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SSS-CLASS HUNTER WHO DIES TO LIVE

Chapter 76: Song of Light and Shadow (2)

3. When I first tried to learn the Sword of Starving Death.

"What?"

The Heavenly Demon was disappointed.

"You mean to tell me the longest you've ever starved is just about three days?"

She didn't appreciate my effort. She gave up. Resigned. After briefly observing me wielding the sword, the Heavenly Demon quickly turned her back and left.

"We're not on the same page."

"How could you comprehend the Demonic Heavenly God Art without even knowing this?"

The Heavenly Demon only tested me to give up on herself.

Since there was nothing more to hope for in this world. Nothing should be.

"It's done."

"It's my fault."

That was when I learned 'hunger.'

But when it came to mastering 'thirst,' her attitude completely changed.

4. “Your swordsmanship is excessively simple.”

The Heavenly Demon watched as I fought the zombie.

I could feel her gaze on me changing. Even when I clumsily swung my sword, she didn't turn her back, frowning instead. She even offered advice.

"There's no subtlety in your sword. No room for adaptation. It's straightforward and honest, yet that makes it vulnerable."

The Heavenly Demon had begun to place her hopes in me.

"Your sword seems not to fight against humans but to confront the world. It's closer to the swordsmanship of the orthodox faction than that of our sect. How intriguing."

At first, I was killed by a martial arts zombie in a single blow.

But as time passed, I could easily handle the martial arts zombie. It was inevitable. Every night I was killed by the zombies that Preta brought.

The more I experienced the trauma of the thirsty dead, the stronger my sword became.

"I shall teach you a concise mental formula."

Once my swordsmanship improved, the Heavenly Demon finally began her teachings.

"A mental formula? What's that?"

"...A secret or a key to the art. It is not easy speaking with a child from beyond the frontier."

The Heavenly Demon cleared her throat.

"Think back to when you used the Sword of Starving Death. What were you thinking about when you swung your sword?"

"I thought of hunger."

"Of course. But that's not all. Unbeknownst to you, you had already grasped the essence of demonic art."

The essence of demonic art.

"I will now teach you about it."

We sat facing each other on the snowfield.

"Now, imagine an [apple] in your mind."

"An apple... as in the fruit?"

"Yes, the edible apple."

I did as told and pictured an apple.

"Have you imagined it?"

"Yes."

"How does the apple feel to the touch?"

"Excuse me?"

The question caught me off guard. How could I know the touch of an apple when I didn't actually hold one in my hand?

Confused, I looked at the Heavenly Demon, who was keenly observing my reaction.

"Don't you know?"

"I could force myself to imagine it, but..."

"That's fine. Say you don't know if you don't know."

"Ah, yes. I have no idea."

"Hmm. Hmm."

The Heavenly Demon smiled. She seemed pleased.

"Honest, I see. Good! Now think of [hunger]."

"......."

I did.

I imagined a farmer tirelessly swinging a hoe on parched land. The motion of hitting a child. Children digging soft mud by the river and making mud cookies from it.

"Have you imagined it?"

The Heavenly Demon whispered.

"Yes, I have."

"What is the touch of hunger?"

The crunch of teeth on mud cookies. The taste. The dry texture.

"......It's dry."

"What is the scent of hunger?"

"The smell of dirt."

"Oh. What kind of dirt? There are different types. Soil for farming, clay for pottery. Black soil, red soil. I'm curious. What kind of dirt is your hunger?"

"Mud."

I said with my eyes closed.

"You cannot scoop up just any mud. It must have few pebbles and no grains of sand."

"I see. And what is the taste of hunger?"

"......."

"Child."

The Heavenly Demon's voice softened.

"I asked about the taste of hunger. Why don't you answer immediately?"

"......It's sad."

I replied.

"The children dry mud cookies in the sun. While drying, they have nothing to do, so they linger around the cookies. They just wait for the mud to dry..."

"Children waiting for the sunlight."

"...Yes."

"Hunger is like children waiting for the sun."

That's how it was. That's how it had been.

"Child. That's your poetry."

The Heavenly Demon's voice fell like gentle snow.

"When I asked about the touch of an apple, you said you didn't know. But what about hunger? You touched the mud. You smelled it. You chewed and ate it! You saw the flowing river, so you must have heard its gurgling sound as well."

An old man's last voyage. A ferry. The night sky.

A lonely death, not wanting to be a burden, yet ending up as one.

"An apple has form, but hunger does not. An apple has a taste, but hunger is tasteless. And yet you speak so well of hunger! To you, hunger is mud, sunlight, river water, and children."

“……”

"Child! That's your talent."

The Heavenly Demon said.

"Now, open your eyes."

I looked.

The Heavenly Demon moved her hands while seated.

"The reason you don't know the feel of an apple is simple. You didn't stimulate your [memory]."

My memory.

"If you've eaten an apple before, you would know."

The Heavenly Demon smiled and moved her hands.

I soon realized.

She was mimicking cutting an apple in half.

"Apples have smooth skin. Slick yet slightly rough. I usually enjoy eating apples with the skin on, but if there's a sick child, it changes. Cut it in half..."

It was as if she actually had an apple in her hand.

"Scoop it out with a spoon. Feed the scooped apple to the sick child, bite by bite."

"......."

"Have you ever eaten scooped apple like that?"

Yes.

I remembered a teacher at the orphanage doing that for me. When I came down with a cold and lay in bed, they fed me apple scraped out with a spoon.

"How does the scooped apple feel?"

"...It has a soft crunch."

"Exactly! An apple that was crisp is chewed once by the spoon and takes on that softer crunch. But is that all? Has it merely become less tasty?"

"Yellow juice fills my mouth."

"That's right! And what else! If you scrape the peel thoroughly, the remaining apple skin becomes wrinkly. The mother's hands feeding the apple become wet from the juice. But then, child, among all these, what would you say is your apple?"

"......."

I was lost in thought.

The Heavenly Demon pressed on.

"Is it the whole apple? The halved apple? A spoonful of juice? The skin? The mother's hand? What is your apple?"

What is my apple?

"I've seen a mother who fed the entire apple to her child and only ate the remaining skin."

"......."

"To me, the apple is the leftover skin of the mother. The sick child. The mother's heart, grated spoon by spoon."

My heart felt warm, even sitting in the middle of the snowfield.

Maybe it was because of the Heavenly Demon's smile.

"---And then I think of children whose mothers never once scooped an apple for them."

But the Heavenly Demon's smile didn't last long.

"I think of mothers who couldn't afford apples. Mothers who could but didn't buy them. Children who lay sick but had no one to care for them. Children who died without care."

Venom.

The Heavenly Demon's black eyes darkened.

"In this world, there's nothing untouched by human hearts, thus, there's no place free from human resentments!"

I shivered.

"Does hunger have no form? No taste? No scent? Thirst! Hunger is mud, river water, and children. Even a single apple is all of those things. Child! Just as you made hunger into mud, do the same with thirst!"

"......."

"Feel the pain of thirst! Sense it. Give it a taste. Smell its scent. Eat it. Move your hands through it. Demonic art is memory! Memory is sensation. This is our sect's mental formula! The sensation of scooping up mud and eating it, that feeling caught in your hand, is your hunger and your Demonic Heavenly God Art!"

A chill ran down my neck.

A cold current flowed through my body.

"When the common people suffer injustice, that is the end of it. They cannot speak it. They cannot spit it out. The resentful thoughts they cannot expel keep piling up in their hearts until they congeal into a grudge. But the martial artists of our Demonic Cult are different!"

The Heavenly Demon looked at me.

"We wield our swords!"

I instinctively gripped the sword hilt tighter.

"Like courtesans sing and scholars recite poetry, we swing our swords. What's the difference between a rogue of the green forests and a martial artist of our cult? They are controlled by the sword. But we control the sword! Just that, and all that matters."

The training began.

"How can merely living however life happens to carry you be called life? That is death! How can a sword wielded however others choose to wield it be called a sword? That is a beast. Do you wish to die? Do you wish to become a beast?"

"No!"

I clenched my teeth.

"I am a living human!"

"Then become thirsty at once. Thirst as you once hungered!"

I gathered 112 people who died from starvation.

Among them, there was a child who had gnawed on mud cookies.

I bit into the dry grains of earth in my mouth.

Thus,

Demonic Heavenly God Art.

The First Form.

Sword of Starving Death.

"You have found the mud of hunger. Now you must find something of thirst. To you, hunger was the children waiting for the sun. What is thirst to you!"

I gathered 48 people who died of thirst.

Among them was an old woman who drank seawater continuously.

I pickled my internal organs in brine.

Thus,

Demonic Heavenly God Art.

The Second Form.

Sword of Parched Death.

"To you, hunger was mud and thirst was the sea. But is the sea's pain only in thirst? There's the pain of drowning in seawater, drowning in a river. Child, what is water to you!"

I gathered 37 people who drowned.

Among them was a father who gave his last breath to his child.

I sank in water, sharing breaths with Preta.

Thus,

Demonic Heavenly God Art.

The Third Form.

Sword of Submerged Death.

"Hunger is earth. Thirst is waves. To you, suffocation is the father's last breath! Land, sea, and air are already yours. Child from beyond! What is winter to you."

I gathered 96 people who died of cold.

Among them was a newborn clinging to its dead mother's body till the end.

I embraced the corpse until I froze.

Thus,

Demonic Heavenly God Art.

The Fourth Form.

Sword of Frostbitten Death.

"......."

Dawn faded. Morning passed. The day progressed.

The world had spent a day,

And I had lived through 293 deaths.

"Child. Your sword is..."

The Heavenly Demon slowly opened her lips.

"Truly, it's ever-changing."

The way she looked at me had also changed.

"Every person has their own tendencies. In martial arts, the life of the practitioner is reflected. It's an unchangeable habit. Especially with the Demonic Heavenly God Art, but you, child... are diverse. Truly rich."

"Ah. I often hear that I have a variety of charms."

"......."

"Sorry. Was that nonsense?"

"No. It was bullshit."

"That's a bit harsh."

"To be honest, it was complete bullshit."

I see. So it was bullshit.

If it was complete bullshit, then there was nothing to be done-.

"Understanding all human suffering is difficult. Even if understood, experiencing all sufferings to their extreme is... very hard. But watching you perform the Demonic Heavenly God Art, it's as if... ...hmm?"

The Heavenly Demon furrowed her brows. She turned her head.

"...Someone is coming."

Someone was approaching from where she looked. It couldn't be a zombie since it was still broad daylight, and in this world that had already ended, it couldn't be an intruder either. It was the Head of the Martial Alliance and Viper. Viper was carrying the Head of the Martial Alliance across the snowfield.

"Hmm."

The tip of the Heavenly Demon's nose twitched.

"What brings this old fool here? And what's with that pitiful state? Ha. Have you finally accepted that you're a senile old man?"

"Shut it."

Lying on Viper's back, the Head of the Martial Alliance spoke.

"I came here worried about you. Ugh!"

"Worried? Worried about me? Even a passing zombie would laugh. You're weaker than me, an old fool, and you think you're in a position to worry about me?......."

"Demon. Haven't you received the Nine Bows yet?"

"......."

"Ugh. I knew it, I knew it! I knew this would happen."

The Heavenly Demon clamped her mouth shut.

I wondered in my mind.

'What's the Nine Bows?'

-It's a ritual performed in the martial world when establishing a master-disciple relationship.

The Sword Emperor explained.

-Each sect has slightly different rituals. Some literally bow nine times, others three times.... I'm not sure how the Demonic Cult does it. It's a secret and sacred ceremony.

'How was it in your sect?'

-Well, you get hit on the head nine times by your master. If you endure, that's the Nine Bows. I lasted until the 63rd hit, a record in my sect's history. Cool, right?

I realized why the Sword Emperor was crazy.

Crazy ones start from the sect itself.

"......It's noisy. When to accept a disciple is my decision."

The Heavenly Demon spoke bluntly.

"It's not a matter for you to interfere."

"Nonsense. It's definitely something I must interfere with!"

The Head of the Martial Alliance got off Viper's back. He glared fiercely at the Heavenly Demon.

"Because you're not accepting a disciple out of guilt for me!"

"Huh? What are you saying......"

"We are the only two left in the martial world. You're the only demonic practitioner, and I'm the only orthodox. If you alone take a disciple, it means the martial world will be left only with a disciple of the Demonic Cult. What does that mean? It's as if you've won the Great Orthodox-Demonic War without fighting!"

"......."

"You and I agreed that the two of us would settle this. We pledged it. We swore it. You're reluctant to break that oath and feel guilty toward me, so isn't that why you cannot accept that young child as your disciple?"

Hmm.

'...That's a reason too.'

Taking a disciple alone in the same situation.

Considering the Heavenly Demon's feelings, she might indeed feel guilty towards the Head of the Martial Alliance.

But,

"Tsk tsk, such unnecessary loyalty!"

"......."

"I knew you would be like this, so I made the first move."

The Head of the Martial Alliance patted Viper's shoulder.

Viper gave a wry smile and scratched his cheek.

"Well. That's how it is."

The Heavenly Demon's eyes widened.

"No, old man... you couldn't have taken that child as..."

"Yes! As of today, I have taken him as my personal disciple!"

"How dare you do this to me!?"

The Heavenly Demon lunged. Thud thud bang! The two masters rolled in the snow, fighting like dogs.

"Do you have any idea what was in my heart as I refused to receive the Nine Bows all day today? And now this old fossil treats all that heartfelt consideration as nothing...!"

"Quiet! If destiny has come, thank the gods and accept it! Avoiding it because you're wary of me isn't right!"

"What about the Great Orthodox-Demonic War!"

"Must it always be just us two in the Great War? If our disciples fight, that's also a Great War!"

"I won't accept it unless it's with you!"

"As if anyone could mistake you for a demon, with that extremist way of seeing things!"

“What did you say?”

"The world you see may be a vast ocean, but the landscape I see is a sheet of ice! Of course it splits wherever it is cut!"

"Then melt it!"

"That's why there's the fire of demonic way! A demonic practitioner is the kindling!"

"Then add more kindling!"

"You bastard, Axe Sage...! Just like the hypocrite of the Orthodox Path you are, clinging to every word I say...!"

"That's how it is!"

The woman grabbed the old man's collar.

The old man grabbed her hair in return and glared. “Demon, you incorrigible demon! You are always like this. It must be this or that, and if not that, then this. You fool! What part of the world truly splits merely because you divide it?”

Their argument went on like that. As they tumbled around, two different worlds clashed with a metallic sound. In the midst of such a petty dogfight, the worlds still found their place.

Leaving the two to fight, I looked at Viper.

"It's unexpected."

"What is?"

I was surprised that someone as genuine as Viper would take another person as his master.

I couldn't say it directly.

I circled around it.

"Aren't you the head of the Celestial Martial Clan? Is it all right for a sect leader to take a new master?"

"Fuck. If it's time for a sword dance, then you dance with your sword. If there is a master worth learning from, then you ask to learn. I am not idle enough to sit around weighing every little detail."

Viper smiled, a manly smile settling on his rugged face.

Hmm.

"Viper."

"Why?"

"I'm being quite frank with you. If you were coerced into it, or if you took on the Head of the Martial Alliance as a master out of sympathy or half-hearted determination, you'll regret it."

The two martial artists are still clashing, making noise.

Viper's situation, being pushed by his disciples into the Heavenly Demon Records, is different.

Doing that would insult those two worlds.

Unforgivable.

"......I don't quite understand what you're saying."

Viper scratched his cheek, then raised his single eye toward me.

"Damn, what's this King of Death babbling about? If you want to check something, use your sword."

With a snap, Viper raised his sword.

"It won't be easy."

There was an easy way to check. If I opened Viper's psychological window, it would become clear.

But instead of doing that, I quietly said,

"Viper."

"What?"

"Have you ever experienced starvation?"

Viper blinked his one eye.

"What?"

At that moment, I dashed forward.

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