The first person to arrive at Pungryu Tavern was Demon Army Lord Jang Ho.
His huge build and the scar on his face overwhelmed everyone inside the tavern. Not a single breath could be heard from the guests as Jang Ho crossed the first floor and came up to the second, and only after he joined our table did the time that had stopped begin to flow again.
“Have you been well, Second Young Master?”
“I have. I hope I didn’t call over a busy man for nothing.”
“If you hadn’t invited me to this gathering, I would have been very disappointed.”
“Of course I had to invite you. It’s my first drinking party with all my people. Now, take a cup from me first.”
I filled Jang Ho’s cup to the brim.
“Thank you.”
Seo Daeryong and Jang Ho exchanged greetings as well. They had met before during the anonymous letter incident. With Jang Ho sitting beside Seo Daeryong, who was already on the small side, he looked three times larger.
After we had a drink, I asked Jang Ho.
“You’ve been busy, haven’t you?”
“I was busy at the beginning of my appointment, but it’s gotten somewhat better now.”
“If you ever have any problems or anything troubling you, come find me anytime.”
“Of course. I’ll come to you first.”
Jang Ho was dependable every time I saw him. Contrary to his appearance, he was emotional and delicate, and he valued relationships with people.
Once Jang Ho arrived, the pace of drinking quickened. Jang Ho drank as well as befitted his large build.
As we drank, Seo Daeryong kept sneaking glances at Jang Ho. He wasn’t watching his mood; there was envy in his eyes.
“Are you jealous?”
When I hit the mark, Seo Daeryong flinched.
“Of what?”
“Are you jealous of Lord Jang?”
Borrowing courage from the alcohol, Seo Daeryong answered honestly.
“Yes, to be honest, I am. There was a time when I wanted to become like him too. Though I failed.”
“It’s not too late yet.”
“You said that before. When I lamented that I was already too late, you said you were disappointed. But what can I do if it really is too late? I’m already thirty-two.”
“It’s still not too late.”
Seo Daeryong, who had been about to flare up, drank the cup of liquor before him. If it had been anyone else, he would have shouted at them not to speak so easily about someone else’s life.
Though he swallowed his anger with the alcohol, Seo Daeryong was flushed.
“Is it really not too late?”
I knew he was asking sincerely, so I answered sincerely as well.
“It is late.”
“Phew, I knew it.”
Seo Daeryong was disappointed. It seemed some part of him had hoped that perhaps it really wasn’t too late.
“But that’s why there’s something good about it too.”
“What is that?”
“You’ll strive more sincerely. Even if you thrust your sword just once, you’ll do it with more of your full strength than others. Even if you take a single step, it will contain deeper thought than others.”
“Even so, isn’t the reality that I won’t be able to catch up in the end?”
“You can catch up. Ah, speak of the devil, a fine example is coming over there. The incarnation of reality denial!”
Following my gaze, Seo Daeryong and Jang Ho looked down at the first floor. The large-framed Ian was drawing everyone’s eyes as she hurried up to our seats on the second floor.
“Someone who walked that path one step ahead of you, someone who practically lives in the training hall these days, and yet someone who’s still that cheerful—there she comes.”
When Ian reached the table, she apologized first.
“Ah, I’m truly sorry. I was late because I had to wash and change out of my training clothes.”
“It’s just a drinking party. What’s there to hurry for?”
“Of course I have to hurry. It’s a gathering with honored people.”
Ian greeted the two of them.
“Hello, Lord Jang. Investigator Seo.”
The two stared at her as she greeted them brightly. Thinking perhaps it was because she was late, Ian apologized again.
“I’m sorry. I’m late, aren’t I?”
Seo Daeryong had stared at her because of the word “example,” and Jang Ho for a different reason. Jang Ho spoke to her politely.
“Something about you has changed, Lady Ian.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Your feeling is different somehow.”
The eyes of a lord who led the Demon Army were certainly not ordinary.
At that, Ian glanced at me, then smiled and said,
“Falling into training hell even makes you lose weight. I do look a little different, don’t I?”
Of course, both Ian and I knew that wasn’t the reason. It was because her aura had changed after receiving the Bicheon Sword Art. For now, the Bicheon Sword Art was a secret that absolutely could not be spoken of outside.
Jang Ho must have sensed that it was not merely because of that either, but he asked no further about the change.
“The weather is gloomy too, so I was really craving a drink. Please give me some liquor!”
Ian held out her cup, and I filled it to the brim.
“You’ve been working hard training, Ian.”
“Working hard? It’s something I ought to do. And I know you train far more than I do, Young Master. You even cut down on sleep to do it.”
At that, Seo Daeryong was startled.
“Really?”
“You didn’t know?”
At Ian’s question, Seo Daeryong looked at me.
“You’re someone who looks like he’d slack off no matter who looked at you.”
“That’s true. But inside that lazy-looking shell is one incredibly hardworking martial artist.”
Seo Daeryong looked at me, then at Jang Ho, then back at Ian. Then he drank alone.
“It seems I’m the only loser here.”
“But you work hard at your job, don’t you?”
At Ian’s consolation, Seo Daeryong lowered his head deeply.
“I put off today’s work until tomorrow and came to drink.”
“Ah, dear. Our Investigator Seo’s shell looks terribly diligent, though.”
Ian teased him lightly. At times like this, Ian was unmistakably a young girl who suited bright laughter.
“Now, let’s drink for today’s loser!”
Ian raised her cup, and we toasted. The loser, too, joined in the final toast, saying he was the very person in question, without taking offense.
“What do you think? Everyone’s working this hard. Do you want to properly learn martial arts too?”
“What? From you, Pavilion Lord?”
“No.”
“Then from whom?”
Without realizing it, Seo Daeryong looked at Jang Ho.
“Why are you looking there? He’s the busiest person among us.”
“Ah, it’s just that he trained the enforcement warriors before, so I wondered.”
“If there’s someone to teach you, will you learn? You won’t be able to become a formal disciple, but they should be able to teach you proper martial arts.”
“Who is it?”
Instead of telling him who it was, I said to him,
“Your resolve comes first. If you make up your mind to be reborn, tell me. Then I’ll tell you who it is.”
I was thinking of him as the next Lord of Hwangcheon Pavilion. But he was too young to become the next pavilion lord. Nor did he have a fine sect behind him or political connections. To become the pavilion lord, he needed something.
Then suddenly, one person came to mind.
Someone who did not suit him at all, and perhaps because of that, might suit him even better.
“I’ll give you fifteen minutes. Think it over.”
“What? I have to decide right here?”
“With matters like this, if you think too long, you can’t decide. Once today’s drinking party ends, it’s back to square one. For you and for me. You know that, don’t you?”
At that, Seo Daeryong fell into serious contemplation, and we drank as we looked outside, where it seemed rain would pour down at any moment. We drank quietly for Seo Daeryong’s sake. I, Ian, and Jang Ho all had many thoughts these days too.
By the time we emptied one bottle of liquor, Seo Daeryong had made his decision.
“I’ll do it.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“This is something that will change your life.”
“I’m ready. What is life, anyway? If you think an opportunity has come, you grab it! If things go wrong and I die, please bury me somewhere with good sunlight!”
“I’ll bury you on a road where lots of pretty women pass by.”
“Excellent.”
Seo Daeryong drained the liquor before him in one refreshing gulp.
“Oh! Congratulations!”
Ian clapped energetically, and Jang Ho offered his congratulations.
“If anyone else had suggested it, it would have been unthinkable. But because you’re the one suggesting it, Pavilion Lord, strangely, my ears became thin and I thought… Let’s grab this. This is an opportunity.”
Ian smiled and agreed.
“Our Young Master’s persuasiveness is the best in all ages.”
Jang Ho also nodded as if acknowledging it.
Perhaps because Seo Daeryong felt good, he emptied another cup. He, who usually could not drink much, was overdrinking.
“But as you know, I’ve worked as an investigator for ten years. I stayed up countless nights trying to become a special investigator too. To throw all that away, my heart feels……”
“Why would you quit being an investigator?”
“What?”
“I said there’s no need to quit. You’re the person Hwangcheon Pavilion needs most, so what are you quitting for? I mean you should learn martial arts after working hours.”
Seo Daeryong took my words as a joke.
“You want me to die of exhaustion?”
“In return, you’ll fulfill the dream you couldn’t achieve.”
Seo Daeryong quietly stared at me as I answered seriously, then was shocked.
“Surely not? Are you serious?”
“Of course I’m serious. You’re learning late, so what’s the rush? Learn slowly after work.”
“Because I’m late, I have to rush. Can I become an expert by learning like that? Shouldn’t I wager everything in my life and challenge it?”
Seo Daeryong looked at Jang Ho, hoping for support as if asking whether that wasn’t right. But Jang Ho gave no response and only looked at me, as if telling him to listen to me.
Unable to secure reinforcements, Seo Daeryong returned to the battlefield.
I spoke to him calmly.
“That’s usually why everyone fails. In your mind, you feel like you could stake your entire life on it, but in reality, that doesn’t work out so well. Rather, if you have time left over from morning to night, it becomes even harder. With so much time, why am I not improving? What exactly am I doing? You drown in shame and defeat. You achieve far greater results when you continue doing your work while carving out precious bits of time to strive little by little. Because then it can become not work, but joy.”
Aside from Seo Daeryong, the person directly involved, Ian and Jang Ho nodded. Seo Daeryong looked conflicted.
“And the important thing is who you learn from. If you learn from a true expert who’s compatible with you, training time doesn’t mean all that much. From someone like that, even learning for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea will be better than a half-baked fool babbling for a lifetime.”
“A true expert? Who?”
Even Ian and Jang Ho were curious as to who I intended to make his master.
“They’ll be here soon.”
“They’re coming here?”
Not only Seo Daeryong, but Ian and Jang Ho were startled too.
“Then did you know Investigator Seo would make this decision?”
“What am I, a fortune-teller? How would I know that? I just thought of it on impulse.”
“Then that person doesn’t know about this situation?”
“Of course not.”
“Good heavens!”
Seo Daeryong drank another cup. Having already far exceeded his usual capacity, he was beginning to enter the stage where liquor called for more liquor.
“The greatest contest is whether we can get permission or not. If it doesn’t work, we’ll have to cling to his trouser legs.”
We all drank together, saying that we must secure permission no matter what.
Ian told Seo Daeryong to only touch his lips to the cup, but he said he couldn’t do that with an important matter ahead and drained it clean.
“I don’t know who it is, but I’ll definitely get permission. If he won’t permit it, his right trouser leg is mine. Pavilion Lord, please take charge of the left.”
Perhaps because he thought something he had long kept in his heart was about to come true, Seo Daeryong was greatly flushed.
“If he’s a master found by you, Young Master, then he must truly be a remarkable and good person.”
No sooner had Ian said that—
Flash! Rumble! Boom!
Lightning struck, and thunder roared.
“It looks like it’s finally going to start pouring in earnest!”
It was at that very moment.
“Ah, there he comes.”
At my words, everyone’s eyes turned toward the first floor.
A person was stepping inside.
Upon confirming who it was, Ian covered her mouth and held back a scream.
Jang Ho, too, flinched in surprise and widened his eyes.
Seo Daeryong, who had his back turned, was the last to turn his head.
I was able to see Seo Daeryong’s shock unfold in real time. His eyes widened, he let out a short scream, and as he tried to spring to his feet, he spilled his liquor.
Thud.
The person who arrived at our table set a huge blade down on the floor.
From his small, slitted eyes, a ferocious demonic energy poured forth.
“How dare you summon me here and there?”
The person who had arrived was none other than the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
Swaaaaaaa!
As if it had been waiting, the rain began to pour down.