Read Novel Full Chapter 1240: Who Did You Say Has Come? (5)
Chapter 1240: Who Did You Say Has Come? (5)
Ssssplash.
The cup is filled to the brim with liquor.
A drunken voice reached Yu Gong’s ear as he stared at the cup that looked ready to spill.
“Not drinking?”
“......”
Yu Gong glanced at Chung Myung, who was grinning, lifted the cup in his hand to his lips, and drained it in one go.
“Oh. You drink well? Good.”
A burning heat scorched his throat. Still, Yu Gong didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow and swallowed all the liquor in the cup.
Clack.
Then he set the now-empty cup down.
“Come on, have one more.”
Chung Myung chuckled as he poured another cup. Yu Gong simply stared at him as he poured.
There were so many questions he wanted to ask.
There were so many things he wanted to say.
But by now he had long since become someone who spoke not what he wanted, but what had to be said.
Lifting the full cup lightly and feigning a glance around, Yu Gong opened his mouth.
“I was surprised.”
“Hm?”
Chung Myung tilted his head; Yu Gong gave a faint smile.
“You may not know this, but we Southern Island people don’t have very good feelings toward mainlanders.”
“Hmm?”
“Of course, it might sound odd to others. Southern Island is, after all, a major sect holding a rightful place among the Nine Great Sects.”
“......”
“But no matter how great Southern Island’s reputation has grown, the years of being treated as lowly islanders and that history do not simply disappear.”
Chung Myung watched Yu Gong in silence.
“Besides... when the Yangtze Non-Aggression treaty took place, those feelings only grew stronger.”
Yu Gong snorted a laugh.
“Everyone probably kept it to themselves, but they thought it inwardly: if we were mainlanders instead of islanders, if the sect isolated by the Yangtze Non-Aggression Pact had been one of the other Nine Great Sects instead of Southern Island, would we have been snubbed this thoroughly? But...”
Yu Gong turned his head slightly to look at the sprawled figures.
“Those who have ill feelings toward mainlanders ended up mixing with the outsiders who arrived today, drank like mad, and collapsed like that.”
“......”
“Mount Hua may be a sect with strong sect-like tendencies, but if you consider it, it’s said to be a legitimate Taoist school with a longer history than that Wudang—perhaps that wasn’t wrong. Seeing the kind of things which have been done.”
Yu Gong’s gaze probed Chung Myung as if searching.
“Or... maybe it’s not that. If you don’t mind, may I ask—are Mount Hua’s Taoist arts sublime? Or is it Mount Hua’s Sword Saint’s illusion technique that’s remarkable?”
Chung Myung snorted at those words. Yu Gong tried to match that smile as best he could.
At least until the next words came.
“Oi.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t babble, drink quick. Three cups. You’ve had one already.”
“......”
“Drink.”
Yu Gong cleared his throat and brought the cup in his hand to his lips.
And like the previous cup, he downed the full measure in one gulp.
“If I catch you using internal qi, I’ll make you spit back the wasted liquor’s price, so do as you please.”
“......”
“Now, one more.”
Chung Myung smirked and refilled the empty cup. Seeing the rising liquor, Yu Gong’s face went slightly pale.
He kept gulping to avoid losing face, but Southern Island’s liquor wasn’t a low-brew sake drunk from such cups—it was a strong alcohol meant to be sipped carefully from small cups.
No matter how martial he was, having to repeatedly drink such strong spirits without resorting to internal qi was an enormous burden.
“Want an answer?”
“...Yes?”
“Then drink. After three cups, I’ll deal with you.”
“......”
At that, Yu Gong’s face hardened slightly; he looked at Chung Myung and began to drink the third cup.
“Oh. You drink well.”
Gulp! Gulp!
Enduring the burning sensation, Yu Gong forced the liquor down and ripped the cup away from his lips as if throwing it.
“Ugh!”
A cry, almost a scream, split from his lips.
Each time he opened his mouth, the fierce aroma of the liquor blasted out, and his stomach felt as if it had swallowed lava. His blood seared, feeling twice as fast in its flow.
“Nice.”
Chung Myung snorted and poured his cup full, then snatched it up and gulped it down as soon as it filled.
“Kreeee!”
Thud!
The cup—better called a bowl—hit the floor with a clear clack.
Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, Chung Myung watched Yu Gong, who was trying to steady the suddenly rising intoxication, and spoke.
“So.”
“Yes?”
“What was it you said you were curious about?”
“Well... uh...”
Yu Gong faltered in embarrassment for a moment. Chung Myung grinned at the sight.
“Of course you wouldn’t remember. You probably just asked what popped into your mouth because you weren’t really that curious.”
Yu Gong’s face heated up.
Whether from the drink or from his helpless embarrassment.
“Still, I’ll answer. I didn’t really do anything.”
Chung Myung turned to look at the sprawled figures.
“I just told them to bring the liquor, and I drank. The rest just helped themselves and ended up like that.”
“......”
Yu Gong sighed.
“Although Southern Island’s disciples are simple-minded and even prideful of it to some extent, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to show such disgrace in front of guests who just arrived. No doubt Mount Hua’s Sword Saint did something.”
“But this fellow seems to live being deceived. He insists he did nothing.”
“Yes. That could be the case.”
Yu Gong quietly nodded.
“But if you think about it, that’s even more remarkable. The atmosphere around him naturally changed even though he himself did nothing...”
“Oi.”
Yu Gong frowned slightly at Chung Myung cutting him off.
“You emptied your cup. One more?”
“...I’d rather not...”
“Why? Is there something you might say you shouldn’t when you get drunk?”
“......”
“Drink.”
Chung Myung refilled Yu Gong’s cup again.
Yu Gong looked between Chung Myung and the cup with a troubled expression. Chung Myung shrugged as he filled the cup.
“Ah, don’t get me wrong. I hate forcing people who don’t want to, to drink. Why make someone who refuses drink a precious cup? I’m short on drink for myself.”
“Then...”
“Not drinking is your choice. But if you’re not going to drink, step aside. I’m staging a drinking contest here, not having a conversation.”
“......”
“So what’ll it be? Do you want the drinking contest, or do you want a talk?”
With a long sigh, Yu Gong grabbed the cup and, this time without hurry, began to drink slowly. Seeing that, Chung Myung grinned.
“You can be reasonable after all.”
“Hah.”
Yu Gong set the cup down. His hand trembled slightly as he did, and his face was flushed as if it might catch fire.
“Hey now. I said don’t use internal qi. Such a waste of liquor.”
Chung Myung tutted, filled his cup, and began to guzzle it down.
After that round of drinks circulated, Chung Myung continued the conversation.
“Do you think I’m great?”
Chung Myung snorted.
“You don’t understand. I really didn’t do anything.”
“...Then.”
“This isn’t a scene that happened because I’m great. Quite the opposite.”
“Yes?”
Chung Myung jerked his chin toward the fallen ones.
“How do they look to you?”
“...They look pathetic.”
It was an honest feeling. At the very least, it wasn’t the sort of sight one should show to guests.
Even if he had no right to judge someone leaving Southern Island, couldn’t he at least pass a judgment?
“Really?”
Chung Myung snorted, refilled his cup, and offered an assessment opposite to Yu Gong’s.
“To my eyes, it’s impressive.”
“......”
Yu Gong fell silent. It was partly the drink, but also because Chung Myung’s words were hard to grasp.
“As you said, no matter how young or simple they are, they wouldn’t be thoughtless enough to get drunk and collapse in front of newcomers visiting Southern Island for the first time.”
Yu Gong nodded with glazed eyes.
“So why do you think that happened? Because I skillfully nudged /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ them?”
“......”
“No. I truly did nothing. Everyone was already on the brink. In a situation where anything could blow at any moment, they clenched themselves to the limit and held on. Under the pressure that tomorrow might be the last day they draw breath.”
Chung Myung’s eyes darkened as he looked at those passed out from drink.
Scenes he knew overlapped with the sight of the fallen.
Those who, after returning from battle, sought drink to excess and collapsed into sleep as if fainting.
Those who drank convulsively to sever their consciousness—overwhelmed by guilt and relief at not having died with their fallen comrades, and by the fear that tomorrow they’d have to return to the battlefield.
Yes. That was truly a painful thing.
But those people could at least be fully responsible for themselves. The ones here now are still too young compared to those he knew before.
So.
“Holding out this long is impressive in itself.”
“......”
“What breaks those who hold on and hold on isn’t some grand force but a tiny sense of relief. Not the relief that they never have to hold on again, but the petty comfort that perhaps tonight, or at least for a few hours, they might be safe.”
“......”
“That’s all I gave them.”
Yu Gong parted his lips as if to speak, then bowed his head. From his silent bowed posture, a groan escaped.
“...It’s not that they held on.”
“Hm?”
“They simply had nowhere to run. Nowhere in the world.”
Chung Myung lifted his gaze to the ceiling.
“...Right. That.”
He knows.
He knows it terribly well.
“So leave them be. Sometimes, even knowing you shouldn’t, a person wants to let go. They’ll wake up tomorrow and curl their head in regret, but sometimes that very thing becomes the strength to endure tomorrow.”
Yu Gong’s gaze turned to the sleeping face of Gwak Hwan-So. Lately his face had been set like stone, but for the first time in a while, it looked slightly at ease.
Perhaps Chung Myung was right.
What they needed more than clear answers or goals might have been simply the leeway to fall asleep without thinking for a day.
But... they could do that—yet he...
“Drink.”
Chung Myung thrust the cup forward in front of Yu Gong’s face.
“......”
As Yu Gong stared at the cup, Chung Myung said indifferently.
“No matter your position or your story.”
“......”
“Even if tomorrow we might be allies or enemies, you’ve held on until now just like them.”
“......”
“I, too, have my own position, so in the coming morning I won’t be able to say everything I want to. So I’ll say it in advance.”
Chung Myung wore a faint smile and, looking at Yu Gong, spoke in a slightly softer tone.
“You held on well, kid.”
“......”
Yu Gong’s shoulders trembled slightly.
It was a terribly cocky remark. And terribly arrogant.
But oddly, Yu Gong didn’t feel bad hearing it. In fact, rather than feeling bad...
“Drink. Then pass out. You can deal with the aftermath starting tomorrow.”
Yu Gong looked at Chung Myung with dazed eyes.
“Not drinking?”
“......”
His hand trembled slightly as he took the cup. Holding it with both hands, Yu Gong began to drink slowly, very slowly.
“Good.”
Chung Myung slowly poured his own cup, then lifted it to his lips as if to match Yu Gong’s drink.
The drinks so far were for them, but this cup now was entirely for him.
‘All of them.’
The image of the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains drifting by as if nothing had happened rose in his mind.
‘Don’t scold them too harshly. I’ll go there someday too.’
The potent liquor slid down his throat.
The creeping memories of the past were washed down into the depths by the liquor Chung Myung had swallowed. But...
The lingering scent of the liquor did not disappear and hovered around Chung Myung.
Like those long-ago days.