Mount Hua Has Found a Treasure (2)
"Haaah."
Hyun Jong let out a low sigh as he looked at the sunlight pouring through the window lattice.
To someone else, that sunlight might have marked the start of a pleasant day. But to those who struggled just to survive the next one, there was nothing more hateful than that same light.
Another morning already.
In the end, another day had begun.
Two days had already passed. Of the deadline Gong Ru-jue had given them, there were now only five days left.
Five days. Barely five days.
Hyun Jong quietly closed his eyes.
Five days...
If they failed to raise one hundred thousand nyang within that short span, Mount Hua would lose every last one of its halls and be cast out into the streets.
There were three things that kept a person alive: clothes, food, and shelter.
To lose a place to live meant no longer being able to live at all.
Of course, those who had once belonged to Mount Hua would somehow find other lives to lead. But Mount Hua itself would no longer be able to keep the name Mount Hua.
Perhaps those with conviction and will might remain, carrying the name forward. But it would be only a name. For Mount Hua, after so many long years as a prestigious sect, it was as good as a death sentence.
What could you call a great sect that once held thousands of disciples, now reduced to a dozen, surviving only by clinging to the shell of its inherited arts? Could anyone really say it had not been destroyed?
Those who lost their home had no choice but to scatter. For a while, some might continue to follow him, but once survival grew uncertain, they would all set off in search of their own paths.
And little by little...
No.
Hyun Jong shook his head sharply.
This is no time for weak thoughts.
There were still five days left. If they could somehow raise the money before then, Mount Hua could be saved.
He was the Sect Leader of the great Mount Hua. He could never give up until the day Mount Hua vanished from the world. Everyone else might be allowed to yield, but not him. He had no right to do so.
Hyun Jong raised a hand and rubbed his face.
He had reached out to everyone who had even the smallest thread of connection to Mount Hua. Letters describing Mount Hua's plight had been scattered across the world. Among them, surely, there had to be someone who would help.
If even one person would lend a hand...
Without realizing it, Hyun Jong gave a hollow laugh.
Someone to help us?
If they had intended to help, they would already have done so. Even when Mount Hua still had something left worth taking, there had been no real helping hands.
And now that Mount Hua had already fallen, who would possibly lend such an enormous sum as one hundred thousand nyang?
Heavy.
It was a burden he could not avoid and could not ignore. Yet day by day, that weight pressing on him was becoming unbearable.
The fear that Mount Hua's line might end under his watch was enough to crush even a clear mind. In the sleepless nights that followed, he prayed again and again not to see the next morning come.
Then—
"Sect Leader!"
Hyun Jong hurriedly straightened his robes.
No matter what turmoil raged inside him, he could not show that kind of face to his disciples. Even if Mount Hua fell tomorrow, he had to let them remember only the dignified image of a Sect Leader.
"What is it?"
"P-please come outside for a moment."
"Hm?"
Hyun Jong tilted his head.
But only for a moment. He rose at once and stepped outside. There, just beyond the door, Un Geom stood with a faintly dazed expression.
"Un Geom?"
Hyun Jong narrowed his brow.
This wasn't Unam, but Un Geom. Wasn't Un Geom currently in charge of Baekmae Hall? If Unam had come looking for him, that would mean something had happened in Mount Hua. But if Un Geom had come, then it meant the problem was in Baekmae Hall.
But something serious enough to require the Sect Leader's attention in Baekmae Hall?
At this hour, too?
"What is the matter?"
"S-Sect Leader."
Un Geom's face looked strange. He seemed both badly shocked and thoroughly drained.
Just what happened?
It took immense spiritual effort to gather a bunch of unruly children who couldn't understand a thing and teach them to behave. The fact that Un Geom had been chosen as the man for that job spoke volumes about how composed he was.
And yet even Un Geom was failing to keep his calm now.
"I'll explain in detail when we get there, Sect Leader! You must see it for yourself."
"......Lead the way."
Without another word, Hyun Jong followed after Un Geom.
It would not be difficult to ask what was going on. But if Un Geom was acting this urgently, then it must be a matter of some importance. He would hear the explanation on the way; there was no need to waste time.
"Yes, Sect Leader!"
Un Geom unleashed his lightness skill and shot ahead. Hyun Jong immediately followed.
Where is he taking me?
Hyun Jong frowned slightly. The path Un Geom was heading down was not toward Baekmae Hall. It was toward Yeonhwabong, which rose behind it.
Why Yeonhwabong?
But Un Geom evidently had no intention of answering his questions, because he poured all his effort into climbing the peak.
I’ll know when we get there.
Halfway up Yeonhwabong, following Un Geom, Hyun Jong began to spot the third-generation disciples collapsed along the roadside here and there.
Hm?
Why were those children lying there like that? And why did they all look like...
Hyun Jong's eyes widened.
Along both sides of the narrow trail leading up Yeonhwabong, the children were sprawled out. Even with the Sect Leader standing before them, they didn't have the energy to lift their heads and were only gasping for breath.
"J-just what is this?"
Un Geom barked sharply.
"You little brats! The Sect Leader has come, and you still can't show proper respect?"
"Leave them be."
"But, Sect Leader—"
"More than that, why are the children in such a state?"
"That is..."
Un Geom hesitated, then abruptly turned his head.
"Chung Myung! Where is Chung Myung?"
Chung Myung? Why was that name coming up here?
Hyun Jong looked at Un Geom with a completely baffled expression. Chung Myung was the child who had recently joined Mount Hua, wasn't he? Why was he being called for?
"I'm here."
Before the question could even settle, an answer came back.
Hyun Jong instinctively turned toward the voice, and his eyes flew wide open.
"Y-you? Why are you... huh?"
Chung Myung stepped out from behind a tree looking like something that had crawled out of a grave.
His face was paler than paper, and his lips had turned a faint blue. The dark shadows beneath his eyes had sunk almost all the way to his chin.
In short, he didn't look human.
It would not have been strange if he had simply toppled over dead on the spot.
"Just what happened here?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. I think I trained a little too hard..."
What kind of nonsense was that?
If a person could end up looking like that just from training a little, then not a single man earning his keep by the sword in the martial world would have survived. He needed to make sense when he spoke.
Then Un Geom hurriedly interjected.
"That's not the important part right now."
For a moment, Hyun Jong glared.
Not important?
"What nonsense are you spouting now!"
How could the Hall Leader of Baekmae Hall say such absurd things?
Baekmae Hall was Mount Hua's future. The third-generation disciples training there were the beams that would one day support Mount Hua. And yet this fool—this Hall Leader—was saying such a thing...
"You need to come here. Chung Myung found something strange."
"Something strange?"
"Q-quickly!"
Un Geom's manner was terribly urgent.
No...
If anyone else had acted like this, Hyun Jong would have shouted at them immediately. But the person fidgeting before his eyes was none other than Un Geom. The most composed man in Mount Hua was now darting around like a colt with its tail on fire.
In the end, Hyun Jong followed Chung Myung and Un Geom into the brush as though possessed.
"Just what is it...?"
Hyun Jong's words did not continue.
In his sight was a patch of freshly dug earth, and beneath it, an old chest had been exposed. Its lid was half-open.
Hyun Jong's eyes grew wider and wider.
He could see it.
Inside the half-open chest, something golden was gleaming. There was only one kind of metal in the world that could give off such a golden light.
But what seized Hyun Jong's gaze was not merely the gold. It was the ledger lying beside it.
The title of that ledger seemed to suck at Hyun Jong's very soul.
Da Mount Hua Sect Hwaum County Business Ledger
The absurdly long title, followed by a number at the end.
"T-this... th-this..."
Hyun Jong could not regain his composure.
Why on earth had this come out here? And why had it appeared together with that gold?
Standing before a reality so unbelievable, he was afraid to step closer. He feared that if he reached out carelessly, those things might vanish like a mirage.
"H-how did you find this?"
"That child found it."
"That child?"
Hyun Jong's head snapped around. There was Chung Myung, looking like a walking corpse.
"H-how did you find this?"
Chung Myung, half dead on his feet, forced out the words with great difficulty.
"Da... dawn... I was going to dawn training..."
"What?"
Hyun Jong tilted his head at that mosquito-like voice, and Un Geom quietly translated for him.
"He says he came up Yeonhwabong for dawn training."
"Dawn training? Since when has he been doing that?"
"It's been a while now. Ever since that child arrived."
"Hm?"
Ever since that child arrived?
How long had that child even been here?
Ah, no. That's not what's important right now.
The details could be questioned later.
"So you found this while climbing Yeonhwabong for dawn training?"
"Strictly speaking, I was so exhausted that I wanted to rest a little in the brush, but the place I sat on was strangely hard, so I looked down and saw something sticking out. I thought something might be there, so I dug it up, and then..."
"Good heavens!"
"But... the thing inside was so... unusual that I thought it would be better to report it to the elders of the sect rather than check it myself."
"S-speak slowly. What kind of training turns a person into a half-dead wreck like this?"
"Training is... the root... of a martial artist..."
"R-right, fine, I get it. You, go rest for a bit! I'll look at it myself."
Hyun Jong swallowed dryly and approached the chest. Then he reached his trembling hand inside. What his fingers touched was not the dazzling gold that had stolen everyone's gaze, but the ledgers beside it.
"The Da Mount Hua Sect Hwaum County Business Ledger."
As he pulled each one out, Hyun Jong muttered as though in a daze. His trembling hands betrayed just how violently his emotions were surging.
He could not even bring himself to open the books. If he clumsily did so and the old pages crumbled to dust, he would never close his eyes in peace, even in death.
"The Da Mount Hua Sect Records."
This was clearly a historical record of Mount Hua. It might not serve a practical purpose like the ledger, but from the standpoint of the Sect Leader of Mount Hua, it might actually be even more important.
Carefully setting the books he'd pulled out aside, Hyun Jong's eyes fell on the title of the volume resting neatly beneath them.
"Ch-ch-ch..."
The muscles around his eyes twitched.
"Chilmaegeomnok?"
His entire body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"T-this is here... This is..."
"S-Sect Leader!"
"Krrrgh."
Hyun Jong's consciousness went white, and his body fell straight backward.
"Sect Leader!"
"Pull yourself together, Sect Leader!"
Hearing the shouting from all around him, Hyun Jong smiled brightly even as he lost consciousness at the very end.
What had come out of this chest was not merely wealth and books.
It was hope.