No One Can Stop Me! (3)
Whoosh.
Flash!
Whoosh.
Flash!
“Ah, you’re making my head spin!”
Jo Gul, who had been holding back all this time, finally shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Why do you keep looking back? Did you leave a honey jar or something behind you?—Ack, my eyes!”
As Hye Yeon turned his head back into place, another blinding burst of reflected light hit Jo Gul, and he clapped both hands over his eyes.
“Why are you doing that too, even you, monk?”
“...Donor, it’s just that...”
Hye Yeon fidgeted with a troubled look, then brought his palms together and said,
“I can’t help but keep worrying about the back of my head.”
Jo Gul stared at him in utter disbelief, then sighed and looked around for Yoon Jong.
“Ugh, Sadae-sahyung.”
“What is it?”
“I think I still have a long way to go before I can catch up to Chung Myung.”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“If it were that bastard Chung Myung, he’d definitely say something like, ‘Your back-of-the-head’s all shiny, so it keeps bothering me. You don’t even have hair to block the wind!’ But I just can’t bring myself to say something like that...”
“What nonsense are you spouting in front of a monk, you lunatic!”
Smack!
Jo Gul’s jaw snapped cleanly to the side.
With a yelp, Jo Gul crumpled to the ground, and Yoon Jong shook out his hand and clicked his tongue. Then he glanced sideways at Baek Cheon.
“...He really isn’t coming?”
“Looks that way.”
Baek Cheon, equally uneasy, kept scanning the surroundings.
But Yoon Jong couldn’t tell whether he was anxious that Chung Myung might come after them, or anxious that he might not.
“He really isn’t coming?”
“...Seems not?”
“Really?”
“...”
Baek Cheon shivered all over and said,
“Yoon Jong. You may think I’m worrying for nothing, but...”
“No, Sasuk. I understand.”
“I keep thinking that even now, that bastard Chung Myung will show up wearing a mask, screaming like a madman from right beside us.”
Yoon Jong didn’t answer. He just looked around again. He didn’t say it out loud, but he was suffering from the exact same unease.
Then Yu I-seol, sounding irritated, said,
“He’s not coming.”
“Huh?”
When Baek Cheon turned to her, she added,
“He does listen, in his own way.”
“...”
Yu I-seol. Sago seemed to have misunderstood something.
He’s not that kind of person...
“And if Sajae’s gone missing, Mount Hua’s going to be even worse.”
“Ah...”
Baek Cheon nodded before he even realized it, finding that strangely convincing.
That was true.
They weren’t the only ones fretting over whether Chung Myung would tag along. If anything, the ones left behind at Mount Hua would be even more worried.
So if Chung Myung’s face wasn’t being seen on Mount Hua right now, the mountain would already be in an uproar.
Almost unconsciously, everyone lifted their heads and looked toward the peak of Mount Hua, visible above the clouds.
“Looks like nothing’s happened, right?”
“Seems quiet.”
“There’s no way we could hear anything from here in the first place.”
Unusually, Jo Gul had said something sensible. Yoon Jong and Baek Cheon, who seemed somehow less than normal themselves, shut their mouths like they’d been stuffed with cotton and stared at Jo Gul.
Jo Gul let out a long sigh and clapped his hands together.
“Get it together, both of you! We have to go to the Yangtze and investigate, so what are you doing already acting like this?”
“...Ugh.”
“Sigh.”
Both men let out the same heavy breath.
Until they left the mountain gate, they’d had all the resolve in the world. But once they came down the mountain, the fact that they couldn’t hear that damned brat’s incessant chatter had become strangely unsettling.
They said you only notice what’s gone when something used to be there, and it seemed Chung Myung’s absence was far larger than any of them had expected.
Baek Cheon took one last look back at Mount Hua, then started walking again.
“Anyway... looks like he really isn’t coming. Let’s get moving.”
“Yes, Sasuk.”
Baek Cheon clicked his tongue and set off.
Then from here on out, I’m the one in charge.
In truth, Baek Cheon had been leading the group all along, but he had never once thought of himself as the one responsible for everything.
Not only him, but the others probably hadn’t thought of it that way either. In the end, the final decisions had always rested with Chung Myung. But from now on, they would have to think for themselves and bear the consequences themselves.
Heavy.
It felt as if a massive burden had been set on his shoulders.
But this burden, too, was ultimately his to carry. If he was truly worthy of becoming Mount Hua’s sect leader someday, then that was only right.
“All right, let’s go!”
“...You’ve already said let’s go at least five times, Sasuk.”
“Yoon Jong Sasuk, please calm down too. Stop shaking your legs already.”
“Pathetic.”
Baek Cheon looked at his juniors and sect brothers with a somewhat forlorn expression, then trudged forward again.
The first problem is just getting these damned brats to move along properly.
The road ahead was vast beyond measure, and every single step felt as heavy as a mountain.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Mount Hua was wrapped in a strange tension.
Every disciple’s attention was fixed on Chung Myung. Since he had been left behind on the Sect Leader’s orders, no one could tell what kind of havoc he might wreak.
The disciples, facing an unprecedented situation, watched every move he made with nerves stretched tight as wire.
“He’s not going to smash all the halls, is he?”
“If that’s all, it’d be a relief. The problem is if we’re the ones getting smashed.”
“I’m so scared...”
In the meantime, Mount Hua’s disciples came to understand, once again, just how precious the Five Swords really were.
Those guys had long since started blending in with Chung Myung and tormenting everyone else, that was true, but when that bastard went berserk like a mad ox, they were also the ones who threw themselves in front of him to stop him.
As the saying went, when the lips are gone, the teeth feel cold. Now that the Five Swords were gone, it looked like they’d have to throw themselves in front of Chung Myung’s rampage themselves.
Just please stay within the bounds of common sense.
He’s going to nitpick every little thing...
Sahyung. Please come back soon, please.
But unexpectedly, the problem they feared never happened.
Instead, a completely different problem began.
The Mount Hua disciples sitting in the dining hall had all gone rigid, each of them looking as though they’d seen a ghost. Their eyes remained fixed on one spot.
Tap.
Chopsticks picked up a bit of rice.
Chew. Chew. Chew.
It was brought to his mouth and chewed slowly, very slowly.
In truth, there was nothing strange about that at all. A little slow, perhaps a little too meticulous, but surely plenty of people ate slowly, didn’t they?
And yet the faces of those watching it had gone pale as corpses.
Ch, Chung Myung is... eating rice with chopsticks.
My God, he’s chewing it instead of shoveling it down.
The energetic, sloppy crunching sounds were nowhere to be heard.
Normally, Chung Myung treated every meal like a battle—stuff the food in, chew as little as possible, swallow, repeat. But right now he was picking up his food with chopsticks and actually chewing it thoroughly before swallowing.
The Mount Hua disciples watching him realized one thing with visceral clarity.
A sane person suddenly acting crazy was frightening, but a crazy person suddenly acting normal was several times more eerie and terrifying.
What on earth is he doing?
Mom, I’m scared...
They say if someone starts acting unlike themselves, they’ll die.
Just beat him already, you bastard!
This wasn’t merely a matter of behavior.
Wasn’t Chung Myung’s usual expression enough to make even a demon crawling out of hell run in fear?
His slumped shoulders, eyes lowered instead of sharp and slanted, and vacant pupils were not the Chung Myung they knew. No—this wasn’t Chung Myung at all.
Tap.
At that moment, Chung Myung set down the chopsticks he’d been holding.
Rattle...
Then he stood up from his seat, trudged toward the door, and went outside.
Click.
The door shut quietly.
And with that, a hellish silence fell over the dining hall.
“Did you see that? He opened and closed the door with his hand.”
“He, he didn’t kick it...”
“Did you hear that? It was a click, a click! Not a bang!”
“Oh, Primordial Heaven above...”
The Mount Hua disciples, still staring blankly at the door Chung Myung had left through, exchanged looks with faces gone deathly pale.
“W-what in the world is happening...”
An indescribable dread began to sweep over the Mount Hua disciples.
“Huff, huff!”
Gwak Hoe swung his wooden sword with desperate force. Sweat poured down his face like rain. Every time he thrust or cut, droplets sprayed in all directions.
His legs were shaking, both arms trembling violently, but his sword never once slowed.
I still wasn’t chosen this time.
He knew it.
He still couldn’t even pretend to match Yoon Jong or Jo Gul. He was doing his best, but the gap between them remained enormous.
Even if he were the sect leader, he wouldn’t have chosen Gwak Hoe to go in their place. If he were being brutally honest, wasn’t Gwak Hoe already behind even Baek Sang, who was becoming more of a pillar in the Finance Hall than a member of the Five Swords?
I need to work harder.
He understood that better than anyone.
And he knew just as well that the only way to close the gap in strength was through effort that carved at the bones.
Even so, there was one reason he couldn’t easily shake off his anxiety.
Am I really keeping up with my sahyungs?
No, he probably wasn’t.
The gap wasn’t narrowing. It was widening.
Not long ago, when he sparred with Jo Gul, he could at least stay in the rhythm for a while. But recently, he could barely hold on for a few exchanges. Even though he was training with all the seriousness one could ask for, the difference kept growing, and his sahyungs now seemed to be disappearing over the horizon.
I’m not the only one thinking this, am I?
That was why he’d done something reckless.
He knew he wasn’t ready. He knew he didn’t have the qualifications. And yet he had still gone to the Sect Leader and begged for the chance to learn Jaha Divine Art.
Was it greed?
No, not that.
It was because if his sahyungs learned Jaha Divine Art first, then he might lose his chance to ever catch up to them.
It wasn’t that he envied their growing strength. They were simply the yardstick he had set for strength itself, and what made him restless was the fact that he himself couldn’t become stronger fast enough. Perhaps everyone who had gone to see the Sect Leader together felt the same.
How do I grow stronger faster?
How do I become like my sahyungs...
“Grrrgh!”
Burning with frustration, Gwak Hoe slashed his sword with force.
His emotion-laden swing flew off course like a ghost. The shift in balance threw him off, and his wobbling legs gave way beneath him.
“Ah—!”
Fortunately, they had been practicing with enough spacing between them that there was no risk of anyone being struck by the sword as it veered sideways...
Thoom!
Then a heavy sound rang out, and Gwak Hoe’s eyes shook as if an earthquake had struck.
The wooden sword he’d swung off line had landed on someone’s head.
That alone was already a horrific accident.
But what made Gwak Hoe tremble like an aspen leaf was that the person struck by his wooden sword, the one whose head had been knocked sideways...
was someone far too familiar.
“Ch, Ch, Ch... Chung...”
The others training nearby were all staring at him with fists clapped to their mouths and eyes bulging wide. One of them had already begun chanting a prayer, asking the heavens to help Gwak Hoe attain rebirth in Paradise.
“Ch, Chung Myung. I-it wasn’t intentional... I swear, this was absolutely not intentional... This...”
No... why did it have to be Chung Myung of all people...?
No, more importantly, why the hell hadn’t this guy dodged?
Whatever the case, his fate had already been decided.
Just kill me cleanly.
Gwak Hoe sensed his doom and squeezed his eyes shut.
But then, in that instant—
“...Legs.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung lightly pushed the wooden sword away from his head.
“Train your lower body more. Even if your thoughts wander, as long as your legs are steady, your sword line won’t go astray.”
“Eh?”
“If you want to get stronger, start with the basics.”
“...O-okay. Got it.”
Gwak Hoe answered dazedly, and Chung Myung nodded before walking on without another word.
Gwak Hoe and the disciples around him stared blankly at the receding back of that bastard Chung Myung.
“...What the hell was that?”
“Did he eat something weird?”
“No, wait. Thinking about it, that actually makes sense...”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?”
“...”
Thunk.
Gwak Hoe let the wooden sword in his hand fall limp to the ground and muttered softly,
“...Is this a sign Mount Hua’s doomed?”
That whisper, as though the world itself had come apart, spread through the training yard, where silence had already settled like a tomb.