Then I’ll Make You Remember Me (2)
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Baek Ah’s short little legs raced furiously over the snow.
It would sprint with all its might, stop to check its surroundings, then bolt again—over and over.
Even now, after another quick sweep of the area, Baek Ah was about to set those tiny legs to work again when—
“Agh!”
Whoosh!
Chung Myung kicked Baek Ah squarely into the air. Sent flying, Baek Ah twisted around in midair without a trace of panic and landed lightly, immediately taking up a defensive stance.
“What the hell, we’ve been running for three days straight! Are we even going the right way?”
When Chung Myung bared his teeth and lunged, the Mount Hua disciples rushed in and latched onto him.
“Calm down! Chung Myung, calm down!”
“Why are you picking a fight with a beast too?”
“Beast or not—!”
Baek Ah, who had frozen stiff as a stone, was dripping cold sweat from the back of its head.
“You are definitely finding the right place now, right? You’re not just wandering around wherever you feel like, are you?”
Kiiee….
“Go ahead and run off all you want.”
Chung Myung’s eyes gleamed with a murderous light.
“If you can’t find it properly, I’m adding one marten scarf to Mount Hua’s asset list that day.”
Watching Baek Ah sweat even more, Baek Cheon shook his head.
“Hey, Chung Myung. Let’s be reasonable here. In a place this big in the North Sea, how are you supposed to find a person with just a scent?”
“You can’t?”
“Of course I can’t.”
“And you were sitting there eating your fill, calling yourself a spiritual beast, while not even being able to do that?”
“…….”
Chung Myung glared at Baek Ah and shouted loud enough for it to hear.
“If that thing weren’t a spiritual beast, it’d already be a scarf! We fed it, we put it up, and we even treated it like a spiritual beast. If it can’t earn its keep, it goes right back where it came from.”
“……Where exactly is where it came from?”
“What did you hear just now? The treasure vault, obviously!”
“…….”
Eventually giving up on responding, Baek Cheon let out a dry laugh.
This isn’t a matter of being a Taoist or not.
Even a normal person wouldn’t act like this. He wasn’t some evergreen of human decency, so how could someone’s personality stay consistently this rotten from start to finish?
“No, I trusted that big fellow Maeng So because he was broad-shouldered and bold, and this is what I get? A scam? This is the so-called finest spiritual beast in the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace? All it does is shake and eat our food!”
“……It caught an awful lot of fish, though.”
“Oh, how wonderful, then!”
Yeo Sa-hon, who had been watching the Mount Hua disciples’ spectacle, cleared his throat and cautiously spoke.
“……Master. I think we may need to change our method now.”
The subordinates of the former palace lord, who had obediently flung the jailers and the Ice Sword Squad members down the cliff below, had hidden themselves in one of the old Ice Palace refuges to recover.
But Yeo Sa-hon had refused to go with them and instead followed the Mount Hua group.
It was important to keep the others in line, yes, but finding Seol So-baek was several times more important than that, he had said. It was a fair point, so the Mount Hua disciples had no choice but to allow him to come along.
After all, finding Seol So-baek and convincing him and Han Yi-myung to return to the Ice Palace were two separate matters. If Yeo Sa-hon was with them, he would certainly be of help.
“I do think so too, but…”
Baek Cheon scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed.
“There just doesn’t seem to be a better method, does there?”
Yeo Sa-hon sighed deeply.
“Master. Please don’t misunderstand me, but listen carefully.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“Han Yi-myung was an exceptionally capable man.”
At his abrupt remark, Baek Cheon tilted his head slightly, puzzled.
“If he truly wished to hide himself, there would have been no way for you to discover him.”
“Yes. We think so too.”
They had already come to that conclusion among themselves. He had clearly searched them out for a reason.
“Right now, he is concealing his trail to evade the Ice Palace’s pursuit. Unless he chooses to reveal himself, he cannot easily be fo…”
Kiieeeeeek!
“……und.”
Everyone’s attention turned to Baek Ah.
Baek Ah was pounding the snow with its short hind legs while pointing off to one side with a front paw.
“……Wait. A front paw?”
Yeo Sa-hon’s mouth fell open.
What kind of marten points with its front paw? Wasn’t that supposed to be a snout?
The Mount Hua disciples looked equally dumbfounded.
“That thing doesn’t seem like a marten to me anymore.”
“They said it was a spiritual beast.”
“Still. Even if it’s a spiritual beast…”
Even a spiritual beast was still a beast, after all….
But Chung Myung paid no mind to any of that. His eyes sparkled.
“You found him?”
Ki!
“For real?”
Ki!
At its confident nod, Chung Myung smiled with satisfaction and gave Baek Ah’s tiny head a light pat.
“If you’re lying, I really will make you into a scarf.”
Despite the terrifying threat, Baek Ah kept nodding eagerly with complete confidence.
“Let’s go!”
Kiit!
Baek Ah shot forward with lightning speed.
“After it!”
Before the command had even fully landed, the Mount Hua disciples were already sprinting after Baek Ah. Yeo Sa-hon, left behind alone, stared after them in bewilderment before hurrying to follow.
And he thought to himself, Are they out of their minds?
He knew that marten was no ordinary beast.
But this was the North Sea. In this vast, endless expanse, finding a person by scent was like trying to find a single grain of sand in a desert.
Honestly, with a method like this, they could search for a month and still not find the piss Seol So-baek had left behind, let alone the man himself.
Have I trusted these people too much?
Their martial prowess had certainly been enough to tempt him. The strength they had displayed had been strong and dazzling enough to crush his doubts that a handful of people could do much of anything.
But martial prowess was still martial prowess. Experience was experience.
I must have overlooked the fact that these are still young people with little experience…
“There’s something ahead.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
For a moment, Yeo Sa-hon barked the words out. The Mount Hua disciples running in front all turned back to look at him, clearly confused.
Yeo Sa-hon bowed his head before he could help it, avoiding their gazes.
This is absurd.
What kind of nonsense was this—that a marten, not even a dog, could find someone by scent?
There was a limit to how unreasonable a thing could be!
No, wait. Not yet.
Even if they found something, that did not prove it was Seol So-baek. It might just be some passerby they’d stumbled across.
There was no reason to be this flustered already.
Perhaps he’d spent too long down in the valley below, and his mind had grown sluggish.
With that thought, he calmed himself and cleared his throat before lifting his head again.
And then….
“There’s a person over there!”
“Oh! A person! It’s really a person. Looks like there’s even a settlement!”
“…….”
The muscles at the corners of Yeo Sa-hon’s eyes twitched.
Far ahead, a dark shape could be seen moving. At a glance, it did look like a person.
No. No matter what, that can’t be Han Yi-myung….
He stared wide-eyed until his eyes were bloodshot, but there was no way to confirm the man’s identity. How could anyone identify a figure wrapped in thick fur all the way up to the face to keep out the icy wind?
No way…
Just as they drew close to the area—
“My word, aren’t you the disciples of Mount Hua? What a coincidence!”
The man, who had only just belatedly noticed them, sprang to his feet and strode over with open arms, greeting them warmly. Then he quickly pulled back the fur covering his face.
The one welcoming them with a bright smile was Han Yi-myung.
“Ha! It really is you all!”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you again, Hero Han!”
“Hahaha. To think you’d all welcome me so warmly….”
It was a moving reunion.
But there was one person who couldn’t savor any of its beauty at all.
“…….”
Yeo Sa-hon stared at Han Yi-myung as if his soul had left his body. Age and hardship had changed him somewhat from the face Yeo Sa-hon remembered, but there was no doubt—this was Han Yi-myung.
“……What…….”
Release a marten and find a person? In this enormous North Sea?
Was that even something a sane person could say? Was it?!
As if aware of Yeo Sa-hon’s thoughts, Baek Ah, who had led them to Han Yi-myung, was puffing itself up with pride, its belly out so far its back was nearly bent.
“Hah! As expected of the king of spiritual beasts!”
“One well-raised marten is worth ten serpents!”
“Excellent! Excellent!”
The Mount Hua disciples clapped and showered Baek Ah with praise.
Han Yi-myung, who had been watching them with a dazed expression, noticed Yeo Sa-hon. His eyes went wide, and he hurried over.
“E-Elder Yeo! Isn’t that you, Elder Yeo!”
Then, drawing close, he spoke.
“Ah, I-I mean, how on earth did you get he— Hm? Why is your expression like that, Elder Yeo?”
Looking at Han Yi-myung with vacant eyes, Yeo Sa-hon quietly spoke.
“I was just….”
“Yes?”
“……Thinking about how unreasonable the world can be.”
“…….”
Han Yi-myung’s brow creased slightly, as though he were looking at an old man who had lost his mind in the years since they’d last met.
Silently, Yeo Sa-hon wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes.
“……So that’s how it was.”
Steam rose from the cups the Mount Hua disciples held.
It was barely even tea—just plain boiled water—but simply drinking something warm made their frozen bodies seem to melt at once.
Han Yi-myung stared at Yeo Sa-hon with a hardened expression.
“I’m sorry, Elder. I knew that you and many of our comrades were suffering terribly, but I… I was powerless to do anything.”
“What nonsense is that?”
Yeo Sa-hon shook his head firmly.
“We were merely alive without doing anything of worth. If the man who protected the North Sea’s only rightful bloodline from those usurpers says such things, how could trash like us ever show our faces?”
“……Elder.”
“You’ve truly suffered. You did very well.”
At those words, Han Yi-myung seemed choked up and gripped his thigh tightly. All the hardships of the years must have swept through his mind at once.
“It has truly been so long….”
“Ah, save the reunion for later.”
But that once-in-a-lifetime emotional moment meant absolutely nothing to Chung Myung.
“We’re in a hurry right now, so let’s get to the point. Where’s the kid?”
“…….”
A look of utter disbelief crossed Han Yi-myung’s face. But only for a moment—perhaps recalling just who Chung Myung was, he quickly settled into a resigned expression.
“Young Master Seol is here.”
“From the looks of it, this place doesn’t just have you, old man. Everyone here seems to be something special.”
What Han Yi-myung had led them into was a valley between great snowy peaks. No matter how keen the Mount Hua disciples’ eyes were, they never would have found this hiding place without Baek Ah.
Inside the valley stood a cluster of houses where people could live, and several dozen rather sturdy-looking men and women were staying there.
“This is one of the places where those who fled when the Ice Palace rebellion broke out once hid.”
“One of them?”
“Yes. This isn’t the only one. There are more than ten such places scattered throughout the North Sea.”
Chung Myung’s eyes gleamed.
There are more of them than I thought.
If they could gather everyone from this valley and the others spread across the North Sea, then facing off against the Ice Palace might actually be possible.
“Old man.”
“Yes?”
“You heard everything, right?”
Han Yi-myung nodded instead of answering.
“What will you do?”
“Master.”
At Chung Myung’s question, Han Yi-myung said calmly, his voice flat and unhurried, “We are fugitives.”
“…….”
“Once, we may have called ourselves the elite of the Ice Palace, but now we are old and weakened. We’ve been too busy fleeing just to survive to train properly or learn new martial arts. Seol Cheon-sang is vicious, but he is not incompetent. Right now, the forces in the North Sea are probably so formidable that even if all of us gathered together, we could do nothing against them.”
Chung Myung’s brow furrowed deeply.
He hated defeatist talk, so that reaction was only natural.
But just as he was about to speak, Han Yi-myung did not give him the chance.
“However!”
Unlike before, Han Yi-myung rose from his seat with a fiercely determined expression.
“There is such a thing as the time appointed by Heaven. If we miss this chance, the North Sea will forever fall into their hands. And then we will have to watch those vile bastards of the Demonic Sect ravage it!”
Fire flashed in Han Yi-myung’s eyes.
“I will fight. And all those who share my will will fight gladly as well.”
Chung Myung curled the corner of his mouth upward and snapped his fingers lightly.
“Good enough.”
Then he said firmly, “Forget strategy and all that crap. This is a race against time. Gather everyone who agrees with us right this second. We’re going to hit the Ice Palace in one shot and take the palace lord’s seat back!”
“Will it work?”
“If the palace lord’s head falls off right now, what can they do? If they try to stop us, beat them until they move. If they won’t listen, beat them until they do! What’s the big deal? So, first—”
While Chung Myung bared his teeth and explained the plan for what came next, Yoon Jong, feeling slightly embarrassed, leaned toward Baek Cheon and whispered quietly.
“Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“……If you think about it, isn’t this basically treason?”
“……It is, isn’t it?”
“I mean, no matter how you look at it, we’re supposedly Taoists, and now we’re planning to usurp someone else’s sect lord’s throne….”
“Yoon Jong.”
“Yes?”
“By now, we’re already too far gone to be worrying about things like that.”
“…….”
Baek Cheon smiled faintly and looked up at the sky with obvious satisfaction.
“Let it all go to hell, damn it.”
“…….”
Sasuk.
Don’t say that with a smile.