Peaceful Mount
Traveling with Moyong Jua and Paeng Jeon-ho was genuinely comfortable.
Paeng Jeon-ho, in particular, was an overwhelming presence.
His towering height, his massive build, the slightly rough edge to his face, and the greatsword at his side that seemed almost as large as an ordinary person.
Those things alone were enough to keep people from even thinking about approaching him.
On top of that, whenever things got noisy, Paeng Jeon-ho could hush a crowd just by showing up.
If there was one drawback, it was that he couldn’t stop Moyong Jua from talking.
Maybe that was why Paeng Jeon-ho seemed so pleased to be traveling with me.
I was the one taking the full force of Moyong Jua’s chatter, after all.
Yes, going with these two was definitely comfortable.
Traveling alongside a pair from prestigious clans meant the chances of danger and hardship finding me had dropped to almost nothing.
Still, Moyong Jua’s nonstop chatter was no easy thing to endure.
How could she possibly never rest for even a single moment? Seriously?
“Miss Baek, so, um—Miss Baek, are you good at handling cold weather? I heard the North Sea... no, that place is always colder than winter here. How is it? Is this winter manageable? The cold isn’t that bad, right? Ah, wait, wait. That might be a little rude to ask, huh? Maybe I was being too blunt just now. Haha. Oh, dear. I keep asking things like this without meaning to. Sorry. I wasn’t trying to be pushy or anything. I was just curious, that’s all. Mm, but I really am curious.”
Moyong Jua’s problem was that she was truly innocent.
It was pure curiosity, with no hint of malice or hidden motive.
And every time that happened, Paeng Jeon-ho would press his temples with a frown.
If she went a little too far, he would quietly step in and cover her mouth.
Then I would give Paeng Jeon-ho a grateful look, and he would answer with a short sigh and a slight nod.
It was easy to see this was probably how things always were.
Moyong Jua, still bright and carefree even while watching the two of us like that.
Anyway, chatty as she was, I had already learned a great deal in just half a day.
That Moyong Jua and Paeng Jeon-ho were both twenty-three.
That the two had been close since childhood and were practically a pair destined to end up together.
That they were now heading to Jegal Clan Manor for the birthday of another friend, a young woman named Jegal Seyeong.
That both of them were at the Peak level. Things like that.
They might have been called Peak masters, but the aura surrounding those two was on a completely different level from that Mar-something guy I’d seen before.
Even with my lousy eye for these things, I could tell immediately.
A pure, refined feeling. Like a well-honed blade.
That was probably because they were heirs of prestigious clans. And because they were deep into the mature stage of the Peak realm, too.
Anyway, if I could just endure Moyong Jua’s chatter, my safety was practically guaranteed, so this was absolutely no loss for me.
Besides, heading to Jegal Clan Manor was a good choice as well.
If I had a fixed destination, it would be easier for someone from the North Sea Ice Palace to find me.
If I kept drifting around without a set route, that person would have a hell of a time.
In that sense, Paeng Jeon-ho was a truly excellent rumor-spreader.
He was a man of very few words, but his very presence drew everyone’s attention.
And once he drew that attention, there I was right beside him, so even people who had had no interest in me at all would start getting curious.
In other words, just by walking along, I was being advertised in real time as to where I was going.
That was fine. Maybe there wasn’t anything better for my situation right now.
More than anything, the two of them knew the roads.
They knew exactly where to go and how to get there.
No, to be precise, that was really just one of them—Paeng Jeon-ho was practically leading the way.
So by the time the sun was hanging just a handspan above the western mountains, we had arrived at a place called Ugang County.
“Tonight, we’ll stay here.”
Paeng Jeon-ho spoke quietly, not to Moyong Jua but to me.
And then Moyong Jua, all excited, said to me, “Wow! Then I don’t have to sleep alone tonight! You won’t be bored in the middle of the night!”
A chill ran down my spine.
What? We’d be sharing a room!? Why!? Was I seriously going to have to endure that chatter even at night!?
And besides, Moyong Jua was a woman. A rather beautiful one at that.
Outwardly I might have become a woman, but inside I was still a man.
So sharing a room with her was honestly a little much.
How was I supposed to turn this down? How could I say it without making things awkward?
“Jua. Wouldn’t it be better for us to take separate rooms? Miss Baek might feel uncomfortable.”
Of course, Paeng Jeon-ho was only saying that for my sake.
But saying it like that made it even harder for me to refuse, didn’t it?
“Oh? Miss Baek! Really? It’d be better to save on room costs and share, right?”
If I gave in here, things would only get harder from this point on.
So I smiled and tried to answer Moyong Jua as gently as I could.
“I’m sorry. I need to do some training tonight. It’s something I can’t let other people see...”
“Ah! Is that so!? Then it can’t be helped! But we can still talk until then, right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
There. That was a solid defense. Honestly, not bad.
And so we headed into Ugang County, where Paeng Jeon-ho, as if he knew the place well, made for a certain inn.
The inn we entered had a clean, orderly air about it.
As Moyong Jua explained to me along the way, it was connected to the Murim Alliance.
In other words, it was a safe, trustworthy inn mainly used by wandering orthodox martial artists.
Even for people at the Peak level, it wasn’t easy to just sleep anywhere.
So places like this were set up all over the place so orthodox martial artists could use them while traveling.
Wow. If I’d known that, I should’ve used them too.
What a hard time I’d had all this while.
As expected, you had to know things. Knowledge really was power.
Maybe that was why I was even able to laugh and keep up with Moyong Jua’s chatter, which dragged on late into the night.
I even managed to answer some of her questions here and there.
See? When my mind was at ease, everything became peaceful.
I’d gained some profound insight. Who knew I’d learn it like this?
After Moyong Jua returned to her room and I was left alone in mine, the room still somehow felt warm and alive.
It felt protected.
Tonight, I wouldn’t have to hang bells on the window and crouch at the doorway to sleep.
And so, for the first time in a long while, I was able to sleep comfortably in a proper bed.
The mattress being hard didn’t matter. In fact, even that stiffness felt good.
The next day.
Probably because I’d finally slept deeply after so long, my body felt refreshed.
This might have been the best I’d felt since after that bath last time.
Back then, I don’t even know what got into me. I’d just nodded off without understanding a thing.
It was clear that damn ambush by Kwak Sohan had made me a little jumpy.
That cursed boatman. Where was he now? I hoped he’d hurry up and get to Wuchang so they could chop his head clean off.
After walking for quite a while, we reached a small village sometime after lunch.
We went into an inn to grab a quick bite, and while we were ordering food, a man kept inching toward us with an awkward, hesitant look.
“Do you have something to say?”
When Paeng Jeon-ho asked in his deep voice, the man’s face lit up, and he hurried over to speak in a rush.
“Forgive me. I know this is rude, but I have a request for the hero!”
“Go on.”
“The truth is, for the past few days, bandits have been appearing on the mountain road ahead! Several merchants like myself are trapped here, unable to move on, just wasting time. Then I saw you, hero, and I wanted to beg you sincerely for help.”
I more or less got it. Honestly, if I saw Paeng Jeon-ho like this, I’d want to ask him for help too.
“Hm. Where exactly?”
“The mountain road crossing Peaceful Mount! They say bandits have appeared there!”
“How many are there?”
“From what I’ve heard, seven!”
“Understood. I’ll take care of it.”
“Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! Uh, this is nothing much, but if the hero’s party is eating, we can pay for—”
“That won’t be necessary. I’m only doing what should be done.”
At that blunt reply, the man seemed even more moved.
After bowing several times, he withdrew, and Moyong Jua looked at Paeng Jeon-ho with a catlike grin and said, “Hehe. Our Jeon-ho. Did hearing himself called a hero make his shoulders all stiff?”
Paeng Jeon-ho didn’t answer her.
He simply picked up his teacup and took a quiet sip.
Until the food arrived, Moyong Jua kept teasing him.
And Paeng Jeon-ho, as always, ignored it with practiced ease.
What a perfect pair they were. They really were lovely to watch.
A childhood-friend couple, too. And Paeng Jeon-ho was clearly deeply in love with Moyong Jua.
Moyong Jua seemed to see him as more than a friend as well, but she was a little dull when it came to that sort of thing, so she probably hadn’t fully realized it yet.
Heh. I could already picture it: one day, Moyong Jua seeing Paeng Jeon-ho in a new light and falling head over heels, blushing so hard she couldn’t even chatter properly.
Now that would be a feast.
“I’m sorry for accepting without asking Miss Baek’s opinion.”
Near the end of the meal, after we’d finished eating, Paeng Jeon-ho said that in a calm voice.
Had he been thinking about that the whole time we ate? If so, this man really was deeply considerate.
“It’s fine. It wasn’t the kind of thing that needed to be approved one by one.”
“But if the bandits visible to us number seven, there are likely twice that many more.”
Moyong Jua cut in as she spoke, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of tension on her face.
She looked utterly confident, as if she didn’t have a single worry in the world.
“But, Jeon-ho. Then aren’t we going to have to turn back?”
“Even if we have to take a little detour, we can’t just leave bandits alone.”
“Hehe. Well, yeah, that’s true.”
Anyway, after finishing the meal, we met the merchants and the others who had been unable to continue down the road.
Six in total. Every one of them carrying a massive load.
They were probably the same sort as the peddlers I’d seen before.
Honestly... that line of work must be full of twists and turns. It was always like this.
“You all should go on ahead first. We’ll keep a little distance and follow behind.”
“Huh?”
“That way, the bandits will come out, won’t they?”
“Oh! I see! Understood! We’ll do that!”
After saying that, the merchant led the others up the mountain path.
And after widening the distance just enough that we could barely keep them in sight, Moyong Jua, Paeng Jeon-ho, and I began to follow after them.