Who Came, You Say? (3)
“Who came?”
“I’m telling you, it’s Mount Hua! The Heavenly Friends Alliance is here!”
“What nonsense are you spouting? In a typhoon like this?”
“This isn’t the time to argue whether it makes sense or not! They’re in the guest hall right now! Do you think I’d lie to you?”
“⋯⋯My heavens.”
The man who heard it reached out and threw open the window.
Whiiiiiiist!
The wind and rain howled with ferocious force, making the trees shudder as though they might snap in two. Already, he could see several of them torn from the roots and rolling across the ground.
They made it through that?
Never mind the sea—at this level of typhoon, climbing a mountain would have been hard enough. A storm meeting the waters of the South Sea was on a completely different scale from one felt on land. And yet, during a tempest like this, people who weren’t even familiar with the South Sea had somehow⋯⋯.
“Wh-who did you say came?”
“Don’t be surprised! The Five Swords came personally. The Five Swords!”
“The Five Swords? You mean Mount Hua’s Five Swords?”
“Yes! Those Five Swords!”
“⋯⋯Heh.”
For the disciples of the Hainan Sect, the name Mount Hua’s Five Swords stirred up very mixed feelings.
So it was them back then.
At the All-Heaven First Martial Arts Tournament held at Shaolin, the disciples of Hainan had brawled with the disciples of Mount Hua. They had exchanged fists to the point that things nearly escalated out of hand, and while Shaolin had stepped in to mediate before it went too far, it wouldn’t have been wrong to say that the very reason Mount Hua’s Five Swords had become known to the world was because of Hainan Sect.
That was why the disciples of Hainan couldn’t help feeling complicated whenever they heard the name. The ones who had once seemed no different from them had, in just a few short years, risen to represent the younger generation, accomplished deeds no one could have imagined, and swept away all the fame in the world.
“T-then wait a second! Did the Mount Hua Divine Dragon come too?”
“He did!”
“⋯⋯It’s real. They really came.”
The listener shivered all over.
The Mount Hua Divine Dragon. That title had long since become more than just a name for Mount Hua—it had become a symbol of the Heavenly Friends Alliance itself. How could anyone not understand what it meant that he had come in person?
“Where are they now?”
“In the guest hall, of course⋯⋯. S-senior brother! Where are you going? Senior brother!”
“I have to see them with my own eyes!”
“I’m coming too! Senior brother! Ah, senior brother!”
The news that the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s envoys had reached Hainan spread through the sect faster than the wind and rain. Some were flustered by it, others were moved to the point of tears, and a few hotheads rushed off without a second thought.
And the Heavenly Friends Alliance, who had become the center of all that attention⋯⋯.
“Food! Give me more food!”
“Wow. Hainan chicken is delicious too.”
“That’s not chicken, senior brother.”
“Why are these rice grains so long?”
“Who cares what shape it is? If it tastes good, that’s enough!”
They were currently gutting the Hainan Sect’s isolated food stores at astonishing speed because of the typhoon. To anyone who didn’t know better, they’d look like a team dispatched by the Evil Tyrant Alliance to drain Hainan of its supplies.
The Hainan kitchen chief stared blankly at the war unfolding at the table.
Normally, he would have prepared a feast of mountains and seas for guests visiting from afar, but there was no way Hainan, suddenly cut off by a storm, had the luxury for that. He had been worried sick that the hastily served meal wouldn’t suit their taste.
But seeing this sight now⋯⋯.
Did “mountains and seas” ever really matter at all?
These people were at the level of shoving in anything they could chew and swallow, so wasn’t it a waste to put precious food in those mouths⋯⋯?
“Don’t you have any more rice?”
“⋯⋯You just finished an entire pot.”
“There isn’t any?”
“I-I’ll bring it. Rice! Bring more rice, now! And prepare more dishes too!”
Sweating profusely, the kitchen chief ran back into the kitchen.
After thoroughly stripping Hainan’s stores for a long while, the Heavenly Friends Alliance finally collapsed into their chairs, bellies swollen to the brim.
“⋯⋯I feel alive again.”
“Right?”
Namgung Dowi closed his eyes tight as he looked at his own protruding stomach.
To be honest, there had once been a time when even he had looked at the Mount Hua people stuffing themselves like starving ghosts and thought they had no manners at all.
It wasn’t that they lacked manners.
They had to eat if they wanted to survive.
If you were dragged here and there by the training and the disasters that Mount Hua Divine Dragon caused, even when you trained your inner strength, the weight would just melt right off you.
If Namgung Dowi had kept eating the way he normally did, by now he’d be nothing but skin and bones, no better than a corpse. Only by gorging himself like a madman could he keep this body together at all.
“I really thought I was going to die.”
“Maybe we already did die. Maybe we drowned deep in the sea already, and this is just a dream⋯⋯.”
“⋯⋯Quit saying creepy shit.”
Tang Pae grimaced and cut him off.
He didn’t know why Namgung Dowi was becoming stranger by the day. Even when he had been annoying before, he’d still been a serious man.
“⋯⋯I’m saying that because we really did come this close to dying.”
“Fair enough.”
Tang Pae shook his head, looking exhausted.
Just thinking of waves the size of houses still made the backs of his knees weak.
Somehow we survived. Somehow.
When they met the typhoon, they had been right in the middle of the open sea. In normal circumstances, even trained martial artists shouldn’t have survived it.
If Im So-byeong hadn’t told them to dive deep, they might have run out of strength halfway through and met some horrible end.
“⋯⋯At least the result turned out well.”
“Well?”
“...At least the result wasn’t the worst possible one.”
Namgung Dowi also shook his head.
Just how did he know something like that?
The moment they plunged into the water, they had realized it. The current that had been raging so violently at the surface turned strangely calm the moment they were inside it, as though it had lied about its own ferocity.
Of course, diving deep and swimming there was still no easy matter, and they had to surface now and then to breathe, but it was nothing compared to trying to swim above the water.
“And this bastard’s wasting precious medicine!”
At that moment, Cheong Myeong kicked Im So-byeong, who was holding a bowl of medicinal broth. Im So-byeong flopped face-first onto the floor, but still managed to protect the bowl and slurped at it with his face pressed close.
“Hand it over already! What, are you one of those Sapa bastards, wasting rare herbs like this?”
“Hey, senior brother! At this rate you’ll really die, you know?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying! You’re from the Tang Family, and instead of using poison on a Sapa bastard, you’re wasting medicine on him? On this expensive stuff?”
“⋯⋯A person needs to be saved. I am a physician, after all.”
Namgung Dowi let out a long sigh. Cheong Myeong and Im So-byeong were both⋯⋯ consistent in all the worst ways. He said nothing, but Tang Pae nodded as though he agreed.
Then Namgung Dowi’s gaze shifted to the side. He hadn’t noticed in all the confusion, but by now quite a few people had gathered by the windows to peer outside. Even though the wind and rain were lashing down like that.
There was a strange mix of expectation and unease in their eyes. Namgung Dowi spoke in a low voice.
“The faces of the Hainan disciples don’t look especially good.”
“Of course not. They’ve spent years holding out under the pressure of not knowing when the Evil Tyrant Alliance would attack.”
“Then shouldn’t we welcome them a little more warmly?”
“You’ve forgotten one thing too.”
“Pardon?”
“We left Hainan completely to its own devices all this time too.”
At that, Namgung Dowi’s expression stiffened slightly.
“Of course, we could shift the blame and say that was the role of the Ten Great Sects, but they’re unlikely to see it that way.”
Namgung Dowi, in particular, could not escape that truth.
Until Namgung Hwang died and he moved the Namgung family’s fief into the Heavenly Friends Alliance, the Namgung Clan had also stood under the banner of the Five Great Families, acting alongside the Ten Great Sects.
For those three years, they had turned away from Hainan. That was an unchanging fact.
I mustn’t forget that.
So they had not come here as saviors. They had come to apologize for turning away from what they should have done all along, and to show them at last that the Heavenly Friends Alliance now stood on the right side of things.
“Believing that because I came with good intentions, they ought to accept me in good faith—that’s just the arrogance of someone reaching out a hand. Before anything else, we need to look back at what we ourselves have done.”
Namgung Dowi nodded at that.
We’ll need to approach them with more humility.
It felt like that would be the key to opening Hainan’s heart.
And then—
Whiiiiiish!
The guest hall door was flung wide open, and a fierce gust poured inside. Under everyone’s gaze, Gwak Hwan-so strode in.
Step. Step.
Walking straight to the table where they sat, Gwak Hwan-so glanced at the plates that had been cleaned bare and gave a nod.
“Sect Leader has ordered us to make sure our guests suffer no inconvenience during their stay. If there’s anything you need⋯⋯.”
“Huh? I remember now!”
At that exact moment, Cheong Myeong pointed at Gwak Hwan-so.
“That’s him, senior brother! Him!”
Shaken left and right by Cheong Myeong’s rough pointing, Yoon Jong asked calmly, “Who?”
“You know, that guy from back then! The one who got beaten up by my junior uncle! At Shaolin!”
“Ah! That guy?”
“Yeah! The one who got decked by my junior uncle and cried⋯⋯.”
“Who cried? Me?”
Gwak Hwan-so exploded in outrage. He had been hit, yes, but he had not cried! True, he had lost consciousness with a single blow, but that was beside the point!
“Wow. Nice to see you again like this.”
“⋯⋯.”
“But your hospitality here is kind of lacking, isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
Cheong Myeong said it with a flat, bored look.
“So this is how you treat guests down in the South Sea? How can you not even bring out a single bottle of liquor?”
Gwak Hwan-so let out a snort.
“Ah, you mean liquor. Of course, the South Sea has good liquor too. But our liquor is rather strong, so I thought it might be too much for weary guests like yourselves⋯⋯.”
“It’d only be strong for you lot.”
“⋯⋯.”
“It’s the kind of liquor frail little weaklings drink—the sort who get knocked out by one punch from my junior uncle.”
Gwak Hwan-so’s cheek twitched furiously.
“⋯⋯As I said, the South Sea’s liquor is strong. And the men of the South Sea⋯⋯.”
“Pipsqueaks?”
“⋯⋯.”
At that moment, the sound of Gwak Hwan-so clenching his teeth grated loudly through the hall.
“⋯⋯Jayang.”
“Yes, senior brother.”
“Go fetch the liquor.”
“⋯⋯Pardon?”
“Bring everything we’ve got. Now!”
At the furious order, a few Hainan disciples dashed out at once. Soon after, they returned carrying enormous liquor jars.
Jars large enough to fit a person were carried into the guest hall in an instant. A quick glance was enough to show there were well over ten of them.
Thunk.
Gwak Hwan-so pulled away the cloth sealing one of the jars. At once, the harsh scent of liquor spread throughout the hall.
“We brought you the liquor you asked for. But⋯⋯ as you can tell just from the aroma, this is very strong stuff. So I really think you should avoid—”
“Senior brother, it smells strong?”
“Smells nice.”
“Well, maybe because you’re country bumpkins, but that’s some pretty exaggerated bragging.”
Blood vessels bulged in Gwak Hwan-so’s eyes.
“Fine. Then we’ll drink it ourselves, and the gentlemen who can’t handle liquor can just leave. We’ll enjoy it just fine.”
In the end, unable to restrain his anger any longer, Gwak Hwan-so seized the jar and lifted it high, as if he were about to hurl it at them then and there.
“Senior brother!”
“S-senior brother! You can’t!”
Thud!
But he simply walked forward and slammed it down in front of Baek Cheon. Then he sat down across from him with a heavy plop.
“⋯⋯Since you’re guests who have come a long way, it’s only proper that I drink with you.”
“Oh?”
Baek Cheon looked at him with a meaningful grin. Gwak Hwan-so twisted his lips and said,
“But⋯⋯ I’m worried. Even if your face is smooth and pale, if you get ruined by liquor and wet yourself, that’ll be a memory that follows you for the rest of your life.”
Baek Cheon merely smiled warmly.
“Even then, I doubt it would be uglier than getting punched once and collapsing, frothing at the mouth.”
“What?”
“Why?”
There was a flash of sparks in both their eyes at once.
“So? Are you still willing to go another round?”
“Even after what happened back then, you still don’t seem to understand. Mount Hua doesn’t go looking for trouble, but we never back down from a fight that comes knocking.”
At those words, the people behind them began whispering.
“They don’t go looking for trouble?”
“Don’t they pick fights anywhere and everywhere?”
“Senior brother’s lies are practically breathing on their own now. He could go straight to the imperial court.”
“Does he have no shame?”
Baek Cheon gave the mutterers behind him a glare sharp enough to kill, then turned back to meet Gwak Hwan-so’s eyes.
Gwak Hwan-so’s face twitched before he forced out a smile.
“You’ll regret this, you know?”
“Regret?”
Crack. Crack.
Baek Cheon snapped his neck left and right, then lifted his chin slightly.
“Then make me regret it.”
“Excuse me, Acting Sect Leader?”
“Could you at least mind your dignity⋯⋯.”
“⋯⋯Well, let them be. Looks like he’s already lost it. Once they’re like this, there’s no stopping them. It’s too late now.”
No matter what anyone around them said, the two of them only glared at each other, before simultaneously seizing their bowls.
“The first one to drop—”
“—loses!”
The two great cups of liquor slammed together violently in midair.