Just Leave It Be (3)
So that’s how it is…
Hong Dae-gwang swallowed hard. Sitting right in front of him, as a matter of course, was Cheong Myeong.
Why “as a matter of course,” you ask?
Tch. What a stupid question. Of course where there was a needle, there had to be thread, and where Cheong Myeong went, Hong Dae-gwang was naturally supposed to be there too.
This time Mount Hua had moved so abruptly that he’d joined them a little late, but gathering information for Mount Hua had always been his job in the first place!
So now that the Mount Hua Divine Dragon had become someone who had to keep an eye on the entire Jianghu, he ought to have been waiting with bated breath for Hong Dae-gwang to arrive.
Yes. That was how it should have been…
“You’re sure about this?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
“Hmm. Can I trust you?”
“My goodness. Do you think I’d dare bring false information to the great Mount Hua Sect? I’m a beggar, not a man with two lives to spare.”
“Huuuum.”
“Hehe. You can trust me.”
“Well, if you insist.”
“……”
Hong Dae-gwang stared sourly at the man sitting beside him.
Jao-gae.
The former elder of the Beggars’ Sect—no, the retired elder of the Beggars’ Sect—was sitting half a step ahead of Hong Dae-gwang and feeding information to that Mount Hua Divine Dragon over there.
Information Hong Dae-gwang himself hadn’t even known.
“A proclamation, huh. Pretty old-school.”
Cheong Myeong muttered, then let out a small snort.
“It won’t change much, but I suppose it’s the best they can do.”
“Yes. Right now, proclamations are probably being sent to the Ten Great Sects all over the land.”
“Not probably. The Beggars’ Sect is the one carrying them.”
“C-cough.”
Jao-gae coughed awkwardly, his face reddening.
“Well… the Beggars’ Sect has its position too.”
“Who said otherwise?”
Cheong Myeong narrowed his eyes and glared at him, and Jao-gae quickly looked away.
“Keep running around like a bat with no backbone, and one day those wings of yours are going to get torn clean off.”
“Then I’ll just crawl along on my two legs! We beggars are excellent at rolling around on the ground, after all.”
Hong Dae-gwang stared at Jao-gae in a daze.
Does this old man have no pride at all?
Who was Jao-gae?
He was the man unofficially acting as the deputy sect leader in the current Beggars’ Sect, where the sect leader had become increasingly bedridden and absent.
In other words, aside from the leader lying in bed, he was practically the number one person in the whole Beggars’ Sect. And yet there he was, fawning over a Mount Hua brat who had only just turned twenty at most. Even Hong Dae-gwang was left speechless.
“It’s hard to trust you at all.”
“Lost trust can always be rebuilt later, can’t it?”
“Tch.”
Cheong Myeong gave Jao-gae a once-over with a dissatisfied face and nodded.
“Fine. If you get any other information, tell me right away.”
“Of course I will. Isn’t that why I’m here?”
“If only you could say less.”
Cheong Myeong waved a hand dismissively. Jao-gae nodded quickly and rose to his feet.
“Then I’ll come see you again.”
“Yeah.”
“And… please be sure to speak well of me to Alliance Leader…”
“Got it, got it.”
“Yes, then.”
Jao-gae, bowing so deeply he looked as if he had no knees, spun around. Then, with a completely different attitude from before, he kicked Hong Dae-gwang lightly in the shin.
“What are you doing?”
“Yes?”
“Get out.”
“……”
Hong Dae-gwang, dragged out without understanding a thing, stared blankly at Jao-gae.
“N-no. Why are you here, Elder?”
“Why do you think?”
“……Huh? N-no, I mean…”
Utter confusion flickered across Hong Dae-gwang’s face.
“Has the Beggars’ Sect decided to throw in completely with Mount Hua?”
“As if.”
“Right. Of course not…”
“It’s basic practice to hold a rope with both hands.”
Hong Dae-gwang’s jaw dropped, and Jao-gae only shrugged.
“It looks like the sect leader doesn’t want to let go of the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s rope either.”
“Ha, hahahaha.”
Hong Dae-gwang let out a dry laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
Of course, this was practically what the Beggars’ Sect had always done.
The Beggars’ Sect monopolized information in the north almost completely, and it held more than enough information from the south as well. At least within the bounds of the righteous sects, the Beggars’ Sect was indispensable.
Which meant, unlike other sects, it was one of the few places that could afford to keep a foot in more than one camp without suffering too much for it.
This is meaningful.
Less backlash didn’t mean no backlash.
In other words, as far as the Beggars’ Sect leader was concerned, the Heavenly Friends Alliance had become a force worth betting on, even if it meant taking some risks by straddling both sides.
That meant Hong Dae-gwang’s decision to stake everything on Mount Hua had been right after all, and his standing had just risen by leaps and bounds, hadn’t it?
It was a wonderful thought. Really, everything about it was wonderful… except—
“No, but why is the Elder dealing with that guy? Didn’t you say the Mount Hua matters were mine to handle in the first place!”
At that, Jao-gae suddenly whipped his head around and glared at Hong Dae-gwang with terrifying eyes.
“Your matters?”
Hong Dae-gwang flinched under the force of his gaze.
“Your matters? Fine. You spoke well there, you little beggar!”
“……Excuse me?”
“What the hell have you been doing all this time to make the Mount Hua Divine Dragon look at the Beggars’ Sect like that?”
“Like what?”
“What exactly have you been doing that makes the Mount Hua Divine Dragon think of the Beggars’ Sect as some band of idiots who just wander around begging with nothing better to do?”
Hong Dae-gwang blinked.
“Isn’t that true?”
“What?”
“……Aren’t beggars exactly that? People who do nothing but beg? Why would anyone who actually works hard become a beggar?”
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that? Am I wrong?”
Jao-gae silently stared up at the distant sky.
What the hell have I done?
To think he had placed this kind of man next to Mount Hua. It was a miracle their relationship had remained intact this long.
“……Anyway, from now on I’ll be handling this side personally for a while, so keep that in mind.”
“What? Where in the world does something like that happen? Elder or not, barging into territory some other man has been running for years without asking is just—”
“What a hopeless bastard. Is this the time to be talking about territory?”
“No, no, I simply can’t accept it! Do you know how much effort I’ve put into Mount Hua? Do you know how much abuse I’ve had to endure all this time? Even if you’re an elder, if you touch my turf, then I’m smashing the pot!”
“Do you really want to die?”
“Go on, then! I’ve got nothing to lose anyway, you hear me? I’m a beggar! If I die, I die!”
Watching Hong Dae-gwang’s eyes go bloodshot, Jao-gae clutched his head.
“Ungh. What a lunatic…”
He had always had a few odd corners to him, but he hadn’t been this completely deranged. How had he become so utterly incapable of basic judgment?
Is there some cursed water vein running through Hwaeom or something?
Not that it was literally a water vein—but still, there was a saying about staining black near ink. After spending years around the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, perhaps he’d unconsciously become more like him. Of course, if the man himself heard that, he’d jump up and yell that it was nonsense.
“Anyway, this is the sect leader’s order, so stop arguing!”
“You’re not even part of the Beggars’ Sect anymore!”
“So what? You wanna try getting your ass kicked by a man who isn’t even part of the sect?”
“Grrrr…”
Hong Dae-gwang groaned miserably.
However abruptly Jao-gae had torn himself away from the Beggars’ Sect, no one seriously believed he was truly no longer of the sect. Since he would quietly return whenever the time came, all Hong Dae-gwang would accomplish by picking a fight with him was making life harder for himself.
Even so, damn it!
Wasn’t Hong Dae-gwang the one who had clung to Mount Hua since the days when it was nothing but a third-rate sect no one even glanced at, enduring all sorts of hardship for them? Who wouldn’t foam at the mouth when a superior casually tried to stick a foot into territory they had built with blood and sweat?
I’d rather die than hand it over!
Hong Dae-gwang’s eyes turned fierce with bloodshot veins. Jao-gae, sensing his mood, quickly tried to soothe him instead.
“There’s no need to worry. What I’m handling is only the Heavenly Friends Alliance side. You focus on Mount Hua like you have been.”
“……You’re sure?”
“This little—”
“Tsk. If you say so, then fine.”
Jao-gae shook his head. In truth, the sect leader seemed to want him to take care of Mount Hua directly as well…
In that case, I’d never die a natural death.
Jao-gae was the kind of man who would argue point-for-point even before the abbot of Shaolin. But that Cheong Myeong brat was harder to deal with than even that. Being face-to-face with him felt like standing in front of a bomb already lit, something that might go off at any moment.
Odd.
He looked toward the hall where Cheong Myeong was sitting.
Sure, his temper makes him hard to deal with, but that can’t be all there is to it.
There was something more than the pressure one felt in the presence of the Beggars’ Sect leader or the abbot of Shaolin. And yet, that was impossible if judged by Cheong Myeong’s years or his standing in the Jianghu.
I think I understand why everyone who meets the Mount Hua Divine Dragon ends up finding him so difficult to face.
This was the sort of thing that couldn’t be conveyed simply by putting it into words. Which was why those who dealt in information could never blindly trust or drown themselves in information alone.
The best way to judge how great a force truly was—was to see who stood at its head.
Now I think I understand why the Nine Great Sects are falling into disarray and the Heavenly Friends Alliance is rising like a dragon.
Hyun Jong and Cheong Myeong.
As long as those two led Mount Hua, the heart of the Heavenly Friends Alliance, its momentum would only keep rising day by day.
“Still, is this really all right?”
“Hmm? What is?”
Hong Dae-gwang asked with a somewhat worried expression.
“I mean that the sect leader has decided to put the Beggars’ Sect in play for the Heavenly Friends Alliance too.”
Up to now, the Beggars’ Sect had definitely been providing information to the Heavenly Friends Alliance and to Mount Hua. But that had only ever been limited to information Hong Dae-gwang was in a position to handle. Information that couldn’t be made public, like internal movements among the Nine Great Sects, had never reached even him.
But now that Jao-gae was moving, it meant the Beggars’ Sect had decided to hand over even that kind of information to the Heavenly Friends Alliance.
Which meant—
“……Doesn’t that mean the sect leader has officially decided to set the Heavenly Friends Alliance against the Nine Great Sects?”
“There’s no need to make such a fuss over the meaning. It’s already that way.”
Jao-gae shook his head. But Hong Dae-gwang couldn’t shake the unease from his face.
“……Honestly, I am a little worried. The evil sects are banding together more and more every day and threatening Jiangbuk, and now the righteous side is splitting into two.”
“This world doesn’t always go the way you want it to.”
“But…”
“Those aren’t worries for us to carry.”
“Pardon?”
Jao-gae jerked his chin toward the hall where Cheong Myeong was.
“You really think that old man over there doesn’t know what we know?”
“……”
“The Mount Hua Divine Dragon’s head has probably been working on this situation for a long time already. So the job of discussing countermeasures belongs to him.”
“Come on. That brat isn’t as calculated as you think, Elder.”
“Well. Is that so?”
“I’m telling you, it is.”
Jao-gae calmly ignored Hong Dae-gwang’s words.
Because of this matter, the world had been split firmly into three.
The Evil Tyrant Alliance in the south, the Nine Great Sects in the east, and the Heavenly Friends Alliance in the west.
The borders were not yet as definite as national frontiers. But the fact that the western half of the Central Plains had been swallowed by the Heavenly Friends Alliance was something no one would be able to deny.
Jao-gae did not believe in coincidence. For a matter like this, human will had to be involved.
“How exhausting.”
“Sir?”
“No, nothing.”
When Hong Dae-gwang asked, Jao-gae shook his head.
Even so, his gaze never once left the hall where Cheong Myeong sat.
Whether it had been built over many years or born from a long period of agonizing thought, he could easily imagine how fierce and complicated the mind of the person who had shaped all of this with his own hands must have been.
“A swan may look elegant when seen from outside the water, but below the surface it’s desperately flailing its legs just to stay afloat. That Mount Hua Divine Dragon probably works just as hard in secret to maintain that carefree, shameless exterior of his.”
“That’s a lie. Swans just float even without paddling.”
“……Really?”
“……”
“……”
Jao-gae coughed loudly into his fist.
“Anyway, what an extraordinary man…”
Bang!
At that exact moment, Cheong Myeong’s door flew open.
“Damn it. Have liquor bottles gotten smaller these days? I haven’t even drunk that much and it’s already gone…”
Cheong Myeong, trudging out with a bundle of pure white liquor bottles tucked in both arms, jolted when he saw the two people still standing in front of the door.
“……”
“……”
A strange silence hung there for a moment. Cheong Myeong lifted one bottle awkwardly.
“……Want some? There’s a little left.”
“……”
Maybe it had just been his imagination after all.