I can’t do this anymore. Truly. (5)
“Whose fault is all this in the first place!”
“We had to save the kid……”
“So I’m asking if that was the only way to save him!”
“I couldn’t think of any other way, so what was I supposed to do…”
“How can you be this reckless! Who was it, who said we should buy him out and send him off!”
“You.”
At Yoon Jong’s indifferent remark, Tang Soso flinched.
“W-When did I?!”
“No, I heard it too. You said we should let him go.”
“Sahyeongs were thinking the same thing! Am I the only one at fault?”
“Oh-ho. So that’s how you want to play it?”
The disciples of Hwasan began blaming one another fiercely, as if they were about to tear each other apart.
Watching that heartwarming scene in silence, Hye Yeon smiled gently and nodded.
“I always feel this, but you, Sijus, really do seem to get along well.”
And Chung Myung, hearing those words, smiled contentedly as well.
‘I really should stop hitting him in the head now.’
How could anyone look at that scene and say something like that? If you dragged him onto a battlefield, he’d probably start striking his moktak*, thinking some festival had begun.
“Is it not because their faith is so firm that their words could never wound one another that they are able to say such harsh things?”
“Not because they’re determined to leave a wound somehow, no matter what?”
“Haha. Amitabha. As expected, Siju, you truly do have such an amusing way with words.”
It was heartbreaking. Even when told the truth, he could not accept it. Was this what came out of growing up comfortably within Shaolin’s cozy fence?
This was why brats needed to be rolled around through the rough fields.
“Wait.”
For a moment, Baek Cheon’s expression turned sharp and serious, as if cutting through the commotion.
“This is not something we should keep making a fuss over. Should we not try to come up with a realistic plan? Since we do not even have the travel expenses to return to Hwasan right now, we must make money somehow.”
“Wow. What. A. Brand. New. Fact. I had no idea.”
“What you say is right, but is it really right for you to be the one saying it, Sasuk?”
“K-Khmm.”
Baek Cheon kept clearing his throat, his face so red it looked ready to burst at any moment.
“So what are you going to do? Do you have a way?”
“Of course I don’t.”
Shrring.
“W-Why are you drawing your sword. Let us put that away first and talk, Samae.”
You really are frightening. Truly.
Watching the chaos, Yoon Jong let out a deep sigh and turned to Chung Myung.
“Don’t you have any ideas?”
“Do you lot think I’m some dokkaebi’s magic club**! That an answer will pop out if you strike me?”
“I would not say I think that much.”
Yoon Jong narrowed his brow slightly and looked at Chung Myung.
“But I also do not think you came aaall this way without keeping something tucked away.”
“Huh?”
“Now that you mention it.”
“Wouldn’t that bastard have money?”
All the disciples of Hwasan narrowed their eyes and looked at Chung Myung. But under those gazes, Chung Myung stayed utterly unabashed.
“Now, think about it. This time, Sect Leader gave us plenty of money, didn’t he?”
“So?”
“When I can spend someone else’s money, would I spend my own?”
“Hm. That’s true. Let us discuss some other plan.”
“Let’s do that.”
“…At least pretend to think about it.”
Even though he was the one who had said it, seeing it accepted so easily made Chung Myung feel oddly bitter. Just what did these bastards think of him?
“Then what do we do? Is there really no way?”
Chung Myung shrugged.
“If it is money, we can just make some.”
“Hm? You have a way to earn money?”
“There are plenty of ways to earn money. But why earn?”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung curled his lips into a grin.
“It is not that we have no money right now. We just did not bring any.”
“That is true, but.”
In truth, Hwasan was by no means a poor sect anymore. Even if all the not-so-insignificant travel funds they had brought with them had vanished, it was merely an amount they could quickly replenish the moment they returned to Hwasan.
They simply had no way to procure that money in this distant place.
“So instead of wasting time trying to earn money, it is better to borrow it.”
“Borrow? You want to borrow the money?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. If you think about it, that is right, but…”
Baek Cheon, who had been frowning deep in thought, rapidly grew gloomy.
“But who would lend us money? They don’t even know where Hwasan is.”
“Ah, come on. You really hold onto your grudges.”
Chung Myung clicked his tongue, his face twisting in irritation.
“Where would we borrow it from? We should borrow it from someone with a lot of money. Better yet, from the richest someone in this town.”
Everyone narrowed their eyes.
“From that man called Lord Song?”
“As expected, Chung Myung wouldn’t just sit there and let himself be ripped off like that.”
“What are you going to do? An ambush? Infiltration? Threats?”
“…Have all of you lost your minds? What do you mean, threats!”
“Eh? Then? You mean we just openly ask to borrow some money? Does that man have any reason to lend us money?”
“When did I ever say I was borrowing money from Lord Song?”
Jo Geol tilted his head and asked again.
“You said that if we were going to borrow money, it should be from ‘the richest’ in this place. Isn’t that Lord Song?”
“No.”
“……It isn’t? Then who is it?”
Chung Myung snorted and sprang to his feet.
“I don’t know who it is, but I know where it is. Sahyeong probably knows too, I bet.”
Everyone looked at one another with puzzled expressions.
❀ ❀ ❀
“Haaaaaaahm.”
Sunhak Gae [순학개(佝狢丐)] stretched out a long yawn.
“A fly will go into your mouth, Branch Leader.”
“Hmm. Well, what if it does?”
Lying sprawled on a straw mat, Sunhak Gae scratched at his back.
Unlike the name Sunhak [佝狢: swift badger], his plump, well-fattened back rippled briefly each time his hand moved. Judging by appearance alone, a name like Nadon [懶豚: lazy pig] seemed more fitting than Sunhak.
But Sunhak Gae had his own excuses to make.
Would his name really have been Sunhak for no reason? He hadn’t always been a fat, well-fed beggar. In his youth, he had been faster and more diligent than anyone else.
Every problem had begun when he came to this Jinan branch as its Branch Leader.
‘I have nothing to do.’
Sunhak Gae let out another long yawn.
What was the work of a Beggars Sect’s branch? On the outside, of course, it was managing the local beggars. Mediating the matters that arose among beggars, and looking after them so they did not starve too badly (there was no helping them starving a little. They were beggars, after all.)
But that was not the truly important work. Since the Beggars Sect, too, was a sect of Gangho, the foremost duty of every Beggars Sect branch was to gather information on the martial sects in that region.
But there were no martial sects in Jinan.
After the Shandong Ak Clan [산동악가], which had once ruled Shandong, was half-destroyed in the Great Blood Calamity of the past, Shandong had quite literally become an ownerless mountain.
There wasn’t a single sect worth the Beggars’ Sect’s attention no matter how hard one searched, and at most there were only tiny Black Path sects squabbling over whether to kill each other or spare.
As a result, within Shandong at least, there was no difference between a Beggars Sect member and an ordinary beggar. Everyone was equally just a beggar living off scraps.
But due to the nature of a Beggars Sect’s branch, offerings came in from the beggars one way or another, so the beggars of the branch had no need to go out begging with their own two hands. So what would happen?
‘What else would happen? We end up like pigs being fed in a pen.’
Most of the previous Branch Leaders who had been appointed to the Jinan branch had been unable to endure this uselessness and eventually ran away from Jinan.
But Sunhak Gae was different. He thought this life was not particularly bad.
‘If you can endure being a little short on money and a little filthy, isn’t this practically living like an immortal***?’
To some, that lack of money and the filth might be critical issues – but not to Sunhak Gae. So there was no real reason for him to dislike this life.
Yes, this place might perhaps be a paradise permitted only to beggars.
Sunhak Gae certainly thought so. Until a young brat he had never seen before appeared before him and began spouting absolute nonsense.
⠀
“So……”
Sunhak Gae blinked. Then he began digging furiously into his ear.
The young brat in front of him openly frowned, as if disgusted, but Sunhak Gae did not even dare point out that rudeness. The words he had just heard were far too absurd for him to fuss over such a trivial thing.
“S-So… you are saying that you, Sohyeop…”
“Sodojang.”
“Yes. That you, Sodojang… are Hwasan Shinryong?”
“That’s right.”
“Of Hwasan, who defeated Shaolin’s Hye Yeon in the Martial Tournament?”
“Yes, and this one here is that Hye Yeon.”
“Amitabha. It is a pleasure to meet you, Siju.”
“…”
Sunhak Gae, who had been staring at Hye Yeon as he calmly pressed his palms together, lifted his head and looked up at the ceiling of the hut, which seemed ready to collapse at any moment.
Just what sin had he committed for the heavens to send down such a cruel trial upon him?
“First… yes. Let us just say that is true for now. Since there is no way to confirm it right away, for the moment……. yes.”
The moment those words ended, the young Taoist bastards behind him began whispering among themselves.
“But why can’t he confirm it? Wouldn’t he know by looking at our faces?”
“Maybe we’re not famous enough.”
“Even if that is true for us, should he not know Monk Hye Yeon?”
“If you think about it, Monk Hye Yeon only showed his face for the first time at the tournament too. He might not know.”
“Could it be that this place is just incredibly incompetent? From what I saw earlier, it did not look like they were working either.”
“Hmm. You do have a point. That could be it.”
I can hear everything, you bastards…
The bastards standing behind him were getting on his nerves, but that was not what mattered right now. Because he had just heard something far more important – and far more bizarre.
“But for people such as yourselves to be asking me for…”
Sunhak Gae gulped down, his throat dry.
“Money… you want me to lend you money.”
“Yes.”
Chung Myung nodded confidently, while Hye Yeon and the other disciples needlessly turned their eyes away and looked up at the hut’s ceiling.
Seeing that awkward atmosphere, Sunhak Gae saw a glimmer of hope. The bastard staring straight at him right now was clearly a madman, but the others at least seemed to still have some semblance of human decency left.
The problem was this madman.
“Sodojang, as you can see, we are beggars.”
“Yes.”
“You are asking us to lend you money? Beggars?”
“Yes.”
“So, beggars…”
“Ah, I said yes. How many times do I have to say it.
“…”
Chung Myung casually nodded several times. Realizing that there was not a single speck of hesitation in that nod, Sunhak Gae felt all the reason crumble inside him.
“Does asking beggars to lend you money make any sense? You crazy bastards!”
“Please correct that from ‘bastards’ to ‘a bastard.’ For the accuracy.”
“We opposed it.”
“Honestly, do you think we came here because we wanted to?”
Seeing the Taoist bastards protest as if they were the ones wronged only made Sunhak Gae’s insides twist even more.
“Do not go shouting yourself hoarse for nothing.”
Chung Myung leaned back comfortably in the chair the branch had provided, idly scratching his pinky fingernail with his thumb as he spoke in a languid tone.
“I said we will pay it back, didn’t I? Do you not trust Hwasan?”
“That is not the problem! I told you, we are beggars!”
“I told you, I knew that before coming. I’ve got eyes – anyone can see this is a hut. Did you think I wouldn’t even know that?”
“A person who claims to know that would… urgh…”
The back of Sunhak Gae’s neck began stiffening on its own. Normally, he was so laid-back he wouldn’t have any grounds to complain even if people called him Lazy Pig Beggar – but in less than a gak since facing this guy, he was reminded just how quick-tempered he used to be.
As Sunhak Gae, struck speechless by sheer absurdity, kept opening and closing his mouth, Baek Cheon, who had been observing the situation, quietly whispered to Chung Myung.
“Chung Myung-ah, we came because you said to come, but… honestly, this seems a little wrong. Let us just go back.”
“Ah, I said it is fine.”
“What money would beggars have that they could lend us?”
“Beggars do not have money.”
“Right? Exactly. So….”
“But.”
Chung Myung grinned.
“The Beggars Sect has a lot of money.”
“Hm?”
“What does it matter whether they are beggars or not. If they have money, they can lend it.”
Chung Myung looked at Sunhak Gae and smiled wickedly.
“Isn’t that right?”
“…”
Sunhak Gae’s body flinched involuntarily.
________
*목탁 – buddhist instrument that looks remotely like a wooden fish.
**A creature from korean folklore. You can google 도깨비방망이 to see how it and its club look.
***Immortal as an ascetic monk, who lives in the mountains and has high level of cultivation, could also possibly ascend.
________
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