A boat carrying passengers was crossing the river.
The Fist Demon and I stood on the windy deck, looking out at the river.
We were getting farther and farther from the Main Sect.
Some people get anxious when someone deviates.
What if they get into an accident? Or what if this incident changes their life for the worse? What if it's because of me?
But the Fist Demon’s deviation was not worrying at all.
Was it because of the sincerity I had seen in his life? Or was it because I felt that very sincerity was suppressing the man’s true nature?
It was then.
Trrrrr.
A ball made of yarn rolled to the Fist Demon’s feet.
A little child came running, then stopped short.
He looked frightened by the Fist Demon’s large figure.
The Fist Demon picked up the ball and gave it to me.
“You should give it to him yourself.”
“Do you want to make the child cry?”
“He won’t cry.”
Even when the Fist Demon held out the ball, the child hesitated, not daring to approach.
The Fist Demon rolled the ball to him.
Child, today is the day you received a ball from the Fist Demon.
The child, holding the ball, bowed his head and ran toward his parents.
Watching him, the Fist Demon suddenly asked.
“Did you say we are going somewhere I would enjoy?”
“Yes.”
“How would you know what I enjoy?”
“Shall we make a bet?”
“What kind of bet?”
“If you go and have fun, I win. If you don’t have fun, I lose.”
“What if I don’t enjoy it but say I did?”
“You wouldn’t do that, would you?”
“If it’s a bet, shouldn’t we wager something?”
“We should wager our pride.”
It was the same when we jumped from the waterfall.
The Fist Demon looked at me with a peculiar expression.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Don’t you want to bet the Third Fist Form?”
“I do.”
“Then why don’t you suggest it?”
“The First Fist Form and the Second Fist Form… I obtained them too easily thanks to your generosity, Fist Demon. I have a conscience, I can’t do that again.”
It was partly sincere, and partly a way to earn points with him.
“Well then, on a man’s pride!”
I held out my fist to him.
“What’s this? A challenge to fight?”
“When martial artists make a promise, they clash their weapons, don’t they? We fist masters should clash our fists.”
“I won’t clash fists with a baby’s hand.”
I looked at the Fist Demon’s hand, then down at my own fist.
“Frustratingly, I can’t deny that.”
The Fist Demon turned his body toward the river.
In the distance, the sun began to set over the water.
“Good.”
It was the first time he had ever said he liked a view while looking at the scenery.
The Fist Demon was looking at the river, and I was leaning on the railing with my back to the sunset, watching him.
“I heard you traveled a lot when you were young.”
“I wasn’t attached to the Sect.”
“You went out with your father a lot too, right?”
“Did the Cult Master tell you that?”
I answered softly with a “yes,” but in truth, I hadn’t heard it from my father.
It was something I learned while investigating the Demon Sovereigns before my regression.
The place we were going to now was also a place I learned of that way.
“Do you still see your father often these days?”
“I barely see him. It had been a long time since we last met, even at the Tavern then.”
“Is something wrong?”
“Wrong? Can human relationships always be passionate?”
“That is true.”
I also turned my body.
The sunset that had colored the Fist Demon now moved onto my face.
Could this moment of slacking off truly be remembered as a warm moment between him and me?
*
Two days later, Geom Mugeuk and the Fist Demon were entering a marketplace bustling with countless people.
If the place where the Beast Gang was last time was Martial Alliance territory, this place was Unorthodox Alliance territory.
As they walked, the Fist Demon’s expression changed strangely.
It hardened at times, and at others, it showed a surge of emotion.
The two arrived at a rundown warehouse on the outskirts.
Geom Mugeuk handed some money to the person guarding the entrance.
After receiving the money, the man guided the two inside.
Amidst the piles of luggage, there was a passage leading down to a basement.
After descending the stairs for a while, there was a large iron door.
The moment they opened it and entered, a blast of hot air and a roar of cheers hit them.
In the center was a large training grounds, and two shirtless men were trading bare-fisted blows.
“This is an underground fighting ring.”
There are many types of underground fighting rings in the Central Plains.
Some allow the use of inner energy, while others allow weapons.
And then there were pure fighting rings like the one we came to today, where fighters fought only with their fists, without inner energy or weapons.
“You can pay the entrance fee and just watch the matches, or you can bet on who will win. Most people who come here are mainly for betting.”
“How did you know about this place?”
“I have a great interest in all sorts of things in the martial world. Since this is a place where they fight purely with fists, I thought you would like it, Fist Demon, so I brought you here.”
There was a certain tremor in the Fist Demon’s eyes.
“What’s wrong? Do you not like it?”
Then, a surprising statement came from the Fist Demon’s lips.
“In my youth, I was also a fighter here.”
“What?”
Geom Mugeuk was startled.
No, he pretended to be startled.
In fact, he already knew that he was from this place.
“Here, you mean?”
“Yes. I was right here.”
The Fist Demon’s life was not a smooth one either.
“Then how did you come to be associated with the Main Sect?”
“I was scouted by someone from the Main Sect who saw me here.”
That was something even Geom Mugeuk didn't know.
It must have been before he started learning martial arts in earnest, but the aptitude of someone destined to become the Fist Demon would not have been hidden.
“Were you undefeated here as well?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, the Fist Demon asked back.
“Am I not still undefeated now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I wouldn’t win if I fought the Cult Master, and the same goes for the Martial Alliance Leader and the Unorthodox Alliance Leader, right? Without even needing to bring up the countless hidden masters as numerous as the grains of sand in the world, I can't even be confident that I could beat you right now, can I?”
“But my hand is just a baby’s hand, isn't it?”
“The Black Demon Sword held by that baby’s hand is frightening.”
Geom Mugeuk suddenly thought that the Fist Demon might dislike the title of ‘The Undefeated’.
“Who knows. If it were a real life-or-death fight, what the outcome would be. Couldn't you perhaps even defeat my father, Fist Demon?”
The Fist Demon’s gaze turned back to the fighting ring.
Watching a martial artist getting beaten to a pulp, he said.
“If I fought the Cult Master, I would end up like that. Even if the Cult Master didn’t draw his sword.”
Geom Mugeuk nodded.
“Indeed. He’s the type to beat his own son like that.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, the Fist Demon nodded with a serious face.
In truth, Geom Mugeuk didn't know what kind of memories the Fist Demon had of this place.
Perhaps he loathed it, and it might have been a place he never wanted to come to again.
But he had brought him here nonetheless because he was now the Fist Demon.
He had risen from the bottom of the fist to its very pinnacle.
Wouldn’t he have wanted to come here at least once? Wouldn’t he have wanted to feel that burning heat one more time?
Geom Mugeuk and the Fist Demon stood among the crowd and watched the match.
The heat of this place was so intense that even with the fearsome-looking Fist Demon nearby, no one paid him any mind.
Geom Mugeuk could tell.
They weren't lost in the fight; they were lost in gambling.
They were shouting, hoping only for a certain outcome of the fight.
After watching the fight for a moment, the Fist Demon casually blurted out.
“The one on the left will win.”
Whose judgment could be wrong?
The result was a victory for the martial artist on the left.
The matches continued without a break.
As soon as one match ended, three or four men came out and quickly wiped away the sweat and blood on the stage.
Meanwhile, other men brought out a large board with the records and recent performance of the fighters for the next match, showing it to the people.
People would look at it and place their bets.
This entire process happened in an instant.
As if time was money, as if not to let the heat of the onlookers cool down, the matches continued without a rest.
The Fist Demon correctly predicted the next match as well.
He was truly a prophet.
“We could leave this place as rich men, you know?”
Despite his words, Geom Mugeuk didn’t bet a single coin.
“Why don’t you place a bet for fun?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“Honestly, I’m regretting it. I brought you here to feel the heat of the fight, but it seems the heat of gambling is even hotter.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s candid words, the Fist Demon gave a bitter smile.
“It was like that back then too. This place… is always like this.”
Just then, the Fist Demon’s gaze fixed on a young man.
“That young man, his eyes are good.”
Geom Mugeuk could feel it.
The Fist Demon was projecting his own younger self onto that young man.
“Alright. I will bet my entire fortune on that young man.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s joke, the Fist Demon urged him.
“Go on, bet. He will surely win.”
“It’s fine.”
However, the young man whom the Fist Demon said would win lost the match.
At that result, the Fist Demon’s expression hardened slightly.
“If I had bet as you said, I would have lost my entire fortune. We would have almost been homeless tonight!”
Could the Fist Demon have misjudged their skills? A match had been fixed.
“Should I ask to see the owner of this place?”
It would have been reasonable for the Fist Demon to meet the owner and give him a stern word.
“The fixing probably has nothing to do with the fighting ring. In fact, the ring owners would be trying to catch any fixing. They make a huge amount of money even if they just leave it alone, so they wouldn't want to cause problems by fixing matches.”
It meant that the fixing was attempted from the outside.
“Memories should just be buried as memories. I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to be sorry for?”
“I brought you here to enjoy the fight, but I’m worried that you might have just gotten into a bad mood.”
“It’s fine.”
“Times have changed a lot. It seems the pure fights like back then are gone.”
Then, the Fist Demon gave a strange smile and said to me.
“Why do you think there was no fixing back then?”
“Was there?”
“Of course, there was. And it changed my life.”
The Fist Demon’s gaze turned towards the young man leaving the stage, naturally recalling the past.
“It was a day when I was on a winning streak. The leader of the local dark faction came to me in the middle of the night with his subordinates. He told me to lose the next match. Since I was on a winning streak, he could have made a huge amount of money if I lost. He offered me money too. It was quite a large sum.”
“What did you do?”
“I refused.”
“They wouldn’t have just let it go, would they.”
The Fist Demon nodded and closed his eyes.
That moment from the past came back to him as vividly as if it were yesterday.
The moment he fought, throwing punches at the dark faction thugs while dodging here and there.
He had knocked down all the subordinates who came with him, but he couldn’t handle their leader.
The man had formally learned martial arts, and he himself had not yet begun to learn.
In the end, he was completely subdued by the man.
“If you don’t listen to me, you’ll die.”
“You pathetic dark faction bastard! If you’re a man, let’s fight in the ring without using inner energy!”
“Words won’t work, it seems.”
The leader untied the Fist Demon’s clothes.
Sssshhhk!
The man drew a long line across the Fist Demon’s chest with a dagger.
The Fist Demon gritted his teeth to keep from screaming.
“You have to lose anyway, so it should be okay if it hurts a little, right?”
In the end, the Fist Demon couldn’t endure the pain and let out a scream.
“I understand. I’ll lose the next match.”
“If you had said that from the start, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt. Whenever you have stupid thoughts, look at this scar.”
The man left, laughing.
After hearing the whole story, Geom Mugeuk asked.
“So what happened?”
“What do you think happened? I won the next match spectacularly. I made that bastard lose his entire fortune.”
Geom Mugeuk laughed out loud.
Yes, this kind of person was the Fist Demon.
“That’s cool!”
“It wasn’t cool, it was a time when I was reckless and fearless. I was much more fearless then than I am now, even though I’m a thousand times stronger.”
The Fist Demon undid the front of his chest and showed me again.
“The scar on my body was gained like that. It’s not a scar from some great master, but a shabby and humiliating scar left by a mere dark faction thug whose name I don’t even remember now. It’s a scar I didn’t even get when I fought a Martial Alliance Elder.”
I thought that the Fist Demon had probably never told anyone about this scar.
It was a wound on his heart, not his body.
“Isn’t it a more praiseworthy scar?”
“Praiseworthy?”
“You must have been much more scared than when you fought the Martial Alliance Elder, but you endured it, didn’t you?”
“You may want to wrap it up nicely, but to me, it’s just a shame I want to erase.”
“Don’t say that. I actually like that scar even more now. From now on, whenever I see that scar, I’ll be reminded of the young Fist Demon who stood tall and proud without an ounce of inner energy. I think it’s a much cooler scar than a blow from the Martial Alliance Leader or a wound from the Unorthodox Alliance Leader.”
The Fist Demon had never thought of it that way, nor had he ever heard anyone say that, so he was momentarily dazed.
Every time he saw the scar, he felt bad, but he thought that perhaps from today, that unpleasantness might lessen a little.
Geom Mugeuk knew.
What is absolutely necessary to heal a wound of the heart is the words someone says to you.
That a wound begins to heal not from thinking about it a hundred or a thousand times alone, but when someone says something like this just once.
“Show me that scar often.”
The Fist Demon felt a warmth rising from deep within his heart, and not knowing what to say, he just stared at Geom Mugeuk in silence.
Whether he knew his heart or not, Geom Mugeuk asked again.
“Please tell me the rest of the story. Then that dark faction bastard must have come to kill you, Fist Demon.”
The Fist Demon nodded, recalling the day his fate had changed.
“That night, he came for me, bringing all the men under his command.”