Go Wol, who had been sitting at his desk reading documents, asked without lifting his gaze.
“Cult Leader, have you had something on your mind lately?”
The Leader of the Pungcheon Cult was leaning against the window, looking outside.
“What do you mean, something on my mind? Why ask all of a sudden?”
The two of them had been moving from place to place throughout the Central Plains, devoting themselves to building an intelligence organization. Go Wol was always busy, and since the Pungcheon Cult Leader served as both guard and assistant, he had comparatively more leisure.
“It seems like you do.”
“Who in the world has a life as easy as mine? I have no worries.”
“Originally, it’s busy people who don’t have worries.”
“I said I don’t.”
At that firm reply, Go Wol lifted his eyes from the documents and looked at the Pungcheon Cult Leader. As if he didn’t. The Pungcheon Cult Leader, staring out the window, was clearly in low spirits, and lately he had the look of someone troubled by something.
“Is it hard?”
“Hard, my foot.”
“It’s hard for me.”
At Go Wol’s words, the Pungcheon Cult Leader turned to look at him. As if he meant it, Go Wol added,
“It’s hard. If you hadn’t been beside me helping, I wouldn’t have endured it.”
“Then who told you to work so hard? Since when were you overflowing with such loyalty?”
“Should I start doing things halfheartedly from now on?”
“As if you could.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader turned his head back toward the window.
“Usually, saying it’s hard and you’re dying is what you do, Cult Leader. This isn’t like you.”
“What exactly is like me? No. You’ll just start spouting things that look down on me again. Don’t!”
But Go Wol was not someone who would stop just because he was told to.
“Someone who may look petty on the outside, but has a heart as vast as the sea within; someone who seems to live carelessly, but is drawing a grand design in his heart. Someone who snaps and squawks, but is deep inside. That sort of person is you, Cult Leader.”
“Hmph! You meant the opposite, didn’t you? That I’m petty, live carelessly, and squawk?”
“And someone quicker on the uptake than anyone!”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader wore an expression that said, I knew it. Normally, a stream of retorts would have poured out of him. But the Pungcheon Cult Leader still kept his eyes outside the window. Go Wol rose from his chair and walked forward.
“Could it be homesickness?”
“Since you mention homesickness, let me say this: this time I realized for certain that I’m not someone who likes his hometown. I don’t think of it at all. I don’t feel like going back at all, either. Maybe I’ll go once before I die. I don’t think I’ll have any reason to go there again.”
“It’s not homesickness either. Then what could it be?”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader’s lips twitched. He looked as if there was something he wanted to say, but then he changed the subject.
“Why isn’t the Second Young Master coming? You did contact him properly, didn’t you?”
“He’s busy, isn’t he?”
“Busy, my foot. We’ve been pushed down his list of priorities. He does everything he wants first, and then, huh? That shackle from back then sent word asking to see me. Should I meet him once? Or not?”
“If that’s the case, aren’t you investing far too much money in that shackle from back then?”
An enormous amount of funding was being poured into this undertaking. The intelligence network had not yet been laid across the entire Central Plains, and already the funds were running low again.
“Maybe he’s got money rotting away.”
“Cult Leader. What are you angry about? Are you depressed because you aren’t losing weight?”
“Hmph! If I put my mind to it, I could lose it all in a month.”
“You said that a month ago too, didn’t you?”
“When a person gets older, if he’s too thin, he looks like he has no presence.”
“You have too much presence, Cult Leader.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader whipped around and frowned, and Go Wol made a gesture to show he had been joking.
“What’s troubling you?”
After a brief pause, the Pungcheon Cult Leader said,
“If I tell you the reason, you’ll make fun of me again, won’t you?”
“I’ll hear it first.”
“You won’t say you absolutely won’t make fun of me.”
In the end, the Pungcheon Cult Leader began to speak.
“Do you remember Seok Chung, whom we met not long ago?”
“I remember.”
The process of establishing an intelligence organization in the Central Plains involved a tremendous amount of work. They truly had to meet countless people. And in the course of doing so, they would inevitably meet people like Seok Chung.
“That bastard made slips of the tongue to me that day, and acted rudely too.”
Go Wol nodded. Would he have done so if he had known the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s true identity or skill? Since he had merely been introduced as some wealthy man with money, Seok Chung had trusted in his paltry martial arts, put on airs, and behaved rudely.
“You endured it well, Cult Leader.”
“I keep thinking about that bastard. I should have smashed him to pieces then. No, at the very least, I should have lectured him that he shouldn’t act that way. At the time, I held back because I wanted the matter to be handled smoothly. But now, after the fact, I keep thinking about it.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader could not count how many times he had killed the man in his imagination. In truth, it had not been a mistake serious enough to warrant killing him, yet anger kept surging up, making him want to kill him.
“You know that guy before, the one with the filthy expression? I held back well then. But this time, it won’t go away so easily. Ah, I know. Don’t say it. I know very well how narrow-minded I am. But what am I supposed to do when I keep thinking about it?”
“I understand.”
“You understand?”
“He was a piece of shit. Even if you had beaten him up, Cult Leader, I wouldn’t have stopped you.”
“Really?”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader brightened.
“Then maybe I should have beaten him up. Should I go find him now and beat him up?”
Go Wol merely watched the Pungcheon Cult Leader in silence. Only then did the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s excitement subside.
“Say what you want to say already.”
“I have nothing.”
“I said say it!”
“Everyone lives like this. Because you’re a cult leader, you’ve lived until now without having to see much filth. Everyone lives while enduring things like this. Beating someone because you’re angry, beating someone because you feel bad, beating someone because he’s impolite—there aren’t many people who can live that kind of life.”
“You mean you want to say only someone like the Second Young Master lives like that, right?”
“You’re the same, Cult Leader. You lived that way too. You spent your whole life living comfortably, and it hasn’t been long since you started living while enduring things, has it?”
As if he acknowledged at least that part, the Pungcheon Cult Leader nodded.
Go Wol understood why the Pungcheon Cult Leader was struggling. How hard must it be? He had lived a life that would make anyone envious, and now he was following Go Wol around without even a single attendant, acting as his guard. That was why Go Wol always thought this.
‘Cult Leader, you must have committed a great sin against me in a past life.’
Go Wol walked over beside the Pungcheon Cult Leader and looked outside alongside him.
“It’s not because you’re narrow-minded that you keep thinking about it. It’s because resentment has built up in your chest.”
“Resentment?”
“Traveling the Central Plains and doing this work—this is your first time doing something like it, isn’t it? Meeting people, and then meeting more people. It may not seem like much, but it’s work that accumulates anger without you realizing it. Until now, you’ve been enduring it for my sake, Cult Leader.”
“I’m glad you know. Still, now that I’ve said it, I feel a bit relieved.”
“From now on, don’t endure it. Just beat them up.”
“No. I’ll still endure it. If I was born narrow-minded, I should at least make an effort. Whether I live this way or that way, I’m going to die anyway. I won’t end it pathetically.”
Go Wol looked at him. The Pungcheon Cult Leader was sincere.
“Would you like to curse the Second Young Master once and clear your chest out?”
“Can I?”
“It’s been a while. Go ahead!”
As if he had been waiting for it, the Pungcheon Cult Leader shouted loudly.
“You lazy Second Young Master! If we call, you should hurry up and come. What are you doing, being this late? Have you forgotten us? Just try forgetting us! Have you ever been eaten by a fish in your own pond? I’ll just—chomp! I’ll swallow you from the head down! No matter how much you treat me like that cult leader from back then, that shackle from back then, we’re living just fine like this! You wicked Second Young Master! You ugly Second Young Master! You Second Young Master who cheats with lightness arts! Ah! Even shouting like this makes me feel better. Strategist Go, you do it too! All that pent-up indigestion will vanish at once. As expected, cursing the Second Young Master is the most refreshing.”
Then Go Wol said with a solemn expression,
“Cult Leader, how dare you utter such insolent nonsense?”
“Hm?”
At Go Wol’s sudden change, the Pungcheon Cult Leader blinked with an expression that asked what he was doing. Then he sensed a presence behind him.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader slowly turned around.
Geom Mugeuk was standing behind him, having arrived at some point.
“You were insulting me again.”
Why now of all times! He had been caught cursing him before too. The Pungcheon Cult Leader was flustered, but he was not one to simply back down.
“Second Young Master! First fix that habit of appearing whenever someone curses you! Of course, I’m not someone who wouldn’t say something just because you were here, but……”
Just then, the Fist Demon entered after him.
The moment he saw him, the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s expression became serious in an instant. The playfulness vanished from his face, and he returned to being the Pungcheon Cult Leader. Lowering his voice, he greeted the Fist Demon.
“It has been a long time.”
“It is good to see you.”
The two greeted each other with clasped fists. The Fist Demon likewise revealed an aura different from when he was alone with Geom Mugeuk. Right now, they were a cult leader and a Demon Venerable. This was what they had originally been like, but after meeting Geom Mugeuk, everyone had been changing.
Geom Mugeuk introduced Go Wol to the Fist Demon.
“This is my strategist, Go Wol, who would be perfect if only he were good at baduk.”
Go Wol said with a smile,
“I am holding myself back from learning because I do not wish to clash with the Chief Strategist already.”
He said this because the person teaching baduk to the Heavenly Demon was the Chief Strategist. In other words, it was also confidence that if he learned and taught Geom Mugeuk, he could make him defeat the Cult Leader.
“Now, please come in.”
Geom Mugeuk and the Fist Demon entered and sat down.
Go Wol brought out tea.
“This is all I have to serve you.”
“You have been working hard, coming all this way.”
“I am working happily, thinking of it as a tour of the Central Plains.”
Geom Mugeuk spoke respectfully to the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“You have suffered much. Because you are protecting him, Cult Leader, I do not worry about Strategist Go at all.”
“I do it because I want to.”
Go Wol added credit to the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s efforts.
“If not for the Cult Leader, I would already have died several times over.”
In truth, danger had come upon them several times, but they had overcome the crises thanks to the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
Geom Mugeuk looked at the Pungcheon Cult Leader with gentle eyes. He knew very well how great a sacrifice the man had made to come to him. Of course, the reason was Go Wol, but in any case, Geom Mugeuk was the one enjoying the fruit of it. He always called him “that cult leader from back then,” but he had not the slightest intention of truly making him into that.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader said to the Fist Demon,
“I heard the news that you left the cult together with the Second Young Master.”
“I was enjoying some leisure for the first time in a long while.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader asked casually,
“By any chance, has the Second Young Master taken anything from you?”
“Taken anything?”
“If you let your guard down for even a moment, what is mine ends up in the Second Young Master’s hands. I wondered whether our Fist Demon had experienced such a thing as well.”
Because the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s eyes seemed to be saying, You must have had something taken too, the Fist Demon firmly shook his head.
“No such thing has happened.”
At the same time, the Fist Demon sent back a look that said, Do I look like someone who would have something taken from him?
Amid the invisible war of nerves, the Pungcheon Cult Leader felt upset inside.
‘Am I the only one who had everything taken by the Second Young Master?’
Even now, he sometimes thought of the sacred token he had given Geom Mugeuk. Since he had left the cult anyway, it was not that he had any lingering attachment to or greed for the sacred token itself.
It was just that sometimes he felt doubt—whether he was the kind of person who foolishly gave away everything he did not need to give, whether he was the only one living at a loss. Those feelings were also playing a part in the melancholy he had been feeling lately.
Then Geom Mugeuk said,
“Ah, that’s right. I have come to take the Fist Demon as my master.”
At those words, the Pungcheon Cult Leader was startled.
“Truly?”
“Yes. From now on, the Fist Demon is my master.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader could not hide his surprise. Soon, his mood improved as he looked at the Fist Demon.
‘You had something taken too! You had your entire self taken!’
What made the Pungcheon Cult Leader happiest of all was this.
‘I wasn’t the only one being taken advantage of!’
It was truly a great comfort to him. Of course, the Fist Demon would never acknowledge it at all.
Go Wol clasped his fists and offered congratulations.
“Congratulations on forming the bond of master and disciple.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader also congratulated the Fist Demon.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader’s mouth itched.
‘I hope you do not become that master from back then.’
If he had been even a little closer to the Fist Demon, it was something he surely would have ended up saying.
“I will go speak with Strategist Go for a moment.”
Geom Mugeuk and Go Wol went outside.
Now only the Fist Demon and the Pungcheon Cult Leader remained there. The one who broke the awkward silence and spoke first was the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“You made a great decision.”
“It somehow turned out that way.”
Of course. When you come to your senses, things have turned out this way. A smile formed at the corner of the Pungcheon Cult Leader’s mouth.
This time, the Fist Demon asked,
“You are the one who made a great decision, Cult Leader.”
“Looking at me, Demon Venerable, I may seem somewhat ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? Why would you say such a thing?”
“I mean, seeing me abandon the Pungcheon Cult and come into the Central Plains to be here alone like this.”
Originally, the two of them were people who would never have exchanged even a single word. But because of the central figure that was Geom Mugeuk, conversations they would never have had before were passing between them.
“Why are you alone? That strategist from earlier is here. My disciple is here too, is he not?”
“According to Strategist Go, you support the Eldest Young Master.”
“That is correct.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader said something unexpected.
“Do not treat him carelessly just because he is your disciple.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was not afraid of the Fist Demon at all.
“You have only staked half, but we have staked everything on your disciple.”
The Fist Demon gave no answer and drank his tea.
Meanwhile, Geom Mugeuk and Go Wol came out into the yard. Once the two of them were alone, Geom Mugeuk comforted him for his efforts.
“You have suffered much.”
“It must have been less hardship than becoming the Fist Demon’s disciple.”
Geom Mugeuk did not deny it and laughed.
“Before I tell you why I left word asking to see you, there is one thing I would like to ask of you separately.”
“Tell me.”
“The Cult Leader has been struggling lately.”
How? For what reason? How much?
Geom Mugeuk did not ask such questions. The fact that Go Wol was speaking to him separately like this was enough for him to infer all of it.
“I still dream of the time when I was bound in shackles. At times, I even converse with the Yin Thunder Sect. It seems truly difficult for a person to break free from the past. The Cult Leader must be the same.”
Geom Mugeuk looked at him and smiled.
“I will speak to him separately.”
“Thank you.”
Having told Geom Mugeuk, Go Wol no longer worried about it.
“What is the reason you asked to see me?”
Then Go Wol said something unexpected.
“Have you perhaps heard of the Immortal Debt?”