I Don’t Know. (2)
"Th-then..."
He felt he ought to say something. But the moment he tried to open his mouth, no words came out.
At that instant, he would have liked nothing better than to gather them all up and head straight for Jiangbuk.
But no matter how he turned it over in his mind, that wasn’t an option.
This isn’t an assignment I can just decide for myself.
Right now, he was leading the members of the Heavenly Friends Alliance to save Hainan. If he abandoned that mission and turned back to Jiangbuk, the delay alone would be disastrous.
And once that happened, everything would spiral out of control.
In the first place, the reason they had chosen the most dangerous overland route was to shave off every possible moment on the way to Hainan. This was no time to lose precious hours over a sudden burst of conscience.
And yet...
Seeing the despair on Hyeong-uk’s face, Baek Cheon found himself biting his lip hard enough to hurt.
But could he really just leave them here? If he did, it would prove exactly what Hyeong-uk had said: that they only paid lip service to the importance of the common people, while in truth they abandoned them in the name of serving something larger.
How was that any different from Beop Jeong’s choice?
I...
His face twisted with inner conflict just as Hyeong-uk, sensing the change in his expression, hurriedly flattened himself to the ground.
"I-I’m sorry!"
His panicked voice trembled as it came out.
"I, uh, I spoke out of turn, I..."
"..."
"I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to say such things to the benefactor who saved my life, and yet I went and blabbered nonsense because I was too frustrated. P-please forgive me..."
"Don’t do that..."
Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut and forced down the word please before it could slip out. Then he reached out, grabbed Hyeong-uk by the shoulders, and pulled him upright. The man stared back at him with frightened eyes.
Holding back a sigh, Baek Cheon said, "I’m not angry, and I have no intention of harming you. I’m... we’re not like that. It’s just that what you said hit too close to home, so I was trying to figure out what we should do. You don’t need to apologize."
"I-I’m sorry, warrior-nim. It wasn’t something I should have said to the people who saved me..." Hyeong-uk’s eyes filled with tears. "Really, it would’ve been easier for warriors like you if you’d just shut your eyes and walked on, no matter what happened to people like us..."
"..."
"If a man doesn’t know gratitude, he’s no better than a beast, they say... I suppose I’m that beast."
"..."
"I’m just an ignorant fool whining about things he doesn’t understand, so don’t mind me. How could I possibly grab the feet of warriors heading off to do something important? I’m grateful enough that you erased their traces for us."
What really stung Baek Cheon was that there wasn’t the slightest hint of falseness in Hyeong-uk’s words.
This wasn’t a man forcing himself to say such things because he was afraid of Baek Cheon. No, Hyeong-uk genuinely seemed to believe that someone like Baek Cheon had no need to concern himself with people like them at all.
At a complete loss, Baek Cheon looked at Hyeong-uk, then turned his head toward the window without thinking. The others were gathered outside, peering in. But they looked just as helpless as he felt, as though they had no answer of their own.
Instead, they were sending him hopeful looks, as if he might somehow come up with a solution in this situation.
Baek Cheon’s shoulders gave a faint tremble.
Hyeong-uk looked so deathly pale he seemed ready to collapse unless someone said something, and the Heavenly Friends Alliance members outside were all staring only at him.
Unable to endure the pressure a moment longer, Baek Cheon was just about to blurt out something—anything—when a voice rang out from the doorway.
"What’s with the atmosphere? Did someone die?"
Cheong Myeong strode in with a face full of irritation and dropped the two wild boars slung over his back to the ground with a heavy thud.
"Dammit, this mountain’s got hardly any damn pigs in it! Sasuk, take these and feed the others!"
"It’s meat! Let’s roast it!"
"Boil it, you idiot! What if you go serving roasted meat to people who’ve barely ever seen the stuff and they get sick?"
"A-alright!"
"Honestly, you people never think."
The moment Cheong Myeong appeared, the suffocating tension dissolved at once. Baek Cheon let out a breath of relief before he could stop himself. The stiffness in his shoulders also loosened all at once.
"But seriously, what is it? That old man’s still breathing, isn’t he? Why the hell does it still feel like a funeral in here?"
"Ah... well..."
Baek Cheon looked from Hyeong-uk to Cheong Myeong and back again. He still couldn’t produce an answer himself, but for some reason he felt that if anyone could find one, it would be Cheong Myeong.
No, even if there wasn’t an answer, Cheong Myeong at least wouldn’t stand there dithering like this.
"The thing is..."
Baek Cheon began explaining the situation from the beginning.
"..."
A moment later, after hearing the whole story, Cheong Myeong looked back and forth between Hyeong-uk and Baek Cheon.
Hyeong-uk wore an apologetic expression, as though he wanted to bite his own tongue off, while Baek Cheon, feeling the weight of Cheong Myeong’s gaze, looked away to the side.
"No way..."
"..."
In the middle of that difficult silence, the hard-won answer Cheong Myeong squeezed out dropped between them like a stone.
"Sasuk, are you actually an idiot?"
"Cheong Myeong! I’m the Acting Sect Leader!"
"You are Sasuk, and you are an idiot, but you’re also the Acting Sect Leader!"
"Don’t call Sasuk an idiot, Jo Geol."
"Ah, right."
Baek Cheon’s face twisted in misery. He was seriously trying to think things through, and these two...
With a sour expression, he asked, "Do you have an answer or not?"
"No..." Cheong Myeong frowned at him as if he were the stupidest person alive. "Back then you were annoying as hell, sure, but at least you had some brains in you. How does a man get worse and worse the more he lives? You’re seriously agonizing over this? Over this?"
"..."
"And all of you just stood around here sucking your thumbs? While this was happening?"
Cheong Myeong shot the others a withering glare. Everyone flinched and quietly looked away.
"Aigoo, what kind of cursed fate is this? What was I thinking, bringing these useless idiots along..."
He let out a long, soul-deep sigh.
"So there is a way, then?"
"A way my ass!" Cheong Myeong barked at Hyeong-uk with wide eyes. "Hey, old man!"
"Y-yes? Y-yes, warrior-nim!"
"That’s not how a person behaves. If someone helps you, you should be grateful. Just because you’re frustrated, that doesn’t mean you get to drag innocent people into it and demand they take care of everything else for you!"
"...I’m sorry."
"People like you make it so others get scared of helping anyone again after getting burned once. One thing you say can make the next person who desperately needs help miss their chance. Do you understand what I’m saying?"
"...Yes."
"To put it plainly, if helping one person means you’ve got to take responsibility for their whole life, who’d be stupid enough to give charity in the first place?"
"..."
"To be blunt, the reason beggars can keep scraping by is because they’re grateful for what they’re given and don’t grow greedy for more. If someone gave you a coin out of kindness and you started demanding they build you a damn house, who’d ever want to help a beggar again? Then every last bastard from the Beggars’ Union would starve to death! You get what I’m saying?"
Hyeong-uk dropped his head, unable even to offer a defense. It had been the truth, dragged out of him under pressure, but even he knew it was shameful.
"And another thing!"
Cheong Myeong’s eyes snapped to Baek Cheon.
"If you’re going to help, then help! If you’re going to refuse, then refuse properly! What the hell are you hesitating for? What’s the point of having an Acting Sect Leader who can’t make up his mind? What are you going to do when enemies attack—stand there and wonder whether to fight or make peace? Then everybody dies, you idiot!"
Baek Cheon pressed his lips together and lowered his head. Cheong Myeong went on, "You know what the bigger problem is?"
"...I don’t."
Cheong Myeong looked at him with utter contempt.
"It’s that Sasuk still doesn’t understand what the position of Mount Hua’s Acting Sect Leader actually means."
Baek Cheon looked at him as if asking what that was supposed to mean. But instead of answering, Cheong Myeong kicked off the ground and shot forward.
"The worst bastard here is you, you damn idiot!"
"Kyahk!"
Cheong Myeong’s kick slammed into Im So-byeong’s jaw. Im So-byeong shrieked and went flying into the wall.
"You having fun? Huh? Having fun? I thought you looked like some pathetic righteous-sect idiot struggling up a cliff, so I treated you like a person for once! I leave for one second and you start playing people like toys? Fine! Then die today, you nasty little evil-sect bastard!"
"Ack! Ack! Mount Hua Divine Dragon! That’s not it!"
"Die! Just die, you bastard!"
Watching Cheong Myeong kick the hell out of Im So-byeong, Hyeong-uk’s face turned pale blue.
"You may not understand, but the one getting beaten is the evil sect, and the one doing the beating is the righteous sect."
"...Pardon?"
"It’s true."
"..."
Of course, on the surface it really did look like the one swinging was the evil sect and the one being hit was the righteous sect. Im So-byeong, after all, looked like some refined scholar from a wealthy family...
"Huff! Huff!"
Having thoroughly pummeled him, Cheong Myeong panted hard and dragged the bloodied mess that was Im So-byeong over to Baek Cheon, then dumped him at his feet.
"Uuugh..."
"Can’t you be quiet?"
"..."
"Sit."
"Yes, sir!"
Im So-byeong sprang upright like a gust of wind and sat down properly.
Cheong Myeong asked irritably, "The Green Forest elite know the route here too, right?"
"...They do."
"And if you don’t use the cliff path but take another road, getting about thirty people across the Yangtze River isn’t a problem. Right?"
"Th-that’s correct."
"Just thinking about it gets me pissed off again. But this bastard..."
As Cheong Myeong raised a hand, Im So-byeong hurriedly covered his head and flopped flat to the floor.
"Ack! Don’t hit me! I’m sick, you know!"
"If you were that sick, you should’ve died already! You’re still breathing, aren’t you, you bastard!"
"..."
"Haaah."
After glaring back and forth between Im So-byeong and Baek Cheon, Cheong Myeong suddenly shoved a hand into his robes.
Ki-eeeee!
Baek Ah, who had been still as death until now, screamed as it sensed its fate and was seized.
"Will you shut up?"
...
Cheong Myeong set the sulking, deflated Baek Ah down in front of Im So-byeong as if tossing it aside.
"Write the letter."
"...What?"
"Draft a separate call for the Green Forest elite. The goal is to get everyone here across to Jiangbuk. If you bring them to the estate, Sect Leader Hyun Jong will handle helping them settle in."
"...That’s a difficult task."
"Can’t do it?"
"It could be dangerous... And no matter that it’s a request from the Mount Hua Divine Dragon..."
Just as Im So-byeong started edging backward, Cheong Myeong jerked his gaze toward Baek Cheon, as if to say: What are you doing?
Only then did Baek Cheon understand what Cheong Myeong meant about not knowing the importance of the Acting Sect Leader’s position. He nodded and spoke.
"What if this were not a request from the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, but a request made under the authority of Mount Hua’s Acting Sect Leader?"
At once, Im So-byeong straightened and sat upright. His playful expression vanished in an instant, replaced by the dignity of the King of the Green Forest.
"You’re making an official request?"
At his serious question, Baek Cheon nodded gravely. Im So-byeong answered at once.
"If it’s a request from Mount Hua, then of course I’ll help. It won’t be easy, but if we mobilize the Green Forest elites, it should be manageable enough. Crossing the Yangtze River will take a bit of time, but the Yangtze River Water Bandits are not keeping the same level of watch they once did. If we move under cover of night, it can be done."
"Then..."
"However!"
Im So-byeong met Baek Cheon’s eyes directly.
"The Green Forest elite were never meant to be used for this kind of work, so you must also consider the damage to my dignity as the one issuing the order."
"..."
"So."
A sly smile crept over his mouth.
"I trust you’ll repay the price of this request, no matter when it is."
Baek Cheon nodded, his face set.
"I will, absolutely."
A satisfied smile appeared on Im So-byeong’s face. Then an eerie voice brushed past his ear.
"Ah, yes. Of course you have to pay back a debt..."
"..."
"If you’re still alive when someone goes back to Jiangbuk, that is. There’s no way to collect a debt from a dead man, is there?"
"..."
"Honestly, who in Jiangnan would care if some evil-sect bastard died..."
"I’ll do it for free!"
In that instant, everyone present felt it deep in their bones.
The truth that an eager sense of justice can’t beat a scheme, and that even the best-laid scheme is meaningless before a madman.
