Above Those Who Run Fly Those Who Soar
It appeared I truly was an idiot. If only I had thought things through a little sooner, none of this need have happened at all...
What use was a hundred days — a thousand days — of clawing my strength back, if I couldn't even put that strength to proper use? Whether it was regret for those few squandered days, or the fact that I had overlooked the one thing even that fool could think of, I sat slumped on the ground, struck by a crushing wave of belated wisdom...
"Ah... it's quite all right, Young Master. At your distinguished age, a little forgetfulness is only to be expected..."
"Shut it."
"Sir, yes, sir!"
Silence settled over the jungle night once more.
Maeng Sik, having slunk back to the Beast Palace alone, had caught a full serving of scolding for his trouble, and spent the rest of the night regaling his friends with the tale of his escape.
"...and then all those red pillars just went FWOOSH-BOOM!!!"
"So what happened then?"
"What do you mean, what happened? I let out one thunderous roar, and—!"
"And then?"
"The god dropped a lightning bolt right on that thing's head — BAM!!!"
Of course, this version came with a generous heaping of embellishment. He had taken what actually happened — fleeing in a torrent of tears and snot — and repackaged it as a heroic saga in which he bellowed a cry of vengeance for his fallen subordinates, whereupon the god himself had descended to punish the monster.
"Aw, come off it. Does that story even sound plausible to you? If the god was going to help, you should've just prayed to him from the start."
"I'm telling you it's true! What's not to believe?"
"Then why didn't you finish the thing off while you were there? Why come back empty-handed?"
"Well... that monster had minions of its own, and there was that old man they said was a Transcendent Realm master, so I had no choice but to pull back."
"Have some shame when you lie, at the very least."
His friends, who knew his character all too well, naturally wrote it off as pathological bragging and let it wash over them. Even so, they were glad to welcome their friend back alive, and the night's drinking and catching-up stretched deep into the small hours when—
KABOOOOM—
a faint tremor rippled through the village, and a thunderous roar came rolling in from somewhere in the dark.
Flushed red and trading drunken jokes though they were, they were still warriors of the village.
"Don't tell me... again?"
They kicked their sprawled feet out of the doorway and stumbled outside, where they found everyone mired in confusion and terror, merely staring in the direction the sound had come from. Perhaps because something much like this had happened not so long ago, the people had been swallowed whole by fear and were milling about in a panic...
"What are you lot still sitting around here for! The Palace Lord is asking for you — get a move on!!"
"Sir, yes, sir!!!"
At the news that the Palace Lord had summoned them, they went haring off in a mad scramble. And so they arrived at the residence where the young Palace Lord dwelt, and the order came down:
"Go at once to the source of that sound. Ascertain its cause and return."
At those words, Maeng Sik and company set out into the jungle in the dead of night, faces drained white, chattering nervously the whole way there.
"C-could it be the same thing again?"
"Let's just go slow and careful and take a quick look. If it is the same thing, then everything's well and truly ruined anyway, so."
"Ha... has the end come, then? The end of the Southern Barbarian Lands? Why does this kind of thing just keep happening?"
"Ruined? What are you whining about before we've even seen anything? And even supposing the Beast Palace did fall — what exactly could you do about it?"
"Should we bolt, then? If we took this road and fled straight to the Central Plains, we might actually live."
"If you were going to run, you should've run ages ago. We've done everything we have to try and keep the Beast Palace alive, and now this..."
"Ever heard of the law of the jungle? If you're weak, it doesn't matter how unfair it is. That's just how it is."
"Oh, big fan of the law of the jungle, are we? Then if the thing out behind the village gets its teeth into you, that's just the law running its course, right?"
"Why, you little—"
"Ah, both of you, shut it. Let's just agree on this: there was a big boom, and we are warriors of the Beast Palace going out to investigate. End of story."
"Investigate, my ass... They toss us out there to die, and when we don't come back, they'll just think, ah well, the monster took another one."
"Which is exactly why I say we run now. Look at the state the Palace is in — who's going to chase us down if we bolt? Right, Sik?"
The two of them, who on any ordinary day did nothing but drink and goof around together, had begun bickering, souring the mood further with every exchange.
"Hey! Just shut your mouths already. You're spouting pointless garbage for no reason."
Maeng Sik shouted in a voice even angrier, desperate to smother his own fear. But the blockheads paid him no mind — what on earth had gotten into them today of all days...
"Easy for you to run off alone — your whole family's already dead. Mine are all alive and well. How am I supposed to just run?"
One of them had finally crossed the line.
Shiiing—
"Then today your family loses you, doesn't it? I imagine they'd just love to hear the news that a husband died because he couldn't keep his mouth shut. Wouldn't they?"
With a blade bared, the situation hurtled to the very brink of bloodshed. Things were frazzled enough already — what in the world were these morons doing...
"Hey! What do you two think you're doing!!!"
"Let go of me! Today, I'm going to slit that bastard's throat!!!"
"Bring it! I'll send you off to go see your family today!!!"
"Sik! Quit standing there and help me pull them apart!"
They were still a long way from the source of the sound, and already things had come to this — what was a man supposed to do? Maeng Sik let out a long, deep sigh.
"Haaa..."
Then he drew in another enormous breath, and—
"ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!!!"
—a lion's roar split the night.
"From now on, the first person to spout one more word of nonsense gets their throat slit by me. So shut your mouths and follow quietly."
His blade, unsheathed at who knew when, gleamed with a frost-blue sheen of hardened qi.
"Sik, why are you like this too?"
"You shut up as well."
"F...fine."
Maeng Sik spoke with his blade held square against the throat of the friend who had been whining about running versus staying.
"Choose. Now."
"Ch...choose what...?"
"Whether you flee the Palace, or whether you stay and defend the land we live on to the very end as a warrior of the Palace."
".........."
When the man only rolled his eyes about without a single word, Maeng Sik laid down his ultimatum.
"This is the last kindness I can offer you as a friend. Walk away now, and I'll simply let you go. So choose well."
"Th...then I run—!!!"
In response to those fumbling final words, he sent his dear friend packing off to the kingdom of heaven.
"Anyone else who wants to run, speak up now. Let's not go wasting each other's strength for nothing."
With those eyes gleaming pure madness, who in their right mind would dare?
Everyone clamped their mouths shut and had no choice but to trail after that lunatic. And so Maeng Sik and his friends kept wading on through the dark jungle.
As for me — having gifted the jungle with an explosion of true artistry the night before, I was now shooting the breeze with Dang Giyeong while eagerly awaiting whichever lucky soul would come calling first...
"So, one more time. What do you do if something happens?"
"You instructed me to flee and bring back the Clan Head."
"That's right. If it ever reaches the point where even I can't manage, I'll at least buy time — so go and fetch Father."
"Young Master, but hasn't something about this plan changed?"
I had gone to the trouble of drafting the man an entire manual, and this Du-sik fellow was tilting his head at me in genuine puzzlement.
"Changed? What has?"
"Your life matters far more than mine, Young Master. Ought it not rather be the other way around — I stall them while you make your escape?"
Barely a year had passed, and already the man had apparently forgotten everything I'd ever told him, spouting this sort of drivel...
"Haa... Du-sik. What did I tell you, back then?"
"And what would that have been, sir?"
WHACK—
"OW!!!"
"I am not dying. Granted, back then things were a touch iffy, but as of now it would take something truly extraordinary to put me down!!!"
The way an old appliance sometimes starts working again after a good smack, I kept thumping him in the fond hope that this blockhead, too, might improve under a steady regimen of blows.
Truthfully, if it ever truly came down to my life, I would bolt without a moment's hesitation. But I was steadily reclaiming my original strength...
"As I stand, I could cross blades with a Profound Realm master and not lose. Where's the need for all this pointless worrying?"
"You've recovered that much? Then surely..."
"But I can't win. I'd simply be dragging things out until the end of the world, that's all."
In my current state, so long as I poured every ounce of strength into gritting my teeth and holding my ground, I could buy time — enough to outlast the Sword Saint's arrival, or even to hack away at the Blade King until he gave up and went home.
Of course, if it was the Sword Queen who came... then I would simply have to die a graceful death.
"So stop worrying about my neck and start figuring out how to keep your own attached."
"Young Maaaster..."
Just how did a man with those narrow slit eyes of his manage to pull off a look that touching? And then, for reasons passing all understanding, he began trying to sneak his arms around me — what sort of grown man does that...
"One step closer and I shoot."
A freshly formed Blood Orb hovered in the air, trained squarely on Dang Giyeong.
"Now... now that seems a bit much, surely..."
"Oh...? They're here!"
"Who is it, sir?"
"Some kind souls who'll be guiding us to the Beast Palace."
The moment my long-awaited guests showed themselves above the rim of the crater, I let the corners of my mouth stretch into a long, languid grin.
Maeng Sik and his friends, whose morale had shattered about as thoroughly as morale could shatter, arrived at the site of the trouble after walking a full half day. They stopped before the enormous pit that yawned ahead of them and peered down into its depths...
"That's a person, right?"
"It is. At least they'll understand what we say — thank goodness for that."
"And here I was worried it'd be another monster, like last time..."
Two figures lay down there, all alone and unassuming. Quietly relieved at the sight, they were on the verge of climbing slowly down into the pit when—
"Huh...?"
Maeng Sik, staring hard at the dimly visible figures below, went deathly pale and screamed.
"GET UP HERE, RIGHT NOW!!!"
The others gaped at him and asked what on earth he meant...
"What do you mean? We should at least try talking first. They seem like they'd understand—"
"Those are NOT people, so get up here this instant!"
At the sight of him shrieking with cold sweat streaming down his face, they all decided discretion was the better part of valor and climbed back up first.
"We're heading back to the Palace. Now."
"You could at least explain—"
"I'll explain later, so for now we RUN!"
Maeng Sik browbeat his bewildered friends into motion and set off sprinting back down the entire road they'd come...
"Young Master, it appears they're running away?"
"Oh, come now. A beast of the ground, however swift, will never outrun a beast of the wing. Let them run all they like."
"Ahh."
"Besides, following them leads us straight to the Beast Palace anyway. Shall we simply trail along behind at a leisurely pace from the sky?"
"A splendid idea, Young Master."
Sneering at the scrambling figures below, I spread my crimson wings wide behind my back.