DR Chapter 16

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Hmm…?”

Yeo Ha-ryoon wiped his face with his sleeve.

The sleeve was already soaked with blood, so wiping his face only made it dirtier.

‘So this is what he’s really like.’

He had forgotten the boy’s true nature.

He enjoys slaughter. The blood of the Heavenly-Killing Star demands it.

Even if he hasn’t killed anyone yet, that doesn’t change.

“Take this.”

As the tanghulu was about to fall to the ground, Yeo Ha-ryoon quickly grabbed it.

Jin Cheon-hee said indifferently:

“Let’s go.”

“I want to do more.”

At Yeo Ha-ryoon’s feet, the Three Dogs were rolling around with twisted limbs and blood flowing from their skulls.

Jin Cheon-hee immediately understood what he meant by “more.”

“Stop it.”

“This guy used martial arts to oppress the weak. So it’s okay to kill him.”

With injuries like that, unless they get help from modern medicine, they’re already as good as dead.

‘I have no reason to help them anyway.’

Jin Cheon-hee was a doctor, but he wasn’t a saint.

There must be other doctors in the area, so they can find help or not, it’s up to them.

‘But it can’t happen. If he commits his first murder here, it’ll draw too much attention.’

While there are forces targeting Yeo Ha-ryoon, there are also moderates who say to leave him alone.

If they receive intelligence that he’s already killed someone here, the difficulty of Jin Cheon-hee’s future will triple.

‘The problem is how to calm down this mad dog. That Little Cheonma bastard hasn’t fully accepted me as his hyung yet.’

Even at this moment, the Heavenly-Killing Star’s instinct must be urging him on.

Jin Cheon-hee said calmly:

“Ah, the tanghulu is melting.”

At that moment, Yeo Ha-ryoon unconsciously brought the tanghulu to his mouth.

Slurp-

It can’t be helped. This is human instinct.

Whether it was the sugar from the malt syrup stirring his brain, the boy’s expression softened.

Jin Cheon-hee said:

“If blood gets on the tanghulu, we’ll have to throw it away.”

“But…”

“You’d eat that? Are you a beggar?”

At the question of whether he was a beggar, Yeo Ha-ryoon’s eyebrows twitched.

He finally stood up.

“Alright.”

‘Thank goodness. He’s young enough that sweet things still work.’

Jin Cheon-hee breathed a sigh of relief.

As expected, he can’t let his guard down until they reach the Demonic Sect.

In the Demonic Sect where strength rules, that might be considered a virtue(?), but in the normal world, there’s still a proper way to do things.

***

Jin Cheon-hee took Little Cheonma to a nearby well and washed him.

They couldn’t return to the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency with a blood-covered face.

Little Cheonma seemed busy eating the tanghulu Jin Cheon-hee had given him during this time.

‘Ah, I’m going to die. Just kill me.’

The blood on his clothes wouldn’t wash off easily, but he managed to make him look like a child wet with water rather than covered in blood.

Yeo Ha-ryoon seemed puzzled as to why Jin Cheon-hee was going to such lengths.

“This is all part of social life, man.”

“Social life?”

‘Yeah. That’s too far removed from what you know. Come to think of it, why would Cheonma worry about social life? He could just lop off the heads of anyone who bothers him. Darken the world, darken, darken it.’

It’s the Demonic Sect’s slogan.

It well embodies the will of the first Demonic Sect leader to dye the world black.

The thought of seeing that with his own eyes later makes his hands tremble already.

An uncontrollable embarrassment washes over him.

No matter how he thinks about it, he doesn’t think he can keep from laughing.

“Oh my! Are you here, young master?”

A voice was heard. Looking up, he saw a familiar bearded man carrying a child.

“Ah! Mister?”

It was Woon Ji-sang, the head of the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency, and his sworn brother, Uncle Team Leader Dam.

The first patient Jin Cheon-hee had treated. Not only did he protect the money from the bandit group, but he even gave it to Jin Cheon-hee, asking him to deliver it to his wife without fail.

It was truly a terrifying level of determination.

“I heard the story in the marketplace and came looking for you.”

While all the servants speak casually to Jin Cheon-hee, only this uncle elevates his speech, calling Jin Cheon-hee “young master” and saying how could he speak casually to his benefactor.

In Team Leader Dam’s arms was a baby wearing pretty baby shoes.

“Ah, that child is…”

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

The child stared at Jin Cheon-hee with wide eyes.

“Baa…”

The child sucked on its thumb.

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

“Cheon-hee?”

“I named him after you, young master. Dam Cheon-hee.”

Before Jin Cheon-hee could be surprised, the baby shouted:

“Kya!”

The child moved its arms as if wanting to be held by Jin Cheon-hee. Jin Cheon-hee reflexively took the baby.

‘He’ll be walking soon, won’t he?’

At a glance, the baby was quite a sturdy, healthy child.

“Ba! Abababa!”

The baby drooled on Jin Cheon-hee’s clothes, but Jin Cheon-hee didn’t mind.

Because the baby looked healthy and Uncle Team Leader Dam looked happy.

‘Right. This is why people become doctors.’

Others think being a doctor is a rewarding job.

That everyday life is a meaningful human drama. But in reality, it’s rare to get this kind of satisfaction.

Usually, it’s just because there’s too much work, so you just, just, just keep working. Sleepy, tired, wanting to go home, and working again…

“Young master.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks to you, my last escort mission ended well. This humble man now wishes to become a desk worker at the escort agency.”

“Is it because you’re limping?”

I saved his life, but he became lame. For an escort, that was quite fatal.

Team Leader Dam shook his head.

“My brother has been thinking of making me the branch manager for a while. But this humble man had lingering attachments and asked for one last escort mission. Thanks to your grace, I returned alive, so I shouldn’t be greedy for more. I’m grateful that I can come back like this and take care of my child and wife.”

Suddenly, Team Leader Dam’s eyes reddened.

Feeling embarrassed, Team Leader Dam turned his gaze away.

“My wife must be waiting, so I’ll head back. Let’s go, Cheon-hee-ya.”

“Ba! Bababa!”

When he turned his gaze, the baby was holding Yeo Ha-ryoon’s hand.

The drool-covered hand sticky on Yeo Ha-ryoon’s fingers, but Yeo Ha-ryoon neither pulled his hand away nor turned his gaze, staring at this scene for a long time.

“…”

Eventually, the child let go of his hand.

Jin Cheon-hee returned the child to its father.

The child, seeming reluctant, babbled incomprehensibly a few times and laughed.

“Kyaruru!”

At that laughter, Jin Cheon-hee also smiled and waved his hand.

“Stay healthy.”

***

The two headed back towards the escort agency like that. On the way back, Yeo Ha-ryoon, who had been staring at his own hand for a while, said:

“You… deserve to be a hyung.”

“Hm?”

“I, no, we martial artists only know how to kill. We’ve believed that eliminating bad people makes us chivalrous. But in the end, the essence is murder. We reach enlightenment by learning how to kill humans well, and ascend with that enlightenment.”

Yeo Ha-ryoon closed his eyes heavily for a moment. Then he continued:

“Nurturing swords is just a pretty phrase in the end. Whether it’s the Taoist Wudang Sect or the Buddhist Shaolin, it’s all the same. We learn martial arts to kill humans.”

Yeo Ha-ryoon raised his pitch-black eyes to look at Jin Cheon-hee.

“You saved me, and you saved that person. You saved the Gong family’s martial artist, and you saved the people of the Cloud-Dragon Escort Agency. And today, you even saved the Three Dogs.”

Jin Cheon-hee feels the weight of Yeo Ha-ryoon’s words. It far exceeded the weight of life that an ordinary child could feel.

“I will probably continue to kill someone. Because that’s all I’ve learned, and only the act of taking life excites me. So… you are better than me. You deserve to be a hyung.”

Jin Cheon-hee stared at Yeo Ha-ryoon like that and then said:

“Good. Call me hyung one more time.”

“Hyung…?”

“Well done. Hahaha.”

Jin Cheon-hee said this while blushing.

He wanted to somehow change this atmosphere.

Yeo Ha-ryoon’s life that he had read about in books was the epitome of a typical martial arts novel protagonist.

1. His precious family members die.
2. He’s chased by pursuers at crucial moments due to the secret of his birth.
3. He enters the center of a blood calamity while fighting the madness of the Heavenly-Killing Star.

Whenever such frustrating processes come, this guy gets stronger with the cheating power of the Heavenly-Killing Star and kills all his enemies, bringing catharsis, but in the process, he loses precious people, wails in grief, decides on revenge, and enters an even bigger blood calamity again.

Cheonma (Heavenly Demon).

It usually refers to the leader of the Demonic Sect.

Until he reached that position, this guy had never lived comfortably even once, and had never experienced such small happiness even once.

‘It’s not the style of recent martial arts novels.’

Yeo Ha-ryoon humbly called himself a murderer, but Jin Cheon-hee thought that life also had its own charm.

‘Right. It’s not the style of recent martial arts novel protagonists.’

Some might say it’s outdated. But he had no intention of denying it now. Still.

‘The things you like, you still like even as time passes.’

Regretting that the same things don’t come out anymore. Even so, because he didn’t dislike new things either, he ends up becoming a grumbler in the end.

The grumbler decided to wander around a bit more with Yeo Ha-ryoon.

A book of his taste that he had read after a long time, the protagonist who had rolled around in it to his heart’s content.

He wanted to give some kind of repayment to him who had made the difficult reality bearable.

It could be called a fan’s heart.

Or it could be called an adult’s whim of wanting to play without thinking, as if returning to childhood.

Moreover, it seemed that the boy had sincerely decided to think of Jin Cheon-hee as his hyung, having felt something.

‘Still, I won’t give you an enlightenment like Gongsun Yeong’s.’

It’s not possible now when he can’t control his power. He would rather be consumed by his own madness.

What this guy needs is this kind of small warmth.

“The mugwort tea arrived for me too, hyung.”

It seems the word “hyung” is starting to stick to his tongue now.

The boy’s cheeks were full of tanghulu.

“You know, if you eat everything alone, you’ll get indigestion. You should take care of the people around you too.”

“You’re just trying to cover up for Gongsun Yeong turning the garden upside down, right?”

‘He noticed. As expected of a protagonist, he’s smart.’

Still, a child is a child. Weak to food.

After feeding him lots of delicious things, even his sharp tone softened.

Jin Cheon-hee smiled playfully.

“It’s killing two birds with one stone. Hehehe.”

“The Gong family’s maids awkwardly smiled while giving me mugwort tea and apologizing. It could have been serious if it was serious, but thanks to you, it just ended with laughter. Some people even started praising Gongsun Yeong’s character, saying her feelings for her sister at the main family are amazing.”

“Of course, they were laughing while saying it?”

“Yeah, because the situation was funny. In contrast, everyone was surprised at how delicious the mugwort tea was. So it was even funnier.”

“Then it’s all good. That’s what social life is.”

“Social life? That’s what you mentioned briefly earlier.”

Having been impressed once, now he listens seriously to Jin Cheon-hee’s words.

‘This is a good opportunity for brainwashing(?).’

Thinking that, Jin Cheon-hee cleared his throat.