Just Leave It Be (4)
“I knew it!”
Namgung Dowi grabbed Baek Cheon’s hand with both of his own.
Baek Cheon stared back at him with an expression of utter distaste.
“Thank you! Thank you, Baek Cheon Daojang!”
“N-no, wait a second….”
Baek Cheon, suddenly feeling terribly unclean, tried to stop him, but it was already obvious that Namgung Dowi had no intention of listening anymore.
“I suspected it, but yes! I thought there was no way Mount Hua’s impossible growth could be explained by the old methods.”
“…….”
“Then it’s true that everyone in Mount Hua, including you, Baek Cheon Daojang, is learning martial arts from Cheong Myeong Daojang?”
“……That isn’t exactly wrong, but…. I mean, it’s not wrong, but….”
“Thank you!”
Namgung Dowi let go of Baek Cheon’s hand and clenched his fist hard.
“I think I’ve finally found the way to restore the Namgung Clan.”
“Y-your Young Patriarchship? Please, calm down first….”
“Then I’ll go ask Cheong Myeong Daojang right away! Thank you!”
“W-wait just a m—”
But Namgung Dowi was already sprinting away without looking back. As Baek Cheon watched him in a daze, criticism came raining down on him.
“Demon.”
“Monster.”
“You shoved a man straight into a furnace.”
“H-hey, you bastards! What the hell was I supposed to do? He didn’t even give me time to explain, and he ran off after hearing only what he wanted to hear!”
Baek Cheon protested bitterly, but the Ogeom had already lost interest in him. They watched Namgung Dowi running off in the distance with pained expressions.
“……He’s going to regret it.”
“Yeah.”
“Poor guy.”
“That’s his fate, I guess.”
Among them, the calmest as always was Yoon Jong.
“……Let’s follow him.”
“Huh?”
Yoon Jong spoke with a face full of responsibility.
“If we couldn’t stop him from leaping into a furnace, then we should at least pull him out at the right time and douse him with water.”
“…….”
It sounded oddly off somehow, but Baek Cheon still nodded for now.
“Right. We should at least keep him from burning to a crisp.”
The Ogeom quickly chased after Namgung Dowi’s back.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“Hey, don’t push!”
“Just a second, I need to see—”
“I said don’t push, damn it!”
The Ogeom cracked the door to the pavilion where Cheong Myeong was and clustered around it, peering into the room.
Inside, a strange scene was unfolding.
Cheong Myeong sat in the main seat like some iron-fisted power broker from a grand household, while Namgung Dowi knelt neatly before him.
Just looking at it, you’d think some corrupt official had come to bribe his way into office.
That swindling bureaucrat look… no, Cheong Myeong looked a hundred times more wicked than any corrupt official as he spoke with a sullen face to Namgung Dowi.
“So, let me get this straight….”
“Yes! Daojang!”
“You want me to teach you swordsmanship?”
“That’s right!”
Cheong Myeong broke into a grin.
“Not just you, but the Namgung Clan too?”
“Yes!”
“From me?”
“Exactly!”
“Ha.”
“Hahahaha!”
“AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Cheong Myeong and Namgung Dowi burst into laughter at one another as though they truly shared the same understanding. Of course, the only one who thought their understanding matched was Namgung Dowi.
“Has this bastard gone out of his mind!”
Thwack!
“Aaaagh!”
Cheong Myeong leapt over the table and kicked Namgung Dowi square in the face, sending him flying backward with a scream.
“I knew this would happen!”
Baek Cheon flung the door open and rushed inside just in time to catch Namgung Dowi before he smashed into the wall.
“No!”
Cheong Myeong roared, stamping on the floor.
“Did someone poison the Yangtze while I wasn’t looking?! Not a single sane bastard left in this world! The Green Forest scum want to join the Heavenly Friends Alliance, the Shaolin bastards are only looking out for their own gain, and now even the next patriarch of the Namgung Clan is asking for what? Swordsmanship? Swordskil—”
“D-daojang, that isn’t what I meant….”
“I’ve seen plenty of lunatics in my life, but this bastard’s on another level! Hey, you crazy fool! How the hell does that make any sense!”
Baek Cheon set the dejected Namgung Dowi down and covered his mouth with one fist, clearing his throat softly.
“Um… Cheong Myeong.”
“What!”
“I understand why you’re upset, but the Young Patriarch is surely only acting like this because he’s desperate. You should be a little more understanding….”
“Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
Cheong Myeong’s face hardened.
“Say that we go under for good.”
“Why do you have to make even ruin sound so unsettling….”
“Anyway, we’re ruined. Utterly ruined. All that’s left are the kids.”
“……Okay, and?”
“And then say the surviving Jo Geol-sahyeong takes those kids to Wudang to beg them to teach us some swordsmanship so Mount Hua can live again. How would you feel?”
“Has this bastard gone insane!”
“Eek!”
Baek Cheon, not realizing what he was doing, kicked Jo Geol in the side. Jo Geol, who had been standing there cluelessly, folded in half and flew into the wall.
“Ah. I’m a bit late….”
Yoon Jong clicked his tongue and lowered the hand he had raised. This time, Baek Cheon had been a little faster.
“Nooo!”
Jo Geol rolled on the floor and lifted his head with eyes gone wide.
“Why are you hitting me? Why! I’m not the one who actually did anything! So why!”
“Because you look like you would.”
“…….”
At a loss for words, Jo Geol turned to Yoon Jong. Yoon Jong only smiled faintly and nodded.
Feeling betrayed by the world itself, Jo Geol hugged his knees and crouched down. Dang So-so, who was nearby, patted his shoulder with sympathy.
“Well, you should’ve acted like a human being before this.”
“Kah! Get lost, will you?”
Baek Cheon coughed and glanced at Namgung Dowi.
Come to think of it.
He hadn’t thought much of it at first, but when he put himself in the other side’s shoes, that really was the act of a maniac. To speak plainly, who in their right mind would ask another sect to teach them swordsmanship?
Even Hyun Jong, who was famous for never caring about pride when it came to Mount Hua’s survival, had never once asked Zhongnan to teach them swordsmanship. And that was when Mount Hua was truly in terrible straits.
No, if any disciple had made such a request, even Hyun Jong would have stuck a plum blossom branch into their face on the spot.
Cheong Myeong foamed at the mouth as he shouted.
“Hey, you lunatic. Learn swordsmanship from where? Namgung Hwang’ll climb out of his grave spitting Yangtze water through his mouth!”
“……My father hasn’t been buried yet.”
“Then go check, you idiot! He might be trying to claw his way out of the coffin!”
Namgung Dowi flinched and shrank back under the force of Cheong Myeong’s glare.
Cheong Myeong clicked his tongue in exasperation and shook his head.
“The world’s going to end. Seriously, the world’s going to end. No, what the hell happened over the last hundred years for only lunatics like this to be left?”
At this point, these bastards are scarier than the Heavenly Demon. Scarier than the Heavenly Demon, you idiots!
But Namgung Dowi, looking wronged, began to protest.
“I-I’m not asking you to teach us Mount Hua’s swordsmanship, Daojang.”
“Hm?”
“Even if I’ve lost my mind, I wouldn’t ask for Mount Hua Sect’s swordsmanship.”
“Is that so?”
Cheong Myeong, suddenly calm, nodded as if that made perfect sense.
“Good. For the sake of the Namgung Clan’s future, I was wondering whether I should just toss you into the Yangtze and make that old guy named Namgung Myeong the patriarch instead.”
“…….”
“So what is it then?”
“Of course, we’ll learn the Namgung Clan’s swordsmanship. Namgung isn’t so weak that we’d covet another sect’s sword arts!”
“You are a little weak, though.”
“…….”
“Uh… never mind. Go on.”
“……Right, so….”
Somewhat wounded, Namgung Dowi wiped at the corner of his eyes and continued.
“What we wish to ask of you, Daojang, is not instruction in swordsmanship, but experience in real combat.”
“Hm?”
“We felt it acutely this time at Maehwado. No matter how precisely you master swordsmanship, no matter how perfectly you can wield it, no matter how much you spar with one another to discover your weaknesses….”
Namgung Dowi’s attitude gradually became more serious.
“None of that is enough when it comes to actual combat.”
“…….”
Cheong Myeong watched him quietly, his interest piqued.
This guy’s interesting.
Because of this incident, the clan had lost two-thirds of its fighting strength and even its patriarch. That had accelerated the day he would inherit the clan by at least twenty years.
For an ordinary person, merely enduring the present would be enough to occupy every ounce of their mind. But Namgung Dowi was already looking toward the future.
“It’s not something I should say in our current situation, but the Namgung Clan’s sword is by no means dull.”
Cheong Myeong gave a slight nod. It wasn’t entirely wrong. If Namgung had truly been weak, it would never have held the title of the greatest family under heaven for so long.
“Even so, the reason Namgung faced such a grave crisis this time was because, in the end, our sword was nothing more than a well sword that knew nothing of real battle.”
Namgung Dowi looked Cheong Myeong straight in the eye.
“But Mount Hua was different. Even though the Mount Hua disciples must not have experienced much real combat either, they fought as if they had gone through countless battles.”
Namgung Dowi clenched his fist tightly.
“Daojang.”
“…….”
“Please help us. We must become stronger. And I believe there is no one who can do that role better than you.”
“Hmm.”
Cheong Myeong scratched his cheek with a strange expression. Then, in a somewhat indifferent tone, he said to Namgung Dowi,
“Well, that’s all fine and good… but let me ask you one thing.”
“Yes.”
“I understand why, but I don’t think you actually need to throw Namgung into the position of learning from Mount Hua to do that.”
“…….”
“You don’t seem like a fool who doesn’t realize how dangerous this is. The people of the world won’t bother considering all that background. They’ll just say the Namgung Clan went crazy and learned swordsmanship from Mount Hua.”
“……I know.”
“Right, you do know. That’s why I’m asking.”
Cheong Myeong’s voice turned cold.
“Knowing all of that, why are you still going this far?”
“…….”
Namgung Dowi bit his lip hard.
“……Because I don’t want….”
“Hm?”
“Because I don’t want to lose anyone anymore.”
At those words, Cheong Myeong’s expression stiffened.
“The Evil Tyrant Alliance will only make the world more and more dangerous. Unless we choose to shut the gates and hide away… no, even if we do, Namgung can no longer avoid them.”
The Ogeom listening nearby nodded. There was not a single thing wrong in what he said.
“My father told me.”
“……Namgung Hwang? The Patriarch?”
“Yes. My father showed me in his final moment what the Namgung Patriarch is meant to do.”
Namgung Dowi spoke with firm eyes.
“The Namgung Patriarch is the one who protects Namgung’s family.”
“…….”
“I…… don’t want to lose even one more member of our household. I’ll do anything for that.”
Namgung Dowi lifted his head straight and looked at Cheong Myeong.
“If I’m told to kneel, I’ll kneel. If I’m told to bow, I’ll bow.”
And then, bowing deeply, he cried out,
“Please help us, Daojang. The Namgung sword will repay that debt!”
Baek Cheon, watching from the side, slowly nodded.
Incredible.
It was enough to make him feel ashamed of himself all over again.
If it were me, could I bow my head to someone like that for Mount Hua’s future?
Namgung Dowi was someone who had lived with a status so far above Baek Cheon’s that they could hardly be compared. Wasn’t being the legitimate son of the Namgung Clan something anyone in the martial world would envy?
And yet there wasn’t the slightest hesitation in Namgung Dowi’s behavior now. Setting aside right and wrong, that posture alone was certainly something worth emulating.
“I won’t lose a single person….”
Cheong Myeong muttered those words once, then let out a snort.
“You saw that hell and you can still say something as dreamy as that?”
“……Because I saw it, I believe I must say it even more.”
“Your mouth’s still alive, for a brat.”
A smile crept into the corner of Cheong Myeong’s lips.
But Baek Cheon knew that smile carried no malicious intent. He smiled like that whenever they managed to do something that even exceeded what Cheong Myeong had expected of them.
“Well, fine. If it’s combat experience you want, that’s not too hard. It’s just a matter of beating you senseless.”
“Th-then?”
“Since we’re family now anyway, I’ll help you.”
“D-daojang!”
Namgung Dowi looked at Cheong Myeong with shining, deeply moved eyes.
“Thank yo—”
Just as he began to bow his head vigorously, he suddenly froze. Cheong Myeong’s palm had appeared where his head had been heading.
“Daojang.”
Namgung Dowi raised his head in confusion.
And then he saw it.
Cheong Myeong wearing a thoroughly satisfied—no, simply, completely satisfied expression.
After all the waiting and tugging at the line, had a great catch just finally been reeled in by some old fisherman’s luck?
“So.”
“…….”
“How much are you going to pay?”
“……Pardon?”
Namgung Dowi’s eyes trembled violently.
“You said you don’t want to lose anyone.”
“…….”
“Which means each and every one of those lives must be worth quite a lot, doesn’t it?”
“……Daojang?”
“Then let’s find out.”
Cheong Myeong gave a wicked little laugh.
“Just how much the Young Patriarch of the Namgung Clan is willing to pay to save those men.”
“…….”
“I do hope you won’t disappoint me. The Namgung Clan is rich, after all. Right?”
“…….”
“Heeheheheheheh! Heheheheh!”
As Cheong Myeong laughed with his stomach thrust out, a pure white weasel suddenly sprang from his robe, climbed atop his head, took the very same pose, and let out a series of squeaky cackles.
Only after seeing that absurd, utterly bizarre sight did Namgung Dowi finally realize that something had gone very, very wrong.