"Done."
After finishing all the treatment, the boy organized the box and spoke.
"It's safe if you lie down in that iron coffin. No one will be able to find you there. Go ahead and rest."
"No. I don't need to."
Manwol waved both hands.
"Thanks to you, I'm completely healed."
Since her injuries had already recovered, she had no desire to enter that frightening-looking iron coffin.
"Thank you. This grace..."
"Then take care on your way."
Before she could finish speaking, the boy turned away coldly.
Creak.
The sound of the main gate opening came from far away.
"Grandfather...!"
The boy, who had been smiling brightly and about to run outside, suddenly stopped.
He stared wide-eyed at Manwol, who stood there dazed in blood-stained clothes.
Normally, he would have explained the situation and asked his grandfather for help.
But this was the coffin room, where outsiders were absolutely forbidden to enter, and he was alone with a girl around his age...
For some unknown reason, his instinct told him he had to hide her.
"Hurry, over here."
Clank.
The boy quickly opened the iron lid.
Manwol was flustered, but at the boy's urgent gesture, she had no choice but to step inside.
Thud, thud.
With low footsteps, the door to the coffin room opened, and a figure appeared silhouetted against the moonlight.
It was an old man whose eyes bore wrinkles like deep river valleys carved by long years of hardship.
He wore faded, shabby clothes, yet his eyes were as deep and serene as if they held all the constellations of the night sky. His flawless features, untouched even by the passage of time, carried a jade-like elegance.
"Grandfather?"
The boy standing in front of the iron coffin stretched lazily and spoke in a sleepy voice.
"You've come."
"Why are you standing in front of the coffin?"
"Ah..."
The boy rolled his eyes and made up an excuse while looking at the coffin.
"You were taking so long that I was practicing how to hold my breath inside the coffin."
"I see."
The old man looked at the coffin and gave a faint smile.
"Shall we play corpse with Grandfather again today?"
"No? I've already done it plenty."
The old man smiled gently, then suddenly blinked and looked up at the night sky.
His ears twitched, and his expression darkened slightly.
"What's wrong?" the boy asked worriedly. The old man shook his head.
"Come to think of it, we've run out of linen in the storage. I'll go get some quickly."
"At this late hour?"
"Anyway, that old man from the next house will just be locking his door and drinking rice wine."
He shook his head while glancing at the iron coffin.
"Clean up roughly and go to sleep. It's very late."
"Understood."
The old man quietly went outside.
Finally, when the door to the coffin room closed, the boy let out a sigh of relief.
‘I didn’t commit any crime, so why did I hide her?’
It was simply the instinct that any boy would have.
But the boy, who didn’t yet understand such feelings, awkwardly scratched his head.
At that moment, the iron lid shook and thumping sounds came from inside.
The boy quickly opened the coffin door, and Manwol emerged with a pale face.
"What exactly did you do in here?"
"What do you mean, what did I do?"
"I couldn't breathe at all."
The boy let out a sound of realization.
"Normally, when people enter such a narrow coffin, they feel dizzy and have trouble breathing."
"That's not it."
Manwol shook her head.
If she wanted, she could hold her breath for more than an hour.
It made no sense that she couldn’t breathe after just entering a coffin.
"Save me! This isn't an ordinary iron coffin, is it?"
Manwol pointed at the dark iron coffin with wide eyes.
"It feels like it weighs over three thousand pounds."
"You're quite the complainer."
The boy grabbed the coffin lid and lifted it with one hand.
'It is a bit heavy, but not that much.'
Complainer.
For a moment, Manwol’s eyes blurred.
The pain and hardship she had endured since childhood were beyond words.
She had never once complained.
Yet when this boy, who knew nothing, called her a complainer, all the sorrow she had held back burst forth.
"I wasn't complaining."
Tears fell from Manwol’s large eyes.
The boy panicked at her sudden crying and waved his hands.
"I'm sorry."
However, the boy who spent every day shut inside the mortuary preparing corpses, and whose only outings were holding his grandfather’s hand to see the scenery, had no idea how to carefully comfort a girl with complicated circumstances.
While flustered, the boy’s eyes suddenly sparkled.
"Do you know? When people are trapped alive in a 'coffin'..."
Manwol, who had been crying, lifted her head.
With an extremely serious expression, the boy said, "It gets so suffocating that you want to leave everything behind."
It was a dark joke that morticians often made.
At the absurd joke, Manwol forgot her tears for a moment and stared blankly at the boy.
"Let me tell you something even more surprising."
Thinking the joke had worked, the boy continued.
"Cats can recognize auspicious places—"
"Stop it."
When the boy closed his mouth, Manwol chuckled.
‘He didn’t used to be like this.’
The boy, who had always maintained a solemn expression, made Manwol smile, and it felt as if the entire dark coffin room brightened up.
"You've become quite the unusual mortician."
The boy furrowed his brow.
"Do you know me?"
Manwol quickly made an excuse.
"There are almost no young morticians, so I meant it's special."
"There's nothing special about it."
The boy spoke proudly.
"Since I'm my grandfather's grandson, it's only natural that I become a famous mortician too."
"I see."
Manwol smiled.
The beggar boy she had met in the middle of winter had carried a strand of warmth in his chest.
His eyes had been endlessly cold as he looked down upon the world.
Yet somehow, he had found a good nest and become a kind young man who understood and considered others' feelings.
"Ah."
At that moment, Manwol suddenly stood up.
She had been chased by the assassins of the Three Realms, suffered injuries, and lost consciousness. Although she had shaken them off using the power of the Star God, they were masters with extraordinary abilities. Quite some time had passed, so they might have found her trail and come here.
"I have to go."
She hurriedly headed outside. But something was strange.
Suddenly her ears felt muffled and her head grew dizzy.
She had only applied medicine to the wound.
The power of the Star God was so strong that dozens of streams of heat spread from her dantian, pouring hot energy into her body.
As she staggered while trying to leave, grabbing onto a nearby coffin, the boy quickly ran over.
"Have your wounds worsened?"
"No, it's not that."
Manwol spoke while shedding large drops of sweat.
"If I stay here, I'll only cause trouble."
"You've already caused trouble, haven't you?"
The boy spoke calmly.
"Even vicious martial artists avoid mortuaries, calling them unlucky. There are also many good hiding spots here."
"Hiding spots?"
"Look."
The boy pointed at the stacked coffins and the table supporting the bottom layer.
"It looks like an empty stand, but inside, there are black sandalwood planks laid down."
He crouched in the narrow space between the floor and the planks.
"Even if a person is crouching inside like this, from the outside it just looks like a stand, so no one notices."
For a moment, Manwol opened her eyes wide in wonder.
This space was dark and shadowed. At first glance it appeared completely empty, but in reality, black sandalwood planks were laid inside.
In the dark, the black planks were hard to see, creating the illusion that the space was empty.
"How interesting."
Manwol approached the boy’s spot and crouched down beside him.
"Did you make this space on purpose?"
"Not at all. It just happened by chance."
The boy spoke in a low voice.
"A mortuary seems like it would only be filled with grim objects, but there are actually many interesting things. If you go to the paper room over there..."
Manwol and the boy sat shoulder to shoulder, crouched down, and talked for a long time.
Neither of them had ever sat with peers their age and chatted like this before.
The boy had been silently seeing off the dead in a place like the underworld where even light could not enter.
Manwol had endured death-like pain and suffering while continuing dangerous tasks and ascetic training.
Yet here, in this quiet place with no one around, sitting and talking felt like meeting a friend who lived in her heart. It was like sitting in a pavilion on a cool summer night, looking at the stars and chatting.
‘It’s like a sweet dream.’
Dream.
Suddenly, Manwol came to her senses.
Until now, she had single-handedly handled extremely dangerous tasks that even the top experts of the martial world dared not touch. She had never once let her guard down, and whenever danger approached, the power of the Star God would activate instinctively.
But from the moment she entered this place, she had even forgotten that someone was chasing her, and her heart had become endlessly at ease.
Moreover, even the power of the Star God remained dormant as if in deep sleep.
"I really am beyond saving."
Manwol felt deep disappointment in herself.
Although it was not a path she had chosen herself, she had been given a heavy duty akin to protecting the world.
For that mission, she had endured bone-crushing training from childhood until now.
Yet after suffering severe injuries while being chased by pursuers, she was forgetting reality and leisurely chatting because of trivial emotions?
"I have to go."
Manwol hurriedly stood up and looked at the boy.
‘Thank you. I won’t forget this grace.’
In the end, her fate was already decided.
Though her life would be filled with pain, she had the purpose of saving the world, so she had no regrets.
‘Today’s events will remain in my memory for the rest of my life.’
It was simply a sweet dream granted by the gods for a brief moment of kindness.
"Wait."
As she hurriedly tried to run toward the door of the coffin room,
"Wait a moment."
The boy urgently called out to Manwol.
"You dropped this."
In his hand was a white jade bead.
It was the Clear Heart Jade Bead she had worn like a rosary on her wrist, which had fallen off while she was struggling inside the iron coffin.
"Thank you."
Manwol quickly turned around.
The Clear Heart Jade Bead was something her master had kept his entire life and left to her upon his death.
"I tied it tightly so I wouldn’t lose it. I don’t know why it fell off."
With an embarrassed expression, Manwol reached for the bead the boy was holding beside the dark iron coffin.
The moment her fingertips touched the bead—
Flash!
Brilliant light burst out in all directions, and a mysterious sphere formed in front of Manwol.
‘The power of the Star God?’
The moment her hand touched the bead the boy was holding, the power of the Star God, which had not manifested until now, surged forth with unprecedented intensity.
Swish, swish.
Countless scenes flashed before her eyes like a panorama.
The Star God’s power, unleashed at its peak, clearly showed even the distant future.
‘This person...’
It was clearly said that her fate was connected to the successor of the Baekri family who would save the world, and that she must risk her life to make the prophecy for him.
But it was this boy in front of her—the young mortician—who was connected to her fate.
Tears streamed down Manwol’s face.
Because she had seen the pain, sorrow, and endless journey this boy would have to endure.
"Why are you crying?"
When the boy opened his large eyes wide,
Manwol instinctively pulled him into her arms.
‘From now on, I must protect him.’
"What is this—"
As the boy stepped back in surprise,
"Just a moment."
Manwol hugged him tighter, tears flowing.
"My wound hurts, so... please stay like this for a bit."
The boy was flustered, but since she was crying, he had no choice but to stand still.
"Now that I think about it, Grandfather made some medicinal herbs for pain relief..."
After a while with no movement from her, the boy scratched his cheek and continued.
"I don’t know how effective it will be, but it should help a little."
"No, I'm fine now."
Manwol wiped her tears, stepped back, and smiled faintly.
"I'm sorry."
She bowed politely.
"For causing so much trouble in many ways..."
"If that's how you feel..."
The boy cleared his throat.
"It may sound cold, but please do not come here again. My grandfather does not want to get involved in the grudges of the martial world."
"I understand."
Manwol reached out toward the boy.
"Instead, I..."
Her spilled blood turned into a transparent current and began to fill the space.
Thousand-Li Blood Soul Imprinting Art, Heaven-Inscribing Seal.
Using a single drop of blood as a medium, it was a divine technique that imprinted one’s existence onto the opponent’s mind no matter how far apart they were.
She had activated the Crimson Blood Heart.
From now on, the two of them would be able to sense each other’s presence even from dozens of li away.
"No matter where you are, I will protect you."
She smiled brightly.
Her smile was radiant and beautiful enough to light up the dark room.
Whether because of that smile or the effect of the technique, the boy stood there with a dazed expression.
"Bu Eunseol."
Manwol spoke the boy’s name, which she had seen in her future vision, and smiled brightly.
Then she vanished in an instant.
"My name..."
Bu Eunseol, who had come back to his senses, opened his mouth at the sight of the now-vanished Manwol.
"How?"
They had clearly never introduced themselves.
Yet she had looked at his face before leaving and spoken his name correctly.
"Was she a fox spirit or something?"
Recalling Manwol’s beautiful face that had cried yet smiled brightly, Bu Eunseol scratched his reddened cheek.
‘She was so pretty.’
Muttering to himself, he picked up the medicine box on the table.
"I wasted medicine because I was charmed by a fox."
Bu Eunseol organized the medicine box again and cleaned up the messy embalming table and bandages.
Manwol, who had not yet left using her movement technique, listened to his muttering from the roof, her cheeks slightly flushed.
***
Bu Eunseol carried Manwol in his arms and arrived at the Martial Soul Society in one go.
He then used stealth techniques to head toward the Absolute Domain.
If Do Cheonlin and the others saw this scene, they would surely point fingers and tease him endlessly.
—Hey, he brought another woman again?
Rumble.
He finally arrived at the Absolute Domain created deep within the Martial Soul Society.
"This is the place."
Bu Eunseol said somewhat awkwardly.
"I did my best, but I'm not sure if it's safe."
"It's enough. Thank you."
Manwol smiled brightly, but her skin was severely cracked, with faint light leaking from within.
If left like this, she seemed as though she would turn into light and disappear at any moment.
"Is there really no other way?"
Bu Eunseol asked with a pained expression.
"Even if it's a state of suspended animation, staying here for three years..."
"This is the only way."
Manwol spoke firmly.
"Because unless it is a power that transcends death, this power cannot be absorbed."
Although he had brought her here, Bu Eunseol wanted to prevent her from falling into suspended animation somehow.
Three years.
For someone young, that time was precious and could never be regained.
However, seeing Manwol’s resolute eyes, Bu Eunseol could only nod in the end.
"Can you really recover?"
At Bu Eunseol’s worried question, Manwol smiled and nodded.
"Of course."
Lying inside the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade Coffin, she slowly reached out and gently touched below Bu Eunseol’s chin.
"Did it not hurt?"
"What do you mean?"
"This scar."
There was a very small scar under Bu Eunseol’s chin.
The scar had faded and was located right under the chin, so unless one looked closely, it was impossible to notice.
Bu Eunseol looked surprised for a moment.
He hadn’t even known he had such a small scar on his chin.
"I didn’t know."
He looked somewhat embarrassed.
"That there was a scar."
"I see."
"Have you known me from before?"
Bu Eunseol made a strange expression.
Only now did he realize that Manwol’s eyes and expression felt somehow familiar.
‘Is there another lost memory that I’m not aware of?’
The memories he had lost were clearly only from his early childhood before the Saha Manor incident. Yet why did such faint and longing emotions seem to flow from her eyes?
"No, that can’t be."
Manwol shook her head.
"I must have been mistaken."
She made a tired expression.
"Please close the coffin now."
"Understood."
"Then let’s meet again in three years."
Bu Eunseol closed the door of the ice jade coffin and pressed the protruding bead on the side.
A pure white current spread out, and her body began to slowly freeze.
Until Manwol woke up and opened the ice jade coffin herself, this place would remain forever sealed.
"Bu Eunseol."
Manwol gazed intently at Bu Eunseol beyond the ice jade coffin. A faint smile spread across her lips.
Three years later.
Her awakening would feel like a fleeting moment.
Because soon, in order to save Bu Eunseol, she would have to give everything she had.
And even that sacrifice... was the greatest joy to her.
"Goodbye…"
Manwol whispered softly while looking at Bu Eunseol’s face growing faint beyond the ice jade coffin.
"My love."
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