The Concubine’s Request, Wife’s Permission

Yu Seha paused his words for a moment.
He felt a little parched in his throat, perhaps.

He felt thirst in many ways.
He opened a water jug on the terrace and downed it in one shot.

He glanced away subtly.

Moon Bora,
one of the golden connections she’d made in this world,
and now one of the indispensable treasures for Yu Seha.
A precious woman who must be part of his future scenery and fence.
And, unbeknownst to many, the most tender-hearted girl.

“……”

Moon Bora was shedding tears like little chicken droppings.
Seeing that, Yu Seha smiled wryly.

Somehow he had a feeling this would happen,
and it didn’t deviate from his expectations.

“Hey, crying?”
“…Hooongengeng.”
“Are you crying?”
“…Yes, yes!”

As if telling him not to tease her, Moon Bora flailed her arms.
Yu Seha snickered and once again offered a handkerchief.
She snatched it with a snap the moment it was handed over.

“Puhheuh!”
“……”

Anyway, after thoroughly blowing her nose, the story continued.
Honestly, there wasn’t much left to narrate at length.

“That man dies in four years.”
“Huh, hooongengeng! S-spoiler forbidden! Spoiler monster, out!”
“…No, you asked…”
“I-I don’t know! Forbidden, forbidden, forbidden! Hooongengeng! Forbidden!”

Cute as ever, she shook her head,
‘Hooongeng!’ went Moon Bora.
Yu Seha brushed her away and continued the story.

In a deep mountain valley,
A man hiding his body suppressed his true nature until the day the cat’s life came to an end.

For three years.
Honestly, it was like a miracle.

For over twenty years,
that he, who had lived without suppressing the nature of Heavenly Killing Star, would have no blood on his hands…

Yu Seha drew a neat conclusion.

“It’s because of the cat.”
“I knew it…”
“Raising that creature, he might have come to understand a little of what love is.”

Then one day,
the cat quietly passed away as if falling asleep.
Even while eating people’s food it might have taken care of itself, and it died after living out its natural lifespan.

The man discovered this.
For three whole days he froze like a grieving stone,
and just stared at the cat.

“Why, why is that?”
“Because I didn’t know.”
“Huh?”
“He didn’t know what to do, so that’s what he did.”

If he had basic common sense,
he would have dug a hole, buried the cat, and prayed for its repose.

But the man didn’t know how to do such things.
Despite having seen so many corpses,
and having caused so many deaths with his hands,

ironically, he didn’t understand the custom of funerals.
He didn’t know how to accept the death of this small creature.

“…So what happened? If left as is… it would rot and be swarming with maggots…”
“You could call it fortunate — someone came to help.”

It was a monk.

“…A monk?”
“Yes, well, a monk of that kind of worldview. He wasn’t an ordinary person.”

A massive set of prayer beads hung around his neck.
Another head adorned his chest.
Even markings that rarely indicated a higher plane,
he guessed he might be someone who had done great meritorious deeds.

“He personally helped to bury it.”

At the same time, he learned for the first time how to offer prayers for a dead being.
At the same time, it was hard to call it a sutra…
something special often called ‘Zen chanting’,
the monk who murmured it said gently,

“You will be able to meet again someday.”

What follows is truly a dull story.
The man, unable to withstand the suppressed Heavenly Killing Star, ran out to a village,
and met his end in an almost suicidal manner.

He didn’t remember the details.
As mentioned earlier, that man’s life was a distant scene to Yu Seha.

If he had to put it, it felt like watching a poor-quality black-and-white film in a cinema.

“However, the martial talents that man embodied and such have been passed down to me intact.”

Heavenly Killing Star was present here too.

Yu Seha, who had paused for a moment,
turned back slightly and said.

“Hmm, could the two of you listen to the next part as well?”
“Yonga!?”
“Mwang?!”

At the prompt, Ju Na-young and Ma Hana walked forward, giggling ‘ehehe…’.
Yu Seha pulled them into his arms and ruffled their heads wildly.

“Yo, Yongaang!”
“M, Mueaang!”
“Hehe…”

Yu Seha was about to continue the tale.
Then Ma Hana raised her hand.

“Meowi?”
“Mua, Peng Jin-ah professor.”

The name came up suddenly.
But Ma Hana was quite serious.

“Shouldn’t the professor hear this story now too?”
“……”

At Ma Hana’s suggestion, Moon Bora naturally nodded as if agreeing it should be so,
and Ju Na-young made a slightly complicated, subtle expression.

Yu Seha thought for a moment.

‘…Teacher.’

After everything was over, he reunited with Peng Jin-ah.

When they met again, she knelt before Yu Seha and apologized.

―Teacher…
―I’m sorry, I’m sorry, cadet Yu Seha…

Because I was so pathetic,
Because I was so weak,

―Even if I had a hundred mouths…

She had nothing left to say.
Having finished the thought, Yu Seha smiled faintly.
He patted Ma Hana’s crown as if being kind.

“…I’ll tell you about the teacher later.”
“Mua~I see. Sorry for suddenly butting in.”

Yu Seha’s story moved along quickly.
It was, in fact, something he didn’t particularly want to mention.

“I don’t know why.”

Why, reincarnation…
He didn’t know why he was born with rough memories of his past life.

Yu Seha opened his eyes in a Middle Eastern region deep in war.
He deliberately did not name the exact place.

From the moment he gained a sense of self,
he had to struggle to survive.
It was an environment that allowed no other choice.

A place where bullets and shells rained down…

Ah — kids don’t know guns, so he simply described them as weapons that kill if you get hit.

Anyway, the young boy, just five years old,
held a bayonet and a blunted knife in his hands.

Even as a child, Heavenly Killing Star is what it is.
The unknown forms and practical martial arts that man possessed were for Yu Seha an easier method of killing than anything else.

He lived off that for about a year.
He appeared to the boy who had been living like an animal.

He was defeated for the first time and taken in by him,
learned letters, how to write, and how to live like a person.

“Father.”

Honestly, it’s an embarrassing thing to say as a son,
Yu Seha didn’t know much about his father’s past.
His father tried to tell him,
but he was too lazy to listen.

He only knew that his father opposed the government, became wanted, and gathered similar people to form a mercenary unit.

“…Mua, mercenary?”
“Yes.”

Commonly called ‘Raven’.
It was a fairly successful mercenary group, but the fate of those who make a living that way is pretty much the same.

“They died one by one… and only my father and I were left.”

And then his father too lost his life to illness.

Yu Seha told the story only up to this point.
Later tales about using connections to secure identity in Korea,

or joining the army as a clear disguise and beating a superior who was hazing him nearly to death and ending up in the guardhouse…

Or being discharged and following a will to broadcast, doing side jobs like guitar playing and so on.
Explaining concepts that didn’t exist in that world wasn’t easy and, decisively, wasn’t interesting.

‘Looking at it this way, I’m something else…’

It was a lonely life, he thought.
For Yu Seha, the only proper human conversations he’d had were with his father and dead brothers.

And…

‘…Ji Han-seong.’

The rank-one who would throw donations,
there was no one else.

It was then.
Moon Bora, who had been listening quietly, slipped into Yu Seha’s arms.
She looked up at him with worried eyes.

“…So that’s alright, right?”
“Huh?”
“Heavenly Killing Star… I’ve seen it in ancient texts a bit. A nature that calls for blood, granting martial talent but ultimately leading to self-destruction.”

In reality, that man couldn’t overcome the Heavenly Killing Star and died.
Worried, Yu Seha smiled bitterly.
Uh, well…
It’s the first time he’s confessing this, but…

“Actually, about half of me isn’t Heavenly Killing Star.”
“Ung?”

He’s a case half-leftover in the middle.
When he died once as that man,
the remnants of the murderous nature mostly faded,
leaving only the talent for martial arts.

Even the faint remaining bloodlust,
he learned how to handle from his father.

“In reality, I haven’t gone berserk with bloodlust and rampaged, have I?”
“…Isn’t that a bit one-sidedly flattering? That?”
“I think so too… well… maybe the god who reincarnated me pitied me.”

A little later, after all the past stories had finished,

Yu Seha asked, “I’m a bit tired today, can I sleep first?”

Ju Na-young and Moon Bora naturally obliged. Of course, Ma Hana did too.

However…

“Meow…”

Ma Hana watched Yu Seha’s back,
and felt an inexplicable unease.

She placed her hand on the recently grown cat pouch.
A very small sense of déjà vu she couldn’t define.

If she had to describe it, it was like a tail twitching ‘jjuppit!’
then ‘kkupiliriri!’ and a ‘kummkumm!’ feeling.
It was literally the sense of an enigmatic race.

“Muaang…”

But she couldn’t, for such a reason, hold back someone who obviously looked tired.

“Hana?”
“Ma Hana? Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no, nothing…”

In the end, Ma Hana turned at their call.

It was evening, but a bit early to go to bed.
A girls’ party with the three of them together for the first time in a while.

An average age of twenty brought to mind youth and beauty.
At that point, what they would do was obvious.

Ju Na-young suddenly spoke.

“Moon Bora.”
“Yes?”

Soon, a cool beer can flew toward Moon Bora.
She couldn’t catch it gracefully.
Moon Bora’s athleticism was terrible after all…

The clumsy hold on the beer can slipped and it rolled down.
Soon a ‘ppoyong!’ , a chest-sway that would make any vigorous guy’s heart flutter, occurred in her bosom.
The beer can ended up lodged between her breasts.

Ma Hana admired the sight.
Conversely, Moon Bora felt ashamed and went ‘hooongeng!’.

“W-what are you doing all of a sudden!”
“Never mind, let’s have a drink on a night like this.”

Winking, Ju Na-young lifted the beer can.

“Days like this are for talking to each other.”

A drinking session that continued late into the night.
Moon Bora and Ju Na-young drank until their faces were flushed.

While drinking, various trivial stories were brought up.
Or discussions about rather important public trends, and so on.
They vented and bonded vigorously after a long time.

It was then.

With a piece of rice cake from the ‘Malaroze-flavored cake D Set’ in her mouth, Ju Na-young suddenly asked without warning.

“Moon Bora.”
“Yes.”
“You like Yu Seha, don’t you?”
“……”

Moon Bora fell silent.
She didn’t blink or do her cute ‘hooongengeng!’ routine like usual.

She had already sensed the drinking invitation, and
she no longer had the confidence to hide it.

“……”

Moon Bora felt her throat tighten.
It wasn’t easy to utter the single word ‘yes.’
Moon Bora closed her eyes.

If it had been before, just a few months ago,
she would have stubbornly denied it.

Being someone who carries the filthy blood of the Moon family,
she would have believed she must not love him.

In truth, she still thought that to some extent.
Seha is a hero.
And he’s a man who will do great things in the future.
All the more reason she thought they didn’t fit.

But…

How can love be commanded by one’s will?

Drip, drip.

Moon Bora burst into tears.
She nodded firmly toward Ju Na-young, who watched with a serious expression.

“Yes, I like him.”

Yu Seha,
Seha,
him,
I like him very much.

“I love him. I want to be by his side.”
“……”
“I’m sorry, Ju Na-young, even if I become your rival, even if we keep fighting… I cannot give up on Seha.”

And there’s something I’m even more sorry about.

“You are as precious to me as Seha is.”

Practically the first time she voiced it,
Moon Bora’s true feeling and heart.
A sincere word from a girl who always hid and pretended to be fine.

That one line eventually made the Dragon Sword Mir’s young lady choke up.
‘Yong-woo, Yong-woo!’ Ju Na-young, squeezing out drops the size of marbles, complained.

“You idiot, why are you crying! Don’t say ‘fresh juice always wins’!”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize! I too, I too feel the same…”

Ju Na-young loves Yu Seha.
A romance already openly acknowledged.

And the two of them were just as precious.
In the end, the three gathered here shared the same feelings.

After calming down a bit,
Dampened Ju Na-young sighed,
and crouched down on the floor.

“…Na-young?”
“…Unnie.”
“Yes?”

Ju Na-young continued, looking at Moon Bora blinking her eyes.

“…Jin-ah unnie.”
“Ah, Professor Peng Jin-ah… why suddenly bring her up…”
“You know too, right?”
“……”

It’s a question with many omissions,
but the clever Moon Bora immediately grasped the meaning.
Given that this topic came up now, it would be stranger not to know.

“Yes, I know.”

Professor Peng Jin-ah too…
Certainly, no — without a doubt…

“She loves Yu Seha, as a man…”
“…Actually I purposely didn’t say it, but lately unnie has been avoiding me… not picking up my calls…”
“That’s…”
“Yes, even that dense unni realized it herself.”

And Yu Seha himself probably knows to some extent as well.
No matter how oblivious, it’s absurd to not notice that much intense attention.

“……”
“……”

They clicked their tongues in complicated moods.
The professor-student relationship.
Not extreme, but there was certainly a notable age gap.
Well, various other things.

Ju Na-young scratched her head,
and stood up with an ‘Ei!’ sound.

“Actually, I’ve been worrying about this for a long time without you noticing.”
“…Worrying?”
“Yes.”

There are more women who like Yu Seha than you’d think.
Even among these three, they look at no other man.

Plus Jin-ah unnie too…

“There’s a phrase ‘heroes are womanizers.’ He’s that good-looking, so forming a harem is an inevitable outcome.”
“Um, that phrase…”
“I’ll be honest: I won’t give up on Se-ha either… but that doesn’t mean I plan to fight you all to the death.”

Because by then they were already too precious to each other.
Ju Na-young wiggled her two fingers.
She asked, shyly.

“…From now on, can we all stay by Se-ha’s side like this together?”

Essentially a grand proposal to form a future ‘harem.’

Moon Bora didn’t dislike it and nodded slightly.

Then, realizing the most important person hadn’t said anything, they subtly gave him a look.

“…I approve, but I think that’s a matter the legal wife should answer first, not concubines like us.”
“So the order is indeed like that.”

They turned their gaze.

They looked at the furball who had been silently sipping alcohol and toasting bread.

At their looks, the furball trembled.

“M, Mwang…?”
“Hana?”
“It’s Hana.”
“M, Mwang…”

Ju Na-young, Moon Bora.
Whether in looks or body,
wealth, family background, or ability,
two women lacking in nothing.

They looked at the petite girl,
and simultaneously pleaded seriously.

Undoubtedly a concubine’s question seeking the legal wife’s permission,
and a request among friends who loved the same man.

“Can I stay by Seha’s side?”
“May I receive his love?”
“M, M, Muaaaang…”

A sudden question.
Ma Hana simply blushed and made ‘mua mua’ sounds.