It’s not that I feel disappointed he’s not by my side right now. Rather, since I had run out crying and fainted after mumbling incomprehensible apologies in front of him…

I was wondering if he was alright, as he must have been very flustered.

“Um, by the way.”

“Speak, child.”

“I was wondering if you knew where Master went…”

“Ah.”

The Great Elder let out a short exclamation before speaking.

“Well, he went down to Hwa-eum County with your junior disciple.”

“What?”

“The two of them were going around looking like death, so it was hard, unpleasant to watch… So I sent them out to buy some sweets to give you when you wake up, rather than have them stay like that. To be honest, I didn’t think you’d regain consciousness in just one day.”

The Great Elder added with a sheepish expression.

“They’ll probably be back soon. When you’ve taken your medicine, I’ll bring out the sweets they bought, so don’t feel disappointed.”

…There was nothing to feel disappointed about, but I realized one thing.

‘Indeed, there are always elders above elders.’

That’s just how the ways of the world work.

As the Great Elder said, Master and Ha Hyun soon returned.

Master, who must have been surprised to face his disciple clinging to him and crying out of the blue, let out a sigh of relief upon hearing that I had safely woken up and the problem was well resolved. I could clearly see the tension that had been frozen on his face finally melting away completely.

Ha Hyun, whose eyes had lost a bit of soul after experiencing another trip down and up Mount Hwa so soon after taking the entrance exam, also wore a relieved expression.

Seeing their reactions made me feel strange again.

While I felt most apologetic towards Master, I felt equally sorry towards Ha Hyun.

Although we’re getting along well now after taking the entrance exam together and him helping me, in my memories, ‘Ha Heun’ and he…

‘I had just shown him the sight of hating him one-sidedly for no reason and then committing suicide right in front of him.’

It was truly regrettable.

But I couldn’t cry again here, so I tried hard to think of something else to calm myself down.

In any case, these were things that could no longer happen now. It would be better to try to stop recalling them, even forcibly.

‘At least it’s true that the spell has been broken.’

After calming my mind like that, I exchanged a few words with them and received some pats from Master. After that, the Great Elder chased everyone out of the room again, saying the patient needed rest.

In the room that had become much quieter, I exhaled softly and organized my thoughts.

‘For now…’

The reason why the Devil Cult had exterminated the Baek family leaving only me behind, why they had cast such a spell on me – these were issues I shouldn’t forget and should investigate. However, there was no need to rush urgently right away.

‘To begin with, I don’t have any other way to investigate right now anyway.’

According to the Great Elder’s assertion, the task I should do now was to rest well and recover my body, and I agreed with that.

So for two weeks, I really did nothing and just rolled around in the small infirmary room.

‘This isn’t bad either.’

Although I had been living quite actively learning swordsmanship since the possession, I originally don’t dislike staying indoors.

Master and Ha Hyun had really bought only sweets in abundance when sent to buy them, and even though we ate them together with medicine for two weeks, we couldn’t even finish half of them…

‘Well, that’s a good thing anyway.’

After two weeks passed and I received permission from the Great Elder that I could now leave the infirmary, I returned to my daily routine again.

It was the true end of the incident.

Many things happened after I was discharged, hugging the remaining sweets.

First, I was summoned by the Sect Leader and received words of comfort for my hardship, along with a request to keep silent about the Devil Cult and my family’s extermination to others, as they would send another letter to the Murim Alliance and the elders would look into it as much as possible.

Except for the fact that I had entered Mount Hwa under a spell, there was no immediate visible threat, so it was the right treatment if they wanted to avoid increasing confusion.

I had faith that the elders of Mount Hwa would investigate well, and I had no intention of causing a commotion by going around telling everyone about the Devil Cult right now.

I obediently agreed to do so.

‘I don’t really have any grand thoughts of taking revenge anyway.’

I just want to live peacefully.

Meanwhile, I’m not sure what exactly was said among my fellow disciples, but most of them would react by looking at me with wistful eyes and patting me saying, “Oh, our youngest…” or giving me snacks as if feeding grass to a rabbit whenever they encountered me.

More than anything else, this felt a bit unfair.

‘I’m not the youngest.’

There’s my junior disciple.

Although he’s 2 years older than me, this is a sect, so shouldn’t we go by order of entry?

‘…Hah, never mind.’

There’s no use grumbling to myself.

But if I think carefully about it, excluding this part, there wasn’t an enormously big difference from how things were before the incident occurred. The behaviors were almost similar.

‘It’s just that the looks in their eyes when they see me have become even more pitiful…’

But I couldn’t ask my senior and junior disciples why they were looking at me with such eyes.

As always, giving up was the easiest solution for such ambiguous issues. If left alone, things might return to normal. I was able to accept and move past the reactions of my fellow disciples before long.

…In fact, to be more precise, I realized there was too significant a change to keep paying attention to such things. Because of that, I no longer had the mental capacity to focus on other areas.

The realization began when I picked up and swung a sword again for the first time in a while, after a few days of rehabilitation following my discharge from the infirmary.

After loosening up my body, which must have stiffened from lying down for so long, and demonstrating the forms of the Six Harmonies Sword from beginning to end for adaptation.

“What’s this?”

I muttered, standing blankly in the middle of the training ground.

I wanted to keep such soliloquies to myself if possible, but I couldn’t stop the question from escaping my lips.

I mentally went over the sword techniques I had just demonstrated.

“What is this, really?”

No other question came to mind. And for good reason…

‘Why am I… so good?’

I know it’s a strange question that would sound like nonsense if someone heard it.

But I was serious.

Until now, when I wielded a sword, the feeling was like something that had been buried unconsciously from long practice would pop out regardless of my will.

If I were to describe it in more detail…

‘It’s like how celebrities who practiced their debut song for a year can still perform that choreography perfectly without mistakes even 10 years after their debut if they hear the song, that kind of feeling.’

So I thought it was some kind of possessed person’s perk.

I thought it was an ability that helps you become familiar with things you’ve never done before as if you’ve mastered them just by seeing them once, something like that.

So every time Master demonstrated, I would think to myself, ‘I’m a fake genius’.

‘It’s clearly different from before.’

The trajectory of swinging the sword, the direction the wavering sword tip should face.

Where to add strength and how much, where to reduce it.

The instinctively adjusted stride, arm height, and how to use the body most efficiently.

All of that came to me very clearly and distinctly, unlike before. It’s strange, but it did. I understood all those things almost perfectly.

Why it should be done this way, what the movement is for, what insight is needed for the next step.

As if a blocked dam had been opened, with every step I took, the insights that filled my mind like sparkling sparks…

I blankly lifted my hand and looked down at it. There was one thought that immediately came to mind.

‘Because the curse was broken?’

That was the only change that had happened to me recently.

‘Could it be that it was even suppressing my innate talent?’

It wasn’t an entirely impossible thought.

It did feel like it was covering my inner self like a veil. It’s not unreasonable to say that it prevented what was inside from being fully revealed.

So now that the curse is broken, if the talent that ‘Ha Heun’ originally possessed has finally come out into the world.

‘This is…’

In fact, I couldn’t accurately tell how great a level of talent this sensation I’m feeling now is. After all, I’ve only been learning swordsmanship for barely a year.

But one thing was certain: it was far more impressive than that ability I had been calling a ‘possessed person’s perk’ before.

I clenched my hand that I had been looking down at.

‘Even this…’

The life of the body’s original owner becomes even more pitiable.

However, this point now had to be secondary. Rather, I felt a chilling sensation. A different kind of chill from the inhuman one I felt due to the spell.

This is a more human and honest discomfort.

Not only did I come to know the body owner’s memories, but now I’ve also acquired the hidden talents of the body.

‘Really, how far does this possession go?’

It was inevitable to feel that something was a bit strange now to think about it simply.

“Junior disciple.”

Come to think of it, the dream I had last time was strange from the start. The memory of the original story shown by the curse was also strange. I still wondered how it could show such things.

Moreover, why, why did I of all people enter this body…

“Junior disciple!”

“Huh, what?”

I startled awake as if suddenly pulled out of deep water and looked up. Ha Hyun, who had come to my side at some point, was looking down at me.

With the sun behind him casting a slight shadow on his face, he had his brow slightly furrowed.

“If you’re tired, rest. Don’t just stand blankly in the middle of the training ground.”

“Ah, okay…”

I answered with a slightly dazed feeling. Ha Hyun’s brow furrowed a bit more.

“Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You don’t look fine.”

Ha Hyun muttered softly and reached out to grab my elbow and pull me. As I was led by him to the shade of a tree outside the training ground, I quietly looked at Ha Hyun’s back.

I tried not to think about the past ‘Ha Heun’s’ memories, but a person’s heart doesn’t always move as they want it to.

Suddenly, a fragment of memory flashed by.

‘Is it because of his frowning expression?’

Because I saw a similar face in my memories.

The very face that had rushed over sensing something was wrong, turning to look at ‘Ha Heun’ and asking what on earth was going on.

At that time, that is, in ‘Ha Heun’s’ final moment.

Thinking back on it now, the apology I had belatedly offered to Ha Hyun seems like it would have been better left unsaid.

‘I should have just remained a bad junior disciple to the end to make him feel less uneasy, no, to make myself feel less…’

Now I’m even confused about who I am.

Before that, I shouldn’t be thinking like this. It’s too disrespectful and rude to ‘Ha Heun’. Someone who has arbitrarily occupied another’s body has no right to think like this.

No right, but…

As I let out a small sigh, Ha Hyun, who had arrived at the shade of the tree and pushed me inside, stood in front of me blocking the sunlight and asked again.

“Are you really okay? You don’t look like it.”

Somehow, the Great Elder seemed to flash by over his expression as he asked with narrowed eyes. I finally admitted.

“You’re right. I don’t think I’m okay actually.”

“I knew it from the moment you came out to hold a sword when I told you to rest more.”

“It’s not serious, I think I’ll be fine if I rest a bit, so don’t worry about me and go do what you need to do.”

“…That’s not as easy as you make it sound.”

Ha Hyun grumbled in a low voice. It seemed the shock he received from seeing me cough up blood when I was on the verge of entering a trance state a few days ago hadn’t fully subsided yet.

‘He’s not the type to be like this otherwise.’

In any case, I was the guilty one in that regard. When I smiled awkwardly, Ha Hyun said with a sigh.

“I’m going to leave because I think you’ll be uncomfortable if I stay, but call me if you’re still not okay after resting.”

“No, I won’t be uncomfortable, but… Alright.”

He let out a small sigh at my answer and returned to the inner part of the training ground.

I blankly watched Ha Hyun swinging his sword, then slowly lowered my gaze. Just then, the peaceful sound of leaves rustling gently above my head brushed my ears in the softly blowing wind.

I took a light breath in and out.

And I recalled the moment from earlier when even my perspective had been momentarily confused.

Retracing that brief instant, I slowly murmured as if engraving it.

“…I am me.”

I am living under the name of Ha Heun.

But while I might be ‘me’ living as Ha Heun, I could never become the real ‘Ha Heun’.

I arbitrarily occupied someone else’s body, so in the end ‘Ha Heun’ was the one who had her body taken away. As the unintentional perpetrator, I tried to only be mindful of the victim’s position. After all, I didn’t want to walk the same path as ‘Ha Heun’ either.

So I made becoming a decent adult my top priority, thinking that in the process I should try to return the body if the opportunity arose, but…

Now I’ve peeked at that child’s memories, and through them I can clearly see all the past as if it were my own, and I’ve even taken possession of this body’s talents.

‘This is clearly strange.’

Contrary to my intention to return the body, it felt as if the unfolding situations were leading me to become a complete ‘Ha Heun’ instead. As if the world was urging me to become ‘Ha Heun’.

Through that, it feels like the real me is slowly disappearing.

“Hmm.”

Having thought that far, I raised my head again.

Hoping that the complex sentiments would flow away with the exhaled breath, this time I took a much deeper breath and exhaled than before.

‘Well, what would I do if I feel that way?’

No matter how strange the situation becomes, I am me, and I cannot become someone else.

Thinking as if making a resolution, I deliberately looked up at the sky. Due to the clear weather, the sunlight pierced my eyes sharply. However, it was still the spring sunshine that wasn’t too harsh yet. A gentle warmth touched my skin.

Yet somehow, the coolness in a corner of my heart wouldn’t easily fade away.