No Dark Secrets In This Book

Episode 79

“…You’re not even funny.”

“It’s just that your sense of humor is low-quality.”

Cassice Demillang, not knowing what feelings Ryuseong had when he said it wasn’t funny, just snorted as if it wasn’t a big deal. Ryuseong found himself unable to brush off Cassice Demillang’s attitude as usual, thinking ‘a crazy guy can be like that’. Did he unconsciously put strength into his grip? The long wooden stick he brought to use as kindling snapped with a crack.

Ryuseong silently threw the broken wood into the bonfire.

‘Not even funny…’

Fire calls for light but embraces shadows on the opposite side.

Since the bonfire was in the middle of the cave, Cassice Demillang and Ryuseong had equally shining fronts and long shadows. As the flames swayed as if they would be put out by the wind, Ryuseong moved to block the wind with his turned back. Then Cassice Demillang fumbled the pile of firewood with his white hand.

Ryuseong frowned. There was no way there wouldn’t be sharp thorns on the wood he roughly broke off. If he was going to touch it for fun, he was going to tell him to pick some grass instead and take his hand off. But Cassice Demillang, who grabbed a suitably long piece of firewood, clumsily poked the bonfire and searched for embers, then picked out dry grass from the firewood pile and tossed it in.

As he crumpled the dry grass, sparks flew up. Although it didn’t look skillful as if he had learned it from books or theories, he succeeded in nurturing the bonfire quite well. However, Cassice Demillang’s face was just calm without any trace of pride. He even looked bored somewhere. It seemed he didn’t even think he had achieved something and just did it because it was something he had to do.

Still, it was nice to see a hint of red on his pale complexion.

Around then, Ryuseong realized that he was ruinously adoring him. He also knew it was time to back off. But could he not even be allowed to look?

As he stared blankly as his heart desired, Cassice Demillang lowered his eyebrows as if puzzled. He felt the faint smile on his lips was like a mask. He thinks he wants to ruin that smiling face. He rested his elbow on his knee and supported his chin. He didn’t take his eyes off. He gazed deeply. At some point, under his somewhat obsessive gaze, you coldly straightened your face as if despising him.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t do it in places like this.”

……

“What would you do anyway? Do you want to die?”

At that moment, Ryuseong had a premonition that he would probably never know what thoughts Cassice Demillang had in his head for the rest of his life. When Ryuseong scowled back with contempt, only then did Cassice smile prettily as if relieved, stroking his chest.

“Fortunately, you had common sense ingrained in you.”

“Hearing that from you makes me feel miserable…”

Ryuseong became genuinely tired. Regardless of ruin or whatever, he just hoped Cassice Demillang wouldn’t spout any more nonsense. Pressing his eyes with his palm, he got up from his seat, and Ryuseong’s shadow swayed like a huge leopard and pounced on Cassice Demillang. Cassice Demillang pondered whether it was a dangerous situation, recalling that he was an intimidating man. However…

Snap, crack. The sound of something breaking was heard. Cassice Demillang’s hand was suddenly robbed of the kindling and was empty. Ryuseong threw the broken branch as food for the bonfire. Crackle, crackle, the crimson sparks devoured the darkness.

Cassice Demillang immediately turned his head and thought Ryuseong, who was looking outside the cave, was inwardly hateful, but Ryuseong didn’t even guess that.

It was natural from Ryuseong’s point of view. The surrounding area was filled with monster colonies. They had made a tacit agreement to avoid the snowstorm in the cave until the sun set, but it would be difficult to entrust the watch to that personality-less fellow, so it was right for him to endure it. After all, Cassice Demillang was precarious, and despite that, he didn’t rely on anyone. He had to protect him while he could. Even if he was tired, he could stay up for two days straight. The next train station would stop in about 42 hours, so it wasn’t difficult to predict that he would be able to endure until then.

But…

“Would I spit on my own face?”

If I was relieved just by you saying one thing, would you laugh? Nothing has changed and you probably didn’t say it with great meaning either.

Just being comforted by those silly words.

It’s really not even funny.

***

I couldn’t sleep, but Ryuseong, leaning against the cave wall, slept well. I guess he was tired of being dragged around by his unpredictable lover.

I quietly approached him so as not to wake him up and covered him with a blanket, and although I couldn’t say I was standing watch, I spent the night doing simplified qi circulation. Originally, when doing qi circulation, you needed someone to watch over your surroundings, but I did it in a simplified way given the situation. Qi circulation is originally a term for internal energy cultivation, but it’s not that different from the mana circle circulation method. Especially for someone like me who has accumulated mana in the lower abdomen instead of the heart, it’s controversial even in academia whether this should be called qi circulation or mana circulation.

The dawn I quietly gazed at beyond the rounded cave while dispersing the boundary between the world and me and swallowing mana was not as blue as I thought. It was just a strange green color faintly dyed in white and hazy twilight, as if covered in fog.

‘Is it because there is a forest nearby?’

I heard that the reason black foxes were able to live there was because of that forest area. As the Black Fog began to multiply in the forest that was already prone to fog, the forest beasts were corrupted. At first, it was known as a forest possessed by demons to the extent that civilians who came to the forest like herb gatherers or lumberjacks didn’t return, but due to a shortage of manpower, the forest was closed and neglected, and as their power gradually grew, they reached the point of systematically hunting villages.

I heard that one village even tried to use cubs as bait to exterminate the black foxes, but ended up being annihilated, so they attempted several national subjugations…

‘But they all failed.’

The black foxes were clever. No, it wasn’t just being clever. Even though they didn’t have an individual presumed to be Named in their group, they were achieving victory after victory with strategies that drove hunters off cliffs or cornered them.

It was too organic to be seen as a characteristic of a colony, so the theory that there was a separate commanding individual was dominant. However, the Black Fog strangely didn’t spread much outside the forest. Usually, conquests become urgent to prevent the Black Fog from spreading to the surroundings, but when the spread is stopped by natural environmental factors like now, it inevitably gets pushed back in the priority of conquest.

That was the reason why the black fox incident had not been resolved until now. Many people had to leave their hometowns, and those who couldn’t leave the vicinity of the forest for financial or other reasons were trembling in fear day and night.

‘I can’t suddenly hunt Named ones at my level.’

It’s a hunting ground I carefully selected with the feeling of taking on battle challenges step by step. Cassice Demillang’s mana still doesn’t obey my commands smoothly, but rather grumbles, ‘Hmph! Rookie, behave properly!’ When I actually use magic, there’s nothing particularly bothersome… But it’s not a smooth flow, so it bothers me. I feel like I could use it a little more naturally…

Enough with the thoughts. When I circulated the mana circuit of my whole body, including the three yin meridians, through the eight extraordinary meridians, I felt a warm heat on the top of my head. What is this? Is it trying to open the Yinyang meridians or something? Unfortunately, my mana doesn’t seem to want to overdo it, so it gradually settled and returned to my lower abdomen. While feeling a bit regretful, I thought it was a natural result. Because greed can lead to death. The Yinyang meridians are the meridians that need to be opened for a metamorphosis, but no one has undergone a metamorphosis at my age. Of course. Even Cassice Demillang’s great-grandfather is a martial artist who has undergone a metamorphosis, so how can I do it?

‘In terms of martial arts novels, I’m still just a supreme martial artist.’

When a master who has reached a high level gains enlightenment, his body itself changes into a physique more suitable for learning martial arts in order to digest that enlightenment. That is metamorphosis. This is the reason why the great-grandfather lives in the form of a boy.

Even though I possessed a genius who can shove mana into his lower abdomen and still live and breathe, it was nonsense to aim for a metamorphosis when I’m only at the peak.

Still, you need to reach the Hua realm to transform your body.

I slowly exhaled and opened my eyes. But the condition of my unusually warm top of the head didn’t change.

‘What is it? Do I have a fever?’

I tilted my head and rummaged through my bag to find medicine, and Ryuseong frowned with a grunt between his teeth. Will he wake up?

As I quietly watched, he abruptly sat up. Look at that elasticity. I want to touch those muscles. Whether I was gazing at him greedily or not, Ryuseong still wasn’t in his right mind and looked at me in a daze.

“You…”

“Did you sleep well?”

“Did you ascend?”

I wanted to ask where he sold his sanity. But when Ryuseong slapped his own cheek and tried to pull my arm out of the cave, I humbly decided to acknowledge that he was possessed by a level of madness that couldn’t be brushed off as a joke. I immediately scratched my fingertips with mana-coated nails and squeezed out drops of blood. I was about to shape it into an ice hammer and bash Ryuseong’s head, but something flashed in the ice.

“…?”

For a moment, I thought I had become a bald head due to the absurd brilliance. But it wasn’t. It was…