Here You Were (4)
A snake-like, sinister pair of eyes slowly swept across the surroundings. Everyone who met that gaze lowered their eyes without exception.
Rustle.
Red Tang boots came down on the overgrown grass. The sound of the blades being crushed and trampled echoed out.
“My, my.”
With a light shake of his head, Jang Il-so let out a sigh.
Clink.
Every time he strolled forward at his leisure, the ornaments hanging all over his body struck one another, producing clear metallic notes. The golden dragon embroidered on his pure white robes writhed as if alive.
It had truly been an abrupt entrance, yet from the moment he appeared, no one here could tear their eyes away from Jang Il-so. It was as though he were sucking the very space around him inward.
Not only the Maninbang crowd that had already taken position, but even the Five Swords stared at him as if bewitched.
It felt as though a tiger had wandered into the middle of a crowded marketplace and was now strolling through it at its leisure.
“Hmm.”
Letting out another low sigh, Jang Il-so walked toward the blood-robed man who was convulsing and coughing up blood. Then, after peering down at him at point-blank range, he crouched down casually.
“Are you all right?”
“H-haa, cough! I, I am……”
“My apologies. I was in rather a hurry.”
Jang Il-so lightly patted the blood-robed man on the back. Instantly, the man’s face, which had looked as if he might lose his breath at any second, improved visibly.
“Cough! Cough!”
“Come now, cough up a little more blood.”
“Uwaaaaack!”
After vomiting up a mouthful of bright red blood, the blood-robed man turned his head and looked at Jang Il-so.
“T-thank you, Alliance Leader.”
“You’re saying all sorts of things. Since I’m the one who did this, of course I should clean it up. I’m sorry.”
“Please, think nothing of it! My life was given by the Alliance Leader; even if the Alliance Leader were to take it away, how could I possibly resent you?”
“Thank you for understanding. I’ll remember you.”
“I-it is an honor.”
Jang Il-so patted the shoulder of the blood-robed man, who was so moved he seemed to have lost all sense of place, and smiled pleasantly. Then he slowly straightened up.
Baek Cheon, who had watched the whole thing unfold, felt a sickening sense of wrongness.
The one who had attacked that blood-robed man was Jang Il-so himself.
By any normal standard, the blood-robed man ought to feel hostility, betrayal, or at the very least confusion toward the man who had attacked him out of nowhere. But right now, he was acting as though Jang Il-so were his lifelong benefactor.
He had clearly been given illness and medicine in the same breath, and yet he had forgotten the illness entirely while reverently treasuring the medicine that had been tossed to him like some sacred relic.
Just what in the world is this man…?
Even seeing it with his own eyes, there was almost nothing about him that could be understood.
Jang Il-so, now standing upright, turned his gaze to Ho Gamyeong, who was biting his lip.
“Gamyeong.”
“……Alliance Leader.”
“Tsk.”
Jang Il-so clicked his tongue, his expression faintly displeased, and chided him.
“Why do you think I gave you the authority to move troops without my permission?”
“I……”
“I did it because I believed that even without a cumbersome procedure, you would be able to guess my will. Isn’t that so?”
Ho Gamyeong bit down hard on his lip and lowered his head. Jang Il-so let out an exaggerated sigh and frowned.
“And yet the one who should know my intentions best goes and does something like this. Gamyeong, Gamyeong. Why are you being so foolish? Why did you do this, hm?”
Ho Gamyeong’s lips trembled as he clenched them.
“Alliance Leader, I……”
“Enough.”
But before he could finish, Jang Il-so waved a hand dismissively, as though already bored.
“Whatever the reason, I’m sure you had one. I won’t bother asking.”
“……”
“We’ll hear about it later, slowly.”
Jang Il-so waddled forward and came to stand before the Five Swords.
“My apologies. This fellow is a little too enthusiastic. Sometimes he goes and does things I never ordered him to do. When a subordinate makes a mistake, it is the superior’s responsibility, so if you want to blame someone, blame me.”
Chung Myung fixed Jang Il-so with a cool, direct stare.
Jang Il-so’s calm gaze and Chung Myung’s icy one entwined in the air, locked together.
And it was Jang Il-so who looked away first.
“Oh dear. You look like you could devour a man with your eyes. As you can see, I’m rather delicate, so I’d appreciate it if you’d ease up a little. Otherwise……”
A bright smile spread across Jang Il-so’s lips.
“I may feel like plucking those eyes right out. Hmm?”
“That bastard……”
Chung Myung tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.
By now, “fate” or “bad blood” was not enough to describe it. This was an utterly hateful, rotten connection.
Seeing him grind his teeth, Jang Il-so broke into a cackle.
“Let me ask you something.”
“What.”
“What’s that thing slung over your shoulder? It looks rather precious.”
Chung Myung’s head turned slightly. Taking in the cloth-wrapped remains of Cheong Jin with his eyes, he replied evenly.
“The soul of Mount Hua.”
Jang Il-so, asking again in apparent confusion, smirked as though holding back laughter.
“The soul?”
“……”
“The soul, huh. The soul! The soul! Hahaha!”
His quiet chuckling grew louder and louder.
“Hahaha……! Hahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahaha! Right! So that’s the soul of Mount Hua, is it? Hahahahahahaha!”
Throwing his head back, Jang Il-so laughed uproariously, and the ornaments on his body rattled noisily, mingling with the sound of his laughter like some hideous music.
Baek Cheon bit down hard on his lip.
Damn it.
They had fought countless enemies until now. Among them had certainly been foes they were never meant to overcome.
But never before had he felt like this. Even when facing that Bishop, he had never felt like a rat trapped in a jar, his neck going cold at every tiny movement of the enemy.
Regardless of martial prowess, Jang Il-so was undeniably a man beyond comprehension.
A rat in a trap.
Those blood-robed and gray-robed men were surely Maninbang’s elite. That alone would have been hard enough to handle, but now Paegun Jang Il-so had appeared as well.
Could they win?
No. There was no way such a thing was possible.
No matter how strong Chung Myung was, even taking on Jang Il-so alone would be difficult. If Chung Myung were pinned down, the rest of them could not possibly hold out against so many Maninbang elites. They would be swept away in an instant.
And if that happened, then in the end Chung Myung would have to face Jang Il-so and all of them alone. That meant certain defeat.
Then……
Keeping his eyes fixed on Jang Il-so, who was still roaring with laughter, Baek Cheon whispered quietly.
“Chung Myung.”
“Hm?”
“When the fight starts, I’ll rush out first, so you run.”
Chung Myung turned to him with a blank expression.
“……What are you even saying?”
“I’m not joking. You have to live.”
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung with complete seriousness.
“You must survive and return to Mount Hua. And you have to deliver this manual.”
Chung Myung stared at him blankly for a moment, then snorted in disbelief.
“Jin Dong-ryong really has grown up a lot. So you can say stuff like that now.”
“I said I’m not joking, you little bastard.”
“Yeah. I’m not joking either.”
“……”
The corners of Chung Myung’s mouth curled coldly upward.
“Especially not now.”
“Why are you being so stubborn……!”
“Because that’s how it is.”
“……”
“If you think too much, you regret it later. And……”
Chung Myung looked at Baek Cheon with cold eyes.
“Don’t get it twisted. I’m not saying I’m going to die, and no one else is dying either.”
“……”
“The ones dying are them.”
Chung Myung glared at Jang Il-so and the Maninbang fighters.
“I don’t care who they are. If they block us, we smash through. That’s all.”
The moment Chung Myung finished speaking, Yu I-seol drew her sword. Then she stepped forward and took her place beside him.
“Anyone.”
“Yeah. Anyone.”
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong also drew their swords and stood to his left and right.
“Maninbang, huh? We’re used to that.”
“At least we can open a path.”
Dang Soso slipped a hand into her robes and pressed close behind Chung Myung.
“I’ll use poison. Don’t go near the side I’ve poisoned.”
Even in her eyes, a spear of frost-like resolve flared to life.
Baek Cheon looked at his juniors, who had stepped forward before he did, and bit down hard on his lip.
They surely knew as well as he did how hopeless the situation was. And yet not one of them complained, not one of them feared death.
Fools.
Swish.
At last, Baek Cheon steeled his heart and drew his sword with decisive force.
“Move.”
Pushing between Yu I-seol and Yoon Jong, he took the very front and leveled his blade toward the enemy ahead.
As the fierce aura burst from his body, the Maninbang fighters answered in kind, raising their weapons and unleashing their own savage pressure. They looked like beasts ready to lunge at any moment.
It was a situation on the verge of explosion.
But then—
“Hahahahahaha!”
Jang Il-so, covering half his face with one hand as though trying to hide his smile, laughed for quite some time before suddenly spreading the other arm wide.
With that one motion, the murderous pressure from the Maninbang fighters vanished as cleanly as if it had been washed away.
“Open the way.”
At Jang Il-so’s command, confusion and bewilderment clouded the eyes of the Maninbang fighters. But when Jang Il-so spoke again, even that hesitation disappeared in an instant.
“Do you mean to make me say it twice?”
The effect was immediate. The Maninbang fighters recoiled in all directions as though burned by fire, parting to the left and right to make a path.
“A-Alli—”
Ho Gamyeong cried out in a groan, but Jang Il-so didn’t even bother to respond. Beneath the hand covering his face, his mouth parted slightly, revealing white teeth.
If a wolf pack leader smiled, it would look like that.
“Don’t forget it, Mount Hua Divine Dragon.”
“……”
Through the fingers of the hand crowded with rings, his eyes gleamed with blue madness.
“You owe me once. The tally should be exact.”
Chung Myung shot him a sharp look.
“You sure are shameless.”
“I’m actually rather precise when it comes to counting.”
Slash!
Chung Myung flicked his sword once.
Then, lifting the blade he had been letting hang downward, he slowly began sliding it back into the scabbard.
Shrrrk.
“As a rule, I don’t do business with swindlers……”
Clack!
The sound of the sword returning fully into its sheath rang out clearly.
Looking Jang Il-so straight in the eye, Chung Myung said, “This once only.”
“I’m honored.”
Chung Myung glanced back over his shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
The Five Swords looked at him with bewildered eyes. They were clearly wondering whether they could trust Jang Il-so’s words.
And reasonably so. If they broke formation and tried to pass through the path Maninbang had opened, only to be ambushed, the situation would become even worse than it already was.
“I’m not that much of an idiot. Let’s go.”
But Chung Myung simply took the lead and walked forward without a trace of hesitation.
“Uh……”
In the end, the Five Swords also sheathed their swords and hurried after him.
Chung Myung’s steps toward Jang Il-so didn’t waver even once. His cold eyes and Jang Il-so’s deep, unreadable gaze met in the air and intertwined.
And as their shoulders brushed and crossed past one another, Chung Myung said in a low voice, “One debt.”
“……”
“I’ve got it memorized.”
With that, Chung Myung walked on through the ranks of the Maninbang fighters without once looking back. Hostile eyes rained down on him, but he didn’t so much as spare them a glance.
Behind him, the Mount Hua disciples followed with their vigilance raised like a hedgehog’s spines.
Before long, Baek Cheon, having fully broken out of Maninbang’s encirclement, looked back. Sweat had already slid down to his chin and dripped to the ground. He hadn’t swung his sword once, but it felt as if every ounce of strength had been drained from his body.
Everyone let out a quiet breath.
“They’re not chasing us?”
“……They’re really just letting us go?”
“What’s he thinking, that bastard?”
And all of them kept glancing back, unable to understand what had just happened.
“Chung Myung.”
“……For now……”
But before Baek Cheon could say anything else, Chung Myung shook his head. Then he gripped the cloth wrapped around the remains even tighter.
“To Mount Hua.”
“……Understood.”
Just before quickening his pace, Chung Myung looked back once more. He could clearly see the Maninbang fighters still staring after them.
Grinding his teeth, Chung Myung cut the sight off and sprinted forward.
Paegun Jang Il-so.
He carved that name into his heart like a brand.