Chapter 252

Chapter 252

Yeonbi.

At the small voice, Baek Risan turned her gaze and looked at the other person, feeling puzzled. A name she never thought she would hear in this place flowed from the other person’s mouth.

“Lady Yeonbi, is that really you? How are you in this place…….”

“I don’t know who you are, but my name isn’t Yeonbi.”

“……You say you’re not Yeonbi, what on earth does that.”

“My name is Baek Risan. Yeonbi is my mother’s name. You, do you know my mother?”

“……Lady Yeonbi’s daughter?”

Ah.

The man who had been examining Baek Risan’s face and physique for a moment stepped back as if he finally saw the truth. The tragic emotion that appeared on his face.

“It really……is so. You’re not Lady Yeonbi. To think of you as Lady Yeonbi would be…… you’re too weak.”

“……What?”

“Where is Lady Yeonbi? Ah, I’ve been waiting for the lady all this time. My treasure. My child. My disciple. The small child who fled from a cruel fate……!”

Seureung!

“Step back.”

At the man’s voice tinged with a strange madness, Songbyeok Jinin instinctively drew his sword and blocked Baek Risan’s front while glaring at the opponent. However, the man asked in an earnest voice, paying no attention.

“Please tell me. Where is your mother, where is Lady Yeonbi?”

“I have a debt I must repay to your mother. Lady Yeonbi saved my life that had been thrown into the depths. So I must use this life entirely for the lady.”

Where is she?

At that sincere and earnest question, Baek Risan sighed and shook her head. Regardless of the other person’s slightly strange condition, she couldn’t tell him where her mother was.

“She’s not here.”

“……Uh, mm?”

“I mean she’s not in this world. My mother.”

“……What, what on earth does that……?”

“She passed away. Already seventeen years ago.”

“……Ah?”

His body stopped abruptly.

The man who had stopped his body as if hearing something impossible stared blankly at Baek Risan. And the man spoke haltingly.

“Wha, what on earth…….”

“The cause of death hasn’t been clearly revealed. It was confirmed that a mysterious master attacked her.”

“That’s, that can’t be. Lady Yeonbi was like the very embodiment of talent. She wouldn’t easily lose to anyone…….”

“The body was returned to the family. I was young at the time so I don’t remember exactly how it was, but other people all witnessed it.”

“She really is dead.”

“Ah, ahhh…….”

The man who had been quietly listening to Baek Risan’s story slumped to his knees. At the same time, a voice flowed out.

“Central Plains people…….”

“Did a Central Plains person kill the lady? Again a Central Plains person. Central Plains person. Central Plains person……!”

“Patron, step back.”

“You Central Plains people took something precious from me again!!!”

At the explosively amplifying energy, Songbyeok Jinin drew his sword and blocked the space between the man and Baek Risan. However, the man continued releasing his energy regardless.

“You took my parents, took my siblings, and now you even took the lady who was my disciple and benefactor……! Central Plains person, Central Plains person, again a Central Plains person!”

Everyone in the hall entered combat readiness at the sight of the man who seemed about to explode with hatred and rampage at any moment. And.

“Anger is boiling up. Anger……!”

Finally, the moment the man’s energy reached its peak.

“Keuheoeoeoeng!“

The man cried.

“It’s heartbreaking! So heartbreaking!”

“Keuheing-heing-heing-heing!!!“

Moreover, wailing loudly.

The man had once heard such words in the past.

That he had a lot of false bravado.

-Why do you have so much false bravado?

-Pardon?

-What are you trying to be?

-……Pardon?

When he was making a name for himself as a promising rising master in the Divine Cult, Gongsun Yeonbi who came to find him said that. That he had too much false bravado.

-They say you almost died?

-Well…… it’s always like that. When carrying out missions.

-If it hurts, you should say it hurts; if it’s sad, you should say it’s sad. Why hide it with false bravado? This much is fine. This much isn’t difficult. You’re deceiving others while deceiving yourself.

-You’re not fine. You’re just pretending to be fine. To protect people, you have to do at least this much. You have to do this much to protect people. That’s why you’re deceiving yourself, right?

Crossing the line between life and death is an experience anyone in the Divine Cult goes through.

To rise up, one must cross countless lines between life and death. One must surpass limits and overcome oneself.

-That’s all nonsense. It’s just old geezers trying to look like something by spouting off. It’s no different from saying things like young people these days have no manners.

-……But if I don’t do this, my comrades become more endangered. If I don’t do something…….

He couldn’t shake off the pressure.

-Really? Then, become a racist.

-……Pardon?

What kind of nonsense is this now?

At Gongsun Yeonbi who suddenly started spouting nonsense, the man asked.

-What on earth does that…….

-If you come to hate yokai, you can vent your frustrations on yokai. You can’t communicate with yokai anyway.

-That’s…… yes.

-But if you come to hate Central Plains people or Saekmogin, you can’t vent your frustrations. Because you can’t meet such people.

Everything is the fault of Central Plains people.

Just saying that makes one’s heart feel at ease. Even knowing it’s not the fault of Central Plains people, one blames Central Plains people anyway. One creates a virtual target of hatred.

-Then what if I actually meet a Central Plains person?

-What you hate is a virtual Central Plains person you’ve never met, so it doesn’t matter. You’re good at reading people, so you can quickly tell whether someone is capable of doing such things or not, right?

-You don’t have the disposition to hate the Central Plains people you meet. So it’s fine.

Become a racist. To keep from breaking, hate others.

That unconventional advice was of great help to the man. No matter what hardship there was, he had a target to resent.

Even now, it wasn’t much different.

“Everything is the fault of Central Plains people……!”

The man still hated Central Plains people.

“He, wipe it.”

“Thank you. Miss.”

At Baek Risan handing him a handkerchief, the man wiped his tears and paeng blew his nose, then returned the handkerchief. Baek Risan, looking with a disgusted expression at the handkerchief covered in snot, threw it far away.

“These god……damn.”

“No matter how I look at it, you’re exactly like Lady Yeonbi. Did you perhaps replicate your body with a spell?”

“Do you want to die?”

“I apologize. My jokes being unfunny is also the fault of Central Plains people. It’s because I couldn’t receive proper education in my youth due to Central Plains people.”

“……What the hell are you?”

“I’m Eungryong of the Divine Cult’s Chilryun.”

“What?”

“Right now I’m the Blood Cult’s vanguard.”

“……What?”

After briefly judging the story, Baek Risan grasped the situation and hardened her face while simultaneously stepping back another step. However, Eungryong waved his hands.

“Do, don’t be on guard. Miss. I have no intention of harming you.”

“You say you hate Central Plains people. You’re a racist. How can I trust the words of someone like that?”

“Good Central Plains people are fine.”

“……What are you saying?”

“The Central Plains people I hate are ordinary Central Plains people.”

They commit betrayal like eating meals, deceive people, cause countless wars, have three heads, breathe fire from their mouths, have six arms.

“Ordinary Central Plains people are like that. From that perspective, the Central Plains people here are fine. At the very least, I can confirm you’re not ordinary Central Plains people at the point where you don’t have six arms.”

“……Aren’t you confusing yokai with Central Plains people?”

“Don’t shatter the illusion I have about Central Plains people!”

Gal! Eungryong shouted like thunder and wiped his lips with a swipe.

“Lady Yeonbi said this. That everything is the fault of Central Plains people!”

“Was Mom a shitty racist?”

“Ah, of course she herself got along well with Central Plains people.”

“In any case, it’s truly heartbreaking. I tried to break the Great Seal to find Lady Yeonbi…… But Lady Yeonbi is no longer in this world. What on earth is this…….”

“You tried to break the Great Seal?”

“Ah, yes. Didn’t you know? That’s the Blood Cult’s plan. To completely smash the Great Seal and turn the mortal world into hell.”

“……Are you in your right mind!”

At Eungryong smiling brightly, Songbyeok Jinin’s eyes widened and his fists trembled bareureureuk.

“Eungryong. I can roughly guess the hatred you harbor toward the Central Plains! If you’re a member of the Demonic Cult, everyone would harbor hatred toward Central Plains people!”

“But to completely destroy the Great Seal, isn’t that asking for mutual destruction! To burn down even the Demonic Cult to inflict harm on Central Plains people, are you planning to kill even your close relatives for the sake of hatred!”

“You’re saying strange things.”

At Songbyeok Jinin’s roar, Eungryong burst into laughter pisik and quietly looked directly at Songbyeok Jinin.

“If the Great Seal is destroyed, even our Cult will reach destruction? Do you really think so?”

“Old man. You don’t know what you’re thinking, but even if the Great Seal is destroyed, our Cult won’t suffer major damage. Because our Cult has strength superior to anyone when it comes to dealing with yokai.”

If the Great Seal is destroyed, the yokai side’s forces will rapidly increase, and several great yokai from the mythical age will be released.

Looking only that far, one could speculate that the Demonic Cult members would also suffer great damage. No matter how much the Demonic Cult boasts excellent military power, if not one or two but several mythical age yokai are released, they can’t be opposed.

“That’s how yokai are originally. They don’t seek strong prey first, but easy prey first. When there’s a limping rabbit walking in front of your eyes, would you try to catch a deer grazing far away?”

“The first to be sacrificed will be you Central Plains people. Our Cult’s followers being sacrificed will be at least a hundred years later. By then, all the followers I knew will have already enjoyed their natural lifespan and departed from this world.”

“You’re going to…… abandon the future.”

“Does our Cult have a future?”

Born and forced to fight yokai until death. To survive, one must fight yokai. Harsh environment. Insufficient resources. Comrades who are dead when you close and open your eyes.

“They say if the Great Seal breaks, the mortal world becomes hell, but to me, the current mortal world was hell. A daily life where everyone dies is so common that it doesn’t even feel like hell anymore.”

“Of course, that wasn’t my objective. Miss. My only objective was to go to the Central Plains and find Lady Yeonbi.”

Eungryong, who had sighed deeply, pressed his brow.

“I’ll quit.”

“……What.”

“I came here to Oyeon for preliminary work. To trap both the Sipcheon who came with the search party and the Chilryun who will come here, all in a trap. But now it’s meaningless, isn’t it? Since the lady I need to find is already underground, there’s no reason for me to break the Great Seal.”

“I’ll withdraw. Instead, just tell me one thing. Where the lady is buried.”

After this matter ends, he’ll receive temporary Central Plains entry permission from the Divine Maiden Deputy and visit her grave.

He’ll visit the grave and tell her how he lived, how much he missed her. To his small lord. His small disciple. And to the one who was the meaning of his life.

“Just that one thing is enough.”

At Eungryong’s relieved expression, Baek Risan, who had been silent for a moment, sighed. And after a moment, Baek Risan crossed her legs crookedly.

“You want to know where Mom is buried?”

“Yes.”

“Why should I?”

“……What?”

“Who gave you permission.”

Baek Risan, who had a sticky smile, crossed her legs and declared.

“If you want to know, you’ll have to help me a bit first?”