The World Was Never Meant to Be Lived Alone (1)
Polished.
Meeting someone with a bright, cheerful face was usually a pleasant thing.
Of course, there were always a few people who couldn’t read the room and ruined the mood by grinning when they should’ve kept their mouths shut. But at least this wasn’t one of those situations.
And yet…
Can a person really look that gentle? What is he, some kind of Avalokiteshvara or something…?
He looks even rounder somehow.
It was hard not to find the whole thing strange.
Hye Yeon, who became one of the scariest people in the world the moment he picked up martial arts, somehow looked so cute and soft in ordinary clothes that it almost made people smile just to look at him.
His haggard face had filled out, and his expression was brighter than ever. It was the sort of sight that could lift anyone’s spirits.
There was just one thing that made it a little hard to swallow…
Jo Gul said with a thoroughly sour expression, “But he’s still a monk, right? Shouldn’t it be weird for him to get all warm and fuzzy just because he ate some meat…?”
“Hey!”
“Shh!”
“Watch your mouth!”
As the criticism came crashing down on him, Jo Gul pouted.
“I mean, if it was just meat, whatever. But yesterday at the drinking table, he was gulping it down like he was planning to drink every last drop of alcohol in Mount Hua all by himself.”
“……”
“Is that really okay for a monk? I mean, he’s still a monk, right?”
“Then is it okay for you to act like a Daoist, punk?”
“……I don’t really have a comeback for that.”
Jo Gul rubbed his stomach and grimaced.
“I’m saying it because it’s weird, that’s all. I’m still dizzy and nauseous from the drinking yesterday.”
“……Actually, same here.”
“If someone poked me right now, I think I’d throw up.”
“Ugh…”
The Mount Hua disciples, all of them looking deathly pale, stared weakly at the people from the other sects moving through the training ground.
“How did it end up that all the sects gathered here are like that…?”
Hye Yeon wasn’t the only one who seemed strange.
The Mount Hua disciples had their own pride when it came to drinking. Wasn’t Mount Hua the very place where, thanks to that Chung Myung bastard, treating heavy drinking as a virtue had become the norm?
But the problem was that the other sects who’d drunk with Mount Hua yesterday were no pushovers either.
First there was the Tang Family.
They primarily dealt with poison and hidden weapons. Naturally, they were experts in antidotes. People who, from childhood, had done the bizarre thing of mixing tiny amounts of poison into their rice to build resistance weren’t likely to get drunk just because of a bit of liquor.
And then there was the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
There was no need to reason it out with them.
If you saw the disciples of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace in person, anyone would think, Ah, these guys probably chugged three jars of liquor and ate ten pounds of meat as a snack.
But the ones who truly shocked Mount Hua weren’t those two sects.
Even those two alone would have been enough to hold their own against anyone in the world when it came to drinking, but the disciples of the North Sea Ice Palace had gone beyond that by an entirely different measure.
- This is alcohol?
- In the North Sea, even a three-year-old kid wouldn’t drink something this weak!
- Bring us real liquor, not water!
“……It was incredible.”
“Do their livers have to be made of steel…?”
“I’d heard people from colder regions drink strong liquor, but I never imagined it was to that extent…”
Even the Tang Family and the Beast Palace had thrown up their hands before the North Sea Ice Palace disciples.
They already had a rather cold, unfriendly air about them, and yet they could drain bowls of hard liquor without so much as changing expression. It was enough to make anyone watching feel faint.
“Maybe Palace Lord Seol So-baek has a ridiculous tolerance too?”
“……Looks like it. I saw him toasting with the Beast Palace Lord yesterday.”
“Th-that kid looks so innocent…”
“Hey! He’s the Palace Lord. Watch your mouth.”
“……Tch. Until not long ago, he was younger than me.”
Jo Gul clicked his tongue, sounding regretful, then frowned again and muttered, “Anyway, ugh… my stomach feels like it’s dying.”
The Mount Hua disciples had ended up drinking twice as much as the people from the other sects.
Once the drinking had deepened, the Tang Family and the Beast Palace and the North Sea Ice Palace had started to mingle and drink among themselves, but in the beginning they’d naturally gravitated toward the Mount Hua people they knew best.
Baek Cheon, too, had taken cup after cup after cup until, by the end of the evening, he was nearly unconscious.
“So what happened to the others?”
“……They’re all flat on their backs.”
“……”
“Dang Soso went to wake them up just a little while ago, so they should be here soon. If they don’t want to get a chop to the head, they’ll get up.”
Baek Cheon nodded and looked toward the people from the other sects gathering on the training ground.
There wasn’t a shred of strength in the way they staggered along. Their appearance when they’d first arrived at Mount Hua, and when they’d lined up before everyone, seemed like a lie now.
“U, ugh!”
“Hey! No throwing up here!”
“Ghh… water. Somebody get me some cold water…”
“Wueeeeeek!”
“Damn it, you bastard!”
Baek Cheon’s cheek twitched as he watched.
As those yellow-faced people staggered into the training ground, the stench of alcohol was enough to make his nose ache.
Why…
The ones in green robes held the status of reapers in Sichuan. The ones wearing beast-fur vests inspired fear greater than that of wild animals in the Southern Barbarian lands.
And those white… the white… damn it, wash your clothes, what the hell is that?
Anyway, the ones wearing robes that had once been white were, in the North Sea… ah, forget it.
In any case, watching such people soaked in hangovers and retching all over the place made his chest feel so tight he thought he’d burst a vein.
Why does everyone turn into this the second they come to Mount Hua? Is the land cursed or something?
Then, one of the few who had managed to sober up first shouted, “Stand straight, you idiots! Stand st—ugh! S-straight…”
“D-don’t shout. My head’s ringing.”
“Which bastard pissed over here! That crazy bastard should know his limits when he drinks—huh? A dog from the Beast Palace? Ah… then that makes sense.”
It doesn’t make sense, you insane bastard! Dog piss in a Daoist temple? What kind of nonsense is that!
Baek Cheon himself had felt, with every fiber of his being, the truth behind the phrase friendship born between flowing cups just last night. But now he could think of only one thing.
I hope they all just hurry up and leave.
Yes, this was the true face of friendship. The sort that made your insides noisy just by looking at it! Wasn’t it exactly the same whenever you looked at Chung Myung?
“……Where are our kids?”
“They’re coming over there.”
Baek Cheon turned his head slightly.
Then he shut his eyes tight.
The Mount Hua disciples were approaching the training ground, almost crawling, completely unconcerned with how their clothes looked or anything else.
Was it really a good idea to create the Heavenly Alliance?
Did we just lump together a bunch of hopeless cases that should’ve been kept apart?
“Ughhh… S-sasuk… I think I’m going to die…”
“What kind of liquor did you bring so much of…?”
Baek Cheon smiled gently at his disciples and said, “You all.”
“Yes?”
“If you don’t want to die, go stand over there properly. And remember this well: if you walk crooked, your whole life ends up crooked too.”
“……Y-yes, sir.”
Everyone forced themselves into shape and shuffled toward the training ground. Baek Cheon looked toward a distant mountain peak.
Why is it always… like this?
Why, exactly?
The Heavenly Alliance disciples, who had somehow managed to line up, and the leaders desperately trying to hold on to whatever dignity was leaking out of their bodies, faced one another.
The Beast Palace disciples, seeing Maeng So’s pallid face, were surely in complicated spirits as well. Of course, he had once collapsed after a drinking contest with Chung Myung, but seeing something like that twice wouldn’t make it any less shocking.
Still, even that couldn’t compare to the Tang Family’s feelings as they looked at Tang Gun-ak, whose face had gone completely drained of life.
Tang Gun-ak, a man who could swallow poison strong enough to wipe out an entire herd of oxen without even blinking, had a faint tremble in his legs.
What on earth did he drink?
Look at how washed-out his face is…
My God… the Family Lord.
Of course, Hyun Jong’s face no longer seemed human at all. Still, at least Chung Myung was keeping his appearance intact, so the Mount Hua disciples could hold onto a shred of pride.
But even that was beside the point. The winner of this hellish drinking war was obvious.
“He’s standing!”
“He’s standing straight!”
“As expected of the Palace Lord!”
The North Sea Ice Palace disciples looked ready to rush Seol So-baek and throw him into the air.
In truth, the very fact that such a young palace lord had stayed conscious after drinking among those terrifying people was enough to be proud of. Seol So-baek had truly done his part.
Seol So-baek seemed to think the same, because even with a face pale as death, he smiled proudly. Seeing the corners of his mouth twitch strangely, Chung Myung’s face warped at once.
“Tch. If I’d gotten him to drink just one more bottle, I could’ve sent him packing.”
There were plenty of people here who would normally have snapped at him immediately, but none of them had the energy to harass him. If they even raised their voices wrong, it felt like something other than words might come out.
Tang Gun-ak said weakly, his face hollow, “Alliance Leader… please say a few words.”
Hyun Jong, who had been looking down at the disciples from the platform, opened his mouth with great effort. But no sound came out. He quickly covered his mouth with his hand, turned away, and hunched over like a shrimp.
Tang Gun-ak murmured in a low voice, “……I apologize. I brought up something unnecessary…”
Then Maeng So shook his head hard.
“Words and nonsense aside… let’s go home.”
“……Your disciples look unwell. Wouldn’t it be better to rest another day…?”
“Just breathing in this reeking alcohol is enough to get a sober man drunk.”
……Everyone nodded at Maeng So’s words.
With a pallid face, Maeng So went on, “We’re not parting forever. We’ll be seeing each other again soon enough, so there’s no need to drag this out.”
Tang Gun-ak agreed with a nod, then, not forgetting his duty, added, “Don’t forget the conversation we had yesterday. I will discuss the matters I mentioned with Mount Hua and proceed accordingly.”
“I trust you. Ugh… ah, I trust you.”
Thud.
“Oh no! So-baek!”
“Palace Lord Seol! Stay with us!”
“Soso! Where’s Soso!”
Then Seol So-baek finally gave out and collapsed. In the ensuing chaos, Hyun Jong took the chance to peek around the side of the platform and retch dryly.
Watching that utterly absurd scene, Baek Cheon smiled faintly.
“What a mess.”
Woof! Woof-woof!
No. Not an actual dog, you bastards! Why the hell did you bring a dog to Mount Hua, of all places?
Chaos, pandemonium, utter bedlam, scenes too gruesome to bear…
Every single word fit.
Taking advantage of the disaster unfolding atop the platform, people began dropping to the ground one after another. In Baek Cheon’s mind, the future of the Heavenly Alliance was already being dyed black with darkness.
And so, after much stumbling and scrambling, the three sects that had visited Mount Hua finally started making their way out through the mountain gate. The proud bearing they’d come in with was nowhere to be seen as they despaired at the brutally steep road before them.
“Then take care, everyone! See you again!”
“Go safely!”
“I wish you good fortune!”
“May your journey be without trouble!”
They didn’t forget to exchange kind words either. But the warmth in those words, the pleasant expressions, and the thoughts behind them were all completely different.
I’m never pissing anywhere near Mount Hua again.
I’m definitely not coming back next time. Let some other bastards do it.
Don’t come back if you can help it.
I’m fucking dying over here.
Everyone put on their business smiles and, very unnaturally, promised to meet again. Tang Gun-ak and Maeng So, leading the way, waved, while Seol So-baek, loaded into the carriage Mount Hua had provided, couldn’t even lift his head and could only raise a trembling hand.
Watching them finally begin their descent, Baek Cheon muttered, “But… can they even make it down Mount Hua in that condition?”
“……”
“They’ll have to climb down cliffs.”
Jo Gul, Yoon Jong, and Yu I-seol looked after the departing sects with slightly strange expressions.
“……They won’t die, will they?”
“Right?”
Baek Cheon nodded faintly and turned around.
“Let’s go in.”
“……”
“Take the Sect Leader to his quarters first. Jo Gul, go make some honey water.”
“……Yes.”
At Baek Cheon’s order, Jo Gul hurried off, and several others moved quickly to support Hyun Jong. Baek Cheon let out a long sigh.
What a day…
Woof! Woof-woof!
“Ah, they left the dog behind! Damn it all! I’m so pissed I could explode! Aaaagh!”
Baek Cheon’s scream rang thunderously through Mount Hua.
Whether the Heavenly Alliance was born or the world changed or not, Mount Hua was still just Mount Hua.