Journey Outside. (5)
Chung Myung scratched the back of his head. It was only natural, but hearing it said by someone else made it feel a bit strange.
There’s an even younger boy out in the world, enduring all sorts of drunken rants to fulfill his dream, so why was he tied down to Hwasan all this time? The world has so many good things out there.
Just look at Xian for instance. As far as he knew, Xian wasn’t that big of a city in all the Central Plains. But if Xian was already like this, how many more amazing places must there be throughout the land?
He wanted to see it. All those places, with his own eyes.
‘Then can’t I just go?’
Why did he have to head back to Hwasan on his own two feet, only to be scolded and nagged?
“Ah, I get it.”
“Huh?”
Even Chung Myung hadn’t reached a conclusion yet, but the boy nodded as if he understood.
“They say it’s just that kind of place.”
“What is? I don’t get it.”
“Home.”
“…..Huh?”
“Home, yes, home. Family.”
“…”
Chung Myung looked blank, but the boy continued speaking with a smile.
“You can become sick of it. Sometimes they’re worse than strangers, they let you down, and sometimes you can’t even stand the sight of them. Sure, there are some good things, but there are so many more bad things no one else knows about.”
Is he a ghost or something? If he’s trying to raise capital for his business, maybe he shouldn’t be working as a waiter, but instead stick a bamboo pole behind him with the words ‘Master of all paths, expert in all matters*’ written on it?
“It’s so exhausting, but… in the end, it’s the place you return to. And then you start to miss it.”
“…”
“They say that’s what home is.”
The boy asked with a bright smile.
“Dojang, for you, Hwasan is your home, right?”
“Huh? Uh…. I guess so?”
“Then it makes sense.”
The boy let out a laugh and added.
“I envy you. The reason I do business and want to become a merchant is that one day I want to build my own home and family. Even if we bicker or sometimes fight, in the end it’s a place you can always return to.”
Chung Myung stared intently at the boy. With Xian’s dazzling nightscape as a backdrop, the boy seemed to shine a little as he spoke. Ordinarily, Chung Myung wouldn’t have paid any mind to such a small boy.
“Have you decided on a name?”
“Yes?”
“I mean the name of your trading company.”
“Ah, that?”
Turning towards Xian’s magnificent night view, the boy spoke.
“One day, I’m going to light up that city with the shops I own, just like its nightscape. Almost like the silver of that night sky…”
“Over there!”
“That way, Sasuk!”
“Chung Myung-aaaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Ah, damn! They’re like leeches!”
Chung Myung jumped up from his spot, quickly glanced left and right, and plunged his hand into his robe.
Thunk!
“Ugh?”
The boy hastily caught the object that flew towards him.
“What is this…….”
“It’s my thanks for your help! Later!”
Chung Myung turned around and dashed away.
“D-Dojang…..?”
“Ah! Right!”
And then, he came back even faster than he had run away. Without warning, Chung Myung slipped a finger into the pouch the boy was holding and pulled out a piece of silver from inside.
“Still, I have to secure some liquor money for the next day or two.”
“…”
“Now I’m really going. Live well! Make sure you open that shop!”
Chung Myung dashed off again into the distance.
“D-Dojang! Wait just a moment. My name is Hwang….”
But Chung Myung’s figure had already vanished into the darkness, far away.
The boy’s hand, which had reflexively reached out, slowly clenched at the emptiness where Chung Myung had been, then dropped limply.
“…Indong [인동(忍冬)].”
The boy scratched the back of his head in disappointment.
“I wanted to tell him that if I ever create a trading company, I’d call it the Eunha Merchant Guild”
He let out a deep sigh and looked at the pouch in his hand.
“Why give me something like this… for no particular reason?”
Casually, he opened the pouch, and at once his hand started to shake.
“U-uh… Ugh.”
It was silver. The pouch, which was quite hefty, was filled to the brim with silver coins. This was more than enough to open a shop in Xian outright, not just a simple stall.
“G-Goodness.”
The boy – no, Hwang Indong – stared, wide-eyed, towards the direction Chung Myung had run off.
In the sky, a river of stars – on the earth, a river of people flowed through the night**.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Ugh, seriously… If only they used that tenacity for training.”
Is it reasonable to cause such a commotion just to catch one person? Chung Myung gnashed his teeth and rubbed his leg. He hadn’t been able to drink all night because he was being chased around.
“I was planning to head in tomorrow. But at this rate, that’s impossible. This is all your doing!”
Chung Myung spat – more like he made it seem like so, then stood in place looking east. Even in the darkness, he could see Hwasan’s ridge-line towering in the distance.
“Hmm…. Home, huh….”
Chung Myung scratched his cheek.
“Well, I think I’ve made them worry enough. Maybe I’ll just go back tomorrow.”
But first, I’ll drink to my heart’s content…
“Here you are.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung turned his head around abruptly. Had he been caught? Just a while ago, those guys had been hollering at the top of their lungs – why were they suddenly so…
Then he tilted his head in confusion. The person approaching him wasn’t from Hwasan.
“Who are you?”
“…Have you already forgotten what happened earlier? I am Jin Seokrim!”
“Jin who?”
“From that tavern earlier!”
Chung Myung narrowed his eyes. The moon, which had been hidden behind the clouds, emerged, brightening the world.
Revealed in that light was a face that was annoyingly handsome yet somewhat familiar.
“Ah, so you’re that fellow from before. I thought you might’ve been someone else. So what brings you here… huh?”
Chung Myung reflexively caught the object that came flying towards him. It was a long stick – no, a wooden sword.
“Take your stance.”
“Huh?”
With an expression, that seemed to tell he was ready to kill, Jin Seokrim raised his wooden sword.
“Did you think you could get away after humiliating me like that? It was a mistake to go easy on you because you’re young. I’ll fix your insolence once and for all today.”
Chung Myung tilted his head.
“Ah, you want to fight?”
“Raise your sword.”
“Well, I’m not exactly against it, but are you sure about this? I heard you have some important sparring match? A tournament? Something like that coming up.”
“Stop babbling and pick up your sword. This time, you won’t be able to run.”
Jin Seokrim ground his teeth. If word got out that he beat up a young disciple of Hwasan, the elders of his sect would surely be furious. But that was still preferable to being humiliated and not getting even.
If he let this brat go now, he’d be a laughingstock within Jongnam forever.
“This is your last chance! Pick up your sword!”
“Ah, well, if you really insist…. But.”
Chung Myung grinned.
“Don’t regret it.”
“You bastard!”
Jin Seokrim charged at Chung Myung with all his might.
“Where is he?”
“A scream came from over there!”
“Sahyeong! No matter what, he’s just a kid… what are you planning to do?!”
Yang Gwanjeong and the disciples of Jongnam, who had been searching all over Xian for the enraged Jin Seokrim, dashed into the bushes following the sound of that scream.
They had to stop him somehow before Jin Seokrim turned the boy into a cripple.
“Sahyeong! Stop… Huh?”
But the scene that unfolded before them was a bit different from what they’d expected.
“S-Sahyeong?”
“Why is Sahyeong…!”
“H-How did this happen…”
Seeing Jin Seokrim sprawled out on his back as if the night sky were his blanket, the startled disciples rushed over to him.
“Good heavens, this is a mess. Were you ambushed?”
The faces of Jongnam’s disciples turned pale. Although Jin Seokrim wasn’t in mortal danger, it was clear at a glance that he had been thoroughly beaten and broken.
Surely that kid couldn’t have done this.
“Yang Sahyeong, over here.”
“What is it?”
“Jin Sahyeong’s arm…”
Yang Gwanjeong’s face grew ashen. It was obvious that Jin Seokrim’s arm, still clutching the wooden sword, was broken and dangling.
“If… if that’s the case, then what about the tournament…”
What was there to say? It was all for nothing.
‘What in the world happened…’
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t figure out what had taken place here. Why was Jin Seokrim lying there in such a state?
Right at that moment.
“Urgh….”
“Sahyeong! Are you conscious? Sahyeong!”
A feeble groan, as if he were on the brink of death, escaped Jin Seokrim’s lips.
“What on earth happened?”
“F-Five….”
“What? Five? Were you attacked by five people? Don’t tell me it was those Hwasan’s guys?”
“I told him… five times….”
“…What?”
“Why… a sixth time….”
Jin Seokrim’s head slumped to the ground. Lost for words, Yang Gwanjeong broke off mid-sentence and stared at Jin Seokrim, who had fainted again.
“Yang Sahyeong, what should we do?”
“Urgh…”
Yang Gwanjeong rubbed his face vigorously with his hands.
“First… let’s take Sahyeong away.”
“Yes!”
His fellow disciples lifted Jin Seokrim and rushed off towards Jongnam. Left alone, Yang Gwanjeong bit his lip and stared at the spot where Jin Seokrim had fallen.
‘That…’
At that moment, what caught his eye was a wooden sword lying on the ground. It wasn’t the one Jin Seokrim had been holding, but another wooden sword that had been thrown aside from the start.
Yang Gwanjeong’s expression twisted strangely.
‘No way. That can’t be.’
That can’t be. Absolutely not.
Never…….
Two days later, after drinking heavily until evening, Chung Myung, completely inebriated, climbed Hwasan on his own two feet.
And when Chung Mun heard what had happened in Xian, he quite literally flew into a stare of extreme rage [대로(大怒)] and locked Chung Myung in the Repentance Chamber for over a month.
Then, after a formal complaint arrived from Jongnam, Chung Myung’s confinement was extended by another month.
Two months later, when Chung Myung finally emerged from the Repentance Chamber, he began suffering from a side effect: just hearing the word ‘Jongnam’ was enough to make him lose his composure. For some, it was a tragic event – for others, merely a minor inconvenience.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Why?”
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung with a clearly annoyed expression. That bastard had been glaring at him since earlier.
“Well, all of a sudden.”
“All of a sudden what?”
“I’ve thought you were annoying ever since I first saw you.”
“…Huh?”
“I was just wondering why.”
Baek Cheon’s face contorted in anger. That lunatic seemed even crazier today than usual.
But Chung Myung, oblivious to how Baek Cheon felt, tilted his head with a serious expression.
“Where did I first meet you, Sasuk?”
“At the tavern, you brat! You were downing alcohol right then and there! Even though you’re just a kid!”
“Is that right?”
“That’s right!”
“At that time, Sasuk was drinking with your fellow disciples, right?”
“Are you already senile? Why do you keep asking? It wasn’t that long ago.”
Chung Myung tilted his head.
“Well, that’s right, but… I’m sure it’s right, yet somehow it feels different. It feels like it happened ages ago. It’s on the tip of my tongue.”
“What are you going on about, you’ve been like this since earlier.”
After pondering and pondering, Chung Myung suddenly burst into a bright smile.
“Eh, I don’t know. Maybe you just have an unlikable face.”
“…”
“Hahaha. So simple.”
“Please just drop dead… please.”
Baek Cheon could only lament over whatever sin he had committed in a past life to end up with this brat as his Saje.
________
*사통팔달 무불통지(四通八達 無不通知) – straightforward translation would be: connected/reaching through 4 directions (N/S/E/W) and 8 directions (Northeast, Southwest etc); without anything one does not understand.
**A word play on the word eunha (은하 – galaxy or Milky way). Like a Milky Way galaxy starts flow through the sky, the same way people below on land also flow like a river.
________
I will upload the Side Story as a separate page on the blog!
________
Please, subscribe/donate on Patreon or Buymeacoffee – support my work and help me buy official cookies to purchase the chapters. My schedule is on the About page.
Return of the Mount Hua 
Leave a reply to Ash~ Cancel reply