A Feral Scramble (2)
“Heeheeheeheehee.”
“…….”
“Heeheeheeheeheeheehee.”
“…….”
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong turned to Baek Cheon with faces full of unease.
“S-Sasuk.”
“……What?”
“W-Why is that thing acting like that?”
“…….”
Baek Cheon glanced at that thing with a look that said the whole world had become pointless.
Somehow, Chung Myung—something he absolutely did not want to call a person—was holding a wine jug in one hand and a letter in the other, cackling like a demon. And he had been doing it for a long while, too.
“Gul, Jong.”
“……Yes, Sasuk.”
“Must you make such a fuss over something so obvious…….”
“N-No, I mean, I understand that the bastard’s been nuts from day one.”
“But isn’t he taking it too far today? Sasuk, look at that.”
When Baek Cheon followed Yoon Jong’s pointing finger, he flinched.
Baek Ah, who was usually glued to Chung Myung’s body and rarely let go, had crept far away and was inching backward while watching him warily.
Huh. The fact that the white thing’s trembling makes it kind of cute.
……No, wait.
That was a spiritual beast that could slap a tiger’s ears clean off. He couldn’t be fooled by its looks. If only its personality were decent…….
Baek Cheon shifted his gaze back to Chung Myung.
Indeed, even to his eyes, Chung Myung seemed seriously off today. So much so that an illusion of Asura’s shadow was blooming behind his back like a lingering afterimage.
Wasn’t it impressive enough that a man could radiate such a sinister aura while obviously enjoying himself with his whole body?
“Kheh-heh-heh…….”
Then Chung Myung muttered to himself with the expression of a swindler who’d just pulled off a huge scam.
“These bastards think they can screw me over? You’re a hundred years too early, you little punks!”
Hearing that, Baek Cheon shook his head. No one was going to hear him, but he wanted to say this anyway.
Chung Myung…….
If you’re the one he’s up against, then he’s already not someone who should be called a little punk……. How wronged must the real little punk be to hear that?
“Heeheeheeheehee. Uhihihit! Uheheheheheh! Kyarurururuk!”
“……He’s insane.”
“Yeah. Completely.”
“No, not just plain insane.”
Chung Myung happily jammed the wine jug to his lips. Watching his throat bob rhythmically as he drank was refreshing enough to make everyone looking on feel strangely relieved.
“……What on earth is he so happy about?”
Baek Cheon smiled gently and warmly as he answered.
“You two still don’t know him very well.”
“……Yes?”
“That vile bastard only gets this sincerely pleased in two cases.”
“W-What are those?”
“When he’s made a fortune, or when he’s really screwed someone over.”
“…….”
“And looking at that grin, this time it’s probably the latter…….”
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong both started to tremble.
Since Baek Cheon was one of the brightest minds in Chung Myung Studies(?), if he said so, it had to be true.
Then…….
“The Nine Sects?”
“The Five Great Families?”
“Jang Il-so? Saperyeon?”
“N-No, maybe Zhongnan?”
As they rattled off every name that came to mind, they suddenly realized something.
There were simply too many people in the world Chung Myung wanted to screw over.
No, at this point, isn’t everyone in the world except the Heavenly Alliance his enemy?
By this point, shouldn’t they be seriously wondering who was actually the cause of all this?
“Huuuuuum! And the weather is just marveloussssss!”
Rumble!
……It’s raining, you idiot.
But whether the heavens objected or not, Chung Myung merely laughed as his shoulders shook with unrestrained delight.
“Heeheeheehee. Die! All of you! Die! Uheheheheheh!”
Words that should never have come from a Taoist priest poured from his mouth as naturally as breathing.
If he was a Taoist priest, then even an earthworm was a dragon.
“What has him in such a good mood?”
At last, Baek Cheon edged over and asked. Chung Myung whipped his head around.
“Ah, Sasuk! Want a drink?”
“Is there anyone else in Mount Hua besides you who drinks in broad daylight?”
“There isn’t, but you can start from today.”
“……I’ll pass.”
Baek Cheon shook his head and asked again.
“But what happened?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just that…….”
“Mm.”
“It looks like the bastards from the Nine Sects and Five Great Families are about to get into a fight with the bastards from Saperyeon.”
“Ah, I see. Then that’s fi— what, what did you say?”
With his eyes going round, Baek Cheon grabbed Chung Myung by the collar.
“W-Who’s fighting whom?”
“The Nine Sects and Saperyeon.”
“A war?”
“Yeah, a war.”
Baek Cheon’s face went pale in an instant.
“You little bastard! If that’s not a big deal, then Mount Hua collapsing wouldn’t be a big deal either!”
“Come on, I’m telling you it’s really not a big deal. It’s got nothing to do with us.”
“How is it not related, you lunatic!”
“It’s fine, it’s fine.”
Chung Myung reached out and patted Baek Cheon’s back.
“You’re always so timid, Dongryong. We just need to sit back, watch the show, and eat the rice cake. Heeheeheeheehee!”
Baek Cheon let go of Chung Myung’s collar and covered his own face.
Primordial Heavenly Lord.
I truly don’t understand. Why did You give such talent to this bastard……. Why…….
Baek Cheon seemed to be in the midst of some deep internal struggle when he suddenly slammed his fist into his palm.
“Ah, right. We should send letters to the North Sea and Yunnan first.”
“Hey, to Beast Palace and Ice Palace?”
“Yes.”
Baek Cheon, who had been miserable only a second ago, quickly lifted his head, brightening.
Right. He may talk viciously, but there’s no way he’d just calmly accept this situation. He must be requesting reinforcements in advance…….
“I can’t keep this wonderful news to myself! Happiness doubles when it’s shared, right? We should all laugh together! Uheheheheheh! Because they’re my friends!”
“…….”
The cloud of despair kept piling up and growing darker. Yoon Jong, who had come over at some point, patted Baek Cheon’s shoulder as he stared upward with a miserable face.
“Please don’t cry, Sasuk.”
“I’m not crying…….”
Sniffling, Baek Cheon shoved Yoon Jong’s hand away. Then he asked,
“Then shouldn’t we rush to the Yangtze River right now?”
“Why?”
“If it’s war, we should pitch in too. It’s the fight against Saperyeon, after all.”
Chung Myung nodded decisively with a solemn face.
“Of course! We should definitely fight too!”
“R-Right?”
“That’s true, but…….”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung’s stern expression melted into something lazy. Leaning back against the tree again, he looked like a well-fed cat as he went limp.
“It’s a little annoying right now, so let’s go slowly. Slowly……. Very sloooowly.”
“…….”
“Let them fight as much as they want first, until they’re all bleeding from the nose.”
“…….”
“Better yet, let them both wreck each other and die together.”
Baek Cheon stared at Chung Myung in stunned disbelief.
But unlike Baek Cheon, who still had some shred of hope left in Chung Myung, Jo Gul had already abandoned all expectation. So no matter what Chung Myung said, he simply ignored the nonsense and focused on the situation.
“Hey, Chung Myung.”
“Hm?”
“Won’t this cause trouble for us if we’re not careful?”
“What will?”
“Think about it. We can fight Saperyeon, sure, but we can’t fight the Nine Sects or the Five Great Families, right?”
“Why can’t we? We just beat them senseless and that’s that.”
“N-No, no. I mean we can’t actually go to war with them. You know, all the killing and bleeding and that sort of thing.”
“……Hm?”
At that, Chung Myung tilted his round eyes.
And everyone who saw that expression immediately knew what had just occurred in his head.
He’s thinking about doing it.
He doesn’t understand.
Mom. I’m scared of him.
Just what was the difference between sapa and orthodox sects in this bastard’s head?
“So anyway?”
“R-Right. Uhh……. But if war breaks out and the Nine Sects or the Five Great Families wipe out Saperyeon, won’t we be left with nothing, handing the initiative over to the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families? Like a dog chasing a chicken and then staring at the roof when it’s gone?”
“Huh?”
“……Hm?”
When Jo Gul finished, everyone looked at him in surprise.
Clap clap clap clap clap.
Chung Myung applauded as though genuinely impressed. Jo Gul’s shoulders subtly straightened with pride.
“Right? I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Nope. Not even a little.”
This bastard?
“……Then why were you clapping?”
“I was just impressed that our senior brother now naturally thinks of the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families as something like Saperyeon.”
“You filthy bastard.”
“Sapa bastard.”
“…….”
Jo Gul tried to protest in grievance, but it made no difference at all.
Except for one person.
“No, isn’t there some logic to that?”
“Sasuk!”
Tears of emotion welled in Jo Gul’s eyes. As expected, Baek Cheon was Baek Cheon. Truly worthy of becoming the next sect leader…….
“Normally, everything that bastard says is just nonsense, but…….”
No, wait. Maybe Yoon Jong should be the next sect leader.
“At any rate, the later we get involved, the stronger the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families’ position becomes. No matter how I think about it, I don’t see the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families losing to Saperyeon.”
It was true that Saperyeon had shown absurd growth over the past three years, but the Nine Sects were the Nine Sects, and the Five Great Families were the Five Great Families.
If they fought with all their strength, there was no reason Saperyeon should be able to win. That was Baek Cheon’s common sense.
Chung Myung, who had been listening quietly, smirked.
“You’ve got some things right and some things wrong, but honestly, you don’t need to worry about that. The situation you’re imagining won’t happen in the first place.”
“Hm? Why not?”
“Because the Nine Sects and the Five Great Families won’t be able to mobilize their full strength.”
Baek Cheon’s face hardened slightly.
“……What do you mean by that?”
“Just what I said. No matter how much Shaolin spouts off, no one’s going to gather.”
“N-No, but this is a crisis in the martial world.”
“It is a crisis. But listen.”
Chung Myung gave a crooked smile.
“People never realize something’s urgent until the fire’s already at their own feet. And you said it yourself, didn’t you? If the Nine Sects go all out, they can deal with Saperyeon.”
“……Yes.”
“Then why the hell would they rush to the front? Their own losses would only get bigger, and after winning the war like Jo Gul said, they’d be weakened and pushed down by the other righteous bastards, wouldn’t they?”
“B-But wouldn’t they at least gain military merit?”
“Ah, merit? That tiny little thing you’re supposed to brag about once, after which it’s basically useless?”
“…….”
“Life is about profit, my friend, profit! In this world, the man who makes money by loan sharking and dodges military service gets to live like a lord, while the soldier who bleeds on the battlefield gets forgotten!”
“That, that may be true, but…….”
“Even when the Demonic Sect invaded—when the entire martial world had to unite just to have a chance—those guys were already edging backward to protect their own interests. And now you’re telling me they’ll suddenly fight hard over Saperyeon?”
“…….”
“Good grief. Sure looks like they’ll be very enthusiastic about it.”
Cold sweat broke out across Baek Cheon’s forehead.
“T-Then are you saying Saperyeon will win?”
“And what, they’re different?”
“Hm?”
“If Jang Il-so bangs the drum and rattles the cymbals up front, the other hegemon leaders will be clapping behind him, won’t they? Hoping somebody hurries up and runs to the front, fights hard, and dies already.”
“……No.”
Baek Cheon was left speechless.
The fight between the Nine Sects and Saperyeon that he had imagined was nothing like this. He had thought it would be a fierce clash between righteousness and evil, a brutal struggle between two sides locked in combat…….
This was nothing but a chaos of maneuvering and nerve warfare.
“What kind of war…….”
“No.”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung snorted.
“It’s not ‘what kind of war is this.’ War is always like this. It only looks like it went smoothly because history leaves behind just a few neat lines about it. If someone had written down everything that happened there one by one, every historian would have died young from high blood pressure.”
Baek Cheon decided he might not be entirely normal either, considering that Chung Myung’s nonsense was starting to sound plausible.
“Sasuk, so then we…….”
After taking a hearty drink from the jug, Chung Myung laughed again.
“We just sit back and drink while watching those bastards’ heads explode. Heeheeheehee. Just imagining the veins popping on that giant bald bastard’s forehead makes it feel like the indigestion I had three years ago is finally digesting all at once! Uheheheheh!”
Chung Myung reached out and grabbed Baek Ah, who had been sneaking glances from afar and seemed ready to flee entirely. Then he stared at the tiny face and burst into delighted laughter.
“……Crazy bastard.”
Baek Cheon let out a long sigh, completely exhausted. It hit him all over again, deep in his bones, that they had truly returned to Mount Hua.
Better to die than suffer.
Better to die than suffer…….