Return of the Mount Hua

This is my role. (5)

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Beop Jong, who had been descending Hwasan in silence, turned back.

Beop Gye instinctively shrank at the terrifying look in his eyes.

“……Hwasan.”

This wasn’t how it had felt when he first ascended this path. There had certainly been a strange sense of unease, but he had never doubted that, in the end, he would get what he wanted.

To him, Hwasan had been like a wolf – one that only he could tame.

To ordinary people, a wolf is an object of fear, but to someone who can tame it, it is no more than a dog with sharp teeth.

And yet, that dog he thought he had tamed had now bared its teeth at him. As if it had never lost the wildness of the days it once roamed the fields.

“The Buddha bestowed mercy upon all.”

“…”

“But He withheld mercy from just one clan. Do you know which clan that is?”

“I’m not sure.”

“The Mara [마라(魔羅)*].”

Beop Gye opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. Beop Jong continued.

“In the end, even the Buddha distinguished between those who could be saved and those who could not. To those who could not be saved and only brought harm, he was more severe than anyone else.”

Beop Jong stared hard at the distant pavilions of Hwasan, his face set in stone.

“I had believed, at the very least, that Hwasan was not a devil [마귀]. It seems I was wrong.”

“……Abbot.”

Beop Jong bit his lip.

Beop Gye looked at him with slightly puzzled eyes. It was because Beop Jong seemed to be recalling something.

“……In the end…….”

“Yes?”

“No, never mind.”

Beop Jong shook his head.

“First is the Yangtze River. That must be dealt with. Hwasan comes after. But…….”

Then he spoke coldly, as if cutting through ice.

“One day, Hwasan will have to pay the price for this as well. Putting aside my personal feelings, they turned a blind eye to something that could plunge the world into chaos and dragged the name of Shaolin into the dirt. I will see to it that they pay for that.”

“It must be so, Abbot.”

Crack.

The prayer beads in Beop Jong’s hand shattered and scattered to the ground.

The beads, slipping free from the broken string and rolling away, seemed to explain the relationship between Shaolin and Hwasan. What had been held together by a single, fragile thread had now snapped.

“Hwasan Geomhyeop…….”

Beop Jong gritted his teeth and stepped forward.

“…This was your choice.”

❀ ❀ ❀

After Beop Jong had left, the key figures of Hwasan gathered once more in the Sect Leader’s quarters.

And among those key figures, Hye Yeon sat confidently. Seeing his clear and bright eyes, a wave of pride naturally surged in everyone’s hearts.

“Everyone… truly, thank you.”

“Oh, no need to say that, Monk.”

“We’re not strangers. No need for that sort of thing.”

“Think nothing of it.”

A slightly shy but radiant smile spread across Hye Yeon’s face.

He had just turned his back on Shaolin, the place that had been like home to him. And yet, he didn’t feel overwhelmed by sorrow. It was because of these people. They were another kind of family, different from Shaolin.

‘Yes. This is where I’m meant to be…’

“You’re smiling?”

“…”

But.

Regrettably, in the midst of that warm atmosphere, there was one person – only one – who wasn’t smiling in the slightest.

A demon, as if just risen from hell, glared at Hye Yeon with eyes sharp as blades. A terrifying madness shimmered in them. Hye Yeon instinctively shrank back a little.

“You think this is funny?”

“S-Siju, I…”

“This little bastard, huh?”

As Chung Myung’s face grew redder and redder, Hye Yeon began stepping backward.

“Hey.”

“Y-Yes?”

“You trying to screw me over?”

“W-What do you mean…?”

“You little…!”

In the end, Chung Myung, swift as lightning, delivered a double-footed kick to Hye Yeon’s chest.

Bang!

“Aaaaargh!”

Caught completely off guard, Hye Yeon was sent tumbling into a corner, rolling like a ball. But even that wasn’t enough to cool Chung Myung’s rage – he charged at Hye Yeon with fire in his eyes. Everyone panicked and scrambled to hold him back.

“W-What are you doing, Chung Myung?!”

“Calm down for now!”

“Someone get some sweets, quick!”

When the Five Swords mentioned sweets, it meant the situation was seriously dire. Horrified, the disciples of Hwasan joined forces with the Five Swords to pin Chung Myung down.

But even as they held him, Chung Myung thrashed like a mad dog, clawing at the floor and growling at Hye Yeon.

“Let go! I said let go! I swear, I’m gonna see hair grow on that bald bastard’s head today!”

“What kind of nonsense is that?!”

“No!”

Chung Myung shouted, fire blazing in his eyes.

“If I did you the favor of kicking out that Abbot bastard, you should’ve just stayed put in the corner like a good little monk! What the hell were you thinking, running after him and stirring up more trouble?! Huh?!”

Flinch.

Hye Yeon lowered his head deeply.

“This is screwing me over, that’s what this is! Hey! You got some kind of grudge against Hwasan? You want Shaolin and Hwasan to kill each other off together, is that it? After all these years we fed you and gave you a bed, you repay us like this? Fine! Let me pay back that favor too today! Ah, let me go already!”

“P-Please calm down!”

Baek Cheon, sensing that if he let go of Chung Myung’s arm now, Hye Yeon would be beaten to a pulp, held on all the more desperately.

The idea of needing to protect the great Hye Yeon might’ve sounded ridiculous under any other circumstance, but the man he was holding right now was one of the few who could make that ridiculous notion into a very real threat.

“What? A devout Buddhist? A Buddhist, huh?! You little bastard!”

“Argh!”

Unable to kick properly while being held, Chung Myung stretched his leg out with all his might and started smacking the top of Hye Yeon’s bald head with the sole of his foot.

“If Buddha saw you, he’d say there’s no hope and bust your skull open with a branch off the Bodhi tree! You’ve got a hundred different ways to cause trouble, don’t you?! And you followed him? Him?! You’re the kind of guy who’d get sold off to traffickers and still chant Amitabha while smiling if they gave you a piece of candy!”

“No! Calm down already!”

“Sect Leader, please, say something! Sect Lead-…”

Turning to Hyun Jong, Yoon Jong suddenly froze. Hyun Jong was muttering to himself, looking as though half his soul had left his body.

“Shaolin… Why Shaolin, of all things… I must’ve lost my mind… What was I thinking, bringing in Shaolin…”

“…”

Yoon Jong leaned in and whispered quietly to Baek Cheon.

“Sasuk, I think he’s in a worse state.”

“Just close your eyes.”

“…Yes.”

After thrashing about like a madman for a while, Chung Myung’s fury finally began to subside, and the tension slowly drained from his muscles.

“Ever since we took in that damned brat, nothing’s gone right! What are we supposed to do now, huh, you bastard?!”

Tears were streaming down Hye Yeon’s face.

Honestly, from his point of view, wasn’t this all terribly unfair? All he’d said was that he’d accept being excommunicated and told them not to get involved – but Chung Myung went and stirred everything up on his own, chased Beop Jong out, and now he was scolding him?

It was like someone swimming peacefully had been yanked out of the water by force, slapped across the face for being in danger, and then had all their belongings stolen on top of it.

That was robbery. Plain and simple.

“Chung Myung-ah. Didn’t you say Shaolin wasn’t all that big of a deal?”

Chung Myung’s head snapped around. Seeing that terrifying glare, Baek Cheon quickly looked away with a pitiful whimper.

“That’s just talk for when we’re fighting! What, you think Shaolin is some kids’ school?! ‘Not a big deal’? Of course it’s a big deal!”

“…You’re the one who said that.”

“Damn it. Just my luck.”

Chung Myung ground his teeth furiously.

‘That temper of his, honestly…’

‘Poor Monk Hye Yeon.’

‘He always blames someone else. Tsk.’

In truth, even if the whole situation with Hye Yeon hadn’t happened, the relationship between Hwasan and Shaolin had already become irreparably damaged the moment Beop Jong stormed out of here.

Hye Yeon’s case was merely the nail in the coffin.

“Tsk.”

Perhaps even Chung Myung understood that much, as he finally stopped at this point. The fact that it took this much for him to stop, even while fully understanding the situation, might be what made Chung Myung both impressive and exasperating.

“Shaolin… Shaolin… What are we supposed to do now? Now what? Shaolin…”

But while Chung Myung’s anger had subsided, Hyun Jong’s spirit, once gone, showed no sign of returning.

Chung Myung cleared his throat lightly and began trying to soothe him.

“Uh… Let’s calm down for now, Sect Leader.”

“Calm down?”

“…”

“Do I look like I can calm down, you little brat?!”

Suddenly, Hyun Jong lunged at Chung Myung with a speed no one had ever witnessed before and grabbed his earlobe.

“AAAHH! Sect Leader! My ear! My ear! It hurts!”

“You lunatic! You drew a sword on the Abbot of Shaolin and caused a scene?! I take my eyes off you for one second and you run off to make everything worse – and now what? Hye Yeon?! You brat! This isn’t because of Monk Hye Yeon! This is all because of you!”

“Ack! My ear! I said it’s coming off! AAAHH!”

“Oh, ancestors above… What sins have I committed to be burdened with a rascal like this…”

– Sorry.

“…Huh?”

Did someone just… say something?

“AAAAAAGHH!!”

Chung Myung, having barely escaped, scurried into a corner. Then, veins bulging in his neck, he began protesting furiously.

“I mean, what was I supposed to do?! Those bastards were threatening to cut off his bald head!”

“…They didn’t say they’d behead him. They just mentioned severing his meridians…”

“Which is worse! You might as well cut the head off! Without martial arts, he’s just a dummy! What use is he without them? Not even worth a neighborhood mutt!”

“…”

What truly saddened Hye Yeon weren’t Chung Myung’s words themselves. It was the way the other disciples of Hwasan instinctively nodded along the moment those words were out of his mouth.

Tears welled up in his tightly shut eyes.

‘Horrible people…’

For even a moment, I was touched. I must be a fool. An utter fool.

“To become enemies with Shaolin… With Shaolin… Ancestors above… I’ve ruined everything. Now Hwasan is doomed…”

“Hey! Don’t say unlucky things like that! A hundred years ago, we were this close to throwing punches with Shaolin too, but Hwasan didn’t fall, right?”

Hearing that, Hyun Jong turned his dazed face towards Chung Myung.

“…A hundred years ago?”

“Yes!”

“A hundred years ago?”

“That’s what I said!”

“…Then we did fall, didn’t we.”

“…Pardon?”

Wait.

…Now that you mention it, that’s true?

Chung Myung suddenly found himself speechless, and Hyun Jong slowly slumped to the floor.

“What are we to do about this… What are we to do…”

“Ahem.”

Hyun Sang, watching the scene unfold, cautiously spoke up.

“If you were that worried, you could’ve just handled things peacefully…”

“How the hell was I supposed to do that in that atmosphere, you idiot?!”

“How do you peacefully settle things with those Shaolin bastards?!”

Their stances were completely different, yet somehow, their behavior wasn’t all that far apart.

Before anyone realized it, even the Sect Leader had been influenced by Chung Myung – quite severely, at that.

The faces of Hwasan’s disciples darkened all at once.

“…Hwasan is finished now.”

“Oh, come on. We’re not finished. I’m still here!”

“…”

Hyun Jong stared at Chung Myung in silence, then let out a deep, weary sigh.

“We really are doomed.”

“Hey, what’s with this guy now?”

“He’s the Sect Leader, you little bastard!”

Just as Chung Myung’s eyes flared with fury, Baek Cheon rushed in and landed a solid kick on him.

Chung Myung tumbled into a corner but immediately sprang back up.

“I’m telling you, there’s nothing to worry about! Those Shaolin bastards aren’t a big deal!”

“You just said they were a big deal.”

“That’s only if someone else fights them! If I fight them, they’re nothing!”

“…Just try to contradict yourself only once per sentence, Chung Myung-ah.”

How can one mouth produce such a variety of nonsense? Anyone listening might think a rainbow was coming out of it.

Chung Myung, still yelling at the top of his lungs without the slightest sign of exhaustion; Hyun Jong, muttering dazedly as if his soul had left his body; Hye Yeon, sulking in the corner; and the rest of the disciples all throwing in their own comments as they pleased.

Crunch.

Hong Daekwang, who had somehow taken a seat in the room, hadn’t been able to find a way to join the conversation amidst the chaos. He simply sat silently in a corner, chewing on some rice crackers.

“…What a mess.”

And yet, somehow.

It was a sight unmistakably typical of Hwasan.

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*Mara [마라(魔羅)] – malignant figure in Buddhism, demon.

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