The Outcast Writer of a Martial Arts Visual Novel-Chapter 189: The Pain of Parting from a Loved One - 2
Training martial arts for up to ten years, huh.
I thought it meant I’d never see her again because she’d be endlessly training. But isn’t that a time period that can be shortened however much depending on my Fame?
“Don’t get so down—stand up, Hwa-rin.”
Just like that one time, I grabbed Hwa-rin’s hand as she sank down in disappointment with herself and pulled her up.
Whether she had become the Sichuan Tang Clan’s secret weapon—a fully completed Poisoned One—or become beautiful enough to be called the Most Beautiful Woman in Sichuan, it was only natural that her inner self wouldn’t suddenly change.
Before meeting me, Hwa-rin had endured contempt, discrimination, and pain for more than ten years as a subject of the Poisoned One experiments, and her self-esteem had been dragging on the floor.
She used to cover her true self with a sharp, porcupine-like attitude, but whenever something struck her emotionally, she’d instantly turn to negativity or self-denial and just collapse like that.
I thought she had gotten better while living with me up to now, but maybe this incident made her want to sink back into her old ways.
Though she held onto my hand and stood up, Hwa-rin still wouldn’t meet my eyes, as if she had no intention of taking back her words about breaking up.
“You really wanna break up over something this trivial?”
Then I guess I’ll just have to make her change her mind.
“What do you mean ‘trivial’?”
Finally, she turned her head.
Only after I dismissed her reason for breaking up as nothing did she lift her eyes slightly and look at me.
And I do understand where she’s coming from. Even in Korea, just up to the ‘80s or ‘90s, people who didn’t marry by their thirties were called old maids or old bachelors.
In slightly older films, dramas, and comics, there were plenty of main characters with “veteran bachelor” vibes who turned out not even to be thirty yet—and lots of heroines barely in their twenties who were still slapped with the “old maid” label.
All the more so in a wuxia visual novel world like this. The very first thing that happened to me after falling into this world was a wedding at twenty, wasn’t it?
Martial artists need to train and they age slower, so they marry a little later sometimes, but even then, it's usually no later than their mid-twenties.
For Hwa-rin to ask me to wait until she’s thirty-one is like asking a modern couple who met at twenty to do long-distance and only get married in their forties.
Of course, from Hwa-rin’s perspective, rather than say something like that, she probably thought it’d be better to just say goodbye outright.
“Of course it’s a trivial thing.”
I had to make her dilemma seem like the smallest thing in the world. I smiled like it was nothing and replied.
“How can it be trivial if we won’t be able to see each other?”
Because compared to what we’ve been through so far, it really is trivial.
“Hwa-rin. Just like when we first met—don’t you have even a little hope that you could be cured?”
I know Hwa-rin’s pain. The way people screamed, thinking she had some contagious disease, the way she always lowered her head.
How happy she was when I showed up and she didn’t hurt anymore. How joyful we both were when the blemishes on her face disappeared.
“No. I can be cured.”
“Then is this like when we were headed to the Tang Clan and facing death?”
The sudden arrival of Tang Clan enforcers, the life-risking journey to Sichuan, the fear of entering the tiger’s den and facing the tiger itself, the appearance of Tang Geo-ho and the Demonic Sect, the battles and pursuits with our lives on the line.
Even if one thing had gone wrong, our journey would have ended right there.
“No. I just have to train hard.”
“Then... is ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) it that we don’t know each other’s true feelings?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then it really is a trivial thing.”
I gave a small snort as I said it.
“It’s ten years! I have to train martial arts for ten years!”
Hwa-rin cried out in anguish, as if to argue her case.
“Hwa-rin, are you saying that if we’re apart for ten years, your feelings will fade?”
“There’s no way they would! I—I like you so much!”
Startled, Hwa-rin instantly denied my words with a look of surprise.
Even in a world where throwing knives have curveballs, I really threw that one straight. But hearing it directly from her... yeah, I feel good.
“Then what’s the problem?”
I asked her as if I truly didn’t get it.
At that, Hwa-rin lowered her head slightly to avoid my eyes and answered in a voice filled with pain.
“It’s ten years, Yun-ho. That’s insane. Just... forget someone like me. Meet someone better, date, get married, have kids, be happy... be happ—... huhuhk.”
Hwa-rin couldn’t finish and finally burst into tears.
“Hwa-rin. Don’t say things you don’t mean.”
When I reached out to hug her, she slapped my hand away and threw a bomb at me, her face full of tears.
“Until I finish mastering martial arts, I—I can’t even make a b—baby with you!”
“Well... that’s a big one...”
Ah. I slipped up, caught off guard by the bombshell.
“See? Huhuuhk. Huuhhuuuhhuuung.”
Apparently, my words were the final blow. Hwa-rin wailed like she’d lost the whole world.
“Hwa-rin, wait. Did something go wrong with your body because you became a Poisoned One? I mean, like... you can’t have your period anymore or something?”
“No! Then how do you think I was born?!”
Why are you yelling in the middle of crying? Still, thank god. In some wuxia worlds, Poisoned Ones come with a passive trait of infertility, but looks like she’s fine.
“Then what? It’s not even a big deal.”
Hwa-rin, that’s not what I meant.
Kang Yun-ho was worried about not having descendants—that’s why he thought it was serious, not because of... night-time matters. I didn’t mean it, but to soothe her, I put on a calm face and said:
“So that’s really what you thought made it a big deal?”
Seems like it worked. Hwa-rin, her eyes still wet, asked suspiciously. fгeewebnovёl.com
“Yeah. Then what’s the big deal?”
Kang Yun-ho doesn’t know anything. He writes martial smut, but he’s got no real-world experience. I looked at her with a genuinely confused face.
“I—it’d feel good doing it with you, right? Then like, emotions would get intense. I heard people say it feels like you fly into the sky. I—I mean! Ugh! Forget it!”
Maybe she got flustered. Face completely red, Hwa-rin stammered, filled with embarrassment.
“Pfft.”
She’s adorable, this Hwa-rin.
“D-Don’t laugh! This is seriously important!!!”
“Okay, okay. Stop crying and come here.”
I opened my arms to welcome her into an embrace.
“It really is important...”
Like a trembling little animal, Hwa-rin cautiously stepped into my arms.
“It’s not important.”
I pulled her close and gently patted her until her trembling calmed.
***********
“Hwa-rin.”
“Mm?”
Tang Hwa-rin felt Kang Yun-ho’s hands firmly grasp her shoulders as her trembling subsided and raised her head.
“There’s something you’ve really misunderstood.”
Misunderstood something? A thousand things popped into Tang Hwa-rin’s mind, but she couldn’t figure out which one it was.
“What is it?”
“Why would I be yours? You’re mine.”
Kang Yun-ho grinned playfully as he said it to her.
“What?”
“I said mine, didn’t I? So now you say it. Hwa-rin, whose woman are you?”
“Ugh.”
This guy.
Is this payback for when I shouted in embarrassment during the Elders’ Meeting?
Sure, I was embarrassed—but I liked it, I was happy, I thought it was cool. Tang Hwa-rin looked at him with slightly resentful eyes.
“Oh? Are you embarrassed?”
“No! No! I’m... I’m Yun-ho’s woman.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
When Kang Yun-ho spoke in a deliberately slightly disappointed tone, the words of who she belonged to instantly popped out of her mouth.
I’m Yun-ho’s woman. Tang Hwa-rin had felt embarrassed before saying it, but after she said it, it felt like something had filled up her chest completely.
Kang Yun-ho looked straight at Tang Hwa-rin with a serious expression and opened his mouth.
“Yeah. Hwa-rin is my woman. And I risked my life for my woman.”
“So what.”
Tang Hwa-rin put up a meek resistance, but her face was already on the verge of surrender.
The warmth swelling in her chest, the hope that he wouldn’t give up on her—it was hard to hide the way the corners of her mouth wanted to lift.
To help her stand up again after she had once collapsed in despair, and to give her certainty, Kang Yun-ho made her one last promise.
“I’ll be waiting for the day Hwa-rin returns to Daseogak.”
----------
Tang Hwa-rin stared at Kang Yun-ho with wide, surprised eyes for a while, then lowered her head, overwhelmed with emotion, and mumbled.
“You really have a knack for making serious worries sound like nothing.”
“What, was that an insult?”
“It was a compliment, so understand it that way!”
Sometimes, she really couldn’t tell if this man was perceptive or just oblivious.
“You’ll really wait for me?”
Had she heard wrong? Even though Tang Hwa-rin clearly hadn’t misheard, she looked at him again, wanting to hear it one more time.
“Yeah. I’ll wait.”
“If I really focus on training, it might be shorter... but it still could really take ten years.”
“If I keep writing hard, won’t the time pass quickly?”
The way he treated ten whole years like it was nothing made Tang Hwa-rin’s heart pound.
“Th-Then, you won’t... cheat on me or anything, right?”
“Uh... hmm. Uh-huh.”
Kang Yun-ho had meant to reply right away, but at the thought of all the heroines he had already met—and those he might meet going forward—his words unconsciously stalled.
“What’s that hesitation?”
There was no way Tang Hwa-rin would let that slip by.
“Argh! That’s not it, Hwa-rin!”
Kang Yun-ho tried to explain himself, but there was no need for an excuse. Tang Hwa-rin’s face was already full of smiles.
Tang Hwa-rin stopped her playful jabs and looked at the face of the man she loved.
How could she possibly hate a man who said he’d wait ten years for her? How could she not love him?
The tears had stopped, and joy began to shine from her eyes. And they say happiness grows when shared.
At some point, after crying and getting angry and laughing again, the two faces had drawn closer.
Their lips, which had once been apart, came close once more.
Like untying a knot to tie it again stronger, their pink ribbon was retied—tighter this time.
More stubbornly. More unwilling to ever let go.
Inside the carriage heading back to the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Even after their pink knot had come undone, the two never let go of each other’s hands.
***********
No matter how much one wishes for that day not to come, time always arrives.
To return to Daseogak without Hwa-rin, I began preparing everything I could learn from the Tang Clan and everything I needed to bring with me.
Hwa-rin focused completely on martial arts training under the Tang Clan masters, and in the meantime, she also worked on treating Soga-ju, who had been poisoned by Tang Geo-ho.
Before long, news came that Hwa-rin had succeeded in waking Soga-ju.
And so, the day of parting with Hwa-rin arrived.
