One day, the tiger whose mere existence kept the peace of the mountain vanished.
The wolves, the wild dogs, the badgers, even the rabbits who had held their breath beneath that terrible presence, were all drunk with joy.
There is no need to be afraid any longer.
Now they would leave their damp burrows, dance a merry jig, breed young in earnest, and try living in peace.
But when was the world ever so easy?
The mountain's territory was fixed, and the grass and trees to be eaten up were not infinite either.
Naturally the rabbits fought among themselves.
They had bred far too many young to feed, so if they could not secure food they would all starve to death.
And what of the meat-eaters?
They swaggered about as if they were the masters and spilled blood here and there, so the mountain grew far more chaotic than when the tiger had lived.
That was murim as it now stood.
Forty years after the Heavenly Demon's death.
Sixty years had passed since he entered the Supreme Ultimate Cave.
As the Yangtze River does, the old generation withdrew and the next became the new masters of the Central Plains, and in that time the Orthodox Martial Alliance was dissolved.
The Unorthodox Path Alliance had long since fallen, and the Demonic Cult had splintered in a civil war among those who would be Cult Leader, so there was no longer any need to gather their resolve.
In the murim of today the distinctions among orthodox, unorthodox and demonic had vanished, and it had become a world of warring heroes carving out their own domains, where men would join hands with anyone, whatever their creed, so long as there was profit in it.
And.......
***
'Fuuuuuucking hell!'
A baby screaming with all its might. To the people, of course,
"WAAAAAAAH!"
......it sounded like the lusty cry of a new life announcing its birth.
"My lady, it is a son. Congratulations."
At the midwife's congratulations, the mother who had endured the hard labor took the child in her arms with a faint smile.
It had been a late birth, and a difficult one.
Her whole body was soaked with sweat.
Through two full days of labor pains the woman had fainted and woken again any number of times, and at last she had borne a son.
But rather than her own suffering, the woman tended to the son who must have struggled his way out through the birth canal.
"My son...... well done."
"WAAAAAH!"
The child cried again.
The meaning packed inside it, of course, was this.
'What is the meaning of this! How dare you look upon me, Baek Gang-hwi, this way! Release me at once, you bitch!'
But the resistance was useless.
"How marvelous. To open his eyes the moment he was born? In fifty years as a midwife I have never seen a babe like this. Oh my. What a clever little master. Reaching out his hand like that, he means to embrace his mother, I think."
"So it seems."
"He is certain to become a great man, my lady."
The woman wrapped the plump, dainty hand in hers and smiled.
"WAAAAAH!"
'Let go! Let go of me, I said!'
But again, the resistance was meaningless.
Goddamn it all.......
What sort of dogshit situation was this?
He had thought it was Ascension.
Leaving the body he had grown used to, he had drifted here and there without destination, like a fallen leaf carried on the wind, like a leaf floating on water.
It was the floating of the soul.
He had thought it the process of shedding the shell of this world and finding his true form.
Then at some point he was shut into a dark, narrow space and felt stifled, and that lasted only a moment before, with a pain like his whole body being crushed flat and a pressure as if his head were being squeezed until it burst, he slipped out into somewhere.
Well, how could there be no pain?
It was Ascension, after all.......
That was what he had thought.
When his vision brightened and he saw the world, he took the place for the Immortal Realm.
But something was off.
A room screened on all sides by folding screens and hanging cloth.
A magenta silk quilt was spread on a low wooden bed, and a fragrant smell hung thick through the warmth of a brazier full of red-glowing charcoal.
And was that all?
A decoction pot for warming medicine, brass scissors and warm towels, and all sorts of talismans whose meaning he could not make out.
His mind went blank for a moment.
Was this not a birthing room (a room prepared for delivering a child)?
Then this was not Ascension but...... r-reincarnation?
Ah, fucking hell.
"Thank you for coming to me, my son."
The woman who appeared to be his mother rubbed her cheek against his.
'Shtop ih...... mmgh.'
Just as he clenched his gums to refuse, he felt wetness on his cheek.
'Is she c-crying?'
He could not stand it.
A woman crying.
But why was it?
The warmth held in those tears set a corner of his chest aching.
'Mmm.......'
It was a strange feeling.
An emotion he had never felt in all his life.
What was he to call this...... a mother's affection, perhaps?
Goddamn it, he would have to have felt it before to make any comparison.
He could not even remember the same moment in his past life. Taken to the Demonic Cult as a boy, he had passed through countless brushes with death and forgotten even how to feel. Chasing only strength until he rose to the supreme seat of Cult Leader, he had never once loved a woman.
No, he had to be wary even of the women who approached him.
Every one of them was a ploy by assassins after his life.
But now something hot was rising in him...... a corner of his chest had gone soft, and he could not refuse her touch.
'F-fine. She's crying...... no need to shake her off. It's not as if my cheek will wear away.'
For a while he left his body in the woman's hands.
It was an unfamiliar emotion he had never experienced and never learned, but it was not half bad. Something in him settled, too.
Perhaps it was an instinct he had come by through being an infant.
But just then.
"My lady, the Blood-Generating Decoction. The Medical Immortal wrote out the prescription himself."
"How kind of him."
"Give the little master here. I shall show him to your husband."
"Do so."
The woman held him out to the midwife.
Why was the warmth, severed just like that, such a loss?
'W-wait. Just a little longer...... hm? A moment can't hurt. It's only because it's the first time. Because I've never felt a mother's affection.'
He shouted his hardest, but nothing came out except a cry of 'WAAH!'
And so, wrapped round and round in red cloth, he was handed over to the old woman.
Even knowing he would be back, he was gazing at the woman with wistful eyes when the cold rushed in.
He had come out of the birthing room.
Outside stood a man in Taoist robes and a man of clear, refined looks in a scholar's gown.
The moment he saw it, the emotion washed away and sparks flew from his eyes.
A S-Supreme Ultimate Taoist crown!?
'Horse-nooose! What business do you have here, you bastard!'
Rage surged up all at once.
What could be the reason he had skipped Ascension and met with birth again?
It could not be his own fault.
It was because that bastard Yu Gil-cheon passed down the wrong Ascension Method.
He wanted nothing more than to tear the man apart on the spot, but the midwife had bound him tight in red cloth and wound a thick swaddling blanket over that besides, so only his face peeked out.
"Would you like to hold him?"
"Mm."
At the midwife's words, the one who seemed to be his father carefully took his bundled self into both hands.
He looked indifferent, but his eyes were full of pride.
And what emotion was this?
A father's affection?
A heart that showed nothing outwardly yet cherished and loved him within...... at that unfamiliarity he only stared up with hazy eyes, as if spellbound.
"Hah hah! Look at the lungs on the little fellow. Your son will likely become a general."
Just as he was deep in that fatherly affection, the Taoist said it with a hearty laugh.
'Shut your mouth, priest. Don't touch me, it's revolting!'
He glared with a gaze full of grudge, but the Taoist seemed to find even that adorable and clicked his tongue, making a 'tock tock' sound.
'This one really wants to croak!'
"WAAAAAAAH!"
He had no choice but to cry.
It was a protest with cause, aimed at that horse-nose bastard of a priest.
Just you wait, you damned priest bastard!
Birth, he would accept that fate.
But I will grow and grow in earnest, and I will hunt down every Taoist under heaven and wipe out their seed!
"Heh heh! Look at those eyes. Pitch-black and so adorable. Staring at me like this, you must like me too."
A misunderstanding. He was glaring.
Find it adorable or not, you bastard, I most certainly glared, and I made a vow born of grudge.
But did he know what was in that heart?
The one who was his father turned a deeply displeased look on the Taoist.
"That is too much, Hyung-nim."
"Hm?"
"How can you say such a thing?"
"W-what did I say?"
At the father's cold rebuke the Taoist looked put out.
Well done, Father.
Since things have come to this, I will grow up regarding you as my father.
But then.
"A general, from our clan?"
"Ah, quite right. I misspoke. My apologies. Hah hah!"
Something about the conversation was odd.
He was displeased because of 'general'? Why?
"Just watch. I will raise this child into the finest man of wisdom in our Jaegal Clan."
His mind went blank.
What did he just say?
Jae......gal?
Did he say the Jaegal Clan?
Me?
I, Baek Gang-hwi, lord of ten thousand demonic troops, sovereign of the demonic path, who won the title of Heavenly Demon and reigned as the world's best, have become a son of the Jaegal Clan?
Of those ink-stained scribblers, lackeys to the Murim Alliance Leader, who deal in nothing but sly and craven schemes? And a clan that is not even first but spends its whole life content to be second.......
"I have already settled on a name."
"Have you?"
"His generation takes the character for letters, so he is Mun-hyeon."
"Oh! A kind and wise man who commands the written word....... A truly fine name."
No! I said no!
What kind of name is Mun-hyeon! Mun-hyeon!
If I am fated to be a Jaegal anyway, then keep the generation character but give me a different name!
Mun-yong, for nimbleness! Mun-gwi, strong as a ghost! Mun-mu, to urge him toward fine martial learning...... fucking hell, nothing sounds right attached to 'Mun.'
But his fierce protest.
"WAAAAAH!"
became a lusty cry that delighted his father and the Taoist.
"Hah hah! Look at the little fellow, so pleased."
"Is he not?"
"Indeed! Without a doubt. As you say, he will surely become a great scholar. Look, are the child's eyes not bright, as though he too were glad?"
I am glaring, you horse-nose bastard!
"Really, Hyung-nim, it is only a manner of speaking. The basics of learning are enough. If he grows up healthy, I could ask for nothing more."
At the Taoist's words the father smiled with satisfaction.
"Mun-hyeon! From this day that is your name! Hah hah hah!"
Shut up! Shut up, I said! I don't need a name like that!
That day Baek Gang-hwi wept as though he carried a lifetime of sorrow he had never cried out.
"I shall recite a blessing for the child's peaceful life."
"Thank you, Hyung-nim."
That day Baek Gang-hwi gave serious thought to whether he ought to commit a monstrous breach of human decency at the very moment of his birth.
"WAAAAAAAAH!"
"Oh, midwife! Why is the child's face so red?"
"Yes?"
Was it from crying too hard with rage surging up in layers?
A heat rash had bloomed on his face.
The startled midwife bustled about saying she would call a physician, his father did not know what to do, and the priest bastard chanted incantations in earnest, claiming he would heal the rash.
In short, there was no uproar quite like it.
Ah, this life.......
How did I.......
Of all things, the Jaegal Clan.
When both hands ought to be soaked in blood, he would live with nothing on them but ink.
***
SPLRRT.
"Oh my, the little master's bowels must be strong. A fine golden color."
At the maidservant So-hye's words his mother Baek Su-hyeon smiled, and Baek Gang-hwi, no, Jaegal Mun-hyeon, let go and left it all to come as it would.
It was hardly a matter of a day or two.
An infant's daily round was eating, shitting and sleeping, over and over.
At first it was shameful, but after shitting a dozen times a day it was nothing at all now.
Growth was not something one could do at will.
What good was having been the world's best?
What good was holding every memory of a past life?
Right now he was just a hundred-day-old baby moving at others' hands like a puppet on strings. Barely born, and he had already passed through self-loathing and learned detachment.
'The Buddha truly was remarkable.'
Respect for him grew of its own accord.
To walk seven steps the moment he was born and proclaim that in heaven and on earth he alone was honored, how remarkable was that?
No wonder I wanted to ascend.
The Immortal Realm and the Pure Land are packed with such remarkable figures.
"Still, it is a worry that he is late to speak."
"What is?"
"His cry was so lusty when he was born, and since then he has not so much as babbled......."
"Perhaps it is because the little master is simply a man of few words?"
"Oh, hush!"
At So-hye's words Baek Su-hyeon smiled.
Yes, he was a man of few words.
Because this damned fate made him hate speaking.
But behind her smile Baek Su-hyeon's face turned pained.
Somehow, it aches.
Even holding the memories of a past life, her every expression weighs on him.
They said a child reads its mother's feelings from her face alone, and it seemed that was truly so.
"Miss, give it a little time. He may well start talking sooner than anyone, before his first birthday."
"Do you think so?"
"Of course."
At So-hye's words Baek Su-hyeon nodded, reassured at last.
Hmm, should I make her a little happy?
She is the one who let me feel a mother's affection, which I never had in all my life, so a bit of babbling is fine.
No, I was born again by borrowing her body, so she is my mother.
Jaegal Mun-hyeon met Baek Su-hyeon's eyes, worked his mouth, and spoke.
"Mama, food."
Her eyes went round.
She was so startled that she looked back and forth between So-hye and him.
I was startled too.
I had only meant to give her some babbling.
How did it come out so clearly...... hmm, at this rate even the Buddha is nothing special.
"D-did you hear that?"
"I-I did, but...... it was so clear......."
Neither of them seemed able to believe it.
Fine, I'll do it once more.
"Mama, food."
It was only two words, but Baek Su-hyeon started so hard her eyes nearly popped out, and she cried aloud.
"H-Husbaaand!"
That day, Jaegal Mun-hyeon blazed his way to breaking the Jaegal Clan's record for the youngest child to speak.