Chapter 1178

There’s no such thing as a perfect secret.

Birds hear what’s said by day, rats hear what’s said by night, and sooner or later, it all comes out of someone’s mouth.

“I swear to Heaven, this old man told exactly one person.”

The culprit who’d first let my secret slip made his declaration like a newborn letting out its first cry. At that, the “one person” in question licked his lips.

“Well, I was only going to check a few facts. How was I supposed to believe a word that crazy old man said?”

“And then?” I asked quietly.

“I had no choice but to corner the person who seemed to know you best and ask him.”

The Slaughter Saint’s gaze shifted to Hyuk Mujin. Huddled in a corner of the carriage, Mujin had been watching everyone’s reactions. Now he stammered out an answer.

“To be precise, you kidnapped me in the dead of night while I was sound asleep and buried me in the desert. With only my head sticking out.”

“That’s right. But he turned out to be surprisingly tight-lipped. He insisted he’d rather die than tell me anything that might put you in danger.”

Perhaps buoyed by the Slaughter Saint’s testimony, Hyuk Mujin straightened his hunched shoulders.

“You heard him, right? That’s how loyal I am.”

“So, I had no choice but to tell him a rough version of what I’d heard. Then the very next day, some random weirdo came asking about you.”

Right on cue, that “random fool” poked his head in.

“Benefactor! Benefactor! You really came from the realm of immortals? It’s true? Wow! I’ve never met anyone from the realm of immortals before!”

“Yeah. Just like that.”

The Slaughter Saint gave Cheongpung a tired glare, then added, “Anyway, I only told one person, too.”

Hyuk Mujin drew his shoulders in again and muttered, “So did I.”

Yeah. Of course he had.

But if I were Hyuk Mujin, I wouldn’t have shared a “stupendous secret I couldn’t possibly keep to myself” with Cheongpung.

Why? Simple.

Because he was Cheongpung.

“Benefactor, me too! I only told Young Lady Ju!”

Maybe an innocence-proving contest had started without my noticing. Cheongpung shouted with tremendous enthusiasm, and Jeok Cheongang nodded.

“He’s not wrong. The problem was that he said it at just about that volume, at a meal where most of us were gathered.”

“…”

This was giving me a headache.

I shook my head and happened to meet someone’s eyes.

Unlike the others, she’d been silent this whole time, without so much as a reaction. Ju Hwaran.

“Ah, Young Lady Ju.”

I greeted her with an awkward smile, but she didn’t answer.

She only stared at me, her gaze pricking my face like a thin needle.

No, she wasn’t the only one looking at me.

A hush had fallen over the carriage. Everyone was watching.

Well. I didn’t know.

I felt like I should say something, but what? And how?

Should I act like nothing happened? Or apologize for not telling them sooner…?

My thoughts were tangling like a ball of yarn when her tightly closed red lips parted.

“You’re not, are you?”

“Huh? What do you mean, all of a sudden?”

“You’re not actually an immortal or something instead of a human, are you?”

“An immortal?”

I blinked at her. Then I understood and let out a small, disbelieving laugh.

“Come on. Do I look that impressive to you, Young Lady Ju?”

“Don’t laugh.”

“…Sorry. I couldn’t help it. But I’m really not.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. What else would I be if not human? A few misunderstandings piled up, and somehow my home came to be called the realm of immortals. But people live there just like they do here.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Calling the two worlds the same would be a huge stretch.

Even setting aside the difference in technology, at least around here you wouldn’t run into a monster on your way to the inn at the intersection near your house.

But I didn’t bother explaining that, and Ju Hwaran didn’t seem inclined to press the point.

Instead, she asked another question I hadn’t expected.

“Then how old are you really?”

“…Where did that come from?”

“I’m just curious. You said only your soul goes back and forth, and your world is different from this one.”

I answered, still a little bewildered.

“Uh, well. Around twenty-eight?”

“Around?”

“No, that’s right. Going back and forth a few times has messed up my sense of time, so I got confused for a second…”

I’d started rambling out excuses without meaning to when Ju Hwaran cut me off in a voice as sharp as a blade.

“So you haven’t even turned thirty yet.”

“That’s right.”

“And you’re not an immortal or a celestial who’s lived for five hundred years since ascending to immortality.”

“…I told you, I’m human.”

Ascended to immortality? Please.

I’d been called an idiot plenty of times. By Hayeon.

And if I really were a five-hundred-year-old immortal, the one pulling this eight-horse carriage right now would be the Lord of Heaven, not a horse.

Wouldn’t that be nice?

I was lost in that sweet, sad thought when Ju Hwaran delivered her verdict like a judge who’d finished hearing the case.

“That settles it, then.”

“Huh?”

“It’s fine. You’re human, and you’re around twenty-eight.”

It was a strange verdict.

No account of the case. No sentence.

But that was enough.

I didn’t know what it was, but it was settled.

No, honestly, I think I do know.

For some reason, my chest felt tight. Somewhere close to my heart.

At the same time, another part of it grew heavy.

Was it okay to feel this way right now? Did I have any right to?

Maybe that was why I found it hard to meet her eyes as she kept looking steadily at me, with everyone else watching us and making the air between us stranger still.

And why, the next moment, I changed the subject for no good reason.

“Anyway, when will the others be back?”

“H-hm?”

“The people who aren’t here.”

Jeok Cheongang, who’d been looking back and forth between Ju Hwaran and me, cleared his throat.

“Ahem. Why do you ask all of a sudden?”

“I want to see them. And now that it’s come to this, there’s something I’d like to tell everyone myself.”

“Well, they’re searching different areas, so they’ll all be back before long. But there’s no need to gather them for that. Some of them still don’t know anything about you.”

“What? But earlier, that human Cheongpung clearly—”

“Yes, that careless mouth of his said it loud enough for everyone to hear. At a meal where most of us were gathered.”

“Oh.”

I let out a short exclamation.

At the same time, it wasn’t hard to think of the person most likely not to have heard my secret yet.

“Great Sir.”

The Supreme Peak master we’d first met in Gansu, who’d accompanied us all the way here.

A mysterious eccentric as baffling as his wild, unkempt hair. Even he didn’t know who he was.

“What Great Sir? The fellow loses his mind several times a day.”

Jeok Cheongang snorted, then continued.

“If he’d happened to be there, we couldn’t have helped it. But it still didn’t sit right with this old man to go out of my way to tell him, so I told everyone to keep quiet. He’s been quite useful, but a secret is a secret, and we don’t even know who he is.”

“Hmm.”

“I can guess what you’re thinking. I’m not going to force my judgment on you. Do as you like about that fellow you call Great Sir. But…”

Jeok Cheongang trailed off and scratched his bushy beard.

“There’s someone else I’m more concerned about than him.”

“Someone else?”

“The ones here have more or less understood and accepted it by now. But things don’t always work out so neatly. Old folks especially have trouble understanding anything new.”

Just as I’d thought of Great Sir, I remembered another person who wasn’t here.

Bow Saint.

I muttered the words to myself and looked out the window.

Perhaps because clouds were passing across the pitch-black sky, the stars looked especially dim tonight.

Desert nights were merciless.

By day, the heat seemed ready to burn the whole world. Once the sun set and darkness fell, an icy chill blanketed the land.

Yet even in the cold that seeped to the bone, the slender shadow cast alone atop a sand dune did not waver.

That was only natural. The master who cast it had long since surpassed the realm of Unaffected by Cold and Heat.

But that wasn’t the only reason.

“The realm of immortals… The realm of immortals.”

Bow Saint gazed into the dark desert, her eyes clouded with thought.

The boundless sea of sand before her seemed to mirror her heart.

No end in sight, no matter how far she walked. Nothing within it but hardship and rough grains of sand.

“So that was the secret you were hiding.”

She murmured the words softly.

The desert at night was an excellent listener.

It asked no questions. It only let the wind pass through in silence, from wherever that wind had come.

But it was no good for conversation.

No, even if the desert could speak, that wouldn’t change.

The person the Bow Saint wanted to speak to was someone else.

“…Martial God.”

Her fingers, hard as steel and callused despite her translucent skin, searched inside her robe.

Through the fabric, they found the old letter the Martial God had left for her alone, containing a secret she therefore could tell no one.

“Is this what you want?”

The Bow Saint could not understand.

She had trusted and followed the letter’s instructions only because the Martial God had left it. From the beginning until now, she had never been able to make sense of what it said.

And after hearing Jin Taekyung’s secret just a few days ago, she found it even harder to understand.

“Is this truly… right?”

At that moment—

Rustle.

A faint sound behind her reached the Bow Saint’s ears.