Let's Go Back Together (2)
“Dead?”
“……Yes.”
Ho Gamyeong, the strategist of Maninbang, laid the brush he had been holding across the inkstone. Then he brought his bamboo pipe to his lips and struck a flame with a quick rub of his fingers.
Though he had not even taken more than a few puffs, a harsh, acrid smoke soon began to rise.
“Huuu.”
He exhaled a long stream of smoke and looked down at the man prostrated before him with an expression that showed little change.
“The ones sent to Nam-chang?”
“Yes.”
“Who did I send?”
“Georyeongdo Mak-wi and Iljanghong Hu Hyeong.”
“Mak-wi and Hu Hyeong, huh…….”
Creaaak. Creaaak.
As he muttered and leaned back slightly, the chair gave off a rough grinding sound. Half-lidding his eyes and staring up at the ceiling, Ho Gamyeong let out a low voice.
“Strange. Is there really anyone in Nam-chang who could kill them? No, even if someone like that happened to visit by chance, it would still be strange. They didn’t even subdue them—just cut their throats and killed them? After hearing the name of Maninbang?”
“…….”
The murky smoke scattered dimly through the air.
“Who was it?”
“That is…….”
The man prostrated on the floor cautiously lifted his head to gauge Ho Gamyeong’s mood, then stammered as he spoke.
“It seems…… it seems to have been…….”
“Don’t drag it out. I’m busy.”
“Yes. It appears to have been the Mount Hua Sect.”
For a moment, silence followed. Even the tobacco ember, crackling in the pipe, died down.
Ho Gamyeong, who had been staring at the ceiling, slowly lowered his head and looked straight at the man delivering the report.
“Mount Hua?”
“Yes. From what I have gathered, disciples of Mount Hua came to Nam-chang.”
“……Why would bastards who should be in Shaanxi suddenly show up in Nam-chang? And even if they were Mount Hua bastards, Georyeongdo and Iljanghong shouldn’t have been easy prey. Who came?”
“Th-the Mount Hua Divine Dragon…….”
A bitter laugh burst from Ho Gamyeong’s mouth.
“The Mount Hua Divine Dragon?”
“Yes. I believe so. That bastard led the Mount Hua Five Swords…….”
“……This is really getting old.”
It seemed that bastard was tangled up with Maninbang in a rotten, bitter fate. No matter what happened, they never seemed able to get through a single incident without hearing that name.
“So the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, who was in Shaanxi, suddenly appeared in Nam-chang and killed Georyeongdo and Iljanghong?”
He let out a dry, hollow laugh, but the expression on Ho Gamyeong’s face turned ice-cold in an instant.
“That’s basically a declaration of war against Maninbang. Even after the Alliance Leader personally visited Mount Hua and extended his goodwill, they dare behave like this?”
He did not know how others might think, but Ho Gamyeong considered it a tremendous show of goodwill that the Alliance Leader had personally visited Mount Hua from so far away in the first place.
“How did they learn about those men?”
“Th-that’s the strange part.”
“Hm?”
“From what I heard, it seems they didn’t even know Georyeongdo and Iljanghong were in Nam-chang. It was just that things got tangled…….”
“Tangled? What the hell does that mean?”
The prostrated man carefully began to explain. By the time he had heard the entire story, Ho Gamyeong’s face had twisted.
“What kind of…….”
They had come to catch a swindler, only to run into those men by chance. Then they had cut down Iljanghong and Georyeongdo after they attacked first.
In that case, it was hard to even say Mount Hua had come looking for trouble.
“……What a troublesome bastard.”
Ho Gamyeong let out a long sigh.
He reached for the pipe he had set aside in frustration, only for the sound of knocking to ring out at the door. A man hurriedly burst in, then dropped to the floor right beside the one already prostrated there.
“Strategist! I have a report!”
“……What now?”
“Th-the Mount Hua Divine Dragon…….”
Ho Gamyeong leaned his head back and pressed a hand to his forehead.
How long was he supposed to keep hearing that damned Mount Hua Divine Dragon?
“What about the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?”
“The Mount Hua Divine Dragon has come to Guangdong!”
Bang!
The chair toppled backward with a crash. Ho Gamyeong shot to his feet, unable to hide his shock, and asked again.
“What did you say?”
“We, we have reports that the Mount Hua Divine Dragon and the disciples of Mount Hua have entered Guangdong…….”
“Are you certain?”
“There are not many who know the Mount Hua Divine Dragon’s face well, so I cannot say for sure, but it is certain that a group wearing training robes embroidered with plum-blossom patterns entered Guangdong.”
“……They came from the Nam-chang side, then?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
Ho Gamyeong bit down on his pipe and drew in a deep breath of smoke. As the scent of tobacco filled the depths of his lungs, his shaken mind gradually settled once more.
“The Mount Hua Divine Dragon…… hm.”
At last, Ho Gamyeong nodded.
“The Alliance Leader still needs him. So now is not the time to capture and kill him.”
“Then…….”
“But.”
Ho Gamyeong’s eyes turned cold.
“They’ve interrupted the affairs of the sect and brazenly set foot in Guangdong. They’ll need to pay for that. Even if we let the Mount Hua Divine Dragon live, wouldn’t killing the Mount Hua disciples with him cause no real problem?”
“…….”
“I’ll go personally. Prepare everything.”
“Yes!”
Ho Gamyeong narrowed his eyes, sinking into thought.
A little pressure is necessary.
If not that, then perhaps it would be better to poison them thoroughly.
Either way, from Maninbang’s standpoint, there was no harm in it.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Grrr. I don’t think this is the place.”
“……A-again?”
“Weird. I’m sure it was this way…… unless I mixed it up and it was the other side?”
At the old man’s muttering, Jin Yang-geon felt the sky go dark as he swayed on his feet.
For the past four shichen, he had been climbing this mountain with the so-called Guide Old Man on his back.
If there had been a clear destination, that would have been one thing. He could have summoned every last scrap of strength in his body and just gone. But every time they thought they had found the right place, the old man would say they were mistaken; every time they went the other way, he would insist it had been back there all along. That hellish loop had continued over and over and over.
“Grrr. Old man! You said you remembered!”
“No. I mean…… I remember the scene clearly, but how to actually get there is a little…….”
“How can someone who spent his whole life on this mountain not know that!”
“Hey, you brat! Wait till you get old yourself!”
The old man on his back smacked Jin Yang-geon’s head with a sharp crack.
Watching the two of them, Yoon Jong muttered quietly to Baek Cheon.
“Still, this is a relief.”
“What is?”
“Normally, that bastard would have gone insane and been rampaging all over the place, but he’s been quiet today, hasn’t he?”
“True.”
It was not hard at all to imagine. Chung Myung foaming at the mouth, shoving his face into the old man’s and roaring at him whether getting hit would restore his memory.
But fortunately, Chung Myung had not shown any particular reaction at all.
“Maybe it’s because he’s old, so he isn’t saying anything?”
“That bastard attacks old people whenever he sees one.”
“…….”
Ah, right.
So far, everyone Chung Myung had beaten up—the Ice Palace Lord, the Wudang elders, and so on—had been old. The Bishop of the Demonic Sect? That one had gone beyond “old” and straight into the realm of a walking corpse.
“Anyway, it’s better that he isn’t acting like himself today. At least we won’t have to see anything ugly…….”
That was when it happened.
Jo Gul, who had been fidgeting at the front, suddenly screwed his face up and hurried over to the Guide Old Man.
“Huh?”
“What?”
Once he reached the old man, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Hey, old man! If you’ve gone senile, you should’ve said so earlier! Why are you making so many people suffer through dog training like this? How many shichen has it been now? Are you screwing with us…….”
“Yoon Jong.”
“Yes, Sasuk!”
“Kill him.”
“Yes!”
Yoon Jong darted forward like lightning, leapt into the air, and drove his knee into the back of Jo Gul’s head.
“Kyaaa!”
As Jo Gul collapsed forward with a flat thud, Yoon Jong climbed right on top of him and began hammering his head.
“Die! The mullet didn’t even jump, so why the hell are you jumping?! Why! Just die!”
“Ah! Aaaagh! Ah! S-Sahyung! Aaagh!”
The way he twisted his waist as he hit him with practiced, vicious rhythm suggested he had learned this somewhere. Baek Cheon, who had been watching the scene with a satisfied look, startled at once and shook his head hard.
No, I can’t be pleased by that. I’m still a Daoist, after all.
Jo Gul screamed with both hands clamped over the back of his head.
“Aaaagh! I didn’t even say anything untrue! Ah! S-Sahyung, your waist! Your waist is going to break! You can’t stomp there! Don’t step on me…….”
“Just die, you little bastard!”
Yoon Jong stomped Jo Gul flat as though he were laundry, then stood up, panting, and let out a sigh so deep it seemed to fall into the ground.
“People are supposed to get more serious with age, but why are you different every single day, you bastard?”
“……Sahyung, I think you’re becoming more violent by the day too.”
“And whose fault is that, huh?”
Yoon Jong raised a hand, and Jo Gul flinched and covered his head.
Baek Cheon watched the pair silently for a moment, then let out a long sigh.
The boy really is something else.
Chung Myung was standing there with a rigid face, silent the entire time, and it felt so unnatural that Jo Gul was acting out just to ease the atmosphere. Whether it helped or not, it was still better than everyone keeping their mouths shut.
As expected, Jo Gul rubbed the back of his head where he had been hit and kept sneaking glances at Chung Myung.
Baek Cheon also looked quietly at Chung Myung. Then he called out in a low voice.
“Chung Myung.”
“Hm?”
“What do we do? The sun will set soon.”
“Mm.”
“This is a place we couldn’t find even in broad daylight. It’ll only be harder to identify once it gets dark. I think this is probably enough for today.”
Chung Myung stroked his chin slowly, as if thinking it over. Then he asked the old man,
“Old man.”
“Yes?”
“So the place where you found that manual is somewhere around here, right?”
“Of course. That’s right.”
The Guide Old Man nodded repeatedly, then patted Jin Yang-geon on the shoulder.
“Put me down.”
“Grrr…….”
Jin Yang-geon lowered him to the ground as if he had been waiting for those words. The old man stepped off his back and looked around.
“My memory isn’t exact, but I’m certain it was somewhere on this mountain or the one next to it. If we keep searching for another day, we’ll definitely find it.”
Chung Myung looked at the mountain the old man pointed out, then nodded.
“Can you tell me more about what happened back then?”
“Ah, well…….”
The old man scratched the back of his head and said,
“It was such a long time ago that I don’t remember every little detail, but I believe the beast I caught then was a fox.”
“A fox?”
“Yes. I saw the fox over there and shot an arrow right away. It had something in its mouth, so I naturally thought it had caught a rabbit or some other mountain animal. But after I caught it and went to the spot, there was a book lying there instead of a beast.”
Chung Myung’s brows drew together slightly.
“And you brought it to this man?”
“Yes, yes. To be honest, I can’t read a single word, so I had no idea what was written in the book, but there were pictures of people holding swords drawn all over the pages, so I figured it would be fine to bring it to him.”
The old man glanced at Jin Yang-geon.
“Besides, this fellow could read a bit, and there had been rumors that he was learning that martial art or whatever it was.”
“Hm.”
Chung Myung nodded slowly.
“I see. Since it’ll be dark soon, you can head back for now.”
“Huh? But we haven’t found it yet…….”
“It’s fine.”
The old man stole a look at Chung Myung.
“Th-then, about just a little while ago…….”
Guessing what the old man was about to ask, Baek Cheon answered for him.
“You can still receive the reward as promised. Thank you for your hard work.”
“Th-thank you, lords. Truly, thank you.”
With cold eyes, Baek Cheon instructed Jin Yang-geon,
“Take the old man home, and stay at your house. Let me make this clear now—do not even think about running.”
“I-I wouldn’t dream of it! I really wouldn’t!”
“Good.”
Jin Yang-geon bowed his head repeatedly, then carried the old man down the mountain. Watching their backs, Baek Cheon turned to Chung Myung and asked,
“What are you planning to do?”
“Even if we find that place, nothing changes. What matters is that the manual was discovered somewhere around here.”
“Mm.”
“A mountain beast isn’t going to carry a manual a great distance in its mouth. It has to be nearby.”
“I see. Then what exactly are we supposed to find?”
At that, Chung Myung simply stared at Baek Cheon. His eyes were unreadable, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
Only after a moment did Chung Myung’s mouth slowly open.
“A grave.”
“…….”
“If not that, then bones. No, a sleeve, a corpse…… anything is fine.”
He hesitated faintly, then added,
“I know it’s a stretch. But we need to find at least some trace. Please.”
Everyone nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“Let’s split the area and search.”
“Yes, Sasuk!”
As they swiftly divided the mountain into sections and took their positions, Chung Myung stared at the rapidly darkening slope. His gaze, too, had sunk into shadow.
It would be somewhere on this mountain.
No.
It had to be.