Why Should I Apologize When I’m the Host? (1)
Yang Gyeong could not shake off his foul mood.
There were several reasons his temper had soured.
For one, he had had to travel an absurdly long distance just to reach Mount Hua. And once he finally arrived, Mount Hua was seething with a crowd far larger than he had ever imagined.
Because of that, he had been forced to drag his exhausted body up the steep mountain path, all while the road swarmed with people.
Fine, he could have swallowed even that much. Mount Hua had never invited them in the first place, and they had come here of their own free will, so enduring a little inconvenience was only natural.
But what truly set him off was something else entirely.
“What? There’s no lodging?”
“I’m terribly sorry.”
The Ice Palace disciple handling the guest registry wore an awkward smile.
“So many people have come that those without a reception token will have to stay down at Hwaeum at the foot of the mountain.”
“Down at the foot of the mountain?”
Yang Gyeong’s face twisted.
“You expect me to go all the way back down this damned mountain and climb it again?”
The Ice Palace disciple gave another apologetic bow. Even to him, going down and then back up this mountain was no small matter.
“I’m sorry. We hope you’ll understand; this happened because we simply don’t have enough lodging.”
The heat in Yang Gyeong’s face slowly rose. Still, he forced himself to endure it again.
“Then where exactly are we supposed to stay in Hwaeum? Is there at least a proper hall?”
“Those who arrived early were given rooms in the newly built halls, but… those are full now as well, so you’ll have to stay at inns or in tents. Though even the inns may already be full at this point….”
“Tents?”
Yang Gyeong stared at him, dumbfounded.
“Does Heavenly Alliance make guests from far away sleep in tents?”
“I’m sorry. More people came than we expected.”
“More people?”
With a fierce look, Yang Gyeong ground his teeth.
“Doesn’t that simply mean the heroes of the Jianghu are all here to celebrate the founding of Heavenly Alliance? And yet this is how you treat guests who came to offer their congratulations?”
When he finally raised his voice, the people nearby turned in surprise. And once the commotion started, the Mount Hua disciples naturally reacted as well.
“What seems to be the matter?”
Jo Gul, who hurried over, asked while looking at Yang Gyeong.
“Listen here.”
“Yes, please go ahead.”
“I’m Yang Gyeong, the sect leader of the Cheongbaek Sect of Hunan. In the Jianghu, they call me the Iron-Hearted Hero.”
“Ah, Sect Leader Yang. It’s an honor to meet you.”
Uncharacteristically polite, Jo Gul cupped his fists with proper courtesy. Then he asked,
“And…?”
It was a question asking why he was angry.
Iron-Hearted Hero Yang Gyeong furrowed his brow deeply.
“I came all this way to celebrate the grand opening of Heavenly Alliance, and now you tell me there’s nowhere to rest, that people have to sleep in tents. How is that in any way reasonable?”
Jo Gul, who could more or less guess exactly what had happened, quietly sighed with an awkward face.
Who could have known that this many people would show up?
No, even if they had known, there would have been no real solution. Buildings didn’t spring into existence just because you wanted them to. They had only been able to accommodate this many people because the Tang Family had exerted themselves to help.
“We truly are sorry. Please understand the circumstances our sect is in.”
“Understand….”
Yang Gyeong muttered the word under his breath and looked at Jo Gul with a strange glint in his eyes.
At that moment, Jo Gul realized Yang Gyeong had never exactly held Mount Hua in high regard to begin with.
“Understanding is only possible when both sides make an effort, isn’t that right? Don’t you agree, Daoist?”
“……I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Then who exactly is staying in those grand halls of Mount Hua?”
That transparent attempt at baiting him instantly chilled Jo Gul’s expression.
“Answer me.”
“The people from the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families will be staying there.”
Yang Gyeong let out a snort, as if he’d expected as much.
“So those great, important people get to stay in magnificent halls, while nameless trash like us is supposed to sleep under tents like beggars?”
“That is not what we mean.”
“Then what do you mean? I’d love to hear just how profound that meaning is.”
Jo Gul bit his lip.
This bastard is being ridiculous….
Any sect in the world would have assigned lodging the exact same way for an event like this. You didn’t have to look far; when Shaolin held the World Martial Arts Tournament, hadn’t they let the prestigious sects stay within Shaolin’s halls while the guests lodged outside the temple grounds?
And now he was picking at that very point?
This was obviously someone looking for trouble from the start.
The problem was that Jo Gul couldn’t simply snap back at such nonsense. They were in no position to cause trouble at this event. They had to do everything possible to avoid even the smallest dispute.
So he swallowed his rising irritation and once again replied respectfully,
“Please understand that the circumstances here are not ideal.”
“Not ideal….”
Yang Gyeong grinned.
Mount Hua might have become formidable in terms of force, but its disciples were still green. Pushing people like that wasn’t difficult.
Yang Gyeong glanced around at the crowd gathered nearby. Everyone was watching the standoff between him and Jo Gul with obvious interest.
Only interest, nothing more. They weren’t exactly siding with Yang Gyeong. They were simply curious how Mount Hua would handle this, and the commotion was entertaining.
“Fine, let’s say the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families are one thing! I can understand Mount Hua’s situation too.”
“…….”
“But what about those people?”
“Pardon?”
With an openly rude jut of his chin, Yang Gyeong pointed at the Beast Palace and Ice Palace disciples.
“Who are they to just sit there taking up space? When there aren’t enough guest rooms, the host is supposed to yield even their own inner chambers to entertain guests, but those many people are just sitting there and taking up rooms. Of course there isn’t enough space for the guests to rest!”
For a moment, Jo Gul stared at him, speechless with incredulity.
“Sect Leader. They are Heavenly Alliance’s….”
“If there isn’t enough space, then those people can give up their halls, can’t they?”
“…….”
Seeing Jo Gul struck dumb, Yang Gyeong smiled smugly.
“Why? It’s not that hard, is it? The North Sea Ice Palace is in a cold place to begin with, so the people from there shouldn’t have much trouble sleeping together. As for the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace, they’re openly savages anyway, so sleeping on the ground shouldn’t be a problem, should it?”
Jo Gul’s face began to redden with anger little by little.
What made it even more infuriating, and even more absurd, was the laughter breaking out here and there at Yang Gyeong’s words.
They’re laughing?
They were laughing at this shameless talk instead of getting angry?
Heat surged through Jo Gul’s entire body.
“That’s a bit too far!”
“I’m only stating the facts. What exactly is too far about that? Those people came from the barren outer lands to begin with, so is there any real need to give them such grand halls? That would be like putting a pearl necklace on a pig’s neck!”
“Y-You….”
Just as Jo Gul was about to erupt in a roar, derisive laughter spread from all around.
“That’s not entirely wrong.”
“A hall like that would be practically a palace to people from the outer regions.”
“Give the tents to them. They’re used to living in huts anyway.”
Not only Jo Gul, but the other Mount Hua disciples standing nearby were also turning red in the face. Their lips trembled with barely restrained rage.
So shallow.
Jo Gul realized it all over again.
The Ice Palace and the Beast Palace had always rejected the Central Plains. From their perspective, they had perfectly understandable reasons.
But emotions were far removed from reason.
However justified it might be, there was no way people who had been rejected would feel warmly toward those doing the rejecting. Especially when those people had looked down on them for generations.
From long ago, the Central Plains had despised the sects and people of the outer regions. The reason the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace revered the Plum Blossom Sword Saint so much was precisely because, unlike the other Central Plains factions who had brushed aside the crisis in Yunnan and the Beast Palace, he had been the only one to fight for them, wasn’t it?
What mattered here was not that the Plum Blossom Sword Saint had fought for the Beast Palace, but that even when the Demonic Sect invaded, the Central Plains had not helped the outer regions.
Until now, resentment toward the outer-region sects had remained suppressed beneath the authority of Mount Hua and the Tang Family. But thanks to Yang Gyeong, the old hostility toward those outer palaces was beginning to spill out everywhere.
“Mount Hua and the Tang Family would have been enough. I don’t know why they called the Beast Palace and Ice Palace here at all.”
“Can a Central Plains sect really join hands with sects from the outer lands? They’re just non-Han, in the end.”
“I wonder if they’re only muddying the waters for no reason.”
Words, once spoken, were impossible to rein in.
Many who had been watching quietly because they didn’t want to stir trouble now began adding a word here and there, and before long the noise grew louder.
By the time the murmuring had swelled into a full-blown buzz, Jo Gul decided he could no longer simply stand by. He raised his voice.
“Please refrain from speaking so carelessly. The Ice Palace and Beast Palace are friends of Mount Hua. Insulting them is the same as insulting Mount Hua!”
“Hah. I had thought highly of Mount Hua.”
Even after Jo Gul flared up, Yang Gyeong didn’t look the least bit afraid. If anything, he only sneered with a sly, mocking face.
“So what now? Are you going to drive me out if I insult them a little more?”
“…….”
“Go on, then. Mount Hua is a place that bullies and expels Central Plains sects just to protect outer-region tribes, is it? Tch. If I’d known this was the kind of place it was, I wouldn’t have bothered coming all this way to suffer.”
Jo Gul looked around in confusion. The gazes piercing into him were anything but kind. It seemed Yang Gyeong’s claim that Mount Hua expelled Central Plains sects for the sake of non-Han tribes had struck home.
If this had been ordinary Jo Gul, he would never have been rattled by such words. He might even have thrown back a bold shout in agreement.
But this was the first major event he had ever experienced, and worse, it was an event centered on Mount Hua. The thought that they absolutely could not make trouble made him hesitate.
“That is….”
At that moment, the Ice Palace disciple standing behind him could no longer hold back and stepped forward.
“Instead of picking on an innocent man, if you have a complaint, say it to me directly.”
“What did you say?”
“You can’t say a word to the people involved, but you can bark at a young Daoist you think is easy to bully. What a coward.”
“You… you filthy barbarian, how dare you—!”
“What did you say?”
“Watch your mouth!”
“You damned bastard!”
At the word barbarian, the Beast Palace and Ice Palace disciples who had been watching the exchange bristled and stepped forward.
The atmosphere turned hostile in an instant.
“P-Please, you can’t do this!”
Jo Gul hurriedly held out both hands, trying to stop the Beast Palace and Ice Palace disciples.
“You can’t cause a scene. This is a gathering for Heavenly Alliance’s founding.”
“…….”
The Beast Palace and Ice Palace disciples closed their mouths with stiff expressions. They didn’t want to back down, but since Jo Gul had said so, they seemed to have no choice.
But Jo Gul’s words may have worked on them; they did nothing at all to Yang Gyeong.
“Hah! All that noise, and now your tails are tucked!”
Whether it was because they felt humiliated by that remark or not, the Ice Palace disciple who had begun to step back ground his teeth and said,
“If this weren’t Mount Hua, your head would already be rolling on the ground. Be grateful for your luck.”
“What did you say?”
At that murderous pressure, Yang Gyeong only seemed to burn brighter with fury and lunged forward.
“What the hell are you babbling about, you savage!”
Then he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“How dare these filthy outer-region mongrels hold their heads so high! Know your place!”
“Filthy outer-region mongrels?”
The Beast Palace and Ice Palace disciples clenched their jaws tightly.
If they had followed their instincts, they would have started throwing punches on the spot, but they couldn’t. They knew full well that if they did, it would put Mount Hua and the Tang Family in an impossible position.
“Don’t you dare dirty the Central Plains with your filthy feet. Go back to wherever you came from, you savages!”
“Sect Leader Yang!”
It was at that exact moment Jo Gul finally snapped, unable to endure it any longer, and stepped forward while shouting.
“What was that, you bastard?”
He froze.
In an instant, his face drained white as he whipped his head around.
N-No!
Through the crowd, Chung Myung was walking out, cracking his neck from side to side.
His gaze swept left and right, then locked onto Yang Gyeong.
“Who the hell are you messing with? Did you stuff your guts with courage until they burst? Hey! Come here! I said come here!”
Oh, no….
Jo Gul’s hand shot out like lightning and clamped onto Chung Myung’s sleeve.
No, he tried to clamp onto it.
But if Jo Gul’s hand was lightning, Chung Myung’s body was a streak of electricity. Like a phantom, he slipped free and shot forward in a flash of white light. All Jo Gul grabbed was empty air.
Then—
CRACK!
Chung Myung’s foot slammed squarely into Yang Gyeong’s face.
It was so quiet it felt as though the world itself had stopped.
Everyone stared with eyes wide open, their jaws practically on the floor.
“Aaaaargh!”
The silence was broken by Yang Gyeong’s scream as he was kicked in the face and sent flying.
Only then did the Mount Hua disciples nearby come back to their senses and clutch their heads with both hands at once.
We’re doomed….
In that instant, the single most important objective—Don’t let Chung Myung start a scene.—came crashing down in ruins.