We Can Make This a Little Bigger. (5)
"Grrrrrrrrrr."
"Uuuuuugh."
"Aaaagh!"
One long, dying groan after another poured out, until the sound had practically become one of Mount Hua’s defining features.
Baek Cheon, sweat streaming from every inch of his body, had bound several logs together with thick, sturdy hemp rope and was now trying to drag them all at once.
"Gnnngh."
His arms trembled uncontrollably, and his lower back stung like it had been jabbed with needles.
This is supposed to be what, exactly?!
Beside him, another near-death moan drifted out.
"Grrrnnngh. Sasuk…."
"What."
"I’m going to die."
At Yoon Jong’s pained complaint, Baek Cheon let out a deep sigh.
He couldn’t help it. The sight before him was just too absurd to process.
"You there! Hold it straight!"
"If you just bury it like that, the pillar will twist! Dig more! Dig deeper! More!"
"I told you, there can’t be a single pebble where the training yard goes! Don’t just pick out the stones—dig everything up and pack in fresh earth again! Why can’t you understand a simple thing?"
"…."
Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut.
I should have expected this the moment he said Elder Hyun Young would be coming with us.
If Hyun Jong or Hyun Sang had led them here, this situation would never have happened.
But who was Hyun Young?
He was Mount Hua’s steward, the man who managed the sect’s household affairs, and a miserly money demon who couldn’t stand to see a single coin wasted.
Of course, Mount Hua now made more money than it had ever dreamed of before, but Hyun Young had lived his whole life with every coin clutched in his fist. It was impossible for him to watch money go to waste and simply let it pass.
No. That’s not even the half of it.
More precisely, he couldn’t bear to spend money even where it needed to be spent. The only time he ever opened his purse wide was when he was feeding the disciples.
Even so…
"Wouldn’t it be easier to just build a new house on an empty lot?"
"If you’re going to tear down the old house and rebuild it anyway, what’s the point of even having a pavilion?"
"And we’re not carpenters, so what exactly are we supposed to do with a house of our own—"
"You there!"
The disciples who had been voicing their complaints snapped their mouths shut. Somewhere along the line, Hyun Young had turned and fixed them with a pair of hawk eyes.
"Stop loafing around and move faster!"
"Yes!"
"Yes, Elder!"
Baek Cheon and the others rushed off at once, hurrying to carry the logs.
Hyun Young shot Baek Cheon a look of utter dissatisfaction and barked again in a voice that carried across the whole yard.
"Don’t think of this as work! This is where Mount Hua’s branch family will stand! Don’t forget that you’re building the foundation of Mount Hua’s branch right now."
Those were fine words.
Up to that point, anyway.
"So I’m telling you not to straighten your backs while you work! Think of it as digging ten times and straightening your waist only once! This, too, is part of training. You lot have inner energy and all, so what’s with all the groaning? Hmph!"
If he hadn’t tacked on that last part, Baek Cheon might have been able to respond with genuine enthusiasm.
Baek Cheon set down the log he had been dragging and lifted his head.
The disciples had split into three groups and were working like madmen.
On one side, they were clearing away a collapsed wall and rebuilding it from the ground up; on another, they were tearing up the courtyard that would become the training yard, every last inch of it.
Anyone watching would think we were digging a canal.
And the most important work was happening in the back.
The old, half-collapsed pavilion had been neatly dismantled down to dust in the hands of Mount Hua’s disciples, and work was underway to lay the foundation and raise the pillars in its place.
"This way! The pillar has to go here. Ah, warrior-nim! No, no, you can’t do it like that there! Please wait just a moment!"
"Yes, yes! Just like that! Ah, as expected, you warriors have incredible strength. This isn’t something a person should be able to lift!"
Mixed in among the workers raising the pavilion were a few people not wearing Mount Hua’s training robes, but work clothes instead.
Chung Myung had said it’d be fine to slap up a pavilion any old way, but Hyun Young was at least a man with some sense, so he had stormed over to the Eunha Merchant Guild and asked Hwang for carpenters. Hwang had laughed heartily and gladly arranged them.
Why did you do that.
You shouldn’t have!
At any rate, thanks to that, they were now in this mess.
"Still, doesn’t it look like something is taking shape?"
"I suppose…."
Baek Cheon eyed the growing estate with a sour expression.
Honestly, if they couldn’t manage it, they should have just given up cleanly and hired laborers. But these Mount Hua bastards had somehow become people who folded whenever someone told them to fold and dug whenever someone told them to dig.
Then again…
Come to think of it, weren’t they the same hopeless fools who would tie a rope around themselves and leap off a cliff just because Chung Myung told them to?
To such people, this much labor probably was nothing.
If he thought of it that way, it wasn’t a big deal. If he thought of it that way!
But there was one thing that made him especially irritated.
Glug-glug-glug-glug-glug.
"…."
Glug-glug-glug.
"…."
On a daybed in one corner, one bastard was lying there flat on his back, drinking from a gourd like he was trying to drown himself.
What the hell is the grim reaper doing? Why hasn’t he taken that one yet?
The sago brothers, the martial uncles, the martial nephews—everyone was eating dirt and working, and that bastard was…!
Baek Cheon glared.
"What?"
But the moment his sharp stare met Hyun Young’s gaze, it softened like willow leaves fluttering in the breeze.
"…Elder."
"What is it?"
"It’s not that I have any complaint about this sort of work, really. It’s just…."
"And?"
Baek Cheon’s eyes flicked toward Chung Myung, still sprawled on the daybed.
"If we’re working, shouldn’t he be working too…?"
"Oh, dear. Tsk, tsk, tsk."
Hyun Young looked at him as though he were the most hopeless creature alive.
"How can Mount Hua’s great disciple be so lacking in sense?"
Baek Cheon shrank under Hyun Young’s merciless rebuke. Hyun Young asked him,
"Have you ever seen the person who paid the money doing the labor himself?"
"…Pardon?"
"Have you ever seen the man who paid the workers to build a house rolling up his sleeves and joining them?"
"…Well, no."
"Then?"
Hyun Young frowned.
"Who do you think earned the money to buy this land and all the materials?"
"…Well…."
Baek Cheon shut his mouth like a mute stuffed with honey.
That damn bastard.
Him. That bastard.
That was an undeniable fact, one that could make anyone who even heard Chung Myung’s name break out in a fit. Bluntly speaking, hadn’t ninety-nine point nine percent of Mount Hua’s current wealth been created by Chung Myung alone, beating drums with one hand and playing the gong with the other?
"Since when in heaven or earth has it ever been the law that the man who paid the money has to work side by side with the laborers? How can a man who says he wants to become the sect leader of a whole faction not understand such a simple principle!"
"I-I was wrong."
"Tsk, tsk."
Even after laying into him once, the look of dissatisfaction in Hyun Young’s eyes showed no sign of fading.
"And if your cute martial nephew is resting a little, you should feel proud, not jealous and envious! Since when has Mount Hua been such a petty sect?"
There were far too many things he could have said in response.
Elder….
First of all, that bastard is not cute.
And second, Mount Hua has always been like this.
Honestly, where in the world is there a sect more cutthroat than Mount Hua? Where!
But though countless words surged all the way up to his throat, Baek Cheon didn’t dare say them in front of Hyun Young.
If Chung Myung was the most impossible person in the world to reason with, then this man was at least a close second.
That was when Chung Myung, who had been watching the whole scene, tilted his head and asked,
"Do I have to work too?"
"No, no. What would you be doing? You already have so much else to do. The riffraff can handle this sort of thing, so you just stay right there! Rest! Comfortably! Rest, all right?"
"I feel like I’m kind of being watched…."
"Who the hell is giving you that look? I’ll rip their eyes out!"
"…."
Elder.
Why are you saying that while looking at me?
Ah… I really wish they’d all just disappear.
In the end, Baek Cheon let out a long, defeated sigh and turned away.
Then someone approached and spoke to him carefully.
"Um… Dojang Baek Cheon. Are you very tired?"
He turned to see Wi So-haeng, the representative of Hwayeong Gate, looking at him with concern.
"Not at all, young sect representative."
"I’m sorry. This is all because of us…."
"Please don’t say that. This is for Mount Hua as well. Why would the young sect representative apologize?"
That bastard is the problem! That bastard!
"Still…."
"Hm?"
"…Thanks to the disciples from the main sect and Dojang Chung Myung, it’s come this far."
"…Pardon?"
Seeing Baek Cheon’s dazed reaction, Wi So-haeng answered with an awkward expression.
"It feels like just yesterday I came up to Mount Hua with the desperation of someone grasping at a single straw after the Doctrine Hall incident… yet not only did you protect Hwayeong Gate, you’ve now allowed us to dream of something even greater. All of that is thanks to Mount Hua and Dojang Chung Myung."
Baek Cheon fell silent.
Then he glanced toward Wi Lip-san, who was busily carrying materials with the others.
Even though he was a martial artist, it had to be difficult work. And yet there wasn’t a single complaint on Wi Lip-san’s face. On the contrary, he looked energized, urging the disciples on with a bright, spirited expression.
Wi So-haeng smiled faintly and said,
"My father seems happier than I’ve ever seen him."
Baek Cheon nodded.
Well, that makes sense.
Although the leader of Hwayeong Gate had always shown a calm exterior, it wasn’t hard to imagine how difficult the road had been for a branch sect that lacked the strength of its main sect.
"My father always wanted to expand Hwayeong Gate. He said that if Hwayeong Gate grew strong, it could help the main sect. But he grew old before he could ever realize that dream."
"Ah…."
"So I’m really happy to see him like this now. It feels as if he’s finally fulfilling the dream he couldn’t achieve in the past. All of this is thanks to Dojang Chung Myung… no, thanks to the grace of the main sect."
"That’s not it."
Baek Cheon shook his head.
"It isn’t the grace of the main sect. This was achieved directly by Gate Leader Wi Lip-san and the people of Hwayeong Gate."
"But—"
"If Hwayeong Gate hadn’t been the branch sect remaining in Mount Hua, Mount Hua would never have tried to support it. It is because Hwayeong Gate believed in Mount Hua and endured all those long years that we can now give our all like this."
"…."
Baek Cheon smiled gently at Wi So-haeng.
"So let us work hard together. Shouldn’t both Mount Hua and Hwayeong Gate make their names known throughout the world?"
Wi So-haeng smiled and nodded.
But at that moment, a voice shattered the mood.
"Elder! Those two are slacking off over there!"
"What did you say?"
Wi So-haeng and Baek Cheon both panicked and rushed back toward the materials.
Whenever you start feeling grateful, he goes and does something like that!
Just go somewhere and sleep, please!
Wi So-haeng and Baek Cheon let out synchronized sighs.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"…Roughly…?"
"…Wow. It actually works."
The Mount Hua disciples looked around with moved expressions. Ahead of them stood the pavilion, still in the middle of its finishing work.
They could handle setting the pillars, raising the walls, and putting up the roof, but the final work needed to shape it into a true pavilion had to be left to the carpenters.
"After all, a branch family needs to look good from the outside too."
"Right."
At Jo Gul’s words, Baek Cheon nodded.
"Still, this wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you do by roasting beans over a lightning fire. I can’t believe it was finished in just seven days and nights."
"If you think about it, martial artists are basically the best laborers around. One of us does the work of ten people."
They had strength greater than horses or oxen, and they could handle fine, precise work that horses and oxen never could.
Of course, no other sect would ever dream of using its carefully nurtured martial artists for this kind of thing, but common sense like that didn’t apply in Mount Hua.
"Anyway, the pavilion’s up, so now all that’s left is the branch-sect ceremony, right?"
"Of course. This is just the beginning."
"You all worked hard."
The Mount Hua disciples, having crossed one enormous mountain together, smiled at one another.
They had suffered under Hyun Young’s hellish nagging and been worn down by work that never stopped day or night.
But now that they were looking at the pavilion taking shape at last, pride in what they had accomplished—and a sense that they could do anything—was swelling in their chests.
They had forgotten one thing, however.
That there was a demon standing behind them.
"You lot are saying some strange things, aren’t you?"
"Huh?"
Everyone turned around.
At the very back, Chung Myung had been staring blandly at the pavilion. He curved the corner of his mouth as he looked at the Mount Hua and Hwayeong Gate disciples.
"Didn’t I say this from the start? With Hwayeong Gate’s current level, taking in a branch sect wouldn’t mean much."
"…Huh?"
"This is just the beginning."
Chung Myung smiled wickedly.
"Normally, this would take three months, but time’s running short, so I guess we have to be a little rougher. I’ll make sure that within fifteen days, you’ll be a branch sect anyone would recognize as properly belonging to Mount Hua."
"…Pardon?"
Wi Lip-san tilted his head, unable to understand what those words meant. But Baek Cheon, standing beside him, squeezed his eyes shut.
I pray for your souls.
If you survive, you’ll get stronger.
If you survive.