Daoist (3)

19. Daoist (3)

I slept all day. I truly slept the entire day. It was the first time I realized a human could sleep so much. After starving for a week, I skipped meals again and did nothing but sleep in my room. Jeong-hyang must have left the rice balls Lee Eun-ha had made beside me. Thank goodness I'd bought proper bedding before the ordination ceremony. My body still ached, but if I'd slept under the old scrap of cloth, I'd have woken twisted out of shape. It wasn't the silk brocade bedding I used at the Baek Clan Estate, just a thick cotton quilt, yet it felt wonderful. As I reflected so often, humans were creatures of adaptation.

I opened the window to find the sun just beginning to rise. Still dark, but I stretched, popped a rice ball into my mouth, and took a light stroll toward the training ground. That was when I heard a song drifting from the kitchen.

"Across the Milky Way, to the cloud country / Beyond the cloud country, where does it go? / Twinkling brightly in the distance / The morning star is a lighthouse—find your way."

I'd never heard the lyrics before, but the melody was deeply familiar. A children's song that started with lines like "Blue sky Milky Way, in a little white boat." Surprisingly, the title wasn't "Milky Way" but "Half Moon." The lyrics were in perfect Korean, so it had to be Lee Eun-ha singing, and once again, I felt the absurdity of this ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠world. The children's song I knew, contrary to what I'd thought, actually had a known composer rather than being an anonymous oral tradition. "Half Moon" was a children's song created during the Japanese colonial period, and considering the era, it was a song that absolutely shouldn't exist here.

I was gradually growing accustomed to this jumbled world, and since most of its convenient absurdities favored me, I had little reason to complain. Senior Sister Lee's song, however, rang with such clear, pure resonance that it echoed beautifully through the quiet mountain sect. Lee Eun-ha. How many talents did she still have hidden? Aside from martial arts, she was close to perfect. Even if Yeongsan Sect collapsed, she'd probably thrive anywhere.

"Junior Brother?"

Hearing someone approach, she'd stopped singing and stepped out of the dining hall. I'd already known, but she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠really did wake up incredibly early, especially for my meals.

"Did you sleep well, Senior Sister?"

"Is your body feeling any better?"

"Thanks to you. That nourishing porridge was both delicious and restorative."

"I'm glad it suited you. Today I tried making a Korean-style meat dish with the meat you bought for us last time."

She spoke with a radiant smile. Perhaps it was bulgogi or galbi, or unexpectedly duruchigi or spicy stir-fried pork.

"Senior Sister, you wake up awfully early."

"I'm responsible for the household, after all. When it's the crack of dawn and no one else is up, I secretly feel pretty good. I was humming a song—did you happen to hear it?"

"I did. You sing really well, you know."

"It's a song I've sung a lot since I was little. After crossing over to the Central Plains, I never had a chance to learn new songs, so I always end up singing that one. The lyrics are in Korean, but I really like them. They always feel like my story."

"Your story, Senior Sister?"

"When I was in Joseon, my name wasn't Lee Eun-ha—it was Mirinae. I was a servant girl, so I didn't have a family name."

Ah...

"Senior Sister, how did you end up coming all the way from Joseon to Yeongsan Sect here in Liaoning Province?"

"I told you I once served an important man, did I not? He held high office and served close to the King of Joseon. He was the very image of a loyal subject, and even a servant like me lived far better in his household than ordinary servant girls. Then one day, the world turned upside down. The King's uncle deposed him and took the throne. The lord I served ultimately took his own life because he had failed to protect his king.

"It was the death of a stubbornly loyal minister, but from the new king's perspective, he was nothing more than a traitorous criminal, so his relatives, and even a servant girl like me, were all about to lose our heads. That's how I ended up fleeing to the Central Plains. Since everyone here uses surnames, I needed a suitable one, and I figured I might as well take the name of Joseon's royal clan, the Lee clan. It's a common surname in the Central Plains too."

Ah... The Gyeyu Coup. She got caught up in that coup.

"At first, I barely knew the language, so I worked nearly for free, going from one house to another. Then the previous Sect Leader took notice of me, and that's how I came to Yeongsan Sect. I became a martial artist, but honestly, the work I did didn't really change much."

In fact, back when I'd first arrived here, she'd been right to be wary of me. Unlike the other innocent and naive disciples, the reason she'd been so unusually realistic was right here. She already knew full well how harsh the world could be.

"That song earlier, you said it felt like your story?"

"Because the Milky Way rises to meet the morning star, and you wake up so early, Senior Sister?"

Lee Eun-ha flinched in surprise.

"Senior Sister, I'm sorry. Truth is, I speak Korean too. There were a few Koreans living near my hometown."

In an instant, Lee Eun-ha's face turned bright red. She must've just remembered all the things she'd muttered to herself in front of me before, thinking I wouldn't understand.

[What's that yangban up to now?] [This yangban really must be loaded, huh?]

"Uh... um, well, Junior Brother. That word I used back then, yangban... In Joseon it means something like a noble, so it's absolutely not a bad meaning."

"What would it matter if it were a bad meaning? You're the Senior Sister who cooks me meals and sews me clothes every day."

"R...right? Hehehe."

She wiped the cold sweat from her brow and laughed it off awkwardly. Honestly, even if she'd cursed me out with the vilest profanity, I had no desire to dare find fault with the woman who'd sent my quality of life at Yeongsan Sect soaring.

"S...so, that song from earlier actually has a first verse too. 'Blue sky, Milky Way. In a little white boat, one cassia tree and one rabbit. Without mast or oar, it sails along so well, toward the western country.' My name is Mirinae—Milky Way. Are the lyrics about me traveling to the western country, the Central Plains, not a perfect fit?"

Smoothly changing the subject, Lee Eun-ha sang the first verse of "Half Moon," the children's song I knew. That "western country" probably wasn't supposed to mean China, but that wasn't what mattered—not when I looked at her, talking to me so desperately while watching my every expression.

"Senior Sister. Thank you."

"Huh?"

"Thanks to you, I've been able to live really well here."

At those words, the tension in her eased slightly.

"What are you saying? I'm the one who should be grateful. To be honest, the silver you gave the sect was already our lifeline, and then you provided rice, fruit, meat, blankets, and even beautiful cloth. I'm deeply grateful. The other senior sisters probably don't fully understand. They innocently imagine that rich people are just a different breed born with endless money and never mind spending it. But the wealthy are precisely the ones who understand money's true value. What you've spent on us was no small sum. I, at least, will never forget that."

I had never expected the others, who lived sheltered from reality and retained their innocence, to understand what I had done. But Lee Eun-ha did. Senior Sister Lee Eun-ha, who knew both the value and the terror of money, understood my effort. It felt... surprisingly satisfying.

"I'm always grateful. So, Junior Brother, while you remain in the sect, tell me whenever you need something. I'll do everything I can to make you comfortable. I know how to do more things than you might expect. Liquor, for example. If you give permission, I can brew it from your rice. Drinking a cup while soaking in the hot spring would surely be wonderful, would it not?"

Whoa. She even brews her own liquor? Well, I suppose it makes sense—for a Daoist sect that oversees ancestral rites, they'd need to be able to supply their own liquor. Liquor in the hot spring. Just thinking about it made me grin.

"Thank you, Senior Sister Lee. I'll definitely take you up on that. Senior Sister Lee, if you need anything from me, don't hesitate to say so."

At those words, Lee Eun-ha's eyes sparkled. She spoke as if she'd been waiting for it.

"I'm sorry, but since I'm already being shameless, I'll just be honest with you. The next time you go to the village, could you buy me some unbleached cotton cloth?"

"Unbleached cotton cloth?"

"Yes. Even though we've gotten plenty of pretty fabrics, we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠don't have a single piece of unbleached cotton."

"What do you use the unbleached cotton for?"

"Well... you know by now, do you not, Junior Brother? Since we're women, we bleed every month. We need a great deal of cloth padding. Fortunately, Master, Senior Sister Jeong, Senior Sister Son, and I have our periods at different times, so we've barely managed by taking turns with what we have. But Junior Sister Cho will soon have her first period as well. Once that happens, the cloth we possess will not be enough."

What the hell... they shared sanitary pads—no, cloth padding? Then again, these were not absorbent, disposable twenty-first-century pads. They needed enough cotton cloth to wrap themselves securely and absorb several days of bleeding. The amount required might be far greater than I'd imagined.

"I'm embarrassed even saying this. But right now, for us, unbleached cotton cloth for padding is more urgent than pretty fabric—that's why I'm asking you, Junior Brother."

Unbleached cotton was the cheapest fabric. One bolt of red fabric could buy five or more bolts of unbleached cotton.

"Ah... I understand. If it's an important matter like this, please be sure to tell me."

"I forced myself past the embarrassment to make this request, so please don't stand on ceremony with me either, Junior Brother. I was born a servant, and this kind of relationship is honestly more comfortable for me. I'll do my utmost to attend to your every need, so please listen to my requests from time to time as well."

She wasn't acting like a disciple of the male-superiority, female-inferiority Yeongsan Sect, but rather bowing her head to me like she truly was a servant of our Baek Clan Estate. Seeing her like that left a bitter taste in my mouth for some reason. Those bastards from the previous generation, now all dead, had perfected the art of incompetence in both martial studies and Daoist studies, but when it came to finding female disciples to use as maidservants—damn, they'd really managed to scout well.

The breakfast Senior Sister Lee made was, as expected, bulgogi. Come to think of it, ever since the food supplies had arrived, most of Yeongsan Sect's meals had been Korean-style. With her in charge of the household and cooking her homeland's food, the other disciples had no choice but to grow accustomed to Korean cuisine by now. After breakfast, while I was loosening up my body for the first time in a while, Son Yeong came out to the training ground. When it came to diligence, she really was the best. Even during her period, she never missed training except for the single hardest day.

Now that I thought about it, I'd learned one thing. Without those wafer-thin twenty-first-century sanitary pads, if you wrapped cloth padding around yourself, you couldn't wear martial trousers. So when they were wearing skirts, it meant they were on their period. Right now, Son Yeong's period had ended, and Jeong-hyang was the one in a skirt.

Son Yeong practiced the Three Talents Sword with solemn concentration, pouring her full attention into every path of the blade. In some martial arts novels, people became supreme experts through the most basic arts imaginable, but in reality that was impossible. One could not enter a mathematics Olympiad using only a first-grade textbook.

"Senior Sister Son."

"Yes, Junior Brother."

"Don't take this the wrong way. I believe you have taken the Three Talents Sword as far as it can go. With that in mind, may I teach you another sword art?"

"What?!"

Startled, Son Yeong dropped her sword.

"It's not a secret family art. The Baek Clan Estate operates martial halls where we teach ordinary people who are not formal disciples—the sort of swordsmanship anyone can learn by paying a fee. It's a humble art, but further practice of the Three Talents Sword seems unlikely to help you much. I thought learning another sword art might be useful."

The Snow-White Sword. Its name made it sound like a terrifying top-tier sword art, but as I'd told her, it was just martial-hall level. Still, it was at least a second-grade textbook rather than a first-grade one. It was comparable to Seven-Yang Palm, the strongest art in the library, but that palm art would never suit her slender arms. If she poured her talent into it and mastered it, her beautiful arms would probably grow as thick as her thighs. I absolutely did not want that.

"Is... is it really alright?"

"Yes. I'm the eldest son of the Baek Clan Estate and the sole Daoist of Yeongsan Sect. I would never suggest anything that could disgrace either sect."

"Then please—please teach me, Junior Brother."

"Then I'll show you the sword paths first."

I'd decided not to take up the sword, but I didn't want to watch her put in three years of meaningless effort. I borrowed her sword for a moment and demonstrated the Snow-White Sword. A simple sword art, but one with weight behind it.

The sword art consisted of twelve forms and wasn't especially complicated. Taekwondo Taegeuk Eight was far harder. Since it was a bottom-tier art, it didn't even need to be linked to a particular internal art. Yet after a single demonstration and a few cautions—an explanation of when to exert force and how to move her feet—Son Yeong began imitating my sword. Her genuine talent left me with complicated feelings in more ways than one.

Unlike me, Son Yeong was overwhelmed with emotion and joy. Her beautiful face shone as ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠though she had been given the entire world.