When Jo Ibaek reached the summit of the highest mountain near the Murim Alliance, the Alliance Leader was standing at the edge of a cliff with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Alliance Leader.”
“Manor Lord Jo, you’ve come? Come here.”
Jo Ibaek stood beside the Murim Alliance Leader. As high as it was, the view was magnificent.
“The scenery is truly splendid.”
“That is why I come here often.”
“It is all thanks to you, Alliance Leader, that we can enjoy such beauty. Is it not because you so steadfastly support the gangho that the Demonic Cult rabble cannot stir?”
“I am grateful that you say so.”
When the Murim Alliance Leader had asked to meet him here, Jo Ibaek had privately expected that they would discuss the marriage. Moreover, since he had asked to meet at a mountaintop rather than within the Murim Alliance, Jo had thought they would speak frankly as parents, away from prying eyes.
“Manor Lord Jo.”
“Yes, Alliance Leader.”
“How long has it been since we came to know each other?”
“I believe it has been nearly thirty years.”
“They say time flows like water, and already so much has passed.”
For a moment, the two stood there, looking back on the years gone by.
“Is there some particular reason you called me here today?”
“I asked to see you because of your son.”
As expected. Thinking he had indeed been summoned over the marriage, Jo Ibaek’s expression brightened. He had promised to provide the Murim Alliance with an enormous sum of money. Even so, the Alliance Leader had shown only a lukewarm attitude, so Jo had wondered if matters were not going well.
‘Is it not too much money to refuse, Alliance Leader?’
Jin Paecheon slowly turned his head and looked at Jo Ibaek.
“Have you perhaps heard of the Cheonmyeong Society?”
Though it was a question that struck at his blind spot and made his heart drop, Jo Ibaek answered calmly.
“That is the first I’ve heard of it.”
He even asked, with composure, what sort of place it was.
“It claims to be a mysterious sect, and I understand it has been involved in many wicked affairs.”
“The murim is full of all manner of trash.”
“Manor Lord Jo.”
“Yes, Alliance Leader.”
“It seems your son is involved with that trash.”
Though Jin Paecheon spoke cautiously, his gaze was sharp enough to pierce through Jo Ibaek.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that Young Master Jo was recruited by the Cheonmyeong Society.”
Jo Ibaek was startled. Whether he was truly shocked or merely pretending, it was so natural that there was no way to tell.
“Your son, Jo Sin, was recruited by an organization called the Cheonmyeong Society and attempted to abduct my granddaughter.”
As his shock grew, Jo Ibaek’s voice rose as well.
“That is absurd. The marriage talks are underway, so why would the fool do such a thing unless he had gone mad? There must be some misunderstanding.”
“I hope so as well, but at present, there is clear evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“There was a confession from someone who received orders from Young Master Jo.”
“It may be a confession meant to frame my son.”
Without a word, Jin Paecheon looked out at the sheer stone mountain rising in the distance, his hands still clasped behind his back. At that moment, the hearts of the two men were aimed at each other more sharply than that jagged stone peak.
“Alliance Leader, please let me meet my son. I will see him and hear what happened.”
“Under the Alliance rules, I cannot do that.”
“Considering the ties between us over all these years, you cannot do this.”
“You are right. Considering our ties over all these years, I cannot do this.”
Jin Paecheon’s cold and solemn gaze flew toward Jo Ibaek.
“I know that you are a member of the Cheonmyeong Society.”
“!”
“Do not think to deny it.”
Jin Paecheon released his aura. A frost-edged force assailed Jo Ibaek. It was a violent storm crashing down on him across a boundless sea. Emotion rode within that pressure. I could kill you. I want to kill you.
Jo Ibaek gritted his teeth and resisted the force, but his precarious body looked as though it might be swept over the cliff at any moment.
The storm that had seemed ready to tear him to shreds soon began to subside, slowly. Jo Ibaek was able to climb onto a small island in that boundless sea.
“I do not wish to end my long relationship with you like this. Only I and one of my subordinates know of this matter.”
As Geom Mugeuk had said, Jin Paecheon was giving Jo Ibaek room to breathe.
The fact that he had not pressured him by asking whether he was one of the Cheonmyeong Society’s leaders, but had simply called him a member, and that he had said only he and one subordinate knew, were both hints that if Jo cooperated properly, the matter could be buried.
Jo Ibaek knelt before the Alliance Leader.
“There were circumstances I could not avoid.”
“I understand. When one has many people under one’s care, one sometimes ends up walking a path one never wished to take.”
“I do not know what to say in the face of your oceanlike generosity, Alliance Leader. I am sorry, Alliance Leader.”
Tears flowed from his eyes. They streamed down so freely that one might think they could not possibly be anything but sincere.
Jin Paecheon’s expression as he looked down at him was only bitter. They had known each other for thirty years, yet Jo had chosen the path of betrayal. Was it the other man’s fault? Or was it his own fault for making him feel he had no choice but to leave?
“Hand over the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society. Then all of this will become a thing of the past.”
Though he did not say it directly, he was saying that he would forgive him. Jo Ibaek rose through the breathing space he had been given and drew breath.
“That man even recruited my son without my knowledge. That much, at least, I can never forgive. I will have a meeting with the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society tomorrow, so please bring my son to that place.”
“Did you say tomorrow?”
“The leader of the Cheonmyeong Society is not far from here.”
That meant the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society was close enough to come in a single day. Truly, it was astonishing—darkest under the lamp, as they said.
“You have made the right choice.”
“Then I will contact you after arranging the place. Once again, I thank you for your grace, Alliance Leader.”
He bowed at the waist and turned around.
With every step he took, his expression slowly began to harden. There was neither heat nor cold in it. Because it held no emotion at all, it was impossible to guess what thoughts he harbored, but at the very least, it was certain that he was an entirely different man from the one who had knelt and shed tears.
A short while after he disappeared, Geom Mugeuk appeared there.
“Is it all right to let him go like that without surveillance?”
“It should be fine.”
Geom Mugeuk was hoping that by letting him loose, he would instead do everything he possibly could. Only then could everything be dealt with at once.
“I think we should keep in mind the possibility that he may betray us. Asking you to bring his son tomorrow means he wants to exchange the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society for his son. Does that not mean he cannot fully trust you, Alliance Leader?”
“You mean he suspects my mind may change after I catch the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society?”
“If his suspicions only go that far, that would be fortunate. But he may even join hands with the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society and set an all-or-nothing trap. As things stand, I think the chances are half and half. Please leave what comes next to me.”
Whether Jo Ibaek betrayed them or not, the situation was dangerous. They were going to capture the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society, whose identity they did not even know.
“Do you truly mean to handle it alone?”
“If by any chance they harbor other intentions, it could be dangerous. It is not something someone as important as you should go to handle alone.”
“And you are not in danger?”
“It was my affair from the start.”
Jin Paecheon gazed at Geom Mugeuk for a moment. Incredibly, he found himself thinking this: how good it would be if Geom Mugeuk were a warrior of the orthodox faction.
“Do not be too disheartened by his betrayal. He was an evil man from the beginning. He merely remained at your side while hiding himself. This side acted with goodwill; that side acted with malice. That is all.”
He was even consoling him. Jin Paecheon wanted to share a drink with this Geom Mugeuk.
“Will you drink with me?”
Geom Mugeuk had intended to leave after forming a good connection with the Alliance Leader. There was no reason he would refuse a drink alone with him.
“Let us drink here. I will go buy some.”
“I will wait.”
“Is there any liquor you prefer?”
“Buy something strong.”
Geom Mugeuk vanished from the spot in an instant.
A short while later, Jin Paecheon was astonished. Geom Mugeuk had returned with a bottle of liquor in hand, but no matter how outstanding his qinggong was, it was not enough time for him to have gone down and come back already.
“Did you bury liquor in the mountain?”
“It has been a while since I had a drink, so the wine bug in me stirred, and my feet moved a little quickly.”
When they had returned from Dongho before, he had deliberately refrained from catching up with the Alliance Leader using qinggong and wounding his pride, but that did not mean he would deliberately come slowly today.
“I also bought good cups.”
He poured him a drink.
Srrrk.
It was right then. Someone revealed himself. It was the warrior who had always been hidden near Geom Mugeuk. This was the first time he had shown himself.
“I will check the liquor.”
He used a silver needle to see whether there was poison in the liquor.
I had thought he would be a sharp, angular sort of person, but he was a man with a round, gentle impression.
I could tell. The person the Murim Alliance Leader trusted most was this man. If my father had Hwi, then the Alliance Leader had this man.
Though this loyal subordinate had stayed near me all this time and knew that I was not someone who would poison the wine, when it came to the Alliance Leader’s safety, he permitted not the slightest carelessness.
Only after confirming that there was no poison in the liquor did he conceal himself again.
“You could have at least greeted me before leaving.”
When I expressed my regret, half joking and half sincere, Jin Paecheon smiled faintly and said,
“He has always been inflexible, so please understand.”
“I know that well. The person I like most was once my bodyguard too.”
“Why is he no longer your bodyguard?”
“I forced him away, telling him to stop following someone else’s life and try living his own.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Jin Paecheon felt a strange emotion. Because his nature was not at all like that of a demonic practitioner, he felt drawn to him, and at the same time, he felt an odd fear. It was a fear that began with the thought: What if this man becomes the Heavenly Demon?
After both their cups were filled, the two raised a toast and drank.
“Do you enjoy liquor?”
“I do not drink often. And you?”
“I drink occasionally as well.”
Drinking for the first time in a while made me think of the Drunken Demon. Was he still drunk, swimming around that lake?
In one sense, this was the precarious eve of a decisive battle, and yet the drinking with the Alliance Leader was calm and peaceful.
Perhaps it was because both of them knew well that great events that change one’s life cannot be suddenly prepared for and endured; they are endured by all the days one has lived up to that moment.
“Is your father well?”
The Murim Alliance Leader asked about the Heavenly Demon.
“He is well.”
“Seeing you makes me want to see Cult Leader Geom. It has been quite a long time since I last saw him.”
“When I return, I will convey your words to him. My father will be pleased as well.”
“Hardly. Your father must want to kill me.”
“What about you, Alliance Leader?”
“Until now, I did as well…”
After a brief pause, Jin Paecheon revealed his honest feelings.
“Seeing you has changed my mind.”
He felt that if the current Heavenly Demon died, this Geom Mugeuk would become the Heavenly Demon. Would it not be better for the orthodox murim if things remained as they were? Astonishingly, he was thinking such thoughts about this young man.
“How are you and your father?”
“We were awkward before, but it has improved a great deal recently.”
“That is fortunate.”
“It got even better while playing baduk with him. My father learned baduk from our cult’s chief strategist, so he beats me every time. On the other hand, the strategist I gained does not know how to play baduk.”
“A strategist who cannot play baduk?”
“As expected! The same reaction. I will make sure to tell my strategist. Even the Murim Alliance Leader reacted the same way!”
At Geom Mugeuk’s teasing, the Alliance Leader laughed.
“I also went hunting in the mountains with my father. We even drank at an inn. Do you know how the innkeeper reacted when my father came in?”
Geom Mugeuk deliberately told him about the things he had done with his father. He made the stories as cheerful as possible, and Jin Paecheon listened to them with a smile.
Geom Mugeuk knew the sadness dwelling within that smile of the Murim Alliance Leader’s. He was a father who had lost his son. Geom Mugeuk could not dare presume to understand what that must feel like, but he could tell that, at this moment, Jin Paecheon was thinking of his own son.
And as always, Geom Mugeuk was someone who believed that wounds of the heart should not be buried.
“Do you think of your son often?”
For an instant, the Murim Alliance Leader flinched. His expression changed from moment to moment. Anger, bewilderment, sorrow, and longing. All manner of emotions passed across him in that brief span.
“Sometimes.”
Jin Paecheon said no more and drank. Geom Mugeuk asked no more and drank as well.
Had anyone asked him that question since his son died? Probably not. Who would dare ask the Murim Alliance Leader such a thing?
“Let us go together tomorrow.”
“No, I will go alone.”
“I know you are a master without peer. But if you go alone, it will be dangerous.”
“If you mobilize the Murim Alliance’s experts, some among them may be connected to the Cheonmyeong Society. If the secret leaks and the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society escapes, we may never be able to find him again.”
“Then let the two of us go.”
Geom Mugeuk knew that Jin Paecheon meant it sincerely. He was genuinely impressed. What Murim Alliance Leader in the world could say he would go alone with a blood descendant of the Demonic Cult Leader to a place where there might be mortal danger?
As long as Jin Paecheon remained alive and well, he thought, the orthodox murim would remain alive and well too.
“There is something else you must do, Alliance Leader.”
“What is that?”
“You must prepare for the possibility that the Lord of Jinryong Manor betrays you. He is facing a crisis in which everything he has built over his lifetime may be swept away. You said you would forgive him, but will he truly believe those words? If not, he will use every means at his disposal.”
“For example?”
“They tried to use Miss Jin under the pretext of marriage, so we used Jo Sin. We used him a little more violently than they did. Then how will they respond?”
Jin Paecheon’s expression hardened as if to say, Surely not, as one possible situation came to mind.
“During the time you and I move together, they may target Miss Jin. They would feel, You used my child, so suffer the same yourself. Since it would be a choice made at the risk of their lives, an expert far from ordinary would go. You must remain here. Protect your family.”
At the worry in Jin Paecheon’s gaze, Geom Mugeuk lifted his cup.
“Just this once, please trust the Demonic Path and leave it to us. No matter how vicious that evil is, it will not work on us.”
Jin Paecheon drank with him.
They shared exactly one bottle over a short time, yet it was better and more memorable than any drinking session he had ever had in his life.
Setting down the final cup, Geom Mugeuk bowed respectfully.
“I will give my farewell in advance today. Until we meet again, please take good care of yourself.”