Have They All Gone Mad? (5)
Hyun Dang. Ha U-ryang.
Once, he had been hailed as Mount Hua’s greatest genius, the one everyone believed would restore the declining sect to its former glory.
Back then, Hyun Jong had never once doubted that Hyun Dang would become Mount Hua’s Sect Leader. To the younger Hyun Jong, Hyun Dang had been both idol and aspiration.
And yet Hyun Dang had betrayed the expectations poured upon him and walked out of Mount Hua with his own two feet.
Right on the eve of becoming the new Sect Leader, no less.
What a shameless bastard.
Hyun Young bit down hard on his lip.
His anger wasn’t simply because Hyun Dang had been a traitor who abandoned Mount Hua.
That, at least, could be understood.
Mount Hua had been in such a miserable state at the time that it was hard to blame those who left. Hyun Young himself had resented the ones who abandoned the sect, and yet somewhere deep inside, he could still understand their choice.
But Hyun Dang was different.
He had walked out with his fellow disciple Hyun Beop right before taking office as the new Sect Leader, without even a word.
If it were possible for such a thing to happen now, it would be as if all the Un-generation disciples had died and Baek Cheon had been forced to become Sect Leader. Then Baek Cheon would have turned his back on the sect and left Mount Hua, dragging Baek Sang and the disciples who followed him along with him.
Of course, Mount Hua now had Yu I-seol, Yoon Jong, and above all, Chung Myung. So would anything truly catastrophic happen if Baek Cheon abandoned the sect? Unfortunately, the Mount Hua of that time had none of them.
All the hope of the sect had rested on Hyun Dang alone.
And that incident had been a devastating blow to Mount Hua, which had only just barely managed to preserve the shape of a sect.
The previous Sect Leader had wasted away and ascended to the heavens, and the one who should have become the next Sect Leader had kicked over the chair and walked out of the sect.
What clearer omen of ruin could there possibly be?
That incident had convinced one person after another that Mount Hua had no future, and they had left in droves.
Not only that, but all the sects Mount Hua had maintained relations with severed their ties as well.
In other words, it meant that the one who dealt the final blow to the already collapsing Mount Hua was none other than Hyun Dang.
Grit.
Every time Hyun Young thought about it, his teeth still ground together.
Hyun Jong, who had never dreamed he would become Sect Leader, had been thrust into the position without time to prepare, simply because he was the most senior among those left in Mount Hua.
Hyun Young remembered it clearly.
The Sect Leader’s seat.
Hyun Jong, the moment he climbed into that heavy and painful place, only to watch in silence as disciples abandoned Mount Hua in droves.
That small, forlorn back of his.
And to Hyun Young, who knew the path Hyun Jong had walked since then, Hyun Dang was more hateful than even Zhongnan.
He bit his lip again.
There stood Hyun Dang, visibly flustered, and before him Hyun Jong, calmly radiating an imposing pressure.
Look.
There he was.
The one who had endured those cruel tempests and years of suffering like an old pine clinging to a cliff face.
Hyun Young’s proud martial brother, and the dignified Sect Leader of Mount Hua.
Sect Leader.
Hyun Young had a hard time suppressing the sting at the corners of his eyes.
The Hyun Jong of the past, who had not even been worthy of standing beside Hyun Dang, now looked twice as large as Hyun Dang himself. He had overcome those long years of agony; he could no longer be the Hyun Jong of before.
“Ahem.”
As Hyun Dang stumbled over his words, startled by Hyun Jong’s presence, Hyun Beop cleared his throat quietly to break the tension.
“Sect Leader. I think your words are a little much.”
“...Too much?”
Hyun Jong’s stern gaze turned toward Hyun Beop.
“What exactly was too much?”
“......”
“Was anything I said wrong?”
“That’s not exactly...”
Hyun Beop had stepped forward, but even he seemed at a loss for words, his sentence trailing off weakly.
As far as logic went, they had no real answer to give Hyun Jong. The only reason they had been able to muster the nerve to climb Mount Hua in the first place was because the Hyun Jong in their memories had been so pathetically weak, wasn’t it?
When did this brat get so damn firm?
Hyun Beop couldn’t hide his shock.
As he had already told Hyun Dang, people did not change so easily. And yet the Hyun Jong before him felt so different from the one he remembered that it was almost like he was looking at a stranger.
Did he not now radiate a dignity fully fit to lead an entire sect?
No matter how much a person suffered, Hyun Beop had always believed their nature could never truly change. But looking at Hyun Jong now, he felt as if something he had believed in all his life was beginning to crumble.
So of course he was rattled.
“Hmm.”
Still, while he stalled for time, Hyun Dang seemed to compose himself and lifted his head with a little of his old confidence restored.
“Sect Leader.”
“Speak.”
“How could you not understand my feelings? Naturally, I am hated.”
“......”
“But is it really so difficult to give me one chance? I truly only wish to atone to Mount Hua. If you grant me that chance, I will help the Sect Leader restore Mount Hua to a sect worthy of its name. I would not hesitate even if it meant my bones would be ground to dust. Is that not why I came up Mount Hua with my entire family?”
At Hyun Dang’s long and earnest speech, Hyun Jong smiled faintly.
“I do not doubt my martial brother’s words.”
“...Then why?”
“Mount Hua no longer needs your help.”
“......”
“You said you would help Mount Hua?”
Hyun Jong stared at Hyun Dang with eyes gone cold as frost.
“Then leave Mount Hua at once. That is the only way you can help us.”
“You—!”
Hyun Beop exploded in anger, eyes blazing.
“That’s going too far! Do you think only you suffered? Why do you not understand that we who left Mount Hua have not had a single easy day either?”
“So?”
“...What?”
Hyun Jong’s eyes had gone cold enough to seem to carry a blade of ice.
“Should I comfort you and tell you how terribly hard it must have been?”
“Y-you bastard.”
Hyun Beop’s face twitched with anger that seemed to wrap around his entire body, but before that gaze of Hyun Jong’s, he could not bring himself to say another word. The tongue that usually moved so smoothly, as though oiled, now seemed frozen stiff, as if coated in pine resin.
Instead, Hyun Dang spoke.
“Hyun Jong.”
“How dare you!”
Hyun Sang, standing nearby, was about to raise his voice in outrage, but Hyun Jong lifted a hand to stop him.
“Sect Leader!”
“Enough.”
Hyun Jong slowly shook his head and looked at Hyun Dang with quiet eyes.
“Go on.”
Hyun Dang let out a deep sigh.
“I know. I am Mount Hua’s sinner. But surely you can grant me at least a chance to atone?”
“......”
“Do you remember? In the past, I especially cherished you. If you think of that connection...”
“Stop there with the meaningless words.”
“...What did you say?”
“The one sitting before you now is not Hyun Jong, your junior disciple. He is Hyun Jong, Sect Leader of Mount Hua. I do not decide Mount Hua’s great affairs based on personal feelings.”
“......”
“I will not waste words. Leave now, and never again cross Mount Hua’s threshold.”
His voice was utterly unwavering.
So much so that Hyun Dang could not find a single word to answer with.
Hyun Dang began to tremble before he realized it.
It was not admiration at how astonishingly Hyun Jong had grown. It was the unbearable humiliation of seeing someone who once could not even step on his shadow now pushing him back instead.
“You—”
Hyun Dang bit down hard on his lip.
After shaking with fury for a long while, he suddenly lifted his gaze, now cold and sharp.
“Sect Leader... no, Hyun Jong.”
“That bastard just won’t shut up!”
Hyun Young snapped, but Hyun Dang did not give him a chance to interrupt.
“I understand what you are trying to say. In the end, you are saying you cannot understand me.”
The soft manner he had shown until now was gone without a trace. All that remained was a cold smile and an arrogant expression.
Watching that, Hyun Jong let out a faint, helpless smile before he could stop himself.
Nothing has changed at all.
Hyun Dang had been exactly that sort of person even in the past.
Arrogant to the core. Insufferably so.
But Mount Hua back then had needed someone like that. It had needed someone with enough self-assurance to lead those who were losing their own.
Hadn’t Hyun Jong himself once been captivated by a man like Hyun Dang?
And yet...
It is different.
Confidence and arrogance might be similar, but they were not the same.
If Hyun Dang had taken the Sect Leader’s seat, Mount Hua would have disappeared into history without ever being reborn.
Before Chung Myung had even entered the sect.
“So you mean to send me back.”
Hyun Dang smiled thinly and said in a low voice.
“Fine. That’s a fine thing to say. But before that, let me ask you something.”
Then he fixed Hyun Jong with a cold stare.
“Do you have the right to do that?”
“......”
Hyun Jong simply looked at him in silence. Hyun Dang’s mouth twisted higher.
“Let me ask again. Do you even have the right to kick me out?”
“Why do you think I don’t?”
“Must I really spell it out for you?”
Hyun Dang reached out and picked up a cup of water. Then he drank it in one long swallow and set the cup down with deliberate ease.
That easy confidence radiating from the tips of his fingers made Hyun Sang and Hyun Young watch him with uneasy eyes.
After a brief silence, Hyun Dang looked at Hyun Jong with a mocking glint in his eyes and said,
“If you were truly Mount Hua’s Sect Leader, you would have the right to drive me out.”
Hyun Sang and Hyun Young sprang to their feet, glaring at Hyun Dang as if they meant to kill him.
But even under those looks, Hyun Dang didn’t so much as flinch. Instead, he continued speaking with all the leisure in the world.
“But let me ask you this...”
A thin, vile smile spread across his lips.
“Are you really Mount Hua’s Sect Leader?”
“That bastard—he’s pushing his luck!”
“Where do you get off spouting such nonsense!”
It was strange.
Hyun Young and Hyun Sang’s faces had gone beet red, and they were practically radiating killing intent.
And yet they could only shout. They could not hide how flustered they were.
As for Hyun Jong, even after hearing such an insult, he simply kept staring at Hyun Dang with a calm face.
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Hyun Dang smiled with the satisfaction of a man who had achieved exactly what he wanted.
“You are not Mount Hua’s Sect Leader.”
“......”
Hyun Jong’s expression did not change, but Hyun Dang leaned back with the leisurely air of a man enjoying the reaction he had provoked.
Then he spoke at a relaxed pace.
“Who decides who the Sect Leader is? The previous Sect Leader and the sect elders, of course. In other words, only the previous generation can choose the next Sect Leader.”
“......”
“And furthermore!”
Hyun Dang’s voice rose.
“The previous Sect Leader of Mount Hua—the one who chose Mount Hua’s next Sect Leader, your and my master—was none other than me. Not you, Hyun Jong. Me, Hyun Dang. I am the one who inherits Mount Hua’s rightful line, the true Sect Leader.”
Hyun Young’s face turned crimson as he shouted,
“Where do you get off talking such nonsense?”
“Nonsense?”
Even in the face of Hyun Young’s furious accusation, Hyun Dang remained calm. He glanced past him toward Hyun Jong and asked,
“Do you think so too?”
“......”
Hyun Jong did not answer.
Taking that silence as agreement, Hyun Dang lifted one shoulder.
“You know nothing. You truly know nothing. Inheriting the rightful line of a noble sect is not something so simple. Only one worthy of that right may become Sect Leader.”
“And a man who was expelled from the sect dares to speak of the Sect Leader’s right?”
“Who expelled me?”
Hyun Young shut his mouth.
Hyun Dang looked at him and shouted with all the authority he could muster,
“There is no elder above me left alive to expel me! Who in this world dares to expel me? You? What right do you have to expel me, when you were nothing more than my junior disciples?”
“You—”
He looked as though he were fighting a battle already won.
“Answer me, Hyun Jong. Who is Mount Hua’s Sect Leader? Who did your master, the previous Sect Leader, choose as Mount Hua’s next Sect Leader? If you are truly one who upholds Mount Hua’s laws, there can only be one answer.”
Hyun Jong looked at him with lowered eyes.
He held that gaze for a long moment before finally speaking.
“Mount Hua’s Sect Leader is...”