CLS-Chapter 518

Chapter 518:

Just by looking at Yeom Mong’s face, it was impossible to tell what he was thinking at the moment. But Wei Jeong-han was prepared to accept whatever he might say.

He thought he should.

But it was also something he shouldn’t have done.

If they found out that Wei Jeong-han had hidden the blood descendant of the enemy they hated most, countless people would rush at him right now, ready to tear him apart.

And their anger would be justified too.

Wei Jeong-han would have been equally furious if he were in their position. In the end, the seed Wei Jeong-han had left behind had bloomed into exactly the flower everyone feared.

“You said he was the child of the Great Demon Emperor?”

“……Yes.”

“And that you hid this child and raised him as your own son?”

“Yes.”

“……You’re out of your mind.”

Wei Jeong-han quietly closed his eyes.

He had to endure any criticism. That was the price he had to pay for abandoning righteousness for personal feelings.

“Do you know what you’ve done?”

“I know.”

“I asked if you understand it.”

“……To be honest, when you put it that way, I don’t know how to answer.”

“You don’t know?”

“Yes.”

Wei Jeong-han quietly opened his mouth.

“I know it was something that shouldn’t have been done. I know very well that it was a result barely achieved through the sacrifice of so many people and the suffering of so many others. But……”

Wei Jeong-han shook his head with a bitter expression.

Who could truly understand his feelings and his situation?

“If you saw that child’s face as he lay in that man’s arms in the rain, even if I could go back to that moment, I would make the same choice.”

“Hah.“

Yeom Mong quietly glared at Wei Jeong-han, then opened his mouth.

“You know, I thought you were cold-blooded.”

“Is that so?”

“You’ve been quite human since back then.”

Wei Jeong-han didn’t answer.

Being mocked couldn’t feel good. He was human too, after all. But Yeom Mong was someone who had every right to mock his choice. Getting angry here would mean refusing to take responsibility for his decision.

“It just happened that way.”

“That’s how people are.”

Yeom Mong poured liquor into his cup and drank it down again.

His gaze was also chasing distant places.

“Listen here.”

“Yes, Senior.”

“If it had been me when I first came to this place, I absolutely wouldn’t have been able to understand your choice. I might have been making a fuss about drawing my sword to kill you by now.”

“……I think you would have.”

The Yeom Mong that Wei Jeong-han remembered was someone who made no compromises.

Someone who would never accept anything that deviated from the principles he had set, even unto death. That’s why Wei Jeong-han found Yeom Mong comfortable. Yeom Mong probably didn’t push Wei Jeong-han away for the same reason. The two were similar to each other.

“But now I can’t get angry.”

“Why is that?”

“He was just human, I suppose.”

Yeom Mong said in a somewhat dazed voice.

“The son of a demon cultist, the child of the Great Demon Emperor…… you wouldn’t have seen any of that. He was just a child. A child who would die if I didn’t take care of him. Isn’t that right?”

“……”

Wei Jeong-han couldn’t give any answer.

Mok U.

He had tried to hide and raise the child because he was Jeok Mok-u’s child. But if Wei San-ho hadn’t been Jeok Mok-u’s child, could he have turned away from that small child then?

That would have been impossible.

No matter whose child Wei San-ho had been, Wei Jeong-han would have accepted him.

“That’s what I was thinking.”

Yeom Mong handed his liquor cup to Wei Jeong-han. Wei Jeong-han silently accepted the cup that Yeom Mong offered. Yeom Mong, holding the liquor bottle, filled Wei Jeong-han’s cup.

“We boast about protecting the Central Plains and whatnot, but in the end, all we did was kill people. Isn’t that right?”

“……That’s right.”

“They say the end justifies the means, but all those who participated in that war were nothing but murderers. Yet these murderers are acting all high and mighty—if this isn’t a world gone mad, then what is?”

“Senior.”

It was words mixed with self-mockery and lamentation.

Wei Jeong-han could only look at Yeom Mong with pain.

A terrible war. A war where each sought the other’s life, where the necks of comrades who had been guarding your side flew off in an instant. What was left at the end of that long war?

“But in the midst of all that, you at least saved one person’s life.”

Laughter.

Laughter half-mixed with emptiness stabbed painfully at Wei Jeong-han’s ears.

“You did well.”

“Senior……”

“I’m not being sarcastic. I don’t know if my thoughts will change again when I wake up tomorrow, but at least at this moment, I truly think so. You did well. Yes, you did well.”

Wei Jeong-han drank down the liquor that filled his cup.

“Even though the result turned out like this?”

“That’s how people are.”

Yeom Mong spoke like someone who had achieved enlightenment.

“We cannot know the future. We only think about how we want the future to be. We just do our best to create that result. Let me ask you—did you think the older one would turn out like this?”

“I only hoped he would never have to know.”

“Right. Then that’s enough.”

Yeom Mong clicked his tongue.

‘Here I am comforting this guy.‘

If the fact that Wei San-ho was the Great Demon Emperor’s son had never been revealed, Wei Jeong-han probably would have truly raised Wei San-ho as his own child. He wouldn’t have felt the slightest discomfort about Wei San-ho continuing the Guangdong Wei Family line as the eldest son.

How could anyone condemn such a person?

How could they condemn someone who had made the greatest sacrifice himself?

“Does San-ho know everything?”

“Yes……”

“I see. Then it’s not strange that he would go looking for his roots.”

“His roots are the Guangdong Wei Family.”

Wei Jeong-han said firmly.

“Even if blood doesn’t connect us, no one in the world can deny that he is my son. Even if the Great Demon Emperor came back to life, he couldn’t dare claim to be Wei San-ho’s father.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

When the name Great Demon Emperor was mentioned, Yeom Mong fell into distant memories.

“Let me ask you now—is the person I knew really the Great Demon Emperor?”

“……Yes.”

“I see, so that’s how it was.”

Since they had been so close, Yeom Mong had seen Wei Jeong-han and Jeok Mok-u raising their cups together a few times. But to think that man was the Great Demon Emperor.

“What strange tastes you two had.”

Looking back, it was truly peculiar.

Wasn’t the Great Demon Emperor the leader of the Demon Cult? Then why did he bother to cross over to their side and raise cups with Wei Jeong-han?

“He was someone who couldn’t find stability even within that.”

“When the entire world was in his hands?”

“To him, something like the world held no meaning. What he truly wanted to obtain wasn’t the world.”

“Then what did he start that terrible war to obtain?”

“……I don’t know exactly either.”

There would be no point in saying it.

Wei Jeong-han harbored bitterness.

The leader of the Demon Cult.

Who would understand if he said that what the Great Demon Emperor, called the incarnation of Asura, truly wanted was freedom? Even Wei Jeong-han found it hard to understand.

‘Would the Senior be able to accept the fact that there was someone behind him?‘

The opponent they had fought with all their might.

Who could accept the fact that the one they had wanted to kill even at the cost of their souls was actually just a puppet?

It had taken Wei Jeong-han more than several years to understand that fact.

Telling him this would never be good for Yeom Mong. It could negate his entire life.

‘He’ll find out someday.‘

Since the Demon Cult was rising again.

The hidden truth that even Wei Jeong-han didn’t yet know might reveal itself.

“Your child is sturdier than expected.”

“Are you speaking of Yeon-ho?”

“Yes. He’s just like you.”

“I don’t know if that’s an insult or a compliment.”

“Let’s say it’s both.”

Wei Jeong-han smiled bitterly.

The child he had hoped for was Wei San-ho. But that wasn’t because Wei San-ho resembled Wei Jeong-han. Wei San-ho resembled not him, but Jeok Mok-u. That probably meant Wei Jeong-han thought of Jeok Mok-u as an ideal person.

The one who took completely after Wei Jeong-han wasn’t Wei San-ho, but Wei Yeon-ho.

Every time he saw him, he resembled his past self so much it was almost laughable. If Wei Jeong-han had been born in a different era, he obviously would have lived as freely as Wei Yeon-ho.

Ah, though of course he didn’t inherit that damned laziness.

“He’s a strong child.”

“More than expected.”

“He’s a child who followed his older brother more than he followed me. The fact that he can maintain such composure even after his brother went to the Demon Cult is remarkable. Honestly, even though he’s my child, that boy has now left my hands. He’s walking his own path.”

“Listen here, Jeong-han.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t really know how remarkable your son is. There’s only one thing I know.”

“……I’m listening.”

“Everyone who knows me says I’m remarkable. They don’t hesitate to praise me as a true hero who devoted his life to his mission.”

“Isn’t that the truth?”

“Do I really look that way to you?”

“……”

Yeom Mong shook his head.

“I still want to run away from this place. I may act fine on the outside, but I’m rotting inside. Does it seem like something a person should do, enduring in this place while knowing that they could come to kill me at any time? I’ve endured that for twenty years.”

“……Senior.”

“If you only look at the surface, you’ll miss what’s real. I acknowledge that your child is remarkable. But what that boy is enduring is something even a seasoned veteran of Jianghu would find hard to bear. Don’t get so caught up in events that you lose sight of the person. Otherwise, you’ll live the rest of your life in regret.”

Yeom Mong added words he didn’t need to add.

“If you survive, that is.”

Thud.

Yeom Mong, who had set down his liquor cup, rose from his seat.

“Get some sleep. This is the end of the world. It’s a place where anything could happen at any time. Tonight might be the last night you sleep. You should know how to be grateful for what you’re given now.”

“Sleep well.”

Without even answering, Yeom Mong leaped down from the watchtower.

Wei Jeong-han quietly gazed into the distance.

Over there.

Somewhere beyond that sandstorm, the Demon Cult existed.

‘San-ho must be there too.‘

Wei Jeong-han smiled faintly.

Wei San-ho.

That small child who had been so tiny that even holding him required care had now grown up considerably. And now he was trying to find his own path.

If Wei Jeong-han were a proper father, he might need to respect his path. But Wei Jeong-han couldn’t do that. Even if this choice would overturn Wei San-ho’s life, he absolutely couldn’t leave Wei San-ho alone like that.

‘My friend.‘

Jeok Mok-u’s face seemed to appear in the star-filled sky.

What would he have said if he could see the current situation?

Would he have gotten angry at Wei Jeong-han for failing to control his own child, or would he have apologized, saying he was sorry?

That answer could never be known. The dead have no words.

Filling his cup with the last remaining liquor from the nearly empty bottle, Wei Jeong-han let out a deep sigh.