The Contest's Finale -1
"Whoa!!"
"Master, you're amazing!!"
The children's reaction was far more explosive than I'd expected.
"Hmm..."
Was it the special effects using hardened qi? Or the fact that the other masters could now hold prayer meetings of their own? I couldn't fully grasp a child's psychology either way.
Still, there was no denying they were responding with far more enthusiasm than yesterday.
"Even better than Master Yeong-yul yesterday!"
"The divine powers are so pretty!"
...Master Un-gyeong was grinning so hard his mouth looked ready to split, while the other masters scowled as they stewed over their defeat. Even Master Yeong-yul, who'd basked in all the popularity he could handle the day before, couldn't keep his expression under control.
That was how thoroughly the children were losing their minds over Master Un-gyeong's performance. Every time qi sprayed from the bowl, they erupted in cheers — to the point that even the vanishing of their candy when their turn came seemed almost secondary.
"Ahem! Cheong-hae! Seeing as your candy has disappeared, it seems you haven't properly practiced the points you promised to fix!"
"...Ugh... Master! I really, really am trying! I just forgot for a second yesterday..."
"Heh heh. Cheong-hae. A mistake is still a mistake. Apologize to Lord Hou Yi and tell him again that you'll work hard."
"I'm sorry, Lord Hou Yi! Starting tomorrow, I really, really won't forget!"
The children had grown a lot more honest. And why not? Children were people too, and people were all the same. If honesty didn't get them hurt, they had no particular reason to lie.
The carrot might have been a bit overdosed at the moment, but even kids would have lived under the strict discipline of a Taoist sect. Letting them loosen up a little in return didn't seem so bad, did it?
Watching them, I found myself understanding the children a little more each day.
I thought I was starting to see why today's reaction had been so explosive. In the end, today's performance had incorporated the application of martial arts. Magic tricks might have been wondrous to the kids, but they were little more than a one-shot device for sparking interest.
But martial arts? Martial arts were these children's goal and their romance. For kids who dreamed of becoming soccer players, a soccer video would always be more interesting than a magic video.
As children learning martial arts, they went wild for performances that used qi. Put simply, dazzling martial arts landed better with these kids than curious magic tricks.
I thought about tomorrow's theme.
Children were ruthless. They would never call something fun if it wasn't. Even if the masters started learning my gambling techniques from now on, how long would it take them to put on a polished performance with sleight of hand alone?
They had to perform right away, so mixing in the masters' martial arts had been a stopgap measure... but it might actually work better than expected.
Come to think of it, this wasn't a gambling den. On a gambling floor, using internal energy or applying martial principles would get your hand chopped off — but this was just a performance.
For a spectacular show, mixing in martial arts was probably the right direction, wasn't it?
Not a bad idea at all. Inspiration after inspiration swept through my head.
What stirred a person's interest was splendor and surprise. If surprise came through subtle hand techniques and splendor through martial arts...
A truly remarkable performance would be born.
From now on, I'd have the masters work with themes rooted a little more in martial arts, weaving in sleight of hand to deliver the punchline.
Honestly, teaching gambling techniques to Taoist masters had been weighing on my conscience a bit. Might as well use this chance to brainstorm some proper stagecraft techniques.
A dry laugh slipped out of me. I'd started a magic show just to give the kids some well-meaning advice about training hard, and now here I was thinking all this. Well — the kids were cute, so what could I do?
I wondered whether the masters, burning with competitive fire, had even registered that the whole mess had started as children's education.
"By the way, Masters — you do understand this is all part of education, right? You're not doing this just to chase popularity?"
"Ahem, ahem! What nonsense! The children are that happy — of course it's education!"
"Indeed, indeed! We're simply striving for the children's joy!"
Watching the masters jump like startled cats, I wanted to needle them a little more, but whatever. The kids looked happy, and the masters looked happy too.
The only one who wasn't enjoying herself was Hyeok Gi-rin, whose childhood innocence had long since been destroyed.
Starting tomorrow, it looked like Heukmyo and I would be handling the judging alone.
Time flew by.
Eleven days had passed since I'd started teaching techniques at the masters' request. In that span, the masters had fretted and celebrated by turns, settling their order of appearance within a competitive system and refining their craft.
The masters' contest challenges mostly mixed martial arts with sleight of hand.
Take the third theme, for example: juggling — or rather, beanbag tossing. A routine of ordinary juggling in which one of the beanbags would transform into candy, or candy would vanish mid-performance.
I taught the masters while throwing myself into my own martial training just as hard.
The masters worked, I taught, the children rejoiced, and Hyeok Gi-rin enjoyed herself on the side. Those were the days we had.
But every joy has an end. As of today, the prayer meetings were drawing to a close.
It was only natural. The whole premise of a divine power that communed with Hou Yi had been a mask I'd been forced to wear as an outsider, just to give the children a lesson.
The prayer meetings themselves weren't being abolished.
It meant cutting away the parts that didn't fit and absorbing only what was suitable into the Jeomchang Sect.
Praising good children, pointing out faults, confirming whether a child truly regretted those faults and was working to improve — those elements, they would keep.
Now that the masters could put on entertaining spectacles whenever they liked, there was no longer any reason to hold the children late into the evening and present those spectacles in the form of a prayer meeting.
There were practical concerns as well: the masters couldn't keep hanging everything on performances forever, and they couldn't keep stealing the children's free time either.
Closing out the final performance was Master Myeong-jin, last in the order of appearance.
"Woooow...!"
"Amazing!"
Today's performance was something like a grand synthesis of the ten that had come before. That it still didn't lag in entertainment value was thanks to the masters' efforts shining through over the past eleven days.
The masters had continuously refined their acts, and today was the day those efforts came together — so even if the content was familiar, the quality was different.
The clasped-hands motions had grown far more cunning; the special effects when overturning the bowl, along with the masters' acting, were a world apart from earlier shows; and the beanbag-tossing patterns had become endlessly varied. Cross-throws, front-to-back throws, left-right throws, kicks — the added flourishes set it clearly apart from the old performances.
The children savored the shows polished by the masters' effort and sweat, popping candy into their mouths and beaming with delight.
Hyeok Gi-rin watched them and smiled with quiet satisfaction.
"Heh heh. The Jeomchang Sect has grown much livelier."
"Has it?"
"Yes. As an outsider, Nangin Ho, you may not have noticed — but the distance between the masters and the children has closed, and a great many positive effects have followed. The masters' hearts for the children were never second to anyone's, but they are people who have lived their entire lives as Taoist sages. A certain stiffness of manner was inevitable."
Well, that made sense. Children would have a hard time feeling close to solemn Taoist masters who'd spent a lifetime studying the teachings of the Dao.
"So today is the last prayer meeting."
Hyeok Gi-rin had been one of the people quietly — no, openly — enjoying the prayer meetings. She seemed to feel the regret that came with the end of these performances.
Still, everything had its end.
"A festival can't last forever, can it?"
"...A festival. Yes, you're right. This may have been a festival belonging to the Jeomchang Sect alone."
Hyeok Gi-rin's gaze lingered not only on the children and masters but on the other disciples as well. Every day the masters had thronged out in front of the Guest Hall and the children had raised their cheers, so the other disciples had started peeking in too... and lately, no small number of them had been gathering.
Chang-min and the other disciples I'd grown used to seeing during physical training, along with a fair number of adult disciples, were watching the performance now.
"I may have to propose a festival under the name of the Great Disciple. I've never felt the Jeomchang Sect was lacking — but today has been truly joyful."
I looked at Hyeok Gi-rin's profile as she watched the masters, children, and disciples all mingled together, a motherly smile on her face. Sometimes a child, sometimes a figure of frost-edged dignity — and like this, looking after others and sharing in their joy when they were happy.
"I may have been stuck in the fixed idea that a festival had to be lavish. Countless lanterns, dazzling fireworks, wine and meat — none of them were needed for it to be this joyful. Heh heh."
"Maybe so."
I glanced for a moment at Heukmyo, nestled among the children. Heukmyo was enormously popular with the kids. Well... thinking about it, Heukmyo — the so-called pretty older sister — had both hands held by little girls as she watched the performance with them, laughing her head off.
"Thank you, Nangin Ho."
"For what? I just did something I liked, and it grew this big on its own."
Hyeok Gi-rin smiled warmly.
"Heh heh. I invited you to the Jeomchang Sect to repay a debt of gratitude, and somehow I've ended up indebted to you all over again. At this rate, we may have to keep you here for life."
"Hahaha. You make it sound like a farewell — it's a little awkward."
Hyeok Gi-rin looked sheepish.
"You're right. We'll see each other tomorrow, and yet I've gotten far too sentimental."
"Well, it's just one chapter coming to a close."
Some things had changed, and some things hadn't. I would keep teaching techniques to the masters and keep learning martial arts myself. Every lunch and dinner at Chaeseon Hall, I'd meet Hyeok Gi-rin and Heukmyo and talk about this and that.
Daily life would go on.