What Kind of Wealth and Glory Do I Think I’m Chasing? (5)
“Mm, then first of all….”
Hyun Jong drew everyone’s attention. It was time to handle the real problem now.
“Baek Cheon.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“What do you think Shaolin will do from here on out?”
“…….”
For a moment, Baek Cheon was left speechless as he looked at Hyun Jong. It wasn’t often that Hyun Jong asked such direct questions, especially not in front of everyone like this.
But Baek Cheon quickly regained his composure.
“As Cheong Myung said earlier, I don’t think Shaolin will make a move in the Yangtze for a while. For them to move, the Water Bandit Sect would have to pull out first, but the Water Bandit Sect is still maintaining its fleet.”
“Mm, yes.”
Hyun Jong nodded, looking pleased. Then Jo Gul quickly cut in and added,
“Of course! That bald old monk at Shaolin cares about face more than anything!”
“……That’s true as well.”
By now, no one bothered to correct Jo Gul for calling Beop Jeong the bald old monk.
“Then the real question is when that Water Bandit Sect will move.”
Hyun Jong thought carefully for a moment before speaking again.
“Wasn’t the Black Dragon King injured? I doubt he can keep hanging on there forever, even if only for treatment.”
“Yes. I think so too.”
“I agree.”
“Then this standoff shouldn’t last too long.”
Just as everyone’s thoughts seemed to settle on the same conclusion, Cheong Myung spoke.
“Probably not.”
“Hm?”
Hyun Jong looked at him, puzzled.
“You disagree?”
“Yes, Sect Leader. It sounds reasonable to say the Water Bandit Sect should back off because the Black Dragon King was wounded, but I think it’s a little different.”
Baek Cheon frowned, clearly not following.
“Why’s that? From the Water Bandit Sect’s point of view, they’d want the Black Dragon King to recover as soon as possible. In a vicious Sapa faction, the leader’s martial ability would matter more than anything else.”
“It’s the other way around.”
“Hm?”
“If the Black Dragon King still had firm control over the Water Bandit Sect, then sure, what you said would be true. But there’s someone else here, isn’t there?”
Baek Cheon immediately understood who Cheong Myung meant and groaned aloud.
“Jang Il-so….”
“The Black Dragon King has lost control of the Water Bandit Sect. The Water Bandit Sect is, after all, one of the sects under Saperyeon, and the leader of Saperyeon is right here. Since the Black Dragon King is injured, even if Jang Il-so temporarily takes over command, it wouldn’t be strange at all.”
“……That makes sense.”
“And….”
Cheong Myung smiled with a trace of mockery.
“There’s no way that bastard would just sit still and watch this situation unfold. He probably would’ve found some excuse to shove the Black Dragon King off the front lines, too. So he could swallow the Water Bandit Sect whole at his leisure.”
Everyone had no choice but to agree with him. Would Jang Il-so, the very incarnation of greed, really let an opportunity like this slip by?
“Would the Black Dragon King just sit there and take it?”
“The Black Dragon King?”
“Yeah. Knowing his personality, I don’t think he’d ever just swallow his anger and stay quiet. Jang Il-so is eating up his faction wholesale, after all.”
“…….”
At that, Cheong Myung shot Baek Cheon a look of utter disappointment. Baek Cheon flinched and protested.
“What? Why!”
“Haah…. I can’t believe you’re my martial uncle. Man, Dong-ryong.”
“D-don’t call me that, you bastard!”
Cheong Myung shook his head.
“Well, we’ll know when we see it.”
Then he looked around at everyone and continued.
“Anyway, the standoff is probably going to continue for a while. Maybe even longer than we think.”
“……Why?”
“It’d take a while to explain.”
After a moment of thought, Cheong Myung gave a small snort and said,
“The way people with rotten insides think is usually pretty much the same.”
The rest of the Five Swords still looked thoroughly unconvinced. Cheong Myung only smiled faintly.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
His eyes were dull now, and his face had grown gaunt beyond recognition in no time at all.
The brash, overbearing figure that had once looked as though it could command the world was nowhere to be found. His darkened complexion only deepened the pity one felt at the sight of him.
The Black Dragon King stared blankly ahead. More precisely, he stared at Jang Il-so, who was sitting with his legs crossed in a large chair.
“Well then….”
Jang Il-so’s lips, curved in a perfectly painted smile, opened slowly.
“Is your body feeling any better?”
This man was always dangerous, like a viper coiled with venom.
So the reason the Black Dragon King found him especially terrifying now wasn’t simply because he’d lost an arm.
“Thanks to your concern….”
The Black Dragon King paused, then lowered his head.
He didn’t want to show his face. He didn’t want that face—twisted with fury, hatred, and fear—to be seen by anyone.
“I’m… recovering quickly.”
“That’s a relief.”
Leaning back lazily in his chair, Jang Il-so looked down at the Black Dragon King with a loose, languid expression.
Until only a few days ago, he had stood on equal footing with Jang Il-so. There had been a difference in rank between the Alliance Leader and the Vice Leader of Saperyeon, but at the very least, the Black Dragon King had not been in a position to bow his head one-sidedly to Jang Il-so.
That was because the seat Jang Il-so occupied had not been won by brute force and crushed into his hand.
It was true that the Black Dragon King had been steadily losing the initiative to Jang Il-so, but he had still possessed room to counterattack.
That is, until things reached this point.
“Recovering, huh….”
Jang Il-so murmured, as though savoring the words.
“Yes, yes. You should recover quickly. That way you can take your revenge and reclaim your old glory, won’t you?”
“…….”
“For now, focus entirely on recovery. It’ll take time to get used to using your sword with your left hand, after all.”
It sounded like laughter.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of amusement in Jang Il-so’s voice, and yet the Black Dragon King kept hearing the phantom of Jang Il-so’s laughter at the edge of his ears.
No, he was probably really laughing.
It simply didn’t show in his voice or on his face. In his heart, Jang Il-so was likely cackling to the heavens right now.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the little things. For a while, just step back and focus on regaining your martial strength.”
Grit.
The Black Dragon King clenched his teeth.
Step back?
He hadn’t even been able to contact the Water Bandit Sect properly since being released from Mount Hua. Stepping back from the front lines would ordinarily require at least minimal discussion and instructions. But now he had been utterly severed from the Water Bandit Sect.
And because of that, one thought had never once left his mind.
Was all of this really just a coincidence?
Jang Il-so’s support arriving at just the right time, allowing Mount Hua and Namgung to push all the way to Plum Blossom Island, and not intervening until the Black Dragon King’s life was hanging by a thread….
Was it really all a coincidence?
At first, he had brushed it off as overthinking. No matter how formidable Jang Il-so was, he couldn’t possibly have predicted the Black Dragon King would be defeated by the Plum Blossom Sword Hero. It had simply been a series of fortunate developments, all of them tilting in Jang Il-so’s favor, and Jang Il-so had merely seized the chance that had been handed to him.
Yes, that was what he had believed.
Until he saw Jang Il-so’s eyes.
The moment he met those eyes—those of a venomous snake staring at its prey—the Black Dragon King had no choice but to understand everything.
“Is something the matter?”
Jang Il-so’s voice was calm. The Black Dragon King barely managed to swallow his bitterness. Bitterness that couldn’t be spat out wasn’t bitterness at all. It was merely the humiliation of the weak.
“……No, Alliance Leader.”
“Hmm.”
Jang Il-so gave a soft hum.
“Alliance Leader, huh….”
He muttered it under his breath, then slowly rose to his feet.
At once, the ornaments on his body jingled, the sharp notes ringing out one after another.
Anyone who knew Jang Il-so would have been familiar with the sound. But to the current Black Dragon King, that ordinary noise felt more terrifying than the howling of a ghost from a grave.
Step. Step. Step.
Jang Il-so walked slowly toward the Black Dragon King.
The Black Dragon King’s shoulders began to tremble faintly.
It wasn’t death that he feared. If it were only a matter of death, he would have accepted it with dignity.
But Jang Il-so was not the sort of man to be satisfied with that. He was the kind of man who would use even his death to strip everything away, leaving nothing behind. The Water Bandit Sect, his honor, everything he had built would be consumed by that red flame named Jang Il-so until not even ashes remained.
Step. Step.
At last, Jang Il-so stopped one step in front of the Black Dragon King. He looked at him and smiled gently. It was an incredibly soft smile.
“Why are you trembling?”
“…….”
“Do you think I’m going to….”
A languid voice slipped out from those red lips.
“Kill you?”
The Black Dragon King closed his eyes.
Only now did he understand why the others feared Jang Il-so so much.
A tiger did not fear a snake by nature. It merely avoided it because the venom was troublesome and brought no benefit. Thus, snake and tiger could coexist.
But….
What if that snake were so enormous it could swallow a tiger whole? What if it wasn’t a snake at all, but a massive poison serpent opening its jaws wide before him?
It would be stranger for the tiger not to fear it.
“You needn’t worry. I won’t do that.”
Jang Il-so chuckled softly and continued.
“I think I’m a much gentler man than most people believe… and yet they’re afraid of me. Do you know why that is?”
His tone had changed completely by now. He sounded exactly like a superior speaking to a subordinate. But the Black Dragon King couldn’t even think of protesting.
“Because in their hearts….”
Jang Il-so’s eyes flashed blue.
“They have hostility.”
“…….”
“A dog does not fear its master. It finds him reassuring, even pleasing. It may fear the stick used to discipline it, but what it gives its master is nothing more than reverence. What a dog fears is its enemy. Do you understand?”
“……Alliance Leader.”
“Then let me ask you this.”
A sharp smile appeared at the corners of Jang Il-so’s mouth.
“What is in your heart…?”
Clatter.
The rings hidden in his sleeves made a vicious sound.
It was by no means loud, but to the Black Dragon King it rang out louder than thunder.
“What exactly is in there now?”
The Black Dragon King, who had closed his eyes, looked back at Jang Il-so.
The moment he saw those bright, beautiful eyes sunk so profoundly into gloom, something inside him shattered.
“I….”
“Yes. Go on, answer me.”
“I, I….”
The Black Dragon King’s body slowly bent downward.
Thud!
His knees struck the floor.
With a face smeared in fear and terror, he trembled violently and bowed his head with great effort.
“What I have… is nothing but reverence.”
Jang Il-so’s gaze, looking down at the kneeling Black Dragon King, was cold.
After remaining silent for a long while, he slowly extended a hand.
That white hand, adorned with five-colored rings, gently came to rest on the Black Dragon King’s head. In an instant, the Black Dragon King’s whole body flinched and spasmed in a brief convulsion.
“Hmm.”
Jang Il-so let out a soft hum, and a smile bloomed on his lips.
“Good.”
The white hand slowly stroked the Black Dragon King’s head.
“What a good boy.”
The moon in the sky slowly slipped behind the clouds. A dead, thick darkness settled silently over the Yangtze River.