Chapter 20
The year Baek Yeonhwa learned that Cheonjeongrok existed was the year she turned twenty.
She was a teenage martial master, known as the Yin-Yang Dual Veins.
Until then, she had believed the harmony of yin and yang filling her body was simply talent.
But on the day she turned twenty, while training in martial arts.
Her body suddenly changed.
The shock of that day, when traces of the Azure Dragon appeared where they should never appear on a human, was still vivid.
From then on, she learned that she was not an ordinary human, but a half-human, half-divine being who had swallowed the Azure Dragon's scales.
And she also realized that, having been given life, she had to devote her own life in return.
What was especially shocking was this.
Seventeen.
Her closest friend, Misohwa's death.
When she realized even that had been the will of the Azure Dragon, it felt as if the ground had collapsed beneath her.
A tragedy entered her life.
A resolve to grow strong.
Training that carved away at her flesh.
Growth born from overcoming tragedy.
Taking on the burden of fulfilling the dream of becoming a peerless master that her friend who died first had cherished.
Even the farewell at her friend's grave, smiling brightly and sending her off to rest in peace—.
'It wasn't my efforts.'
All of it.
had been decided from the start to turn out that way.
* * *
Recently, there haven't been any customers.
Surprisingly, rough-and-ready types get along well with each other, and every match I set up seems to work out.
Thanks to that, the marriage fees get nice and fat, and the leftover money keeps getting invested in stocks day after day.
"Yawn."
I make enough that I don't have to tremble when I buy cigarettes, so it's a satisfying enough life.
But even then, the stock market still has to hit it big if I want to realize my dream of a Seoul apartment.
What a miserable life.
'How is it that after working and investing in stocks for my entire life, praying is the only way to buy an apartment?'
At this point, isn't society the one that's wrong?
"B-boss."
"What?"
"A-are you bored?"
"Huh?"
I glanced over, and Kim Yang was gesturing. She seemed to be filming something with a phone stand in front of her.
"What are you doing?"
"D-dancing."
"Are you kidding? You have no work, so you're goofing off? Then go clean or something."
Today was a leisurely day with no complaint calls coming in.
At most, the main task was that today was Baek Yeonhwa's matchmaking day.
That was her business, anyway.
I set her up with a good man.
His grade was B-rank.
The captain of the 4th-floor mercenaries, Lucal.
This man's personality was a little unusual: despite being a mercenary captain, he liked fairy tales and heroic tales.
The moment I told him a story about a woman at the mercy of a book called Cheonjeongrok, he snapped at it like he'd found gold.
It wasn't intentional, though.
Since we really do take on just about anyone, all sorts of people with all sorts of quirks come in.
But among those oddballs, there are people who miraculously fit together perfectly.
Like pieces from different puzzles that somehow interlock flawlessly?
Thanks to that, Baek Yeonhwa and Lucal.
The two of them could be connected.
'He might fall a little short in fighting power... but whether the Azure Dragon is satisfied or not isn't something I can do anything about.'
If you want to get married, compromise.
Life is a chain of compromises.
"B-boss! I'm telling you to come here! Dance with me! We don't have anything to do anyway."
"Are you crazy? Want me to cut your pay?"
"We d-don't have anything to do."
"That doesn't mean we have to dance."
"Wouldn't it be good publicity for Meracle too?"
"......"
Tempting.
If a famous influencer like Kim Yang promoted us, that would be great.
No, wait.
"But Kim Yang, don't you take ads and stuff? I heard influencers make their living off sponsorships."
Isn't it a job where they get sponsored, go traveling and to good restaurants, post it, and get paid?
It's not that different from being a YouTuber.
"I, I don't take ads."
"......Why?"
"S, my principles."
"Y, your principles?"
"D-don't copy me."
"D-don't copy me?"
"Die."
Kim Yang immediately grabbed a file folder and threw it, then stood beside me, snickering.
"How are you going to promote us?"
"L-let's dance. I'll introduce you as our boss."
"Hmm, but are you really famous? When I sometimes lurk on your page, the comments do seem pretty numerous though—"
"I, I get five ad offers a month. The starting ad fee is 2 million won."
"Huh?"
Why am I paying you more than the minimum wage I pay you?
"......Kim Yang."
"Yeah?"
"Should I be your manager? Let's rake in some money with ads."
Kim Yang immediately raised her middle finger.
That girl didn't hesitate when it came to doing things she shouldn't to her boss.
"S, so you're not going to do it, boss? If you dance with me, I'll help promote it."
"Forget it. You're famous, and I don't want my face getting out there."
If my face got known for no reason, who knew what might happen.
For example, if my father saw it.
'That would be funny.'
If the son who ran away from home were dancing with some unknown woman on social media, I'd be baffled too.
Though, well, it was impossible.
"Tch."
She really did seem disappointed.
I could hear snippets of various songs playing one after another.
While I was deciding what dance to do, the door opened and Lenea came in.
"Eat your lunch!"
"Oh!"
These days, I skip breakfast and lunch.
Because Lenea brings a literal bucketful of discarded food.
As expected of a grandma.
Grandmothers are just naturally generous with food.
Wouldn't she see me, who's roughly 1,875 years younger than her, as some absurdly distant great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchild?
"......For some reason, I'm starting not to want to give it to you."
Lenea stared at me.
Even so, she was already holding the lunch box out to me.
Habits ingrained in the body are hard to break, even if you want to.
While I was heating the lunch box in the microwave, Kim Yang rummaged through a bag and asked worriedly.
"Uh, you brought a lot? A-are you okay?"
"Ah, it is a bit much, isn't it? Actually, the store manager complained a little. Still, I forced my way into bringing it!"
"I-I’m touched."
What.
You just started part-time work, and you're already getting grief from the store manager, yet you're still looking after us?
That makes me feel bad.
"If it gets in the way of work, you don't have to go out of your way to bring it."
We're not in the money-strapped situation we used to be in, and there's no need to make do with throwaway lunch boxes.
"Hm? No, no."
But Lenea smiled kindly and handed me a triangle kimbap too.
"It reminds me of when I used to feed the pigeons while staying at Daebongsan. It's a little vicarious satisfaction."
"......"
"......"
Are we pigeons now?
"If it's okay, would you mind coo-coo-coo-cooing?"
"Please don't bring discarded food again."
"I, I’m a sheep, not a pigeon."
To think I was suddenly being pitied.
By a 1,901-year-old grandma who went around looking for someone who looked like Cha Eun-woo, no less.
"More importantly, you seem free today?"
"Yes, well... right. This is normal."
There are lots of special customers, so most of the time it's quiet rather than busy.
Ding!
The phone rang the moment the lunch box finished heating up.
A completely unfamiliar number was calling.
What is this.
I thought it might be spam, but for some reason I had a bad feeling, so I answered.
"Hello?"
- Ah, hero. It's me.
"Baek Yeonhwa? Did you buy a phone?"
- I bought one. Though I can only use it on the third floor.
It sounded like a normal conversation, but her voice wasn't in very good shape.
- I'm on my way to meet the person called Lucal whom the hero introduced me to.
"He's a pretty decent guy. Maybe, surprisingly, the kind of ocean-like person who understands everything?"
Since she wouldn't know that I knew Cheonjeongrok or that I'd told Lucal about it, I'd made the pitch sound natural.
Baek Yeonhwa hesitated for a moment, then carefully got to the point.
- Um, hero.
"Yes?"
- I heard there's something called an ambulance here. That it comes directly to you instead of you going to a clinic.
"......"
The atmosphere turned chilly.
An ambulance? Suddenly?
- I don't know how to call one, and you're the only person I can ask to call it for me. A-and the only number I have is the one written on Meracle's business card.
"Why are you suddenly asking for an ambulance?"
- That is......
How should I explain this?
After some thought, Baek Yeonhwa tried to put it indirectly.
- M-my family said they're sending an assassin to the man named Lucal.
"An assassin?"
To kill him?
- It's called an assassin, but it's really a kind of performance. So... it means they're testing whether Lucal can protect me.
"Haa."
I desperately wanted to ask whether this was also written in whatever that Cheonjeongrok was, but I held back.
- The truth is, I have to be married before I turn twenty-three. But this isn't even a martial marriage arrangement, just a meeting, so I can't suddenly ask for a duel.
"He has to at least be able to deal with the assassin they sent as the minimum?"
- Even that was a compromise, hero.
Baek Yeonhwa muttered, embarrassed.
She said it was her family, but it was probably what the Azure Dragon wanted.
"Hoo, all right for now. But Lucal has been through a lot too, so he isn't someone you can just dismiss."
A little later, the address Baek Yeonhwa sent was an abandoned complex with no one around.
A place so blatant it made me wonder if they could be any more obvious.
"Aren't you going to eat your lunch?"
"......I think I need to step out for a moment."
I got a bad feeling.
Looking out the window, the sky was packed with dark clouds.
"Y-you don't need an umbrella. T-they said it wouldn't rain today."
Kim Yang's words sounded almost like a forecast that it would rain today.
* * *
It felt like rereading a story whose ending I already knew.
And usually, stories like that make your heart go cold before you even reach the ending.
The important thing was.
Baek Yeonhwa probably didn't like this story very much.
"Don't worry, Baek Yeonhwa. I'll protect you."
The man called Lucal was a good person.
His excessive cologne and his particularly noticeable mustache.
And, of course, the fact that his looks weren't really my type.
"I don't know where you came from, but don't even think about touching Yeonhwa."
It sounded like a line a fairy-tale knight would say.
Contrary to his appearance, he was strangely earnest.
Not bad.
But he was weak.
'This man won't do.'
That fact became painfully clear as they exchanged a few moves.
Lucal fought hard, but the assassins' movements were not just one step above his—they were several steps above.
In the end, the assassins sent by the family—no, by the Azure Dragon—easily brought Lucal down.
"Aaaagh!"
With a heavy thud, Lucal fainted.
A cold wind blew.
Without sunlight, it was a bone-chilling cold.
"Tell the matchmaker to send a much stronger man next time—"
"Shiiing—!"
A sound like wind brushing past.
A sword was drawn.
At that sight, Baek Yeonhwa's brow furrowed.
"Stop. What are you doing? Are you trying to kill him?"
Even if he was unqualified, this was as far as it went.
Baek Yeonhwa stepped forward and stopped the assassins.
"We've confirmed enough. Since he's an unqualified man, let's stop here—"
Squelch!
A searing pain surged through Baek Yeonhwa.
Before the words could even finish, a burning sensation pierced her abdomen.
......What?
Her thoughts couldn't keep up.
When Baek Yeonhwa groped at her abdomen, stinging with pain, sticky blood came away in a wet smear.
Blood?
I was stabbed?
Me?
Why?
Questions chased one another, but the assassin wordlessly pulled the sword out.
"Ah……"
Baek Yeonhwa's body collapsed weakly.
At the edge of her upside-down vision, the sky came into view.
'So they weren't the ones sent by the Azure Dragon...'
Not the family's choice.
Not the Azure Dragon's will.
Then why?
For what purpose?
The answer came quickly.
"He's coming."
One of the assassins said, looking up at the clouded sky.
The thick dark clouds began to churn like a vortex.
It wasn't tearing apart.
A huge hole opened in the sky, as if someone were wrenching it open.
KWA-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-AANG!
Blue lightning poured down like rain, making the earth tremble.
The god of the old martial world.
The being called the Azure Dragon.
He was descending to the third floor right now to save his child.