At dawn, carriages departed from the Demon Sect Main Branch.

They carried supplies sent from the main branch to each regional office.

Among those carriages was one carrying my father and me. The driver was Hwui, dressed in ordinary coachman clothes.

As we distanced ourselves from the main branch, I asked my father,

“Father, how do you feel about your first trip with your son?”

My father, who had been silently staring out the window, responded with a question.

“This isn’t a trip, is it?”

But father’s luggage was too much for just a simple trip. His large traveling pouch was loaded in the rear compartment.

“Of course, we’re going on an important mission. Still, since it’s your first time leaving the sect in a while, it would be good to clear your heart of any burdens before returning. Leave all your worries behind at the main branch.”

Then my father spoke to Hwui, who was looking out the window.

“Stop the carriage.”

The carriage came to an immediate halt.

“Why, Father?”

“Get down.”

“Me? Why me?”

“Didn’t you say to leave your worries behind?”

I laughed out loud. Just seeing him play such a joke meant that my father was in a very good mood.

“Worries are necessary for growth, aren’t they? Now, let’s go. Depart!”

When father said “go” again, the carriage started moving.

I leaned out the window and said to Hwui,

“Please take good care of us from now on, Uncle Hwui!”

Hwui didn’t rush the carriage. Perhaps Sima Myung had asked him to do so, hoping this trip would be more of a journey than a mission.

I felt the wind blowing against my body, sticking my head out the window.

“The weather is really nice!”

Father said nothing, but I could sense his excitement too.

“It feels so good just to leave the sect a little, Father. So even if it’s not this trip, let’s come out often from now on. Ah, there’s a beautiful lake just over that hill. Have you been there? In winter, it freezes solid, and breaking the ice to fish is amazing.”

Father already wore an expression of earache, but this was going to continue. For a pleasant trip with father, I had to be the talkative one.

“Oh, there’s a tent on the opposite mountain side with the best noodles. Want to try it once?”

To my surprise, father answered.

“They used to make good dumplings.”

I pulled my head back into the carriage.

“Have you been?”

“In the past.”

Yes, father also had a time when he roamed the martial world like me. Was it when he fought with Kwon Ma? Or when he was close to Hyeolcheon Doma or Ilhwa Geomjon?

“Shall we stop by on the way back?”

Father nodded, as if wanting to visit again.

“People’s tongues are scary. Even if it’s a remote place, the word spreads like a ghost and people come looking.”

“Let’s keep quiet and go.”

“Yes!”

Father, you don’t know this, do you? I’ve lived as silently as you. No, maybe even more silent. I’m finally speaking all the words I couldn’t before in front of you.

After a long time of traveling, the carriage stopped.

While Hwui loosened the horses to rest, I took a walk with father.

“Before we left, Doma Elder came by.”

“What did he say?”

“He told you not to mess around.”

A faint smile appeared at the corner of father’s mouth.

“Doma cares a lot about you.”

Yes, how could father not know? That he took the role of scolding me during the meeting to persuade father was ultimately for my sake.

“You really like father a lot, don’t you, Elder Doma?”

It wasn’t just to sound nice. Doma’s deep feelings for father were certain.

“Don’t mess with Doma.”

Hyeolcheon Doma told father not to mess with him, and father told Doma not to mess with him. How could there be no special bond between them?

Then I wanted to joke, “So who am I supposed to mess with?” but I couldn’t, hearing that warning.

“Understood. I’ll always be careful.”

Just walking and talking with father made me feel good. Everything that happens from now on will be new experiences for both father and me.

Since the phrase “leaving the sect together with father” is at the front, whatever we do will be a first.

Then father suddenly asked,

“Do you feel it?”

“The wolves?”

When I answered right away, father looked at me in surprise.

I hadn’t said where I sensed it, but I answered anyway. That surprised him — I was already sensing the presence from over twenty leagues away.

“In unfamiliar places, it’s natural to emit energy to scan the surroundings.”

Energy was spreading around my body like spider webs.

“That’s thanks to what you taught me.”

It was a completely different level from when father and I went hunting and I learned how to emit thin and long energy.

“So you weren’t just playing around.”

“It’s said that martial arts training and love are done where no one can see.”

Father’s smile deepened as if amused by my ridiculous comment.

After wandering, we returned to the carriage.

Then Hwui waved his hand and shouted from nearby.

“Meal is ready.”

Hwui had already lit a campfire and prepared the food.

“Don’t you think Hwui is excited too?”

Father didn’t say no. He must have sensed a different energy than usual.

I hoped father would see many new sights.

Because Hwui waving to us now was probably also a new sight for him.

The meal Hwui prepared was packed when we departed.

“From now on, meals will be poor.”

“That’s fine.”

I interrupted.

“Don’t worry, uncle. Father is here, isn’t he? I can never forget the taste of the meals he cooked.”

When we went hunting for the second time, father cooked directly.

The meat stir-fried with vegetables and mushrooms was surprisingly delicious. He also made soup, proving he usually cooks.

Come to think of it, father has many sides I don’t know. The floral pajamas, packing luggage himself yesterday for the trip, and cooking too.

I hope to see another side of father on this trip.

“I have something prepared.”

I took some leather pieces out of the traveling pouch in the carriage.

First, a tiger skin for father.

“Here, please sit.”

Father sat on it.

There was more prepared. I handed one to Hwui.

“This is for you, Uncle Hwui.”

Hwui was slightly surprised that I prepared something even for him.

“I’m fine.”

“I have one for you too, so please sit. Ours are wolf skins.”

Hwui and I had the same kind of skin.

Father nodded to Hwui, who had been refusing.

Then Hwui stopped refusing and sat on the leather I prepared.

“Thank you, Little Pill Master.”

“You’re welcome.”

I realized something deeply in my past life.

That a person’s seat really matters.

My father’s Grandmaster seat.

The second-floor seat at the Pungnyu Tavern.

And now the leather seat Hwui sat on.

We all live to take our seats. We even wage wars to occupy them.

If you say, “What matters is the heart, not the seat,” that means you haven’t felt the embarrassment and difficulty of having no seat when you go somewhere.

No one who hasn’t experienced the comfort and gratitude from just a small chair offered by someone else would understand.

I never saw Hwui’s seat before. He was always hiding. So that wolf skin seat was even more important.

Just as the three of us sat side by side to eat, a sudden rainstorm began.

Ssshhhhhhhhh.

“Father, please go back to the carriage and….”

I almost told him to take shelter.

“Isn’t that too inhuman?”

“What do you mean?”

“If a person gets wet by rain, they should get wet.”

Invisible energy spread like a shield around father’s body, repelling the raindrops.

“Well then, if you have such a skill, you should protect us too.”

Of course, saying that didn’t mean father would extend his energy to us.

Then father reached out his hand.

At that moment, the opening of father’s traveling pouch in the carriage loosened, and something came out.

It flew out and spread above our heads. It was a pi-poong-cheon used to shelter from wind and rain.

The cords attached to the cloth were tied to the carriage and a tree, fixing it firmly. The movement was not by hanging ropes, but tied fast and accurately by an expert’s hands.

I never imagined father would prepare something like this!

“Camping’s highlight is watching the rain! The best mood.”

I said cheerfully, and father revived the dying campfire with his heat energy.

Crackle.

“Wonderful, Father!”

Father wore a look like, “This is nothing.”

Whenever it rains during the trip, we could spread it anytime, but this moment was truly good. It made the first day, the first meal of our trip unforgettable.

After finishing the meal, Hwui brought tea.

We drank tea while watching the rain. Father sat in the middle, with Hwui and me on either side.

“Uncle, isn’t serving father hard for you?”

Such a question might embarrass someone in front of father.

“It’s hard.”

The honest answer made father and me both look at Hwui.

Hwui smiled and answered,

“I felt I should answer like that to the Little Pill Master.”

He must have heard all the conversations with father so far. He probably heard Sima Myung’s reports about me too. He knows me as well as father.

“You struck a weak spot. He should have answered ‘not hard’ so he could blame father.”

Then father looked at me.

“Father is taciturn, so if he answered that it’s not hard, I would have said he is struggling because he doesn’t speak much. It’s easier if he says everything like me, but since he doesn’t, you have to understand his meaning. That’s not easy for subordinates.”

Hwui was speaking for father. I didn’t know what kind of talks they usually had, but given their personalities, it was unlikely they shared their hardships often.

“So, you say what you want.”

“I have to. If I don’t speak, no one knows.”

Father looked straight ahead again.

Then [N O V E L I G H T] suddenly asked Hwui,

“So, was it hard?”

Hwui was surprised and embarrassed. Father wasn’t the type to ask such a thing. In fact, he would normally say nothing in such situations.

“No.”

The conversation didn’t continue. But father asking if it was hard was meaningful to Hwui.

Meanwhile, the rain stopped.

That night, we camped.

We could have found an inn, but father accepted my suggestion to rest quietly on the first day.

Lying side by side with father watching the pouring stars, I felt really good.

Hwui wanted to lie down with us, but he firmly refused, saying he couldn’t lie down with Cheonma. Everyone has things they accept or not, so I didn’t insist further.

“Father, I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“When I think of you, I should have asked my older brother to come along too. I’m so selfish. I still want you all to myself.”

Father was silent for a moment.

“It’s alright.”

That eased some of the heavy feeling in my heart. Still, when I’m with father, I can’t help but think of my brother.

“Father.”

“Yes?”

“I called because I thought you might be sleeping.”

“Then shouldn’t you not call?”

I smiled and looked at father lying beside me. He was gazing at the night sky with a stern expression.

I engraved this scene in my heart.

Father looking up at the night sky, me watching him, and even the stars above.

That was how the first night of our trip passed.

The next day, we stopped by a village.

While Hwui borrowed a stable to feed and rest the horses, father and I went out to look around the marketplace.

We walked through the crowded streets together, but no one particularly paid attention to us.

Father and I had reached a perfect state of repelling demons. Father wrapped the worn cloth around the Cheonma sword on my back just as the Grandmaster wrapped the old cloth around the Demon Sword to hide it.

“This is your first time out of Maga Village into the marketplace, isn’t it?”

“I went a lot when I was young.”

“You traveled fighting Kwon Ma, not sightseeing in marketplaces.”

Father nodded in agreement.

“I wish I had been the Kwon Ma master back then.”

I answered his questioning gaze.

“I want to see the young version of you. To talk with that father.”

“!”

I was sincere. I wonder what he was like, what kind of personality. Would he be like me?

“Were you talkative like me?”

Father chuckled slightly and said,

“I might have drunk like Chimma. But I can’t talk as much as you.”

“A talkative person who beats a drunkard! That’s too much!”

We chatted and looked around the marketplace.

When crowds came, we stopped. Even that experience was new for father. He probably never stopped walking because of someone coming.

How is this view of stopping and watching?

People coming and going, laughing and chatting, hawking, and angry people. There were all kinds.

Father watched silently. I wonder what he was thinking.

“Even though there are so many people, nothing happens, right? The Commander was worried incidents would happen if father left the sect. He said the martial world’s fate wouldn’t leave father alone. A small incident would grow, spreading into another incident.”

I looked at father, stating confidently,

“But that will never happen.”

At that moment,

A man quietly approached us.

“Warriors, how about a manly match?”

He pointed to a few people gathered nearby. Three plates were overturned on a small table.

Ah! Demon Sect and a gambler! How could we miss such a fun chance?

“My father is an unparalleled gambler. What do you say? At least a bet for dinner…”

No need to provoke father.

Before the man finished, father walked toward the gamblers’ place.

I smiled at the man who had invited us and asked,

“Is he fast-handed? To be faster than my father’s eyes, he’d have to be really fast.”