The River, the Clear Moon, and Those Who Draw Near
Jegal Yeona's violet eyes gleamed with quick-witted light.
When our gazes met, the inscrutable sheen within them seemed to burn even brighter.
"Mute young hero, if it isn't too rude, may I ask your name?"
As she asked after my name, Jegal Yeona gave her white feather fan a slight flutter and added, "Ah, you can explain it to me in writing, if you'd like. Unlike someone else, I can actually read."
"Yeona!"
At that, Yu Seojin exploded in indignation.
"I-I simply didn't have time to learn letters because I was focused on my cultivation!"
But Jegal Yeona only laughed, shamelessly, and began teasing her in earnest.
"Sheng lai bu hui du shishu, qie jiu Liangshanbo nei ju."
"Why are you suddenly spouting poetry?"
"It means you were born unable to read books, so for now you might as well go live in Liangshan Marsh. In other words, if you don't study, you'll end up scrambling into the mountains and becoming a bandit."
"What!?"
At the words If you don't study, you'll become a bandit, the color drained from Yu Seojin's face.
Given the alarming lack of worldly knowledge I'd seen in her so far, both in person and in the game, perhaps it wasn't so surprising that the remark struck a nerve.
Yu Seojin stammered as she offered a feeble protest toward that little troublemaker, but...
"T-that's nonsense. You don't become a bandit just because you're bad at studying."
"On the contrary, even people who study well can become bandits. Why do you think Wisdom Star Wu Yong, with that brilliant brain of his, went and played bandit in the first place?"
"That's absurd! And you literally just said people who don't study become bandits! That doesn't make any sense at all!"
Yu Seojin cried out, near tears.
But Jegal Yeona still didn't stop.
Rather, seeming to enjoy the reaction, she hid her mouth behind the fan and smiled with narrowed eyes.
"It's not absurd, Seojin. If you don't know how to read, you're easy to deceive. If you're deceived, you feel wronged. If you feel wronged, you get angry. If you get angry, you reach for a blade. And once you've got a blade in hand and run off into the mountains, what else would you call that? We call that a bandit."
"I-I'm a Taoist! Not a bandit!"
"But Taoists live in mountains too, don't they? Wudang Sect or Liangshan Marsh, it's still a mountain all the same. If you can't read, you can't study the Daoist Canon, and if you can't study the Daoist Canon, you won't understand the Dao. So what do we call people who live in the mountains, don't understand the Dao, and can only swing a sword well?"
Rolling her eyes in playful thought, Jegal Yeona trotted up to Yu Seojin and gave the bridge of her nose a light tap.
"Bandit."
"Eek...!"
At last, the tears hanging in Yu Seojin's eyes broke free and spilled down her cheeks.
"Waaaaah!"
Then she stamped her feet, looking heartbroken, and burst into childish tears at Jegal Yeona.
"You're mean! I didn't avoid learning letters because I didn't want to learn them! Sniff, what am I supposed to do if I can't see and it's hard to study because of it?"
"Oh? Oh no, is our Seojin crying? I was joking, just joking. I was a little too harsh, wasn't I?"
"Do you know how hard I worked for two whole weeks just to bring you along, and you start by making fun of me? Y-you're awful! Waaaaaah—"
As Yu Seojin's tears fell in heavy drops, Jegal Yeona's expression changed in an instant.
The little demon who had just been clawing at someone's insides was gone, replaced by the gentle face of an older sister soothing a sobbing child.
Tsk, tsk.
Without a tongue to click, I still found myself looking at Yu Seojin with pity.
So she'd endured this for nearly ten years, had she?
At that moment, my resolve to part from these people as soon as possible hardened even further.
"There, there, our Seojin. Calm down. A great hero doesn't go around shedding tears like this. When we get back, I'll treat you to a proper spread of Hubei specialties, okay?"
"S-sniff, really?"
"Of course, of course. It'll be nothing like those tasteless scraps of greens they serve on Wudang Mountain. Come on, let's blow your nose. Huu—"
"Fwoosh."
"Wait, wait! Don't wipe your nose on my fur coat! This is my precious number one treasure, you know!?"
Give a man a wound, then bandage it up.
That crafty fox had Yu Seojin wrapped around her finger.
After wiping Yu Seojin's nose, Jegal Yeona let out a small sigh and turned back to look at me.
The kindness from before was gone; once again, her eyes carried that same mischief.
"Now that Seojin's calmed down, shall we get back to the matter at hand?"
She took a step forward and came closer to me.
"I'm curious about your name, young hero. Surely you weren't planning to leave without telling me that too?"
Should I tell her?
I hesitated for a moment, but Jegal Yeona didn't look as though she intended to let me go no matter what.
Besides, whatever scheme she had in mind, she had just saved me from being beaten half to death by the Beggars' Sect.
Hiding my name here would be rude.
She'd definitely find some way to make a fuss about it later.
Quietly, I lifted my sword case and wrote the characters into the dust on the ground.
[Wolyeon.]
"Wolyeon..."
Jegal Yeona repeated the name under her breath, as though rolling it around on her tongue.
"Moon Swallow, hmm. It suits your impression very well, young hero. Is your family name Wol?"
[I have no family name.]
"Ah, I see. Then Wolyeon itself is your given name."
She smiled brightly and nodded, only to toss out another odd question at once.
"Then is young hero Wolyeon a friend of our Seojin?"
Friend?
I'd only known Yu Seojin for about two days.
We'd helped each other, yes, but calling us friends already felt a little premature.
Or was it? Were two days still a long time, in a place like this?
There was that saying in the jianghu that even brushing sleeves counted as fate.
When I didn't answer, Yu Seojin, still sniffing beside us, flinched and waved her hands in alarm.
"Y-Yeona! What are you saying?"
"Why? If people help each other and share life and death, aren't they friends?"
"Young hero Wolyeon has saved me from danger three times! How could I possibly be so shameless as to call him a friend? That would be terribly rude!"
Three times?
When I tilted my head in confusion, Yu Seojin explained, "Once when he saved me from being killed by a tiger, once when he kept me company all the way to Yichang, and once when he found my money pouch."
Her nose still stuffed up, she sounded faintly nasal, but she spoke fairly fluently all the same.
In any case, her line between benefactor and friend seemed very clear.
Maybe it was because the Wudang Sect taught etiquette so strictly, or maybe it was simply her honest nature, but in Yu Seojin's heart my standing seemed to be quite high.
I turned my gaze slightly toward Jegal Yeona.
Her eyes, stretched into a narrow line, seemed to say, Say we're friends. Quickly.
Even while she looked at me, those eyes kept darting toward Yu Seojin, as though she wanted to soothe her mood this way too.
No.
It's your fault she cried, you little brat.
Still, I didn't feel like denying Jegal Yeona's look outright.
If this hopelessly kind Wudang Taoist was less intimidated by me, it would probably be easier on both of us.
With that thought in mind, I nodded toward Jegal Yeona.
"Huh?"
Yu Seojin's eyes widened.
"Y-young hero? Are you really sure? For me to dare call him a friend..."
I nodded once more, firmly this time, to show my assent.
At that, the pure white of Yu Seojin's cheeks tinged pink.
"Good heavens..."
She folded her hands together with an expression full of emotion.
"To think you'd consider someone like me, so clumsy and blind, as a friend... Young hero Wolyeon, you're truly a broad and warm-hearted person!"
No, I only said we could be friends. Was that really enough to move her this much?
Yu Seojin was looking at me with the same sort of gratitude one might reserve for a lifesaving debt of kindness.
Then—
Tap.
Jegal Yeona placed a hand on my shoulder.
"Good! If young hero Wolyeon is friends with Seojin, then he's friends with me too, right?"
"......"
Ah. A friend's friend is a friend?
So this was the social pyramid scheme of the martial world.
"Then let's drop the formalities from now on. Hello, Wolyeon? I'm Yeona."
She abruptly switched to informal speech, then rolled her tongue as though the words didn't quite sit right in her mouth.
"Hmm, calling you Wolyeon sounds too stiff. Since we're supposedly friends and all, I'll call you Ayeon instead. Is that okay?"
The distance between us had suddenly shrunk.
It was like taking a taxi to cover a five-minute walk.
What alarmed me even more than this was Yu Seojin.
"Y-Yeona! Even so, he's our benefactor! To use informal speech like that is far too rude!"
"Come on, why fuss over formality between friends? Besides, Ayeon already nodded a moment ago. Right?"
Looking at me shamelessly, Jegal Yeona sought my agreement.
"You call me Yeona, and I'll call you Ayeon. Doesn't it sound nice? Ayeon, spelled backward becomes Yeona. Isn't that perfect? Isn't it?"
I couldn't exactly speak, but I stared at her, dumbfounded.
I never said I wanted to be your friend, and I certainly never said you could drop the honorifics.
When I looked at her with clear discomfort, Jegal Yeona narrowed her eyes and curled one corner of her mouth upward.
That smile foretold the disaster that would follow if I refused.
If I say no...
She'd keep pestering me until I gave in.
My, are you still speaking so formally? You're making the distance between us feel so cold.
Do you perhaps dislike me?
Or do you dislike the Jegal Clan?
Ah, or maybe you have some grudge against the Wudang Sect?
I see, so you don't want to be friends with Seojin after all?
She would chew on every word and drag it out to the bitter end.
And that wasn't all.
Those eyes were full of the resolve to say, I'll follow you around and cling to you until you drop the formal speech.
I knew it.
If Jegal Yeona set her mind on being a nuisance, she had more than a hundred ways of doing it.
With a resigned sigh, I gave a small nod.
"So Seojin, you should start speaking informally to Yeona too. No more calling me young hero or benefactor."
"B-but..."
"We're friends, aren't we? It's weirder to use honorifics with friends. Right, Ayeon?"
This woman, if I looked closely enough, seemed to be steering the conversation by exploiting the fact that I was mute and Yu Seojin was illiterate.
She'd end her sentences in a way that invited only yes or no.
If I turned away with a no, Yu Seojin would be disappointed, so she naturally guided people toward nodding along.
Honestly, it was thoroughly irritating.
"E-even so, I owe young hero Wolyeon a great debt of gratitude. How could I dare speak casually to him so easily? I need a little more time."
"Fine, fine. Then whatever."
Fortunately, Yu Seojin stepped back first, and Jegal Yeona didn't press her any further.
Not that I felt relieved, exactly. More like I'd walked into the eye of a storm.
"Well then, now that we've exchanged names like friends..."
Jegal Yeona strode up to me, bent at the waist, and looked up into my face.
"Ayeon, where are you from?"
At that question, something Yu Seojin had told me suddenly came back to mind.
On the day we were watching the stars together in the night sky, she suddenly got all worked up and ran off saying she was going in first. Then the very next day she vanished, leaving nothing but a single letter behind. It said, 'Hear me, head of the Jegal Clan! I have taken the Wudang Sect leader hostage! I'll return once I find the stars in Zhangjiajie, so don't bother trying to look for me!'
Jegal Yeona had supposedly run away from home after seeing the stars reflected in Zhangjiajie.
So there was no need for me to say that I'd come from Zhangjiajie too.
I simply pointed south with my chin.
That made Jegal Yeona tilt her head.
"South? Hunan? Or maybe Fujian? Guangzhou?"
All I did in response was shrug.
It was my way of saying I didn't want to answer anything beyond that.
Jegal Yeona gave a soft hmm at the gesture, but didn't press the issue.
"Then what brought you to Yichang?"
At that, I pointed east with my chin.
East.
"Where are you headed?"
[Anhui.]
"Anhui Province?"
Jegal Yeona's brows twitched slightly.
She stared at me for a moment, then tilted her head again.
"Anhui, hmm... There are plenty of famous mountains there, and the river is beautiful, but there's nothing in particular worth seeing around this season. Don't tell me you have some connection to those prissy young masters from the Namgung Clan?"
Her question sounded casual enough, but her gaze was sharp as a blade.
She was probing me.
Trying to find out why I was going to Anhui.
Instead of answering, I shrugged again.
Just a journey, that was all.
Seeing that, Jegal Yeona smiled strangely and stepped closer to me.
Too close.
The faint fragrance drifting from her white fox-fur coat brushed my nose.
Her violet eyes, set a head's breadth below mine, looked up at me.
Then Jegal Yeona glanced around as though checking her surroundings, rose onto her tiptoes, and brought her lips close to my ear.
And in a voice so quiet only I could hear, she whispered,
...You're going to meet a divine physician, aren't you?
Thud.
For a moment, it felt like my heart had fallen straight to the floor.
Startled, I turned to look at Jegal Yeona.
I couldn't hide the way my pupils shook.
How did she know?
I hadn't told anyone.
Could she really have some kind of mind-reading ability?
As the thought crossed my mind, I suddenly remembered the setting in which she was said to have mastered the art of reading the heavens by birth.
Come to think of it, Yu Seojin had said that Jegal Yeona had gone to Zhangjiajie because she wanted to "find the stars."
Could she have divined something from the heavens?
Jegal Yeona, seeming to enjoy my flustered reaction, curved her eyes in a crescent and put a finger to her lips.
"You're so easily surprised. It's written all over your face."
Lies.
That wasn't a random guess.
It was bait cast with certainty.
Just how much did she know?
Did she even know that my master had been injured?
Did she know the demonic cult had found Zhangjiajie too?
While my thoughts tangled into confusion, Jegal Yeona widened the distance between us again and pretended to look elsewhere.
"Ah, it's a little awkward to talk about the details here. There are too many ears around, after all."
She glanced sideways, surveying the area.
Though the beggars had retreated, bystanders and merchants were still sneaking looks at us.
Even the inn attendant was busy watching Jegal Yeona's mood.
"I said it before, didn't I? That I'd welcome you as a guest of the Jegal Clan. Since we're already treating you as a friend, and since we should repay Seojin for her help, why not take a breather and eat something delicious?"
Jegal Yeona's offer was sweet, but hidden behind it was a thorn I couldn't refuse.
If you don't come along, you're in trouble.
She hadn't said it aloud, but her eyes did.
Jegal Yeona had me by the weak point.
It meant she could help me find the divine physician—or hinder me if she chose.
When I showed signs of hesitation, she added in a low voice, as if delivering the final blow, "Oh, right, Ayeon. If you want to travel from Yichang to Anhui, you'll have to take a boat from the Daye Capital ferry landing. But as you know, the Yangtze's water routes are rough these days, and river pirates are everywhere."
Counting off on her fingers, she went on, "And the fare won't be cheap. More than that, they'll never let someone with an unclear identity board in the first place... Do you really think a mute like you could handle all that tedious inspection and bargaining on your own?"
"......"
She had struck dead center.
That, in fact, was exactly what worried me most.
My original plan had been to earn the fare by doing odd jobs with the carpentry skills I'd learned from my master, and then somehow bluff my way through the inspections as a mute.
"But what if you go with Yeona?"
Jegal Yeona pointed a thumb at herself and winked.
"You can use the Hubei Escort Bureau's merchant vessels. Free of charge, with the inspections handled however we like, and get to Anhui all smooth and safe—whoosh."
Tracing a curve through the air with her finger, she made a little whoosh sound with her mouth, then spun around to face me again.
"Well? Well? Sounds good, right? Great, right? Of course, this is just Yeona giving you a little something for nothing. We're friends, after all."
Jegal Yeona was dangling a carrot in front of me.
And above it, waiting, was a basket to trap me in.
What exactly would be tangled up with me once I stepped into that basket, only Jegal Yeona herself knew.
Somehow, that irritated me and made my temper flare.
Maybe Jegal Yeona knew it or maybe she didn't, but the way she toyed with another person's desperation...
I didn't like it at all.
So I moved my hand, and—
"Huh?"
placed it on Jegal Yeona's cheek.
"A-Ayeon, what are you—"
Then I pulled as hard as I could.
It was an almost purely instinctive act.
"—Mwaaaah!?"
An unearthly sound burst from Jegal Yeona's mouth.
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