What the Hell Are You Talking About? I’m the Strongest! (2)
Thud.
Watching Baek Cheon collapse into a crumpled heap, Chung Myung stretched with a satisfyingly refreshed look on his face.
“Ah, that feels like a ten-year-old stomach ache finally going down.”
Baek Cheon didn’t so much as twitch, as if he’d lost consciousness completely. Seeing that, Chung Myung snorted.
“What a drama queen.”
He had beaten the man bloody, sure, but carefully enough that he wouldn’t suffer any lasting injuries. Once he woke from the brief blackout, he’d be able to get up. The pain would probably stick with him all day, though.
“Yeah, this is way easier! I should’ve just gone with this from the start.”
What a waste of time, running his mouth and overthinking everything. Whether that damned Hwajong Jihoe ended well or poorly had nothing to do with Chung Myung.
No, wait.
Then again, he really couldn’t stand the thought of those lousy Mount Wudang bastards strutting around Mount Hua all full of themselves.
“Hmm. So what does that mean I should— Aaaagh! Jesus! Damn!”
Chung Myung, squatting in place and thinking, yelped and toppled sideways in fright. It was Yu I-seol, crouching right beside him and staring at him intently.
“Seriously! You’re not a ghost, so stop sneaking up like one!”
Someone really needed to do something about that. At this rate, he’d die of a heart attack before Mount Hua even managed to revive.
“Make some noise! Some noise!”
“I did.”
“When!”
“While you were still beating him.”
“……”
Chung Myung glanced at Baek Cheon, still sprawled out like a corpse, then looked back at Yu I-seol.
A gentle smile spread across his face.
“You saw that?”
“Mm.”
“All of it?”
“From a little before then.”
“Huuuh.”
“Murder and cover-up?”
“No, that’s going too far.”
Like hell he was going to kill him. Kill him?
Chung Myung studied the top of Yu I-seol’s head closely.
She tilted her head.
“Why?”
“No, I was thinking maybe if I just whacked the back of your head a few times and beat you up a little, you’d forget. Amnesia, or something.”
“……I forgot.”
“Really?”
“Mm. I forgot everything.”
She was blank, all right, but her survival instincts were intact.
Chung Myung narrowed his eyes slightly. Then Yu I-seol said quietly,
“But teach me that sword.”
This woman really didn’t know how to give up. Was she made of flames or something?
Up until now, he’d been brushing her off casually enough, but that was getting harder and harder to do. Besides, she had seen him happily pounding Baek Cheon into the dirt, hadn’t she? At this point, pretending otherwise wouldn’t work.
Then he’d have to change tactics.
Chung Myung let out a long sigh and spoke.
“Why do you want to learn it?”
“……”
Yu I-seol flinched, apparently not expecting that counterattack. After a moment, she looked at him with a trace of confusion. The way her emotions showed right on her face was… what should he call it?
There’s no way this one can lie in front of people.
Yu I-seol hesitated briefly before speaking.
“I can’t say why, but…”
Her wavering voice carried absolute sincerity.
“I have to learn that sword.”
Chung Myung looked at her in silence.
Doesn’t seem like she just wants to learn it because the plum blossoms are pretty.
Need burned in her eyes. There was clearly some story there Chung Myung couldn’t guess at.
“You want to learn?”
Yu I-seol nodded.
“No need to ask.”
“Huh?”
“That’s originally Mount Hua’s sword. If you wait, you’ll naturally learn it.”
“……It’s not there anymore.”
“Oh?”
She knew it wasn’t there?
That meant she’d recognized the sword Chung Myung had demonstrated as the Plum Blossom Sword Art. More accurately, it was Chung Myung’s own variation of it.
Chung Myung nodded.
“Right. It’s not there now.”
“……”
“But it’ll be back soon. Once everything’s ready.”
“Ready?”
Chung Myung stared at Yu I-seol quietly. Instead of answering her, he slowly lifted a hand and pointed at the sky.
Then his fingers moved gracefully through the air.
At first, Yu I-seol only tilted her head, unable to understand what he was doing. But before long, she realized his hand was tracing sword movements, and her gaze turned serious as she followed the fingertips.
“Moon Lady Sword, right?”
“Yeah.”
Yu I-seol was slowly drawn into the motion of his hand.
It was unmistakably the Moon Lady Sword.
The one she had spent the most time learning. The one she had polished for the longest time.
But Chung Myung’s Moon Lady Sword was somehow different from hers. It wasn’t merely a difference in movement; it felt as if the very foundation was different.
When the brief but strangely long sequence of gestures came to an end, Yu I-seol let out a soft breath.
“You understand?”
Yu I-seol shook her head.
“No. I don’t understand any of it.”
Chung Myung was about to say something, but Yu I-seol continued first.
“But figuring that out is my job, isn’t it? I think I know what you’re saying. You mean I can’t learn it unless I reach a certain level first?”
“That’s right.”
“I need to sharpen what I already have and build my foundation first.”
“You get it well enough.”
Yu I-seol nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
Chung Myung looked at her with fresh eyes.
I thought she was just blank, but she’s smart too.
Well, personality and intelligence were separate things. It made sense.
“Fine. But if you tell anyone about what happened today, I’m never teaching you.”
“I won’t tell.”
“Good girl.”
As soon as Chung Myung nodded, Yu I-seol narrowed her eyes.
“I’m your sago. You’re my sajil.”
“I know, I know. Right. Good girl.”
“……”
He could see the hand gripping the sword tightening slightly. Chung Myung hurriedly turned around.
“Then see you next time, sago. Don’t come looking for me until you’re actually good enough. It’s annoying.”
“Hey…”
Yu I-seol reached out as if to grab him, but he didn’t wait around. He simply shuffled down the mountain with a lazy drag of his feet.
“Oh, and toss that idiot into a room or something. If you leave him here, his face’ll freeze up crooked.”
Hearing Chung Myung’s voice drift back from farther and farther away, Yu I-seol let out a long sigh.
Plum blossoms.
Chung Myung made plum blossoms bloom from the tip of his sword.
It was a sight she had never once seen since coming to Mount Hua.
Only…
Yu I-seol closed her eyes.
In her mind, the sword began to move. The graceful arc of the blade wavered, then burst into a field of vivid plum blossoms.
Plum blossoms.
And the sword tip.
And the man holding that sword.
Father.
— I will restore this sword no matter what. And one day, I want to return to Mount Hua and beg forgiveness for my sins. Seol-ah, come with me. Mount Hua is a wonderful place.
And in the end, his sword had never managed to make those plum blossoms bloom in full.
But now, in front of her, there was someone who could make them bloom.
“I have to learn it.”
No matter what it took.
---
Crash!
Chung Myung kicked open the door of Baekmae Hall and strode inside.
“Hiiiiiik!”
“He’s here!”
And he was greeted by a bizarrely heated reaction.
“What?”
Though it was still early dawn, Jo Gul and Yoon Jong were waiting for him on the first floor.
“Looks like training was easy for you, if you’re awake this early?”
“That’s not it! Something happened!”
“Huh?”
“The martial uncles came looking for Baek Cheon sahyung when they heard he’d gone missing.”
What strange people.
Baek Cheon was missing, so why were they coming to Baekmae Hall? What, did they think Chung Myung had kidnapped him or something?
Oh.
He hadn’t thought of that. He should’ve just picked him up, taken him home, and beaten him there.
Looks like there was at least one reasonably smart fellow among the second-generation disciples.
“You really do suspect people for no reason. Rude.”
At Chung Myung’s words, Yoon Jong’s face brightened.
“So it wasn’t something involving you! Thank goodness—”
“It was, though?”
“……”
Then why are you looking so upset, you idiot! There was no reason to be upset!
No, wait. That wasn’t the important part right now!
“You were with Baek Cheon sahyung?”
“Yeah.”
“S-so… surely it wasn’t what I think it was, right?”
“What are you thinking?”
Yoon Jong gave an awkward laugh.
“It probably isn’t, but you’re a man who can think, so there’s no way you’d do something like that, but just in case… you didn’t hit him, did you? Or, like you said the other day, you didn’t smash his face in or anything, right?”
“……”
“What’s the difference?” Jo Gul asked.
“Face strikes get bonus points, obviously.”
Jo Gul nodded as if that made perfect sense. Chung Myung waved a hand in the air.
“Come on, I’m not a child.”
“Ah, right. Yes, Chung Myung! I trusted you. No matter how insane you are, there’s no way you’d hit a martial uncle.”
“I didn’t hit him.”
“Good!”
“I beat the hell out of him like a dog.”
“Right. Like a dog. Baek Cheon martial uncle already has a sort of dog-like side to him… what?”
Yoon Jong’s face shook as if the earth itself had trembled beneath him. It was a spectacle in its own right.
“You beat him up?”
“Yep.”
“Whom? A martial uncle?”
“No, that was a joke, right?”
“As if. I never joke around…”
In the next instant, Yoon Jong lunged at Chung Myung like a bolt of lightning, seized him by the collar, and shook him furiously.
“You damn lunatic! There are limits to madness! How could you beat up a martial uncle? Do you not understand how grave the crime of insulting one’s master and belittling one’s ancestors is? You—”
“Eat this!”
Chung Myung kicked Yoon Jong right off him.
After peeling the great-sahyung away with such casual ease, he rubbed his neck and frowned.
“Who do you think I am, an idiot? I handled it properly so there won’t be any problems, so don’t worry. Don’t you know me by now?”
“You… you do this because you know yourself.” Yoon Jong sighed heavily.
“Good heavens, there’s madness, and then there’s this. How can you beat up a martial uncle? There are rules a person is supposed to uphold, at least to some degree.”
“When has that guy ever upheld anything like that?” Jo Gul muttered.
“Guh…”
Yoon Jong let out a tragic groan at the brutal truth, as if he’d lost his country. Just thinking about what the morning was about to bring made tears threaten to blur his vision.
“Why are you both acting like this? Do you think I can’t handle that sort of thing properly?”
“……So what did the martial uncle say?”
“He said he wanted me to make him stronger.”
“Huh?”
At the unexpected answer, Yoon Jong and Jo Gul both stared wide-eyed at Chung Myung.
Chung Myung, meanwhile, only picked at his ear with a bored expression and said casually,
“What’s so surprising about that?”
“……”
“……”
The two exchanged a look.
Does that even make sense?
No, if you think about it, maybe it does. We were like that too, weren’t we?
But he’s a martial uncle.
And we’re his martial nephews.
People who had been through something similar could understand Baek Cheon’s feelings, in a way. They knew what sort of emotions could drive someone to say something like that.
“S-so what did you say? Did you say you would?”
“No. I just beat him up.”
“……Beat him?”
“Mm.”
“Why?”
Chung Myung shrugged.
“Did I need a reason? I was still annoyed. So I kept beating him until I felt better.”
“……”
At that moment, Yoon Jong bitterly regretted not training harder before Chung Myung had arrived. If he had the chance to go back in time, he was sure he could stay awake and train right until the instant Chung Myung appeared.
That way, he’d be able to smash that lunatic’s face in.
He was painfully realizing all over again that if a strong man lost his mind too, there was no way to stop him.
“Stop worrying about useless things and go to sleep. You’ll know when you wake up.”
“……”
“I’m sleeping.”
As Chung Myung trudged upstairs, Jo Gul and Yoon Jong were left standing there alone, both letting out deep sighs.
“……He really beat him up?”
“I’ve learned one thing about Chung Myung.”
“What?”
“That bastard talks a lot of nonsense, but he never lies.”
“……Well, that’s something good to know.”
A very good thing, you bastard.
“But, sahyung.”
“Mm?”
“Doesn’t that mean even Baek Cheon sahyung got taken down by Chung Myung?”
“……”
“Do you think it’s true?”
“Didn’t you just say he talks nonsense but doesn’t lie?”
“No, it’s just such an unbelievable thing. Even so, it’s Baek Cheon sahyung.”
“It’s Chung Myung.”
“……Fair enough.”
Yoon Jong shook his head and looked toward the upper floor Chung Myung had gone to.
That monster was swallowing up even the Baek generation now.
Where was Mount Hua headed? Mount Hua…
For some reason, Yoon Jong felt like crying.