Return of the Mount Hua

I’m back. (4)

ROTMHS Glossary || About page

“Huwaaaaaaa!”

Thump!

Jo Geol flung himself onto his own bed. From the bedding, dried on a sunny spot, a warm fragrance poured out in waves.

“Home, home! This is home!”

“……Your home is in Sichuan, Geol-ah.”

“What are you talking about! My home is here! That place is where I grew up.”

“You used to say that once you were of age, you’d go back home without even looking back.”

“What an ancient tale to bring up.”

Even as he grumbled, Jo Geol kneaded his pillow with affection.

“Good to see you. My musty-smelling pillow.”

“It hasn’t even been half a year since you got a new one.”

With his habitual scolding, Yoon Jong sat down on his own bed. Then, brushing his hand slowly across it, he seemed overcome with a strange, new emotion.

Watching this quietly, Jo Geol grinned.

“What is it? That face that looks like you’re thinking, ‘I have never thought I’d make it back here alive’?”

“…Have you learned mind-reading somewhere?”

“Tsk, tsk. People are so easy to read.”

Snickering, Jo Geol straightened up to sit. As he looked around the room, a similar sense of nostalgia flickered across his face.

He didn’t show it as openly as Yoon Jong did, but Jo Geol too felt a stirring in his heart. If even one thing had gone wrong in any of those countless moments, he would never have made it back here alive.

“Sahyeong. Isn’t it true that being at Hwasan is when one’s heart feels most at ease?”

Jo Geol spoke with a low, almost embarrassed tone. Knowing his personality, it was not the sort of thing he’d say easily.

But Yoon Jong replied with a look of disbelief.

“Why are you stating the obvious?”

“Huh?”

“Think about everything we’ve gone through every time we stepped beyond the sect’s gates. No matter how nicely you put it, doesn’t it all boil down to ‘we have almost died’?”

“….Huh?”

“So of course it’s most comfortable when we’re staying at Hwasan.”

“Uh… huh?”

Jo Geol tilted his head.

“Now that you say it……”

“If you’re going to say inauspicious things for no reason, shut your mouth. Even now I’m scared the door will suddenly burst open and that bastard Chung Myung will kick his way in. I’m never getting dragged off again. I’d rather drive a knife into my own leg.”

With a somewhat dazed expression, Jo Geol nodded.

He had thought home was simply warm and comfortable – only to realize that it was the world outside that was hell.

“Still, we probably won’t be sent out on any missions for a while, right?”

“Ah. I told you, don’t jinx it…”

Thud, thud, thud.

At the sound coming from outside, the two of them turned their heads sharply towards the door at the same time.

As if on cue, they looked at each other. Fear flickered in their eyes. The footsteps drew closer and closer.

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

“Eeeek!”

“What the hell is that!”

Screaming, Jo Geol ran to the door and flung it open so hard it nearly came off its hinges.

“I’m not going! Just kill me instead!”

“What are you talking about, all of a sudden?”

“Huh? Soso?”

The person standing at the door was Tang Soso. She looked at him, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“W-Why did you suddenly come?”

“Why do you think – aren’t you going to eat?”

“Huh?”

Only then did Jo Geol reflexively clutch his growling stomach. Come to think of it, he hadn’t eaten anything because he’d been cleaning.

“They’re telling everyone to come out for a meal.”

“Ah…”

“Honestly, people start acting strange the moment they return to Hwasan. Maybe this place has bad energy.”

Casting the two of them a look full of pity, Soso turned briskly on her heel. Left alone again, Yoon Jong and Jo Geol exchanged looks in brief silence.

“Food… We should eat.”

“Yeah..”

Feeling awkward for no reason, they cleared their throats and stepped out of the room.

⠀⠀

Boom! Booom!

“Woah…..”

“There really were wild boars that big.”

“Anyway, he sniffs them out like a ghost. And two of them, at that.”

Watching Chung Myung, who came in with wild boars far larger than his own body slung over both shoulders and tossed them down, the Baek disciples could only click their tongues.

“No, I don’t think it’s two.“

“Huh?”

“There.”

Baek Cheon narrowed his eyes and fixed his gaze on the mountain gate.

“Eh?”

Scrape. Scrape.

Following Baek Cheon’s gaze, the others turned their heads – and their mouths fell open.

Exaggerating only a little, a wild boar nearly the size of a house was coming this way.

More precisely, it was advancing while lying on its side.

“Th-That… What on earth is that?”

“Is that the vengeful spirit of a boar chasing down Chung Myung?”

“No, look lower. Lower.”

“Lower?”

Everyone’s eyes shifted lower. Looking closely, they saw something white, that bit onto the boar, dragging it along.

“Baek Ah, isn’t it?”

“Wow, seriously? How’s it even managing that? One of that boar’s legs has to be bigger than Baek Ah.”

“That’s why it’s a spirit beast”

“That’s true, but……”

The disciples of Hwasan laughed in disbelief.

“…In the meantime, who put a fresh uniform on Baek Ah again?”

“Soso, obviously. I mean, who else in Hwasan would fuss over its clothes besides Soso?”

Scrape. Scrape.

Having finally dragged a boar that looked ten times its own size all the way past the mountain gate, Baek Ah dropped its catch and thumped the ground with its hind legs. 

“It looks… proud of itself.”

“It’s puffing its belly out, look.”

“…This is honestly starting to get scary. Spirit beast or not, isn’t it acting way too human?”

“It’d be a relief if it were just a human. These days it’s so much like Chung Myung it gives me the chills.”

At that moment, Chung Myung, who had been watching Baek Ah with clear displeasure, clicked his tongue.

“I told you to go to Yunnan with the people from the Beast Palace this time. And you still insisted on tagging along……”

“Leave it. It’s even wearing uniform now – at this point, we should count it as an honorary disciple.”

“Say something that makes sense! Even if the sect is running like a total mess, there are limits!”

“…Have you never considered that the one who erased those limits is you, Chung Myung?”

Chung Myung clicked his tongue in displeasure, then jerked his chin towards the boars.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

“Do I have to be the one to catch them and the one to roast them too? Are our esteemed senior brothers all just going to sit there sucking their fingers and watching?”

“Oh, as if that would happen?”

“Yes, yes. Don’t worry, good sir [대인 – formal polite way to address someone]. We’ll have it ready at once.”

The disciples of Hwasan, skilled in the art of appeasing him, rushed towards the boars with their swords drawn. Like seasoned cooks, they skinned them and finished the prep, then soon skewered the boar meat on a great wooden pole.

“Light the fire!”

“Utchaaa!”

In no time, a great bonfire roared, and they propped the carcasses over it. Just like that, preparations for a full roast were complete.

“Will three be enough?”

“At this size, it might do.”

Watching the boars brown nicely, the disciples of Hwasan gathered around the fire.

Drawn by the commotion, the disciples of Diancang just stared blankly at the scene.

“Um, Sahyeong.”

“….What is it?”

“Hwasan is a Taoist sect, right?”

“Right.”

“And this is Hwasan’s training grounds.”

“…..Right.”

“Do Central Plains’ sects usually roast wild boar on the training grounds?” 

“…”

“No, that can’t be. From what I’ve heard, Taoists mainly follow a raw, plant based diet – are they even allowed to eat meat like that?”

Lee Danhoe firmly shook his head.

“Ah, that’s a misconception.”

“Huh?”

“Buddhists and Taoists don’t refrain from eating meat. They refrain from taking life.”

“Ah.”

“So you mustn’t take life for the sake of eating meat, but there’s no problem with eating what’s already dead. Do you understand? That’s why you shouldn’t judge others based on shallow knowledge.”

“Ah, is that so? Then……”

One of Lee Danhoe’s juniors pointed at the wild boar skewered on the spit, roasting to a mouthwatering brown color. 

“Then who caught those? Did they get struck by lightning or something?”

“Ahem!”

Lee Danhoe cleared his throat loudly.

“Sahyeong?”

“Silence. Don’t make a scene when you’re on another sect’s grounds.”

The disciple shot him a reproachful look that said, ‘See, you’re changing the subject because you’ve got nothing to say,’ but Lee Danhoe firmly looked away.

Honestly, what could he even say? The so-called Taoists were roasting a wild boar on the training grounds.

What was even more absurd was that the elders of the sect – men who should have been examples of decorum – weren’t stopping it at all. Instead, they each fetched a large plate and quietly sat down around the fire.

It was a sight that felt not just unfamiliar but downright strange.

Taoists eating a whole roast boar? No, that at least falls within the realm of the understandable. What was truly foreign was…

‘Have I ever seen anything like this in my life?’

The Sect Leader, the elders, even the youngest disciples were all sitting together, sharing space without distinction or rank, or standing on formalities. And they felt nothing strange about it.

In a prestigious sect that prizes propriety, ceremony, and rules above all, it was a scene beyond imagining. What would the Lee Danhoe of just a few years ago have thought, looking at this?

‘He must have sneered, calling it the senseless antics of a sect without lineage or traditions.’

But now – could he even dare call Hwasan that? Could anyone under heaven say such a thing?

“Doesn’t it look done?”

“Don’t spout nonsense. The skin is only just starting to crisp. It’ll be a long while before the inside is cooked through.”

“Then the skin is a fair game to eat, isn’t it?”

“Oh, you’re right. Are you a genius?”

Hwasan’s swordsmen, chuckling with delight, surged in close to the fire.

“Hey, don’t slice pork with the precious swords our clan made for you, Sahyeongs! Use a kitchen knife!”

“Th-This just fits my hand too well.”

“Compared to this sword, a kitchen knife is far too dull. Try to understand, Soso.”

“You damn lunatics!”

The disciples of Hwasan, having divided up the roasted pork, sat back down with their portions.

“Ahh, that’s killer.”

“As expected, the boars that live on Hwasan are nice and chewy. Less fat and the texture is firm. Why can’t they taste this good anywhere else?” 

“Even a wild boar has to toughen up to run up those cliffs.”

“…Why does that suddenly sound sad?”

The disciples smacked their lips thoughtfully.

It felt good to be eating Hwasan-born(?) pork for the first time in a while, but something… Something felt terribly lacking, you could say.

“……There won’t be any alcohol, will there?”

“I heard the liquor storeroom is completely empty.”

“Ugh.”

“Besides, no matter how off the rails Hwasan may be, how could we openly drink with the Sect Leader and the Retired Sect Leader present.”

“We drank before.”

“Shh. We agreed to forget that. Keep it down.”

Just then, as Hwasan’s disciples were smacking their lips in regret…

“Mm. They’ve arrived.”

“Huh?”

The area by the mountain gate grew noisy, and suddenly a crowd of people appeared, each with a large earthen jar strapped to their backs.

“Oh? Who are they?”

“Wait. These things they’re carrying on their backs…”

Hwang Jong-ui, who had been watching the commotion, trudged forward wearily.

“Eek! A ghost! It’s a ghost!”

“Hey, you punk. Look closely. That’s the Master of the Eunha Merchant Guild! Watch your manners!”

“But why does his face look so gaunt?”

“Because he’s grown thin.”

“…I don’t think that’s all. He looks like someone whose soul has been sucked out.”

Hwang Jong-ui, looking as if he stood at the very end of his life, smiled awkwardly. 

“Heroes of Hwasan, welcome back. This liquor was prepared by the Eunha Merchant Guild as a token of celebration of your return, so for today at least, please enjoy yourselves to your hearts’ content.”

Hwasan’s disciples’ gazes shifted all at once from Hwang Jong-ui to Hyun Jong. Hyun Jong simply shrugged.

“It wouldn’t be proper to refuse a gift outright, would it?”

“Yeeeaaaah!”

“Liquor!”

“Out of the way, all of you! I’m first!”

“B-Baek Cheon Sahyeong?”

In a flash, the oiled paper covering the liquor jars was peeled away, and a strong aroma of liquor spread through the air.

“Thank you, Guild Master of the Eunha Merchant Guild!”

“Heavens! It can’t have been easy to haul all this liquor up to the mountaintop.”

“When did you even prepare all this? As expected of the Eunha Merchant Guild! No wonder you make money!”

“Heh-heh-heh-heh.”

While praise rained down from all sides, Hwang Jong-ui smiled gently.

There was no need to disclose that, after hearing the threat, ‘Surely you didn’t climb all the way here empty-handed after all we went through, did you? A gift, perhaps? Liquor would be nice – enough for everyone here to eat and drink their fill?’, he had swallowed his tears and sent a messenger down the mountain.

“Let’s drink!”

“Now it finally feels like we’re home!”

“Khh. Have a cup, Sahyeong.”

“All right. Let’s see if you can keep up.”

As Hwang Jong-ui silently watched the disciples of Hwasan slam back the strong liquor with the determination to drink until they dropped dead, he quietly made his way to Chung Myung, who was sipping his drink alone in a corner.

Chung Myung tilted his head, as if to ask what this was about.

“Dojang, will this really do? Wouldn’t it be better to hold an official welcoming ceremony instead?”

It wasn’t that Hwang Jong-ui had no plans of his own. They had returned with so little notice that he hadn’t been able to finish preparations, but he had already made arrangements to rent out one of Hwaeum’s finest pavilions for a grand celebration.

But Chung Myung seemed not particularly fond of that plan.

“Isn’t this fine as it is now?”

“…Hmm.”

“Don’t you agree?”

Hwang Jong-ui glanced sideways at the bonfire. Night had already fallen, and the fire’s red glow lit up the darkness around them. Everyone sat nearby, laughing and chatting boisterously – as if burning something away in the flames, letting it drift off into the night.

“That’s true, but…”

“I understand you want to honor us properly. But sometimes… rather than celebration, what people need is to forget.”

Chung Myung offered the cup he was holding to Hwang Jong-ui.

“More than that, have a drink.”

“Me as well?”

“Isn’t it the same here? The war has only just ended for you all too, hasn’t it?”

At those words, Hwang Jong-ui let out a brief laugh.

“I have a feeling it’s only going to get busier.”

“That’s life for you, after all”

Chuckling under his breath, Hwang Jong-ui accepted the cup Chung Myung handed him. The clear stream of liquor pouring into the cup caught the flicker of the fire and glowed softly. 

“You there, disciples of Diancang, come join us!”

“Ah, I told you – they’re not of drinking age yet. How many times do I have to say it.”

“But they can eat meat. And for the record, I stole my father’s liquor when I was ten, you know.”

“Ah, so that’s why you’re like this. Now I understand.”

“…What do you mean by that, Sahyeong?”

The boisterous chatter, and someone’s softly hummed song…

And as the smoke from the fire drifted up into the night sky from the mountain’s peak, the feelings they hadn’t yet managed to lay to rest slowly scattered with it into the distance.

Next chapter >>>

________

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.