The Demon's Wager
“I don’t know how you might take this.”
Mara Jin gestured idly at the empty air.
“I—or more precisely, we—don’t particularly care for silence. We don’t care for darkness either. And above all else…”
He was shorter than me. The short-haired man swept his yellow eyes over me from head to toe.
“Without something to drink while talking, my mouth simply refuses to work. It’s like gambling without liquor. Ah, I do love gambling. It’s the one pastime where you can watch the desires of the human throng laid bare.”
“…Let’s change venues.”
We stepped out into the night streets and walked side by side. Even at this late hour the thoroughfare blazed like a city that never slept. Lanterns burned bright on every side; drunken voices rose in raucous laughter and argument.
Sizzle, sizzle…
On one side, skewers of every kind of meat and fruit turned over charcoal. Elsewhere, sliced fruit was arranged on plates for sale. Sugar-glazed pastries were being hawked from another stall. People haggled loudly over cheap trinkets.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“The sight of people living with everything they have. I love watching humans race about, driven by their own desires.”
He produced a coin from his robes, bought a sugar candy from a vendor, and spun it between his fingers.
“The one who made this, the one who sells it—each of them is giving their all in their own life. Even right now. Aren’t they? For profit. For desire.”
…
Crunching the candy, he looked at me.
“Young Master, you’ve been wound tight as a bowstring ever since you laid eyes on me.”
“You’re imagining things.”
Creak.
We pushed open the door of a tavern and went inside. We took a worn wooden table in a corner. Late as the hour was, nearly every seat was filled. Drunkards nursed cheap side dishes and traded stories over their cups.
A waiter approached.
“What can I get you?”
“Something strong. Anything will do. And one large cup as well.”
Mara Jin ordered. The waiter glanced at me.
“And for you, sir?”
“Milk.”
“…Milk?”
I met Mara Jin’s gaze.
“I can’t very well drink plain water in front of a man who’s drinking, so I’ll settle for that.”
“Ah… yes.”
The waiter withdrew and returned with cups, a bottle of liquor, and a jug of milk. Mara Jin blinked his yellow eyes.
“I’ve shared drinks with any number of martial artists, but you’re the first to sit across from me and drink milk.”
“Not long ago some fool who claimed a man who didn’t drink wasn’t a real man had his skull split open.”
I poured the white milk into my cup. Mara Jin chuckled as he filled his own cup to the brim. He rummaged in his robes, produced something, and let a few drops fall into the clear liquor. Instantly the liquid turned the color of blood.
I stared at it and muttered, “Red is in poor taste.”
“Pomegranate juice. I rather like the flavor. More than that, I simply won’t drink anything that isn’t red.”
We did not clink glasses. Each of us simply raised his cup and sipped.
“Young Master Moyong Bi.”
“I’m listening.”
Mara Jin’s eyes, cup still at his lips, remained fixed on me.
“Do you want to die?”
…
A plate of dumplings was set between us as a side dish.
“You’ve lost your fear.”
“I did my best.”
…
Mara Jin picked up a dumpling and chewed. Meat juices dripped from his working lips. He did not wipe them away; he simply rolled his yellow eyes.
“I know Moyong Bi. You did your best? When someone like you says that, do you really think I’ll answer, ‘Ah, is that so?’”
…
“You seem to lack any grasp of reality. Your greed for the Patcheon Hyeolma Gunrimbo, or the fact that I hold your legs as collateral—”
Bang!
“Wahaha! Why’s the atmosphere so damn gloomy in here? What, a couple of young men having a lovers’ quarrel without even a woman around? Hahahaha!”
A red-nosed man guffawed.
“Ugh, I’m drunk! Mixing fruit juice into your liquor? Can I have some too?! Mixing stuff like a girl!”
He snatched Mara Jin’s cup and drained it in greedy gulps. Red liquid ran down the corner of his mouth.
“Kyaaa! Oh, that’s good! Hey. This big brother acknowledges you. I ought to drink like this myself. What’d you put in it? Ah, these dumplings look tasty too. I’ll take one. You’re not going to get petty about a man eating a dumpling, are you?”
With stained hands he roughly seized a dumpling and shoved it into his mouth. Even through the uproar, Mara Jin and I never broke eye contact. The drunkard ate like a man possessed; when he received no reaction at all he suddenly looked flustered.
“Wh-what’s with these guys? Frozen solid? Why no reaction—”
Mara Jin picked up his chopsticks.
Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting.
A clear, pure note rang out four times as he tapped the surface of the liquor cup.
—And the entire world stopped.
Mara Jin wiped both palms down his face and leaned back in his chair.
“Ah… seriously.”
He buried his face in his hands and muttered, “These mortals… making me angry for the first time in ages.”
He rubbed his eyes roughly, as if trying to tear them open.
“Young Master Moyong Bi. Do you know why humans never get angry at ants?”
“I’ve never had reason to think about it, so I don’t know.”
“Simple. There are many reasons, but one of them is that they’re so insignificant killing them is no trouble at all.”
Thud.
The chopsticks punched straight through the drunkard’s temple. The man showed no reaction. Everything remained frozen. It was a thing beyond common sense—something that did not belong to the world I lived in. Yet I was not surprised. I had known it instinctively from the moment I first entered Maseonrim: the being sitting before me, at least, was absolutely not human.
Mara Jin slung an arm around the drunkard’s shoulders.
“But now this ant bastard is telling me to go ahead and gut him without knowing his place. What do you think I should do? Just stomp him flat? Or show a little mercy? Want to know what’s even more infuriating? This ant actually knows me well. He knows that if this existence says ‘gut him,’ he’ll really get gutted. And yet—”
Ha. Mara Jin laughed as though the whole thing were too absurd for words.
“He still tells me to gut him. Wow. Truly an amazing crazy bastard. This guy. There’s a reason the Heavenly Blood Demon took an interest. The only human I ever acknowledged was second to none when it came to madness, and birds of a feather flock together, don’t they?”
I lifted my milk cup and took a sip. The sweet-bitter liquid slid down my throat. Mara Jin’s cat-like yellow eyes now burned with a fiery intensity as they locked on me.
“I’ll play along with your tune one more time. Yes. This is for the sake of even greater amusement.”
He brought his face right up to mine and murmured like a demon wreathed in hellfire.
“I’m not the kind of idiot who falls for a provocation right under his nose and overturns the entire board. If I were, I could never have circled around you humans for so long, slipping the surveillance of those Daera Immortals.”
“You said you like gambling.”
Mara Jin looked puzzled. I set my milk cup down.
“Mara Jin, if you’re so clever, instead of a gamble that stakes at most one man’s two legs, how about a wager with much bigger stakes?”
…
I dropped every last honorific. The masks of mutual observation had long since been smashed to pieces. I glared into his yellow eyes with my own red ones glittering.
“What else? You know it too. The shitty situation spinning around me. Even a newborn would understand that what’s coming is no small matter. It’s not just one fucked-up mess tangled up—there are at least two or more overlapping that I can feel right now.”
“…What are you trying to say.”
Mara Jin’s voice had changed. I spoke.
“You wanted offerings, right? Of course you did. You’re the fiend whose mouth split open with joy when he received the corpses of those Blood Cult bastards who barely numbered a hundred.”
“You bastard.”
I did not flinch from the gaze he thrust at me.
“Still don’t understand what I’m saying?”
I brought my face right up against his.
“Stop testing the waters and invest everything in me boldly, you son of a bitch. Then those mere hundred? No. Every last bastard who dies by my hand from now on—I won’t care whether you take them all or not.”
…!
“If you claim to stand higher than humans, can’t you see it with those eyes of yours?”
I poured explosive light from my eyes that refused to yield to his yellow glare.
“Can’t you see the path of Asura that will inevitably be packed with the corpses I’ll stake for you? Even a human like me can tell how thoroughly shitty my life is going to be—you don’t know? If your vision is broader than an ant-level existence like mine, you should feel it even more keenly. If you don’t even have the confidence to invest, stop harassing me and get the hell out of my sight.”
In a single flash, countless expressions raced across Mara Jin’s face—too fast to follow.
Tap-tap-tap.
Mara Jin rolled his fingers across the tabletop.
Da-da-da-dak, da-da-da-dak…
The regular sound was the only noise that rang through the stopped world. Mara Jin stuck out his tongue and cleaned his teeth.
“First time since the Heavenly Blood Demon.”
His voice had returned to its usual tone.
“Getting excited over a human, that is.”
Mara Jin rose, dusting off his seat.
“Truth be told, I was planning to cut off at least your two legs and take them. But as you say, I’ll let that slide.”
…
“And investment? Regarding investment, I’ll decide after watching how well you weather the next storm. My investments are a little different. If they fail, I take some damage myself. But what you said does pique my interest a bit. So…”
He waved his fingers through the air.
“There’ll be quite a few corpses. It would sting a little if other bastards carted them off. Definitely.”
“What do you mean by ‘storm’?”
Mara Jin blinked his yellow eyes and smiled.
“The Tugwi that will provide the root cause of your death is approaching. Will you manage to survive this time as well?”
He pointed with one finger. The direction was the one that led to Cheonsubaekryeonsa.
“The moment you step through that gate, everything will begin. Brace yourself. And this is a small reward for giving me one of the freshest experiences even in my eons of life—I recommend resting well for another day or so here. Who knows when you’ll next get the chance.”
“I was planning to anyway.”
Mara Jin rose with a faint smirk. He placed the chair he had been sitting on near the drunkard’s backside, then gently adjusted the man’s arm. When he had finished the little arrangement, he raised the liquor cup high.
“I’ll think positively about your proposal, so you give it everything you’ve got and try to survive this time. Then I’ll come find you again.”
His hand released the cup.
Crash!
The liquor cup struck the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces.
—With that as the signal, the world began to move once more.
“Uh… uhh?”
With a short groan the drunkard collapsed into a sitting position. A chair was already waiting beneath him. He plopped into it, slumped forward, and pillowed his head on his folded arm. He died looking for all the world as though he had simply fallen asleep face-down on the table.
The tavern remained as noisy and carefree as if nothing at all had happened.
“Tugwi is coming, is it…”
I stared for a long while at the empty seat where a demon had sat and then vanished. I raised my cup, drained every last drop, and set it down. The candle flame on the table reflected in my pupils and flickered.
“An unavoidable death is approaching, is that it?”