Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 35

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 35
* * *
Thump-thump! Two sturdy legs!
Thwack! An axe worn smooth in the hands!
Thump-thump-thump! An old, tattered wicker basket!
“Perfect!”
Gu-yeong looked down at the child standing confidently in the middle of the courtyard.
For the past several days, the boy had devoted himself quietly to his training.
He no longer blindfolded his eyes and crashed into things as before, nor did he subject his body to the excessive strain of overambitious practice.
The letter left behind by Jewang-geom seemed to have brought him some measure of peace.
And yet.
“What do you mean, perfect?”
“We’re going!”
“Going where?”
“To gather herbs!”
Yeon-woo, hefting the axe, looked up at Gu-yeong with bright, eager eyes.
Behind the black mask, his gaze was as impassive as ever, yet the corners of his mouth curved deeper into a smile.
“Grandfather said so, didn’t he? He told me to go gather herbs!”
“At that time…”
Wasn’t he asleep?
And surely the words meant something like ‘don’t push yourself if it’s difficult.’
Besides, hasn’t he been training lightly ever since that letter arrived?
“Well then, shall we go?”
With that or without, it didn’t matter.
Yeon-woo set off walking briskly.
Gu-yeong watched in silence as the boy hummed a little tune and passed by him, then soon followed in his wake.
The destination was the mountain where Gu-yeong had once saved Yeon-woo from Tiger.
A mountain that wasn’t frequented often, its slopes scattered with medicinal herbs.
At that time, he’d had his eyes and ears bound as part of his training, so he hadn’t been able to gather them properly. Today was different.
“A paradise, truly!”
Yeon-woo raised both arms high at the forest’s edge.
“You have to keep up with me, sir!”
Gu-yeong nodded.
Yeon-woo truly commanded the mountain.
“This smells wonderful! And this! And delicious fruit!”
Whoosh here, whoosh there.
As the boy darted about the forest, medicinal herbs filled his hands with each movement.
‘What is this?’
Was this even possible?
Gu-yeong couldn’t trust his own eyes.
‘Does he know how to distinguish medicinal herbs?’
The boy couldn’t read, yet his knowledge of herbs was so vast?
Even if his knowledge were extensive, could he possibly find herbs without a moment’s hesitation like this?
‘Come to think of it, that time too.’
Even with his eyes and ears bound, he moved toward the spirit creature.
As though drawn by something unseen.
‘This child…’
There’s something there.
Of course—if there were nothing, Am-yeong Majun wouldn’t have taken such an interest in…
Whoosh—!
As these thoughts occupied him while he followed, Yeon-woo suddenly turned to face Gu-yeong.
“…?”
Gu-yeong stopped and met the child’s gaze.
A tense standoff lasted only a moment.
Thump-thump-thump—
The boy approached Gu-yeong.
He held something in his hand.
“Sir.”
“….”
Yeon-woo grinned and waved his hand.
At the child’s beckoning gesture, Gu-yeong knelt on one knee and lowered himself to meet Yeon-woo’s eye level.
“What is it?”
Snap.
“…?”
The moment Gu-yeong bent lower, Yeon-woo tore off a leaf from the plant she’d been holding, as if she’d been waiting for precisely this moment.
A sweet fragrance wafted past, tickling the inside of his nose.
‘This is….’
“…!”
Whack!
Gu-yeong’s body tensed instantly—he knocked the plant from Yeon-woo’s hand away.
Yeon-woo’s eyes widened in surprise, just for a moment.
“Hehe, ahahaha—but it’s not bad, you know?”
She giggled and opened and closed her empty fists.
Gu-yeong regarded the child with a serious expression.
“Do you know what that is?”
“Mm…”
“You know, and yet….”
Gu-yeong gazed at the broken plant stem lying on the ground, its leaf torn away.
‘Hae-woo Grass.’
Strictly speaking, it was neither a medicinal herb nor a poisonous one.
Which meant, conversely, that depending on how it was used, it could become either a medicinal herb or a poison.
“See, it’s a plant that makes you laugh. You smell it and you just start laughing. Hehe.”
“Of course.”
Because it was a plant that stimulated the nerves.
‘As a medicinal herb, it’s used as material for pain-relieving medicines. As a poison, it’s material for hallucinating drugs that numb sensation.’
At times it was even used as material for truth serums.
Merely inhaling its scent caused no serious harm, but the plant possessed properties that numbed the senses and elevated the mood.
“Why on earth did you bring this?”
“Because… I wanted the child of darkness to smile…”
Hehe—the child’s laughing face was completely relaxed.
Gu-yeong furrowed his brow.
“You wanted me to smile?”
Wait—child of darkness…?
That was when it happened.
Yeon-woo’s small hands cupped Gu-yeong’s cheeks on either side.
“…!”
Behind the Black Mask, his eyes widened.
From the child’s hands cradling his cheeks, the sweet fragrance of Hae-woo Grass drifted softly inward.
“…!”
“You’d look pretty if you smiled…”
Gu-yeong’s body, which had been about to brush the child’s hands away, suddenly went rigid.
Why?
Perhaps because the child’s expression, giggling so innocently, was so utterly harmless.
Even knowing he was breathing in the Hae-woo Grass, he found himself unable to push her away roughly.
“Does the child of darkness not laugh because that’s who you are? Why are you always so dark…?”
Your clothes, your voice, your expression—
“You should laugh to be happy. Isn’t the child of darkness happy?”
The hands kneading his cheeks were warm.
Watching the child’s face, intoxicated by something, drift and giggle—
“Ha….”
The corners of Gu-yeong’s mouth curved upward, faintly.
“Oh! You smiled! You do know how to smile!”
“I didn’t know you saw me as someone incapable of smiling.”
“Because the child of darkness is… the child of darkness, so…”
“Why do you call me the child of darkness? And this is…”
Gu-yeong touched his own curved lips lightly, as if brushing them.
“It’s the effect of the Hae-woo Grass. A vicious poison indeed.”
“It’s not poison…”
“It is poison.”
For otherwise, he—who had not truly smiled even once since that day—could not have found himself helpless against laughter now.
Gu-yeong watched the child fidgeting before him and let out a soft laugh.
The low, weary sound drifted pleasantly into Yeon-woo’s ears.
“You’re foolish.”
Gu-yeong flicked the child’s forehead with one finger.
The boy’s head, still cradling his cheek, tilted back slightly before returning to place.
But there was no displeasure in his expression.
“Child of Darkness—”
“It’s Gu-yeong. Not Child of Darkness anymore.”
“Gu-yeong is—”
Yeon-woo laughed, his whole face brightening with a brilliant smile.
“You’re beautiful when you smile.”
* * *
“You don’t listen to what people say, do you?”
Am-yeong Majun asked, resting his chin on his hand.
His companion was the master of Yao-hwa Palace.
Yo-hwa Majun—one of the Twelve Demon Lords who upheld the Demonic Sect.
“I hear quite often that it’s charming, actually.”
Yo-hwa Majun laughed softly, a ripple of amusement crossing her face.
“Not as much as you, perhaps, but I’m told I’m willful enough in my own way?”
“Interesting.”
The corners of Am-yeong Majun’s mouth curved upward.
His long fingers tapped against his cheek, a light, rhythmic sound.
“Are you asking me to kill you?”
In that instant, a chill swept over Yo-hwa Majun.
Am-yeong Majun hadn’t moved, yet it felt as though hundreds of blades had encircled her, each one’s edge gleaming and ready.
Though Yo-hwa Majun was one who rarely let unease show, she swallowed dryly without thinking.
But Yo-hwa Majun understood something.
No matter how completely he monopolized the Gyojoo’s trust, he wouldn’t dare lay hands on a fellow member of the Twelve Demon Lords so easily.
“Is that child perhaps the Gyojoo’s hidden offspring?”
“It’s something far greater than that.”
“Far greater than that…?”
The Gyojoo was revered like a god within the Demon Cult.
Could anything truly be greater than the Gyojoo’s own blood?
And if something were that great, it wouldn’t be a matter of whether one wanted to kill it or not—
‘
It would have to
be killed.’
“You’re saying to let something so great live?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s amusing.”
Am-yeong Majun chuckled, his laughter carrying a note of genuine delight.
“The sect has become tedious. The Demon Cult was always a place where the strong rule. But that doesn’t mean it has to be oppression.”
“Has anyone oppressed the Shadow?”
“Why do you all do the same thing? Trampling every seedling that grows, crushing anything that seems it might become large.”
Am-yeong Majun rolled a wine cup across the table, back and forth.
“You snap it off or break it to pieces. All the while trembling like cowardly dogs, terrified someone will take your place.”
“You seem quite dissatisfied with the current order.”
“It’s dull. Watching stones sit fixed in place is tedious. What I want is a fresh stone rolling in from somewhere—”
Crack!
The cup beneath his fingers suddenly shattered into fragments.
“That would be entertaining. Breaking a few fixed stones.”
This sect won’t even let them roll. Won’t give them time to grow.
Behind her thin mask, Yo-hwa Majun’s gaze fixed on the broken pieces.
“That was quite an expensive cup.”
“Charge it to my account.”
“You do realize this is a pleasure house?”
“You’ve painted the air so thick with fragrance it reeks—wasn’t that why?”
“How disrespectful.”
Yo-hwa Majun raised the wine cup before her and moistened her lips with the finest sip.
Her gaze sank low.
“I grant you some measure of agreement in what you say. But should a stone lodged in place simply remain still?”
“….”
“Finding the seedlings as they sprout, crushing them—it requires considerable effort, you understand.”
Clink.
Yo-hwa Majun set down her cup and fixed her gaze upon Am-yeong Majun.
“When I heard you were coming to this place, I sent assassins after that child.”
Behind the white half-mask, her violet eyes had hardened into a cold, steady light.
“Of course I did. The reason I failed to kill that child was because you were standing at their side.”
You are here now.
I saw my chance.
The moment you would leave the child unguarded.
“I could hardly let such an opportunity slip away.”
If it is a child you cherish.
If that child bears the makings of a Celestial Demon, all the more so.
“In other words, I am now.”
Yo-hwa Majun’s crimson lips curved into a smile.
“Buying time.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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