The Regressed Sword Demon Changes the Future

In the dead of night, in a secret place deep inside the Geumjo Merchant Guild's inner residence, a girl was gasping for breath, staring blankly at the ceiling with hazy eyes.

'It's painful…'

The girl's name was Geum Hyeonah, the precious only daughter of Geum Gadong, the master of the best merchant guild in Sichuan.

The girl, who had been suffering from a mysterious illness for several years, had now given up on her life.

She knew well how hard her father was trying to save her. To what extent he was trying, today he had gathered all the famous martial artists in Sichuan to find a way to cure her.

But even that was meaningless.

The girl was not particularly disappointed by it. As mentioned before, she had already given up on her life… She just wished that this pain would be relieved a little before she died.

Her breath was short, and her body was hot. Her body did not move properly, as if she had fallen into heavy water, and therefore, her mind was endlessly hazy.

To the girl who had given up on life at a young age, this physical pain was too painful.

When the pain subsides a little, she falls asleep, and when it gets worse, she groans day and night.

Normally, if her body hurt so much that she would wake up in the middle of the night, she would have to ring a bell and call the maids and attendants to get help, but Geum Hyeonah had just given up on even that.

Since there was nothing they could do even if they came, she didn't even feel the need to call them.

Now that her vision was even shimmering like a heat haze, Geum Hyeonah just closed her eyes.

In a world full of only pain and darkness, what came to Geum Hyeonah's mind was, for some reason, the image of a boy of her age who had been among the martial arts masters who had gathered today, or rather, yesterday.

He was an ordinary-looking boy. His physique was a little large for his youthful face, but she didn't feel any particularly special elements. Yet, the reason why that boy was so memorable was, first, because of the way he looked at her.

'They were warm eyes…'

After suffering from this serious illness, many people had come to treat her, and they had looked at her with eyes filled with different emotions.

Some pitied her, and some felt sorry for her. Among the eyes filled with a variety of ten different colors, the only eyes that reassured her were those of her father, Geum Gadong.

No, they had been.

It was the first time.

A person with eyes that reassured her so much besides her father.

Not just pitying her, nor feeling sorry for her, but warm eyes like her father's. That was the first reason why she remembered that boy so clearly.

The second was because of the pulse-taking.

Yesterday, several masters had gathered and taken her pulse to check her condition. They had each sent their own energy into her body to check her condition.

Of course, those who did it were all transcendent masters, and they also knew that Geum Hyeonah was sick, so they had taken her pulse carefully so as not to cause any shock or impact to Geum Hyeonah.

But even so, it was impossible for there to be no slight sense of foreignness and discomfort.

'But that person was different…'

Only that boy's pulse-taking was different.

That boy's energy was a little cool. A pleasant coolness like the boy's slightly cold hand holding her wrist. And that energy circulated naturally inside her body as if it had been there from the beginning, and Geum Hyeonah did not feel any discomfort at all.

Rather, after the pulse-taking was over, she felt refreshed for the first time in years since the illness had started.

'That felt good…'

Geum Hyeonah herself did not know whether it was the pulse-taking that felt good, or the boy's touch.

As the girl was fighting against the unbearable pain with the small happy memory as a light, she felt a pleasant coolness on her forehead.

'This is…'

And when the girl, Geum Hyeonah, opened her eyes, a man with a black cloth wrapped around his face was standing at her bedside.

"Shh! Don't make a loud noise. I'll tell you in advance, I'm by no means a bad person. I'm a person who came to help you."

The man wrapped in a black cloth, no, Jang Baekseo, put his hand to his mouth and made a gesture to be quiet.

And he thought to himself.

'Damn it… a guy who sneaks in in the middle of the night with a black cloth wrapped around his face is not a bad person, my ass…'

If it were him, he would have swung his sword without any questions.

But unlike Jang Baekseo's worries, Geum Hyeonah, who was lying on the bed, slowly nodded her head.

"Good, you're a good girl… ahem!"

For some reason, the following words were also, well, a bit strange. As Jang Baekseo was pondering by himself if there was a line that didn't sound suspicious…

"You're… going to help me?"

Geum Hyeonah spoke in a weak voice with no strength at all.

"Yes, I have a good connection with the Geumjo Merchant Guild, so when I heard your story, I couldn't just stand by. So I came personally to help you."

Although he hadn't changed his physique as he had when he went to beat up Jeongpung, he was controlling his vocal cords a little with the Bone Shrinking Art to produce a strange, grating voice. Yet, the girl showed no signs of surprise or fear. Jang Baekseo thought she was a very brave and courageous child, and Geum Hyeonah continued.

"Then are you going to kill me?"

"!?"

For a moment.

Jang Baekseo felt his head turn as cold as ice.

"I… I was really in pain… but, but as a child, I couldn't commit suicide… and since I'm here, there's no one to ask to kill me…"

Geum Hyeonah, who was speaking, was smiling faintly, contrary to the content of her words.

"You came to kill me, right… thank you, thank you so much… I was really… really having a hard time…"

What brave and courageous child? He had lived for over forty years, including his previous regression, yet how could he have made such a foolish mistake!!

Geum Hyeonah was neither brave nor courageous. She had just… just already given up on living. So she was not afraid. So there was no need to be afraid…

So… she could say with a happy smile, asking if he had come to kill her.

A myriad of words were swirling in Jang Baekseo's head.

From scolding her, saying that a young brat shouldn't say such things, that she didn't know the value of life, to telling her to be strong for her father's sake, or lecturing her that she shouldn't give up so easily. It might have been words that Jang Baekseo wanted to say, or had said, to Sohyun, not Geum Hyeonah.

Among those myriad of words, Jang Baekseo, who was choosing and choosing what to say, soon threw them all away.

The words he had to say to this child were not such things.

That's why Jang Baekseo said what he had to say.

"You can live."

"…Don't say that… I, I know everything too. That I don't have much time left…"

"You can live."

"Ugh! That kind of…! I've already heard that kind of thing from several irresponsible people… what I want is…"

"You can live."

"This…! I told you not to say that! How many people! How many, how many, how many! Do you know how many people have irresponsibly said that to me? Do you know how many times I despaired each time!? You don't know anything… you don't know what kind of state of mind I was in when I accepted death, so don't say that!"

"You can live!"

What would it mean to accept death at an age not even fifteen?

Jang Baekseo did not know. No, probably most people in the world would not know.

That's why he could neither understand her anger nor her sadness, nor could he carelessly say that he understood.

That's why Jang Baekseo did not do that.

He just decided to calmly state only the facts.

She denied it. And she changed the subject, and soon she became angry.

She didn't want to plant the futile seed of hope in the land of her heart, which had already accepted death. That's why she denied, changed the subject, and became angry.

Yet, Jang Baekseo handed her the seed of hope.

In fact, there was no need to continue this long argument. If she resisted, he could just seal her acupoints and treat her…

Yet, the reason why Jang Baekseo was doing this was probably because he wanted to save her heart.

Before his regression, Jang Baekseo had not been able to save his young junior sister in the end. But now it was different. Everything had changed. A new chance had been given. And saving was not just about curing the illness. Only by curing the heart could one truly save a person.

So…

"You can live."

He conveyed the same words again without a single word being different.

Jang Baekseo wanted to save Geum Hyeonah's heart. For himself, not for Geum Hyeonah. He wanted to see the sight of hope sprouting again in that heart that had given up hope.

"Please… please stop. I don't want to have such futile hope anymore… it's too painful. It's hard… I don't want it anymore. I don't want to be sick. Why, sob, ugh, why am I the only one who's so sick? I don't want to anymore…"

For the first time, he felt that he had finally reached Geum Hyeonah's true feelings.

The girl was crying.

Like children of her age, she was complaining and getting angry in an unreasonable situation.

And…

And that was enough.

That was the privilege of a child, and a path that everyone had to go through. Resignation or wishing for death could by no means be her true feelings.

Jang Baekseo stroked the head of Geum Hyeonah, who was sobbing with her body curled up like a caterpillar, pulling up the blanket as if to cover her tear-stained face.

And he said.

"You can live. I promise on my life. So will you believe me just once, one last time?"

The girl said nothing. She was still crying with her face buried in the blanket. But very slightly, very slightly, she just nodded her head once without a word.

And.

And that was enough.

***

After waiting for Geum Hyeonah, who had been crying for a long time, to calm down, Jang Baekseo brought a chair and sat down opposite her bed.

Even though her body must have been uncomfortable, Geum Hyeonah somehow sat up on the bed and faced Jang Baekseo. The driving force of that strength was probably the hope that had sprouted again in her heart.

When she seemed to have completely calmed down, Jang Baekseo spoke.

"Do you… do you know why your body is sick?"

"…I don't know the exact cause, but… several physicians said it was because I have a peculiar constitution…"

At Geum Hyeonah's answer, Jang Baekseo, who was thinking as if savoring it for a moment, continued.

"That's half right and half wrong."

"Yes? What does that mean?"

"It's true that the cause of your illness is in your constitution, but the cause of the illness's onset is elsewhere. To put it more simply, even a person with the same constitution as you would normally live well without being sick like you."

"Yes!? What on earth does that mean… then why am I sick? What is the cause that only I am suffering from this illness!?"

Was it because she had learned that her illness was not an unavoidable heavenly punishment? Geum Hyeonah's reaction was fierce.

"Hoo… before I say that, can you make a promise with me?"

"Yes? What's with the sudden…"

"A promise that you will never resent that person even if I tell you the cause!"

"!?"

For a moment, upon hearing Jang Baekseo's words, Geum Hyeonah's face hardened. It was because she had understood Jang Baekseo's words to mean that she was suffering this pain due to someone's intention.

(End of Chapter)