Chapter 185. There Was Liquor Before My Eyes.
How should I describe the feeling of this moment, with a bunch of men who all had tempers gathered together, drinking plum cordial?
An overall awkwardness, and the hollow realization that we ultimately had little to talk about besides fighting and martial arts, dominated the atmosphere.
But I felt differently.
Because whenever I looked at them, I was reminded of these men’s previous lives.
The Pervert Demon had been the Demonic Cult’s Left Envoy of Light.
The Sword Demon, whether in his previous life or now, possessed an ominous air, as if he stood on the boundary between man and devil.
As one could tell from the characters for ghost and demon in his epithet, Master Yukhap had been a man hated by many.
Of course, the same went for me.
If we were speaking of previous lives, I was the Mad Demon, hated no less than these three. Of course, a slight point of distinction was that the orthodox path, the black path, and the demonic path all hated me.
In any case, the fact that such wretches had gathered in one place like this was close to a miracle.
Because we had yet to be placed on the list of public enemies of the murim...
We could still enter an ordinary inn and have a meal.
And I had yet to see a member of the Murim Alliance grow tense the moment he saw us, checking our wanted portraits.
That was enough.
* * *
I suggested to the Sword Demon, who seemed absolutely unlikely to be the first to propose drinking, that we have some liquor.
“Senior, it’s been a while since we came here, so let’s have a modest drink. Stop drinking plum cordial. If you keep drinking nothing but plum cordial, you’ll get pent-up anger sickness.”
The Sword Demon answered in an indifferent tone.
“There is no liquor. The fact that there is no liquor also means there are no side dishes to go with it in the house.”
I nodded.
“Don’t explain something so trivial in such a solemn way. It’s a problem that can be solved by buying liquor and buying side dishes.”
I pulled a money pouch from my robe and tossed it whole to the Pervert Demon.
The Pervert Demon caught the heavy pouch with a bewildered look. Before he could say anything, I spoke first.
“The youngest should hurry up and go buy some liquor. Plenty of side dishes too. Buy the ones your master likes. I’m fine with anything, so don’t worry about me. This Yukgap here is a country bumpkin too, so he’ll eat whatever he’s given.”
Even though I had only said a few words, the Pervert Demon, the Sword Demon, and the Ghost Demon all shot me sharp looks. Since all three of them could attack me at the same time, a cough escaped me on its own.
The Pervert Demon frowned and asked me.
“Why am I the youngest?”
I glared at the Pervert Demon and answered.
“Then who’s the youngest?”
The Pervert Demon looked at Master Yukhap with an angry expression, but Master Yukhap’s appearance had looked quite old for his age from the start. With no other choice, the Pervert Demon glared back at me.
“You go buy it. Who do you think you are, sending me on errands?”
I took my eyes off the guy who wasn’t worth dealing with and looked at the Sword Demon. Then the Sword Demon called the Pervert Demon in a calm voice.
“Disciple.”
“Yes, Master.”
The Sword Demon stared at the Pervert Demon for a moment, then said in a light tone.
“Go buy it.”
The Pervert Demon answered with the look of someone who had been struck.
“...I’ll be back.”
The Pervert Demon, who had been walking to the door with his head tilted askew, turned his head and asked the Sword Demon.
“Master, is there any side dish you’d like to eat?”
The Sword Demon answered curtly.
“Buy anything.”
“Yes.”
Once the Pervert Demon disappeared, the Sword Demon unexpectedly spoke up.
“Master Yukhap.”
“Speak.”
“Recently, I have been training with a wooden sword. Would you face me once with wooden swords?”
Master Yukhap asked with a bewildered expression.
“That will not be difficult, but what do you mean by saying you are training with a wooden sword?”
The Sword Demon nodded.
“...It is simple. I found myself lacking in many ways, so I took up a wooden sword with the mindset of starting over.”
“A peculiar approach. Very well.”
The Sword Demon said to me.
“Sect Leader, lend him your sword.”
I handed Elder Heo’s wooden sword to Master Yukhap. This was, quite literally, a weapon that was a wooden sword if left undrawn, and a real blade if drawn.
As the two men went outside holding wooden swords, I said.
“Senior, is it all right if your disciple doesn’t watch the spar?”
“That is for Master Yukhap to permit. However, that fellow is not one who will achieve greatness with the sword, so there is no particular reason for him to see it. Master Yukhap, may the Sect Leader observe?”
Master Yukhap nodded.
“I do not mind.”
Only then did I follow the two of them and stand before the door.
Master Yukhap and the Sword Demon faced each other after putting a slight distance between themselves.
Strangely enough, I was not curious about who would win, but rather how the two of them would fight. It was the first spar where I was more curious about the contents than the outcome, so I felt slightly flustered.
Master Yukhap first offered the Sword Demon a swordsman’s salute.
The Sword Demon was not a man who observed such courtesies, so he merely gave a slight nod.
Just as I was wondering how on earth they would fight, the Sword Demon’s atmosphere changed drastically.
From his stance holding the wooden sword, the Sword Demon’s entire body was suddenly enveloped in an air current that looked like a whirlwind.
‘What is that?’
Master Yukhap, who was holding his wooden sword in an ordinary lower-right guard, also had his eyes rounded wide.
The Sword Demon asked.
“Are you ready?”
“I am.”
As soon as Master Yukhap finished answering, there was a pak— and the two wooden swords clashed.
Because the Sword Demon had moved so quickly, even I had to watch while rapidly shifting my eyes left and right.
Master Yukhap knocked aside the Sword Demon’s wooden sword as he retreated again and again. The atmosphere was such that any swordsman not accustomed to an ironclad defense would already have failed to withstand the Sword Demon’s fierce assault and lost.
The Sword Demon’s one-sided offensive continued.
This time, I kept my mouth shut as well and admired it only inwardly.
‘Wow, he’s just getting thrashed.’
For whatever reason, it seemed the Sword Demon had caught on to Master Yukhap’s strategy from the very beginning.
The Sword Demon poured out nothing but attacks from start to finish.
The reason this was impressive was because the Sword Demon, having seen through the fact that Master Yukhap moved with defense as his focus, seemed to be deliberately forcing him to defend even more. He was not giving him even the slightest chance to counterattack.
Thinking about it, it was not all that strange.
Master Yukhap had been unable to determine victory or defeat against the Pervert Demon, and the Sword Demon was that Pervert Demon’s master. There had been a gap in skill from the start. On top of that, the Sword Demon seemed to have far more real combat experience, and the very atmosphere of the way he swung his sword was extremely savage, as if he pursued the path of domination.
In short, Master Yukhap had stuck to his usual defensive strategy, only to be overwhelmed by the Sword Demon’s presence and shrink back greatly.
Because of his usual tendencies, Master Yukhap was gaining no opportunities at all.
A moment later, the Sword Demon’s wooden sword casually stabbed deep into Master Yukhap’s shoulder, then struck away Master Yukhap’s belatedly flying wooden sword and sent it spinning with ease.
Master Yukhap clutched his shoulder, then looked at the Sword Demon standing there calmly.
“…….”
A long sigh flowed from the thoroughly startled Master Yukhap’s mouth. Soon, Master Yukhap gave the Sword Demon a fist-and-palm salute and said,
“I have learned well.”
The Sword Demon nodded, then answered in a light tone.
“Let’s go in.”
The Sword Demon went inside first, and I picked up the wooden sword and checked on Master Yukhap as he returned.
“Yukgap, are you all right? You look badly shaken.”
The fellow who had been the Ghost Demon in my previous life, slightly dazed, only then came to his senses at the word Yukgap and said to me,
“Ah, I think I finally know who he is. Baekeungji is orthodox territory, so I didn’t recognize him right away.”
Master Yukhap held out the wooden sword and looked at me with an expression that asked for an explanation.
“Why on earth is the Demon Cult’s Sword Demon here?”
I took the wooden sword and answered,
“Then why are you here?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t ask simple questions that require long answers. And it’s not something I can answer anyway.”
When I went in and looked toward the wooden platform, the Sword Demon was wiping the wooden sword with a cloth.
I stared at the sight for a while.
The Sword Demon had been calm when he lost to Im Sobaek, and even after defeating Master Yukhap, there was no particular difference.
He maintained a very ordinary air.
Master Yukhap and I sat back down where we had been drinking plum tea and looked at the Sword Demon.
As he wiped the wooden sword, the Sword Demon said to me,
“As with Alliance Leader Im, it was a somewhat troublesome fight because I couldn’t break the wooden sword.”
I understood at once what he meant.
“Ah, I see.”
He was saying that, because it was the wooden sword Elder Heo had given as a gift, the Sword Demon had taken care not to break the wooden part wrapped around the real blade, and that was why the fight had dragged on.
Since the Sword Demon had fallen silent, I asked Master Yukhap first for his thoughts on the bout.
“Yukgap, how was it?”
Master Yukhap, who had organized his thoughts in the meantime, spoke in a calm tone.
“It feels as though he has faced swordsmen like me, who adhere to a defensive strategy, many times before. It was a strategy I had stuck to without much thought, but it feels as if I put myself in check. How did it look to you, Sect Leader?”
I agreed with Master Yukhap’s thoughts.
“I think the same. Rather than discussing inner force or swordsmanship, the key to this match seems to have been Senior Sword Demon’s response born of experience. How was it for you, Senior?”
The Sword Demon answered.
“Yukgap…….”
“Excuse me. It is Yukhap.”
“Master Yukhap and the Sect Leader are correct. There are often martial artists who can defend solidly.”
The Sword Demon looked at Master Yukhap, then said something unexpected.
“From the moment I wrapped currents of qi around my entire body, it was psychological warfare. As soon as I judged that you didn’t understand what it was, you began preparing to retreat. After that, you stuck to your defensive strategy. You couldn’t move faster than me either.”
That was the end of his explanation.
At a glance, it was a brief evaluation that might feel lacking. But when I thought it over carefully, there was no need to explain at greater length. The reason for defeat was simple. There was no need to think about it in a complicated way.
Master Yukhap had lost simply because the Sword Demon was stronger in many ways.
Without showing any particular emotion, Master Yukhap said,
“It is a common phrase, so it feels somewhat trite, but I learned a move from you.”
The Sword Demon nodded.
“It was impressive. If you add speed, inner force, and experience, you will become even more solid.”
This time, the Sword Demon looked at me.
“Sect Leader, what do you think about how varied swordsmen who fight with a single straight blade can be?”
It was an interesting question, so a laugh escaped me first.
“That is why…… I think a swordsman must take great interest not only in the sword, but also in things beyond the sword.”
The Sword Demon smiled faintly and said,
“My, that is something meant for me to hear.”
I did not deny it.
“It is.”
Only then did the Sword Demon set down the wooden sword he had been wiping with the cloth onto the platform.
“I suppose I should see whether your words are correct.”
For a moment, the Sword Demon, having placed his sword on the platform, looked as if he had set down a heavy burden he had been carrying.
Only then did the Lust Demon, who had appeared after kicking the door open with his foot, walk over with liquor and side dishes filling both hands.
“I’m here.”
The three of us watched the sulking Lust Demon’s face, yet showed no sign of helping him. As the Lust Demon set the liquor and side dishes down on the platform, he said to me,
“Sect Leader, you had a lot of money. I bought plenty of the most expensive liquor and side dishes in Baekeungji, just like you said—very plenty.”
“Well done. It’s money I took after beating up bandits and beating up the unorthodox faction, so eat without feeling burdened.”
A lavish drinking table was set on the platform. After roughly putting down the liquor and side dishes, the Lust Demon threw me the money pouch, then went inside, perhaps to fetch bowls and chopsticks.
As the Lust Demon kept sighing, the Sword Demon uttered a word.
“Noisy.”
“Yes, Master.”
Only then did the Lust Demon stop sighing. Master Yukhap, who had been watching this quietly, finally attached a proper title to the Sword Demon and said,
“Senior Sword Demon, how did you end up taking the second son of an orthodox family as your disciple?”
The Sword Demon answered,
“Indeed. You have a tendency to ask questions lightly that are difficult to answer briefly. You did the same to the Sect Leader at the entrance.”
I naturally joined the Sword Demon in giving Master Yukhap a hard time.
“Pathetic bastard.”
“…….”
The Sword Demon asked us,
“I am curious as well. You do not practice a sword art picked up while rolling around in the unorthodox faction, so how did you come here with the Hao Sect Leader?”
Only then did Master Yukhap seem to realize what sort of question was not easy to answer.
“Indeed.”
Should I say there were many stories to lay bare? Each of us had stories the others essentially needed to know.
And fortunately…….
There was liquor before our eyes.
When one drinks, one talks more than usual, and then we would come to know one another’s stories.
That is why I was laying out a drinking party.
Only by hearing another’s story can one become even a little closer.
It was a gathering of the Sword Demon, the Lecherous Demon, the Ghost Demon, and the Mad Demon.
I believe a drinking session among a bunch of pathetic bastards is not without meaning. The Sword Demon’s way of thinking is far too heavy, while the Lecherous Demon is as light as a feather. The Ghost Demon is rather slow on the uptake, and I am far too quick on it.
All four of us needed to drink a little and come to our senses. Because if we kept living the way we always had, there were often times when we failed to do just that.