NOVEL NEXT chapter 634 - The Butcher of Madness (3)
“If you don’t hand over what I want right now, I’ll call my Master.”
At my blunt declaration, the voices of the stars rang out across the sky.
[Constellation, ‘Bald Volunteer Commander’ smiles at your ambition.]
[Constellation, ‘Goryeo’s First Sword’ nods with interest.]
[Constellation, ‘Abyssal Black Flame Dragon’ asks who the hell your Master even is.]
[An unnamed Constellation shows a curious expression.]
[A Constellation sensitive to martial world trends is aghast at the reappearance of Baek Cheongmun.]
Of course, it was all nonsense.
I wasn’t truly a disciple of Baek Cheongmun.
But since I had [Incited] myself into being “Kim Dokja, disciple of Kyrgios,” I was confident I could avoid any [Lie Detection].
Instead of using [Lie Detection], the Gaebang Bangju fixed me with a quiet stare.
“So you’re threatening me?”
“It’s not a threat, it’s a statement of fact.”
“You mean, if I don’t hand over an elixir, you’ll summon the Paradox Baek Cheong?”
“Seems you didn’t hear me properly. I’ll say it again.”
I answered brazenly.
“One So-hwan-dan-grade elixir and the flag. Hand them both over.”
“…”
“I’d say you’ve had your fun with the early scenarios. How about you return the stage to the incarnations and go back to your seat in the audience?”
“…”
“The age of the Nine Great Schools is already over. This isn’t the stage you once lived on.”
Given all the barbs I was firing, you’d expect some visible emotion, but the Gaebang Bangju’s face betrayed nothing.
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
Even stripped of dignity, a Constellation was still a Constellation.
A being who had crushed countless rivals, endured endless scenarios, and accumulated fables.
It was the beggars behind him who seethed on his behalf, four pairs of eyes glaring at me.
They, too, seemed to know some of the hidden history between Kyrgios and the Gaebang.
The Bangju’s guards numbered exactly four.
A line came to mind.
「At the side of Yongdu Bangju Cheonga were always the four Elders, the Sagul.」
Could these be the very “Sagul” recorded in The Most Ancient Myth?
They didn’t seem to be Constellation-possessed bodies. If some secret art had inserted the fable of the Sagul into them—
“Disciple of Baek Cheongmun.”
At last, the Gaebang Bangju broke his silence.
“I know my stage has ended. This era is not mine, and the martial world I remember is nowhere. The Gaebang at its most glorious—your arrogant Master was the one who destroyed it.”
Unexpectedly, he admitted his circumstances calmly.
“Even now, I fear your Master. The realm he reached is one I could never touch, no matter how many times I died and lived again.”
I thought of Baek Cheongmun’s Master, the Paradox Baek Cheong, Kyrgios Rodgraim.
「A man born mortal, who through endless refinement reached a great dignity. One who rejected the seat of Constellation, who transcended and stood against the heavens themselves.」
Though I had never once seen him, just recalling those words let me feel a shadow of the despair the Bangju must have faced.
For a moment, my hopeful circuits spun.
Maybe with just this one bluff, I could walk away with both the elixir and the flag.
“But that is why your threat will not work.”
Damn. Of course not.
“The Paradox will never come here.”
“And why do you think that?”
The Bangju smiled. A gloomy smile that spread like foul moss across the air.
“Because he is too strong.”
Kyrgios was too strong.
That much, even I knew.
It was precisely because of that strength that, in the Sixth Scenario, Kyrgios couldn’t protect Peace Land and had to watch his planet’s destruction.
At last, I understood how this Great Person Constellation could maintain a possessed body.
To come here, he had sacrificed the fables he had built over long ages.
Like how Yoo Joonghyuk had chosen regression, the Bangju had cast away his history to start the ‘scenario’ anew.
[Constellation, ‘Goryeo’s First Sword’ clicks his tongue.]
[Constellation, ‘Bald Volunteer Commander’ scolds: “What’s an old star doing playing in the kids’ sandbox?”]
[Constellation, ‘Maritime War God’ shakes his head.]
Through the shattered roof of Seoul Station, stars blazed fiercely.
But despite the barrage of scorn, the Gaebang Bangju was unshaken.
“How laughable. Afraid to cast aside what you hold, without courage to create anew, and you dare reproach me?”
[Some Great Person-grade Constellations denounce the attitude of ‘The Last Bangju’!]
[A small number of Great Person-grade Constellations click their tongues at ‘The Last Bangju’s’ thinking.]
“If you resent me, then come down yourselves. Lay aside everything you have, and start again from the filth of the scenario, if you have the guts.”
[Constellation, ‘Double-Dipping Expert’ sneers that a man with so few fables sure talks fancy.]
[Constellation, ‘Rice Cake Eating Tiger’ points out that this is basically reincarnation in all but name.]
[Constellation, ‘Lying-Down Dragon’ praises the courage but declares no coin sponsorship will follow.]
[Constellation, ‘Prisoner of the Golden Headband’ watches the dispute among Great Persons with interest.]
Like an audience member who stepped onto the stage becoming a spectacle for the others, the Gaebang Bangju was now their prey.
And still he smiled, as though more righteous than the stars above.
“Say what you will. Here, I will begin again. I will reclaim the martial world of those days, the Gaebang of that era. I am still the Last Bangju, and my fable continues here.”
A Constellation who cast aside his entire fable to return to the beginning of the scenarios.
Perhaps it was like abandoning the status of ‘reader’ to become just another ‘character.’
His quietly overflowing fable whispered in my ear.
「“The Paradox Baek Cheong and the Heavenly Killing Sword. Someday I will meet them again, and I will be acknowledged.”」
「“The Gaebang still endures. We are not so weak a sect as to be dismissed.”」
I felt the full weight of his lived history.
A story no one read.
An extra’s tale, cast to the margins by the martial world’s ‘protagonists.’
「“Why could we not be like them? Why did heaven allow only Kyrgios and Namgung Minyeong to be special?”」
「“I will become a Constellation. Even if I must sell every martial art I have. If only I can stand shoulder to shoulder with the stars of heaven.”」
「“O great stars of the Constellation stream, I will gladly be your servant. Bestow upon me too the blessing of the Constellation seat.”」
Just as Jung Munho had thrown himself into the Gaebang to survive, Yongdu Bangju Cheonga had thrown himself into the Great Constellations.
He borrowed their fables, endured humiliation, and at last ascended.
But he realized too late that this was not the story he wanted.
「“Was this pitiful height all I endured that shame for?”」
He had crushed his human convictions to become a Constellation. And once he did, he saw the view.
Above the Great Persons were the Fable-grade. Above them, the Myth-grade.
Even upon the heights of heaven, the end of the universe was nowhere in sight.
After a life of gazing upward, for the first time, Yongdu Bangju Cheonga looked down.
And remembered the dream of being human.
The times when small incidents thrilled him, when he thirsted for tiny realizations, when he lived among mortals who barely reached a hundred years, talking and sharing stories. Times dazzling and suffocating. Times of mortal history.
“Curious.”
Yongdu Bangju Cheonga was looking at me.
“Do you understand me, disciple of the Paradox?”
He was right. I did understand him. The futility, the emptiness, the ache of the Constellation who had become lost.
His eyes curved gently.
“You, who’ve lived no more than a few decades—how could you understand my fable?”
As though he’d been comforted.
I gave a bitter smile and shook my head.
“So I see. My threat doesn’t work. You came back here because you wanted to be that kind of ‘person.’”
The Yongdu Bangju nodded.
“Yes.”
“It won’t be easy. Casting aside your dignity doesn’t erase everything that’s already happened.”
“What do you mean?”
“Even if you start over, the history of your defeat to my Master and the Heavenly Killing Sword won’t vanish.”
Even if he built a new Gaebang, the stars would never forget the Gaebang of the past—defeated and cast out to the margins.
For the first time, the Yongdu Bangju frowned.
“Then I’ll change it. I’ll achieve exploits here, earn greater attention from the stars. I’ll create a fable so mighty that even the Paradox cannot approach.”
He was exalting himself like an old actor drunk on the scenario.
Given the situation, his confidence was understandable.
He already held the purple flag, and the King’s Road was within sight. The new Gaebang, rooted in Seoul Station, had already become a strong group.
But I knew.
「His failure was already written.」
He would not be the star of this world. He would fail his revenge. He would be forgotten.
His tale would be one no one read.
“Earlier, you asked if I knew the future.”
That was why,
[Activating exclusive skill, ‘Incite Lv.5’!]
I decided to do what I did best.
“The reborn Gaebang will indeed thrive in the early scenarios.”
At this rate, the Gaebang was doomed.
The star that fell to earth with grand ambition would collapse, mocked by the Constellations.
The beggars would lose their home, and the children who knew nothing but plunder and lies would die brutally at the hands of adults who would no longer be deceived.
“The Gaebang will seize the advantage over other groups, finish the Flag War, and you will walk the King’s Road to enter the Absolute Throne War.”
“Of course.”
As if expecting it, Yongdu Bangju nodded.
My story began here.
“But that’s where your luck ends. Fighting only through a possessed body, you bear the penalty of being unable to draw on your backing star’s full power. You may look ahead of other incarnations for now, but before the Absolute Throne War ends, you and the Gaebang will hit your limit.”
“Impossible. The Constellations in this war are only Great Person grade—”
“One of the throne contenders is the disciple of the Heavenly Killing Sword.”
At my words, his pupils quivered.
“Is that true?”
I nodded.
“You’ll be utterly crushed by him. The Gaebang will collapse, scatter. And the one who severs your neck will be an anonymous incarnation who’s waited for your fall.”
I thought of the Gaebang, which disappeared in silence in The Most Ancient Myth, and imagined the “Butcher of Madness” who might have been here.
“In that way, the Gaebang will be annihilated forever.”
“Impossible! You—”
“If you want to avoid that future, you have one choice.”
The Bangju’s beard quivered. Even he, so calm, was shaken by the word “annihilation.”
“You mean to bow my head to Baek Cheongmun’s disciple?”
“No.”
I grinned.
“Form an alliance.”
“Alliance?”
“Give me the flag, and we’ll be one group.”
His eyes flared.
“You dare, to me—”
The concourse trembled faintly. Sparks leapt in the air. Even having cast aside so much, he was still a Constellation.
Before his anger could boil over, I cut in.
“You said you wanted to build a new, great fable worthy of the new Gaebang.”
I knew what he truly desired.
「“The Paradox Baek Cheong and the Heavenly Killing Sword. Someday I will meet them again, and I will be acknowledged.”」
A Constellation who more than anyone wanted to surpass Kyrgios, who yearned for his recognition.
That was why he couldn’t resist this temptation.
“If you give me your martial elixirs and your flag.”
All I had to offer was a worthless lie.
[Exclusive skill, ‘Incite Lv.5’ is pushed to its limit!]
But if he believed it—
“Then today, the Paradox’s disciple will gladly fall to the Gaebang.”
It would become a new story.