Just Call It a Whim (1)
“If you look at the Central Plains as one enormous board of go, then the stones you need to place to break out of an encirclement closing in from all sides aren’t inside, but outside. Making allies within won’t change the tide of the war.”
“Do you really think Mount Hua is worth that much? Mount Hua, that isn’t even one of the Nine Great Sects anymore?”
“It’s precisely because we’re not one of the Nine Great Sects that we have value. If Mount Hua were still a Nine Great Sect, why the hell would we team up with the Tang Family? We’d be off playing with the other sects.”
Tang Gun-ak looked at Chung Myung with a faintly bewildered expression.
No matter how true it was, it was not the sort of thing people usually said aloud. Especially not in front of the Tang Family Lord.
“Let’s drop the hypocrisy. I’m not interested in beating around the bush for no reason. Lord Tang wants to bring Mount Hua over so you can keep the Nine Great Sects, who are hemming in the Tang Family, in check, right? That’s your real objective.”
“……”
“If word spreads that the Tang Family has formed an alliance with Mount Hua, then they’ll have no choice but to be wary of Mount Hua. Which means the pressure on the Tang Family will ease. That pressure will shift toward Mount Hua instead.”
Tang Gun-ak let out a sigh.
“It seems I……”
Tang Gun-ak straightened his posture. Then, with a far more serious face, he looked at Chung Myung.
“I think I misjudged you.”
“How did you see me?”
“A little punk who’s only good at fighting.”
“……”
“Let me correct that. A little punk who’s also good at fighting.”
Tang Bo, you bastard.
You little shit, Tang Bo.
Just wait until later. I’ll deal with you then. You lousy bastard, you can’t even take care of your descendants properly?
Whether he knew Chung Myung’s thoughts or not, Tang Gun-ak simply stared at him in silence.
What exactly is this boy……?
Tang Gun-ak did not have much experience of having his innermost thoughts laid bare. In particular, he had never once been stripped so thoroughly by a child who had not even lived half the years he himself had lived.
Such power, and such shrewdness.
Tang Gun-ak’s assessment of Mount Hua and Chung Myung shifted in his mind. And that shift naturally brought about a change in his attitude.
“I admit it. That is what I want.”
Tang Gun-ak simply acknowledged Chung Myung’s words.
Lying in front of someone who could see straight through him was not wise. If they could no longer trust each other, negotiation would only grow more difficult. It was better to admit it cleanly and move on.
“So Mount Hua sees things differently?”
“No. It’s not different. It’s just……”
“Just?”
“If we form an alliance, the Tang Family gains breathing room, while Mount Hua has to endure more scrutiny. That makes it unfair.”
“Hmm……”
“We want a proper price. Not a token gesture dressed up as compensation, but a fair price.”
Chung Myung looked at Tang Gun-ak with dark, steady eyes.
“That’s how a real negotiation works.”
“Hmm. I see. Then I……”
Before Tang Gun-ak could finish, Chung Myung cut in.
“Ah, before that.”
“Hmm?”
The smile vanished from Chung Myung’s face.
“Let’s make one thing clear. This isn’t the Tang Family bestowing a favor upon Mount Hua. It’s Mount Hua doing the Tang Family a favor by hearing you out.”
“……”
“So wipe that look off your face like you’re standing above us. I’m representing Mount Hua right now.”
At Chung Myung’s blunt declaration, Tang Gun-ak’s face hardened in an instant.
For that brief moment, Tang Gun-ak’s expression shifted several times. But when it finally settled, there was little force left in his voice.
“It seems I made a mistake.”
Tang Gun-ak rose from his seat and cupped his hands to Chung Myung in salute.
“I, Tang Gun-ak, Lord of the Sichuan Tang Family, offer my apologies to Chung Myung of Mount Hua.”
“I’ll accept that apology.”
Chung Myung returned the salute with a broad grin.
The two of them sat back down and faced each other in silence.
Nothing about their outward appearance had changed, but the atmosphere between them was completely different now.
“What must the Tang Family do for Mount Hua to take our hand?”
“Three things.”
“Three?”
“The first is weapons.”
Tang Gun-ak’s face turned rigid.
“The Tang Family’s poison and hidden weapons can never leave our possession. If you want the Tang Family’s hidden weapons, then this negotiation is over.”
“Not hidden weapons. Mount Hua has no use for those anyway.”
“Then?”
Without a word, Chung Myung drew the sword at his waist.
Drawing a weapon before the Tang Family Lord without permission was extremely rude, but Tang Gun-ak guessed there was intent behind the action and quietly watched.
“See this?”
“Hmm.”
The Plum Blossom Sword Chung Myung had drawn was completely ruined.
“The quality is poor.”
“I pushed it too far, but even without that, it wasn’t a very good sword to begin with. It couldn’t be helped. Mount Hua didn’t have money. We do now, but finding a smith who can make good swords in large numbers is still difficult.”
“The good ones are already monopolized by other sects.”
“Exactly. But here, you have the best smiths in the Central Plains. Making swords should be child’s play for them.”
“Hmm. Isn’t it said that a true calligrapher doesn’t blame the brush?”
“Nonsense. Go to a calligrapher’s home and they’ve probably got a hundred brushes lying around.”
“Ha. Fair enough.”
Tang Gun-ak nodded.
The Tang Family possessed the finest artisans in the world and never spared expense when it came to forging superior weapons. So he was not displeased by Chung Myung’s words, which showed he understood the importance of weapons.
“Even if a sword is poor, a skilled fighter can still perform. That doesn’t mean there’s no difference between a good sword and a bad one. I’ve heard the Tang Family’s forging art is the best in the world. If the Tang Family could make Plum Blossom Swords and supply them to Mount Hua, that would be wonderful.”
“I’ll accept that. It’s not a difficult matter.”
Given the Tang Family’s capabilities, making swords for a Mount Hua that had shrunk in scale was no more than child’s play.
So the next demand would be the real one.
“And the second?”
“Teach me one of your techniques.”
Tang Gun-ak frowned again.
“You sound like you know us well, yet you keep making outrageous demands. The Tang Family’s secret arts can only be passed down through blood.”
“You’re making me repeat myself. I said a technique, not a secret art.”
“Hmm? Then what?”
A technique that wasn’t one of the Tang Family’s secret arts? Did such a thing even exist in the Tang Family?
Under Tang Gun-ak’s puzzled gaze, Chung Myung wordlessly took off his upper garment.
“……”
Then he began unwrapping the bandages wound tightly around his abdomen.
“Hmph.”
Where the wound had been, only a faint trace of red remained. In just three days, the stab wound from the blade had completely healed.
“That’s remarkable recovery.”
“It’s because your medicine is good.”
“……Don’t tell me, you mean……?”
“Yes. What I want is the Tang Family’s medicine.”
“……”
Tang Gun-ak’s expression turned peculiar.
The Tang Family’s medicine?
Of course, that could hardly be called the Tang Family’s secret art. The Tang Family’s true secret arts were poison and hidden weapons.
But it was not something that could be easily handed down either. There was no lineage for it.
“Why are you interested in it? No one has ever tried to learn the Tang Family’s medicine before.”
“Because I need it.”
Chung Myung shrugged.
As Tang Gun-ak said, the Tang Family’s medicine did not have much value in itself. It was impossible to run a proper clinic using only the Tang Family’s medical arts.
Why?
The answer was simple. It could not cure disease. The Tang Family’s medicine focused solely on external injuries and internal injuries.
Think about it.
Unless you were a martial artist, how often did you suffer a severe wound, poison, or internal injury? If you opened a clinic for that alone, you’d end up shutting your signboard and waiting around for people to get hurt just so you could treat them.
But.
Mount Hua needs it.
Dang Bo had told him in a dream.
How important medicine was.
Chung Myung had not listened to him properly either. He had thought it was better to grow stronger than to prepare for injuries with medicine. If he became stronger, he wouldn’t get hurt.
But what reality had Chung Myung faced because of that?
Everyone died.
If Chung Myung had known the Tang Family’s medicine back then, he might have been able to save at least a few people. But the Chung Myung of that time knew nothing more than a crude trick for forcing out inner energy.
Can you stitch together severed organs with inner energy?
Not a chance.
If Chung Myung had known medicine then, Tang Bo might not have died that way. Even now, he could not forget Tang Bo’s face as he gripped his hand with a sword buried in his chest and begged him to look after the Tang Family.
He did not want Mount Hua’s disciples to go through that.
The helplessness and the sorrow were too much for any person to bear.
“Teach Mount Hua the Tang Family’s medicine. Then people will naturally come and go between us, and the bond between us will deepen.”
“Hmm. That won’t be easy. I’d have to persuade the elders as well.”
“That’s why I put it down as a condition.”
Tang Gun-ak narrowed his brows.
It was certainly not easy. Still……
“I’ll do what I can to make it happen.”
If it was the price of gaining Mount Hua, then he could give it. No, he had to give it and gain Mount Hua.
“That much, I can somehow manage. But now that I’ve heard this far, I’m almost afraid to hear the third and final condition. It must be the biggest one, yes?”
“Yes. It’s the biggest.”
“What is it?”
Chung Myung took a slight breath.
Then he looked Tang Gun-ak in the eye and spoke.
This was not Mount Hua’s request.
This was Chung Myung’s request alone.
“Please think of Mount Hua as a friend.”
“Isn’t that already obvious? We are allies……”
“Not allies. Friends.”
“……”
Chung Myung’s voice was absolutely firm.
“Not allies that can be discarded whenever convenient, depending on conditions and circumstances. A friend who reaches out a hand when things get hard. That’s the kind of relationship I want.”
It was a meaningless statement.
It wasn’t something that could be promised, and even if it were promised, it wasn’t something that could be kept. Chung Myung knew that very well.
Even so, he couldn’t stop himself from saying it.
“I don’t understand.”
Tang Gun-ak spoke honestly.
“Everything you’ve asked for until now has had its own reason. But this one, I can’t see any reason behind it. Did I miss something?”
“No.”
“And yet you’re asking for this?”
“Well……”
Chung Myung slowly closed his eyes.
— Big brother Taoist!
Don’t make that face.
You damn bastard.
Opening his eyes again, Chung Myung shrugged.
“Let’s just say it’s my whim.”
“A whim……”
Tang Gun-ak spoke with a stiff expression.
“Do you know this?”
“Know what?”
“There have been countless people who wanted to stand with the Tang Family.”
That much was obvious.
The Tang Family was the ruler of Sichuan.
“But not one of them ever said they wanted to become friends with the Tang Family. That was a very interesting thing to say.”
“So what’s your answer?”
“My answer……”
Tang Gun-ak’s lips curled slightly.
“We don’t know how to treat a friend.”
“……”
“So I’d be grateful if Mount Hua could teach us. What it means to be friends.”
Chung Myung grinned.
“That’s not difficult.”
“Then that’s good.”
Tang Gun-ak smiled and nodded.
How embarrassing.
Friend. A friend.
An unthinkable word.
And yet that childish-sounding phrase tickled at Tang Gun-ak’s heart. Perhaps because it had come from the mouth of the most inscrutable person he had ever seen.
“I’ll accept the three conditions.”
“Good.”
“Then I’ll consider the alliance between the Tang Family and Mount Hua concluded. The only question now is whether Mount Hua will accept this negotiation.”
“I’ll write a letter for you. Send it to Mount Hua with your seal, and that should do it.”
“You have that much influence in Mount Hua?”
“No. It’s more that……”
“Hmm?”
Chung Myung said with a strange expression,
“Our sect leader and elders have had so much built-up resentment from being ignored and looked down on that…… if they hear the Tang Family’s situation, they’ll probably be moved to tears and welcome it.”
“……”
Tang Gun-ak’s cheeks twitched.
For the Tang Family of all people to be treated like a pack of guys getting beaten around……
“Anyway, I understand. Then this settles it……”
“Where are you going?”
Tang Gun-ak, who had begun to rise, stopped short and looked at Chung Myung.
“Is there more to say? If we want to handle this quickly, I need to move right away.”
“We still have to negotiate.”
“Didn’t we just finish negotiating?”
“No, no. That was the negotiation with Mount Hua.”
Chung Myung jabbed a finger at something.
“This is about this.”
The wound.
Chung Myung’s finger was pressed against the injury that now had only a faint red mark left behind.
Tang Gun-ak’s eyes twitched.
“I, I gave you the Thousand Poison Pill!”
“Oh, you’re really something, aren’t you! You think you can sweep a life-and-death matter under the rug with one lousy miracle pill? Human beings came before miracle pills, or miracle pills came before humans?”
“……”
“It was because it was me that I survived, me! If it had been anyone else, they’d be dead! And you think you can just toss out some Thousand Poison Pill or whatever and wash your hands of it?”
“N-no……”
“Tch. So this is how the Tang Family treats a friend? Acting like you’ll give everything, and then this? Tsk, tsk, tsk. No wonder you don’t have friends, no wonder! A person has to keep their word!”
Tang Gun-ak’s face flushed bright red.
“What do you want?”
“Can I say it?”
“I can’t stand hearing that the Tang Family has no integrity! Go on then, say it! What do you want?”
“Oh? Really?”
Chung Myung’s eyes sparkled.
“It’s nothing that grand……”
“Go on.”
“No, I don’t even need to say it aloud.”
“……Huh?”
Chung Myung rummaged through the upper garment he had thrown aside.
“Let’s see. It should be here…… Ah! Here.”
Hm?
What was that?
A booklet?
Chung Myung handed the booklet he had taken out of his clothes to Tang Gun-ak with a broad grin.
“If I said it out loud, it’d take too long, so I organized it in advance.”
“……”
“Hehe. You don’t have to praise me for being prepared. It’s basic, after all. Makes things easier for both of us.”
“……”
Only then did Tang Gun-ak realize something.
All anger comes from the mouth.
And that anger explodes the moment one meets that demon bastard.
A short while later, when the Tang Family attendants saw Tang Gun-ak leaving his quarters, they whispered among themselves that the lord had been wandering around with a dazed expression no one had ever seen before.