The Lives of All Ordinary People
After Jin Seongun left the Wuhan Bank Yichang Branch, Sama Hui pressured the branch manager until he wrung out everything he knew about the man.
So the branch manager didn't open his mouth easily at first — fitting, for something that calls itself a bank.
But how could a mere keeper of one branch hold out against the name of the Sama Clan to the very end?
Jin Seongun. He ran the Seongun Inn in Yichang, and he was the single largest depositor at the Wuhan Bank's Yichang branch. Word was, his inn was the only establishment in the entire country — Sichuan's Deyang aside — where one could drink Yanghe Daqu.
Sama Hui came to a conclusion. The man was no ordinary waiter.
He possessed martial skill enough to tear apart a portion of a formation, for one thing, and even when Sama Hui — a man called a Formation Dragon — pressed him openly, he hadn't so much as blinked. On top of that, he was rich. However modest a branch it might be, receiving VIP treatment from the Wuhan Bank meant holding wealth that ordinary merchants couldn't even imagine.
There isn't just one suspicious thing about him — there's a dozen.
Sama Hui had a gut feeling that he couldn't simply let this uneasy feeling slide. And so he had come straight to the Seongun Inn.
Which was when something even stranger happened.
The wastrel of the Seomun Clan appeared.
"Seomun Ak?"
As Sama Hui tilted his head, Seomun Ak — his face gone past pale and into an ashen blue — came sprinting over and shouted, "Are you insane, you madman? What the hell do you think you're doing!"
Madman?
Sama Hui blinked for a moment. Surely that wasn't directed at him. But as he was thinking it, Seomun Ak was looking unmistakably straight at him. Sama Hui — and, indeed, the Sword Phoenix Namgung Rin who had come along with him — both wore expressions of pure bewilderment.
Regardless, Seomun Ak kept staring at Sama Hui as though watching a man walk into his own grave.
Seomun Ak knew Jin Seongun's martial prowess. He had seen it with his own eyes during the Sikmugaek incident, and he had heard all about what Jin Seongun had done in Deyang recently. Through Seomun Ak's eyes, Sama Hui's behavior right now looked about as dangerously reckless as shoving one's entire head into a crocodile's mouth.
Formation Dragon or Sword Phoenix, it makes no difference.
Whether they were hailed as the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes, the most promising rising talents in the world, mattered little to him. His opponent was Jin Seongun — the man who had killed Sikmugaek, a First-Class Public Enemy of the Martial World, and Saryeonggeuk, Vice Alliance Leader of the Thousand Poisons Alliance.
Besides, Jin Seongun was not the type to cut slack for scions of great clans. If he had been, Seomun Ak would never have ended up working in this inn in the first place.
Seomun Ak stole a glance at Jin Seongun. The good news was that Jin Seongun himself still seemed to have no particular thoughts on the matter. But Seomun Ak couldn't afford to relax — not with the voice that happened to drift out from inside the inn.
"Just let him in. I've got something to ask him."
It was Seo Yugyeom.
Seomun Ak swallowed hard.
If he meets Cook Seo, this will become a real catastrophe.
A heavy sense of responsibility settled on him. Whatever his personal dislike of Sama Hui, as a member of the orthodox path, he could not allow the Sama and Namgung bloodlines to be snuffed out here, at the Seongun Inn of all places.
"How about you try a different inn? This isn't exactly the only one in Yichang."
At Seomun Ak's suggestion, Sama Hui let out an empty laugh. What's crawled up this idiot's backside? The look in his eyes said exactly that.
"I heard this is the only place that sells Yanghe Daqu."
Of course, that was nothing but a pretext. He had come to observe this strange man Jin Seongun with his own eyes, after all.
"Ah, I'll just buy some for you. Go away."
"Who do you think you are?"
"Me?"
Seomun Ak shut his mouth for a moment and looked at Jin Seongun. Then he looked at the long line of customers stretched out behind Sama Hui, then in turn at Sama Hui — once branded one of the two great wastrels of the orthodox path — and the Sword Phoenix, every bit as beautiful as the Poison Phoenix Tang Soyeon.
Before long, Seomun Ak seemed to come to some decision, and spoke in a voice laced with a sigh.
"...I'm a waiter at this inn."
"What did you say?"
Laughter followed — hahaha, hahaha. Sama Hui laughed with genuine delight, while Namgung Rin stared at Seomun Ak with a baffled expression.
She didn't much care for him. She disliked the way he swaggered around on his family's name and behaved like a wastrel — and, moreover, that family name wasn't, in her eyes, all that impressive to begin with. But the Seomun Ak she knew was hardly a man who would work as a waiter, and even if he did, he certainly wasn't a man who would say so to her face.
His whole air has changed.
He wasn't the Seomun Ak she remembered.
Meanwhile, Sama Hui spoke with a sneer tugging at his lips. "I see. So what other wastrel antics did you get up to this time, that your patriarch sentenced you to such a brutal punishment?"
"Well..."
Seomun Ak's mouth opened and closed a few times. Come to think of it, it wasn't entirely wrong. Yet somehow, displeasure welled up inside him. He could see that Sama Hui regarded the very profession of waiter as beneath contempt.
Only a few months ago, his own face would have worn the same look. The discomfort he felt now was not directed at Sama Hui so much as at himself — a feeling close to self-loathing.
Seomun Ak let out a long breath, looked Sama Hui square in the eye, and said, "In any case, we're not taking you as a customer, so leave."
"What innkeeper on earth refuses guests?" Sama Hui jeered with his characteristic arrogant smile. "Not that you had any intention of waiting in line, did you? At least if you insisted on barging in by dishonest means, I'd have grounds to stop you."
"You? Stop me?"
"Who else would?"
Seomun Ak's eyes, gone cold, fixed on Sama Hui. Sama Hui — and the Sama Clan behind him — was far more than Seomun Ak alone could handle. But he had one source of confidence.
Do they have any idea who the regulars of this inn are?
Hyeon Un, the Wudang elder. Dang Taesan, Grand Elder of the Tang Clan. And even Shin Mok, one of the Three Great Divine Craftsmen of the world. This was the inn they visited every day, and the man they cherished more than anyone else in the world was Jin Seongun. Naturally, Seomun Ak trusted that when it came to anything involving this inn, all three would stand behind him.
When Seomun Ak straightened his chest and glared back instead, the expressions of Sama Hui and Namgung Rin grew only more strange. The Seomun Ak in their memories seemed to have gone off somewhere and died, replaced by a perfect stranger wearing his face.
Before long, a deep smile spread across Sama Hui's lips.
"Is that so?"
His eyes glinted like those of a predator that had found interesting prey. Then Sama Hui continued, "Then I'll simply wait in line. That robs you of any pretext to stop me, doesn't it?"
"That's..."
Seomun Ak looked at Jin Seongun. This inn's owner was Jin Seongun, after all. Sama Hui and Namgung Rin likewise waited for his answer, and before anyone noticed, the customers standing in line had tensed up like an audience absorbed in a stage play.
After thinking it over briefly, Jin Seongun answered in a tone of perfect indifference. "Well. Do as you like."
It was permission. If they were willing to enter the inn as customers through legitimate means, there was neither reason nor justification to stop them.
Joy and sorrow crossed the faces of Sama Hui and Seomun Ak alike. Namgung Rin, standing beside them, sighed and spoke up. "You mean to stand in that enormous line?"
"Haha, don't worry, Lady Namgung. I'll have a servant bring a parasol for you."
"That is not what I meant."
Namgung Rin's face soured. She had only meant that it was a waste of time — yet he had chosen to respond as though she were a woman throwing a tantrum, which rankled all the more. Before she was a woman, she was a martial artist called the Sword Phoenix.
Namgung Rin bowed her head slightly and went to take her place at the end of the line. Sama Hui, breaking into a grin, settled himself beside her.
Seomun Ak watched the two of them with a scowl for a while, then let out a sigh. If Jin Seongun had decided it so, there was nothing else to be done.
Considerable time passed, and guests came and went from the inn. At last, Sama Hui and Namgung Rin — along with one more rising talent who had joined them somewhere along the way — stepped inside.
The third man was someone Seomun Ak knew as well.
That Baekri Jung is still trailing around after them, I see.
The Sama, Namgung, and Baekri clans were all cut from similar cloth — the same innate arrogance and prickly temperament, the same air of chosen superiority, and, irritatingly enough, the power and prestige to back it all up. While the rest of the world envied and resented them, the three families got along splendidly with each other.
Baekri Jung gave Seomun Ak a brief glance, then went and sat down. That very composure was what grated on Seomun Ak's nerves.
The Baekri and Seomun clans were comparable in scale, and their standing in the murim was nearly identical, so many people compared the two families. Because of that, Seomun Ak had carried a peculiar pressure since childhood — the feeling that, at the very least, he had to be better than Baekri Jung.
And he must feel something similar about me.
Baekri Jung, for his part, pretended indifference outwardly while stealing glances at Seomun Ak again and again.
Seomun Ak walked over to their table. "Order."
"Hahaha. What a remarkably inhospitable inn."
As Sama Hui laughed, glances turned toward them from all over the room. Seomun Ak sighed inwardly. Well, he had expected the man to needle him. Handling the endless stream of insufferable customers that came with inn work had done a little to steady his temper.
"Just give me your order."
"Three bottles of Yanghe Daqu. Side dishes at your discretion. And I'd like it if that fellow brought them over."
Sama Hui pointed at Jin Seongun. Jin Seongun, of course, paid him no mind whatsoever and was busy greeting other customers. Seomun Ak frowned slightly. "You know Jin Seo-hyeop personally, then? Why would you track him all the way out here?"
"Jin Seo-hyeop?"
Sama Hui burst out laughing all over again. Who would have thought I'd live to see this wastrel call a waiter "Seo-hyeop."
"Truly, if you live long enough, you see everything."
Of course, he couldn't very well explain to Seomun Ak, point by point, why he had come back to the very place he'd been thrown out of. How could he admit that the Sama Clan's formation at the Wuhan Inn had possibly been broken — and that this waiter was the one who had pointed it out? He merely smiled his most evasive smile.
Seomun Ak leaned in slightly and spoke in a voice pitched low enough to reach only the table. "Quiet. Eat your food like a dead mouse and leave. I'm only warning you because we're both orthodox martial artists."
The list of people this inn had chewed up and spat out was not a short one. Having given his sincere advice, Seomun Ak promptly walked away.
Paradoxically, it was precisely that behavior that made Sama Hui all the more curious about this man Jin Seongun. Namgung Rin's attention, on the other hand, was fixed not on Jin Seongun but on Seomun Ak.
"Seomun Seo-hyeop has changed a great deal, hasn't he."
"He's only pretending, for a while. Unless he wants his clan patriarch to beat him to death. You still don't know that fool of yours?"
Namgung Rin gave a small nod. Considering the course Seomun Ak had charted over the years, Sama Hui's words did sound more convincing, for now.
While the two of them traded these remarks, the expression of Baekri Jung — who had been watching Seomun Ak's retreating back — grew steadily graver.
Can the two of them really not feel it?
Sama Hui and Namgung Rin were unmistakably masters of the higher order. The ones called the Five Dragons and Three Phoenixes had long since left the stage of ordinary rising talents far behind them. And that was precisely why they failed to perceive, with any clarity, the change in someone standing below them like Seomun Ak.
But Baekri Jung, a martial artist of Seomun Ak's own tier, could feel it distinctly.
He's grown stronger.
And by quite a wide margin, at that.
Baekri Jung felt a chill of crisis. There had been a time when, ten fights between them, he was confident of winning seven. Now he doubted he could guarantee even half.
After glaring furiously at Seomun Ak for a long moment, Baekri Jung rose from his seat as though he had made up his mind. "Sama Seo-hyeop, Lady Namgung — forgive me, but I must be going ahead of you."
"What did you say?" Sama Hui replied, dumbfounded. They had waited in that endless line to get in — where could he possibly be going before the food and drink had even arrived?
But Baekri Jung was resolute. "Something urgent has come up. My apologies."
With that, Baekri Jung grabbed his sword and strode straight out the door. Sama Hui stared at the entrance with a look of disbelief, then clicked his tongue. "One look at Seomun Ak and the man's blood has started to boil. Impatience is nothing but poison."
Sama Hui spoke as though he were some venerable sage of the murim dispensing wisdom from on high. But Namgung Rin did not take the words at face value. "I'd say there's something worth learning in it."
"..."
Sama Hui coughed drily, clearly displeased.
Before long, the liquor and food arrived — carried over, as requested, by Jin Seongun himself. Sama Hui stared fixedly at him as though he had no interest whatsoever in the wine or the dishes. The look was so nakedly obvious that even Namgung Rin, seated beside him, found it strange.
At length, Jin Seongun looked calmly down at Sama Hui and asked, "Is there something you need?"
"Something I need..."
That was the moment.
After a brief pause, Sama Hui launched what could only be called a surprise attack. His hand shot out toward Jin Seongun's throat. Seomun Ak, who had been carrying bottles of wine, and even Namgung Rin — so sparing with her expressions — both jolted in shock as they watched.
At the very last instant, Sama Hui twisted his trajectory by the narrowest of margins, and his hand came to rest with a light tap on Jin Seongun's shoulder.
Jin Seongun looked down at the hand with his customary placid eyes. Sama Hui's eyebrows twitched.
Just as I thought.
The man was no ordinary waiter. No — even if the standard for "ordinary" were raised from waiter to martial artist, it changed nothing. Whatever he was, he was strange by a wide, wide margin.
"If you need something, say it with words."
Jin Seongun spoke in a voice of perfect calm. Sama Hui stared at him for a long moment, then asked, "I'm curious what you really are."
"A waiter. Owner and waiter of the Seongun Inn."
"A waiter who has mastered martial arts of this level?"
"Is there some law that says I can't?"
"That's not what I mean, but..."
Sama Hui let his gaze drift slowly around the interior of the inn. All of them were ordinary people. People who spent most of their lives in nothing but labor, without a single wisp of internal energy — people who lived and died having seen and heard only the tiniest sliver of the world.
"Having trained in the martial arts to such heights, why do you live such a worthless, valueless life?"
"Say more."
"Is it not a slander against the martial arts? Against the murim itself? Against the man who first created the arts you've learned, and against martial artists everywhere?"
At Sama Hui's words, more than a few people in the inn showed visible discomfort. After all, the "worthless life" he spoke of was the life of every ordinary person. But because their opponent was a martial artist of a great clan, no one dared step forward.
Sama Hui's words left many of them stunned. Seomun Ak's mouth hung open, and Jin Seongun's face, unusually for him, took on a look of sheer incredulity. Astonishingly, there was a deep sincerity in Sama Hui's voice — the fact that this bizarre philosophy of his was genuine was simply jaw-dropping.
Namgung Rin, too, felt a twinge of embarrassment and was just lowering her head slightly when it came.
In that instant, a thread of transmitted voice flashed across Sama Hui's mind.
Shortly after, a man from the kitchen walked out. Seomun Ak, horrified, moved to intercept him — but the man brushed off Seomun Ak's hand with such ease that it was almost insulting. Seo Yugyeom gave Sama Hui's blank face a single once-over, then trundled off toward the back door without another glance.
BANG—!
The back door slammed shut with a resounding crash.
Sama Hui stared at the door for a while, then let out an absurd little laugh and rose from his seat. Seomun Ak hurried to stop him.
And yet — Sama Hui's words from moments before kept circling in his head.
In recent months, Seomun Ak had been learning with his own body that a waiter's life — that the lives of ordinary people in general — was anything but trivial. As hard as training in the martial arts was, livelihood was perhaps harder still. He had to lay his pride down to the very floor, swallow and swallow again through moments of pure frustration. Facing the endless tide of insufferable customers that poured into this small inn day after day, he sometimes felt a pressure like standing amid enemies who kept coming no matter how many times you cut them down.
Most people simply endured it, one day at a time, and lived on.
If anything, Seomun Ak had come to realize how serene the lives of martial artists were — the lives of those born and raised in the great clans. And so a thought had occurred to him.
Maybe the right thing to do is to let him learn it for himself.
Which, translated plainly, meant that he wouldn't mind watching Sama Hui get beaten within an inch of his life, just once.
That son of a b****... looking down on waiters?
Besides, Seo Yugyeom was no homicidal maniac — surely he wouldn't actually kill him. And so, Seomun Ak did not stop him.
He was, if anything, slightly worried that Jin Seongun might interfere. But fortunately — or unfortunately — Jin Seongun made no move to restrain him either.
Before long, Sama Hui spoke to Namgung Rin as though asking her pardon. "It seems everyone in this inn has terrible manners. I'll return before the food grows cold."
And so Sama Hui, who had been abruptly possessed by the spirit of some legendary general of old, strode out after Seo Yugyeom.