This Is Hell (5)
“Caw! Caw-caw! Caw!”
Hyun Jong frowned.
“A crow, first thing in the morning…”
Of course, it wasn’t as though he disliked crows.
How could anyone call himself a Daoist if he judged the inside by the color of the outside? A crow, too, was just a bird like any other.
The problem was that, today of all days, the bird’s cry sounded profoundly ominous.
“Hah. Is it only my own heart that’s in turmoil?”
The sound of a bird should have been no different than usual, and if it felt especially inauspicious, then surely that only meant the listener’s heart was unsettled.
Hyun Jong closed his eyes quietly and tried to calm himself—
Crack.
“……”
His gaze dropped. The old teacup he had been holding had split with a fine crack.
“Hmm…”
That was coincidence too, surely?
Yes. There were days when crows cried, and there were days when teacups cracked. Surely there were even days when those two things happened to coincide by chance…
Thud!
Hyun Jong’s face twitched.
The scroll hanging on the wall, the one bearing the words Greatest Good Is Like Water, had fallen to the floor and struck with a heavy smack.
“……”
At this point, even the Grand Lord Laozi would have turned around and said today simply wasn’t his day.
‘Something’s wrong.’
What in the world was about to happen that the morning had to be filled with one ominous sign after another?
Hyun Jong slowly set down the cup and took a deep breath.
‘It is all in the heart. Everything depends on the heart…’
“Caw! Caw-caw-caw! Caw-caw-caw-caw!”
“Aaah!”
Failing to calm himself, Hyun Jong shot upright.
“Those little brats, first thing in the morning!”
He stormed out and jabbed a finger at the crows, only to suddenly feel someone’s gaze on him. He quickly lowered his hand.
“……”
“……”
Hyun Young, standing in the courtyard, tilted his head to one side.
“What are you doing?”
“……And what are you doing?”
“I couldn’t sleep well today for some reason, so I came out early to clean a bit.”
“……Is that so.”
Hyun Jong cleared his throat twice and clasped his hands behind his back.
“I was merely, ah…”
“You seem restless, Sect Leader.”
Hyun Jong’s face twisted slightly.
The older a man grew, the gentler and more measured his words should become, and yet Hyun Young only seemed to grow more cantankerous with each passing day.
Hyun Jong had just drawn in a breath to sigh and speak when—
“Sect Leader! Sect Leader!”
What now?
Hyun Jong turned with a sour expression. Hyun Sang came sprinting toward him from the distance.
“What’s all the commotion this early in the morning?”
“A— a report! A report!”
“Hmm?”
Hyun Sang reached him, gasping for breath, and shouted, “A messenger pigeon has arrived from Hwaum County! The children have reached Hwaum and are climbing the mountain right now!”
“What!”
Hyun Jong cried out in shock.
“Then right now…”
“The pigeon was a little faster, but they should be arriving any moment!”
“Good! Yes, that must be it!”
After blundering through a reflexive agreement, Hyun Jong whirled around in confusion.
“I don’t have time for this!”
Then he shot toward Mount Hua’s main gate as if launched from a bowstring. Hyun Young threw down his broom and hurried after him.
“L-let’s go together, Sect Leader!”
Hyun Sang also stumbled after Hyun Jong in a rush.
Reaching the gate in one breathless sprint, Hyun Jong stretched out both hands and shoved open the heavy wooden doors.
Then he stepped out slowly and stood looking at the final hill that led up to Mount Hua.
His breathing was slightly ragged.
He could not remember the last time he had run so frantically. That was how high-strung he was.
His heart would not settle, not even after the first sword he had ever received upon entering Mount Hua.
“They’ll come,” Hyun Young murmured.
“Yes. They will.”
Hyun Sang’s low voice reached Hyun Jong’s ears as well.
‘They’ll be here soon.’
Hyun Jong gazed up the hill, his eyes faintly distant.
‘You little rascals.’
They could have sent word first. Then he wouldn’t have had to wait so anxiously.
“They must have suffered terribly.”
“Of course they did. Where is Yunnan, after all? How could they not have struggled making such a long journey?”
“And in the midst of it, they even forged an alliance with the Sichuan Tang Family! Those ridiculous brats!”
His words came out a little heated, but they carried gratitude, regret, and sympathy all at once.
Regret for having assigned them work that should have been Mount Hua’s responsibility. Pride that they had accomplished it so spectacularly. And above all… a swelling sense of happiness.
Hyun Jong gazed at the rising peaks with slightly tear-bright eyes.
‘At least now I have something to say when I face the ancestors.’
He might not have been able to lead Mount Hua himself.
But he had found the children who would lead it.
Wasn’t that enough?
“Sect Leader. The children are coming now.”
“Mm… yes. Yes.”
Hyun Jong wiped the corner of his eye. So this was what people meant when they said age made one sentimental.
These were children who had been away from home for so long and were now returning; he ought to welcome them with a smile.
Step. Step. Step.
Soon, small footsteps began to reach them. At first they were slow, but then they grew louder, more distinct, until they seemed almost to strike his ears.
Hyun Jong clenched his fist.
They would appear now.
The proud children of Mount Hua.
The pillars who would raise Mount Hua onto solid stone and support it at last…
Those pillars…
“……”
Hyun Jong’s eyelid twitched violently.
The children had come up over the hill and were now revealed before him.
Sturdy, confident strides!
Hair in complete disarray!
Robes so filthy they had practically turned earthen-yellow!
Faces twisted as though by ghosts themselv…
‘What is that?’
Weren’t these the ones who had gone to Yunnan?
Had they stopped by hell on the way back?
Watching the boys trudge up the mountain with faces that seemed ready to beat anything that moved to death, he felt a strange chill run down his spine.
“Mount Hua…”
“It’s Mount Hua…”
“Mount Hua… Mount Hua. It’s Mount Hua.”
“……”
Seeing the disciples rolling their eyes wildly as a group, the elders flinched and took a step back.
“Damn it. They weren’t kidding when they said leaving home means suffering.”
“I’m never leaving Mount Hua again.”
“At the very least, I’m never going out with that bastard again!”
“Bath. Bath! Bathhoooouuuse!”
Yu I-seol, looking like she had lost her mind, kept shouting for a bath.
At the horrifying sight, the elders’ faces gradually went pale.
No— what in the world had those bastards been through on this journey? They’d left looking fresh and innocent…
Baek Cheon, who had been leading the group, stared at Mount Hua with glittering eyes, then lowered his gaze slightly and spotted the Sect Leader and the elders.
“Sect Leader!”
“……”
Hey, why are you looking at me like that? It’s scary…
Baek Cheon walked up to the startled Sect Leader, brought both hands together, and bowed deeply in salute.
“Baek Cheon, second-generation disciple, and four others, having completed the mission, have returned to Mount Hua!”
“Ah… ah, yes. Hmm. Good.”
Ah…
This wasn’t right.
They were supposed to be bursting into tears and welcoming him with joy.
Why had the mood suddenly become like this?
Seeing his confusion, Baek Cheon suddenly seemed to remember something and shouted, “Sect Leader!”
“Y-yes?”
“Purple Wood Grass! We brought back the Purple Wood Grass. Purple Wood Grass! Chung Myung…”
Chung Myung slammed away Baek Cheon’s outstretched hand and glared.
“Don’t touch me! You’ll lose that hand if you do!”
“……That crazy bastard.”
“We have to go to the Medicine Hall! The Medicine Hall!”
Chung Myung didn’t even look at the Sect Leader as he sprinted inside.
“Ah, bath. I’m washing. I’m definitely washing.”
“Food… is there any food left in the dining hall? I haven’t eaten in three days. I feel like I’m dying.”
“……”
The little tiger cubs, who had left home and briefly lived on their own, now felt like beasts that had come back with a few sword scars carved into them.
“Th-there…”
At that moment, Hyun Young stepped forward with a composed expression.
“Yes! First, let’s wash up and get something to eat! What happened in Yunnan, what does that matter? You must all be exhausted from the long journey.”
“But we should still report…”
Baek Cheon, the only one still clinging to his reason, tried to observe proper etiquette. But Hyun Young clicked his tongue dismissively.
“Report, my ass! If you succeeded, so what? If you failed, so what? The important thing is that you went all the way there and suffered through it!”
“No… we did succee—”
“Enough! Enough! Come on, inside!”
Hyun Young shoved at Baek Cheon’s back.
“A-ah, that is…”
“Enough, you brat! Eat first, then we’ll talk again! Right, Sect Leader?”
“Huh? Ah… yes. That’s right. Food is important.”
“Go on and wash up! I’ll tell the dining hall to prepare a meal immediately!”
At those words, Jo Gul and Yoon Jong’s eyes snapped open wide.
“Food!”
“Bwahh! We’ve been eating dry rations all the way from Yunnan…”
“Better than straw, isn’t it?”
“Ah, well, yes.”
Straw?
What on earth were they talking about?
Watching the disciples trudge inside, Hyun Jong wore an appalled expression.
“Those boys seem a little strange.”
“A little?”
“……”
Hyun Jong looked at Mount Hua’s freshly washed disciples with a sour expression.
Now that they’d come back clean and fluffy, they still looked like the same disciples he knew, but…
‘Something about the atmosphere is…’
Had they gained a bit of edge that wasn’t there before?
Or perhaps they were simply a little more relaxed?
It was hard to judge exactly, but if he had to put it into one phrase…
‘They’ve grown.’
They said travel tempers a person, and it seemed that saying was true.
The problem was…
“Ughhhh. My back’s just awful.”
Chung Myung was sprawled against the wall like a well-fed dog lying in a warm spot.
‘Isn’t that less “grown” and more “aged”?’
At this rate, he looked ready to recite poetry about time and seasons.
Of course, Chung Myung had always had a bit of an old-man streak, but right now he looked like the kind of person the elders should be calling big brother.
“So, um. Did you all return safely?”
“Yes, Sect Leader!”
As expected, Baek Cheon was Baek Cheon.
He recovered his usual dignified bearing before anyone else and answered Hyun Jong properly.
“Thanks to your concern, we were able to safely obtain the Purple Wood Grass in Yunnan. There were a few other incidents as well, but…”
Then he suddenly dropped to the floor in a full prostration.
“W-why are you doing that?”
“I ask for punishment for using the authority entrusted to me without first seeking the Sect Leader’s permission.”
“Stand up.”
“However, Sect Leader—”
“Why do you think I entrusted that authority to you? Outside of Mount Hua, you are the Sect Leader of Mount Hua. Your choice was my choice, so you have no need to beg for punishment.”
“Sect Leader.”
“Sit up.”
At those firm words, Baek Cheon unconsciously straightened his back.
Hyun Jong, who had been sternly scolding him with the force of a winter blade, relaxed into a gentle expression as if nothing had happened.
“Now then. Can you tell us what happened?”
“Yes. But first, I would like to ask one thing. Has the Tang Family head visited?”
“Yes. He told us the general circumstances at the time, but I would like to hear it again from your point of view.”
“Understood. Then I’ll begin with what happened in Sichuan.”
Baek Cheon began calmly laying out the details of their journey before the Sect Leader and elders. Whenever he left something out, Jo Gul, Yoon Jong, and Yu I-seol stepped in to fill in the gaps.
As for Chung Myung, he had already started nodding off in the back, but the story was so engrossing that nobody paid him any mind.
As the tale went on, Hyun Jong’s mouth slowly fell open.
By the time Baek Cheon had finished, even the other elders and the Un-generation instructors were staring at the returning disciples with their jaws hanging open.
“……You went to Sichuan, formed an alliance with the Tang Family…”
“Yes.”
“A-and in the process, you knocked out one of the Tang Family’s elders?”
“That was Chung Myung.”
Hyun Jong turned his trembling eyes toward the dozing Chung Myung.
“A-and then you took down a band of marauders, went to Yunnan, and came back with an alliance to the Beast Palace?”
“Their idea of an alliance and ours may be a little different, but the meaning should be close enough. At the very least, Mount Hua’s disciples now have the right to be treated in Yunnan the same way Yunnan locals are.”
“And on top of that…”
Uh. On top of that… uh…
“Y-you even secured exclusive rights to Yunnan tea?”
There was a better person to answer that question. Baek Cheon glanced toward Jo Gul.
Jo Gul immediately prostrated himself and replied, “Because the situation in Yunnan was so bad, we used my family’s merchant caravan as an intermediary without first seeking the Sect Leader’s permission, and transported grain under Mount Hua’s name. I ask for punishment.”
“Punishment?”
Punishment?
What punishment, you punk?
“Y-you managed all of this…”
Hyun Jong muttered in a daze, unable to believe it.
“In just a little over a month of travel, you managed all of this? All of it?”
What in the world was wrong with these people?
By now, it was less a matter of delight than sheer disbelief.
“Ah… um…”
He needed to respond somehow, but no words would come. At his loss for speech, Hyun Jong—stunned, awed, and overwhelmed all at once—felt Hyun Young’s hand settle lightly on his shoulder.
“Sect Leader.”
“Hmm?”
Hyun Young spoke with an unusually serious face.
“Might there be any trouble on the northern sea side, or in Western Xia?”
“Huh? What do you mean by…”
Then he glanced sideways at the sleeping Chung Myung and whispered, “Let’s send him again, Sect Leader. Who knows? Maybe this time he’ll come back with a phoenix.”
“……”
For one brief moment, Hyun Jong actually found himself tempted.