The Way Forward - 3
"By the way, what's that?"
Among the luggage Hong Ryeon had brought along was a single cloth bundle. When I pointed at it, she broke into a smile so bright it was hard to believe the fierce energy she'd shown only moments ago.
"Ah, this. It's nothing much. A gift."
I unfolded the bundle and found a set of clothes inside. It was quite a fine traveling robe—sturdy, perhaps made from the cloth I'd given her, and though it bore no particular ornamentation, some clever mixing of other fabrics made it look rather elegant.
I knew she was good with her hands, but I hadn't realized she could sew this well.
"Must have been quite a chore, making this?"
"Heh. This much is nothing. The kids were the ones who had it rough."
"Hm?"
"I sewed this myself, you see, and while I did, the kids took care of all my other chores for me. They're good kids."
Hong Ryeon cast a warm glance toward Sa Yun—the exact opposite of the look she'd sent Chae Jin earlier.
Perhaps because of that gaze, Sa Yun hunched her shoulders in embarrassment.
"It's, it's a gift for you too, Innkeeper. And I studied hard as well. I've always wanted to try making clothes myself."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. For my master and the other senior disciples too, and someday, when a junior sister joins the sect, I want to sew her training clothes for her. And... yours as well. Hee, heehee."
The word she swallowed at the end was Uncle, no doubt. I nodded, smiling fondly to myself.
"Learn all you can, then."
"Yes!"
"Ah—and you two must be hungry."
I held out the Seomhwa steamed buns I'd gotten up early to make. Ever since Yo Hwan had joined the inn, I'd left the morning cooking to her as well. She'd sampled one of my buns, pronounced them decent but in need of refinement, and added a few techniques of her own—thanks to which the Seomhwa buns had become all the more delicious.
"These are tasty."
"You haven't heard? An old woman called Yo Hwan, who once served as a royal chef in the Imperial Palace, now works at my inn."
"And how on earth did you hire an imperial chef?"
Seated in the driver's box, I shook out the reins, and the horse started forward.
How did I hire her, you ask.
"My storytelling leaves something to be desired, so I can't promise it'll be entertaining. Still, let me spin you the tale."
To the sound of her nibbling at a steamed bun, I told them the story of everything that had happened at Cheongho—hoping it would make good fodder for the road, since we had a full day of travel ahead of us.
Our pace was nothing hurried. We'd set out with time to spare, and this journey was for Sa Yun's sake besides. It would do her good to take in the scenery along the road, and to rest whenever a suitable spot appeared.
"Let's stop here a short while before moving on."
There was a campsite near the stream—left behind by other travelers, perhaps. A pile of stones stood there, and the ground still bore the charred marks of old fires.
When I brought the horse to a halt, Hong Ryeon, riding in the cart behind, caught my shoulder.
"Aren't you tired?"
"This much is nothing."
"Mmm. Sorry about this, really."
There was no need for apologies. I shook my head as if it were no matter at all, and Hong Ryeon gave a wry smile.
"Then lunch is on me."
"It's already packed. We need only warm it through."
I'd asked Yo Hwan to prepare it, after all. I nodded toward one of the bundles, and Hong Ryeon unwrapped it and let out a chuckle. Inside the bamboo basket lay neatly shaped rice balls, and a steamer filled with stir-fried meat.
"You've thought of everything."
"If we're making the trip, we may as well do it properly, no? Besides, I did tell you—I'd be covering the travel expenses."
For me this was simply a trip on business, but for Sa Yun it was as good as her first outing in her life. So I meant to let her enjoy it to the fullest. Of course, monsters might well cross our path along the way, but there was nothing to be done about that. We'd simply have to chalk it up as field training.
"Now, the dishes need a bit of warming, so... let's start on the rice balls. Sa Yun, you eat too."
"Oh! Yes!"
We built a small fire and set a pot over it, then scooped water from the stream and set the steamer atop. A few minutes of heat and everything would be warm through.
"Thank you for the meal!"
Only after I'd taken the first bite of the scallion salad did Sa Yun finally sink her teeth into the rice ball she cradled in both hands. And then—
"Wow! Wow! Th-this is... this is..."
She floundered, too flustered to finish. Over a single rice ball, honestly...
"...This is remarkable. This is not just plain rice, is it?"
"Hm?"
I bit into one myself. Whatever she'd done to it, the rice was astonishingly savory.
"So this is the skill of an imperial chef... Do you think I could go learn from her someday too?"
"I'd have no objection... but would you have the time?"
"Hehe. If it's for feeding the kids, I suppose I'd better learn, hadn't I?"
Hong Ryeon stared at her rice ball as though it were some marvel.
By the time we'd each worked through a rice ball or two, the stir-fried meat had warmed through, and not I alone but Hong Ryeon and Sa Yun alike marveled at the flavor as we brought the pleasant meal to a close.
"We'll do the dishes."
When the meal ended and I moved to clean up, Hong Ryeon and Sa Yun would hear nothing of it. In the end they shooed me aside, and while the two of them washed the dishes, I brewed the tea.
"I'll enjoy this."
"Thank you!"
A touch warm, perhaps, but glorious weather—a day with not a single cloud, nothing but blue from horizon to horizon. A truly beautiful, peaceful day, made for sitting on a sun-warmed rock and sipping tea. Birds sang. Flowers bloomed.
On a day like this—
Kieeeeeeek!!
"...Monsters like that ought to be burning in hell."
Talk about impeccable timing.
I could make out monsters winging in from beyond the ridge. Human faces lined with razor teeth—nothing but severed heads bobbing through the air. Flying Head Fiends.
A floating skull would at least have been funny.
Three of them, in any case. Watching them come shrieking toward us, baring saw-blade teeth like things possessed, I heaved a sigh. And here I'd been thinking what a lovely day it was.
"Sa Yun."
There was no way Hong Ryeon had missed what I'd spotted. She spoke evenly, and Sa Yun set down her teacup and beamed.
"I'll take care of them, so please don't worry."
"Will you be all right?"
"Of course. After all, I—"
Shing.
"—am a warrior of Hongseong Gate."
The blade that slept in its sheath revealed itself. A longsword—a reward from the hidden realm discovered in the caverns beneath Hongseong Gate. The sword known by the pet name 'Pretty One,' which radiated light the more its wielder grew, and the deeper their mastery of it ran.
The figure Sa Yun cut as she drew that blade was not the simply good-hearted child I had met in this world—
"I'm off."
—but a swordswoman, true and proper.
Flying Head Fiends were hardly fearsome monsters. They could wheel freely through the sky, but their only weapons were a headlong charge and a set of teeth. They'd been easy prey even in Cheonsang Myeongwol, so a trio of Flying Head Fiends looked to pose Sa Yun little challenge.
Swish!!
As one of the fiends plunged down at her, Sa Yun's body slid smoothly aside. Her footwork skimmed the ground as she evaded, and her sword came down in the same breath, shearing through the creature's wing-like ears and sending them tumbling to the earth. Her foot snapped out at the fallen fiend.
Wham. Crippled by the single blow, the fiend rolled across the ground—and as if to seize the opening, the remaining two came diving in.
"Don't worry. Sa Yun has talent to spare."
She would. Even in Cheonsang Myeongwol, she had mastered the latter half of the Hongseong Divine Art entirely on her own, without a shred of instruction. And according to the letters she'd sent, she had already coaxed light from her blade.
Building mastery of the Pretty One was no easy road. It took effort that drew blood. Nor had all that much time passed since Sa Yun came into that sword.
And she didn't devote herself to the martial arts alone, the way the disciples of Moon Lotus Pavilion might. She took on other duties besides, for the upkeep of Hongseong Gate and to lighten her fellow disciples' burdens. And even so, she had drawn light from her sword?
It told me exactly how hard, and how single-mindedly, she must have trained.
"Sometimes I come outside at night and find Sa Yun practicing all by herself. When I asked why she pushes herself so hard, she told me she doesn't know how to do anything, but there are so many people she has to repay."
Watching her youngest with unmistakable pride, Hong Ryeon went on fondly,
"She says that to repay them, she has to master her martial arts properly."
"Can't argue with that."
"No. Which is why it tugs at me a little."
Hong Ryeon looked at me, her voice turning bittersweet.
"Thanks to you, Sa Yun has come to know other joys in life... but even so, I don't think it's enough yet."
"Well, she seems to have a great deal on her mind just now. Once she's sorted through it all, she'll be fine, won't she?"
"You think so? Ahh, well."
Letting out a small sigh, she sipped her tea. Sa Yun had just felled the second fiend and was already stretching her leg toward the third.
This would be over in no time.
Sa Yun returned from putting down the Flying Head Fiends without the slightest hint of fatigue.
She was strong.
Stronger than I had imagined.
"Good work out there."
"Not at all! This much was nothing!"
"Even so, live combat can't have been easy."
"Hehe. Compared to sparring with my master, this was truly nothing at all!"
No, no—you don't measure yourself against the Sword Saint. Event scene or not, the Blade Emperor—a master ranked alongside the Sword Saint—had faced one of the Four Perils alone and driven it to flight...
In any case, we dispatched the monsters without incident and climbed back aboard the cart. And so we traveled on, resting a while, then resting again, until the sun began to sink. At the road's end, a tall mountain rose to meet us, its scenery strikingly fair.
There it was—Mount Changun.
Home to Changungwan, the ancient monastery that enshrined the Eight Immortals of the Dao.
"That's Palseon Village down there, isn't it?"
"It is."
Just as Hong Ryeon said, a village had grown up on the slopes of Mount Changun—a fair-sized town straddling a river, named Palseon Village after the Eight Immortals themselves.
Seeing with my own eyes the town where players had once flocked for the defense of Changungwan—one of Cheonsang Myeongwol's staple repeatable events, a place whose name came up constantly on the forums—brought a wry smile to my face. I'd been here plenty of times myself, back in the day.
Old memories playing behind my eyes, I took in the bustling town. A famed stop for martial artists and merchants alike, the village had clearly prospered. As if to prove the point, Palseon Village blazed bright as noonday even as darkness settled over the land.
"Where are we staying?"
"Well. I thought we'd try the Chwi Inn. They say it's quiet, and the food is good."
"Ooh~. And where did you hear that?"
"Back when I went to Yangwi Fortress. Now, let's be off."
How much farther did we roll? When the cart drew up before a comfortably sized inn, a young servant came bustling out.
"Aigoo! How many in your party?"
"Three. Two rooms, if you would."
"Right away!!"
We left the horse and cart in his care and carried our luggage inside. A handful of martial artists sat about the common room, but they spared us only an indifferent glance before returning to their drinks. With martial artists passing through so often, and the village such a famous stop, I suppose a few more swords at the door were nothing worth remarking on.
Rooms secured, I came back down, took a seat at a table, and asked the two of them,
"Anything in particular you'd like to eat?"
"Somyeon noodles?"
"Me too!"
"As you know, Palseon Village is a famous stop, and martial artists come here from every corner of the continent. Which means goods from all across the continent gather here as well. The merchants are canny—they show travelers wares from their home regions, hoping to drum up buyers."
"Mm. That's what I heard, too."
"Which is why the night market is said to be full of curious things, and no shortage of food besides, and sights beyond counting. Let's eat light here, then wander over and fill up on street snacks while we take in the view. How does that sound?"
At my suggestion, Hong Ryeon glanced at Sa Yun. Was it the mention of continental wares at the night market? Her eyes had begun to sparkle—then she flinched, shoulders tensing.
"Oh, but Innkeeper... you've been driving the cart all day..."
"That much is nothing at all. What did I tell you before? Don't overcomplicate things. All you have to decide right now is whether you want to go or not."
Sa Yun screwed her eyes shut. After a moment's struggle, she spoke, careful and small, her cheeks faintly pink.
"I want to go..."
"Good. And you? Will you come along as well?"
Hong Ryeon grinned as though the answer were obvious.
"Me? I'd never say no."