Let's Go Back Together (4)
Rustle. Rustle. Swish.
The tip of the brush moved back and forth over the white paper without pause. At times it wrote in a grand, sweeping hand; at others, it sketched figures so lifelike they seemed ready to breathe.
Compared to the hand moving with such speed, the body of the man holding the brush hardly moved at all, as if he had been turned to stone.
He merely stared at the words his hand was creating, unblinking beneath half-lidded eyes.
After writing like that for a long while, the man’s hand came to an abrupt stop. His mouth slowly opened.
“...I...”
The solemn look on the man’s face crumbled all at once. Frowning in outrage, he snapped his head around to look at the window.
“I’ve told you enough times not to interrupt me when I’m working! This is the kind of task that needs concentration.”
“What, jerk? Did I say anything? Did I kick the door in? I just came by and breathed once, so why’re you being such a pain?”
“If I’d stayed quiet, you would’ve started yelling again! Or charged in like a bull!”
“But lately, you’ve gotten a little bold, haven’t you? You’ve been cooped up in that room scribbling manuals all day, so I guess you’ve smeared mud over your own fear.”
“...Please come in.”
“Tch.”
Chung Myung shoved the window open and climbed inside.
“...You could just use the door, you know.”
“This is closer.”
With a long sigh, Cheong Jin quietly pushed the manual he had been writing aside. He did it so that the other man wouldn’t get interested in it.
“What is it?”
“Sasuk told me to bring this manual. Said there was something to see. This.”
Chung Myung tossed over the scroll he’d been holding. Cheong Jin picked it up and opened it, and the skin beneath his eyes twitched sharply.
“These are just the usual things lying around the library! Why are you giving them to me?”
“Then should I go look for them? You were the one who lost them!”
Cheong Jin clutched his head and screamed silently.
Fine. That part was true enough.
It was absurd enough already that Chung Myung, the self-proclaimed second-in-command of Mount Hua, was personally digging through the library for these manuals. But if he was going to do that, why not send some of the spare-handed disciples? He had how many underlings again?
Cheong Jin couldn’t understand why, when he was already buried alive in work, this man had to come looking for him of all people.
“Why me...?”
“Because you’re the one in charge of manuals.”
“...”
Right. That was right too. Damn it, it was all true!
But, you mad bastard, I’m not the one who’d go looking for the head of the Continental Trading Hall just to cash in a ten nyang promissory note for silver!
Cheong Jin’s insides were on the verge of exploding as he tried to figure out how to fix the concepts lodged in Chung Myung’s skull.
If it could’ve been fixed, it would’ve been fixed thirty years ago.
With a weary sigh, Cheong Jin set the scroll aside and looked at Chung Myung with bleary eyes.
“I’ll take care of it and bring it to you, Sasuk. Go on.”
“You’d better do it fast.”
“I know.”
“No, I mean you really have to hurry! Otherwise Sect Leader Sasuk will start nagging me again! Do you know how it feels to get scolded at this age?”
“How would I not know? I’m getting chewed out like crazy right now at this very age!”
Chung Myung’s head tilted with a sharp, offended angle.
“You talking back?”
“...No, not that.”
“Watch yourself. I’m keeping an eye on you.”
Cheong Jin wiped the moisture gathering at the corner of his eyes with his sleeve.
This wasn’t Chung Myung’s fault. Chung Myung had always been that kind of man, hadn’t he? You didn’t curse at a dog for barking, and you didn’t get angry because a rooster crowed every dawn. So he shouldn’t blame Chung Myung either.
What the hell is Sect Leader Sasuk thinking, sending this kind of job to Sasuk in the first place?
That man was the real problem.
He knew perfectly well that work always became a disaster if he put it in Chung Myung’s hands, and yet he still kept sending him around, determined to turn him into a proper man! If all the effort he’d spent trying to civilize Chung Myung had gone into a cow, he could’ve raised it into a dragon by now!
“But what are you working on?”
“Ugh... A new martial art for the younger kids this time.”
“Huh? You made another one?”
“...No. This is just a slight modification. The existing martial art was a little inefficient, so I tweaked the Mountain Plum Sword a bit.”
“You little bastard, if you’re not careful you’ll commit treason against your master and ancestors. You’re changing it again?”
“...A martial art that doesn’t improve is a dead martial art. I told you it has to keep being revised and refined.”
“What nonsense. Let me see it. I’ll check what kind of nonsense you’ve been pulling.”
“No, I can handle it myse—”
“Hey.”
Flinch.
“Bring it here.”
In the end, Cheong Jin bowed his head and weakly handed over the book he had been writing.
Taking the manual, Chung Myung flipped through the pages in a rush, even though the ink on them hadn’t fully dried yet. Then he offered a brutally concise judgment.
“What a mess.”
“...Did you even look at it?”
“Something like this? You just glance at it once and that’s enough. Why’d you turn it into something like a child’s game?”
“A child’s game?”
When Cheong Jin glared, Chung Myung lifted one finger with maddening casualness. Cheong Jin obediently lowered his eyes.
“Look here, here! You don’t extend the sword there—you twist it. That’s where the power comes from! You’ve been eating Mount Hua’s food for decades, and you still can’t get something this simple right?”
“...Sasuk.”
Cheong Jin let out a long sigh, his face contorted in frustration.
“I’m not an idiot. You think I wouldn’t know that twisting it there would make it stronger?”
“Yeah.”
“No! I knew! I knew too!”
“Then why the hell are you yelling!”
As Chung Myung’s foot shot out, Cheong Jin flung himself flat to the floor. Chung Myung’s leg sliced through empty air, blasting the space with a loud pop.
“Oh? You dodged?”
“L-Let’s talk with words, with words!”
“But this little—”
“I-I’ll tell Sect Leader Sasuk!”
“...I’m letting you off.”
Only then did Chung Myung pull his leg back. Cheong Jin shot him a teary glare.
What is a ghost supposed to do, anyway?
No, it would’ve come already. It would’ve come long ago, gotten beaten like a dog, and run away.
A brute of a Taoist with nothing but overwhelming strength—such an absurd existence was beyond the reach of both people and ghosts.
Looking at Chung Myung as he complained, Cheong Jin said, “Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“That’s why you can’t do it.”
“I can’t do it? Fine, then just let me hit you.”
“No, no! Hear me out to the end first! That’s exactly why Sasuk’s martial arts can’t remain in Mount Hua!”
“Huh?”
Cheong Jin let out another long sigh and continued explaining.
“Just like you said, twisting the sword there would definitely improve the power. But while you’re rotating your body, deceiving your opponent, and scattering sword qi all at once, adding strength by precisely twisting the wrist like that is not something just anyone can do.”
“Then they’d better do it.”
“No. That’s exactly why they mustn’t. Mount Hua’s martial arts aren’t meant for people like you.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
Watching Chung Myung still fail to understand, Cheong Jin’s face twisted.
“People like you improve and repair things on their own! Martial arts like this aren’t meant for people who can understand and modify them like you—they’re for people who can’t do that, but still want to become stronger just by following along!”
“...”
“So give up on that dream. You’ll never leave your name in Mount Hua’s history.”
“That’s not advice, that’s a damn curse!”
“Hands! Hands down! No, I said hands down, not raise your foot!”
After struggling for quite a while, Cheong Jin finally managed to calm Chung Myung down and said with a tired face, “Sasuk is just someone strong, that’s all.”
“I am a little strong.”
“...That wasn’t praise.”
Chung Myung glared, but Cheong Jin shook his head without yielding.
“With Sasuk’s personality, you’re not going to go around other sects challenging people to duels, and with Sect Leader’s personality, he’s not going to go bragging about your skills everywhere. In the end, you’ll just be treated as a swordsman who was pretty impressive in Mount Hua and nowhere else.”
“...Huh? It’d end up like that?”
When Chung Myung tilted his head blankly, Cheong Jin exploded in exasperation.
“So go out there and beat people up in public, damn it! Why do you only beat us up? If Sasuk had gone around crushing everyone with real skill, do you think people would’ve reduced you to that ridiculous nonsense about the Three Great Swordsmen of the World?”
“I did beat people up.”
“In front of other people, you idiot! In front of other people!”
“But damn, you’re really getting on my nerves. I swear I’m gonna—”
Cheong Jin shrank back a little. Then he thought, that bastard really has gotten a bit calmer with age. In the old days, a shoe would’ve already been flying toward his face.
“Sasuk.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m weaker than you.”
“No kidding. You’re not just weaker than me—you’re the weakest in the Cheong generation.”
“...Anyway.”
His eyes, fixed on Chung Myung, sank into something more serious.
“But it won’t be Sasuk’s name that remains in Mount Hua’s history. It’ll be mine. The disciples will learn martial arts through the manuals I make, and they’ll build a better Mount Hua.”
Even Chung Myung had nothing to say against that.
“That’s how I repay Mount Hua for its kindness. So—”
“...”
“Sasuk, please, stop acting like a child and do something for the disciples.”
“Hey. If someone attacks Mount Hua right now, who do you think is going to stop them? I’m just suffering through this so I can be ready for that day.”
“Who’s going to attack us?”
At Cheong Jin’s click of the tongue, Chung Myung bristled.
“If someone does attack us and Mount Hua goes under, then what the hell good are manuals? We need today if we want tomorrow!”
“Then I’ll just pack up the manuals and run. Whether Sasuk lives or dies, it won’t be my concern.”
“What the hell did you say?”
“Don’t get angry. You should be thanking me. Mount Hua can survive without Sasuk, but if Mount Hua’s martial arts are cut off, then even with Sasuk, it’s meaningless.”
“Then I can just teach them myself.”
“...Not with Sasuk as he is now.”
“...”
The look in Cheong Jin’s eyes, as he shook his head, was faintly dark.
“Sasuk. If the worst happens and either I or Sect Leader are struck down, then Sasuk has to restore Mount Hua to how it was. No one else.”
“Are you out of your mind? What kind of cursed nonsense is that?”
“I said if the worst happens.”
Cheong Jin muttered as if his head hurt, then looked Chung Myung straight in the eye.
“So remember this. Not everyone can be Sasuk. And that isn’t wrong. But if Sasuk makes sure the line doesn’t end with those weaker than himself, then someday another person like Sasuk will appear in Mount Hua.”
“...”
“That is what succession means. It doesn’t just mean raising a disciple strong right away.”
Chung Myung looked at him, then idly picked at his ear.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”
“...You bastard.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Even though he knew there was little point in saying such things to Chung Myung right now, Cheong Jin couldn’t stop himself from letting out a groan that seemed to sink all the way through the floor.
“So I’m going to survive even if I die. The day my life turns dangerous, I’m running off with the important manuals immediately.”
“If they attack when you’re outside, you won’t be able to take them with you.”
“Hmph! That’s why I carry the most important ones around like this.”
Cheong Jin opened his robe and showed the manuals wrapped around his stomach like a belly band. Chung Myung frowned slightly.
“...That looks like armor.”
“A bonus.”
Chung Myung snorted with a laugh.
“Don’t be ridiculous, you idiot. It’ll be Mount Hua’s Number One Sword people remember, not you.”
“Just wait and see. The world will remember me. It’ll forget someone like you entirely.”
“...Now this bastard, the more I hear, the—”
“Aaaah! Sect Leader Sasuk!”
“You want to die today, huh? You little—”
Cheong Jin’s scream rang through the hall, but no one who heard it ran toward the room.
“There they go again.”
“Seriously.”
The Mount Hua disciples shook their heads and quickly lost interest, scattering back to their own tasks.
High, piercing screams drifted across Mount Hua’s rugged peaks.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Tap. Tap.
Chung Myung, having sat up, stared blankly at the burning campfire.
His gaze, fixed on the flames, slowly shifted to the side. Around the fire, Baek Cheon and the other Mount Hua disciples slept in exhaustion.
He watched them quietly for a long time before lifting his eyes.
Looking up at the night sky packed so tightly with stars they seemed about to spill down, he slowly closed his eyes again.
“The world will remember me.”
Cheong Jin.
You were wrong.
The world remembers neither you nor me.
Even so, don’t be too sad.
I remember.
I still remember.
Covering his face with trembling hands, Chung Myung’s shoulders shook faintly.
Behind him, Yu I-seol slowly opened her eyes and looked silently at his trembling back before closing her own again.
It was a night when only the chirring of insects could be heard endlessly somewhere in the dark.