Reunion with Brother Namgung After Ten Years Was a Disaster
“Did you know? The seed of a Mount Hua expert supposedly smells of plum blossoms.”
“Pffft—! …Cough, cough.
…Brother Namgung. What on earth are you talking about…?”
Brother Namgung’s completely unprompted remark sent the liquor I’d been drinking surging back up through my nose. Even the bizarre sensation of alcohol flooding my sinuses couldn’t drown out the sheer bewilderment.
“…Heh. Just a little joke. You’ve been staring at the floor this whole time.”
In the corner of my sanctuary—my little hut—Brother Namgung sat on a chair, laughing, one pale thigh crossed over the other. His outfit was, frankly, outrageous for a man.
The red-and-gold garment, slit high up the sides so that almost everything showed, clung to every curve of his body and made my face burn just looking at him.
There’s nowhere safe to put my eyes…! What the hell is that outfit…!
I was dying to say something, but I didn’t want to ruin the mood in what was supposed to be a pleasant reunion.
“…That, uh, attire of yours is rather… distinctive.”
That wasn’t even the half of it. A diamond-shaped cutout right in the middle of the chest left bare skin on full display.
Noticing where my gaze had landed after my careful little comment on his clothes, Brother Namgung tugged at the fabric around his chest and said,
“…Ah. You’ve been holed up in these mountains for ten years, so of course you wouldn’t know. This is the latest Manchu fashion.”
“I-is that so…….”
I didn’t believe for a second that clothes like that were in fashion, but I had nothing left to say.
It looked far too revealing for a man to wear, yet if the world had changed that much, what could I do?
Am I just failing to keep up with how fast the world moves…? No, even so—it’s only been ten years….
“……….”
Silence settled over the hut once more.
“……Have you ever thought about learning martial arts?”
Just when the endless quiet was becoming unbearable, Brother Namgung casually tossed the question my way.
“Pardon? Martial arts, you say? But I…”
“Right. Your clan scattered to the winds, and you fled into these mountains.
But that was already ten years ago.
……You have no idea how much the world has changed in those ten years, do you?”
Having said that much, Brother Namgung drained his cup in one go.
“…Well, I’ve been shut away in the mountains, so of course I wouldn’t know….”
“Ahem! Anyway…. Listen carefully.
If I explained everything properly the story would last all night, so I’ll keep it short.”
“…After all sorts of hardships I met a half-old, half-young monster who looked like a pretty—if rather annoying—young woman, known as the Sister-Hand-Foot Courtesan.
I spent a full year learning from her in every way imaginable.”
Brother Namgung kept pouring and drinking without pause as he spoke.
“Through sheer effort I mastered a new martial art and reached my present level.
After that I traveled beyond the Central Plains and wandered the entire realm.
Here—have another cup.”
“Ah, yes…….”
This time I managed to drink the liquor he offered through my mouth instead of my nose. It was so strong it felt like fire racing down my throat and into my stomach.
“……Khh…….”
Watching me, Brother Namgung gave a small laugh.
“…Heh heh.
You and I called each other brothers when we were young, didn’t we?
The martial art I’ve learned is meant to be something anyone can practice, but for now you still need a certain amount of talent.
Thinking back on how we used to play together, I decided you were the perfect candidate.
Looking at you now, I see I was right.”
“I’m the perfect candidate…?”
My clan had never been famous for martial arts to begin with, and I had been especially talentless even among them.
My bones and muscles were so weak that even as an adult I still stood under five and a half cheok; martial arts had never interested me in the slightest.
“Yes. You’re not planning to hide in these mountains until you die, are you?
Travel with me and I’ll teach you… What do you say?”
“………”
………………………………………………
“Brother Namgung, I’m grateful, but please give me one day.”
I’d already spent my entire teens rotting away in these mountains; the thought of wasting the rest of my life here really was too much.
But… even if we’d been close as boys, for him to show up out of nowhere offering to teach me martial arts and take me back into the world—
No conditions at all, a deal so good it was almost suspicious. That was what bothered me.
“Very well…. It’s best to think it over carefully before deciding.
I’ll come again tomorrow.”
After Brother Namgung left the hut, I lay down and tried to sleep. The past rose unbidden.
The reason I had spent ten years hiding in this hut.
What an utterly ridiculous clan….
It had been early in my teens, so the memories weren’t perfect, but my family had done something truly vile.
They spread a false rumor that an old Tang-era gold mine had been discovered along the Silk Road to the Western Regions.
At first they only took investment money from small martial sects and ordinary commoners with a little spare cash.
Everyone eyed them with suspicion at the beginning, but once they started paying the early investors a steady five-percent return every month, it wasn’t long before people were practically begging to hand over their money.
…Of course no gold mine existed.
They were simply taking new investments and using them to pay the old ones—robbing the lower stones to prop up the upper ones.
……They probably only meant to fleece easy marks,
but word spread so far that even the great sects of the martial world and high-ranking officials started entrusting them with money.
By then it was already far too late to stop….
Sensing the danger, the elders of the clan began vanishing one by one into deep mountains, the northern barbarian plateaus, even the Western Regions themselves, carrying gold and jewels.
Naturally, three people—my parents and me—disappearing together would have drawn attention, and I lacked the strength to flee abroad. With my parents’ help I ended up living in this nameless hut deep in the mountains.
“……Looking back now, I wonder how many people were ruined…….”
It was a truly shameful business. …But then again, I had also thrown away my entire teens in these mountains…….
“Haa…….”
From what Brother Namgung said, the world had changed so drastically during my ten years of seclusion that “heaven and earth overturned” barely covered it.
I was human too. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to meet people.
Brother Namgung’s appearance made me wonder whether he was even still a man… but if I want to leave this place, following him is the only way….
The fact that he had found me at all meant my information had probably leaked from the village at the foot of the mountain where I occasionally bought supplies and food.
In other words, the blades of countless victims across the realm who hated my clan would one day come for my throat. That much was certain.
And if I simply tried to run, I had a box of gold bars, but no way to turn them into cash….
If I abandon all the money and escape looking like a beggar, I’ll just die on the road before long….
“Whew…. There’s only one path left.
…I should just sleep.”
My mind was a mess, but the few cups of liquor I’d had let me close my eyes and drop off almost instantly.
………………………………………………
The next day.
As expected, Brother Namgung arrived not long after dawn—
…with a heavy pack strapped to his back.
“Brother Namgung. Good morning.”
Sitting on the porch as if he couldn’t wait another second, he got straight to the point.
“So… what’s it going to be?”
“To be honest, no matter how I thought about it, I realized I had no choice but to accept your offer.”
Apparently pleased with my answer, Brother Namgung smiled and clapped me on the shoulder.
“Good decision. Even if you’d refused, things would have ended up the same way eventually, but…”
“……Pardon?”
“Never mind, never mind.”
A brief silence fell. I decided to ask the thing I’d been most curious about.
“Um, so… what exactly is this martial art you’re going to teach me?”
“Right…. I’ll explain the details little by little.
First, what do you think martial arts are?”
His vague, floating question left me blinking in confusion.
“Jumping high enough to fly through the sky, or knocking people down with palm winds and sword qi… isn’t that it?”
Hearing my answer, Brother Namgung swallowed a sigh and nodded.
“Mm…. People who’ve never learned martial arts—outsiders—often think that way.
Let me explain properly. At its core, martial arts were created as a means for the weak to protect themselves from the strong.”
“I see…….”
“If you learn the art I teach you, you won’t become so strong that you go around hurting others.
You’ll simply be able to protect yourself… Think of it that way.”
“I understand…….”
To put it bluntly, it didn’t sound like some earth-shattering martial art.
So what? Looking at it the other way, the fact that he’s willing to teach me for free at this age—when I never even learned as a child—is already more than enough….
“Good. The name of the martial art you’ll learn while traveling with me from now on is…”
Gulp—
I swallowed hard without meaning to.
“the Femboy Divine Art. Remember it well.”