By Zephyria 
Since when had he been following?
Seong Mu-yeon lowered his head, not daring to look at his face.
It might not have taken as long as expected to deal with Heukmajo. As evidence, not a single fold of his clothes was disarrayed, making it hard to believe he had just been in a fight.
Baek Ryeo-il nudged the scabbard hanging from his waist with his knee.
“You’re the one who found the lost Nansaeng Sword and sent it to Mount Hua, aren’t you?”
“…….”
“Why?”
Seong Mu-yeon bit his lip.
Contrary to expectations, he wasn’t exploding in rage, but the way he leaned crookedly against a tree showed a clear sense of displeasure.
“Why did you do it? After leaving so coldly, what was your intention in finding the sword and sending it?”
He shifted his center of gravity and pushed off from the tree as if to approach.
Seong Mu-yeon flinched instinctively and took a step back. At that, Baek Ryeo-il withdrew the foot he had stepped forward with, and the air grew even colder.
“……It is you, right? Why aren’t you answering?”
“……Yes, it is me.”
“You didn’t answer the question of why.”
“……There is no other reason. The sword broke because of me, didn’t it? That’s why.”
It had been about three months since he left with Yak Seon.
At the time, Seong Mu-yeon was greatly encouraged by the effects of the medicine Yak Seon had made for him. His body recovered day by day, and it seemed that a full recovery was not just a dream if things continued this way.
The fact that the medicine produced such effects, despite being far below Yak Seon’s expectations, meant that his physical condition had been that dire. However, unaware of this fact, Seong Mu-yeon felt as if he owned the world.
As his body felt lighter, he decided to resolve the problem that had plagued him for three months.
‘Let’s find the Nansaeng Sword.’
When Baek Ryeo-il’s sword broke, Seong Mu-yeon had almost injured him. That had remained a great shock to him.
The Nansaeng was a masterpiece forged by the greatest Master of the era. The blade, mixed with ten-thousand-year cold iron, boasted a strength that would never break even during the fierce battles between Masters of the martial world. He thought that if Baek Ryeo-il had such a fine sword, he might get hurt less.
Despite Yak Seon’s dissuasion, Seong Mu-yeon secretly slipped out of the laboratory one night. He already knew where the Nansaeng was.
After Baek Ryeo-il’s parents perished in the battle against the Demonic Cult, the swords of the two parents, which had vanished without a trace, could not be found even until the bodies were recovered and the funeral held.
One disappeared forever, but the father’s Nansaeng Sword eventually returned to Baek Ryeo-il’s hands.
Bandits had run rampant, taking advantage of the chaos immediately after the battle. They ransacked the bodies, took everything of value, and fled before the recovery teams arrived.
The Nansaeng Sword, caught up in that loot, passed through countless hands and wandered about until it was eventually presented to the leader of a bandit group. The leader, who could barely read, didn’t even know whose sword it was or what value it held, leaving it to gather dust in a warehouse.
Seong Mu-yeon found the Nansaeng Sword at least ten years before Baek Ryeo-il would have discovered it by chance while crushing the bandit group.
Since the original work did not describe the bandits’ location accurately, he could only guess. After wiping out several wrong mountain forts, he finally managed to find it.
Thus, the Nansaeng found its owner early.
“If a sword breaks, you just use another one. But the one you sent is my father’s sword. Where and how did you find this! Who had it, and what did you want from me by sending the sword!”
Baek Ryeo-il’s voice grew increasingly agitated. His chest swelled as he took in a sharp, violent breath, as if he were about to explode.
“……I was going to ask you that.”
However, Baek Ryeo-il let out a long sigh, calming his boiling emotions. What remained was a small, powerless voice.
“There were so many things I wanted to ask you that even a whole night wouldn’t have been enough, but now that we’re actually facing each other, I realize. I didn’t wander around searching for you just to ask a few questions.”
Setting everything else aside, Seong Mu-yeon felt a momentary relief at Baek Ryeo-il’s calmer-than-expected attitude. Only after the tension in his stiffened body eased slightly was he finally able to lift his head.
“I know you had to leave. If you hadn’t, we both would have died fighting or become fugitives.”
But the moment he saw Baek Ryeo-il’s face, he regretted it. He had to face Baek Ryeo-il’s cold gaze, which was terrifyingly devoid of a single shred of emotion.
“But that doesn’t mean you left for my sake. If you truly cared for me, you would have known what I wanted. You left for yourself. You couldn’t bear to see me broken because of you. But do you know? I don’t break over something like that.”
“…….”
“Whether I was hunted, living in hiding, or no matter what anyone said, I was confident I wouldn’t waver. You say what you did was for others, but in truth, it was just pathetic self-consolation. In the end, everything you did was for your own satisfaction.”
Baek Ryeo-il took a step forward.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you.”
Stepping out from the shadow of the tree into the faint moonlight, his face looked even more callous and cold.
Seong Mu-yeon now sincerely regretted it.
He shouldn’t have left Yak Seon’s laboratory. He should have run away the moment he encountered Baek Ryeo-il.
He must have had a petty confidence that a handful of Baek Ryeo-il’s heart would still be directed toward him.
Facing a Baek Ryeo-il who had completely let go, Seong Mu-yeon felt a great shock and a pain as if his heart were being torn apart.
“……You said that the next time we meet, we would see each other as enemies.”
Baek Ryeo-il untied the sword from his waist and gripped it by the scabbard. He should have prepared for an attack, but Seong Mu-yeon remained frozen like a stone statue. No, he didn’t even want to move.
“I thought wrong. You mean nothing to me to the point where I would go that far.”
Far from attacking him, Baek Ryeo-il relaxed his grip. The Nansaeng Sword slid and fell to the ground.
“I don’t need anything you gave me. I’m stopping everything.”
Then, he turned around and walked away without a hint of lingering attachment.
“Do, Dojo……”
Only then did Seong Mu-yeon snap back to his senses. He set the unconscious Peng Do-hwan on the ground, stepped past the Nansaeng Sword, and followed Baek Ryeo-il.
“Don’t follow me!”
Baek Ryeo-il suddenly turned with a fierce expression and shouted violently. Seong Mu-yeon stopped in his tracks.
“If you follow me one more time, then we truly will have to face each other as enemies.”
After the fierce shout, Baek Ryeo-il glared at him coldly as a warning and turned away. The presence of the hesitating Seong Mu-yeon soon grew quiet and gradually faded as he walked away.
“……Ha.”
Once he had distanced himself to a point where he could no longer feel Seong Mu-yeon, Baek Ryeo-il released the breath he had been holding.
It is truly the end now.
He would stop losing sleep thinking of him, and stop aching with anger and longing.
A deep fatigue cast a shadow over the face of Baek Ryeo-il, who stared blankly ahead.
Now that he had finally brought closure, he felt a bleak sensation, as if the ground beneath his feet had collapsed.
It felt as if he were born with a destiny to float like duckweed, unable to take root.
The world is so wide, so why does it feel like there isn’t a single place to set foot……
He has a home to return to, and people waiting for him, so why……
Just then, along with the urgent sound of brush being pushed aside, a pale-faced Gang Woong appeared.
“Ma, Master?! Why are you here?”
Seeing Baek Ryeo-il, Gang Woong’s already pale complexion turned even whiter with surprise. Owl peeked his head out from behind the boy.
“And what are you doing here?”
Baek Ryeo-il narrowed his eyes.
Seeing him so excessively flustered, he was surely hiding something. And ten times out of ten, it would be Seong Mu-yeon. It seemed Gang Woong had finally realized his identity.
“No, it’s not that…… then who is that person?! I thought it was you, Master……”
Gang Woong pointed toward the middle of Kilyeon Cliff. Baek Ryeo-il followed his fingertip with suspicious eyes.
On the mountainside submerged in darkness, a faint silhouette came into view. An unknown stranger, carrying two people over his shoulders, disappeared into the valley across the mountain range.
“…….”
Sensing something, Baek Ryeo-il immediately retraced his steps. Gang Woong could not keep up with his speed as he used light body skill and fell behind.
“……Seong Mu-yeon?”
But Seong Mu-yeon was already gone from that spot. Peng Do-hwan was nowhere to be seen either. Only the trampled grass, crushed by weight, testified to the fact that people had been there.
Only the Nansaeng Sword remained, left behind in the emptiness to greet Baek Ryeo-il.