Invincible with Twin Swords

Chapter 23 : I Have Now Changed the Future!

Is it that cursed nickname 'Walking Corpse' again?

"Wait! I'll explain everything!"

"Throw these scoundrels out immediately!"

The guards threatened us with their swords and gestured for us to go outside.

I could subdue the two of them with my bare hands alone, but I couldn't make a scene when I had come for help.

"Gwideukja! Gwideukja sent me!"

A moment of silence fell when I mentioned Gwideukja's name.

No words were heard from inside the bead curtain. Only after a long time did she open her mouth.

"The two of you may leave for a moment."

Even after the two guards left, she said nothing for a long time.

He is the father who abandoned her when she was young. How could she not resent him?

"I never thought I would hear his name from someone I'm seeing for the first time in my own home."

She called her father 'that person'.

"He was always worried."

"Well. I don't think he would have been worried. Then, did the two of you perhaps come from 'that place'?"

There are a lot of 'that places' these days. The 'that place' Na Yeryeong is talking about is probably the Blood Cult. Because Gwideukja is probably in the Blood Cult right now.

"It's not the Blood Cult."

I said coolly. I'm not from the Blood Cult, so there's no need to hide it.

"There is something Gwideukja gave me, but I can't control it. He said that if I have difficulties, I should find his daughter and ask for help."

I omitted the important information and only said the key points.

- Swish!

The bead curtain was lifted.

Inside, Gwideukja's daughter, Na Yeryeong, was sitting, looking at me with curious eyes.

She seemed to be around twenty years old, with a graceful white face and large black eyes that seemed to pull you in.

I couldn't tell what it was. There was just a power in those eyes that made you have to keep looking.

I found myself looking into those eyes and, realizing that I had been making eye contact with her for too long, I averted my gaze.

"I have no obligation to grant the request of the person who was once my father. Because he and I have no relationship now."

He is the father who left home when she was young. It was a natural reaction.

"However, the reason I am lifting this bead curtain and talking to you is because I am also a sorceress. I can't help but be curious about you."

It's exciting that a beautiful woman can't help but be curious about me, but it's probably not what I'm thinking.

"Your path is very strange."

Most of those who come to a fortune-telling house are to know the future.

But in most fortune-telling houses, they guess the past more accurately than the future. Of course, that alone is an amazing thing.

The reason is simple.

A talented sorceress can see the path the person in front of her is walking. The path she has walked is the past, and the path she will walk is the future.

The path that has already been passed is clear.

But the path that will be walked in the future is blurry.

The past is something you see, but the future is something you predict.

That's why, in the eyes of a sorceress, the past is clear and the future is blurry.

In most fortune-telling houses, they guess the past surprisingly well, but they mumble about the future. The less skilled the shamaness, the more so.

This is what Gwideukja told me in the past.

Right now, Na Yeryeong is saying that the path I am walking is strange.

"Perhaps because I have a complicated story..."

There is no need to confess everything to her. She is not a necessary person for my plan.

"Could it be? Could it be? No. It can't be. It's absurd. It's impossible for something like that to be possible."

She was about to ask something, but she shook her head from side to side and muttered to herself.

Does she usually talk to herself a lot?

Could it be that she wants to say that we are fated?

She looked at me for a long time and then said again.

"Your past and future are chaotically mixed. It's absurd. The paths of the past and future cannot exist together."

My life has been complicated recently. To the point where it's difficult for even me, who experienced it directly, to explain.

How should I explain this? But I can't confess everything to Na Yeryeong.

She is different from Deoksam and Parip hyungnim. They are people who have been through a hellish future together. I had infinite trust in them.

But not this woman.

I just want to get help with the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent sleeping in my right arm. I had no intention of working with her to find the Heavenly Demon. It doesn't seem like she would be of much help either.

"Your future seems like a past that has already passed. As if you are a person who has returned to the past from the future. It's absurd, but. Ah! Could it be that you are trying to change the future right now?"

"Ah, I am trying to change the future, but I didn't come to you for that. In fact, in my right arm, a crazy snake bastard..."

"The future does not change!"

What is this girl saying?

To discourage a person who is risking his life to change it?

"Everything is in vain. No matter how much you struggle, the future does not change. The future of you that I see in my eyes right now does not deviate from the path you have already experienced. It does not change!"

All the goodwill I had for her beautiful first impression disappeared.

She denied my goal.

That is the same as denying my current life.

It is to deny the lives of all people who are striving for something in this moment.

I hate people who deny someone's desperate efforts.

I looked at her silently for a long time and then, pointing at the teacup on the table, I said.

"This teacup is full of fragrant tea right now. What is the future of the tea in this teacup?"

Na Yeryeong looked at me with a puzzled expression, as if asking what I meant.

"What is the future of this white orchid tea that you see? This tea was originally placed here to serve us. It was the future of this tea to enter my mouth and flow down my throat."

I held the teacup with my right hand and brought it to my face.

And I squeezed the hand holding the teacup and broke it.

The white orchid tea that was in it splattered everywhere, and my face was also a mess.

Cut by the broken teacup, my hand was covered in blood.

At the sound of the teacup breaking, the guards who were waiting outside rushed in again.

Na Yeryeong was startled and was about to say something.

I wiped the tea that had splattered on my face with my bleeding right hand.

Because of that, my face was covered in bloodstains.

"Did you know that this teacup, the tea in this teacup, would become like this?"

Na Yeryeong's unwavering gaze wavered.

"I have now changed the future you knew!"

* * *

Na Yeryeong guided us to a separate annex.

She said we should stay here for one night and talk again tomorrow.

"Does it hurt a lot?"

Deoksam asked, applying wound medicine to my hand that was cut by the teacup.

"I was a ronin who had rolled around in harsh battlefields where heads were cut off and intestines spilled out for my whole life. To be cut a little by a mere teacup, what's so... ah! Apply the medicine gently. It stings a lot."

Strangely, it doesn't hurt when my stomach is stabbed with a sword, but it hurts so much even if my fingertip is just slightly cut by a broken piece of porcelain or the edge of a piece of paper.

"Is my younger brother always such a crybaby? Over a small hand injury."

Ah, hyungnim, why are you like this too.

"Your hand is fine now, so wipe your face too. It's all bloody, anyone who sees it would think you came from fighting the Heavenly Demon."

I looked in the bronze mirror and my face was covered in blood.

"It seems things have gotten a bit complicated."

Parip hyungnim said.

"There's nothing complicated. I just stopped by to see if I could find a way to release the seal of the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent in the first place. It has nothing to do with finding the traces of the Demonic Cult."

Perhaps I might have to ask for help one more time.

I don't know what form the Demonic Cult's revelation takes. If it's a form I can't interpret even after I've had a hard time finding it, I can at least ask for advice.

Was breaking the teacup earlier too much?

I should get closer to her tomorrow.

The next morning, when I went out to the main gate, the two guards I had seen yesterday were putting up a notice on the main gate.

'Closed Today.'

Outside the gate, those who had come to Heavenly Secret Hall since morning were turning back with disappointment.

"What's the matter?"

"It's the master's order. She said she has other things to do today."

My rampage yesterday must have worked.

I met Na Yeryeong again.

Her expression was softer than yesterday. There was also a feeling that she wanted to ask something.

"Were the quarters not uncomfortable?"

Her words are also polite. She's even prettier seeing her again today.

As expected, a person's face looks prettier when their words are beautiful.

"Thanks to you, I rested well. I showed a bad side of myself on our first meeting yesterday because I was excited. I apologize."

"No. It must have been Mr. Jin's will."

The conversation was going well. Now is the moment to bring up the story of the crazy snake bastard in my right arm.

"The purpose of my visit here is..."

"It must be because of your right arm. I don't know how you came to have such a power."

It's all because of your father.

"My father, Gwideukja, transferred the power he had to my right arm. He said it was a Black-Scaled Blood Serpent."

And I took out the Ink Blood Saber that was wrapped in cloth.

The dark red blade that seemed to pull you in revealed itself.

"It seems to resonate with this guy, but I can't control its power at all."

It's the guy I've been hugging day and night, saying I'll tame it. But this guy is always unfamiliar.

Na Yeryeong looked at my right arm and the Ink Blood Saber for a long time.

"It's not a problem with the sword that holds that strange energy. That sword is ready to accept the power. The problem is Mr. Jin's right arm."

"I think so too."

What I felt after fainting several times was that the Ink Blood Saber was trying to draw my energy, but the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent in my right arm was trying to clash with my internal energy without mixing with it.

To the point where I even tried to soothe my right arm by calling it 'Mukrin-ah!' affectionately.

"I will tell you one thing first. The reason I am helping you is not because of my father's request. It's difficult to say now, but I also have a scheduled event. I am helping you, thinking of it as a process of that event."

A person like me cannot understand the plans of those who see the future. Anyway, isn't she saying she'll help?

I nodded.

"The power in your right arm has its own will. I see something that is only seen in living things."

Gwideukja said that I had to be chosen by the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent.

"It's one of two things. Either you wait until it chooses Mr. Jin and opens its power..."

"And the second?"

"You will have to subdue it with force. No matter how much of a spiritual beast it is, it's still a beast."

I liked the second method. I couldn't be chosen by a mere spiritual beast. Besides, how long am I supposed to wait to be chosen?

I will quickly subdue this crazy snake bastard and suck out its power to my heart's content.

"Let's go with the second method. What should I do?"

"I will awaken the power sleeping in your right arm. It is currently bound by a curse seal. To open that power, I will carve a new curse seal on Mr. Jin's right arm."

"And after that?"

"The rest is up to Mr. Jin. I can't predict what will happen either. It will be one of two things. Either you eat it, or you get eaten..."

This young lady likes 'one of two things'.

Let's go with the first one for this.

(End of Chapter)