The Unexpected Kindred Spirit (5)
A thin stream of water flowed from the teapot into the cup. A faint fragrance of tea slowly spread through the air.
Hyun Jong’s eyes were fixed on the tea rippling inside the cup.
The waves, restless and trembling, soon calmed and gradually found their peace again.
So this is like Mount Hua.
He had only lately come to realize it anew.
Perhaps everything in the world was no different from watching tea fill a cup. To fill it, one had to pour the tea; and once poured, it would inevitably surge and shake for a while.
You can’t be filled without being shaken……
He had lived his whole long life without ever laying down the way of tea, and only now had he come to see the world contained within it.
“Everything in this world is the Dao……”
A faint smile touched Hyun Jong’s lips.
It would have been wonderful to pass this realization on to the disciples of Mount Hua, but just as Hyun Jong had only understood the world within tea after so many years, they too would have to seek out their own Dao for themselves.
His role was simply to stand watch and make sure they did not stray down the wrong path.
“The aroma of the tea is wonderful.”
At Hyun Sang’s words, Hyun Jong smiled warmly.
“Is that so?”
As he savored the tea, Hyun Sang slowly nodded.
“I used to not even know what the taste was like, but now I think I understand a little why so many people speak of tea ceremony.”
“You’ve become more at ease.”
Hyun Jong looked at Hyun Sang with a smile.
Hyun Sang had only recently fully recovered from the poison that had ravaged his body during the war with Maninbang. Perhaps because his body had improved, his expression seemed softer as well.
“The children who left are taking longer than expected.”
“They’re not the sort to make things easy for anyone. It may take some time, but they’ll come back without any major trouble.”
“Yes. They had better.”
Hyun Jong gazed out the window with gentle eyes. The blue, clear sky filled his vision.
“The day is truly…….”
“Aaaaaaagh!”
“……clear.”
“Indeed.”
In two different senses. In two different senses indeed.
Even at the pitiful screams coming from outside, the two men calmly continued savoring their tea as if nothing were amiss.
“What is Hyun Young doing?”
“Isn’t today the day of the settlement with the Eunha Merchant Guild? He’s meeting the young guild master.”
“Hoho. So that Hyun Young fellow is actually working……”
“Aaaagh, Hall Leader! Please save me! Aaaagh!”
“……and yet here we are, the two of us drinking tea together. I do feel a little guilty.”
“He has his own work to do.”
Hyun Sang clicked his tongue.
“And that man wouldn’t even think of it as work. If money is coming in, how could that be work? Besides, he said he didn’t even need to go personally, and still he ran off with his eyes all red. Tsk tsk.”
At his words, Hyun Jong laughed softly.
“Yes. Everyone…….”
“Aaaagh!”
“Works…….”
“H-Hall Leader! I’m serious, I’m going to die!”
“Mount Hua……”
“No, I really can’t do this anymore! Aaaagh!”
Hyun Jong never managed to finish the sentence. His eyebrow twitched once, and he fell silent.
“Ahem.”
After a loud cough, he shot to his feet and headed for the door.
Crash.
When he opened it, the disciples of Mount Hua were visible, crawling along the ground. Their faces were already half-empty, and the way they groaned and dragged themselves forward made it obvious how miserable they were.
Looking at the iron weights hanging from their arms and legs, it was easy enough to guess why they had been screaming so loudly.
“Hall Leader!”
“Please save us!”
Among them, only one person walked calmly and leisurely, utterly alone in his glory.
“You’re making far too much noise.”
Un Geom.
He looked down at the children with a broad smile. One sleeve of his robe hung empty, fluttering lightly in the wind.
“We’ve hardly even begun.”
The Mount Hua disciples looked up at Un Geom with faces as though they were about to die.
“W-We’re going to die, Hall Leader.”
“Hoho. Do you know something?”
“Yes?”
“From experience, people don’t die that easily.”
“……”
The faces of the Mount Hua disciples twitched.
It was one thing for someone else to say that, but when Un Geom said it, it couldn’t possibly sound like a joke. Hadn’t he personally gone through the brink of death and returned during the recent Maninbang crisis?
If the man himself said it, what was there to refute?
Whether he knew their feelings or not, Un Geom continued with a cheerful smile.
“I’ve spent my whole life studying martial arts, and I’ve never once heard of anyone dying from training. So you can rest easy.”
“……”
Who on earth had ever trained like this……? No, more importantly, what sane person would hear that and rest easy?
Huh?
The disciples swallowed the words they could not say aloud and stared at Un Geom in a daze.
“And.”
But Un Geom, utterly unfazed, looked at them and said,
“What I’m doing now is all for your sake.”
“……Yes?”
“Chung Myung will be back soon.”
At the mention of Chung Myung, every disciple’s face instantly turned pale.
“Given that they’ve been delayed longer than expected, there must have been all sorts of troublesome matters…… But if that bastard comes back, sees you, and thinks your training hasn’t gone nearly well enough, what do you think will happen?”
Well…….
He’d go insane. Foam at the mouth.
I don’t even want to imagine it.
Damn it!
The image of Chung Myung rolling his eyes white and rampaging was already vivid in their heads.
“……A person’s changed a little after gaining a reputation.”
“How can he be so consistent, though?”
Watching the murmuring disciples, Un Geom smiled.
“So, I’m not tormenting you. If anything, I should say I’m helping you. Better to suffer under me than under Chung Myung’s training, wouldn’t you say?”
He wasn’t exactly wrong.
At the very least, Un Geom still knew the meaning of moderation. Lately, though, he seemed to be pushing that line a bit.
“And yet…… for someone so worried, you look rather pleased.”
“That too isn’t wrong.”
Un Geom laughed as though he found it amusing.
“They say there is a Dao to everything, and it seems there is indeed a Dao to teaching as well. Since I’ve had to teach you from the perspective of learning anew from the beginning, I’ve learned many things myself. Every day is fresh—how could I not enjoy that?”
“……”
It was a grand-sounding statement, but if one translated it, it simply meant that by tossing the disciples around, he had picked up all sorts of tricks and become stronger faster.
The Hall Leader wasn’t like this before.
They’ve all been corrupted. Why are all of them like this?
The disciples of Mount Hua swallowed tears they could not shed.
If the sect leader Hyun Jong was the one who most clearly and accurately understood Mount Hua’s transformation, then the disciples were the ones who experienced that change most directly in their own flesh.
Even though the sect was growing richer and its reputation was soaring, their lives were becoming harder by the day.
It was then.
“Th-……”
At a voice coming from somewhere, everyone turned their heads at once.
“I greet the Sect Leader.”
Un Geom, only belatedly noticing Hyun Jong standing at the doorway, bowed deeply.
“Y-Yes. You must be working very hard.”
Hyun Jong glanced at the disciples still crawling on the ground. Their desperate eyes immediately poured toward him.
Sect Leader!
Please say something! Hall Leader has gone strange!
We’re going to ruin our bodies at this rate!
Hyun Jong could tell exactly what their eyes meant. After a moment’s thought, he cleared his throat.
“Were you training?”
“Yes. We became so absorbed in our training that we ended up here before the Sect Leader’s residence. We apologize for not realizing it sooner. We’ll move elsewhere.”
“No. That isn’t necessary. What place is there to train, after all? There is no place on Mount Hua where one cannot train.”
He gently shook his head, then glanced at Un Geom before speaking carefully.
“However, the training seems a little…… in my opinion, a little excessive.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Hope flooded the disciples’ eyes.
Un Geom replied to Hyun Jong with a broad smile.
“But training has no meaning if it isn’t hard. Besides, wouldn’t the training they’ve done normally save these children in a crisis? As we learned during the battle with Maninbang.”
“……”
“For the sake of the children, we must never neglect training.”
“Ahem, yes. That is true.”
Hyun Jong’s gaze drifted briefly to the disciples. It was a look full of pity.
Sect Leader!
Why won’t you say anything, Sect Leader!
But soon he turned his head away, escaping all those pleading stares.
I’m sorry.
He wanted to help if he could, but on the matter of reason, he was outmatched. More importantly, after returning from the brink of death, Un Geom had acquired a strange, detached aura that made it awkward to order him around carelessly.
“Ahem. Then keep up the hard work.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Thud.
The door closed without a shred of hesitation. The disciples of Mount Hua stared at the shut door with utterly hollow eyes.
“All right, Sect Lead……”
Having confirmed the door was shut, Un Geom smiled brightly.
“Then let us continue.”
“……”
“From the way you were looking at the Sect Leader, it seems you still have some strength left. Shall we add a little more to your training?”
“Hall Leader!”
“We were wrong, Hall Leader!”
Cries close to wailing burst out.
By now, there was no longer any dream or hope left in Mount Hua.
This is really killing me. At this point, I’d die even if Chung Myung weren’t around.
I miss the old days. I really, really miss them…….
The past.
Thinking of the peaceful, modest Mount Hua before Chung Myung ever entered it, their eyes grew hot with tears.
But unfortunately, their misery did not end there.
“All right, then, once more with vigor…….”
Rumble.
“Hm?”
Un Geom turned his head.
Rumble-rumble.
From far away, in the direction of the mountain gate, some strange sound was approaching.
“Hmm. Looks like they’ve arrived.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s all go to the mountain gate. It seems the children are returning.”
“Huh?”
Only then did the disciples hear the sounds rising from the foot of the mountain, and they sprang to their feet.
“Senior Brother is returning!”
“Open the mountain gate!”
Without exception, everyone rushed toward the gate.
The joy of being freed from training for even a moment seemed greater than their welcome for Chung Myung and the others, but Un Geom did not bother scolding them for it.
“Uncle-Master!”
“Senior Brother!”
The disciples of Mount Hua threw open the mountain gate with boundless energy. Then they gathered before it and waited for the ones climbing up to arrive.
The sight of them waiting so brightly for the senior brothers and sisters returning from a long journey was beautiful in its own way.
Only one thing felt a little strange.
Rumble-rumble.
“……But what on earth is that sound?”
“Beats me.”
Everyone tilted their heads at the mysterious noise they couldn’t identify.
And then, in that very moment.
Flash.
“Gah! My eyes!”
“What’s shining so brightly…… oh, it’s a head.”
As if the sun were rising in brilliant splendor from the horizon, a round head emerged from below the hill.
“Master Hye Yeon!”
“Welcome ba…….”
Those who had been about to greet him with bright smiles trailed off awkwardly and shut their mouths.
“Haaaa……”
Thud! Thud!
Each time Hye Yeon took another step and appeared higher over the hill, the disciples of Mount Hua flinched and backed away.
Master Hye Yeon…… right?
He looks like him, I guess?
……Did he fall into hell somewhere and come back?
There was no doubt that it was Hye Yeon, and yet somehow the feeling he gave off was completely different from the one they knew. The timid boy from when he had first set out was nowhere to be seen. In his place stood only a yaksha, eyes spewing torrents of fierce light.
“……Is that a cart noise? But it doesn’t sound like a cart…….”
“It sounds more like iron.”
Rumble. Rumble.
Once Hye Yeon had fully climbed the hill, a huge cart appeared behind him. At the same time, Baek Cheon and the others, who were pulling it, came into view as well.
“……”
Wrapped in clothes that were practically rags and coated in dust from head to toe, they carried an oppressive presence that defied easy description as they climbed the hill.
“S-Sasuk.”
“……Did you have a good trip?”
Everyone cautiously offered their greetings. Then Baek Cheon, who had been bowing his head behind Hye Yeon, abruptly lifted it.
His eyes flashed.
They swept quickly over the disciples of Mount Hua.
“……You all…….”
The corners of his mouth twisted, and the sound of teeth grinding rasped sharply.
“Look like you’ve been having a nice, easy time.”
“……”
No, we haven’t. No, we haven’t?
We really worked hard, you know?
But they could not possibly say that in front of these people. One look at the dust on their faces and the condition of their clothes was enough to show how grueling a journey they had endured.
“……Look at how clean their clothes are.”
Yoon Jong added in a quiet voice.
“……They’ve been living it up, haven’t they.”
Jo Gul followed up.
“Training needed.”
Yu I-seol’s eyes blazed with a vivid, poisonous light.
“……The senior brothers need to suffer a little too!”
Dang Soso ground her teeth.
And Baek Sang, as if he no longer had the strength to speak, let go of the cart and collapsed sideways, gasping for breath.
“……”
Baek Cheon slowly approached the welcoming disciples of Mount Hua and spoke.
“You did train hard while we were gone, right?”
“O-Of course, Senior Brother!”
“Is that so?”
His eyes emitted a cold blue glare.
“Then let’s verify that first. If I’m not satisfied, we can all die together.”
You…….
Senior Brother?
Why are you the one acting like Chung Myung…….
“Are you here?”
Just then, Chung Myung stirred awake, rubbing his eyes from atop the cart.
“Ah, I’m hungry. We should eat first.”
He leaped down from the cart and sauntered casually through the mountain gate, strolling in as though he owned the place. Around his neck, he even wore some kind of white marten.
“……”
Contrary to everyone’s expectations, there was no particular scolding to be heard.
And yet…….
Why is that even more irritating?
Exactly.
“Feels like your head’s turned, doesn’t it?”
The ones who had unknowingly followed Chung Myung with their eyes snapped their heads back so hard they nearly broke their necks at Baek Cheon’s words.
“Now then…….”
Soon, Baek Cheon’s grin spread, bright and wicked beyond measure.
The disciples of Mount Hua thought that smile somehow looked a lot like Chung Myung’s.
“Let’s see how good you really are. Let’s see how hard you’ve been working.”
“……”
Deep despair settled into the eyes of the disciples of Mount Hua.
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