Chapter 154

When I was little.

It was a few years after I’d roughly reincarnated.

It was the time when I still had to adapt to this world called the Central Plains—and also the time when I was getting sick to death of the disasters that bastard I called my father and that creature I called my older brother kept causing.

That day was the same.

It was an ordinary day. Not one of those days where the weather was hot or cold for the season—nothing like that.

The day was just nice.

And, like any other day, something annoying came looking for me.

“God, seriously. I’m busy as hell—why are you here again?”

I packed every ounce of irritation I had into the words.

Normally, she would’ve spewed every piece of nonsense imaginable—telling me I should be grateful she came, that I wasn’t even thanking her properly, asking why my mouth had to be like that.

But she was unusually quiet.

I looked over, thinking, What the hell is wrong with her? and the kid spoke.

“Dad isn’t home today.”

That caught me off guard.

The word dad didn’t feel familiar.

She’d always said Clan Head, or Father—stuff like that. But for the first time, she used a different name.

“...So? What do you want me to do about it. He’s the kind of person where being busy is normal. He’s way better than the people in my house.”

Someone who actually goes out because work is busy is a hundred—no, a thousand times better than some bastard who doesn’t do any work and just chases women’s skirts.

That was what I meant, but the kid’s face didn’t brighten.

“So what, then. What do you want me to do about it.”

“...Dad isn’t home today...”

“No, I’m saying—so what. What do you want. You want me to go home with you and play or something?”

It was half a joke. We were, at most, barely in our early teens.

It wasn’t like she’d said it with some weird intention, so I answered in a way that fit our age—

“...You will?”

“...What?”

At my words, the kid’s face lit up like she’d just grabbed hold of hope.

Watching that, I felt my skin crawl.

“Am I going? Why the hell would I go to your house and play with you when the Clan Head isn’t even there. Get out of here.”

I’d already broken off the engagement, and she wanted me to go to my former fiancée’s house?

Honestly, what was weird was that she kept coming to my house every damn day even after we broke it off.

When I snapped like that, disappointment settled on her face.

And seeing it, she felt off today, for some reason.

“What is it. Why are you suddenly acting like this.”

She wasn’t like her usual self.

I didn’t want to ask, but I couldn’t help it. It was too strange not to.

So I asked.

Drip. Drip.

All of a sudden, tears started running down her face.

She wasn’t sobbing. She wasn’t wailing, either.

They just... flowed.

Like she was trying hard to hold them back, but couldn’t stop the stream.

Slowly, the tears slid down.

“Hey—hey? What? Why are you crying?”

Flustered, I stepped toward her. The moment I did, she lunged into my arms.

From my chest, soaking wet, her voice mumbled out.

“Today... today is Mom’s death anniversary. But Dad... Dad isn’t here.”

“...”

Hearing that, I let out a sigh.

So that’s what it was—her father wasn’t there on her mother’s death anniversary.

I laughed bitterly.

It was information I didn’t need to know in the first place, so the fact I even knew it was weird, but...

She was always rude and weirdly grown-up—yet on her mom’s death anniversary, she turned into a child with nothing left in her. And that, for some reason, stung.

“Don’t cry. You’re getting my clothes wet, so stop sniffling and back off.”

My chest was damp enough that I couldn’t stand it, so I peeled her away a little.

Then her face, a total wreck, came into view.

“Wow. You’re really ugly—”

A fist drilled straight into my solar plexus.

“—KGH...!”

“I’m not ugly. Do you think there’s anyone prettier than me?”

Even now, her confidence was insane.

And her fist was tiny—but even back then, her hand stung like hell.

“...If you know, then don’t cry. Your {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} face is the only thing you’ve got going for you, and if you get ugly, you’ll lose even that.”

“...”

I wiped the snot off her nose with my hand.

“Ah. Don’t sniff like that. We’re not close enough for me to endure that, too—”

“SNFF.”

“...”

I shook the sticky something off my hand.

Damn it.

Then I wiped it on her clothes, roughly.

“Ugh...”

She looked disgusted. The audacity.

“Hey. I’m wiping your stuff, so why are you the one acting like it’s gross?”

“It’s gross.”

“It’s yours.”

“It’s not mine.”

“What are you even saying. Then it’s mine?”

“Yeah. Mine isn’t gross. So it’s not mine.”

“...You’re shameless, huh?”

Was it confidence, or shamelessness?

Either way—maybe because she’d cried some—she was back to normal.

I clicked my tongue and turned away.

“Ah...”

Behind me, she made a sound.

She probably thought I was just going to leave.

Without turning back, I spoke.

“Head Steward. Tell the kitchen to set out one more bowl. We have a guest.”

I said it loudly.

From far off, a voice answered that they understood.

“We’re short on rice as it is... tsk.”

I spoke while glancing back. She was staring at me with a blank face.

“What are you doing. Follow me.”

“Huh...?”

“What do you mean, ‘huh.’ You said you don’t want to be alone today. But I’m not going to your place, so you’re coming to mine.”

As I spoke, I held my hand out.

“If you’re not coming, then go back.”

“I—I’ll go.”

She rushed over, reaching for my hand.

So I smacked the back of it lightly.

SMACK—!

“Eek?”

“Not my hand. Grab my sleeve. My sleeve.”

“...Okay.”

Normally, she would’ve thrown a fit—how dare I hit such a precious person, blah blah blah. But this time, she didn’t complain. She just grabbed my sleeve.

I dragged her home like that.

That was the turning point.

Every year, on her mother’s death anniversary, that damned brat started coming to my house.

And even while I kept saying I hated it and tried to chase her out, on that day alone, I started accepting her without a word.

And also—

Only later did I realize it wasn’t that she wanted to come to my house.

She was coming to find me.

And when I finally understood that this “death anniversary” she talked about...

Was really her keeping quiet about the fact that it was her birthday, and only talking about her mother’s death anniversary instead—

That was years later.

*****

The same weather and season as back then.

If there was anything different from the day that had repeated for years—

It was that I’d left the house that was always there, and I was spending the day in Henan.

“......”

I kept scanning around. A place where my useless father and older brother weren’t around, and strangers I didn’t know were busy passing through the streets.

In that place, the only things that were the same were the season—

“What are you doing?”

—and the woman who was always with me on that day.

“Aren’t you coming?”

Murong Yeongsun, walking ahead, turned back and spoke.

“...I’m coming.”

Where I was standing was the county street spread out below the Blue Moon Sect.

It seemed like this place was close to the Martial Alliance, so you could call it one of the widest, busiest areas in the Central Plains.

Maybe that was why people flowed by endlessly.

“Why did we come here, exactly?”

Right now, I was walking through that place with Murong Yeongsun.

Normally, there’s no way a disciple would be allowed to leave the Blue Moon Sect whenever they felt like it.

But the Small Moon Unit was different.

The Small Moon Unit’s comings and goings were relatively free. Meaning, as long as you left word, you could go out and come back.

If you wanted to travel far, you’d still need permission—but stepping out for a short time like this didn’t require that.

“What do you mean, why. We came because I have something to do.”

“Sure, but...”

After sweeping my gaze around, I asked her.

“...Where did you leave your guard, coming out like this?”

Normally, she should’ve had guards around her.

I’d seen Murong Yeongsun’s guard for nearly ten years, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight.

And for whatever reason, Murong Yeongsun was strolling around with only a veil on.

“Mujeong needs rest sometimes, too.”

“The person being guarded is coming outside, and he’s ‘resting’—what kind of guard is that...?”

“What’s going to happen in Henan. And if something does happen, Young Lord Bang will protect me.”

“Bullshit. I’m running the second anything happens.”

Protect you—like hell. I’d ditch you and run the moment trouble started.

I laughed as I said it, because she sounded like she had some weird expectations—

But Murong Yeongsun replied like it was obvious.

“You say that, but if something happens, you’ll save me first. You know I’m right.”

“...What kind of insane confidence is that?”

“Sadly, it won’t be because it’s me in particular. But you’ll save me anyway, somehow. That’s the kind of person you are.”

“You’ve got the wrong guy. I’m not some saint.”

Who does she think I am.

I can barely think of how to keep myself alive, and she thinks I’m going to save someone else?

“Hmm. Fine. Then let’s go with that.”

“No—”

Even after I said it, Murong Yeongsun didn’t look like she believed me at all.

She just turned away and kept walking.

“So where are we going, then.”

You said it was a favor, so I came, but...

We came all the way down to the county, and now what?

She still hadn’t told me the destination.

“Umm...”

Murong Yeongsun looked like she was thinking for a moment, then—

“Oh, right. Young Lord Bang.”

“Yes?”

“Let me ask you first. Do you believe in fate?”

“...Huh?”

Fate?

It was completely out of nowhere.

*****

She dragged me along after that, and we finally arrived.

I stared at where we’d come, then spoke to Murong Yeongsun with a dumbfounded face.

“...You were talking about fate and all that, and this is what you brought me here for?”

“It looks fun, doesn’t it?”

“......”

At Murong Yeongsun’s words, I tilted my head up and looked at the huge signboard.

On the wooden sign, it said:

Misa Fairy Hall.

I stared toward the entrance—

What is that line.

People were lined up so far it was dizzying.

Seeing that, I remembered something Do Hyeong and Cheon Eujin had talked about in the past.

Do Hyeong—who, unexpectedly, believed in ghosts and stuff—had once told me about someone.

“Then when we get back to the sect, we should go find Misa Fairy.”

At that, Cheon Eujin had reacted, too.

“Ah, I know her. Isn’t she a shaman who’s been famous in Henan lately?”

A shaman famous in Henan.

They said that was Misa Fairy.

“...Don’t tell me this is the place?”

So the place Murong Yeongsun wanted to find was where that shaman, Misa Fairy, was?

Crazy.

I never imagined I’d end up here.

And for good reason.

This place is a scam.

Do Hyeong had said Misa Fairy told him something.

“She said I don’t have any spiritual sensitivity, so ghosts don’t stick around me. That’s why I don’t get sleep paralysis.”

The moment I heard that, I knew she was full of it.

No spiritual sensitivity, my ass.

There was a guardian spirit wandering around Do Hyeong.

A guardian spirit on the level of a mountain spirit wasn’t something common.

Of course, I don’t know what that guardian spirit is trying to do...

A guardian spirit that never saved Do Hyeong even when trouble happened.

Maybe it didn’t think it was a crisis—or maybe it wasn’t a guardian spirit at all.

But still—

If you had eyes that could see ghosts, there’s no way you’d miss a guardian spirit stuck to Do Hyeong.

Yet that “shaman” called Misa Fairy said she didn’t see it.

She’s a scam.

I was sure she was a scam.

So I’d assumed I would never come here.

And yet—

“You want us to go in there...?”

“That’s right.”

I couldn’t believe Murong Yeongsun had dragged me here by the sleeve.

“You threatened me and called it a ‘favor’ just to bring me to a place like this?”

“A place like this? They say it’s famous.”

“Then what, you look like ice incarnate—do you actually believe in ghosts?”

“Why?”

Murong Yeongsun frowned at my words.

“Ghosts exist. You know that.”

“......”

I narrowed my eyes.

“Know what. I don’t believe in that stuff.”

“......”

Murong Yeongsun stared at me quietly.

I didn’t avoid her gaze. I stared straight back.

After a moment—

“...Fine. Still, it seems like it’ll be fun, so come with me at least this far.”

It didn’t look like she wanted to give up on this part.

What the hell was she trying to see?

Putting that aside—

“...Through that long line?”

The line was too long. Just looking at it, it didn’t seem like it would end in two to four hours.

It felt impossible to deal with.

“Oh, don’t worry about that.”

Murong Yeongsun answered immediately.

“I made a reservation.”

“...Huh?”

A reservation?

“...You can make a reservation at a shaman’s place?”

That’s possible?

“Yes. I asked Mujeong to make a reservation under the Murong Clan’s name.”

“...”

I rubbed my face, just a little.

For a moment, I felt bad for Mujeong, who must’ve run an errand like “reserve a time at a shaman’s shop” for a young lady.

No wonder he didn’t come out today...

I was wondering why he wasn’t here, but yeah. That was definitely the kind of thing that made you want to rest.

And also—

They made a reservation through that line.

Once again, I was reminded just how strong the Murong Clan’s influence was.

“Come on. Let’s go in.”

Murong Yeongsun stepped close and grabbed my sleeve.

And I got dragged inside.

It was the first time in this life that I was about to face a shaman.

Not that I cared much—she was a fake anyway.

Back then, I didn’t know.

“G-GET THE HELL OUT, YOU MALICIOUS GHOST!!”

“......Huh?”

I didn’t know what kind of bizarre thing I was about to go through in the room she pulled me into.