novelraw Chapter 74 : It's an Order (4)
Chapter 74 : It's an Order (4)
Most people prefer to have meals when they talk.
Everyone must have heard it from their acquaintances at least once.
Shall we have a meal together sometime?
In the end, people have to eat to live. This is an act that cannot be refused. So, by adding the element of a meeting to this absolute flow, it is often used to indirectly say, 'Just as we must eat to live, let's be sure to meet again.'
On the other hand, a meal is also an act that can be skipped when one is busy. Also, one may not eat if one doesn't feel like it.
In the end, 'Shall we have a meal together sometime?' This phrase has the meaning of 'Let's meet again sometime,' but it should also be seen as including the meaning of 'Since we are not that close, I will not meet you when I don't want to.'
It is a truly ambiguous phrase.
Well, aside from all this, the reason people suggest eating when they want to meet is probably because when you eat, you feel relaxed and the atmosphere of the conversation improves.
So I suggested to the Rakshasa Divine Maiden that we have a meal, a meal, and gukbap at that.
Slurp.
I take a spoonful and put it in my mouth.
The savory taste of the well-cooked meat spreads throughout my mouth. Crunch. As I chew the meat, a moderate texture that is neither too tough nor too soft fills my mouth.
The point that most people consider important when eating gukbap is the gamey smell.
But as a 10-year veteran of street life.
As a regressed old-timer who has survived on gukbap for nearly 10 years and an old-timer in the gukbap world, if I were to give advice, the end of gukbap eventually converges on the texture of this meat.
Gamey smell? Of course, it shouldn't be there. The presence of a gamey smell means that fresh meat was not used, and that the preparation was done carelessly.
If you can't get this right, you should just close your gukbap business.
Then, after getting rid of the gamey smell? It's the seasoning of the broth.
Here, the herbal medicine school and the pure school diverge.
Before my regression, I liked the herbal medicine school.
Because for some reason, when I ate it, I felt like I was indirectly eating a restorative medicine, not gukbap.
Although now, I like both.
This place... is the real deal.
First of all, there is of course no gamey smell, and the meat is thick. Big. It has a chewy taste. In addition, each piece of meat has a little fat, so the more you chew, the more savory taste you can feel.
I could tell that they fully understood the advantages of the meat.
What about the broth? It is savory and light.
Although the completion of gukbap is the meat, the broth is also just as important.
The warmth and heartiness that feels as if it is coming up from the lava sleeping deep in the five sacred mountains of the Central Plains when you take a sip.
"Ahhh!"
Damn! This is life!
"Jumo! One more bowl of gukbap here!"
"Young man! You know how to eat gukbap! Our family has been selling only gukbap for three generations, and if it's someone like you, I think I can treat you to our family's secret gukbap, what do you think?"
That's right. Sometimes you meet it when you eat.
The best taste that was born after countless failures of a mother or a mother-in-law.
This is a fortunate encounter that you can have if you become a regular at a place, and if you go for about 3 years, eating one gukbap a day, you will secretly meet such a fortunate encounter.
Today is a lucky day. Because I have brought forward the time of 3 years.
The gukbap that the jumo brought out soon boasted a taste that was quite high on my gukbap list, as she had boasted.
I, who had scraped and eaten the last of the broth and rice grains left in the earthenware bowl, patted my protruding belly as I looked at the 5 earthenware bowls piled up next to me and smiled with satisfaction.
But I felt like I had forgotten something.
Although I feel great right now, a sense of unease does not go away.
Only then did I realize that I had forgotten something important.
A meal is a kind of means used to have a conversation.
The reason I came to eat gukbap was to have a conversation, not to really just eat gukbap.
I raised my head.
The Rakshasa Divine Maiden had already finished her gukbap and was looking at me.
When did she finish? Has she been looking at me like this all this time? No! If you've finished, you should say something! So that I would notice!
Yes, this is not my fault. It is the fault of the Rakshasa Divine Maiden who was just sitting there even after she had finished. If I am at fault, it is the fault of the jumo who had made the gukbap more delicious than I had thought, and it is the fault of my stomach that could not come to its senses at the proper food I was eating after three months.
So, this situation can be considered extenuating circumstances. That was the conclusion I came to.
"What have you been doing all this time?"
I calmly continued the conversation.
As a rule, the conversation that takes place over a meal is supposed to take place after the meal is over.
"I dropped off the Suicide Squad members and came back."
The Rakshasa Divine Maiden answered with a voice devoid of any emotion.
"I see."
I first expressed my gratitude.
"Thank you for saving me back then. My thanks are late."
"Well, I also gained enlightenment because of that, so you don't have to be so grateful."
"Ahem. This is a rude question, but may I ask one?"
"Is that an order?"
At that moment, I felt the jumo's sharp gaze. Because he had said something that could be misunderstood.
"Yeah. It's an order."
I continued the conversation as normally as possible.
"Why are you obsessed with orders?"
The Rakshasa Divine Maiden, Eun Ga-yeong.
Outstanding martial arts.
Elegant appearance.
A background that is not inferior wherever she goes.
If we look at the Orthodox Faction as a huge house, she could be said to be the top predator in this Orthodox Faction.
Just by being the disciple of the Heavenly Emperor, she could crush everyone except the Divine Monk with her seniority.
But looking at her, I felt that she was twisted somewhere.
It was slightly similar to the feeling of seeing the Sword Demoness of the Heavenly Demon Cult, but it was a different feeling from the Sword Demoness.
If the Sword Demoness was forcibly wrapped in chains, the Rakshasa Divine Maiden felt as if she were wrapping herself in chains.
An attitude of stubbornly insisting that it is natural, even though it is clearly unnatural to anyone.
To use an analogy, it was similar to a dog that had been tied to a leash for its entire life, considering the leash to be natural because it had lived like that for its entire life.
In such a case, even if you freely untie the leash, it will not be able to go beyond the radius where the leash was and will just wander around nearby.
To that dog, the world tied to a leash of only three feet in length is everything.
Just like the Rakshasa Divine Maiden now.
Still, a dog can live like that, but the Rakshasa Divine Maiden is a master who has reached the Profound Realm.
What would happen if she, who should be living while stirring up the world, were to live bound by a mere leash?
She would go crazy. And the world might welcome a new madman... no. A madwoman.
So I am trying to untie that leash now.
And as a result of observing her all this time, for some reason, it seems that they are no longer interested in the Rakshasa Divine Maiden.
Was the Gansu Province battle aimed at someone other than the Rakshasa Divine Maiden?
Did I get it wrong? It's quite complicated. But I'll know when I go to the Namgung family this time. What their real target is.
By the way, why is the Rakshasa Divine Maiden so obsessed with the leash of orders?
The Rakshasa Divine Maiden answered my question softly.
From the time she was abandoned by her parents and sold as a slave here and there, to the story of meeting the Heavenly Emperor and learning various things, to the latest events after entering the Suicide Squad.
And so, after hearing all the stories, I could understand why the Rakshasa Divine Maiden had become like this.
That's right. The Rakshasa Divine Maiden had never once chosen to do something on her own since she was born.
The solution to this problem was very simple.
She just had to choose to do everything on her own from now on.
And she, who had also reached a realm, would vaguely know.
That this cognitive dissonance must be corrected.
The realm called the Demonic Zenith, the Transformation Realm, can never be reached by standing still. This supreme realm is a kind of ideal that can only be reached by those who have moved forward, risking failure.
This would not be different for the Heavenly Demon Cult or the Orthodox Faction.
In the end, the Rakshasa Divine Maiden had also struggled to move forward from her past, and that is why she is in front of me now.
However, the reason her mind was still stuck in the past even though her body had moved forward was probably because she still didn't know the method because she had never dreamed of any future, unlike me, who had always dreamed of a honey-sucking future.
If I were to tell her a little about the method here, her mind would be able to catch up with her body in no time, as if a floodgate had been opened.
"This is the last order. From now on, don't listen to anyone's orders."
* * *
It had been empty ever since the Gansu Province battle.
The reason was immediately apparent.
The Suicide Squad had been disbanded.
The people who had belonged to it had scattered to their respective factions.
Now, only she was left.
She had tried to carry out the order given by the Heavenly Emperor on her own, but the target had disappeared.
The Demonic Cult had sealed itself.
Still, there was a second order.
But this also faced difficulties. The person who was supposed to give the order had lost consciousness.
And so, three months passed without doing anything.
And the moment she saw the master who would finally give the order wake up, Eun Ga-yeong felt the hole in her heart that had been empty for the past few days being filled.
She could finally escape from this emptiness.
Unlike usual, her heart was pounding.
The master, as soon as he saw her, suggested that they eat gukbap. She wasn't hungry, but it was the words of the master she had been waiting for.
She could gladly accept even if he were to ask for her life in this place.
What she needed now was just one thing.
An order to guide her.
She finished a bowl of gukbap and happily waited for the order that would fall from the master.
The master just kept eating gukbap.
By the time five empty earthenware bowls had piled up.
The master finally looked at her.
It's coming, it's finally coming. The thing I've been waiting for is finally coming!
"Why are you obsessed with orders?"
But what the master threw was a question she had never heard before in her life.
Why was she obsessed with orders?
For Eun Ga-yeong, it was a natural act like breathing, so she couldn't understand it at first. But since this was also an order, Eun Ga-yeong answered the question sincerely and with all her might.
Fortunately, the master seemed satisfied with her answer and nodded.
Eun Ga-yeong could instinctively tell that a new order would come this time.
Gathering her excited heart again, Eun Ga-yeong waited, and his mouth opened.
"This is the last order. From now on, don't listen to anyone's orders."
At first, she thought she had misheard. But she was someone with a hearing ability that transcended perception. She could tell that that was not the case.
"Did I do something wrong?"
All the masters she had had so far had demands of her. Whether it was base, noble, revenge, or whatever.
That was no different for people of high status, and it was no different for people of low status.
The same went for those who were called saints, not to mention the masters of martial arts.
Everyone in this world had their own abyss.
Until you looked into it, you couldn't know how dark the abyss was.
However, there was only a difference in whether one hid it from the world or not.
And Eun Ga-yeong was their only outlet.
"You've listened to my orders too well so far. You even saved me."
"But why won't you give me any more orders?"
Eun Ga-yeong was anxious. Orders were the only means by which Eun Ga-yeong lived her life. Now that that was gone, there was no reason to live.
"Life is originally something you have to live as you please so that you don't have regrets later."
"I like it now."
This was Eun Ga-yeong's sincere feeling.
"Then why did you save me?"
"That's..."
For a moment, Eun Ga-yeong was at a loss for words.
"The last order I gave you was not to save me, but to prioritize your own survival."
"Th-that's..."
"Why did you save a burden like me?"
Cognitive dissonance.
"..."
"You must also know that something in you has started to go wrong. And the change is still happening now. Don't try to ignore it. If you do, you'll shit blood later."
She tried to deny it, but she couldn't.
That's right. Because she had already felt it.
The words he was saying now were also an order. If it was an order, she just had to listen and carry it out. But her current self could not accept it.
"If you don't know what to do, how about trying to do what you want to do first?"
The master... is he not a master anymore? The former master continued to speak to her calmly.
"If you do those things one by one, you'll eventually know what you really want to do. And that's when."
The former master grinned.
"It's the first start of a truly honey-sucking life."
The former master got up.
"Then, I have something to do, so I'll be going first."
The former master left.
The emptiness came again.
And she could realize that from now on, she had to fill this emptiness herself, not someone else.
Of course, she had no idea how to fill it.
Eun Ga-yeong had lived her entire life listening to someone's orders.
When she was at home, she followed her parents' words, and when she was a slave, she followed her master's words.
Now, neither her parents nor her master existed.
She was all alone in the world.
She didn't have to follow the order to save the Orthodox Faction.
She also didn't have to follow the order to follow the Sword Emperor.
What should I do now?
What came to mind was the last thing she had heard.
"Do what you want to do."
What do I want to do?
It was a kind of thing she had never thought about in her life.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't find an answer.
And the conclusion she came to after much deliberation was observation.
The target was her former master.
Since he had given her such an order, if she observed him, she would be able to find the reason.
Eun Ga-yeong got up from her seat.
She immediately followed the footprints left by her former master.
(End of Chapter)