I’m Looking Forward to That Day (4)
“What? You don’t know?”
“......”
“Nobody knows?”
As people lived their lives, everyone inevitably ran into a crisis sooner or later.
Of course, Im So-byeong had not exactly lived an easy life. He had gotten through countless minor crises, and more than a few moments when his life had been in danger.
But... how strange this was.
Of all the dangers he had ever faced, this one felt at least a dozen times more vicious.
“Ha... hahahaha...”
Im So-byeong tried his best to laugh brightly. But the muscles already stiffening all over his body refused to give him anything like the natural smile he wanted.
“J-just calm down for a bit...”
“Calm down?”
Chung Myung’s eyes flashed wildly. Seeing that glinting murderous aura made it immediately clear that this was not just going badly—this was going very badly.
Daoists, by nature, were not monks.
Buddhism in the Central Plains existed to save the common people, but the purpose of Daoist practitioners was self-cultivation and longevity. That was why monks shut themselves away in temples while still maintaining contact with the world, whereas Daoists secluded themselves in remote mountains and deep valleys to hone the Dao until, in the end, they ascended to immortality.
So to put it extremely bluntly, Daoists did not strictly need to cultivate a heart of universal compassion.
But since when had the world ever worked that way?
Even if their basic goal was different, people still expected Daoists to possess warm hearts and lofty virtue. So Daoists, too, did their best to treat others with goodwill whenever possible.
And yet...
What in the world is that murderous aura...
How was he supposed to make sense of this situation, where a vicious killing intent he had never once encountered in his life was now pouring out of a Daoist brat—not some demonic boss from the Evil Faction?
No, this isn’t something to make sense of!
Before he could even finish thinking, a plum blossom sword would be lodged in his throat, or a Plum Blossom Splitting Fist would be planted in his face.
“P-please, Daoist, j-just calm down...”
“...Calm down. Right, calm down isn’t that hard.”
“Y-yes, that’s...”
Chung Myung narrowed his eyes, still gleaming with murderous light.
“If I just snapped the neck of the rat standing in front of me, I think I’d feel a lot better and calm down just fine. Or at the very least, I could puff up that pretty face of yours until it was twice as big!”
“...Then I’ll die...”
“If I’m beating you to death, then you should die!”
Chung Myung seized Im So-byeong by the collar and shook him violently.
“What? Nobody recognized him? Then what, did that bastard Jang Il-so have a ghost on his shoulder or something? Huh?”
“...”
This was unfair. Utterly unfair.
Even if all the geniuses in the world had been gathered together and forced to rack their brains, not a single one of them would have predicted that Jang Il-so would storm Mount Hua.
Failing to anticipate what a normal person did was a mistake, yes. But failing to foresee that a madman would do something crazy was hardly a crime, was it?
So Im So-byeong felt fully justified.
The only tiny problem was that the creature in front of him now was not a human being whose logic could be reasoned with.
“W-well... hehe. Daoist... sometimes in life, unexpected things happen.”
“...And?”
“Hehe. That’s what makes the world fun...”
Thwack!
Before he could even finish speaking, Chung Myung’s fist cleanly turned Im So-byeong’s jaw around.
“Eeeeeek!”
Sent flying by the punch, Im So-byeong rolled miserably across the floor. After tumbling all the way into a corner, he lifted his head with teary eyes.
“B-but I am, at least in name, the Green Forest King...”
“You think you’re still alive because you’re the Green Forest King? Want me to show you what happens when I stop caring about rank and just come at you?”
“...No.”
He did not want to know that. Absolutely not.
“Die, die! No—wait! You shouldn’t die now, you should’ve died ages ago! Why are you alive and causing trouble?”
“Th-that... you’re the one who saved me, Daoist.”
“Oh, really? I saved your life, and now I’m taking it back! Stick your neck out here!”
“Hiiiiiik!”
Terrified, Im So-byeong flipped himself over and scrambled away on all fours. A moment later, Chung Myung’s dark steel sword shot into the exact spot where he had just been sitting and buried itself deep in the floor.
“Y-you’re really going to kill me?!”
“Is there such a thing as fake killing?”
“Daoist! This is a misunderstanding!”
“A misunderstanding?”
Seeing Chung Myung’s eyes nearly roll back, Im So-byeong hurried to explain.
“A-as I said before, Tyrant Lord Jang Il-so is not a normal man!”
“So?”
“Even if I hadn’t been here, he definitely would have prepared someone else! I can guarantee that!”
“......”
“Hehe. So this mess isn’t necessarily my fault...”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Chung Myung gave a feral grin.
“Huh?”
“What?”
That smile turned Im So-byeong and the Five Swords pale with unease all at once.
Then Chung Myung sprang up like lightning and yanked the sword from the floor. With a face that looked like a ghost’s, Baek Cheon and the rest of the Five Swords charged at him without even looking back.
“Chung Myung-ahhhhh!”
“Calm down, calm down!”
Of course, killing an evil-faction leader as a righteous sect disciple would normally be something to praise. But right now, Chung Myung’s mood was so absurdly terrifying that none of them could let it continue.
Sensing that if they left him alone a true disaster would happen, Baek Cheon grabbed onto Chung Myung’s leg and hung on. The others did the same, each seizing one of his limbs with desperate force.
“Let go? Let go! Damn it, I’m so pissed I could really— I’ll rip that mouth apart!”
But Chung Myung’s rage did not diminish in the slightest. Foam practically gathering at his lips, veins bulging in his neck, he looked so ferocious and ominous that it seemed as if his head might snap off his body at any moment and go bite Im So-byeong itself.
“B-but he’s the Green Forest King!”
“Exactly why I’m doing this! Didn’t you hear me? If that bastard wasn’t the Green Forest King, I’d still have killed him! If he is the Green Forest King, then he deserves it even more!”
Yoon Jong focused on calming Chung Myung first.
“A-anyway, let’s just calm down and talk this out. If you think about it, this isn’t really the Green Forest King’s fault, is it?”
“What?”
At that, Chung Myung’s head snapped toward Yoon Jong.
“Sahyung.”
“Y-yes?”
“I know that.”
Chung Myung loosened his body, which had been taut with rage, just a little and nodded.
“There’s no way a bastard like Jang Il-so would pass up an opportunity like that. Like that man said, there must have been at least one guy there who could play a similar role. Whether he came on his own or Jang Il-so sent him.”
“R-right.”
“And besides, we didn’t know that bastard Jang Il-so could recognize him either. There was nothing we could do.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I mean!”
It was true that Im So-byeong had caused trouble. But if one looked at it carefully, there were parts of it that were genuinely unfair to him. Sorting those things out properly and judging them coolly was the duty of a Daoist...
“But!”
Chung Myung spat fire from his mouth.
“Being pissed is being pissed, regardless of the circumstances!”
“......”
“If I’m supposed to understand all that, then they should understand my side too! I’m taking all of that into account, so why the hell can’t they take into account that I’m pissed off? They should understand how I feel too!”
Even the Crown Prince would have applauded that logic at this point. Whatever the logic may have been, it was more than enough to move the Five Swords.
“Ghh... What crime did I commit in my past life...? No, I did commit crimes, but does that mean I have to go through this?”
Chung Myung ground his teeth so hard they seemed ready to crack. Seeing an opening, Im So-byeong cautiously spoke up with an awkward expression.
“Th-that... there’s no need to be that angry, Daoist Chung Myung.”
“...Huh?”
“Of course, the situation has become a bit awkward, but there were good effects as well.”
“What good effects?”
“Haha!”
Now that he had Chung Myung’s attention, Im So-byeong grinned with pride and straightened his shoulders.
“At the very least, thanks to that Jang Il-so bastard running his mouth, everyone who came here learned that Mount Hua—in other words, the Heavenly Alliance and the Green Forest—have some sort of relationship, didn’t they?”
“......That’s true.”
“Hehehe. So this was a good thing.”
He planted both hands on his hips and declared,
“Now we no longer have to worry about how to politely explain the relationship between the Heavenly Alliance and the Green Forest. From here on out, they’ll think about it themselves. That saves us one headache, so now we can officially bring the Green Forest into the Heavenly Alliance and become sworn brothers...”
Swish!
Chung Myung’s body shot forward like a streak of light.
And none of the Five Swords even dared to stop him.
“Die! Die, you bastard! Just die already!”
“Ack! Aaaagh! Agh! Somebody stop h— Aaaargh!”
Mounted atop Im So-byeong, Chung Myung’s waist twisted savagely back and forth.
Seeing a scene they had not witnessed in a long time, the Five Swords all smiled with satisfaction.
“He’s really laying into him.”
“Ah, that’s refreshing.”
“May I go help?”
“...Let’s refrain from that.”
“Yes, sir.”
There were people in this world who simply asked for a beating.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“......”
Hyun Jong stared at Im So-byeong in stunned silence.
The guests had all departed, and only the Heavenly Alliance remained. Since they also needed to discuss what came next, they had called in the Green Forest King and Chung Myung together at Tang Gun-ak’s suggestion.
And yet... the moment Im So-byeong stepped into the room, something about his face was, well... very strange.
“Um...”
Hyun Jong began to say something, then slowly shifted his gaze toward Chung Myung instead.
Seeing Chung Myung’s face clearly declare, I did beat him, but he deserved it, and if he hadn’t been the Green Forest King I would’ve sliced him into sashimi, Hyun Jong could not bring himself to speak.
Still, he is the Green Forest King...
No, but on second thought, perhaps this was actually a relief.
No one would believe him if he went around saying that his disciple had gotten so angry he had beaten the Green Forest King until his face swelled up like a bun.
Yes, this was actually a relief...
“Ahem.”
Hyun Jong cleared his throat and deliberately looked away.
Unfortunately, the person his gaze landed on was Tang Gun-ak, whose face was twitching crimson as he fought to suppress laughter. Hyun Jong quickly turned to the other side instead.
“Well... yes. Indeed.”
Act naturally. Naturally. As if he had seen nothing at all.
“I am glad we were able to conclude the ceremony without major trouble.”
At Hyun Jong’s calm words, Maeng So could no longer hold himself back.
“...It looks like the Green Forest King got beaten pretty badly. Very badly.”
“In any case, without major trouble.”
“......”
The mighty Maeng So was left speechless, glancing back and forth between Chung Myung and Im So-byeong.
“Hmm... I suppose matters in the Central Plains are rather different from my standards.”
“I think so too.”
Listening to the exchange between the two palace lords, Im So-byeong merely wiped at the corner of his eyes in silence.
“Are you crying?”
“...No, I am not.”
“Good. Since you’re still shedding tears, it can’t be that tragic yet. Go on, then. I’ll show you what real sorrow looks like.”
“......”
At the pressure radiating from Chung Myung, all the leaders quietly turned their heads away.
“Ahem.”
Hyun Jong coughed once more and skillfully changed the subject. For the sake of the battered Im So-byeong, if nothing else, it was time to talk about something else.
“I have gathered all of you here to discuss what comes next. Please speak candidly.”
Hearing that, Tang Gun-ak nodded. The laughter on his face had already settled, and he once again wore his usual grave expression.
“It is an excellent thing that the opening ceremony concluded without any major incident. You all worked very hard.”
“It was the disciples who worked hard. What did we do?”
“That is true as well.”
At Maeng So’s bluntness, Tang Gun-ak smiled thinly.
“We did announce the founding of the alliance to those gathered here, but in truth, it is no different from announcing the formation of the Heavenly Alliance to all the people under heaven. What they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears will begin spreading throughout the world.”
“Hmm.”
Everyone nodded at that.
“It was good that we properly conveyed the purpose behind the creation of the Heavenly Alliance. However...”
Tang Gun-ak’s eyes narrowed slightly. Everyone could guess what would come next from that suddenly sharper gaze.
“We cannot avoid speaking about Maninbang and Jang Il-so.”
The moment Jang Il-so’s name was spoken, a layer of tension settled over the room.