"Kyaaah!"
Seol Ri-hyang, the weakest among us, let out a roar. With no sight to speak of, there was no one who could stop her.
"Come here!"
"I'm already here…"
As if spreading her golden-thread technique across her entire body, Seol Ri-hyang wrapped my limbs with her own, and not content with that, bit wildly at my neck.
A true apex predator, if ever there was one. The weakest, though.
After returning to the Beast Palace. From our perspective, given everything that had happened with the demonic being, it felt like we had come back from hard work.
Most people would just assume we'd gone out to enjoy the moonlight and fool around.
We'd even told the gatekeeper exactly that on our way out.
It wasn't as if we were going to shout from the rooftops that we were hunting a demonic being, and we hadn't killed it in the end, had we? All things considered, it had been the right call.
…Except for one thing. We hadn't made it back before Seol Ri-hyang woke up.
Seol Ri-hyang, apparently satisfied that she'd left enough bite marks on my neck, nodded contentedly and turned her gaze to find her next prey.
Whoosh!
Seomun Hwa-rin turned her head the moment our eyes met, but it was already too late.
"Sister Seomun, get over here too!"
"W-wait, stop! I can explain everything! Just listen to me for a moment—… When did you get this fast?!"
Seomun Hwa-rin was stunned by Seol Ri-hyang's technique, which had subdued her limbs in an instant as if she were an octopus.
Of course, if either I or Seomun Hwa-rin wanted to resist, we could have done so easily.
But if we did, Seol Ri-hyang would genuinely get upset, so we just let her have her way. It was the usual rigged game we always played.
…Still, her movements really are something else.
Seol Ri-hyang's main strengths were the Yin Art and Ice Arts, but I knew well that she also used whip techniques or fist and palm techniques when the situation called for it.
That was why she had sparred more often with Seomun Hwa-rin than with me… Her talent for the Yin Art was so absurd that it overshadowed everything else, but she seemed quite talented at fist and palm techniques as well.
Anyway, after leaving her mark on Seomun Hwa-rin as well, Seol Ri-hyang finally released the limbs she had been restraining.
"Ugh… I'm all soaked…"
Seol Ri-hyang left Seomun Hwa-rin sprawled on the floor, covered in drool, and headed to where Tang So-wol was.
Receiving her gaze, Tang So-wol spread both arms wide and closed her eyes, as if she had made up her mind about something. And then.
"Hmph."
With a snort that somehow sounded deflated, Seol Ri-hyang sat down, leaning her back against Tang So-wol.
"Uh… Hyang-a?"
"Sister Tang gets a pass."
Tang So-wol, who had reflexively wrapped her arms around Seol Ri-hyang from behind in an embrace, could only blink her eyes as Seol Ri-hyang slowly tilted her head up to look at her.
"There was some reason, wasn't there? A reason you couldn't take me with you."
"Mhm. That's right. I'm sorry about this whole affair, but it truly is a misunderstanding…"
"I'll believe you."
"Huh?"
"If Sister Tang says so, then I should believe it."
Seol Ri-hyang shrugged her shoulders in a demure manner, as if she had never bitten anyone like a wild beast.
Her attitude was so different from how she treated me or Seomun Hwa-rin that I was momentarily at a loss for words, but before long, the frustration welling up inside me forced my mouth open.
"Hold on. Is Tang So-wol the only one who gets treated this well?"
"Aw, come on. Isn't that only natural?"
Seol Ri-hyang, her head buried deep in Tang So-wol's chest, tilted her chin up.
"Cheon Hwi. You like me."
"…?"
"Even if you hadn't heard my 'circumstances' and I bit you anyway, you'd still like me. No, maybe you'd even like it more when I bite. Same goes for me."
"Don't emphasize the weird parts…"
A declaration bold in more ways than one. Yet seeing Seol Ri-hyang's eyes filled with certainty, it was clear this wasn't just something she said for the sake of saying it.
She looked as if she had seen proof with her own eyes, without a single hint of wavering.
I could roughly guess which memory she had seen from the past the spirit had shown her, but… just how far had she seen?
No, wait—had only Seol Ri-hyang seen it? Or had the others seen it too?
I could only let out a deep sigh inwardly for a moment. Then, Seol Ri-hyang extended her finger toward Seomun Hwa-rin.
"And Sister Seomun."
"Wh-What is it?"
"Sister Seomun just bit it. It was soft and squishy, so it felt nice."
"…!"
Whether Seomun Hwa-rin, treated like a plaything(?), collapsed from the shock or not, Seol Ri-hyang looked up at Tang So-wol and continued speaking.
"And since Sister Tang has always been good to me, I'll let it slide this time."
"Hyang-a…!"
"Besides, I need to stay on Sister Tang's good side if I want to become the second wife. The first wife and third wife aren't separated by numbers—they're separated by who's last and who isn't, right?"
"…Hyang-a?"
Tang So-wol had thought it was a heartwarming reason, only to realize it was the result of cold, calculating self-interest. It was her turn to freeze.
Seol Ri-hyang, who had subdued all three people in the room in an instant, let out a small laugh and poked my thigh with the tip of her foot.
"Anyway, that's settled. Now explain what this 'circumstance' of yours is."
"I keep telling you to stop emphasizing the weird parts…"
I shook my head and opened my mouth. From the moment I decided to seek out the Demonic Cult's leader, to the moment I decided to let him live, I explained everything in detail without missing a single thing.
Seol Ri-hyang, who had been listening to my story in silence, thought for a moment before breaking into a gentle smile.
"You did well."
"Hm?"
"I said, you did well."
"But…"
"Isn't it better to save a life than to take one? Besides, you said the Demonic Cult's leader has turned over a new leaf. You even cut away all the incomplete Corpse Puppetry Arts he planted just in case, which even he couldn't undo. …But how did you manage that?"
Seol Ri-hyang tilted her head, unable to understand even her own words. Seeing that she genuinely thought I had done well, I felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from my heart.
I must have been anxious, without realizing it, about whether my choice had been right.
Well, it made sense. Until now, I had never shown mercy to the Demonic Cult… no, to those who stood against me.
Most of them deserved to die, and even if I had shown them mercy, they would have ended up facing me as enemies again.
But not all of them were like that.
The ones that came to mind immediately were Sama Su-ryeon and the Azure-White Flood Dragon.
Sama Su-ryeon had tried to kill me and Tang So-wol on the orders of the Demonic Cult, but she had harbored doubt and guilt about what she was doing.
Perhaps a different ending could have been possible. Helping Sama Su-ryeon and Sama Yuryeon clean up the Sama Clan, for instance.
Or even sending her to the Lord of the Black Alliance, so that the Sama Clan could be toppled by the power of the Black Alliance rather than the Demonic Cult.
The Azure-White Flood Dragon was the same. The reason it and the North Sea Ice Palace had fought was that their territories overlapped, and there was an old grudge between them.
The North Sea Ice Palace had found it difficult to train their martial arts because the Azure-White Flood Dragon and its offspring were absorbing Natural Qi indiscriminately, draining the surrounding cold energy.
As for the Azure-White Flood Dragon—in the distant past, it had lost its parents along with its home to the founder of the North Sea Ice Palace, and it had been living quietly in a remote corner when even that was invaded by the people of the North Sea Ice Palace.
That was a reason for the Azure-White Flood Dragon and the North Sea Ice Palace to fight, but not a reason for me to fight.
Yet I had decided to wipe out the Azure-White Flood Dragon and its offspring all too easily, just to build a favorable relationship with the North Sea Ice Palace.
There was no particular reason. Even if they were Spirit Beasts, in the end, they were just beasts that couldn't speak.
If it came down to a fight between humans and beasts, of course one should side with the humans who could speak.
And… I had thought there was no path for humans and beasts to coexist.
However, this too had changed as I saw and heard various things at the Beast Palace.
Beasts and humans can live together in harmony. The world is not made of black and white, nor is it divided only into enemies and allies.
What matters is not the situation, but my own will.
I am not regretting or denying the choices I have made. Even if the path was narrow and rough, it is who I am now that stands at the end of it.
But I cannot keep walking as I have been.
Because I have already come to know. It is impossible to know and still repeat the mistakes of the past.
It was at that moment that my thoughts reached that point.
After facing the curse that the Azure-White Flood Dragon had left on me. Something that had seemed just out of reach had brushed against my fingertips.
I immediately sat cross-legged and began to gaze inward.
"Cheon Hwi? What are you suddenly doing…"
Seol Ri-hyang's startled voice reached me at the sight of me beginning to meditate out of nowhere, but I let it go in one ear and out the other.
As if possessed by something, my consciousness sank into stillness in an instant. What I saw in those depths was a flow of killing intent that could no longer be everything I was, yet still remained.
In that dark crimson current, a massive serpent raised its neck haughtily and stared back at me. I looked up at the lingering will left behind by the Azure-White Flood Dragon.
And slowly, I bowed my head.
"I'm sorry."
…
"I was short-sighted and couldn't think of another way."
-…Shhhh.
For the first time, a sound came from the Azure-White Flood Dragon, which had only been staring silently until now.
A peculiar cry, like wind leaking through a crack, yet not as quiet as one might think.
"But I can't die just because you want me to. I still have far too much to do."
-Shaaah.
The creature let out a threatening sound, as if to say the same applied to itself.
It was left behind by a Spirit Beast that had reached the Harmony Realm. It might not be the beast itself, but it clearly possessed a certain degree of spiritual nature.
"I can't let you die easily… but I won't destroy you either."
This was part of the Beast Palace's secret art that Tang So-wol had received in exchange for treating the Beast Palace Lord.
I had secretly glanced at it as well. I couldn't understand everything, nor could I commune with beasts the way the Beast Palace's martial artists did.
Still, I had grasped the gist of it. I believed that now I could sever the lingering thoughts of the Azure-White Flood Dragon, which existed by parasitizing killing intent.
If I studied it a bit more, I might find a way to put it to use.
But I decided to do neither. Hadn't I already treated the Azure-White Flood Dragon cruelly enough?
I resolved to use the Beast Palace's secret art I had stolen and learned solely to convey my will.
"So just remain there. Until the day my breath finally stops. So that you can witness my death from the closest place possible."
…
"This is the greatest requiem I can offer you."
At those words, the Azure-White Flood Dragon silently gazed at me. After pondering for a long while, it slowly lowered its head.
It bent its neck—a neck that seemed as though it would never yield—and brought it before me.
Its body still immersed in the flow of dark-red killing intent, only its head protruding from the mass.
Unlike before, the Azure-White Flood Dragon had grown strangely docile. I reached out toward its head.
Scales that had regained some of their original color as they emerged from the killing intent. The moment my hand touched them.
Fwoosh—
The last lingering thoughts left behind by the Azure-White Flood Dragon began to unravel, thread by thread.
Not the sword-black red that had been assimilated with killing intent, but the original color restored, just like its head moments ago.
Becoming threads of white and blue, the Flood Dragon's lingering thoughts melted into my surroundings… more precisely, into my internal energy.
There was a slight sense of foreignness, but it faded before long. As if it had been mine from the very beginning.
Intent is, after all, a combination of will and lingering thought. Of the Flood Dragon's final Intent, most of its will had been destroyed, unable to withstand my killing intent.
What little remained, it had let go of on its own after hearing my story.
That what was left should be absorbed into me was, in a way, only natural.
And so, after a long while of gathering and settling that energy, I slowly opened my eyes.
The scenery was not much different from before I closed my eyes. But there was one thing that had changed.
"This is…"
Something faintly luminous overlapped across my vision. It didn't take long to realize that it was the flow of qi.
"I see."
I knew it unconsciously. That the sight before me now was the world as seen through the eyes of the Azure-White Flood Dragon in life.
The vision of a Spirit Beast that had awakened qi in a way different from humans, and reached the Harmony Realm through instinct rather than martial arts.
But perhaps because it wasn't my own complete enlightenment or ability, merely maintaining this vision consumed a considerable amount of Simnyeok.
Having already spent a great deal of Simnyeok over the matter of the Demonic Cult, this was a bit of a burden.
I blinked my eyes a few times and released the tension from them, naturally returning to my original field of vision.
It was at that moment that I let out a short sigh at the slight stiffness I felt in my eyes.
"Wow… did you see that, sister Tang? Sister Seomun? It seems like now I gain Enlightenment just from being bitten by me."
"Hmm. I think a bit differently. Perhaps being poked in the thigh by a toe was the real catalyst."
"Shh! Everyone, quiet. Young hero Cheon has just opened his eyes."
With Tang So-wol's words as the last, the three women looked this way with sparkling eyes as if nothing had happened.
I nodded with a gentle smile.
"I heard all of that."
"W-Well, you see, Cheon Hwi…"
"Is it not said that enlightenment is everywhere? So there is no need to be ashamed."
"That's right! In any case, isn't the important thing that young hero Cheon achieved a breakthrough?"
The smile tugging at my lips deepened at the sight of the three desperately trying to dress things up.
"All true words."
I added, toward the women who momentarily sighed in relief and patted their chests.
"So let us share that enlightenment."
"Hyaaak!"
Seol Ri-hyang was the first to notice something, and her body trembled, but that changed nothing.
Afterward, she was thoroughly bitten, left a complete mess.
Unfortunately, no one gained enlightenment.