Childhood Friend of the Zenith

༺ Omen (3) ༻

Wi Seol-Ah had a dream for the first time in a while.

She had dreams like this sometimes, ever since she met ‘Sis’.

But today’s dream was clearer than the others.

It might have been the clearest dream she had since that day.

‘…Where… am I?’

Wi Seol-Ah was used to this hazy feeling.

The feeling that her body wasn’t hers, the world that she saw from a third-person view.

She had experienced it a few times already, so it didn’t feel too strange to her.

“Where are they?”

She heard a voice and reacted.

It was a soft voice and Wi Seol-Ah knew who it belonged to.

“I won’t ask again. Where are they?”

The woman spoke calmly, but with a hint of anger.

She had a beautiful face that matched her voice.

But her surroundings were not beautiful.

She was in a dusty jail, with no sunlight.

The walls were covered with torture marks, and hardened blood.

Wi Seol-Ah knew what it meant.

It was a nightmare again.

Every time the woman appeared in her dream, it was a nightmare for Wi Seol-Ah.

Because people would always die.

The woman would always kill someone or someone would always die for the woman.

The world fell, and the woman swung her sword silently.

Wi Seol-Ah knew the end of her story, and watching it was hell.

The woman didn’t cry.

Even if the ones who protected her died…

Even if her beloved family died…

Even if her companions died…

Even if the ones who betrayed her died…

The woman only swung her sword in silence.

Wi Seol-Ah thought the woman was cold.

She didn’t think she could keep that face in that situation, if it was her.

But this time the woman showed some emotion, which was rare.

‘Who is it…?’

It was dim.

The person the woman was looking at was not very visible to Wi Seol-Ah.

It looked like a fog was blocking her vision.

It seemed to be a man, by the physique, but he didn’t respond to the woman.

‘Is he dead…?’

Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case.

He was breathing lightly.

But he was badly hurt, his face smeared with blood.

Wi Seol-Ah bit her lips, feeling a pain in her heart.

“You of all people should know, right? Where the rest of the demonic humans are hiding?”

The woman spoke, not caring about the man’s condition.

No.

Wi Seol-Ah knew.

She did care about him.

She was just holding in her emotions.

Emotions like anger, regret, despair, and yearning, that couldn’t coexist.

She held them in while speaking to the man.

“If you…”

She bit her lips suddenly, in the middle of her words.

“If you still have any semblance of a conscience left…”

Her words shook a bit.

Was it anger?

Or regret?

Or both?

The young Wi Seol-Ah couldn’t tell.

But it seemed like one of those emotions.

-Clench.

She felt the woman clench her fist.

Blood flowed from her hand, but she didn’t seem to feel any pain.

“This is your last chance if you still want to live. If you tell me what I need to know, then even if the entire world tries to kill you, I will do everything to protect you.”

The woman’s voice shook more.

Please say yes, you have to.

That was what her heart was saying.

So…

“So please, I’m begging you….”

Tell me.

She bit her lips.

And then, she stopped.

The man didn’t respond to anything the woman said.

Maybe he couldn’t.

He breathed lightly and looked at the woman, lifting his head.

Wi Seol-Ah wanted to see his face and his emotions, but she couldn’t.

“Hurry up and answer! Where are they hiding?”

The woman grabbed the man’s collar, hoping for a reaction.

She held in her boiling emotions, but the man didn’t respond.

She let go of his collar and threw him on the ground.

He rolled on the hard, rocky floor, but he didn’t groan.

He looked like he had given up on everything.

“If I had known how awful you would turn out to be when we first met, I would have killed you the moment I saw you.”

The woman was angry, but Wi Seol-Ah sensed another emotion in her.

If I had chosen a different way, if I had said different words to you, you might not have ended up this way.

The woman had conflicting thoughts.

“…That is my biggest regret.”

She looked at the man lying on the ground.

Her emotions were about to explode, but she kept them in.

She turned away from the man and walked outside.

She hesitated, but she acted calm.

As she was about to leave, she heard a sound from behind.

Sss.

She turned and saw the man moving his broken body.

She looked at him with shaky eyes.

Tap. Tap.

He wrote something on the ground with his finger, ignoring her gaze.

One line.

Then another.

Blood spilled from his mouth, as if he wasn’t supposed to write those words.

“What are you doing…!”

She checked his condition and ran to him, shouting.

But she stumbled.

She wasn’t in good shape either.

“Wait…”

She realized something was wrong with the man, and ran to him.

But when he finished writing,

Thud-!

His body collapsed.

She caught him and supported him.

“Please… Please…”

She checked his condition, but his body was cold and his eyes were dim.

He was dead.

‘…Why…?’

Wi Seol-Ah didn’t understand.

He was a prisoner, so he must have been a bad person.

Yet, the woman cared for him; Wi Seol-Ah didn’t understand.

But she knew one thing.

The woman was sad.

So very sad.

An ever so dark and dense sadness.

‘…I want to wake up.’

Wi Seol-Ah wanted to wake up from this dream.

It was too hard to bear this emotion.

She wondered what the man wanted to tell the woman before he died.

Because the woman ran to catch him, the words he wrote with blood were gone.

Wasn’t that what she needed?

But it didn’t matter to her now.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Water droplets fell on the ground.

It wasn’t blood.

‘She’s crying…?’

Wi Seol-Ah saw it.

The woman who never shed a tear, even in the worst situations, was crying with the man in her arms.

She sobbed quietly.

Wi Seol-Ah shook, unable to bear the emotions she felt from the woman.

It was the first time she felt such pain.

It was different from the pain of Hongwa’s punishment or the pain of swinging her wooden sword.

It was a deep emotional pain.

‘I want to wake up… please…’

Dreams weren’t kind to Wi Seol-Ah.

She wondered if she had to endure the whole dream again; after all, she couldn’t wake up by herself, it seemed.

‘Young Master…’

Wi Seol-Ah closed her eyes and thought of Gu Yangcheon.

But the dream didn’t end.

The woman who cried for a while, choked her voice and suppressed her emotions.

Someone came.

“Alliance Leader.”

She heard a voice and calmed her voice.

“…What is it?”

“…Did you find what you were looking for… Ah.”

The middle-aged man stopped when he saw the man in the woman’s arms.

“The Demon Emperor…”

Before he could say anything, the woman stood up slowly.

She put the dead man’s body gently on the ground.

The man lowered his head.

He couldn’t look at the woman’s face.

“Beggar King.”

“Yes, Alliance Leader.”

“Tell the remaining Demonic Humans. The Demon Emperor is dead.”

“…Understood.”

The woman walked outside, without regret.

The Beggar King looked at the Demon Emperor, who had his eyes closed.

“Rest well.”

With that, he followed the woman out of the jail.

Wi Seol-Ah was left alone in the room.

She couldn’t see his face, but his aura felt familiar.

The woman’s anger and sadness left too.

She couldn’t separate from the woman normally, so she found it strange.

‘…Why…?’

The room was dark and scary, but she didn’t feel fear.

Wi Seol-Ah reached out her half-invisible hand to the man.

She didn’t know why.

She just felt like she had to.

When her small hand touched the man…

-Will you really be fine with it?

She heard a voice in her ears, and opened her eyes.

She woke up from the nightmare.

******************

It was midnight.

Wi Seol-Ah looked around with drowsy eyes.

A small candle was lit not far from her and two old men were talking.

“Will you really be fine with it?”

“Should I not be fine with it then?”

She woke up in the middle of her sleep, and she was still sleepy. She wondered what her grandpa was talking about, but she fell asleep again.

The Sword Venerable looked at Wi Seol-Ah quietly.

“…What are you doing?”

“Nothing. My child woke up for a bit, so I put her back to sleep.”

He didn’t know how he did that from far away, but the Immortal Healer didn’t ask.

They had something more important to talk about.

“I may be called the almighty Immortal Healer, but I am not immortal.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t seem to understand. There are many things that I can’t do.”

“But you accepted this request, because this is something you can do, right?”

“…Sigh, Alliance Leader…”

The Sword Venerable added, after hearing the Immortal Healer’s sigh.

“I hope that child grows up like an ordinary child.”

“That’s a difficult hope to have.”

The Immortal Healer was shocked by the Sword Venerable.

The child who slept behind him had a huge void.

Her vessel was far too wide for a human.

It was both high in length and wide in breadth, like nothingness.

The Sword Venerable pleaded to the Immortal Healer.

To take that thing.

To close the lid on that huge vessel that anyone would want.

The Immortal Healer couldn’t understand him.

“…You know this isn’t a medical thing, right?”

“I do. That’s why I looked for you.”

The Immortal Healer.

Also known as the Imperial Physician, his true name was Zhuge.

It was a lost name, from a noble clan of the past.

A clan that explored the territory of formations and the Demonic Realm.

The Sword Venerable knew that; and the fact that he knew couldn’t be more restraining to the Immortal Healer.

After all, only a few people knew about this, but the Sword Venerable was one of them.

“…If you do what I ask, I will give you what you want.”

“Ha, how can you be so sure that you can get a White-Grade Demonic Stone?”

The Immortal Healer didn’t believe him, even though the Sword Venerable was confident.

The Immortal Healer had been looking for a long time, for a Demonic Stone of a White Demon.

A White Gate of Demons hadn’t appeared for a long time, so it was impossible to get a White-Grade Demonic Stone.

Yet, the Sword Venerable said he could give it to him.

“…It’s not a lie. If you want, you can put a Shackle on me.”

The Immortal Healer sighed deeply, after listening to the Sword Venerable.

He understood his desperation, to some extent.

He was looking for the White-Grade Demonic Stone for his grandchild.

“…I’ll say it again, but it will take a lot of preparation. It can’t be done here.”

“I already told the Lord of the Gu Clan. I’ll leave when you’re ready.”

The Immortal Healer was treating the Gu Clan’s patients.

He never left his patients behind, no matter what.

He would only leave when they were all cured.

He looked at the Sword Venerable with a sour face.

“Where are you going?”

It wouldn’t be an easy task.

It would need a lot of preparation and expense.

Furthermore, it had to be done in secret, so they had to be careful about the location.

But they couldn’t settle for a mediocre place.

The Sword Venerable answered the Immortal Healer.

“…We will go to Qinghai.”

The Immortal Healer thought of something when he heard that.

It was one of the places belonging to the Ten Sect Alliance.

And the Kunlun Sect was there.

But the Sword Venerable probably wasn’t going to Kunlun.

After all, Qinghai was also where the Jang Family, currently in Hanam, used to be.

******************

The next day, at noon.

“We will now begin the Elder’s Meeting for the Young Master’s matter.”

The Elder’s Meeting started in the Gu Clan, with the Lord in the center.

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