I told Dokgorin the secret I had been hiding all this time.
For some reason, I knew about future events, but I used the excuse that different incidents kept happening as a reason to do nothing even though I had plenty of time to prepare.
Hearing this, Dokgorin was taken aback.
If I suddenly said I knew the future, such a reaction was to be expected.
But since she was treating me honestly, I no longer wanted to respond with lies.
So I humbly waited for her response.
Would she be angry?
She would definitely be angry.
If I had said this a little sooner, I might have been able to save the family.
But,
Dokgorin showed a reaction I never anticipated—something completely different.
“Ah, so that’s how it is.”
Surprisingly composed, Dokgorin accepted the truth I had revealed.
“What?”
I made a perplexed expression, and Dokgorin asked with a bitter smile.
“Why the long face? Do you think Chilbok would blame you?”
“……”
“If knowing the future could change everything, then terms like unfairness wouldn’t even exist in this world.”
Dokgorin said that while meeting my gaze.
“And actually, I have something I haven’t told Chilbok either. Do you want to hear it?”
“What is it?”
“Just like Chilbok knew about the future events, I also knew about them.”
Right after that, Dokgorin spoke in a calm voice.
“In fact, I’ve returned from the future, 16 years ahead.”
*
I never imagined this.
Could it be that Dokgorin was a regressionist?
Just as I knew the future because of the ‘original work,’ Dokgorin also knew about future events through ‘regression.’
However, the future she knew was slightly different from what I knew from the original work.
Because there was an ‘outlier’ that didn’t exist in the original novel by her side.
And that outlier was none other than ‘me.’
The Chilbok from before her regression had already struggled once to change the future.
And the reason the future I knew had changed was that Dokgorin, who experienced the first round alongside me, acted a step ahead.
In other words, unknowingly, we were influencing each other.
“So, the Chilbok from before your regression… in other words, the Chilbok from the first round worked hard to save you?”
“Yeah. That’s right. Even then, in the situation where our family was facing destruction, Chilbok risked his life to protect me. That’s why I fell for you.”
Honestly, it was a complicated feeling.
Hearing that the other version of me risked his life to save her was…
And yet, I felt pathetic about myself.
According to Dokgorin’s explanation, the me from the first round was a tremendous man who risked everything for the woman he loved, but I, the current me, did nothing and was a coward despite being the same being.
But then, there was a question that lingered.
According to Dokgorin, the source of everything that happened in the first round seemed to be Weijichun, as far as I knew, but the Weijichun from the second round died of alcoholism two years before the original work began.
If that was the case, since the person responsible for all the events was dead, there shouldn’t have been any incidents, yet the massacre of the Dokgo family happened once again.
In other words, the one who caused the massacre of the Dokgo family was not Weijichun but another individual or organization.
When I brought up this reasoning, Dokgorin nodded in agreement, saying my thoughts were correct.
And she said she knew the identity of that ominous being.
I didn’t expect her to know the answer, so I swallowed hard and asked Dokgorin.
“Who is it?”
Then Dokgorin calmly replied.
“It’s the Imperial Family.”
“The Imperial Family? Are they involved in this?”
It was news to me.
That was not mentioned in the original work.
“They probably wanted this secret technique. Apart from that, I can’t guess.”
As she said that, Dokgorin pulled out the secret technique to the Gucheonyun Sword.
“But if they need strong martial arts, surely the royal library has a lot more. Or is there something particularly special about that martial art?”
“…Special?”
Was there something about that, I wondered, and Dokgorin opened the book again.
“Now that you mention it, the Gucheonyun Sword technique was related to the method of nourishing life.”
“The method of nourishing life?”
“Literally, it’s a way to live healthily for a long time. And the ultimate goal of the method of nourishing life is to become an immortal.”
Immortality.
Truly, that was something powerful people would find hard to resist.
Even Qin Shi Huang, who unified China, fell victim to the persuasion of sorcerers and died after consuming mercury.
That was how irresistible the story of immortality was for those in power.
“If someone from the Imperial Family wanted it enough to break the non-aggression treaty and secretly obtain it, there wouldn’t be any other reason.”
“…That does make sense. So the agents of the mastermind must be the Dongchang or Jinweiy.”
The Golden Army was strong.
This was a fact even prideful martial artists acknowledged.
With systematic military training and pouring in resources gathered from the entire nation, that’s how elite troops of the Imperial Family were made.
Especially with the use of spears, known as the kings of melee weapons, they were formidable opponents, even for adept masters.
If they were mobilized for this matter, even the Dokgo family would find it impossible to endure.
The more we exchanged information, the clearer the outline of the overall incident became.
It wasn’t certain, but it had some credibility.
If I had known it would come to this, I would have revealed things much earlier, and while I regretted that now, I also realized that I had to think and act wisely from this point on.
Because if I ended up dead in the middle of vengeance like the me from the first round, it would be useless.
*
Sitting on a tree stump at the mountain peak, we exchanged information for quite a while before realizing that the sun was setting.
It was now too late to descend the mountain, so we had no choice but to camp here for the night.
After lighting a fire with branches gathered from the surroundings, we toasted the jerky we had been carrying as an emergency snack.
The jerky of this era was nearly as hard as a stone compared to modern ones.
It would be more accurate to say that it was food eaten for survival rather than for flavor.
Generally, it was soaked in water before eating, but since water was scarce on the mountain ridge, we decided to make do without it.
After finishing that flavorless meal, while I was lost in thought watching the flickering campfire, Dokgorin suddenly asked.
“By the way, Chilbok, what kind of person was I in the original future you mentioned?”
That was a difficult question.
Basically, the “heavenly poison witch” felt like a revenge story filled with stimulating elements, so the Dokgorin in the novel was certainly not a happy character.
Rather, after all her family was killed and she was the only one left, she was a pitiful woman who lived her life solely seeking vengeance, right?
But I found it hard to convey that to her now that we were lovers.
So after organizing my thoughts, I blurted out.
“You were a lonely person.”
“A lonely person…?”
“Without anyone to rely on, you trusted no one and wandered the world only seeking revenge.”
The original Dokgorin had no support like “me.”
Perhaps that’s why a significant difference was created compared to now.
“Maybe the me from the first round, knowing such an unfortunate future, wanted to save you.”
If someone were fundamentally just like me, they might have thought this way.
“I hope Dokgorin finds happiness.”
Even though he failed along the way, I still had a chance left.
Just knowing that made me feel relieved.
“……”
Upon hearing my answer, Dokgorin said nothing.
She merely hugged her knees and stared vacantly into the campfire, then eventually uttered a simple word.
“Thank you.”
I glanced at Dokgorin’s face and replied, “You’re welcome.”
*
When I woke up in the morning, the campfire that had burned all night had already gone out.
As I was organizing my sleeping area, Dokgorin, who had been sleeping under the blanket, also opened her eyes.
“Is it already morning?”
“Yes. Time to get up.”
I said that and sprinkled dirt over the ashes to extinguish any remaining embers.
Dokgorin, moving slowly, got up.
Though her appearance was a mess since she hadn’t washed, her beauty still shone through.
After washing her face with the water we had been carrying, Dokgorin wiped her face with a dry cloth and said,
“If we hustle a bit, we should be able to reach the Sanchondang family by today, so let’s use the technique.”
“Got it.”
I replied and put the blanket I had used as a sleeping bag into my backpack, then wanted to ask Dokgorin something that just came to mind.
“By the way, what kind of person is your maternal grandfather?”
“Well, he’s a good person.”
“That sounds a bit unsettling.”
“You’ll know once you meet him.”
Saying that, Dokgorin shrugged, then slung her backpack filled with blankets on her back and extended her right hand towards me.
I stared at Dokgorin’s outstretched hand and took it reluctantly.
