What Kind of Wealth and Glory Do I Think I’m Chasing? (3)
The senior members of Mount Hua Sect had gathered in the temporary quarters of the sect leader.
“Senior members” was a generous way of putting it. In truth, it was only the elders, the Un generation, and the Five Swords. Still, these were the very people at the heart of the Mount Hua of today.
“Why were we called, anyway?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
At Hyun Young’s question, Hyun Sang gave a shrug.
“You’re the one who called us all here. Where’s the sect leader?”
“I said, why are you asking me that?”
In the end, Hyun Young’s face twisted sharply.
“Because this is something you ought to know, senior brother! What exactly do you do besides standing around? You should be following the sect leader properly instead of wasting time!”
“Hah, w-wasting time, you little—! I’m busy too, you know.”
“Oh?”
Hyun Young narrowed his eyes, and Hyun Sang awkwardly cleared his throat several times.
“...Is Finance Hall that busy?”
“Busy? Did you ask if it’s busy?”
“...”
“You drag us all here and then decide meals are supposed to fall from the sky? Who do you think feeds, washes, and puts all these people to bed? You think some fairy maiden does it for us?”
“Kh, khm.”
Hyun Sang turned his head away as if he’d been left speechless. But once Hyun Young’s fury had been lit, it was not so easily put out.
“What did you say on the way here along the Yangtze River? Didn’t you boast you wouldn’t get into any fights?”
“N-no, that was not what I—”
“And yet you fought every fight there was, tore everyone’s clothes to shreds, and then suddenly said we needed medicine because we had people to treat here! And then what? You told me to sell off every last grain we had left, and later you said we were staying here for a while and told me to prepare food for the children?”
Hyun Young’s eyes slowly began to roll back.
Hyun Sang panicked and hurriedly tried to placate him.
“I-I know your toil is great, I do. It’s just that the situation became so urgent—”
“Urgent, my foot! If that was the case, then why didn’t you go somewhere farther away! Why did you have to plant yourselves right in front of those Ten Great Sects bastards and make me worry about every scrap of clothing the children wear? If it weren’t for them, I could’ve just let the kids run around in their bare little—!”
“Khhheugh-hem!”
Hyun Sang kept coughing loudly.
Of course, he had not played any especially great role in deciding any of this. But it was embarrassing to try to explain that to Hyun Young, who was running himself ragged from morning to night.
“If you’re going to go causing trouble, then you ought to think about who’s cleaning up after you! You go and do whatever you want, and then suddenly say, ‘Oh, well, I don’t know anymore,’ and wash your hands of it? Then who’s supposed to fix the mess? Huh? Who fixes it?”
“N-now, calm yourself. The children are watching.”
Hyun Young glanced over at the Five Swords. The moment their eyes met his, they all dropped their heads in a hurry.
Damn it! Bow, bow!
Making eye contact will get you killed.
If you got caught wrong-footed in a moment like this, you really would not come out with your bones intact.
No matter that Cheong Myeong was making a name for himself, Baek Cheon was earning recognition, and the sect leader was regaining his authority—within Mount Hua, the person with the highest practical power was, without question, Hyun Young.
“Ugh. I’m glad Mount Hua is doing well, really I am... I’m really glad... But back in the day, I only had to toss somebody a straw mat anywhere we went. Now I have to worry about what they wear and what they eat, one thing after another.”
At his grumbling and lamenting, everyone lowered their heads with embarrassed expressions.
In truth, the work itself had not changed much for the others. But Finance Hall had the same number of people as before, while the amount of work had multiplied several times over. They were, in the most literal sense, being worked to death.
“Per-perhaps we should add a few more people...”
“And just because I want to add more people, does that mean they’ll appear? The moment I ask them to help with Finance Hall, they start howling that they don’t even have time to train!”
“...”
After taking a long, deep breath, Hyun Young swept his sharp gaze around the room.
“And why isn’t the sect leader here yet? If you’re going to call people when you’re busy to death, then at least be here yourself!”
Of course, Hyun Young did not know.
He did not know that Hyun Jong, who had approached the door, had heard the sound of his furious voice and quietly turned back. Even the great Hyun Jong could not handle Hyun Young when the man’s head was steaming hot.
Fortunately, though, there was one person in Mount Hua who could handle Hyun Young.
“Come on, why let something like that bother you?”
“Hm?”
The Five Swords’ faces turned dark all at once.
Wow, just listen to how different Elder’s voice is.
Is this level of favoritism even allowed?
Did you hear how gentle his voice just got? I’m getting chills.
At Cheong Myeong’s words, Hyun Young’s expression softened at once.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean there’s no need to worry about it so much. It’s not like we need to go out of our way to make those Ten Great Sects morons like us.”
“That’s true, yes, that’s true as well.”
Hyun Young nodded with a pleased expression, as though Cheong Myeong really did understand.
“But, Cheong Myeong. We may not need to curry favor with the Ten Great Sects, but we do have to mind the eyes of the common people. Everyone who wants to see us now knows what we did on Maehwado. If they see us looking shabby, what will they think?”
“Hah. I hadn’t considered that.” Cheong Myeong slapped a hand against his own chest. “As expected of Elder! If it weren’t for you, we’d all still be wandering around looking like beggars. The reason Mount Hua is getting praise from all over the place now is because of all the effort you’ve put in, isn’t it?”
“Tsk tsk. What nonsense is that? How is that my credit? It’s all your doing.”
“Aw, what did I even do?”
Watching the two old foxes trade praise back and forth, Baek Cheon’s face steadily curdled.
This really was... not wrong. No, if he were honest, every word was true.
“Baek Cheon.”
“Y-yes? Yes!”
Baek Cheon jerked and looked at Hyun Young.
“Is something the matter? Why do you look like that?”
“N-no matter at all, Elder. There is absolutely no problem! None whatsoever!”
“Hmm.”
Hyun Young eyed him suspiciously, then reluctantly nodded. Cold sweat dampened the back of Baek Cheon’s neck.
“In any case, as I’ve said, keep yourselves neat and proper. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Elder!”
The Five Swords answered with stiff, disciplined faces.
Outside, they had begun to be praised as masters representing Mount Hua, but sadly, inside the sect, their standing had not changed one bit.
No— even if it had changed, it would not have mattered.
Who would dare oppose the person with the most practical power in Mount Hua, the one who even made the sect leader tread carefully?
“Khhm!”
At that moment, the door opened with a loud clearing of the throat.
“I am late.”
Looking at Hyun Jong’s dignified entrance, Hyun Young narrowed his eyes.
“Somehow it feels like you’ve been standing outside the door since earlier...”
“Th-that could not be. I only just arrived.”
“...Let’s just say that’s what happened, then.”
“...”
Hyun Jong drew his shoulders in slightly and took the seat of honor. A hint of sorrow flickered in his eyes for an instant, but fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the disciples did not give him a pitying look.
They only looked at him as if to say they understood.
Please don’t look at me like that. It makes me want to cry.
What could he do?
The reason was simple. Back in the days when Mount Hua had been living in utter poverty, Hyun Jong had handed over full control of the finances to Hyun Young. And even after Mount Hua began to rake in money by the cartload, he had never managed to take that authority back.
To put it bluntly, no matter how shameless Hyun Jong might be, he could not exactly demand that the man he had told “go ahead and manage it yourself” when they were drowning in debt suddenly hand it back once the money started pouring in.
As a result, even now, despite being the leader of the Heavenly Friends Alliance and the sect leader of Mount Hua who was scolding all of Jianghu, Hyun Jong could not escape the fate of living off an allowance from Hyun Young.
Hyun Jong quietly wiped at the corner of his eye with his sleeve and composed his expression. He could not keep this up forever.
“I called you all here to discuss what lies ahead.”
As soon as he brought up a serious matter, the disciples’ eyes changed. Hyun Jong once again felt keenly how much his authority had risen, far beyond anything it had been in the past.
Of course, even when he and Mount Hua had been crawling through the mud, these good-natured children had respected his authority. But there was still something different now.
“As you know, this incident has put us at serious odds with the Ten Great Sects.”
“Hmm.”
They had all expected this to happen, but that did not make it any less burdensome to hear.
It was the Ten Great Sects, after all.
No sect in the world would want to become enemies with a power like that. Not even those evil sects, perhaps.
“So it seems we need to clearly define our position going forward.”
At Hyun Jong’s words, Un Am asked with mild confusion,
“Sect leader. Forgive my presumption, but...”
“Speak.”
“Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to discuss that with Clan Head Dang instead of with us? This seems less like a matter of Mount Hua and more like a matter of the Heavenly Friends Alliance.”
At that, Hyun Jong slowly shook his head.
“By logic, perhaps that is so. But I do not care for it.”
“...Why not?”
“Because before I am the leader of the Heavenly Friends Alliance, I am the sect leader of Mount Hua.”
Hyun Jong smiled gently as he looked around at everyone.
“This is all the more true because this is a time when the path I must walk is not yet clear. If we are to discuss it, I would first like to do so with you.”
At that, everyone smiled.
It was as if he were saying that no matter how much their standing changed, Hyun Jong was still Hyun Jong—and that was all he had ever been. The same sect leader who had once patted them warmly on the head in the days when they all went hungry together.
“So then, Cheong Myeong.”
“Yes?”
Hyun Jong looked at Cheong Myeong quietly and said,
“What do you think we should do from here on?”
“Hmm.”
Cheong Myeong scratched his cheek.
The disciples of Mount Hua all expected some special answer from him.
Whenever questions like this came up, Cheong Myeong would always propose some new path no one else had thought of, by means of an entirely unexpected idea. They assumed it would be the same this time.
But that assumption broke the moment Cheong Myeong opened his mouth.
“I think the question is a little off, Sect Leader.”
“Hmm? Off?”
“Yes.”
Cheong Myeong nodded slowly.
“I can only answer that question one way.”
He fell silent for a moment and looked steadily at Hyun Jong.
The instant he met those deep, unfathomable eyes, Hyun Jong felt his body tighten on its own.
“What do you want to do, Sect Leader?”
“...Me?”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
Hyun Jong hesitated slightly before answering, and Cheong Myeong turned to look at the others.
“And I think we should ask what the people gathered here want to do as well. The road Mount Hua takes must be decided by Mount Hua together. Before asking what we can do, we should decide what it is we want to do.”
“...”
It was not such an earthshattering thing to say. It was far too obvious.
But in this place, that obvious truth carried enormous weight.
That stubborn bastard...
...My word.
Most of them stared at Cheong Myeong in surprise. But Jo Geol went further and held out a hand, waving it in front of Cheong Myeong’s face.
Cheong Myeong’s brow twitched.
“...What?”
“No, I was just wondering if you ate something bad. You don’t have a fever, do you?”
“...”
Fortunately, before Cheong Myeong could spring up, Yoon Jong kicked Jo Geol in the side. While Jo Geol doubled over and made strangled noises, Cheong Myeong spoke again.
“Let’s talk it through.”
Everyone waited for the next words to come from Cheong Myeong’s mouth.
“About the path Mount Hua should take from here.”
With eyes full of unwavering resolve.