My origin as a martial artist.
Hearing that story, the group fell silent for a moment, but before long, Tang So-wol shrugged her shoulders.
"Are you still hungry?"
"Of course not."
"Then do you still go by the name Sword Demon, striking fear into people's hearts?"
"It's been a while since the word 'Sword Demon' was dropped from my alias."
"Then that settles it. Young hero Cheon is no longer the young hero Cheon of the past."
That's right.
The child who once had nothing to trust but the sword hilt in his hand is gone. He grew, met people, and learned much.
And now, I want to hold something other than a sword.
"There's nothing more to see here. Let's go pay our parents a visit."
When I reached out my hand, Tang So-wol grabbed it as if she had been waiting. She wore a gentle smile, but before long, her eyes curved playfully.
"I would follow young hero Cheon anywhere. …But, is one hand enough?"
"Hm?"
I tilted my head in puzzlement for a moment. Before long, I understood the meaning when I saw Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin sending sparkling gazes my way.
A person has two hands. And I had already given one to Tang So-wol…
But wait, where was the Illusion Witch?
I casually turned my head, and there she was, creeping up quietly from behind.
When our eyes met, she flinched, then began to smile obsequiously.
"Hehe… I, I don't need a hand. A back would be enough for me…"
Saying that, the Illusion Witch subtly thrust out her chest. It was a truly blatant display, and the size was enough that one might pretend to be fooled.
Fortunately, Tang So-wol's poison pouch was bigger than the Illusion Witch's sorcery pouch, so I could see through it.
"How suspicious. Speak your true intentions."
At that, the Illusion Witch immediately straightened her expression and spoke with a serious face.
"I want to bury my nose in the White Moon Sword Lord's neck and take a whiff."
"Just because you say it seriously doesn't mean I'll let you. You stay in front of me, no exceptions."
"Hmph."
In the end, I put the clueless Illusion Witch at the front, Seol Ri-hyang grabbed my remaining arm, and Seomun Hwa-rin took the rear.
Unfortunately, Seomun Hwa-rin clung to my back with no gap at all, and she muttered by my ear with a complicated expression.
"How strange… I should be happy, yet I feel not a shred of joy."
"Come on, Sister Seomun, you love Cheon Hwi's scent. Last time you swiped his undergarments, and this time you even took his sweat-soaked training robes."
"H-How do you know about that?!"
"Ahem. I happen to be close with quite a few of the servants. Word gets around, you know."
"Kyaaaaah!"
It was not something I could simply ignore.
But if I set Seomun Hwa-rin down right now, who knew what the Illusion Witch, who was eyeing my back with hungry intent(?), might do. So I had no choice but to keep carrying her.
After walking for a long while, we arrived at the middle of a small mountain.
It was a place the villagers of Hwayang Village simply called the back mountain, where people usually came to gather firewood or forage for edible greens.
…And it was also the only place where I, who had even sold off the family home, could bury my parents.
When my father passed away, my mother had handled the funeral. But when my mother died, no one would help me, for fear of the Jeoksa Faction.
So I built a crude coffin myself from wood I had cut from the mountain, laid my mother's body inside, and dragged it up the slope with rope until my hands were blistered before I could bury her.
That was why the path to the grave was etched into my memory more clearly than any other place in Hwayang Village.
Thanks to that, I could tell. The mountain path was far wider than the one in my memory, and it had been maintained to make the climb easier.
This was probably the trace of someone being sent to tend to it regularly, just as Tang Jincheon had said.
Back then, I had climbed this path with difficulty, chewing over my revenge. Now I was climbing it with ease, surrounded by four women.
"…Wait. Now that I think about it, isn't this a really strange arrangement?"
"Oh my? You only just noticed that, young hero Cheon?"
"Mm-hm. Like Auntie Tang says, nobody really visits their parents' graves looking like this."
"I-I am different from the Illusion Witch…!"
"Hehehe. Just admit it already… You and I are both just old hags bewitched by a young boy."
The two eldest seemed to be talking about something entirely different, but regardless, it was true that I looked rather ridiculous.
It had been a long time—a really long time—since I'd visited my parents' tomb, and I couldn't help wondering if this was really the right way to do it.
While I was hesitating, Tang So-wol tightened her grip on my hand.
"If the young hero Cheon wishes to let go, I suppose there's nothing I can do… but I rather like it like this."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. It's the easiest way to show you everything that's happened."
"…I suppose. That's true enough."
I let out a small laugh, nodded, and continued up the mountain path.
Before long, the path opened up and a small clearing came into view.
At the center of the clearing stood two grave mounds side by side.
They were my parents' graves—the first time I'd returned since leaving Hwayang Village before my regression.
A few weeds had grown long, but aside from that, the area was well-kept and tidy.
I felt a twinge of guilt seeing the thick underbrush just beyond the clearing.
If Tang Jincheon hadn't maintained it separately, the graveyard would have eventually been buried under the overgrowth. At least, that's what would have happened before my regression.
When I first buried them here, it wasn't this bad… I suppose the mountain's plants have grown well over the past few years.
In a way, it's only natural. Unless something goes wrong, life tends to flourish as generations pass.
…I wonder if I'll feel something similar someday, when I see my own descendants.
With a strange feeling, I slowly began pulling the few weeds around the burial mound.
At that, the women who had been clinging to me just moments ago each stepped back one by one.
Tang So-wol and I pulled weeds together, Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin tidied the area around the graves, and the Illusion Witch hesitated for a moment before walking the edges of the clearing, starting to set something up.
After a brief burst of activity, the area around the graves looked far more presentable.
The peculiar thing was that a faint flow of energy had formed along the boundary of the clearing.
"Illusion Witch. I can tell you did something, but what kind of formation is this, and what does it do?"
"I-It's nothing much… just a simple illusion spell. It can't fool people, but it should be enough to keep away wild animals and insects."
"It might be nothing special in the martial world, but it's a useful formation for a graveyard."
"Heheh. I plan to live a long, long time, but… I made this formation in advance, preparing for the day I draw my last breath and get buried somewhere. Good thing I studied it beforehand…"
"…"
Was it really right to introduce someone who had studied formations for graveyards in preparation for her own burial as a potential wife?
Without meaning to, I found myself thinking that even if my parents were still alive, they probably wouldn't be any older than the Illusion Witch.
Forcing myself to ignore that, I decided to just give her a proper compliment. No matter how I looked at it, the Illusion Witch had done well by me.
"Hrk…"
"?"
As I gritted my teeth to steel my resolve, the Illusion Witch tilted her head curiously. I reached out to her with difficulty.
And before long, I felt the texture of soft, fluffy hair against my palm.
I'd never once seen her wash it properly, but thanks to the Bone-Exchange Rebirth, her hair wasn't greasy—it was light and airy.
"You did well, Illusion Witch."
"Ah… ahh…"
The Illusion Witch, who had been blankly staring up at my face, began to curl her lips into a sinister smile.
"Heh-heh. The world's greatest martial artist, younger than me, forcing himself to pat my head with an expression full of humiliation… I like this…"
"…Enough. Be quiet now. I'm about to greet my parents."
"Okay."
I walked past the Illusion Witch, who nodded with a satisfied expression, and made my way to Tang So-wol's side.
Tang So-wol, who had been giggling behind her sleeve at whatever she found so amusing, pulled out a bottle of liquor she had prepared in advance.
It was a fairly high-quality wine she'd bought on the way here.
"Thanks."
"Not at all. Isn't young hero Cheon's business my business as well?"
She set the bottle down for a moment and bowed. Once, then twice.
I should have done this long ago, but I had come back from so far away.
Too busy trying to make a living, too focused on swinging my sword, for revenge, to survive the Heavenly Demon—the reasons were many.
But none of them were reasons to forget the past.
Now that I had set down my sword for a time and taken the hands of others, I stood here not as a Martial Artist, but as a person.
I poured the liquor Tang So-wol had brought into a cup and sprinkled it around the grave as I spoke.
"I'm sorry it took so long. If I may offer a small excuse, there were things that happened. Difficult and trying things."
The orphan who left with a single sword ultimately became the greatest under heaven with that same single sword.
"As you can see, I've come to introduce the women who will be my wives. Quite a few, aren't there? I suppose it's because I take after my father in looks."
But that was not something I could have accomplished alone.
There were people who pulled me up when I was stuck against a wall, going in circles; who, though I knew how to wield a sword, I couldn't fathom the hearts of others; who caught me when I eventually crumbled and sank down.
Thanks to them, I am who I am today.
"In the past, I simply thought I was talented. Truth be told, my opinion hasn't changed much… but it wasn't just me who was talented. Certainly, leaving home was a rough and miserable experience."
I am not a being who stands entirely alone.
Without realizing it, I was completed through interacting with many people, exchanging hearts with them.
There is another person within me, and I exist within others, and in that way, you and I become we.
If that is the way of the world… then the first people to embrace me and enter into me must surely have been my parents.
"Still, everything is resolved now. Yes. Fortunately, there were those who helped me."
The Heavenly Demon was struck down. Just as the divine beast he once cut down vanished after regression, the Heavenly Demon cut down by me would never regress again and would have fallen into eternal slumber.
I had worried that perhaps I, too, might endlessly repeat regressions like the Heavenly Demon.
But the Heavenly Demon said that my very existence was a miracle, proof that heaven had turned its gaze upon me, however briefly.
Now that I know of the Heavenly Demon's existence, I will not make the same mistake as the Heavenly Demon.
"Someday, another problem may arise. I hope it doesn't, but that's the nature of the world—nothing can be guaranteed."
The Heavenly Demon was dead. But that did not mean every problem in the world had been resolved.
Someday, another difficulty might arise.
It could be an enemy even more powerful than the Heavenly Demon… or a baby crying day and night, or perhaps a wicked son-in-law trying to whisk away a beloved daughter.
"But just as we have managed so far, I am certain we will find our way through the next challenge as well."
Tang Jincheon had been the one to first suggest I become his son-in-law, and for years afterward he had fixed me with a murderous glare.
Yet in the end, we had become like family, just as we are now.
I doubted I would be any different.
And no matter what other problem might erupt, I doubted it would be any different either.
"So there's no need for you to worry."
The day I lost my mother, following my father.
I had become an orphan adrift in the world. A person with no one to lean on, no matter how far I looked to the ends of the earth.
But not anymore.
"…Because I'm not alone anymore."
From Hebei Province in the east to Xinjiang in the west. From the South Man Beast Palace in the south to the North Sea Ice Palace in the north.
I had wandered across both the Central Plains and the Outer Murim, sparing no corner.
And at the very edge of that wandering, what I found was a heaven of my own.
Thump.
The heart still beating within my chest. A faint smile touched my lips at the whispers of countless Tang So-wols that reached my ears when I listened closely.
A love piled so high it touched the sky. In response, a small Defying Heaven quietly closed its eyes in acceptance.
"There are many stories I wish to share. Yes, truly many."
Where should I begin? Right after the regression? The battle against the Heavenly Demon? The first time I held a sword? Or when I swallowed my tears and buried my mother?
The deliberation was brief. After all, when you have a backlog of stories to tell, the first words are already decided.
"That's right. First…"
A playful smile naturally bloomed at the corner of my mouth. With a light heart, as if I had returned to my childhood days, I opened my lips.
I had kidnapped the youngest daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
After all, everything had begun that day in the cave.