Chapter 140

Chapter 140

“Save me…”

In the darkness.

A young girl with emotionless eyes looked down at the groaning old man while breathing in the thick scent of blood permeating the air. The old man’s belly was split open as he gasped for breath.

“G-Goddess. Please save me…”

“Save you?”

“Please…”

“…How?”

How to save a person.

She didn’t know such a thing. All the girl could do was sit quietly in this place, eat the food brought to her, and sit quietly listening to stories.

People periodically came to her calling her a goddess, but she didn’t understand why she was a goddess. She couldn’t do anything, and she didn’t do anything either.

She disliked this ‘ritual’ a bit.

“Why, why…”

Why won’t you help?

The old man, falling into despair at the sight of the girl looking down at him with an expressionless face, lifted his unmoving fingers to point at the goddess. And then came the curse.

“You’re not a goddess… You’re a monster. A wicked monster that’s eating away at this village…!”

“You’re planning to suck my blood to sustain this village…! I shouldn’t have believed the village chief’s words. Believing we needed small sacrifices to maintain the village… Keuheuk!”

“…Don’t talk too much. Your wounds will get worse.”

A monster.

The girl who had blocked the gurgling blood with her small hands averted her gaze from the old man’s gradually dimming eyes. The old man’s fear deepened.

“At least make your passing comfortable…”

Should I sing a lullaby?

The girl, recalling the humming Choil used to do, tried to sing with a voice that wouldn’t come out easily, then pressed her lips shut. The old man’s fear had already stopped.

He was dead. Again. Without any way to help.

“Has he died? Goddess.”

Not long after the old man’s breath stopped, at the sound of a voice, the girl turned her gaze. An aged yet vigorous voice coming from outside the window.

“…I want to stop doing this now.”

“That is not possible. It’s a necessary ritual.”

“What meaning does it have?”

“It has sufficient meaning.”

The voice that stated this definitively slowly opened the door and let the moonlight inside. Soon an old man entered, leaning on a cane.

“You’ve dirtied your hands again, Goddess. I told you not to do that since they’re going to die anyway.”

“Come here. I’ll wipe them for you.”

As the old man carefully wiped her hands with a cloth, the girl’s lips moved slightly before she asked quietly.

“How long do I have to do this?”

“Do you mean the ritual?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you want to stop? You’re receiving offerings of fear. It shouldn’t be a bad sensation.”

“It is bad. Because they said enjoying others’ fear isn’t good.”

“…Who said such a thing?”

“Choil.”

“Ahh…”

So it’s that boy.

The old man, remembering the boy whose face he’d just seen earlier, stroked his beard.

“Well, I don’t know how long you’ll have to do it.”

“But it won’t be much longer. Because your eyes have become redder, Goddess.”

“My eyes?”

“Yes. There’s no mirror here to show you.”

The old man looking at the girl’s red eyes reflected in the moonlight wore a small sneer on his expressionless face. The girl’s eyes as reflected in the old man’s eyes.

“They’re very red.”

Red as if she were a monster.

“All clean.”

The old man who had muttered this stood up from his seat. The moon floating brilliantly in the sky.

“The moon is bright tonight.”

“The chains won’t break, but even if they do break, it’s dangerous, so don’t go outside. Understood?”

“I understand.”

“May you have a peaceful night.”

The old man who had finished wiping the blood and hoisted up the breathless corpse went outside and closed the door. The moon slowly growing smaller.

Soon in the darkness that arrived, the girl who had pulled her knees close buried her face in them.

‘If it had been Choil who entered.’

Though she’d never seen his face once, what if that boy who often talked with her had entered and breathed his last?

A corner of her chest turned cold. A horrifying scene just to imagine.

“…I should wipe the blood.”

At the metallic smell wafting over despite having wiped, the girl who confirmed with her eyes the remaining bloodstains lifted her hem to wipe the floor, then hastily wiped her mouth. Drool flowing without her realizing.

“I shouldn’t.”

It’s bad, it must be bad.

The scent of blood.

That smell that had been fishy at first.

Was gradually starting to smell fragrant.

“I can’t meet her right now?”

“Yes… it doesn’t seem possible right now.”

At Choil’s words after he had gone ahead saying he would show them his younger sister while walking through the village, Seohwa and Wangpal expressed doubt. It was incomprehensible.

“Is your sister sick? Would it be bad for her to get outside air?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then why?”

“…Mmm.”

Choil, who had shown signs of hesitation for a moment, opened and closed his mouth before looking at Seohwa with determined eyes as if he had decided something. Then Choil led the two to a place with few people.

“There’s something I didn’t tell you.”

“What?”

“My younger sister isn’t just an ordinary village person. She’s not my real sister either.”

“…What does that mean?”

“So.”

At Seohwa’s inability to understand easily, Choil continued with a bitter smile.

“Earlier you asked why monsters don’t attack this village.”

“Yes. But you said you didn’t know.”

“I don’t know. However, the village people think it’s thanks to my younger sister.”

“Thanks to your sister?”

“Yes. Because my sister is this village’s goddess.”

“…Goddess?”

At the unfamiliar word, Seohwa questioned back, and Choil looked around and confirmed there were no people. And then the story continued.

“City people don’t understand well… but monks and Daoists don’t come to villages like this as much as you’d think. So folk beliefs like that exist more than you’d expect. Like worshipping objects as gods.”

“Worshipping objects as gods…?”

“He’s talking about idol worship faith, Fourth Disciple.”

“Yes. That.”

Those who haven’t learned fall easily into superstition. Even those who have learned deeply fall into superstition frequently, so what about those who haven’t learned?

If they feel even a bit of credibility in that story, they’ll naturally believe it.

“The probability that your sister actually has some ability is…”

“Well. Probably none? I’ve talked with her for quite a while and she’s just a child. Knows nothing.”

“You mean a child.”

It’s not unheard of to worship young children. Different from birth. Such words are good for deceiving the common people. It would also be good for bringing the village people together.

“So you think the village chief is using some method to repel monsters and your sister is just an excuse?”

“Yes.”

“And we just need to take that sister outside.”

“Exactly.”

“You cunning boy. You should have said that from the beginning.”

Thwack!

“Ugh.”

When Seohwa gave him a knuckle rap, Choil clutched his head and crouched down.

“…I’m sorry. I was afraid you wouldn’t help if I told you everything.”

“I don’t know about other sects, but Uicheonmun doesn’t ignore such circumstances. Unless it’s a situation where there’s absolutely nothing we can do.”

“…Is it a good sect?”

“Right?”

Seohwa, who smiled broadly, patted Choil’s head smoothly.

“Not being able to meet means there are village people nearby, right?”

“Yes. The village chief gathered the village people saying they’re doing some ritual.”

“Then let’s postpone the meeting until tomorrow. The village isn’t going to run away.”

From how unhurried Choil was, it seemed that child called his sister wasn’t being abused. Then there was no need to rush.

“Well, since we have nothing to do now, our hands are free…”

Where should we go to help?

Seohwa, who had been thinking for a moment, glanced at Wangpal sideways and nodded. With that build and face, if he joined in asking around, he’d rather be a hindrance.

“Branch Master Jinwoong and Preparatory Fourth Disciple Seomun Cheok will handle the inside of the village well. Let’s go to the outskirts.”

“Yes, Fourth Disciple.”

At that time. Inside the village.

“No business. Leave.”

Thud!

“…Haa.”

Baek Risan, exhausted from repeated rejections, let out a deep sigh and pressed his brow firmly with two fingers. And watching that, Seonwoo Gang opened his mouth.

“Don’t frown, smooth out your expression. You’ll get wrinkles.”

“…Masters don’t get wrinkles easily.”

“You’re not yet a master who can slow aging.”

“There are still people left to meet, so you can’t have a dark expression, can you?”

At Seonwoo Gang’s reasonable statement, Baek Risan awkwardly smoothed out his furrowed brow and pulled his mouth with his hand to force a smiling expression, then let go. Extremely poor results.

“I expected it to be somewhat like this, but they’re not telling us anything.”

He hadn’t thought they would kindly answer everything from the start. As Choil said, it was a village hostile to outsiders, and the village chief didn’t seem to have any intention of speaking properly from the start.

He thought they’d have to beg to get even a fragment of a story. He had hoped they could at least pick up simple stories.

So, he meant he hadn’t expected there would be absolutely no harvest even after going around more than forty households.

“Even if it’s a slash-and-burn village, are they this hostile? I thought my face wasn’t on the bad side.”

“Isn’t it because your smile is awkward?”

“I’m pretty, so I’m fine like this. Everyone in our family has decent faces. Family trait.”

“…Do people usually say that with their own mouth?”

“It’s more unpleasant to see pretty people being falsely modest. It’s like being a fox.”

Baek Risan, who had snapped back bluntly, let out a deep sigh.

“Anyway, I have to try as much as I can. Let’s search a bit more…”

“Wait.”

A moment.

Seonwoo Gang, who had cut off Baek Risan’s words and placed his hand on his sword hilt, suddenly had sharp eyes, then looked around and opened his mouth. Unlike when conversing with Baek Risan, his voice settled heavily.

“It seems you have business with us, so come out.”

“If you don’t come out, I may have to find you myself, but is that acceptable?”

Silence.

Even several seconds after Seonwoo Gang closed his mouth with no answer returning, Baek Risan looked at Seonwoo Gang with a puzzled expression. Because she hadn’t sensed any presence at all.

“What do you mean there’s something? I don’t sense…”

“Shh.”

Seonwoo Gang, who brought his finger to his lips to stop Baek Risan’s words, raised his sword tip to point at a rock placed in a corner of the village. And then.

“I’ll count to three. If you don’t come out by the time I finish counting, I’ll cut you down.”

“Three.”

Two.

One.

The moment Seonwoo Gang, who had slowly drawn up his internal energy, counted three.

“…You’re a perceptive young one.”

The rock distorted and gradually changed into the shape of a person.

“…Illusion technique?”

“No. Not that kind.”

At Baek Risan’s question, Seonwoo Gang shook his head and raised his sword tip more firmly. Though his nose couldn’t smell it, the scent of blood clung thickly to his senses.

It was a smell he had encountered when in the Black Path. This musty yet fishy smell was a scent that came frequently from one type of person.

“An assassin…”

“Former. I’ve washed my hands now.”

“Damn it.”

The man who spat out curses as if chewing them looked at Seonwoo Gang and Baek Risan, who still had their sword tips raised, then clicked his tongue.

“Lower your sword.”

“You want me to lower my sword in front of an assassin?”

“Nothing is easier to deal with than an assassin who’s revealed himself to the front.”

“We’re going to bury our bones in this village together anyway, so there’s no need to waste energy fighting each other already.”

“Bury our bones together…? What do you mean? We’re planning to leave this place tomorrow morning.”

“That’s why I’m telling you. Youngster.”

The man, who clicked his tongue while looking at Seonwoo Gang, shook his head. And the words that followed.

“Tomorrow morning won’t come.”

Even if tomorrow comes.

The night won’t end.

The man who confirmed the appearance of the moon floating far away half-opened his eyes.

A full moon had risen.