Chapter 377: Chapter 377

The brutal cold of midwinter had passed, but the lingering traces of that chill remained.

Spring was still a long way off, yet Wuhan was bustling more than usual.

All to prepare for the grand market that came once every four years.

The Murim Academy’s graduation ceremony, held once every four years, was also the season Wuhan’s merchants anticipated most.

Around this time, it was common for vendors to pay premiums a full year in advance just to secure a spot on the roadside.

Several hundred graduates.

Each and every one of them, the pride of their sects and families.

To celebrate them, anyone across the nation with even a distant connection to a graduate — from their eighth cousin twice removed on down — descended on Wuhan without exception.

‘Enrolled in the Academy.’

This was, fundamentally, tantamount to saying one was a disciple of a formidable sect or the child of a powerful clan, which meant their relatives never came alone either.

They brought throngs of attendants, of course, and it was common to hire escort agencies and wanderers as well.

On top of that, the cart hands they employed tagged along, making the Academy graduation the ultimate business opportunity for merchants.

To seize such a prime opportunity, traders flocked in from across the nation, and merchant guilds gathered to supply them with goods.

Furthermore, when that many people congregated, tourists arrived to gawk at and enjoy the spectacular sight.

It was, in the truest sense, a near-explosion of population — people drawing people.

“Wow…… I’ve never seen this many people before!”

Dong-ryong, his face flushed with a peculiar excitement, bounced up and down, making no effort to conceal his glee.

Being assigned to the Alliance Leader’s Hall was surely exciting, but what he couldn’t contain was the joy of seeing his parents again after so long.

“Must be a bunch of layabouts with nothing better to do. What are they even here for, coming all the way to a graduation ceremony?”

And beside him, Eun-ho was radiating a strangely irritable aura, picking fights with everything in existence as though the entire world offended him.

“Look at this sorry excuse for a toy. Who makes this garbage and still has the nerve to call it a business? Do they even want to make money?”

“Hmm…… these candied fruits aren’t sweet at all. Just ruined my palate, damn it.”

“Why are there so many people? I wish they’d all just disappear, honestly!”

I seized the shoulders of Eun-ho, who was fuming to himself like a boy afflicted with the sickness of fifteen, and spoke.

“Eun-ho, anyone can bomb an exam.”

Of course, I’d never bombed one myself.

But as a senior brother with a heart as vast as the ocean, I swallowed the rest for my junior’s sake.

After a brief, wordless moment with his head bowed, Eun-ho slowly raised his face.

The fierce look in his eyes had already given way to a watery sheen.

“S-Senior Brother…… what’s going to happen to me now?”

I didn’t fully understand how, but Eun-ho — who’d proclaimed he would become a “badass legend of a man” — had applied to the Mantongbu for his second and third choices as well, operating on his own idiotic…… no, his own unique logic that “it’s not badass if you don’t go all-in.”

Naturally, warnings from the Academy officials at the Personnel Hall had arrived almost immediately, but Eun-ho refused to back down.

I offered words to comfort him.

“You’ll probably get slapped with insubordination and shipped off to some backwater branch at the edge of the Central Plains. Vacation once every three years…… By the time your branch service ends, you’ll come out a broken man.”

“Bwaaah……”

Eun-ho wept in the most pathetic manner.

Serves him right. I told him to quit that nonsense, and he wouldn’t listen.

Honestly, there’s an old saying that good things come to those who listen to their senior brother in their sleep…….

“Senior Brother! Stop teasing him. Lee Eun-ho! You too! The results aren’t even out yet.”

“W-well, do we really need to wait for the results? It’s practically a done dea……”

“Senior Brother!!”

Thanks to Sa-ryeon’s soothing, Eun-ho’s tears had barely dried by the time we arrived at the Taepyeong Inn, where the Taeul Sect people were staying.

Since they’d come with Estate Master Wang Geum-san, I’d naturally assumed they would have booked a separate wing, but surprisingly, they were on the second floor, which was packed with people.

“Geum-pyo! Eun-ho! Dong-ryong!”

The moment we went upstairs, the parents of the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers, who had been sitting meekly at a table, lit up and rushed toward us.

“Father!”

“Mom!!”

The three brothers, too, reverted to childlike form, nestling into their parents’ arms and acting spoiled for the first time in ages.

Their father and mother had dressed in new clothes like everyone else.

The sight was awkward beyond words, yet they looked happier than anyone, and a smile came to my face on its own.

“Hmm, let me see……”

Leaving the touching reunion behind, I headed toward where the Taeul Sect people were gathered.

“Huh?”

The party was smaller than expected.

I turned to the person I suspected was the cause of this situation and asked in an accusatory tone.

“Don’t tell me you left everyone behind on a day like this just to save money?”

“Why are you making a fuss at an innocent man? It’s because of that Master Baek you introduced us to that nobody could come!”

Father huffed indignantly.

Then a plump hand patted his shoulder.

“Anyone could tell you two are father and son. The moment you meet, it’s money talk before greetings — ha ha!”

At the genial Wang Geum-san’s remark, Jin Tae-san erupted.

“How can you say such a thing!”

“……”

Well, how harsh. Father’s words are too much.

Am I really that embarrassing to present to others?

Even as he said all that, Father’s eyes were scanning my face and body to check if anything was wrong, and a grin slipped out.

“You’ve got all this money, so why have you lost so much weight?”

“What are you saying? You, the Outer Hall Master and head of the Great Heaven Merchant Guild, never send me living expenses, so I’m barely scraping by day to day……”

“You think I don’t know how much money passes through your hands?”

As always, Father knew every detail of my finances even without being told.

I quickly tried to change the subject, and fortunately, Estate Master Wang Geum-san came to the rescue.

“You…… have changed a great deal.”

Wang Geum-san was studying me with a peculiar look.

“The bearing of a master comes through naturally now.”

“Oh, is that so?”

But before I could exchange more than a few words with him —

“Big Brother!!!!!!!”

Someone charged at me like a bull.

The perpetrator of this violent display of affection was none other than Jegal Cheon-gi.

“Ahhh, Big Brother! I nearly couldn’t make it. Thankfully, because you called for me, I can take in your resplendent visage with my own two eyes, and I’m overwhelmed with gratitu……”

A torrent of grandiose praise came pouring out in rapid fire.

But it did seem like Master Baek Hae-gwang was driving his students hard.

The only ones who’d come were Yu-seong and Wang So-so.

Judging by Yu-seong, the bar for the Wuhan trip must have been high…… so how did So-so manage to come?

“Dear Brother…… have you been well?”

So-so, who seemed to have grown quite a bit when I wasn’t looking, tucked her hair neatly with a flush on her cheeks.

Her looks had been exceptional even as a child, but now, having reached adulthood, she was dazzling enough to make one’s eyes sting.

I ruffled her hair gently.

“Yeah. You’ve changed beyond recognition too.”

“Dear Brother, you’ve gotten even more handso……”

Just then.

“Se.nior. Bro.ther!”

A frigid voice cut off Wang So-so’s words.

Its owner was Sa-ryeon.

So-so hesitated briefly, then resumed with a sweet smile.

“Op……”

“Se.nior. Bro.ther!”

Wang So-so turned her head to look at Sa-ryeon and smiled prettily.

“Senior Sister Hong……?”

“If you’re a disciple of Taeul Sect, you should mind your forms of address, shouldn’t you?”

“Dear Brother and I have a relationship that goes beyond that sort of……”

“Se.nior. Bro.ther!”

An uncomfortable tension was spreading, so I quietly slipped away.

After all, paying my respects to the Sect Leader was the foremost duty of a chief disciple.

Indeed, I sincerely believed that. Absolutely.

Having escaped the two women’s sphere of influence, I looked around for the Sect Leader, but he was nowhere to be found.

Then, Father’s voice reached me.

“What are you doing? Go pay your respects to the Sect Leader.”

“Where is the Sect Leader?”

“Good grief, has this boy lost his mind? He’s right in front of you and you can’t recognize him?”

I followed Father’s pointing finger with my eyes.

And there stood.

“……”

A wanderer with a fierce bearing, as though he’d been through every hardship imaginable on land, sea, and air — his eyes gleaming with intensity.

No, who on earth are you?

I looked back at Father.

“Who is this person……”

“What are you gawking for? Pay your respects at once! Have you already forgotten the Sect Leader’s face?”

“……”

This person is the Sect Leader I knew?

“It has been a while, So-un.”

The unfamiliar wanderer greeted me as if he knew me.

***

A boisterous commotion broke out, and a celebration that wasn’t quite a celebration ensued.

All manner of rare dishes and wines were brought out, but people were too busy catching up with faces they hadn’t seen in ages to pay them much mind.

The most passionate outburst of emotion came from Mr. Lee of the mill.

“I’m just a mill owner…… why are my boys……?!!”

Whether it was elation or anguish was hard to tell, but he seemed profoundly moved that all three brothers had made it through Academy life side by side.

If he’s already crying like that, what’s he going to do at the actual graduation ceremony tomorrow?

The dinner, which had started in the early evening, showed no signs of ending even as the night deepened.

Still, preparations for the next day’s graduation ceremony had to be made, so one by one, people retired to their rooms.

Sa-ryeon and the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers decided to stay at the inn for the night as well.

After everyone had gone to bed, late into the night, the Sect Leader, Father, Estate Master Wang Geum-san, and I moved to a different spot.

“……And so I refused.”

I consulted them about my recent encounter with the Righteous Path Association.

Though my account was brief, the gravity of the matter kept the three of them from speaking for some time.

“The Righteous Path Association extended its hand……”

The first to break the contemplative silence was Estate Master Wang Geum-san.

As a merchant who had always walked the middle path, he had extensive experience in situations like these, and he empathized more deeply with my dilemma than anyone.

“That alone shows how much you — and Taeul Sect — have grown.”

It wasn’t solely due to my achievements.

The Taeul Sect’s prestige and the Great Heaven Merchant Guild’s influence had been growing faster than ever, which had undoubtedly played a role as well.

“But attention is simultaneously hostility.”

In my past life, no one had paid the Taeul Sect any attention.

And so all we’d done was scrabble on our own to find shelter from the oncoming storm.

This life was different.

The Taeul Sect, slowly growing into a great tree, had to prepare for the jealousy and interference of others before the tempest even arrived.

Only after fending off their sharp axes would it finally come face to face with the storm itself.

Even after I finished speaking, silence hung heavy over the gathering for a long while.

“Do you think I made the wrong choice?”

Father was wordlessly draining cup after cup, and the Sect Leader sat still, lost in deep thought without even touching his wine.

How long had it been?

Father, apparently too weary to keep drinking, looked toward the Sect Leader.

Estate Master Wang Geum-san seemed to think this was not his place to speak and kept quiet, and at last, the Sect Leader, who had been silent for an extended time, responded with a question.

“Was it merely pride that drove such a choice?”

“……”

It was true that I’d struggled to keep my pride unbent, but pride was not what had decided my choice.

I shook my head firmly.

“No.”

The Sect Leader’s gaze fixed on my eyes.

His eyes blazed as though on fire — a look I had never seen in either this life or my past one.

I barely had time to marvel at the unfamiliarity before —

“Even had it been pride, I would not have blamed you.”

“……What?”

I was stunned by the words I hadn’t expected.

Honestly, I’d assumed he would reproach or scold me……

Having prepared both a rationale for refusing and a plan for dealing with the fallout, I suddenly felt rather foolish.

While I stood dazed by the unexpected response, the Sect Leader continued.

“When I gave you the position of chief disciple, it was not solely to place the other disciples in your care while I was absent.”

Then came his weighty voice.

“While I am absent, it is you who leads the Taeul Sect.”

“……!”

[Leads the Taeul Sect.]

At the Sect Leader’s words, a strange, tingling ache spread through my chest.

“And so.”

His upright gaze drove into my eyes.

“Whatever choice you make, I will support it. And should a day come when that choice demands accountability, standing beside you to share that burden — is that not what I ought to do?”

For the first time today, his eyes crinkled into a smile as he raised his cup.

I quietly watched him take a slow, measured sip with perfect posture.

Come to think of it, despite everything that had happened in my past life, I had never once resented the Sect Leader.

He had always been fair and broad-hearted, and no matter how much he himself suffered, he cared for others first.

No matter how much his outward appearance had changed, the Sect Leader was still the Sect Leader.

Seeing him like this, I felt reassured that he was indeed the same person I’d known.

“Had I been in your place, I would have said the same thing. How dangerous it is to take sides in today’s murim — I know that all too well.”

“Thank you, Sect Leader.”

Once the serious discussion had passed, the mood lightened somewhat, and they shared a few cups.

Then, Estate Master Wang Geum-san grumbled quietly.

“Still, wouldn’t it be best not to let our guard down too much? Having refused their offer, they will surely retaliate in cunning ways……”

An unusually dark shadow crossed the Estate Master’s face.

“The Wang Estate has suffered such things more times than I can count. It is only now, having grown too large for them to touch, that their stance has shifted toward coexistence rather than hostility…… but there were more than a few times their schemes nearly destroyed our entire household.”

That the mighty Wang Estate had endured such trials, and that Wang Geum-san — who bore the title of great merchant — was the one expressing concern, spoke volumes.

The methods those people employed were beyond even my imagination.

When no one replied, the Estate Master’s expression grew grimmer still.

“They may even inflict direct harm upon Taeul Sect. With all that is happening lately……”

Just then.

RATTLE-RATTLE-RATTLE.

Before Wang Geum-san could finish, the table began to tremble faintly.

Soon, the wine cups and side dishes atop it started shaking as well.

I gasped and traced the source of the energy.

And there sat —

“Hmmmm……”

Sect Leader Hong Mun-gi, radiating a coarse, brutish killing intent like nothing I’d ever felt from him.

His voice was colder and more unyielding than I had ever heard.

“Tell them to try it, by all means.”

Rather than steeling himself for resolve, it gave the impression of someone who hoped the enemy would cross the line first, handing him the excuse he needed.

The sight was so utterly foreign that I couldn’t say a word.

“I will show them what it means to be savaged until they are sick of it.”

“……”

Seriously, who the hell are you?