We Will See Each Other Again Soon (4)
Hyun Jong, seated at the head of the conference room, stared blankly toward the entrance.
Boxes and bundles of every kind had been piled so high they nearly touched the ceiling.
After blinking at the sight for a moment, Hyun Jong slowly turned to look at Hwang Jong-ui, who was seated beside him.
“All of that is…?”
“Gifts.”
“Gifts?”
Hyun Jong frowned.
After Mount Hua had made a name for itself, gifts from benefactors had started arriving from time to time. He had accepted them only because there were one old man and one young man who cursed him to the heavens whenever he refused, shouting that when the sect was poor there was no reason to turn down free offerings—but even so, he had always found the whole thing a little distasteful.
And now, to hear that gifts were being delivered not to Mount Hua but to this very Eunha Merchant Guild—it left him feeling oddly displeased.
“Was there really any need to stack them all up like that?”
Hwang Jong-ui laughed pleasantly at the way Hyun Jong seemed to be forcing back the words send them back.
“It’s not what you think. Those gifts were sent by the common people of Xi'an to express their gratitude to Mount Hua.”
“The people of Xi'an?”
“Yes. Some are things they harvested from their fields, others are goods they sold in their shops. If you judge them by their monetary value, they’re nothing particularly special, but I thought Your Sect Leader would prefer gifts like these, so I had them brought inside.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Hwang Jong-ui caught it clearly—the way the corners of Hyun Jong’s mouth lifted just a little. When he’d assumed the gifts came from wealthy, powerful people, the sect leader hadn’t been able to hide his discomfort; yet the moment he heard they were tokens of gratitude from powerless commoners, he couldn’t conceal the satisfaction in his heart.
Usually, it’s the other way around.
That was what made Mount Hua such an interesting sect.
“It’s a fine thing indeed.”
“Fortunately, it seems we weren’t too late.”
At Hyun Sang’s words, Hyun Jong gave a firm nod.
At that moment, Hong Dae-gwang, who had been glancing around nervously from the corner, cautiously raised a hand. Instantly, a barrage of scolding came crashing down on him.
“No.”
Just those two words were enough for everyone in the room to immediately know who had spoken.
“This isn’t a marketplace. What’s some street beggar doing in here?”
“W-Who’re you calling a street beggar! I’m the branch leader of the Beggars’ Sect!”
“Exactly. So why’s someone of branch-leader rank barging in here? What, are you part of the Heavenly Alliance, old man? Did the Beggars’ Sect quietly quit the Nine Sects and One Gang and join the Heavenly Alliance while I wasn’t looking?”
Hong Dae-gwang smiled with satisfaction.
Even a mangy mutt from the neighborhood would grow a little more serious after three years, you bastard.
How was it that three whole years had gone by and this one hadn’t changed at all? At this point, calling him consistent almost felt insulting to the word.
“T-That’s not the important part here…”
“Wow. Now you’re the one deciding what’s important and what isn’t. Should I round up all the beggars in the neighborhood and publicly break some pots over their heads or something?”
Hong Dae-gwang stubbornly ignored Chung Myung and turned to Hyun Jong.
“Where have you been? I came up to Mount Hua, but there wasn’t anyone there…”
“Ah.”
Hyun Jong answered calmly, as though it were no big deal.
“We closed our gates, but it became difficult to train only within the sect, so we moved elsewhere.”
“No, why would you…?”
Instead of Hyun Jong, Hyun Young answered with a face twisted in irritation.
“What kind of training can you do when something is being broken and smashed every single day?”
“……”
Uh. Well, yes, that was true.
When Hong Dae-gwang had looked around, the place had been so battered he’d thought someone must have invaded.
“It was a good thing we moved when we did. If we’d stayed put, we’d have had to rebuild Mount Hua’s buildings before we even thought about Xi'an. A wall has to remain standing before you can even call it a closed sect. What sort of training was being done there, anyway, that it was so violent? Hah!”
Even now, Hyun Young clicked his tongue as if remembering it only made his blood boil. Hyun Jong gave a wry smile.
“That was one issue, but even though the gates were closed, people kept coming to find us, so it was hard to focus on training. In the end, we had no choice but to leave the sect and go to a remote mountain where no one would come looking for us.”
As soon as he finished, complaints burst out from the Mount Hua disciples.
“While digging up roots.”
“While hunting wild boars.”
“What, would you have preferred cutting timber and building halls?”
Under Hyun Young’s glare, the disciples of Mount Hua quietly looked away.
Hong Dae-gwang still had one unresolved question, so he asked, “Then how on earth did you know to arrive in time? Did you break out of your closure and happen to see the commoners of Xi'an evacuating?”
“Hmm?”
Hyun Jong looked at him as if asking what he meant.
“What are you talking about?”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you come up to Mount Hua and look for us?”
“H-How would I? There wasn’t anyone at Mount Hua!”
The instant Hong Dae-gwang widened his eyes in disbelief, something white shot out of Chung Myung’s chest. In a blur, it sprang up onto the table and planted both feet firmly before puffing its belly out.
“……Th-that.”
Hong Dae-gwang’s face went blank.
Baek Ah, now on top of the table, wore an expression of unmistakable pride—so obviously proud that it was astonishing a beast could even make such a face. If it could speak, it would definitely have said “Ahem.”
“That little thing, honestly. Acting all smug because it finally earned its keep once. I should’ve plucked its fur off ages ago.”
At Chung Myung’s click of the tongue, Baek Ah’s proud posture collapsed. Its ears seemed to droop as it looked at Chung Myung with its large black eyes, then lowered its gaze.
Baek Cheon let out a suppressed chuckle.
“It’s earned enough keep and then some. If it can save even one more commoner, I’d happily keep feeding that little thing for the rest of my life.”
“That bastard eats like a damn cow! You paying for it, Sasuk?”
“……That’s just a figure of speech.”
Chung Myung shook his head repeatedly, then cast a sideways glance.
“Though I suppose there are people who can’t even earn their meals…”
Flinch.
“No, seriously. A branch leader of the Beggars’ Sect and you couldn’t even sense a single beast’s presence? What? Nobody was there? Nobody?”
“……”
With no answer left in him, Hong Dae-gwang stared blankly at Baek Ah. Looking at that pure white fur that stood out so clearly, he couldn’t even think of a defense.
Thankfully, Hyun Jong came to his rescue.
“We couldn’t leave Mount Hua entirely empty. I left that little fellow to guard the sect. We couldn’t take it along since dogs need to be fed properly, but that one can come and go on its own when it’s time to eat.”
“So… I couldn’t see it, but it saw me, realized something had gone wrong, and reported it back to Mount Hua?”
“That’s right.”
Hong Dae-gwang slumped back in his chair in defeat.
“Man… I’m less than a beast now, apparently…”
He couldn’t bring himself to finish the rest of that sentence.
In any case, they’d managed to avoid a bloodbath thanks to that little spirit beast, so he should have been grateful…
“Kiik!”
Why did the little thing look so infuriating, stomping its front paws against the floor? Why?
“Anyway… I’m relieved.”
So the fate of Xi'an had been saved by a weasel. That was the sort of thing he could know and still never, ever repeat out loud.
“Then the closure has been lifted?”
“Indeed.”
Hyun Jong nodded.
“Even if Baek Ah hadn’t brought news, we’d already been thinking it was about time to finish preparing. Our closure lasted longer than expected, so we couldn’t keep dragging it out.”
“Then why did it take so long?”
At that, Hyun Jong’s face became visibly awkward.
“……There was someone who kept saying rice has to be cooked before it becomes a meal, but that bastard’s rice was apparently made of sand, because no matter how long we boiled it over three years, it still wouldn’t cook. What was I supposed to do about that?”
“Ah, so this is my fault? Not the sahyungs’? What, do you only praise us once our skills have improved enough to make it obvious?”
They had improved a lot, hadn’t they?
No, perhaps a little too much?
Hong Dae-gwang shuddered as he remembered the Mount Hua sword disciples who had practically chewed up the demonic sect and spat it back out.
“Then, Sect Leader.”
At that moment, Hwang Jong-ui asked Hyun Jong carefully, “Have you achieved the purpose of the closure?”
Hyun Jong wore a smile that was hard to read.
“I’m not quite sure how I should answer that, but…”
A firm voice slipped from Hyun Jong’s mouth.
“At the very least, I’ve returned with the confidence that no one in the world will dare look down on Mount Hua’s strength again.”
It was a statement full of unmistakable pride.
Hyun Jong was not someone who became arrogant lightly. Even in situations where others would have strutted with their shoulders high, he had always remained humble. For him to say something like that made clear the suffering and effort Mount Hua had endured over the past years.
No. I’ve already seen it with my own eyes, so there’s nothing to guess about.
And the fact that even that demon of a bastard, who would normally have lunged in immediately, had kept his mouth shut proved it beyond all doubt.
Of course, his face was saying without pause, So what if you’ve gotten a little stronger? Puff yourself up and you’ll get beaten flat somewhere and have your shoulders smashed back down. But the fact that he wasn’t saying it aloud, only wearing it on his face, was impressive in itself, wasn’t it?
“Congratulations, Sect Leader!”
“Congratulations!”
Hwang Jong-ui and Wi Lip-san, who had joined the meeting one last time before departing for Namyang, cupped their fists and offered their congratulations.
Hyun Jong accepted them with a smiling face, without the slightest false modesty.
“It is all thanks to the disciples who worked themselves to the bone.”
It was a heartwarming scene.
That is, if one ignored the Mount Hua disciples muttering under their breath.
“If we don’t, we die. What choice is there?”
“I’m just glad I came back alive. That’s enough.”
“If I had to do that again, I’d rather renounce the path and go home.”
“I trained in my dreams last night. When I woke up, I wanted to dive into a well.”
“I went in once and came back out.”
Hong Dae-gwang desperately clamped his ears shut and ignored those horrifying remarks.
Right, these guys were always like this, weren’t they?
Three years really shouldn’t have been that long, so why did everything feel so strangely unfamiliar?
Once the atmosphere had eased somewhat, Hyun Young brought the conversation back to the main point.
“For now, we’ll still need to stabilize Xi'an a little longer, but Mount Hua won’t have all that much to do.”
Hong Dae-gwang, who had naturally slipped into the discussion, asked Hyun Jong cautiously, “Then what do you plan to do after that?”
“Hmm.”
Hyun Jong smiled faintly and looked at one person.
“Who else would know that better than that little mudskipper?”
Hong Dae-gwang’s gaze slowly followed Hyun Jong to the side. Seeing Chung Myung with that many layers of mischief plastered all over his face somehow made Hong Dae-gwang uneasy all over again.
“……By the way, why do you keep looking so annoyed?”
“What, me?”
Baek Cheon snorted and lightly tapped Chung Myung’s head beside him.
“Don’t mind him, Branch Leader. He’s just pissed because he finally got out after closing the sect, and now that there are enemies right in front of him, he didn’t even get to swing a sword.”
“I should’ve peeled those bastards’ skins off!”
“……”
Sure enough, this bastard hadn’t changed at all.
“More importantly.”
Chung Myung lifted his chin slightly and spoke to Hong Dae-gwang.
“We just got down from the mountain, so I figure we should check what’s been going on. Conveniently, we’ve got the guild leader and the beggar old man right here, so we can just ask them. Start talking.”
“About what?”
Chung Myung’s mouth curled into a thin, sharp smile.
“First of all.”
Cold, blade-like light settled into his eyes.
“Tell me what that bastard Jang Il-so is doing right now.”