Sharing a Bed
A maid led the way, and Soye and I followed her to the office, where the Tang Clan Head was already waiting for us.
We approached without a word and sat down across from him.
Only then did the Clan Head, who had kept his silence until now, open his mouth.
"I don't need to tell you why I summoned you, do I?"
"No, sir."
"Judging by that boy's usual conduct, he was plainly the one at fault. I'll apologize for that."
He heaved a long, displeased sigh and went on.
"Even so, he is still the Young Clan Head of the Tang Clan. I can't simply let a matter like this be smoothed over and forgotten."
"I understand. I came here prepared to take responsibility, so I'll accept whatever punishment you deem fit."
"Gaga."
I closed my hand firmly around Soye's as she looked at me with worried eyes.
At the sight of us being so sweet with each other, the Tang Clan Head cleared his throat and continued.
"Ahem. As I said, taking Tang Pung's usual behavior into account, I've decided to attach a small condition to your punishment."
"A condition?"
"Yes. You'll fight a sparring match against the boy."
"A sparring match?"
"If Tang Pung wins, I've agreed to leave both your punishment and your fiancée's in his hands."
"Wait a moment. Isn't this a match between me and Tang Pung? Why drag Soye into it?"
The news that Soye would be punished alongside me made me bristle.
If he wanted someone to strike, he could strike me. Why did Soye have to be caught in it as well?
But for all my righteous anger, the Tang Clan Head's attitude did not change.
"I'm sorry, but there's nothing to be done about that part. You'll have to yield. And aren't the two of you to be husband and wife? A married couple ought to weather hardship and adversity together."
"That's... haah."
Put that way, I had nothing left to say. Even so, I couldn't stomach how the whole arrangement simply ignored what Soye herself wanted.
"Well, I know it sounds absurd coming from me, but you needn't worry too much."
"Why not?"
"With Pung's skill, he'll have a hard time beating you."
The Tang Clan Head spoke of Tang Pung with perfect calm. The boy had been born with talent, he said, but had never put in the effort, and that tendency had only grown worse beside Soye, who displayed an absolute, overwhelming gift. By now he had fallen so far behind that comparing him to the young clan heads of the other Five Great Clans was no longer even possible.
"He probably never even came face to face with the Wall."
"So this match isn't really meant as a punishment for me, is it?"
"Well, no. To be precise, I'd like you to knock that boy flat, clean and proper. Maybe then he'll come to his senses."
He paused a moment, then added something I hadn't expected.
"It's hardly fair to call it compensation, but if you win, I'll see that you're rewarded separately."
On the surface, the Clan Head's proposal — if it could even be called one — seemed to have nothing wrong with it. Even so, there was one point I needed to make certain.
"There won't be any retaliation over the result of the match, will there?"
"Of course not. Even if you leave Pung with internal injuries, no one will hold you responsible. You needn't worry."
"Then... I'll accept the match."
"My thanks. You may go and rest now."
"Yes. Please rest well."
We offered the Tang Clan Head a cupped-fist salute, stepped out of the room, and turned to face each other.
"Will you be all right?"
"I don't know... I'm not sure yet. What do you think, Soye? Do you think I can win?"
"Yes. You know it as well as I do, Gaga. Between those who have crossed the Wall and those who haven't, there is a gap that cannot be closed."
"I thought as much..."
I could say so because I had crossed the Wall myself. From the moment you passed it, everything changed — the speed at which you wielded your internal energy, even your senses — until it felt like stepping into an entirely new world.
As a rule, a human being cannot use more than the full strength of their muscles. The body simply cannot withstand one hundred percent of its own power. Only when death itself comes calling can a person occasionally break that fixed limit and draw out more than their full strength.
Martial arts were no different.
Because the body could not endure it, the output one could actually produce generally remained somewhere between sixty and eighty percent. There were even arts, among certain unorthodox sects and the Demonic Cult, that abandoned stability for the sake of rapid growth and saw that output fall as low as thirty or fifty percent.
But if one had crossed the Wall, the story changed.
That was precisely why they cast stability aside in pursuit of swift advancement. Once you passed the Wall, the limit on your output vanished. The principle was simple: it became possible to control your inner qi so perfectly that it never strained the acupoints. The reason one could not release a full hundred percent was the fear of injuring those points. Cross the Wall, and that fear disappeared — and with it, the restriction on output.
That was why I felt certain Tang Pung, who had never crossed the Wall, could never defeat me. And yet a nameless unease lingered.
As if she had read the thought, Soye turned to me.
"If you're that worried, shall I serve as your practice partner?"
"You, Soye?"
"Yes. I've crossed the Wall myself, and I know the Tang Clan's martial arts."
"That's..."
Thinking about it, she was right. Had she still been of the branch family, it might have been different, but Soye as she was now — having mastered even the direct line's arts — was the perfect partner to train against before my match with Tang Pung. If anything, she was surely the stronger of the two. Even setting the match aside, a bout with her would teach me a great deal.
I found no reason to refuse and every reason to accept, and so I didn't turn her offer down.
"Then may I ask you to?"
"Of course. I think I'll gain a lot from sparring with you as well, Gaga."
"I don't know about that. Six years of nothing but closed-door training — I have no real practical experience. There probably won't be much of a difference."
"Even so."
"All right. I'll do the best I can."
"Hehe. I'll look forward to it."
We had only just settled on a plan for the match when the maid who had been guiding us approached and spoke.
"By the Tang Clan Head's order, I will show the two of you the way."
"Show us... where?"
"To the quarters where the two of you will be sleeping for the time being. The young lady's original rooms will need some repair, I'm afraid, on account of the debris from the training ground."
"Wait — you mean the two of us are to use the same quarters?"
"Yes. I should think that goes without saying."
The maid's answer was perfectly bland. My mind, by contrast, had gone straight to emergency alert. Everyone knew what it meant to put a man and a woman who already liked each other into a single room, didn't they?
"No, hold on. Even so, this is a little soon..."
"Soon for what, sir?"
"I mean — my engagement to Soye hasn't even been formally announced yet..."
We were engaged, true enough, but the engagement had not yet been proclaimed to the murim. Whatever else I meant to say was cut off by none other than Soye's hand.
A rare flush had risen in both her cheeks. She couldn't quite meet my eyes, and still she pressed on, shyly, with what she wanted to say.
"Just... let's go. You don't have anywhere else to stay tonight anyway."
"Ah... no, that's true, but..."
Faced with Soye, who clearly didn't know what to do with her own embarrassment, I couldn't get another word out. Neither of us was young enough to pretend we didn't understand what it meant to sleep in the same room.
Confirming that there would be no further objection, the maid led Soye and me to our new quarters.
The Tang estate sat at the foot of a great mountain, and well inside its grounds stood a rather large residence. Being so far within, it lay a fair distance from the Clan Head's office, and the walk took quite some time. Through all of it, not a single word passed between Soye and me.
"..."
"..."
We blushed and looked in opposite directions, only for our eyes to meet whenever one of us, unable to ignore the other, turned their head — and then we looked away again. Over and over.
By the time we arrived at the quarters, the maid who had guided us had already vanished without a sound.
Left alone together, my heart began to pound even harder. We stood in wordless standoff for a long while as a subtle current passed between us, until I, unable to bear it any longer, spoke first.
"Do you want to wash first?"
"N-no... wha—!? Ah, y-yes..."
Caught off guard by the sudden question, Soye stumbled over her words, then managed a proper answer.
I waited while she hurried off to wash, flustered, and watched the moon. About half an hour had passed when she returned.
She wore something relatively thin, with a black cloak thrown over it, and the sight of her carried a charm a little different from usual. Droplets she hadn't quite dried traced the line of her jaw and stirred a sensuality I had never much noticed before.
I must have been staring too openly. Flushing, Soye spoke.
"Gaga... um... the bath... it's free..."
"Ah, right... then excuse me..."
"...Yes."
In the bath chamber I washed quickly, then prepared the medicinal bath Soye had told me about. I steeped a few herbs for recovery from fatigue, sank my body into the medicated water, and tried to focus on settling my mind.
I had been told it was a bath meant to calm the spirit, but my heart showed no intention of growing calm. No matter how hard I tried to think of nothing, Soye refused to leave my thoughts.
It did not feel like a night on which I would fall asleep easily.