He’s Really Got It in for Me Today (5)
Namgung Dan was absolutely certain of himself.
Wasn’t there a saying that everything depended on the state of your mind?
Of course, he wasn’t the sort of man who blindly believed in that whole grit-and-determination nonsense. Even so, he had lived his life believing that the same task could turn out very differently depending on one’s attitude.
Now that he had resolved to fully accept Cheong Myeong’s training and steel himself anew, things would be different from before. That was what Namgung Dan believed.
That was what he believed less than half an hour ago, anyway.
Rustle, rattle!
Namgung Dan looked down, trembling violently.
Where his foot had slipped, a spray of loosened stones was tumbling into the abyss far below.
His eyes shook as though he had been caught in an earthquake.
“Hh… hngh….”
He could barely breathe. Still shaking all over, he slowly looked up this time. Under the blue sky, the sharp peak of the mountain jutted into view.
That was right. He was climbing a cliff right now.
“Ghk!”
He pressed his feet against the cliff face however he could, clinging to it as tightly as possible. In his desperation, it looked as though he might dig himself straight into the rock.
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
His breathing grew ragged of its own accord, and his whole body shook. Every time he looked down into that endless drop, it felt as if his heart was shrinking forever on its own.
Just a little while ago, he had thought, So what if I die?
But now—
‘No, I will die! I’ll fucking die, you maniacs!’
These Mount Hua bastards were even more insane than he had imagined.
“Oh? Your arms are starting to give out?”
From high above, a voice that made his skin crawl drifted down.
“Good. Go on, loosen your grip. What else do you think will happen besides falling?”
At those words, Namgung Dan found himself looking down again before he could stop himself.
‘No!’
He shut his eyes tightly and plastered himself against the cliff. Every time he saw that abyss below, all the strength seemed to drain from his legs.
At the very least, if he didn’t have these greaves strapped to his arms and legs, maybe he could manage somehow….
‘You expect me to climb this sheer cliff wearing these? Are you out of your minds, you fucking lunatics!’
“Huff! Huff! Huff!”
After a long round of forced breathing, he wiped the sweat streaming down his face with his shoulder and cautiously turned his head.
“D-Disciple.”
“Yes?”
He was speaking to a Mount Hua disciple who was climbing steadily along the cliff a little below him.
“T-this… isn’t this training a bit too severe?”
“Ah….”
Namgung Dan felt a spark of hope.
He was already beginning to realize that every one of these Mount Hua lunatics was anything but ordinary, but this disciple called Yoon Jong at least seemed relatively normal.
If anyone could stand up to that demon and say something reasonable, it would be this one.
But Namgung Dan’s hopes were utterly crushed by Yoon Jong’s reply.
“Severe?”
“Yes! Yes! Disciple, this is far too dangerous!”
“Dangerous…?”
Yoon Jong tilted his head, looking as though he genuinely could not understand a single word Namgung Dan had said.
“L-look, Disciple?”
“Dangerous? Here?”
“…….”
At that moment, Namgung Dan felt that something between them had gone terribly, fundamentally wrong.
“D-do you not think this situation is strange?”
“It is certainly strange.”
Yoon Jong removed one hand from the cliff and slowly scratched his head.
“That guy wasn’t this lax.”
“Pardon?”
“What kind of training is it if you only climb a cliff like this? At the very least, it should be a cliff that’s half again as tall as this one for it to count as training. Even if there aren’t any especially high mountains around here because we’re near the Yangtze River, this still—”
“……Pardon?”
What in the world was this man talking about?
Yoon Jong sighed as though he were genuinely troubled.
“The Namgung Clan have graciously set their minds to this after such a long time, so we should do our best to meet them halfway, but this sort of lukewarm training is worrying. Personally, I think it would be ideal to raise the cliff height by about double and make the incline a little steeper.”
…Is he insane?
At a loss for words, Namgung Dan stared blankly at Yoon Jong, momentarily forgetting that he was dangling from a cliff at all. Then he jerked back to his senses and shouted,
“This is a cliff, for heaven’s sake, Disciple! If you fall, you’ll die!”
“……Pardon?”
Yoon Jong again peered down with the face of a man who truly had no idea what Namgung Dan was talking about. Then he smiled, very pleasantly.
“Ah, so that was your concern.”
“Yes! That’s exact—”
“If that’s all, you needn’t worry. You won’t die.”
“……Pardon?”
Namgung Dan looked at him as though he had just been struck across the back of the head. Yoon Jong was still smiling, his expression utterly bright and innocent.
“I’ve fallen from somewhere about twice as high as this five or six times. I didn’t die.”
“…….”
“And falling is only scary at first. After a while, you start to get used to it.”
What made it truly maddening was that there was not a shred of malice in a single word he said.
“So, if you’ll just relax—”
“Aaaaahhhhhhh!”
“Huh?”
Yoon Jong snapped his head around. One of the people climbing ahead of them screamed and plunged from the cliff.
THUD!
“…….”
The Namgung swordsman smashed into the ground below and keeled over, frothing at the mouth.
Even after witnessing that horrifying sight, Yoon Jong merely shrugged as if to say, See?
“As you can see. He didn’t die.”
“……He looks dead to me.”
“Haha. That’s a very funny joke.”
How is that a joke? How the hell is that a joke?
“W-why are you even doing this sort of training…?”
Namgung Dan began to ask, then shut his mouth in a hurry. Hadn’t he sworn that he would never voice another complaint about training again? He could hardly be the one to break that vow now.
“Ah, there is a very clear reason for it.”
“Pardon?”
Yoon Jong answered with a smile.
“A swordsman needs many things, but above all else, what matters most is wrist strength and finger strength. A swordsman who drops his sword in battle is worth less than a pebble lying on the street, wouldn’t you say?”
“…….”
“So no matter what happens, we need training that teaches you never to let go of your grip. There’s no better place than a cliff like this for engraving in your body the sense that the moment your strength leaves your hand, your life flies away with it.”
As he spoke, Yoon Jong glanced down. Namgung Dan did his best to ignore the mutter that followed—Though I’m not sure such a low cliff really creates that sense of crisis.
“Ah, and once you’re climbing a cliff, your knees, ankles, and lower back all get trained naturally as well. Besides….”
Yoon Jong stopped mid-sentence and lightly tapped the protruding stone Namgung Dan was standing on.
The outcrop snapped loose with a sharp crack, and Namgung Dan’s body slid downward in an instant.
“Aaaahhhhhhh!”
Spreading his arms and legs wide, Namgung Dan clutched at the cliff in panic. He barely managed to stop himself, then wheeled around with a face drenched in cold sweat.
“W-what was that for…!”
“As you can see, all sorts of things happen on a cliff.”
“That’s….”
Namgung Dan barely managed to swallow the words, What the hell does that have to do with anything, you lunatic? Yoon Jong went on in a calm voice.
“Sometimes the rock you’re standing on breaks. Sometimes a sudden gust of wind blows in. Sometimes even a passing hawk comes after you, trying to peck at your back.”
“……Pardon?”
“The battlefield is the same. While you’re fighting, you might suddenly trip over a tree root and fall flat on your face. A broken blade might come flying into your back. Sometimes, even a fallen ally’s sword can stab into your leg.”
“…….”
“A swordsman has to respond quickly to all of those situations. That’s why climbing cliffs makes such good training.”
Yoon Jong jerked his chin upward.
“Or so that guy claims, anyway. I actually agree with him to a certain extent. It’s been very effective.”
“…….”
“So hurry and climb. If you dawdle, you’ll be late for mealtime.”
Namgung Dan swallowed hard and looked down the cliff once more.
The height he had already climbed was not so different from the height still ahead of him. At this rate, climbing up this ridiculous cliff would be safer than climbing back down.
“Grrrgh…!”
Namgung Dan reached out desperately and grabbed the cliff.
These bastards are all crazy!
“Hmm.”
Cheong Myeong, sprawled on top of the cliff, gave the wineskin in his hand a light shake.
Shake, shake.
The faint sloshing sound made his brow wrinkle.
‘…Not much left.’
Annoyance flared up in an instant.
“What the hell are they doing, taking so long to climb a single cliff? Those worthless bastards.”
“It’s their first time. It happens.”
“It happens? Sure, it happens. Naturally, that’s what I think too.”
“Hmm?”
Cheong Myeong lazily stretched out a foot and nudged the thing he had propped beside the cliff edge. A pile of rocks, stacked up nearly to the size of a person’s head, sat there waiting. Planting his foot against the base of the pile, he grinned.
“But I’m not sure they feel the same way.”
“…….”
Cold sweat broke out on the back of Baek Cheon’s neck.
“That… might be a little too much.”
“Huh? Too much?”
“Yes, Cheong Myeong. Think about it. Hard training is one thing, but people are supposed to build up their skills gradually from a level they can actually handle. Calm down first….”
“Hmm.”
At Baek Cheon’s words, Cheong Myeong nodded as if he had a point.
“Saje, you’re right about that.”
“R-right? So, um, why don’t you take your foot off that thing first? Hm?”
“If I do that… oopsie!”
In the next instant, Cheong Myeong thrust out his foot and sent the pile of rocks rolling off the cliff.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
“Aaaahhhhhhh!”
“Rocks are falling!”
“Which bastard did this?! Agh! Which one of you was it!”
Desperate screams burst up from below. Baek Cheon shut his eyes tightly in defeat. A moment later, when he cautiously opened them again, Cheong Myeong was grinning.
“Whoops. My foot slipped.”
‘The devil.’
“Kekekekekekek.”
Amid the screams and curses rising from below, Cheong Myeong laughed wickedly and folded his arms, gazing out at the distant sky.
‘Peaceful.’
The waters of the Yangtze River flowed on, dignified and unhurried, making a mockery of the standoff between the Ten Great Sects and the Evil Tyrant Alliance across its banks.
Neither the orthodox sects nor the Evil Tyrant Alliance could easily make the first move in the current situation. Which meant this peaceful everyday life would hold for a little while longer.
Well, Beop Jeong’s fat head and that bastard Jang Il-so were probably having a headache over it, but Cheong Myeong saw no reason to rack his own brains for them.
“Hmm.”
His gaze, which had been searching the far bank of the river, drifted back up to the sky.
As he slowly closed his eyes, the wind brushed his cheek.
‘I’d like this to go on a little longer.’
It was a wish too small and awkward to even call a wish.
But at that moment, a movement unlike the one in his heart was beginning to stir. A fierce wind, carrying a thick stench of blood, was blowing in—a wind no one in the world, not even Beop Jeong, not even Jang Il-so, not even Cheong Myeong himself, could have predicted.
The herald of a storm that would drag the world back into darkness once more.