The Drunken Demon was sleeping dead to the world. He must have drunk so much that he did not even notice I had arrived.
“Lord Drunken Demon, Lord Drunken Demon!”
No matter how many times I called him, he did not wake. At times like this, he was nothing but a drunkard.
I lifted the Drunken Demon clean off the ground and threw him into the lake.
Splash!
The Drunken Demon fell into the water, but even after I waited a good while, he did not come up.
“I swear, I can’t live like this. I can’t!”
I jumped into the lake as well.
The Drunken Demon had sunk beneath the lake like a corpse. I took him with me and rose back to the surface.
“Come to your senses!”
The Drunken Demon opened his eyes and only then recognized me.
“Second Young Master?”
I climbed onto the boat first. The Drunken Demon did not climb up, but floated on the water, staring at the sky.
“Aren’t you coming up?”
“I’ll stay here.”
“What are you, a rebellious youth? This is truly unbearable to watch. At least your face is handsome enough that I can let it slide.”
“Stop looking at my handsome face and hand me some liquor.”
“Are you going to show me the wondrous feat of drinking while lying on water now? Which martial art of the Drunken Demon is this?”
When I did not give him the liquor, the Drunken Demon reached out his hand. The liquor on the ferryboat flew through the air by Void Seizing. He drank while lying there.
“The rumors are true, aren’t they?”
The Drunken Demon gave no answer.
“What on earth happened?”
As if he did not want to answer, the Drunken Demon swam away from the boat while still lying on his back.
I rowed after him.
“I told you to reconcile, and now you’re having a duel? This means you want to fight me, doesn’t it? Come out. Let’s have it out.”
“It wasn’t because of me. It was because of that old man. He threw away the liquor I gave him as a gift. And right in the front yard, as if to make sure I saw it.”
The Drunken Demon, sensitive to smells, had realized the liquor had been thrown away. It had gone wrong from the start.
“And do you know what that old man said to me after that?”
The Drunken Demon sat up. He laid the empty liquor bottle flat and sat on top of it. Neither the bottle nor the Drunken Demon sank.
“He asked if it felt good to get drunk and live while running away from reality. Said I was the most pathetic of all the Demon Venerables. So I said, aren’t there seniors who run away from reality even without getting drunk? I asked who was more pathetic.”
“You two are exactly the same. You’re not children. How very mature of you both.”
“He started it!”
“And then?”
“I was going to end it there. But then he went and compared me.”
“To the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon, I presume.”
The Drunken Demon nodded and mimicked the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s voice.
“You’re worse than that masked bastard. The masked bastard hides only his face, not even his heart.”
He was good at imitation too; if I closed my eyes and listened for a moment, it truly sounded as though the Blood Heaven Blade Demon were speaking right in front of me.
“How dare he compare me! And to the likes of the Extreme Evil Laughing Demon! It nearly popped the lid off my liquor.”
“And then?”
“What do you mean, and then? I got angry and shot back. I said I was better than a petty man who spent his entire life suffering over one woman.”
I shook my head with an expression that said there was no stopping him.
“You didn’t just touch his reverse scale. You tore it right off.”
“That old man gets to be a dragon scale, and I’m what, a fish scale? He touched mine first!”
With a splash, the Drunken Demon went into the water. He must have gone all the way to the bottom, for he surfaced only after quite some time.
With only his head out of the water, I asked him,
“Just go and apologize. Say you were wrong. If he curses at you, grit your teeth, listen, and come back. If you apologize, he won’t insist on fighting.”
“No. If anyone apologizes, it should be him.”
“Then you have to fight.”
“I don’t want that either!”
“Then what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.”
Again, the Drunken Demon swam away. I did not chase after him and rowed in the opposite direction. Then the Drunken Demon swam after me.
“The reason I’m trying not to fight the Blade Demon is because of you.”
“Because of me?”
Then words I had not expected flowed from his mouth.
“If he fights me, that Blade Demon you like so much will die.”
Leaving him there with that serious expression, I rowed even faster.
“I don’t believe the words of a drunk man.”
The Drunken Demon’s voice came from behind me.
“I’m telling you, he’ll die!”
“I understand, so sober up and wait. I’m going to see Elder Blade Demon. If you’re still drunk then, you’ll die by my hand!”
After leaving the Great Drunken Grove, I went straight to find the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was training again today. He was executing techniques rougher and more violent than usual. Judging by the atmosphere alone, it was the eve of a decisive battle.
“Why are you training so hard just to catch one drunkard?”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon withdrew his blade and sat on a rock in the yard. His entire body was soaked in sweat.
“What happens if the unspoken rule that Demon Venerables do not fight one another is broken?”
“Nothing happens.”
“You mean there are no sanctions?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why is the unspoken rule never broken?”
“Because everyone knows one of them will certainly die. There is a high chance of dying in the fight, and even if the loser is not killed by the opponent, his life as a Demon Venerable ends. Who would follow as their leader someone who lost to another Demon Venerable?”
“And knowing that, you still intend to duel?”
“Why? Are you worried I might be driven from my seat as a Demon Venerable?”
“You have lived your whole life as a Demon Venerable. Living as an ordinary demonic practitioner will not be easy.”
Then the Blood Heaven Blade Demon said something unexpected.
“Do I look foolish enough to stake my seat as Demon Venerable because of that sinister fellow?”
“Then why are you trying to fight?”
“For your sake.”
Coincidentally, both of them were saying it was for my sake. One said he would not fight for my sake, and the other said he would fight for my sake.
“It was obvious that he suddenly started treating me kindly because of you. You told him to reconcile with me, didn’t you? I knew that and deliberately provoked him.”
“I heard the Drunken Demon brought up Senior Sword Venerable?”
“What of it? Everyone thinks the Sword Venerable is some great weakness of mine, but in truth, that isn’t the case. Rather, at this age, one learns to make use of one’s weaknesses.”
“So you are saying you did not ask to fight because you were angry, but that you did so intentionally.”
“Yes. I thought you might be able to make use of this confrontation. If a problem like this arose, naturally you would intervene. Would it not make it easier for you to make use of him?”
“You thought that far ahead?”
“Did I judge wrongly?”
“No. You did well.”
“In this matter, at least, I will follow your will. If you tell me to fight, I will fight. If you tell me not to, I will not. This fight is not my fight, but yours.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon had seen through the essence of this matter. I was the one who had tried to make them reconcile in the first place, and I was the one now trying to mediate. In the end, the Blade Demon had understood from the start that this was a problem between the Drunken Demon and me. He had probably even expected that I would come to see him like this.
“Do not hope for me to reconcile with him. But I understand that you need him. If it had been anyone else, I would have stopped them to the end, but if it is you, perhaps you can even take that sinister fellow with you. I have decided to trust you, not the Drunken Demon. So use this chance to bring him under your control.”
Suddenly, that thought came to me. From now on, I must not lose any fight. With such a person standing beside me for my sake, how could I possibly lose?
So many things I wanted to say to him rose in my mind that I simply swallowed them all.
“Thank you very much.”
I bowed politely and turned to leave. Behind me, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon spoke quietly.
“I should at least earn the price of the tonic you had made for me.”
You are not earning the price of a tonic, but of a miraculous elixir.
* * *
“It seems you didn’t want to die after all.”
In the meantime, the Drunken Demon had sobered up, changed into fresh clothes, and was waiting at the Drunken Dream Pavilion.
“What did that old man say? I know you’ll take his side.”
“What Elder Blade Demon said is not important.”
“What? Why? Did he curse me again? He did, didn’t he?”
“This matter is between you and me, Lord Drunken Demon. It happened because I asked you to reconcile with Elder Blade Demon, didn’t it?”
“I made an effort.”
“Through this incident, I realized it clearly. Reconciliation between you two is impossible. This is, in the end, a matter between you and me. The two of us should resolve it.”
“How do you propose we resolve it?”
I set down the liquor bottle I had brought in front of him.
The Drunken Demon asked in surprise,
“You want to resolve it with liquor?”
“Let’s drink until we die. What need is there for side dishes?”
The Drunken Demon, who had been staring at me blankly, burst into laughter. It was the heartiest laugh I had heard from him since meeting him.
“Good, that’s it. This is why I like you, Second Young Master!”
The Drunken Demon called Yeobin.
“Bring liquor. Bring every bottle I have saved!”
I began drinking with the Drunken Demon.
Previously, during my spar with Father, I had fought without placing any restrictions on myself for the first time.
This drinking session was the same. Until now, I had drunk carefully so as not to make a mistake. But today, I simply drank. I returned to the days of my wandering years when I had lived steeped in liquor.
“You drink this well. How did you hold back all this time?”
“The cult cannot have two Drunken Demons, can it?”
At my words, the Drunken Demon roared with laughter. When I set my mind to drinking, the Drunken Demon was beside himself with joy.
The liquor drunk in this pavilion had a charm different from drinking on the ferryboat.
The Drunken Demon told all sorts of stories, from the women he had met in his youth to gossip about the other Demon Venerables.
I, too, spoke without hiding my true feelings, from stories of how my elder brother had tormented me in childhood to stories about Father.
And so we gradually became drunk.
I had drunk with bravado, but my capacity could not match the Drunken Demon’s. The Drunken Demon had even drunk twice as much as I had.
“Ah, now I understand why you jump in there, Lord Drunken Demon.”
I jumped into the lake as well. After swimming one lap and coming back out, I felt somewhat alive again.
“That lake is my side dish.”
“I will drink slowly from now on.”
“Stop drinking. You’ve already drunk a great deal.”
“Do you know something? The coolest thing about you, Lord Drunken Demon, is that you do not force liquor on others.”
“What am I to do if something so trifling is the coolest thing about me?”
“Trifling? Do you know how cool that is? It is truly cool precisely because it is you, the Drunken Demon, and no one else, who does that. Ah, I’m drunk.”
I flopped down on my back.
The Drunken Demon did not scold me for my rudeness. He kept drinking, and I lay there, listening to his stories. It was the sort of gathering some people might not have been able to endure, because the Drunken Demon boasted tremendously about himself. But I did not find those boasts particularly grating. To be honest, they were entertaining.
As we drank like that, I made a proposal to him.
“Shall we arm-wrestle?”
“Arm-wrestle? Using internal energy?”
“Of course not. A contest of man against man. What do you say?”
“Good. But it would be boring if we did it for nothing, so let’s make a wager. The winner gets one wish granted.”
“A wish over a mere arm-wrestling match?”
“This is a real contest. Imagine our cult leader, the Martial Alliance Leader, and the Evil Path Alliance Leader all gathering to compete. One arm-wrestling match with the fate of the martial world at stake! Martial artists would find something like that much more entertaining.”
“Very well. Then go into the water once and come back, so you won’t make excuses later that you lost because you were drunk.”
“It’s fine. Someone like you is no problem!”
We cleared the liquor table and arm-wrestled. How could he possibly beat my youthful strength? Just as I was forcing his arm down, I felt the Drunken Demon secretly use internal energy.
“I knew you’d do this! You little drunkard!”
I began using internal energy as well.
Then the Drunken Demon started using his internal energy in earnest. Had all the liquor he had ever drunk turned into internal energy? Contrary to my expectations, his internal energy was fierce and powerful. It was enough to make me realize that his claim that he could kill the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was not mere bluster.
But he could not overcome my internal energy. Today, I hid neither my drinking capacity nor my internal energy.
Crash!
The liquor table broke, and the contest was decided.
“Punishment for the cowardly drunkard! I won!”
I sprang up from my seat and jumped up and down like a child.
“This is invalid. At the start, you were the first to use strength! And I drank more liquor than you, didn’t I? I’ll go into the water and come back, so let’s have a proper match!”
There was no way his sophistry would work when he had used internal energy first.
I let his words pass by and leaned against the railing. The sunset that had just begun to fall was dyeing the whole world red. After gazing at that scene for a moment, I conveyed my true feelings to the Drunken Demon. Since these were words I could not say while looking at him, I spoke while gazing at the red-stained lake.
“Everyone says you are sinister and suspicious, Lord Drunken Demon, but I enjoyed drinking with you.”
“!”
“You know how there are people like that, don’t you? Everyone else says they are no good, but to me, they are good people. You are that kind of person to me, Lord Drunken Demon. I liked the way you showed off, I liked the way you bluffed, and I liked the hollow look you revealed in your eyes from time to time. That was why I also felt anxious. What on earth was your reason for approaching me? To be honest, I thought it would be fine even if your intentions were impure. Who has no secrets, and who has no selfish plans? I thought it was all fine. I only hoped for one thing. Please let it be something I can understand. Please let it not be something that prevents us from becoming drinking companions.”
Sensing that I was speaking sincerely, the Drunken Demon’s eyes wavered.
“Our Second Young Master has a serious drinking habit. Once drunk, he says everything in his heart.”
Only then did I look at him and say,
“Elder Brother.”
At my words, the Drunken Demon’s eyes went wide. He truly looked startled.
“From today onward, let us call each other elder and younger brother. That is my wish.”
“You won, so why?”
“Because it was what I wanted as well.”
There is a kind of surprise and passion brought by an unexpected emotion. All of that was contained in the Drunken Demon’s expression.
“You… you truly must be mad.”
“I hear those words from you too, Lord Drunken Demon—no, Elder Brother. Since I have heard it from all the Demon Venerables, I suppose I really must be mad.”
“That madness of yours is all the more frightening because it is subtle.”
The Drunken Demon straightened his posture, brought over a cup, and poured liquor for me.
“Younger Brother, accept a cup.”
“Yes, Elder Brother.”
I drank the liquor he gave me. This time, I poured liquor for him. He drank as well.
“Please do not be too moved. It is true that my heart is drawn to you, but I am also doing this because I absolutely need you in order to become the successor. So only half of this is pure feeling. As for the other half, well, let us fill it with liquor. Then I will take my leave for today.”
Just as I was about to rise first because I felt unnecessarily awkward, the Drunken Demon abruptly spoke.
“It was because of me.”
Words I had not expected flowed from his mouth.
“The reason the Blade Demon and the Sword Venerable’s relationship worsened was because of me.”
As I stared at him in astonishment, the Drunken Demon confessed something even more shocking.
“I drove a wedge between the two of them.”