Rebirth of the Heavenly Demon Chapter 1: Rebirth (1) (1/2)
Book 1 Chapter 1: Rebirth(1)
Translator: Hwarang
Editor: ardastre
On that day, the day that became both my last and my first, snow began to fall late in the evening.
Watching the snowflakes fall as gently as feathers, Baek Hyo exclaimed, “Alliance Master! It’s the first snow.”
Baek Hyo was the Alliance’s head of security, and also one of my two trusted aides. Despite being in his forties, his character reflected the innocence of a child. He said, “They say that watching the first snowfall would bring forth a good year.” Even though he tried not to show it, his words had a hint of melancholy for the coming year.
Who knew that the greatest bodyguard who had once stood up to the combined attack of Black Heaven Palace members and the Seven Evil Monsters could be this sentimental?
“Yes, it is indeed the first snow!”
Even though I tried to make myself look excited, I honestly wasn’t feeling much inside. Nowadays, even the word ‘first snow’ did not make my heartbeat speed up in the slightest. This year I was already seventy years old. And first snow was not enough to melt my calloused heart. Seeing the snow… I could only remember those who died by my hands in the snowy field. The people who lay on the snow, dying the innocent white snow with crimson red.
Swoos.h.!.+. The gentle snowfall began to get more violent.
The heavenly seer who predicted that today would be clear will most likely avoid contact with me for a few days. He predicted that the first snowfall would be in four months.
“That rascal Myung He, must be jumping with joy.”
Myung He was Bake Hyo’s child.
“Is he three years old this year?”
Suddenly, Baek Hyo showed a slightly panicked face.
“He is six this year, sir.”
His reply surprised me. It wasn’t because I could not remember Myung He’s age, but because I remembered having the same conversation couple of days ago. Even then I asked whether his son was three. How could I have made such a mistake? Was I so old that I was turning senile?
“I am sorry, he is that big already.”
Rather than looking disappointed, he looked at me with an anxious face and said, “It’s alright, sir. It is said that you feel the time go by watching other’s child grow.”
Now I am certain that Baek Hyo said the same thing the other day.
‘Why am I like this these days?’ My memory is not like before, I am getting more and more forgetful. Also, I have trouble remembering my most recent events. My body is not like how it was before either. I don’t have much energy as before and I am s.p.a.cing out more often. Just to make sure I circulated my ki throughout my body but discovered that there were no abnormalities. ‘Did I catch some sort of a disease? Should I ask the G.o.dly doctor to visit?’
But in the end, I decided to wait it out. If rumors started spreading that there was something wrong with the Alliance Master’s health, then the whole Alliance… No, all of Kang Ho would be in chaos.
“Sir, I will excuse myself for today.”
“Go ahead.”
‘Well, my situation is what it is but I felt sorry for Baek Hyo. How could I have made such a mistake twice, and to someone who is so close to me, and who always takes care of me? I must buy his child a pair of clothes. But… was his child a boy or a girl? s.h.i.+t, I can’t remember.’ Feeling depressed, I turned my sight toward the window. The intense snowfall was slowly painting the world white, along with my memories.
‘ “…is death knocking at my door step?”
For me, the strongest under the heaven? For me, who has held this position for dozens of years?’
In the afternoon, Chancellor Kal Sa Ryan came to the Master’s Pavillion to give the daily report.
As usual, his report contained various things happening in the alliance, but I wasn’t in the mood for it, so I was staring blankly out the window.
Noticing my mood, he ended the report earlier than usual, “…the rest are in the pile, sir.”
“Great Work.”
“Then, I will excuse myself.”
As he was about to leave, I called him back, “Chancellor Kal.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“What kind of person am I?”
“What do you mean by that, sir?”
“Just speak your mind. How do you see me as a person? Go ahead and give me your evaluation.”
I looked at him with an interested look. I was curious to hear how he would evaluate me, since he was one of my oldest allies, and someone who shared my grand ambition of unifying the Central Plains.
“Why, Sir? How could my evaluation be important, sir?”
He replied looking around, “You are the greatest person in Kang Ho.”
The walls of the master’s pavilion had murals displaying my previous deeds.
My fights, which are recorded in the history book of Kang Ho history book.
At twenty-nine I received the t.i.tle ‘Strongest Under Heaven’. That year, the Blade King, Axe King, and the Fight King, had all knelt down before me.
Before me, the martial G.o.d who ruled everything under the heavens. That was the t.i.tle that I earned at the end of my twenties.
Seven years later when I was thirty-six, I became the youngest Murim Mengju. It was first time in the history of Murim that such a young person had become the Mengju. Being the first in history filled me with pride.
Drunk with pride and arrogance, I lived my life as Mengju for the last thirty years. I lived an exciting and exhilarating life. Being the Mengju, I lived in the battlefield, defeating the pract.i.tioners of the Demonic Alliance and the Evil Sects. In the process, I’d had many close encounters with death, but I had achieved some of the alliance’s long lasting wishes. I destroyed two major powers of the Demonic Alliance, The Thirteen Demon Alliance and the Blood Heaven Sect.
But my fights did not end there. After defeating the foreign enemies, the traitors from inside the alliance showed their true colors. They wanted my position and my t.i.tle, so they poisoned my food and sent a.s.sa.s.sins. But these were never successful, and I eliminated all those traitors. I had to kill so that I did not get killed.
Some people in Kang Ho called me Iron Blooded Master, others called me Remorseless Master, since I had killed all the traitors without remorse.