First Snow - 4
A memory from her childhood came flooding back. In those days, illness had been a calamity Sa Yun simply could not bear. How could it have been anything else? Her life as a beggar, before she ever met the Sword Saint, remained seared into her memory.
She, and everyone around her, had been people who could not survive a single day without moving. If they failed to scrape together even a coin through some manner of work, they went to sleep starving. And so, sick or not, they had to keep moving — out at the crack of dawn to hunt for work, and when no work could be found, out to beg. There was no spare moment in which to nurse an ailing body.
That was why Sa Yun had seen far too much. The old grandmother who did nothing but hack out a dry cough, a cold corpse a few days later. The older girl who'd merely wrinkled her nose over a stomachache, collapsing and vomiting blood before the week was out. The little one who'd complained of nothing but a touch of dizziness, who one morning simply never rose again.
So Sa Yun could not calm herself. To her, Yu Wol was as precious as the Hongseong Sect — as precious as 'Ajussi'. The sight of someone so dear suffering at sickness's hands was more than enough to summon every shred of the old terror of disease she carried within her.
"...Do you think the Innkeeper will be all right?"
Without so much as touching the tea Yohwan had brewed for her, Sa Yun murmured the words in a small, damp voice. Watching her, Hong Ryeon gave a wry smile.
She remembered when Sa Yun had first come to the Hongseong Sect. Smaller and thinner than she was now, but with a fire in her eyes all the same, there had been a time when the girl trembled, half-paralyzed with fear. It was when Yu Hui, the disciple ranked directly above her, had caught a cold and lay groaning in her sickbed.
Since becoming the Sword Saint's first disciple — and, quite naturally, eldest sister to them all — Hong Ryeon had spent long years looking after her junior disciples. It was never merely about their martial arts. She had long shouldered the work of soothing the hearts ground down by the Hongseong Sect's punishing teachings, and of nursing them whenever they caught a chill or hurt themselves in training.
A cold like Yu Hui's, then, was something she could normally laugh off. Martial artists who had truly mastered their arts rarely fell ill to begin with, and even when they did, they recovered in no time. But the way Sa Yun had behaved back then had startled even Hong Ryeon. The girl had tended to Yu Hui with utter devotion while shaking from head to toe with dread.
To be sure, among disciples who regarded one another as sisters, that was hardly strange — but with Sa Yun, it had run deeper than most. Hong Ryeon had thought time must have worn that edge away by now. Who could have guessed the sight of Yu Wol collapsing would drag it all back to the surface?
Smiling wryly, Hong Ryeon stroked Sa Yun's hair.
"The Innkeeper is a strong man. You don't need to worry. The physician said so himself, remember?"
"Th-that's still..."
"It's all right. It's all right."
As she soothed the trembling Sa Yun, Hong Ryeon lifted her head. Yohwan was simply sipping her tea, serene as still water. Wondering if this was what decades of experience looked like, Hong Ryeon turned her gaze toward Chae Jin — who sat lost in thought, her expression unusually grave.
"What is it?"
"Nothing, it's just... I think it's because I didn't teach him well enough... I should have trained him properly... Aah. I need to send word to Moon Lotus Pavilion and request some of the tonic Father takes."
It was Chae Jin who had been teaching him the martial arts, and so the guilt seemed to be weighing on her heavily. If she had trained him properly, would this never have happened? If, instead of letting him be devoured by endless work, she had pushed him to cultivate and care for his own body, he would never have collapsed like that.
Hong Ryeon chuckled at her dejected face. Whatever else you could say about this woman, the sincerity of her feelings for Yu Wol was, all at once, grating and strangely reassuring.
"In any case... we'll need someone to look after the Innkeeper."
The moment the words left Hong Ryeon's mouth, Chae Jin's eyes flashed.
"I'll do it!"
"And could Moon Lotus Pavilion's treasured daughter really handle looking after a patient?"
"Uh... I-I've watched it plenty of times..."
Chae Jin flinched at the sharp retort. Fair point. For one, nobody around Chae Jin ever fell that ill to begin with — and even when someone had, she had never once nursed a patient in her life.
"Which is why it's better left to me."
Unlike Chae Jin, after all, she had nursed her ailing sisters more times than she could count. Just as Hong Ryeon declared this with perfect confidence, the physician — who had been trading quiet conversation with Yohwan over tea beside them — spoke up with an amused smile.
"Best to leave the Innkeeper's care to the inn's own staff. And I shall be staying at the inn tonight, so there is no need for any of you to fret."
"...I could still make the time."
"Tending a patient means never leaving their side, day or night... and I doubt Innkeeper Yu would wish that on you."
He was not wrong. Hong Ryeon knew better than anyone how terribly sorry Yu Wol would feel if he learned she had abandoned her own duties to sit at his bedside.
"Then it really should be me!"
"Going by what the Sun-Falling Sword tells me, leaving it to you is even more out of the question."
"I can just learn, can't I?!"
"Learn some other time. He'll be up and about in a day or two anyway."
In the end, Chae Jin shut her mouth as well. To the defeated pair, the physician said placidly over the rim of his teacup:
"If you're that set on doing something, come pay him a proper visit tomorrow or so. If he eats well and rests today, he'll be nearly mended by tomorrow. By the way — where has the Sword Saint gone off to?"
Just as the physician began to wonder, the Sword Saint descended from above. The moment she took her seat, Yohwan — pouring her a cup of tea — smiled and eased them all with her usual unhurried calm.
"Well then, everyone have yourselves a cup of tea before heading home. I've the lunch rush to prepare for, so I'll be heading in to see to things."
Yohwan filled a cup for the Sword Saint as well and disappeared into the kitchen, and the physician stretched lightly and made his way upstairs. The women left at the table said nothing at all.
Each simply turned over, in her own way, what she might do for Yu Wol.
The moment Hong Ryeon returned to the Hongseong Sect, she set her junior sisters in motion. Whatever else, the day's work still had to be done. And so training carried on across Mount Hongseong under Hong Ryeon's direction — and as Sa Yun ran the mountain up and down as she always did, Yu Hui, her partner in all but name, asked her:
"What's with the long face?"
"It's just..."
When Sa Yun told her that she'd seen Yu Wol earlier, and that he had collapsed with a cold, Yu Hui worried too. He had, after all, been a great benefactor to the Hongseong Sect.
"Then shall we go look for some more healing herbs?"
Digging up whatever medicinal herbs they stumbled upon while training on Mount Hongseong was practically second nature to the Hongseong disciples. And besides, hadn't Chae Jin said it herself? That she would specially order the very tonic the Blade Emperor himself drank.
"All sorts of herbs grow on Mount Hongseong, you know? Who's to say? We might just turn up something fine enough for a tonic."
At Yu Hui's suggestion, Sa Yun gave a small nod.
"I suppose we might?"
"Granted, something like that takes a fair bit of luck. Still — they say sincerity can move heaven... With how much we care for the Innkeeper, don't you think we'll find at least one good thing?"
"Hehe. I hope so."
Forcing a smile, Sa Yun nodded at Yu Hui's attempt at comfort. And so, as she made her way up a mountain without so much as a trail, gliding on light footwork, Sa Yun abruptly stopped.
"...Huh?"
"What is it?"
Yu Hui, moving at her side, asked. Sa Yun tilted her head — then darted toward the spot her eyes had caught, halting the instant she arrived.
"Sister Yu Hui. This is..."
"Huh? Wha—whaaat?!"
It was a plant bearing red berries. Palm-shaped leaves grew at the tip of its stem, sharp-pointed, with a fine down upon their surface. Staring hard at it, Sa Yun asked in a trembling voice:
"S-Sister Yu Hui. This is..."
"That's wild ginseng?! And it's got to be at least ten years old!"
Wild ginseng of ten years or so served as an ingredient in the finest of tonics. Its medicinal virtues were superb — it replenished the body's strength, and simply eating it was enough to drive sickness from one's doors.
"Wow! Waaah!!"
Sa Yun seized Yu Hui's hands and bounced up and down on the spot. Never in her wildest dreams had she expected to find wild ginseng like this. Perhaps drawn by her whoops of joy, several disciples made their way over — among them Ryu Hyeon, whose keen eye for herbs widened in astonishment.
"Goodness. Ginseng of this grade would fetch a fair price even as mere tonic stock, you know?"
"Heh, hehe."
"Well done, Sa Yun. You found this yourself?"
"Hehehe... Yes. Um... Sister Ryu Hyeon. This..."
"I know. The Eldest Sister told me. The Innkeeper's been laid low with illness, hasn't he? Good timing, then. What do you say we give him this?"
Ryu Hyeon, as ever. Overjoyed that her heart had been read at a glance, Sa Yun nodded eagerly, and Ryu Hyeon set about extracting the ginseng with the utmost care. Sa Yun had found it, true — but injure so much as a single root hair and the ginseng's potency would suffer, so this was work best left to practiced hands. And Ryu Hyeon was more than practiced enough to earn Sa Yun's full trust.
While everyone looked on with bated breath, she dug into the earth with her bare hands and gingerly brushed the soil away. Gazing down at the ginseng she had coaxed whole from the ground, Ryu Hyeon reached out and stroked Sa Yun's head.
"You're always the one being looked after. I'm glad you finally get to repay the favor."
"So am I!"
Unable to contain her joy, Sa Yun broke into a wide, bright smile. And when she returned to the sect with her wholly unexpected prize, her happiness only doubled. Small wonder — for she had seen what Hong Ryeon had brought back.
"This is... Red Rock Honey, isn't it? The kind used in tonics."
A barrel sat packed to the brim with honeycombs blushed crimson and thick, dark honey — bee's gold gathered from the Thousand-Day Plum Blossoms of Mount Hongseong, the sacred mountain itself. Hong Ryeon had scoured every fold of the mountain in search of something worthy of him and stumbled upon it by sheer luck, but she saw no need to mention that part. She only smiled, composed and easy.
"Fufu. More to the point — Sa Yun. I hear you found wild ginseng?"
"Hehe. Yes!"
"Well done."
Wild ginseng, and Red Rock Honey rare enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with it. More than enough for Yu Wol to mend his strength. Hong Ryeon was thinking just that — that come nightfall, as the physician had said, they would go down and deliver it to him — when...
THUD!
"...Master?"
The Sword Saint had returned — with an enormous tiger dangling from her hand.
"Hold on — why is there a tiger?!"
Mount Hongseong was sacred ground where no monsters appeared, but dangerous beasts had always made their home there. That was why the Hongseong Sect had long made a habit of hunting down the mountain's fiercer creatures — and as far as anyone knew, nothing this size remained. At Hong Ryeon's bewildered question, the Sword Saint merely shrugged.
"I was out walking, thinking over a matter or two, when this beast made to devour an old herb-gatherer. Its eyes brimmed with bloodlust — it had already tasted human blood more than once — so I put it down and brought it back."
So saying, entirely matter-of-fact, she gave the tiger a light rap.
"I have heard that the bones, blood, and flesh of a tiger this large are excellent for restoring the body. With this, he should surely recover... Ah... or, or does it not help? I confess I know little of such things..."
At the faintly deflated note in the Sword Saint's voice, Hong Ryeon and Sa Yun burst out laughing.
One thing was certain: it would help. A great deal.