When I returned home, Soo-oh was sprawled out in the yard.
Heavenly Demon was sitting quietly on the porch, waving her hand at me.
“How long would it take to grow to Heavenly Demon’s level?”
I was about to ignore Soo-oh who was pretending to be collapsed with her eyes closed on the ground, but I asked Heavenly Demon once.
“If she does it properly, it would take 40 years.”
Heavenly Demon thought for a moment after hearing my words, then immediately gave an answer.
40 years. Does it take that long? Moreover, by that time, Heavenly Demon will have become even stronger.
“Opening!”
“No, not yet. Lie back down.”
Bang.
There was a light popping sound in the air, and Soo-oh, who had risen behind me avoiding Heavenly Demon’s gaze, was hit in the stomach with something. She had tried to get up from her original position and charge with her iron sword, but she was hit in the solar plexus with something and collapsed back to the ground.
“What did you shoot?”
“Qi. Can’t you feel it at all?”
“No.”
Based on the information I’ve heard so far, it’s correct that I originally shouldn’t be able to feel it. But I learned that it’s possible if I stuff myself into a monster with enormous power. In exchange, that monster becomes fuel and gets ground away!
“I couldn’t feel anything from the energy of that Supreme Leader Tongcheon who was below either.”
“That’s right.”
Come to think of it, he too wasn’t originally born in this world, but was born in another world and then crossed over to this world.
It seems there’s a place somewhere I don’t know yet where they fight between worlds.
If I could go to such a place someday, could I meet those who fight with glass bottles?
I’m looking forward to it.
I learned that if I can reach them, I can even control them. In other words, if I can go to that battlefield, it means I can gain a lot of warmth.
I’ll be able to gain a lot of warmth while spreading like a plague.
If there are many of them, it would be really warm.
Hehe.
Ahem. No, let’s stop with the too warm fantasies. It just makes me feel colder.
“I really don’t know what you are.”
I sat down next to Heavenly Demon who was staring at me blankly. Then, from a human perspective, I empathized with her and said what I could.
“You called me. Unfortunately.”
A monster that shouldn’t be called by humans. Because I’ll do anything for warmth. Even now, I deliberately advertised the location of my house to many people to shake up the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and called Gu Milmil and Oh Myeongseong.
You have to endure that. You kept me here for 4 years, right?
But Heavenly Demon crossed her legs and rested her chin on her hand.
“That’s not for you to decide. To begin with, no one here thinks they’ve become unhappy from meeting you.”
Soo-oh, who had crawled along the ground, clung to my back. Of course, I was watching everything through Soo-oh and Heavenly Demon’s eyes, but I just left her be.
“Me too!”
The child’s body is dirty, covered in soil and sand. How am I supposed to wash this?
I grabbed Soo-oh’s face that was sticking up next to me with one hand and pressed it lightly.
“Wait, wait a second! No, Choseol, I didn’t know you were this stroooong!”
I’m not pressing with force, but pressing on painful spots. And basically, being large, I have considerable strength.
Did she forget that I’ve been doing housework and exercising separately until now?
“Soo-oh. You smell.”
After saying that and letting go of my hand, Soo-oh hastily retreated and then brought her clothes to her nose to smell. Then she frowned.
“Can’t help the sweat smell!”
“Didn’t you avoid me because of the fishy smell?”
When I brought up what happened just recently, Soo-oh made a guilty expression and stepped back.
“That’s unfair! That and this are different!”
“Bring some water while you’re going down the cliff.”
When I told her to fetch water in the jar while going to wash, Soo-oh grumbled and headed to the kitchen. Then she took the large jar from the kitchen and jumped down the cliff just like that.
A normal person would immediately become pulp, but Soo-oh reduces her speed by stepping on the cliff a few times and lands safely on the ground.
All while carrying a jar that’s enormous compared to Soo-oh’s size.
Qi allows people to exert superhuman strength.
It’s so powerful that I’m curious where they get such output from. The gap between those who can’t use qi and those who can is enormous.
That’s why there’s a society of superhumans called the martial world overlapping with normal society.
Thinking about it coldly, this is strange too.
The physical performance is completely different, at the level of a completely different species, but it’s not passed down genetically, but based on knowledge called martial arts.
From my perspective, it looks like an information-based life form called martial arts is symbiotic with humans.
Of course, bloodlines that have mastered the same martial arts for a long time have benefits when symbiotic through co-evolution with that information life form, but that doesn’t mean those without the bloodline can’t learn it.
So the realm of humans symbiotic with that information life form is the martial world, and those who aren’t seem to be the ordinary human world.
The reason I came to think this way is because of the information I obtained from the Great Kraken.
The Great Kraken himself doesn’t have an ordinary physical body. He had one in the very distant past, but he became a being called a god in his original world and was able to exist with only his mind, shedding his physical body.
But when that happened, he became unable to adapt well to reality. As much as he has a strong influence on reality, he has to accept too many changes from reality.
To use a game analogy, it feels like raising attack power but lowering defense.
So he settles in a place slightly detached from reality, and if necessary, he conveys words to his subordinates or enters reality wearing a physical body like Choseol that I’m in.
I thought this was similar to martial arts.
Considering that there are martial arts where you lose your sense of self, it doesn’t seem much different from becoming stronger by bringing something powerful into your body.
As I was organizing these thoughts that suddenly came to mind, Heavenly Demon was smiling while looking at me.
“Why?”
“Unlike how you consider yourself a monster, you look like that child’s mother.”
If I look like a person, it means my disguise is working well. It’s worth pretending to be human-like while pretending not to know it.
No, but.
“Mother? No, at most we’d be friends. Both of Soo-oh’s parents should be alive, right?”
I even know their location. Although Soo-oh fainted while being dragged here so she doesn’t know the exact path, it means I know where they are.
The background Soo-oh saw when she was young. Especially if you combine the location of the mountains, it’s not difficult to figure out the location.
Heavenly Demon made a casual expression at my words.
“Is that why you’re trying to leave Soo-oh behind so lightly?”
Ah, come to think of it, when I went to the village, Soo-oh consulted with Heavenly Demon. That I would leave Soo-oh behind after 4 years. I didn’t pay attention because a child consulting their teacher means they have a good relationship.
And you’re talking as if I’m abandoning her, but that’s a misunderstanding.
“It’s not lightly.”
But I shook my head left and right. Because I’m really not leaving lightly. We’re not family, but it’s true that we have a relationship as close as family.
“There’s just something more important than that.”
“You mean warmth?”
“Yes.”
An expression of understanding flashed across Heavenly Demon’s face. Heavenly Demon has also experienced the cold I’m feeling.
Heavenly Demon straightened her posture.
Then she sat facing me and carefully asked.
“That day. When that Supreme Leader Tongcheon turned into a monster, you said it was warm.”
Huh?
No, wait a minute. I was so happy then that I completely lost focus. So I don’t know how Heavenly Demon was looking at me.
I don’t even know what kind of state I was in.
Aaah.
What should I do about this?
No, but the Great Kraken really was warm. It was like entering a warm hot spring while standing naked in the middle of Antarctica every time, occasionally being given a hand warmer for a very brief moment.
My whole body loosened up, a truly happy warmth.
The problem was that I felt like I was going to go crazy because I was pulled out of the hot spring and thrown back into the middle of Antarctica. I somehow managed to maintain my sanity.
“Are you still cold?”
To that question, I nodded.
Actually, I just nodded silently because I felt like if I opened my mouth, everything would flow out without being able to hold back.
That should be enough.
The warmth is momentary, and the cold is eternal. It’s not even always the same cold; sensationally, the cold gets worse and worse. It gets endlessly colder, but my nerves don’t break down.
They say humans feel hot when they’re too cold and take off their clothes because their brain breaks down, but there’s none of that.
Every day, every moment it gets colder.
At times like this, I almost envy the monster that died mocking me…
No, let’s not think about that.
Then Heavenly Demon looked at me and asked.
“How can you become warm?”
Hmm. Mm. Mm.
The words “If Heavenly Demon goes out to the martial world and massacres people, I’ll become warm” came to the tip of my tongue, but I somehow swallowed them.
Yes.
I have to maintain the rules. If I let go even once, I’m not confident I can grab them again. I know that if I don’t narrowly keep them with foolishly intense focus, I can never go back to how I was.
It’s not a matter of who might see, but a matter of me not being able to endure.
I can clearly see a future where I instantly degenerate into a single-celled organism only craving warmth, and eventually can’t go anywhere.
I can clearly see a future where even the occasional drops of warmth disappear.
If you have intelligence, you can predict the future.
So I have to keep shouting that I love freedom. Strictly speaking, it’s freedom without responsibility, so it’s more like licentiousness than freedom. But licentiousness sounds bad, doesn’t it?
“Heavenly Demon.”
“Speak.”
“You should live freely. Ignore my will. You don’t need such things. Don’t empathize with anything. No one needs to understand. Just do what you wish for.”
I believe that if given infinite freedom, humans will live infinitely killing each other.
I bet on that and divide myself.
That way, warmth will come to me eternally.
“What if that wish is to move for your sake?”
Heavenly Demon said that while carefully examining my expression. So I shook my head again. And I quoted what Heavenly Demon had said.
“Don’t move for the sake of nothing. Do you remember Jeonyang?”
When I mentioned the name of the man she loved, her expression hardened.
This is certain.
“I want both Heavenly Demon and Soo-oh to live doing what they want to do.”
Only then.
Can I be warm.
At my answer, Heavenly Demon heaved a deep sigh and said she would withdraw, returning to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult main building. The thought that mentioning a dead person might have been too much flashes through my mind, but.
This is right.
I pretended not to know about Soo-oh who was listening to our conversation from behind the house, holding her breath.