Don’t Bow Your Head (3)
Forces in white battle robes advanced in disciplined ranks.
On the snow-white ground, the sight of white-clad troops moving forward in neat columns lent the whole scene a strange, almost sacred air.
But the Mount Hua disciples at the front, running ahead of the army, felt a faint sense of wrongness as they glanced back at the North Sea Ice Palace warriors following behind them.
“Sasuk.”
“Mm.”
At Yoon Jong’s low call, Baek Cheon gave a slight nod.
There’s no fighting spirit at all.
This was the road to war against the Demonic Sect. Even if everyone were to burn with zeal and push their morale higher, it still wouldn’t be enough. And yet, what drifted from behind them was a subtle mix of confusion and anxiety. Quite separate from the firm steps they were taking, no matter how steadily they moved.
“...This is a problem.”
At Seol So-baek’s command, Yeo Sa-hon had come down from the First Elder’s position. He had not been stripped of his office entirely, out of respect for his past merits, but he no longer represented the elders.
So now he was merely traveling with the others in the rear as an ordinary elder.
Which meant the Ice Palace was now being led by the young Seol So-baek, and Han Yi-myung, who in practice was acting in his place.
Han Yi-myung had once served as chief officer of the Ice Palace and had assisted the former Palace Lord, but even so, he was inevitably less formidable than Yeo Sa-hon in terms of reputation and accomplishments.
When you were going to face the worst enemy imaginable, having a leader whose presence felt lighter than it should was never good news.
Jo Gul, who kept sneaking glances back over his shoulder, leaned toward Yoon Jong and whispered softly.
“Doesn’t this seem weird, Sibling Senior?”
“What does?”
Yoon Jong turned at the abrupt question, already looking suspicious. His eyes were full of distrust, as though he were ready to bury Jo Gul if he said anything too strange.
“Come on. The reason morale’s dropped now is because Elder Yeo Sa-hon stepped down, right?”
“That’s probably it.”
“Then shouldn’t they have objected in the first place when he was removed from the First Elder’s seat?”
“...”
“They followed without a word when he was shoved out of the elder position, but now that he’s gone, they’re uneasy? I don’t even know what kind of situation this is.”
A bitter smile touched the corner of Baek Cheon’s mouth.
For once, it was a sharp observation from Jo Gul.
While Yoon Jong was still silent, unable to find a proper answer, Baek Cheon spoke in his place.
“Because they don’t take responsibility themselves.”
“...Responsibility?”
He nodded quietly.
“If the same thing had happened at Mount Hua, anyone would have spoken their mind. And naturally, they would have taken responsibility for the consequences of the opinion they gave.”
Yoon Jong nodded in agreement.
“Isn’t that only natural?”
“...No, but hold on. Come to think of it, that doesn’t seem natural at all. At Mount Hua, we have to take responsibility for things we didn’t even do, don’t we? We end up cleaning up after that bastard’s mess too!”
Huh?
Come to think of it, that was also...
“Cough!”
Baek Cheon cleared his throat and went on with a straight face.
“But that is not how things are here. They simply do as they are told from above. That may breed dissatisfaction, but it means they don’t need to shoulder responsibility.”
“...Isn’t that a problem?”
At Jo Gul’s doubtful question, Baek Cheon shook his head.
“How are we to judge what is right and wrong? For us, who live in the Central Plains, to claim we understand and can judge the ways of this far northern land would be nothing but arrogance. It is enough to see it with our own eyes and feel it for ourselves.”
“Understood, Sasuk.”
Jo Gul still looked thoroughly dissatisfied, but he nodded anyway.
Still, come on. They put some little kid on the Palace Lord’s seat...
Even if the Palace Lord was a child, they simply obeyed.
At a glance, one might think that showed loyalty. But if you translated it properly, it meant they were dumping all responsibility for the North Sea Ice Palace’s current crisis onto Seol So-baek.
That left Jo Gul deeply displeased.
Seol So-baek was riding on Han Yi-myung’s back at the front. Of course, there was no chance Han Yi-myung had failed to teach him martial arts while they had lived in hiding, but even so, it was a brutal road for a child.
And yet that kid was enduring it without a single complaint.
“Sahyung.”
“What now? Again?”
“...I didn’t say anything. Why are you getting annoyed already?”
“Fine, fine. Then talk.”
“Ah, never mind. I’m not talking.”
“You little—”
When Yoon Jong glared, Jo Gul flinched and shrank his neck in.
“N-No. I was just thinking that taking a disciple probably isn’t simple either. That little kid...”
“He’s the Palace Lord, you brat! The Palace Lord!”
“...Yes. Anyway, seeing the Palace Lord, that’s what I was thinking.”
At that, Dang Soso, who had been listening to their conversation, gave a small snort.
“If nothing else, the fact that Jo Gul Sasuk realized that was worth the trip to the North Sea.”
“Agreed, Soso.”
Baek Cheon glanced at the others and let out a low laugh.
Those boys...
This was how Mount Hua’s disciples eased their tension in their own way. The more trivial their banter became, the more obvious it was that they were still tightly wound inside.
And who could blame them?
Even Baek Cheon felt his muscles stiffening from the strain. Even Yu I-seol’s expression was a little more rigid than usual.
Fear of battle and fear of the Demonic Sect.
While everyone else was struggling under that pressure, there was only one person here who seemed completely untroubled.
“Aargh! I’m freezing to death here! How much farther? Why the hell is it so far? We are going the right way, aren’t we?”
“...”
By now, Chung Myung was wrapped head to toe in bear fur, and he was yelling his head off.
It was astonishing enough that he could keep shrieking in that furious tone while his whole body shook uncontrollably from the cold.
Does that bastard really have three times the guts of everyone else?
Everyone else was too tense to speak properly, and yet he was throwing a fit because he was cold. Whether that should be called courage or stupidity was another matter entirely.
And then...
“Kiiiiiiek!”
From the front of Chung Myung’s robe, Baek Ah poked its head out and let out a shrill squeak of its own, trembling as though it too were freezing.
It was truly absurd.
Where the hell did that thing even come from?
It had been nowhere to be seen when the fighting started!
Honestly.
Baek Cheon sighed inwardly and let out a small breath before speaking.
“...Chung Myung.”
“What?”
Chung Myung snapped his head around.
“The morale seems to be dropping too much. Is that all right?”
“Morale?”
Then he glanced back over his shoulder and grinned.
“Don’t worry. If they don’t want to die, they’ll fight.”
“...That’s awfully concise.”
Baek Cheon realized something once again. Asking Chung Myung for advice was completely useless.
The biting blizzard lashed their faces mercilessly.
Baek Cheon narrowed his eyes and pressed stubbornly forward. Then he asked Han Yi-myung, “How much farther?”
With Seol So-baek on his back, Han Yi-myung answered in a voice far more tense than usual.
“Do you see those mountain ranges up ahead?”
“Yes.”
“Deep in those mountains is a place called Baedam. It’s a small pond that stays frozen year-round. It’s the coldest place in the North Sea.”
“Then...”
“Yes.”
Han Yi-myung nodded gravely.
“I questioned the one who was transporting the Ice Crystals, and according to him, the Demonic Sect members are there.”
Baek Cheon’s face hardened in an instant.
At their current speed, it would take less than half a stick of incense to reach that mountain range.
He instinctively looked at Seol So-baek on Han Yi-myung’s back.
The child’s lips had gone blue from the freezing wind, but he was staring ahead with a face of absolute resolve.
Watching him like that, Baek Cheon found himself strangely smiling.
The North Sea’s hope.
Suddenly, he thought of Hyun Jong. He suspected that right now he himself wore a similar expression to the one Hyun Jong made when looking at him.
Even if the previous generation had failed to stand firm, so long as the next generation held fast to its will, there was always hope. If Seol So-baek did not lose himself, then someday spring would come to the North Sea as well.
But for that to happen...
We have to crush those Demonic Sect bastards for good.
At last, the unease in Baek Cheon’s eyes disappeared, replaced by iron resolve. His booming voice rang out.
“We’re almost there! Move!”
“Yes!”
Fueled by Baek Cheon’s voice, the Mount Hua disciples pushed themselves even harder and increased their speed.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Holy Bishop!”
A Demonic Sect member in black battle robes hurried toward the Bishop, who sat in meditation. Then he collapsed into a prostration on the spot.
“Report! The Ice Palace forces and the Central Plains vermin are rapidly advancing toward this place. We are still confirming the exact number, but for now it appears to be at least three hundred.”
Even with his voice full of urgency, the Bishop did not move at all.
He remained seated in meditation before the shape of Asura in front of him, eyes closed in solemn devotion.
“...”
The one delivering the report did not dare urge him further.
Even as his insides burned, all he could do was wait.
After a long silence, the Bishop’s slow voice finally came.
“...You said they were Central Plains people?”
“Yes! That is correct, Holy Bishop!”
“Block them.”
The Bishop’s eyes opened slowly.
Chilling blood-red light spilled out in streams. The eerie crimson glow and his expressionless face formed a bizarre harmony that made anyone watching feel as though their soul might freeze in place.
“The ritual is nearly complete. Three sticks of incense. No, at most two!”
His gaze remained fixed straight ahead, as though even the slightest glance away would be disastrous.
Beneath the Asura image, strange patterns had been drawn anew.
At a glance, they looked as though they had been painted with ink, but anyone with sharp enough eyes would immediately realize the truth. They had been drawn in human blood.
In the spaces between the bizarre, twisted circles that seemed to spiral into each other, Ice Crystals had been placed one by one.
The pure white chill they released was being drawn slowly along the patterns beneath the image of Asura, sinking toward the black shadow visible behind it.
It was a grotesque sight indeed... and utterly ominous.
Staring hard at the scene, the Bishop spat out his words.
“Hold them back at all costs. Sacrifice your lives if you must! If they disrupt the great work before us, then a hundred years of waiting will come crashing down. Such a thing must never be allowed.”
“Yes!”
“The heaven of demonic law will open. Accept even death as joy!”
Thud!
The Demonic Sect member, overwhelmed with reverence, slammed his forehead against the floor.
“The Heavenly Demon returns! All demons rejoice!”
And then he turned and rushed outside.
Throughout the entire exchange, the Bishop never once turned his head. Everything about him seemed bound to the scene unfolding before his eyes.
He slowly lowered himself to the floor and bowed in full prostration, offering every ounce of reverence he could muster.
“The Heavenly Demon returns. All demons rejoice.”
Thump.
The faint, slow beat of someone’s heart echoed quietly through the chamber filled with frost.
It was definitely not the Bishop’s heart.
“Heavenly Demon. Great Heavenly Demon...”
Tears streamed down the Bishop’s cheeks. The drops froze before they could even fall, shattering into fragments at the tip of his chin.
“It has been such a terribly long wait, Heavenly Demon. Heaven of Demons. Please accept the prayer of this insignificant servant, descend again upon this land, and punish this sinful wretch.”
Thump.
Somewhere, the heartbeat grew just a little faster. Only a little, but still faster.
Whoooooosh!
The frigid wind rushing through the chamber mingled with the chill radiating from the Ice Crystals and was pushed toward the coldest place of all.
The cloth painted with the image of Asura flapped wildly, briefly revealing the scene hidden behind it.
A figure seated in perfect stillness, dressed in pure white.
Only the lower half could be seen clearly, for the cloth had not fully lifted, but long black hair that spilled over the white robes and a pale hand resting on a knee were unmistakable.
“The Heavenly Demon returns! All demons rejoice!”
Blood-red light surged from the Bishop’s eyes.
“Punish the unbelievers who have stained themselves with sin, and judge the traitors who never believed in the Heavenly Demon’s return until the end! Heavenly Demon! You who will place the world beneath your feet!”
His scream began to fill the chamber.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Is this it?”
A vast frozen pond came into view, white as snow and hard as stone.
It was closer to a lake than a pond, but that hardly mattered now.
Because at the mouth of a massive cave at the far edge of that lake, warriors in familiar robes were now visible.
“The Demonic Sect!”
Baek Cheon bit down hard on his lip.
“Of course they’re holed up in some place just like them.”
Chung Myung snorted and stepped forward.
“Sahyungs.”
With a soft shing, Chung Myung slowly drew his sword.
“Do you feel it?”
“...Feel what?”
At Baek Cheon’s question, he curled the corner of his mouth.
“Something’s happening in that cave. Something seriously creepy. Yep, we found the right place.”
“...”
Baek Cheon narrowed his eyes and studied the cave entrance. Still, he couldn’t feel anything special.
Only the clearly hostile intent of the Demonic Sect members, sharp as poisonous resentment, reached him.
“...It is certainly suspicious.”
“This’ll be different from before. If you let your guard down even a little, you die.”
“Understood.”
“Then...”
Blue killing intent flared in Chung Myung’s eyes.
“Let’s go see just what kind of crap they’re pulling.”
The moment his low voice ended, his body shot forward like a bolt of light.