Heavenly Demon opened her mouth.
“What do you plan to do about Soo-oh?”
Is she worried about that child? Since they’ve become very close, is it because she doesn’t want to separate?
“I will force freedom on Soo-oh. People shouldn’t be bound by anyone. They should live doing what they want to do freely.”
At that, Heavenly Demon frowned.
“You’re abandoning her?”
“No. Speak properly. This is independence.”
Everyone reaches a moment when they must stand as their own person. If you miss this moment, the light becomes smaller and warmth decreases.
Therefore, I want people to enjoy all freedoms.
Like Oh Myeongseong who is now killing with a single slash those who rush at him shouting “Murim public enemy.”
Though his light is stained dark purple, it’s large, and his warmth is just as abundant.
And more than the warmth he has, the warmth he earns is much greater.
“Even if reality can’t be that way, because I believe a world will come where all people can live freely, Soo-oh must also become free.”
I told Heavenly Demon what I desired.
“People should freely express emotions, love people, create what they want to create, and do everything they can following their desires.”
So they rise beyond that sky. Not when people stand above people, but when people stand above numbers.
Even if people die for reasons other than natural lifespan, when it becomes merely an increase or decrease in numbers.
I can obtain more warmth.
I don’t believe such a world is coming. I know such a world will come. This can happen when all people pursue freedom, infringe on each other’s freedom, and take away the power to be free.
There’s no right or wrong here. There’s pure survival competition. Just do what has been done in nature until now.
“What does that have to do with you going outside?”
She’s not bewitched by words.
“It’s related. If I share myself, people become more free. Hey, Heavenly Demon. Are you satisfied with your current body?”
At my words, Heavenly Demon looked down at her body.
A woman in her early to mid-twenties.
The appearance of a mid-thirties man is nowhere to be seen. I didn’t know that harvesters become free even from gender when they transform, but it must be the same kind of ability.
“I don’t like the skin color. It’s not human-like.”
“People who receive fatal wounds end up like that. Be thankful you survived.”
Heavenly Demon nodded at my words. At that time, she was practically a corpse. Looking at the memories, all limbs were torn off, internal organs ruptured, she was truly on the verge of death.
“You don’t know your own power well.”
“I don’t know. I told you I was human, right? I’m groping through darkness examining myself.”
But Heavenly Demon raises her arm to rest her chin while looking at me.
“Were you really human? When I see you talk, sometimes it’s chilling. It’s like something inhuman pretending to be human.”
We’ve talked about various things over the year. Though most topics centered on Soo-oh, it’s not like we never had casual conversations.
“Now I’m just a monster.”
“A monster, huh.”
Heavenly Demon is also beating around the bush without making a choice.
If she dislikes me taking Soo-oh away, she could just say she’ll take care of Soo-oh.
Or is she pondering how to dispose of me?
She looked at me using senses I can’t feel. And after understanding what I am in her own way, she spoke.
She might think she can’t let a dangerous monster roam free, even though she’s kept me alive until now because of Soo-oh.
The current Heavenly Demon is running the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult well.
Originally, people swing their swords, even if it’s wrong, to protect what they have.
Will Heavenly Demon do that too?
Heavenly Demon was silent for a long time.
Then she spoke in a small voice.
“Don’t go.”
It was a very small voice. But I was shocked.
What?
No, what did Heavenly Demon just say?
Don’t go? Why does it sound like pleading? If she said you can’t go, or go ahead, or do what you want, I’d understand.
But she’s asking me?
Looking at Heavenly Demon’s face, her skin color has changed slightly. As if embarrassed.
Wait a moment. So, does this mean Heavenly Demon is embarrassed by what she just said? She doesn’t want me to disappear? She’s really grown attached even to me?
No. What is this.
Wasn’t I just supposed to be Soo-oh’s accessory with a bit of affection?
The faded man’s memories shine. In a world of only gray, a man is giggling while looking at a funny sight. What he’s looking at isn’t important. The laughter itself shines.
And gradually that memory loses its light and disappears. It sinks back down to the deep place where memories exist.
“That’s really such a foolish thing to say. Heavenly Demon. Not calling me by name, not being close friends, just being Soo-oh’s extra.”
Why are you saying such things?
Heavenly Demon opened her eyes wide. Then her eyes narrowed.
She’s smiling.
“Just seeing you so flustered makes it worth saying out loud.”
Heavenly Demon said that and looked forward. I followed her gaze, but her gaze is wandering in empty space. She’s not looking at something, but looking at the past.
“I won’t tell you yet. Wait 4 years. 4 years.”
Suddenly Heavenly Demon drew a line.
4 years.
It’s long.
But it’s also a short time. In the first world, I waited over 80 years.
“Then I will share myself with people.”
At my words, Heavenly Demon giggled.
“Do that. Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. A place where everyone can use the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique. That would be interesting too.”
Everyone using the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique?
Ah, right. Heavenly Demon knows that I know the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique. Though Heavenly Demon seems to mistake it for Eunjae’s technique, I have the memories that harvesters possess.
“I’m fine with that. But wouldn’t that shake Heavenly Demon’s position?”
“There’s already Gapjae and Byeongil. And a man called Jung Jaewoo. The Heavenly Demon Divine Technique’s energy is unique, so it’s impossible not to notice.”
Jung Jaewoo is the name of Protector of Heaven Palace Hall Master. I certainly caught sight of him before. But I thought I just passed over it, didn’t know she remembered.
This is why sight is uncomfortable. After catching sight of something, it’s hard to know whether you clearly recognized it or just passed over it.
Moreover, if it’s energy, that’s a sense I don’t know.
“That energy you mention. Can you feel it from me?”
If I’m exuding such energy, I need to be more careful going forward. To prepare for danger, I asked Heavenly Demon.
“No.”
Heavenly Demon answered shortly. Then she lowered her hand from her chin and turned her gaze to me.
“I can’t feel anything. You’re not power extracted from laws, but the law itself.”
Before, Heavenly Demon said I was something like extinction.
Just a monster on the opposite side of energy that can’t be used.
“Back then, Heavenly Demon touched me and found out, right?”
“Have you ever tried to remove lint from clothes but when you picked it up, the thread unraveled and the whole garment came apart?”
Since it’s in the faded man’s memories, I nodded.
“Yes.”
“You were the hand. When I put in qi like lint, the hand grabbed and pulled it. My qi itself that makes up who I am was sucked in. If I hadn’t let go then, I would have died empty.”
I thought of the Qi Absorption Technique that Oh Myeongseong and Gu Seongyong use. But corpses drained of qi by the Qi Absorption Technique become withered and twisted. Isn’t it subtly different?
“Heavenly Demon shivered from cold, right?”
“I was cold. So cold I never want to feel it again.”
As she says this, Heavenly Demon looks at me with slightly fearful eyes.
“Just from the cold I felt at your fingertips, I became like that. The warmth you desire is to bury that cold, right? The day I first asked about your purpose. You said you could do anything for warmth. So when you say you’ll share yourself, it must be to obtain warmth.”
Then Heavenly Demon suddenly touched upon the truth.
This is why I don’t like smart people.
It would be better if everyone were stupid.
No, but that would be strange.
“Yet you tell me not to go?”
Shouldn’t people stay away from what they fear?
At my question, Heavenly Demon smiled bitterly.
Then she raised her finger and pointed at the yard and house, mentioning one by one the things she, Soo-oh, and I had done.
Last winter. Playing and making snowmen in the yard.
This spring. Playing and skipping stones at the waterside below the cliff.
Recently building sand castles on the beach down below.
And several other small incidents.
They’re memory wedges that increase the probability of Soo-oh gritting her teeth, and occasions for Heavenly Demon and Soo-oh to feel attachment to each other.
Of course, I was there between them, but I wasn’t in the middle of it.
I left them alone, telling them how and letting them play.
“Why is that?”
At my question, Heavenly Demon giggled. Rather than feminine or masculine, it’s like the laughter a child bursts out with.
“Whatever you are, whatever plans you make, whatever you do, I don’t care anymore.”
Then Heavenly Demon sat straight on the porch looking at me.
“Having received an impossible treasure, until the day that treasure’s light fades, I, the black sword Im, is yours.”
That was said with all the courtesy one person could show.
“You’re truly foolish. You know that, right?”
“I know. So what? Among those who would criticize me for being foolish, has even one of them handed me a treasure? This is already enough. No, I’ve become satisfied with this.”
The faded man’s memories flicker softly. It’s a deep sigh. Saying so this is what righteousness was, such a foolish thing.
Though it must have been something so desperately wanted, I don’t understand why it’s like this.
I was about to say something, but raised my heart that had been torn to pieces and ground to nothing by coldness.
It’s empty there.
There’s nothing there, but it whispers as if something exists.
Memories spanning from the faded man’s memories through the first world to the second world point to one word.
“You mean friend?”
“Yes. I like that.”
Heavenly Demon smiled like an innocent child.
At the same time, in a corner of memory, an old woman bowed her head.
I couldn’t open my mouth.