At dawn, carriages departed from the main division of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect.
They were carriages loaded with supplies sent from the main division to each branch.
Among them was the carriage carrying my father and me.
The one driving the carriage was Hwi, dressed in the ordinary clothes of a coachman.
As we moved away from the main division, I asked my father.
“Father, your first trip with your son. How do you feel?”
At my excited question, my father, who had been silently gazing out the window, asked back.
“This is not a trip, is it?”
To say that, you’ve packed far too much, Father.
His large leather pouch was loaded in the luggage space at the back.
“Of course, we are on our way to carry out an important mission. Still, since it’s been a while since you’ve left the sect, it would be good if you could relieve your heart of all its burdens before we return. Please leave all your worries behind at the main division.”
At that, my father, who was looking out the window, spoke to Hwi.
“Stop the carriage.”
The carriage immediately came to a halt.
“What is it?”
“Get out.”
“Me? Why me?”
“Didn’t you tell me to leave my worries behind?”
I laughed out loud.
Just seeing him joke like this meant that my father was in a very good mood right now.
“Isn’t it true that one must have worries to grow? Now, let’s go. Depart!”
When my father said, “Let’s go,” again, the carriage started moving.
I stuck my head out the window and said to Hwi.
“I’ll be in your care, Uncle Hwi!”
Hwi did not drive the carriage hastily.
Perhaps Sama Myeong had asked him.
Hoping that this departure would be a journey, not a mission.
I leaned out the window, feeling the wind blow against me.
“The weather is truly wonderful!”
My father did not answer, but I could feel it.
That he was excited too.
“Isn’t it so nice just to be a little bit away from the sect, Father? So, even if it’s not this trip, let’s come out often in the future. Ah, if we go over that hill, there’s a magnificent lake. Have you been there? In the winter, the lake freezes solid, and breaking the ice to fish is an amazing experience.”
My father already had a look on his face as if his ears were hurting, but this was something that would continue.
To have a pleasant journey with my father, I had to be the one doing most of the talking.
“Oh, and if we cross the mountain on the opposite side, there’s a tent that serves the most amazing noodles. Would you like to go?”
Then, an unexpected answer came from my father.
“They used to be good at making dumplings.”
I pulled my head back inside the carriage.
“You’ve been there?”
“A long time ago.”
Right, my father also had a time when he roamed the martial world like me.
Was it when he used to fight alongside the Fist Demon? Or was it when he was close with the Blood Heaven Blade Demon or the Plum Blossom Sword Sovereign?
“Shall we stop by on our way back?”
My father nodded, as if he too wanted to visit again.
“People’s tastes are a scary thing, aren’t they? They know what’s delicious so well that even if someone does business in such a remote place, word gets around as if by a ghost, and people seek it out.”
“Let us travel in quiet.”
“Yes!”
Father, you don’t know, do you? I lived just as taciturnly as you.
No, perhaps I was even more silent.
All those words I couldn’t say, I am now saying them to my heart’s content in front of you.
After a long ride, the carriage came to a stop.
While Hwi unharnessed the horses to let them rest, my father and I took a walk nearby.
“The Blade Demon Elder came to see me before we left.”
“What did he say?”
“He told me not to mess with you, Father.”
A faint smile appeared on my father’s lips.
“The Blade Demon cherishes you a lot.”
Yes, how could my father not know? That in the meeting to persuade him, the Blade Demon taking on the role of scolding me was ultimately for my sake.
“He likes you a lot, Father. The Blade Demon Elder.”
It wasn’t just something nice to say.
The Blade Demon’s feelings for my father were indeed very deep.
“Do not mess with the Blade Demon.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon tells me not to mess with my father, and my father tells me not to mess with the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
How could there not be something special between the two of them?
I wanted to joke and ask, ‘Then who am I supposed to mess with?’, but I couldn’t mess around after being told not to.
“I understand. I will always be careful.”
Just the fact that I was walking together with my father, having this kind of conversation, made me feel good.
Everything that happens from now on will be a first for both my father and me.
As long as the words ‘together with Father, away from the sect’ come first, whatever we do will be a first.
Just then, my father abruptly asked.
“Do you feel it?”
“Wolves, right?”
When I answered correctly at once, my father looked at me with a surprised expression.
First, I had answered without him even saying where the presence was coming from.
He was surprised that I had already sensed the presence from more than twenty paces away.
“In unfamiliar places, I now naturally emit my energy to survey my surroundings.”
Around my body, numerous strands of energy were extending out like a spider’s web.
“It’s all thanks to you teaching me, Father.”
My skill was on a different level compared to when I learned to emit thin, long strands of energy while hunting with my father in the past.
“So you weren’t just playing around.”
“They say that martial arts training and love are best done in secret.”
As much as his expression was one of disbelief, my father’s smile also deepened.
After walking around for a while, we returned to where the carriage was.
Just then, from a distance next to the carriage, Hwi waved his hand and shouted.
“The meal is ready.”
Hwi had already started a campfire and finished preparing the meal.
“Doesn’t it seem like Uncle Hwi is excited too?”
My father did not say no.
Even in his eyes, he must have sensed an excitement different from usual.
I hope my father sees many new sceneries.
Because Hwi’s figure, waving his hand towards us right now, must be a new sight for him as well.
The meal Hwi prepared was something we had brought from the start.
“From now on, the meals will be meager.”
“It’s fine.”
I chimed in.
“Don’t worry, uncle. We have Father, don’t we? I can’t forget the taste of the food my father cooked for me.”
The second time I went hunting with my father, he cooked himself.
That dish, stir-fried meat with vegetables and mushrooms, was surprisingly delicious.
He proved he cooked regularly by also making a soup alongside it.
Come to think of it, there are many sides to my father that I don’t know.
Like the floral pajamas, the sight of him packing his own luggage for the trip yesterday, and his cooking.
I hope to see another new side of my father on this trip.
“I’ve also prepared something.”
I took out some hides from the leather pouch loaded on the carriage.
First, a tiger hide for my father.
“Here, please sit here.”
My father sat on it.
I had prepared more.
I handed one to Hwi.
“This one is for you, Uncle Hwi.”
Hwi looked slightly surprised that I had prepared one for him as well.
“I am fine.”
“I have one for myself too, so please sit down. Ours are wolf hides.”
Hwi’s and mine were identical hides.
As Hwi continued to refuse, my father looked at him and nodded.
Hwi then stopped refusing and sat on the hide I had provided.
“Thank you, Young Cult Master.”
“Not at all.”
I have learned something profound through my past life.
That a person’s place is truly important.
My father’s Grand Advisor's seat.
The second-floor seats at the Flowing Wine Tavern.
And the hide seat Hwi is sitting on now.
Everyone lives to sit in their own place.
We are beings who even start wars to occupy a place.
‘What’s so important about a seat, isn’t the heart what matters?’ If someone says this, it’s because they have never properly felt the embarrassment and awkwardness of not having a seat when they go somewhere.
That’s why someone who has never experienced how a small chair offered by another can make a person feel relieved and thankful will never know.
I have never seen Hwi’s place.
He was always hidden.
That’s why that wolf hide is even more important.
Just as the three of us were about to eat, sitting side by side, a sudden downpour began.
Swaaaaaaaah.
“Father, first, go to the carriage and get out of the rain…”
I was about to say he should take cover, but I stopped.
“Isn’t this too inhuman a sight?”
“What do you mean?”
“When a person gets hit by rain, they should get wet.”
An invisible barrier of energy was spread around my father’s body, deflecting the raindrops.
“No, and if you have such a skill, you should protect us from the rain too.”
Of course, my father was not the type to expand that energy just because I said so.
Just then, my father extended his hand.
The opening of his leather pouch inside the carriage untied, and something came out of it.
The object that flew out of the carriage spread out above our heads.
It was a weather-proof cloth used to shield from wind and rain.
The ropes attached to the cloth tied themselves to the carriage and a tree, securing it in place.
It wasn’t moved by controlling objects from a distance; the movements were as fast and precise as if a skilled person had tied it by hand.
To think my father had prepared even this!
“Watching the rain is the best part of camping! It sets the perfect mood.”
As I said this cheerfully, my father revived the dying campfire with his Extreme Yang Energy.
Fwoosh.
“You are amazing, Father!”
My father had an expression that said, ‘This much is nothing.’
He would probably unfold it anytime it rained during our trip, but this moment was truly perfect.
It made the first day, the first meal of our journey, unforgettable.
After finishing our meal, Hwi brought the tea he had prepared.
We watched the rain while drinking tea.
My father sat in the middle, with Hwi and me on either side.
“Uncle, isn’t it difficult serving my father?”
He could have been flustered by such a question in front of my father.
“It is difficult.”
At his honest answer, my father and I simultaneously looked at Hwi.
Hwi smiled and replied.
“I felt I should answer you this way, Young Cult Master.”
He had been listening to all of my conversations with my father until now.
He would have heard everything Sama Myeong reported about me as well.
He is someone who knows me as well as my father does.
“You’ve caught me off guard perfectly. If you had answered that it wasn’t difficult, I could have turned the arrow towards Father.”
This time, my father looked at me.
“If you had answered that it wasn't difficult at all because my father is taciturn, I was going to say this to him. That there must be difficult parts because he is so taciturn. That it would be easier if he just said everything like me, but since he is so quiet, you have to try and understand his meaning. That for a subordinate, that is not an easy task.”
I said it to my father on Hwi’s behalf.
I didn’t know what kind of conversations they usually had, but given their personalities, would they really share their grievances with each other?
“In the end, you say everything you want to say.”
“I have to. If I don’t say it, how would you know?”
At my words, my father looked straight ahead again.
Then he suddenly asked Hwi.
“So, was it difficult?”
This time, Hwi was truly flustered and surprised.
My father was not one to ask such questions.
In fact, in a situation like this, his personality was to say even less.
“It was not.”
The conversation did not continue further.
But I thought that just the fact that my father asked if it was difficult held great meaning for Hwi.
In the meantime, the rain stopped.
That night, we camped out.
We could have found an inn, but my father accepted my opinion to spend the first day quietly.
Lying side by side with my father, gazing at the pouring stars, felt truly wonderful.
I suggested Hwi lie down and sleep with us, but he firmly refused, saying he couldn’t dare to lie down with the Heavenly Demon.
There are things people can accept and things they cannot, so I didn’t press him further.
“Father, I’m sorry.”
“Why?”
“Thinking of you, I should have suggested my brother come along as well. I am this selfish. It seems I still want to have you all to myself.”
My father was silent for a moment.
“It’s alright.”
His words lifted a bit of the weight from my heart.
Still, I couldn’t help but think of my brother when I was alone with my father.
“Father.”
“What is it?”
“I just called to see if you were sleeping.”
“Then shouldn’t you not have called?”
I smiled and turned to look at my father lying next to me.
He was looking up at the night sky with a stern expression.
I imprinted this scene in my mind.
My father looking up at the night sky, me watching him, and even the stars in that sky.
And so, the first night of our first journey passed.
The next day, we stopped by a village.
While Hwi rented a stable to feed and rest the horses, my father and I went out to look around the market for a while.
We were walking together through a place bustling with people, but no one paid us any particular attention.
Both my father and I had reached the perfect state of Return to Simplicity, and my father had wrapped his Heavenly Demon Sword in an old cloth, just like my Black Demon Sword was wrapped in Supreme Heavenly Silkworm Thread, so as not to attract attention.
“This is your first time in a market other than Demon Family Village, isn’t it?”
“I went to many when I was young.”
“You went to fight with the Fist Demon Sovereign, not to see the market, right?”
My father nodded his head in admission.
“I wish I were the Fist Demon Master of that time.”
In response to my father’s questioning gaze, I answered.
“I want to see the younger version of you, Father. I want to have a conversation with that Father.”
“……”
I meant it sincerely.
What he would have looked like, what his personality would have been.
Would he have been like me?
“Perhaps you were as talkative as me?”
After a slight chuckle, my father said.
“I might be able to drink like the Drunken Demon. But I’m not confident I could talk as much as you.”
“A chatterbox who beats a drunkard! That’s too much!”
We looked around the market, chatting about this and that.
When crowds of people came, we would stop.
Even this experience must be new to my father.
He probably never had to stop his steps just because someone was coming.
How is the view you see when you stop like this?
People coming and going, laughing and chatting, hawking their wares, angry people.
All sorts of people were there.
My father watched them in silence.
What thoughts could he be having while watching them?
“Even with so many people, nothing happens, right? The Grand Strategist was worried that if you left the sect, incidents would just start happening. He said the fate of the martial world wouldn’t just leave you alone. That a small incident would start and gradually grow, leading to another incident.”
I looked at my father and said with conviction.
“But nothing like that will ever happen.”
It was at that very moment.
A man sidled up to us.
“Warriors, how about a manly game?”
The place he pointed to had a few people gathered.
Three overturned bowls on a makeshift table.
Ah! The Heavenly Demon and a swindler! How could I miss this delightful opportunity?
“My father here is a gambler second to none in the world. What do you think? Maybe for our dinner money…”
There was no need to provoke my father.
Before I could even finish my sentence, he walked over to where the hustlers were.
I smiled at the man who had accosted us and asked.
“Is that man’s hand fast? It will have to be very fast to be quicker than my father's eyes.”