The Divine Dragon Battle came to an end with Baek Woo Jin’s successful defense of the title.
Several of the Dragons and Phoenixes, who had been closely watching the duel, hoping to challenge him one day, left with hardened expressions at the unexpected extent of Baek Woo Jin’s skill.
Only one person, Myeong Jin, laughed heartily.
“Hahaha! As expected, you are incredible, Divine Dragon!”
Saying this was the kind of opponent who could ignite the flames of challenge within him, he hurried off straight to his personal training room.
“It was quite a good match.”
“Indeed. Though it was somewhat one-sided, Miss Yoo showed a few sharp counterattacks here and there.”
“By the way, didn’t Miss Yoo look a bit unusual at the end?”
“She did seem somewhat emotional, but, well, doesn’t everyone get that way during a duel?”
“Do they…?”
Thanks to Baek Woo Jin’s quick response, most dismissed it as nothing more than a surge of emotions during the match. Almost no one seemed to realize she had been momentarily seized by her inner demons.
Except for two people.
“Oh, now that’s an interesting woman.”
A man, who was quietly hidden among the students as he watched the duel, licked his lips and voiced his thoughts.
They were former lovers, so what kind of history could lead her to show such intense emotions toward him? This mystery intrigued him deeply, and he found it rather appealing.
“Emotions are truly curious things, aren’t they?”
When he posed this question, the man sitting beside him shot him a hostile glare.
“Enough with your pointless riddles. Just tell me what I need to do.”
“Tsk, you really are no fun.”
Despite looking no different from the young students, the man’s manner of speaking was like that of an old man.
“Just keep an eye on things. At least until I return here. Who knows, perhaps you might even gain a companion?”
At the man’s words, the other withdrew his cold gaze.
“A companion.”
A word that once stirred warmth and excitement.
Once, he too had dreamed of having companions. But now, that no longer mattered. His goal was solely to grow stronger. He was willing to do anything to achieve that end.
Even if it meant selling his soul to a demon.
“Well, I’m off. I’ll leave matters here to you.”
“…Take care.”
The man standing in the great training arena dissolved into black smoke in the blink of an eye.
Watching this overwhelming display of martial skill, the other man clenched his fists tightly.
“I swear…”
He vowed that he would one day crush all those who loomed over him, even surpass the man who treated him like a mere servant, and finally place the entire world beneath his feet.
***
Yoo Hwa Yeon awoke quickly. She was disturbed by the discomfort radiating from various parts of her body.
With a grimace, she opened her bleary eyes and tried to look around, but a sharp pain at the back of her neck made her groan in pain.
“Ahh…!”
Even without looking around, she could guess where she was. Judging from the strong smell of the herbs that were used to make herbal medicine, it had to be a medical infirmary.
Gently, she cradled her still-throbbing neck with her hand.
In that last moment, she couldn’t tell if she had been fully conscious or not as she screamed helplessly. The back of her neck was where Baek Woo Jin’s touch had last lingered.
“It’s over…”
She had known she would lose.
Before she reached the peak master level, his level had been hazy to her, but when she broke through to the same realm as him, it became clear to her that there was no fathoming his depth.
In her shock, his words began to resurface one by one.
He said that there was no reason to love him anymore, that she should now find her own path to happiness.
“Fufu…”
She let out a bitter, self-mocking laugh.
“It’s already too late.”
She impulsively ran around the academy and finally met Baek Woo Jin, and at that moment, she finally realized.
She couldn’t live without him. At the same time, a wave of disgust at her own foolish actions struck her which made it hard to breathe.
Now, the only path to happiness left to her was to somehow turn his heart back toward her.
“Ugh…!”
With effort, Yoo Hwa Yeon rose to her feet.
“Your body hasn’t fully healed yet. Are you really going?”
The physician attending to her urged her to continue with the treatment, but she wouldn’t listen.
After a brief argument, she finally agreed to return for treatments at regular intervals and was allowed to leave the infirmary.
“Ah…”
Yoo Hwa Yeon’s pupils began to tremble as she looked up at the night sky, where the moon had risen bright and full.
When she spoke of breaking off the engagement, Baek Woo Jin recalled the day she met Namgong Soo. It was a day when a bright full moon shone in the clear, pure sky, casting its light over the world just like tonight.
She wondered now what he might have been thinking as he looked at her then.
Her steps unconsciously followed the memories of that time. Despite the throbbing pain hammering at her temples, she found herself at the pavilion on the outskirts of the academy, where two—no, three—people had once been.
“Ah… ugh…”
This place had once been where she sought solace whenever she faced difficulties or needed quiet moments to reflect alone. Somehow, it had become a place where she would occasionally talk with Namgong Soo, but after that day, it had turned into a location filled only with painful memories, one she had stopped visiting altogether.
“I have to… I need to get out of here, quickly!”
The pounding in her head intensified. Memories she desperately wanted to forget kept resurfacing and amplifying her confusion.
Just as she tried to stumble her way out of the pavilion, she noticed two pairs of footsteps approaching from a distance.
“Ah…?”
A man and a woman walked leisurely while glancing up at the sky and admiring the blooming flowers around them. They also occasionally looked at each other with soft smiles.
The one smiling, his blue and white robe fluttering elegantly around him, was Baek Woo Jin. Next to him was Jegal Yeon Ji, wearing a purple dress that revealed a hint of her shoulders underneath a transparent jeogori and her long bangs framing her face.
“Urk!”
The moment she saw them together with warmth and affection in their expressions, a wave of nausea hit her.
Yoo Hwa Yeon clamped her mouth shut. She then hid herself behind the dense trees so they wouldn’t see her as she threw up.
What she spat out was dark red blood.
To steady herself, she clung to a tree. She was barely able to breathe as she cautiously peeked around to watch the two approaching the pavilion.
“Wow… I didn’t know there was a place like this in the academy…”
A pond spread out under the brilliant moonlight with flowers blooming on it. And even the petals were fluttering like snow in the wind.
Jegal Yeon Ji gazed around in awe at the scene, which looked like a painting worthy of being framed before her eyes settled on Baek Woo Jin’s figure as he looked out over the pond.
“Haa…”
He shone even amid such breathtaking scenery. As if the surroundings only served to accentuate his presence.
This was a spot in the academy where one could gaze at the water and find calm. Although she had lingering, painful memories of this place, they weren’t her own, so she could easily ignore them.
As Baek Woo Jin scanned the area and gradually felt more at ease, he sensed an unmistakable gaze on him and turned his head.
Jegal Yeon Ji was staring at him with a blank face.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Oh! N-No, it’s… it’s nothing!”
Her face flushed as she quickly looked away.
Baek Woo Jin watched her with a faint smile; he found her cute. He then held her shoulders to turn her toward him.
“There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Wh-Wh-What is it?”
“When was the first time you truly noticed me? I mean… not just a day when you saw my face, but a day that stands out clearly in your memory.”
“Th-That was….”
Her face, which had been pink like a peach, now flushed a deep red like an apple.
She liked the quiet and dark nights when she could hide somewhere, rather than the days when there were countless noises and people.
At night, when the darkness settled thickly and made it easy to slip away unnoticed, she often enjoyed sneaking out for a walk.
The first time he left a lasting impression on her mind was one of those nighttime walks, just like any other.
At night, she always felt a strange flicker of courage. Rather than following her usual path, she enjoyed wandering to places that seemed untouched by others. On that night as well, she had been taking careful steps down a path she had never explored before.
“Th-That was when I first saw you… training under the moonlight, so focused….”
She had known the name Baek Woo Jin for a long time, since he was in a similar situation to hers.
He was often dismissed as empty-headed, useless, or someone who was flashy on the outside but useless on the inside. He would be mocked with names like “half-wit” or “empty shell” yet he still swung his sword with a look of frustration on his face.
“Watching you, I realized… Ah, he’s different from me. He’s fighting against all the disdain, while I….”
Though they were in similar situations, she understood that they were fundamentally different.
She had resigned herself to others’ scorn, while he was determined to stand and fight until the end.
It had been the first time she truly saw him, unwavering despite their similar situations.
“So, is that when you started following me?”
“Yes… Huh?!”
Jegal Yeon Ji, who had been nodding absentmindedly, suddenly looked startled.
“H-How did you…?”
“Well… I didn’t know back then. But there were times when you’d talk to me as if you’d known me for ages.”
“A-Ah, th-that’s because…”
She grew flustered and started to fidget with her fingers. She was struggling to gather her thoughts.
“And the first time we spoke to each other?”
Another question came, though this one was much easier to answer.
“When we met at the request building …! That was the first time you spoke to me.”
That day stood out as her most cherished memory, one of the few truly happy moments she could recall.
The man she had only dreamed of, whom she’d merely watched from afar without ever daring to approach, had taken the first step toward her.
“I see.”
A deep smile spread across Baek Woo Jin’s face.
He felt a little uneasy. Since she too had first seen him as “Baek Woo Jin” and not himself, he worried about what would happen if he ended up disappointing her.
“What… what did you think of me, after we actually talked and spent time together?”
“Um… well, it was a bit… different from watching you from afar.”
At the single word, “different”, Baek Woo Jin’s heart skipped a beat.
“The young master Baek I saw up close… was stronger, more impressive. Sometimes you’d do things I couldn’t understand, and you drank a lot too… but I realized that you were a warm, kind, and admirable person. So….”
Her rambling trailed off, and Baek Woo Jin’s gaze settled on her lips. He noticed a hint of earnestness in them.
“I, I ended up… liking you even more!”
She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them wide before blurting out something close to a confession.
Baek Woo Jin’s torso leaned forward as he heard her words.
Swoosh.
With the sound of his wide sleeves brushing against her, Baek Woo Jin leaned forward as if he was about to collapse and wrapped Jegal Yeon Ji in his arms.
“Kyaa…!”
A sound escaped her lips. It was half surprise and half joy.
“Yo-Young master Baek…?”
She felt his arm against her back and his hand was trembling slightly.
With his face buried against her left shoulder, Baek Woo Jin spoke in a soft voice.
“Let me stay like this for just a bit.”
He finally felt fully acknowledged as himself, and it was as if the mental exhaustion of a long, grueling day melted away in an instant.
Jegal Yeon Ji gathered her courage, stretched out her trembling arms, and embraced Baek Woo Jin.
His back was going up and down quickly as if he was breathing faster than usual.
“Yes….”
And then, slowly, very slowly, she stroked his back as it moved up and down and gently patted him as well.
Leave a Reply