To Rise One Step Higher - 4
The next day arrived. Having watched Hong Ryeon, Chae Jin, Hyeon Hwi, and Chae Ryeon head off to the training grounds, I returned to my room and was busy sorting through everything I'd seen the day before, mulling over what to import, when—
Knock, knock.
"Come in."
"Innkeeper, do you have a moment?"
It was Sa Yun. When she peeked her head through the door with an awkward smile, I rose from my seat.
"Of course. What is it?"
"Um... there's something I'd like to ask of you..."
Fidgeting, Sa Yun opened her mouth with care. Now that she had some free time, she explained, she wanted to go out and buy presents for her fellow disciples.
There would be a chance to tour Cheongho on the final day, she admitted, but everyone would be wandering about together then, so they might not get to see anything properly.
"The truth is, I was planning to train a little more, but the Blade Emperor told me rest is just as important, so... Anyway. If it's all right with you, I'd love for you to come along. You have a better eye for goods than I do, Innkeeper. May I ask that much of you?"
Sa Yun stole a quick glance at my face, then beamed.
"I'll buy you lunch today!"
How was anyone supposed to say no to that?
"Haha. As it happens, I needed to head out one more time for some market research anyway. Perfect timing. Let's go together — though lunch is on me."
"Oh? You really don't have to!"
"If you save that money, you can put more toward the presents, can't you?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
"Shall we head out now, then?"
"Yes!"
Out with Sa Yun, I walked the streets of Cheongho, which had grown quite familiar to me by now.
While Sa Yun — visiting Cheongho's market street for the first time — looked around with sparkling eyes, I pointed to one side. It was a shop full of the sort of small trinkets women tend to love. Sa Yun studied it for a long moment, gave a nod, and headed that way.
"Oh my! Welcome! Is there anything in particular you're looking for?"
"I'm searching for presents for the fellow disciples of my sect, and for my master."
"And what sort of budget did you have in mind?"
Sa Yun mulled it over, then leaned in and whispered a figure to the young shopkeeper. As the woman showed her one item after another, my gaze snagged on something hanging from one of the walls, and I did a double take.
It was a strangely shaped wooden doll coated in red paint.
I picked it up for a closer look, and the shopkeeper, puzzled by my interest, came over.
"Oh, that's a Tiger Moon doll."
"How much for it?"
"Ten silver taels and it's yours. Someone sold it to me for ten taels a while back... it looks so strange that it hasn't exactly been flying off the shelf. Ah — though they say if you're lucky, you can get a fine material out of it."
"You never tried it yourself?"
"Testing my luck with my merchandise isn't really my style."
I handed her the ten taels on the spot. By then Sa Yun had finished browsing and came over to me.
"You bought that?"
"I did. How about you?"
"Hehe. I want to look around a little more."
Nothing had caught her eye, it seemed. The shopkeeper looked a touch disappointed, but perhaps because she'd finally cleared some old stock, she saw us off with a smile.
"By the way, what is that thing?"
"It's called a Tiger Moon doll. They make them in the Northern Region..."
"Isn't the Northern Region a place people can't easily reach? Now that you mention it, Elder Gi Noya is from the North, isn't he?"
"That's right. Goods from the North aren't easy to come by."
That was precisely why I'd bought the doll. Truthfully, the doll itself mattered far less than the wood it was carved from.
I drew my dagger and scraped away the doll's paint. Beneath it, the wood's true color came to light — a deep black that held a faint, hidden luster.
"What is it?"
"It's called Thunderstruck Jujubewood."
A jujube tree struck by lightning.
In the Northern Region, where lightning fell often and jujube trees grew in abundance, the material was easy enough to find — in the south, it was one of the hardest things in the world to get one's hands on.
"Wow. You really are something, Innkeeper. That eye of yours is remarkable."
"Haha. It was nothing."
That said, just as the shopkeeper had implied, this had honestly been a matter of luck. Plenty of people took a Tiger Moon doll apart only to end up with a plain lump of wood instead of Thunderstruck Jujubewood.
Still, a find was a find. I'd have to put it to good use someday.
"Well then, shall we try another shop?"
We wandered up and down Cheongho's market street, and in the end, what Sa Yun chose for the people of Hongseong Gate were small ornaments — accessories strung with red gems and yellow tassels. She bought several, and since I was a merchant myself, I waged a proper battle of words with the shopkeeper and haggled the price down a fair ways.
"Whew... if it weren't for you, Innkeeper, I don't think I could have afforded them."
The quality wasn't the finest, but worked gemstones were worked gemstones, and the prices had run high all the same.
Even after everything, a good chunk of her silver remained.
Maybe that was why. A smile hung broad across Sa Yun's lips.
"You've still got quite a bit left over. You could keep that as spending money, you know."
"I still have to buy something for Grandmother Yohwan... and..."
She swallowed hard, then went on with a tense look.
"There's... someone else I'd like to give a present to..."
"Haha. I see. Well, it's getting late — let's have lunch first."
I headed with Sa Yun to a nearby inn. We had just ordered a modest spread of food when she studied me for a moment and asked:
"Innkeeper... do you perhaps have something weighing on your mind?"
"Worries? I've got worries every day."
Working through the scenarios meant there was never just one or two things to think about. So I had no choice but to keep turning them over in my head, racking my brain over which decisions to make.
"I heard something from my master once. She says long deliberation only tangles a person up. Sometimes, wouldn't it be better to just sit and think of nothing at all?"
"Haha. That's very sound advice."
"You're always the one giving me such good words, Innkeeper. I wanted to try saying something wise to you for once."
I gave a soft laugh at her slightly puffed-up expression, then lifted my chopsticks as the food arrived.
"Now then — let's eat up and keep looking around, shall we? Yohwan would love some ingredients for her medicinal cooking as a present, I think."
"Oh! Then we should visit the herbalist next."
We filled up on the dishes set before us, settled lunch that way, and stepped back out of the inn. At the herbalist's we bought Yohwan's gift, then made for the lakeshore to find one last present — for "Uncle."
There, Sa Yun made her choice: an Azure Dragon statuette. Carved in homage to the dragon said to dwell in Cheongho, it looked quite valuable even as a mere ornament.
And indeed, in Cheonsang Myeongwol it was a genuinely valuable item — one that raised your strength simply by possessing it.
Even after spending nearly every coin she had on it, Sa Yun looked thoroughly satisfied, and I nodded along. The gifts I received from Sa Yun kept piling up. I really would have to buy a bigger safe.
"Oh! Innkeeper, would you like one of those?"
Frozen-over Cheongho drew plenty of sightseers, it seemed, for many stalls sold little snacks to keep them fed. Sa Yun pointed at a stall where piping-hot red bean buns were being sold, and I walked over with her, smiling.
"I'll treat you."
"Hehe. I've still got a few coins left, you see."
"And what will you do once you've spent every last one?"
"I've bought everything I needed to buy. Hmm... once I'm back home, I'll just have to work hard on my sachets and my herb garden!"
It was a lovely sight, that spirit of hers. She spent every remaining coin she had and bought two red bean buns.
We were walking toward the seats set up along the shore to eat the still-warm buns when Sa Yun's steps and mine both stopped.
Was that...
"Uh... that monk over there."
The sight our eyes had landed on was an old monk seated beneath an enormous tree. As we walked toward him — sitting under the tree in worn, threadbare robes, gazing vacantly out over the frozen Cheongho — we heard it.
Grrrrrooowl.
The sound of the old monk's stomach. Hearing it, Sa Yun approached him without a flicker of hesitation.
"Venerable sir. Venerable sir."
"...Hm? Haha. A young benefactor, is it? What may I do for you?"
"Um... you seem to be hungry. Would you permit me to make you an offering?"
After bowing politely at the waist, Sa Yun held a red bean bun out to him. The old monk gazed at the steaming, appetizing bun — still warm, bought only moments ago — and moved to decline it with a smile, which flustered her.
"On a day this cold, staying out here with an empty stomach can't be good for you, Master. Please eat this, then find somewhere warm and thaw yourself out. How does that sound?"
"Namu Amitabha. But that bun is the only one you have, is it not?"
"I'm quite full, and..."
"Moreover, I am meeting you for the very first time today."
"What does it matter that we've only just met? Someone dear to me helps others purely, without wanting anything in return. I've been on the receiving end of that person's kindness, so how could it be wrong for me to help someone else in turn?"
At Sa Yun's question, the old monk fell silent. Then, with a soft and gentle smile, he pressed his palms together in reverence and bowed his head.
"...It calls to mind the Buddha's teaching — that compassion dwells in the world of men. I hardly know how to give thanks for the heart of a benefactor who shares what is her own."
When Sa Yun pressed the bun on him once more, the monk accepted it with a smile. Only after watching him chew and swallow did Sa Yun light up in a radiant smile, and when he had finished eating, he rose from his seat.
"I have received unexpected compassion in an unexpected place, and met one who understands the worth of giving. How, then, could I — Museong — simply walk away?"
With those words, the monk, Museong, drew a small mirror from within his robe and held it out. As a puzzled Sa Yun accepted it, I stepped forward and saluted him with fist and palm.
"It is an honor to meet Master Museong of Shaolin."
"Heh heh. There is no need for such courtesy toward a worthless monk who has achieved nothing at all. Namu Amitabha."
Museong of Shaolin Temple. A monk of the same generation as the temple's former abbot, and once the leader of its Eighteen Luohans — yet after his retirement he had taken to wandering the world, saying that the Buddha's compassion was to be found within it.
He could be encountered here and there in Cheonsang Myeongwol as well, and whenever you met him he would sometimes hand over something good, so showing him kindness was, like the Old Taoist event, one of those encounters you absolutely had to see through whenever you stumbled upon it.
I would have done it regardless, knowing all this — but Sa Yun had done it without knowing a thing.
To Sa Yun, who was tilting her head at the mirror, Museong smiled warmly.
"I believe that when you have grown, benefactor, you will cast a great light upon this world. That mirror is a key to seeing yourself. It will surely serve you well in your study of the martial arts."
Gathering up his belongings piece by piece, he bowed to me as well — then, in the blink of an eye, vanished into the far distance.
Sa Yun stared blankly after his retreating figure, then turned to me with a dazed look on her face.
"Um... that person just now... he must have been someone truly remarkable?"
"Remarkable indeed. He was one of the Eighteen Luohans, after all — and the man who once struck down Cheonsal, one of the Demonic Cult's great chieftains."
"Wow... but then... what is this? He called it a key..."
Still marveling, Sa Yun tilted her head at the mirror Museong had given her. I smiled.
It was the Heart Soul Mirror — a rare treasure that served as the key to the Mirror Secret Realm, an event realm woven from one's own mindscape where one could come face to face with one's inner demon. Clear it, and one's martial arts would be able to rise one step higher still.
Then again, so few of these existed that they were nearly impossible to come by — and she had just gotten her hands on one for the price of a red bean bun worth a few paltry coins.
I smiled at Sa Yun, who was blinking at me with wide, uncomprehending eyes.
Honestly, every single time, I was reminded of just how worthwhile it was to keep supporting her so earnestly.