A Stuffed Cheonma in my Head - Chapter 145



Only Noblemtl

Episode 145. Don’t laugh, I’m in love

“I think you have something to say.”

“… … .”

Shushuruta looked at me with sunken eyes.

His expression still remained expressionless.

He seemed gloomy, or like he was thinking about something.

But he kept his mouth shut, as if he wasn’t ready to talk yet.

I looked at her like that and opened my mouth first.

“If you’re not going to talk, I’ll do it first.”

“… … Do you have anything to say?”

“Yes.”

“Speak.”

“Take this first.”

I took the dagger of Ophiuchus from my bosom and slid it across the table.

Tub.

Shushuruta looked at me while holding the dagger sliding towards him.

“Why are you giving me this?”

I answered in a casual tone.

“You take it.”

“… … .”

Shushuruta glared at me.

“It’s the legacy of Oposis. As promised, you can take care of half of it yourself. Use it as operating funds for the Thieves’ Guild or swallow it yourself.”

“… … What about the other half?”

“Please divide it among Uncle Hans, the Starvangers, and the Black Prince.”

If it just sits there gathering dust in an empty grave, it’s just useless, meaningless trash.

Any object only becomes meaningful when it is used by people.

Since it is going to be used, it would be great if it was used correctly.

Honestly, it’s a pain to deal with.

“… … .”

Shushuruta stared blankly at the dagger without saying a word.

She fiddled with the dagger for a long time before opening her mouth.

“Ashvan.”

“what.”

“The one you call Master within you. Is he your teacher?”

It was a very random question.

Although I couldn’t understand the intent of the question, I answered honestly.

“You are a teacher like heaven.”

Cheonma laughed, but that didn’t mean my sincerity faded.

I never hid it in the first place. If I had wanted to hide it, I would have kept talking to myself.

I don’t remember exactly when, but I’ve said many times that I have a demon inside me.

It’s just that everyone, including Shushuruta, didn’t take my words at face value and dismissed them as nonsense.

“Then… Are you talking to that master called Cheonma, the one you often talk to yourself like a crazy person?”

“yes.”

“Was it he who defeated the bitter cold?”

I stared blankly at Shushuruta.

“… … Did you see that?”

Shushuruta nodded.

“Of course. Weren’t we being chased by the cold in the first place?”

“I told you to run away, so you just watch and tsk… … .”

When I clicked my tongue in disapproval, Shushuruta shamelessly responded.

“Isn’t it okay since I’m alive?”

“That’s true.”

I looked at Shushuruta carefully.

Every time I talked to Cheonma, I said I was talking nonsense, but it seems like I didn’t mean it that way on the inside.

No, did you finally believe me after seeing the Heavenly Demon possessing my body and beating me up with extreme cold?

Now that I think about it, every time I talk to Cheonma after that, he seems to be looking at me with strange eyes. It seems it wasn’t an illusion.

Well… it didn’t really matter either way.

What’s important is that someone has finally come to recognize my truth.

“Then who was the one who came out last time?”

“who?”

“The one who cut off Van Dyke’s two arms.”

“Oh, that.”

I asked, tilting my head to one side.

“What do you think? Do you think they look like the same person?”

Shushuruta shook his head.

“No. It’s someone else.”

The tone was firm.

“Why are you so sure?”

“It’s just. It was a different level.”

“hmm.”

How on earth did Cheonma beat the bitter cold?

I had no idea.

“So? Who cut off Van Dyke’s arms?”

“That guy is called Simma (心魔)… He will never come out again.”

Shushuruta nodded.

“I see.”

Heavenly horse. Heavenly horse.

Now that I think about it, I feel like I’ve become a multiple personality disorder.

There is a guy like that, you know.

“I know you often talk to your teacher.”

He nodded.

“right.”

“What do you talk about with your teacher?”

“We talk about this and that. We chat, we nag, we get advice.”

“Is this helpful?”

“of course.”

“how?”

“It helps you make choices and move forward.”

“select?”

“My master mostly gives me advice here and there, but in the end, it’s up to me to make the choice. And it’s also up to me to take responsibility for it.”

“… … .”

Shushuruta was lost in thought, fiddling with his dagger.

Then he muttered softly.

“I also have… a teacher.”

Shushuruta stood up from his seat with a determined look on his face and took something out of his bosom.

It was an old compass that had been taken from the tomb of Ophiuchus.

Click.

Shushuruta opened the compass, stared inside, then looked at me with a determined expression.

“Ashvan.”

I looked at her in silence.

“I’ll be back in a bit.”

Although he didn’t say where he was going, I nodded.

Because I thought I knew where it was.

“Until then, stay put. Do you understand?”

“Okay, don’t worry and go.”

Shushuruta nodded and left the guild.

She glanced at me from outside the door, then disappeared.

Only then did I get up from my seat and leave the building.

I looked around here and there, but there was no trace of Shushuruta.

I guess it went to my teacher.

Here, Shushuruta’s teacher is the one she calls inspiration.

And that inspiration is the head of the Thieves Guild.

There was no word on when he would return, but I decided to just trust and wait.

As always.

Or I even thought that it would be okay to just leave like this.

Because the longer the moment of separation goes on, the worse it becomes.

As I was lost in thought, looking up at the sky with clouds floating by, I heard a voice calling me from somewhere.

“You devil!”

Linda was running towards me from across the street.

The hat that was pushed down hard on his head looked as if it might fall off, but by the time it finally reached me, it had fallen off and was gone.

I tried to avoid it until the last moment… but I just gave up.

Because I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t avoid it with my current physical condition.

The guy who suddenly came running at me like a dog was the crazy Linda. The bounty was well over 30 gold.

If you try to avoid it clumsily, you’ll end up rolling on the ground. It’s better to just endure it.

I lowered my stance, dragging my hind legs back.

After making thorough preparations to receive the guy, he shouted desperately.

“Come!”

puck!

“100 million.”

Crazy.

I rolled on the floor. The moment I was hit with the body slam, all the strength left my legs.

It hurts so bad.

I overlooked the fact that even though my body had recovered somewhat, the throbbing pain was still there.

Phew.

A cloud of dust arose.

As I was breathing in the dust from the street, Linda climbed on top of me and looked into my eyes.

“Where have you been, devil? I’ve been looking for you for a long time!”

I saw Sir Max running towards me, panting, beyond the cloud of dust that had risen.

“Huk… Ugh… … .”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

Sir Max looked at me, barely raised one hand, and took a deep breath.

“Oh… you too.”

Sir Max, who was resting his hands on his knees and trying to catch his breath, reported to me.

“Ouch… I missed the Ghost thief. Ouch… When I looked back at some point, he was gone… … .”

I explained in a solemn tone, holding Linda against my chest.

“You don’t have to worry, we just met. He said he was going out for a bit to take care of something.”

Only then did Sir Max let out a long sigh.

“Hehehe.”

I asked, pushing Linda away from me, who had been using my upper body as a chair.

Why does this guy keep clinging to me like this all the time?

“Linda. How did you know I was here?”

“Yeah, I thought it would just stay here!”

This guy was a being with powers as mysterious as Shushuruta.

No matter where I am, it comes straight to me. How on earth does it know? There is no human compass.

I got up from my seat, picked up my hat that had fallen on the floor, shook it off, and asked.

“Linda.”

“huh?”

“I’m going to go far away soon.”

“Far away? Where to?”

“If I go, will you follow me then?”

Linda nodded with a bright smile.

“Yeah! I’ll follow you! I can find the devil wherever he is. I’ll go find him!”

“Aren’t you thinking of finding any other friends besides me?”

The guy shook his head and then hugged me like a cicada.

“I only have the devil!”

“……okay.”

I took Linda off and put the hat on the guy’s head.

“I think I can handle something like you somehow.”

Even if I left him alone, I had a feeling that he would somehow find me, even if it meant climbing up the foggy cliff.

There is no other guy whose behavior is as unpredictable as this one, so I was worried about what kind of mischief he would cause if I left him behind.

“Hehehe.”

As I looked at her smiling brightly at me, a smile naturally appeared on my lips.

They say you can’t spit in a smiling face.

“Don’t laugh. I’m so touched.”

“Hehehe.”

I looked at Sir Max.

“Is it done?”

Sir Max, who had regained his breath, nodded.

“Let’s go.”

“huh!”

I walked with the wild Linda into the street full of the bustling festival atmosphere.

The first and last festival in this country came to an end like that.

* * *

I focused on recovery as I had been doing, while also focusing on my training.

To completely conquer the realm of the half moon. And thus to make the power of the half moon completely mine.

There was no time to dawdle here, as there was a long way to go.

I wasn’t anxious, but I wasn’t complacent either.

There was something strange about the half moon.

The waning moon and the crescent moon were somewhat cold, but the half moon felt soft and warm.

Just like the warmth I felt from Tina’s hands.

In fact, moonlight sometimes looks different depending on the time of day, location, and atmosphere.

One day, it felt warm, like a lighthouse illuminating the dark night.

Sometimes it feels as cold as the merciless moon of midwinter.

The moon is not called the bard’s best friend for nothing.

That’s because it has that much strange magic.

Just as the goddess of the night, Ketel, is called by many names.

The moon, the true protagonist of the night sky, also has many attributes and personalities.

Night Sky Star Moon Gong (夜天星月功). Among them, Baekmi, the realm of moonlight seemed to express the magical power of the moon very well.

The phases of the moon and the resulting rise in realm.

The essence of martial arts that combines all of the moon’s attributes and the powers that go with them.

A mysterious and beautiful martial art that melts the martial arts of the sword into moonlight.

Are you saying that Cheonma took all of these into consideration?

Cheonma said that he couldn’t sleep and was bored while looking at the night sky, so he made it…

If that’s the case, Cheonma is a genius like no other in the world.

No, it’s beyond genius.

Cheonma snorted.

[Do you understand now?]

Although I started out in martial arts through the Night Sky Moonlight Art and don’t know much about other martial arts, it seemed like a martial art that wouldn’t be easy to create.

What kind of swordsmanship so completely captures the mystical secrets of moonlight?

In the first place, it is an impossible task to capture the magic of moonlight in a sword.

[How long are you going to sit here?]

I stood up, grabbed the moonlight sword that had bloomed in my hand, and started swinging it around.

I’m a heartless man by nature, so the cold moonlight suits me.

So I thought I would have a hard time handling the moonlight of the half moon, but after holding the moonlight sword and swinging it around here and there, I got used to it and it wasn’t bad.

Of course, there were many limitations to wielding the Moonlight Sword in reality.

My physical condition is not good, and my internal energy is not good either. So I cannot swing it for long.

But in the inner world, things are different.

Here, even if you let out moonlight or shoot it out to your heart’s content, your internal energy will not be scattered outward, but will instead flow back into the pond and fill up, allowing you to swing your sword to your heart’s content.

It is, so to speak, a perpetual motion machine.

By receiving advice from the Heavenly Horse watching from the side, he was able to correct his posture, make his internal energy flow and control more smoothly, and make his movements smoother.

He swung his sword with a sense of selflessness and practiced harder than ever.

When I was awake, I lightly swung my sword as a simple rehabilitation exercise to build up my external energy.

When I fell asleep, I focused on training while swinging the moonlight sword in my mind.

In other words, you are practicing without resting for even a moment.

There are times when you need to focus on your training and times when you need to take a break, but right now it feels like I’m in a time where I need to be completely absorbed in my training.

In the meantime, the invitation to the bitter cold was put on hold for a while.

Because I had a feeling that if I accepted the invitation, I would have not only a simple conversation, but also a conversation about swords.

So, I had some time to be patient until my body fully recovered and I could cut the sword without any regrets.

If you think about it, the first enemy that brought about the full moon was the cold.

If we talk to him, we might be able to get some clues about the full moon.

Considering that it hasn’t been that long since I reached the Half Moon Realm, it was definitely greedy.

It wasn’t such an unreasonable desire.

It was the first time I had a full moon while fighting him, and I was able to maintain it, even if only for a short time… … .

That’s what I thought.

It was a very brief moment, but it was a milestone that was achieved.

What could possibly never be achieved again?

This means that it is not completely unfounded confidence.

While I was fantasizing like that, the cold often sent people to harass me, and it was only after quite some time had passed since I had begun to cultivate in earnest that I was finally able to head to the cold mansion.

It was more than two months after the day of the decisive battle.

As soon as I entered the cold mansion, I realized why the cold had been tormenting me so much.

A handsome old man with white hair greeted me warmly.

“You’ve come, red-eyed demon.”