Before the regression. The night before the final battle with the Heavenly Demon. It was the night Tang So-wol invited me to her room.
Just as she had let her long hair fall to cover half her face, Tang So-wol pulled the thick blanket up to her chin, hiding her bare body, and stared at me intently.
In the dim room, her deep green eyes gleamed with an unmistakable light. It was hard to believe such a blatant gaze could come from just one eye.
And since she was lying right next to me, close enough to touch, even I couldn't help but feel unsettled.
"…Why are you looking at me like that?"
"It's nothing. I was just etching the Sword Demon into my eyes."
"And yet you're the one wrapped up tight in that blanket? That's just unfair."
I shrugged my shoulders, but Tang So-wol simply kept staring at me with a serious expression.
Normally, she would have let out a small laugh at my joke, or at the very least, shot back with a look of disbelief.
Feeling something off, I turned not just my head but my entire body to face her. And then.
Swoosh.
I reached out and cupped half of Tang So-wol's face. Her skin, half melted as if she had suffered a burn.
She herself was ashamed of it, calling it an ugly part of herself, but to me, it felt like a special scar.
After all, it was a place she showed no one else and allowed no one else to touch. Thinking of it as a place permitted only to me, no matter how terrible the scar, it never seemed unsightly.
Tang So-wol quietly entrusted her face to my hand. Only then did her expression soften, her deep green eyes curving like crescent moons.
"Sword Demon."
"Hm?"
"Will you promise me one thing?"
"What is it?"
Tang So-wol placed her own hand over mine, which was cradling her cheek, and gave a faint smile.
As if she would never let go. Or as if she were begging me not to fall away.
"Please never die before I do."
"…Why would you suddenly say something so ominous?"
When dawn breaks, the Heavenly Demon will arrive here. There is nowhere left to retreat, and Tang So-wol has no intention of running.
If that is so, all that remains for us is certain defeat.
Both I and Tang So-wol know this all too well. And yet, knowing it, we throw ourselves toward the jaws of death.
Tang So-wol could not bring herself to forget the vengeance of the Clan Extermination, and I could not send her alone into that deadly peril.
I do not even hope to bring down the Heavenly Demon. That would not be a possible feat anyway.
I only pray that heaven's fortune touches us, and that I and Tang So-wol can survive.
If we could return to the old grounds of the Tang Clan as promised, that would be even better.
Of course, Tang So-wol must know this as well. That is why it was hard to guess why she would bring up such words at a moment like this.
Tang So-wol gave me a soft smile as I looked at her in puzzlement.
"Heh heh. Don't look at me with such eyes. You know it well too, Sword Demon. Someone might die… and perhaps the two of us might be buried in this land together."
"What do you say we run away, even now? The North Sea would be fine, or we could board a ship and sail far away. Even if we can't speak the language, with our strength we could live well even in the Western Regions."
"Yes. That's right. A journey with you, Sword Demon, would surely be enjoyable. We'd share unfamiliar meals, walk endlessly along paths that aren't there, and sometimes lie on the bare earth with dirt as our bed, gazing up at the sky. And if we met good people in a good place along the way, settling down wouldn't be so bad either."
"Then…"
"But we both know that's not possible, don't we?"
"…"
That's right.
As I said a moment ago, we all know exactly what it means to wait for the Heavenly Demon here in this place.
And knowing that, we chose to do it anyway. If we were going to change our minds now, we wouldn't have held out in Hebei Province this long in the first place.
And yet, the reason Tang So-wol said such a thing was…
"It's simply because I lack the resolve to witness your final moments, or the courage to live in a world without you, should you somehow survive."
"Heh."
"Sword Demon. The day your breath ceases could very well be the day my heart stops beating. …Well? Was that a bit better just now?"
"If you'd left out that last part, it would have been a rather impressive speech."
"Oh my. You could have just honestly praised me."
Tang So-wol tilted her chin up with a triumphant air. Her playful posturing drew an involuntary chuckle from me.
But. But still.
The same goes for me, Tang So-wol.
Though shame kept me from voicing it aloud, how could the feelings I hold for you ever fall short of those you hold for me?
I, too, have no idea how I would live a life without you in it.
Yes. To borrow the words I spoke just now—your breath is my breath, and your heart is my heart.
Life has always been precious, but now, only the time spent with you has become truly sacred.
No matter how dark and difficult the times may be, it matters not. So long as I can be dyed in the same color as you, that is enough.
However, it seemed that alone was not enough for Tang So-wol.
"…But what I said about not dying before me, that was sincere. If the worst should come to pass, I hope that even you, Sword Demon, will survive."
"What?"
"Ah, of course, I can't bring myself to say you should go and be happy alone. It's fine if you meet another woman, it's fine if you live a new life… but if you would not forget me, and think of me from time to time and grieve, that would be enough."
"I can't tell if you're being spiteful or pretending to be merciful."
"Naturally, it's spite."
With a smile utterly free of any distortion, Tang So-wol continued.
"I hope that you, who were swept up in my reckless revenge, will return alive, and I hope your remaining years are happy… but this is the mischievous spite of a woman who wishes to live on, breathing, in your heart for as long as it beats."
"…"
"But Sword Demon—no, Cheon Hwi. Even someone like me, you would cherish, wouldn't you?"
Tang So-wol said this in a playful tone. Yet an unmistakable, faint tremor ran through her fingertips.
I let out a short sigh and pressed my lips to hers.
A brief kiss. The teasing that followed was a bonus.
"I'm not the type to listen to others, so I can't give you a definite answer. Wasn't the promise to rebuild the Tang Clan the first thing on the table anyway?"
"Oh my. Now that you mention it, Sword Demon, you really are someone who twists things in the most predictable way."
Tang So-wol chuckled softly and nodded.
"Then I have a different request. Please forget everything I just said. Remember only the promise."
"I'll think about it."
The curt reply only made Tang So-wol's laughter grow warmer.
…To be honest, I hadn't kept a single promise I made to Tang So-wol.
We hadn't returned to the Tang Clan alive together, I hadn't kept my word not to die before her, and I hadn't granted her request to forget the fragile words she had spoken.
The way I kept seeing her as she was before the regression whenever I looked at her.
That was why I had made her, who had approached me with courage, step back on her own.
***
Seol Ri-hyang burst out laughing at the sight of me sprawled out, completely merged with the blanket.
Still, seeing me remain listless even while she teased me, she asked in a slightly worried voice.
"So? Why are you so deflated like this? You don't seem to be sick or anything."
"…Something just happened."
After Tang So-wol had come to me in the middle of the night and then left just like that.
I couldn't explain the situation because of the seal, and I couldn't just throw away the memories already etched into me, so only a boundless gloom kept rising up.
"How strange. Of all people, you, Cheon Hwi, being this heartbroken."
"I'm a person too, you know. A person."
I'm not afraid of simply meeting a powerful enemy or facing a hopeless situation.
But being hated by Tang So-wol—or by Seol Ri-hyang or Seomun Hwa-rin—is a different story.
"Come on, Sister Tang isn't going to start hating you, Cheon Hwi, just because of that. She'll be fine in no time, literally."
"I suppose so. But even so, I can't help but worry about it."
"Hmm. Is that so."
"That's how it is."
I said this to Seol Ri-hyang, but in truth, the matter is a bit more complicated.
It's not just that yesterday's Tang So-wol was disappointed in me—memories from before the regression keep surfacing and stabbing at my chest, and as long as the seal remains, things like this will keep happening again and again.
It's a matter of many circumstances all tangled together.
Of course, from Seol Ri-hyang's perspective, who doesn't know all that, it would have sounded a bit different.
"Ugh. Here I thought Sister Tang finally made up her mind, and who goes and has second thoughts? Hey. Cheon Hwi. Be honest. Who were you thinking about? Me? Or Sister Hwa-rin?"
"…Hmph. It's a secret."
"Hmm. If it's a secret, then I suppose an interrogation is in order?"
Seol Ri-hyang curled up the corners of her lips into a sly grin and plopped herself down onto the back of the prostrate me, settling her weight squarely on my back.
"Ugh, hey."
The warmth and weight felt through my spine. The unmistakable sensation of a whole person perched on top of me.
But a body trained as mine was hardly weighed down by something like this.
Did she know that well? Seol Ri-hyang went beyond simply sitting on top of me—she began gently shifting her waist, pressing down on me with her bottom, push after push.
"Even now? Hm? Still not going to say it?"
"…Kuh."
It was Seol Ri-hyang, overflowing with Yin Energy due to her Constitution. And now that she was of age, her growth had all but finished.
Which meant her body could not help but emphasize her femininity.
A larger area than I'd expected. And before I could even process the softness beyond anything I'd imagined—
Seol Ri-hyang opened her mouth, still perched on top of me in that same position.
"Ah, right. I came here to tell you something, but I've been spacing out this whole time."
"Hm? Something happen?"
"What was it again…"
Seol Ri-hyang shifted her position as she pondered for a moment. Now lying sprawled on top of me as if stacked, she continued speaking close to my ear.
"Remembered! I heard the Murim Alliance and the Black Alliance decided to reconcile over this incident. They're going to meet up, so I told them you should come along too, Cheon Hwi!"
"What."
This was what I'd been aiming for, true. I'd wanted to show that if the orthodox forces joined hands, even the Green Forest subjugation—previously thought impossible—could succeed.
But I hadn't expected a meeting to be arranged this quickly.
No, perhaps it's because of the Heavenly Demon's existence.
If this were simply a matter of the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects setting aside their past grudges and starting over, I would have approached it more cautiously.
Though it was from Seomun Hwa-rin's generation, the Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects had been fighting quite fiercely up until then.
Those who still carried those memories were alive and well, and for the most part held high positions in their respective martial houses, so caution was only natural.
But thanks to the information I'd been diligently leaking through both direct and indirect channels, the Murim Alliance had been steadily keeping watch on the Demonic Cult and gathering intelligence.
And in the Black Alliance, the Heavenly Demon himself had even paid a personal visit.
Feeling the sense of crisis, it would be more reasonable to see this as an attempt to join hands first so that no internal fighting would break out.
It wasn't the full-scale cooperative relationship I'd envisioned—the main purpose was likely a sort of non-aggression pact.
Of course, even this alone was an earlier achievement than expected. It was also true that I was needed in the middle of it.
"There's no choice. If that's the case, then it has to happen."
With Seol Ri-hyang on my back, I rose from my seat.
I'd expected her to naturally fall off, but Seol Ri-hyang adjusted her posture and clung on to the very end.
"…"
"Hm?"
Seol Ri-hyang, pressed against my back like a cicada, let out a puzzled voice. I gave her a small smirk and spoke.
"But where should we go? Since it seems you heard it from my father-in-law, I suppose we should head to the office first…"
"No. Let's go to Tang unni first. I heard it from her too, and she told me to come get you. Well, I suppose we'll head to the clan head's place from there anyway."
Seol Ri-hyang shrugged nonchalantly. But I couldn't bring myself to do the same.
Thud.
I collapsed back onto the bed, lifeless, and muttered blankly.
"…I don't feel like doing anything."
"You don't seem to be doing anything anyway."
But that only made me feel even less like doing anything.
No, how am I supposed to even start a conversation with her after the way we parted yesterday?
"Just beg her sincerely and fall flat on your back — I think Sister Tang will pretend she can't win and let it slide."
"Is that how it works?"
"Don't you think so?"
Seol Ri-hyang and I tilted our heads at each other in turn.
With no better plan in sight, I decided to follow her advice for now.
***
Creak, thud!
I flung the door open with gusto and shouted.
"Tang So-wol!"
"Hm? So the son-in-law has arrived. Have a seat first."
"…Yes."
And I sat down quietly.
I hadn't expected Tang Jincheon to be here too…