The Regressed Sword Demon Changes the Future

After the unexpected visitor, his second junior brother Jang Yuhan, left, Jang Baekseo couldn't easily fall asleep even as the night deepened, lost in various thoughts.

'What kind of person am I?'

…His mind was in turmoil over such a newfound question.

But that time of solitary contemplation did not last long.

"It seems tonight is some kind of special night~"

A new guest had arrived.

A small, warm, and cheerful presence approached Jang Baekseo's door.

The presence he had first encountered after his regression…

Hearing a soft knock on the door, Jang Baekseo immediately opened it.

"My dear Sohyun, what brings you here in the middle of the night?"

"Senior Brother… I can't sleep…"

"…Really? What a coincidence. I couldn't sleep either and was hoping someone would come and be my talking companion!"

At Jang Baekseo's words, Sohyun, who had been looking down with a dark expression and fiddling with the hem of her clothes, brightened up and lifted her head with a start.

"Sohyun will! Sohyun will be your talking companion!"

Jang Baekseo smiled and accepted Sohyun's offer, letting her into the room.

Sohyun, as if overjoyed, hopped and skipped into the bed where Jang Baekseo had been lying and thinking just a moment ago, burrowing in like a kitten.

Watching her with a smile, Jang Baekseo also lay down on the bed.

Sohyun, buried deep in the blankets, looked at Jang Baekseo lying next to her and giggled strangely, 'Kihihihi!' Jang Baekseo, finding her adorable, couldn't help but laugh along.

After laughing like that, the two of them, without either of them starting first, began to chat about things that were neither nutritious nor meaningful.

Sohyun told him about how she had hit her shin while swinging her wooden sword during the Yuyu Sword Technique practice today, and how the duck meat for dinner had too strong of an anise flavor and was hard to eat, and so on, from recent updates to her thoughts of the day, she told Jang Baekseo everything without holding back.

Sohyun mostly spoke, and Jang Baekseo would agree or reply. As they were talking, oblivious to the passing of time, Sohyun pulled the blanket up to her mouth and asked in a slightly cautious manner, unlike her usual self.

"Senior Brother, why aren't you making any jokes today?"

"Uh… jokes, ah, jokes…"

What came to mind was the evaluation of his current self that he had recalled through the incident this morning.

'A person who is more likely to throw out a lame joke or make playful remarks than to show a serious side as a senior brother.'

Why had he become such a person?

The question Sohyun had thrown at him brought back the reason.

'Sohyun… it was for this child.'

He himself had been taken in by the sect at a young age, but Sohyun was a child who had been taken in at a much younger age than him.

A child who was not even four years old, a mere babe in arms, had lost all her blood relatives and entered Mysterious Profound Sect with no one to trust or rely on.

Was it because she had entered at such a young age?

Sohyun did not easily adapt to the sect, and naturally, she did not easily open her heart to the people of the sect either.

Jang Baekseo did not like that. It was so sad to see that young and cute child always treating him and the people of the sect with empty eyes, as if she were dealing with a sharp blade.

It was from then on.

He bought books sold in the market and practiced by himself to get a little better at telling funny stories or jokes that he was not good at and had no talent for.

And he told them to Sohyun.

Of course, it didn't work well from the beginning. At first, she avoided and was wary of him as if he were a strange person, but just as a constantly falling drop of water makes a hole in a hard rock, slowly but surely, Sohyun opened her heart to Jang Baekseo, and that opened door of her heart accepted not only Jang Baekseo but also Mysterious Profound Sect.

Thus, Sohyun became Jang Baekseo's junior sister, and a disciple of Mysterious Profound Sect.

'How could I have forgotten?'

To be precise, it was a little different from forgetting.

Just as a colorful and vibrant painting gradually fades and dulls over time, leaving behind a faded color, so did memories.

But even if it had faded, just as looking at it intently and recalling it brings back its clear form and color, so too does looking intently at a memory bring back the vibrant colors and clear forms that have now passed.

Thus, Jang Baekseo looked intently at the memories of the distant past through Sohyun, and…

"Sohyun."

"Yes?"

"What vegetable cries every time you cook it?"

"A vegetable that cries every time you cook it? Hmm~ what is it… uung… onion? They say you cry when you chop it!"

At Sohyun's answer, Jang Baekseo, with a gentle smile, lightly pinched Sohyun's cheeks, who had a confident face.

"Oh~ my Sohyun is quite sharp~"

"Ma-ah-huh? Am I wight?"

Sohyun, whose pronunciation was slurred because her cheeks were pinched, asked about the correct answer with shining eyes.

"Well, let's see~ hmm! Unfortunately, wrong!"

"It's not onion?"

"The answer is…!"

"The answer is…?"

"The vegetable that cries every time you cook it is… burdock (u-eong)!"

"What's that~! Onion seems more like the right answer!"

Sohyun, who burst into laughter at the silly answer, burrowed into Jang Baekseo's arms and tickled his side.

Jang Baekseo, as if he couldn't lose, grabbed Sohyun's small feet and tickled them. The two of them played like that for a while before falling asleep.

***

At a time slightly earlier than dawn, when the darkness of the night was slowly giving way to the brightening dawn.

"Baekseo, can we talk for a moment?"

A third visitor came to Jang Baekseo's room.

"Yes, I will get ready and come out, so please wait a moment, Master."

At the immediate reply to his words, the person outside the door, Jang Baekseo's master Cheongmu, seemed to hesitate for a moment.

He had called out, but it seemed he hadn't expected him to be awake at such an early hour.

But Jang Baekseo had been awake for a long time.

That was because.

'I can't not wake up when you've been pacing outside the door for a long time…'

It had already been half a shichen since Cheongmu had come to Jang Baekseo's room and started pacing in front of the door without calling out.

His body was that of a pathetic fourteen-year-old senior brother, but inside was the absolute master, the Sword Demon Jang Baekseo.

It was impossible for him not to feel Cheongmu's presence.

Jang Baekseo dressed so as not to be disrespectful in meeting his master and carefully left the room so as not to wake Sohyun.

"I'm sorry for waking you up so early in the morning."

"Not at all. My eyes opened early today, so I was thinking of going to pay my respects to you, Master."

"…You have a silver tongue, you rascal."

Cheongmu, who laughed lightly, looked at the sky where the dawn was slowly turning the darkness and was lost in thought for a moment.

"It seems Sohyun went to your room again."

"Yes, it seems she couldn't sleep well yesterday."

"Yes, that child always looks for you when she's anxious or lonely."

Cheongmu, who had stopped speaking as if chewing on his words, finally opened his mouth again.

"Because I, your master, am lacking and inadequate, I always place a lot of responsibility on you."

"Not at all, Master! What are you talking about?"

"No, others may not know, but I know. How hard you are trying to become a person worthy of the position of senior brother, to fulfill that responsibility."

"…Isn't it something I have to do? I've never felt it as a burden. And Sohyun is like a sister to me. It's not a responsibility or anything like that, but a natural thing."

"Yes, I'm grateful just for you saying that. But I don't want you to overdo it."

"Yes?"

Jang Baekseo felt it was very unexpected. In fact, he had thought that Cheongmu had come today to talk about his suddenly improved martial arts skills.

But what was this? The story that his master Cheongmu brought up was about the responsibility and pressure of being a senior brother, and the worry about whether he was overdoing it to fulfill it.

'Was he this kind of person…'

He had seen his master for nearly twenty years before his regression.

The master Cheongmu he remembered was not a person who was lacking or neglectful, but he remembered him as not being a person who took care of people so meticulously.

But that too was a faded, faint, and discolored portrait.

If you look at it intently, the original form comes to mind.

'Yes… this person, my master, was originally this kind of person…'

He hadn't felt it when he saw it with the eyes of a child, but looking back with his current eyes, he could see things one by one.

When the skin on his palm peeled off from swinging a sword, he was a person who would indifferently tell him to stop for the day and go in. But on the evening of such a day, there would always be medicine in his room that he didn't know about.

He was that kind of person.

From the beginning, Cheongmu was that kind of person to Jang Baekseo.

And for someone who only expressed himself in that way to come and talk to him so directly, Jang Baekseo's change was that shocking.

Some people say that a person can change with just a small trigger, but those who know, know. People don't change so easily, and certainly not only in a good way.

And if such a change occurs, the reason is one of two.

Either they have an experience so shocking that it changes them, or they are acting as if they have changed into another person.

'Or they have regressed to the past…'

The important thing was that Jang Baekseo's change was so shocking that it made Cheongmu do something he was not used to.

And that meant that to Cheongmu, the worry about whether his disciple was overdoing it and acting out an ideal image of a senior brother was much more important than his disciple's suddenly improved martial arts.

"…Master, I'm not overdoing it. It's just that this unworthy disciple has had a small achievement recently, so there has been a change in my state of mind."

"Yes, that's something to celebrate. If your change today is just because you've gained confidence, then I'm relieved… Just remember this."

Cheongmu looked straight into Jang Baekseo's eyes.

They were warm eyes.

Not the cold and firm eyes of a martial artist, but with the eyes of a father looking at his child, Cheongmu met Jang Baekseo's eyes.

"I am behind you. Never forget that."

"Yes."

Jang Baekseo did not add any other unnecessary words.

He just answered briefly and firmly, and that was enough for Cheongmu and Jang Baekseo.

Because they were originally this kind of master and disciple.

'Yes… we were this kind of master and disciple.'

After finishing his business, Cheongmu returned to prepare for the early morning.

The faint darkness of the dawn was overlaid by the warm light of the rising sun.

And as if in response, the senior brother Jang Baekseo was painted over the Sword Demon Jang Baekseo.

Of course, this was not a disappearance.

Just as darkness never completely disappears no matter how high the sun rises in the sky and shines down on the world, the Sword Demon Jang Baekseo would not disappear but remain and reveal himself where needed.

Thus, at this moment, in the true sense, Jang Baekseo returned to the sect as the senior brother Jang Baekseo.

***

Although Jang Baekseo greeted each day with a new mindset, the things he had to do did not change.

'Stop the Righteous-Demonic War!'

It was the final task that had to be decisively accomplished.

'For now, there's no other way but to increase my strength, but I have a clue about this. It's by no means an impossible task!'

And the second thing to accomplish was…

'Strengthen the sect.'

Mysterious Profound Sect was a sect that could be counted on one hand within Gangjeong County, but that was only within Gangjeong County.

Even in Sichuan, there were plenty of sects of Mysterious Profound Sect's level, and in the whole world…

'They probably don't even know that a place called Mysterious Profound Sect exists…'

Mysterious Profound Sect currently belonged to the Orthodox Faction, but Jang Baekseo knew. How inhuman and unrighteous the ones who called themselves the Orthodox Faction were, and how they had turned their eyes away from righteousness and chivalry!

Even if he stopped the Righteous-Demonic War, if he didn't strengthen the sect, he didn't know what would happen to the sect in the storms that would follow.

Therefore, he had to make the sect strong, but just like the first goal of stopping the Righteous-Demonic War, the only thing he could do now was to increase his own strength.

Therefore, the most urgent thing to solve was the third…

'Don't let Sohyun… die!'

There was a reason why Jang Baekseo had come to not trust the Orthodox Faction… why he had come to hate the ones called the righteous to the point where he tried to go over to the Demonic Path faster than anyone else after the fall of Sichuan.

About five years from now, Jang Baekseo's young junior sister, Sohyun, would fall seriously ill.

To cure the disease that had developed due to her natural constitution, Mysterious Profound Sect searched far and wide for an excellent physician and, by a stroke of luck, was able to bring in a renowned physician called the Ghost Doctor, who was said to be the best in Sichuan.

Thanks to that, they were able to find out what disease Sohyun had and what its cause was, but… that was the end of it.

Because to cure Sohyun, not only excellent medical skills but also a legendary elixir at least on par with Shaolin's Great Rejuvenation Pill was needed.

Mysterious Profound Sect had already spent a huge fortune searching for and bringing in various physicians.

Naturally, they had no money to buy a legendary elixir like the Great Rejuvenation Pill, and even if they had money, elixirs were not something that could be bought so easily.

Even when everyone told him to give up, Jang Baekseo did not give up. No, he couldn't give up.

Who in the world would give up when their family was still alive? Moreover, it wasn't that there was no way, but just because it was difficult and hard!

So Jang Baekseo went to the prestigious Orthodox Faction sects in Sichuan, Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang Clan, and begged and pleaded like a madman.

Please give him the elixir.

If they helped him this time, he would engrave the grace in his bones and repay the favor no matter what. If they needed money, he would pay even if he had to write a promissory note to the King of Hell, and if there was anything they wanted him to do, he would do anything. If they told him to kill, he would kill, and if they told him to die, he would die.

But their reaction was cold. Some despised him, and some ridiculed him.

But Jang Baekseo still did not give up. At that time, he might have genuinely believed.

Righteousness and chivalry!

He might have vaguely believed that since they were people of the Orthodox Faction who revered those things, if he went around the world and pleaded, at least one person would help him.

That's why he went around the world like a madman, begging for the elixir.

Please save his junior sister. Like a man with no pride, no, he begged, abandoning not only his pride but even his human dignity.

But the world's reaction was cold. It was cold, contemptuous, and mocking, and there were countless cruel people who would call him with sweet words as if they would give him the elixir, only to mock him to their heart's content, beat him up, and laugh at him.

His heart was breaking.

Like a sharp stone falling through a narrow cliff gap, hitting and breaking in countless places.

The simple man named Jang Baekseo, who cherished his junior sister, loved his sect, and took pride in being part of the Orthodox Faction, was being broken and crushed.

Nevertheless, he continued to search. He wandered the world like a madman, not giving up the hope that a miracle would happen like a ray of light and everything would turn out well.

After wandering the world like a madman for a year and three months…

At the tender age of thirteen, Sohyun ended her short life.

The small child, who couldn't even fill half of the coffin, was filled with the dolls, blankets, and quilts she liked, and pretty flowers that resembled her smile, so that she wouldn't be cold and lonely in the coffin.

And in the end, that young child was buried alone in the ground.

Not even tears came out. Perhaps he had shed all the tears of his life while crying and begging at the places of the so-called Orthodox Faction of the world, but not a single tear flowed from Jang Baekseo's eyes.

Instead.

Tears of blood flowed.

Jang Baekseo realized for the first time that day that tears of blood were not just an exaggerated expression to express the injustice, anger, and sadness in stories.

And on that day, the senior brother Jang Baekseo died. He killed and buried the senior brother Jang Baekseo there that day so that Sohyun, who was buried alone and lonely, would not be lonely.

And he became a completely different person, no, a monster.

He did not believe in righteousness and did not look up to chivalry, and he denied them. But at the same time, he hated those who denied and despised them.

The twisted and contorted Jang Baekseo lived buried in martial arts from that day on.

And when the Righteous-Demonic War began and Sichuan fell, the monster that was Jang Baekseo became a warrior of the Demonic Cult, and after becoming a Sword Fiend, he finally became the Sword Demon.

(End of Chapter)