Chapter 377: Crossroads (2)

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“Hm, older brother?”

Namgung Hwi looked at me as if asking why I was posing such a question. He seemed to feel somewhat embarrassed, but regrettably, I could not empathize with that emotion. Feeling empathy growing fainter made me uneasy instead.

“Yeah.”

“Well, you are a good person.”

“Not words like that. No, well, words like that are fine too. But something a bit more detailed than that.”

“Do you wish to receive a bow after prostrating?”

“No. Not at all. I truly want a frank answer.”

“It certainly seems like it, though.”

Namgung Hwi narrowed his eyes. But I truly had not asked about myself just to hear praise.

Of course, Namgung Hwi’s fluster was understandable as well. If asked out of the blue by an acquaintance what kind of person they were, most people would likely react like Namgung Hwi.

“Speak your true feelings without addition or subtraction.”

“……It feels embarrassing to say with my own mouth, and it will be words that make your ears itch to hear, older brother.”

“Just do it anyway.”

“To me, you are truly like the sun, older brother. Do you remember when we first met? Did we not spar where the salt merchants gathered?”

“We did.”

“Back then, you were merely a lay disciple of the Wudang Sect and a merchant, older brother. You did not look like a martial artist at all. Yet you defeated me. There, I realized: what a frog in a well I was, and how vast the world is.”

“…….”

Somehow, listening to it, it truly felt like fishing for compliments. For now, since Namgung Hwi continued speaking, I decided to listen.

“In truth, the world being vast is one thing, but you were simply a person far beyond the standard, older brother. Where in this world is there someone at that age who can match the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven?”

“That is true.”

“I feel that not only in martial arts, but in human aspects as well, you are far ahead of me, older brother. In a way, that is even more remarkable. Though talent differs for each person, is not the time given to each of us identical? Yet despite not having much age difference from me, it feels as though your personal character refinement was accomplished far better than mine. Even though I am someone who received all the education one could in a prestigious family.”

“In that part, it cannot be helped. I have lived longer than you might think.”

“Did you conceal your age?”

“I didn’t conceal it, but at any rate, the time I have spent is different.”

“……I cannot understand what you mean, but in any case, that is how it is. To summarize bluntly, you are my role model, older brother. Are you satisfied now?”

Namgung Hwi was feeling embarrassed after having spoken himself. Then again, showering someone with praise before their face was bound to be embarrassing.

Had I not been standing on the boundary of shedding right now, I probably would have felt embarrassed as well.

“Yeah, thank you.”

“You are not going somewhere, are you?”

“Hm?”

I turned back to look at Namgung Hwi. Namgung Hwi was scratching his cheek as if awkward.

“Originally, when a person does things they usually don’t do, it makes one slightly uneasy, doesn’t it? Because you asked something you normally wouldn’t ask, I was merely a bit worried. Especially in busy times like now.”

“Worrying over nothing.”

I lightly patted Namgung Hwi on the shoulder. As Namgung Hwi had said, it was a busy period right now.

Aside from what I wished to ask, there were also things I had to do.

Thinking about it, whether I departed from being human or not, the Emperor remained my enemy all the same. In any case, the Emperor wished to kill me.

Coincidentally, the crossroads of the Central Plains and the crossroads of myself as a person overlapped simultaneously. Here, through transcendent senses, I had a premonition: that although I was standing among many crossroads right now, ultimately, their ends would be connected into one.

* * *

The Emperor finally issued a suppression order against the New Justice Association. I broadly understood. At the last assembly, he must have felt a massive threat regarding me.

“All preparations are already complete.”

Dependably, Zhuge Yan did not wear a tense expression in the least.

“I view the suppression order as a blunder. Right now, popular uprisings are breaking out across the nation, yet far from resolving that, they are opening a new battleground.”

“Targeting us for suppression seems like part of an effort to quell the popular uprisings, though.”

“It’s obvious. However, it will yield the opposite effect instead. Because the New Justice Association has accumulated a reputation among the common people for a long time. Unlike the imperial palace, which held a festival on its own.”

Zhuge Yan sneered. It was just as she said. The one who had tended to the people’s livelihoods shattered by the floods was not the imperial palace, but the New Justice Association.

I had ordered all sects in the New Justice Association to stockpile as much grain as possible, and accordingly, they were able to help the common people after the flood. Was that all? Rescuing people from sweeping currents and repairing broken embankments was also the New Justice Association’s role.

“All we need to do now is choose: whether to launch a counterattack or wait for the right moment further. What are Association Master’s thoughts?”

“No need to wait. It seems sufficiently ripe.”

“I have the exact same thought.”

We had already completed our preparations for war long ago. Even the organization of who would take defense and who would attack when the war began.

After a long time, I headed to the new residence of the Wudang Sect. Because the duties of the New Justice Association Master had been so busy, there had hardly been any occasions to visit.

It was half an obligatory action. Since I did not know how this war would end, it felt as though I should greet the people with whom I had formed ties.

I first stopped by the Sect Leader’s Chamber. Cheong-ui was seated with the same elegant dignity as when I first saw him.

“You have come.”

“It has been a long time since I paid respects, Sect Leader. I should have visited more frequently.”

“Who in the Central Plains does not know how busy you are? It is fine.”

Cheong-ui said so while brewing tea. As always, it was water boiled directly with Samadhi True Flame.

“Sect Leader always brewed tea whenever I came.”

“Why do you speak as if you are leaving for good? Whenever you come, I shall brew tea for you.”

“One never knows, does one?”

“The you I know will return alive.”

Cheong-ui also knew the war was breaking out. Notices under my name would already be posted across the entire Central Plains. A manifesto denouncing the Great Empire and showing the aspiration to lead a new nation.

I had nothing in particular to say. I merely drank the tea the Sect Leader brewed. The Sect Leader did not speak intentionally either. The Sect Leader seemed to have contained everything he wished to say in that single cup of tea.

“I enjoyed the tea.”

“Yes. Go and return safely.”

I bowed my head and stepped out of the Sect Leader’s Chamber. Coming outside, Cheong-hwa was waiting, leaning his back against the hallway.

“Master.”

“If you came, you should have sought your Master first. How insolent.”

“Is it not proper etiquette to pay respects to the Sect Leader first?”

“Since when did you ever care for such norms?”

Cheong-hwa grumbled as always. Though he was my Master, not seeming like a master was his charm.

“Not changing seems to be a truly beautiful thing.”

“Are you teasing me for being the exact same as in the past?”

“Not at all.”

“However, I agree with those words as well.”

Cheong-hwa said.

“And you have changed quite a bit right now. To the point of making me feel melancholic.”

“Is that so?”

I flinched. In truth, I had changed. However, I had tried to conceal it as much as possible, yet Cheong-hwa had realized my change after barely looking at me.

“A person changing is something that cannot be helped. In particular, I know well that carrying so much on your shoulders at a young age forces you to change even more. However, do not change any further. Somehow, you look as though you might fly away at the slightest touch.”

“I shall keep that in mind.”

“Your answer still lacks soul as always. That much remains unchanged at least.”

Cheong-hwa laughed heartily. A smirk escaped me as well. Master’s laughter was somehow infectious.

After meeting Cheong-hwa, the last person to meet was set.

“You came, Junior Brother.”

“Senior Brother.”

The one who welcomed me was Myeong-gyeong, who had now grown quite large. People always said children grew in leaps and bounds whenever you didn’t see them, and those words were spot-on. The little kid Myeong-gyeong who used to fit right into my embrace had vanished, and only a handsome young man with broad shoulders remained.

“You’ve grown a lot.”

“You shouldn’t say such things to your Senior Brother.”

“I apologize. But you’ve truly grown a lot.”

“……Enough. What can I even say to you?”

“Your cute charm has faded a bit, Senior Brother.”

“I’m not a child anymore. I can’t act spoiled.”

I smiled bitterly. Cheong-hwa had good reason to say he felt melancholic over my change.

For even I, who had become vastly distant from human emotions, felt melancholic over Myeong-gyeong’s change and growth.

It was truly an astonishing thing: to be able to draw out such an amplitude of emotion from the current me. However, I could not ask Myeong-gyeong to remain a child for my sake.

“You’re going, right?”

Out of the blue, Myeong-gyeong tapped his scabbard and asked. Though he asked while intentionally avoiding my gaze, there was a faint tremor in his voice.

“Where to?”

“To fight.”

“Ah, I have to go.”

“I shouldn’t come along, right?”

Myeong-gyeong looked at me.

“Naturally. When you’ve only just passed fifteen years of age.”

“In the martial world, passing fifteen makes one an adult.”

“What cannot be done cannot be done.”

Myeong-gyeong pouted his lips. Though his body had grown, his face was still youthful, retaining traces of the past, which was welcoming.

“Junior Brother. The reason I trained so hard was because of you, Junior Brother.”

“What do you mean by that?”

I tilted my head. I knew from hearing that Myeong-gyeong had trained hard while I wasn’t looking. Because I had asked Namgung Hwi to steadily report news of Myeong-gyeong.

Even so, I had never dreamed that Myeong-gyeong was training so desperately for my sake.

“You carry so much on your shoulders, Junior Brother. As your Senior Brother, not being able to share that burden made me feel terribly embarrassed and ashamed.”

“There was no need for you to do so.”

“Even aside from our relationship as martial brothers, I wanted to be of help to you as a person. That is why I am exerting effort. But it feels as though you are advancing far faster than the pace of my growth, Junior Brother. Anxiously so.”

Myeong-gyeong spoke while avoiding my eyes. In the past, he would have said such words without hesitation, but having grown a bit, he seemed embarrassed.

I had been thinking incorrectly. Even though his body had grown, Myeong-gyeong was still Myeong-gyeong.

“What can I do, though? It is not as if I can refrain from advancing.”

“I know. But if I take my eyes off you for even a moment, Junior Brother, it feels as though you might disappear someday. That terrifies me so much.”

I looked at Myeong-gyeong, whose shoulders were shrinking back. Why was it that everyone I met had an intuition regarding my change? And they all feared my disappearance.

All without knowing in the least that I had transcended right now. That was truly a wondrous thing.

“……Thinking about it now, you were somehow an extraordinary person, Junior Brother. Extraordinary to the point of not appearing like the same kind of human as us. Never flustered, always finding the right path.”

I could not brazenly claim here that you and I were the exact same human. Did I not undergo regression and even possess the Martial Talent Shop?

“To such an extraordinary Junior Brother, staying with an ordinary person like me might be boring. So even if you leave, I think it cannot be helped.”

“…….”

Did Myeong-gyeong know my current dilemma? Astonishingly, Myeong-gyeong was completely piercing through my current situation.

“Are you going to leave me, leave us, Junior Brother?”

Myeong-gyeong asked. Myeong-gyeong looked into my eyes for the first time. This time, I was the one who looked away instead.