“Did you sleep well?”
Early in the morning, Jin Geum-ryeon, wearing a radiant smile as if he had enjoyed a sound sleep, came to the stable where Ak Mujin was. Seeing him, Ak Mujin felt a surge of anger.
He had tried to sleep in the stable last night but ended up coming outside. He simply couldn’t sleep inside because of the smell of horse dung.
However, because of the rope Jin Geum-ryeon had tied him with, he couldn’t completely leave the stable, so his best option was to lean against the wall next to the door and doze off.
Who is born wanting to be a member of the Demonic Cult? Ak Mujin grumbled inwardly.
“I told you to sleep inside, so why are you out here in the cold?”
Jin Geum-ryeon said, grinning as if he didn’t understand. Then, he approached the post where Ak Mujin was tied and untied the rope. Ak Mujin somehow felt like he had become livestock.
“Can’t you tell even after going inside? What the smell inside is like.”
“Well, it does smell a bit like horse dung.”
Jin Geum-ryeon said as if it were nothing, holding the rope and coming out of the stable. Then, he lowered his head close to Ak Mujin’s chin and sniffed.
“Ugh, the smell. Don’t come near me.”
Ak Mujin clenched his fist tightly. But since he couldn’t hit Jin Geum-ryeon, he took a step, then started walking three steps away from him. Jin Geum-ryeon, holding the rope in front, and Ak Mujin, tied to the rope behind, looked like a farmer leading a cow.
“I won’t run away, so can’t you untie this rope?”
“How can I believe those words?”
Jin Geum-ryeon said without looking back.
“Either way, my energy channels are twisted, so I can’t use my inner energy. Besides, where would I go even if I ran away from here?”
Ak Mujin grumbled, and Jin Geum-ryeon thought there was some truth to that, so he pondered for a moment.
“Then I can’t have you behind me.”
“Why not?”
“The dung smell….”
Ak Mujin finally got angry and gathered inner energy in both hands, pulling them apart to the left and right. Then, the thick rope made a tearing sound and shattered into pieces.
Cough, cough, cough.
Although his hands were free, Ak Mujin coughed up blood. He bent over for a long time, coughing and spitting out blood.
People passing by were horrified at the sight and avoided him. Originally, this scene of vomiting blood would be a device to show the frail and pitiful appearance of a beautiful protagonist, but Ak Mujin just looked unsightly.
“Tsk, tsk….”
Jin Geum-ryeon rummaged inside his collar and took out a small medicine bottle. And when he tilted it into his palm, a few pills rolled out.
“Here, chew and swallow them.”
Ak Mujin’s eyes were bloodshot from vomiting blood for quite a while. He gasped for breath and barely picked up the pills Jin Geum-ryeon handed him, put them in his mouth, and chewed them. They were so bitter that he felt like he would throw up again, but he stubbornly endured and swallowed them.
After about fifteen minutes, Ak Mujin, who had finally calmed down, lowered his breathing and looked at Jin Geum-ryeon.
“Hoo… I won’t go anywhere, so don’t worry.”
“Hmm.”
Jin Geum-ryeon nodded and left the inn again.
Since it was still early in the morning, there weren’t many people walking around in the village. Of course, not many markets were open yet either, so they decided to buy masks in the next village and hurried on.
“We’ll go around a bit to get to the Martial Alliance.”
“Why?”
“There are many large sects in Seoseong, and I don’t want to run into those sects. We always clash when we meet.”
Come to think of it, Geum-ryeon was affiliated with the orthodox faction, but because his master was an unknown hermit who wasn’t famous in the orthodox faction, he tended to be ignored when he encountered the large sects of the orthodox faction.
Mae-yeong wasn’t too strict about what was considered the righteous path, so he grew up relatively freely. After descending from Mae-yeong’s care, he exchanged words with the orthodox faction a few times and was taken aback by their arrogance.
Ak Mujin already knew why Jin Geum-ryeon thought that way, so he nodded lightly. But somehow, Jin Geum-ryeon seemed to have some doubts.
“Aren’t you going to ask why this is either?”
“Well, your master is also very flexible, so you naturally have that kind of personality.”
Jin Geum-ryeon suddenly stopped walking. Ak Mujin kept going, and when Jin Geum-ryeon didn’t come to his side, he also stopped and looked back.
“How do you know that? Do you know my master?”
“Huh…?”
Ak Mujin became dazed. It seemed he had been away from the Demonic Cult for too long. All of this, which was obvious to others, was too comfortable for him. Ak Mujin quickly cleared his throat and squeezed out an excuse.
“…Just. You don’t seem to be from the Nine Great Sects either, and I just guessed since you said you learned from a hidden master.”
Jin Geum-ryeon stared at Ak Mujin with sharp eyes before starting to walk again.
“You’re really strange.”
“All Demonic Cult members are like that.”
Ak Mujin quickly retorted. At those words, Jin Geum-ryeon laughed splendidly.
*
They encountered another village during their journey, but since it hadn’t been long since they left, they just passed by. However, as the sun was setting and there was no sign of a village, Geum-ryeon thought it was somewhat disastrous.
Someone like Jin Geum-ryeon would be fine not sleeping for a few days, day or night, but Ak Mujin was now in a state no different from a patient. If they were to walk through the night, he would undoubtedly doze off and collapse like a sick chicken.
“We’ll have to camp out tonight.”
Ak Mujin also looked around.
He had lived as a member of the Demonic Cult for 15 years.
He had made the protagonist camp out many times while writing novels, but Ak Mujin himself was a young master of the Demonic Cult, so he had never camped out in those 15 years.
I don’t want to sleep on the dirt floor.
Jin Geum-ryeon will definitely throw Ak Mujin anywhere. He’ll even tie up his hands.
“Why? If we walk further, another village will appear.”
“You walk too slowly, so we won’t arrive before the sun goes down.”
Ak Mujin gritted his teeth at Jin Geum-ryeon’s sarcasm. Ak Mujin had no choice but to follow Jin Geum-ryeon.
There was only one road, and they had entered the mountains in the middle of nowhere. As they walked a little, a somewhat flat plain appeared beyond the bushes. Jin Geum-ryeon, as if it wasn’t his first time, started a fire and took out a large cloth from his luggage, spreading it on the grass.
Ak Mujin naturally tried to sit on it, but Jin Geum-ryeon’s hand blocked him. He gestured to Ak Mujin over there. It was the floor with nothing laid out.
“…I’m a patient….”
“Why should I treat the enemy of my parents like a precious jewel from a prestigious family and take care of you?”
Ak Mujin felt drained every time he heard the words “enemy of my parents.” In the end, he plopped down on the bare ground.
“I won’t let you starve, so wait a moment.”
Jin Geum-ryeon left those words and disappeared into the bushes. Ak Mujin quietly stared at the bonfire. Seeing the burning fire, he suddenly thought of home.
His ‘home.’
The ‘home’ in the real world.
In the summer, his family would always say, “Let’s go camping,” with expectant eyes. But Ak Mujin, who was a novelist and an office worker, had never been able to do so even once.
He suddenly felt depressed.
There were many times like this when he was in the Demonic Cult, but it was especially so today.
As he was spacing out while staring at the fire for a long time, he didn’t even feel something approaching, and before he knew it, someone was sitting in front of him.
It was Jin Geum-ryeon.
He was holding a large lump of mud in his hand.
“Are you already sleeping?”
Jin Geum-ryeon threw two words at Ak Mujin and tied the lump of mud well to a relatively sturdy branch. Then, he started baking it over the bonfire.
“It’s not that.”
Ak Mujin cleared his throat and looked at the bonfire.
Jin Geum-ryeon was turning the lump of mud around appropriately, and as time passed, it smelled savory, just like chicken.
Only then did he realize that there was a setting that Jin Geum-ryeon knew how to cook.
Geum-ryeon had grown up in Mae-yeong’s mountain for 15 years. When he was young, he grew up eating the bizarre food that Mae-yeong made, but after he got older, he cooked himself and offered it to his master.
Ak Mujin had already forgotten his depression and was starting to get a little excited. He was about to taste the food made by his protagonist.
Growl.
After a while, Ak Mujin’s stomach rumbled. When he glanced at Geum-ryeon’s face, the corners of his mouth were twitching.
“Pig.”
“Pigs don’t actually eat that much.”
Ak Mujin retorted.
“Is that so?”
Ak Mujin became even more annoyed at Jin Geum-ryeon’s teasing reply.
“That’s right.”
“Then you wouldn’t mind being called a pig?”
“…….”
Ak Mujin lost his words and sat down with his arms crossed. It felt like just yesterday that he was a tiny thing, but he had grown up so much that he was teasing and mocking him. Watching that, Jin Geum-ryeon moved to the side and gave him some space.
“It’s too far over there, so sit here until you finish eating the pheasant.”
He had thought there were wild chickens in a place like this, but it seemed that what was inside the lump of mud was a pheasant. Ak Mujin looked at the seat next to Jin Geum-ryeon and turned his head away.
“I’m fine.”
“Really?”
Geum-ryeon now broke the baked mud. Then, hot steam rose through the cracks, and it smelled even more savory and greasy.
“I’m not eating.”
The more Ak Mujin smelled this, the more empty his stomach felt. He had never thought he wanted to eat pheasant meat in his life, but today the smell was so fragrant. Geum-ryeon carefully carved the meat so that no dirt would get on it and placed a piece on a flat stone he had picked up from somewhere.
“Well, if you starve to death, it’s like blowing my nose without any effort, so it’s good for me.”
It was a phrase he had heard somewhere. Ak Mujin looked askance at Jin Geum-ryeon as if asking if he was serious. Geum-ryeon took a bite of the meat as if to tease him and chewed.