Chapter 29
#29. Martial Arts (6)
It was afternoon, with the sun high in the sky.
After roughly filling our stomachs with lunch, we continued walking toward Xi’an.
Pushing through a thicket where there was no sign of human passage made me feel like some kind of pioneer.
That’s right. It meant we were going through absolute hell.
“Can I ask you something?”
“No.”
“Isn’t there another route besides this forest path? At the very least, it would be easier to walk if there were signs that someone else had passed through.”
My clothes had not torn, and I had not been injured, but I occasionally felt something prick me or stepped on something of unknown origin, leaving me with the distinct feeling that I was suffering for no reason.
“Do you remember what we discussed yesterday?”
“?”
“...This lady suspected you were an assassin. Of course, I no longer suspect you, but if you aren’t an assassin, an assassin hired by the First Young Master must still be looking for me somewhere. If we use roads people travel, they may discover us.”
“Ah.”
It seemed unlikely that an assassin would come looking for us in broad daylight with a dagger, but thinking about it, such a thing was entirely possible in a world without CCTV.
To put it bluntly, if someone killed a person and tossed the body to a wild animal, who would know who the culprit was?
“...You.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa tugged on my sleeve.
“I cannot explain the details, but if you continue traveling with me, you’ll be in danger too. Since you’re headed to Xi’an, I’ll tell you the way; wouldn’t it be better for us to part here?”
Both her voice and the hand gripping my sleeve were trembling slightly.
“Although our meeting was born from a misunderstanding, I owe you a great deal after this short time together. I can no longer...”
“I’m sorry, but that won’t do.”
I grabbed Cheon Yeo-hwa by the wrist.
If we were going our separate ways, we would have done so long ago. I had not the slightest intention of backing down now.
If anything, I had nearly gone bald worrying about what excuse I could use to keep traveling with her after reaching Xi’an.
“I’m such a terrible sense of direction that even if you tell me the way, I’ll get lost soon and die from a fall.”
I had even handed her a reason for us to travel together. If she couldn’t pick up on it, she would have to be dumber than a dolphin.
I’ll happily claim that sweet settlement reward.
“...Thank you.”
Cheon Yeo-hwa was grateful for his spirited answer, but at the same time, she felt a guilt that seemed to constrict her chest.
This, too, was an emotion Cheon Yeo-hwa had never experienced during her days as the Moon Spirit Witch.
She had already received far too much from him.
Yet despite never having repaid him for anything, she could not bring herself to firmly reject even his intention to accompany her along this dangerous road.
She hated this utterly weak-willed choice, yet as she watched his broad back walking ahead of her, she felt something she could not explain.
Since meeting him, she had been learning one unfamiliar emotion after another.
·
·
·
After walking and resting in turns for quite some time, the sun had begun to set before we knew it.
If we did not want to search for a campsite in the middle of the night, we had to get a move on now.
Fortunately, we found a suitable clearing nearby and set up a tent and a fire pit there, just as we had the day before.
While I hurried to prepare dinner, the sun disappeared completely and darkness descended.
If we had been even a little later, setting up the fire pit and tent in a place without a single ray of light would have been absolute hell.
Of course, I could have simply used Light in that situation, but after walking all day, I did not want to spend mana as well.
“What is this...?”
“A hamburger. If it’s difficult to eat, flatten it once before eating.”
Some people might curse you as a heretic for eating it this way, but you couldn’t exactly cut a hamburger up with a knife, could you?
Or eat it with your jaw unhinged.
“This is another kind of food I have never seen before. Where on earth did you come from to keep making food like this...?”
“Are you curious?”
There was no answer.
Perhaps Cheon Yeo-hwa felt it would be a little inappropriate to pry into my identity when she herself was hiding so many things from me.
“Then how about we each ask and answer one question? I’ll even give you the chance to ask first.”
To be honest, I was not particularly curious about Cheon Yeo-hwa.
I roughly knew her name, age, origins, and even the situation she was currently in.
This was less an exchange of information than a way to grow closer to Cheon Yeo-hwa.
Of course, I wasn’t expecting one truth game to turn us into lovers like Iris and me. That would be far too greedy.
Still, perhaps a chance would arise if we grew closer.
At first, I had been more interested in the settlement reward, but now I had become interested in Cheon Yeo-hwa herself.
Her appearance went without saying, and as for the rest...
‘...But she’s so overwhelmingly beautiful that I wonder if I even need another reason.’
Her personality had seemed rather peculiar at first, but the more I saw of her, the more adorable sides she revealed.
Like the way she ate her hamburger with tiny little bites, just like a squirrel.
She looked exactly like a girl-crush third-generation chaebol heiress who would go shopping in Cheongdam-dong or Gangnam.
“Your name.”
“Huh?”
“We have not even exchanged names yet.”
Come to think of it, I knew Cheon Yeo-hwa’s name, but even though we had been together for nearly sixteen hours, she still did not know mine.
Actually, it was even stranger that we had spent sixteen hours together without feeling particularly uncomfortable despite not knowing each other’s names.
“Kang Hyeon-woo.”
Hyeon, meaning “to appear,” and U, meaning “to help.”
I did not really know what it meant. My parents had passed away without telling me what kind of person they had hoped I would become when they gave me that name.
“Kang Hyeon-woo...”
Cheon Yeo-hwa quietly repeated my name as though savoring it.
Her reaction made me feel a little embarrassed.
No matter how much I thought about it, the only people who had ever called my name that way were the nun who ran the orphanage, Iris, and Cheon Yeo-hwa.
“Then it’s my turn.”
This time, I decided that once the matching was over, I would visit the orphanage for the first time in a while.
“What’s your name?”
“...Cheon Yeo-hwa.”
“Nice name.”
It had been one day since we met, but not yet two.
We finally learned each other’s names.
***
“It’s your turn now. Aren’t you going to ask anything else?”
“No.”
We had finished dinner, and my questions were over, but Cheon Yeo-hwa did not seem interested in asking anything more.
“You... No, Hyeon-woo, if there’s anything you’d like to know, you may ask.”
“...?”
I was a little surprised that she suddenly called me by my name, but I was even more surprised by how completely the atmosphere had changed.
Why did her personality seem to be growing gentler the longer this went on?
“Then I will.”
I already knew what I was going to ask.
Who exactly was the First Young Master she had mentioned, why was she under threat of assassination, and where had she come from?
The reason I asked despite already knowing was simple.
By sharing a secret, we would become closer.
However, my question never even got started before it had to end.
Thud-
“Huh?”
Cheon Yeo-hwa, who had been warming herself in front of the fire pit, suddenly collapsed.
“Cheon Yeo-hwa!”
I sprang to my feet and ran toward her.
“Haa, haa, haa...”
Cheon Yeo-hwa had collapsed while clutching her chest, looking to be in tremendous pain.
Her complexion had gone pale, and cold sweat flowed down her face without stopping.
Even at a glance, her condition looked extremely serious.
‘What is this? Is she sick somewhere? But she was fine just a moment ago.’
Regardless, I could not leave her like this.
I immediately picked up Cheon Yeo-hwa, ran to the tent, and carefully laid her down.
“Cheon Yeo-hwa! Come to your senses!”
“U, ungh...”
Was she in so much pain that she could not even answer?
“What am I supposed to do in a situation like this...?”
Should I carry Cheon Yeo-hwa in my arms and run all the way to Xi’an right now?
But I did not know the way to Xi’an.
Even if I had known, Cheon Yeo-hwa might not survive until we reached it.
But leaving her like this was a problem, too.
I did not know whether this was something she could recover from on her own by resting. I was not a doctor, after all.
“There has to be some way... Ah!”
At that moment, one possible method suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Weakness Detection.”
Weakness Detection was a skill that showed the target’s weaknesses, just as its name suggested.
For humans and humanoid monsters, the head and heart usually shone the brightest.
But that only meant they shone the brightest; it did not mean the only vital points in the human body were those two places. In practice, areas containing major blood vessels, many nerves, bones liable to break, and joints liable to bend were all vital points of the human body.
Then what about a patient?
Wouldn’t an injured area or an organ impaired by illness shine brighter than other places after the head and heart?
“I found it.”
Weakness Detection showed Cheon Yeo-hwa’s head, heart, and lower abdomen glowing brightly.
More precisely, it was her dantian, a place that appeared without fail in fictional works with martial-arts settings.
“It looks like there’s a purplish tinge... Could it be poison?”
I was not certain, but for now, it was the most reasonable conclusion.
“Shop.”
The moment I thought it might be poison, I remembered one item in the shop.
Please don’t let it have reset.
[Shop]
[Lowest-Grade Antidote: Sold Out]
[Sweet Apple: 250 Coins]
[Imperial Army’s Mana Sword: Sold Out]
[A Book of Culture for a Glamorous Woman: 540 Coins]
[Advanced Random Scroll: 600 Coins]
·
·
·
“It’s there!”
[Would you like to purchase Sweet Apple?]
[Y/N]
[Y]
[You have purchased Sweet Apple]
[Remaining Coins: 1,200 Coins]
Sweet Apple was an item that appeared alongside the Lowest-Grade Antidote when I searched the shop for an antidote after being poisoned in a dungeon.
[Sweet Apple]
[Grade: Rare]
[Grants a positive effect upon consumption.]
It was fifty coins more expensive than the Lowest-Grade Antidote, but its grade was one level higher. In a way, buying this might have been more beneficial, but at the time, I needed an antidote whose effect was certain.
So I had merely skimmed its description and moved on.
“But she can’t eat an apple in her current condition, can she?”
It had a sweet smell, but its size and shape were no different from those of an ordinary apple. How could someone who was too sick even to stay conscious eat it?
“...All she has to do is eat it, right?”
I roughly washed my hands with drinking water, then gripped the apple.
“Wait just a little. I’ll grind it up so it’s easier to eat.”
Of course, it would be more accurate to say I was squeezing it rather than grinding it.
Squeeze- My mana-enhanced grip performed as though I had effortlessly put the apple into a juicer.
An extraordinarily sweet aroma wafted from the apple juice that flowed into the cup.
“This should do.”
I carefully brought the juice to Cheon Yeo-hwa’s lips with a spoon.
“Uu...”
“...This doesn’t work either.”
I had ground it as finely as water and transferred it to a spoon so it would be easy to consume, but Cheon Yeo-hwa remained unable to regain consciousness, apparently in too much pain to come to her senses.
In this condition, even drinking water by herself would be difficult.
I had no choice.
“I’m saving your life, so don’t resent me later.”
I held the apple juice in my mouth and pressed my lips to Cheon Yeo-hwa’s.
Without even having time to feel the softness and moisture of her lips, I carefully opened her mouth and let the apple juice flow inside.
It was not a kiss meant to satisfy any ulterior motives, but I could not help feeling a little sensual.
After finishing three kisses under the pretext of saving her life, Cheon Yeo-hwa’s complexion had improved considerably.
Ding-
[The positive effect activates after consuming Sweet Apple]
[Decomposing Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus]
[Decomposing…]
[Decomposition failed]
[Positive effect activated]
[The poison energy of Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus subsides]
[The remaining poison energy of Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus struggles]
[Positive effect activated]
[The remaining poison energy of Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus falls asleep]
***
In the deep hours before dawn, when even the wild animals of the mountains would have fallen asleep.
“Uu... Wha...?”
After waking from her sleep, Cheon Yeo-hwa was bewildered by the sight of Kang Hyeon-woo sleeping while holding her in his arms.
“Hyeon-woo, why are you...?”
She was flustered.
The fact that Kang Hyeon-woo had fallen asleep while holding her was one thing, but she could not remember how this situation had come about.
Her throbbing head contained nothing but broken fragments of memory.
Aside from a slight headache, Cheon Yeo-hwa felt far better than usual and was soon able to determine what had happened from those fragments.
‘Did I collapse because the poison energy ran wild...?’
She had suffered occasional attacks like this before.
Whenever the poison energy suddenly ran wild, she had suffered excruciating pain, but each time, she had somehow maintained her sanity and endured it.
That was why this was the first time she had ever lost consciousness.
Her internal energy had been steadily dwindling while the poison grew stronger and stronger. That must have been why she no longer had the strength to resist the poison energy.
In fact, before meeting him, she had half given up, thinking that she had at most another month or so left to live.
“I was certain that was how it would be... but what on earth is this...?”
Cheon Yeo-hwa confirmed that nearly eighty percent of the power of the Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus, which had constantly sought out her dantian, had died down.
Even the remaining twenty percent was quiet as a mouse.
The Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus was a type of qi-dispersing poison imbued with powerful yang energy.
It was extremely incompatible with her dense yin energy and was one of the three ultimate poisons of the Heavenly Poison Pavilion, which cooperated with the First Young Master.
It was practically impossible to cure. She had believed that even the head of the Tang Clan, known as the patriarch of poisons, or a divine physician said to be capable of bringing the dead back to life would have no hope of curing it.
Yet what on earth had happened for her condition to improve this much?
Cheon Yeo-hwa resolved to recall a little more of what had happened.
At the cost of a headache that grew even worse as she dug through her memories, Cheon Yeo-hwa glimpsed a brief but intense moment.
“?!!”
The moment Kang Hyeon-woo held something in his mouth and kissed her.
‘Ah, aah...!!’
A scream that she could not bring herself to utter aloud echoed inside her mind.
Cheon Yeo-hwa’s face flushed bright red, as though it might burst at any moment.
‘That was my first time...’
Cheon Yeo-hwa carefully touched her lips.
It felt as though his warmth still remained there.
Moreover, what she had seen in that fragment of memory was not merely a kiss.
As could be inferred from the sight of him feeding her something mouth to mouth, he was clearly the one who had cured the poison energy that seemed destined to take her life.
She was surprised that an antidote for the Heavenly Heart Extreme Yang Fire Poison Lotus existed, but more than that, she felt immense gratitude toward the man who had saved her once again.
Cheon Yeo-hwa remembered the moment she had been struck by the bandit’s iron mace.
She remembered how the sudden surge of poison energy had twisted her qi and blood, leaving her unable to move even a finger.
If she had been her former self, she would not merely have fallen victim to an ambush by such street ruffians. She would have sensed their presence from dozens of paces away and cut off their heads.
But as she had said herself, that was the past.
A past that would never return.
If Kang Hyeon-woo had not saved her then, she undoubtedly would have been dragged away by the bandits without being able to resist at all.
Of course, even if she had to fall into qi deviation, she would have forced up her internal energy and killed the bandits.
And as the price, she would have vomited blood miserably and died alone.
Cheon Yeo-hwa quietly burrowed into Kang Hyeon-woo’s arms.
As though that was where she belonged.
This was when she began to regret ever suspecting his identity.
‘No matter what happens, I will never doubt him again...?!’
Squeeze-
“Eek?!”
Before she could stop him, Kang Hyeon-woo’s large, thick hand grabbed Cheon Yeo-hwa’s buttocks.
“H-Hyeon-woo...?”
“Mmm...”
She was so shocked that she let out a shrill scream and even called his name, but Kang Hyeon-woo merely breathed softly without showing any other reaction.
His hand, however, did not stop fondling her buttocks.
“What kind of sleep-talking is this...?”
What on earth was he dreaming about...?
Kang Hyeon-woo mercilessly kneaded Cheon Yeo-hwa’s buttocks.
Cheon Yeo-hwa did not know what to do in the face of the sexual harassment she was experiencing for the first time in her life.
If the other person had been a lecher, she would have cut off his wrist and genitals without a moment’s hesitation, but she could not do that now.
“Hh, h-hng... Aren’t you kneading too hard...?”
Despite her complaint, Kang Hyeon-woo kneaded Cheon Yeo-hwa’s buttocks however he pleased, as though they were clay. Her buttocks sometimes bulged out between his rough hands, and at other times he tormented her by gently stroking them like a pervert.
She wondered whether this was really something a sleeping person could do, but since he did not seem likely to be pretending to sleep, she could not bring herself to accuse him without cause.
“Do you desire this lady’s body that much...?”
At the same time, Cheon Yeo-hwa was happy.
Cheon Yeo-hwa had spent her entire life believing that men were monkeys with nothing but filthy thoughts in their heads.
Yet the only man to whom she had given her heart in her twenty years of life was Kang Hyeon-woo.
“H-Hyeon-woo...”
If it was you... If you wanted it...
“This lady would gladly...”
“...Iris.”
“.........Huh?”