The Terminally-Ill Side-Character Inside of a Martial Arts Novel

A faint breeze pushed through the slightly open window. Hyuk Dojin’s hand moved to pull up the blanket that had slipped down slightly, covering Sowol’s shoulders.

A thin smile filled the corners of Hyuk Dojin’s mouth as he looked down at her figure fallen asleep after their passionate encounter.

Moonlight poured down. Hyuk Dojin’s hand twitched, lest the full moon thoughtlessly wake his sleeping wife.

A small wind blew and moved the blackout curtain. The full moon that was tickling Sowol’s eyes hid behind the blackout curtain.

In the quiet room where darkness had fallen, Hyuk Dojin stared intently at Sowol, then stood up.

His body, not wearing even underwear, shone beautifully like a well-made sculpture.

He drank the water placed on the table, then turned his body and sat in a chair. After his monotonous actions ended, his voice transmission flowed.

[Have you found the source of the Qi-Dispersing Powder?]

[Two days ago, there was talk that a pill was lost in the Murim Alliance. Upon confirmation, it’s said that an elder called Cheol Mugi in the Murim Alliance wanted the pill.]

[Then is that man the culprit?]

[That’s… ambiguous. It’s true that Elder Cheol Mugi wanted the pill, but there’s no record of him taking it.]

[Then?]

[Actually, Elder Cheol Mugi wanted the pill before the martial arts competition started, and we confirmed this information two days ago. But the pill disappeared like evaporation within the Murim Alliance, and then Nam Sojeong collapsed from poison. I think someone else intervened in between.]

Hyuk Dojin’s eyes narrowed.

The sound of his finger tapping the armrest was regular.

Hyuk Dojin stared intently at the plain wall with nothing on it, then quietly sent a voice transmission.

[What about the movements of the Golden Blood Sand Sect or the Sichuan Tang clan?]

[None. The two places seem to have no relation at all.]

[…The Black Dao Sect?]

[The Black Dao Sect is the same. However, I don’t know what they’re thinking, but most of the Black Dao Sect disciples who participated in the martial arts competition forfeited before even reaching the Round of 32. Except for Lee Jehak, that is.]

Hyuk Dojin’s brows furrowed at the name Lee Jehak. That name kept bothering him.

In fact, if it weren’t for the names Black Dao Sect and Black Demon, Lee Jehak would just be one of many masters.

But having heard that he was the bloodline of Black Demon, it was difficult to simply judge Lee Jehak as an ordinary master.

[By the way, there’s something strange.]

[What is it?]

[One of the elders who recently joined the Murim Alliance is from the Black Dao Sect. To be precise, he was one of the sect members the Black Dao Sect had raised, and when he entered the Murim Alliance, he recorded a sect I’ve never heard of called South Fairy Gold Sect as his sect. Even within the Murim Alliance, there’s an atmosphere of hushing it up… I tried to dig up more details, but there are no records at all.]

A Black Dao Sect disciple entered the Murim Alliance as an elder? That was impossible. No, it didn’t make sense.

The Black Dao Sect may be whatever now, but they were once the descendants of Black Demon who had dyed the world in terror. They were close to being an evil sect.

The Murim Alliance, which protects righteousness and chivalry, taking in a disciple of an evil sect as an elder?

Hyuk Dojin’s eyes narrowed.

[The Murim Alliance Leader is hiding something.]

Hyuk Dojin recalled what Hyuk Muhyeol had said. Was this the meaning of his words that he would understand why he was sent here when he came?

The situation around him was much more complicated and not as clear-cut as he had thought.

Hyuk Dojin recalled Namgoong Baek’s face and quietly exhaled.

[For now, let’s keep watching the situation. Report immediately if anything happens. And…]

His eyes returned to Moyong Sowol. His mouth drew a smile at his only sanctuary sleeping without a care in the world.

[Protect Sowol even if you have to exchange your life for it, Eun Do. This place is surrounded by enemies, so don’t take your eyes off her for even a moment.]

[I obey!]

The voice transmission that had been flowing quietly disappeared, and Hyuk Dojin’s head bent. His eyelids slowly settled on his eyes facing the ceiling. His breathing became shallow.

* * *

The martial arts competition progressed steadily.

Although the pretext of holding it together with the Demon Cult had lost its substance since the Demon Cult members weren’t participating, the Righteous Sect side seemed to prefer it that way.

As time passed, the martial arts competition was naturally heading towards its final stages.

“Maybe because the martial arts competition is coming to an end, there are more people.”

I looked around the arena while forcibly sticking my heavy bottom to the chair.

Looking down from the high place where I always sat, I could see gazes turning towards me.

They were looks as if asking why the Young Cult Leader couple had crawled here. I tried to ignore the sharp gazes that seemed to say get out right now.

Did I come because I wanted to?

It was no different from being forced to come out of concern that if I didn’t keep showing my face, it would give the Murim Alliance unnecessary justification.

“After today’s martial arts competition, they’ll take a three-day rest and then have the final match. The four people who have made it to the finals today…”

His eyes rolled down towards the martial arts arena.

The ones standing on the martial arts arena were Lee Jehak, Jeok Biwol, Moyong Do, and Cha Yeonhwa.

Everyone seemed excited since most of them were famous except for Lee Jehak. In particular, many people were interested in the story of Moyong Do and Cha Yeonhwa.

I don’t know how the rumors spread, but the story that Cha Yeonhwa and Moyong Do had some kind of relationship was a common scandal in the marketplace.

It sounded plausible given the reputation of those two, but…

I looked at Moyong Do while tilting my body diagonally and resting my chin crookedly.

A calm face with no particular change. Somehow, it felt a little distant.

When I thought of Moyong Do’s face always hugging me and smiling kindly, his current appearance seemed like a different person.

That gaze towards me when he left, and his appearance crying sadly were still there… Was I the only one longing?

“Sowol?”

I turned my head at Hyuk Dojin’s voice. He was looking at me with concern.

I smiled slightly at his gaze and shook my head, then looked back at the martial arts competition.

Too many idle thoughts? Or is it greed? Is it too much to wish for him to still see me as his unchanged sister even though I’ve become a person of the Demon Cult after having a wedding ceremony?

A small sigh escaped from my lips.

While my thoughts were flowing, the martial arts competition progressed steadily.

The first match was between Cha Yeonhwa and Lee Jehak.

Many people predicted and cheered for Cha Yeonhwa’s victory.

Befitting her title as Mount Hua’s First Beauty, she was strong and fully qualified to win.

But her opponent Lee Jehak silently displayed his skills amidst the jeers from around, and eventually defeated Cha Yeonhwa.

“Impossible! How could Mount Hua’s First Beauty be defeated by such an unknown swordsman!”

“It must be sorcery! It’s clearly sorcery! How else could such a lousy guy beat Mount Hua’s First Beauty?!”

“Restart the match one more time!”

As soon as Cha Yeonhwa was defeated, tremendous complaints and criticism exploded.

The martial arts competition where praise should be given to the victor and comfort to the loser was nowhere to be seen, and only the complaints of those who blindly supported Cha Yeonhwa were full.

Despite the referee’s attempts to stop it, the criticism didn’t cease.

“How vulgar.”

Hyuk Dojin’s quiet voice dug into my ear.

“It’s like watching a martial arts festival for that woman, not a martial arts match. They don’t care about winning or losing, just wanting to see that woman win – how vulgar of those people. It’s disgusting.”

It was strange to see him spitting out such harsh words unlike himself.

When I stared at him intently, Hyuk Dojin rolled his eyes to face me.

“You didn’t use to be like this, but lately you seem to have a lot of complaints about the Righteous Sect. Saying such things.”

“It’s not the Righteous Sect, but the people here that I have many complaints about. The incident from before too… Moreover, these are the humans who spoke so filthily about Sowol. I have no reason to look at them favorably. I want to give them a good beating, but I’m holding back.”

The corners of his grumbling mouth were slightly protruding.

I chuckled at that appearance. It seems the Murim Alliance has properly earned Hyuk Dojin’s dislike.

I shook my head slightly and looked down at the martial arts arena again. As Moyong Do appeared on the still noisy martial arts arena, people’s criticism changed to cheers.

It was a shout full of expectations towards Moyong Do. When I too was satisfied that I could see Moyong Do’s martial arts match, my expression frowned the moment I saw Jeok Biwol coming up from the opposite side.

She flashed an alluring smile while looking at Moyong Do.

“…That fox-like bitch.”

“Sowol?”

As soon as I uttered the curse that naturally flowed out while clenching my fist, a surprised voice burst out from beside me. When I hurriedly turned my head, Hyuk Dojin was opening his mouth with an even more surprised face than mine.

“You even know how to say such words?”

“That…”

I felt my face heating up with embarrassment. The curse I had unconsciously blurted out dug into my mind.

It was such a rough curse that I wondered if I knew I could say such things. I covered my eyes with my palm at Hyuk Dojin’s frozen appearance.

…This isn’t right.

My hostility towards Jeok Biwol just grew unnecessarily. Only with that woman, not anyone else, my personality became particularly dirty and my expressions became rough.

If there’s a natural enemy for people, Jeok Biwol was exactly that kind of person for me.

As I was trying hard to hide my feelings of wanting to crawl into a mouse hole while turning my head away from Hyuk Dojin, a low laugh was heard from beside me.

“Ku, kuku…”

When I slightly lowered my palm and looked to the side, Hyuk Dojin was covering his mouth and laughing.

…What now?

When I narrowed my brows and glared at him, he burst out laughing as if he couldn’t hold it in.

“Why are you so surprised? Cutely. Sowol is human too, so of course you can curse and say such things. Even Shaolin monks curse in this world, so it doesn’t make sense for Sowol to live without cursing once. It’s natural.”

“T-then why are you laughing!”

“Just because you’re cute. It’s cute how you got startled after cursing, it’s cute how your ears turned red as if embarrassed by my reaction, and it’s cute how you’re angry as if embarrassed. Is it wrong to laugh?”

He asked calmly. I glared at him while biting my teeth hard at his appearance.

If you say it like that, I can’t hate or get angry at you.

Hyuk Dojin smiled innocently like a child, tilting his head as if asking if I would hit him. At that appearance, even the thought of him being hateful disappeared and eventually a small smile was drawn.

“…It’s fine. Laugh as much as you want.”

I can’t tell him not to laugh when my man likes my cursing so much.

While I left Hyuk Dojin alone, liking his giggling smile even though it was embarrassing, exclamations rose.

When I looked at the martial arts arena, Moyong Do had nonchalantly made Jeok Biwol surrender. Is even the woman of the world’s Golden Blood Sand Sect helpless against Moyong Do?

“Today’s matches are over.”

Compared to the long, boring matches that had unfolded so far, these matches ended very quickly.

Did that mean the difference in skills between the four people was clear?

I stared intently at Moyong Do calmly putting away his sword, then turned my head at Hyuk Dojin’s movement of getting up from his seat.

His hand gently approached.

“Let’s go back, wife.”

“…After laughing so much, now I’m ‘wife’?”

“Are you angry?”

I sighed at his gentle voice and expression, then shook my head.

I held the palm he held out and got up from my seat. Before leaving the martial arts arena, when I looked down, I could see Moyong Do heading towards the bottom of the martial arts arena.

After examining him for a moment, when I was about to turn my body, a commotion among people suddenly arose.

Wondering what was going on, when I turned my gaze to the martial arts arena, I could see Moyong Do collapsed on the stairs.

“What…”

The commotion intensified and doctors began to rush over to examine Moyong Do.

After blankly looking at Moyong Do, I raised my head. Jeok Biwol, who had been going down on the opposite side, was staring intently at Moyong Do.