Chapter 366: The Last Memory (5)
The disgraceful display(?) that the pre-regression Tang Sowol had shown was devastating to the current me in many ways, but even so, there was no doubt that it became a turning point.
Though she had respected and favored him as a comrade-in-arms, privately—and especially in the sense between a man and a woman—She had always kept a razor-sharp line. Yet now, she had begun to slowly reveal her true feelings.
No matter how much it was Cheon Hwi-da, he could not help but start becoming conscious of me.
The problem, however, was that whether it was because he had too many wounds from the past, or simply because it was his nature, Cheon Hwi-da was catastrophically dense.
“Hehe. Sword Demon. I tried on some new clothes—how do I look?”
“They fit your body perfectly, so they look easy to move in. Even so, the sleeves look a bit roomier than before...... Are you planning to increase the proportion of hidden weapons now?”
“Hm? Y-yes...... Well, since you, Sword Demon, will deal with enemies who get close, I suppose there is no need for me to cling so much to hand-to-hand techniques as I did when I had to handle everything alone.”
“A good choice. Do not worry. As long as I’m alive, there won’t be anyone who can reach the front of you with all four limbs intact.”
“Oh my.......”
She widened her eyes slightly, as if moved by his words. But soon she noticed something and tilted her head.
Even in a situation where supplies were lacking, she had somehow managed to make and wear new clothes, and they were even a little daring, showing off her figure more than usual.
And yet he did not react to that part at all.
Cheon Hwi-da lightly waved a hand and headed toward his training ground. Watching his retreating back, She clenched herfist and made a vow.
This was not bad in its own way, but next time, I would definitely get the answer I wanted.
Well. Things in this world never go however one wishes, which was why they were called the affairs of the world rather than my affairs.
Her efforts were admirable.
Subtly stroking his arm or shoulder, using the territory-marking poison she had applied in advance...... no, using other poisons that reacted to it to produce a pleasant scent and a faint excitement.
Aside from that, she deliberately showed myself walking side by side with Cheon Hwi-da in front of others, and used martial arts or battle as an excuse to meet him alone late into the night.
It was the utmost effort she, having learned about relationships between men and women only through books, could make.
Cheon Hwi-da did not notice a single bit of it.
Watching this, the current her jutted out my lower lip.
“I think this is not because I was lacking, but because Young Hero Cheon is the problem.”
“Sowol, dear Sowol.”
“What is it, Sister Hwarin?”
“Hyangi seduced him in a single blow.”
Her complexion darkened instantly.
“Ah! Why would you say something like that again, Sister Seo Mun?!”
“Hmph! But is it not true? You teased this lady well enough all this time, so next it is your turn!”
Seo Mun-Hwarin swayed her shoulders proudly, while Seol Lihyang shook her head and patted her on the back.
It was certainly a bloody era in which battle never ceased, and someone nearby kept dying without end.
And yet, even so, people could still carry someone else in their hearts.
That was likely how they managed to endure such difficult circumstances somehow.
Her attempts at seduction (though they were not really grand enough to call that) had produced no results at all.
Even so, from the day we shared our wounds with each other, Cheon Hwi-da had gradually begun to accept her little by little.
In any case, if one only looked at the result, the two of us were slowly, but surely, growing closer.
Even though Tang Sowol’s wagging tail had absolutely no effect!
That was also why Cheon Hwi-da considered the reason he had grown close to her something so natural and obvious.
Because it really had no effect at all, there had been no particularly notable moment......!
“Urgh! Why do I have to do nothing but watch such a painful scene?! I would rather have found out at the end like the others......!”
“Come on. Then it all comes rushing in at once and hurts even more, Sister Tang.”
“Hyang is right. It is better to get used to it little by little like this.”
“But the two of you are teasing me!”
At her words, Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin looked at each other. Then they nodded.
“But...... how can we hold back when Cheon Hwi-da likes swords, and you went around using a dagger for suicide like a hairpin?”
“And then when you returned to your room and dejectedly let down your tied hair, you accidentally pulled out the dagger and even cut some of your hair. Thankfully, not enough for it to show.”
Other than that, Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin continued listing all sorts of her failures from before regression.
Though her own efforts had not produced much result like this, the reason their relationship had still gradually progressed was simple.
Because Cheon Hwi-da had simply started to like her.
Her seduction had not worked, but even just staying by his side in order to attempt it had filled warmth into the heart that had once been empty.
The relationship between them, which had been narrowing little by little like that, suddenly grew much closer after one particular incident.
“The Poison Demon......”
Having actually been dragged away once and nearly died after having her Poison Spirit Constitution stolen, Tang Sowol ground her teeth.
And for good reason—before regression as well, the Poison Demon had targeted her for the exact same reason.
Was it because it was a point much further in the future? The Poison Demon from before regression, having completed a far more vicious poison, had been stronger than she remembered.
And the Central Plains Murim, already shattered from fighting the Heavenly Demon, no longer had the strength left to withstand the Poison Demon’s offensive.
In the end, before regression, Tang Sowol faced the Poison Demon in order to sever that long bitter karmic tie once and for all......
And Cheon Hwi-da forcibly held the line while simultaneously fighting the other Thousand Poison Gate martial artists who had come to aid the Poison Demon.
He even faced the Sword Demon as well, who had come hoping to profit from the chaos.
It was an age in which all those who upheld duty and honor had died, and survival had become the highest value.
Even as the battle clearly tilted toward defeat, and even as allies began fleeing one by one—
Cheon Hwi-da held his ground.
He protected Tang Sowol.
Cheon Hwi-da himself could not understand why he had made such a choice.
And no matter how mad he was, his thirst for revenge was not directed toward the Demonic Cult, was it?
But Cheon Hwi-da endured as though he were facing his mortal enemy.
In the end, if Tang Sowol, having defeated the Poison Demon and risen to the Flowering Stage, had not come to help, he would have died there, so uncompromising was the fight between life and death he had waged.
It happened while he was standing in a secluded place he often visited, staring at a single small camellia tree, trying to understand the feelings he himself did not understand.
That was when Tang Sowol came to that same place, which she also frequented...... Tang Sowol, who was now called the Poison Dance Empress.
They spoke for a while.
And then Cheon Hwi-da’s eyes widened as he realized why he had so naturally risked his life.
Watching this, the current Tang Sowol cheered.
“This is it!”
No, it did not stop at cheering. She jumped up and down and flailed both arms wildly.
It was the very image of someone unable to contain her excitement.
“That’s right! If he’s human! If there’s still a human heart left in Young Hero Cheon, then from a human standpoint, it’s about time he noticed!”
“Sister Tang likes this way too much...... Is she really okay......?”
“Leave her be and let her enjoy it.”
Seol Lihyang and Seo Mun-Hwarin shook their heads from a short distance away.
Just then, it was painfully obvious that they wanted to keep some distance from Tang Sowol.
Tang Sowol was so thrilled watching her own love story(?) succeed, but......
That excitement did not last very long.
Not because the Poison Dance Empress suddenly climbed right onto Cheon Hwi-da’s lap and smashed her lips against his.
No, Tang Sowol froze when she saw the thin strand stretching between their lips as they parted only after a long while. It was not just saliva.
It was the trace of a special poison meant to heal Cheon Hwi-da’s internal injuries.
“That is.......”
How could she not know?
If it was Tang Sowol, of all people, she could not fail to recognize it.
Love Poison.
A special poison she had created for Cheon Hwi-da, after he had deliberately fallen into deviation in order to defeat the Poison Demon.
It was a poison so great that even a Poison Spirit Constitution could not endure it, a poison made while risking the collapse of her entire body.
And it was a poison created solely for Cheon Hwi-da.
And now.
The poison the Poison Dance Empress had poured into Cheon Hwi-da’s mouth right before Tang Sowol’s eyes was precisely that Love Poison.
“Ah..”
The time periods were different.
The experiences they had gone through were different, their memories were not connected, and even the realms they had reached differed greatly.
But in the end, both the Tang Sowol from before regression and the Tang Sowol of now had reached the same conclusion.
She loved Cheon Hwi-da.
She had before, she did now, and she would in the future as well.
There were feelings that did not change, even if one died and was born again.
Tang Sowol stood there blankly, overlapping her past self with the scene before her eyes.
Then suddenly, right in front of her, the Poison Dance Empress poked Cheon Hwi-da in the chest with her index finger. Then she whispered,
“Sword Demon. You are addicted to me.”
Though Tang Sowol had improved after meeting Cheon Hwi-da, she had always lived with the shadow of her clan’s destruction and revenge lingering somewhere in her heart.
This was the first moment she wore a flawlessly clear smile without a single blemish.
Seeing Cheon Hwi-da’s expression as he stared blankly at the Poison Dance Empress, with the bright full moon shining behind her head, Tang Sowol realized it instinctively.
“Ah.”
Cheon Hwi-da would surely never forget this moment.
While Tang Sowol had forgotten it completely.
Of course, because of the mental restrictions, Cheon Hwi-da had spoken in a roundabout way, but he had definitely said that he liked the current Tang Sowol as well.
He had even said he had fallen for her once again.
It was not that Tang Sowol doubted that.
But.
“So that’s what it is.......?”
This memory now, in a world overflowing with all manner of negative things, the haven they had barely managed to find in each other while suffering from nightmares every single day—
It was not meant for the Tang Sowol of now.
Their memories were not connected.
Their ages were different.
There was a difference in the time they had built up together, and the strength they possessed was different as well.
Tang Sowol could not become the Poison Dance Empress.
No matter how similar she was to her, no matter how much she resembled her, she might never be able to reach the deepest part of Cheon Hwi-da.
That realization sent a small ripple through her heart.
And Tang Sowol knew all too well what name should be given to it.
A feeling she would not have known before, but had only realized after seeing the memories of Seol Lihyang and Cheon Hwi-da before regression.
Jealousy.
It was laughable, even to herself, but Tang Sowol was feeling jealous toward her own pre-regression self.
Was that why?
She focused on every single movement of the Poison Dance Empress with the intention of making Cheon Hwi-da do every bit of it to her later as well.
The sight of them exchanging light chatter, the sight of her secretly leaning her head on his shoulder, the sight of them still fighting together even after the gap in their martial prowess had widened.
And on a night when there was nowhere left to run, even when she shook her head at Cheon Hwi-da’s words telling her to give up revenge for her own sake.
Even the promise that one day, if she rebuilt the Tang Clan, they would watch the moon together, though both knew it was an empty promise.
Tang Sowol watched all of it.
And then she came to know.
Why Cheon Hwi-da hated the Heavenly Demon, and regarded the Demonic Cult as his mortal enemy.
“Ah.”
A hole opened in the Poison Dance Empress’s chest.
It was shaped like the full moon they had wanted so dearly to watch together.
Blood poured down from the hollow wound.
Cheon Hwi-da’s world collapsed.