Jin Geum-ryeon wrapped his arms around Ak Mujin’s waist and leaped into the air. He had half-expected it, but that half-expectation had become reality.
Belatedly witnessing his Coalition Leader departing somewhere, Jin Geum-ryeon’s subordinate hurriedly began to follow him.
“Jin Geum-ryeon! You’re insane. Let me go!”
Ak Mujin shouted in panic, trying to escape from Jin Geum-ryeon’s grasp, but the arms tightly wrapped around his waist had no intention of letting him go, exerting a great deal of force. The more Ak Mujin struggled, the more Jin Geum-ryeon tightened his grip, and he only stopped moving when it became painful. A look of dismay crossed Ak Mujin’s face.
Again, this kind of development.
Kidnapping!
How had being forcibly dragged away by someone become such a routine occurrence? Wasn’t it too much for him, a mere extra, to receive such great attention from the various characters?
While Ak Mujin was trapped in the Spirit Mausoleum, desperately trying to survive, he had only one thought.
Once he escaped this place, he would first meet Seo-mok, explain the situation, and then connect with Chun-wol to somehow create a foundation for him to become independent. His small wish was that, if he were to live in this world forever, he wanted to quietly hide somewhere and peacefully reach the end of his life.
This was Plan B, which he had been carrying around since he first possessed Ak Mujin, in case his top priority plan of dying according to the original story and returning to reality became impossible. In fact, it was the most realistic plan he had.
He might be considered dead in the Demonic Cult and even enshrined in the Spirit Mausoleum, but in a world without plastic surgery, if someone with Ak Mujin’s appearance openly roamed around, he would eventually be discovered, and it would be very difficult to survive alone. In fact, even though he was known to have died once, Elder Yeo had insisted on dragging him back to Heavenly Mountain.
To prevent such a thing from happening again, Ak Mujin needed a stable and reliable helper.
Not Jin Geum-ryeon, the protagonist who had to kill him!
Ak Mujin glanced sideways at Jin Geum-ryeon’s face as he ran forward.
In fact, he remembered clearly having thought that if he could just get out of the Spirit Mausoleum, he would somehow win Jin Geum-ryeon over and say goodbye to this tiresome world.
Now that he thought about it, it seemed like all the hardships Ak Mujin was going through were Jin Geum-ryeon’s fault. Because he wasn’t moving according to the intentions of this unknown Doujinshi world.
Jin Geum-ryeon had come down from Mae-yeong’s Plum Blossom Forest a year earlier than expected and met Ak Mujin. His fate had already begun to twist as soon as he met Jin Geum-ryeon.
If he had escaped from Jin Geum-ryeon quickly back then, things wouldn’t have escalated this far. But Jin Geum-ryeon didn’t think of Mae-yeong, the real heroine, the main seme of the Doujinshi, at all, and began to stick close to Ak Mujin. The more he did, the more Ak Mujin suffered.
But, thinking about it again, the beginning of it all was…
Ak Mujin.
*
Ak Mujin was dumbfounded that he had missed this easy answer for so long. How could he have missed this? He had personally saved the young protagonist with his own hands!
No, even so, he never dreamed that Jin Geum-ryeon would value this insignificant Ak Mujin so much. Since he was designed as an extra in the first place, he should have been easily forgotten, shouldn’t he? He had no idea what aspect of Ak Mujin had been so strongly imprinted on Jin Geum-ryeon.
Anyway, if he were to guess the title of this Doujinshi based on his experiences so far, no matter how hard he racked his brains, the most likely possibility was <Owoong, Strawberry>…. No, <Hongmae>.
Ak Mujin, using the overflowing time while trapped in the Spirit Mausoleum, repeatedly engaged in all sorts of cultivation and meditation, and finally managed to recall the title of ‘that’ Doujinshi.
Mae-yeong appeared as a Yin Person with the scent of plum blossoms, and had a child with the protagonist Jin Geum-ryeon. That enormous comic book spanning 300 pages!
It was truly amazing content. There were over 200 pages of scenes that were embarrassing to even look at alone, so the comic book was so full of desire that it naturally made one wonder how he had endured the remaining 100 pages.
In that story, Jin Geum-ryeon’s mind was filled with only Mae-yeong. He thought about his teacher every moment, and lusted after him.
And, above all, the reason why Ahn Do-hyun could strongly suspect that this was a Doujinshi was… because when he looked back at the moment before he died, he clearly remembered that he was reading this book…
…
He didn’t even dare to imagine how his last scene, which he had remembered in the Spirit Mausoleum, would look to others. Imagine. The body of a certain office worker (male, 30s, part-time writer) was found at his home, and in front of him, a scene of a pair of martial arts novel characters passionately engaging in sexual intercourse was openly displayed on the monitor.
Wouldn’t his family be the first to discover that terrible accident scene in the natural course of events? That’s why… that’s why modern society absolutely needs on-site digital morticians!
Spirit Mausoleum. It was truly a mysterious place.
When trapped in that room of time and spirit, all sorts of things that were hidden deep in one’s memory because they were too embarrassing would pop out.
While feeling self-loathing, he also thought that he couldn’t let his guard down yet.
Nothing had gone according to his expectations so far. There was even Namgung Eui, another candidate for Jin Geum-ryeon’s partner in the Doujinshi, so he had to consider the possibility of it being a different story. In Ak Mujin’s opinion, he didn’t feel any scent from Namgung Eui, so he seemed to be just an Ordinary Person, but you never knew. Ak Mujin himself had been an Ordinary Person until recently.
Ak Mujin paced back and forth in the bedroom for a long time, organizing his thoughts.
Finally, the place where he was allowed to escape from Jin Geum-ryeon’s arms and take a moment’s rest was a luxurious manor that looked to be easily over a thousand pyeong. As soon as Jin Geum-ryeon appeared in front of the manor’s gate, the head of the manor, who had discovered them, rushed out and bowed, guiding them inside.
The head of the manor witnessed Ak Mujin being held by Jin Geum-ryeon and said, spitting excitedly,
‘Finally…. Have you finally found ‘that person’, Coalition Leader?! Congratulations. This is truly a joyous occasion!’
…’Coalition Leader’.
No. Had Jin Geum-ryeon become the ‘Demonic Cult Coalition Leader’ now? Not the next head of the Namgung Clan, but the Demonic Cult Coalition Leader? As the original author, Ak Mujin was quite surprised because it was a direction he hadn’t even thought of.
What on earth had made him like this?
Even seeing Jin Geum-ryeon, who had always seemed so relaxed, now gone, Ak Mujin was dying to know what had happened during the time he was trapped in the Stone Cave.
As he wandered around like that, the smell of food wafted in from outside.
Only then did Ak Mujin hear his stomach rumbling and groan. He hadn’t even seen proper food in the meantime. The last ‘food’ he had eaten was the ritual food placed on his grave, so he felt strangely subtle.
“My lord. I will enter.”
Seven servants of the manor each carried a large, round food container and began to set the table in the inner room. It was truly a grand procession. Each of the dishes was something that even Ahn Do-hyun, a martial arts writer, had never heard of or seen before, so his eyes naturally widened.
Ak Mujin was so engrossed in watching it that he suddenly wondered if he had drooled, so he turned his head and pretended to be uninterested. The last servant finally put down the liquor bottle and cups and left the inner room.
With that, Jin Geum-ryeon reappeared.
Ak Mujin was internally deciding what to eat first among the many dishes, but when he saw Jin Geum-ryeon’s magnificent appearance, reality came right up to his nose, and he lost his appetite a little.
…Or maybe not.
The smell of food continued to tickle Ak Mujin’s nose. Jin Geum-ryeon strode over and brought the awkwardly standing Ak Mujin to the table and sat him down. Then, he glanced at the neatly but lavishly set meal and sat opposite him, opening his mouth.
“They put a little effort into it without me telling them in advance. I’m glad.”
Jin Geum-ryeon immediately filled Ak Mujin’s empty glass with liquor. A sweet scent spread out and then subsided into the glass.
Sitting face to face like this, Ak Mujin realized that Jin Geum-ryeon’s appearance had changed a little compared to when they had last parted.
His cheeks, which had been somewhat youthful because his baby fat hadn’t completely disappeared, were now hollowed out, and there was no trace of cuteness. His eyes had become sharper, and his nose had become more slender, making the lines formed by his features even more distinct. Even his jawline, which had still felt slender, was still sharp but thicker than before, so an undeniable maturity stood out in his overall atmosphere.
Only then did Ak Mujin begin to wonder how long he had been trapped in the Stone Cave.
“…How much… time has passed?”
He narrowed his brows and asked Jin Geum-ryeon.
Then, Jin Geum-ryeon stared at Ak Mujin’s eyes for a moment.