Chapter 70: To the Qingcheng Sect-2
Chapter 70: To the Qingcheng Sect-2
Bi Sa-yeong, who had gone ahead to secure an inn at a nearby village, had thoughtfully prepared not only two rooms but also had bathwater heated in advance.
The ladies first went to their own rooms, washed off the grime they had not been able to cleanse in a long time, and came back down with a far more refreshed expression.
Perhaps because they had washed away the accumulated filth, their appearances had become incomparably more beautiful than before.
Even though they had come down wearing baggy borrowed clothes from the inn, they seemed to carry a radiant glow about them.
People seated at other tables were also stealing glances at them, as if unable to tear their eyes away.
"Waaah! I feel like I've finally come back to life! You know that feeling of being reborn?! Thank you so much, you two!"
I smiled back at Jeong-an Sojeo as she gave her thanks with a bright smile and replied.
"I don't mind at all. This was all done by this bastard here."
At my words, the two of them looked at Bi Sa-yeong, but the bastard was already staring toward the inn's kitchen with a sour expression and grumbling, as if he had no interest at all.
"The food's late even though I ordered it earlier. How do they expect to run a business like this?"
The two young ladies couldn't bring themselves to speak to the ill-tempered Bi Sa-yeong.
But even if others didn't, I knew exactly why he was acting like this.
I had caught him red-handed earlier, staring blankly at Jeong-an Sojeo as she came down with that radiant laugh.
And now that she was actually sitting in front of him, he couldn't even meet her eyes and was acting like that.
'What a cute bastard.'
The atmosphere had grown awkward for a moment, but it was only for a moment. As the dishes began to arrive, the young ladies eventually couldn't hold back any longer and had no choice but to set aside their dignity and inhale the food.
In particular, compared to Jeong-yeon, who was still carefully minding her manners, Jeong-an Sojeo was recklessly shoving food into her mouth.
"Wah! Wah! This is really delicious! Young masters, please try some too. Wah! Wah!"
She told us to try it, but because the one who said so ate it all herself, there was no way for us to try it.
Bi Sa-yeong and I stared at her blankly, now for a different reason than before.
Only Jeong-yeon beside her was blushing as if embarrassed by her junior sister-disciple.
Yet even so, she did not stop her own hand, and after a moment, she too eventually began to fully immerse herself in the food.
It must have truly been a difficult time for them.
As I was watching them with slightly pitying eyes, Bi Sa-yeong suddenly got up without a word and went over to the innkeeper.
I asked him with a curious expression.
"What did you go and do?"
"Oh, I had something to ask the owner."
But seeing more food come out a moment later, it seemed the bastard had probably ordered additional dishes.
'This bastard!'
I was a little shocked.
He wasn't originally a guy who lacked consideration, but still, was this caring side of him not too unfamiliar?
'Was this really the power of love?'
I was struck by a sudden sense of self-reflection.
Had I ever done that much for Na So-jeo?
At that moment, a face of another woman, not Na So-jeo, suddenly flashed into my mind.
'Whoa, that startled me.'
'Why did her face suddenly....'
I hurriedly shook my head to erase her face.
'I'm sorry, Na So-jeo.'
We were finally able to have a conversation only after Bi Sa-yeong had once again quietly gotten up and ordered more food.
Perhaps because they had finally filled their stomachs, the two young ladies let out a sigh of contentment with happy faces and only now looked at our faces.
"Haa, we ate so well...."
But as they finally lifted their heads, they seemed to have only just now registered the number of stacked plates.
Seeing the ruined towers of piled plates, Jeong-yeon's face turned pale.
Even Jeong-an Sojeo, who didn't seem like she would care much about such things, wore a flustered expression.
"Ah, I, s-sorry...."
But before they could apologize, Bi Sa-yeong first poked me under the table with his finger.
It seemed to be a signal telling me to say something.
I hurriedly exclaimed.
"Wow! The food here is really delicious! We're sorry! We were too focused on the food with you ladies seated before us. We're the type who don't really notice our surroundings when something tasty is in front of us. Ha-ha-ha! Please be a little understanding. Ah, Sa-yeong. Since this is to celebrate your return from death's door, you can handle paying for this much, right?"
At that, the bastard scoffed and replied.
"Are you joking? There's no way the price of my life is only this much. Proprietor! Please clean all this up and set us another round!"
'Wh-what?!'
I was jolted in surprise at his words.
But the young ladies seemed even more surprised than I was.
The young ladies, who had been watching our antics with wide eyes, were shocked and spoke hurriedly when Bi Sa-yeong said he would order more food.
"Ah, Y-Young master! There is truly no need for you to order more...!"
But Bi Sa-yeong cut her off first and spoke.
"I must apologize to you both. We are such huge eaters that it might seem a bit excessive to your eyes. But! We are still hungry. Are we not?!"
As he said that and jabbed me in the side, I forced a smile and answered him.
"O-of course. This much is just a pre-meal snack."
Actually, I had felt like my stomach was about to burst since a while ago....
It couldn't be helped.
'Yeah. If it's for my friend's sake.'
The two young ladies said nothing more, only bowing their heads and murmuring quietly.
"...Thank you."
"We truly ate well."
And a moment later, the table was once again filled with food as if the legs would break.
The lavish dishes filling the table, each boasting its own glistening aroma....
I felt like I was going to vomit.
Having glanced at the food with a helpless look, I put down my spoon and spoke to the ladies who were watching us with wide eyes.
"If you two young ladies have filled your stomachs, you may go in and rest first."
At that, Bi Sa-yeong quickly chimed in.
"Th-that's right! You'll recover well only if you rest quickly, and only then will you be able to travel the long road again tomorrow, wouldn't you say?! Please, go in first and rest!"
But Jeong-an Sojeo answered with a pure and bright smile on her beautiful face.
"Oh, no matter what, how could we go in first when you two haven't even finished your meal? That would be a breach of etiquette...."
Just as our hearts were rotting away at Jeong-an Sojeo's warm heart, Jeong-yeon hurriedly interjected.
"It is not! Of course it is a breach of etiquette, but as you mentioned earlier, the most important thing for us is to recover our bodies quickly and rescue our senior sister-disciple, right? So, while it is regrettable, we will take our leave from the table first!"
At her words, our expressions instantly brightened and we hastened to respond.
"Ah, of course! You naturally must! Please rest comfortably, young ladies!"
"You don't need to feel sorry in the slightest! We are the type of people who eat endlessly, and slowly at that, so ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha!"
When Jeong-yeon led Jeong-an Sojeo, who still had no idea what was going on, up to the guest rooms on the second floor, we were finally able to let out a deep sigh.
Then, looking at the sumptuous feast before us with steam still rising, I spoke.
"To be honest, I feel like I'm going to throw up just from smelling it. What do we do with all of this?"
At that, the bastard Bi Sa-yeong answered.
"I paid for it, so you should eat it."
'What, you son of a bitch?'
Horrified at hearing this, I looked at the bastard with eyes one would reserve for looking at trash.
Then the bastard avoided my gaze and spoke again quietly.
"...Sorry."
It seemed the path of love was indeed arduous and perilous.
Since even just standing beside him as a friend was this hard.
'Well, I suppose that's why it's so difficult for me to convey my feelings to Na So-jeo even after living twice.'
***
The next morning, the two young ladies showed themselves having recovered almost completely to a lively state.
One couldn't say they were fully recovered, but since the state of our own bodies, suffering from indigestion all night, was similarly poor, our conditions had synchronized, making it rather easier to run together.
At this speed, it seemed we could arrive at Mount Qingcheng if we ran for just one more day.
That evening, we secured another nearby inn.
In terms of time, sleeping outdoors would have been more economical, but our physical condition was so terrible that we absolutely did not want to do that.
My stomach, in particular, was so heavy and sore.
I felt as if I could pour out my very guts if only I could reach the outhouse.
But I couldn't bear to tell the young ladies that we had overeaten so much yesterday that we needed to rest at an inn again today.
So I racked my brain and said this.
"We would arrive at Mount Qingcheng by tomorrow, so today we ought to rest especially well and present a neat appearance. In that sense, it would be best to head to an inn again today. Since Sa-yeong treated us yesterday, I shall treat you today in return. However, I do not have as much coin as Sa-yeong, so we will have to eat rather modestly. My apologies, hahaha!"
At my words, the young ladies simply nodded with apologetic expressions, and Bi Sa-yeong raised his thumb at me where they could not see.
Once we arrived at the inn, while the young ladies washed up, we were finally able to properly empty our stomachs.
After a full day, my body finally felt light again.
After that, having ordered a modest meal unlike the day before, we were at last able to share a conversation worthy of the name.
It was also at this time that we properly told them about our affiliation.
At first, I had been wary of the Murim Alliance and had not mentioned it, but after observing them, the young ladies did not seem to harbor particularly warm feelings toward the Alliance either.
Moreover, after spending time together, I now felt we could trust them to some degree, and so I had resolved to properly tell them our affiliation and names.
Only then, upon hearing our affiliation for the first time, the young ladies asked with astonished faces.
"You are both from the Flying Dragon Squad?!"
"Yes, we are members of the Flying Dragon Thirteen Squads."
"Waaah! I have never met anyone from the Flying Dragon Squad before. So you came all the way here pursuing Blood Cult members?! You are truly amazing!"
"No, that is not quite right. The Flying Dragon Squad is merely something like a militia unit that fights against the Blood Cult. We are not such remarkable people."
"The fact that you step forward like a militia, risking your lives to do such things, is what makes you even more remarkable!"
At that moment, Jeongyeon Sojeo suddenly asked with a startled expression, as if something had just occurred to her.
"Now that I think of it, Seonwoo Jin and Bi Sa-yeong of the Flying Dragon Squad... I believe I have heard those two names before! Could you two be the Black Wolf of the Soaring Sky, Seonwoo Jin, and the Swift Wind Flying Falcon, Bi Sa-yeong daehyeop?"
At her words, we exchanged glances with awkward expressions and answered.
"We have indeed been undeservedly granted such aliases, but we are by no means daehyeop."
But Jeongyeon Sojeo covered her mouth with her hand, looking genuinely shocked.
"Good heavens!"
At that, Jeong-an Sojeo, who seemed not to have heard of us, asked her with curious eyes.
"Why? Are they famous?"
To that question, Jeongyeon Sojeo answered with uncharacteristically excited eyes.
"Of course! Not long ago, when the Black Chamber, one of the Guizhou Eight Families, coveted Saengsagwoe-ui's spirit pill and kidnapped and threatened his children, it was just the three of them who stood against them and rescued Saengsagwoe-ui and his children. Because of that incident, the Black Chamber ultimately fell to ruin."
"Ehh?! Woaaah!"
'She knew about it in way more detail than I expected.'
The feeling of listening to someone talk about us right in front of our faces was unbearably embarrassing.
Besides, saying it like that made it sound almost as though we had brought down the Black Chamber ourselves, did it not?
"Ah, well, the one who brought down the Black Chamber was not us but our senior, the Seductive Ghost Son Eun-sang."
"That is correct. It is all groundless rumor. Though it shames me to say it, we merely looted an empty house and then did nothing but run away the whole time, ahaha!"
At that, Jeongyeon Sojeo smiled faintly and asked us.
"Then would it also be groundless rumor that Seonwoo Jin gongja killed the Black Chamber's peak-level expert, Black Killing Dart Dong Paegyeong, or that Bi Sa-yeong gongja demonstrated the Water Surface Flying movement technique? And above all, that you stepped forward of your own will and rescued Saengsagwoe-ui and his children?"
"Pardon? Ah, well, those things are true, but. They were only possible because we were fortunate enough to..."
"Well, I did use something similar to that movement technique, but that is hardly anything so impressive..."
As we stammered out excuses with mortified faces, Jeong-an Sojeo laughed brightly and said.
"You two are truly amazing! So besides Hwa Sahyeong, such true heroes really do exist in the martial world after all!"
'Ugh, true heroes.'
It was so embarrassing I wanted to burrow into the ground and disappear.
Bi Sa-yeong convulsively cried out and changed the subject.
"Th-that! Could you tell us more about this Hwa Sahyeong person?! I am most curious as to what kind of person he is!"
He was the type who was pathologically mortified by receiving praise, so he must have been thinking quite desperately.
At that, the two of them let out a "Pfft!" of laughter and, as if understanding, began telling us about Hwa Young-bin the Red Sunset Divine Sword.
The one who began speaking first was, again, Jeong-an Sojeo.
With a dreamy, maiden-like gaze, pressing her two hands together tightly, she opened her mouth.
"That person is the most wonderful hero in the world! He saved countless Ami Sect disciples from the lust demons. Numerous women confessed their affections to him, but he never once accepted. They say it is because he already has a destined Jeong-in within his heart, one he will spend his entire life with."
It was something I had not considered before, but the Ami Sect, being a sect of women, was naturally a place that would inevitably become a target for countless villains if it lacked strength.
Thus, the lives of the Ami Sect disciples, whose strength had sharply declined after the Great Blood War, must have been far from easy.
Hwa Young-bin the Red Sunset Divine Sword seemed to have served the Ami Sect most devotedly in that regard all the while.
The more I listened to the story, the more he seemed like a man out of a legend rather than reality.
Watching Bi Sa-yeong gaze at Jeong-an Sojeo with bitter eyes as she spoke about Hwa Yeong-bin with a dreamy look was, though I should not say this, quite entertaining.
If it had been just the two of us, I could have teased him about it for days, so it was a little regrettable that the young ladies were with us.
It was then.
A middle-aged man, caked all over in dust as if he had traveled a long way, cautiously approached and addressed us.
"Excuse me, are you perhaps martial artists?"
We looked at the man with puzzled expressions.
For a man who appeared to be an ordinary commoner to speak to us was an exceedingly rare occurrence.
To ordinary folk, martial artists were inevitably fearsome beings to a great degree.
No matter how they appeared on the outside, in truth they were like wild beasts who might do anything, and who could do anything.
That was how ordinary people viewed martial artists.
So it was virtually unheard of for commoners who had not learned martial arts to initiate conversation with martial artists.
I answered first.
"That we are, but what business...?"
At that, the man's cautious expression immediately crumpled, and he collapsed to his knees with a thud.
Then, shedding tears, he began to plead with us.
"Aigo! Noble heroes! Please, I beg you, save my daughter!"
At the sudden situation, we could only be flustered.
We soothed him and sat him down at the table, and he ramblingly explained his circumstances to us.
The story we heard from him was this.
On the night before last, his daughter, who had been sleeping at home, had suddenly vanished.
Aside from the fact that his daughter had disappeared, he said there had been no other traces left behind in her room.
"My daughter was a famous beauty even in the neighboring villages. But she was so modest she hardly even went outside the house! There is absolutely no way that child left on her own!"
So the man had hurriedly asked around the vicinity and had even gone to the authorities, it seemed.
But he had gained nothing of substance, and so he said he was just now on his way back from Guageommun, which was said to be the most respected martial arts school in the area.
Jeongyeon Sojeo asked him.
"And what did they say at Guageommun?"
"At Guageommun... they said that last month, and the month before that as well, similar incidents had occurred in other villages, and that they too had investigated to the best of their ability, but in the end could not find them! Euheuheuk! Sang-a!"
Jeongyeon Sojeo exchanged heavy glances with Jeong-an Sojeo, then began comforting him.
"We are unable to help you right this moment, as we have urgent business at the Mount Qingcheng Sect. But we shall arrive there by tomorrow, and we will certainly inform the people there of this matter."
He did not seem to be fully convinced, but left the inn with no other choice, expressing his gratitude and pleading with us to be sure to tell the Mount Qingcheng Sect.
Once he had gone, Jeong-an Sojeo looked at Jeongyeon Sojeo and said.
"Saje, Lee Geon..."
At that, Jeongyeon Sojeo nodded as well and answered.
"Mm, I think so too."
At their words, we asked what they meant.
The explanation she then gave us was that the current situation was almost identical to the one from before, when they had investigated the case of the missing women together with Lady Jeong-in of Ami Sword Peak.
Upon hearing that, Bi Sa-yeong furrowed his brow and said.
"Then... that means the reach of Jeonghyeopbang, no, of the Blood Cult, extends even to this place."
The two young ladies nodded heavily.