What Kind of Wealth and Glory Do I Think I’m Chasing? (1)
“Heh heh.”
“……”
“Heh heh heh heh.”
“……”
“Hahahaha. Hahahahaha! Bwahahahahahahaha!”
“……”
Watching Im So-byeong burst into wild, sky-rattling laughter over and over, Jo Geol spoke up in a low voice, clearly uneasy.
“Sahyeong.”
“What?”
“What’s gotten into that guy?”
“……He’s probably happy.”
“That happy?”
He still looked as though he couldn’t make heads or tails of it, staring at Im So-byeong with a baffled expression.
Well, he could understand being happy, sure……
“Bwahahahahahahahaha!”
But wasn’t that a little much?
Still, Im So-byeong paid no mind to how strange Jo Geol was staring at him, and kept bursting into huge peals of laughter. Normally, he seemed so frail and weak that he never really gave off the impression of being the King of the Green Forest, but seeing him laugh like a madman with his head thrown back swept that feeling away in an instant.
On the other hand……
“Then why is he acting like that?”
“……Why, what now?”
“That one. Him.”
Yoon Jong’s gaze turned to the other side of the Green Forest King. There, looking more glum than anyone had ever seen him, was Cheong Myeong. He looked so dejected that it almost seemed as if thunderclouds were gathering over his head.
Squatting in a corner and idly scratching something into the dirt with a twig, he was met by Im So-byeong’s cheerful laughter. The way the bandit chieftain flourished the oath paper in his hand as if to show it off looked almost like a victor waving a banner over a defeated foe.
“Bwahahahahahahahahaha!”
Looking back and forth between Cheong Myeong, who seemed as though he wanted to burrow straight into the ground, and Im So-byeong, who was practically sounding a victory horn, Yoon Jong shook his head.
“This is a mess.”
“It really is.”
At that moment, Baek Cheon chuckled and walked over to Im So-byeong.
“Congratulations.”
“Ah! Baek Cheon Dojang! Thank you! Truly, thank you!”
“……Are you really that pleased?”
“Of course I am!”
Im So-byeong snapped his fan open with a flourish.
“The bitter years I endured just to get Green Forest into the Heavenly Friends Alliance, the humiliation, the suffering!”
“……”
“Having all of that repaid at once—how could I not be overjoyed? At last, our Green Forest is officially part of the Heavenly Friends Alliance.”
“……We were supposed to make the announcement a little later……”
“That sort of thing isn’t important. What matters is that we finally have a shield.”
“A shield?”
At Baek Cheon’s question, Im So-byeong smiled with a look that meant more than it said.
“Think about it, Baek Cheon Dojang. If Green Forest were not on friendly terms with Mount Hua in a situation like this, what do you think would have happened?”
“Huh? Well……”
Baek Cheon pondered for a moment, then nodded. He understood what Im So-byeong was saying.
“It would have been dangerous, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly. Precisely. The relationship between the righteous and the unorthodox is at its absolute worst right now. And on top of that, the Ten Great Sects have been thoroughly humiliated by the Evil Tyrant Alliance, so everyone is desperate for some way to restore their honor. In a situation like this, if Green Forest hadn’t been under the Heavenly Friends Alliance, the blind idiots of Shaolin would’ve come crashing down on us and smashed us to pieces.”
And that wasn’t just about Shaolin.
There were plenty of sects that wanted to reclaim their honor right now.
“The other unorthodox factions can just head down to Jiangnan and join the Evil Tyrant Alliance if they want, but Green Forest can’t do that. Green Forest is basically a sect that has to live among the mountains, isn’t it? And most of Central Plains’ mountain ranges are in Jiangbuk.”
“That’s right.”
Which meant that among all the giant unorthodox factions in Central Plains, Green Forest was the only one operating from a Jiangbuk base. Of course, Green Forest did work in Jiangnan too, but its forces there weren’t even up to thirty percent of the whole.
“So the road Green Forest can choose is one of two. Either abandon all the hard-built bases in Jiangbuk and move south to bow our heads to that Evil Tyrant Alliance, or cut off Jiangnan and try to survive here in Jiangbuk while enduring the righteous sects’ suspicion and scrutiny.”
Baek Cheon shook his head.
“It would be hard to hold out.”
“Yes, exactly. No matter how strong Green Forest is, how could it compare to the Ten Great Sects? If the bastards of the orthodox sects decided to come at us in earnest, it wouldn’t take a month before the bandits all over the mountains were wiped out.”
“……”
“And the other option is no better. How is a man supposed to bow his head to Jang Il-so? To that demon bastard!”
“……”
It was a well-known fact that Jang Il-so and Im So-byeong were practically mortal enemies. Though, to be fair, if one looked at it coldly, it was more like Im So-byeong, who had been beaten one-sidedly, burning alone with resentment.
“But still!”
Fwoosh!
This time it wasn’t the fan that opened wide, but the oath paper stamped with Hyun Jong’s seal.
“Now we’re proud members of the Heavenly Friends Alliance! No matter how powerful the Ten Great Sects may be, they can’t just lay a hand on us now that we’re part of it!”
“……”
While speaking at full volume, tears suddenly welled in Im So-byeong’s eyes. Baek Cheon panicked and asked,
“W-why are you crying?”
“No, it’s nothing, Baek Cheon Dojang. All of a sudden, all this sorrow just came rushing up at once……”
“Huh? Sorrow?”
“Yes!”
He looked off into the distance with damp eyes and said,
“Those cruel years…… The outsiders kept barking at us, trying to squeeze one more thing out of us, and the idiots inside kept shouting at us about why we should have to play servant to righteous bastards in the first place……! And the elders kept spewing nonsense about how the old Green Forest wasn’t like this! Saying I wasn’t fit to be Green Forest King! Saying Green Forest had gone rotten!”
“……You’ve had a hard time.”
“No, no! All that suffering is over now! I’m so curious what kind of faces those elders will make when I slap this oath paper right in front of them—right in their faces—that I can barely contain myself! Hahahahahaha! I’ll bury them alive right beside the graves of the old generation. Those damned old fogies!”
Baek Cheon silently wiped away cold sweat and took a couple of steps back.
The reaction was so intense it was honestly a little overwhelming, but still, he was happy, so……
Even as he thought that, Baek Cheon looked at Im So-byeong again with fresh eyes.
Come to think of it…… he’s an incredible man.
In other words, Im So-byeong had sensed, from the moment he first met Cheong Myeong, that something like this might one day happen. And back then, he had chosen Mount Hua as the sect that would shelter Green Forest.
If his decision had been even a little later, or if he had chosen wrongly, Green Forest’s situation would likely have become infinitely more precarious than it was now.
He might have looked like a man with many strange corners, but Baek Cheon could feel once more that this man had unquestionably been making the best decisions he could as Green Forest’s leader.
On the other side, however……
Baek Cheon turned his eyes away. Cheong Myeong was now leaning against a tree stump, staring blankly up at the sky.
He looked unbearably miserable. So much so that he almost seemed pitiable.
“……Cheong Myeong?”
“……”
“Um…… Cheong Myeong?”
Only after being called twice did Cheong Myeong slowly turn his head toward Baek Cheon, looking utterly limp.
“Sasuk……”
“Y-yeah, Cheong Myeong. Are you all right?”
Baek Cheon swallowed dryly.
“I……”
“Hm?”
“……What kind of wealth and glory do you think I’m chasing……?”
“……”
Moisture gathered in the corners of Cheong Myeong’s eyes.
“Who’d have thought I’d live long enough to end up eating from the same bowl as an unorthodox bastard. I’d honestly rather raise maggots. No matter how much this is about surviving, how am I supposed to……”
“C-calm down a little.”
“And the Sect Leader is going too far! Even if he feels guilty, still. Taking in that unorthodox bastard—and not just one or two, but all those swarming bandits…… Aigoo. Aigoo…… Mount Hua is doomed. Mount Hua is doomed……”
Baek Cheon was so shocked he broke into a cold sweat.
He had seen Cheong Myeong ranting and yelling plenty of times by now, so it no longer surprised him, and it certainly didn’t make him flinch. But this was the first time he’d seen him this miserable, this utterly broken.
“I should die, I should die. I should just bite my tongue off and die. What kind of sight am I living to see after making it all the way to this age……”
“You’re still young, you crazy bastard! What are you talking about like some old grandpa who’s lived his whole life!”
Chaos was descending.
Watching the scene, Jo Geol asked with a new sort of fascination,
“……Looks like joining forces with the unorthodox really is a huge shock for him.”
“That bastard has unorthodox-phobia.”
After all, he was someone who already treated anyone from the unorthodox factions like less than human, and with Jang Il-so’s appearance recently, that symptom had become several times worse.
Even so, if Im So-byeong alone—who could probably still be called a relatively moderate unorthodox type, if such a thing existed—was enough to trigger that kind of reaction, it was hard to imagine just how much he must hate monsters like Jang Il-so or the Black Dragon King.
“For now, try to calm him down.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just leave him alone?”
“I’m worried that if we let him go on like this, he’ll suddenly start saying something like, ‘Mount Hua’s righteousness is dead. If it’s come to this, I should drive out the Sect Leader, become the Sect Leader myself, and restore Mount Hua’s spirit!’”
“……I’ll just stuff some sweets in his mouth for now.”
It wasn’t likely, not really, but the catastrophe that might follow made it far too terrifying to ignore.
Mount Hua with Cheong Myeong as Sect Leader.
That wouldn’t be a disaster for Mount Hua alone—that would be a disaster for all of Central Plains. For the sake of peace in Central Plains, and beyond that for the peace of the Nine Provinces and Eight Wildernesses, it absolutely had to be stopped!
But most of the Mount Hua disciples were simply watching the strange spectacle with faint smiles, enjoying the show.
It wasn’t that Green Forest’s joining the Heavenly Friends Alliance moved them much. They had spent enough time around Green Forest that their resistance to them had quietly faded quite a bit.
What made them happy was simply that the guy who normally strutted around as though he were first under heaven had taken a solid hit for once.
So even that bastard gets put in his place.
Now that the Sect Leader has full authority, maybe things will be a little easier for us too.
Even a rat hole gets its day in the sun, huh!
At that moment, Dang So-so said with a bright smile,
“That’s why I told you to keep your heart a little gentler, Sahyeong. If you’re rotten inside, of course you’ll get your comeuppance! Hohohoho!”
“……Is this funny to you?”
“Hohohoho!”
“I asked if this is funny.”
“Ho…… hoho.”
Dang So-so, who had been laughing with exaggerated villainous delight, slowly froze. Her face drained white as Cheong Myeong, who had been devastated all this time, rose slowly to his feet.
He spoke in a low voice.
“Sasuk.”
“……Y-yeah?”
Baek Cheon watched Cheong Myeong’s expression anxiously.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“……Mm.”
“I think there’s only one reason this disaster happened.”
“And what’s that?”
“We were weak.”
“……”
Excuse me? Just two days ago we—uh, you know—jumped across the Yangtze River in one breath, smashed the water bandit stronghold to pieces, and rescued Namgung.
And we’re weak?
Baek Cheon’s eyelids began to twitch violently.
“Cheong Myeong…… I think your conclusion is mistaken.”
“No, it’s right.”
Cheong Myeong said with an unshakable expression.
“Think about it. It’s simple, isn’t it? If we’d been strong enough to smash the Evil Tyrant Alliance and the Ten Great Sects and everything else in one go, we wouldn’t have ended up mingling with bastards like that in the first place.”
“If one sect could do all that, would that really be Mount Hua? That’d be the Demonic Sect.”
“Ah, no!”
“Hm?”
At the scream from beside him, Baek Cheon blinked in confusion before clamping his mouth shut on instinct.
He understood what mistake he’d made.
“……Demonic Sect?”
“……”
“Demonic Sect?”
Sure enough, Cheong Myeong’s eyes began to glint with madness. Those who saw that look all glared at Baek Cheon as though they wanted to kill him.
You son of a—if you’re going to say it, say it properly!
He goes into a fit every time he hears “Demonic Sect,” and you know it!
We need to sew that mouth shut!
Baek Cheon, now burdened with everyone’s resentful stares, quietly turned his head and looked up at the distant sky. Cheong Myeong muttered darkly,
“That’s right, the Demonic Sect. Yeah. We have to beat them too. Then there’s no time to waste fooling around like this.”
His eyes had gone completely out of focus. Cheong Myeong snatched up the Amhyang Maehwageom.
Baek Cheon hurriedly looked around, intending to ask Im So-byeong—the man who had triggered all this—to do something and stop him.
But……
“W-where’d that man go?”
“The Green Forest King? He bolted the second you mentioned the Demonic Sect.”
“……”
Ah. So that’s how you survive in this world…… I learned something new today.
With a hiss, Cheong Myeong drew the Amhyang Maehwageom and swept his gaze over everyone with a crooked grin.
“All right.”
“……”
“It’s time for some delightful training.”
The color drained from every face there.