Looking for the Runaway Heavenly Maiden - Chapter 106

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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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106

“There you are, Yerim.”

A warm voice, as if he had been waiting, resonated through her ears.
She faced the man walking slowly toward her.
Even if he had noticed, her seal remained unbroken. So she could buy more time.
Once Cheonhaerang awakened from this nightmare, it would all be over.
To achieve this, she had poured all her remaining strength into the Sword of Spiritual Dao.
The man, who had drawn close in an instant, slowly appraised her. His eyes were not filled with the usual desire.
He was measuring something. He asked.

“How is it? Beautiful? You’re wearing the old dress.”

Did he remember? When they first kissed beneath the Neem Tree, she had been wearing this feathered robe.
She had been a celestial maiden of Baekokgyeong, and he had been the head of the Eul family.

“Yes. Beautiful.”

He answered while cupping her cheek.
Though his answer was brief, Yerim felt herself slipping into illusion.
Looking back, those had been her happiest days.
Her love had burned fiercely, and she had believed they gazed upon the same horizon.
But in truth, they had never once looked in the same direction.
Something threatened to spill from her lips, and without thinking, Yerim bit down on them.
She needed to maintain her composure, but it was crumbling. She felt herself falling apart.
Not yet. She couldn’t afford to break now.

“Were my words so moving? Why are you about to cry?”

With a playful lilt to his voice, the man’s hand slowly brushed across her cheek. Yerim felt her eyes grow hot.
A violent whirlwind swept through her heart. She wanted to surrender helplessly to this tenderness and perish.
The feelings she thought she had erased still lingered within her.
Countless words circled in her mouth. She wanted to ask again. Did you ever love me?
Not even once did you love me?
Did it have to end like this?
Was our love alone, our happiness together, truly so insufficient for you?
I… wanted to marry you.
I hoped you would be in my future.

“…Where did you go?”
“Were you looking for me? Is that why you came all the way here?”
“Yes. You weren’t there. You said you’d always be by my side.”

Speaking thus, Yerim buried her face in the man’s embrace.
She knew that the man who had promised to stay by her side had long since departed from hers.
Gihyeongrang was deeply pleased by Yerim’s actions.
It felt as though they had returned to the past.
To the time when he had kissed her lips and whispered love, when he had craved everything about this woman.
But the illusion had shattered. Yerim was hiding something. Perhaps it lay beyond that veil.
Gihyeongrang’s eyes, while holding Yerim close, pierced sharply across the barren earth.
What was Yerim concealing? The Jade Emperor and Cheonuyhua? Or perhaps Cheonhaerang and Ryujiho?
Either way, neither was welcome to him.
Gihyeongrang extended his power covertly. The black smoke that filled the void surged toward the end of his gaze.

* * *

Jiho, who had been about to chase after Yerim, hesitated.
Not only could she not leave the formation, but Cheonhaerang’s fingers had moved again.
Jiho turned to look at Cheonhaerang. His eyelashes trembled faintly.
Soon, Cheonhaerang opened his eyes.

“Cheonhaerang…!”

Jiho called out to Cheonhaerang urgently. He, who had been blinking blankly, soon let out a dry cough.

“Cough, cough.”
“Are you alright? Are you coming to?”

Jiho hurried to help Cheonhaerang sit down. At her anxious, urgent voice, he nodded his head.
It was a brief yet endless nightmare.
The nightmare had frozen on the day Jiho lost consciousness and collapsed. While wandering through that nightmare, Seon Igyeong appeared before him.
Seon Igyeong showed him his present reality.
The Jade Emperor and his sister searching for him. The crumbling Evil God’s Space.
Jiho, who was giving him warmth.
Yerim, gazing at Seon Igyeong.
In the mirror that Yerim was looking into, there were two people—a man and a woman.
Yerim and Gihyeongrang, who had once loved each other.
Looking at the past, Yerim seemed to have made some kind of resolve.
That must be why she gave all her remaining strength to the Sword of Spiritual Dao.
Cheonhaerang realized what Yerim was trying to do.
Yerim’s retreating figure faded from the mirror, and what remained was the image of Cheonhaerang himself.
Soon, light emanated from Seon Igyeong. When the light enveloped him and disappeared, he was able to open his eyes.
Cheonhaerang gripped the Sword of Spiritual Dao. There was no more time to hesitate.
He had to embrace everyone’s wishes and do what he must.
Even if it brought tragedy.
Cheonhaerang struggled to his feet. Seeing this, Jiho called out to him desperately.

“Cheonhaerang.”
“I’m asking you, Jiho.”
….

Looking into his eyes, what she could do was already determined.
Jiho squeezed her eyes shut and opened them. At the same moment, her form changed into Baekho.
Cheonhaerang climbed onto Baekho’s back. They looked beyond the formation with resolute faces.
Yerim was still in Gihyeongrang’s embrace, and black mist was approaching them.
Now it was a race against time. They had to seize the moment.
When Yerim finally pierced Gihyeongrang’s heart.

* * *

The man’s warmth was unbelievably tender. Her heart trembled and raced.
Once, she had loved hearing that heartbeat.
Yerim lifted her head from his firm chest. The face visible above his sharply defined jawline was more beautiful than ever.
The formation would break soon. It was now.

“Gihyeongrang.”

The man’s gaze descended, fixing upon her.
Yerim finally released a question she had suppressed dozens of times over.
Desperately hoping to hear a different answer than that day.

“Did you love me?”

His golden eyes trembled faintly for an instant. Gihyeongrang could not discern her intention.
What meaning could love possibly hold now, at this late hour?
Fleeting love meant nothing if she was not by his side.

“Answer me. Did you love me?”

Gihyeongrang’s lips parted. Now that I thought about it, had I ever told her that I loved her?
Was that so very long ago?
But why did she ask about the past? Whether I loved her?
Not “do you love me,” but “did you love me.”

“…Do you… love me?”
“What, I asked first.”

She cast her eyes away with a fresh, defiant glance, then spoke with a radiant smile.

“I loved you.”

Not “I love you” as before. The moment he recognized this distinction.

“I loved you, Gihyeongrang.”

Something sharp pierced his chest. Yerim’s hairpin.
Time seemed to have frozen.

“…Yerim…?”
“Gihyeongrang. Let’s end this now.”

She was weeping, her back transfixed.
And the blade that pierced her back had also pierced his heart.

“Gasp!”

Blood sprayed from his mouth with a wet sound. Yet Gihyeongrang had no time to heed his own agony.
His heart felt as though it were burning away. He couldn’t tell if it was the blade embedded in his chest or Yerim that was consuming him.
Gihyeongrang cradled Yerim’s neck with trembling hands. Her closed eyes would not open.
In place of his beloved, what he faced were golden irises—mirrors of his own.

“You… you dare…!”

Fury erupted within him. He lunged to attack Cheonhaerang, but he was hopelessly outmatched.
Strength drained from his body with impossible speed, leaving him helpless.
Another gout of blood spilled from his lips.
The mist that had filled the space gradually dissipated.
Watching his contorted face, Cheonhaerang spoke of a tragic death.

“Gihyeongrang. Do you know why Yerim the Celestial Maiden dies? Because of you.”
“….”
“She chose death of her own will to end you.”

Ah. Now he understood the meaning of that question.
She had loved him. With those words, she finally severed this arduous bond.
For neither she nor he had ever been able to end it before.
But now, because of this, he could never end it again.
A love that had never truly ended.
Yes, it was love.
Love that never ended.
From the moment they first met.
From when he kissed her beneath the Neem Tree until now, all along….
A crack.
The blade in his heart twisted. Now, instead of pain, warmth spread through him—a gentle heat.
Her warmth.
She had poured all her remaining strength into the Sword of Spiritual Dao.
Even her very life force.
Solely for his painless death.

“Did you love me?”

The unanswered question lingered at his ears.
Once, he had yearned for the heavens. He wanted to touch the sky.
Beyond the past of being scorned as a ghost’s child, he wanted to become a god.
So that no one could despise him. So that no one could stand above him.
And thus he became a god.
So that no one could despise him. So that he could possess everything he desired.
…Even love.

I know you well. A pitiful human abandoned by the Patriarch. No matter how much you struggled, the Patriarch never gave you a place worthy of you.
He merely gave you a position in the Heavenly Realm and pretended to love you most.
You are truly pitiable. Do you think that woman ever loved you?
“I love her.”

I, who possessed nothing, had only you as my sole treasure.
If I cannot even have you now, then I….
He closed his eyes quietly.
All those struggles to become a god became meaningless and fleeting.
It was laughable. Now, absurdly, I regret losing you even more.

“My child. Your mother loves you so very, very much.”

It was a faded memory. The child gazing at his departing mother, weeping endlessly, clearly desired one thing.
Love.
Love that would remain by his side forever.

‘Mother, I….’

It seems I am being punished for this.
An eternal punishment—unable to tell the one I love that I love them.
I should not have been swayed by mere emotion. Thus, I should have become a perfect god….

“I loved you, Gihyeongrang.”

Loving you remains my only regret in the end….

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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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