Chapter 718

“Despite all those deaths, the person I grieved for most was Baeksang.”

The Beast Miao King’s low voice reached me. I stayed silent for a moment before asking, “Is that why you left? Because you thought it was wrong to feel that way?”

“To become the Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace means putting this land and its tribespeople before anything else. But I became trapped by my personal feelings.”

I could see his enormous back, like a thousand-year-old megalith. Yet the back of the giant who had supported Nanman for so many years looked pitifully small at that moment, like a child’s.

“Do you know what I was thinking when I faced Baeksang for the last time?”

I could guess, but I said nothing. The person who knew Baeksang best—and who had suffered most because of him—was right in front of me.

“I wanted to save him somehow.”

“……”

“Even in that horrific scene, I wanted to save that bastard Baeksang, who had betrayed everyone in this land, myself included, and help him run far away.”

They weren’t related by blood, but they were sworn brothers, as close as family. The Beast Miao King must have wanted to save Baeksang however he could. He must have wanted to absolve the man who had served as Dark Heaven’s hunting dog while the child he’d believed dead was held hostage.

But Baeksang himself had refused.

“He probably knew, too. That I was hesitating. That must be why he made that choice.”

The Beast Miao King’s murmur faded into the silence. The emotion in his voice was grief over being forced to end the life of his sworn younger brother—the man he had cherished more than his own life—with his own hands. It was also self-reproach for abandoning his duty as Palace Lord because of his personal feelings.

“One diseased tree caused the forest to die. Yet the forest keeper is now pacing in front of the diseased tree that has already fallen. Could you call such a person a forest keeper?”

I had been listening quietly to the Beast Miao King’s story. Then I broke the long silence.

“Great Hero Yayul, I’m asking you this in all seriousness…”

My voice trailed off. Even now, I wasn’t sure I should say it. But I had to get that devastated forest keeper back on his feet, even if it meant crossing the line a little. Or a lot.

“Are you fucking stupid?”

“……!”

I could sense his agitation even from behind. I’d already started, though, so I pressed on.

“What, is the Palace Lord some kind of god of heaven and earth? Don’t you have human emotions?”

“You…”

“Let’s be honest. Someone who spent their entire life with you, someone like family, just died. Who in this world could be fine after that? Are you supposed to be sadder just because other people died, too?”

The Beast Miao King took a moment to answer my barrage of blunt questions.

“Jin Taekyung, you as well?”

I nodded.

“Of course I would. What’s so special about a bastard like me?”

“……”

“People around me can praise me as a chivalrous hero or a Great Hero, but I’m still a person in the end. Why would a Palace Lord be any different?”

I answered without hesitation. His broad back shifted.

Rustle.

He slowly turned his head. For the first time since I’d entered the old shrine, I saw his face. He looked utterly haggard.

“They were also Nanman people I had to protect.”

“And you protected them. Even after being branded a traitor, you came back despite the danger. It was thanks to you that countless others could be saved.”

I continued quietly.

“The diseased trees have fallen, but the forest hasn’t died. It needs its forest keeper more than ever.”

Many people had been sacrificed in this incident. But ironically, Nanman would grow even stronger.

Because Baeksang had not been the only diseased tree in the vast forest called Nanman.

The other chieftains. No—the traitors.

Baeksang had joined forces with Dark Heaven for his child. They had followed him for nothing but their own safety and power.

Those were the trees that should have been cut down long ago, trees sick with greed. More than twenty chieftains had shaken their branches, and countless leaves had fallen into bloody water. But the forest had survived.

Under the single banner of the Nanman Beast Palace, its people would come together and flourish. And only one person could raise that banner before all of Nanman.

“Let’s go back. Then that father and son can rest easier too.”

I was speaking to the Beast Miao King, but my eyes were elsewhere. He followed my gaze.

“You knew?”

“I noticed them as soon as I came in. Everything else in here is covered in dust. Those aren’t.”

I walked forward. Between the faded murals and dozens of stone statues I couldn’t identify stood two memorial tablets that hadn’t been there on my last visit.

Neither bore a name. I knew who they were for.

Baeksang. Baekhwi.

I said their names silently—the names even the person who had made the tablets by hand couldn’t bring himself to carve. Then I lowered myself and bowed.

Once. Then again.

When I turned after the second bow, the Beast Miao King was staring at me, his face stiff.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“……I didn’t expect it.”

“What, did you think I’d knock the tablets over?”

“You might have. Especially Baeksang’s, after what he did.”

Damn it. Fair enough.

After everything that had happened, I could have split Baeksang’s tablet in half and spat on it and called it self-defense.

But…

“I just wanted to do this. That’s all.”

What was this filthy, bitter feeling?

I looked back at the tablets and thought I might finally have a name for it. Perhaps it was sympathy. Perhaps empathy.

It’s too late. I’ve gone down a road I can’t turn back from, and I won’t stop.

For an instant, I seemed to hear Baeksang’s voice again, as I had in the dark underground prison. I looked at the blank tablet and asked a question he would never hear.

If I’d been you, what road would I have taken?

No answer came. Not from the tablet, and not from anywhere deep inside me.

If there really is such a thing as an afterlife, I hope that bastard—someone I could tear to pieces without feeling satisfied—gets to live an ordinary life unlike this one.

I hope he can spend a peaceful life without losing anyone or sacrificing anyone, together with the child he missed so terribly.

Damn it. How many people died because of him?

I knew every villain had a story. That wasn’t what made this feel so rotten.

It was the thought that I might have walked the same road as Baeksang. I could imagine how desperately he’d struggled against the circumstances he’d been given.

In the end, this was all I could say.

“……Don’t commit any sins over there, you goddamn bastard.”

As I muttered the words, reddish light slipped through a gap in the shrine door and fell across the two tablets. As though that were their answer.

Then, the next moment, a deep voice pierced my ears.

“The sun’s already setting.”

Creeeak.

The old floorboards screamed. At last, the giant unfolded his crossed legs and rose from his seat, staring at me with calm eyes.

“If we head straight to the Inner Palace, we should still make it back in time for dinner.”

“……!”

“Come. We should return before it gets any later.”

I looked at him, let out a quiet laugh, and nodded.

Nanman’s forest keeper had returned.

Two days passed.

When the Palace Lord, who had disappeared without a word, returned, the leadership—which had been thrown into confusion—quickly regained its stability. After taking a short rest at everyone’s urging, the Beast Miao King summoned me the following day.

Or rather, he summoned Jeok Cheongang and me.

Jeok Cheongang arrived at the meeting room hastily thrown together over seven days and nights. The moment he saw the Beast Miao King sitting there, he said,

“Look how you’ve grown, our little Miao King. Sitting in the seat of honor and everything.”

“……Oh. My apologies. Force of habit.”

“No, I understand. So you’ll understand this old man’s habit of using the Flame Divine Palm on anyone who forgets his manners.”

Whoosh!

The Beast Miao King had experienced that habit during the Great Faction War. Bandages and all, he swiftly vacated the seat of honor and gestured toward it.

“Please sit, Old Master Jeok.”

“Oh, it’s fine. You’re injured. No need to go that far.”

“……”

“Enough. Sit down. I don’t care for some wet-behind-the-ears brat summoning me, but I’ll let you say your piece.”

The Beast Miao King seemed confused by the gangster-like way of speaking he hadn’t heard in a long time, so I opened my mouth politely.

“Just tell him what you need to. That means he’s listening.”

“……Then, Old Master Jeok, may this junior speak?”

“He really hates being asked questions in return. You’re still not fully recovered, so if you don’t want to suffer something nasty, speak right away.”

“……Understood.”

Unlike the Jeok Cheongang in his memories, the one sitting before him looked much younger. The Beast Miao King glanced at him before carefully opening his mouth.

“I asked you to join us, Old Master Jeok, because I wished to consult you about a grave matter.”

“A grave matter?”

“Yes.”

“I hear the cleanup has been going well. Have you found a trail leading to Dark Heaven?”

“I wish we had, but no. In a way, this problem is even more troublesome…”

“Enough preamble. Get to the point before I shorten your life.”

This man really hasn’t changed.

The Beast Miao King looked at Jeok Cheongang with exactly that thought in his eyes, then took something from inside his robes and placed it on the table.

Thud.

It was something wrapped in thick cloth. But everyone in the room, myself included, could sense the ominous energy seeping out from within.

As the air suddenly grew heavy, Jeok Cheongang muttered as though groaning.

“……Demonic qi?”

The Beast Miao King nodded grimly.

“Yes. Extremely pure and powerful demonic qi. I couldn’t entrust it to anyone else in Nanman, so I’ve kept it with me.”

Their voices seemed to recede, as distant as echoes.

I thought I knew where that demonic qi had come from and what lay beneath the cloth. From the deep darkness, the guardian spirit’s final roar rang in my ears once more.

“It’s the sacred stone. The one the guardian spirit carried.”

“As you guessed. Though it is no longer a sacred stone.”

Rustle.

The Beast Miao King answered in a troubled voice and peeled back the cloth. Instead of warm, dazzling radiance, a stone filled with murky darkness was revealed.

It had absorbed all the demonic qi flowing from the rift. Now, it was something that ought to be called a demonic stone, and the Beast Miao King’s gaze sank deeply as he looked at it.

“I’m suppressing its demonic qi for now, but we can’t leave it like this forever. That’s why I asked you and Old Master Jeok here—to decide what to do with it.”

At that moment—

Ding.

A clear chime rang out, utterly at odds with the murky darkness before me, and a holographic window appeared in midair.

System

Quest: Corrupted Divine Artifact

Will you accept?

Y / N