Just as he was about to overturn the table, a stream of internal energy flowed forth and pressed it down.
He raised his head to see Hyeolcheon Doma.
He sent a telepathic message to the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“Restrain yourself. If the table is flipped, what will be revealed is not the underside of the table, but the underside of the Cult Leader.”
Sensing the dissuasion came from goodwill, the Pungcheon Cult Leader removed his hand from the table. Hyeolcheon Doma's eyes said it: I understand you, to some degree.
Geom Mugeuk spoke again to the shackled man.
“You have been bound here for a long time, so I thought you might want to keep something made from these shackles.”
The shackled man did not refuse and requested a single item.
“Then please make me a fan.”
“Will that be enough?”
“It is sufficient.”
I entrusted the shackles to Jangho.
“Take these to Artisan Gwak at our cult's forge and have him make a fan with Myriad Year Cold Iron ribs, and from the remainder, have him forge eight daggers—one for each person gathered here today. Since our gathering today is also worth commemorating, let us each take one.”
The eight included both the Pungcheon Cult Leader and the shackled man.
At that, Seo Daeryong spoke.
“I cannot speak for the others, but I am not sure I am worthy of receiving such a precious dagger.”
“Nor I.”
“I feel the same.”
Ian and Jangho stepped forward as well.
“Instead of acting humble, work yourselves to the bone to repay me!”
At my jest, everyone lowered their heads in gratitude.
“Thank you truly.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader's reaction, by contrast, was cold.
“Why do you bother preparing one for me as well?”
“Because I wish to commemorate today.”
“But I do not wish to commemorate it.”
At that moment, the shackled man sent a telepathic message.
“Accept it graciously. He is agitated because of me, but the Cult Leader must still accomplish the grand endeavor of advancing into the Central Plains, must he not?”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader was immensely grateful to the shackled man. Until the very end, the man was trying. It was only he himself who could not meet expectations.
“I was merely jesting. Give me one as well. Those shackles hold meaning for me too.”
“Yes, of course.”
“By the way, you are truly remarkable. Daggers forged of Myriad Year Cold Iron would be difficult to acquire even in the Central Plains. To think you would distribute them to everyone.”
“That is how precious these people are.”
“Is there any guarantee that these precious people will remain precious later on?”
“This gift is not given with an eye toward what comes later.”
“Then why?”
“It is a gift given in gratitude for all they have done for me until now.”
At Geom Mugeuk's words, the Pungcheon Cult Leader could not continue. As if understanding his state of mind, Hyeolcheon Doma poured him a drink and spoke.
“Did we not say so earlier? That ascending dragons are beyond our handling. Simply letting them go with a light heart is the wisest course.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader emptied his cup in silence.
The drinking gathering continued, precarious and ready to erupt at any moment.
After passing cups back and forth for a round or two, everyone grew drunk.
“Inspector Seo, please stop. At this rate, you'll be grabbing your master's pant legs again today.”
At Ian's dissuasion, Seo Daeryong shouted loudly.
“I am perfectly fine!”
“But you're already slurring your words.”
“I told you not to worry! I am not drunk.”
Whether because he had much weighing on him lately, Seo Daeryong began drinking heavily, and Ian, who had been trying to stop him, was also taking small sips of the liquor he had refrained from throughout his training.
Geom Mugeuk looked at Jangho. Jangho sent a look saying he would take good care of the two, so there was no need to worry.
“Shouldn't it be the other way around? You getting drunk and those two stopping you.”
“So it would seem.”
“If they show signs of throwing a drunken fit, knock them out with those big fists of yours.”
“That will not be easy either. Both of them are in extraordinary form these days.”
Of course, Seo Daeryong still had a long way to go, but in Ian's case, one could not say he would unconditionally lose to Jangho. The Bicheon Sword Technique was a martial art that could kill even Jangho if his guard were down.
Watching the scene, the Pungcheon Cult Leader spoke to the Demon Lords.
“The world has turned upside down. It has become a world where we must cater to the whims of our inferiors.”
It was a lament directed not at Ian and Seo Daeryong, but at the shackled man. Then he asked Geom Mugeuk.
“What does the Second Young Master think? Even if you become Cult Leader, do you intend to run the cult while watching your subordinates' moods?”
Instead of answering, Geom Mugeuk asked the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“Do you know the common trait of incompetent people?”
“Why, is it not because they are incapable and lazy?”
“That may be so. However, there is a more common trait.”
“What is it?”
“They have no tact.”
In that instant, the Pungcheon Cult Leader's expression hardened. Clearly, Geom Mugeuk was about to say something that contradicted his own words.
“You mean to say I should watch my subordinates' moods? Will the cult function properly then? Will we not be devoured by the orthodox bastards instead?”
“Only by watching them can you know what kind of person a subordinate is. Only by watching them can you know what is in their hearts. I refuse forced loyalty.”
“Enough!”
In the end, the Pungcheon Cult Leader overturned the table.
Everyone looked at him with startled faces as the table crashed over. Wine and food spilled on their clothes, but no one paid it any mind.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader shouted.
“It is pretense. All pretense to look good before you. If any subordinate disobeys, I would drag them away in secret and kill them. I am not trying to watch my subordinates' moods—I am watching yours. I am putting on airs because I want to take you with me.”
His words echoed thunderously. To others, it seemed a sudden outburst, but for him, it was an explosion of accumulated grievances.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader had held back from overturning the table countless times. But the moment he heard the words “forced loyalty” among Geom Mugeuk's final remarks, the dam he had been holding back collapsed.
For lately, he had been tormented by self-blame and even a sense of victimization, believing that both the shackled man and his other subordinates were forcing their loyalty upon him.
Only silence flowed through that place.
Staring at the overturned underside of the table, the Pungcheon Cult Leader clenched his teeth.
‘Damn it! What do you want me to do? This is who I am! What am I supposed to do about not wanting to hear those words! Damn it!’
The overturned table signaled the end of today's long, drawn-out battle.
“I believe I have been rude. Please forgive me. It is late today, so I will call upon you again tomorrow to apologize.”
Along with Geom Mugeuk's apology, Hyeolcheon Doma and Ilhwa Geumjon said their farewells.
It was conduct unbecoming before the Demon Lords. The two were in a situation where they could have raged, but for Geom Mugeuk's sake, they showed no sign of it.
Jangho gathered the shackles, Seo Daeryong, and Ian, then followed them out.
Geom Mugeuk conveyed his gratitude to everyone with a smile. Had it not been for them, this gathering would never have come to pass in the first place.
They parted at the entrance. No one spoke of the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
Jangho, Seo Daeryong, and Ian went to a tavern to have another round together. Hyeolcheon Doma and Ilhwa Geumjon returned to their lodgings, saying they were tired, and Geom Mugeuk likewise headed to his own quarters.
* * *
The shackled man stood up.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader found the sight of the shackled man walking toward him terribly unfamiliar.
The shackled man picked up one of the fallen wine bottles from the floor and drank straight from it. Then he extended the bottle to the Pungcheon Cult Leader. The Pungcheon Cult Leader took the bottle and drank.
Perhaps they could have sat face to face like this, drinking together, from the very beginning. What had he been so afraid of?
“I kept the shackles on because I feared you would kill me. No, to be more honest, I feared that I would kill you.”
“That is not true.”
“It is not?”
“The Cult Leader simply had no thoughts at all.”
“What?”
“The reasons that came to mind just now are thoughts I've only had recently. Before that, you lived without thinking at all, did you not? You simply kept me bound because you had bound me at first. It became a habit.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader could not refute him. He had indeed lived without thought, just as the man said. The realization that these shackles were such a grave matter had only come since becoming entangled with the Second Young Master recently.
Even so, the shackled man comforted the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
“It is all right. Everyone lives this way.”
“What do you mean, all right? It is because of this that you are leaving.”
“I am not leaving because of that. Not because you kept me in shackles.”
“Then why? Do you think you can change the world alongside the Second Young Master?”
“I hold no such dream of changing the world.”
“Then why? Why in the world!”
The reason was something the Pungcheon Cult Leader had never anticipated.
“I am going because I could not predict anything.”
“What?”
“I handled everything related to the martial world situation on the frontier together with the Cult Leader.”
“You did.”
“And in that process, regarding matters related to the Second Young Master, I could not predict a single thing.”
“But you did predict things. You said he would come, and he came. You predicted he would demand the sacred artifact.”
The shackled man shook his head.
“Those were meaningless things. Many reports related to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult flew in from the frontier. A considerable number of them concerned the Second Young Master. Each time, the Second Young Master defied all my expectations. I never thought he would kill the Demon Lord, nor that he would kill the Soul-Devouring Demon Lord. I never imagined he would draw in Hyeolcheon Doma, nor that he would bring everyone under his command here today. I did not even know he would demand the shackles. How is this possible? Yes, that's right. Perhaps the Second Young Master is smarter than I, and if I go, I may be slighted. ‘What? I brought him a strategist, but he is more mediocre than he looks?’ I might be disappointed. But even so, I must go and see. I must see why I could not predict him, what kind of human being he is to walk such a path. I have become truly curious.”
It was the first time the shackled man had spoken so much.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader understood. He could no longer hold this man back. He asked one last time.
“Can you truly not stay with me?”
“I can. Let us go together.”
“You madman, where do you keep saying we should go together! What will my subordinates think? Would they follow me if I went under the command of some greenhorn Second Young Master!”
“Then let us throw everything away and go.”
“What?”
“Pass the position of Cult Leader to your successor and come with me. We shall live a new life.”
Every curse under the sun came to the Pungcheon Cult Leader's mind. But preceding his rage was a sense of defeat.
“Without the title of Pungcheon Cult Leader, where would I be of use?”
“Without that title, you will become quite an impressive person. You have lived an ordinary life bound to that title your whole life. I am not the only one who has lived in shackles.”
“What are you saying.”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader threw the bottle he was holding, shattering it.
“Step down from the position of Cult Leader of my own accord? This position where I can kill whomever I wish with a single word, eat whatever I desire, and summon any beauty I please?”
“And does that make you happy?”
“Of course I am happy! No, let us say I am not entirely happy. So what? If I step down from this position, will I become happy? Are you saying happiness that eluded me even as Cult Leader will come walking to me on its own?”
“I do not know that either. You must find it.”
“You are trying to destroy me. You are raving to make me miserable.”
“Perhaps I am.”
“Damn it! I should just kill you and be done with it.”
“It is too late for that.”
“What?”
“If you wished to kill me, you should have done so before the Second Young Master came. If you kill me after the Second Young Master freed me from the shackles, how do you think he would feel toward you? He would blame himself for my death, and that would spread into hatred for the Cult Leader. If that happens, the Cult Leader will never be able to leave the frontier. For your own sake as well, you must not kill me.”
“Damn it!”
“Accept it as fate.”
“Do not speak to me of fate! Where is there a fate that discriminates between people in this manner?”
“Cult Leader, you are the Pungcheon Cult Leader. You who reigned over all, discriminating against every person on the frontier. How does the word ‘discrimination’ come from your lips?”
The Pungcheon Cult Leader, who had been silent for a long while, spat out abruptly.
“I have lost. Yes, I have lost to you silver-tongued, clever lot. Go.”
He spoke from the heart.
It was the moment he gave up on the shackled man.
“Go and suffer till you die. Regret the day you left me until your dying breath. Go, go. You sicken me, so I am sending you away.”
Finally, the Pungcheon Cult Leader truly released the shackles.
At that moment, the shackled man placed something before the Pungcheon Cult Leader. Surprisingly, it was a key shaped exactly like the one that could unlock the shackles.
“What is this? Could it be? The key to the shackles?”
The shackled man nodded. The Pungcheon Cult Leader was aghast. Earlier, the key that had been hanging from the necklace had been taken away along with the shackles by Geom Mugeuk's subordinate, yet here was another identical key.
“I forged it years ago.”
“How in the world? No, then why did you not run away?”
The shackled man did not answer him regarding that.
“If you could unlock the shackles, you must have had opportunities to kill me. Why did you not?”
“The reason is likely similar to why you did not kill me despite my curses. Did not the Cult Leader say so? That I am the person who understands and knows you best. I feel the same.”
The moment he heard those words, the Pungcheon Cult Leader's heart surged and his eyes grew hot.
This was why. This was why the parting was so difficult and regretful.
The Pungcheon Cult Leader looked down at the key and spoke.
“To produce this at this moment. I am a loser until the very end.”
At that, the shackled man performed a deep bow right there. And with the most respectful expression and words he had ever shown, he spoke.
“That is not so. That you did not kill me, and that you let me go so willingly. To me, at least, the Cult Leader was an admirable person. Though I could have fled, though I wished to die many times, the fact that I lived on like this was perhaps because I had grown attached to the Cult Leader. I shall never forget the grace of freeing me today. I shall look forward to the day we meet again, Cult Leader.”
The shackled man left the room like so.
Left alone, the Pungcheon Cult Leader pounded the floor with his fists.
He felt relieved, yet regretful; empty, yet glad. And he was sad.