CHAPTER 35: THE WEIGHT OF TEN YEARS

Protagonist’s POV

This happened back when I lived with Master in the mountains.

"Master, I’ve been having strange dreams lately. Someone hugs me from behind and gropes my body. I’m worried it might be a bad omen."

One day, I started having odd dreams. Someone tied me up, rendering me immobile, and ran their hands all over me. I couldn’t escape, and though it was a dream, it felt eerily vivid—enough to give me a bad feeling.

For the first few days, I wrestled with it alone, but it only got worse, growing more intense. After much thought, I decided to consult Master.

"..."

"Master? Why aren’t you saying anything?"

"...Guess you’ve built some tolerance."

"Huh?"

"Oh, just talking to myself. Sit down and tell me exactly what happened in detail."

At her urging, I sat and described the dreams.

"First, I can’t open my eyes. Then something—I don’t know if it’s arms or what—binds my body."

"Hm."

"After that, a clear sensation of hands roams over me. My head, chest, stomach, legs, uh... everywhere."

I skipped the parts too embarrassing to say.

"It’s too vivid for a dream—like it’s real. I try to resist, but I’m tied up and can’t do anything. What’s going on?"

"..."

Master frowned in thought for a moment before speaking.

"Looks like an evil spirit’s latched onto you."

"An evil spirit?!"

"Yes. Even with your frail body and broken dantian, you’ve learned from me—petty ghosts wouldn’t dare. Since I didn’t notice, it must be a pretty strong one."

"Eek..."

Her words drained the color from my face. An evil spirit—one that drives people to ruin or steals their bodies. If even Master, sleeping beside me every night, hadn’t noticed, it had to be powerful. Far beyond what I could handle.

"W-What should I do?"

"For now, don’t resist at all. Whatever it does, bite your tongue and don’t fight back."

"T-That’s it?"

"Endure it for a few days, and a chance will open up. I’ll make a potion to drive it away—drink it before bed. That should send it packing."

Despite my unease, I followed her advice and slept. For the next three days, the hands grew more lascivious and intense—I had to check my pants first thing each morning. By the time I could barely sleep, my face hollow with dark circles—

"Guess it’s about time."

Master, oddly brimming with energy lately, brought a solution.

"Here. It’s bitter, but drink this before bed. You should sleep soundly tonight."

"...Every night?"

"Just try it once for now. We’ll see how it works and decide after."

The potion wasn’t just bitter—it was awful—but that night, as she’d promised, no ghostly hands bothered me, and I slept deeply.

"Master, I slept well last night, like you said."

"Good to hear. Puts my mind at ease too."

"But my body feels oddly weak, like my vitality’s been drained. Is that a side effect?"

"...It’s that kind of potion, so bear with it."

Her skin looked strangely radiant that day, but I chalked it up to my imagination.

"Anyway, since it worked, take one a week from now on. Evil spirits are tenacious—if you give them even a small opening, they’ll come back."

For a while, I felt drained every time I took it weekly, but Master hunted more game to compensate, so I managed. She must’ve felt bad seeing her struggling disciple suffer from an evil spirit.

"Ugh..."

Before dawn broke, I woke up shivering from the cold. There was still plenty of time before daylight when we’d start moving again, but sleep wouldn’t come, so I stepped outside to get some air.

Come to think of it, it’d been a while since I stopped taking that medicine after leaving the mountains, and since those strange incidents stopped, it seems the evil spirit must’ve left. They vanished right after Master went into secluded training...

’Could it be...’

Did she do something about it before she left? Her usual prickly nature aside, she had a quietly kind side—maybe that was it.

’Speaking of which, who’s on watch...’

Rubbing my eyes as I crawled out, I saw the cloaked woman’s back, gazing at the moon.

’Now that I think about it, I never asked her name.’

At least I should know what to call her before "Miss." Or maybe her nickname. But why was she out here alone?

"Miss? Not sleeping?"

"Oh, you’re up."

"I heard the merchants or escorts were supposed to take watch..."

"I don’t need much sleep, so I volunteered. No need to worry about me—the air’s still chilly, so go back inside."

["The air’s still cold. I’ll come in soon, so keep sleeping. I just stepped out because I couldn’t sleep."]

She was clearly a different woman from Master, yet somehow her profile under the moonlight overlapped with Master’s image.

"..."

"...What’s wrong?"

"Up we go."

I tossed a dry branch into the smoldering fire and sat nearby. Warmth seeped through my skin, spreading inside.

"I couldn’t sleep either. Since I’m up, might as well borrow the fire’s company."

"...Do as you like."

Crackle crackle.

She kept staring at the moon in silence, leaving the fire’s crackling as the only sound around us. Breaking the awkward quiet, I spoke first.

"If it’s okay, can I ask who you’re going to find?"

Even though Shaanxi and Anhui are neighboring regions, the Central Plains are vast—plenty of people live and die in one place their whole lives. Unless you’re traveling for leisure like me, trading goods like merchants, or wandering for work like ronin, moving to another region without a special reason isn’t common. She’d said she was looking for someone, but I couldn’t help my growing curiosity. Since I planned to stick with her in Henan, I figured I’d ask now to avoid any slip-ups later.

"..."

She stayed silent for a while, showing only her back. Thinking I’d overstepped, I was about to apologize when—

"...Someone I owe a debt to."

"A debt?"

"A huge debt I owe."

I thought "debt" meant some typical vendetta, but it seemed like a real debt.

"Honestly, I’m not even sure if the person in Anhui is them. I’ve tracked down similar people before, and it’s always been my mistake."

"You don’t know exactly who it is?"

"...No, I know everything. Their name, gender, specific traits—all of it. But no matter... no matter how much I search, I can’t find them."

"Hmm... Sounds like you’ve been searching for a long time."

"A long time... yeah. Over ten years."

That’s an incredible stretch. A debt from ten years ago at her age—maybe a childhood benefactor?

Crackle crackle.

"It must be a massive debt, seeing how you haven’t given up."

"...Massive, yes. So massive I can’t even fathom how to repay it."

What kind of person could leave such a debt on someone who reached peak level at her age?

’Kind of jealous.’

She seemed destined to become a big deal—whatever they could demand for a debt like that piqued my interest. But digging into the details might be too sensitive, so I held back. Honestly, after searching that long, I wondered if they were even still alive—but I wasn’t tactless enough to say it out loud.

"Whoever it is, I’m jealous. A beauty like you searching so hard for them—a guy couldn’t ask for greater honor."

"...Pfft."

"They’ll turn up someday, I’m sure. After searching this long, I pray the gods of heaven and earth help you out."

I couldn’t see her face, just her back, but I felt she’d just smiled.