Chapter 7: Ten Years Too Late

“…….”

“…….”

For a moment, silence fell between the two.

The groaning of the thugs collapsed throughout the alley served as background noise, barely saving them from extreme awkwardness, but Hyeonwol, struggling to control his expression and organize his thoughts, was plunged into utter chaos.

Seol Cheon-yu’s height was considerable, not lacking compared to an adult, but his face still retained much of its youthfulness.

Facing him, Hyeonwol thought he had never been this flustered in his entire life, he was sure of it.

His creaking rationality barely managed to turn over.

‘Wait, how old is Seol Cheon-yu this year?

Seventeen?

Eighteen?

He’s a kid!

No wait, that’s not important right now… Why is he here?!

Isn’t this supposed to be the time he’s solidifying his foundation in the Demonic Cult?’

“…Ah, A-seol?”

Thinking he needed to somehow get through this awkward atmosphere, Hyeonwol carefully uttered Seol Cheon-yu’s childhood name.

It was a name he had called out several times ten years ago, in the current timeline, to the young child.

And at that moment.

Hyeonwol witnessed a smile bloom across the face of the one who had been standing before him with a somewhat nervous air, like spring flowers blossoming.

“Yes, hyung-nim.

I am Seol Cheon-yu.”

As if reflecting his emotions, a clear, cool energy swirled around him, rising faintly.

How could this be?

Hyeonwol managed to push aside his complex feelings for a moment and finally regained some composure.

It had been incredibly hard to do so.

But anyway!

“We… My goodness….

Where did you disappear to for ten years?

You vanished so suddenly, I was really… worried.”

Hyeonwol instinctively took a hesitant step forward, relying on willpower, and slowly approached Seol Cheon-yu.

As if genuinely concerned for the other’s well-being, Hyeonwol began to examine Seol Cheon-yu’s complexion with a face filled with the joy of reunion.

Knowing the truth about why the child he had decided to look after had suddenly disappeared, he did feel a pang of guilt, but it was true that he had been worried.

How could human conscience not ache at the thought of a young child being captured and suffering in an abusive environment?

No matter how much the world revolved around Seol Cheon-yu, that didn’t erase the pain that young child must have endured.

As an adult, and as someone who had once offered to be his guardian, it was an especially sore point.

As he approached with such feelings, Seol Cheon-yu’s complexion soon calmed.

When he spoke with a subdued air, Hyeonwol couldn’t help but startle.

“Wol hyung-nim, in the meantime… your face has aged considerably.”

Uh… Uhm?

Before even properly exchanging greetings with the child he hadn’t seen in ten years, Hyeonwol heard first that his complexion looked bad, and his own face showed bewilderment.

……Have I really withered that much?

Of course, the last time Seol Cheon-yu had seen him was during his own teens, when his skin was fresh and smooth….

Hyeonwol rolled his eyes, trying to recall the face he had seen in the mirror that morning, when suddenly his gaze landed on the sword at Seol Cheon-yu’s waist, and he naturally turned his vision forward again, pretending nothing was wrong.

It was just a sword, but its presence was terrifying!

Barely enduring the goosebumps trying to rise on his arms, whether from conditioned reflex, Hyeonwol smiled wryly, as if the notion was absurd, and spoke.

“You brat, is that the first thing you say to a hyung you haven’t seen in so long?

Looking at you, where have you been suffering so much that your complexion is so pale at the prime age for health, and you’ve only grown tall like a beanpole.

Let’s sit down somewhere and talk first.”

Even without comparing to Hyeonwol’s sleep-deprived face, Seol Cheon-yu’s skin was impeccably clear and clean when it came to discussing complexions.

Regardless of the truth, Hyeonwol brazenly pulled Seol Cheon-yu out of the alley.

The child followed without resistance and spoke quietly.

“…I apologize, hyung-nim.

It has been so long since this younger brother has seen hyung-nim, that in my eagerness from worrying all this time, I unconsciously spoke rudely first.”

“…….”

Hyeonwol bit his lip hard.

He couldn’t even bring himself to say ‘who should be worrying about whom.’

Anyone listening would think it was Hyeonwol, not Seol Cheon-yu, who had returned from the brink of death.

Honestly, Hyeonwol was extremely, considerably confused by Seol Cheon-yu’s attitude, so answering took longer than usual.

At any rate, it seemed certain that Seol Cheon-yu held great goodwill towards him, which only aroused more guilt, weighing on his heart.

Of course, they had known each other when he was young, so he might have missed him and be happy to see him again, but the reunion’s atmosphere was so different from what he had imagined that Hyeonwol was scratching his head.

He decided to focus on faithfully welcoming Seol Cheon-yu, given the current situation.

No matter what, the child before him had returned alive from that hellish place he had been dragged off to as a child.

As Hyeonwol stopped at the alley entrance and turned around, he immediately met the eyes of Seol Cheon-yu, who had been fixated on him all along.

Narrowing his brow slightly at the fact that the child’s gaze was now above his own, Hyeonwol hid it and asked with a composed face.

“Have you eaten?”

“I haven’t had lunch… yet.”

“First, eat this.

You liked candy, didn’t you?

Hyung knows all the good inns in this market, so let’s go quickly.”

As Hyeonwol smiled warmly, shoving the candy bag he was holding into Seol Cheon-yu’s arms, Seol Cheon-yu, accepting it, nodded with a somewhat dazed expression, smiling back.

His bright smile from earlier seemed like a momentary whim—it was a small smile incomparable to the one just now.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t the cold face Hyeonwol last remembered… it was a face that brought to mind the clear-eyed child from long ago.

Hyeonwol unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.

Even if it was a future event that hadn’t happened yet, the memory of death etched into his mind and body instinctively kept his nerves taut.

He had no choice but to be careful not to let the demonic sword at Seol Cheon-yu’s waist enter his field of vision.

Fortunately, Seol Cheon-yu’s eyes were not the bluish-gray they had been before.

The color was unusual, so he must be concealing his internal energy.

Within minutes, Hyeonwol, suddenly feeling exhausted, internally pressed his brow.

It seemed it was going to be a long day.

***

The two secured seats by the window on the second floor of a moderate-sized inn, neither too big nor too small.

The lively marketplace below provided an adequate view and ambiance, and above all, the food at this inn was excellent even by Hyeonwol’s standards, accustomed as he was to the imperial palace’s cuisine, so it was more than sufficient to treat Seol Cheon-yu.

However, perhaps because Hyeonwol, who usually took the lead in setting the atmosphere, was oddly subdued despite pretending otherwise, an awkward air, masquerading as natural, lingered faintly between them.

He had clearly been on his way to receive a report from a subordinate; how had things become so twisted?

At this point, he could easily guess what that supposedly important report was about.

After ordering good liquor and food, Hyeonwol barely suppressed a hollow laugh, breathed internal energy into his tobacco pipe to light the leaves, and took a fresh look at Seol Cheon-yu sitting before him.

The child, who had been staring intently at Hyeonwol’s face, had now, with some change of heart, furrowed his beautiful brow and was closely examining Hyeonwol’s pipe.

“What, do you like this?”

“No, I’m just curious….

I don’t think you used to do this before.”

“I was young back then too, you brat.

Ten years ago, I was three years younger than you are now.”

“…Come to think of it, that’s true.

It’s fascinating, the passage of time.

To me, hyung-nim always seemed like an adult.”

Hyeonwol’s eyes, with the pipe in his mouth, widened.

He soon parted his lips slightly, laughed, and let out a sigh.

“When was I not an adult?

I’ll always be more of an adult than you.

That little thing has come back as an old soul.”

“Still….

Just seeing hyung-nim makes me happy.”

Seol Cheon-yu lowered his eyes gently and smiled.

Seeing that, Hyeonwol felt his facial muscles involuntarily relax.

He had no choice but to smile back, unable to even think of resisting.

Who on earth could call this child cunning and ruthless?

He had thought the child must have suffered a lot, and being an unprecedented genius in martial arts, his martial prowess would be immense, so he must have changed a lot from when he was young.

Fortunately, it seemed his personality hadn’t become severely twisted as he grew up.

…There were still many suspicious points, though.

The timing of Seol Cheon-yu’s appearance, among other things—Hyeonwol felt the need to seriously consider whether the original story, including the protagonist’s personality, hadn’t undergone major changes.

“Alright, so.

Don’t you have something to say to me?”

“I missed you?”

“…Besides that.”

Just when he thought he had found his usual flow, Seol Cheon-yu proved to be a formidable opponent.

Hyeonwol, not even bothering to hide his dumbfounded expression, looked somewhat bitter.

No matter if he was the protagonist, he couldn’t just give up easily.

“Haah…

A hyung who promised to take care of a child couldn’t find him for over ten years, only fretting, and now that child appears all grown up without properly explaining the situation—it makes this hyung’s heart quite ache.

I’m asking you to slowly start sharing your story.”

Hyeonwol sighed exaggeratedly.

At this, Seol Cheon-yu’s expression turned slightly embarrassed as he spoke.

“Did you… look for me… a lot?”

“How could I not have?”

At Hyeonwol’s answer, Seol Cheon-yu seemed even more agitated.

His calm complexion, which had only held a faint trace of a smile, rippled deeply.

Finding his excessive reaction a bit odd, Hyeonwol vaguely recalled the past.

He had looked.

He had looked hard.

In the timeline before his regression, not thinking it was related to the martial world, he had only inquired around the area where the child disappeared.

Then, immediately after, due to the war breaking out in the north, he had no energy to continue and had honestly stopped searching and forgotten about it.

However, the reason Hyeonwol hadn’t realized until the end that Seol Cheon-yu was the protagonist, despite once searching for that name, was that connecting the young Seol Cheon-yu, an orphan with bright, intelligent eyes, to the Lord of the Demonic Cult, the Heavenly Demon, was difficult even for Hyeonwol.

How many people in the world share the same name?

Besides, wasn’t Seol Cheon-yu’s surname something Hyeonwol himself had impulsively given him!

In the original story, a minor character like Hyeonwol, who didn’t even appear, ended up not recognizing the protagonist precisely because of the connection he had made with him—it was maddening.

Anyway, in the present after his regression, Hyeonwol had resumed the search, which had been cut off by war, from the beginning.

Of course, he already knew that the place Seol Cheon-yu had been taken to was the Demonic Cult, and he assumed that until the original story progressed and he emerged into the martial world, he wouldn’t leave that place.

Nevertheless, just in case, hoping for a more definite trace, he had searched diligently for the past five years.

Did this protagonist even know how many informants he had planted around the Ten Thousand Great Mountains on the frontier, where the main Demonic Cult compound was located?

As Hyeonwol was recalling such thoughts, Seol Cheon-yu, who had also fallen silent as if lost in thought, slowly continued.

“…I didn’t know.

I’m sorry, hyung-nim.

If I had known you were so worried, I would have inquired about your whereabouts and sent a letter sooner….”

“…….”

“Actually, I was afraid… that Wol hyung-nim might have forgotten me… that… I was very scared.”

Hyeonwol, momentarily speechless, unconsciously swallowed the groan that was about to escape.