"They say young hero Cheon has been unfaithful."
"What?"
An absurd slander. My body trembled involuntarily at the sensation of all the blood draining from my face. I tried to refute it, but…
"Unfaithful… if that's what you'd call it, I suppose?"
"Hmph. It's not wrong, but aren't you holding Hwi to too harsh a standard?"
Seeing the other women avert their gaze and blush, I had a rough idea of what they had witnessed.
Content that could clearly be judged as infidelity. And if it was something those three would be embarrassed about, it had to be Seol Ri-hyang from before the regression.
So she must have glimpsed my memories with the Ghost Sound Witch.
A time when I did nothing but train in martial arts, study texts, and receive treatment from the Ghost Sound Witch.
That was the only period in my life when I lived happily without any particular worries.
Before that, I was desperate just to survive, and after that, I lived half-mad from the deaths of Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin.
After meeting Tang So-wol, I lived fleeing from the Heavenly Demon, and now I'm impatient with the thought that I need to become stronger than the Heavenly Demon.
Those few short years were the only time I could purely enjoy the life given to me.
Of course, I didn't fully realize it back then. Truly a regrettable thing.
As I nodded with a bitter heart, Tang Jincheon's eyes suddenly sharpened.
"Son-in-law. Are you admitting to courting another woman right in front of me?"
"…It's a misunderstanding. I only thought it might look that way."
"And don't you think that's exactly the kind of thing that's easy to misunderstand?"
Tang Jincheon stirred up the aura of a doting father not seen in a long time. Everyone around flinched at that sharp demeanor, but—
"Ehew. That was half a joke, Father."
"Eh? Is that so?"
"Yess. Besides, all we can see is young hero Cheon's memories. Things that happened before he ever met me."
"Heh."
Only then did Tang Jincheon, his Aura finally reined in, nod.
"Indeed. If it's something from before the age of fifteen… hmm. One can hardly hold a child's games against him."
"Child's games… that's one way to look at it. But what we saw was hardly so endearing."
"Then what did you see?"
At Tang Jincheon's question, Tang So-wol looked my way. Following her lead, Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin also fixed their gazes on me.
It was as if she were asking permission to speak of what she had seen.
If what those three saw matched my guess… if it had to do with the Ghost Sound Witch's final moments, then I could understand their caution.
Indeed, bringing up that story now would be little different from reopening an old wound, so their hesitation was only natural…
It wasn't as if I wasn't bound by a seal. If I could convey something even like this, I should be grateful.
I gave a bitter smile and nodded, and only then did Tang So-wol open her mouth.
"I saw the one the young hero Cheon failed to protect. I saw them draw their last breath in your arms."
"…Is that so."
At my words, Tang Jincheon sank low. When he sent me an apologetic look, I shook my head.
"It's alright now."
"Knowing my son-in-law says that puts my mind at ease."
Tang Jincheon gave a faint smile and clapped me hard on the shoulder. Knowing the clear comfort contained within that gesture, I accepted it quietly, and then it was Seomun Hwa-rin's turn to speak.
"But there was one strange thing. The Hwi in my memories is quite different from the one before me now. Ah, let me say this in advance—I don't mean that he was younger."
"What do you mean by that? For my part, the formation seemed flawless…"
The first to react to Seomun Hwa-rin's words was Jegal Bu. His reaction was as if he had heard something incomprehensible.
"You called it a military formation, did you not? That is not what I mean by wrong. It is because Hwi's mental landscape—the memories within it—differed from what we imagined."
"I can hardly guess what you mean by 'differed from what we imagined.'"
Jegal Bu blinked his eyes. The others said nothing, but their curiosity was plain to see.
At the focused gazes, Seomun Hwa-rin cleared her throat once and continued in a rarely seen solemn tone.
"What this one… what we saw was a hall half-collapsed, buried in snow. And a Hwi who looked at least five years older than he does now."
"Older, you say? Could it not have been his father or a brother?"
"That is not so. His height, his cultivation level, and even his bearing differed from now, but it was unmistakably Hwi and no one else."
Habits, physique, way of thinking—all of it. Seomun Hwa-rin listed the evidence in a voice full of conviction, insisting that everything matched the me of today.
She had also recognized the Iron Blood Faction's buildings as belonging to the Black Alliance, but no one paid that any mind.
Because through examples detailed enough to exhaust even me as the listener, she had convinced everyone that the man was me.
The expressions around me grew increasingly subtle. Then, for a moment, they began to shift toward shock and pity.
A beat late, realizing how she must look, Seomun Hwa-rin shook her head vigorously.
"It was not this one! So-wol uncovered all of it!"
"Yes, let's go with that."
"So-wol, if you say it that way, what does that make me?! Ah, well, the point is simple! What we saw was not merely the past! I am cautiously speculating that it might be a memory from before reincarnation."
"Reincarnation…!"
"The reason the Bodhisattva placed the seal—surely not!"
At the word reincarnation, Great Master Jeonghyeon and Great Master Gakjeong shot to their feet this time. And before long, they nodded as if they had been convinced.
…A pity. Similar, but slightly different.
Still, they acknowledged that I had a life before this one, so it was a greater achievement than I had expected.
Perhaps they thought they had found the first person to prove evidence of reincarnation—even memories from a previous life.
Great Master Jeonghyeon and Great Master Gakjeong looked at me with burdensome gazes.
Fortunately(?), because I had missed the mark on the crucial part, I was able to speak without triggering the seal.
"That's not it."
"I understand. Given your situation, you have no choice but to say that."
"It really isn't."
"Mm, mm. If you say so."
My explanation wasn't getting through at all. Just as I was about to let out an inward sigh, I heard Seol Ri-hyang's voice—she had kept her mouth shut ever since she first blurted out that harsh remark.
"It's not certain, so please don't both monks corner Cheon Hwi too much. It's only a guess at best. Right, Seomun unni?"
"Hm? Ah, yes. That is so. There were so many incomprehensible elements that even talk of past lives came up—so please think of it as simply being that strange an affair."
Only then did the two monks sheepishly scratch their gleaming bald heads, but Seol Ri-hyang's words were not yet finished.
"I think there's something far more important than the background Cheon Hwi's inner mind showed me, or the Cheon Hwi who is different from the one now."
"And what would that be?"
"That I finally understood the meaning of the ominous fire I often felt in Cheon Hwi's inner mind."
"…"
It had gotten better since I reached the Harmony Realm, but before that, whenever I went all out, I naturally exuded a menacing aura along with killing intent.
Whether they remembered that or not, everyone except the Jegal family member erased their excited expressions and waited for Seol Ri-hyang to continue.
"The world—everything Cheon Hwi held dear—was burning. And the vision cut off just as a half-mad Cheon Hwi was about to head toward the epicenter."
"That sound…"
"Yes. This time, it's enough to know that Cheon Hwi had something unusual in his past, and that it's not a present danger but a wound already healed. …The truth will probably be revealed at the next Grand Ritual."
"I see."
The Murim Alliance Leader nodded with a faint smile.
"I understand. So the young hero White Moon Sword Lord was from the Unorthodox Sects, was he? His real age might be greater than he looks. That explains why his actions are so eccentric, whatever his intentions."
The Murim Alliance Leader seemed relieved, as if all the mysteries had finally been solved.
That single remark served to close the book on the information gained from this Grand Ritual, but at the same time, it planted the seeds of another fire.
"Eh? So the young hero Cheon is actually an old monster who's been hiding his age?"
"…"
Tang So-wol, bringing up the kidnapping incident now of all times.
He probably wasn't quite an old monster.
Probably.
***
After leaving the Murim Alliance Leader's secret chamber, they scattered to their own quarters.
Tang So-wol, Seol Ri-hyang, and Seomun Hwa-rin didn't head to their rooms, but as usual, decided to linger a while in mine.
Tang Jincheon, who would normally have shot me a disapproving glare, instead yielded the space as if he understood.
And so, the four of us remained alone in the room. It should have been bustling, yet no one moved, each of us quietly gauging the others.
Normally, I would have waited for someone else to speak first, but this time I decided to break the silence myself. After all, this had come about because of me, hadn't it?
"Is there something you wish to ask? I can't say much, but if it's within my power, I'll tell you without holding back."
"In that case, there is one thing."
Tang So-wol nodded as if she had been waiting for those words. She started to speak, then hesitated, and murmured.
"Hmm. To phrase it in a way that young hero Cheon can answer… I suppose it comes down to that, after all."
"What is it, then?"
"Do you love us, young hero Cheon?"
"…"
I knew why she was suddenly asking this.
It was because she had seen my memories with the Ghost Sound Witch. More precisely, she had seen me replenishing her yang energy.
Having my private life exposed like that, and then having to put my current feelings into words, was embarrassing—but this was where I had to steel my resolve.
"Of course I love you. If I didn't, I wouldn't have gone through all this hardship just to stay by your side."
"Hehe. Is that so."
Tang So-wol wore a satisfied smile.
"Even if the young hero Cheon were something like an old monster, even if you held a grudge against us for not knowing, even if you're not actually that much of a genius, and even if I wasn't your first love… that one word is still enough for me."
"…Are you sure that's really enough?"
Why did that feel like a roundabout insult?
As I waited for the others to speak with a strange feeling in my chest, Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin opened their mouths in turn.
"I'm the same as sister Tang. What matters is the present, right?"
"I am a thoughtful woman who knows how to overlook a man's minor flaws. Just make sure you behave well from now on."
Seol Ri-hyang looked somehow triumphant, while Seomun Hwa-rin shrugged her shoulders as if it were nothing.
They hadn't learned everything about my regression or my past memories… but at least they seemed willing to understand.
Only after carefully studying the three of their faces did I finally understand.
"So that's how it is."
Once again, my realization came late.
I was already living a life that was more than happy enough.
There was no need to romanticize the past before my regression, nor to long for it excessively.
Wasn't it too burdensome to worry about matters beyond my reach?
What always mattered was simply protecting those who remained in my embrace.
I had to live in the present.
That was the only best I was permitted.
It was the moment I closed my eyes gently at a sensation that felt like something was about to touch me, yet not quite.
"B-But, you know?"
"Hm?"
"Is it really this big?"
Seol Ri-hyang said that with one eye closed and a serious tone. Her hand, aimed at my lower abdomen, was spread wide open. As if measuring the length of something.
It was clear what she meant.
"I'm going crazy."
"No, so I'm asking, how is it?"
"…It's probably a bit bigger."
Because in this life, I ate well and grew well.