The Value of a Single Word - 1
Watching Sa Yun take on the Sonachal alone, Hong Ryeon sank into thought. The girl had yet to properly learn the latter half of the Hongseong Divine Art, and yet her movements were lithe and swift, each fist shooting out light as a feather yet laden with power.
When she should hold still, she was like a mountain; when she moved, like the wind. When she quietly drew her enemy in, she was like a forest, and when she raised her momentum, she could only be called fire. It was a sight strikingly different from the Sa Yun of just yesterday. She was growing stronger on her own, tempered by each taste of real combat.
'When I heard she had defeated Hoe-rang, I hardly believed it...'
Every disciple of the Hongseong Sect possessed outstanding talent. Hong Ryeon herself had never once considered her own gifts inferior to anyone's. But Sa Yun was, quite literally, on a different plane altogether. How long had it even been since she began studying the Hongseong Divine Art? No—how long since she had seriously trained in any martial art at all?
People envy what they themselves do not possess. Envy curdles into hatred, and hatred soon becomes a fierce flame that burns the envier alive. But Hong Ryeon was far too capable to be swept up in the kind of envy that makes one covet another's possessions, and her sense of self was far too strong for it.
And so she simply wondered how far Sa Yun might yet grow. Whether, perhaps, she could one day succeed their master and become the new Sword Saint.
Watching Sa Yun with that blend of curiosity and pride, Hong Ryeon did not hesitate to burst into hearty laughter the moment her blade felled the Sonachal.
"Hahahahaha!! Well done, my youngest!"
"Ah! Yes, Eldest Senior Sister! It's all thanks to the teachings of you and my senior sisters!"
"Of course it is! But never dismiss what you have built with your own two hands! And never turn away from what you possess!!"
"Yes, I understand!"
Kuuung...!!
Along with Sa Yun's spirited answer, a low rumble rolled through the chamber, and the door that had been sealed fast swung open. Everyone present could tell at once—this was the final room.
"Right then! Shall we claim the secret realm's reward and be on our way?!"
With long, unhurried strides, Hong Ryeon crossed the chamber and stepped up onto the altar at its heart, where the secret realm's reward awaited. Sitting there was a small box. She lifted it lightly to show it off, then hopped down and opened it for her two junior sisters to see.
"This is..."
Inside lay a large root in pristine condition. As the two of them puzzled over the thick thing—shaped for all the world like an enormous yam—Hong Ryeon rapped it a couple of times and remarked, offhand:
"Baeksuo root. Thirty years old at the least, I'd say."
"A thirty-year Baeksuo root..."
It counted as a medicinal elixir, to be sure—though the boost it gave one's inner power was modest. Even so, sold, it would easily fetch two nyang of gold.
"That's wonderful news, Eldest Senior Sister!"
Sa Yun had heard from Yu Hui not long ago that Hong Ryeon had been racking her brains over the sect's operating funds. Sa Yun broke into a wide smile, and Hong Ryeon beamed right back.
"Mm! All's well that ends well! Now!! Eat up!"
"B-but this—!"
"Hm? Ryu Hyeon. Did I say something wrong?"
"No, of course not."
"Exactly."
To the flustered Sa Yun, Hong Ryeon spoke as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. With the air of someone insisting that breakfast simply follows waking, she left Sa Yun no room to protest.
"First: you were the one who slew the secret realm's Sonachal. Second: you cleared this secret realm without a shred of help. Third: it was thanks to the map sent by 'your Uncle' that this place was found at all."
"But if we sold it, things would get a little easier for you, Eldest Senior Sister..."
"Youngest. The Hongseong Sect is a sect of the murim, and the goal of a martial artist is to grow stronger."
"But..."
"Why do you suppose your Uncle sent that map? Simply to sponsor you? To let the Hongseong Sect reclaim a lost secret realm?"
"That's..."
"If that were all, silver alone would have been plenty. If he only wished to restore our lost secret realm, he could have tipped off the sect under any name but yours—and we would have repaid him for it. And yet he sent the map in your name. What do you suppose that means?"
"......"
"I believe it was so that you would be the one to conquer this secret realm."
"You... really think so?"
"And do you mean to refuse his care and his kindness?"
"Of course not!"
"Then this is yours, wholly and entirely. And is it not his will that you should be the one to take it?"
Her head was telling her to sell it and add the proceeds to the sect's operating funds. But her heart... that feeling fluttering deep inside her chest was telling her to take the Baeksuo and raise her inner power. All the more if that was what her Uncle wished.
After a long bout of agonizing, Sa Yun looked to Ryu Hyeon as if begging to be rescued. But she stood in much the same position as Hong Ryeon.
"If you're feeling guilty toward your other senior sisters because you alone took an elixir, don't be."
She stroked Sa Yun's hair, gentle as anything.
"For under the light of Hongseong, there lives no one who would reproach our proud youngest for claiming what she earned with her own two hands."
At the kindness of her two senior sisters, a tear slipped down Sa Yun's cheek before she could help it.
The morning rush done, I returned to my room to settle the ledgers and handle the inn's and the trading company's affairs. Then, along with managing the tenant farmers, I turned to my other work. Just because I'd landed in this world didn't mean I could idle my days away—only by putting the wealth I held to use could I achieve my purpose, our purpose.
So it was while I was buried in the work that a courier of the Post Courier Guild came calling. He'd arrived in broad daylight, but there was nothing odd in that; couriers hardly kept night hours alone.
"Three deliveries today."
One was business correspondence. One was a letter begging for sponsorship. And the last one...
"Oh."
It was from Sa Yun. But unlike usual, it was not a letter but a box, and I couldn't help but find that curious.
"Well then, I'll take my leave."
Once he was gone, I opened the box. Inside lay another, smaller box, along with a letter. What's this? I unfolded the letter at once.
Senior Sister Ryu Hyeon said something the other day.
That spring is a wonderful thing.
Honestly, I didn't really understand what she meant. You understand, don't you? To a beggar orphan like I was, the turning of the four seasons could never mean very much. The only bright side was that a cold winter had finally ended and I had survived it?
But when the Winter General retreats, dangerous things come out along with him—and as the days warmed, those dangers came creeping out as well to threaten me, so in the end, little was really different.
But now, it's different.
Because now I know that spring is a wonderful thing.
I was an unlettered child.
I never once attended a school like other children did; the letters I know, I learned only after entering the Hongseong Sect, from my senior sisters.
So I never knew the word 'spring' in its literary sense.
But I think I'm beginning to understand it, just a little, now.
Did you know, Uncle?
They say 'spring' means birth. And new things.
Eldest Senior Sister Hong Ryeon once declared in high spirits, 'Mm~! Spring is a fine thing!'
Though every time she does, Senior Sister Ryu Hyeon goes red to the ears and thumps her hard on the back. I still don't quite know why.
Anyway, spring really is a wonderful thing.
New things always make me glad.
Like the new technique I've just begun to learn.
Of course, I'd love to take in new things all at once, but perhaps because I fall short, it's still coming slowly.
...Truthfully, very slowly.
But if I work hard, and then work harder, might even a once-useless girl like me be born anew, and become at least a small help to the Hongseong Sect?
Hehe. Spring truly is a wonderful thing.
Every time I write you a letter, Uncle, I find myself thinking of spring.
Could it be because each new letter you send feels, to me, just like spring?
I always wait for spring with a glad heart.
My dear Uncle.
Do you like spring?
P.S.
Every spring, the Hongseong Sect picks the fresh shoots of the Thousand-Day Plum Blossoms to make flower tea. They say tea made from the blossoms of Mount Hongseong, our sacred mountain, is wonderful for when a sudden warm spell leaves your energy drained, or when you've come down with a bad chill.
The Cheon-il Plum Blossom Tea I'm sending you is—embarrassing as it is to admit—the very first tea I ever made, from shoots I picked and dried with my own hands last year.
It only just finished aging in time to be sent off with this letter. What a relief, truly.
I don't think it turned out as well as the ones my senior sisters make, but please, drink this Cheon-il Plum Blossom Tea—and I hope you'll come to love spring too.
Because I want to feel even a little of what you feel!!
And do tell me once you've finished it. If it's for you, Uncle, I can make as much as you'd ever want!
I folded the letter away and opened the small box. Inside sat a small clay jar, rustic and unmistakably handmade, sealed with painstaking care. I'd guessed Sa Yun would send a letter, but I never imagined she'd send something like this along with it.
I undid the jar's seal—wax, oiled paper, and a wooden stopper—and peered inside to find flower tea, candied in something like honey. I dabbed a fingertip in for a taste; a sweetness lingered on my tongue, and the fragrance of plum blossoms bloomed up to tickle my nose. It was plainly the work of someone who had poured her whole heart into it.
Frankly, it felt too precious to eat. But even tea made from the sacred mountain's Thousand-Day Plum Blossoms could spoil, so I'd best enjoy it soon.
I set the kettle over the brazier in my room. How long did I wait? Steam began to billow from its spout. Watching it, I readied a cup. One spoonful of plum blossom tea. One spoonful of affection, one spoonful of sunshine. One spoonful of gratitude. Then the hot water came pouring down, everything mingled into a lovely fragrance that tickled my nose, and a smile rose up all on its own.
Ah... sweet...
Drinking the tea my beloved sent me, while reading the letters my beloved sent me!
Sipping my tea, I reread every letter Sa Yun had ever sent. Then, heart swelling with pride, I laid the finished letters away with care inside my safe.
"Um, Master? Someone from the Hongseong Sect has come."
I'd had a feeling they'd come around today; the goods they'd bought last time had to be running low about now. When one of the trading company's staff came up to report, I rose from my seat at once. Who could it be? I hoped it was Sa Yun, but if she was off toiling to master a new technique, that seemed unlikely.
Carrying a thread of expectation, I made for the trading company—and found a familiar face. It wasn't Sa Yun, of course.
"Oh! H-hello, sir."
It was Ryu Hyeon, and Yu Hui. Honestly, I nearly sagged with disappointment. But what sort of courtesy would that be, sulking the instant I laid eyes on them? I gave them a cupped-fist salute and smiled.
"Right. You've come for the goods, as arranged?"
"Ah. Yes."
"Take as much as you need."
"Yes, sir!"
Yu Hui bustled inside the trading company. Perhaps because the Hongseong Sect was a sect of women alone, they seemed to need all manner of things an all-male sect never would. When a clerk went off to attend to her, I was left alone with Ryu Hyeon, who stood there smiling awkwardly. I glanced her way.
"No need to keep standing on ceremony. Won't you have a cup of tea?"
"Ah... I'm, I'm quite all right."
"A customer on credit, perhaps, but a customer is a customer. I can hardly let you go without hospitality."
I nodded, and before long the clerk brewed a fresh pot and set it on the table. Once I sat down too, Ryu Hyeon pretended to have no choice, took a seat, and sipped her tea.
.....
Awkward. I really ought to say something.
"Hm. How has Sa Yun been faring these days?"
"Sa Yun? She's... wait, why do you ask?"
"She's the one who saved my life, after all. The Sun-Falling Sword even stepped beyond her sect's walls for the youngest disciple's sake. And between the Hongseong Sect and me, there's hardly another topic worth raising, is there?"
Truthfully, that was a lie. I simply wanted to know how Sa Yun was doing, and what she was learning now that she'd taken the elixir. But what did it matter? It wasn't as if I'd spoken falsely.
Perhaps conceding the point, Ryu Hyeon gave a small nod.
"She's busy, one way or another. The Eldest Senior Sister assigned her homework, you see."
"Homework?"
"Yes. A new technique... Come to think of it, you seem to know your way around the martial arts too, Innkeeper Yu. You did see through Gakjun's technique, after all."
"Haha. Just a little."
I shrugged, and Ryu Hyeon smiled brightly.
"The technique Sa Yun is learning now is called Meteor Fist. You saw it before, didn't you? Star Breaking Palm... this is the technique that comes after it."
"I did. A fierce, thunderous technique—enough to strike down Hoe-rang Gakjun in a single blow."
"Hehe. What she's learning this time will be even harder."
I imagine so. Just as Ryu Hyeon said, Meteor Fist was a fist art that could only be learned after Star Breaking Palm—and mastering it meant seeing an enlightenment event through as well.
Enlightenment. Enlightenment, hm... This one might be tricky.
I took a sip of my tea, its faint bitterness waking my tongue. Still, it had to be done. That was what I'd come here for.
And...
Remembering the Cheon-il Plum Blossom Tea I'd drunk earlier, I felt the corner of my mouth curl upward. Unlike this bitter brew, I couldn't afford to forget the worth of that sweet tea, either.