The Value of a Word - 6
Meeting the gazes of the Hongseong Sect disciples, I simply shrugged. What mattered right now wasn't my relationship with Chae Jin.
"I have to say, I didn't expect the Hongseong Sect to turn out in such numbers."
"Seomhwachon is a place under our Hongseong Sect's protection."
Ryu Hyeon said it evenly, then stole a glance at Chae Jin. Even beneath that sharp gaze, Chae Jin remained as composed as ever.
"The appearance of Blade-hounds could mean a Mabok intends to attack Seomhwachon. You do know what a Mabok is, don't you?"
"Of course I know. And that it's a dangerous demon beast, too."
"Which is why the Hongseong Sect plans to send disciples to assist with patrols for the time being."
"That is truly appreciated. Then..."
A Mabok might be a powerful demon beast, but to a master of Chae Jin's caliber, it was nothing more than an easy catch.
Which meant a rival showing up had to be a considerable irritant for her.
I watched her sweep the surroundings with a grave expression, hunting for further traces of the Blade-hounds and the Mabok. Perhaps she felt my gaze — she lifted her head and asked, as if to settle the question she'd read in it.
"Is there something you'd like to say?"
"No. Just that if you don't want your bounty snatched away, you'd best keep yourself busy."
"Bounty? Ah, right. Well, that's true enough, but..."
Chae Jin broke into a smug, toothy grin.
"The more people who can fight, the fewer the casualties. And I'll be the star of this whole affair anyway — what is there to worry about? Hehe."
As if to prove she hadn't lucked into her seat as Eldest Disciple on a tile draw, Chae Jin spoke with utter confidence.
Though her voice must have carried. Faces were souring on the Hongseong side — Ryu Hyeon's in particular.
"You'd best pass the word to the Hongseong Sect as well. Blade-hounds appearing means a Mabok is near, and all the land around here belongs to me. Bring down the Mabok, and I'll pay the Hongseong Sect a bounty too."
"A bounty? How much, if I may..."
"Two nyang of gold."
In an instant, Ryu Hyeon's eyes practically rolled back, and Sa Yun's went perfectly round. If their gazes on Chae Jin had bordered on wariness before, now they looked upon her as though she were their mortal enemy.
Two nyang of gold. Certainly too fine a sum to simply hand over.
"That said, let's not start fighting each other over it."
Somehow the rivalry felt about to boil over. So I said it flatly, and only then did Chae Jin and the Hongseong side, who had been glaring at one another, let the air cool.
The investigation more or less wrapped up around then. Ryu Hyeon spoke gravely with the government soldiers, while Chae Jin closed her eyes in thought.
"Um. Innkeeper?"
A voice tickled at my ear.
I turned my head slightly to find Sa Yun standing there, fidgeting as she looked up at me.
"What is it?"
"Senior Sister Ryu Hyeon was saying... that the demon beasts appearing at the outskirts might well be a feint."
"A feint, hm..."
Well, it wasn't impossible. Cheonsang Myeongwol had known its share of those who commanded demon beasts, after all.
And given that the traces showed the Mabok had come close before simply turning back, the possibility couldn't be dismissed.
"So we'll be joining the village patrols, and we're also planning escorts for the important figures."
"Oh? And?"
The important people of Seomhwachon, hm. First would be the magistrate, head of the local government office. Then the village chief, and last... me, the closest thing the village had to a local notable.
"So we of the Hongseong Sect plan to escort you in turns. Would that be all right?"
What?
How was I supposed to turn that down!
If luck was on my side, Sa Yun herself might be the one to come!
I nearly shouted Woohoo! right then and there, but swallowed it, calmed myself as best I could, and nodded.
"I accept with gratitude."
"Hehe. Thank you for cooperating. I'll go let Senior Sister Ryu Hyeon know, then."
My consent must have delighted her. Sa Yun spun away, beaming. She scurried off to say something to Ryu Hyeon, who favored me with a light cupped-fist salute.
If anything, I was the one who ought to be thanking them.
"Hmmm... so the escort duty falls to me, then."
She must have heard Sa Yun, because Chae Jin came over looking distinctly disgruntled. I shrugged at her.
"Can you really hunt for the Mabok while guarding me?"
"The government soldiers couldn't catch a Mabok anyway, could they? That's why I gave you this."
From Chae Jin's sleeve came a signal flare — a kind of firework made with gunpowder, built to produce a tremendous bang and burst of light.
Hold on — why had she even brought this thing?
"I am the Eldest Disciple of Moon Lotus Pavilion, after all."
"The government licenses Moon Lotus Pavilion only a limited quantity of gunpowder, no? And you mean to use this? Are you even permitted?"
"What of it? This is exactly the sort of occasion it's for. It's not as if I could sell it, sitting in storage."
She had a point. Gunpowder was strictly controlled by direct decree of the imperial household.
Even in Cheonsang Myeongwol, any gunpowder you obtained had to be surrendered to the authorities. Though depending on how much you turned in, they would see you compensated with cavalry mounts, elixirs, or rare outfits.
"The moment that goes off, I'll use my lightness skill and come straight away."
Was I supposed to call that clever, or devious?
When I stared at her, she seemed to catch the meaning behind my gaze. With a soft, sly smile, she took my arm.
"Right! Shall we head back then, valued member?!"
"Hm?"
What was that about?
It looked as though Chae Jin's eyes had lit right up. Or was that just me?
"Now it's time for your Chae Family Tai Chi Chuan training! You heard what they said, but in case the worst comes to pass, you need to be able to protect your own body, don't you? So I'm going to teach you properly!"
Chae Jin's eyes were dead serious. ...Somehow it looked like I was in for a stretch of hard days.
Back at the inn, the moment the lunch service ended and break time began, Chae Jin hauled me off to the back yard.
There were a few things I'd meant to sort out — I hadn't expected to be dragged out here like this.
"Good grief. You're utterly unreasonable."
"You know what they say, don't you? Skip a single day of martial training and you fall three days behind. Yesterday I guided you through the forms of the Chae Family Tai Chi Chuan, but you haven't fully made them your own, have you?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
"Then what are you doing? Aren't you going to get ready?"
Chae Jin stretched out her hand. In that instant, everything lying about the yard slid itself back against the wall, clearing an open space.
Drawing objects through empty air — a feat of qi said to be possible only for those who had surpassed even first-rate martial artists. Watching her wield it as though it were nothing, I had to admit she really was strong.
"Tsk."
Chae Jin wasn't wrong. Martial arts do degrade when left unused — that much was simply the truth.
Even in Cheonsang Myeongwol, techniques you learned but never practiced would lose proficiency, so I took my stance at once.
Chae Jin stood beside me and extended both hands — the left, symbolizing yin, lowered; the right, symbolizing yang, raised.
It began with the left hand. As if proving light born from darkness, her left hand slowly carved out its domain.
In the same instant, my body was seized by a formless force and pressed down hard.
"Ugh..."
"Accept the flow. We're short on time, so forgive a little strong-arming. This is still the fastest way. You can come to understand the essence later."
Her left hand stirred in soft, supple arcs. Matching it, I moved my own left hand.
A turn — one light revolution. As my outstretched hand coiled through the domain, my right hand slipped quietly in and began to manifest yang within the yin-saturated space.
"All things are formed of yin and yang. The two are inseparable, and through them, destruction and creation repeat in endless turn."
—Vmmm...!!
Domain divided from domain, and the collision of internal energy between them began to stir up a small wind. Within it, I moved my own two hands as well, and slowly Chae Jin and I drifted into positions facing one another.
The left foot built a domain; the right foot twisted it.
"Extreme opposes extreme — and that opposition signifies unity."
—Swish!!
My hand shot out for Chae Jin's head. With effortless poise, she batted it aside with nothing more than a movement of her hand.
Before my arm — having struck nothing but air — could even return, Chae Jin spun about. Her back settled against my chest, and I retreated several steps to reset my stance.
But Chae Jin did not stop.
"This is what we call the Taiji."
With one featherlight motion of her hand, my body floated up into the air. Yet when I fell, there was no shock at all — her right foot had caught me with the gentlest of support.
Grinning, Chae Jin held me up on her foot — then flicked it again, sending me sailing into the air.
"Ugh."
Twirling through the air once more, I stretched out my right hand, drawn along by that coercive force.
Chae Jin's left hand caught it. Seizing my hand with the lightest touch and pulling me in, she took up the exact mirror of the earlier position — that is, my back pressed against her chest.
Just as she had done before, I shoved her back with my own, and when Chae Jin, a few steps away, reached out again, I caught her hand and drew it upward.
"The great river flows gently on, yet its power is mighty. To master it, you need no great strength. Remember well the meaning of use intent, not force. What is required is nothing more than the will."
I hadn't exerted anything like that much force, yet Chae Jin soared skyward. She whirled through several rotations in midair, her skirt billowing.
"The softness born where extreme meets extreme can transform the might of a great river. This is called the Soft Illusory Form. Remember it — it is the name of the first form of the Chae Family Tai Chi Chuan, and its core principle besides."
"Hnnngh... this is difficult."
"Master this completely, and you will begin to grasp, if only faintly, the secrets of four ounces deflecting a thousand catties and of Shifting Flowers and Grafting Trees. With internal energy as modest as yours, Innkeeper, this is something you absolutely must learn..."
—Vmmm!!
Landing, she lashed out with a long leg. I caught the kick on my hands and gave ground, and her assault swelled fiercer, pressing in on me. And all the while, the force bearing down on my body grew heavier and heavier.
"Just as a lotus blooms from the mud, so is truth won through hardship..."
Pain left its traces on the body, and those traces forced the forms into memory.
Her long leg, soft and swift as it aimed for my head, dipped in a heartbeat for my low line — and the instant it flicked my ankle, I went tumbling across the ground.
"And through this, you come to know softness."
I'd be bedridden with aches before I ever learned it.
Only after a long stretch of training, once the first form of the Chae Family Tai Chi Chuan was finally done, did Chae Jin release the force she had been pressing into my body.
"You're all right, yes?"
"Mmm. This much is nothing."
"Good. Then..."
With a grin, she spread all ten fingers.
"Just ten more times!"
"...Ten? Really?"
"Yes! Ten!"
When night fell, the Hongseong Sect sent someone for the escort duty, just as promised. Sa Yun — and Yu Hui.
God does exist.
"Tonight we're to stay close by you, Innkeeper... will that be all right?"
"Of course."
"What a relief. Though you don't look so well... are you aching somewhere?"
"...That instructor of mine was a bit... forceful."
Announcing that she would show me the true meaning of drill-sergeant instruction, Chae Jin hadn't let me go until she had run me through the first form of the Chae Family Tai Chi Chuan — the Soft Illusory Form — dozens upon dozens of times.
No need to understand it with the head! My body would remember for me!
I remembered what Chae Jin had said to me, all bright smiles, as I gasped for breath around the seventeenth repetition of the Soft Illusory Form.
Wait — she said ten. Why did she make me do so many?
I could only hope that the familiar whiff of personal trainer drifting off this unfamiliar woman was pure imagination.
When I laughed weakly, Sa Yun awkwardly forced a bright smile back at me, then headed off with Yu Hui, quite naturally, toward the inn's back yard.
Why? There were still rooms to spare at the inn?
While I was still puzzling over it, the two of them began laying out a large windproof tarp and a worn bedroll across the yard.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm sleeping out here. Your room is the one up there, isn't it?"
"That's... right?"
The window she pointed to did indeed open onto my room. So I nodded, and she gave her bedroll a couple of confident pats, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I've camped out plenty, so I'll be fine. Besides, I'll be training before bed anyway... You don't mind either, do you, Senior Sister Yu Hui?"
"Course not."
Even if something happened, she could see all of it from here, and scaling a wall was hardly any trouble at all — Sa Yun assured me with a radiant smile.
"No, really — why not just sleep in a room?"
"No! No! I couldn't possibly! I'm here to stand guard, not to rest comfortably at an inn!"
Wow.
What was I even supposed to say to that? I felt guilty for no good reason, and one corner of my chest ached. Seriously — what grudge could those bastards possibly hold against such a sweet, responsible girl...
"W-well, it'll be cold at night, though. Should I light a fire for you, at least?"
"Hehe. It's quite all right."
Sa Yun said it proudly, then gathered up the bundle of branches she had brought along. Raising her fire striker, she declared with perfect confidence:
"I've done this sort of thing lots of times!"
Watching the girl — still so young — boast so proudly of her vast experience sleeping rough, I quietly wiped away a tear.