Chapter 444: If Father's Dream is Still the Same Then

TL: FoodieMonster007

All eyes were on me. I felt like I was standing alone on a stage, but I wasn't lonely.

The Extremely Evil Smiling Demon was behind me, and my Demon Supremes were watching. They were truly my father's Demon Supremes, loyal to him, but in my heart, they were mine too.

Of course, I couldn't forget one thing. This relationship with them was only possible because I was my father's son.

That's why this stage was so important. I had to handle this contest well. Whether I won or lost, I had to do it with dignity and grace.

Because this was the first stage for my father and me.

First, I must never undermine my father's dignity and authority in front of the Demon Supremes. That was the principle of this fight.

Father, do you know that I'm even concerned about that? That's how difficult this fight is for me.

Father's gaze turned to me. I couldn't tell how much of what I had said before had reached him.

The one who broke the silence was the Drunken Demon.

"Cult Leader, I'd like to offer the Young Cult Leader a drink, would that be alright?"

At the Drunken Demon's request, my father nodded.

The Drunken Demon poured a drink into the Ice Palace Chalice for me.

"Young Cult Leader, have a drink of my liquor and change your mind."

Although he was taking my father's side, the Drunken Demon's inner thoughts were different.

[I don't want to see murim become a sea of blood, so use that brilliant head of yours and find a way!]

Between my father and me, he had no choice but to pick my father, but the Drunken Demon was against the war. This drink was a show of support.

"I'll drink it gratefully."

I drank the liquor slowly, exchanging a voice transmission with the Drunken Demon.

[As you can see, Hyung, it's not easy to change Father's mind.]

[Still, you're the only one here who can do it.]

"That was a good drink."

Just then, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon sent a voice transmission.

[Give up. The Cult Leader's dream and yours are on parallel paths. They can never merge.]

From his perspective, he had judged that I couldn't change our father's long-held wish, no matter how much I tried to persuade him.

The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was right. How could I easily change a dream my father had cherished for so long?

I calmly asked my father.

"I'd like to ask you this. Father, do you think about that dream often?"

Father looked at me, his expression asking what I meant by that question.

"When we have a certain dream, it's exciting and thrilling at first, but as time passes, doesn't that dream just become a matter of course?"

Father's gaze wavered slightly. For him, that long-cherished desire must have also become a dream that was simply a given.

"Father, it's fine to have the same dream. But couldn't you dream it again from the very beginning? Dream it again from a state of having no dreams at all. Not as a dream you've had since a time you can't even remember, but as a vivid, present dream."

Father didn't answer.

"While meeting the Demon Supremes this time, I thought constantly. Can I really go against your will, Father? Do I have the right? I even went to meet with my Strategist. I went to him and solidified my resolve, but seeing you again makes my heart waver."

This was my sincere heart, conveyed to my father.

"That's how much I don't want to defy your will, Father. Because I respect you more than anyone in the world."

This wasn't flattery. It was my true feelings for my father, revealed before all the Demon Supremes.

He continued to listen to my words, his expression unchanging.

Today, my father was dealing with me not by speaking, but by listening. Thanks to that, this stage was truly my one-man show.

"I know very well how important your dream, your aspiration and ideal, is, Father. The demonic path I spoke of is also a part of my dream. However, I believe there is something just as important."

"What is that?"

"What to eat for dinner later, who to meet tomorrow. I believe that daily life is just as important as a grand dream. I'm talking about the scenery we get to see in the process of heading toward that dream."

It's also why I try to live my own life without getting bogged down by a formidable enemy like Hwa Mugi.

This has been the principle of my life that I've upheld since my regression, but I had no idea how persuasive my words, coming from someone so young, would be to my father. However, I did my best.

"Winning a game of Go against you is important to me, and fulfilling my wish of taking a hot spring bath with you is also important. Traveling the Central Plains with you is another earnest wish of mine. If I were to see you sitting on the grand tutor's chair after achieving the unification of murim without having accomplished any of these things, would I truly be happy?"

And was that all?

My gaze turned toward the Demon Supremes.

"It's also important for me to have a duel with the Sword Supreme, and to have late-night training with Master. I want to read a book next to the Blade Demon while he reads. I want to dig for poisonous herbs with the Poison King, and while drinking with the Drunken Demon, I will watch the stone statue that the Demonic Buddha is completing. I will also watch the Soul-Stealing Demon Supreme grow. And there's still a lot of furniture I want to place in the Smiling Demon's room. To me, these things are just as important as my dream. Because when I look back before I die someday, I will miss all these moments so much and have so many regrets."

Each moment was incredibly lonely and difficult, but when I looked back after it had passed, it was a life that had gone by in the blink of an eye. I knew because I had experienced it before.

The words I had to say from now on had to be chosen carefully.

"I believe the dream you've cherished for so long was a dream with too few options, Father. For someone walking the path of the Heavenly Demon, multiple signposts were probably unnecessary."

However, my father's thoughts were firm.

"Even if there were a hundred choices, I would have chosen the same one. Even if there were dozens of diverging paths, I would have continued walking the path I was on."

"I'm not telling you to take a different path."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm saying you should look at the surrounding scenery as you go."

So that sometimes your steps might pause, sometimes you might become curious about another path, and sometimes you might even doubt your own path.

To do that, I also have to walk the path with my father. I have to walk with him, talk with him, and when a noteworthy view appears, I have to tell him to look over there.

I realized while talking with my father that this was the only way to make him change his dream.

Realization immediately led to action.

"Father, will you make a promise with me?"

Not just my father, but the Demon Supremes too looked at me with curious expressions. As everyone paid attention, my words continued.

"Yes, it's a promise between one martial artist and another. It's also a promise between the Cult Leader and the Young Cult Leader, and a promise between a father and a son."

"What kind of promise?"

"Please give me time."

"Time?"

I thought about how many years I would need. I needed an amount of time that was neither too short nor too long.

The exact time to achieve my goal.

"Please give me exactly five years, starting from now."

"And if I do?"

"Then, I will ask you again. If your dream at that time is still the unification of murim, then I will stand at the vanguard of that war."

"!"

Not only my father, but all the Demon Supremes were startled. The Drunken Demon looked like he wanted to scream, No! What do you think you're doing? at any moment.

On the other side, the Extremely Evil Smiling Demon's eyes were smiling. Had he perhaps imagined himself standing side-by-side with me at that vanguard?

My declaration to stand at the vanguard of the war was the decisive move I had thrown.

Within five years, I will eliminate Hwa Mugi and his faction. Within five years, I will change my father's mind. Within that time, I will definitely make my father dream a new dream.

Five years.

A war isn't something you can wage immediately just because you want to.

Depending on the strategy you use to fight, the preparations could take several months, or as long as two or three years.

In that case, five years wasn't such a long time for my father.

If he wins this bet, he gets me.

He would get me, the one who has achieved Twelfth Star mastery of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art through the Heavenly Space Secret Art. Right?

And would he only get me? He would also get everything I've accomplished up to that point as a bonus. If I took the lead and helped him, his dream of unifying murim would surely draw closer.

This promise was an official one made in front of the Demon Supremes.

"I am now staking my life on this promise to you, Father."

"Will you not regret it?"

"Will you not regret it, Father?"

Our gazes tangled in the air. Everyone here knew we were two people who would absolutely keep a promise once made. That was why both my father and I had to decide carefully.

"Why five years?"

"This is about changing your mind, Father, not just anyone's. If I had my way, I'd ask for fifty years."

"For me, this is a fight where I just have to maintain my current resolve. Five years will pass in a flash. Are you still going to do it?"

"In that time, I will definitely change your mind, Father."

That familiar sneer formed on my father's lips. That smile, which gave a different impression each time, held a sense of amusement today. It felt as if he were asking, The truth is, you want to fight too, don't you?

That must have been why.

Father readily nodded his head.

"Fine. I accept that promise."

I reaffirmed this bet that would change everyone's destiny to the Demon Supremes.

"Five years from today, on this very day, I will gather all the Demon Supremes present here again and ask about my father's dream. Let's see the outcome on that day."

Five years from now, my father's dream will have changed. He will speak of a dream that will startle every Demon Supreme here. I will make sure of it.

"Thank you, Father."

The Demon Supremes all looked at my father and me with expressions of astonishment at this unexpected outcome.

Now, with a relaxed heart, I asked my father.

"Now that it's all over, I'm just asking, but your meetings with the Demon Supremes… you were preparing for the unification of murim, weren't you?"

But unexpectedly, my father shook his head.

"You weren't?"

He wasn't the type to lie about such things. I asked again in surprise.

"Then why did you meet with all the Demon Supremes?"

"Meet with all of them?"

"You met the Smiling Demon, you drank with the Drunken Demon, and you helped the Poison King with his poison concoction."

"That was only those three, wasn't it?"

He was right. He had only met three of the Demon Supremes directly. And even then, he gave other reasons.

"I heard you had brought furniture to the Smiling Demon's room. So I paid him a visit."

If that was really the reason, then my father must have had a recent change of heart.

"As for the Drunken Demon, the liquor from the Ice Palace Chalice was so delicious that we simply drank together."

"And the Poison King?"

"I heard he needed precise telekinesis. That he had failed to concoct it several times because he lacked such an assistant."

"So I just went to help."

I stared at my father. I couldn't tell if he was speaking sincerely or not.

"I only met with three, but I hear you've been meeting with all of them."

"!"

I asked my father with a startled expression.

"Then why did you gather everyone today? Wasn't it to persuade me and unite the Demon Supremes?"

"No."

"No?"

"Are you the type of child who would change his mind just because I tried to persuade you?"

Right, there was no way my father didn't know me.

"I received a report that you had been going around meeting all the Demon Supremes. You went around trying to persuade them, so I figured you should have a proper conclusion."

In other words, this gathering was for me.

"Huh? Then why did I make that five-year promise?"

"You brought it up first. I didn't say a thing."

In fact, my father hadn't even directly stated what his dream was.

I shouted at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon as if to protest.

"You said Father might have started making serious moves to achieve his dream!"

"…I said he might have."

Next, to the Fist Demon.

"You said Father was already at war?"

"Isn't a father with a son like you always at war?"

"That's what you meant?"

"What other meaning could there be?"

And to the Demonic Buddha as well.

"You said Father created this stage?"

The brilliant radiance of the Demonic Buddha faded.

"Did I say that? I've been a bit out of it lately. I should go and finish the statue I was working on."

I looked back and forth between my father and the Demon Supremes.

"Right? I've been had, haven't I? This was all a setup from the beginning, wasn't it? That's what this is, right?"

I gripped my head with a tormented expression. Just then, the Poison King, standing a little ways off, sent a voice transmission.

[The one who was had was the Cult Leader.]

He was reading my inner thoughts perfectly.

[If a war breaks out, you'll participate anyway. The you I know would ask the Cult Leader to let him stand at the vanguard.]

[Because you would try to minimize the damage from the war.]

I turned to him and smiled.

He was right.

Would I enter seclusion training because I hate war, or would I side with the Murim Alliance? If I couldn't stop it beforehand, I would have to jump into the war anyway.

I feigned being tricked, but this wasn't a loss for me. It was a contest in my favor.

Because at least for the next five years, I wouldn't have to worry about a war.

[Do you really think the Cult Leader doesn't know your ulterior motive?]

[He probably knows.]

I could tell just by the way my father was looking at me. That didn't mean he was going to go easy on me, though.

Father was giving me an opportunity, and at the same time, challenging me to a proper match.

Not a contest for a single day, but a grand contest spanning five long years.

The fate of murim hangs on this contest.

By then, I will definitely achieve the Twelfth Star mastery of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art and kill Hwa Mugi.

And I will also fight a battle even more difficult than that one.

Showing my father that there is a better dream than the unification of murim. Walking with him and letting him see the scenery he has missed all this time.

The empty grand tutor's chair.

The image of the empty grand tutor's chair no longer felt as frightening as before. Its emptiness would now mean something different.

Father, you'll have to go places with me now. Because I have a justification.

Whether he knew my thoughts or not, my father spoke with a faint smile.

"It will be reassuring to have you as the vanguard commander."