“Fifteen-minute break.”
The reconnaissance squad collapsed with a collective hiss, like the air going out of them.
They looked exhausted, but I wasn’t particularly worried about those guys. As I’d observed, they had solid basic stamina, and during the battle they had done nothing but stand around and watch.
The other two were the problem…
“Are you all right?”
“Huff. I’m fine. I’m fine.”
Socheon answered between ragged breaths. He didn’t look ready to collapse just yet, but if he kept going like this, he would reach his limit before long.
Stubborn little brat.
Earlier, I had offered to carry both him and his sister. He had flatly refused.
“If it gets too hard, tell me. I can handle the two of you.”
“Huff. I’m fine as I am. This is enough.”
Doesn’t look like it.
“I’m saying this for everyone’s sake. Don’t answer so quickly.”
“Understood.”
His eyes hardened with resolve. I handed the sleeping Soyul to him and turned away.
“Great Hero Gong.”
The pale-faced man raised his head.
“…Young Master Jin.”
His voice sounded ready to give out at any moment. His condition was worse than I’d thought. Are you all right? rose to the tip of my tongue, then faded away.
“How much longer can you hold out?”
“I don’t know.”
His answer was honest—and serious.
“What about the fasting pills?”
I had given him several of the fasting pills I had left. But Gong Yacheong shook his head.
“They weren’t much help. Some quack must have made them. All they did was ruin my appetite. Hahaha.”
“…Was that supposed to make me laugh?”
“It wasn’t funny?”
“No. Not at all.”
“What a shame… Cough!”
A sudden cough.
Drops of blood fell onto the white snow.
Damn it.
Worried that someone might see, I hurriedly stepped in front of Gong Yacheong.
“What’s going on? You weren’t this bad before.”
His condition had deteriorated rapidly in half a day. Gong Yacheong no longer looked merely exhausted. He looked unmistakably ill.
“It was inevitable.”
The calm look in his eyes made it even more ominous. I brushed aside the hand trying to stop me and pulled up the front of his robe.
“Ah.”
His body was covered in all kinds of wounds. But what shocked me were the blue veins spreading outward from his lower abdomen.
“What is this…? Don’t tell me…”
Gong Yacheong weakly fastened his robe again. He seemed worried that someone else—especially Socheon and Soyul—might see.
“Those wolf-like bastards coated their weapons with poison.”
Now I understood why Gong Yacheong hadn’t recovered even after taking the fasting pills. They could only stave off hunger and restore stamina. They had no detoxifying effect whatsoever.
“You should’ve told me sooner!”
“Those bastards must have been short on money. They used cheap poison. It was so weak that I didn’t notice until last night. By then, it was too late.”
Gong Yacheong’s stamina had already been at rock bottom when he was poisoned. Then he had continued forcing himself through this weather…
“Is there anything we can do?”
“There is.”
“Tell me.”
“But time won’t allow it. I can’t waste such precious time on one person.”
He was right.
But still…
“We have to try.”
“Young Master.”
“Everyone’s exhausted. If we rest for one shichen1—no, just half a shichen1—and try the method, that should be enough.”
“Hahaha.”
“Please don’t laugh. I was planning to stop and rest around here anyway…”
I didn’t even know what I was saying anymore. As Gong Yacheong watched me ramble, a faint smile touched his lips.
“Go.”
“…”
“You know it too, don’t you? If we waste time here, we’ll be held back.”
I fell silent.
He was right. I had been considering this possibility since I saw his precarious complexion and the blood he coughed up. Perhaps I had been thinking about it since last night.
So this is how it ends?
I had to leave Gong Yacheong behind. If we took him with us, he might survive for now, but everyone’s pace would slow.
What if I carried him myself?
Even with the System’s help, I was still human. I had spent two days at the head of the group, breaking a path through the snow, and the fatigue had built up.
Two fasting pills left.
The thirty or so fasting pills I’d started with were almost gone. Could I escape their clutches while carrying Gong Yacheong with only two pills left?
And if we still ended up running into them, would I be able to fight them while exhausted? Would I be able to face Jopil, One Question, One Kill, a Peak master?
The answer had been clear for a long time.
We both knew it.
“Please take care of the children.”
The moment Gong Yacheong spoke, a System notification chimed.
Ding.
System
Quest
Gong Yacheong’s Last Request
He wants only one thing now. See that the surviving children make it back safely.
Grade: None
Limit: Jin Taekyung
Task: Socheon and Soyul’s safe return (Incomplete)
Reward: None
- Would you like to accept the Quest?
No reward.
It was the most shameless Quest I had ever received.
I’m busy trying to stay alive myself, old man.
But I nodded. If accepting it could ease the nagging discomfort in the corner of my heart, I would gladly do it.
“Let’s do that.”
Gong Yacheong smiled in satisfaction.
“You’re saying we’re leaving Great Hero Gong behind?”
Han Yeop muttered with a shocked expression. Hyuk Mujin said nothing, as though he was lost in thought, while the other reconnaissance squad members were busy watching one another’s faces.
“Yes.”
“That makes no sense!”
“Keep your voice down.”
Nothing good would come of Socheon finding out. He was exactly the sort of kid who would insist on staying behind with Gong Yacheong.
“B-but this…”
“It was Great Hero Gong’s decision. I agree with him.”
That was when Hyuk Mujin abruptly spoke up.
“Why?”
Has this bastard not been beaten enough?
I glared at him, but Hyuk Mujin neither flinched nor backed down. My clenched fist slowly relaxed.
“His condition is serious. If we keep taking him with us, the rest of us will be in danger too.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes.”
Han Yeop cut in, his face flushed.
“No.”
“It’s an order.”
“Then I’ll disobey.”
Everyone stared at Han Yeop in surprise.
I hadn’t expected the boy who had declared himself my ardent follower from the very first time we met to use the word disobey, either.
“That won’t change anything.”
“We can’t leave him behind like this.”
“And if we can’t leave him behind?”
A wave of exhaustion suddenly washed over me. I rubbed my gritty eyes.
“If we can’t leave him behind, will you carry him?”
“Yes. I’ll carry him.”
“And you’ll get tired soon.”
If Han Yeop got tired, someone else would step forward to help him. Then they would grow tired one by one, our pace would slow, and the enemy would catch up.
“We’re up against battle-hardened wandering martial artists led by a Peak master. Do you think we’ll survive?”
Han Yeop lowered his head without answering. The other reconnaissance squad members avoided my gaze as well.
Only one person kept looking me in the eye.
“Number One. Do you still have something to say?”
After a long silence, Hyuk Mujin bowed his head.
“I’ll follow your orders, Captain.”
We began moving again.
Just before we left, Gong Yacheong gently stroked Socheon and Soyul’s heads with a peaceful expression.
“I’ll see you soon.”
Socheon nodded bravely. Still half-asleep, Soyul whimpered and nestled into my arms.
Every time I heard her soft breathing, something twisted uncomfortably in my chest.
Has he left by now?
Gong Yacheong hadn’t wanted the children to know he was gone. He had told me he would quietly slip away while we were moving.
Socheon was in the middle of the formation, so the reconnaissance squad members would block his view. He wouldn’t see Gong Yacheong leave.
How long has it been since we set out?
I didn’t know. In the dead of night, with darkness swallowing everything around us, I couldn’t even feel the passage of time.
With every step I took, one thought refused to leave my mind.
He must have left by now.
It was only natural. Gong Yacheong and I both knew it, and everyone in the reconnaissance squad except Han Yeop had accepted it.
Most importantly…
I had a family waiting for me. I had a real world out there that I still had to face.
Then why does this feel so damn awful?
My feet felt heavy.
It wasn’t just the snow piled up to my calves. It wasn’t the grass and branches blocking the path ahead.
A mere NPC named Gong Yacheong kept weighing on my mind.
I remembered his final smile. The cheap Quest with no reward.
I remembered Han Yeop’s defiance, and Hyuk Mujin’s calm gaze pricked the corner of my heart like a thorn.
It’s only natural. So why?
Because it was a game.
Because it was only a game.
If I didn’t leave him behind, everyone would die. I’d die too! You fucking bastards!
“Fuuuck…”
The curse lodged in my throat finally spilled out.
Soyul stirred from her light sleep, mumbled something, and wrapped her arms around my neck.
Her tiny hands were cold. So real that goose bumps rose across my skin. Too real for me to believe this was only a game.
Real enough to make me feel guilty for abandoning a single NPC.
“…What a fucked-up game.”
I turned around.
“Where are you going?”
I strode back the way we had come. I couldn’t see Socheon’s face or the faces of the reconnaissance squad members.
That was why I didn’t notice the fleeting smile on Hyuk Mujin’s face as he asked where I was going.
Or that Han Yeop, who should have been at the very rear, was nowhere to be seen.
“Huff. Huuuff.”
I raced across the snow like the wind.
And then I found him.
Below the hill, Han Yeop was gritting his teeth and forcing one foot in front of the other, even as he gasped for breath.
The unconscious Gong Yacheong was on his back.
“You…”
I didn’t know what to say. With a sigh, I grabbed Han Yeop’s hand and pulled him up.
“Th-thank you.”
Shit…
I don’t know anymore, either.
This was a hidden retreat meant for one person alone.
Since becoming its owner thirty years ago, he had forbidden anyone else from entering. As the years passed, that prohibition had hardened into an unbreakable rule, and everyone else regarded it as such.
“How are things going?”
The air trembled faintly as the two shadows conversed through Sound Transmission.
“Smoothly. And on your end?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
“I wouldn’t expect otherwise.”
“The Blood Wolf Sword. For someone with that epithet, he’s surprisingly fond of his family.”
“Even a wolf cares for its own flesh and blood. So?”
“The vanguard alone numbers two hundred. A madman named Jopil is running wild as he pleases, but… it should be fine.”
“Jopil, One Question, One Kill? The Blood Wolf Sword chose well.”
“The wastrel young master is being chased for his life. It wasn’t part of the plan, but it isn’t a bad development.”
“Hahahaha.”
“Could it be…?”
“That’s right. I sent him. Once the Lesser Family Head sees the head of his beloved youngest brother, he’ll change his mind.”
“Whew. A heart as cold as poison, without blood or tears. Impressive.”
“Is that something you should be saying?”
“I only took one hopeless life.”
“And thanks to that, a bloody storm will sweep through Shanxi Province?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I can’t deny it. Yes. I’ve waited far too long.”
“The fruit will taste all the sweeter.”
“I hope so.”
“Ah, right. The Lower District Sect has gotten involved.”
“The Lower District Sect? How?”
“The new Branch Leader has a keen nose. Once this matter is settled, I intend to drive them out.”
“Be careful. No matter how formidable Heaven may be, you must never let your guard down…”
At that moment, the wind stopped.
The air quivered.
“…I misspoke.”
A long silence passed before another Sound Transmission came.
“You would do well to mind your words and actions.”
The voice was as soft as a cat’s paw.
But the listener could feel the cold, razor-sharp blade beneath it.
“Let me apologize once more.”
“Let’s end things here for today. If a problem arises, I’ll come see you again soon.”
The conversation ended there.
The other person vanished without a sound or trace.
They’re like ghosts.
Sometimes, he wondered what their true identities were. How strong were they? Who were their members?
But he soon shook his head.
Such curiosity would only shorten my life.
He had endured years of hardship to reap the fruit. He couldn’t let mere curiosity ruin his plans.
It truly has been a long time.
The shadow reached toward the moon. Faint moonlight slipped between his fingers, illuminating his silver beard.
Soon… everything will return to its rightful place.
The Head Elder smiled with delight.
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