Side by Side
"But what am I to do? What if this humble one finds herself interested as well?"
As Gayul sat there opening and closing her mouth without managing a reply, Arang pressed in even closer. The chest that already had an arm hooked through it pressed against both Hoeyeon's chest and her back at once. How was that even possible—touching chest and back simultaneously? From being squished? Did pressing harder somehow make that work?
"Is she not magnificent? This humble one longs to stroke that ashen fur with her own fingers. She would prove far more reliable than most any male."
Arang's hand caught Hoeyeon's chin and gently tried to turn her face toward her.
"I could devour her just like th—"
"You furry beas—"
"How about you both stop?"
Hoeyeon caught both of the hands Arang and Gayul had been about to fling at each other and spoke.
"This humble on—"
"I was mere—"
"Stop."
Hoeyeon cut them off cleanly.
"You both know you're being childish right now, don't you? Come on, you know it."
"Urgh…"
"Nngh…"
"On three, you let go and sit down. If you don't, I'm getting mad. One,"
"No, wait, th—"
"No, just a—"
"Two, three!"
With a soft thump, all three of them sat down at once.
"Hah…"
"Haah…"
Once seated, Gayul and Arang each let out a sigh. Then, still looking away from each other, they spoke.
"I went too far."
"This humble one's teasing grew excessive."
Hoeyeon muttered in sheer disbelief.
"What on earth are a former emperor and a divine beast even doing…"
Arang collected herself and looked at Gayul, recalling the conversation the two of them had shared at the very beginning.
A Sharp-leaf-kin… are you not the last Emperor of Geon?
So you truly were Arang, the divine beast of such renown.
Hoeyeon, a perfectly ordinary swordswoman, felt a faint twinge of being left out—but there was nothing she could really say about it. When she let a little of that feeling slip out as a mild complaint, the facial muscles of both Gayul and Arang, still seated, gave a visible twitch.
Oh no—if I actually bruise their pride for real, I'm in trouble.
Breaking up a fight between the two of them and having the two of them join forces against her were entirely different matters. Just one of them teasing her was already more than she could handle; she absolutely refused to deal with twice that.
"Looks like everyone's calmed down, so how about we talk about something important?"
Hoeyeon said it as if that had been her intention all along.
But regardless of why she had brought it up just then, it was clear the three of them had things they needed to discuss. They all knew it.
"Deciding where even to begin is no simple matter. It would be easier if we settled that first."
Gayul said.
"Shall we not speak of that serpent, and of the Masu?"
"This humble one concurs."
Arang said.
"In that case, there is one matter I would like to clarify before we proceed."
Gayul spoke and looked at Hoeyeon.
"Uh… me?"
"Hoeyeon. How is it that you know of the Masu?"
"This humble one wondered the same."
Arang added from beside her.
"In this age, scarcely any ordinary human knows of the Masu. How, then, does Hoeyeon know of them?"
Hoeyeon thought for a moment before answering.
"Know of them… I guess you could say I learned about them in two separate stages."
"Two stages? What mean you by that?"
Arang tilted her head.
"My grandfather was always really into that kind of thing. Transmissions, legends, stuff like that. He even collected books full of them."
"Your grandfather, you say."
"Yeah."
There seemed to be a flicker in Gayul's gaze—or was that just her imagination?
"You said he collected books? Hoeyeon, are you by chance the daughter of a distinguished house?"
"Nothing like that, but we were pretty well-off when I was little."
Uncomfortable discussing it with Gayul right there, Hoeyeon deliberately looked away from her.
"Hoeyeon's grandfather held an official post."
"Oh? If even you knew of him, he must have held quite a high position."
Arang sensed something odd in Gayul's expression, but Hoeyeon—who had no desire to linger on this topic—promptly steered the conversation onward.
"So hearing about Masu among those stories was the first time. The proper education came from my master."
"Your teacher, you mean? Was she not a master of the sword?"
"A master? Was she one who hunted Masu as well?"
Hoeyeon nodded.
"Yeah, she's the one who taught me the sword. And yes, she hunted Masu too. The first time we met was when I was being attacked by one."
"A savior of your life, then."
"Huh? Well, yes, but she didn't actually save me from that attack."
Hoeyeon stirred the campfire once, as if it were nothing particularly remarkable.
"She showed up after I'd already taken it down."
"…What?"
"……Hoeyeon. What did you just say?"
"It was old and sick, so I managed. If it'd been in its prime, I'd probably be dead. It was this Masu that looked like a wolf and a bat mixed together. I pinned its wings to the ground with stakes and kept smashing its head with a pickaxe until it died."
"…"
"…"
"Ah, but if Master hadn't treated my wounds after that, it probably would've been pretty bad."
"I—I see. And how old were you when this happened?"
"Eleven, I think? So I had no idea Master was someone who traveled around hunting Masu, and I charged at her and got beaten up a lot."
"Hunting Masu…?"
With Hoeyeon's laughing face between them, Gayul and Arang exchanged a look.
"And your master… did she continue hunting Masu?"
"After she took me as her disciple, the two of us traveled around for a while. But once she set up a dojo in that town and settled down, I don't think she did anymore."
"This humble one would ask as well—how many years ago did she establish that dojo?"
"Uh… about seven years ago, I think."
"Seven years ago… the timing does align."
As Hoeyeon tilted her head, puzzled by how strangely insistent Gayul and Arang were being, Gayul asked,
"Your master—do you know her name?"
"Master's name? Of course I do."
As if she could possibly not know her teacher's name.
"The family name is Yu, and the given name is Eunha. Master Yu Eunha."
"……So it is as I thought."
"? What do you mean, 'as I thought'?"
When Hoeyeon cocked her head, Gayul pressed one hand to her forehead, as if trying to push down a headache.
"Hoeyeon."
"Yeah?"
"You hold your master in high esteem, do you not?"
"Yeah."
"I do not deny that feeling of yours. Neither your reverence, nor the fact that what she has done for you is worthy of that reverence—I neither deny nor doubt either of those things."
"…What are you trying to say?"
"Yu Eunha, you said."
Arang opened her mouth beside them, then looked at Gayul and closed it again. You had better be the one to handle this, she seemed to say, handing the matter over.
"A woman about a handspan taller than you, with red hair, green eyes, a cross-shaped scar on the back of her left hand—slender, with a frank and open bearing. Does that describe your master?"
"……How do you know about the scar on her hand? She always wore gloves."
Gayul's face took on the particular mixture of pain, fear, unease, and duty that belongs to someone who must say something terribly difficult. And she decided it would be better to simply get it all out at once.
"When I sat the throne, she was a vicious criminal sought by the authorities."
A breath.
"There are twenty murders confirmed as her doing, and another twenty suspected though not certain. She is a murderer who was not content with killing people alone, and went about hunting Masu as well—a woman driven mad by slaughter."
"…What are you talking about."
The words spilled from Hoeyeon's mouth. She hadn't meant to speak, so "spilled" was the right word for it.
"Hoeyeon, calm yourself."
"How am I supposed to calm down!? Right now—"
She shouted, then pressed a trembling hand to her forehead and took a deep breath.
"…Sorry. Just a second. Just a second… just a second……"
Arang quietly spoke up beside her.
"It is all right. Take your time. The way you govern your own passions is most admirable."
"…Arang, you knew too?"
"This humble one knew there was a fiend named Yu Eunha, a demon mad with killing."
Arang let out a sigh.
"I had not heard those rumors for some six or seven years… so she had been serving as your master all that while."
Then she glanced at Hoeyeon and said,
"Shall we not leave it here for today?"
"I agree."
"What—no! Don't do that! I'm fine, so—!"
"Hoeyeon."
Arang said.
"I mean, sure, of course I'm shocked, but—"
"Hoeyeon!"
Gayul cried out.
"Let us leave it here for today. If you cannot do so for your own sake, then do it for us, who worry for you. I ask this of you."
"………Fine."
Hoeyeon could say nothing else. She drew her knees up and hugged them.
"I said fine."
"Thank you."
"It would be best if all of us slept for the night. Are our bodies not weary as well? Though we are out on the plains, it is best to rest as much as we can."
Arang stirred the campfire so the flames would burn lively again, then suddenly asked,
"Come to think of it—where is this humble one supposed to sleep?"
"Huh? Well."
Hoeyeon, mid-breath, lifted her head and realized. The blankets spread on the ground were, of course, only two—hers and Gayul's.
If they squeezed in, two people could sleep on one blanket.
They could sleep that way, but…
Hoeyeon's gaze was naturally sucked toward Arang's chest, then unnaturally slid off to the side.
Thinking about it again, having an arm fit through there really shouldn't be a given. It was strange. Why did it work from both sides?
"Hoeyeon is tired. Let her have ample space to rest comfortably—I shall provide for you."
"What nonsense is this? Hoeyeon's weariness is of the heart as much as the body. Does she not need the warmth of another person beside her to heal?"
"Even if that were so, there is no need for you to be the one providing that warmth, is there? Come over here at once."
"Oh? Then will Gayul be the one to provide it? That warmth?"
"!! Ahem."
"Ahh, I see. This humble one is right here beside you, and you are too embarrassed to keep yourself in check—is that it?"
"…That's not—"
"…Perhaps we should stop."
"Both of you, enough! Lay the two blankets side by side! Lie down! Sleep!"
"I can lie down on my own without being shoved!"
"Do not treat this humble one like an infant!"
"Then!! Act!! Your age!! Bedtime!"
Hoeyeon shouted, lay down, and squeezed her eyes shut. This was no situation in which she could even afford to soak in the shock of learning her master's unknown past.
From either side came small, successive sighs.
"Sleep well."
"Rest easy."
Beneath a night sky that had gone quiet save for the crackle of the campfire, Hoeyeon suddenly thought,
Was I… being looked after, just now?
She truly had no idea.
But the wondering did not last long. Hoeyeon's exhausted body and heart soon drew her down into the world of sleep.
Feeling the faint warmth of people on either side of her, Hoeyeon slipped into a gentle slumber.