One Mountain After Another
After some time had passed...
Only after touching her little brother's face — alive, warm, breathing — did Dang Mulin finally convince herself that this was no dream, and her tears came flooding out all over again...
I, meanwhile, sat there kneading my plump, well-tenderized cheeks.
Dang Mulin looked at me with eyes even more swollen than my cheeks, which now bore angry red handprints, and spoke.
"Thank goodness... you're really okay. I thought it was a dream... hck... sob..."
As if the warmth of her brother was only now making it real, she stuffed down the tears that had been pouring out of her and took hold of my hand.
"If something had happened to you too, I don't know what I would have..."
My soul still half-scattered by the absurd scene I'd been jolted awake into, I thought,
Just who the hell is this, throwing a fit in the middle of the night...
Some woman with a suspiciously generous heart grabs my cheek out of nowhere... then bursts into tears like the world has come crumbling down... then takes my hand and does nothing but mutter thank goodness... I hadn't the faintest idea who was staging this midnight melodrama.
"Haah..."
I heaved out a sigh, then narrowed my eyes and said,
"Just who, exactly, gave them the right to wake a man from a perfectly good sleep?"
Once I'd steadied my breath, I pressed on, firing off words like shots.
"Hoo... you're no assassin, so tell me — does it make any sense to sneak in out of nowhere in the pitch-black of night and ambush someone in their sleep?"
"That... that's not it."
"Then what else could possibly explain this situation?"
At my words, Dang Mulin's face went blank with panic, and she simply... broke.
"Uh...? Huh? Uh...?"
She kept tilting her head, stammering out little "uh"s — then abruptly fell silent.
"....."
In that instant, a chill came crawling up my spine.
Drawn by that skin-crawling feeling, I looked at her...
The figure reflected in my eyes was staring blankly back at me with the dead, glassy gaze of a frozen fish.
"Muyeong, it's... it's your big sis. What's wrong with you all of a sudden..."
Opening her mouth with those dead, vacant eyes, she went on, stammering.
"Mu... Muyeong would never act like this with me..."
Her muttering to herself while radiating an ever more sinister aura prodded my survival instinct something fierce.
"Ah......."
"Are you... not Muyeong?"
Her staring at me with eyes more unsettling than any madman's...
Before I knew it, sweat was pooling in my clenched fists, and I blurted out in a hurry,
"Ah...? Ah... it's you, big sis. It's just so dark in here, I couldn't make out your face."
In truth, my night vision is absurdly sharp, and I could see her face perfectly well.
"Liar..."
"I'm not lying! Why would I lie? I think I'm still unwell — everything's hazy and my ears are all muffled..."
Aside from a trace of fatigue, my body was perfectly fine.
"....."
"Bi... big sis... my hand hurts. Could you... let go?"
Only when I gazed up at her with the most pitiful eyes I could muster did she finally, slowly, loosen her grip.
Whether my desperate performance had landed or not, Dang Mulin still said nothing — but the light was gradually returning to her eyes.
Watching her, I felt the survival instinct that had been wailing in my skull slowly settle, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Haah..."
Taking both hands of the alleged 'big sis' who had thrown this whole midnight tantrum, I spoke.
Time to deploy the most pitiful face imaginable...
"Big sis... I'm exhausted. Could we talk after the sun comes up?"
Perhaps it was the sight of those pleading eyes of mine.
Dang Mulin spoke slowly, her voice cracking.
"...All right. You must have been through so much today. I'll come back once the sun is up."
With those final words, she gathered herself up and soon left the room.
Watching her trudge away, her whole body broadcasting heartbreak like a puppy left out in the rain, I could do nothing but bury my face in my hands.
Ah... I am so screwed...
I jeered at myself, feeling the situation tangling into a colossal shitshow.
"Heh... they say there's always a deeper gutter beneath the gutter. That's me. Exactly that."
My hands were trembling — withdrawal, maybe — and I found myself desperately craving a cigarette.
In a situation I couldn't possibly endure sober, I fumbled around for anything remotely grass-like, if only to blow off steam.
Some time later.
I found a bundle of brown herbs stored inside what looked like a cabinet, tore off a scrap of something vaguely resembling paper, wrapped the stuff up, and rolled it tight.
Then I held it to the low-burning lamp, lit it, and took a drag.
"Cough... ah, shit..."
I cursed at the utterly indescribable taste, but...
I kept puffing away and turned the matter over in my head.
Being stuck in a righteous sect is already a headache on its own... and now, of all people, my sister turns out to be mentally unhinged. Does that even make any sense?
The moment I replayed what had just happened, goosebumps raced up my skin again.
"Hoo..."
Puffing furiously at my makeshift cigarette to cool the fire in my chest, I sank deep into a swamp of thought.
Okay... so she's coming back in the morning. What the hell do I even say? I told everyone I'd lost my memory — that I couldn't recognize my own father. If that yandere finds out I was faking remembering her, this is going to get very ugly...
The more I tried to untangle the mess in my head, the more irritated I became — and the irritation curdled, bit by bit, into anger.
No, hold on — I can't pretend to have my memory back either! I don't know a single damn thing about who this woman is! What a dog-shit double bind I've landed in.
"Tsk..."
Clicking my tongue, I let a long, bitter sigh slip out as a quiet murmur to myself.
"Maybe I should have just played ignorant from start to finish. No... the mood was such that something far worse would have blown up if I had."
Leaning against the wall, scratching furiously at my head, I muttered on.
"Ah, whatever... it'll work out somehow."
Unable to sort it out no matter how I tried, I couldn't contain my desolation, and I was scratching my poor innocent scalp raw when—
"Ow!!!"
I'd burned my fingers on the dying stub of my roll-up. Reflexively dropping it, I stuck my hand to my mouth and blew.
"Sss... haa..."
Once the pain had dulled somewhat, I swallowed hard, wondered if anyone had been woken by my yelp, and eased the door open ever so gently.
Squeeeeak—
Opening the door with the utmost care and poking just my head out, I scanned my surroundings: one figure, presumably on night duty, lay sprawled face-down across a desk, fast asleep.
Seeing the room's sole occupant sleeping the sleep of the dead, I sighed in relief, closed the door, slipped back onto the bed, and drifted off.
It was the hour before dawn, and the darkness was slowly retreating.
The Medicine Hall Master ambled along the path to the Medicine Hall.
"Hm~ hm-hm-hm~"
He hummed a tune as he walked, his heart entirely at ease.
When he had believed that Dang Muyeong — the boy he cherished like his own nephew — was well and truly dead, he had known nothing but misery.
But the boy had risen as if by miracle and burst out of his own coffin, and so the old man now poured his joy into a light-hearted hum and quick, buoyant steps.
Clunk—
Opening the door and stepping into the Medicine Hall, the Medicine Hall Master frowned.
"Tch... this fool, sprawled out asleep again. Honestly..."
He slapped the back of the head of the night-duty man sprawled across his desk.
"Hey, you! Wake up!"
CRASH—
And the man on night duty promptly keeled over, limp as a wet rag.
Startled, the Medicine Hall Master examined the fallen man.
"Wh... what? What's the matter with him?"
Foam was frothing at the fallen man's mouth.
Alarmed by the sight, the Medicine Hall Master hastily took the man's pulse and administered emergency treatment.
Thankfully, the pulse returned to normal — and the moment it did, the Medicine Hall Master rushed headlong to where the boy he loved like a nephew lay sleeping.
Squeeeeak!
The moment he opened the door, a faint but unmistakable scent of poison reached his nose, and he froze in horror — but checking Dang Muyeong's condition, he found the boy was, thankfully, simply asleep.
As his gaze swept the interior of the Medicine Hall, it snagged on a suspicious-looking pile of gray ash.
"Ptooey!"
He dabbed a fingertip in the powder, tasted it, spat it straight back out, and muttered.
"Life-Seizing Grass? What is that doing here..."
Confirming it to be a poison herb used in compounding lethal toxins, the Medicine Hall Master's expression turned grave. He stepped out of the Medicine Hall, seized a passing servant, and said,
"Run, this instant! Tell every squad leader to assemble at the Medicine Hall — now!"
The servant, who had been hauling firewood, trembled before the demon-like glare bearing down on him, dumped his load on the spot, and sprinted for the nearest training ground.
Dang Yun, Leader of the Red Heaven Squad, was — as on any other day — running his squad members half to death at the training ground.
His mind was still on the 'direct-lineage assassination incident' from two days before.
What kind of money-grubbing lunatic dares poison the direct bloodline of the great Dang Clan of Sichuan? They're insane, I tell you...
His pride in the Sichuan Dang Clan ran to excess — by some lights a virtue, by others a flaw...
Convinced that this affair was nothing less than a brazen insult to the Sichuan Dang Clan, he was steadily stoking his fury.
If they catch the bastard... heh heh...
Watching Dang Yun sit alone in a corner of the training ground, wearing a villain's smirk, his men grumbled among themselves.
"Hey, hey! The Squad Leader's eyes have gone funny again."
"Tell me about it... what's his deal now..."
"Just leave him be. It's hardly new — paying him any mind will only give us all headaches."
"Ugh... keep this up and he's going to cause a real disaster one of these days."
While the squad members were tearing into their leader behind cold, jaded eyes, a servant came staggering into the training ground, gasping violently for breath.
At the sight, every gaze but the squad leader's swung toward him.
The servant caught his breath for a moment, then forced the words out.
"The Medicine Hall Master... wants... any squad leader... right away... haah... he said..."
His breathing still hadn't recovered; watching him gulp air, the squad members exchanged remarks of their own.
"Is there heavy lifting to be done at the Medicine Hall?"
"Right... maybe he needs help hauling crates."
Just then, one sharp-witted squad member shouted to the squad leader, his voice cracking with alarm.
"Squad Leader! Don't you think something's happened to Young Master Muyeong?"
At those words, Dang Yun — who had been giggling in his own little world, wearing a villain's smirk — slowly froze, then bellowed,
"I'M GOING ON AHEAD!"
With that final shout, the Red Heaven Squad Leader vanished in an instant, and his men scrambled frantically after him.
Arriving at the Medicine Hall, the Red Heaven Squad Leader gave a short bow to the Medicine Hall Master waiting out front, then asked,
"The rest will be here shortly. But what in the world has happened?"
At his words, the Medicine Hall Master spoke, his expression grave.
"Someone broke into the Medicine Hall in the night and tried to poison Muyeong again. Bar every soul except the Clan Head from entering or leaving."
"...Understood."
The Red Heaven Squad Leader answered, his face gone severely rigid at the news.
Soon, the rest of the Red Heaven Squad arrived...
"SURROUND THE MEDICINE HALL! LET NO ONE IN OR OUT!"
The squad members stared at their squad leader's face — twisted so viciously that his expression from moments before looked gentle by comparison.
Ah... something really shitty must have gone down.
They instinctively sensed that something deeply abnormal had occurred.
"Ugh... my back."
Perhaps it was sleeping in an unfamiliar place — clutching my aching lower back, I creaked upright with a series of groans.
"Awake at last, young master?"
At a deep, booming voice I'd never heard before, I looked over to find a hulking figure — a man who looked a good two heads taller than me — offering me a greeting.
"Uh....?"
A deflating wheeze escaped me at the utterly incomprehensible scene, and the giant spoke.
"You may rest easy. We won't let so much as a single ant bastard set foot in here."
At the sight of him grinning wide, proudly flashing off his dazzling whites, my consciousness wavered.
Please, just let it stop... any more complications and my head is going to burst...
With the situation spiraling ever more complicated without so much as a breath between blows, I gave up on thinking altogether.