It’s None of My Business (1)
"Ugh!"
"Ghk!"
With short, strangled groans, the palace warriors of the Ice Palace crumpled one after another.
Each time it happened, a cold sweat broke out across Cho Gyeom’s forehead.
He couldn’t even bring himself to curse his own men for being beaten by youngsters who didn’t look as if they’d lived half his age. Right now, he himself couldn’t do a damn thing to the pale-faced bastard standing in front of him.
"I think this should be enough, don't you?"
"……."
Cho Gyeom flinched ever so slightly.
He did not want to admit it, but the difference in their skill was obvious. If that bastard had been aiming to subdue him without injuring him, Cho Gyeom would already be dead, his last breath freezing in the Northern Sea wind.
"You little……."
Red with anger and embarrassment, he swept his gaze around. He was the only one still standing now.
"You dare lay a hand on Ice Palace warriors in the Northern Sea and think you’ll walk away alive?"
"……You were the ones who started it."
"Shut up!"
Baek Cheon smiled with obvious satisfaction.
Chung Myung hadn’t been wrong when he’d said that if a person had nothing to say, he’d just start cursing.
Cho Gyeom ground his teeth, eyes burning.
"Not a single one of you will leave the Northern Sea alive! I’ll make you die while you regret this to the bitter end!"
"That’s a little hard to pull off with your level of skill."
"If Ice Palace learns of this, they’ll tear you to pieces and feed you to the starving beasts of winter! It’s too late to regret it now!"
Baek Cheon’s expression grew slightly odd as he listened to the threat.
"……It feels a little strange to say this, but."
"What?"
"If you talk like that, we can’t exactly send you off peacefully."
"……."
Before anyone realized it, Yoon Jong and Jo Gul had moved silently to either side, beginning to encircle Cho Gyeom.
"It becomes difficult when you’re this uncooperative."
"And we can’t exactly just slash you to pieces either."
Cho Gyeom’s eyes trembled violently.
The men from the Central Plains were pressing in on him with ugly smiles, and the way they were closing the net made it clear this was not their first time doing something like this.
Then he saw the female swordswoman behind them, blocking off his rear with a face so chillingly indifferent it was almost inhuman, and he clenched his jaw hard enough to crack it.
He hardened his resolve and glared.
Flash!
Just before the encirclement closed completely, he shot forward like lightning. Jo Gul reflexively tried to thrust his sword, but he couldn’t bring himself to pierce a man who was swinging his dao wildly even at the cost of injuring himself.
Having thrown Jo Gul off, Cho Gyeom burst into a loud, triumphant laugh and picked up speed.
"You’ll all die before you even make it out of the Northern Sea!"
Watching him vanish in an instant, Jo Gul asked urgently, "Shouldn’t we chase him?"
But surprisingly, Baek Cheon merely looked after the retreating figure with a detached expression.
"Me?"
"N-no! I mean anyone, not you specifically, Sasuk!"
"We should chase him, yes."
Baek Cheon answered without much interest.
"Still, I’m wondering if there’s any need. He’s already endured this much, which is impressive enough."
"Huh?"
"……He won’t be killed, will he?"
"One can only hope."
Baek Cheon clicked his tongue with a look of pity.
"It would be better if he just collapsed here."
There was genuine regret in his eyes.
Whoosh!
Cho Gyeom sped along the road buried under snow and ice.
Where the hell did those freaks come from?!
The fact that he had been defeated no longer mattered.
What mattered was that a group of people with that level of skill had entered the Northern Sea together. That could only mean they had some purpose here.
And they were with Han Yi-myung.
Han Yi-myung himself wasn’t the real issue, but the child he was protecting could become a serious problem for the Northern Sea.
If those Central Plains bastards had come with Han Yi-myung to target the child, then he had to act at once.
"I need to get to the palace as quickly as possi—"
"To the palace, were you?"
"I have to tell them right awa—"
Huh?
Cho Gyeom’s head jerked upward as if it might snap from his neck.
But what he saw was not the clear sky.
It was something black and looming overhead.
What the—
Huh?
...A shoe?
CRACK!
The sole of a round fur-lined shoe slammed into Cho Gyeom’s face as he sprinted at full speed.
"Kgh…"
He froze midstride and crashed forward, still locked in his running posture.
Thud.
Buried deep in the snowdrift, his body twitched helplessly.
Plop.
Chung Myung landed in the snow, wrapped his arms around himself, and shivered violently.
"Oh man! It’s freezing to death out here, seriously!"
It was already cold enough, and running through the blizzard had only drained his warmth further. Chung Myung glared at the man sprawled face-down on the ground with eyes full of murderous resentment.
"Seriously! You swung a sword around a little and the second things went sideways, you went running off like a damn coward?"
"……."
"Kids these days have no backbone, no backbone at all! Back in my day, we weren’t like this. We weren’t!"
"……Ughhh."
Cho Gyeom braced one shaking hand against the ground and struggled to his feet. A clear footprint was stamped across his face.
"Y-you…… you bastard!"
He glared at Chung Myung with bloodshot eyes, but soon lost the words to continue.
The sight of Chung Myung bundled so thoroughly in fur and cloth that he was practically round was so absurd that outrage and disbelief hit him at once.
He’d chased him all the way here looking like that?
He had confidence in his movement techniques. More importantly, running through Northern Sea snow was nothing like running on ordinary ground. A normal movement art shouldn’t have been able to keep up with him.
Surely this bastard hadn’t specially learned the Ice Palace’s movement technique, had he?
Cho Gyeom cleared his tangled thoughts and raised his dao. Whatever else happened, he needed to take this bastard down and get back to the palace as fast as possible.
"Look at this! You really think I’m a joke, don't you!"
"I mean, not that much of a joke."
"What?"
"Just sort of easy to deal with."
"……."
At the words that completely shattered his pride, Cho Gyeom’s eyes went wide.
"I’ll fix that filthy mouth of yours!"
"I hear nobody in my family has ever managed to fix my bad manners, and yeah, that checks out. Give up."
Chung Myung smirked and reached his arm behind his back. Then he blinked.
"Huh?"
He fumbled.
"Uh? Where did it go……."
He felt around a few more times.
"Ah……."
Right. He’d been wearing too many thick layers to carry his sword at his waist.
He’d forgotten and left it behind.
Chung Myung gave Cho Gyeom a slightly awkward look.
"Uh, sorry, but…… can I just go grab my sword real quick?"
"Like hell you can."
Without another word, Cho Gyeom lunged at Chung Myung and brought his dao down in a killing arc. The qi surging through the blade was obviously no ordinary force.
"Dieeeee!"
The dao, wielded with extreme icy yin energy, tore straight toward Chung Myung’s crown.
"No way!"
With a furious grimace, Chung Myung raised his hand as if to block the incoming blade.
At that sight, Cho Gyeom inwardly cheered.
What an idiot!
A swordsman leaving his sword behind. What kind of pathetic nonsense was that?
And now, when he should have been running for his life, he was trying to block a dao bare-handed?
There’s no cure for stupid.
Cho Gyeom’s dao looked as though it would split Chung Myung in two at the first clash.
Chung Myung’s delicate-looking hand and the dao met in midair. Cho Gyeom had no doubt his blade would instantly sever the hand.
But then—
Grab!
"Huh?"
Cho Gyeom’s eyes bulged.
What?
It was an unbelievable sight. His dao had been caught so cleanly in Chung Myung’s hand.
Th-this can’t be……
He was so shocked it felt like his heart might burst out through his throat. Was it even possible for someone to grab a blade swung with all his strength using only one hand?
He instinctively yanked back on the caught dao, but the weapon trapped in Chung Myung’s hand did not move at all, as though pinned by a giant’s grasp.
Before he could even calm the heart pounding in his chest, a voice full of irritation reached his ears.
"A person’s gotta have some decency! I said I was going to go get my sword, so how cheap do you have to be to try and stop me?"
"……."
"Fine!"
BOOM!
Chung Myung kicked Cho Gyeom squarely in the groin.
The force of the blow lifted Cho Gyeom’s body briefly off the ground.
And then—
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
A shriek ripped through the air, the kind no one could bear to hear with open eyes—no, with open ears.
Thud!
He smashed face-first into the snow, where he convulsed violently and foamed at the mouth like a dying fish.
"Tch."
With a look of annoyance, Chung Myung trudged over and seized his ankle, which was flailing pathetically in the air.
"Ugh. How am I supposed to drag him over there too? Damn, it’s cold!"
Drag, drag, drag.
A long line began to cut across the white snow.
A long line carved by Cho Gyeom’s body.
"He’s coming."
"……See? Told you. He got bitten by a hunting dog."
"That’s not a hunting dog. That’s a mad dog."
At Jo Gul’s words, the disciples of Mount Hua all nodded in agreement.
If he had just taken the beating quietly and fainted there, he wouldn’t be in that state now…….
How pitiful.
Though he was an enemy, they couldn’t quite suppress the pity and sympathy they felt.
"God, I’m cold! Seriously!"
Chung Myung tossed the dragged-in Cho Gyeom toward the gathered Ice Palace warriors. The unconscious body flew through the air and landed in a limp heap.
He may be an enemy, but he’s still a Taoist!
He should at least have some human decency!
But there was no point in trying to hold Chung Myung to that standard. It was a hopeless, useless thing to do.
"You couldn’t even catch that one in time! Huh?"
"I figured you'd catch him."
"You all keep slipping at the worst possible times!"
"……You’re the one who slipped the worst, bastard."
Baek Cheon shook his head and turned away. Dang Soso was tending to Hong Yi-myung, who had been injured.
"Are you all right?"
At Baek Cheon’s question, Hong Yi-myung let out a deep sigh before speaking.
"……I thank you for your aid."
"Think nothing of it. If I help someone today, the day will come when I need help in return."
Hong Yi-myung gave a bitter smile at having his own words thrown back at him.
"I never thought that 'one day' would come back around so quickly."
If he had not shown goodwill to the disciples of Mount Hua, and if he had not delayed repairing the cart for them, Hong Yi-myung would have had to evacuate the child alone and face the palace warriors of the Ice Palace by himself.
In that case, would they not all have ended up as cold corpses buried beneath the Northern Sea ice?
The two men had offered a small kindness and received an immeasurably greater return.
Baek Cheon asked Dang Soso quietly, "How is he?"
"He took some internal injury, but nothing serious. A couple or three days of rest should be enough for him to recover."
"Hmm."
Baek Cheon nodded, relieved.
"Still, sir……."
Then he hesitated and looked between Hong Yi-myung and Hong Jinbo. He had called out to them, but wasn’t sure how to continue.
"That……"
As Baek Cheon hesitated, Chung Myung came stomping over.
"Mister."
"……."
"Looks like both your side and ours got tangled up in a mess. I think you owe us an explanation about what the hell is going on."
"……."
"Especially……."
Chung Myung’s gaze shifted to Hong Jinbo.
"Judging by what those guys were doing, it seemed like they weren’t after you—they were after him."
At that, Hong Yi-myung lifted his head, his expression turning solemn. Deep thought showed in his eyes.
"……Let us go inside first. The wind is cold."
This time, Baek Cheon answered in Chung Myung’s place.
"Very well. But……"
"There’s no need to worry."
Hong Yi-myung let out a quiet sigh.
"Given how things have turned out, I’ll explain everything. You have a right to know as well."
The disciples of Mount Hua nodded.
"What should we do with these bastards, then?"
At that moment, Jo Gul jerked his chin toward the fallen warriors of the Ice Palace.
"If we leave them here, they might wake up and run off. Should we move them inside?"
"Our house is already cramped as it is. Where would we even put them?"
"Then what do we do?"
"What do you mean, what do we do?"
Shivering from the cold, Chung Myung trotted over to the side of the house. Then he pulled out one of the large, sturdy logs from the stack they had prepared for winter.
"What are you planning to do with that?"
"What do you think? This……."
Just then, one of the Ice Palace warriors lying on the ground twitched and started to come to his senses.
"Ugh…… nggh…… what in the……"
WHAM!
Thud.
"……."
A hard blow from the log to the back of the head silenced the stirring Ice Palace warrior completely.
"See?"
"……."
"Stand guard beside them, and if one looks like he’s waking up, smack him in the back of the head and knock him out again. Hit them right and you can keep them sleeping nice and cozy."
"……."
Chung Myung’s cruelty never stopped, even in the Northern Sea.