"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Hmm...?"
Yeoharyun wiped his face with his sleeve.
The sleeve was already soaked with blood, so wiping his face only made it dirtier.
'I forgot what kind of person he was.'
He had forgotten the true nature of the guy.
He loved slaughter.
The blood of the Heavenly Killing Star demanded it.
Even if he hadn't killed anyone yet, that wouldn't change.
"Hold this."
As the tanghulu was about to fall to the ground, Yeoharyun quickly grabbed it.
Jincheonhee spoke indifferently.
"Let's go."
"Do more."
At Yeoharyun's feet, Samgyeon lay twisted, blood flowing from his skull.
Jincheonhee immediately understood what he meant by doing more.
"Stop it."
"This guy used martial arts to oppress the weak. So it's okay to kill him."
With such injuries, unless modern medicine intervened, he would live a life worse than death.
'I have no reason to help him.'
Jincheonhee was a doctor, but he wasn't a saint.
There were many other doctors around, so whether they found one or not was up to them.
'But no, if he commits his first murder here, he'll attract a lot of attention.'
There were forces targeting Yeoharyun, while others advocated leaving him alone.
If news got out that he had already killed someone, Jincheonhee's future difficulty would triple.
'The problem is how to calm this mad dog.
That little Heavenly Demon hasn't fully accepted me as his brother yet.'
Even at this moment, the instincts of the Heavenly Killing Star were likely urging him on.
Jincheonhee spoke calmly.
"Ah, the tanghulu is melting."
At that moment, Yeoharyun unconsciously brought the tanghulu to his mouth.
Slurp—
It couldn't be helped.
This was human instinct.
Whether it was the sugar in the syrup stirring his brain, his expression softened.
Jincheonhee said, "If the tanghulu gets blood on it, you'll have to throw it away."
"But..."
"Are you going to eat that? Are you a beggar?"
At the question of being a beggar, Yeoharyun's eyebrows twitched.
In the end, he stood up.
"Got it."
'Thank goodness.
The kid is young, so sweets work.'
Jincheonhee sighed in relief.
He couldn't let his guard down until they reached the Demonic Sect.
In the Demonic Sect, where power ruled, that might be considered a virtue(?), but in the normal world, there was still a sense of propriety.
Jincheonhee took the little Heavenly Demon to a nearby well to wash him.
He couldn't return to the Yunryong Escort Agency with a blood-stained face.
The little Heavenly Demon seemed busy eating the tanghulu Jincheonhee had given him.
'Hah, I'm going to die.
Die.'
The blood on his clothes didn't wash off easily, but he managed to make him look like a wet child rather than a blood-stained one.
Yeoharyun seemed puzzled as to why Jincheonhee was going to such lengths.
"It's all part of social life, you know."
"Social life?"
'Yeah.
It's a story too far for you to understand.
After all, why would the Heavenly Demon worry about social life? Just cut off the heads of all the annoying ones.
Darken the world, darken, darken.'
It's the slogan of the Demonic Sect.
It embodies the will of the first leader of the Demonic Sect to paint the world black.
Thinking about seeing that with his own eyes later made his hands tremble.
An uncontrollable sense of shame washed over him.
No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Oh! There you are, young master!"
A voice called out.
Looking up, a familiar bearded man was approaching, holding a child.
"Oh! Uncle?"
It was the head of the Yunryong Escort Agency, Yunjisang, and his sworn brother, Uncle Damjagang.
Jincheonhee's first patient.
Not only did he protect money from bandits, but he also entrusted Jincheonhee with delivering it to his wife.
It was truly a terrifying determination.
"I heard the story at the market and came looking."
All the servants spoke informally to Jincheonhee, but this uncle insisted on addressing him as "young master," saying he couldn't speak informally to his benefactor.
In Damjagang's arms was a baby wearing pretty baby shoes.
"Oh, that child is...?"
"When I returned from the escort mission, the child was already born and had grown this much. It's not uncommon for us escorts."
The child looked at Jincheonhee with wide eyes.
"Byaa..."
The child sucked on his thumb.
"Cheonhee, look. This is the benefactor who saved your father."
"Cheonhee?"
"We named him after the young master. Damcheonhee."
Before Jincheonhee could be surprised, the baby cried out.
"Kyaa!"
The baby moved its arms as if wanting to be held by Jincheonhee.
Jincheonhee awkwardly took the baby.
'He'll be walking soon enough.'
At a glance, the baby was quite a healthy, robust child.
"Bya! Abya byabyabya!"
The baby drooled on Jincheonhee's clothes, but he didn't mind.
The baby was healthy, and Uncle Damjagang looked happy.
'Yes, this is why I became a doctor.'
Others think being a doctor is a rewarding job.
They believe it's a meaningful human drama.
But in reality, it's rare to find such fulfillment.
Usually, there's just too much work, so you just, just, just keep working.
Sleepy, tired, wanting to go home, and then working again...
"Young master."
"Yes?"
"Thanks to you, my last escort mission ended well. This humble man now wants to work at the agency's desk."
"Is it because you limp?"
He had saved his life, but he was left with a limp.
For an escort, that was quite a critical issue.
Damjagang shook his head.
"My brother had always intended to appoint me as the head of a branch. But I had lingering attachments and requested one last escort mission. Thanks to the young master's grace, I returned alive, so I shouldn't be greedy. I'm grateful to be able to return and take care of my child and wife."
Suddenly, Damjagang's eyes turned red.
Embarrassed, he turned his gaze away.
"My wife must be waiting, so I'll head back. Let's go, Cheonhee."
"Bya! Byabyabya!"
Looking away, the baby was holding Yeoharyun's hand.
The drool-covered hand stuck to Yeoharyun's fingers, but Yeoharyun neither avoided the hand nor turned his gaze away, watching the scene for a while.
"......"
Eventually, the baby let go of the hand.
Jincheonhee returned the baby to his father.
The baby babbled a few times, smiling as if reluctant to leave.
"Kyaruru!"
Jincheonhee also laughed and waved at the baby's laughter.
"Stay healthy."
The two of them returned to the escort agency.
On the way back, Yeoharyun, who had been staring at his hand for a while, spoke.
"You... have the qualifications of a brother."
"Hmm?"
"I, no, we martial artists only know how to kill. We've believed that eliminating evil is righteousness. But in the end, the essence is murder. We reach the Dao by learning how to kill humans well, and ascend with that Dao."
Yeoharyun closed his eyes heavily for a moment, then continued.
"The term 'swordsmanship' is just a fancy word. Whether it's the Taoist Wudang Sect or the Buddhist Shaolin, it's the same. We learn martial arts to kill humans."
Yeoharyun looked at Jincheonhee with dark eyes.
"You saved me, and you saved that person. You saved the martial artist of the Gongsun family, and you saved the people of the Yunryong Escort Agency. And today, you even saved Samgyeon."
Jincheonhee felt the weight of Yeoharyun's words.
It was a weight far beyond what an ordinary child could feel.
"I will probably continue to kill people. It's all I've learned, and taking lives is the only thing that excites me. So... you are better than me. You have the qualifications of a brother."
Jincheonhee looked at Yeoharyun intently and then said.
"Good. Call me brother once more."
"Brother...?"
"Well done. Hahaha."
Jincheonhee said that, blushing.
He wanted to somehow change the atmosphere.
The life of Yeoharyun he read in the book was the quintessential martial arts protagonist.
1. His precious family dies.
2. Because of the secret of his birth, he is chased by pursuers at crucial moments.
3. He fights against the madness of the Heavenly Killing Star and enters the center of bloodshed.
Every time such a frustrating process came, this guy would become stronger with the Heavenly Killing Star's overwhelming power, kill all his enemies, and bring relief, but in the process, he would lose precious people, cry, and vow revenge, entering even greater bloodshed.
Heavenly Demon.
It usually means the leader of the Demonic Sect.
Until he reached that position, this guy never lived comfortably, and he never felt such small happiness.
'It's not the style of modern martial arts novels.'
Yeoharyun belittled himself as a murderer, but Jincheonhee thought that life was also stylish.
'Yeah.
It's not the style of modern martial arts protagonists.'
Some might say it's outdated.
But he had no intention of denying it now.
Still.
'What you like remains liked even as time passes.'
Regretting that the same thing doesn't come out.
Even so, he didn't dislike new things, so he ended up being a grumbler.
The grumbler decided to wander around a bit more with Yeoharyun.
The book he read after a long time, the protagonist who had been through so much.
He wanted to give something back to the one who made him endure the harsh reality.
It could be called a fan's heart.
Or it could be the foolishness of an adult wanting to return to childhood and play without thinking.
Moreover, it seemed that Yeoharyun, having felt something, decided to genuinely think of Jincheonhee as his brother.
'But I won't give you the same enlightenment as Gongsunyeong.'
He couldn't control his power now.
Otherwise, he would be consumed by his own madness.
What this guy needed was such trivial warmth.
"The mugwort tea arrived for me too, brother."
It seemed the word "brother" was starting to stick to his mouth.
His cheeks were full of tanghulu.
"If you eat it all by yourself, you'll get sick. You have to take care of the people around you too."
"You did it to cover up Gongsunyeong messing up the garden, didn't you?"
'He noticed.
As expected of a protagonist, he's smart.'
But a child is a child.
He's weak to food.
Feeding him lots of delicious things softened his sharp tone.
Jincheonhee smiled mischievously.
"It's a bit of both. Hehehe."
"The Gongsun family servants awkwardly laughed while giving me mugwort tea, saying they were sorry. It could have been a serious matter, but thanks to you, it ended with laughter. Some even praised Gongsunyeong's character, saying she had a great heart for her sister at the main house."
"Of course, they laughed while doing it, right?"
"Yeah, the situation was funny. In contrast, the mugwort tea was delicious, so everyone was surprised. So it was even funnier."
"Then that's good. That's what social life is."
"Social life? That's what you mentioned briefly earlier."
It seemed he was now genuinely listening to Jincheonhee's words, having been influenced once.
'It's a good opportunity for brainwashing(?).'
Thinking that, Jincheonhee cleared his throat.