The Terminally-Ill Side-Character Inside of a Martial Arts Novel

Is heaven trying to punish us? I didn’t think I had done many bad things usually.

Cha Jinmok approaching us with a friendly face felt like the face of Yama welcoming us.

He grabbed Hyuk Dojin’s stiff hand cheerfully and laughed heartily.

“Haha! I knew it would be like this. From the moment I first saw you, I didn’t think it was a relationship to see just once and end. And look at this! To think we’d board the same boat right after parting yesterday. If this isn’t fate bestowed by heaven, what is it? Don’t you agree?”

His voice using expressions that would normally be used between long-separated lovers reunited by chance echoed across the deck.

Thanks to that, people around looked at the two with suspicious eyes.

No, what are you doing to my man right now!

I hurriedly went out, separated their joined hands, and spoke quickly while looking at the gazes directed at me.

“There are too many eyes watching. It would be better to restrain your expressions.”

“Hmm? Ah, is that so? Haha! I don’t hold back expressions when I see someone I like. Was I a bit too much?”

It seems like it was much too much, not just a bit.

Cha Jinmok continued speaking with a nonchalant expression, without even showing an embarrassed face at my words.

“By the way, seeing that you’re also crossing the Yangtze River, it seems you’re heading to Henan… Is your purpose to watch the martial arts competition?”

After exchanging glances with Hyuk Dojin at his attitude of subtly trying to probe our intentions, I shook my head.

Cha Jinmok opened his eyes round as if surprised.

“Huh, is that so? Most people crossing the Yangtze River in this mid-winter are martial artists leaving to watch the martial arts competition in Henan, so I thought you were the same. Hmm, so you’re not.”

I turned my gaze away from him rubbing his chin and looked around.

Indeed, most of the people on the boat were martial artists. Even if they didn’t have weapons, the aura they emitted outwardly wasn’t ordinary. It must mean that the Murim Alliance’s martial arts competition is attracting so much attention.

“By the way, the boat will depart soon, shall we go inside and have a drink?”

“I’ll decline.”

“Don’t say that. I have good wine. So…”

“It’s alright. We’ll postpone the drink for later and would like to go inside to rest. My wife is a bit tired.”

I opened my eyes wide at the arrow that suddenly flew towards me.

What do you mean I’m tired, what’s that about? When I met Hyuk Dojin’s gaze looking at me, mixed with complicated emotions in his eyes, I suddenly came to my senses.

I slowly leaned my perfectly fine body against Hyuk Dojin and spoke quietly.

“…Honey, I’m cold and tired.”

“Mm. Let’s go inside.”

Hyuk Dojin nodded, then lightly embraced me and swiftly turned his body.

I could hear voices calling the two of us from behind, but Hyuk Dojin deliberately ignored those voices and stepped onto the stairs.

I looked up at him from the bottom of the stairs going down and spoke quietly.

“Your expression looks fierce.”

“It’s hard to manage my expression when someone is exhausting my patience, which rarely happens.”

I firmly pressed my finger on his furrowed brow. The deeply wrinkled brow smoothed out like a fine sheet of paper.

Similarly, I lightly pushed up the corners of his mouth and smiled brightly.

“Still, smile. You look hateful with that expression. Smile like this.”

When I gave him a bright smile, Hyuk Dojin stared at me blankly, then lightly shrugged his shoulders and chuckled.

He kissed my forehead as if understanding, then entered an empty room and settled down. Perhaps because it was quite a large ship, people kept busy boarding.

It was only about half an hour after we boarded that the ship finally finished preparations for departure and slowly started moving.

The ship slowly crossed the wide river that was indistinguishable from whether it was sea or river. I looked out at the scenery through the small window on the ship.

This was the second time. Once when heading to the Demon Cult for the wedding with Hyuk Dojin. And once now.

At that time, I had quite severe seasickness. It was the time transitioning from spring to summer, and the ship shook heavily due to rain falling at the time.

Because of that, I vomited several times, feeling like I might die on the ship.

I wonder if I’ll be fine this time? I tilted my head while rubbing my stomach.

“Are you hungry?”

“What?”

Hyuk Dojin glanced at my stomach. Ah, this. I shook my head and removed my hand.

“No, I’m not hungry, I’m just worried. Actually, I get a bit seasick. I remember suffering quite severely when I came here before, so I’m a bit concerned.”

I gently rubbed my stomach again, hoping I wouldn’t get seasick this time.

Hyuk Dojin watched me silently for a while, then lightly lifted me up. In the past, when he lifted me like this, I used to struggle in surprise.

But lately, he’s been lifting me up so casually that I could now comfortably entrust my body to his hands.

Hyuk Dojin gently laid me down on a long chair, then sat beside me and let me lie down resting on his thigh.

I raised my eyes to look up at him. Hyuk Dojin met my gaze and grinned.

“It’s enough to cross the river in two hours. So if you sleep a little, we’ll arrive soon.”

His hand quietly stroked my back. Hyuk Dojin’s eyes closed quietly.

His bangs shook finely in the quiet ship. When I closed my eyes, I could hear the refreshing sound of the ship crossing the river from beyond the room where only breathing sounds could be heard. Feeling his warm body temperature, I slowly fell asleep.

* * *

Kugugung, I slowly opened my eyes at the sound of something grinding.

I woke up from sleep and raised my body. I stared blankly out the window. What had clearly been a river just a moment ago was now covered with white ice.

“Did you wake up?”

I briefly nodded my head at Hyuk Dojin’s voice coming from behind. He also came beside me and spoke quietly while looking out the window.

“They say it’s rare for the Yangtze River to freeze like this, but it seems the cold is severe this year. It’s also my first time seeing it completely frozen.”

“Will the ship be alright? Won’t there be problems breaking through the ice?”

It’s not like there are icebreaker ships in this era, and if it’s just pushing through with force alone, there would surely be limits. I turned around with a worried look, and Hyuk Dojin also had a puzzled expression. Well, he probably doesn’t know everything either. The vibrations shaking the entire ship continued.

I lay down on the seat again and waited to see when the frozen river would end. After about half an hour passed like that, the vibrations stopped.

Thinking it might be over, I looked out the window, but it was still covered in ice.

What’s going on?

When I turned to Hyuk Dojin, he also slowly shook his head, then turned his body to open the door and look outside. Other people seemed to be the same, coming out of their rooms to check the situation, wondering what was happening.

…Is this really not sinking?

Feeling like a scene from a movie was coming to mind, I stuck closely behind Hyuk Dojin.

He glanced back at me, then covered my head with his coat and moved towards the stairs.

I covered my head with the coat he had taken off and followed behind him. There were even more people gathered on the deck than before.

They seemed to have gathered to watch the ship crossing the river breaking through the ice.

But when the ship stopped, they were each causing a commotion wondering what was happening.

Hyuk Dojin looked around and approached the closest person.

“What’s going on?”

“There are people.”

“People?”

He pointed at the ice. When I turned my gaze in the direction he pointed, there were quite a number of people standing on the ice blocking the ship. They were too far to see clearly, but it looked like there were easily over a hundred.

“Who are those people?”

At Hyuk Dojin’s question, the man answered calmly.

“Water bandits.”

“Water bandits?”

“Originally, this area is where water bandits attack and plunder ships, but it seems they haven’t been able to plunder because the ships have frozen due to the severe cold this year. So with no grain and no money, it looks like they’ve gathered to try to plunder even this ship, but…”

He snorted as if it were laughable and chuckled.

“They’ve picked the wrong target, by far. To plunder this ship with easily a hundred martial artists on board, they’d need to bring at least five hundred water bandits, not a hundred, wouldn’t they? Don’t you thi…?!”

The man’s words, which he had been continuing calmly, didn’t finish.

An arrow that suddenly flew in accurately pierced the man’s brow. The man’s eyes slowly rolled up to check the arrow, and then he collapsed with blood flowing.

“A-Attack!”

Using the man’s collapse as a signal, arrows started flying from all directions.

Among the martial artists watching on the deck, those lacking in skill rolled around with arrows stuck all over their bodies, while those with skill deflected the arrows.

Hyuk Dojin stepped in front of me and dropped all the incoming arrows with his protective strong energy, then looked around.

“It seems to be a trap. There are more water bandits everywhere.”

At his words, I slightly stuck out my head to look at the ice. As he said, there were about two hundred people standing just in the direction I was looking.

Judging by the number of arrows flying from behind, there were probably that many more back there too.

“What should we do?”

Hyuk Dojin looked around and narrowed his brows. As more arrows continued to fly in, one or two martial artists fell, and only those with decent skills remained.

“The water bandits’ skills shouldn’t be anything special so that’s not a problem, but their numbers are an issue and seeing how they’re just shooting arrows without coming up, it seems they plan to continue this situation. For now, let’s hide and watch the situation. Their arrows won’t be infinite, so they’ll run out.”

Other martial artists seemed to think the same, hiding behind cover to avoid the arrows.

In the quiet, only the sound of arrows flying and hitting could be heard.

As time passed like that and the rain of arrows seemed to be ending-

“Fire arrows!!”

Fire arrows flew in and started burning the ship.

The wooden ship was vulnerable to fire. The martial artists who had been planning to just watch the situation quietly seemed flustered by the shower of fire arrows and got up from their seats to deflect the arrows. And as if they had been waiting, the water bandits started climbing onto the ship.

“Damn it!!”

“Stop the water bandits from climbing onto the ship!!”

The martial artists drew their swords and confronted the water bandits to stop them.

But fire arrows were pouring from above, and numerous water bandits were climbing from front and back. The situation was excessively poor.

Except for martial artists like Cha Jinmok who were skillfully dealing with the water bandits, most were trembling.

“Those participating in the martial arts competition are young late-blooming talents. They lack real combat experience, so they won’t be of help in this situation.”

Hyuk Dojin sighed.

“Are you going to help?”

“If we don’t help, this ship will burn down, so what choice do we have?”

“But isn’t it too much to face those many water bandits without using inner energy?”

“We have no choice.”

“Even if you save them with your demonic arts, they won’t be grateful, but rather ashamed.”

I grabbed Hyuk Dojin’s arm. He stared at me blankly as if asking what to do then.

I let out a small sigh as I heard the arrows still flying and screams.

“…I thought we could get by quietly this time, but I guess not.”

It seemed I really did have an unlucky life. Maybe I used up all my luck meeting Hyuk Dojin. We get involved in conflicts wherever we go.

I took off the coat covering my head and passed by his side.

“I’ll take the left, you take the right.”

I jerked my chin while drawing the sword made of Celestial Steel. Hyuk Dojin chuckled and nodded.

“Can you kill?”

“Are you asking me that?”

I glared at him sideways. Hyuk Dojin shrugged his shoulders. I spoke quietly while staring intently at the water bandits ruthlessly stabbing people.

“Mountain bandits or water bandits, they’re not human. They’re beasts who see people as livestock.”

I narrowed my eyes as I recalled mountain bandits who kidnap children to make them work and imprison women like slaves.

“There’s no reason to hesitate in killing such beasts.”