The More You Win, the More Enemies You Make (1)
It is often said that the eyes are the windows to the soul.
That was because the eyes revealed better than anything what sort of heart a person held within.
For that reason, Heo Sanja usually tried to look into his opponent’s eyes whenever he faced someone.
But now, he didn’t have the courage to meet the gaze of the man sitting before him.
Tap.
The other man’s fingers drummed lightly against the table.
Tap, tap.
The steady sound began to quicken little by little, and with it, Heo Sanja’s heartbeat sped up as well.
“So.”
“…….”
“You lost.”
At last, the voice that came was as sharp as a dagger, stabbing straight into Heo Sanja’s heart. He swallowed hard, as if he had truly been cut. The cold voice went on.
“Heo San.”
“Y-Yes… Sect Leader.”
Heo Sanja drew in a short breath and lifted his head, only to find himself holding his breath again without realizing it.
Heo Do-jin-in.
The Sect Leader of Wudang, and his sworn elder martial brother, wore an expression Heo Sanja had never once seen before.
He had been in Wudang for decades, side by side with this man, yet he had no memory of ever seeing such a cold look on Heo Do-jin-in’s face.
As though frost had settled across his features, Heo Do-jin-in slowly spoke again.
“You lost, then.”
“…….”
That piercing gaze seemed to strip him bare. Heo Sanja lowered his eyes once more and bowed his head.
“I’m sorry, Sect Leader. I was incompetent and….”
“This is not something to be dismissed with an apology, Heo San.”
“…….”
The icy voice spread quietly through the room.
“Tell me.”
“…….”
“Why did you lose?”
Heo Sanja swallowed a dry lump in his throat.
All the way back here, he had thought and thought about how to report this disaster to the Sect Leader. But in the end, there was only one thing he could say.
“Mount Hua….”
After turning the words over in his mind again and again, words he didn’t even want to put into his mouth, he finally forced them out.
“Mount Hua was much stronger than expected.”
Heo Do-jin-in gave no particular reaction. He simply watched Heo Sanja, as though to say that answer was not enough.
“The strength of Mount Hua’s younger disciples, the ones known as the Five Swords, had already surpassed the ordinary first-generation disciples of a major orthodox sect. The rest of their second- and third-generation disciples fell short of that level, but… if it was a match between second-generation disciples, even victory for our sect could not be guaranteed. And….”
“And?”
“The strength of the Mount Hua Divine Dragon… made even those Five Swords look ordinary.”
“You mean Heo Gong lost purely in terms of skill?”
“Yes.”
Heo Sanja lowered his head, his face full of apology.
“Even if they were to fight again, the odds of Heo Gong winning would not be high. Even by the end of the match, Chung Myung’s breathing hadn’t been thrown off at all.”
“…….”
Heo Do-jin-in slowly closed his eyes.
Heo Sanja did his best to keep even his breathing quiet, so as not to disturb his thoughts.
After a long while spent with his eyes shut, lost in silence, Heo Do-jin-in opened them again. The blade-like sharpness that had been there a moment ago was gone. In its place, however, there was something far heavier.
“So they were simply stronger?”
“……Yes.”
Heo Sanja nodded slowly. No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with any other answer.
Reason?
He could list a dozen reasons if he wanted to. He could make up a dozen excuses, too. But he knew better than anyone that those things would not be true reasons, nor true excuses.
It might make him look more responsible if he simply admitted fault and blamed himself. But that answer would only drive Wudang further into a corner, and it was not what Heo Do-jin-in wanted either.
So he had no choice but to speak honestly like this.
“Heo San.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Think about it.”
Heo Do-jin-in murmured in a low voice.
“Were our preparations lacking?”
“They were not, Sect Leader.”
If anything, the preparations had been excessive.
The opponents they had been sent against were Mount Hua’s second- and third-generation disciples. On top of that, they had brought along one first-generation disciple and an elder from Wudang, so the preparation had been thorough to the point of overkill.
It was so thorough that even if someone accused them of having thrown away their dignity, they would have had no excuse.
“Then was the timing wrong?”
“That was not it either.”
“Then the preparations and timing were both fine. That means the only thing left is luck….”
Heo Do-jin-in’s gaze slowly settled on Heo Sanja.
“Did Mount Hua have the favor of heaven?”
“……That, too, is not it.”
Heo Do-jin-in said nothing, simply staring at Heo Sanja. Unable to withstand the pressure of that gaze, Heo Sanja bit his lip and opened his mouth.
“If both sides fought with equal strength, we would lose five out of ten times. We might still obtain a victory, but a ‘true victory’ would be difficult.”
“Then….”
Heo Do-jin-in said quietly,
“the one who was wrong was me.”
“……Sect Leader.”
“I sent generals onto the battlefield while handing them an army that could not win. Of course they lost.”
Seeing that self-mocking smile, Heo Sanja shut his eyes tightly this time.
If neither preparations, nor timing, nor even luck were at fault, then only one conclusion remained: they had failed to understand the enemy, and had underestimated them.
Yes. That was all.
But….
“Heo San.”
“……Yes.”
Heo Do-jin-in said with an empty look on his face,
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
Heo Sanja could not answer. In truth, no one else would have been able to answer immediately either.
“If I take your words at face value, Mount Hua took its second-generation disciples and, in that short span of time, raised them to the level of our first-generation disciples.”
“……Sect Leader.”
“It is something no elder of Wudang ever accomplished, and not even any elder of Mount Hua accomplished. Yet a sect that had nearly collapsed has done it.”
Heo Do-jin-in’s voice gradually sank lower and lower.
“It’s not common sense.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
His fingers began drumming against the table again.
This time, the sound was somehow unstable. By now, Heo Sanja could guess the man’s inner thoughts just from that sound alone, and he let out a long breath through his nose.
“Mount Hua… Mount Hua.”
There was the faint sound of teeth grinding.
Even so, the drumming did not stop, and the rhythm gnawed at Heo Sanja’s nerves like some ghastly demonic sound technique. His breathing quickened on its own, and his heart pounded.
Crack!
At last, the fingers that had been tapping all this time plunged straight into the table. The thick hardwood pierced instantly, the table splitting in two before collapsing in a miserable heap.
“S-Sect Leader.”
The teapot on top rolled to the floor, and tea splashed everywhere. But with the situation as it was, there was no one to clean it up, so Heo Sanja could only watch it spread.
Emotions began to surge across Heo Do-jin-in’s face.
The pressure was so suffocating that Heo Sanja found himself hunching his shoulders without meaning to.
“How disgraceful.”
Yet despite that, Heo Do-jin-in’s voice was almost languid.
“It wasn’t just a first-generation disciple we sent. We even took an elder, and still we couldn’t handle their second- and third-generation disciples. Worse, that so-called elder lost to a third-generation disciple. I can already imagine how delighted the busybodies of the martial world will be when they start chewing this over.”
Heo Sanja clenched his teeth and lowered his head.
Even though it was not his sole fault, he could not bring himself to lift his face. He knew better than anyone how badly this had damaged Wudang’s reputation.
“The whole world will soon be talking about how Mount Hua has overtaken Wudang and how it won’t be long before they’re called the number one saber sect and the number one sword sect under heaven.”
“I have no words, Sect Leader.”
“Do you know what is truly painful to me?”
“……I do not.”
Heo Do-jin-in turned his head to look out the window.
The sky beyond it was clear, without a single cloud, but that sight did not enter his eyes at all.
“It’s because I’m beginning to think it may not be just talk.”
“S-Sect Leader.”
“This goes beyond common sense.”
The wave of emotion was gone, and Heo Do-jin-in’s face had regained its cold composure.
If this had been a mistake, he would have been angry. If it had been Heo Sanja’s fault, he would have imposed the appropriate punishment.
But this was no one’s fault.
Right or wrong aside, Heo Do and Heo San had done what they believed was the best possible response for Wudang. And yet Mount Hua had trampled it flat.
“Even when everyone around me said I was being too cautious, I always kept Mount Hua in check. There can’t be many people in this world who have been as wary of Mount Hua as I have.”
“…….”
“And yet even I did not truly understand Mount Hua.”
“Sect Leader… this is not your fault.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
The tone was calm.
“To truly deal with an enemy, you must first acknowledge them. And I must acknowledge this: Mount Hua’s potential has surpassed all my predictions, all my common sense. I thought the dagger they aimed at me was still far away, but my throat was already cut, and the blood was already running.”
Heo Sanja shuddered at those low words. Somehow, a chill seemed to reach up and seize the back of his neck.
“I underestimated Mount Hua too easily.”
Heo Do-jin-in closed his eyes for a moment, gathering himself, then spoke slowly.
“The disciples will have taken a heavy shock, so first focus on getting things under control.”
“Yes.”
Heo Do-jin-in seemed about to say, Sometimes defeat can be a good medicine, but he shook his head. There was too much lost for comfort to mean anything.
“……Heo Gong.”
“Yes?”
“Has Heo Gong regained consciousness?”
“……Yes. Just before we arrived….”
“What did he say?”
Heo Sanja bit down hard once before answering.
“He said only some incomprehensible thing about everything being wrong from the very foundation, then shut himself away in his quarters.”
“…….”
Heo Do-jin-in looked up at the ceiling in silence. Then, as though he had finally sorted out his thoughts, he nodded with a somewhat calmer expression.
“I see. You should go and rest as well.”
“……Please punish me, Sect Leader.”
“Punish you?”
Heo Do-jin-in gave a faint smile.
“Heo San, if you deserve punishment, then how much punishment do you think I deserve?”
“…….”
“Go on. Leave.”
“……Yes.”
“I’ll let you know soon how to handle this matter. See to it that the injured disciples can return to their daily lives without trouble.”
“I will keep that firmly in mind. Then I’ll take my leave.”
Heo Sanja rose carefully and walked out.
Left alone, Heo Do-jin-in quietly stared at the room, ruined by spilled tea and the shattered table.
The miserable state of the room was like the state of his heart, like the state of Wudang itself at this moment.
Slowly rising to his feet, he strode to the door and threw it open.
“Heo….”
The peaceful, venerable scenery greeted him just as it always had.
But Heo Do-jin-in knew. He knew that this scenery was soaked through with the sweat and effort of the sect’s forebears.
How hard had Wudang worked to earn the hollow prestige of being called the number one Taoist sect under heaven?
And now, in his own generation, that prestige was beginning to shake.
Wrong from the very foundation?
What.
What on earth had been wrong?
“Mount Hua….”
Heo Do-jin-in spoke the name of the utterly incomprehensible sect, and deep anguish settled across his face.