NOVEL NEXT Chapter 2
*
Bi Wol, after Bing Yeon’s exit from the bath, moved her steps, pretending to clean, as if to see who would come in first.
And then,
Click!
She immediately locked the door and looked around to see if anyone was watching her.
Her movements were like a small creature afraid of predators, but the reason for her behavior was simply the fear of being discovered by others.
“…Master’s scent.”
After confirming she was alone, Bi Wol began to peel off the layers of her clothing. Her bare skin was exposed.
Splash––!
Finally, Bi Wol submerged herself into the water that Bing Yeon had used to wash himself, feeling as if only her head was floating, quite definitely.
This was one of her wicked secrets that no one except Bi Wol knew about.
She hated the warmth of her beloved man slipping away.
Whether by secretly kissing the cup he drank from after a meal or smelling the clothes he wore, these acts were just extensions of that.
“Always so cold, am I born from the Extreme Yin Body?”
Pitter patter, pitter patter. While Bi Wol soaked herself in Bing Yeon’s scent, she mumbled softly. The bathwater even had small bits of ice forming in it.
Bi Wol’s master was frail, and that fragility allowed for the elevation of his skills at the cost of his life.
Due to overly strong yin energy blocking his blood flow, he fell ill and ultimately died without being able to fully circulate his qi.
The condition known as the Severed Pulse Condition was gnawing at Bing Yeon’s body like a bug, a fact Bi Wol, possessing innate Qi Perception, could discern.
“Right now, the growth rate of the trees might be faster than the bugs….”
If one were to metaphorically compare Bing Yeon’s body, it resembled a leaf being gnawed by bugs, only to sprout new leaves immediately.
It looked like a forced extension gained through various fortunes and elixirs. A normal person would have long been bedridden from the agonizing pain.
To rescue herself from a cult, she fought the leaders there, even to the point of spitting blood.
Claiming she didn’t desire any compensation or reward at all.
What kind of person was this, that her nature was so good?
In contrast to her birthright as the Heavenly Demon Star, it almost felt like she was born from the Star of Zha Mi.
Bi Wol thought the title of Bing Long, which people used to refer to her master, was quite fitting.
“…I wonder if this situation will continue even as you age?”
As she thought about this, Bi Wol’s affection for her master grew stronger. Imagining her master, with a hunched back and wrinkles on her face, far into the future.
“No, that’s impossible…”
With a gloomy expression, Bi Wol shook her head from side to side. Weakness with age is inevitable. Unless she underwent some miraculous transformation, she couldn’t escape the death awaiting her.
“Master… what is this girl to do?”
Recalling the touch of her master, Bi Wol continued to stroke her own head with her hand, pondering.
A being who played a parental role more than her parents, who she couldn’t even remember their faces.
Someone who taught her the value of life, unlike the cult leaders who taught her slaughter.
In a space where no one could fall asleep until someone died, they gifted her a home she could return to at any time.
Bing Yeon had, unknowingly, become the most precious existence in Bi Wol’s heart.
“When I think of you, my heart aches. It feels like the blade is piercing my lungs, and blood is flowing.”
Bi Wol pressed on her chest, as if in anguish, mumbling to herself.
Having been the one closest to Bing Yeon, she was well aware of how much pain he lived in.
Every time he used martial arts, he would bleed from his nose, mouth, and eyes, and would often spit blood like vomit. It was pitiful to watch from the side.
“You smile brightly as if you have no pain or worries every time you see me. I hate that smile, that hypocrisy, that mask.”
Though she tried as much as possible not to show her pain, worried that other disciples might get concerned, she maintained a smile.
“A foolishly kind master has a foolish disciple, and it seems I have nothing to offer…”
Bi Wol couldn’t hold back the tears streaming down her face. Despite biting her lip to hide her tears, emotions kept leaking out.
She hated the thought of her master becoming a cold corpse without any warmth, just like the friends he had when he was with the cult.
She didn’t want her master to fade away without leaving anything behind.
Not the warm and soft voice, or the scent she felt all over her body, or the foolish smile—all fragments of a memory.
“I….”
Crack! Bi Wol bit down hard on her teeth, hating that she couldn’t do anything while her master was slowly dying.
She also hated that she couldn’t be a source of strength beside him. What if they had been close in age, calling each other older brother or husband?
She wished that because of her presence, he could find the will to live.
She wished that because of her presence, he would say he didn’t want to die.
“…I truly hate this.”
A little blood dripped from Bi Wol’s lower lip due to the pressure. It seemed she couldn’t even feel the pain and applied even more force.
In this way, Bi Wol’s love for her master was slightly twisted. It was an abnormality unaligned with the norm.
She didn’t know what true love was. She hadn’t been able to learn the right way of love from Bing Yeon.
How could a man who had never held a woman’s hand in his life teach a teenage girl about love correctly?
“I will sleep in Master’s clothes again tonight. And using my innate Qi Perception, I will visit the bedroom before Master awakens.”
So her first love was slightly sickly, fanatical, resembling a burning fire.
“Then, I will monopolize the silly face of Master sleeping innocently. That is the special happiness granted only to me.”
The fate of the Heavenly Demon Star did not lead her to slaughter, so it was spilling out in this twisted manner.
With a love heavier than death.
– Hey, are you really satisfied just watching Master sleep?
Another voice echoed in Bi Wol’s heart.
It was the essence of the Heavenly Demon Star, which Bi Wol thought had been completely wiped away from this world.
– Master will soon die. And because you did nothing, he will die.
It whispered with a serpentine voice, yearning for slaughter and blood.
– If you get stronger here, you might be able to cure Master!
Bi Wol could attain a higher level than she currently was.
It wasn’t impossible to sweep up all life and flesh on this land, drinking them like a river and devouring the talking and walking elixirs.
“…Shut up, you bad Bi Wol.”
– Calling me bad! I’m just giving you realistic advice!
“……”
More accurately, it was Bi Wol’s other personality, which had no qualms about expressing her love for her master, who was tempting her.
– In the end, I am you, and you are me.
Rather than saying they were different, it was like the hidden true nature tightly wrapped in her master’s teachings.
“Shut up. As Master taught me, I will not commit slaughter.”
Listening to that whisper from her honest heart was painful. Bi Wol shook her head violently, trying to dispel the distractions.
– But what if the new junior disciple is more attractive than you?
“…What?”
– This is the first time Master specifically calls someone ‘junior disciple,’ right?
The other Bi Wol in her heart chuckled, clearly displaying her jealousy.
“That’s… but….”
– Always bringing in disciples because someone is sick. Someone is starving and poor. Isn’t that odd?
Bing Yeon’s method of bringing in disciples was always similar. He pitied patients abandoned on the streets, people selling their bodies or organs, or children with missing limbs.
– The one who said, ‘There’s no need for a reason to show compassion to others,’ is suddenly wanting a junior disciple….
“Am I just being a nuisance?”
Bi Wol nervously bit her nails. She feared being abandoned. She was scared that the warmth she once felt would disappear again.
– Or maybe he has other intentions.
The other voice within Bi Wol’s heart amplified her worries.
*
Before I left, I checked the cards I had.
The death tablets written in a script only I could recognize.
I looked at the writing I penned right after I fell into this world, realizing that three of the novels I wrote had somehow mixed up.
‘…Verdandi Astray has a strong advantage against evil characters.’
There was information about Verdandi. Meeting her first would make the strategy for the final boss much easier.
Verdandi, fitting the title of the final boss from “I Must Kill the Hero,” was completely insane about justice.
‘She has two abilities, [Scales of Justice] and [Eyes that Know the Truth].’
When I wrote this novel before, I set her up like Bi Wol with a backstory that made the final boss act poorly.
Verdandi’s mother was assaulted by a bandit and birthed her due to an unwanted pregnancy, thus failing to properly love her mother.
Naturally, she was born with the vessel of a hero, possessing the ability to see the degree of others’ good and evil and the eyes to distinguish truth from lies, but—
‘…That fact became poison for her.’
Verdandi learned that her mother, in her childhood, had failed to suffocate her once.
She realized that her mother saying “I love you” wasn’t the truth either.
How much better it would have been if she had never known. If she had never known anything at all.
‘Maybe I should have set it up more ordinarily….’
A competent writer could have created a purely insane villain without any backstory.
Like Azazel Blackheart, the saint from “I Got Trapped in a Game,” I could have left room for persuasion by giving her a more relatable past.
But I truly wanted to create a mad zealot of justice who had to be killed, just as the title suggests.
I wanted to convey the philosophy that twisted notions of justice and goodness are equivalent to evil.
Due to the causes I inflicted upon myself, I had to clean up my own mess.
‘Right now, my body can’t surpass the peak boundary; is it really possible?’
I was wrapping bandages around my fists while assessing my condition. If I push myself even a little, my blood will twist, and I’ll bleed from my nose, mouth, and eyes due to my current state.
If the original protagonist of this martial arts world, King of Diamond Fist, Kim Hyul, were to see me, he’d call me the Blood Demon instead of Bing Long.
‘…But I have Bi Wol with me.’
As I cut the ends of the bandages, I thought. A martial arts genius born with the Extreme Yin Body who would normally have to fight Kim Hyul, the protagonist of the original story.
Though Bi Wol, born with the Heavenly Demon Star’s fate, had been by my side without committing even a single act of slaughter.
So, I began to feel certain that I could influence Verdandi and Azazel as well.
After all, I was their father. I was the creator who gave them birth.
I had to take responsibility.
“…Master, my girl. Everything is ready.”
Creak, I opened the door and stepped out, only to see Bi Wol, kneeling humbly before me.
Gasp! I almost fainted.
“Were you really planning to carry all that baggage?”
“I just packed the essentials, is there something wrong?”
I looked at the enormous bundle behind Bi Wol, a pile of miscellaneous items that looked like a huge mountain that seemed fit only for a horse or donkey to carry.
“This is the cup Master often used. And this is the bamboo tea you like, and that is the fragrant meat you said you wanted to eat someday. And….”
“…Stop. Just pack your clothes and a bit of food. I will prepare what needs to be taken care of myself.”
It seemed my disciple had too much respect for her master.