Episode 98 My World Will Be Trivial.
The two eyes of the evil soma in the eye sockets were smiling brightly.
Would you ever have imagined that he would set a condition for releasing you from your bonds: take off your mask?
He was angry, but he was also happy. I was probably the first person who made him feel these two conflicting emotions at the same time.
In your entire life, you’ve probably never seen anyone treat you this carelessly. Even your father didn’t treat the demons this carelessly.
I know. How much the evil Soma enjoys moments like this. His blood must be flowing fast and his heart must be beating like crazy. I think this is also a kind of illness.
“What if I promise to take off my mask and then later break my promise?”
“You have to rush in and take it off forcibly.”
“Okay, let’s practice now.”
In an instant, the evil Soma’s eyes sank. He was ready to fight, and he was a completely different person than he was just a moment ago.
I waved my hand and pushed back my chair.
“If I do that, the skin on my face might peel off.”
The evil Soma asked leisurely, releasing his prayer.
“Now, what are we going to do if we can’t force it off?”
I stared at him for a moment and then answered calmly.
“I won’t do anything.”
For a moment, the evil Soma flinched. I had just said the answer that even the evil Soma himself did not know.
Do nothing.
This is the right answer for this evil soma, who is like a frog. He asked me with a look of incomprehension.
“Does this mean you trust me?”
“Honestly, I don’t believe it. The Evil Soma, it’s not a name that gives anyone faith, is it?”
I laughed as if I was joking, but he didn’t laugh.
“Okay, let’s get up. You should go and eat too, Soma-sama.”
I didn’t tell him why. Sometimes not telling is the best thing to do. Especially when there’s no real reason like this.
Sometimes, the other person will blow up something trivial and make it seem like something plausible.
I got up first, and the evil Soma got up after me.
After leaving the Pungryu tavern, we went back the way we came.
He, who had been walking alongside me for a while, stopped walking.
“Please wait a moment.”
He went to a vendor who sold masks. He bought a white mask from there and gave it to me.
“This is a gift to commemorate today.”
He took the mask and spoke to him.
“I offered you the condition of taking off your mask, but instead you put a mask on my face.”
I put on the mask obediently.
“It’s frustrating. I guarantee that if you take off your mask and fight, Soma-sama will fight twice as well. How long will it take before you feel comfortable with this?”
“It doesn’t take as long as you think.”
“If that’s true, then the opposite would be true as well. How long does it take to feel comfortable without the mask?”
The extremely evil Soma, visible through the eye holes of the mask, was staring at me silently.
You were looking at me like this.
He can now only look at me through my eyes in the eye sockets. Perhaps that is more disadvantageous to me. The evil Soma has lived for a very long time among many masked subordinates.
I pulled the mask up over my head like a hat.
“Write like this. How comfortable and nice it is. Put it on when you want to, take it off when you want to take it off. Just like this.”
Then I tapped the mask that was looking up at the sky above my head with my palm.
“This guy will feel good too. Looking up at the sky like this.”
Then the evil Soma looked up at the sky.
“Wouldn’t that work? Then we can both see the sky.”
When the evil Soma, who had been staring at the sky with empty eyes for a long time, turned his gaze to me, he had already made up his mind.
“Okay. I will accept the conditions presented by the scholar. If you release me from my ban, I will take off my mask when we are alone.”
I don’t believe he will keep his promise.
It’s a face I’ve only seen once before I died, even before I returned. He won’t take off his mask easily.
But just making that promise means something. Will I ever see his face in his youth?
“Thank you, Soma.”
The vertical line drawn on my mind has moved a little further to the right. It’s still far. I’ll have to go over halfway before I can even consider whether to kill myself or not.
“I think I need to meet these conditions to be able to accept my father, right?”
We looked at each other and laughed. Neither of us had any real feelings for each other, but we laughed heartily as if this smile was a sign of our promise.
* * *
The next day, when he entered Cheonmajeon, General Sima Ming was also there.
After greeting his father, he acted coquettishly towards Sima Ming.
“I’ve been in a tight spot lately because of you, sir.”
“What are you talking about?”
“My father followed me to the two houses.”
Only then did Sima Ming realize that it was a comment made while playing Go and he laughed.
“That’s because you were cheated by a soldier who can’t play baduk.”
“You’ve already heard.”
This time, I laughed. My father, who is blunt and doesn’t seem like he would ever tell the jokes we shared, but he does this to Sima Ming. That must mean that they are close.
After exchanging brief greetings, I told my father the purpose of my visit today.
“Father, I have come to ask you a favor.”
“Speak.”
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“Please release the ban on the evil Soma.”
My father wasn’t surprised. Perhaps it was because he had recently heard that I was meeting with the evil Soma.
Sima Ming stepped forward instead of my father, who was silently looking down at me.
“Can I ask why?”
“The evil Soma came and asked me a favor.”
“Then can you just refuse?”
“If you refuse, I will kill your family! What if he threatens you? Oh, then I will become a Heavenly Demon. Should I have accepted?”
Sima Ming didn’t even laugh at my joke.
“This is not something to joke about. Do you know why the evil Soma was banned?”
“I know. I massacred the Apostolic Alliance soldiers.”
“Soma is a person who cannot control his anger.”
“The longer we keep him tied up, the more angry he will become.”
Even Sima Ming could not refute this statement.
The father, who had been listening, suddenly asked.
“Can you take responsibility?”
“Why should I take responsibility? The person who caused the accident should take responsibility.”
“If an unleashed dog bites a person, how can the dog be held solely responsible? The person who let the dog loose should also be held responsible.”
“That’s true, but.”
“I will lift the ban if you accept my condition of taking responsibility.”
“How long can I just support that person? When the ban is lifted, he will be expelled immediately, and I will only take responsibility for what happens after that expelling.”
“good night!”
Unlike his father who readily gave his permission, Sima Ming emphasized again with an anxious expression.
“The evil Soma must have accumulated a lot of things while being locked up in the main school for the past two years. If he goes out to the Central Plains, he might commit massacre.”
“I will keep that in mind and look into it carefully.”
Finally, I expressed my gratitude to my father.
“Father, thank you for your permission.”
Of course, my father did not accept my greeting so readily.
“Is this really something to be thankful for?”
From Cheonmajeon’s perspective, it was a situation where they couldn’t ban the evil soma forever. At this point, my request was enough to give my father an opportunity to lift the ban. As a result, this incident also ended up being a kind of test for the successor.
Father, I’m sorry, but this time I’m better off. I already know what the evil Soma is planning to do after leaving the school.
* * *
After leaving Cheonmajeon, I went straight to Akingok to find the evil Soma.
“Do you really have permission to do this?”
The evil Soma didn’t seem to know that I would get my father’s permission in just one day.
“Yes. The ban will be lifted tomorrow. An official document will arrive from Tongcheon-gak by tomorrow.”
Admiration flashed across the evil Soma’s eyes.
“I didn’t know it could be done this quickly.”
“Now you know why you should support me and not your brother, right?”
“I guess I’ll have to think about it seriously. But would the leader just allow it?”
“How could that be? My father set a condition.”
“What are the conditions?”
I let out a somewhat exaggerated sigh and said to him.
“If Soma causes any trouble, I will take full responsibility for it.”
“Oh! You risked your position as successor for me.”
“I guess so.”
The evil Soma didn’t hide his surprise.
“Is this worth it?”
“Seeing Soma-sama’s face? I think it’s worth it.”
“For such a small favor, Lee Gongja has staked too much.”
“Well, since I’ve already been caught, I’ll do one more. Becoming friends with the most evil Soma is something no one will ever experience in their lifetime. It’s definitely worth the risk.”
The evil Soma stared at me as if he was going to pierce me. He probably wanted to know what my intentions were, but he couldn’t know me just from my eyes and expression. Not in the past, not now, and not in the future.
“In other words, I can think as much as I want. The person in charge will take responsibility.”
“This is absolutely crazy.”
“Why didn’t you hide it? You shouldn’t have told me that you promised to take responsibility. That would be a weakness for a scholar.”
“You have to say it. Aren’t most of the problems we face caused by not saying anything when we should?”
The evil Soma laughed strangely. It was a different laugh from his usual laugh.
“I have no intention of ignoring you, Soma. I also don’t think that if I hide it, something won’t happen.”
“Every time I heard rumors about Lee Gong-ja, I thought they were exaggerated. But now I see that they were greatly exaggerated.”
“Maybe it’s because you are Soma-sama.”
“What do you mean?”
“Even if you report the same thing, depending on what kind of emotion you have, the content will be heard differently. However, in front of Soma-nim, even the subordinates will have no choice but to stiffen up. They will only listen to dry reports that exclude personal opinions or emotions as much as possible. They will not be able to convey who I am properly.”
“That makes perfect sense.”
The laughter sounded different. Soma laughs like that when he’s thinking a lot.
“But please promise me one thing.”
“What is it?”
“If you have any reason to leave the school, you must leave with me. If you break this promise, the ban will be reissued and you will probably have to start the period over again.”
“Let’s get out of here tomorrow without any plans for the future.”
The person who makes such impulsive decisions is the very worst. That’s why dealing with him is difficult.
I also answered without hesitation.
“I’m looking forward to traveling with Soma-sama.”
I deliberately expressed my departure from the church with him as a journey.
“We are not going on a trip.”
“If you go with a friend, isn’t anywhere a trip?”
I’m trying to avoid him causing trouble on this trip by doing whatever it takes, and I’m trying not to approach him anxiously.
I will go out with the mindset that I will go out and play with the really evil Soma for a while. If my friend fights, I will stop it, and if my friend is in danger, I will save him. I will go with that mindset.
“Then I will take my leave now.”
“See you tomorrow morning, Lee Gong-ja.”
As I was opening the door and going out, the evil Soma asked me from behind.
“Is there anywhere you want to go?”
I turned to him and said.
“There are many. But this time, I want to see Soma-sama’s world. Please show me around.”
“My world will be petty. Maybe even more so than Magachon.”
“It feels that way because it’s my world, but it would be different if others saw it.”
He laughed and I laughed too.
When you meet Soma, you will laugh often. Whether it is a forced laugh, a dagger in the laugh, or sincere. Either way, you will laugh. They say that if you laugh often, you will live longer. There are also good points like this.
I opened the door again and was about to go out when I added a word.
“Well, Magachon isn’t such a trivial place. Aren’t they people who make a living by selling masks to the evil Soma?”
