Liaoxi (2)

93. Liaoxi (2)

Since we'd hurried to the village, we decided to spend about three days leisurely sightseeing before departing. I'd drunk my fill, and as punishment I'd been squeezed dry until my balls were completely empty all night long. I'd planned to sleep in without a care today, but the effects of the breast milk Master had squeezed out, the enormous amount of internal power, and the disciplined daily habits ingrained in my body wouldn't permit a late morning. I tossed and turned in bed for a long while, but in the end, at the hour of the Dragon, around eight in the morning, I opened my eyes, washed up, and came down to the dining hall.

"Senior Brother, are you in your right mind? After finally getting Ji-yeon to sleep, I waited desperately for you, yet you went off drinking. Tell me honestly. Is it me or the liquor?"

A sharp woman's voice. When I looked down at the first-floor dining hall over the railing, Ji-gyu, my drinking companion from last night, was being interrogated by a pretty-faced woman with a temper, his expression troubled. Just as I thought, the two of them were in that kind of relationship, and he'd gotten chewed out just like me.

"Of course it's you, Junior Sister. It's just that Brother Baek I met yesterday was a man of such outstanding character that I lost track of time, you know?"

"Shut it. Yesterday was a rare chance with Ji-yeon exhausted and sound asleep, you know. What? You lost track of time? You should have lost your mind instead!"

The creature called man was truly a pitiful thing. So that fellow had a lover with a child too. Once again, it made me feel bone-deep gratitude for how great a Junior Sister Lee Eun-ha was, always putting Cho-ryeong to sleep and being considerate of us. Just then, cold, thin fingers prodded my side.

"Junior Brother, you tell me too. Is it me? Or the liquor?"

Jeong-hyang. Wearing a playful expression, she crouched beside me, watching the couple on the first floor as she asked me.

"Of course it's you, Senior Sister."

"I will keep Junior Sister Cho occupied tonight too, so I will be angry if you're late again. Understood?"

She spoke with a bright, innocent smile. When I came down to the first floor with her, my eyes met Ji-gyu's.

"Brother Baek. Good morning."

"You don't look so good yourself, Brother Ji."

Only then did his junior sister realize she'd raised her voice in the inn; her face flushed red as she greeted me in a fluster.

"I'm Geum-hyang of the Star-Moon Sect. I was very rude."

She greeted me politely and warmly. It seemed that venomous face from earlier was something she only showed Ji-gyu.

"Geum-hyang? That's the same name as me. I'm Jeong-hyang of the Yeongsan Sect."

Jeong-hyang's dazzling greeting lit up the inn with a radiant smile.

"I-I am going insane, Senior Brother! This is insane! Good heavens! She's a celestial maiden! A celestial maiden has descended!"

Geum-hyang suddenly made a fuss and smacked Ji-gyu's back over and over.

"That hurts! Junior Sister! Don't put internal power into it! I'm weaker than you, remember!"

Truly, Ji-gyu was staggering from a mere woman's hand gesture.

"Oh? Did I slip up again? Isn't it all ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠right to smile at another woman?"

"Now it's forbidden, even in front of women."

"Tch. You're always nagging me."

"Junior Sister. Stop hitting me and snap out of it. I'm going to die at this rate. And take a closer look. She's not a celestial maiden, she's a person!"

Ji-gyu managed to grab Geum-hyang's hands and spoke desperately. Only then did Geum-hyang look at Jeong-hyang, then promptly started hitting Ji-gyu again.

"Even at second glance, she's far too beautiful! Look at that neckline and those eyebrows! Could she be Emei's Sa-ok, one of the Four Flowers of the martial world?"

"She's Miss Jeong of Yeongsan Sect, I told you. And her name's even the same as yours, Junior Sister..."

A somewhat histrionic woman. My own future aside, I worried about his future too.

"I'm sorry, Miss Jeong. You're such a beautiful person that I must have lost my mind."

After hitting him for quite a while, she barely grabbed hold of her senses and greeted Jeong-hyang again.

"It's fine. I only look impressive; inside, I am a complete airhead. You're the person who became friends with our junior brother yesterday, correct, Hero Ji?"

"Ah. Yes. I apologize for sending him back so late."

Unexpectedly, Ji-gyu wasn't shaken by Jeong-hyang's beauty the way Geum-hyang had been. He simply watched his lover Geum-hyang with an utterly adoring gaze.

"Oh my. Is Miss Jeong also in that sort of... with Hero Baek?"

"It's still a secret."

Jeong-hyang said with a shy smile.

"This is completely insane. You men—with a beauty like this waiting, the two of you were drinking? Wait. Our Ji-yeon. Where did Ji-yeon go?"

Abruptly cutting off mid-conversation, Geum-hyang looked around.

"A little girl about twelve years old? Wearing red formal martial attire? She went out to the inn's rear courtyard with our Junior Sister Cho a little while ago."

At those words, she bolted out to the rear courtyard in a panic. Her light-body art was quite decent. Seeing her like that, Ji-gyu followed her out to the rear courtyard with a look of resignation, and for some reason Jeong-hyang took my hand and followed after them as well.

"Here. This one is yours. My martial aunt taught me how to make it."

"Wow. It's pretty. Is it really okay for me to have it?"

"Of course. Quick, put it on your head."

The girl in red had made a pure white flower crown and placed it on Cho-ryeong's head. They were just flowers growing anywhere, but wearing the carefully crafted crown, Cho-ryeong smiled so blissfully happy, as if she'd gained the whole world.

"Pretty."

"Mm. Really pretty."

"Not the flower crown—you're pretty, Ryeong."

"Me? What's pretty about me? Our senior sister is way prettier."

"Our martial aunt is prettier."

At the utterly innocent words of the two girls, Geum-hyang's face froze as she listened from a distance. Geum-hyang was probably the child's martial aunt. Having just gotten a proper look at Cho-ryeong's senior sister Jeong-hyang, her face flushed bright red.

"Ji-yeon."

"Ah! Martial Aunt! You know, she's a martial artist too. Her name's Cho-ryeong—isn't she really cute? I thought she was a little kid because she's shorter than me, but she says we're the same age. She made me the flower crown Martial Aunt taught me. Ryeong, this is my martial aunt. She's super strong and really pretty. And this is a secret, so you can't tell anyone, okay? Martial Aunt is our master's lover."

By now, Geum-hyang's face looked like a ripe persimmon about to burst. Cho-ryeong rose from her spot and greeted her with a bright smile.

"Hello. I'm Cho-ryeong of the Yeongsan Sect."

Two utterly adorable children. They'd gotten this close before I knew it, holding hands tightly and turning the dreary inn's rear courtyard into a flower garden.

"Your friend is bragging endlessly about her martial aunt. Are you not going to brag about your senior sister too, Junior Sister Cho?"

Jeong-hyang said playfully.

"Huh? Ah... um. Our senior sister is pretty. And... um... refreshing?"

A snort of laughter escaped me. I tried to hold it in, but watching Cho-ryeong struggle to come up with Jeong-hyang's good points, the laughter ended up breaking free.

"Wow. She really is pretty. But our Martial Aunt is still prettier."

"Oh dear. Ji-yeon! Are you trying to kill me with embarrassment? Anyone can see Miss Jeong is a million times more beautiful than me!"

Geum-hyang spoke with her face bright red. But the child called Ji-yeon shook her head and spoke firmly.

"No. Martial Aunt is prettier. Right, Master?"

"That's right. Your junior sister is prettier."

He was speaking just as firmly. As expected, emotion takes priority over absolute beauty. Such unwavering, unclouded eyes of love even with Jeong-hyang right in front of him. I grew even fonder of Ji-gyu.

"I think so too. What about you, Junior Brother?"

Hugging both Ji-yeon and Cho-ryeong at once, Jeong-hyang asked me. The answer was already decided anyway, but under Geum-hyang's blade-sharp glare silently demanding I say Jeong-hyang, I quietly answered Jeong-hyang, and at last Geum-hyang, Jeong-hyang, and the two children all burst into radiant smiles.

"Master. Ryeong says she's going to Henan too. Can't we go together?"

"No, we can't. We said we'd pay our respects to Grandmaster, remember. You'll meet in Henan anyway, so don't be too sad."

"Then, is it okay if I go play in the village with Ryeong today?"

"The village? That's..."

"Come straight back if it gets dangerous. Don't follow strangers. If a martial artist picks a fight with you, shout in a loud voice that you're Gang Ji-yeon of the Star-Moon Sect and to call your master at the inn. Can you promise that?"

Ji-gyu spoke with a gentle face in place of the troubled Geum-hyang.

"You be careful too, Junior Sister. If someone says they'll buy you sweets and you just follow them along, you'll be in big trouble."

"Don't worry, Senior Sister Jeong. I have a lot of money, you know. Let's go, Ji-yeon. Let's go buy and eat some sweets."

Grabbing her friend's hand and pulling her along, Cho-ryeong headed toward the inn's front gate. She looked truly happy, perhaps because this was her first time playing with a friend her own age. As expected, a child's cuteness doubled when they were with another child.

"Ahem... ahem. Junior Sister. Would it be all right if I had a drink with Brother Baek too? If we drink late at night you'll scold me, so drinking early should be fine, right?"

Ji-gyu took advantage of the warm atmosphere to casually bring it up. Jeong-hyang took hold of the frowning Geum-hyang's hand and stepped in.

"Let's have tea together as well. To be honest, I don't have any friends. Master went off to a nearby Daoist temple early in the morning, Junior Sister Son went to a nearby martial arts hall, and Junior Sister Lee went to a nearby restaurant, so I was stuck here bored all by myself."

"Huh? With me?"

"It's a bond of sharing the same name, isn't it?"

Jeong-hyang, who could charmingly bewitch anyone whether man, woman, child, or elder. Even the angry Geum-hyang was taken by the hand and led off somewhere by her, allowing us to continue the drinking session we hadn't finished the day before.

"Brother Baek, ease up on the worrying a bit. Cho-ryeong, was it? That child is stronger than me, even."

Perhaps my worry over letting a child go out had been apparent to him, because he spoke while pouring me a drink. To be able to gauge that young Cho-ryeong's martial prowess—her internal power looked ordinary, but he was a man with remarkably sharp perception. The spectrum of third-class martial artists, who made up the majority of people in the martial world, was extremely broad. To put it in extreme terms, both Son Yeong of the past—who couldn't even match a martial academy trainee—and current Son Yeong, who had reached the brink of the second-class level, were all lumped together as third-class martial artists. So not every third-class martial artist could sense another's internal power and gauge ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠their strength or weakness. Ji-gyu was also only at the third-class level, but his ability to assess someone else's martial prowess was probably thanks to his outstanding insight rather than any talent for martial arts.

"And besides, even though I gave her those instructions earlier, our Ji-yeon is a clever child too. She's sharp enough to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠look after a large shop on her own, you know?"

"A shop?"

"Truth is, I'm not a martial artist but a merchant. The Star-Moon Sect isn't even a proper sect—it only has three members."

"Huh? Three?"

I was astonished. They said the world was vast, but there'd been a sect even smaller than the Yeongsan Sect.

"Then are you the sect leader, Brother Ji?"

"Nominally, I suppose I am. Actually, the Star-Moon Sect was a fake sect with only our master and junior sister—two women. The truth is, my junior sister was our master's daughter, and in order to raise her child as a woman all alone, she bluffed to everyone around that she was a martial artist of the Star-Moon Sect."

He spoke while refreshingly emptying his wine cup.

"Then why did you become the sect leader of the Star-Moon Sect, Brother Ji?"

"I fell for my junior sister at first sight. I persuaded our master—my mother-in-law—and actually created the Star-Moon Sect. I had some money saved, so ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I bought a small manor and learned martial arts from a skilled wandering martial artist. Thanks to that, I had to give up the merchant company to my younger brother, but it's not bad now. My junior sister truly had talent, and after we took Ji-yeon as a disciple, it truly started feeling like a real family."

Th... that was impressive. Loving one woman and turning her false dream into reality.

"What about you, Brother Baek? I'm not a real martial world person, so I've never heard of Yeongsan Sect, but that child earlier seemed genuinely incredibly strong. And that beauty named Jeong-hyang is no ordinary beauty either. Just what kind of sect is Yeongsan Sect?"

"Ours was a sect on the verge of ruin too. The men of the sect all picked a fight with some thugs and got wiped out to the last man, to the point where one of the senior sisters had to come to my family's estate to beg for money."

"Looking at you now, I can't even imagine it. Where is your family estate, Brother Baek? Could it be the Jilin Baek Clan Estate?"

"That's right. You know your stuff."

"Really? Wow. Our third younger brother is a disciple there. Do you know a Ji-seok?"

"I know him. He's a member of the White Horse Unit now. You brothers really don't resemble each other. That's fortunate, in a way. Ji-seok, that fellow distanced himself from me early on and became a trusted man of that brat Dan-yeong. Since he's the young lord's right-hand man, his future prospects won't be a problem."

They say the Central Plains is truly vast, but at moments like this it felt incredibly small. While Cho-ryeong and Jeong-hyang were forming their first bonds with people from outside, I too was sharing a bond with Ji-gyu over drinks. Come to think of it, was Ji-gyu the first man I'd gotten this close to in this life? I was in no position to criticize the girls. I'd been quite the loner myself.