Childhood Friend of the Zenith Novel MTL - Chapter 969

Chapter 969

She was not the ruler of Mangye.
She was my mother.

When Noya claimed it was my mother’s wish, I fell silent, my thoughts stalling.

What was he implying? This wasn’t just wordplay—Noya’s face was solemn.
It took me a moment to fully absorb what he’d said.

‘…My mother asked this of him. Yet she is not the master of Mangye…’

What was that supposed to mean?

Noya had been a general. He had turned traitor in the end.
If his words were also true…

‘Did she ask him to become a general? Or to betray them?’

The phrasing was vague, making it hard to be certain,
but I didn’t linger long before the answer came to me.

No matter the details, his words pointed to one thing.

“You’re saying the current master and my mother aren’t the same person?”

It meant Noya saw the master now and the mother I remembered as separate.

Noya gave a slight nod, as if confirming my words.

“As I said before, the mother you knew is not who she is now.”
“I understand.”

Back then, I had only heard it.
Now, I knew it for a fact.
How could I not, after confronting her directly?

She was not the mother I knew.
Her face, her scent, her voice—
they were all hers.

But she was not my mother.

So what should I call her?

That’s right.

‘Master.’

She was the master.
The one who ruled this land, the sovereign of this world.

She was not my mother—I had to regard her as the master.
Even if it was difficult, I had to.

“…”

A memory flashed before my eyes.
The image of her taking Yarang, claiming her as her daughter.
Damn it. That scene was burned into my mind.

Smack—!

“Hm?”

I slapped my own cheek sharply, and Noya looked at me strangely.

“…Kid, you into that or something?”
“…I hit myself to focus. And what ‘sort of thing’? I don’t have any weird preferences.”

The sting on my cheek brought me back to my senses.
I’d struck myself so hard a trickle of blood ran from my lip.

I wiped it away with the back of my hand and pressed Noya.

“So… what did you mean by my mother’s request?”
“Just what I said. They were your mother’s own words.”
“Then—which was it? The first or the second?”

Did she ask him to become a general?
Or to betray them?

At my question, Noya looked straight at me and answered flatly.

“Both.”
“…Both?”
“Yeah, both.”

Rustle.
Noya stood up as he spoke.

The skewers he’d been eating were already gone.

“Your mother knew what was happening in Mangye. She had to know I was here.”
“…”

I remembered how that ox-headed leader had called Noya an outsider when he first saw him.

“I only stepped in as general because of certain circumstances.”
“…Circumstances? You just decided to play general in another world? Were you that bored?”
“It was peaceful, and I had my reasons—hey, you little—”

Thud—!

“Ugh!”

He smacked me on the head.

“You know who I went through all that for, don’t you? Bored? You ungrateful brat—I nearly broke my old bones for you, and this is the thanks I get?”
“…So what exactly was this ‘hardship’?”

I rubbed my sore head and asked.
What kind of trouble led him to serve as a general here and then flee?

“Hmm.”

Noya looked at me silently.
He seemed to be weighing whether to tell me or not.

His expression said it all.

“Forget the hardship for now.”

So I shifted my approach. If he wouldn’t talk, I’d be the one losing out.

Fine, I could accept that he’d ended up a general somehow.
But—

“What about the betrayal?”

What Yusa said intrigued me more—
that Noya had betrayed them and disappeared.

Noya scratched his cheek.
He looked similar to before, but a little less hesitant this time.

Finally, he answered why he’d betrayed them at my mother’s request.

“You know that sacred tree on Mount Hua, right?”

I recalled it instantly.
That massive ancient tree covering the mountainside.

A divine tree made entirely of plum blossoms.

“Yeah. The one you stole and ran off with, right?”

The very seed Noya had taken and fled with.
Why bring that up now?

But then—

“Taking it was your mother’s request.”

My brow furrowed at his words.

“…Stealing a seed. That was my mother’s idea?”
“That’s right.”
“Why…?”
“Why else? She told me to, so I did.”
“…”

Because she told him to steal it.
The sheer absurdity left me speechless.

Noticing my stunned look, Noya chuckled.
This guy…

“It was necessary. For her goal, for what I had to do, and even for you.”

Luckily, he seemed to be joking—he continued explaining.
But the more he spoke, the more my eyes narrowed.

“Her goal? What goal?”

What kind of goal would make my mother ask him to steal something like that?
And beyond that—

‘If she was different back then, what changed her?’

If she hadn’t always been this way,
something must have happened to make her what she is now.

As I wondered aloud,
Noya looked at me calmly and said,

“Kid.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know how many sacred trees exist in Mangye?”
“…No.”
“Four, as far as anyone knows. The same number as the generals.”

Noya pointed at the ground.

“There’s one in Yahwol, where Yusa rules. And then—”

He pointed north.

“Another in the mountains where that brute, the leader, lives.”

Then, west.

“One more where that insufferable crow stands guard. And the last was on Mount Hua.”
“…What about Yarang?”
“Well, since I took that tree and ran, you could say the one from Mount Hua is hers now.”
“Shouldn’t that be—”</ref>Shouldn’t that be unacceptable?</ref>

I was about to say it, but Noya cut me off.

“What matters is this: while four sacred trees are known, there’s actually one more.”
“What?”

Another tree existed.

Before I could process it, Noya lifted a finger and pointed upward.

“Up there. One more, called the heart of Mangye.”

I looked up at his words.

The sky was burning crimson as the sun set,
casting a dreamlike light across the horizon.

But I saw only that twilight.
The tree Noya mentioned was nowhere in sight.

“You think you can see it just by looking? You can’t. That’s why it’s a secret.”
“…”
“Then why point at it?”

I stared at him, bewildered, but Noya just clicked his tongue.

“Anyway, what matters isn’t the tree itself—it’s your mother’s condition due to the distortion.”
“Distortion?”
“The generals and sacred trees are meant to be in balance. If even one tree is moved from its place, the stability of Mangye is broken. The energy in the air changes because the set numbers are off.”
“…!”

My eyes widened.
The energy in the air—his words struck me.

‘…So that’s why?’

I’d felt it the moment I arrived here.
The energy here was far denser than in Zhongyuan.

I’d wondered why it was so different.

‘…And it’s because a rule was broken?’

Noya’s answer confirmed it.
An abnormality caused by disrupting a fixed rule.

That was how he explained the current situation.

‘If moving one sacred tree could cause this…’

This was no small matter.
Then—

“…Why is my mother—no, why isn’t the master doing anything?”

It was strange. The master knew about this, yet she hadn’t acted.

Even if Yarang’s actions were meant to address it,
too many things didn’t add up.

“It’s not that she isn’t acting.”

Noya corrected me immediately.

“It’s that she can’t.”
“Can’t? But she was just here earlier.”

I’d seen her with my own eyes.
What was he talking about?
I didn’t understand, so I asked again.

“You think she came down here physically?”
“…Then what?”
“Tsk, tsk. Do you have any idea how overwhelming the master’s presence is? If she descended fully, this whole area would be ruined. At most, she formed a temporary body and sent a sliver of her consciousness into it.”

Noya’s gaze swept over the surroundings.
The streets of Yahwol were still full of people.

“Besides—”

His eyes narrowed slightly as he turned back to me.

“If she had come down in earnest, do you think your little tricks would’ve worked on her?”
“…”
“She limited that body to reduce the damage. She even used a spirit beast to restrain herself—that’s the only reason you survived. Otherwise—”

Poke.

Noya’s finger jabbed my forehead.

“Your head would’ve been gone long ago.”
“…”
“Try to understand how reckless you were.”

I rubbed my forehead and bit my lip.

“Then this makes even less sense. If the sacred trees are this important, and if they can be found, why isn’t she doing something?”

She had the power, yet she wasn’t acting.
Could that really be called can’t?

“If it were just one anomaly, sure.”
“Huh?”
“If only one sacred tree was missing, it wouldn’t be a big deal. But the crisis in Mangye is much worse.”
“…What do you mean?”
“I told you last time—if your mother rules the heavens, there’s also someone governing the deepest part of the underground here.”

At Noya’s words, an image surfaced in my mind.

A being called Kurung,
but one that must not be named.

“…The Abyssal Pit?”
“Correct.”

The ruler of the Abyssal Pit.

The one who controlled the deepest darkness of Mangye.

‘The source of demonic beasts, wasn’t it?’

The entity that contained all that could not return to Mangye.
The one that managed the creatures emerging from the Magyeong Gate, the monsters known as demonic beasts.

“That being was supposed to stay underground, maintaining order. Remember where it is now?”
“…It’s in Mount Hua.”
“Exactly.”

It had risen to the surface and vanished.
That meant the entire underground of Mangye was in chaos.
And my mother—she was using all her strength to suppress it.

“So finding the sacred trees isn’t the priority?”
“Right.”

Noya nodded.

The disappearance of the sacred trees was already serious.
But the real catastrophe was that another pillar had vanished.

That meant the master of Mangye, my mother, was forced to handle that, too.

“Her true body is tied down containing that crisis. If she leaves her post even for a moment, Mangye falls.”
“…So she can’t go searching for the sacred trees?”

“Originally, no one imagined the Abyssal Pit could disappear.
There was no plan for this.”

“But if it’s this serious… why wasn’t anything prepared?”

“Because it wasn’t needed.”

Noya gave me a knowing look.

“In Mangye, nothing moves without her permission.
Not even the Abyssal Pit, despite ruling separately.”

That’s why no one ever prepared for it.
It was simply impossible.

At his words, I followed up immediately.

“Then…”

If nothing in Mangye could move without her permission—

But the Abyssal Pit had moved.
It hadn’t just moved—it had settled under Mount Hua’s sacred tree.

And that sacred tree had been taken by Noya—at my mother’s request.

That disruption had shattered the balance.
But even that was something my mother had wanted.

Putting it all together,
then—

“…Did my mother want Kurung to leave its domain and go there?”

Even the Abyssal Pit’s actions—
Were they part of her plan?

As I reached that conclusion,

“Heh.”

Noya grinned at me.

“Not bad, kid. Not bad at all.”