it needed the support.

“Huh? Zombie. Why are you making that zombie face again? Worried someone might forget to call you one? I've been calling this guy Shrimp instead of Zombie lately, and now he's sulking again. Hey, should I just call you Zom-shrimp?”

“... That's it.”

“Huh?”

“That's it!”

I snapped my head up.

“The shopkeeper develops a cure for the plague. I'm acknowledged as the Heavenly Demon's formal disciple. It's all good. All of it, but... I felt like that alone was missing something. A finale, maybe? But you just delivered the final shot.”

“Uh...”

“Nice play. Well done, Mr. Sword Emperor.”

I grinned.

For some reason, he backed away at the sight of me.

“What's wrong?”

“No... It's just... Every time you make that face, some horrible death comes crashing down on me. Or my luck turns bad, I guess? Something happens that drags my dignity and standing through the mud.”

“You have no idea how deeply I respect you, Mr. Sword Emperor. You know how I feel, right?”

“Thanks. Is this the part where I puke in your face?”

“Hmm.”

I clasped my hands behind my back and gazed at the distant sky.

“There's still an unpaid debt between us, isn't there?”

“...”

The attendant spirit flinched.

“... A debt? What debt? I've never owed anyone anything in my life. Hey, this bastard Gongja is trying to cast spells with his mouth again. Don't do that. Hey! You'll get hurt!”

“["Let's bet on how many times I'll die while clearing through the nineteenth floor."]”

“...”

“You bet I'd die a hundred times or fewer. I bet on ninety-nine or fewer.”

“No...”

“Right?”

My smile grew a little gentler.

“Nooo, that was ages ago...”

“Unless my memory is completely shot, that bet definitely ended with ninety-seven deaths.”

“...”

“And unless my arithmetic has gone to hell, ninety-seven is ninety-nine or fewer. Right?”

“...”

“Mr. Sword Emperor.”

“Why do you keep doing this to me...?”

“Do me a favor.”

The attendant spirit looked ready to cry.

“Fine, you bastard. Fuck me up or kill me, do whatever you want...”

It was complete surrender.

2

The Heavenly Demon returned.

She had crossed the snowfield alone on her way out, but not on her way back. She carried a zombie over her shoulder. Like the palm-blasting zombie, this one wore black martial robes.

“Our Cult has a unit called the Blood Demons, composed exclusively of elites. It is our finest combat unit, assembled solely from assassins. These children exist only to carry out my commands.”

In other words, this was my second sparring opponent.

I took up my stance with the holy sword.

“Last time it was a promising young talent, and now it's an assassin from a combat unit? The difficulty's shooting up.”

“Do not worry. I have brought someone suited to your level.”

She had probably truly sought out [an opponent perfectly suited to me]. Searching the snowfield. Examining hundreds of zombies one by one.

It was care that came from the heart.

Consideration that had taken real effort.

I gratefully accepted it as a form of praise.

“What you must demonstrate is no different from this morning. Fight the living-corpse soldier, but...”

“Only thirst may occupy my mind. Only the suffering of thirst.”

“Hmm.”

The Heavenly Demon smiled.

“Correct. I forbid any emotion or thought other than thirst from entering your mental imagery!”

“Sounds good!”

I charged forward boldly.

“I'll show you something this time, too...”

[You have died.]

[You will regress twenty-four hours into the past.]

“... That thing's fucking strong! Damn it!”

I had certainly shown her something.

The fastest high-speed death scene in the universe.

Oh, screw it.

“Apothecary, Medicine King. Please proceed with the zombie-virus cure research like this...”

“Oh my goodness! It's just like research I did! No, it's like you've dressed my research up beautifully and given it a noble title, it's so well organized. A-and it's all dressed in formal attire, as if it had become a count!”

“What's this? You little brat, Death King or whatever you're called, are you from Silicon Valley too? This looks exactly like the way I'd organize it...”

First, I updated the cure research results, just as I had every time before.

“Rebirth of a Hundred Ghosts!”

This time, too, I decided to shut myself away in the snowy mountains for secluded training.

I summoned Hungry Ghost and the skeletons and ordered them to gather deaths, just as before. This time, they were to find corpses that had died of thirst rather than hunger, but the order wasn't much different.

“Scatter. Scatter and bring back the corpses of those who died of thirst.”

“Yes, my liege. Your command shall be carried out.”

However...

“There's one more thing I need you to do.”

This was where things diverged from last time.

Hungry Ghost tilted her head.

“What task would that be...?”

“There should be living corpses that use martial arts scattered haphazardly around the area.”

I wasn't talking about the ‘forest of corpses’ I had witnessed as soon as I arrived in this world. For the past three years, the Heavenly Demon and the Murim Alliance Leader had waged their lonely Great War Between Orthodox and Demonic Forces, losing corpses one by one amid the fighting.

When blizzards raged for days without a break. When the nights grew long and daylight failed to come. At those times, the Demonic Cult and the orthodox factions had gradually lost troops as they went missing.

The living corpses I meant were those ‘missing persons.’

“Find them,” I said.

“Find members of the Demonic Cult in black martial robes. Find the martial heroes wearing white. Whether it takes a hundred li or three hundred, send out the skeletons and make sure you find them... No, make a map and mark every place where a living corpse is located.”

Hungry Ghost looked puzzled.

“What use do you intend to make of those lives once you save them, my liege...?”

“There are two people still waging war in this ruined world. They want a proper resolution, a proper ending. Unfortunately, to me, it looks like nothing more than a sad game of toy soldiers.”

I looked up at the night sky.

The moon was out.

“If they're determined to settle things, I ought to arrange a real war for them.”

“A real war, you say?”

“Yes.”

A smile came naturally to my lips.

I felt just like Santa preparing Christmas presents.

“I'm going to prepare a proper Great War Between Orthodox and Demonic Forces.”