Chapter 52: Human Calamity
The majority of people living in this era never step outside their village until they die.
Perhaps that was why looking at one’s hometown from the outside evoked a strange emotion.
“It feels somewhat fresh.”
The feeling of discovering familiar geography after wandering around unfamiliar places presented a warmth that was hard to define in a single word.
[Does it remind you of when you returned from the Wudang Sect?]
“Yes.”
I nodded and answered softly to Master Bodhidharma’s question.
Worry about how my family and the villagers would view the fact that I had been expelled from the Wudang Sect, and anticipation of how much I could change through the masters’ advice and training, had coexisted.
[You will be able to see the cute Cheong-u after a long time.]
“I might see him sulking.”
[That would be just as cute, though.]
Master Bodhidharma spoke, letting out a warm-sounding laugh.
[Our friend Sanfeng must be feeling regretful. It seems he is busy due to something unexpected that came up recently.]
There was talk that Master Zhang Sanfeng was preparing something for me, but since he seemed busy with his main duties, I should keep in mind that it would be delayed.
‘Well, since I haven’t even digested all the things I’ve obtained now, in a way, it’s a relief.’
I had gained too much from this journey in the Martial World. I needed to refine and digest what I had obtained for a while.
I also had the thought of traveling around the Five Great Mountains to show the scenery of this era to my masters, but that task would probably have to be postponed.
“Still, the air of my hometown is nice.”
“Is… that so? Is it nice?”
Baek Mu-ho’s voice was weak.
It felt as though he was not particularly pleased to return to his hometown after a long time.
Well, since this fellow had been going on escort missions since he was young, his feelings would be different from mine.
“Is it not good for you?”
“It’s not that it’s not good… but lately, my neck keeps feeling cold.”
Baek Mu-ho said, rubbing his neck. His expression was like someone who had seen a ghost.
Knowing Baek Mu-ho’s personality, he would probably run his mouth even if he saw a ghost.
“I’m sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Is that so…”
Baek Mu-ho stroked his neck once more with a sigh.
He kept doing that, which really made me curious.
“Master. By any chance, on Mu-ho’s neck…”
[If you are asking whether there is a ghost attached to his neck, there is none.]
Perhaps because of what we had built up over time, Master Bodhidharma answered immediately.
‘Ah! Then is it perhaps that?’
Although it seemed unrelated to his neck feeling cold, one reason why Baek Mu-ho loathed returning home came to mind.
‘I said it half-jokingly, but he seems to remember it.’
I had forgotten about it since I had said it to stop him from bothering me, but this straight-laced fellow Baek Mu-ho seemed to have kept it in mind.
Before long, our footsteps brought us close to the Baek Family Escort, Baek Mu-ho’s home.
While my house was deep inside the village, the Baek Family Escort was located near the center of the village to make it easy for people to come and go.
‘Should I disappear first before seeing something unsightly?’
Thinking about it now, it was indeed a fairly severe penalty.
Even I wouldn’t want to show such an appearance in front of a friend.
“Then I’ll head this way. I’ll go greet Uncle Baek separately soon.”
With that thought, I was about to turn to leave first.
*Grab!*
“Wait a moment.”
Suddenly, Baek Mu-ho grabbed my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, but come with me right now.”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Now?”
“I said yes. Why are you dragging this out?”
Baek Mu-ho’s voice was mixed with urgency and a bit of irritation.
That made it even harder to understand.
“Are you confident enough to do ‘that’ in front of me?”
“That?”
“Sister, I love you.”
“……Wait. ……What? What did you say you love?”
Baek Mu-ho looked as if he had suddenly been hit on the back of the head with a blunt weapon. And not with some trivial stick, but with a thick and robust one on the level of a wild boar’s thigh.
To Baek Mu-ho, who seemed slightly out of his mind, I told him once again.
Very kindly.
“You agreed to do it. ‘Sister, I love you.’ ‘In front of people.’ ‘Loudly.’”
Emphasizing the three points of the penalty he had agreed to carry out.
“……”
At that moment, I could see through Baek Mu-ho’s face why people sometimes said ‘one’s soul has left their body.’
***
A moment later.
“Sister, I love you! Heheheh!”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“Sister, I really love you! Heheheheh!”
[…….]
The Baek Family Escort froze.
Even Master Bodhidharma was rendered speechless.
The destructive power was that immense.
To the point where Sister Seol-ah, who was walking out with a scary face while tightly clenching her petite fists as if she was angry about something, stopped in her tracks in embarrassment.
However, next to Sister Seol-ah, there was a person whom I didn’t know why they were here.
Jang So-wol.
The thought of why that woman was here crossed my mind, but that was not important right now.
“……How many times are left?”
Baek Mu-ho turned to look at me with eyes welled up with tears, as if he would cry at any moment.
“No. Let’s stop.”
I really did wrong.
I am the one to blame.
“Since I am in the wrong, let’s stop now.”
Guilt pierced my chest.
Baek Mu-ho let out a deep sigh toward the sky.
“I… just want to die…”
Having abandoned all hope, Baek Mu-ho ran wild.
But it did not last long.
Baek Mu-ho’s rampage ended with him being subdued and punished by Sister Seol-ah, who had regained her senses, and dragged away by the scruff of his neck.
***
[It was a disaster.]
“It was a man-made disaster.”
Only after somehow calming down Baek Mu-ho, who had completely lost his mind, could I head home.
So this is what it feels like to have a stinging conscience.
I should really treat him well.
“But why did Lady Jang come here?”
Then, I pointed out one aspect that I had temporarily forgotten due to the shocking scene.
Jang So-wol.
Although she was a woman, she was known as a genius whose depth of martial arts was counted among the fingers of one hand among the rising stars of her age. With her background, beauty, and personal skill being perfect, it was said that men harboring affection for her were always overflowing around her.
Samyang County was not a lagging town, but it was not a place where a woman of Jang So-wol’s stature would go out of her way to visit.
Honestly, there was no reason for a woman who would play on a national scale like the Nine Great Sects or the Five Great Noble Families to set foot in a local neighborhood like this.
If there was one, was it Sister Seol-ah? Since they seemed to be acquainted.
‘Ah, thinking about it that way, Baek Mu-ho ended up showing “that” kind of appearance to Lady Jang.’
Suddenly, I felt even more apologetic.
It seemed it would be difficult to say anything to Baek Mu-ho for a while.
[If that child went out of her way to visit this place, wasn’t it to see you?]
While experiencing the sensation of my conscience bleeding from the apology to Baek Mu-ho, Master Bodhidharma brought up a strange story.
A woman whom any young man in the Martial World would show interest in had come to find me on her own two feet?
It was a sound too sweet to hear while feeling a guilty conscience.
“That sounds like a story too self-conscious. If self-love is at that level, there would be a problem.”
[Haha. I suppose one could think of it that way.]
“One could think of it that way?”
Did it mean it could look different?
[What would a monk know about stories between a man and a woman? It means it just might appear that way.]
Master Bodhidharma, who had subtly brought it up, slid his foot back.
Vague, being neither this nor that.
I did not cling to Master Bodhidharma’s words either.
If it was related to me, I would find out in due course.
Having organized my thoughts about Lady Jang like that, my footsteps soon crossed the gate of the place I missed.
“Oh, you boy!”
My mother, who came running out while shouting words that gave me a sense of déjà vu, approached and touched my face and shoulders as if handling a precious treasure.
In the déjà vu I recalled, she would have smacked my back quite a bit, but that part had changed.
And my father.
“You seem to have grown a bit larger in the meantime.”
“Is that so?”
Unlike the content of the words, the tone in which he brought them up was merely calm. It was a demeanor as if he had seen me just yesterday.
“Are you uninjured?”
“Yes.”
“Then that is fine.”
As is the case with many fathers and heads of households, he was calm, like someone who thought worrying about something was a sign of weakness and did not express it outwardly.
‘His heart is beating quite loudly for someone like that, though.’
Now that my martial arts had improved, I could hear all sorts of things.
Without making it obvious, I bowed my head once to greet him.
“Brotherrr.”
[Hahaha.]
It felt as though Master Bodhidharma welcomed Cheong-u more than I did.
Seeing him run with pitter-patter footsteps and throw himself into my embrace, Master Bodhidharma laughed pleasantly.
“Have you been well?”
“Yes!”
They said that brothers were often as vicious to each other as siblings of different genders, but perhaps because of the age difference with Cheong-u, it did not feel that way.
“I also practiced martial arts hard!”
“Did you?”
I laughed at the word practice.
If it was martial arts, training would be the correct term.
It seemed he had trained hard in his own way in the Supreme Ultimate Fist I had taught him when I returned from Mount Wudang.
Since this was good in its own way, did it matter?
“Next time… can I go with you?”
The question asked while staring blankly with round eyes was cute even to me. Not because of sibling bias, but truly.
[Hahahahahahahaha.]
Master Bodhidharma’s prolonged laughter was proof of that.
Still, this was a bit difficult.
“Not yet. When you grow as tall as I am now, I’ll think about it.”
“Hmph.”
Cheong-u, making a deflating sound with his small mouth, puffed out his cheeks slightly.
I ruffled Cheong-u’s hair as I stroked it.
And next, I moved toward the place where I had to greet someone when returning to this house.
A static place where time seemed to have stopped.
“I have returned.”
“Indeed.”
The person who was at the center of the warm spot where the cozy sunlight shone.
My grandfather, who laughed quietly, remained unchanged.
“I heard you saw Counselor Seo, Yun-geon?”
My grandfather asked quietly.
Seo Yun-geon.
He mentioned the destination of the Baek Family Escort.
‘Did I say where I was going?’
I hadn’t.
Since I also learned the destination only after the escort mission began.
Seeing how well-informed he was, it seemed his connections were still still maintained in unseen places even now.
As expected, my grandfather was the ultimate master of connections.
“How was it?”
“I think it is just as Grandfather is thinking now.”
“Hahaha. Is that so?”
Grandfather laughed upon hearing my answer.
“Then that is a relief. Personnel management is everything. As long as he is in charge of personnel affairs in this region, all will be peaceful.”
“Yes.”
“Is Sichuan next? Understood. You must be tired, go and rest.”
Grandfather did not keep me for long.
With that, I completed my homecoming greeting.
Only now did it sink in that I had returned.
***
…So I thought, and while I was relaxing at home after a long time.
[It is about time you learn the martial arts this master created for you.]
Master Zhang Sanfeng, who had returned after finishing his busy work, dropped a bombshell.