"Th-this isn't reality, I tell you. Yes. That's right, exactly…"
"So you're saying… it's possible? How…?"
"This one has no thoughts at all. Because she has no thoughts at all… Hee-yak! It won't be forgotten!"
A shocking scene unfolding in broad daylight. A sight none of them had expected, for a slightly different reason—the three women's faces flushed red, then went pale, over and over.
They looked as if they'd malfunctioned, and in truth, the sight had been far too stimulating for the three of them.
After Cheon Hwi had finished his deed, and while he enjoyed a brief nap with the limping woman, the three women finally managed to compose themselves and huddled together outside the door.
"It seems the Blood Buddha still remains within the technique."
"Calm yourself, So-wol. Hwi, of course, but also the Shaolin abbot and the previous abbot, and even the Murim Alliance's strategist—didn't they all assure us of safety in that regard?"
"Th-then, what we just saw is a memory intense enough to be etched into young hero Cheon's mind?!"
"…Hmph. In a sense, it was quite intense, wasn't it?"
Seomun Hwa-rin, her face flushed at the sight that came to mind unbidden, quietly averted her gaze.
And there, where her gaze landed, stood Seol Ri-hyang.
"It was definitely about this much, I think…"
As if measuring something, she held her fully spread hand against her lower abdomen.
"Hyang-a! Is that really what matters right now? And how can Sister Hwa-rin be so composed about all this?!"
"Huh? Well… Sister Tang is here, you know. Sister Seomun and I have long since finished preparing ourselves mentally for this kind of thing…"
"That is so. …Of course, this is the first time I have actually seen it, so I was surprised."
"Ah."
Unlike herself, whose position as the first wife was secure, Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin had stayed with him knowing they could only ever be concubines.
Realizing the meaning of those words, Tang So-wol took several deep breaths before she could finally fully calm herself.
"…Understood. I too shall suppress my emotions for now. There are more important matters at hand."
"You mean a way to endure half a day?"
It was clearly still daytime, yet Seol Ri-hyang gazed at the sky where the sunset had already begun to creep in. At that, Tang So-wol pressed her temples firmly and shook her head.
"It is not so, my child. If every hypothesis we have guessed thus far is false, then we must determine what time this mental image is from… and who that limping woman is."
"In that case, this one has an idea—ahk!—this one has one!"
"…Sister Hwa-rin? What were you just thinking about?"
"Th-this one was thinking of nothing at all! It is absolutely not the case that certain postures are surfacing in this one's mind without this one's own awareness!"
"…"
Tang So-wol quietly watched Seomun Hwa-rin flailing about with a flushed face.
She looked so small and adorable that Tang So-wol wanted to hug her and roll around with her right then and there… but her actual age was similar to, or greater than, that of Tang So-wol's own father!
She had learned something she had never known in all that long time in the most blatant way possible. That was hardly an ordinary sort of stimulation.
Tang So-wol decided to understand Seomun Hwa-rin with a generous heart, straightened her posture, and squared her shoulders.
"Very well, do calm yourself. So, what is it that you remembered?"
"Ahem. It is simple. It must be a past life!"
"…A past life? Are you referring to the previous life spoken of by Buddhists, the one before reincarnation?"
"Correct. Did the abbot of Shaolin not say so? That one of the beings who placed a seal upon Hwi was Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. And Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is…"
"The one who rescues sentient beings in hell before their birth—those who have not yet been reborn."
"Why would such a being go so far as to place a seal and impose restrictions? I believe that Hwi remembers his past life for some reason. …And that woman from earlier was likely his lover from that life."
"A past life, you say. If so, this place being this worn down is…"
"Since this is before the Black Alliance even came into being, it's understandable that the structure is a bit different and everything is falling apart. Later on, the Black Alliance bought it up cheaply and repaired it, didn't they?"
"But young hero Cheon's height and realm may differ, yet his face was the same. As far as I know, reincarnation means becoming completely different in appearance as well."
"Strictly speaking, this place is not Hwi's memory itself, but a mental image, and we are glimpsing the memories through that image. If the self that Hwi imagines looks like his current form, then wouldn't it appear similar? As for being older… that would be because this period is actually older than he is now."
"Hmm. That's the most plausible story so far. Above all, it would also explain young hero Cheon's remarkable talent."
Before taking Cheon Hwi in as a live-in son-in-law, the investigation conducted by the Tang Clan showed that he had only been holding a sword for a mere year or two.
In that time, he had climbed to the tail end of the first-rate, and could faintly emit Sword Qi.
A few years later, he reached the full Peak Realm, and at the age when others were attending the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, he touched the Transcendent Peak.
And before he even reached the Age of Twenty, he arrived at the Harmony Realm, and now that he has passed that age, he stands shoulder to shoulder with other Harmony Realm Martial Artists who have cultivated their martial arts for decades.
Wasn't this talent on par with the geniuses who appeared only once in the history of the martial world?
Even knowing it was possible, watching it happen right beside you made the pace of growth hard to believe.
But if this was merely reclaiming the realm he had once reached before… then it fell within the realm of understanding.
"Hoo. Still, it wasn't the worst-case scenario I was worried about."
"What remains now is figuring out what time period this is. If we compare what we've seen and heard here against the records of the past, we'll find out what Hwi had to hide!"
Tang So-wol, who had been tacitly overlooking Cheon Hwi's oddities without realizing it, let out a sigh of relief, while Seomun Hwa-rin congratulated herself on her flawless (not) deduction.
And then Seol Ri-hyang cautiously raised her hand.
"W-well, honestly, I think Sister Seomun's theory is a bit too forced…"
"What do you mean by that, Hyang-i?"
"If, as you said, this isn't real memory but a glimpse of memory through imagery—and that's why even one's own face appears changed—then what meaning do the surrounding sights hold?"
"…Hmm. That does make sense."
"Sister Seomun's words aren't entirely wrong, but I think we should focus less on what's visible and more on what isn't."
Not the things clearly seen, but the things hidden by seals. That would prove far more helpful in uncovering Cheon Hwi's past.
As everyone nodded in agreement, Seol Ri-hyang continued.
"I think Sister Seomun's approach was good. I also think it touched upon Cheon Hwi's secret to some degree. However, what we should focus on isn't Cheon Hwi himself, but…"
"…Are you talking about that lame woman who shared a body with Hwi?"
"Yes. Unless it's someone who loves themselves dearly, what lingers in one's mind is another person, not oneself."
In fact, Seomun Hwa-rin's hypothesis was closer to the truth than before. And Seol Ri-hyang had supplemented it.
There had been many stumbling problems along the way, but in the end, they were moving toward the correct answer.
"Hehe. If Hyang-i's words hold true, then how about we focus our observation on young hero Cheon and that woman until the time runs out?"
"Yes! …Honestly, it felt strangely familiar, so it had been bothering me!"
"Hmm hmm. Come to think of it, So-wol, didn't you say that Hwi's seal was related to us?"
"That's right. There's only one now, but when I looked into young hero Cheon's mind before, besides the lame woman, there were two more women with white hair."
"White hair?"
Seomun Hwa-rin, who had been idly toying with her own hair, curled the corners of her mouth into a sly grin.
"Who knows—perhaps we've been fated to be with Hwi since our past lives."
With those words, the three of them strode confidently back into Cheon Hwi's room.
"Hah, you want to do it one more time?!"
"That hand movement… as expected, the meridian cleansing Cheon Hwi does on me is…!"
"At this rate, we'll be at it all day!"
It didn't take long for the three women's enthusiasm to morph into a different kind of desire.
Of course—the desire for knowledge.
***
Quite some time had passed since they decided to focus their investigation on the relationship between Cheon Hwi and the limping woman.
They were able to stay longer than originally planned, likely because time inside the mindscape flowed differently than outside.
It wasn't as intense as when the Blood Buddha had intervened and Cheon Hwi resisted it, of course.
At any rate, thanks to that, Tang So-wol, Seol Ri-hyang, and Seomun Hwa-rin had been able to learn a great deal by observing Cheon Hwi in the meantime.
The Cheon Hwi inside the mindscape was a far more wooden person than the one now.
He never teased with a sly grin, never poked or played around for no reason, and even when faced with clear expressions of affection, he merely deflected them calmly, as if he didn't understand.
Quite a dry reaction, contrary to their guess that the two were lovers.
The lame woman, in turn, drew that much closer to Cheon Hwi.
Seeing him swing his sword all day long, she would tease him until he was about to lose his temper, carving out a brief moment of rest for him.
Even during break time, when he didn't know how to rest and just stared blankly at the ceiling, she would creep over, poke him in the side, and giggle along with him.
Sometimes she would grumble, pointing out his careless tone of voice.
That said, the lame woman was hardly skilled at dealing with people.
She always had a prickly way of snapping at others, and at times she would put her pride before rational conversation.
But despite all that, the lame woman was always honest with Cheon Hwi.
Clumsy as a young child's efforts, it was pure affection with no calculation whatsoever.
And so, clumsily but persistently, she kept colliding head-on with it.
Even the indifferent Cheon Hwi began to change little by little as time passed.
He learned to return a joke with a joke, spent more time taking care of himself, and occasionally began to approach her first, expressing this and that.
It was as if he were learning for the first time how a person loves another person.
Clumsy, and clumsy again, but the two of them were clearly growing in a better direction.
"…I see now why the young hero Cheon's daily life is etched into his mind."
"This is something I heard from the older sisters at the pavilion before… they said a man can never forget his first love, even after a lifetime passes."
"There were plenty of embarrassing moments too… but seeing Hwi change little by little is certainly heartwarming."
The relationship between Cheon Hwi and the lame woman, as they observed it, was quite an odd one.
They would fiercely entwine their bodies at all hours, leaving no part of each other's flesh unknown.
Yet once they stepped out of bed, they would blush like innocent boys and girls over the smallest things.
It was not that their hearts had connected first and then their bodies followed—rather, they had joined their bodies first and slowly, piece by piece, layered their hearts together.
No matter how many times she witnessed it, the affairs in the bedchamber never grew familiar, and it was uncomfortable to see another woman in that place, and she could not understand why familiarity was what she felt from the lame woman.
But at least she understood why Cheon Hwi clung so dearly to his present memories. She wanted to keep watching Cheon Hwi as he changed, little by little. But then—
Whoosh.
The world she saw, following Cheon Hwi's gaze, was engulfed in flames.
And the lame woman, clutching her deeply cut belly, was leaning her back against the front gate wall.
As always, she had come out to greet Cheon Hwi first.
Even if it were to be the last moment of her life.