Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 1145

The next day.

“……?”

Muk Bi, who was staring at the ceiling with hazy eyes, suddenly widened them.

“Kuh!”

She jumped up, but every part of her body ached. She lost her strength and fell back down.

“Where is this……?”

“You’re awake.”

“Huk!”

Startled, Muk Bi sat up again and looked to her side.

Thanks to that, her whole body felt like it was tearing apart, but the wariness in her face didn’t disappear. She had fought with a burning killing intent until just before she collapsed.

However, upon confirming the owner of the voice, Muk Bi fell back down again.

“Young Master Yeon.”

“Yes.”

He hadn’t even changed out of his blood-stained battle robe. He had only roughly wiped the blood off his face.

If Yeon Ho-jeong was nursing her in such a state, the result was easy to guess.

Still, Muk Bi asked,

“What about the battle?”

“We won, I guess.”

He spoke so calmly that it felt unreal.

Muk Bi sighed.

“That’s a relief.”

“By the way, I heard about it. You were quite the wild one, weren’t you? The Northern Army is in an uproar, calling you a goddess sent from the heavens or something.”

Muk Bi gave a bitter smile. She was weak, but she felt good.

“It wasn’t enough.”

“What wasn’t enough? From what I heard, you were like a one-woman army, showing off invincible divine power.”

“Still, it wasn’t enough. If the battle had ended in defeat, the people who fought alongside me would have all died.”

“You’ve been through enough, haven’t you? It’s not just you who’s fighting. Rather, they probably went into this war with even more steadfast and loyal hearts than you. Feeling responsible for their deaths could be an insult to them.”

“…….”

“You did enough. No, you achieved more than your share. Be proud.”

Muk Bi closed her eyes.

It had been a long time since she and Yeon Ho-jeong had a conversation like this. She wanted to talk about many things, but she felt bad about the fact that she had lost her strength and fainted.

If only she had a little more strength.

If she had the strength to shoot even one more arrow, some of the many people who died after that could have lived.

That pained her heart.

And Yeon Ho-jeong could see right through Muk Bi’s heart.

“Do you feel like it’s all your fault?”

“…….”

“Well, even if everyone says it’s not, you’re the one feeling guilty, so there’s nothing I can do. That’s also your heart, isn’t it?”

“…….”

“But know this for sure. I heard that your father left the front lines with the enemy commander at that time. If you hadn’t appeared and crushed the enemy with your magnificent archery, raising the morale of our troops, even more people would have died.”

“I know.”

“Okay.”

“I know. I know that I can’t change the past, and that I did my best.”

“Then that’s enough.”

“Still, it’s not enough.”

Muk Bi opened her eyes again.

Her tearful eyes were burning with confusion, self-reproach, and intense determination.

“It’s not enough. It’s still not enough.”

“…….”

“I need to become stronger. At least twice as strong as I am now.”

Muk Bi turned her head towards Yeon Ho-jeong.

The pillow was soaked with her fallen tears.

“I want to become stronger than Young Master Yeon.”

“That’ll be tough.”

“…….”

“At least for now.”

Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.

“You are strong. I’ve died once and come back to life, and I’ve also gained many fortuitous encounters to get to this point, but you didn’t have any of that. Abundant inner energy? Inner energy doesn’t raise the level of martial arts that quickly.”

“…….”

“Don’t be impatient. You’re already excessively strong. To capture you alone, you’d need at least two sect leaders from the Nine Great Sects, don’t you know how amazing that is?”

“…….”

“Even the leaders of the Nine Great Sects, who possess the pinnacle of orthodox martial arts, can’t beat you in a short battle. And they’ve trained for decades, while you’re only around thirty. Your talent is genius-level.”

“It still doesn’t comfort me.”

“I’m not saying it to comfort you. I’m telling you to look at reality.”

“…….”

“If you want to become stronger, don’t be impatient. There are countless ways to reach the Supreme [the highest level of martial arts], but no one who has reached it has soared by using impatience as a stepping stone.”

Yeon Ho-jeong took Muk Bi’s hand.

“You’ve worked hard.”

“…….”

“Everyone in the Imperial Palace is grateful to you. It means your role was that decisive.”

Muk Bi’s hand tightened.

Yeon Ho-jeong continued cheerfully.

“Even the people who were our enemies were busy murmuring about who that ghostly archer was.”

Muk Bi, who had been smiling bitterly, suddenly realized that there was something strange in Yeon Ho-jeong’s words.

“Were enemies?”

“Well, let’s talk about that later.”

Yeon Ho-jeong leaned back in his chair.

“Originally, I was going to leave right after the battle to clear the path, but His Majesty said he really wanted to see me, so I guess I’ll have to stay for a few days.”

“His Majesty?”

“Yeah. He said he really wanted to hear how the next battle will proceed.”

Yeon Ho-jeong smacked his lips.

“That guy is really funny. Well, I guess he has to receive reports as the ruler of a country, but why would he drag someone who’s willing to work?”

Muk Bi chuckled.

“You’re probably the only one in the world who can talk about the Emperor like that, Young Master Yeon.”

“Isn’t it an old saying that you’re innocent if you curse the king in a place where he can’t hear you?”

“This is the Imperial Palace.”

“Luckily, I’m strong enough to sense the presence of people dozens of feet away. I won’t be arrested for treason.”

Muk Bi thought that this was Yeon Ho-jeong’s strength.

At least to his people, Yeon Ho-jeong had a knack for making them feel at ease, even if his methods were a bit rough.

He would say things that could be problematic without hesitation, making their worries seem trivial. Muk Bi felt much more at ease.

“Aigo, I’m tired too. It was such a tough fight. I heard there’s a victory celebration banquet tomorrow night, but I think I’ll just show my face and slip away.”

Muk Bi tilted her head.

“A celebration banquet? Already? The war has just begun…….”

“We won the first battle, which is the beginning of the war. Besides, this is the Imperial Palace. Just protecting His Majesty’s territory is enough reason to celebrate. The situation is what it is, so it’ll have to end with one night of drinking, but it’s important to soothe the minds and bodies of the exhausted soldiers.”

“I guess that’s true.”

“I’m going to go wash up now. Get some rest.”

“I’ll attend the drinking party tomorrow too.”

“If you drink with an injured body, your insides will be a mess. I know from experience.”

“I still have to go.”

“Whatever.”

Yeon Ho-jeong opened the door and left.

Outside the door, she could hear the doctor grumbling. He was saying things like, how could he go into a patient’s room without washing up. Yeon Ho-jeong responded by saying that he was so strong that he wouldn’t die even if he was killed.

Muk Bi closed her eyes comfortably.

As her mind calmed down, she felt sleepy again.

‘We won.’

Yes, that’s enough.

* * *

After managing the wounded until the morning after the battle, he hadn’t even had a meal or a nap.

After washing off the blood and lying down in a hot tub, even the mighty Yeon Ho-jeong felt a terrifying fatigue.

‘It’s hitting me all at once.’

Looking at the battle process and his physical condition, he shouldn’t be this tired. His internal injuries were also recovering quickly thanks to the Yellow Dragon Divine King Art [a powerful martial arts technique].

The problem was mental fatigue.

He had been agonizing for dozens of days, covering Gansu, Shaanxi, and the Imperial Palace. No wonder he had slept for more than five days.

‘I thought that had mostly resolved it, but I guess not.’

Yeon Ho-jeong closed his eyes.

He wanted to rest without thinking, but it wasn’t easy.

‘This victory has brought many gains. The first battle is the first battle, but it’s significant that we were able to learn more accurately about the enemy’s condition.’

But on the other hand, many people died. And many more will die in the future.

He had to accept that level of damage, but his heart felt heavy when it became a reality.

He could get used to battles, but he could never get used to the reality of people he had never met dying, no matter how many times it was repeated.

‘I have to think about the next step. And the next, and the next.’

What will be their next target?

‘Next is…….’

He thought and thought, but no answer came to mind.

Especially with the Evil Sound Cult, he had clashed with them several times in the past, but he couldn’t come up with a clear answer. That was because the current Evil Sound Cult was different from the Evil Sound Cult of the past.

Decisively, his head was dull.

When he thought about other things, his head, which usually worked well, suddenly became heavy when he thought about war or tactics.

That meant he was carrying a huge burden. Yeon Ho-jeong tried to shake off his thoughts about war and tactics.

Then, one thought naturally came to mind.

“The Four Divine Martial Arts…….”

He had a vivid dream while sleeping like the dead for five days.

In that dream, he had a brief fight with the Evil Sound Cult leader. In that short fight, he was able to rediscover all the forms and insights of the Four Divine Martial Arts that he had forgotten.

Even the Gale Dragon Slaying Strike had changed.

‘The Gale Dragon Slaying Strike, when wielded on horseback, may not be more dynamic, but by adding the forms of the Four Divine Martial Arts, it enables even more delicate and unconventional offense and defense.’

If he was facing a life-or-death battle where he had to risk everything, he would naturally have to dismount from his horse.

However, in a situation like the current war, it might be better to focus on horseback martial arts, which consume less inner energy, to drive back the enemy.

‘Gale Dragon Slaying Strike, huh…….’

Yeon Ho-jeong let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

“Now that I think about it, it’s really childish. Why did I give it such a name?”

The answer was simple.

His enlightenment had wanted it. Yeon Ho-jeong’s martial arts were much more strongly influenced by his will than other martial artists, so there was a difference in destructive power just by burning his will in comparison to the name of the technique.

It was just that his enlightenment at that time was like that, and it wasn’t a name he had tried to make fancy for no reason.

‘You shouldn’t be sure of things.’

There was another embarrassing thing.

When he created the Gale Dragon Slaying Strike, he was sure that it would only work properly if it was used with an axe. He had actually created it that way.

But it wasn’t.

The more he continued to fight, the more he repeated actual combat, the more the limits kept collapsing and showing him a new world beyond them.

‘Martial arts change with the martial artist’s enlightenment. The heart at that time is different from the heart now, and the situation at that time is different from the situation now.’

Rather than thinking about why he did it then, it was important to acknowledge the changed reality and move forward based on that change.

‘Gale Dragon Slaying Strike, my foot. Even a five-year-old would laugh.’

He dipped his face in the hot water and then pulled it out, speaking in a languid voice.

“Let’s call it the Mad Dragon Art. It only shows its true power when you’re half-mad anyway. That’s enough. While I’m at it, should I write a manual?”

Just thinking about things that were important if they were important, and trivial if they were trivial, seemed to slowly relieve his fatigue.

After organizing his thoughts about martial arts for a while, Yeon Ho-jeong slowly fell asleep. His tension had been released.

However, unfortunately, he was not destined to rest comfortably.

“Ho-jeong, are you there?”

Startled, Yeon Ho-jeong got out of the tub.

“Yes, Father. I’m here.”

“Are you done with your bath?”

“Yes, I’m almost done.”

“Then get dressed and come out right away. His Majesty is looking for you and your father.”

“……Yes.”

Yeon Ho-jeong grumbled inwardly.

‘If he had to fight, he’d know how tiring it is and wouldn’t call me.’