The Scoundrel Who Made His Fiancée Cry
The Hegemon of Sichuan.
The head of the Tang Clan, a man who held an undisputed place in the orthodox martial world, let out a long, heavy sigh in his office. Even he, the one they called the Hegemon, could not escape the rotting headache of trouble with his children.
"Wretched boy. If only he were eating away at me over women..."
Had it been that, confining him to the estate to reflect would have been enough to end the matter. This time, however, it had swollen beyond anything the Tang Clan could settle on its own.
Demonic arts.
An inner energy that raised gooseflesh not only in martial artists who wielded internal energy, but even in ordinary people who could not. Had demonic arts done nothing more than leave a person with an unpleasant feeling, they would not be persecuted as they were now. The greatest reason they were despised lay in the peculiar way they grew.
Ordinary martial arts circulated with nature and gathered strength of their own accord. Demonic arts were different. They drank the life force of everything around them and turned it into the user's inner energy. Because of that, in any region where someone had learned the demonic arts, it was common to find the plants and animals nearby withered dead.
Once that truth came to light, demonic arts were suppressed on a sweeping scale, and from then on the strictest of measures were imposed upon those who used them.
"Is this my karma..."
The Tang Clan Head bore no small share of the blame for Tang Pung turning to demonic arts. He had left the boy alone until his character became one that stopped at nothing. He had done it hoping Tang Pung might grow up free, but the result had been entirely the wrong one. He had not meant for it to happen. Even so, it was plain that his own conduct had helped drive the boy to the point of sparing neither means nor method.
"I have failed, both as a clan head and as a father."
As clan head, he would be remembered as the incompetent man who had let a demonic practitioner emerge from his house. To Tang Pung, he would remain the worst of fathers—the one who had neglected him, and the one who had cornered him.
He was sighing over that lonely lot when a servant outside addressed him.
"Clan Head, Lady Soye and her fiancé have arrived."
"Show them in."
The Tang Clan Head forced his unsettled heart down and took the clan head's seat. However troubled he might be, the world would not wait for him. He knew that better than anyone, and so he offered no complaint. In any circumstance, he had to remain the composed head of the Tang Clan.
A heavy duty pressed down upon him.
When I stepped into the office, the Tang Clan Head was waiting for Soye and me. After everything that had happened, he had every reason to look worn, yet I could not find even the slightest disarray in his bearing.
"You came earlier than I expected. I was told you had only just woken. Is your body all right?"
"Yes. Aside from feeling a little dull after lying down so long, I think I'm fine."
"That is a relief. The Tang Clan owes you a great debt."
"Please don't let it weigh on you."
Sensing that the clan head's words would run long, Soye and I sat in the chairs opposite him and waited for him to speak. He kept his silence for a good while, sunk in thought, and then at last he opened his mouth.
"I am truly sorry about this matter."
"Clan Head, I..."
"No. I understand what you mean to say, but this is a matter of the Tang Clan's pride. So speak. Tell me what you want."
Anyone fond of martial arts novels would have heard the saying at least once: the Tang Clan repays a kindness twofold and an enmity tenfold. It meant they were thorough to the bone about gratitude and grievance, and the Tang Clan of this world was no different. However I refused, they would insist on rewarding me. Better, then, to settle the account cleanly here before I went on my way.
"In that case, Clan Head... I..."
Soye and I came out of the office once our meeting with the Tang Clan Head was done. The talk had stretched on, and somewhere along the way the sky had slipped past noon.
"Gaga."
"Yeah? What is it?"
"Did you mean what you said earlier?"
"Of course. I was serious. Do you want to put it off a little longer, Soye?"
"It's not that... It's just, there must be so many better rewards. Using a precious chance on nothing more than that..."
"Nothing more? To me, this is more precious than anything."
The wish I had asked of the Tang Clan Head was only one thing: that my engagement to Soye be formally carried forward and proclaimed. As something to spend a granted wish on, it left a little to be desired, but I hadn't particularly wanted anything else, so I decided to let it pass. Spiritual elixirs and martial arts already overflowed my hands, and when I thought of the fated opportunities I had yet to reclaim, I had no need of more. For me, rather than any of that...
"Gaga..."
"Never mind all that. Shall we go out somewhere?"
I'll say it again. I had no grand ambition, no desire to become the greatest man under heaven. I had only built my strength along the way so I could live happily with Soye, and so those things were useless to me. I was setting such trifles aside and puzzling over where the two of us might go when Soye's lips finally parted.
"No."
"Huh...?"
"I'll say it again. You woke up after a whole week, Gaga. I held back until just now, but I can't anymore. We're going back for today."
"W-wait, no..."
Her unexpected, firm refusal stopped the words in my mouth. Before I could even grasp what was happening, Soye caught my hand and pulled. I had been certain she would accept a date, so all I could do was stare, dumbfounded, as she dragged me along. On any other day I would have done something about it, but my body was in no state to resist.
Hauled into the bedroom that belonged to the two of us alone, I was pushed down onto bedding that had already been changed for fresh.
"Rest for today. We can go out and play starting tomorrow, can't we?"
"But Soye, noon is already behind us..."
"Even so...!"
"And you're going to stay right here beside me the whole time, aren't you?"
Soye was Soye, after all. A few words from me, and I could already see her wavering. Sure that a little more persuasion would get us out the door together, I was talking away in high spirits when great fat tears began to spill from her eyes.
"Huh?"
She tried somehow to gather up the tears she had shed without meaning to, but when that proved impossible she gave in and let everything she had been holding back burst free. Once they started, the tears only grew, past any hope of stopping them.
"Sniff... hnn!"
"S-Soye!?"
"I... I was worried about you. I was so worried, that's why... and you don't even understand how I feel..."
"I— that's..."
"Do you know how worried I was..."
Watching her cry as if she carried every sorrow in the world, I felt for an instant as though the world had ended. Only then could I look back at myself through her eyes. Knowing her nature, she must have suffered terribly in her heart from the moment I collapsed. Who wouldn't worry when the person they loved regained their senses only after a week? Only then did I see how unfair I had been to her. From where she stood, she had already endured and waited more than enough, and I was ashamed of myself for thinking only of my own wants and never once of her worry.
"All right. I'll rest for today."
"Gaga..."
"I'm sorry. I was only thinking of myself, wasn't I? I just wanted a little more time with you, and I got greedy before I knew it."
Soye wiped at her flowing tears and quietly looked at me. Drawing her, still crying, into my arms, I spoke.
"You always sacrifice so much, and all I did was think of myself. I'm sorry."
"No... I... I..."
"Don't say that. I'm always grateful, and I love you."
With those words, I carefully cupped her cheeks and pressed a brief kiss to her forehead. The eyes that had been wiping away tears flew wide and round. The way she looked up at me was so cute I could hardly stand it.
The mood between us had ripened just enough, and we stared at each other without a word, as if we might look straight through one another. I had harbored a small wish to share our first kiss beneath the full moon, but I had no desire to let the moment in front of me slip away for the sake of that alone.
If it comes to this, I couldn't hold back even if I tried.
I let my eyes fall shut as my face drew slowly toward hers. Perhaps she felt the same, because she did not stop me. She only waited, her own eyes closing little by little.
A soft smack sounded through the room. Our lips met for a brief moment, then parted. It was too slight to quite deserve the name of a kiss—nothing more than our mouths touching—and yet even that was an unforgettable first kiss for the two of us.
When I drew my head back a little, Soye's face came into view, flushed a brilliant red. Confirming that our lips had parted, she slowly opened her eyes, and the instant they met mine she let out a short, adorable hiccup.
"Hic!"
"I love you, Soye."
I gathered her, blushing, into my arms and lay back on the bed. She must have been thoroughly embarrassed, because she said nothing at all and simply stayed where she was, held against me. And so we cast aside everything we were meant to do that day, lazed in each other's arms for a long while, and fell into an early sleep.