Tang Yuhwa was dreaming.

A dream of when she was very young, holding her father's hand and going to take care of patients.

When she was young, she went with him because he couldn't leave her at home alone, and when she grew up, she went with him because he found out that Tang Yuhwa was interested in medicine.

Because of that, Tang Yuhwa spent most of her time with her father.

"Yuhwa, do you know the efficacy of the herb called Tianqi?"

"It has a miraculous effect on hemostasis, so it is used as the main ingredient for wound medicine."

"Then can you also explain about Dang-gui?"

"It has an effect on enriching the blood, so it is also used as an ingredient for wound medicine."

Holding hands and walking on the mountain path, they talked affectionately like any other parent and child.

However, the fact that the content was mainly about medicine or medicinal herbs was unusual.

This too, was a memory from a certain day.

She was walking, holding her father's hand, to take care of a patient in the next village.

Then, in front of the father and daughter.

"Stop!"

Men with ferocious impressions appeared.

Common bandits.

Tang Yuhwa's father immediately lowered his posture and carefully spoke to the bandits.

"I am just a poor doctor. I cannot give you wealth, but if there is a patient, I can provide a diagnosis."

"A doctor?"

At the word 'doctor', the bandits began to whisper among themselves.

-He says he's a doctor, what should we do?

-Don't doctors have money?

-You stupid fool! No matter how rotten we are, we shouldn't rob a poor doctor who even has a child!

Bandits who robbed doctors were rarer than one might think.

No matter how wicked a thief was, killing a doctor who did the work of saving people was a reluctant matter.

Especially if that doctor seemed to have no money.

And so, one of the bandits who had been talking among themselves carefully approached Tang Yuhwa's father and performed a fist-and-palm salute.

"That... my mother is sick, could you take a look at her?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"I understand. Let's go right away."

Following the bandit who had become polite from a certain moment, Tang Yuhwa and her father moved.

And so, they arrived at a building in the mountains that was embarrassing to even call a mountain stronghold.

There, besides the bandits, there were only old people and children.

"Doctor sir, this way."

The place where the frail-looking bandit had guided them to was a sickbed where an old woman was lying.

"How did this happen?"

"She was unlucky enough to be in a place where government soldiers were having a sword fight and got hit by a sword..."

Tang Yuhwa's father asked about the symptoms and cause and examined the old woman.

The most noticeable thing was a large cut.

Tang Yuhwa's father seriously examined the old woman's condition and made a diagnosis.

"Fortunately, there are no signs of tetanus. It seems it will be fine if we clean the affected area, apply wound medicine, and then stitch it up."

"You're going to stitch up living flesh?!"

"If you leave it as it is, the wound may not heal and may fester."

Leaving behind the bandit who was making a serious face, Tang Yuhwa's father immediately began the treatment.

"Ugh!!"

"Please bear with it for a little while. The wound area will soon become numb, and the pain will lessen."

Tang Yuhwa's father quickly treated the old woman's wound.

"Since we're here, let's see the other patients as well."

After that, he diagnosed and treated all the patients in the bandit's den.

"Thank you, sir!!"

"W-we don't have much, but at least this!!"

When they were leaving the bandit's den, the treatment they received was completely different.

"It's alright. Please use it for your living."

As he had always done, her father refused the wealth that seemed to have been scraped together from what little they had.

"How can he be so incorruptible!"

"To think we tried to rob such a person!"

Perhaps because of that, the bandits who had already been showing goodwill to her father expressed respect beyond goodwill.

"Thank you, doctor! Thank you! We will quit being bandits and live honestly!"

The bandit who seemed to be the son of the old mother who had just been treated even shed tears when Tang Yuhwa's father was leaving.

And so, Tang Yuhwa and her father left the bandit's den, receiving a warm send-off.

Tang Yuhwa was very proud.

To have made bandits turn over a new leaf with medical practice was a beautiful story that could be proudly told anywhere.

"They will probably continue to be bandits."

To such a mood of Tang Yuhwa, her father poured cold water.

"Why?"

"Didn't you see just now? The only young people were those who had gone out to be bandits, and the rest were all old people and children."

"What about it?"

"The young people will be able to live somehow. But how will they feed the old people who have difficulty moving and the children who know nothing?"

Hearing her father's words, Tang Yuhwa's head cooled.

It wasn't that she didn't understand, but she didn't feel good.

"...Is there any meaning in treating them?"

"What reason is there to question the meaning of saving a person?"

"Umm..."

Tang Yuhwa frowned and fell into deep thought for a long time.

No matter how she tried to understand, it was her father's action that she could not understand.

Looking at such a Tang Yuhwa, her father smiled gently.

"Yuhwa."

"What?"

Her father gently stroked the pouting Tang Yuhwa's head.

"It's goodwill."

"Goodwill?"

"If a person shows goodwill, and the person who received that goodwill shows even a little goodwill to another person, wouldn't this world become a little better?"

Her father carefully held Tang Yuhwa.

Then he made Tang Yuhwa's ear touch his chest.

Thump.

Her father's heartbeat was heard in Tang Yuhwa's ear.

"Can you hear it?"

"I can hear it."

"It is the sound of life pursuing life."

Tang Yuhwa quietly closed her eyes and listened to the heartbeat.

"Yuhwa. Everyone wants to live."

"Among such people, there are also villains..."

"Aren't villains also alive? That person also has a life and a heart, so I believe that if they receive goodwill, they can turn to a good path."

"Isn't that too naive?"

"That's true."

At Tang Yuhwa's refutation, her father smiled bitterly.

"That may be so, but at least we, the kind of people who are doctors, should believe in goodwill and treat patients, shouldn't we?"

The father who had smiled bitterly quietly, but with a firm will, continued to speak.

"Even if others don't, a doctor who sees life and death up close should treat a patient if they are in front of them, shouldn't they?"

"Umm..."

"Yuhwa, I hope you become such a doctor. A doctor who treats patients with goodwill and spreads goodwill."

A very naive thought.

It was a story so unrealistic that even the young Tang Yuhwa would shake her head.

But because her father's sincerity in that voice was so transparent, Yuhwa just liked to put her ear to her father's chest and listen to the slow heartbeat.

It was the safest and warmest beat in the world.

And so, as she was quietly closing her eyes and listening to her father's heartbeat.

Suddenly, the sound stopped.

"Hmm?"

Puzzled, Tang Yuhwa opened her eyes.

Although it had been an ordinary mountain path until just now, it was now stained red.

Not only was it stained red, but a foul, metallic smell brushed past the tip of her nose.

A lukewarm liquid fell on the puzzled Tang Yuhwa's cheek.

Tang Yuhwa quietly turned her head.

Then she saw her father's face.

Not the benevolent and kind face in her memory, but a face with empty eye sockets, and from those sockets, blood was continuously falling.

Seeing that face, Tang Yuhwa could not move, as if she were frozen on the spot.

"Yuhwa."

Towards such a Tang Yuhwa, her father opened his mouth.

"This father practiced medicine with goodwill and died."

Although it was the same as her father's voice in Tang Yuhwa's memory, a voice that was eerie to no end was stuck in her ear.

Her father's hand quietly stroked Tang Yuhwa's head.

A hand with melting flesh and dripping blood stroked Tang Yuhwa's head, staining her in a bloody mess.

"Yuhwa. Father died painfully."

Tang Yuhwa's heart felt as if it were freezing, like her father's un-beating heart now.

"Yuhwa. You have learned martial arts."

Not only her heart, but her whole body felt as if it were growing cold and freezing.

"Just as this father died cruelly, you are also trying to kill someone cruelly."

Her father's voice dug into Tang Yuhwa's ear.

The sensation of the day she had learned martial arts and killed her enemy felt so vivid that she felt as if she would suffocate.

At the same time, Tang Yuhwa opened her eyes.

"Heok, heok. Heok."

Gasping for breath, she looked around.

The temporary doctor's residence near Shaolin, where she had been guided.

"A nightmare..."

Tang Yuhwa realized that what she had just seen was a nightmare.

"Ugh..."

Groaning, Tang Yuhwa plunged her face into the water she had drawn earlier.

The water, which still had a cold energy, wet Tang Yuhwa's face and woke her still hazy mind.

And so, after dipping her face in the water for a moment, Tang Yuhwa raised her head.

"Phew."

She let out a long breath.

A nightmare.

Although it wasn't that she had suffered from it once or twice, she couldn't get used to it at all.

Naturally, on the day she had a nightmare, she didn't feel good all day.

"I feel bad."

Tang Yuhwa also knew that it was not reality.

But for some reason, the foul and unpleasant feeling that was creeping up could not be easily shaken off.

Although she tried to shake off the nightmare, Tang Yuhwa, who could not shake it off, thought of her father instead.

Tang Yuhwa's father was basically a good person.

'A foolishly good person.'

Although he had excellent medical skills, he had no talent for making money.

He often provided medical treatment to poor patients without even receiving a consultation fee.

He sincerely believed in goodwill and did not turn away any patient.

And he died.

-He was a funny guy! Even as his body was melting from the extreme poison, even as he was screaming, he insisted that he had no poison art!!

In Tang Yuhwa's mind, the image of her enemy, who had proudly boasted of killing her father, came to mind.

Although he was eventually subdued by Baek Yoonjun and died cruelly at Tang Yuhwa's hands, the enemy's face remained clearly in her mind.

"He died well."

Tang Yuhwa did not regret killing her enemy.

But at the same time, she felt a stinging sensation in her chest, as if she had betrayed her father.

Martial arts.

'The power to kill people.'

Tang Yuhwa is negative about martial arts.

Naturally, she also does not like martial artists.

Although there are exceptions like her master, Baek Yoonjun, she basically did not like them.

'But I also learned martial arts.'

Of course, it is true that she learned it at Baek Yoonjun's strong recommendation.

But.

'If I had no intention of learning it, would I have learned it?'

Tang Yuhwa learned martial arts, pretending to be unable to resist Baek Yoonjun's absurd persuasion.

She learned martial arts even while feeling as if she were betraying her father.

Ironically, in the background of that was her father's death.

Although she knew that her father would not want her to take revenge, she learned martial arts using that as an excuse.

"Phew. Let's calm down."

Realizing that her emotions had become intense, Tang Yuhwa took a deep breath and tried to calm her mind.

It was just a nightmare.

With no reality at all.

"Haa."

Although she tried to calm herself somehow, she could not calm down easily.

Engulfed in a sticky and unpleasant feeling, Tang Yuhwa moved her feet.

And so, she unconsciously followed the familiar scent of poison.

Since the owner of the scent was the owner, the place she arrived at was naturally the deepest part of the Repentance Cave.

The place where the only person she could rely on now was.

Tang Yuhwa unconsciously arrived at the deepest part of the Repentance Cave.

"Master."

"What?"

"What are you doing?"

"Digging the ground."

For some reason, she ran into Baek Yoonjun, who was physically digging the ground.

Since it was a dumbfounding sight that even Tang Yuhwa, who had little emotional fluctuation, could not have predicted, the afterglow of the nightmare was instantly washed away.

"Why are you digging the ground?"

"Listen."

Putting down the shovel that he had brought from who knows where, Baek Yoonjun quietly opened his mouth.

"This alliance, you see. Before I knew it, I had become the representative."

"Isn't that natural? Master took care of the alliance leader."

"Does it make sense to give the representative position of this group just because I took care of one third-rate or lower martial artist? Anyway, this is just the beginning, and a bigger problem has arisen. This is not the problem."

"Then what is the problem?"

Tang Yuhwa settled down near Baek Yoonjun and squatted.

"If I stay like this, I'm stuck going to Zhongnan as the representative."

"You can just go."

"Are you crazy? Even if others don't, you know me, don't you?"

With those words, Tang Yuhwa grasped why Baek Yoonjun was in this state.

'Master, as always, doesn't want to go to a place with a lot of people.'

The Baek Yoonjun that Tang Yuhwa knew was such a person.

Unreasonably strong, and whether he didn't know he was strong or was just being humble, she didn't know.

A timid person who extremely disliked crowded places.

And so, as she was thinking about Baek Yoonjun, the pit he had dug came into her eyes.

It was a pit of a size just right for burying one person.

"So why are you digging the ground?"

"That is."

At Tang Yuhwa's question, Baek Yoonjun hesitated for a moment.

Baek Yoonjun, who seemed to be hesitating for a moment whether to speak or not, quietly opened his mouth.

"I recently realized that a martial artist of about the second-rate doesn't need to breathe."

At Baek Yoonjun's words, Tang Yuhwa lost her balance in a squatting position and staggered.

It seemed that her master had intended to bury himself for the reason of not wanting to go to Zhongnan.

Tang Yuhwa quietly raised her head and looked at Baek Yoonjun.

No matter how she looked, his newly serious face was indescribably funny.

"Are you laughing?"

"Eh?"

At the words that Baek Yoonjun had brought up then, Tang Yuhwa touched the corner of her mouth.

Although the corner of her mouth was slightly raised, as if it were raised or not, Tang Yuhwa newly realized that she had been smiling.

"You don't breathe, so are you not a person, Master?"

"Isn't it a bit too much to say I'm not a person?"

Although Baek Yoonjun's outward appearance was no different from usual, Tang Yuhwa could tell that he was feeling very wronged.

'The afterglow of the nightmare has disappeared...'

What master in the world would evade responsibility so creatively.

At that serious gaze of Baek Yoonjun, Yuhwa let out a chuckle without realizing it.

The killing intent she had felt towards the enemy who had killed her father, the self-loathing, all became as light as 'dust' in front of this absurd man.

Tang Yuhwa's eyes, whose mood had lightened, fell on Baek Yoonjun's chest.

Tang Yuhwa slowly got up from her seat.

Perhaps because Baek Yoonjun was quite tall, the position of Tang Yuhwa's head was just about at his chest.

Tang Yuhwa quietly brought her head to Baek Yoonjun's chest.

She quietly listened to his chest.

Thump.

Baek Yoonjun's heartbeat was heard in her ear.

"What are you doing?"

Although Baek Yoonjun was flustered by such an action from Tang Yuhwa, since she had no intention of moving back at all, she kept her ear there.

Thump.

At the slow heartbeat, her heart somehow became at ease.

"Master, your heart is beating."

"Then wouldn't it beat?"

"It seems you are a person."

"Then wouldn't I be?"

As if it resembled its owner, even its beating was slow and timid.

But paradoxically, that insignificant sound was melting Yuhwa's frozen soul.

'It's calming.'

Yuhwa closed her eyes.

Just as the pit that Master had dug was his refuge, the clumsy heartbeat she was hearing now was a more than perfect refuge for her.

(End of Chapter)