Chapter 43
Chapter 43: Finding the Lost Piece 1
He couldn’t believe it. Jaehwang stepped back with the hems of his clothes still in shambles. He held onto the arrow stuck on his stomach. It didn’t bother him that much, he didn’t even make a noise but then he collapsed.
His mind went blank as he laid down on the floor. He didn’t use any of his mana and but he used up all of his strength.
“Huh…”
He stared at Jaehwang. The fight happened in such a small time but he used all of his energy and ended up taking deep breaths. He saw that Jaehwang still had the will to fight, his long red arrows fell and rolled across the floor but there was still one resting on his bow.
He had his most shocking day after a few years. He still also wanted to learn his amazing style sinec even though he was very young, he was the strongest he had ever seen in terms of martial arts. He wanted to taught and learn by his talent so that if he turned out to be evil, he would be the one to stop him.
He thought about him disappearing. Jeahwang’s potential was scary no matter how many times he thought about it, so he shook his head and reapproached himself before he asked him a question.
“…Are you able to keep going?”
GwanJae’s voice came out with nice since his jealousy was now gone. Jaehwang then took a deep breath and answered.
“I used up all of my mana.”
He has reached his limit. He remembered that he just healed someone earlier so there was a chance that his reserves would be running low by the time they started their fight.
“I see.”
He shook his head and was dejected but he had seen the outcome that he wanted to see.
‘I didn’t know that he was an Archer. He’s like that person…’
He started to think of someone he met a long time ago. He remembered that that person had an impressive skill in archery as well. It was so long since they had met but there was no way that he would forget about it.
That’s because he was using Ancient Martial Arts Archery.
Gwanjae glued his eyes on Jaehwang as he tried to move and that’s when he noticed something familiar that widened his eyes. It made him think twice about the techniques that he used. He didn’t notice that when he looked at his documents and that’s when he decided that he would need to recheck it.
“Kid.”
“Yeah?”
Jaehwang then sat down and answered back. There was an arrow on his stomach but he behaved as if it already happened before. GwanJae thought that if he could push him to be little bit stronger, then he would be able to put forth and utilize his skills to its utmost potential.
“By any chance… was your grandfather a really talented person?”
Jaehwang shook his head in surprise at the sight of GwanJae mentioning something about his missing grandfather. He was Jeon ByeonJae and about sixty years ago, he had saved many people and everyone knew his name.
“Yes….”
“Hm…”
GwanJae started to shake at the thought that maybe that was his grandson he never knew about. It happened sixty years ago and he couldn’t remember a thing since his memory was cursed. He was confident that he would never forget anything else but he still had forgotten his name.
“Can you… tell me the name of your grandfather?”
Jaehwang gave him a sad smile and answered his question.
Jeon ByeongJae.
He was Jaehwang’s grandfather and he was the one who taught him martial arts. His grandfather opened a dimension gate and destroyed the monsters. He saved a lot of people and left the mountain cabin only to be never seen again.
He couldn’t return.
He didn’t complete his martial arts training so all he could do was wait for a vacancy.
A few years had passed by and the human military troops had then started the assault against the monsters together with Gagseogs but there was still no news about his grandfather. He was very young at that time and all that he learned himself was energy control and his focus.
He sought the vision of other styles to improve his own martial arts but all he learned was actually just superficial knowledge. That drove him to the point of despair.
“Are you afraid that he will return?”
“Yes. He… I went after him on my own but in the end, I could never find him.”
It was a terrible memory even for Jaehwang and the edges of his ribbed eyes made it clear that it was even hard for him to even think about. GwanJae averted his gaze but his look still remained vague as if he wanted to take a one last look behind him.
“He… he wasn’t a Gagseog. But he was still able to save people’s’ lives…”
GwanJae fell quiet. He can’t control his voice as it continued to shake with just knowing that he might be his grandson. He wasn’t a Gagseog but he possessed a great talent to the point that people would consider him as one.
He was just a normal person but he just couldn’t stand around a the sight of monsters’ indiscriminate slaughter towards other people. That’s why he saved everyone.
He saved a lot of lives with his arrows and like a reckless man of valor, he would rush in and risk his own even if it meant just saving one. GwanJae thought to himself that if it wasn’t for him then he wouldn’t be standing there.
He kept his routine of saving people until the day they were able to fight back and eventually, they were able to kick those monsters out and established peace within the Republic of Korea.
His time with him was short and it was only one week at most. He did his best and fought the monsters for the sake of everyone around him but at some point, he disappeared.
So many of their colleagues was lost as they made sure to destroy the monsters down to their offsprings. They told each other their names and became friends but he can’t somehow shake off the feeling that they would never see each other again by the time they left.
Jaehwang took a ride on GwanJae’s helicopter to Seoul. It was his first time to fly so he was a little nervous but in the end, he had a great time.
“I don’t know if we would be able to find that person once we get back to the formation. However, I know that he could come back to us. The last person that stood in that place was always him.”
“Was there no way to check his ranking?”
“We’re not sure. There’s no systemization in that group. It had become isolated and absorbed away little by little. They decided to leave that piece alone but, they slept and woke up with a lot of dead people. Someone did take up the position but in the end, he still couldn’t even manage to to anything.
“…”
He shook his head without a word, Jaehwang also mentioned something that he learned from school before he swayed his head once again. A lot of people died over the past years, half of their population had even disappeared.
“Monsters ate our people along with everything that they had, leaving them with barely anything left. They’re the worst…”
Jaehwang was reminded of something that he had forgotten.
“Do you know what it had inside?”
He continued to talk as his memory came back.
“Didn’t his name come up with a pitch-black wooden tag and a bucket?”
Jaehwang started to think. The important thing that they were looking for had appeared. He thought that maybe it should be that one he should be looking for all this time but something felt strange about it.
“About the arrows… do you have anything left?”
GwanJae shook his head at Jaehwang’s question.
“These special arrows were all over the place when he was around but now, there was nothing left. They did try looking around some of his hunting spots but they still found nothing, they recovered nothing.”
“I see.”
He was all out of energy and he felt that only half of him wanted to know more details about it.
“The name that was written on the black tag must have not been his name…”
“Yes. It must have been my grandfather’s name.”
He nodded as Jaehwang sunk himself in thought at his seat inside the helicopter. He almost forgot about it all but then when he remembered him, things had become a little more complicated. His grandfather weren’t into martial arts but sometimes, he just couldn’t get enough of it. He also said something about his grandfather about everything that would happen.
“Before the family’s property was set, he started acting strange… and my father…”
His father resents his grandfather. Although it didn’t turn out to be that serious, his grandmother started to get sick when his grandfather disappeared. He was left alone as an orphan, he didn’t possess any heirlooms and he event felt ashamed that he wasn’t able to learn martial arts. That became the reason why he drowned himself in alcohol.
From generation to generation, there was a dull brass bucket with everything in it and after his grandfather disappeared they, so did all the heirlooms that it contained.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know that we would find it so late like this.”
GwanJae said but Jaeheang couldn’t hear him as he continued to keep his eyes shut.
Dudududu…
The helicopter was huge and it had a lot of space in its center and it soon landed on top of a field. They were greeted by 40 elderly men and women that lined up wearing modernized hanbok outfits. They looked to be the same age as GwanJae and the one standing on the front gave a them a bow.
“Welcome back, sir.”
“Thank you. Was everything okay here?”
“Yes, everything was good. The same as always. Is that person standing next to you related to you?”
“It seems so.”
“Understood, then I would be attending to him.”
“Okay.”
It wasn’t like a welcome greeting that he expected. GwanJae started to walk and all of the lined employees followed behind him. The passed through a ton of giant doors until they reached their destination. Jaehwang found himself standing in front of a mansion and that’s when he turned around and spoke.
“Wait here everyone.”
“Yes, sir.”
GwanJae led Jeahwang into a silver elevator and they both went down to the lowest floor. They arrived, passed by another giant door and they were finally able to walk inside the room.
‘Hero Exquisite.’
They went into a huge tunnel. The sign faced upwards and spul in an oblique helical from and there were noticeable traces of repairs here and there. They continued to walk on until they had found a certain glass covered display.
“Are all of these… momentos?”
“Yes.”
The one meter tall glass case had some items inside. One would not even consider them to be amazing. Most of them had fingerprints, there was a wrinkled letter but besides that, all of the things there were items that one would use in their everyday life. There was a watch, an old modeled smartphone and a worn out gun.
They then walked into a terribly shaped exhibition hall and there they saw a name written on a small bulletin board.
Finding the Lost Piece 1, The end.