The Green Lord’s survival.
And on top of that, the claim that the Green Forest had joined hands with the Sky-Crushing Palace.
For a moment, I just stared at the letter.
“Well?”
Hoyeon asked me.
“Do you like the information? I prepared it with special care for our prince.”
“...This.”
I tore my eyes off the letter and looked at Hoyeon.
“Is it true?”
“That’s a hurtful thing to ask.”
At that, Hoyeon shrugged.
“If nothing else, you should trust me when it comes to information. Isn’t that the foundation of our relationship?”
“That’s true, but...”
This felt like a bit much.
“You’re saying the Green Lord is alive.”
The king of the Green Forest. Before the Heavenly Demon appeared, he had been the head of the largest unorthodox force in the land.
But—
“This man was killed by the Sword Saint.”
The greatest under heaven. The greatest of all time.
It was common knowledge that the Green Forest had been half-annihilated by the hands of Yoo Cheongil, the Sword Saint, and that its leader, the Green Lord, had died with it.
And now I was being told the Green Lord was alive?
And that he was working with the Sky-Crushing Palace?
“...Well, damn.”
If this was true, then this was no ordinary piece of information.
“You can really hand something like this over to me?”
Even for me, this was a burden. She’d said she’d prepared something substantial herself, and she hadn’t been exaggerating.
“I have to. That way, what our prince gives me in return will be just as substantial.”
“...”
I let out a short laugh.
That meant—
If I don’t give her something on the same level, she’ll wring it out of me somehow.
That was a terrifying thing to say.
More terrifying because, coming from her, it was absolutely true.
Still—
“Right. Of course.”
It didn’t matter.
What I had was worth that much.
Creeeak.
I leaned back in my chair.
“Hm.”
I drew a slow breath as if considering it, running through my thoughts. Thinking about how best to phrase it. Turning it over in my head.
“I’ll need a little time—”
“Your father is halfway up Cheonlyeong Mountain.”
“...”
Time?
I didn’t need time.
All I had to do was say it.
“...Cheonlyeong Mountain?”
“That’s right. A tall, brutal mountain out in Qinghai.”
“...I’ve never even heard of a mountain like that in Qinghai.”
“Then look for it. You’ll find it.”
“Our prince.”
Tap.
Hoyeon’s finger landed on the table in front of me.
“Are you playing games with me?”
Her gaze was vicious.
The air changed in an instant.
She hadn’t released inner qi. That was just the presence she gave off as a being.
“I gave you what I owed. If you start pulling this now, that’s a problem. Even if you are our prince.”
“Ahaha.”
I laughed.
Just before Hoyeon could frown at that—
“Did you already forget what you said earlier?”
The smile left my face.
“If nothing else, you should trust me when it comes to information. Isn’t that the foundation of our relationship?”
I repeated her own words back to her.
At that, Hoyeon bit her lip.
“I told you what you wanted to know. Cheonlyeong Mountain. What you’re looking for is there. Isn’t that enough?”
“...And if it isn’t true?”
“Then do what I said before.”
That threat again.
The one about killing me within fifteen days.
“Do whatever you want. I didn’t tell you a lie.”
Of course I didn’t.
Because the source of that information was—
the person himself.
The spiritual energy rippling behind Hoyeon right now.
It was faint, but it was there. I could feel the presence. I could see the gaze fixed on me, watching with his hands clasped behind his back.
—Cheonlyeong Mountain. Dark-Moon Cave.
At the quiet whisper, my eyes shifted.
Dark-Moon Cave.
That much, I had no intention of saying. This was already the most I could do.
“Anyway.”
I rose from my seat, the letters she had handed me still in hand.
“I’ve done what I came to do, so the rest you can go find yourself. If there’s a problem, come back.”
“Our prince.”
As I stood, Hoyeon stopped me.
“I mean this. If it’s a lie, you really are going to die by my hand.”
“I’ve heard that one a lot.”
How many times had I heard it by now?
“And I’m still alive.”
The fact that I was alive after saying it told her exactly how trustworthy the information was.
“...Ha. Fine.”
Hoyeon clicked her tongue.
“...Let’s hope that stays true this time too.”
“That’s the right attitude.”
It had better.
My life was precious to me too.
I stepped outside with the letters in hand. It still wasn’t past noon.
“Whew.”
I let out a breath.
Only after getting outside could I finally breathe properly again.
“She’s scary as hell.”
A woman I genuinely wanted nothing to do with.
Too useful to throw away, though.
A chicken rib.
That was what she was to me.
And I was one to her.
That had more or less always been the kind of relationship we had.
*****
After leaving the Hao Clan branch, I headed for the mountain.
Naturally, I was going back to the altar I’d visited before.
I intended to finish this before night fell. If it got too late, that would be its own kind of annoyance.
“Ugh.”
I squeezed into the cave.
Same place as last time. Damp. Dark. And in the center of it sat the altar.
Looking at it now, I could feel it all over again.
It had really been thrown together in a hurry. Crude. Sloppy.
Probably even more so because I’d built it with a child’s body.
I could still remember fumbling around with those tiny hands.
“I should fix this up later.”
If I had the time, I’d bring materials and repair it properly.
I was wiping the altar down with that thought in mind when I spoke quietly.
“Got something you want to say?”
There was no one here.
But there was someone listening.
[Heh.]
The sound came from the sword.
The Heavenly Demon. His voice, after having stayed silent this whole time.
[Why do you think that?]
“Because you’re not the kind of person who stays quiet. If you’ve been this silent, it feels like you’ve been holding something back.”
[I am not such a delicate man. I simply have no need to ask.]
“No need to ask? Why?”
[Because you will see soon enough.]
“...Hm.”
That was true too.
I nodded, wiped away the last of the dust I hadn’t managed to clean before, and then—
“Let’s see.”
I stretched out a hand toward the altar and opened something that looked like a drawer.
There was something inside.
A black stone.
“...Yeah. I figured.”
It was black.
Would anyone believe me if I said it had originally been white?
It was true.
A pure white stone, completely discolored into this pitch-black thing.
[What is that?]
The Heavenly Demon, who had just claimed he wouldn’t ask, asked.
“Just a stone. A white stone.”
One of the kind you could find lying around on the ground.
Just a particularly clean, pretty one.
That was all it was.
I pulled a fresh white stone from my robe, removed the blackened one, and set the new one in its place.
Thunk.
I tossed the black stone aside carelessly.
The moment it hit the ground, the thing that had looked solid crumbled apart.
Fssshhh—!
Then it broke down like dust and faded away.
In that instant, the evil qi clinging to the stone brushed through the air.
I watched it scatter on the draft, then looked back at the altar.
“...Whew.”
I let out a breath.
Then I reached a hand toward the altar.
All right, then.
I’d put the catalyst back in place.
Which meant now—
I can try restoring the tether.
Woooooong—!
Energy flowed from deep inside my heart.
The soul within my body rang out.
Little by little, energy poured into the altar.
WOOOONG—!
The altar began to tremble faintly.
Slosh. Slosh.
Even the shallow water spread around it began to stir.
[Oh.]
The Heavenly Demon let out a low note of admiration.
I closed my eyes.
Woooong.
I should have seen nothing but darkness.
But that wasn’t what appeared before me.
Blue-white light.
The moment I saw it, I opened my eyes again.
“...”
The world had changed.
What filled my sight now was a vast field of pure white flowers.
Flowers carpeting the ground. Flowers stretching so far away they filled the horizon itself.
“Ugh.”
I said it with open disgust.
“I really hate this.”
Why the hell are there always so many flowers?
No matter how many times I came here, I never got used to it.
Thinking that, I started walking.
Every time I took a step, the scene shifted violently. It looked like a short stride, but every one of those steps devoured miles of distance.
Which meant, naturally, that this wasn’t a normal world.
Nothing surprising there.
I’d been coming and going from places like this for a long time.
Besides—
It’s a lot more peaceful than that old man Yoo Cheongil’s dream-vision, at least.
If you asked whether it was safe, that was debatable.
But if the question was which one was more peaceful, this place won out.
At least here—
I can control it.
Because this was my world.
That made things like that possible.
Yes.
My world.
This place...
...was mine.
A world made by shaping my soul into form.
You could call it a mindscape, I guess.
Call it whatever you liked.
At the end of the day, it was just land that had taken shape out of my soul.
Though why that had turned into—
this damned flower field—
I had no idea.
“Should be around here.”
I wandered as if out on a stroll, looking for what I’d come to find.
I used to be able to locate it easily, but it had been so long that it was taking me a while.
I kept turning my head this way and that.
And finally, I found it.
“There it is.”
In the center of the white flower field stood a towering pillar.
You’d look at it and wonder what something like that was doing here.
Strangely enough, that was my destination.
The Seat of the Mind.
That was what people called it.
I walked toward the pillar.
The closer I got, the bigger it looked. Broad. Thick. Long enough to seem endless.
It was white—so white it looked as though it had been painted over.
It was a chair.
Compared to the pillar, the chair attached to it seemed pitifully small.
Didn’t matter.
All that mattered was that you could sit in it.
I walked toward it.
I could see it clearly now. The chair attached to the pillar.
And—
“Long time no see.”
I could also see the thing sitting there.
At my words, the seated figure lifted its head.
The moment I saw the face, I laughed.
“Well, look at you. You changed too.”
—...
The face that rose to meet me was, astonishingly enough, my own.
The face I’d gained after my rebirth.
The only difference was that it was unnaturally expressionless.
There wasn’t a trace of emotion in it.
“What, are you sulking? I hope not. I’ve been busy lately.”
—...
No answer.
It had never been especially talkative to begin with.
The thing sat in the chair, bound in chains.
But—
where there should have been around ten chains binding it, most of them had already come loose.
“That was close.”
A single strand of chain was barely hanging on.
It really had been close.
If even that one had snapped, it would have been bad.
“...All right. Let’s bind you again.”
Woooong.
A chain formed in my hand.
It was the same kind as the ones wrapped around him.
I lifted it and walked forward.
The closer I got, the more the one seated there stared directly at me.
That gaze stirred up a trace of guilt.
“Don’t look at me like that. I can’t help it either. That’s life, isn’t it?”
—...
“Just bear with it a little longer. If I can let you go, I will.”
“And when, exactly, will that be?”
“How should I know? That depends on how much I’ve—?”
Huh?
Whip—!
At the sudden voice cutting in, I snapped my head around.
A voice in here?
There wasn’t supposed to be anyone else in this place.
Startled out of my skin, I turned sharply.
And there—
“Keuh-keuh-keuh.”
“...What?”
A hulking man with white hair and terrifying blue eyes.
“It has been a long time.”
“...Old man?”
Yoo Cheongil.
He was standing there with his hands behind his back, looking straight at me.
