Nightmare
The snow that had blanketed the mountain was melting away, streams of water threading down through the cracks in the rock, and the tips of the branches were slowly taking on the green of new leaves.
The cold had not yet fully loosened its grip, and a chill wind still blew — yet between its gusts a gentler breath had begun to seep in, and the mountain, which had held its silence all through winter, was preparing at last to stretch and wake.
"Looks like the weather's finally turning. This winter felt longer than most."
Listening to the birds chattering in the branches overhead, Soga-yul realized that the first touch of spring had reached Mount Kongtong as well.
"Has it? I feel like I blinked and it was already over."
Cheongwol rolled her shoulders lightly, thinking back on the days she had poured entirely into training.
She had not yet converted every last thread of Yin energy in her dantian into inner power — but she had more than enough to walk the Central Plains without hesitation.
"That's what happens when you throw yourself into something. Well then — let's see how far you've come. If it was all talk, I won't let it slide."
For all the sternness of her words, Soga-yul's energy drifted softly around Cheongwol, gentle as a current of warm air.
"Even for you, Master, today won't be easy."
"Insolent child."
"False modesty isn't courtesy."
The moment the words left her mouth, a sound like air splitting open cracked out from where Cheongwol stood and rolled across the whole of the mountain.
There was no formal stance, no signal to announce the first strike — the kind of bout only martial artists of the unorthodox path would ever start. Soga-yul didn't mind in the slightest.
— Thud!
Cheongwol's fist, Yin and Yang energies tangled together inside it, met Soga-yul's open palm as if it were nothing at all.
It only looked like nothing. In the puddles left by the melting snow, the shock sent ripples racing outward.
"…You've already crossed the threshold of the Seventh Star?"
Looking down at her tingling palm, Soga-yul put on a show of surprise.
Not even half a year had passed since Cheongwol began learning the Yin-Yang Mill — and already she had reached the Seventh Star, the stage of deliberately unbalancing Yin and Yang to detonate them.
"I didn't set off one or two explosions trying to control the Yin energy, exactly."
"So the failures stacked up until they carried you into the next realm. Excellent. Everyone finds their own path to insight — but not everyone can walk it."
Cheongwol was just starting to smile, sheepish under the praise, when a rough surge of energy coiled up from the hand that still held hers.
"That said, don't take failure as your master. You can't very well keep two."
Cheongwol instinctively tried to wrench her arm free of the oncoming threat — but it was already too late.
"Clamp your mouth shut so you don't bite your tongue."
Catching the smile that flickered at the corner of Soga-yul's lips, Cheongwol let out a short cry.
"Wai—!"
But before the scream could finish, a clear, cloudless sky filled Cheongwol's eyes.
"…?"
A moment ago she had been standing face-to-face with Soga-yul. Why was she lying on her back, staring at the sky?
As Cheongwol pushed herself up with a dazed look, Soga-yul stepped closer.
"Not simply detonating Yin and Yang — but turning that explosion into a rotating flow and handing it cleanly over to your opponent. That is the Eighth Star of the Yin-Yang Mill."
"A rotating flow…"
"Do you understand what I mean?"
"More or less. So if I take the exploding energy and spin it the way you do a Small Heavenly Circuit, that should do it?"
Soga-yul made a noncommittal face and gave a slight nod.
"I've never thought of it that way myself… but you're not exactly wrong. The principle comes out the same in the end. Figure it out on your own."
"Yes. Shall we keep going, then?"
Cheongwol brushed the dirt from her training robes and settled back into stance — but Soga-yul slowly shook her head.
"No. That's enough for today."
"…Already? We only exchanged a single bout."
"I have something to say to you. Stop arguing and come along."
Soga-yul turned and started toward her quarters, and Cheongwol had no choice but to follow.
"I'm coming, Master."
Soga-yul had steeped Dragon Well tea, but Cheongwol paid it no mind whatsoever and kept popping candied sweets into her mouth. Soga-yul clicked her tongue.
"Still can't taste tea? You're not a child anymore. It's about time you refined your palate."
"It's not that I dislike tea. I just can't drink anything hot."
Gazing at the steam curling up from the cup, Cheongwol chewed thoughtfully on another sweet.
"I've heard that near the southern reaches of the Yangtze they have a custom of drinking tea cold."
"In Lanzhou they gave it to me cold when I asked, too."
"Was it an inn?"
"Yes."
"Then what you drank wasn't tea — it was cold water in all but name."
Soga-yul laughed and drained her cup.
It was Dragon Well tea, renowned for its sweetness and clean fragrance — and yet today only a bitter aftertaste lingered on her tongue.
"Cheongwol."
At the sudden gravity in Soga-yul's voice, Cheongwol set down the sweet she was holding.
"I'm listening."
Soga-yul hesitated a long while before she finally managed to speak.
"…Must you have your revenge?"
"…Master."
Cheongwol's face hardened, but Soga-yul pressed on as though she had already made up her mind.
"The Central Plains are vast, yes — but there are not many who could stand as your equal, not with the Sunflower Manual in your hands. That is true even now. Once the years have passed, who would dare stand before you?"
"…"
"It means you can have whatever you wish to have, and do whatever you wish to do. If you give up just one thing, that future is certain. I can promise you that. So…"
In a voice more earnest than Cheongwol had ever heard from her, Soga-yul spoke as if making a plea.
"I know it will be hard. But forget everything, and live an ordinary life here with me. Isn't that what your grandfather wanted for you as well?"
Cheongwol could not bring herself to answer.
She understood too well the heart from which Soga-yul had spoken those words — and that made it harder still.
So she only looked at her, wearing a smile full of quiet sorrow.
Perhaps that smile was answer enough.
Soga-yul finally let out a small sigh, smiling as though she had resigned herself.
"…Forgive me. A master who cannot even encourage a disciple about to walk a hard road — who shakes her resolve instead. I'll never make a proper teacher."
Then Cheongwol carefully reached out and took Soga-yul's hand.
"These two years I've spent with you have been so joyful, so happy. I even wondered… if this is what it would have felt like, if I'd had family left besides Grandfather."
"Cheongwol…"
"I'm sorry for being so stubborn. And…"
Trying harder than ever to look bright, Cheongwol broke into a wide smile.
"Thank you. Truly — thank you, Master."
The night sky was black as spilled ink, and a savage downpour hammered the rooftops and the leaves.
The moon had been swallowed by the clouds and vanished from sight. Only sinners stood upon the earth.
— CRACK!!
A bolt of lightning tore the air with a sound that could split eardrums, and for an instant the flash laid bare the figures of the guilty.
One was a woman. The other was a man in his middle years, his body scored with deep wounds.
"…My lord."
"…You still call me that. When you left me behind and went away, I thought I would never hear those words again."
At his words, a guilt sharp enough to tear her chest open rose in the woman, and tears spilled down her face.
"Your wounds are far too deep. Quickly—"
"Come no closer."
She tried to approach, but the man only drew deeper into the dark.
"I can no longer trust you."
"My lord…"
Breathing hard and ragged, the man gave a short, bitter laugh and shook his head.
"…And yet it's almost funny. Knowing I shouldn't trust you — and having no one else left to trust — in the end, there is only you."
So saying, he drew a bound volume from his robes and flung it toward her as though casting it away.
"This is…"
"The secret manual of the Im clan — the very thing those bastards want so badly. Even if they catch me, I will not let them have this. So I mean to leave it with you."
At the words that the book in her hands was the Im family's secret manual, the woman's heart plummeted.
She knew all too well what it meant for a martial artist to entrust his secret arts to another.
"What do you mean to do? There is nowhere in the Central Plains the net has not been cast. My lord… please…"
Looking at the woman who begged him as though she might break into sobs, the man turned his face away.
"…That is not for you to worry about."
"My lord!"
When at last he turned to leave, the woman cried out after him with everything she had left in her throat.
"…Ours was a bond already severed — and still I leave you with nothing but this wretched sight."
At the sound of her weeping, as if her heart itself were being torn apart, the man could endure no longer and spoke what he truly felt.
"Forget the cruel things I said. On this last road, I at least want us to part with a smile."
— CRACK!!
Lightning split the sky once more and lit both their faces.
The woman was weeping, looking as though she might collapse at any moment — but the man was grinning, as if to say everything would be all right.
"I am not leaving alone. Don't worry so much."
"…Is there someone helping you, my lord…?"
"No. Nothing like that. Look here."
He rummaged briefly in his robes and revealed a small child to her — a child who looked as though its breath might stop at any second.
Even after two ear-splitting bolts of lightning, the child slept on as if dead.
"My grandchild. Isn't the little one lovely? This child will grow up and take revenge for the Im clan — so I intend to survive by any means necessary."
"A grandchild…? What on earth do you…"
At the sight of the child, the face of the woman who had been weeping openly went rigid — but the man gathered the child back into his arms and secured the small body firmly against him.
— CRACK!!
And when the third bolt of lightning struck the earth, the smile that appeared on the man's face before her eyes was truly strange.
Rage.
Despair.
Regret.
And joy.
Emotions that should never have coexisted were tangled together in that smile — madness, pure and simple.
"…!!"
The instant she met that madness, the woman tore free of the nightmare and crashed back into the waking world.
Sweat poured down her body like rain. Her heart hammered as though it would burst.
"Hah… hah…"
Caught between the guilt that clenched around her heart once more and the sheer relief of having returned to reality, the woman dragged a trembling hand down her face.
"Haa…"
Praying, however faintly, that some of her sin might be wiped away with the sweat.
She murmured as if to herself, full of regret.
"If only… if only you had come looking for me one day sooner…"