Great Hero
Great Hero
"I wished to be called a great hero."
Don't ask about my past. If I'd fallen into another world, it would've been a shabby little story, nothing more. I had always lived yearning for power and strength, and I considered it a stroke of luck that I had come to a world where strength was everything.
"How modest. If I called you 'great hero,' would your wish be granted?"
Mid-slope of a high mountain in the Central Plains. I didn't know the mountain's name, nor where I was. Outside the inn window, mist lay piled thick, and I knew only one thing. Following this road farther would eventually lead to the Mount Hua Sect.
And as if proving that fact, before me sat a young man in Mount Hua Sect attire, legs stretched out, possessed of formidable martial skill. He was sounding out my dream, and his shoes were being polished by the innkeeper's boy, who was sweating profusely.
The boy was wholly absorbed in reading the man's every mood. From my own seat, facing the man, I smiled.
"If a great hero such as yourself were to call me that, I'd be truly grateful, but how could a man live with such a modest dream? My dream, you see, is for countless people to call me a great hero, cheering, while I stand upon a very high platform. Power and strength. Having it all."
"You mean you wish to rise in the world and make a name. Everyone who jumps into the martial world dreams a similar dream."
The man raised his hand. Behind him stood men in similar attire, and at his signal, they abruptly exited the inn. The man looked at the boy polishing his shoes and said,
"That'll do. Go and bring out some wine."
"Ah, aah! Yes! Understood!"
The boy dashed off to fetch the wine as if fleeing a burning house. The man stared fixedly at me. His eyes were like a wolf's, giving the feeling he was sizing up his prey.
"What is your name?"
"I am Park Do-cheol."
The man tilted his head upon hearing my name. He blinked, then asked me,
"Docheol?"
"Yes. It was given to sound strong, so that I would become a strong person."
The man nodded. He seemed to have reached some private understanding, but I had no way of knowing what he was nodding in agreement with.
"...I see. A very well-chosen name. Your parents must have had a talent for naming. People like that fare well in times like these."
"You flatter me."
"Here comes the wine!"
The boy came running, carrying a tightly sealed jar of wine. The man tossed a coin to the boy, then picked up the jar set on the table. He looked at me and said,
"You said you've never learned martial arts?"
"Yes. I've only just entered the world, so there's much I don't know. I want to join any sect and learn steadily, starting from the basics."
The man laughed. The laughing face was unpleasant, but from my position, I couldn't call him out on it. I deliberately ignored the greasy emotion in his smile and smiled back.
If I'd been stronger, I'd have smashed that face, but it was a regrettable thing.
"I hope you get there safely. Mount Hua is a treacherous place, so you'll need luck."
"I will remember that. Great hero."
"Then I shall take my leave. Should the chance arise, we'll meet again."
The man turned to leave. I carefully called him to a halt.
"Great hero. Might I dare ask your name?"
The man looked at me and said,
"I'm called Gwak Ryong."
He didn't say his nickname. He waved his hand as if he'd answer no more, walked off, and vanished. The innkeeper's boy let out a deep sigh and resumed his work, and I simply sat at the table, staring in the direction Gwak Ryong had disappeared.
*******
A meal at an inn was much the same anywhere.
I picked my teeth moderately, left the inn, and entered the mountain path. The inn, which seemed to cater to martial artists out for a mountain stroll or herb gatherers, was soon swallowed by thickets and trees as I walked on.
"Urgh...!"
And from the thickets in the direction I was headed, a groan rang out. The voice was not obscene but the ring of a life being extinguished. At the sudden sound of a dying breath, I momentarily stopped walking and hesitated, and from the thickets, the two men who had been with Gwak Ryong earlier burst out, drenched in blood.
"Huh?"
"Oh no...."
The two looked deeply flummoxed and exchanged glances. Through the undergrowth where the two men had emerged, I could also see a man I'd never seen before, hacked to pieces. Whoever he was, he must have been someone who had incurred the Mount Hua Sect's wrath.
But I had no time to pray for his soul.
I was no fool.
Men drenched in blood. A quick exchange of glances.
I wasn't so foolish as not to know what came next.
[Kill to silence]
The four characters—kill to silence—surfaced in my mind: kill the other to shut their mouth, and I immediately began running in the opposite direction.
"Damn!"
A voice sounded right behind me, and a chill energy brushed past the nape of my neck.
"Fuck!"
I felt a few strands of hair being sliced off.
"Get him!"
I felt fingers that had tried to grab the nape of my neck snag on my clothes and then slip away again.
"I, I saw nothing!"
I shouted, but the bastards didn't stop their pursuit. Because killing me to shut my mouth was far more convenient than believing I'd seen nothing.
"Whoaaaak!"
As I ran, I tripped on a tree root and tumbled.
As I rolled once and looked up into the empty air, a sword blade sliced through the spot where my head had just been.
The two men were frowning, looking down, and I, having narrowly dodged the sword, rolled along the ground, grabbed a tree root, and barely came to a stop.
"Fuuuck...."
The distance had widened sufficiently.
The two men were looking down at me from the uphill slope tangled with dirt and tree roots, and I was looking up at them while clutching a root.
But I had no way to escape.
Turning my head, there was a sea of mist. A high cliff and a thick fog with no visible bottom greeted me. Falling meant death. And with my skill level, knowing no martial arts, I couldn't break through those two men.
It was a dilemma.
"He's the one who was with senior brother Gwak Ryong."
One of them recognized me. I jammed my shoes into the dirt-slicked ground, nodded, and shouted.
"Oh dear! Yes! That's right! Please spare me! I won't tell anyone! And anyway, I might soon be eating from the same pot as you!"
"Hahahahahahaha!"
"Uhahahahahaha!"
They were openly mocking me. I ground my teeth and stared hard at their faces.
The two men saw my expression, laughed even louder, and said,
"What a funny fellow. The same pot?"
"There's always some who don't know their place. Do you think Mount Hua Sect is some local third-rate sect? A guy like you couldn't even get in to begin with."
The bastards had no intention of sparing me. I felt like I understood the expression Gwak Ryong had mocked me with.
Looking back, the mist was spread wide. I frowned, looking back and forth between the mist and the bastards. The two men aimed their swords at me and continued talking.
"Anyway, you're destined to live as a slave in Mount Hua Sect or get kicked out. Be grateful that a wretched life is being reaped a little early."
Then I no longer needed to grovel abjectly. How long could I keep begging when swords were pointed at me?
The sea of mist somehow looked soft.
Falling below the cliff seemed to have a much higher chance of survival than those swords.
Isn't there also that saying—a fateful encounter?
Couldn't I throw myself off a cliff, obtain formidable martial arts, and end up conquering the world?
I believed in destiny.
If I was destined to die a worthless death, then whatever choice I made at this fork between life and death, I'd die miserably.
In that case, I would choose the slightly cooler path.
"Fucking Mount Hua Sect, is getting into it something to brag about? So, did it make you something great?"
I looked straight at the bastards and shouted.
The two men flinched, then stared at me with fierce eyes. I pulled my leg free from where I'd jammed it into the dirt and shouted.
"Even so, you're just little shits who wipe the backside of Mount Hua Sect—what's so good about that, that you mock me?"
One of the men, his face flushed bright red, glared at me and ground his teeth.
"This bastard...."
"You think so too, right? Can you even call yourself a disciple of Mount Hua? What's the difference between you and a fly stuck in a pig's asshole?"
I laughed. Contrary to their earlier mockery, it was I who was laughing now. As I did so, I examined the tree root I was holding. This root stretched longer than expected, and each time I gave it a little tug, the middle of the dirt path jolted.
"I'll kill you!"
The enraged man lunged forward.
This place was a downhill slope.
One man lost his reason and swung his sword.
I yanked the tree root.
The root suddenly sprang up, and the man who had been recklessly charging forward misstepped on the suddenly protruding root and lost his balance.
"Uh, whoa!"
"Remember my face well, you fucks."
Unable to even swing his sword properly, the man fell, and simultaneously I rolled my body off the cliff.
"Uwaaaaaaaah!"
Just before plunging into the sea of mist, I locked eyes with the man screaming in terror as he fell in a different direction from me.
I winked at him, and the bastard wailed like a pig.
"Uwaaaaaaaaaaa!"
A high cliff with no visible bottom.
As I fell, I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed.