Chapter 139

People were already glancing at us as we passed by, holding each other.

“Hurry, Domi Oppa, I want to check if you’re doing well next to me.”

As Ayu said that, her face turning bright red, I forced a bitter smile and gently lifted her, turning her body toward the wall.

This way, at least, the people passing by would only see my back.

Seeing me like that, Ayu slightly closed her eyes.

Although I felt a bit embarrassed doing it myself, I lowered my head following Ayu, who had raised hers.

*Smooch*

And then, Ayu’s lips met mine.

Slowly opening her eyes, Ayu smiled happily, hugged me, and rubbed her head against my chest.

Cute, huh?

“Is it that good?”

“It’s so good. Let’s do it again later.”

“Let’s find Dohwa first.”

“We should find her quickly!”

Seemingly energized, Ayu said that with an excited expression, and I couldn’t help but laugh along.

“First of all, we don’t know why Dohwa disappeared, right?”

“Yeah, I don’t know the reason, but she was always cleaning at home.”

Dohwa has grown up wonderfully.

Considering Ayu’s personality, she wasn’t the type to clean well, so I silently comforted Dohwa for a moment.

“Anything else?”

“Hmm, she often watched TV. News, I told her one channel, and she watched it every day. Maybe she found stories from other worlds interesting?”

News, huh.

Certainly, that doesn’t give much of a clue.

‘Then.’

It’s better to leave this to the experts.

“Eun-hyeon.”

As I looked around and called out, a silver fox appeared on top of a utility pole.

She lightly jumped down and wagged her tail.

“Silver fox, you’re still following us?”

“Well, it’s Lady Seol-hyang’s orders.”

As Ayu asked, Eun-hyeon answered.

Although I’ve gotten much stronger recently, I’m still far from being a Returner.

“Eun-hyeon, you can sense it, right? Can you possibly find Dohwa?”

“I’ll try to find her.”

Eun-hyeon answered reliably, did a backflip, and disappeared with a *poof*.

Watching Eun-hyeon, I looked down at Ayu.

“Should we ask the others?”

“No. Even if there are a few people, it’s similar if there’s a silver fox. Let’s just go around together.”

With that, Ayu and I started going to places Dohwa might have gone.

The first place we went was a mart near Ayu’s house.

It was quite a large mart, and Ayu held my arm as she looked around.

“It’s been about a day since Dohwa disappeared, right?”

“Yeah, she left yesterday morning and hasn’t come back since.”

Ayu also thought she would come back by evening at first.

But when she didn’t return even by morning, she ended up searching herself and called me.

“Would Dohwa come to the mart?”

“She asked where to buy food ingredients. I told her.”

“So she was cooking too.”

“It was tasty.”

A model wife, huh.

“By the way, it’s not that I can’t cook. Dohwa just said she’d do it.”

“I didn’t say anything, though.”

“Hey, your eyes don’t believe me. Domi Oppa, just wait. I’ll cook for you at your place.”

At that moment, I wondered if my stomach would be okay.

“And after cooking, since I’ll be full, I might just sleep over. Yeah.”

Saying that with her face bright red was so like Ayu.

“Ayu.”

At that moment, something occurred to me.

“Huh? What? You don’t like me?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Eek!?”

As Ayu was about to collapse in surprise, I caught her and said.

“Dohwa, maybe she just gave up and went back?”

“Huh?”

Ayu, holding onto my arm, widened her eyes.

Went back.

It seems Ayu hadn’t thought of that.

“It’s been a month. Dohwa couldn’t have taken you by force. If she gave up and went back…”

“…That could be possible.”

Hearing my words, Ayu also fell into thought for a moment.

“But even if she went back, she wouldn’t be able to save Murim. Would that make sense?”

“You said Dohwa kept watching the news, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Maybe she found some method from the news.”

“Is there a method worth finding from the news?”

It was just a guess, so it was ambiguous.

“…Did she find someone related to Murim?”

“A Returner?”

Ayu scratched her head.

“Except for me, they’re all useless, so I don’t know.”

Impressive.

“What was the most frequently mentioned news recently?”

“From what I saw, it was mostly about Jung-gu.”

If it’s about Jung-gu, it’s about Giraseong and the World Returner Association.

As Ayu mentioned that, she suddenly stopped talking.

Did she think of something?

“Ayu, did something come to mind?”

“Yeah, no, well. There was someone called the Hero of Troubled Times.”

“Hero of Troubled Times?”

“Yeah, before I became Cheon Hong-ryun. Everyone said if that person were here, Murim wouldn’t be in this state. Because that hero was the teacher of both the Murim Alliance leader who first established the Murim Alliance and the Supreme Leader of the Demon Sect.”

The teacher of both the Murim Alliance leader and the Supreme Leader of the Demon Sect?

What kind of person was that?

Two disciples at completely opposite ends.

“Where is that person?”

“He died before I even possessed this body. Without a clear reason. The problem is that because of that, the Murim Alliance blamed the Demon Sect, and the Demon Sect blamed the Murim Alliance, and their relationship became the worst.”

Saying that, Ayu looked up at me.

“In Jung-gu, people survived thanks to Juk-sim.”

“…Maybe Dohwa thought if she could revive that hero, she could protect Murim?”

It’s a stretch, but as a desperate attempt, it wasn’t bad.

“Yeah, so maybe she’s trying to find Juk-sim.”

Juk-sim’s soul only lingers for three days, so reviving someone who died long ago would be impossible.

But Dohwa doesn’t know that.

So rather than relying on Ayu, she might have decided to find a way herself, gathering information from the news and coming up with this.

“But do you know where Juk-sim is?”

Juk-sim is always at home.

His appearance is just a vague story among people, so can Dohwa find him?

“Dohwa knows a lot of miscellaneous techniques. She probably knows a technique to trace back events that happened at a certain location.”

“Then Dohwa is…”

“Most likely in Jung-gu.”

Ayu and I locked eyes.

We both nodded and immediately left the mart.

At that moment, my phone started ringing.

The caller was none other than Eun-hyeon.

“Eun-hyeon, did you find her?”

[Well, something seems to have happened.]

Eun-hyeon paused for a moment before speaking.

[We found traces of Cheonma’s younger sibling fighting someone.]

Something was starting to happen.

I hurried to Jung-gu with Ayu.

Because the place where Eun-hyeon found Dohwa’s traces was none other than Jung-gu.

When we arrived, what we saw were messy sword marks on the wall.

Thanks to the spell Eun-hyeon cast, ordinary people couldn’t see it.

But it was clear to anyone that something unusual had happened.

“…This is definitely Dohwa.”

Ayu seemed to have figured something out just from the sword marks on the wall.

To my eyes, they all looked the same, but it seemed like she saw something.

“What about the other side?”

“The Demon Sect…”

Ayu’s eyes narrowed.

The Demon Sect, during Ayu’s time as Cheonma in that world, were like her limbs.

“Why would they attack Dohwa?”

“I don’t know that far. We’ll have to ask Dohwa herself.”

Ayu bit her lip and let out a long sigh.

“…I should have talked more with Dohwa.”

Ayu had been reluctant to talk with Dohwa.

That’s why, even though they lived together, they didn’t have much conversation.

Before Ayu became more depressed, I changed the topic to Eun-hyeon.

“Eun-hyeon, is there anything else?”

“The traces end here. I’m expanding the detection area, but there’s no progress yet.”

As Eun-hyeon said that, Ayu wiped away her gloomy expression and looked at her.

“Didn’t Dohwa close the dimensional gate she opened? How did these guys get in?”

“That was a temporary measure. The dimension around Seoul is too unstable, so the gate isn’t properly closed. Moreover, with the dimension unstable, checking for dimensional intrusions is extremely tricky.”

Even the World Returner Association couldn’t do much about the unstable dimension.

“The Tower of Apocalypse holds sole control over Earth’s dimension.”

And Baeksan added the reason why the World Returner Association finds dimensional matters tricky.

If only the Tower of Apocalypse weren’t there, they could intervene and stabilize the dimension.

But since the Tower of Apocalypse holds the dimension itself, intervention is impossible.

‘It’s like observing the moon without directly seeing it, only through its reflection in water.’

It must be maddening for not just the World Returner Association but also other dimensional-related organizations and nations.

“I’ll send people to Cheonma’s dimensional gate. And I’ll continue searching for Cheonma’s younger sibling.”

As Eun-hyeon said that and disappeared, Ayu let out a deep sigh.

It seemed tiring for Ayu, as Cheon Hong-ryun’s life, which she thought was no longer relevant, kept resurfacing.

“Ayu, is Dohwa hurt?”

“…Yeah, but it’s strange. That kid’s hair color turns plum when she reaches the peak of Hwagyeong, just before Hyungyeong. Even if it’s a dimensional gate I opened, she must have forced her way through.”

Ayu brushed her reddening hair as she spoke.

It seemed that Ayu’s red hair and Dohwa’s plum-colored hair were signs of reaching a certain level.

“But the sword marks themselves are purely defensive, with no attacks.”

“These people also crossed dimensions like Dohwa. So, the Demon Sect must have people of that level too, right?”

“They’re not that weak, but not at Dohwa’s level. These guys just followed the path Dohwa opened.”

Dohwa was badly injured crossing over to this dimension.

But the Demon Sect people seemed to have crossed over more easily thanks to the path Dohwa opened.

“The problem is that Dohwa didn’t sense any hostility when fighting these guys.”

“That means the attacker is someone she knows.”

Hearing that, Ayu’s eyes slowly turned red, revealing a deep killing intent.

*Growl*

“How dare the Demon Sect cause trouble where I live…”

I went behind her and lifted her by the waist.

Of course, Ayu, being shorter than me, was easily lifted.

“Stop being so angry. Let’s find Dohwa first.”

“…Okay.”

Good that she listens.

As I put Ayu down, she glanced at the sword marks again.

She still seemed bothered by something.

“So, is there a way to find Dohwa?”

Ayu asked, looking at me.

She seemed to be asking out of frustration, as there were no leads.

“Ayu, Dohwa came to Jung-gu to find Juk-sim, right?”

Ayu’s eyes widened at that.

“Then.”

“Would a cat pass by fish?”

The answer is simple.

Go to Juk-sim and find out.