Where Is That Beggar Bastard Now? (2)
Inside the tavern, after everyone else had left, silence settled over the room.
“……K-k-kh.”
Sweat poured down Jongpal’s face like rain.
But sweat was hardly the issue.
Compared to his face, swollen up like a steamed bun, and the ache gnawing through every joint in his body, that was nothing at all.
More than anything, though, there was his head. His head.
That madman had some kind of fixation on people’s skulls. As he was beating the life out of someone, he made a point of smashing the head in between blows as well.
That lunatic… Why the hell is he doing this to me?
Good heavens.
To think the Mount Hua Divine Dragon held a grudge against him.
What kind of lightning bolt out of a clear sky was that?
“Your waist still isn’t down?”
Jongpal hurriedly straightened his knees and raised his hips.
Truthfully, resting your forehead on the floor with your hands behind your back was nothing to a martial artist.
But when you combined a body that had already been beaten for more than the time it took a stick of incense to burn down with the presence of a man sitting on your lower back, things became a little different.
“Grrr….”
“Oh, look at you, trying to act like this is hard. Are you out of your damn mind?”
“…….”
Chung Myung sat on top of him, supporting himself only with his head and toes, and kept smacking Jongpal’s waist.
“Stand straight. You calling this a posture?”
“S-sorry.”
“Tsk. I’ve really gotten soft.”
“…….”
“If this were the old days, you’d be too blind to see out of those eyes right now. I would’ve pulled every joint in your body apart. Tsk. I’m getting too nice, that’s what it is. Real nice.”
“…….”
“If you’d just stayed still, this would’ve ended the easy way. Why’d you have to go and mess with my head… Ah, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.”
Chung Myung hopped down from Jongpal’s back. Then he kicked him hard in the ribs.
“Kyaaa!”
Jongpal shrieked in a grotesque voice and went flying.
“The more I think about it, the more pissed I get! How dare this bastard—!”
Chung Myung began stomping on Jongpal without mercy.
“Agh! Ah! Great hero! Ah! Not there! Not there, please—agh!”
“What kind of crap is this, beating up a kid for no reason like some dog on a summer day? You bastard! I’ve gone my whole life without ever getting beaten until my nose bled!”
Ah. Of course, Cheon Ma was the exception.
That bastard wasn’t human.
“I’ll tie you up and toss you off a cliff, you little—!”
The kicks raining down on Jongpal were positively jubilant.
And Guchil, watching that happy? scene, could only stare with his eyes wide open at this impossible reality.
The boss is getting beaten up?
Who was Jongpal?
Among the young beggars, he was one of the strongest, if not the strongest. Even the branch had recognized that talent, which was why he’d already been given a knot rank.
If you set aside that rotten personality, he was the sort of talent that could stand out even in the Beggars’ Sect.
And yet here he was, getting thrashed like a dog on a summer day without even getting the chance to lift a hand.
Uh, that…
Well, it makes sense, I guess.
It did.
If that little beggar really was the Mount Hua Divine Dragon of Mount Hua, then even if you brought Jongpal’s grandfather, the result wouldn’t change.
Is he really the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?
What on earth had happened in the meantime?
A little beggar who had stormed out of a shack in a fit of rage after getting beaten by the boss, spouting nonsense like a lunatic—now appearing three years later as the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?
How was that even remotely possible?
Guchil rubbed his eyes again just to be sure. But the scene before him didn’t change in the slightest.
“Ah! Agh! Great hero! Please spare me, great hero!”
“Great hero? Grea-aat heeero? You bastard, I’m a Taoist priest, you idiot! Great hero my ass! I’m not your great hero!”
“Daoist sir! Please, Daoist sir, spare me!”
“I said I’m a horse-nose, you bastard!”
“H-horse-nose! Please spare me!”
“Who the hell calls a person horse-nose?”
“Then what am I supposed to call you!”
CRACK!
Jongpal jerked his body up in a spasm, but the foot planted in his face forced him right back down again.
“Grrk.”
He foamed at the mouth and rolled his eyes back.
“Hah. This bastard’s putting on an act again? You’re next—”
Just then—
Tap.
Someone laid a hand on Chung Myung’s shoulder.
“Hm?”
When Chung Myung turned, Baek Cheon was shaking his head with a serious expression.
“That’s enough.”
“Why? What’s enough?”
“I don’t know what happened, but this isn’t something you settle by beating someone like that. If he were a disciple of Mount Hua, I could understand it, but he’s a disciple of the Beggars’ Sect, is he not?”
“…….”
“If you keep hitting him, there’s going to be trouble between the Beggars’ Sect and Mount Hua. No, there may already be trouble. So stop here.”
At that, Chung Myung took his foot off Jongpal’s face and stepped back a little. He still looked sullen, but for the moment he seemed willing to stop.
“Th-thank you, great hero.”
Apparently relieved he wasn’t going to be beaten any further, Jongpal burst into tears and kept bowing toward Baek Cheon.
Watching him, Baek Cheon frowned. His face was so swollen it was becoming absurd.
“Just what in the world happened for you to beat a man like this? You’re a little thoughtless, impulsive, awful in personality, foul-tempered, and a hopeless brat who doesn’t know his place between superior and inferior….”
“How far are you planning to go?”
“……that said, you still wouldn’t beat someone without cause. Tell me. What happened?”
Chung Myung answered nonchalantly.
“Nothing that grand.”
“Mm.”
“Back when I was still a baby beggar, before I came to Mount Hua.”
“Right.”
“This bastard gave me a proper beating once.”
“……He what?”
“I was weak back then.”
“……Weak?”
What the hell are you talking about, kid?
You’re the type who’d be riding a tiger bareback the moment you were born.
“……Anyway, that’s how it was. And back then, this bastard really caved my head in with a club.”
“……Your head?”
Chung Myung nodded.
“It must’ve been such an intense experience that I never forgot it. Maybe that’s why I’m fixated on heads.”
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung and let out a snort of laughter.
“Ah. Is that so?”
“Yeah. Hah, he really beat the hell out of me back then. This still isn’t enough to get it out of my system….”
But Chung Myung never got to finish.
Baek Cheon stopped listening midway and whirled around toward Jongpal.
Seeing the sharp killing intent burning in his eyes, Jongpal flinched.
“G-great hero?”
“Was it you?”
“Pardon?”
Baek Cheon’s heel came crashing down on the crown of Jongpal’s head.
BOOOOM!
With a thunderous sound, Jongpal collapsed limply. Then Baek Cheon climbed onto him and started throwing punches without a word.
“You bastard! Because of you! Huh? Because of just you, Mount Hua has victims…! You damn bastard!”
Yoon Jong, Jo Gul, and Baek Sang all rolled their eyes back and leaped onto Jongpal as well.
“Because of this bastard!”
“Aaaagh! Enemy! A mortal enemy who can never be forgiven!”
“I’m going to kill you!”
The disciples of Mount Hua all started stomping on Jongpal at once.
Even Yu I-seol, stationed at his head, crouched down and tapped Jongpal’s skull with her scabbard.
“Head. Head. Head. Head.”
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
Jongpal twisted under the blows, screaming in agony. But the beating didn’t stop.
“This is for the Baek generation! This is for the Cheong generation! This is for Namgung Do-wi!”
Baek Cheon’s fist snapped Jongpal’s jaw to the side with brutal delight.
Even while stars burst before his eyes from the pounding, Jongpal couldn’t help thinking:
Why the hell was Baek Cheon, a disciple of Mount Hua, claiming a share on behalf of Namgung Do-wi too?
But there wasn’t even a moment to voice the question.
At that moment, Chung Myung, who had been watching the spectacle, unconsciously reached out a hand.
“Uh, hey….”
“What!”
“He’s going to die if you keep….”
“You stay out of this!”
“…….”
Everyone’s eyes were bloodshot as they mercilessly laid into him.
“You mean I nearly had my head split because of you?”
“Uncle! Let’s drag this bastard to Mount Hua!”
The rationality had vanished from the eyes of Mount Hua’s disciples.
Had their heads ever known a single peaceful day over the past three years?
They were beaten for not training properly, beaten for getting the forms wrong, beaten for being bored, beaten for being too slow.
And now that they thought those long, arduous years of suffering had all been caused by this one beggar bastard, it felt like they could breathe fire out of their mouths.
“Why’d you go and smash the kid’s head, you bastard!”
“If you hadn’t beaten him, that guy wouldn’t have come to Mount Hua!”
“Die! Die! Dieee!”
Chung Myung watched the scene with a sour expression.
“No, I’m the one who should be beating him up….”
Why did they look even angrier than I do?
Why?
Just then—
BOOM!
The door flew open so violently it looked ready to splinter apart, and a crowd of ragged beggars surged into the tavern.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing!”
“Good heavens!”
“How dare you lay a hand on a disciple of the Beggars’ Sect! Have you all lost your minds?”
The disciples of Mount Hua jerked their heads around in surprise.
A dozen or more Beggars’ Sect heroes, each carrying a staff in one hand, had entered the tavern.
Judging by the fury all over their faces, they seemed to have come after already learning what was happening here.
“Good heavens!”
“You’re beating a man like this?”
The beggar leading the group twisted his face in outrage at the sight of Jongpal sprawled on the floor.
“……What in the world is going on here?”
Baek Cheon quietly stood up and stepped aside. The other disciples of Mount Hua seemed to grasp the atmosphere too, because they shut their mouths and slowly backed away.
“You’re disciples of Mount Hua, are you not? Is that correct?”
Baek Cheon exhaled and stepped forward.
“I am Baek Cheon of Mount Hua.”
He gave a formal fist-and-palm salute, but the other man didn’t return it. A clear sign that he had no intention of showing courtesy.
“Then explain yourselves. What exactly happened that led the disciples of Mount Hua to beat a disciple of the Beggars’ Sect as a group? If you cannot give a reasonable explanation, Mount Hua will have to bear the wrath of the Beggars’ Sect.”
Baek Cheon’s face stiffened slightly.
“That is….”
And just as he was about to speak—
“Ah. Move aside! Why are you blocking the way like this?”
A loud voice rang out from the back.
Immediately, the beggars blocking the entrance moved aside in perfect unison and cleared a path.
Is some big shot coming?
Baek Cheon stared toward the entrance, tense. The one in front of him was a six-knot beggar, and even within the Beggars’ Sect that was no low position.
But if someone even greater was arriving, then at minimum it would have to be a seven-knot beggar….
“Huh?”
“Hm?”
The disciples of Mount Hua tilted their heads as they watched the important-looking beggar shambling in.
He looked vaguely familiar.
“Who the hell are you people to lay a hand on our beggar brat? Do you have any idea how scary a beggar can be… Mount Hua Divine Dragon?”
“…….”
“…….”
The newly arrived seven-knot beggar—Hong Dae-gwang, branch leader of the Beggars’ Sect’s Hwahom branch—tilted his head and looked at Chung Myung.
“Why are you here?”
“You came?”
Hong Dae-gwang looked back and forth between Jongpal sprawled on the floor and Chung Myung. Then he asked again, puzzled.
“What the hell is going on? That guy’s Jongpal, isn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“I had him brought here, and then… this is what happened? For now, explain what the hell is going on.”
Baek Cheon and Guchil roughly explained the situation.
A moment later, Hong Dae-gwang stared at Chung Myung with heavy eyes.
“So….”
“Yes.”
“That beggar hit you back then?”
“Yes.”
“So now you hit him back?”
“Yes.”
Hong Dae-gwang’s eyes twitched.
“You….”
A tremendous aura of fury burst from his face.
“That little beggar bastard was trying to ruin the Beggars’ Sect, wasn’t he?!”
In an instant, Hong Dae-gwang drove off the ground with a movement so fast it was shocking, launched himself forward, and kicked Jongpal in the jaw just as the man was struggling to his feet.
“Aaaagh!”
Jongpal, still not understanding what the hell was going on, crashed back to the floor.
Hong Dae-gwang snorted angrily and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“You bastard! You should’ve set fire to the headquarters instead! What? You were beating people? Answer me honestly, you bastard! You’re a spy from the Demonic Sect trying to bring down the Beggars’ Sect, aren’t you!”
“Agh! Branch leader! N-no… I’m not…!”
“You aren’t? Like hell you aren’t! If I say you are, then you are, you bastard!”
Hong Dae-gwang rolled his eyes back and started stomping on Jongpal.
The Mount Hua disciples, who had been watching and gauging the mood, joined Hong Dae-gwang and began stomping on Jongpal again.
In the blink of an eye, a joint operation between Mount Hua and the Beggars’ Sect was underway.
The Beggars’ Sect experts, who had charged in with great momentum, were left dumbstruck by the bizarre spectacle.
What on earth is happening?
I don’t know.
Something’s… something is happening, though.
One man getting beaten.
Those surrounding him beating him.
And those watching the whole thing.
Amid that strange coexistence, Chung Myung spoke in a dismayed voice.
“No, hey….”
Stop beating him, guys.
…At this rate, he really will die.
A gentleman’s revenge is never too late, even if it takes ten years.