Chapter 129
Chapter 129: Alive (3)
"Are you feeling ill?"
Omar approached me with a look of concern.
I stood frozen, my face drained of color, gripping the letter in my hand so tightly my knuckles went white.
‘Mother is alive.’
‘My mother……!’
‘She's alive!’
I couldn't pull myself together from the shock of this revelation.
Green light swirled in my eyes, and I was filled with a dangerous anxiety that felt ready to explode at any moment.
"Boss."
"……."
"Mr. Kim?"
He grabbed my shoulder—and in that instant, I had seized Omar by the collar.
"Gack!"
"……!"
My senses snapped back in an instant.
I quickly released my grip on his collar and checked on Omar.
"I'm sorry. Are you alright?"
Omar had been hit by my poison energy, however briefly, and dark red veins were already rising visibly across his face.
I quickly fed him an antidote and a spirit medicine, then drew the poison energy out of him using the Heavenly Poison Blood Divine Art and the Reversal Secret Arts.
A moment later, Omar came to.
"Bo—boss……."
"I'm sorry."
His face was pale with fright.
He rose unsteadily to his feet.
"You must have had quite a shock."
"……."
Omar, you kind soul.
He had nearly died at my hands just moments ago, and yet here he was, worried about what had shaken me.
"I'm sorry."
"It's alright. These things happen. But, come to think of it……."
Omar looked down at his own hands.
"I feel strangely full of energy."
I finally let out a breath of relief and smiled.
‘Of course he does.’
I had poured in the calm internal energy of the Ten Thousand Streams Return to Origin Divine Art to bring Omar back to his senses.
And the spirit medicine I had fed him was the Wind Shadow Pill I had crafted myself.
In my panic, I had grabbed the first spirit medicine from my pocket and shoved it into Omar's mouth.
And it just so happened to be one of considerable value.
"Your internal energy will have grown considerably."
"Ah."
"Don't move your body too suddenly. This moment matters. Go over there where the wind flows well and circulate your energy using the Tiger King Heart Method. Concentrate for at least two days. Your progress will be far faster for it."
At those words, Omar broke into a wide smile.
"Thank you."
Following my instructions, he walked slowly to a spot, sat cross-legged, and began circulating his energy.
‘Lucky thing.’
‘I'd been saving that for Chief Han who'd worked so hard for me, and now this fellow has gone and swallowed it.’
I stood and drank deeply from a glass of cold water.
Only now could I begin to clear my head.
I turned back to the items I had taken from Wunbo Trading House and examined them closely.
The miscellaneous objects belonged to Bae Geum-sang's father and mother.
A snapped scraper and bloodstains.
Traces of the violence Bae Geum-sang had suffered were soaked into them.
An old ornamental pendant—that had belonged to his mother.
I unrolled the scroll.
"Haaa."
As expected, they were paintings.
Most were portraits, and only one person appeared in them.
"Mother."
Two portraits of Mother painted alone, and the rest depicted Bae Geum-sang walking with her through a garden, or soaring through the heavens together.
Rip—rip—rip!
They were unmistakably the work of a gifted painter, but everything except the solo portraits, I tore apart and shredded.
"I should have tortured Bae Geum-sang longer and killed him in my past life."
The filthy thoughts he had harbored were enough to make my blood boil.
I carefully stored Mother's portraits in the poisonous herb field, then sat cross-legged myself and closed my eyes.
‘Had Mother truly been alive all this time?’
She had certainly been reported dead.
Yet, just like Father, no grave had ever been found, and her body had never been recovered in all my years of searching.
The reward from the 33rd floor—Father's body.
【One complete corpse will be provided.】
"One."
So that was why the Tower had given only one corpse as the 33rd floor reward—Father's.
Everything the Tower had been teaching me, everything it had been pointing me toward, all of it pointed to one thing: Mother's survival.
In that case……
‘Where could Mother be?’
Countless theories surfaced in my mind.
Among the surviving members of the Sacheondang Family.
A hidden refuge belonging to Mother's birth family.
Some distant foreign land beyond the reach of the Murim Alliance Leader, the Evil Path Alliance Leader, and the Heavenly Demon alike.
A third party like Bae Geum-sang who had set their sights on Mother herself.
"……."
In the end, I reached no answer.
Eventually, everything narrowed down to a single question.
‘Why—why, when Mother was alive, did she never come to find me?’
Of course, I had been locked away in Demon Wind Manor for years, and then more time had passed as I trained to become a Poison Man.
But Mother had been young.
Even at the time when I had properly entered the martial world under the banner of ‘descendant of the Sacheondang Family’, her natural lifespan could not have been exhausted.
"Why……. What in the world could it be?"
That question tormented me.
Sting—.
The excessive worry and dread sent my energy circulation into chaos, and I nearly fell into energy deviation—a faint taste of blood rose from my throat.
"Huu—."
At last, I opened my eyes.
There was only one answer.
"I have to climb."
Just as the Tower had been teaching me.
Where Mother is—the Tower will reveal that too, in the end.
I released my cross-legged posture.
* * *
France had finally surrendered.
「We lift all misunderstandings France has held regarding the Nameless Hero and offer our nation's apology for the errors we have committed against him.」
The apology was delivered by the president himself.
The president granted citizenship to the Nameless Hero and Ghost, along with full pardons and permanent immunity from arrest.
"How exactly do you intend to grant that when you don't even know who I am."
For the first time in French history, a passport had been issued under a composite face assembled from the various sketches that had been circulated of the known Nameless Hero.
Ghost's was even more outrageous—a photograph generated by an AI's best guess.
The face looked remarkably like a European.
"What a farce."
The desperation of France's earnest courtship was palpable in the effort.
But it didn't stop there.
France announced it would erect a statue in gratitude and remorse for the Nameless Hero and Ghost.
The location chosen was none other than the grounds near Versailles Palace.
Right beside the statue of the Sun King, Louis XIV.
"What a coincidence this is."
Reading the article, I felt a thrill at this inexplicable twist of fate.
One by one, the various incidents were drawing to a close.
There was still no news of President Park Jae-yeol having returned to Korea.
But word had appeared on an internet community that Chief Han had been spotted on a street in Paris.
"If Chief Han has been released, Im Ye-rin should be free as well."
With Killian's mansion blown to pieces, I severed whatever lingering attachment I had felt toward France.
"I need to go back to Korea."
The homeland of Kim Tae-yang, where his family waited.
The mission of dealing with Kim Tae-yang's abusers had to continue as well.
There was only one thing that weighed on my mind.
【Tower Affiliation Transfer Ticket】
To make the transfer, I would need either 10,000,000 Happiness Points or one year of time from the Murim Tower.
When I had switched affiliation from Korea's Murim Tower to France's Murim Tower, I had chosen one year of my remaining time in Korea.
The other option—10,000,000 Happiness Points—was a sum I could barely earn from dealing with a single one of Kim Tae-yang's abusers.
Too precious to give up.
Of course, the moment I, the Nameless Hero, filed my survival report and the Golden Tower was established—
【The people of France erupt in cheers at the Nameless Hero's resurrection. +5,000,000 Happiness】
【Word of your survival spreads and gathered crowds burst into celebration. +5,000,000 Happiness】
【Korea erupts at the news that the Nameless Hero is alive. +5,000,000 Happiness】
A staggering 15,000,000 points had poured in all at once, but it felt far too precious to spend.
So for me, right now, the rational choice was one year of remaining time from France's Murim Tower.
The problem was that France's current remaining time was barely one year and two months.
"If I take the one year, France has only two months left."
I had given France the antidote, and the 37th floor would be cleared soon enough.
But even so, two months was an impossibly short window.
"Ten million points, or one year. That is the question."
I had seen what happened during the collapse of the African Tower.
When a Tower's time ran out, everything within a fifteen-kilometer radius was swallowed by shadow and erased.
From Paris to Versailles was roughly fifteen kilometers.
The house where Min-jeong and Bo-reum were staying now fell within that range.
They had all been through it once before, so two months was plenty of time to evacuate.
But still—
"Augh! This is giving me a headache."
It felt as though I were sacrificing my own happiness for the sake of others.
Like I was being forced to give something up.
Brooding, I walked the streets out of habit.
The city was abuzz over the Nameless Hero's resurrection, and people were once again flooding the streets in lines, blowing trumpets, launching festivals and strikes.
As I walked, a pyramid rose into view before me.
"That's the building from Im Ye-rin's coffee cup."
The Louvre.
[You were in Paris and didn't even go to the Louvre?]
Im Ye-rin's words came back to me.
"Since I'm here anyway, might as well go see the Mona Lisa."
I stepped inside the Louvre.
The interior was quieter than I had expected.
I moved slowly, taking in the artworks.
There was a docent service available for guided tours of the museum.
But a notice board read: 'Docent services are currently suspended due to a strike.'
Good grief, this nation of strikes.
‘The Mona Lisa was a disappointment.’
David's ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps and The Coronation of Napoleon’ I were worth seeing.
"She does look a bit like Bo-reum, honestly."
I snickered to myself and kept wandering, until one piece stopped me in my tracks.
It was an enormous painting.
In the dim, shadowy canvas stood a crowd of desperate, anguished figures.
The setting was the sea—on a raft.
There were bodies among them.
I read the title.
What did it say?
I could make out ‘Medusa’ well enough.
Then someone spoke beside me.
"The Raft of the Medusa—it's by Théodore Géricault."
I turned.
Im Ye-rin was standing there.
"Ye-rin!"
"Well? Like I said, coming to the Louvre was worth it, wasn't it?"
Of all the people to run into here.
"This painting depicts an actual accident."
Im Ye-rin stepped beside me and pointed at the canvas.
"It's one of my favorites too. Every time I come to Paris, I come to see this."
I hadn't asked, but she began to explain—as though honoring the promise she'd once made, to give me a tour.
"In 1816, there was a shipwreck involving the French naval vessel Méduse. Due to the captain's incompetence and negligence, the rescue was a complete disaster, and some of the surviving crew and passengers ended up adrift on a raft for over ten days."
"……."
"At first, they split between lifeboats and the raft. 152 people got on the raft, but when the weather turned foul, the people in the lifeboats cut the ropes connecting them to the raft and fled. Quite horrible, isn't it?"
She made a face of utter disbelief.
"Anyway, as the drifting went on, some threw themselves into the sea from hunger and thirst and died, and fighting broke out among the rest. As many as 60 people perished."
It was a staggering thing to hear.
She pressed on.
"The survivors ate the bodies of the dead lying scattered across the raft. Horrifying. The drifting continued, and by the seventh day, 27 remained—the wine was nearly gone—and even then, some threw 12 of the weakest overboard to survive. By the time a rescue ship finally found them, there were only 10 survivors."
"From 152 down to 10……."
Im Ye-rin clicked her tongue, a bitter expression on her face.
"Yes. And it all happened in just 13 days of drifting."
"You really do sound like a docent."
"I told you. I've been here ten times. This is my eleventh."
Having heard the story, I looked at the painting again—and far more came into view.
People slumped across the raft, the expressions of those who, even in despair, had spotted a rescue ship in the far distance and were making one last desperate reach for hope, and the breathless tension of that moment suspended between death and survival.
A harrowing end born of greed and irresponsibility.
"Thank you. Hearing the story makes it so much richer."
I meant every word.
The worries I had been carrying seemed to ease a little.
‘My happiness.’
‘Bah—might as well share a little, then.’
Come to think of it, Im Ye-rin had been there at every turning point of my recent struggles.
The resurrection of the Nameless Hero.
The choice between ten million points and one year.
Both had been decided while talking with her.
‘I should buy her a meal sometime.’
No—not just me. Shouldn't everyone in the world be buying her meals?
I was lost in thought when she asked:
"Have you contacted Elder Choi?"
"No. Not yet."
"You still haven't? Give him a call."
"Right."
Now that I thought about it—I still hadn't checked the tablet that the Choi Brothers had sent through Im Ye-rin.
They must be doing well enough.
Christmas was drawing near.
A feeling of missing people—something I had never experienced before in my life—felt strangely unfamiliar.
‘Now that things are finally wrapping up, I should check the tablet and make a call.’
I was thinking exactly that when Im Ye-rin shuffled awkwardly and said:
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry. About back then."
Im Ye-rin scratched the back of her head.
"I didn't really know what was going on, and I snapped at you for no good reason."
"It's alright. You said it without knowing my master was alive."
"W—well, the thing is."
"Yeah."
"Could you arrange a chance for me to meet with the Nameless Hero sometime?"
She had said Chief Han was her role model.
……Was she that type too?