"Arin is a Rakshasa? That makes no sense at all—."
Yu Hyeonseong quietly watched me laugh as if it were absurd.
No, it did make sense.
Arin's yin-yang balance was already broken.
Leaving aside yang energy, there was only one race known for possessing an abundance of yin energy.
The Rakshasa.
"Do you understand reality a bit better now?"
"…If she's a Rakshasa, does that mean she isn't the head's daughter?"
"She is my daughter. More precisely, you could say she's half Rakshasa. No, maybe not even half."
Yu Hyeonseong let out a sigh.
"During the great war between Rakshasa and humans in the past, there were people who fell in love. A Rakshasa woman and a human warrior ran away together and shared their love. Rakshasa and humans look similar and can communicate, so things like that happened fairly often."
"But they couldn't have children."
"That's what was believed. But one child was born. The descendant of that child, born between a Rakshasa and a human, was my wife—Ji Yeonu."
Yu Hyeonseong's wife, and Arin's mother.
Ji Yeonu.
She, too, was a human who inherited Rakshasa blood.
Yu Hyeonseong continued, his eyes filled with loneliness.
"I met my wife when I was twenty, during a mission. She was strong, impressive, and more beautiful than anyone else. I fell in love at first sight."
Anyone who saw Arin could easily imagine how breathtakingly beautiful her mother must have been.
"I approached her despite her rejection and asked her to go out with me. But during one mission, she went berserk, and I nearly died. Still, I didn't care. I thought it would be fine as long as she didn't go berserk again. Yakseon helped as well. I truly believed she would never lose control."
"…She went berserk again?"
"Yes."
Yu Hyeonseong hesitated for a long moment before speaking.
"So I killed her."
"You killed her?"
"That was our promise. If she couldn't stop the berserk state and was about to completely lose her reason and massacre people, I would kill her before that happened."
Things never go exactly as planned.
Yet people live optimistically, pretending not to see an obvious future, believing that they themselves will be fine.
While pretending not to see inevitable tragedy.
Yu Hyeonseong was like that.
And before my regression, so was I.
Yu Hyeonseong let out a hollow laugh and continued.
"But this time, Arin began to shine silver."
Arin, too, had inherited Rakshasa blood.
"From that moment on, I put her through intense training every single day. I couldn't tell her to rest even for a single day. Arin's yin energy doubles every year, and to suppress it, she must become a Sage in her twenties, and a Martial God in her thirties. Only then can the yin energy be suppressed. And at forty…"
Yu Hyeonseong paused briefly, then said,
"She'll probably have to commit suicide. Even if every warrior on this land charged at her, they wouldn't be able to kill Arin."
The reason Arin far surpassed other fifteen-year-olds in skill was because she had trained nonstop since the age of five.
On top of that, her internal energy increased on its own.
In another sense, Arin was a natural disaster.
"If you can't handle it, let go now. Arin doesn't have time to waste playing around with you."
"Wouldn't it be fine if she could just release the yin energy?"
"The moment she releases the yin energy she's been suppressing, she'll go mad. It might be fine now, but it can't be a long-term solution."
"Then I'll just absorb all of it."
"It doubles every year. Can you keep up with that pace?"
"..."
Exponentially increasing numbers inevitably grow beyond what humans can stop.
Simply put, Arin must grow by the maximum amount she would normally achieve in her entire lifetime—within a single year.
And not just once, but every year.
To absorb that much yin energy from Arin, I would have to do the same.
It might be possible in my teens.
But who could grow by an entire lifetime's worth in a single year after turning thirty?
That was impossible.
"Don't give Arin hope that she can live an ordinary life. That was the mistake I made with my wife."
Giving the hope of normalcy to those who could never be ordinary.
The higher you fly, the more painful the fall.
"Do you regret it?"
"…I'd be lying if I said I didn't."
With a deep sigh, Yu Hyeonseong said,
"If you can't take responsibility until the end, stay quiet and leave."
With that, Yu Hyeonseong stood up and went outside.
After he left, I began taking out the bamboo scrolls in the study one by one.
History, medicine, even sorcery from the Western Regions.
All of it was evidence of desperate attempts to somehow change Arin's constitution.
I put the scrolls back in place and thought.
"Let's not overcomplicate this."
The future is complex, but the present is simple.
The place where I must live is the present.
"Let's properly finish this first."
Nothing had changed.
Lee Juwon was walking through the northern forest.
A forest path still teeming with magical beasts, devoid of people.
In this forest, where only scouting units occasionally passed through to check the situation, was Nergal—the one he was meant to meet.
"He's quite deep in," Lee Juwon said.
Beside him was a woman acting as his escort.
She wore tight black pants and a black top, with a pink jacket over them. Her hair was neatly tied up with a hairpin.
Her face had the features of a beauty, but above her right eye was a burn scar, and her cheek, nose, and left eye were covered in claw marks.
"He's a Rakshasa. He has to live avoiding human eyes."
If humans were wolves, Rakshasa were tigers.
Rakshasa did not form alliances with other groups like humans did; they only cared for their own kin.
Humans exploited this thoroughly and defeated Rakshasa one by one.
That was why Rakshasa, despite their ability to control magical beasts and their overwhelming strength, were defeated by humans.
"Kiaaaaak!"
As they ventured deeper into the forest, magical beasts began to charge at them.
Great Scythe Insects.
Giant scythe-like insects.
Simply put, mantises.
Except they were eight cheok tall.
"Looks like we're almost there."
As Lee Juwon slipped his hand into his fluttering sleeve, the woman beside him dashed forward and beheaded the Great Scythe Insect.
Just then, a man walked out of the forest and spoke.
"Is it really fine to kill the one that came to greet you?"
Five Great Scythe Insects followed him like guards.
He was at least six cheok tall, with a muscular build.
He had long silver hair, and horns grew from both sides of his forehead—one of them broken.
Nergal.
Lee Juwon smiled and said,
"I'm rather timid. This is a letter from the teacher."
After reading the letter, Nergal took out a small portrait.
A portrait of Yu Arin.
"Is this the target this time?"
"Yes. A young lady who inherited Rakshasa blood."
"She's young."
When Nergal made a bitter expression, Lee Juwon looked puzzled.
Why was he reacting like this?
Rakshasa hated humans.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the goal of every Rakshasa was the extinction of humanity—their hatred was that boundless.
"My daughter, you see. She was about this age."
"I see."
"When she was just about this age, she was hunted by humans. They cut off her head and hung it on the city gate."
Lee Juwon's expression hardened.
Nergal's killing intent was enough to make his knees tremble.
But even that was entertaining.
Lee Juwon smiled faintly and said,
"Shouldn't you kill all those wicked people? If you join us, you'll be able to achieve your goal."
"Yes. That's right. And I owe the teacher a debt."
Nergal put the portrait into his pocket and said,
"So stick close to the teacher. At least then, you won't die by my hand."
Nergal patted Lee Juwon's shoulder and walked ahead.
Once he was far enough away, Lee Juwon spoke to the woman beside him.
"Gaeun, can you beat that?"
"I can't."
"Then how would you beat him?"
"We'd need at least three Sages."
"That's interesting."
Lee Juwon smiled faintly and said,
"Then let's go watch the fireworks."
Steel flowers would soon be set ablaze.
The patrol unit was put on emergency alert.
All four patrol squads had to keep watch over various areas without rotation, and this continued until Arin returned to the Seongmu Academy.
And during that time, I was there as well.
"Warm yourself up a bit."
I handed O Junbeom a cup of flower liquor.
"I don't even want to look at that. Ugh, I drank so much yesterday that my head still hurts."
"You're making a fuss over just flower liquor. Isn't that basically water? Hahaha!"
"Are you really fifteen? You even took down Jihyeon in one move."
At that, Lee Jihyeon, who was standing nearby, shouted in embarrassment.
"Hey! Squad leader! Don't say that, it's embarrassing! Ugh, seriously!"
"You must have let your guard down. Please calm down, noona."
"Yeah, I let my guard down. Don't go around bragging about that."
Fortunately, the patrol members accepted their defeat cleanly and welcomed me into the patrol unit.
Even if they hadn't, I planned to stick around until the end.
The patrol method in Hwagang was the traditional beacon system.
The city was divided into twenty zones, each protected by a two-person patrol team.
If something occurred that the two couldn't handle, they would immediately light a beacon to signal danger and respond.
Since I was a temporary member, I was assigned to O Junbeom's squad.
"By the way, is there a place where you can see all the beacons at a glance?"
"All of them at once? You could see them from the central beacon."
The central beacon O Junbeom referred to was a tall tower in the middle of the city.
The city had varying elevations, and some beacons were hard to see because of two- or three-story buildings.
The central beacon was built to solve that problem.
So that beacons could be seen and responded to from anywhere.
"Then how do you get assigned to the central beacon?"
"You just volunteer. No one wants to go there. The work's tough."
"I'll go."
O Junbeom looked at me as if he couldn't understand.
"You'd have to eat, sleep, crap, and pee up there. You're different from the others, but we can't treat a refined young master like that."
That would be true for an ordinary young master.
But I was someone who had once drawn pictures with my own filth inside a cave.
"You pushed alcohol on me just fine—what are you saying now? Please let me go up."
"It's not difficult, but… fine. If it gets too hard, tell me anytime. I'll take over."
"Thank you, squad leader."
"Jihyeon, who was next for the central beacon duty? Go tell them that Seoha is taking the next shift."
"He's overjoyed, that guy. Got it. I'll go tell them."
"Seoha, bring food and warm clothes when you go up."
"Then I'll go pack my things."
Even in summer, the combination of the seaside, night, and high elevation was no joke.
When I returned to the lodging, I packed my belongings.
Blankets, spare clothes, food—by the time I finished, the load was fairly large.
"Better too much than too little."
If something happened while I was down from the beacon, my response would be slower.
Just as I finished packing and was heading out, Arin looked at me with a startled expression.
"…Where are you going?"
"Ah, there's somewhere I need to go for a bit."
If I said I'd be eating and sleeping at the central beacon from now on, she'd ask why.
How could I explain that?
That someone might attack her, so I was planning to stay at the beacon.
"Keep training what I showed you. I'll be back soon."
If we got through this crisis, the Silver Moon Group would have a hard time making another move.
With that, I headed for the beacon.
Left behind, Yu Arin watched Seoha leave in a hurry and murmured softly.
"I was going to ask you to go to the beach with me…"
But he said he'd be back soon, so she could just wait.
But had it ever been like that before?
How many friends had left with smiles like that, never to return?
Suddenly, she remembered that Seoha had spoken with her father yesterday.
"He'll come back. He will."
Seoha was different.
He was skilled enough that even her father acknowledged him.
He wouldn't abandon her.
This time would be fine.
That was what she wanted to believe.
Yu Arin gazed at the place Seoha had disappeared from, then turned away, her steps heavy with lingering regret.