Chapter 364: The Final Memory (3)
Cheon Hwi had pushed himself too hard in battle and fallen into danger. And the one who joined the fight to save him was someone I had never expected.
Her hair had turned white far beyond what suited her age, and her long bangs covered one eye. The sorrowful smile hanging at her lips suggested a past she had never spoken of.
A deep green gleam flickered in her one visible eye. Her green martial robes had grown filthy, but had not lost their color.
Because of the mental restrictions, it was impossible to make out her face clearly. And much about her had changed.
But even so, there were traits that could not be mistaken. And with her voice now coming through clearly, I realized it. I truly realized it.
That woman was none other than Tang Sowol herself.
And I also came to think that the people I had seen in the earlier memories were probably Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin.
“S-Sister Hwarin was the undergarment thief?!”
“Is that what matters right now?!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin sprang up with her face burning red.
But from Tang Sowol’s point of view, that reaction was only natural.
I did not know exactly how this had happened, but if that woman was another version of herself, then Seol Lihyang, who had practically dropped by every day carrying a pear in hand, and even when she could not get a pear had still slyly clung to me and spent all sorts of intimate moments with me at every opportunity—honestly, now that I thought of her as someone I knew, it felt strangely embarrassing, but I could still understand it.
...Though I still could not believe a person could react that intensely! Still, it was within the realm of understanding.
But for someone who had even reached the Flowering Stage to steal the undergarments of a man who was practically her disciple? And while knowing what kind of relationship he had with another girl who was also like her disciple?
“This really makes no sense to me.”
“Gyaaaak!”
“It is a little difficult to say aloud, but... is that not far too disgraceful?”
“Guaaak!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin clutched her head and let out a bizarre shriek.
For a moment, as she crouched down and trembled, Tang Sowol almost felt herself softening toward her.
But then the Cheon Hwi and Tang Sowol inside the memory began launching a counterattack against the Demonic Cult. Compared to how he had fought alone before, the tide of battle was clearly better.
As Tang Sowol watched that sight, her expression went blank for an instant.
“That is.......”
It was not surprising to see the Ten Thousand Returns Poison Divine Art being used. If it was another version of herself, then of course she would have learned it. But the level was anything but ordinary.
The Tang Sowol of the present was a mature Sub-Perfection master. That meant that while she had not reached the ultimate mysteries of the Ten Thousand Returns Poison Divine Art, she was not someone who would be called lacking anywhere.
But the self before her eyes, though also a Sub-Perfection master, was showing skill on a level that could not even be compared.
Though her fighting style and killing intent were excessively vicious, her understanding of poison woven naturally into everything she did far surpassed Tang Sowol as she was now.
It was to the point that it would not have been strange for her to ascend to the Flowering Stage at any time.
Well. There were plenty of martial artists who remained at such a stage for life, but the point was that this Tang Sowol was such a perfect superior version that even the present Tang Sowol could only widen her eyes.
And it was not only the mastery of the Ten Thousand Returns Poison Divine Art that was astonishing.
The Tang Sowol in the memory hardly used hidden weapons at all, instead mixing poison arts with hand-to-hand techniques, and the level of those hand-to-hand techniques was no joke.
The footwork she used to widen the distance closed the gap in an instant and made certain her opponent was poisoned, and the technique that scattered poison and hidden weapons from inside her sleeves went beyond seeming like a dance and touched upon the mysteries of illusion and transformation.
To the Tang Sowol of the present, it was movement that could only leave her mouth hanging open.
At the same time, she felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Watching carefully, Tang Sowol realized something and her eyes widened.
“Ah.”
The martial arts of her other self. They were definitely the Tang Family’s martial arts. Only, they had become somewhat more refined than they were now.
But they were excessively vicious. Whatever else one said, the Tang Family belonged to the Orthodox Sect.
Yet what was unfolding before her eyes carried far too much killing intent. If she had to put it into words, it was unorthodox. No, more precisely, it was closer to the nature of his Raging Wave Death-Stealing Art, which was said to be rare even among the unorthodox.
In the past, she might have thought he had learned the sword from some insane hidden master, but now Tang Sowol knew.
His sword had been forged by stealing from this and that, refining what he learned with inborn talent and real combat on the edge of death.
If so, then there was a good chance that her white-haired self had walked the same road.
Overwhelming real combat. And those sticky emotions that stained the heart black.
That was what had raised Tang Sowol as a martial artist to a higher realm. Whether it was the right path or not was another matter.
“Still, this is a little strange. In a case like this, it would be better to use other poisons instead... and most of the poisons she is using now are only ordinary ones. Huh?”
At that moment, a sense of incongruity flashed through Tang Sowol’s mind.
Looking more closely, her martial skill itself was clearly superior, but the poisons she handled were somewhat underwhelming.
For Tang Sowol, born with the Poison Spirit Constitution, making a poison she had encountered even once was not especially difficult.
But if she was only mixing such basic poisons here and there, or using them in a slightly more condensed form... that meant she had not had the opportunity to absorb many different poisons.
Only then did the pieces begin fitting together in Tang Sowol’s mind. That excessively vicious manner, poisons that did not match her poison arts, and the attitude that made it seem as though she was seeing Cheon Hwi directly for the first time.
“So that is how it is.”
She still did not know exactly how it had come to be, but Cheon Hwi remembered a world where the murim of the Central Plains—and the Tang Family—had been destroyed by Heavenly Demon.
Now that the two of them were fighting together instead of alone, perhaps he could breathe a little easier, because somehow he succeeded in escaping.
Looking at the backs of the two as they fled, Tang Sowol spoke.
“Lihyang. You were the first to realize it, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“I understood what was plainly visible right away, but I do not know the rest very well. If you have an idea, could you tell me?”
“Of course I should. We already agreed we would tell everything once this was over.”
Nodding, Seol Lihyang cautiously watched Tang Sowol’s expression and began to speak.
“At first, we guessed it was a previous life, right? It is similar. But rather than being something from the past, it is a past that will never happen now. Or is it a future?”
“A thing that will never happen now....…”
“Regression.”
The truth Cheon Hwi had been unable to speak because of the mental restrictions. And the truth Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin had also been unable to say first, for one reason or another.
“Sister Seo Mun and I think Cheon Hwi turned back time once and returned to his childhood.”
“Then.......”
“Yes. This is the world from before Cheon Hwi’s regression that he remembers. To put it a little more simply.”
Seol Lihyang paused for a moment, then let out a small laugh.
“It is a world where Cheon Hwi did not kidnap Sister Tang.”
“Ah.”
She understood perfectly.
***
There was not much to say about what happened after he escaped safely.
This time too, the people around him cheered at his return alive, and yet they also sank into gloom because they were barely surviving and believed there was no way to win.
And every time we gave up another region, one sect or clan after another that had ruled as the hegemon there was exterminated.
The survivors of those exterminated sects joined the Orthodox and Unorthodox Alliance, but far more people were dying than were being added.
It was a typical flow in which we were somehow enduring, but defeat was already certain.
Naturally, nothing happened between him, who was already broken and swinging my sword, and Tang Sowol, whose eyes were blinded by revenge.
The two of us merely helped one another as comrades and thought about how we could kill even one more member of the Demonic Cult.
After all, unlike Seol Lihyang from the past, who had actively tried to seduce him, or Seo Mun-Hwarin, who had run wild in a somewhat gloomy direction but had clearly shown that she cherished him, the Tang Sowol from before his regression had astonishingly had nothing happen at all with him.
Tang Sowol could not accept that.
“T-this cannot be right!”
Tang Sowol stuck out her lips and openly showed her dissatisfaction.
Her gaze ran up and down her other self, who looked more mature than now, but whose hair had turned white and who lived with half her face always covered.
Then her eyes fixed on the woman’s backside. After staring carefully, she tilted her head.
“Of course, compared to grown-up Lihyang, there are some parts where she is a little lacking....…”
This time she lifted her gaze toward the chest, then nodded in satisfaction.
“But there are other parts where she is better.”
“Sister Tang. Did the person you compare her to really have to be me......??”
“As for Sister Hwarin, well... you know.”
“I do not know? This lady has no idea what you are talking about! And this lady is growing too, even if slowly!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin bounced in place as she protested, but Tang Sowol skillfully ignored her and continued.
“It must be because of revenge, right? There would have been no room for anyone else to enter.......”
“Mmm. Now that I hear that, white-haired Sister Tang really does seem to have her interest focused solely on revenge.”
“Hehe. The Tang Family’s motto is to repay grace twofold and resentment tenfold.”
“I shall not forget today’s grudge!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin glared at the other two with wide eyes and tightly pressed lips, an expression that in her own mind was vicious, though to anyone else it only looked like cute sulking.
Naturally, once again no one paid her any attention.
Instead, Seol Lihyang only pointed out the strangeness she had felt from the conversation in a serious voice.
“It really is strange. Ah, I do not mean that it is strange for him not to fall for Sister Tang, but the memories we are seeing are not trivial things—they are important enough to affect Cheon Hwi’s heartscape, right? It is impossible for nothing at all to happen like this.”
“Phew. I can accept that Brother Cheon might show no interest in me as I am now, but for me to have no interest in Brother Cheon? He is a little sharper and more ruined-looking, but in his own way, this version also... ahem.”
“...”
Tang Sowol and Seol Lihyang looked at each other and blinked rapidly, both wearing puzzled expressions.
The parts where they felt the incongruity were different, but in any case the two of them agreed that something was strange.
“In other words, that means something is going to happen from now on.”
“And in the end, it will conclude with my death. It has been that way for you and Sister Hwarin too.”
Tang Sowol and Seol Lihyang nodded to each other as if they were already used to this much.
But Seo Mun-Hwarin seemed to think somewhat differently.
The Cheon Hwi and Tang Sowol from before the regression continued fighting the Demonic Cult together as usual that day.
By now their coordination had become quite good, so when he took the lead and swung his sword, Tang Sowol scattered poison from behind him.
No matter how one looked at it, they were simply comrades. There was not even the slightest sign of softer feelings passing between them.
“I think that alone is a little lacking, though.”
While Seo Mun-Hwarin watched with a puzzled expression, it happened when they opened a small drinking gathering, apparently because they had won again, both to celebrate and to console the dead.
“Sworrrd Demon... you’re usually fine, but looking at you like this, you’re kind of ugly. Hihihing...”
“Are you drunk??”
Tang Sowol suddenly crawled over and started tugging at my cheeks.
It was the beginning of drunken behavior that Tang Sowol herself did not even know she had.