It’s One Thing or Another (1)
The grand hall had emptied after the Heavenly Friends Alliance departed, and the remaining elders could not speak for a long while.
People did not truly collapse when they were drowning in despair. They collapsed when hope was stripped away. And what had just happened before their eyes had been enough to tear out even their last remaining hope.
“Haa…”
Breaking the silence, Geum Yang-baek let out a sigh.
“When the typhoon passes, order the disciples to descend the mountain.”
“...Have we not already done so?”
“They were still clinging to a shred of hope. Once reality is right in front of them, some of them may choose differently.”
“...”
“The elders are the same.”
Geum Yang-baek looked over the elders as he spoke.
“Just because you have stood with Hainan for a long time does not mean you must see its end through to the last. Those who wish to leave, leave. No one will blame you.”
At that, a few of the elders muttered in protest.
“Where are we supposed to go, now that our death days are already counted? We’re the sort who can’t even make a living net-fishing without martial arts. If we go home now, we’ll be nothing but burdens.”
“Exactly, Sect Leader. My grandkids would hardly welcome a Hainan bastard walking into the house. They’d just worry that the Evil Tyrant Alliance might bring lightning down on the family. How are we supposed to face our clans with any dignity?”
Geum Yang-baek gave a dry snort.
“Then you should have done better sooner.”
“...You should at least give us time to do better before saying things like that.”
The atmosphere was not as heavy as one might have expected.
When they had thought there was still something to be done, they had tried to preserve one another’s feelings and pride. But once they realized there was truly nothing left to do, even that tension began to melt away.
“What of the martial arts of those requesting expulsion?”
“...They’ll have to be abolished.”
“Must it be so...”
Geum Yang-baek shook his head.
“Not because I resent those children, but because I fear for them. The reason the Evil Tyrant Alliance, why Jang Il-so, is trying to strike Hainan first is to leave no troubles behind him. So do you think he would simply leave children who have learned martial arts alone?”
“...”
“Those who are expelled and stripped of their martial arts will not be worth the trouble of slaughtering, even to Jang Il-so. He is a villain beyond measure, but he is not a fool. He understands the value of able-bodied men.”
The elders’ eyes grew hollow. It was logical, yes, but if that happened, then there would truly be no one left in the world who had learned Hainan’s martial arts.
No matter what you did, knowledge already lodged in the mind could not simply be erased. But they knew how difficult it was to raise a disciple without ever being able to demonstrate a single form. So they could already see, clearly as day, what would become of Hainan after their deaths.
“Let us not cling to regret.”
As though he understood their feelings, Geum Yang-baek murmured those words like a sigh.
“If the heavens are watching, surely they will preserve our line somehow. Who knows? Perhaps, as with Mount Hua, there may come a day when Hainan too is greeted by greater glory than we know now.”
“That is right, Sect Leader.”
“It will surely be so.”
Listening to the elders, Geum Yang-baek gave a bitter smile.
He had said the words, but he knew better than anyone how slim that possibility was.
Rumble.
At the sound of thunder, Geum Yang-baek turned toward the window. The wind and rain still raged outside.
I hope the storm never stops.
He stared out with a wan expression, then slowly turned his head away.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“...So that was just the end of it?”
The soaked disciples looked at Gwak Hwan-so, not even thinking to wipe the water streaming down their bodies.
“No, Senior Brother. We came all the way here from Jiangbuk, and there was really no plan at all? If that was the case, then what in the world was the point of—”
“Why are you picking at Senior Brother over this?” Lee Ja-yang snapped irritably. “If you’ve got a complaint, take it straight to those Heavenly Friends Alliance people. If you don’t have the guts for that, why keep biting at Senior Brother?”
“No, that’s not—”
“Not what? It is exactly that! Obviously—”
“Enough.”
Gwak Hwan-so lightly laid a hand on Lee Ja-yang’s shoulder to stop him.
“They’re only saying it because they’re frustrated.”
He let out a long breath and went on.
“From the looks of it, even the Heavenly Friends Alliance didn’t expect the Evil Tyrant Alliance to invade this quickly.”
“No, how could they have possibly—”
“We’ve been keeping a close eye on the Evil Tyrant Alliance and the movements along the coast, but it isn’t easy for people all the way up in Jiangbuk to understand the situation here.”
“...”
“They were probably shocked when they saw the Evil Tyrant Alliance gathered here on the coast. Even so, they still came all the way here. That is something we should be grateful for.”
Having said that much, Gwak Hwan-so let out an involuntary laugh.
He was not the sort of man who enjoyed defending others. In another situation, he might have been the first to step forward and curse them out. Yet for some reason, he did not feel any urge to blame them now.
This had nothing to do with reason or principle. It was simply because the cup of wine they had shared the night before still lingered in his chest.
How ridiculous.
How long had that even been?
In the end, it only proved how deeply he had been hurt by the indifference Chungwon had shown them all this time. And because of that, he could not help but feel some affection for the people who had come all this way in person.
“There’s nothing to blame them for. Haven’t they done all they could?”
“Honestly, I don’t even know what they did! If it was going to be like this, they shouldn’t have come at all. They only got people’s hopes up...”
“Don’t say that.”
Gwak Hwan-so’s tone was bitter.
“Your father was a sailor too, wasn’t he?”
“...Yes.”
“Then you should know. It happens often enough—a father boards a ship promising to show his son the sea, only to be caught in a typhoon and never return.”
“I know.”
“The one who is cruel is the sea, not the father. Even if, in the end, that choice became the one that took both their lives, can you really call that father foolish and point a finger at him?”
“...I understand what you mean, Senior Brother.”
Though he said such things out of frustration, the other Hainan disciples in truth did not harbor much resentment or hatred toward the Heavenly Friends Alliance. If anything, they were closer to grateful.
After all, they had been the only ones to seek out Hainan, which had been abandoned in indifference and coldness for three whole years.
They had been the only ones to tell a sect cast aside even by those it had once stood beside that they would stand with them.
They had been the only ones to say that when the whole world seemed to have no need for the Hainan Sect, we still need you.
“Ja-yang.”
“Yes.”
“When the typhoon stops, choose a sturdy ship and get it ready. So they can leave at once.”
“...We have to do that too?”
Lee Ja-yang, who had been grumbling all this time, looked at Gwak Hwan-so’s face and let out a long sigh.
“Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll do it, all right?”
“Good. I’m asking you to help me.”
Usually he would have been the first to complain, but with Gwak Hwan-so acting this way, Lee Ja-yang couldn’t keep whining either.
“And just in case, prepare a couple more ships separately.”
“Huh? There are only ten of them. Why prepare more ships?”
“There will be people like that. People who don’t want to die, but also don’t have the courage to live here after abandoning the name of the Hainan Sect.”
“...Senior Brother.”
“Just have them ready. That will be enough.”
Lee Ja-yang bit down hard on his lip.
“...Understood.”
“Good.”
Having said that, Gwak Hwan-so closed his eyes.
Those who want to run away...
Perhaps that included him as well. If he could have done it, if he had been able to, he would have run away this very instant.
Run somewhere he could survive.
But he could not. He was the Great Disciple of Hainan. If someone had to shoulder Hainan’s name and die for it, then it had to be Gwak Hwan-so.
“Think carefully, all of you.”
“Senior Brother. We...”
“And don’t even think about saying something you’ll regret.”
Gwak Hwan-so rose from where he sat and walked out without another word.
The other disciples who watched him go soon followed one by one, leaving with heavy sighs of their own.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“...It really is just like Senior Brother said.”
A low murmur of admiration escaped Go Hong’s mouth.
Yu Gong’s words—that there was nothing they could do—had proven entirely correct. Even the Sect Leader and the elders had not fully given up their lingering hopes, and yet the result was exactly as he had said.
“Amazing.”
A strange sense of relief welled up in his chest. Yu Gong was someone who could look at the situation with such cold clarity. If a man like that had decided to leave the sect, then Go Hong’s own choice could not have been wrong.
But unlike Go Hong, who kept marveling aloud, Yu Gong showed no particular emotion.
“...So it came to that?”
“Yes. Sect Leader said that when the typhoon passes, he’ll formally expel those who want to leave the sect. But their martial arts will be abolished.”
“That is the proper course.”
“It’s a shame to lose the martial arts, but... what can we do? It’s better than dying.”
Yu Gong nodded.
This was something he had already prepared himself for. If they went down to the family homes still carrying Hainan martial arts, it would be they who were in danger.
They had to become insignificant. They had to become the sort of ignorant nobodies the Evil Tyrant Alliance would not bother pursuing and killing.
Only by surviving could they do anything at all, could they not?
“But how did you know? Those were some truly formidable people, yet you somehow knew they’d come with no plan at all.”
“It isn’t that they have no plan.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s that the Evil Tyrant Alliance is that fast—and that terrifying.”
Go Hong tilted his head as though he still did not understand, but Yu Gong’s gaze was no longer on him. He merely stared blankly at the rain pouring down outside.
Just as he had expected. Not a single thing had changed.
There had been no realistic reason to expect anything more, so of course this was how it would turn out.
So this was undoubtedly for the best. Any useless variable would only tangle things up. If they had arrived here half-prepared with even a token force, the Sect Leader might have clung to some hope, and then instead of sending the disciples down the mountain, he might have rallied everyone to fight the Evil Tyrant Alliance.
It was truly fortunate that nothing like that had happened, and things had proceeded exactly as scheduled. And yet...
I don’t know. Why do I feel so bitter?
—You held up well, brat.
That line kept echoing in his ears. The insolent words that some young punk had tossed at him had strangely lodged themselves in his mind and refused to leave.
“What are those Heavenly Friends Alliance people doing?”
“They’ve locked themselves in their rooms and haven’t come out. They’ve got no face to show, so what are they supposed to do?”
“...I suppose so.”
Yu Gong slowly nodded.
Nothing had changed. Nothing at all. Everything would unfold exactly as planned.
When the typhoon stopped tomorrow, they would leave. The Evil Tyrant Alliance would trample Hainan into the ground. Those who chose to share Hainan’s fate would accept death, and those like Yu Gong and Go Hong who chose life would turn their backs on the screams behind them and walk their own paths.
And with that, the name of the Hainan Sect would vanish from the world forever.
“How stupid...”
“Hm?”
“Nothing.”
Yu Gong shook his head.
“Prepare yourself in advance. Just because we’re impatient doesn’t mean the Sect Leader is. We should leave as soon as the expulsion ceremony is over, so we don’t get caught in some disaster from wasting time.”
“Yes, and... brother.”
“...Call me Senior Brother for now.”
“Ah... yes, I will.”
Go Hong awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
That night, the typhoon that covered Hainan lashed the earth even more violently than the day before, as if trying desperately to clutch at Hainan with its claws and refuse to let go.
But when dawn broke the next day—
“...It’s stopped.”
The fierce wind and torrential rain had ceased as if they had never existed at all. As cold and indifferent as the sea itself.