Chapter 73
I stared blankly with my mouth hanging open.
‘Pyeonghyeon… is Lee Sahyeon?’
What was that supposed to mean?
No, wait. Before that, I was pretty sure I’d just heard something absolutely shocking.
‘Lord Lee Sahyeon, the sole son of Lee Jinwon…’
‘The sole son of Lee Jinwon…’
‘Sole son…’
“Son?”
Like a broken robot, I creaked my head around and stared at Pyeonghyeon… Lee Sahyeon.
Sahyeon shyly turned his head away.
“You, you, you…”
I couldn’t hold it in and shouted,
“You were a guy?!”
Sahyeon answered in a tiny voice.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?”
Was this something that could be resolved by saying sorry?!
I was genuinely flustered.
Seriously, I hadn’t even suspected for a second that Sahyeon was a man.
Wasn’t that only natural? His white face still covered in soft fuzz, his clear and pure eyes like a deer’s, and his cheeks gradually turning rosy made him look exactly like a flower bud that had only just begun to bloom…
‘Wait a second.’
Hadn’t I done all sorts of things to him?
Right, I had.
Thinking he was a girl, I’d talked about his chest and all that, saying things like, ‘You have them too, so why are you so embarrassed? If you want to see mine, I’ll show you,’ and even subtly lifted my clothes.
And that wasn’t all. He was small and pretty, and he was always wriggling into my arms like some little animal, so hadn’t I been cuddling him in my arms until just a moment ago?
But what?
A boy?
“…That can’t be.”
“Pardon?”
“You? Someone who looked like you were born with the word ‘girl’ stamped on your forehead? You, who are going to become an extraordinarily beautiful woman in the future, are a man? You have ‘one of those’ between your legs?”
“It, it, it is there… That’s, that’s true, but…”
“No, no-no-no! My Pyeonghyeon, my cute, adorable, pretty, lovely, sly, affectionate little Pyeonghyeon couldn’t possibly have one of those. And I didn’t feel anything behind me when I carried you on my back?”
“W-what are you talking about, Unnie!”
“Unnie~?”
At that moment, Sahyeon clapped both hands over his mouth as though he’d just made some tremendous mistake.
I rolled my eyes.
“Unnie? Even in this situation, you’re still calling me that? Look at you, you really planned this out, didn’t you?”
“No, it’s just a habit…”
“A habit, huh? Just how many times have you gone around going ‘Unnie, unnie’ for it to come out that naturally? Tell me, just how many noona have you seduced?”
“Pardon?”
“No wonder the way you kept throwing yourself into my arms seemed suspicious. You always do this, don’t you? Pretending to be a pure, harmless girl who knows nothing, acting cute with older girls until you turn them into slaves to your love!”
“When did I ever do that?!”
“Oho, now you’re denying it? Look at what happened just now. Why did you throw yourself at me? You naturally nestled into my arms and rubbed against me. Huh? Come to think of it, you even rubbed your face against my chest?!”
“I-I-I-I didn’t do that!”
“Hyeonah, mind your manners!”
Sahyeon finally shouted at the top of his lungs, and Eom Papa raised his voice as well.
I teased Sahyeon a little more before finally bursting into laughter.
Honestly, I was still flustered inside.
Still, if it had been some hairy-legged man acting like that, I would’ve found it terribly uncomfortable. But perhaps because Sahyeon was so pretty that he felt more like a cute younger sibling, even after learning the truth, I didn’t feel much rejection.
Besides, I had my own circumstances for disguising myself as a man, so I figured Sahyeon probably had his reasons too…
‘Still, I’d better be careful from now on.’
I finally stopped laughing and said,
“I was just joking, just joking. Honestly, I was surprised, and even putting the gender thing aside, I am a ‘little’ hurt that you didn’t properly tell me your name either…”
“I’m really sorry. Really…”
“Anyway, whether you’re Sahyeon or Pyeonghyeon, you’re still you. The person I’ve known all this time is only one person. Right?”
“……”
Sahyeon looked at me with a deeply moved expression. He must have been extremely touched, because tears had even gathered in his large eyes.
Before things could get too sentimental, I quickly changed the subject.
“So why have you been dressing as a girl all this time? And why did you reveal it now?”
“That…”
Sahyeon hesitated for a moment and looked at Eom Papa. Eom Papa immediately nodded as though she had asked something obvious.
Sahyeon soon explained the circumstances.
“It was to hide my identity.”
“Your identity?”
“Yes.”
Sahyeon continued calmly.
“As I mentioned earlier, Eom Papa and I are members of the Guangjin Sect. At present, the Guangjin Sect is practically considered a group of traitors in the Central Plains martial world. Everyone is frantic to kill us if they find any Guangjin Sect members.”
“Oh…”
“And I’m the last remaining bloodline of the former Sect Leader of the Guangjin Sect. If they discover my identity, they’ll wage an all-out war to completely sever the Guangjin Sect’s lineage. Then not only I, but the remaining followers of the sect could also be in danger.”
“……”
“So I’m not actually supposed to go outside in the first place… but I threw a tantrum. In the end, we decided that outside, Eom Papa and I would pretend to be grandmother and granddaughter…”
And that was how they diverted people’s attention.
I nodded without realizing it.
It was a pretty good plan. Honestly, I hadn’t even known Sahyeon was a man, let alone a member of the Guangjin Sect, until he told me. But there was still one fundamental question left unanswered.
And the root of that question was…
“But what’s the Guangjin Sect?”
“……”
“Um… and why did you suddenly start calling me Sect Leader? I don’t remember joining any religion…”
“…That is connected to why I revealed my identity to you. First, let me explain the Guangjin Sect to you. These are things you need to know from now on as well.”
Sahyeon slowly began to tell me.
***
The Guangjin Sect.
As the name suggests, it was a religion.
The unusual thing about it, however, was that they believed in the ‘Father of Light.’
‘Not even the Father in Heaven, but the Father of Light? What the heck is that?’
According to the doctrines of the Guangjin Sect, in the beginning, the world was created through the opposition between light and darkness.
Light and darkness clashed three times as they created the world, and during the third conflict, light fell from the heavens and the darkness of the earth swallowed the light. From this, humanity was born.
Thus, humans became incomplete beings in whom both light and darkness existed simultaneously.
The Father of Light, Myeongbu, pitied such humans and wished to lead them toward the light, so he sent his son, Myeongja, down into the human world.
Myeongja spread the doctrine throughout the world, and the first apostle he took in was…
“The founder of the Guangjin Sect.”
Hearing that, I was impressed.
‘Wow, this sounds like a cult.’
I’d heard something like this somewhere before. Something about the ‘Second Coming × Christ’ and all that… Ah, I guess this one is different because he’s an apostle?
And their eccentricities didn’t end there.
They believed that all the suffering humans experienced was because humans possessed both light and darkness.
Therefore, they believed that to eliminate suffering, they had to nurture the light and suppress the darkness. And to do so, one had to do good, pursue justice, and seek the truth.
I was impressed once again.
‘Isn’t this basically just telling people to live properly?’
The more I listened, the more plausible it sounded.
“…If you live while pursuing the light like this, darkness will naturally be suppressed, and one day, when you are completely liberated from darkness, you will be able to enter the world of light.”
‘Nope. Sounds like a cult again, even after hearing it a second time.’
“S-so that’s how it is… But, you know.”
“Yes?”
“So what does any of that have to do with me…?”
At that moment, Sahyeon and Eom Papa exchanged glances.
I swallowed dryly.
Whenever those two exchanged meaningful looks like that, it was always a bad sign…
Belatedly, Sahyeon opened his mouth.
“Unnie, how do you feel right now?”
“Huh? My body?”
I tilted my head at Sahyeon’s sudden question about my physical condition.
“Of course I feel great. Didn’t Eom Papa treat me? I’ve felt incredibly refreshed since I woke up. I was actually just about to thank him for that…”
I took the opportunity to examine my body here and there, then suddenly stopped.
My body was definitely fine.
But… It was ‘too’ fine.
Right before I collapsed, my body had been a complete wreck. Even I could tell that. My entire body had felt as though it were breaking apart.
Yet right now, there wasn’t a single injury on my body. There wasn’t even a scar anywhere, and my left hand, which hadn’t been able to exert its proper strength, was perfectly fine.
I even felt more energetic than I had back at the Xiao Family Estate.
‘Can even a divine physician heal someone this completely?’
Above all… My eyes.
The eyes they’d definitely said could never be healed…
“My eyes… I can see.”
At my trembling voice, Sahyeon smiled brightly, genuinely delighted.
“That’s wonderful!”
“My eyes… I can see? My eyes are fine? Why?”
“I’m so glad. It seems your body successfully completed its reformation.”
“Reformation? What does that mean? No, didn’t Eom Papa clearly say that my eyes could never be restored…? Did you discover some miraculous medicine?”
“It’s not a miraculous medicine. That’s because you…”
Sahyeon paused to catch his breath before answering.
“…learned the ‘Hoemuseonggwanggyeong’.”
“Hoemu… what?”
At Sahyeon’s utterly outlandish answer, my eyes widened.
Then Eom Papa, who had been standing beside us, stepped forward.
“When all things return to nothingness, only then shall they be made of light.”
“Pardon?”
“It is a divine art created according to the principles of our faith. It is also an unparalleled internal cultivation method secretly passed down only to the Sect Leaders from generation to generation.”
“Pardon?”
“When one enters the introductory stage of the ‘Hoemuseonggwanggyeong’, the body is reformed so that it becomes suitable for cultivating this divine art. During that process, even a person on the verge of death can be miraculously brought back to life, which is why the followers call this process ‘molting.’”
“Pardon?”
“One dies once as an incomplete human, and is reborn as light. A true ‘Apostle of Light,’ liberated from darkness itself, is born.”
“Pardon?”
I stupidly kept repeating, ‘Pardon?’ It couldn’t be helped. I couldn’t understand even half of half of half of what Eom Papa was talking about.
But I could understand one thing… Apparently, I had gotten ”really fucking screwed.”
“Wait, if you’re talking about an Apostle of Light, then that…?”
“That is correct.”
Eom Papa said,
“You are the Sect Leader.”
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