It was a season when the cold made your eyes sting. The maple leaves that had once bloomed had already ended their lives long ago, and on that day, only dry branches twitched beneath gusting wind.

PAHSSSUK.

Across the white snowfield that had already been laid down, an old man began to walk forward, slowly.

PAHSSSUK.

Strangely, there was the sound of snow being stepped on, but no footprints appeared on the snowfield.

The old man simply kept his hands clasped behind his back and left no trace.

Quietly. Quietly.

In the withered season, the old man looked around.

‘.......’

It was a brutal sight.

The area was filled with dead bodies.

Countless pools of blood that must have been spilled. Things buried beneath snow that had piled over it.

What in the world had happened for such a horrific scene to be left behind?

At the smell of blood faintly soaked into the air, the old man frowned.

A smell he never wanted to breathe in again.

‘Fleeting.’

Life was this fleeting and this arduous.

That was what he had learned from living so long.

Fleeting and meaningless. No matter how you struggled, the end of life always came.

The old man wanted to erase the traces of the life he had lived.

Because it had been a life stitched together with regret.

This, too, was the same. The life that had struggled vanished in an instant, and became this cold.

‘Seongheon.’

At the fishy smell, a memory surfaced in the old man’s mind.

‘Do you still believe you can save everyone.’

Red eyes gleaming.

The one who had looked down at him, holding the neck of a friend.

‘How arrogant. Old plum leaf—your arrogance will finally seize your ankle.’

He had taken that warning as provocation.

He should have carved those words into his bones back then.

‘.......’

The old man walked on in a low, quiet way. He passed the bodies that had been hacked apart, and walked and walked again.

And as he continued forward—

‘......Hm?’

Something caught in his sight.

At the end of the bodies. Beyond them, someone was sitting.

A small frame at a glance.

A child. A child who shouldn’t have been here.

The old man approached.

And then he saw it.

‘......Ha.’

Snow piled on the child’s shoulders and head.

And in the child’s arms— a woman who had already gone cold.

The child was holding the woman’s hand tightly.

The hand of a woman whose breath had already stopped, with no life force left in it.

For some reason, with a hand reddened by blood.

‘Child....’

The old man called to the child.

The child wasn’t dead. In the old man’s ears, the child’s heartbeat was perfectly clear.

At the old man’s call, the child responded slowly.

A head turning stiffly, as if loosening a body that had gone rigid.

When their eyes met, the old man flinched.

‘......!’

There was nothing there.

The body was alive, but the child’s eyes were dead.

A gaze that felt nothing.

Living on, but with a heart that had already died.

At that sight, the old man let out a low groan.

‘Huuuh....’

How could this be?

And on top of that—what was this alien killing intent lodged inside those numb eyes?

‘.......’

He met that gaze and agonized for an eternity.

No—an instant that felt like an eternity.

Looking at the child, what should he have said?

What did he want to do?

‘Arrogant.’

At the words that drilled into his ears, he finally set down what he wanted to do—

‘How arrogant.’

What in the world did he want to do?

He didn’t know. It was nothing but impulse.

Back then. Or even now.

The old man thought he probably would have done the same thing, all over again.

‘Come with me.’

‘.......’

‘Winter is very cold. Let’s go somewhere flowers bloom.’

The old man didn’t know where flowers bloomed, either.

Because he was still waiting for spring, he didn’t know where he should go.

Even so, he asked the child to come with him.

‘.......’

The child didn’t answer.

All he could do was guess at the child’s feelings from how tightly the child held the woman’s hand.

‘Your mother would like a warm place more than a place this cold. This grandpa will carry her on my back. How about we go together.’

‘.......’

Maybe the child understood.

The child gently let go of the woman’s hand.

Then the old man lifted the woman’s body onto his back.

He didn’t use internal power. He must not have wanted to show the child that.

‘Let’s go.’

‘.......’

Just like that, the child and the old man walked across the snow.

PAHSSSUK.

The old man’s big footprints and the child’s footprints pressed into the snow.

Let’s go find spring.

For him, the old man and the child left winter behind.

*****

‘So that child....’

The old man—Seongheon—entered the room and let out a quiet laugh.

That child who had looked at him without emotion.

That child whose gaze had held not a shred of feeling.

‘To stare that desperately.’

Those eyes that had clutched his sleeve, begging him to help.

Seongheon smiled as he recalled it.

‘Should I call it disappointing. Or admirable.’

Or should he call it jealousy.

He couldn’t decide.

He couldn’t decide, but Seongheon already knew where the end of this emotion lay.

‘You brat.’

The young man in front of him.

This pretty kid sweating cold with pain—he was jealous of him.

That the disciple he had cherished and raised showed emotion toward this bastard.

And on top of that—

‘It’s something to be grateful for.’

There was gratitude mixed in, too—gratitude for making that happen.

“.......” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

That was why he stepped in.

For a lifetime. After the war. After ‘his’ death—he had sworn he would never do it again.

Saving someone. Keeping someone alive. He had decided he would never do it again.

He had thought he must not do it, for the sake of his own spring.

‘And yet.’

He hadn’t known he would end up stepping forward for that spring.

“Ghh... ugh....”

“You really are something.”

Seongheon lightly placed his hand on Bang Sungyeon as he groaned.

HOOOOOO—!!

Not only the wound—poisonous energy had congealed inside his body.

“Master and disciple really are the same, aren’t they.”

These blue eyes were always the problem.

Shaking the convictions he’d barely managed to clamp down, like they were nothing.

These bastards were always the problem.

“Ha....”

Seongheon let out a sigh.

And in that moment—

WHOOOAAAAAA—!!!

From his body, the scent of flowers burst out.

That flower fragrance flowed out and wrapped around Bang Sungyeon.

“Ghh... uh....”

By the time the sound of his groaning began to subside—

Swoosh.

Seongheon pulled something out from inside his robes.

It was a needle.

*****

SPLASH.

‘Huh.’

SPLASH.

‘......Huh.’

A stream of water, like it had pooled on the floor. The sticky wetness clinging around my toes made me feel gross.

‘What is this.’

What the hell is this now.

Ink? That’s exactly what it looks like.

Black water. It filled the ground completely.

SPLASH.

I walked across it. An endless procession of water.

And even worse—

‘Why is it so damn dark?’

It wasn’t just the floor. The whole world was black.

Just looking at it made the world feel suffocating.

Why is it so damn dark?

‘Where the hell am I now....’

Yoo Cheongil. What the hell did that old bastard do this time?

‘It feels like a spirit-dream.’

My senses were identical to when I entered a spirit-dream. Which meant Yoo Cheongil had done it.

‘But even so.’

That old man’s spirit-dreams were always white. I’d never seen a place charred this black.

‘What is it.’

What the hell is this place.

“Hey.”

I called out. The whole space echoed.

“What is this supposed to be now?”

It’s Yoo Cheongil’s doing again, right. I spat the words out thinking that—

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

This bastard isn’t answering.

Here we go again.

‘Does he think I won’t notice if he does this?’

I closed my eyes. Finding Yoo Cheongil inside a spirit-dream isn’t that hard.

I focused my qi and searched for that old man’s presence.

And when I found it—

WOOONG—!

“Found you.”

I located him. But.

“......The floor?”

Right below me. Inside this waterside.

What? There’s more under this shallow spot?

I looked down at the floor. It was pitch-black—I couldn’t see anything.

But my senses were telling me someone existed beneath it.

“Old man.”

So I spoke while staring at the floor.

“Are you down there—”

FLASH—!

“Fuck—!”

A blood-red gleam flared inside the black water.

I jerked in surprise and tried to move—

GRAB—!

“Ghk!?”

SPLASH—!!

An arm shot out and seized my ankle, yanking me in.

In an instant, I was sucked underwater.

“Ggglrk!”

I couldn’t breathe. Air bubbles burst upward violently, and my body sank faster than they did.

‘Goddamn it...!’

I rolled my eyes. Who is it? Frowning, I looked down.

I could see it.

‘Eyes.’

Red eyes.

A blood-red gleam that felt familiar, somehow.

Its owner was gripping me and dragging me down.

‘Ghk.’

The moment I saw it, I knew. A monstrous malevolent aura. What the hell is this malevolent aura?

It was enough to make my skin crawl. At this level—

‘It’s an evil god.’

Something that had already reached an evil god. That thing had me and was dragging me down into the deep seafloor.

I struggled, but I was losing. If this kept up, I’d get swept away just like that.

What do I do? How the hell do I deal with this?

‘Old man...!’

What the hell is Yoo Cheongil doing that he isn’t showing up? When the Poison Absolute stepped in last time, he popped up all cool and—

‘Seriously...!’

Never around when it matters most. Fuck.

‘At this rate, I’m dead.’

I couldn’t afford to choose for long. I shut my eyes.

My breath was getting tighter and tighter. The ring I’d hung deep inside my heart—just as I reached for it again—

—Yoo Cheongil’s child.

“......!”

A voice. I heard ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) it and opened my eyes.

And then I could see it.

In a scene where nothing had been visible, something was shining with unmistakable clarity.

Petals.

Pink petals were drifting clearly around me.

‘This is...?’

As if lighting the darkness—faint, beautiful.

For some reason, the moment those shining petals appeared, my body felt lighter.

The petals wrapped around me. And with them—

—Now, get up.

I heard it.

Only then did the darkness around me begin to peel away.

WHOOOAAAAAA—!!!

The petals drove the darkness back, and as everything slowly brightened—

[Still.]

Another voice whispered into my ear.

[An arrogant choice.]

That voice was the end of my memory.

*****

“Ha—!”

I snapped my eyes open and forced myself upright.

“......Hah.... Hah....”

My ragged breaths left my body drenched in cold sweat.

“......What....”

I wiped my forehead with the back of my hand and swallowed a groan. What the hell was that?

‘It was a spirit-dream...?’

A black world. Being sucked down inside it.

And red eyes, and petals.

As my eyes kept trembling at the bizarre scene—

[Oh, you’re up.]

Yoo Cheongil spoke while looking at me.

That old man smiling brightly. I stared at him and asked.

“......Old man.”

[Huh?]

“Did you use a spirit-dream?”

[A spirit-dream out of nowhere? Did you have some shitty nightmare?]

“.......”

At Yoo Cheongil’s reaction, I bit my lip. Nightmare my ass.

‘That wasn’t imagination.’

That was definitely a spirit-dream, but it wasn’t Yoo Cheongil?

‘What is it?’

What the hell is it. Even last time, something was off.

‘Something....’

It felt like something was inside my body.

This unpleasant, weird sense of foreignness kept leaving me feeling gross.

“Ghn... ughh!?”

I tried to move, and pain surged from my waist.

“Ugh...!”

[Hey, why are you moving around all of a sudden. You don’t remember getting hurt yesterday?]

“......Yesterday? If it was yesterday... ah...!”

I remembered. The Strange Demon had appeared, and I’d been injured by that bastard.

It came back to me.

I checked my body right away. There was a bandage wrapped around my waist.

Looks like I got treated in the middle of the night.

“I lived....”

Thank fuck. If I’d opened my eyes, I must’ve made it.

[Lived, my ass. If things went even a little wrong, you would’ve died. Kid, if it weren’t for that old plum, you’d already be dead.]

“Old plum?”

Old plum. If Yoo Cheongil was calling someone old plum—

No way.

“Do you mean Plum Blossom Single Sword?”

Seongheon. Was he talking about him? I asked, but—

[.......]

Yoo Cheongil didn’t answer.

“Old man?”

Why the sudden silence? I was about to ask again, confused—

BANG—!

Before the words even came out, the door flew open.

And then—

“Huh? Huh!?”

WHAM—!

Someone lunged at me.

“Gah!”

I cried out in pain and toppled backward.

“Ghh....”

I flailed, but it wasn’t easy to get free.

What the hell?

Who the hell jumped me? I looked at them, confused—

“......Yuyeon?”

The person clinging to me was Yuyeon.

“What are you doing.”

I started to speak, flustered, when—

“You’re awake.”

“......!”

A laid-back voice followed. I only tilted my head and glanced toward the doorway.

“Heh heh heh.”

Seongheon was looking at me. Then he looked at me being hugged by Yuyeon, and his brow creased.