Try Living Well Without Me

Byul Rak, who had mentioned he was going to prepare, suddenly recalled a woman and immediately headed toward the medicine room.

There, Soeun Yu was still unconscious, gasping softly for breath while asleep.

On her blanket lay the letter he had placed there earlier.

“Hm.”

Since he had come in person, the letter was unnecessary. He could relay everything he wanted to say verbally.

Byul Rak placed the letter on a nearby drawer where it would not be easily seen, then carefully sat beside Soeun Yu. With great caution, he ensured his weight wouldn’t press down on the bed too heavily.

“Hnnn…”

Soeun Yu emitted a soft groan. Byul Rak gazed at her with a deep look, then slowly extended his hand.

He gently took her delicate hands, crossed and resting on her stomach. With careful pressure, he began to massage her palms.

Soeun Yu’s complexion relaxed slightly, a serene flush spreading across her pale brow.

Byul Rak gently gathered her disheveled hair that had fallen to either side as she lay in bed, arranging it neatly. Her now-aligned hair looked beautiful.

“Umm…”

At that moment, Soeun Yu opened her eyes, which had been closed for a long time. In her blurry vision, she could just make out the vague form of a white-haired man with clear eyes.

When she first saw him, Soeun Yu believed she must have been dreaming.

Because she was dead, after all. Her lifespan had ended, and she had passed away after presumptuously attaining insight into Heavenly Qi. And since Byul Rak couldn’t possibly be dead as well, it could only be a dream.

However, the next moment, a faint memory surfaced in Soeun Yu’s mind.

The memory of Byul Rak force-feeding her the elixir of life as she had been called by the Grim Reaper…

“…!”

She felt ashamed.

Daring to have wasted such a precious elixir of life.

And even more ashamed knowing that Byul Rak had used it for her without a second thought.

Soeun Yu couldn’t easily lift her head, filled with embarrassment from seeing Byul Rack so close after so much time.

“A… th-that…”

She tried to cover her blushing face and slowly bent forward.

When her face touched Byul Rak’s abdomen, she opened her arms and embraced him.

It was embarrassing, apologetic, and mortifying, but…

It was also an instinctive action born from a tangled desire not to let him go, and her love, and the hope to always be together.

Swoosh.

“…”

Byul Rak quietly placed his hands on her back and head.

His touch was soft, like the swaying of a dandelion. Soeun Yu bit her invisible lower lip, feeling a comforting warmth that nearly brought tears to her eyes.

Silence fell over the space until Byul Rak finally spoke.

“Lady.”

“Yes…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh…?”

Confused by Byul Rak’s unexpected apology, Soeun Yu looked up.

Their faces met in mid-air. The tender flower of her flushed cheeks turned toward his white magnolia-like face.

“I vowed never to let even a drop of blood stain your hands, yet I failed to keep that promise.”

“…!”

“Perhaps you remember? The vow I made when we first married.”

“Ah…”

“I swore I would protect you so securely that you’d never have to raise a sword again. I solemnly vowed no single drop of blood, not even from a beast, would I ever allow upon your hands.”

“H, how could you still remember that after all this time…?”

“It was a promise I made to you.”

At his quiet words, Soeun Yu’s heart swelled with a deep emotion.

If she had still thought of him as an ordinary person, she wouldn’t be overwhelmed with such immense feeling right now.

But Soeun Yu knew now just how many cycles Byul Rak had endured.

Their marriage had occurred during the “very first cycle,” making his words to her almost ten thousand years old.

And yet, just because it was a promise made to his wife, he had remembered it so clearly, even after over ten thousand years.

“I’m sorry. I will not fail again. I will not leave you alone again. I will not allow you to quietly fade away in a place without me.”

“Mr. Byul…”

“…I love you.”

“U… uuuh… I love you too… I really, really love you…”

Soeun Yu’s eyes had already moistened. Her tear-filled eyes were on the verge of spilling over.

She was indeed a tender-hearted woman, quick to tears and sentiment. Her eyes brimmed with water at the slightest provocation.

Byul Rak gently stroked her head with a composed hand, yet his fingers were subtly trembling.

He had seen her cry far too many times in her memories.

Seeing her cry once more was simply unbearable.

Swoosh.

“I’m the one who’s sorry… Master… I’ve made a terrible mistake…”

Wiping her teary eyes with his fingertip, Byul Rak’s fingers moistened.

He gently pulled her toward him with the other hand, grabbing the back of her neck. Without resistance, Soeun Yu fell back into his embrace.

“…Never let go…”

Thus, they held each other for a considerable time, their heartfelt love rekindling anew.

After Byul Rak and Soeun Yu left the room.

In the medicine room, which should have been empty, a shadow slipped in.

The shadow emitted a chilling coldness, causing anyone who saw it to feel an alarming shiver.

“Hah…”

A lifeless, desiccated voice echoed through the room.

“Crack… crack…”

The sound of teeth grinding against each other, an eerie noise that would send animals running without looking back, filled the air.

The shadow walked briskly to the bed where Soeun Yu and Byul Rak had been. It extended a trembling nose toward the cover, sniffing carefully.

It was sniffing for clues, analyzing the situation.

“Saltiness… someone cried… fortunately, there’s no nasty smell… but the scent of the benefactor and that woman are mixed together… it’s almost like… as if they embraced…”

Dead eyes glittered malevolently, the shadow’s inner rage—like a dormant volcano—beginning to bubble.

A flickering bamboo hat resting on pink hair trembled in the presence of an absolutely terrifying martial artist’s fury.

“Sniff, sniff.”

“Surely… they didn’t… exchange kisses, did they? No… I don’t smell bodily fluids… that can’t be… The benefactor’s first experience must be mine…”

The shadow, Hong Ryun, muttered emotionlessly to herself.

“Even though they already had a child… two children, in fact… it’s fine… I can have more… as long as she doesn’t make the first move…”

Her obsession had reached a peak, revealing her inner thoughts in a monologue. If anyone had seen her, they might have questioned her sanity, but at the moment, there was no one in the medicine room but her.

“Like this… sitting here sideways… and then he moved something with his hand… what was it? What could it be…?”

Taking the same position as Byul Rak had on the bed, Hong Ryun looked around suspiciously, but she didn’t take long to find what she sought.

“…”

A single letter lying on the drawer.

Trembling with uncontainable excitement, she managed to bring her hand to it, opening the letter and beginning to read.

“…”

Hong Ryun’s pupils dilated.

A twisted smile curled at the corner of her lips.

On the dried paper, various passionate declarations of love were written. It seemed meant to comfort the reader, though the person reading it now grew only more excited.

“Ahahahahahah.”

Hong Ryun wept for the first time in her life.

As if the heavens themselves were crashing down, she laughed maniacally, completely losing her composure.

“Zhou, Gongsun Ce. What are you doing? Let’s go.”

The stern-faced Chief Justice Bao Zheng, with burdens on his back, addressed the two men, Zhou and Gongsun Ce, who followed behind.

“To both right and left arms.”

“Yes, we’ll hurry.”

“Haa… We’ve handled quite the case, so my energy is drained.”

“Having executed that corrupt officer, it’s understandable your legs would feel weak. But didn’t you two always sing songs wanting a vacation? Are you willing to waste this golden opportunity?”

“…That wouldn’t do. Let’s hurry.”

Once again the three men, who had just saved another innocent life, exited the court side by side. The day was hot enough to make work difficult, but the Emperor’s decree of a holiday was a fantastic stroke of luck.

Just as they were about to depart,

“Chief Bao! Chief Bao!”

A young girl darted forward, falling to her knees before Bao Zheng and bowing deeply. She was a beggar girl, her face smeared with dirt.

Chief Bao Zheng neither frowned nor showed irritation. As always, he asked with a rough and stern voice.

“What is the matter?”

At this, the girl, startled for a moment, trembled and hesitantly pulled out a piece of paper from her coat, offering it in a trembling manner, as though presenting a petition to the Emperor.

Bao Zheng stopped in his tracks and read the contents of the paper. After about half a moment,

“Zhou, Gongsun Ce!”

“…?”

“Open the court of justice!”

“Se… sir?”

“We are holding a court session!”

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