The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 154

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

The Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 154
In my childhood.
It was several years after I had reincarnated.
It was a time when I desperately needed to adapt to this world called the Central Plains, and a time when I was utterly fed up with the disasters my father and older brother constantly caused.
That day was no exception.
It was just an ordinary day. The weather wasn’t particularly hot or cold for the season—nothing remarkable about it.
The day was simply pleasant.
Like any other day, something bothersome came my way.
‘Ugh, I’m swamped with work. Why does she have to show up again?’
I spoke with all the irritation I could muster.
Normally, I would have spouted endless nonsense—thanking her for coming, complaining that she wasn’t grateful, or whatever else came to mind.
But today she was unusually quiet.
Wondering what was wrong, I looked at her, and she said something.
‘Dad isn’t home today.’
I was slightly taken aback by those words.
The word “dad” felt unfamiliar to me.
I had only ever used terms like “Lord of the Clan” or “Father,” but today she used a different title for the first time.
‘…So? What do you expect me to do about it? He’s always busy—that’s normal for him. He’s far better than the men in our household anyway.’
A man preoccupied with work and constantly away was a hundred times—no, a thousand times better than one who shirked his duties to chase after women.
Though I meant well with my words, the child’s expression didn’t brighten.
‘So what do you want me to do about it?’
‘…Dad isn’t home today…’
‘Look, what I’m saying is—so what? Are you asking me to come home with you and play? What’s that supposed to mean?’
It was half a joke. I was only around ten or so years old.
She couldn’t have meant anything strange by it, so I responded in a way befitting my age.
‘…Will you?’
‘…What?’
At my words, the child’s face brightened as if she had gained some hope.
I was disgusted by the sight.
‘Go? Why would I go play with you at a house where the Lord of the Clan isn’t even home? Get out of here.’
I had already broken off the engagement, and here she was, still coming to our house.
It was strange that she kept showing up at our place even after the engagement was dissolved.
As I spoke with disgust, disappointment flickered across the child’s face.
Seeing that, something felt off about today.
‘What’s wrong? Why are you suddenly acting like this?’
It was different from her usual behavior.
I didn’t want to ask, but I had no choice. Something was too strange about this.
So I asked.
Drip. Drip.
Suddenly, the child began to shed tears.
Not sobbing, not crying outright.
Just flowing.
Like trying to hold back a stream of water, only to fail.
And so the tears fell slowly.
‘Huh? Hey. Why are you crying?’
I approached in confusion, and in that moment the child threw herself into my arms.
The child whimpered against my chest, now damp with her tears.
‘Today… today is Mother’s death anniversary. But Father… Father isn’t here.’
‘…’
Hearing that, I let out a sigh.
So that was it—her father’s absence on her mother’s death anniversary.
I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at that.
It was information I had no real need to know, which made it strange that I knew it at all.
The one who was always so tactless and mature, who ultimately became nothing but a child on her mother’s death anniversary—there was something painfully poignant about that sight.
‘Don’t cry. Your clothes are getting soaked. Stop sniffling and step back a bit.’
My chest was too damp to bear, so I gently pushed her away.
Then I caught sight of the child’s ruined face.
‘Wow. You’re really ugly…’
A fist drove into my solar plexus.
‘…Ugh…!’
‘I’m not ugly. Do you think there’s anyone prettier than me?’
Her self-esteem was remarkably high despite everything.
Her fist was tiny, but my hand stung from that point onward.
‘…If you know that, don’t cry. Your face is all you’ve got going for you, and if it gets ugly, you lose even that.’
‘…’
I wiped away the snot smeared on her nose with my hand.
‘Ah. Don’t sniffle. I’m not the kind of person who’ll put up with that too.’
‘Ugh.’
‘…’
I shook off the sticky something on my hand.
Disgusting.
I wiped it roughly onto the child’s clothes.
‘Ew…’
The child recoiled in disgust. It was absurd.
‘Hey, I’m wiping your stuff—why are you complaining?’
‘It’s gross.’
‘It’s yours, I’m telling you.’
‘It’s not mine.’
‘What are you talking about? Then is it mine?’
‘Yeah. Mine isn’t gross, so it’s not mine.’
‘…How brazen.’
Whether it was confidence or shamelessness, I couldn’t quite tell.
Perhaps because she had cried a little, she looked much like her usual self.
Seeing that, I clicked my tongue and turned away.
‘Ah…’
The child made a sound upon seeing that.
She seemed to think I was simply leaving.
I spoke without turning my back.
‘Chongwan, tell the kitchen to prepare one more rice bowl. We have a guest.’
I said it loudly.
Then I heard an acknowledgment from a distance.
‘We’re dying without rice as it is…tsk.’
I spoke while looking back. The child stared at me with a blank expression.
‘What are you doing? Come along.’
‘Huh…?’
‘What do you mean “huh”? You said you didn’t want to be alone today. But I don’t want to go to your house, so you’ll have to come to mine instead.’
I extended my hand as I spoke.
‘If you won’t go, then leave.’
‘I-I’ll go.’
The child hurried over and tried to grasp my hand.
So I lightly tapped the back of her hand.
Smack!
‘Ow?’
‘Hold my sleeve, not my hand. My sleeve.’
‘…Okay.’
Normally, she would have made a fuss about how I’d struck someone of noble status, but this time she simply grasped my sleeve without complaint.
I dragged her into the house.
That was the turning point.
From then on, she would visit our house on the anniversary of her mother’s death.
And though I would drive her away, saying I didn’t want her there, on that day alone I began to accept her without protest.
Moreover.
It wasn’t our house she was seeking.
It was me she sought—a realization I came to understand only later.
And that anniversary.
When I realized she had remained silent about her own birthday, speaking only of her mother’s death anniversary, I understood.
It was years later that I grasped this truth.

* * *
The same weather and season as back then.
If there was any difference in the days that had repeated for years,
it was that I was spending the day in Hannam, away from the house where I’d always been.
“….”
I glanced around repeatedly. A place where unfamiliar people bustled along the streets, without my useless father and older brother.
What remained the same there was the season and,
“What are you doing?”
only the woman who had been with me every day.
“Aren’t you coming?”
Muyong Youngsoon, who walked ahead, turned back and spoke.
“…I’m coming.”
I was on the streets of the Current Location spread beneath Cheonwol Gate.
Since the Martial Arts Alliance was apparently not far from here, it could be considered one of the widest places in the entire Central Plains.
Thanks to that, it was a place where people constantly came and went.
“What exactly did we come here for?”
I was now walking with Muyong Youngsoon in such a place.
Normally, it would be unthinkable for a sect member to leave Cheonwol Gate without permission.
But Sowoldae was different.
Sowoldae allowed relatively free access for sect members. It meant we could come and go as much as we wanted as long as we left word.
For long-distance travel, we would need permission, but for a short outing like this, such things weren’t necessary.
“What do you mean why? I came because I had business to attend to.”
“Well, that’s true, but….”
I glanced around before asking her.
“…Where did you leave your guards? How did you come out like this?”
Normally, guards should have been stationed nearby.
I’d seen Muyong Youngsoon’s guards for nearly ten years, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Muyong Youngsoon was strolling through the streets wearing only a face veil, seemingly lost in thought.
“Moo-jeong needs a rest too.”
“How is that guarding when the person being protected is going outside…?”
“What business could there be in Hannam? Besides, if something happens, Bang Disciple will protect me.”
“Nonsense. He’ll abandon me and flee the moment trouble starts.”
He’ll abandon his duty and run the moment something happens, so what’s the point?
I laugh, speaking as if she’s harboring strange expectations.
“Even as you say that, if something happens, you’ll save me first. I know that.”
“…What kind of baseless confidence is that?”
“Unfortunately, it’s probably not just because it’s me, but you’ll save me regardless. That’s the kind of person you are, isn’t it?”
“You’ve misjudged me. I’m not that kind of person.”
Who calls me a hero?
I’m barely struggling to survive myself—how could I save anyone?
“Hmm. Well, if that’s what you want, then so be it.”
“No….”
Muyong Youngsoon showed no sign of believing my words.
She simply turned her back and walked away.
“So where are we going?”
She said it was a favor, so I came reluctantly.
We’ve descended to the current location, but where exactly are we headed? I still haven’t heard our destination.
“Hmm….”
At my words, Muyong Youngsoon seemed to ponder for a moment.
“Ah. That’s right. Bang Disciple.”
“Yes?”
“First, let me ask you something. Do you believe in things like fate?”
“…Hm?”
Fate?
It was an unexpected question.

* * *
After that, she dragged me along as we moved, and finally arrived at our destination.
Looking at where we’d arrived, I spoke to Muyong Youngsoon with a dumbfounded expression.
“…You talked about fate and all that, but we came here for this?”
“Doesn’t it look fun?”
“….”
At Muyong Youngsoon’s words, I lifted my gaze to look at the large sign.
On the wooden sign, it read:
Misa Spirit Hall.
Looking at it, I glanced toward the entrance.
‘What a line.’
People were lined up as far as the eye could see. Seeing this, I recalled a conversation that Do-hyeong and Cheon Euijin had once had.
Do-hyeong, who surprisingly believed in things like ghosts, had once told me about a certain figure.
‘So if we return to the main point, I should go visit Misa Seonnyeo once.’
To which Cheon Euijin responded:
‘Ah, I know of her too. Isn’t she the shaman who’s been famous in Hannam recently?’
A shaman famous in Hannam.
They said that was Misa Seonnyeo.
‘…Could it be here?’
So the place Muyong Youngsoon wanted to find was where this shaman Misa Seonnyeo was located.
‘Insane.’
I never imagined I’d end up coming to a place like this.
And for good reason.
‘This place is a complete fraud.’
Do-hyeong, who claimed to have seen Misa Seonnyeo, had relayed something she told him.
‘She said I have no spiritual energy, so ghosts won’t cling to me. That’s why I don’t get pressed down by things like scissors.’
The moment I heard that, I realized this shaman was a complete charlatan.
‘No spiritual energy, my foot.’
A Guardian Spirit circulates around Do-hyeong.
A mountain god-class Guardian Spirit isn’t exactly common, either.
‘Of course, I don’t know what that Guardian Spirit intends to do, but…’
The Guardian Spirit that wouldn’t save Do-hyeong even when trouble erupted.
Whether it didn’t consider it a crisis, or whether it wasn’t truly a Guardian Spirit at all, I couldn’t say.
‘If I had my spiritual eyes open, there’s no way I wouldn’t notice a Guardian Spirit attached to Do-hyeong.’
But this shaman called Misa Seonnyeo claimed she couldn’t see it.
‘A charlatan.’
I was certain this shaman was a fraud.
So I thought this was absolutely the last place she would come.
“You want to go in here…?”
“That’s right.”
Who would have thought I’d be dragged here by Muyong Youngsoon’s hand.
“You threatened me with all that talk of favors, and this is all you wanted to do?”
“All? This place is supposed to be quite famous.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? With a face as cold as the world itself, you believe in ghosts and such?”
“Why not?”
At my words, Muyong Youngsoon scrunches her face and speaks.
“Ghosts exist. You know that.”
“…”
Hearing her words, I furrowed my brow.
“Know? I don’t believe in such things.”
“…”
At my words, Muyong Youngsoon quietly stares at me.
I met her gaze without averting my eyes.
After a moment like that.
“…Fine. It still seems like it’ll be fun. Let’s go through here together.”
She seemed unwilling to give up on this part.
I wondered what she was trying to see, but setting that aside.
“…We have to get through that long line?”
The line was incredibly long. At a glance, it was clearly a line that wouldn’t finish in an hour or two.
It felt completely unbearable.
“Ah, don’t worry about that part.”
Muyong Youngsoon answers my concern immediately.
“I made a reservation.”
“…Huh?”
A reservation?
“…You made a reservation at a shaman’s house?”
Was that even possible?
“Yes. The Muyong Clan made a reservation through Moo-jeong.”
“…?”
I rubbed my face slightly upon hearing this.
I felt a pang of sympathy for Moo-jeong, who must have run this errand to book the shaman’s house for the young lady.
‘He deserved a break…’
So that’s why he didn’t show up today—he certainly had earned it.
And on top of that.
‘…To cut through that line and secure a reservation.’
I was reminded anew of just how formidable the Muyong Clan’s influence truly was.
“Come on. Let’s go inside.”
Muyong Youngsoon approached me as I hesitated, seizing my sleeve.
I was pulled inside.
It was the first time in this life that I would face a shaman.
Though I harbored no particular thoughts, knowing it was all fake anyway.
I didn’t know then.
“Get out of here this instant, you wretched Demon!!”
“…Huh?”
What bizarre ordeal awaited me in the room I was being dragged into.

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