Chapter 731 – #156_The Fugitive (6)
#731
One.
Using Toho Temple as a decisive battleground, Rinne cut down dozens of government soldiers and monks.
Rinne’s appearance after crawling out of hell was miserable.
Her body, which had only been roughly washed in the valley for a long time, smelled of beasts, and the frayed hem of her clothes was full of large and small wounds.
But the real problem was none of that.
Her long spear blades had pierced her thighs and shoulders because she had led her exhausted body into battle in the middle of a temple where she had no place to escape.
Linnaeus leans against her wooden beam to catch her breath, but she shows no signs of calming down.
In her hazy eyes, the Buddha statue was lamenting the sight of the golden hall turned into a slaughterhouse.
‘…….’
Her body goes cold
It seems that her molars will freeze to the bone marrow in the trembling cold.
Linnaeus habitually grabbed her necklace.
At this point, she already knew Linnaeus.
Although her mother said that only with this necklace of hers can she find Linnaeus.
She really won’t.
It must have been just a device to make the remnant hunter perceive her Rinne as a more palatable prey.
Even so, the reason she grabbed hold of it at the last moment before closing her eyes was probably because the only salvation was the time she spent thinking about her family.
Was it because of that?
I don’t feel the cold.
A large amount of her blood drained away, and her cold body slowly warmed up, feeling her warmth.
– Thud thud
At that time, there was someone who entered the golden hall where the statue of Buddha was enshrined.
It was her mother who cast a shadow over Rinne, who barely lifted her head.
Even in the passion that made her heart thump, Linnaeus did not cry.
No, she couldn’t cry.
He seemed to have forgotten how to cry.
‘Mother….’
Crouching over her, her mother pulled out her spear, which had been broken and lodged in her thigh.
Surprisingly, Rinne’s body recovered after she endured it without even screaming.
Linne was trying to say something to her.
But the moment she saw the eyes of her mother, whom she had missed so much, she was speechless.
Because her emotion, engraved in her eyes, was only deep disappointment.
‘At least this much….’
The expected word of praise was replaced by a brief sigh.
She didn’t even give her a warm hug, and she didn’t even lift Rinne, who didn’t have the strength to get up on her own.
I knew.
That the existence of the mother to whom Rinne was attached was nothing more than an illusion created by her teacher.
Missing her mother from the past is the same as feeling nostalgic for her while looking at other people’s family photos.
The master pondered as he stood.
Even Rinne could tell that her hand was pointed at her waist so that she could draw her sword at any moment.
Like a craftsman who doesn’t come out with a work that doesn’t come out with a hammer, she would be thinking about the disposal of her linne.
The moment she saw it, Rinne felt the heat swell between her skulls.
Clinging to her illusion of being her family, she suppressed it without facing it.
Her thick hatred and anger rose in her barren heart as if she could not feel anything.
Rinne’s body springs up like a cat attacking a small bird.
She quickly sweeps her floor and the sword in her hand gushes like a fountain.
However, she has no jaw to become an opponent in the first place.
The master parried her Rinne’s thrust with such ease that she immediately drew her own sword, pressing her breast with her foot.
As Rinne had repeated dozens of times, a light thrust of her sword would kill her.
Rinne, who was subdued on her floor, struggled even before the tip of her sword that glowed with her haze.
‘… I will kill you.’
Can’t forgive
Will never forgive
‘If the day you die comes…. In front of them, I’ll be holding a knife and smiling… !’
A desperate scream, no different from the howl of a beast.
Anger fueled by remorse and grief resounds the golden hall.
‘Hoo.’
Was it that he was satisfied with the venom from the evil?
Or was it because she liked Rinne’s eyes that were burning like a celestial star?
The master put down his sword and said.
‘So be it. Will wait.’
2.
After that day, Linne followed her teacher into her full-fledged succession class.
It was at this point that I began to keenly feel what the curse of lack was.
You can’t feel any emotions and sentiments related to happiness.
The numbness of not feeling anything, like the hardened palms with calluses even when thinking about the happy days.
A short break that is allowed only when you are striving towards strength.
However, Rinne didn’t mind.
I didn’t know what the succession of the stigma was.
Because one day I had the goal of coming to see the teacher who knelt down under Rinne and giving her the end.
Thus, the relationship between Linnaeus and her teacher was deformed, like a mixture of liquids that could never be mixed.
Following her master, she wandered all over the country and learned her swordsmanship.
Without using any magical powers, she killed a ronin and a warrior using only pure swordsmanship, and spent the rest of her time learning about magic.
She even left the archipelago and headed as far as the western continent.
Except for the time to sleep, every moment was a training time to become stronger.
One year has passed.
3 years passed.
Five years have passed.
No matter how unforgivable the opponent is, if you learn endlessly from him and pursue strength by running around together.
Moreover, if he was saved several times from the point of almost dying.
Sharp resentment is bound to become dull.
In any case, the fact that the only person he could lean on was his teacher would have played a part.
Linnaeus hated her teacher, but at the same time she loved her mother.
At the same time as her deep resentment to kill her someday.
I felt her morbid attachment to her that one day she wanted to be loved by her like she used to be.
Ten years have passed since she became an apprentice witch.
Lynne has changed a lot.
As she grew older, she grew taller and grew her hair back.
She learned magical knowledge and accepted the cruelty of the world.
In the past, she had no overlap with Rinne in the slightest.
Her mentor hasn’t changed.
Her values, her way of thinking hadn’t changed.
The only thing that has changed is that her teacher has become weak.
‘Ah! Aaaaagh! Aaaaagh!’
Screams filled the anchae of Hyangwolru.
It was familiar.
Rinne, who had been brandishing her sword, let out a short sigh and entered her room.
‘More, more…. I can’t stand it any longer. No more….’
Her room was speckled with red paintings.
It is the result of self-injury, just like the blood staining the master’s white clothes red.
The curse of deprivation orients its wielder towards strength, and at the same time presents terrible nightmares if they do not grow stronger.
Unlike Rinne, who is still promising, her mentor had reached his limit three years ago.
‘Ahh!’
A sharp sword strike accompanied by a scream.
-Visor!
Rinne wrapped her sword around her without difficulty and threw away her sword.
The fiercely flying sword pierced the floor and trembled.
Already in her pure swordsmanship, Rinne’s skills far surpassed her master’s.
‘Huh! Whoa!’
In her weeping figure with her head covered with bongdusan, there was no trace of her caring mother, nor the dignity of her teacher, who seemed as if anyone would cut her with a single knife.
Every time she saw her master who had fallen into ruin, Linnaeus felt a low sense of superiority and pity welling up in her heart.
‘Stop it, it’s unsightly.’
Pride and compassion have something in common.
It is an emotion far from anger.
So Linnaeus no longer hated her teacher.
It was after her sense of purpose to kill her had also faded.
She just laughed.
All this, she believed, was her guilt.
She didn’t want to admit it at the same time, but she was hoping for it.
In the past, it was difficult to even imagine the weakness of the teacher, but things are different now.
The only person the master can rely on now is Rinne.
If she would honestly admit her own faults and look up to her Linnaeus.
He said that he would forgive her for pretending to be her nail, if she would be her family to Rinne like she used to be.
So far she has wished for a hundred times and given up a hundred times.
But really, it is foolish to put your hopes on the hundred-first.
3.
The master died without living up to any of Linnaeus’ expectations.
It’s the most comfortable look in the past two years.
Linne looked at the master who inherited her stigma and turned into an empty chaff.
A corpse staring at the ceiling without moving or even blinking.
These were the words of a cowardly fugitive who died while being chased and being chased causing a lot of trouble to the surroundings.
Now Linne had no family left.
Even the people who might have been her family have disappeared.
It was futile.
It was so empty that I didn’t know what to do, what emotions to feel, or what to do.
‘…….’
Linnaeus grabbed her necklace.
It is the first necklace that the master gave to Rinne, who became an apprentice witch.
Now, as if it were a habit, I caress each gemstone that has lost its luster because I touched it one by one.
The biggest comma is my father.
The two smallest grains are my older brother.
The second largest magat….
‘Mother.’
Being alone for the first time, Linnaeus felt a sense of loss as if her throat was choking.
Wasn’t she able to hug her as tenderly as she did that day, just for once?
‘Mother, mother, mother….’
Transparent tears flow.
She sat down and cried in front of her mother, who could neither resent nor love.
She cries, collapses from exhaustion, wakes up again and cries repeatedly. Rinne grabs her sword and stands up.
Her back was lined with white moonlight and black shadows.
Linnaeus realized that there was a scar on her chest from a loss that would never be filled.
A scar that will gnaw at Rinne forever and no one can fill it.
The flashback is over.
Rinne’s body sinks.
Rinne sinks endlessly to the bottom of the darkness that swirls like quicksand.
It is a sea of solitude.
It was such a lonely life that I forgot what loneliness was.
Even if I struggle to open my eyes, nothing will change.
Then I didn’t even want to open my eyes.
I wanted to fall asleep like this forever.
Then a very small voice was heard.
“… Master.”
Man’s voice.
Linne’s eyelids trembled.
“Master!”
The person who entered this memory space where only Rinne should be is Shin Si-woo.
Only then does the memory of Rinne, who was bound only by her past, flow back.
“Let’s get out of here.”
In the sea of solitude that pulls everything down, he seemed precarious to even support himself.
Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and reached out a hand towards Rinne.
“Come quickly, Master! I can’t last long, really!”
Linnaeus looked at him with her wide eyes.
“…….”
Okay.
Why have you forgotten until now?
Not alone anymore
Because the family that I managed to find in a life of repeating meaningless drifting was here.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
Rinne stretched out her arm and took Siu’s stiff hand.
His hands were very rough.
It was warm again.
