“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Hm…?”

Yeo Ha-ryoon wiped his face with his sleeve. It was already soaked in blood, so the gesture only smeared the filth around.

Right. This is who he is.

I had forgotten his true nature. He enjoyed slaughter. The blood of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter craved it. Even if he had never killed before, that fundamental truth hadn’t changed.

“Hold this.”

The tanghulu was about to fall, but Yeo Ha-ryoon quickly caught it.

“Let’s go,” I said nonchalantly.

“I’m not done.”

At Yeo Ha-ryoon’s feet, the last of the Three Dogs lay with twisted limbs, blood pouring from his fractured skull. I understood instantly what he meant by “not done.”

“Stop.”

“This man used his martial arts to oppress the weak. He deserves to die.”

With those injuries, he was as good as dead anyway, unless he had the fortune of being treated by modern medicine. He would live a life worse than death. And there’s no reason for me to help him. I was a doctor, not a saint. There were surely other physicians in the area; they could find one if they cared to.

But no. I can’t let him make his first kill here. It would attract too much attention.

While there were factions that wanted Yeo Ha-ryoon dead, there were also moderate factions that preferred to leave him be. If they received intelligence that he had already started killing people, the difficulty of my future would triple.

The problem is how to calm this rabid dog down. That Little Heavenly Demon brat still hasn’t fully accepted me as his hyung.

At this very moment, the instincts of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter would be urging him on.

“Ah, the tanghulu is melting,” I said, my voice completely casual.

In that instant, Yeo Ha-ryoon unconsciously brought the sticky treat to his lips.

Slurp—

It couldn’t be helped. It was human instinct. As the sugary syrup hit his brain, his tense expression visibly slackened.

“If you get blood on the tanghulu, you’ll have to throw it away,” I said.

“But…”

“Are you going to eat it? Are you a beggar?”

At the word “beggar,” Yeo Ha-ryoon’s eyebrow twitched. He finally stood up.

“Fine.”

Thank god. He’s young enough that sweets still work.

I let out a sigh of relief. I couldn’t let my guard down around him until he finally left for the Demonic Cult. In the might-makes-right world of the cult, his brutality might be considered a virtue, but in the ordinary world, there were still rules.

***

I took Little Heavenly Demon to a nearby well to get him cleaned up. I couldn’t very well return to the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency with him covered in blood. All the while, Little Heavenly Demon was busy devouring the tanghulu I had given him.

Hah, this is killing me.

The blood on his clothes wouldn’t wash out completely, but I managed to get him from “blood-soaked child” to “soaking-wet child.” Yeo Ha-ryoon watched me, a quizzical look on his face, as if wondering why I was going to such lengths.

“This is what you call ‘social life,’ kid.”

“Social life?”

‘Right. A concept that’s still a long way off for you. Then again, why would the Heavenly Demon worry about social life? He can just chop off the heads of anyone who annoys him. ‘To Darken the World under the Heavens’’ That was the motto of the Demonic Cult. A perfect reflection of the will of its founding leader. Just thinking about seeing that in person made my hands tremble… with the overwhelming urge to laugh. I was certain I wouldn’t be able to keep a straight face.

“Aigoo! There you are, Young Master!”

A voice called out. I looked up and saw a familiar bearded man approaching, holding a baby in his arms.

“Ah! Mister!”

It was Dam Ja-gang, the blood-brother of the Cloud-Dragon Escort Chief. He was the first patient I had treated, the man who had protected his pouch of money amidst the carnage and tried to give it to me to deliver to his wife. A man of fearsome devotion.

“I heard what happened at the market and came looking for you.”

While all the other servants spoke to me casually, this man alone insisted on calling me “Young Master,” saying he could never be informal with his benefactor. The baby in his arms was wearing a pair of beautiful little shoes.

“Ah, is that the child…?”

“When I returned from the escort mission, he had already been born and had grown this much. It’s not an uncommon story for us escorts.”

The baby stared at me with wide, round eyes. “Bya…” he gurgled, sucking on his thumb.

“Cheon-hee, look. This is the benefactor who saved your father’s life.”

“Cheon-hee?”

“I named him after you, Young Master. Dam Cheon-hee.”

Before I could even react to the shock, the baby squealed. “Gya!”

He reached out his little arms, wanting me to hold him. I took him from his father, slightly bewildered.

He looks like he’ll be walking soon. He was a sturdy, healthy-looking baby.

“Bya! Abyabyabya!”

The baby slobbered on my clothes, but I didn’t mind. He was healthy, and Mister Dam Ja-gang looked so happy.

Right. This is why I became a doctor.

Other people think being a doctor is a rewarding profession, a daily human drama full of profound moments. But in reality, you rarely get to experience moments like this. Mostly, there was just too much work. You just worked, and worked, and worked. Sleepy, tired, wanting to go home, then back to work again…

“Young Master.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks to you, my final escort mission ended well. This old countryman plans to take up a desk job at the escort agency now.”

“Is it because of your leg?”

I had saved his life, but he now walked with a limp. For an escort warrior, that was a critical injury.

Dam Ja-gang shook his head. “My older brother has wanted to make me the master of a branch office for some time now. But this stubborn old man insisted on one last mission. Since I returned with my life, thanks to your grace, I should not be greedy. I am just grateful that I can return home to care for my wife and child.”

Suddenly, Dam Ja-gang’s eyes reddened. Embarrassed, he turned his gaze away.

“My wife will be waiting, so I should get going. Let’s go, Cheon-hee.”

“Bya! Byabyabya!”

I looked over and saw that the baby had grabbed Yeo Ha-ryoon’s hand. His slobber-covered hand was sticky on Ha-ryoon’s fingers, but Ha-ryoon didn’t pull away. He didn’t even look away, just stared at the scene for a long moment.

“…”

Finally, the baby let go. I returned the child to his father. The baby laughed and babbled a few more times, as if disappointed to be leaving.

“Gya-rereu!”

I laughed along with him and waved. “Grow up healthy.”

***

We turned and headed back toward the escort compound. On the way, Yeo Ha-ryoon, who had been staring at his hand for a long time, spoke.

“You… have the right to be my hyung.”

“Hm?”

“I… no, we warriors only know how to kill. I believed that destroying evil was our Chivalry, but in the end, its essence is murder. We reach the Way by learning how to kill people well, and with that Way, we seek ascension.”

Yeo Ha-ryoon’s eyes closed heavily for a moment. He continued. “The ‘life-giving sword’ is nothing but a fine-sounding lie. Whether it’s the Daoist Wudang Sect or the Buddhist Shaolin, it’s all the same. We learn martial arts to kill people.”

He opened his jet-black eyes and looked at me. “You saved me, and you saved that man. You saved the warrior from the Gongsun Clan, and you saved the people of the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency. And today, you even saved those Three Dogs we encountered.”

I could feel the weight of his words. It was a burden far heavier than any ordinary child should have to bear.

“I will probably continue to kill people. It’s the only thing I’ve learned, and the act of taking a life is the only thing that excites me. Therefore… you are better than me. You have the right to be my hyung.”

I stared at him for a long moment, then said, “Great. Say it again. Hyung.”

“Hyung…?”

“Perfect. Hahaha.” I laughed, my face flushing. I wanted to change the heavy atmosphere somehow. The life of Yeo Ha-ryoon that I had read in the book was that of a typical Wuxia protagonist.

• His precious family dies.
• He is constantly chased by pursuers because of the secret of his birth.
• He battles the madness of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter and enters the center of a great bloodbath.

Whenever he was pushed into a frustrating situation, he would use the cheat-like power of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter to grow stronger and kill all his enemies, providing a refreshing, cider[1] moment. But in the process, he would lose those precious to him, cry out in grief, swear revenge, and dive back into an even greater bloodbath.

The Heavenly Demon. The title usually refers to the leader of the Demonic Cult. To reach that position, this kid never once lived an easy life, never once felt this kind of simple happiness.

It’s not the style of modern Wuxia novels.

Yeo Ha-ryoon had called himself a murderer, but I thought there was a certain coolness to his life. Right. It’s not the style of today’s protagonists. Some might call it outdated. But I had no intention of denying it now. After all…

The things you like, you still like them, even after time passes. You might feel sad that they don’t make them like that anymore, but since you don’t hate the new things either, you just end up becoming a grumbler.

This grumbler decided to wander around with Yeo Ha-ryoon a little longer. He was the protagonist of a book that was exactly to my taste, a book I had read after a long time. I wanted to give something back to him, the one who had helped me endure my own difficult reality. You could call it a fan’s sentiment. Or you could call it the foolish whim of an adult who wanted to return to his childhood and play without a care in the world.

Besides, it seemed the kid had been genuinely moved. He seemed to have truly decided to think of me as his older brother.

Still, I’m not going to give you the same kind of enlightenment I gave Gongsun Yeong. Not now, when you can’t control your power. You’d just be devoured by your own madness. What this kid needed was this kind of trivial warmth.

“The mugwort tea reached me, too, Hyung.” It seemed the word was starting to feel natural on his tongue. His cheeks were puffed out with tanghulu.

“It’s a rule that you get sick if you eat it all alone. You have to look after the people around you.”

“You did that to cover up for Gongsun Yeong turning the garden upside down.”

He noticed. As expected of the protagonist, he’s sharp. But a kid is still a kid. He was weak to food. After eating his fill of delicious things, his sharp tone had softened.

I grinned playfully. “A bit of both. Keh-keh-keh.”

“The Gongsun Clan’s maids gave me the tea with an awkward smile, saying sorry. It could have turned into a serious problem, but thanks to you, Hyung, it just ended with a laugh. Some people are even praising Gongsun Yeong’s character, saying how much she must care for her sister.”

“They were smiling while they said it, right?”

“Well, the situation was funny. But the tea was so delicious that everyone was surprised, which made it even funnier.”

“Then it all worked out. That’s social life.”

“Social life? You mentioned that before.”

It seemed he had been converted. He was now listening to my words with a serious expression.

A perfect opportunity for some brainwashing.

I thought, clearing my throat.