“At last, the time has come.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Bi Sain’s heart sank. How could he not know what those eyes, brimming with mischief, were demanding of him? He had the thought that what was bound to come had finally arrived.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
For now, he flatly denied it. Who would dare press him when that terrifying face claimed ignorance? Unfortunately, his opponent was Geom Mugeuk.
“I mean it’s time to keep your promise.”
Geom Muyang, Jin Hagun, and Jin Haryeong, who were with them, showed their curiosity, wondering what promise he meant.
At the same time, they all had another thought.
Poor man. What weakness has he been caught by this time?
But for the moment, curiosity outweighed sympathy.
The same was true of Geom Ujin, Jin Paecheon, and Baek Jagang, who were standing a little ways away.
Bi Sain spoke with his eyes.
‘Surely not? Here? Tell me it isn’t so.’
If it weren’t so, Geom Mugeuk would never have brought it up in the first place.
“I don’t think there could be a better time or place than now to keep that promise.”
By using the word promise, Geom Mugeuk heightened everyone’s curiosity even further.
Bi Sain’s heart began to pound. Even when he had waited beneath the sparring stage for his first match, his heart had not pounded like this.
Geom Muyang spoke in a roundabout way.
“I don’t know what this is about, but don’t needlessly put the Young Alliance Leader in a difficult position.”
“The one who made that promise was him.”
With an anxious expression, Bi Sain emptied his cup.
“You’re not going to give up, are you?”
“What would you do if you were me?”
What he disliked, he disliked. But what had to be acknowledged, had to be acknowledged. If their positions were reversed, and he had a chance to tease Geom Mugeuk like this?
“I wouldn’t give up.”
“If I let this chance slip by, I’ll probably regret today for the rest of my life.”
Bi Sain sympathized. The people gathered today were not people who would be easy to gather again in a lifetime.
But precisely because of that, he could not bring himself to say he would do it. Bi Sain offered another reason.
“The people behind today’s meeting may be watching.”
“They might be.”
“And you want me to do it in a situation like this?”
He meant, would it really be all right to show himself dancing?
“I’d rather they did see it.”
“What?”
“Even with you there, we are living well like this. We are living our lives properly. I want to show them that.”
He could tell it was not a joke, but sincerity.
“If we fail to live our lives properly, then even if we eliminate them later, we won’t have truly won. Let’s not grant them any meaning.”
As always, this was what Geom Mugeuk wanted. Ah, I’ll just step out for a moment. Where did you go? Ah, it was nothing, please continue what you were saying.
Bi Sain drank again. One could see him wavering, wondering whether he should just go ahead and dance.
Geom Mugeuk changed tactics.
“Young Alliance Leader.”
When Bi Sain raised his head, Geom Mugeuk looked at him with a gentle expression and said,
“It’s all right. I only said it to tease you.”
“Really?”
“No matter that it was a promise, wouldn’t it be difficult to keep it in a situation like this? It’s regrettable, but I’ll have to give up. Come now, don’t mind us and let’s drink.”
He ought to have been glad that he would not have to dance, but for some reason, he was not.
Unable to hold back any longer, Jin Haryeong asked,
“What on earth is going on?”
“You don’t need to know.”
At that moment, Bi Sain abruptly said,
“I promised I would dance in front of people.”
Jin Haryeong froze with a look of shock. Not only Jin Hagun, but even Geom Muyang was surprised.
As every gaze flew toward him at once, Geom Mugeuk waved his hands.
“Why are you looking at me! It was a promise the Young Alliance Leader made on his own.”
Naturally, Jin Haryeong did not believe him.
“No way! It must have been the devil’s temptation.”
Geom Muyang and Jin Hagun nodded at the same time.
“You must have pushed him from behind and made him fall into a trap!”
“The one always looking for a chance to push me from behind is that Young Alliance Leader!”
“No way! There is no way he would do such a thing.”
“How long have you even known him?”
This time, Geom Muyang stepped in.
“I apologize on behalf of my younger brother.”
Ironically, the two of them ended up helping Geom Mugeuk. Given Bi Sain’s personality, he could not hide it when they spoke like that.
“No. It is true that I said I would dance.”
Bi Sain drank three cups of liquor in rapid succession.
“I will dance.”
Everyone tried to stop him.
“Please restrain yourself!”
Starting with Jin Haryeong.
“Don’t get swept up by my younger brother.”
Geom Muyang tried to stop him as well.
“Don’t overdo it.”
Jin Hagun also tried to stop him. If he put himself in Bi Sain’s position? Ah, it was horrifying.
“I cannot become a petty man who fails to keep his promise.”
“I think it might be better to become a petty man instead.”
Jin Haryeong said this regretfully and looked at Geom Mugeuk.
“Look at how pleased he is.”
Then Geom Mugeuk delivered the decisive blow to her.
“So? You don’t want to see it?”
“……”
Bi Sain sprang to his feet. He had been swept up by the atmosphere and the liquor. If he had to do it someday? Fine, then he might as well do it today! That sort of youthful bravado had been added as well. He also wanted to show Geom Mugeuk that he would keep his promise. In the end, he charged toward a typhoon, a tidal wave, and lava.
Bi Sain strode over to Baek Jagang.
Since they had heard everything that had been said at Bi Sain’s seat, Baek Jagang wore an expression that said, Are you really going to do it?
“Some time ago, I made a promise to myself. That if I escaped that crisis, I would dance before people. I intend to keep that promise today.”
Everyone seemed to understand what had happened. Those words held another meaning as well. It had been that great a crisis, and in the end, he had overcome it together with Geom Mugeuk. It was not just any promise, and it would not be just any dance.
Baek Jagang silently stared into his disciple’s eyes.
‘So you had this side to you?’
Bi Sain’s face was flushed red. It was impossible to tell whether it was because of the liquor or his agitation.
“If you made a promise, you should keep it.”
Baek Jagang’s permission was given. As expected, he had an open and straightforward temperament.
Bi Sain returned and asked Geom Mugeuk,
“Please make the preparations.”
“You’re really going to do it?”
Instead of resentment, Bi Sain’s eyes showed the resolve of a man who had made up his mind.
“I am seeing another new expression from you.”
“I came this far because I was deceived by words like that from you.”
“There’s still a long way to go. I’ll see every expression you have.”
Bi Sain’s pupils trembled. Astonishingly, he now knew those words were sincere.
From the railing, Geom Mugeuk called down to Jo Chunbae on the first floor.
“Innkeeper, go and bring some musicians.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jo Chunbae was about to run out, but the Fist Demon stopped him and sent a sound transmission to the unit leaders.
The unit leaders darted away like arrows and brought musicians from a nearby pleasure house.
When the musicians arrived, Bi Sain went down to the first floor. Geom Ujin, Jin Paecheon, and Baek Jagang, who were on the second floor, stood by the railing and watched.
The four who had been with Bi Sain followed him downstairs.
All the experts drinking on the first floor looked at Bi Sain. Some were already drunk.
Bi Sain said to them,
“To commemorate today’s historic three-party meeting, I will dance once before you all.”
At that, everyone was startled. When the musicians came and settled in front of the tavern, they had assumed they had been called to liven up the mood. But the Young Alliance Leader of the Sado Alliance was going to dance?
The experts of the Sado Alliance looked up to the second floor. Baek Jagang, standing at the railing, merely watched in silence as though he had already given his permission. In that case, it was not something they could argue about.
An old master of the unorthodox faction asked,
“Then are you going to perform the Cheonbyeon Geuksalmu?”
The Cheonbyeon Geuksalmu, the Thousand-Transformation Extreme Killing Dance, was an unparalleled divine art of the unorthodox faction said to leave no survivor among those who witnessed it.
“No.”
“Then are you going to perform the Honwon Talbaengmu?”
The Honwon Talbaengmu was a dance of death said to drive anyone with weak internal energy mad if they saw it.
“No.”
“Then you mean to perform an ordinary sword dance?”
To ordinary martial artists, a dance meant a sword dance performed with a sword in hand.
“No. I will dance the kind of dance ordinary people dance. The kind danced on festive days.”
Not only the old master who had asked the question, but the others as well, did not understand his words at first. What did he mean, he was just going to dance? He was going to dance the kind ordinary people in the world danced? You? Here? Why?
“Our Young Alliance Leader is drunk.”
At the old master’s words, the surrounding experts looked up at Baek Jagang again. Their eyes asked whether he was not going to stop him, but Baek Jagang merely looked down in silence.
Not only the experts of the unorthodox faction, but those of the righteous faction as well, found it strange. However, they had all had a drink, and they were curious what sort of dance the Young Alliance Leader of the Sado Alliance would perform.
The Demon Venerables looked not at Bi Sain, but at Geom Mugeuk.
When the Blood Heaven Blade Demon shook his head and scolded him with his eyes, as if to say, Good grief, you brat, Geom Mugeuk put on an aggrieved expression. Of course, not a single one of the Demon Venerables believed that grievance.
The Poison King’s gaze in particular turned distant. ‘Ah, I got caught in that devil’s clutches and barked in the training ground.’
The windows of the inn were thrown wide open. Some watched from their seats, some standing, and some even came outside to watch.
Bi Sain stood in the middle of the road outside the tavern.
“Ah, what is to be done about this?”
Before it even began, Jin Haryeong’s face flushed first. She was more embarrassed than he was.
“We won’t be able to see Young Alliance Leader Bi anymore after this, will we? He may shut himself away in secluded training for a hundred years.”
Geom Muyang and Jin Hagun also joined forces against Geom Mugeuk.
“You wicked bastard!”
“This time, you have truly gone too far.”
“I told you, he made that promise on his own.”
Geom Mugeuk’s protest could not possibly work.
“Even so, you were the one who brought up that promise at this particular moment, weren’t you?”
Geom Muyang struck at the heart of the matter, but Geom Mugeuk had a decisive counterattack.
“So? Are you not going to watch?”
“……”
Geom Muyang, Jin Hagun, and Jin Haryeong all pretended not to hear and looked in different directions.
“Young Alliance Leader Bi! You are magnificent!”
As Geom Mugeuk cheered and clapped, the three people beside him also applauded.
The old masters of the righteous and unorthodox factions showed slight disapproval at the sight. They did not like the fact that the successors were getting along like this in the first place.
But they did not dare openly scold them in front of Geom Ujin, Jin Paecheon, and Baek Jagang.
Bi Sain closed his eyes.
He felt as though he were alone, as though he had been cast out into the world by himself.
At last, the sound of music began.
Because he was so tense, his body would not move. Ah, if this had been a fight, he would have died just now.
Jin Haryeong, who was watching, covered her eyes.
“Ah, I really can’t bear to watch.”
“Me neither.”
When Geom Mugeuk also covered his eyes, Jin Haryeong challenged him.
“Why are you covering your eyes?”
“Now that I’m actually about to watch it, I can’t bear to either.”
“You kill a man and then fear the blood?”
The musicians played the music again. How shocked must they have been as well? They had been brought over because they suddenly had to perform, and there were the Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, the Murim Alliance Leader, and the Sado Alliance Leader, along with the Demon Venerables and the greatest masters of the righteous and unorthodox factions. And above all else, the Young Alliance Leader of the Sado Alliance was trying to dance to their music. The musicians were just as out of their minds as Bi Sain. Yes, surely this was a dream they were all having together.
The music flowed again, and this time, Bi Sain began to dance.
“Huh?”
Jin Haryeong lowered the hand she had used to cover her eyes.
Bi Sain danced better than expected.
Geom Mugeuk, who had been watching through narrowed eyes, also opened his eyes wide. He had been the one to make him do it, but he was just as embarrassed and nervous.
“He’s good?”
He was truly dancing quite convincingly. It was not some random flailing. His hands and feet were riding the rhythm rather well.
In truth, Bi Sain had learned dance from Sado Pallang, one of the Sado Thirteen Wolves. Sado Pallang, who had once swept through the back alleys of Hangzhou, had passed down his secret dance to him.
Whenever he had time, Bi Sain had practiced that dance diligently. He had anticipated that a day like this would come someday. He simply had not known it would be today.
Geom Mugeuk could tell. He had practiced, and practiced again.
This was the kind of person Bi Sain was. A person who always tried to keep his promises, and if he was going to do something, tried to do it well.
But Bi Sain’s dance soon reached its limit. He had not been born a dancer to begin with, and it was a dance he had learned in haste. He also lacked practice.
As the movements began to repeat, the thought that he was embarrassed made his hands and feet grow disordered. At times like this, he needed to be shameless, but he could not. His body shrank in on itself, and his true skill began to show.
The pitiful motions of a man who had lost himself were conveyed to everyone.
Geom Ujin raised his head slightly and looked up at the sky. Jin Paecheon cleared his throat.
Baek Jagang quietly closed those small eyes of his.
‘Should I have come alone?’
It was at that very moment, when the orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic factions alike were feeling regretful. Someone suddenly leapt into the dance.
“Let’s dance together!”
The person who had barged in was Geom Mugeuk.
He began to imitate Bi Sain’s dance. There was no way a dance he was trying for the first time today would go properly, but Geom Mugeuk earnestly followed each movement.
He deliberately danced in an even more exaggerated and ridiculous manner, and laughter burst out here and there.
“This is an incredibly fun dance!”
Then, as if his excitement had risen even further, Geom Mugeuk shouted.
“A faster song, if you please.”
The musicians began to play a faster tune.
Geom Mugeuk’s joints bent this way and that. It was such a bizarre dance that one could not help wondering where on earth he had learned such moves.
Once again, laughter broke out here and there, and this time Bi Sain followed his dance.
Bi Sain’s hideous face was even more flushed.
No one would ever know how happy he had been when Geom Mugeuk leapt into the dance.
Even if someone had jumped in to save him when he was surrounded on all sides by enemies and moments from death, he would not have been this happy.
“Brother, dance with us!”
Geom Mugeuk ran over and tried to drag Geom Muyang out by force.
Shrrng.
Geom Muyang’s sword was half drawn.
Geom Mugeuk changed direction and tried to take Jin Hagun out instead.
Shrrrng.
The sword was drawn even farther.
At that moment, there was someone who leapt in of her own accord.
It was none other than Jin Haryeong.
‘No! Haryeong!’
Before Jin Paecheon could stop her, Jin Haryeong was already moving to the music.
It was not because she was good at dancing. She, too, was someone who found it extremely embarrassing to step forward in a situation like this.
But Geom Mugeuk had stepped up like that for his friend, and she wanted to step up and help as well. She wanted to share that embarrassment with them. The moment that thought came to her, her body impulsively sprang forward.
With her joining them, the atmosphere brightened. She danced lightly and gracefully, while Geom Mugeuk danced with pure excitement. Bi Sain, half dazed, danced one dance after another at random. The musicians began to play with even greater enthusiasm.
A tripartite conference itself was unprecedented, but martial artists of the orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic factions gathering together to dance was surely also a first since the murim had come into being.
The radiance from the Demon Buddha’s body shone even brighter. Having traveled all across the Central Plains, the Demon Buddha tapped his foot to the rhythm as if to say that he, too, had once known how to have fun. Had there been no eyes watching, he might very well have jumped in himself.
Even the masters of the orthodox and unorthodox factions, who had at first looked on with displeasure, now seemed to find it like children’s antics and let their stiff expressions soften.
Baek Jagang was looking at Bi Sain, who was dancing with all his might.
Jin Paecheon had seen that kind of face many times before. The face that said, No matter how outstanding another man’s child may be, my child is the best.
This time, Jin Paecheon looked at Geom Ujin, who stood on the other side.
He was silently watching Geom Mugeuk dance.
‘I hope you let your son defeat you. If your first loss is to your son… would that not be acceptable, at least?’
Jin Paecheon’s gaze returned to the children dancing.
“Even when the orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic factions gather, they can be that happy.”
Youth was such a wonderful thing. Why had he never played so joyfully when he was young? Fighting, and fighting again. This time, how many had he killed? Next time, whom would he kill? Had he spent all his youth like that? Without ever smiling so brightly, without ever enjoying himself so freely even once.
Then Baek Jagang said,
“Perhaps it is precisely because they are orthodox, unorthodox, and demonic that it is even more enjoyable.”
Jin Paecheon nodded.
Jin Haryeong adorably moved her hands and waist, as if telling them to try following her. Geom Mugeuk and Bi Sain copied her dance. When the three matched their movements, it looked pleasing, almost like a group dance.
Bi Sain did not realize it. He, who had never truly smiled because he did not want to reveal his hideous face, was now smiling more brightly than he ever had in his life.
Lost in the rapture of dancing, Geom Mugeuk shouted.
“Something even livelier!”
Was it because the wind blowing in, carrying the full breath of spring, cooled the sweat on their bodies?
The three dancers did not tire.