“I heard the story you shared outside.”

“……”

“Unless I misheard… it sounded like that entire story was meant for me. Am I correct?”

She was in her teenage years, having just left her girlhood behind.

Having lived trapped underground, her only proper experience was the relationship between a father and daughter.

Because of that, I wondered if, regardless of the truth, her pent-up anger over her father's collapse would be directed at me…

‘…So she really is a cut above the rest.’

It seemed my worries were for naught.

Because I couldn't sense any blame towards me in her voice.

Nod—

As I slowly nodded, she continued speaking at once, as if she had expected it.

“…I won't bother asking how you know about my ancestors, something even I don't properly know. After all, I know little of how the outside world works.”

“……”

“However, the reason I called for you is to ask why you came to me and told me such a story.”

“……”

“I called you here because I wanted to ask that reason.”

Hmph—

A personality that doesn't know how to beat around the bush, inflexible, and solely upright.

Seeing her ask without a hint of hesitation, I saw an image of her from before my Regression superimposed perfectly.

She was so consistent that it made the rewound time feel meaningless.

…In any time, in any space.

“Why did I come to you, you ask…”

If we're talking about utility, there was a lot to say.

It was because I needed the power of the Heavenly Demon she possessed, it was to lay the foundation for the Demon King Hunt based on that power, and because I needed to rebuild the Demonic Cult to fully bring Shuten to my side.

But why?

Many answers came to mind, but none of them would readily leave my lips.

Something didn't feel right.

Even if I gave those answers, I wouldn't be lying, of course, but deep in my heart, I felt like it was telling me that wasn't the reason.

I felt I had to give a more fundamental reason.

The reason I came to find her, even though she hadn't asked me to, and had in fact told me not to come.

“…Just because.”

“……?”

“It felt like something I had to do.”

[Bucket List #9]

「Project: Rescue Shim Cheong.」

* * *

From Shim Cheong's perspective, it was an utterly incomprehensible answer.

If you ask someone why they came and they reply, ‘Because it felt like I had to,’ how on earth are you supposed to take that?

“…Is that all?”

“Yeah.”

“…I don't know if you don't want to answer, or if that's really all there is to it.”

“……”

“How anticlimactic. It seems it wasn't for any grand reason.”

To Shim Cheong's words, U-jin shrugged and replied.

“Do you need such a grand reason to save a kid who's about to go blind?”

“……”

His tone was dismissive, as if it were nothing, but to Shim Cheong, U-jin's words were deeply unsettling.

“…I've heard stories of our ancestors from my father since I was young. I didn't know the detailed and complex relationships you spoke of, but I knew them in the form of fairy tales. About what great deeds they had accomplished.”

“……”

“However, I didn't know that story applied to me as well. The fairy tale always ended with my grandmother defeating the monster.”

As she said those words, Shim Cheong realized just how contradictory her father, Blindman Shim, had been.

He was the one who, while telling the fairy tales, had been prouder of their ancestors' achievements than anyone.

She could clearly feel his heart, which admired that heroic path yet didn't want to force the same on his daughter.

She could now understand that the inexplicable silence that followed the end of the fairy tale, after the monster was defeated, was likely due to a fragment of his guilt.

No matter which path he chose, a father's heart could never be at ease, ignoring the duty of his ancestors passed down through generations and letting his daughter go blind.

After reminiscing for a moment, Shim Cheong looked up at U-jin and asked.

“…I do not believe you are lying.”

“……”

“…However, it's also true that I still have doubts that prevent me from readily believing you. If there were a way to inherit the Demonic Sword without suffering from the Divine Illness or having to be sacrificed for the seal, there's no way my father would have made this choice.”

From Shim Cheong's standpoint, it was a natural doubt to have.

Indeed, in the seventeen instances of resealing the Primordial Demonic Beast, if such a method had been discovered, anyone would have chosen that path.

It would be more ridiculous if she easily believed U-jin's 'nonsensical words' that she could overcome the Destiny of the Heavenly Demon, which no one had managed to do for eons.

However.

“It's possible.”

U-jin was confident, even in the face of Shim Cheong's sharp question.

That the 'impossible thing' was possible.

And the reason U-jin could be so confident was simple.

‘…Because I've already done it once.’

It was something he'd done unconsciously, but U-jin had already broken the shackles of that Destiny once in his past life.

It was something that had never happened in Shim Cheong's world.

But that wasn't the case in U-jin's world.

“…If you want it, anytime.”

* * *

Blindman Shim woke up.

Just as Jerry had said, his condition was quite serious.

His breathing was ragged, his heartbeat was markedly slow, and in a short time, his complexion had turned dark and ashen.

“Father……”

The best indicator of his grave condition was that when Shim Cheong spoke to him after he woke up, he couldn't respond.

Following his already lost senses of sight, touch, smell, and taste, he had now lost his last remaining sense: hearing.

‘……’

I didn't know what kind of world a person who has lost all five senses experiences, but I imagined it must be quite close to the distant terror of death that one pictures in their mind.

Even after showing signs of waking, he remained silent for a long while, as if watching his life flash before his eyes, and then…

“…I don't know if you're listening.”

“……!”

“But I feel I'll regret it again if I leave without saying this, so I'll speak.”

He slowly began to open his mouth.

“…My life was a series of escapes and regrets.”

“……”

“In contrast, your grandmother was a truly wonderful person. She humbly accepted the fate given to her and possessed a strong will that wouldn't give up, no matter the pain.”

“……”

“…Seeing her, I admired her, but I was also afraid. Afraid of the fact that I would one day have to inherit that heavy burden.”

The old man's voice was filled with bitter regret.

“So I ran away. I abandoned the history of the Demonic Cult that had been passed down for hundreds of years, and the duty of the Heavenly Demon inherited from the very first.”

“……”

“…But in the end, I came to regret it.”

“……”

“On the outside, I resented it as an unfair treatment and a fool's errand, but deep down, I knew. I knew that the path our ancestors walked couldn't be called wrong.”

“……”

“I didn't act on what I thought was right; I merely ran away….”

Cough, cough—

With a dry chuckle and a few coughs, Blindman Shim continued in a voice that was even feebler than before.

“…I don't know where this bastard rolled in from, but that rude bastard is right. I should have at least given you the chance to choose.”

“……”

“I didn't have the courage to see you follow the path of our ancestors and suffer in pain like your mother. I was afraid of that, so I ran away again….”

Heh heh—

“…And so, here I am, regretting it again.”

I had witnessed countless deathbeds, but as expected, my heart wasn't at ease.

It wasn't that tears were bursting out or anything… but how should I put it.

Witnessing the weakness of someone dying, who had lost their will to live, was the furthest thing from pleasant.

“…Do what you believe is right, Cheong-yi.”

“……”

“So that you don't end up like me, regretting at the very end… regretting the reality of not even being able to see my grown daughter's face.”

Her eyes now brimming with tears, Shim Cheong grasped his hand and nodded.

…Though he would never know.

Perhaps having said all he wanted to Cheong-yi, he paused for a moment, then turned his head slightly and used a rather bewildering title.

“…You there, you disrespectful punk. Are you listening?”

Swish—

Just in case, I looked around, but Loxy and Jerry were staring at me as if it were obvious.

“…Is he perhaps talking about me?”

“…Of course.”

“Who else would it be? There's no one else but you.”

“……”

I remembered being meticulous about using honorifics, so the title felt unfair to me, but I focused on his words for now.

“If you so much as lay a finger on my daughter, I'll kill you.”

“…Hold on.”

“I'll tear you limb from limb and make you die in agony.”

“What on earth did I even do……”

As if calling me by an inscrutable title wasn't enough, he threatened me out of the blue, then immediately changed his tone to make a request.

“…So, please take good care of her.”

The old man's voice was desperate.

“…Because of her worthless father, she is a child who knows nothing of the horrors of the outside world.”

“……”

“I don't know what this third path you spoke of is—one where she can avoid the pain of the Divine Illness and not be forced into sacrifice—or if it's even truly possible… but if it's real, I'm asking you.”

“……”

“…You didn't sound like a man with a wicked voice. I'll trust you.”

Had some of my sincerity gotten through to him?

I had no way of knowing what his hearing, on the verge of death, had read in my voice.

In that short time, it seemed I had succeeded in gaining something akin to trust.

“…Anyone hearing this would think I got something from this old man.”

“……”

“All I got was a punch.”

Still, along with the relief of having successfully informed him of a new path before he passed completely, a sense of unfairness crept in, and I grumbled.

“…Don't think you received nothing. If you truly know about the Demonic Cult, then you, more than anyone, should know the value of the Heavenly Demon's Divine Art secret manual.”

Stung—

“……”

…So this is what they mean by the wisdom of old age.

I couldn't even break even.

“…I'm done now.”

He let out a deep sigh, of a different kind than before, and left his final words.

“Don't get hurt, don't cry, and don't have regrets.”

“……”

“…Live well, Cheong-yi.”

With that, the old man's mouth closed.

His ragged breaths grew fainter and fainter.

“……”

Soon, Jerry, noticing the breathing had stopped, checked his respiration.

“…He has passed.”

He quietly announced the old man's death.

“……”

Cheong-yi did not cry.

Was it because it was a farewell she had been preparing for, or was she too shocked by the sudden separation to feel its reality?

Or perhaps, was it because of his short last words, telling her not to cry?

He was her father, her friend, her teacher.

The man who had been her entire world within this narrow cave was no more.

For some reason, Cheong-yi did not cry.

Instead, she bit her lip until it bled and said to me.

“Tell me.”

“……”

“…What must I do.”

…That she would become the Heavenly Demon.