By Zephyria Let’s go back. (1)
Baek Ryeo-il didn’t say anything. He just stood there silently, looking down at him. Seong Mu-yeon let out a long sigh at the gaze that seemed to demand an explanation.
“…That day, I found out I was sick.”
Seong Mu-yeon spoke for the first time about something he had never told anyone. He wondered if Baek Ryeo-il might not even be curious. Maybe he was just staring. But he didn’t stop.
“Stupidly, I didn’t know until that day.”
“……”
It was not long after Damcheong died.
Seong Mu-yeon, who had failed the test, returned to his residence and lived alone with his mother, Seventh Madam. Although he had not been granted Demonic Art, he didn’t want to give up cultivation. He was spending his days holed up in the study, trying to do something on his own.
Around that time, he began to feel unwell. He got tired quickly and had to rest often. But Seong Mu-yeon brushed it off.
Then one day, he finally collapsed.
It was a bit much. That’s what Seong Mu-yeon thought.
“When I collapsed, my mother was terrified. Because Father would never tolerate a weak child.”
How could he not have known?
Looking back now, he couldn’t believe it himself. He was clearly different from others. Sometimes he would shiver with an unknown chill, and sometimes his mind would be foggy. But Seong Mu-yeon thought everyone lived like that. He had never lived with a healthy body in the first place. He thought that other people were enduring and living as if nothing was wrong. So he could endure it too.
Seventh Madam also played a part in Seong Mu-yeon’s delusion.
“My mother said she knew as soon as I was born. That I was born with Severed Meridian Disease. And… that I would soon be killed by the Cult Leader.”
Baek Ryeo-il’s hand, which had been quietly stroking his bangs as he listened to him, flinched.
“Isn’t it strange? The Cult Leader has seven sons, and all of them were born with great talent. How could that be?”
The Cult Leader had children with different women. If the child born that way didn’t please him… that child would be abandoned.
“Father, who was born with a body excellent for learning Demonic Art, researched ways to revive the Demonic Cult even after his death. Eventually, he learned that, with some exceptions, Severed Meridians and disabilities are generally inherited from parents. And my mother had Severed Meridians. Just like me. The Cult Leader would bring in women with such unique constitutions and unite with them, and if a child with disabilities was born with a certain probability, he would take them in and kill the rest.”
“……”
“My mother didn’t know that until she was about to give birth. That the child might die before even letting out its first cry. As you know, I was born with Severed Meridians, and somehow my mother deceived my father. Neither I nor my father knew anything.”
Seong Mu-yeon sighed.
“Until I collapsed.”
Seventh Madam’s pale face on the day he collapsed was vivid in his mind. She had tried countless times to run away with him, but had been thwarted every time until that day.
Seventh Madam, no longer able to hide his illness, planned one last escape. It was clear that the Cult Leader would not stand still if he found out.
“We weren’t imprisoned, but it wasn’t easy because guards followed us like shadows wherever we went. Taking advantage of Father’s absence, we went to the village under the pretext of going to a fabric store. We managed to shake off the guards there. But to completely escape the influence of the Demonic Cult, we had to pass through the vast forests and grasslands of Xinjiang…”
The Cult Leader was waiting for them in the forest they barely escaped into.
〈You underestimated me. Mimi. Did you think I wouldn’t know what you were thinking? You still haven’t given up and you’re doing this again.〉
Behind him, dozens of subordinates were arrayed with fierce momentum.
〈J, just let us go.〉
〈It’s disappointing when you say that. Did I force you to come and lock you up? You can go wherever you want. But not my son.〉
The Cult Leader was calm, not even angry.
〈That child is my child, born of my blood. He was born through your body, but he is my legacy. Bring Seventh Young master to the evening banquet without fail.〉
The Cult Leader turned leisurely, as if he had come out for a stroll, and added one more word.
〈Seventh Madam… you can do whatever you want with her.〉
Even after more than a decade, Seong Mu-yeon trembled as if he had become the child of that day. It was the day his world turned upside down. In addition to the shock of learning about an illness he had never known about in his life, his father, whom he had feared but thought of as family, had turned his back on his mother.
“We ran away frantically. But not long after, we…”
Once he opened his mouth, the memories he had tightly blocked flowed out like a burst dam, filling his consciousness.
“Haa… haa…”
Seong Mu-yeon ran, holding Seventh Madam, Mimi’s hand. Her hand, wet with clammy sweat, kept slipping.
Behind them, a dozen Demonic humans followed silently. They were the Cult Leader’s direct bodyguards. They were the best even within the Demonic Cult. Seong Mu-yeon, who was only sixteen, was like a toy that could be easily played with.
Moreover, with Seventh Madam, who kept falling, he had no chance of winning. He, who had collapsed this morning, was also not in normal condition.
Even in that state, he cut down several of them, but he was out of breath and his head was spinning, and he almost dropped his sword.
Eventually, they turned and hid in the village. It was a village formed around the Main Palace by the Cult followers and his family.
As evening approached, Seong Mu-yeon and Seventh Madam were able to temporarily shake off their enemies by mingling with the crowds shopping in the downtown area. Seong Mu-yeon found an empty warehouse in a secluded alley.
“G, get in here!”
The warehouse, which had not been used for a while, was covered in cobwebs and piled with miscellaneous items covered in dust.
Seong Mu-yeon laid the pale-faced Seventh Madam on the dirty floor. Then he pressed down hard on her bleeding abdomen. She had been attacked by a Demonic human when they were halfway out of the forest.
Seong Mu-yeon took a breath and anxiously rolled his eyes.
‘What should I do?’
It was still quiet, but Demonic humans would rush in at any moment. Seventh Madam’s condition was getting worse and she was no longer able to escape. But they couldn’t just go back as if nothing had happened. The Cult Leader had ordered that he didn’t care what happened to her, and he felt that even if he admitted his mistake and returned, he would not be able to avoid punishment.
Seventh Madam, looking at Seong Mu-yeon biting his lip, opened her mouth.
“Yeon-ah…”
“Don’t say anything. I will definitely take Mother out of here.”
Seong Mu-yeon spoke more firmly because he could tell from her expression that she had given up on surviving. Seventh Madam closed her mouth at his resolute attitude, but the situation was by no means good.
Even if they somehow avoided the eyes of the Demonic humans, the Cult Leader would never let them go easily. There was a high possibility that elite soldiers were stationed at every exit.
‘We have to go where there is no road.’
As he traced the escape route in his head, he felt strange. He didn’t know how to define this paradoxical situation where a familiar place he had thought of as home all his life had suddenly turned into a den of enemies.
At that moment, he felt a heavy weight on his neck. Looking down, he saw that Seventh Madam had taken off the necklace she always wore and put it around his neck.
“Mother?”
“This necklace… is one of the two pairs of necklaces that your maternal grandfather gave to me and my younger sibling. Because we fought so much… to strengthen our friendship…”
“Why are you saying that? I don’t need it.”
Seong Mu-yeon reached out to take off the necklace, but Seventh Madam held his hand tightly.
“Listen carefully. Never go back. That person will never forgive me for deceiving him, and you either. You have to get out of here and go to your mother’s family. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid that my family would be harmed because of me, but your mother’s family…”
Bang!
With an ear-splitting roar, the door fell off. Demonic humans in black clothes squeezed in through the gap.
Seeing this, Seventh Madam hugged him tightly.
“M, Mother!”
Energy surged from within his body and began to be rapidly sucked towards Seventh Madam. The Essence that filled his body and overflowed, scratching his acupoints, quickly moved to Madam’s body.