132 – The Murim Nymph # 2
Tyrenol, the Nymph of Poison.
Was it really so strange to think that a nymph had lived in China back in the days of the Ming Dynasty? Considering that Illinoi had once lived in the Americas, the idea that some nymph had wandered China centuries ago didn't seem odd at all.
"Tyrenol…. Nymphs whose names end in '-ol' are, in all likelihood, winter-born nymphs…! It is certain that she is a winter nymph, this Oinoi declares…! To think there was another nymph sister in this world all along…! Where she might be, this Oinoi is terribly, terribly curious, it declares…!"
Oinoi seemed to have completely forgotten why she'd come to the health center in the first place. She practically vibrated with excitement at the thought of meeting another nymph sister — while Aunt Dang Young-young puffed on her long pipe and spoke with evident regret.
"The story of Rimbu is written in our family's secret manual. But even if I wanted to tell you more, I can't. I was exiled from the clan long ago, you see. I broke a taboo — I fell in love with and married a foreigner."
She had a past like that?
It was a startling revelation.
"Our Mr. So Kang-ho — my husband — was a exchange student back then. And I, who was in middle school at the time, shared with him a free and passionate love, the kind that burns. Would you like to hear about it? Hmm?"
"This Oinoi is allergic to flashbacks, it declares…! The moment this Oinoi hears a flashback, it melts away entirely, it declares…! Cease the flashback at once, it declares…!"
"And here it was such a dramatic, cinematic story too…." Aunt Dang Young-young looked genuinely crestfallen.
Anyway.
The aunt let out a long, heavy sigh.
"I cut ties with my country and my family that day and came to Korea. But So-hee… she's been working in China all this time, for my sake. It's about her work, Ildo. Could you help her a little? Hmm?"
Shk-.
The aunt seized my hand.
"You'll help me, won't you? Help So-hee? You will?"
How exactly was I supposed to help China's S-Rank hunter? I couldn't make heads or tails of it. And through it all, the aunt kept talking, tears beading at the corners of her eyes.
"You were the only child who ever came to our So-hee's birthday party! To tell you the truth, I've had my eye on you as a son-in-law since way back, Ildo! Please, I'm begging you — help my So-hee!"
I was the kind of person who generally helped out when someone was in trouble. Not out of any particular goodness of heart, mind you, and certainly not because I was a busybody — it was just that ignoring a plea for help left an uncomfortable knot in my chest that made sleep impossible.
And Aunt Dang Young-young of this health center was, on top of everything, a long-time acquaintance of mine. If she was begging for help like this and I just brushed her off, it would gnaw at me for a month — no, at minimum several years.
"Is So-hee… going through something bad? And how exactly am I supposed to help?"
"So it failed, then? Is this it?"
The Sect Master of the Black Snake Sect, So So-hee, bowed her head. And around her stood a crowd of people whose faces were shadowed with darkness.
"Sommelier. Pour me another bowl of that carbonara, would you?"
"I'll have an americano."
"Elder! You were supposed to jump at that spot! Aigoo, you're dead! You'll have to play the next round!"
"Smartphone games these days really are difficult."
They were the Alliance. You could call it a federation that had been handed down since ancient times. They were an institution. They were an ideology. The Murim Alliance — the united front of China's awakeners.
As the chaotic atmosphere of the group, gathered in one place for the first time in ages, finally settled, a man with a snow-white beard spoke.
"Xiao. Your Alliance Leader shall ask once more. You retreated from the typhoon having gained no benefit whatsoever — indeed, with your Black Paths wounded. Is the content of this report true?"
"It is."
Shk-.
Xiaoxiao — So So-hee — bowed her head deeply. With her before them, the crowd began to murmur.
"Are we seriously expected to believe that? There's clearly something being left out."
"This is why you can't trust the Tang Clan. If we'd made the beloved disciple of our own Shaolin an S-Rank awakener instead—"
"Please, that one never even reached the finals of the Dragon-Phoenix Summit. It was Albrecht of our Kunlun who made it all the way to the finals—"
"That one was a foreigner pure and simple! We gave our Alliance's one and only Millennial Earth Milk to a foreigner — what if he'd run off back to his home country with it!"
The murmuring voices were thick with resentment, jealousy, and squabbling. The one who silenced it all was the Alliance Leader himself.
Shk-.
When the Leader raised his hand, the shadowed figures fell silent, one by one. And in that hush, he asked his question.
"Xiao. According to the rumors reaching us, you entered that treacherous rift to carry out your operation, encountered a certain man along the way, and were thrown into considerable disarray. Is that also false?"
"It is false. Inside that rift there was no one but our Black Snake Sect."
"Xiao. You rejected every one of the fiancés we appointed after careful deliberation. The heir of the Namgung Clan, the heir of the Jegal Clan, the final gate-disciple of Mount Hua — did you not refuse them all?"
"……."
"We suspected there was already a man who held your heart. Xiao — no, So-hee. I shall ask you once more. Have you truly had no contact with any man whatsoever?"
Just as So So-hee pressed her lips together—
Tok, tok. Someone appeared in their midst, the sound of high heels clicking on the floor.
She was a woman dressed in a violet qipao. In her hand she held a folding fan, and the phoenix embroidered upon it glittered in gold.
Dang So-hae, the Poison Bee. Once hailed as the Phoenix of the 21st-century Tang Clan — a genius female martial artist. An A-Rank awakener, she looked at So So-hee and let out a disdainful sniff.
"This is what happens when you entrust a mission to an outsider. You disgrace of the Tang Clan! You're the daughter of a traitor who ran off and married a man from foreign soil, aren't you?"
Dang So-hae could not stand So So-hee.
First, because So So-hee was, in truth, half Korean.
'Her surname isn't even Tang — it's So! Why is someone like her being treated as a member of the Tang family?!'
And second — the person responsible for downgrading her own title from Phoenix to Bee was sitting right there. So So-hee herself.
'The Millennial Earth Milk, the divine treasure said to hold the mysteries of antiquity. The Dragon-Phoenix Summit where it was offered as the championship prize — the one who was supposed to enter it was me, Dang So-hae! It was supposed to be mine!'
The Dragon-Phoenix Summit — the grand tournament where the foremost young disciples of the great Murim families and the orthodox sects were gathered in one place to cross blades. So So-hee had won it, claimed the Millennial Earth Milk, and become the continent's sole S-Rank hunter.
Dang So-hae could not stomach the fact.
"Esteemed elders of the Alliance. And you, revered Alliance Leader. I, Dang So-hae, request that this mission be entrusted to me. If I succeed in capturing that man — Ha Ildo — then grant me the Millennial Earth Milk."
The Millennial Earth Milk. A legendary ditch water said to have absorbed the essence of the earth over untold ages. Some even said it was the water a mystical fairy had washed her hands in. Drink it, and your internal energy — your mana, as it was called these days — would be set in order at a stroke, letting you transcend your current realm entirely. A divine treasure on par with the Millennial Earth Milk itself. That this story, whispered down only to the elders, was known to Dang So-hae left them flustered — but the Alliance Leader simply laughed heartily.
"Ha Ildo. The man who raises a dog-squirrel, a honey ant, an auspicious spider, and an owl like a phoenix, yes? A true immortal of beast-taming. Very good — tell me more."
"With pleasure. If I succeed in bringing that man in, then the secret manual stolen by the traitor will be reclaimed by our Tang Clan, to be kept in our possession. We have an understanding?"
The Tang Clan Secret Manual.
A national-treasure-grade relic said to have been penned personally by the Grand Patriarch Tyrenol, ages ago. It had vanished roughly twenty years ago, and everyone had been searching for it — Dang So-hae included.
'If only that falls into my hands…!'
"I married a Korean and was cast out of my clan. Even so, I lived well enough. But then at some point I fell ill — and that illness could only be cured by the medicine of the Tang Clan…."
So So-hee, the aunt explained, had gone to China to obtain that medicine and become one of the Tang Clan. The reason So So-hee was still acting as an awakener of China to this day was that she remained indebted for that very medicine.
"I've already lived as long as anyone could wish. I don't need to take the medicine anymore. Which is why I want to set So-hee's life free now. If you succeed in bringing her safely back to Korea…."
Shk-.
Aunt Dang Young-young held out a small piece of paper. It looked like a very old, worn book.
"This is the secret manual I stole from the clan when I left all those years ago. In a world as twisted as this one, with your mana running as full as it does, you should be able to make use of it. I give it to you."
The aunt pressed the old book into my hands.
The Tang Clan Secret Manual.
I remembered hearing that China's awakeners would give anything to get their hands on a "secret manual." There were rumors that reading and following one could raise an awakener's rank — though whether it was actually true had always been hotly debated.
"This is, in truth, a most magnificent tome, it declares…! For some reason, this Oinoi senses the aura of a nymph from this book, it declares…! It is certainly a book written by a nymph, this Oinoi declares…!"
Seeing Oinoi take such a keen interest in the volume, it seemed certain the book was genuinely precious in one way or another.
"More importantly, this Oinoi has come to obtain herbs, it declares…! If such herbs as these exist here, this Oinoi demands you hand them over, it declares…!"
"Herbs, is it? Now let's see—"
While Oinoi and the aunt chattered about herbs, shk- — I quietly flipped the book open.
And written on the page was…
"It's blank."
"That's right. The method for reading that book has been passed down only to the head of the Tang Clan. And I left the family before it was ever taught to me."
A mysterious book, indeed. And a thoroughly tantalizing story, too.
If this secret manual could raise my own abilities? I might step beyond legend itself and become the very summit of the hunter world.
But what exactly was I supposed to do about it?
"So all I need to do is bring So-hee back here?"
"That's right. But it won't be simple. They say the Alliance these days has smashed even the Communist Party to pieces and rules the continent by the law of strength alone. If you want to persuade them, you'll have to subjugate them with overwhelming power."
In other words, a fight was unavoidable.
Then the aunt asked me,
"You said you'd met So-hee before, didn't you? In that case, their side may well approach you first before long. They might even send you a formal invitation. They're a rather arrogant lot, you see."
And so I returned home, more or less with that hanging over my head.
Oinoi was disappointed.
"The Typhoon Flower this Oinoi seeks was not here, it declares…! However, this Oinoi has heard the good news that it may be growing in the Rimbu Forest of Sichuan province on the continent, it declares…!"
—Hoo, hoo-.
Kalinoi was there to greet me as I returned home. Clutched in her beak was a single letter.
The paper was crimson, with a dragon and a phoenix embroidered in gold thread — a letter of unmistakably antique style. And on it was written: