Here You Were (3)
The sunlight was so harsh that he could barely keep his eyes open.
When he slowly opened the eyes he’d half-closed again, the Mount Hua Five Swords were waiting for him.
“……”
Chung Myung looked at them in silence.
Even though they must have had a thousand questions, none of them pressed him for answers.
Some wore stern faces; others greeted him with easy smiles.
“For now……”
“We’re going back to Mount Hua.”
Baek Cheon cut off Chung Myung’s words.
“What about the one in the village? I’m thinking if we take him with us now, he’ll just be dead weight.”
At Baek Cheon’s words, Jo Gul answered with a lazy shrug instead of Chung Myung.
“Well, we did warn him properly, so I don’t think there’ll be a big problem. And if he causes trouble again, we can just drag him back and beat the hell out of him.”
“……”
“If someone can go through something like this and still cause trouble again, that’s impressive. At that point, I’d have to admit defeat.”
“Right?”
At Yoon Jong’s comment, Jo Gul nodded vigorously.
Truthfully, by now these things weren’t all that shocking to them anymore. Fighting Geumgeom Manor, locking horns with Cheolmobang in a life-or-death battle, or stumbling across those bastards from Maninbang and cutting them down—it had all started to feel almost routine.
Uh……
Come to think of it, wasn’t that all kind of insane?
Anyway.
Maybe it wasn’t a huge deal to them, but for ordinary martial artists, even one of those incidents would be the sort of thing they might experience once in a lifetime, if ever. If someone could go through disaster after disaster and still be thinking about how to scam their way out of the next one, then that was a kind of nerve worth acknowledging.
“Let’s head back first. I don’t think this is the time to worry about that.”
When Dang Soso also agreed, Baek Cheon nodded.
“No point wasting time. Let’s leave at once.”
As the martial brothers and sisters quickly reached an understanding and talked among themselves, Chung Myung watched them in silence.
They must have had countless things they wanted to ask.
But before Chung Myung could open his mouth, they changed the subject first—probably to ease the burden on him.
Clench.
Chung Myung’s hand tightened around the bundle of clothes containing Cheong Jin’s remains.
Damn it, I was pathetic too.
He’d thought all that mattered was being strong.
He’d thought that even if he didn’t properly do what he was supposed to as their senior brother, it would be enough to simply beat the people they couldn’t beat.
But seeing these young ones made him realize exactly how stupid that had been.
“Let’s go back, Chung Myung. We need to report to the Sect Leader.”
At Baek Cheon’s words, Chung Myung nodded.
Now wasn’t the time to drown in sentiment.
This bastard had been alone in this desolate place for far too long. They needed to take him back to Mount Hua as fast as possible and let him rest.
“Yeah. Sahyung, let’s—”
Then Chung Myung suddenly fell silent.
His sharpened gaze snapped toward the brush behind Baek Cheon. Seeing Chung Myung’s face, suddenly cold and filled with killing intent, Baek Cheon flinched and turned around.
Since when……?
Yu I-seol’s hand clamped down hard on her sword hilt. The rest of the disciples only then noticed the presence of the people surrounding them and quickly fell into guard positions.
“Who are you?”
Baek Cheon’s shout rang out.
“Show yourselves!”
At that icy voice, the brush rustled lightly.
Shff. Shff.
The sound of feet crushing grass echoed threateningly for a moment, and then groups in blood-red robes and ash-gray robes emerged from the left and right, encircling the Mount Hua disciples.
“……”
Baek Cheon’s mouth hardened.
This won’t be easy.
He couldn’t sense any particular desire to threaten them.
And yet the hairs all over his body stood on end. Before his mind could even begin to think, his body had already recognized their strength and was warning him nonstop.
“Sahyung.”
“……I know.”
Even Yu I-seol, who almost never spoke first, called out to Baek Cheon. She must have realized as well that these people were anything but easy opponents.
“Close ranks.”
At Baek Cheon’s low command, Jo Gul and Yoon Jong moved closer, their faces tight with tension.
Dang Soso naturally shifted to stand behind Baek Cheon as well. She wasn’t seeking safety so much as positioning herself where she could make the most of her skills. She’d been through too many battles not to understand how dangerous this situation was.
Baek Cheon said quietly,
“Doesn’t look like you came with good intentions. But I guess you don’t have the courage to state your identity, do you?”
“Our identity, is it……? Hardly difficult to guess.”
At the voice drifting from somewhere nearby, Baek Cheon’s gaze slowly turned.
At the boundary where the blood-robed and gray-robed men stood, one man parted the brush and walked out at a measured pace.
When Baek Cheon recognized him, the corner of his eye twitched.
That man……
He knew that face.
It was the sort of face you couldn’t forget if you tried. He’d been the one standing at the side of one of the most imposing figures Baek Cheon had ever seen in his life.
“……Maninbang?”
“It seems even saying it’s been a while would be meaningless. Have you been well, disciples of Mount Hua?”
The man wore scholar’s robes and had his hair neatly tied back.
Ho Gamyeong, the strategist of Maninbang, gave the Mount Hua disciples a polite martial salute.
“I am Ho Gamyeong of Maninbang.”
“……I’m Baek Cheon of Mount Hua.”
Even while staying on guard, Baek Cheon answered, and Ho Gamyeong lowered his clasped hands before spreading them slightly to either side. It was a relaxed, almost leisurely gesture.
“I should say I’m delighted to see you again like this.”
“……What is it?”
“What is it, you ask……”
Ho Gamyeong chuckled lightly, then took out the bamboo pipe tucked at his waist. Unhurriedly, he withdrew his tobacco pouch, filled the pipe, and struck a flame by rubbing his fingers together.
Puff.
After drawing a few times on the pipe, pale smoke drifted from his mouth.
“Do you truly not know why I’m asking?”
“……”
“I hear your esteemed Mount Hua disciples went all the way to distant Nam-chang just to kindly take the heads off our worthless brothers……”
Baek Cheon bit his lip slightly. Once those words were out, there was no way to resolve this peacefully.
Ho Gamyeong smiled faintly.
“Well, that can happen. When people work, they clash. When they clash, they can end up killing each other. I’m not so petty that I can’t understand that, no. But……”
He exhaled another stream of smoke and hooked the long pipe over his shoulder.
“Even so, if the men who shared the same bowl of rice died violent deaths, and the ones responsible then came wandering around my own backyard, poking through the mountains like this, isn’t it only human decency to at least come and show your face?”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Listen carefully, you Daoist gentlemen.”
Ho Gamyeong’s gaze slowly swept over the Mount Hua disciples. Those who met his eyes found themselves grinding their teeth before they knew it.
“We’re the evil-doers you righteous sects point your fingers at. We know nothing of loyalty or righteousness. But if people like us are to live together under one banner, clashing as one group, there’s one thing we absolutely need. Do you know what that is?”
“……No.”
“Principle.”
That word, principle, sank into the ears of the Mount Hua disciples with a strange, unsettling resonance.
“To bind together a bunch of unruly bastards who never listen to a word you say, you need at least some basic principle. I trust you understand what I mean?”
“……And what is this principle?”
“Why, it’s very simple.”
The corner of Ho Gamyeong’s mouth slowly curled upward.
“An eye for an eye, and blood for blood.”
The moment those words fell, the gray-robed and blood-robed men surrounding them all drew their weapons at once. Just looking at the sharp, narrow blades and the saw-toothed sabers with their cruel, jagged edges made the Mount Hua disciples grip their sword hilts tighter.
“Huuuu……”
After exhaling a long cloud of smoke, Ho Gamyeong shook his head.
“It’s deeply regrettable that something like this had to happen so soon after our leader celebrated the founding of the Heavenly Alliance. But…… gentlemen of Mount Hua.”
His expression suddenly lost all trace of its smile.
“After killing two men of Maninbang and then brazenly wandering through our territory, rummaging through the mountains like you own the place—don’t you think that crosses a line?”
“……”
“If we were to send you back unharmed, Maninbang would become the laughingstock of the world. I’m sorry, but we’re the sort of people who’d rather die than become a joke.”
Baek Cheon let out a frustrated sigh.
It wasn’t as though he hadn’t considered Maninbang at all.
But he’d never imagined they’d actually bring troops all the way out to this backwater, let alone into these mountains.
This is my mistake.
Even though he knew Mount Hua’s standing was not what it had once been, he had still acted as if they were living in the old days, when everyone looked down on them. That was why things had turned out this way.
“We had our own circumstances.”
“Everyone has circumstances.”
“Can’t this be solved with words?”
“That sounds like a question that doesn’t need an answer.”
Just as Baek Cheon was about to say something else to Ho Gamyeong,
Step.
Chung Myung, who had been silently watching the situation until now, stepped forward without a word.
“Oh, this is the Mount Hua Div—”
Ho Gamyeong, about to greet Chung Myung warmly, abruptly shut his mouth.
The instant he met Chung Myung’s eyes, a bone-deep chill surged through him as if he’d fallen into an ice cave.
……What is this.
He had survived countless hellscapes to reach his position as Maninbang’s strategist. And yet even he shuddered now, his soul seemingly frozen solid by the feeling that had just run through him.
Shrring.
Chung Myung stepped forward and silently drew his sword.
“Right now……”
“……”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
Ho Gamyeong was speechless for a moment. He was that dumbfounded.
Is this really the same person?
Of course, Chung Myung hadn’t exactly been cheerful the last time he visited Mount Hua. The imposing aura he’d shown when facing the leader of the sect, Paegun, had even left a deep impression on Ho Gamyeong.
But the Chung Myung in front of him now felt like an entirely different creature.
He’d only just drawn the blade, and already it felt as though that sword was carving through Ho Gamyeong’s entire body. In the end, unable to bear it, Ho Gamyeong found himself taking a step back before he even realized it.
Where in the world did someone like that come from……?
“I feel like killing you all, honestly, but I don’t have time to play with you right now. Move aside quietly. I won’t cut down anyone who backs off.”
After issuing that warning in a low voice, Chung Myung swept his dark eyes across them all.
“Otherwise, you die.”
At that threat, naked killing intent appeared on Ho Gamyeong’s face as well.
Having seen Chung Myung’s true nature, there was only one thought left in his head.
He had to be killed.
The leader wanted that man alive, but Ho Gamyeong thought otherwise. Anyone who raised tigers believed they could control them.
Only when that tiger cub truly became a tiger and sank its fangs into their throat did they realize, all too late, that there were things in this world that couldn’t be handled by willpower alone.
Paegun was no ordinary man, but this brat was no ordinary man either. Ho Gamyeong had no intention of ignoring a threat right in front of him just to chase some larger outcome later.
Originally, he had intended to spare only Chung Myung. But now, in this instant, his plan had reversed. The others didn’t matter. But that one—he had to die here and now! No matter what sacrifice it took, Chung Myung had to be killed on this spot.
Thud.
The ember in the pipe dropped to the ground.
At the same time, a huge shout burst from Ho Gamyeong’s mouth.
“Kill him! That one absolutely must die!”
At his command, the surrounding men surged forward all at once.
“Prepare yourselves!”
At Chung Myung’s short cry, the Mount Hua disciples formed a circle around Dang Soso.
Without so much as a battle cry, the blood-robed attacker shot toward them like a bolt of lightning, and from the tip of his terrifyingly sharp narrow sword burst a blood-red stream of sword energy.
Sword energy?
Chung Myung’s face hardened coldly.
But then—
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!
A massive explosion erupted right in front of him. The blood-robed attacker, who had been charging like a tiger, was instantly blown backward, reduced to a mangled heap.
“……”
Chung Myung, just about to swing his sword, turned his gaze with a frozen expression. The Mount Hua disciples, equally bewildered, also stared toward the place Chung Myung was looking at.
“Tsk, tsk…… I wondered what sort of nonsense you were up to.”
A familiar voice came from the brush. Then a man in clothes that were familiar to the eye but were never likely to become familiar to the heart stepped out at his own leisurely pace.
“Gamyeong, Gamyeong. I told you not to do this, didn’t I? Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
Paegun Jang Il-so.
In an instant, a piercing blue killing intent flashed in Chung Myung’s eyes.