What of a Body Servant?
The next morning, around sunrise, Yi Yeok woke to find the grounds outside their quarters already in an uproar.
"What now? They've come swarming in again?"
He woke the snoring Yeogwi with a few prods of his foot.
"Ah, damn it—what?"
"Get up, turtle. Looks like they've crowded in on us again."
Only then did Yeogwi catch the racket outside.
"Who is it this time? Shit. We ought to at least eat breakfast before we deal with them!"
Yi Yeok stepped out of the quarters. Yeogwi followed a little behind, grumbling as he yanked his clothes on and snatched up his sword.
What lay before them was not quite what they had expected. It looked as if every outer disciple in the sect had gathered, and the impression was not far wrong: several hundred young men at a conservative count stood drawn up in neat ranks and files.
The moment they confirmed it was Yi Yeok, they came forward one step at a time and offered the fist-and-palm salute.
"Ma Ho pays his morning respects to the Outer Sect's Rank One!"
"Wang So pays his morning respects to the Outer Sect's Rank One!"
"Gu Sogu pays his morning respects to the Outer Sect's Rank One!"
"Dong Pyo pays his morning respects to the Outer Sect's Rank One..."
Hundreds of disciples clearly meant to greet him one by one. Yi Yeok, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, lifted a hand and cut short the salutations that threatened to run on forever.
"What the hell is this farce, first thing in the morning..."
The gathered outer disciples stared at one another, eyes wide.
"What are all of you doing out here?"
One disciple, who had been hesitating, found the nerve to answer.
"We are paying our morning respects to the Outer Sect's Rank One."
"Morning respects? That's a thing?"
"Yes. It is held every morning, together with roll call..."
Yi Yeok, who had dropped onto the stone steps to listen, cut him off with a snort of laughter.
"Was that ever a tradition of the Nokhyeon Sect?"
The disciples hemmed and hawed. In truth, they did not know precisely themselves. A disciple who looked a fair bit older, standing off to one side, stepped forward.
"As far as this humble one knows, there was no such custom before Senior Brother Ji Jung-ok became the Outer Sect's Rank One."
"Unbelievable. So that bastard Ji Jung-ok was taking morning respects that not even the elders or the Sect Master receive? Arrogant little shit. I really should have killed him yesterday."
"They say he is already little better than a cripple. That he kept his life at all must be thanks to Senior Brother's magnanimity."
None of them had quite put a finger on what Yi Yeok was feeling, but it was plain enough that something had soured his mood. A few of the senior disciples traded glances and brought forward the things they had been holding.
"A gift, to congratulate you on becoming the new Rank One of the Outer Sect. It is nothing much, but we ask that you look kindly on our sincerity."
Silver, spirit herbs, elixir pills, and the like piled up thick at Yi Yeok's feet. It was no small sum, but in the eyes of a man who had gained the Ring of Heaven and Earth, it was nothing but junk.
Even so, it was obvious the outer disciples had scraped together every coin they had and every coin they didn't. The monthly tribute alone could not have been light. Guessing how harshly Ji Jung-ok had ground the outer disciples before him, Yi Yeok clicked his tongue.
"Enough. Take it back. Stash it away and buy yourselves something good to eat later."
They could hardly believe their ears. The outer disciples wavered, unsure whether they were truly meant to obey, but the moment Yi Yeok glared they hurriedly gathered the valuables back up.
"Brothers. You must have suffered plenty all this time."
The outer disciples only murmured under their breath, not daring an answer. Having dealt with no one but Ji Jung-ok for quite a long while, they had no idea what reply would even be appropriate.
"In light of your circumstances, I won't take the gifts. But the heat of the hearts behind them—that I'll keep. I, Yi Yeok, am a man who always pays back what he receives, whether it was meant in goodwill or in spite."
The disciples' faces brightened as one. He was, without question, a far better master to serve than Ji Jung-ok.
"Good. Today I'll give you a special chance. I'll take one body servant from among you. By my authority, he'll be excused from every duty in the sect. Except when he's training on his own, he stays by my side and runs the occasional errand. Fitting pay for that—no, better than fitting—goes without saying."
The puzzlement on their faces soon twisted into sheer disbelief. A body servant?
"Well? Anyone who wants the honor, step forward!"
No one did. Yi Yeok looked faintly thrown.
"Uh... it really won't be hard. The errands are simple things anybody could manage, and in your spare time you just trade jokes with me and keep me company. Of course I'll leave you plenty of time to train. Who knows? I might even slip you a precious elixir, or a spirit stone!"
Still, no one stepped out. Yeogwi pressed a hand to his brow.
"You idiot. They may not look it, but most of these are scions of prestigious secular houses. A 'body servant'? Treatment can be as sweet as you like—who's going to sign up for that?"
"What's so bad about being a body servant?"
"You could at least call it a confidant. Or a subordinate."
"What's the difference? The ones who used to fawn around Ji Jung-ok, and the ones who ran with Yuk Im before that—they were body servants in all but name. Isn't this more honest?"
Yi Yeok had always been fair, even when dealing with the servants of his family home, Sorim among them, and for that very reason he could not make sense of the outer disciples' lukewarm response. What's so bad about being a body servant?
"Um, Senior Brother Yi. Roll call is finished, so we will return to our schedules. Since you do not seem to want it, we will not hold roll call from tomorrow on."
One disciple spoke, watching his face. When Yi Yeok nodded with a sour look, every outer disciple who had gathered drained away like an ebbing tide, as if they had been waiting for the word.
"Well, look at that. Kicking their own good fortune away with their own feet. They say even a castle lordship is nothing if the man himself doesn't want it, but still..."
Yeogwi let out a scoffing laugh.
"Moron. Sometimes I almost wonder if you're a genius, and sometimes you're an absolute fool."
"Look who's talking, turtle. And you don't even have the moments where someone might mistake you for a genius."
Yi Yeok sighed.
"Nothing for it. If they're all such outstanding talents that they can't stoop to being a body servant, I'll have to go down to the secular world sometime and find myself a sharp one."
Just then a voice as small as an ant's reached them.
"Um, um... newly appointed Rank One of the Outer Sect, Senior Brother Yi Yeok..."
Yi Yeok and Yeogwi turned, puzzled. The owner of the voice flinched and ducked his head.
"This humble one is Bang Cheon. I pay my respects to Senior Brother Yi Yeok, the newly appointed Rank One of the Outer Sect."
He was a boy who looked several years younger than either of them—skinny, slight, and scarcely five feet tall, if that.
"Bang Cheon. What is it?"
Bang Cheon still spoke as if his voice were crawling back down his throat. Even so, it was plain he was wringing out every scrap of courage he had.
"This humble one wishes to become Senior Brother's body servant. Would it... would it be all right, even if I want to?"
Yi Yeok gave a hollow laugh.
"Why are you asking me whether you're allowed to want it? If you want to, you want to. That's fine."
Bang Cheon took a little more courage.
"Then... might I actually become a body servant, as I hope?"
Yeogwi clicked his tongue. The shrunken posture on that slight frame was enough to read the boy's life in the sect. He had probably come from a house of no great standing, one that had squandered its fortune and shoved him into the Nokhyeon Sect almost by force. He would not have had the means to pay the tribute properly, and must have barely made up the difference by scrambling through odd jobs. With no real time to train, he could only fall further behind—and on top of that there would have been the bullying and the clannishness of peers born to great houses.
"Thief. I feel for the kid, but he won't be any help. He'll just be baggage."
At Yeogwi's words, Bang Cheon curled in on himself even more. Yi Yeok only looked him over, slowly and carefully.
"You want to be my body servant?"
"Yes."
"Everyone else said no. They've got just enough pride that tribute and discipline are fine, but a body servant is beneath them. So you don't even have pride, is that it?"
Bang Cheon was silent a moment, then spoke.
His voice was calm, and the words held together front to back. He seemed to have some learning stored up from his younger years.
Yi Yeok's face lit up, but he forced the pleasure off it and cleared his throat, loudly.
"It won't be easy."
"Would it be harder than a slave's life?"
"If all you want is to escape a slave's life by becoming my body servant, I can't take you. I don't want a failure who ran."
For the first time, Bang Cheon looked Yi Yeok straight in the eye.
"This humble one is not making this request merely to escape the reality in front of me. I am choosing it of my own will, for a life better than the one I have now. Whatever task I am given as a body servant, I will see it through to the end."
"Good!"
Yi Yeok laughed aloud and shouted so it rang.
"I like this one. From this moment, you are my body servant... no, my loyal hound... no, no, that's not it... my right hand?"
Yeogwi opened his mouth with a look of pure exasperation.
"Just call him your confidant."
"Right. We'll do it that way. Bang Cheon! From this moment, you are my confidant! Let everyone in the Nokhyeon Sect hear it. And work with the resolve to do anything for my sake."
Bang Cheon cupped his fists, overcome.
"I am grateful for this grace. I will not disappoint you!"
Then the three of them fell briefly silent. Yi Yeok tilted his head.
"Well? What are you doing?"
"Um... what should I do now?"
Yi Yeok gazed up at the sky, lost in thought.
"Hmm... I don't even know what to have you do."
Yeogwi snorted.
"Idiots. Now there are two fools."
Yi Yeok rose cheerfully from the steps.
"Forget it. Let's go eat first!"
He drew something from the Ring of Heaven and Earth. To Yeogwi and Bang Cheon, it looked as if he were pulling an object straight out of empty air. Yi Yeok tossed Bang Cheon the Qi-Blood Pill he had taken from the ring.
"Once you've eaten, build your strength. As fast as you can. So you're no disgrace as the confidant of Yi Yeok."
Bang Cheon's eyes went wide. It was only a low-grade spirit pill, but it was the most precious thing he had held since entering the sect.
Yi Yeok slapped the sniffling boy across the back.
"A grown man, blubbering like that! Quit it!"
Watching Bang Cheon wipe his tears on his sleeve, Yi Yeok laughed again, bold and bright.
Yeogwi grimaced.
"Ill-bred brat. Did you have to say that right when we're going to eat..."