The First Revenge (1)
The First Revenge (1)
"The bigger the Crimson Ring Sect becomes, the less room I have to stand—what should I even call this feeling?"
"A sense of achievement, pride, vicarious satisfaction."
"You only pick obnoxious words."
After Zhuge Yeong-yu left, a drinking session with Sannyeo awaited. Since she'd been absent from the banquet, we'd set a separate table for her, and Sannyeo sat demurely beside me, eating the food that Seon-go and I handed her.
"Is the food to your liking?"
When Seon-go asked gently, Sannyeo couldn't bring herself to answer harshly. She nodded, food still in her mouth, swallowed in one gulp, then stretched her long neck and licked her lips before speaking.
"It's delicious. The people in this town seem to cook well."
"It's always been a crossroads for merchant guilds, after all. A cook without skill wouldn't survive there."
The Crimson Ring Sect had secured the best possible location for an elite sect to run rampant. They'd settled in a crossroads village perfect for small merchant guilds to come and go, and the surrounding population was sparse enough that no large sect could easily covet it.
On top of that, the village sat nestled in a hollow amid rugged mountain terrain, so it wasn't easy to spot. If they wanted to, they could live out their natural lives as kings of this little village.
But leaving it at that wouldn't be any fun.
Sannyeo smacked her lips but still wore an expression that said something was lacking.
What she considered lacking wasn't the food. She found it a shame that the prelude to a grand revenge drama was concluding with Venerable Geumbok simply going downhill.
"I wish the snacks were a little better."
"Should I boil more pork even now? How about it?"
When Seon-go asked, I shook my head. The snacks Sannyeo meant weren't that kind. She cast her gaze downward with a strange sense of anticipation. I spoke with a triumphant expression.
"When it comes to whetting the appetite for a drink, there's something better than snacks. I got some good intel earlier while talking to my informants, you see?"
Sannyeo's eyes glinted with a reddish light. Her pupils always shone brighter when she was about to talk of cruel things.
"What good intel?"
"Obviously, intel on what Venerable Geumbok's up to. Word is he's been ordered to leave Zhongnan Mountain, so he's packing his things. Think about it."
I tapped my temple with my finger. Sannyeo tried to mimic the gesture, but because of her manacles, both hands went up awkwardly. Watching her hands wave about vaguely, I said,
"If a man completely cut off from all ties in the martial world leaves carrying a load of money, can he return in one piece? If someone ambushes him, say, can he possibly hold out?"
"....That does sound fun."
Sannyeo smiled. She shook her shoulders like a bird shaking off water and stroked her chin with her finger.
"Let's go right now."
********
"This residence will now be demolished. Do you have any belongings left behind?"
The Zhongnan Sect disciple did not engage in small talk with Venerable Geumbok. No sense of kinship was visible between them. From the moment rumors spread that a Zhongnan Sect disciple had died after seeing Venerable Geumbok's lunchbox, the ties between the Zhongnan Sect and Venerable Geumbok had shattered.
"....I didn't kill him. I didn't send anything."
Venerable Geumbok stared at the residence and muttered. The Zhongnan Sect disciple exhaled through his nose and rechecked the records in his ledger and the items strewn outside. Whether Venerable Geumbok had actually killed Jong Yuseop or not made no difference. From the moment those rumors started, it was impossible for the Zhongnan Sect to shield Venerable Geumbok.
"Elder Jonghwan? Where is he?"
Venerable Geumbok asked. His body, already gaunt and filled with spite, now looked even shabbier and more wretched after losing all his prestige and honor.
He was like a hungry ghost from hell struggling to cling to one last thread, and the Zhongnan Sect disciple kept his distance.
"He has entered closed-door training. He has also stepped down from his elder post, and they say he'll be quitting his duties at the Murim Alliance Shaanxi branch as well."
The one who had lost just as much as Venerable Geumbok was Jonghwan. He had lost his mentor and his own son, and he'd chosen to run from reality. Jonghwan even refused to witness Venerable Geumbok's final departure.
Venerable Geumbok looked back. Naturally, the Zhongnan Sect carriage he used to ride was no longer there. A small carriage hastily procured in Chang'an, carts loaded with luggage, and a handful of subordinates and shoddy escorts following him.
All of them were steeped in anxiety about the future and a bleak, uncertain life.
The vague and optimistic prospects they'd had when the Zhongnan Sect supported them were no longer visible. Could they even leave this forest alive?
Pessimism kept making the hands that held weapons tremble, and Venerable Geumbok's shabby, spiritless appearance only reinforced it.
Venerable Geumbok looked at his residence one more time. The gaudy paint had peeled, revealing a crude, grotesque look. While the residence was being packed up, the people meant to maintain it had fled one by one, so proper upkeep hadn't been done.
Spiders had spun webs under the eaves, and weeds were growing beneath the dust-covered walls. The Zhongnan Sect disciple simply nodded silently while scribbling something in his ledger with a brush. He asked again.
"Do you have any belongings left behind?"
Venerable Geumbok faced the residence's main gate. The pitch-black square shadow visible beyond the gate seemed to beckon him inside. The residence, no longer his, kept speaking to Venerable Geumbok like this.
That he had lost something,
in this residence,
that he had unmistakably lost something.
But Venerable Geumbok couldn't know what he had lost. The Zhongnan Sect disciple scratched his head and said,
"Do you have any belongings left behind?"
"....I don't know."
Something weighed on his mind. But he couldn't know what he had lost.
He couldn't know when he'd lost it either.
When he first entered this residence?
Or when he started his expansion project in earnest at the residence? Or when he'd been dragged off to Chang'an? He didn't know when or what, but Venerable Geumbok had forgotten something he'd always carried with him.
The Zhongnan Sect disciple said,
"If you don't know, then just forget it. You'd do better to think it was never there from the start."
"How can you say that? It might have been something important."
"If it was that important, wouldn't you have kept carrying it around while you were at this residence? It wasn't needed, so you tossed it in a corner, and because you tossed it in a corner, it naturally disappeared. Objects, too, have a way of moving on their own, following their masters."
The Zhongnan Sect disciple closed the ledger and said.
"So, do you have any belongings left behind?"
Venerable Geumbok faced the residence.
All of a sudden, the first time he met Elder Jonghwan came to mind.
[Senior, why are you helping me like this? I have nothing to give back.]
[What does that matter? I too starved in my youth, so I didn't want to see a young man struggle under family troubles.]
What Venerable Geumbok possessed back then wasn't ambition to rule the world.
[My name, Hwan (患), means worry and concern. I was given that name because the number of mouths to feed increased. I suppose I'm fated not to succeed. My family is poor and my own skills never improve, so I'm only ashamed of your kindness.]
Upon hearing that, what Venerable Geumbok had resolved wasn't the dark-hearted scheme to use Jonghwan and put the Zhongnan Sect at his back.
[You're saying that again? Don't worry. Hero Jonghwan is sure to succeed. I know nothing of martial arts, but I've heard that even those born with martial bones go through a period of doubt. Your period is simply long. Just wait and see. You'll become a martial artist so great that your name will be known throughout the martial world, and I'll become a great merchant who dominates the whole world.]
Venerable Geumbok felt he knew what he had lost.
But it wasn't the kind of thing he could ever get back.
He faced the Zhongnan Sect disciple again.
The Zhongnan Sect disciple was scratching his head with the tip of his brush, waiting for Venerable Geumbok's answer.
".....Nothing."
The ledger snapped shut. At the Zhongnan Sect disciple's gesture, men carrying hammers and all sorts of tools rushed in and began tearing down the main gate first.
Brutal sounds rang out, and the residence collapsed, belching smoke. Venerable Geumbok staggered and climbed into a cramped little carriage.
The hastily procured carriage had worn seats that jolted the moment he sat down, and drafts of wind leaked in, making it chilly.
The Zhongnan Sect disciple placed a hand on the carriage window frame and said,
"Once you're beyond the Zhongnan Sect's territory, no one will protect you."
It was a fact Venerable Geumbok already knew. He didn't say thank you, and he didn't nod to indicate he understood. He simply listened in silence.
"Do not return to Shaanxi from now on."
The disciple knocked on the carriage.
Tung. Tung. Tung.
The knocks were light, but the sound resonated heavily.
The sound of the horse starting off and the carts being pulled.
As if to bury those sounds, the residence let out a thunderous roar.
Smoke shot up into the clear sky, and the smells of sawdust and earth stung the nose. Venerable Geumbok twiddled his fingers and leaned back against the seat.
When he closed his eyes, the old days came to mind.
[Uncle! Look at this! It's the swordsmanship I learned from my father!]
[Aigoo! The way you swing that sword is breathtaking! Uhehehe. Yuseop, what do you want to be when you grow up?]
[I want to become a great martial artist who makes a name in this world! I'll save the suffering and make the world peaceful!]
It was a grand dream that could only be dreamed at that young age.
Venerable Geumbok had listened earnestly to his dream and clenched his fist in support.
[You could do it.]
Kwang!
Ujikeun!
Venerable Geumbok opened his eyes.
All those dreams were crumbling along with the residence.