Voyage to the Bottom - 2
I was led into a house in the village. All around it stood people with white cloth wrapped about their heads.
Someone had called for a Daoist only a little while ago. Thinking of that, I doubted I would be kept in here long.
I went in quietly and waited.
The inside was very nice. Traces remained of someone who had lived here, and yet every corner was clean — a well-kept house.
I sat down, and the man I took for the highest among them seated himself across from me. He sent a subordinate to bring something to drink.
It seemed he meant to talk.
"You said you were bound for Mount Kunlun. For what reason?"
An interrogation.
Hmm. What to do.
There was no reason to lay a hand on a good person. So I only had to give him a reason.
I drew the Moxie Sacred Sword from my robes.
"This is a treasure called the Moxie Sacred Sword. Pour energy into it, and a blade of light and heat comes out. I can't use it myself, so I mean to take it back to where it belongs."
At those words, I watched every gaze in the room fix upon the treasure.
"A treasure, you say?"
The man before me stammered, studying the Moxie Sacred Sword I had produced with careful eyes. So I decided to explain it in detail.
"A blade made of light springs from this part. That's why I was warned over and over — when energy is poured in, this spot must be avoided. The Daoist who had it just before me, a man named Hwangbo Cheon, let it touch his skin more than once while drawing the blade."
I could speak as if I knew all of it because I carried a portion of Hwangbo Cheon's memories. And my words were hinting at something.
Might she be someone connected to the Daoists?
It was an illusion that would vanish the moment a Daoist arrived, but for now it would serve. Already the eyes on me had softened enormously.
"Would you like to try it?"
At that, the man's eyes went wide.
"Dear me — I haven't even introduced myself. I am Yu Dae-jeong, Sect Leader of the Hengshan Sect. May I ask the young lady's name?"
The way he fell into courtesy at once told me his interest in the weapon ran deep. Inside me, the swordsmen's memories glittered, thick with desire — they could never hold themselves back before a divine weapon.
"I'm Choseol."
With that, I held the treasure out to him.
He accepted it with care and turned it over, his face full of curiosity. So I warned him.
"That part. Imagine flame bursting out of it. You could die if you get it wrong, so if you mean to try pouring energy in, mind where you put it."
Yes. Put another way, it meant that if he was careful of that spot and poured energy in, he could use the weapon. It was also a lure, tempting him to try it just once.
He heard me out, his expression hardening, and cautiously aimed the direction the blade would emerge toward the ceiling.
And then.
Vmmm.
Shorter than the one Hwangbo Cheon had wielded, a blade of crimson light sprang forth.
"Ohh."
"That's... a treasure?"
"A sword of fire..."
Even those who had only been stealing glances from the edges offered their thoughts.
"Might I swing it once?"
Regrettably, there was no greed on his face. It was a boy's face instead, brimming with curiosity.
Ah.
How disappointing.
It wasn't my weapon anyway, so I nodded.
Yu Dae-jeong forced his excitement down, though his feet refused to be forced, and carried the Moxie Sacred Sword outside. There he took hold of it and swung.
Just as in a classic space opera known to the man in those faded memories, the light danced this way and that, leaving afterimages behind. Every gaze in the place turned to the sword as if being drawn in and swallowed.
A few of them.
I committed to memory the faces where desire gleamed, and quietly drank my tea.
The man who had danced with the sword for a long while came back soaked in sweat, his face bright and clear, and set the Moxie Sacred Sword down before me without a moment's hesitation.
"A fine experience. Lady Choseol. But this thing seems a little much for a person to wield. How is it you handed over such an artifact so lightly? What would you have done if I had taken it?"
I had no intention of lying. I could, however, tell only part of the truth.
"Aren't you on the same side as the Daoists?"
They were on the same side, but that was no guarantee nothing would go wrong. Humans and immortals are, strictly speaking, different groups.
"Lady Choseol would do well to doubt people a little more."
"I trust people."
When I answered him, Yu Dae-jeong gave a bitter smile. He looked at me the way one looks at a child who knows nothing.
"I hope that heart of yours lasts. Well then, rest there until the Daoist arrives."
Yu Dae-jeong took everyone inside out with him. The moment they were through the door, people were calling him Sect Leader and asking what the treasure had been like. Even after the door shut, his excited voice still drifted faintly through as he described what it had felt like to use the weapon.
I lifted the Moxie Sacred Sword.
In a world like this, a famed sword bewitches people. I could already see several poisoned by it. How long, I wondered, could they resist?
I don't believe every person is morally exceptional. Even under strict rules, where there are many people, one of them will inevitably let desire overrun reason.
So I hung the Moxie Sacred Sword at my waist where it would be plain to see, found a place in the room, and lay down.
Even if not in this world, Harvesters still remained in others, so I wasn't bored. And I was curious how much help the compressed record the Heavenly Demon had left behind — the Single Stroke Heavenly Demon Divine Art — might prove. So I sent that information to those who could receive it.
A very short memory. Not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what Eunjae knew.
How efficient would it be?
I sent it out little by little, looking forward to how good the results might be.
I was passing the time that way when the murmuring outside grew louder.
Later than I'd thought. I had arrived in this village in the morning, and now sunset showed through the window. A great many people had gathered.
They were here.
I rose, went back to where we had spoken, and waited. I had barely sat down when the door opened and a group came in.
But not one of them carried anything like a treasure. Only people with white cloth tied about their heads. The Murim Alliance, in other words.
"This one... We will take her to Kunlun ourselves."
Had he realized I was connected to a Harvester the moment he saw me? Someone who had seen my face? For that, the hostility was lacking.
Beside him stood the middle-aged man I had seen earlier — Yu Dae-jeong. He frowned and asked.
"Vice Leader of the Five Peaks. When the Hengshan Sect joined the Five Peaks, did you not say the Hengshan Sect's autonomy would be guaranteed?"
"I'm sorry. I would honor it if I could, but Kunlun has ordered every living captive delivered to Kunlun, and the Leader of the Murim Alliance accepted."
Unexpectedly, both of them gave off a strong air of disliking the Daoists. Well, it wasn't as if they didn't know. Having something that isn't human pull your strings is an unpleasant business.
"Why do the immortals involve themselves in human affairs like this..."
"What can one do. But without the immortals, taking the Heavenly Demon Cult would have been difficult. You didn't see the Heavenly Demon's end with your own eyes, did you?"
Oho.
So the man called Vice Leader of the Five Peaks had been there when the Heavenly Demon died. Well, this distinctive hair color was identical, so if he had killed a Harvester there, or watched one be killed, he could have told at a glance.
That was how I'd been found out.
"I caught a glimpse of the Martial God the elder spoke of. I understood why Oh Myung-sung convulsed so when demonic energy stained him. Truly, a martial might worthy of awe."
The man who said this glared at me.
"So if there is anyone who holds even a little demonic energy, that sprout must be cut away. Never again can one who uses demonic energy be allowed to appear."
The one called Vice Leader of the Five Peaks ordered his people to take me into custody. The men who rushed in subdued me where I stood and bound me tight with prisoner-rope.
This, in its own way, wasn't bad. They were carrying me the whole way there — no need to walk the distance myself.
More than anything, I didn't believe I would actually arrive.
"And this ought to be properly secured."
The Moxie Sacred Sword, flung clear of my waist when I went down. The Vice Leader of the Five Peaks picked it up.
I read faces well. Countless memories — the memories of those who have lived through the worst, above all — recognize a face with ill intent at once. It is the face that surfaces in the moment one falls into despair.
Yes.
He was glistening with desire.
A gap in technology.
The chance to possess something better had appeared. What reason was there not to take it?
The unfortunate part was that somewhere along the road, there was a good chance I would become a person who had never been there at all.
Even if not the Murim Alliance itself, a man in the post of vice leader over a vast organization under its banner could hardly fail to know that all manner of information had been drawn out of those who entered Kunlun.
The last moments of Jung Jae-woo and Byeong-il. Through their light, I had seen the people around them. In that place, there had been people watching memories extracted from souls — something like holograms.
Not everyone there had been an immortal or a Daoist. There were people stunned by the level of the technology. I didn't think this man had been among them then, but a story like that is hard for one person to keep alone.
Still, hoping they would set me down somewhere as close as possible, I let myself be taken quietly.
I was being dragged out, scraping along the floor, when Yu Dae-jeong watched me with a grief-stricken face and muttered.
"I'm sorry."
Sorry for what.
Feeling guilt when the one before him was all but certainly a criminal. Too good a person.
He isn't someone who will rise far.
"Keep to dull work in the mountains."
At my words, he looked terribly hurt.
No — I hadn't said it to hurt him. There were many people here, so I had said it to be heard that way. Still.
Looking at the Vice Leader, it was hard to imagine anything good coming of this. At least until we reached Kunlun, it was better for a good person to remain as he was.
The sort I would consider useful enough is someone faithful to their own desire. Those with a clear goal are a little troublesome. Better than that is someone who has compromised a little with desire — people who can't bring themselves to do anything too horrific for their own gain, yet can easily ignore the small things.
Just about that much.
I was loaded onto a carriage falling apart at the seams. Looking around, I saw quite a few people who seemed to be exactly that sort.
Lurch.
The carriage moved. Going on like this, how long would it take to reach Kunlun?
I rested easy inside it.