I instinctively put distance between myself and Beopgong, then shrieked.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Punching.”
“No, why are you suddenly throwing punches when we were drinking perfectly fine, old man?”
“Yeon Ryang gets to be Brother, so why am I old man? That feels strangely unpleasant.”
“I’m the one feeling unpleasant here. Is your drunken habit punching people?”
Even at my temper, Beopgong did not so much as blink.
With movements far too nimble for his build, he vaulted over the table.
When I hurriedly ducked my head, Beopgong’s right foot swept past beside my ear.
The sound of the wind, violently sharp enough to make my skin crawl, snapped me wide awake.
If that hit me properly, I really might die.
“Whoa, whoa. Wait. Monk. Calm down and—”
“Tsk. Kid, when someone throws a punch at you, you don’t persuade him with words. You throw a punch back.”
Clicking his tongue, Beopgong twisted his body and drove his other leg down.
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“You dodge well enough. Stop dodging and counterattack. What are you saving your hidden weapons for?”
“How am I supposed to throw hidden weapons in here? Brother! Stop sleeping and do something about this man!”
At my shout, Yeon Ryang sat up with a rumpled face and rubbed his eyes.
“...What are you doing?”
“I’m playing with your sister.”
“Ah... Play in moderation.”
Yeon Ryang blinked a few times, yawned, then planted his head back onto the table. It seemed the liquor still had not worn off.
I shouted desperately, “Does this look like playing to you? Stop him!”
“Beopgong... go easy...”
“I am going easy. Your sister keeps whining, but she hasn’t been hit once. She dodges so nimbly she’s like a flying squirrel.”
“I said stop!”
“I told you to try counterattacking. Is it too cramped? Should we go outside the inn?”
At that, the inn runner, who had been trembling in fear of being hit by a stray blade, ran over and opened the inn door. It seemed to mean we should go fight outside.
I rushed out of the inn as if fleeing, and Beopgong followed after me with a chuckle.
The madness reminded me of Tang Juhee and made my breath come short on its own.
Martial artists are all insane!
Swallowing a curse, I threw a Butterfly Dart, but it was useless. Beopgong clicked his tongue when the Butterfly Dart bounced off his body without him even touching it.
“You can’t throw hidden weapons like that.”
“What—what was that? How did you deflect it?”
“Want me to show you?”
Beopgong grinned as if teasing me, then began taking off his outer garment.
Flustered, I rolled my eyes and backed away in small steps.
“N-no! Why are you taking your clothes off?”
“So you can see properly.”
“What?”
What am I supposed to see? This old man must be out of his mind.
As I recoiled and covered my eyes, Yeon Ryang’s voice reached me.
“He’s telling you to watch how a body wrapped in protective energy deflects hidden weapons.”
He seemed to have woken from the commotion and came walking out of the inn, scratching roughly at his head.
“You should explain properly, fake monk. You’re scaring my sister. What are you doing stripping in the middle of the night?”
“You awake?”
“I told you to go easy, and you’re having the time of your life. Lunatic.”
“The kid’s movements are pretty good, so I got excited. She’s much better than most new recruits in the Dragon-Phoenix Division, you know? They couldn’t even hold out. One punch sent them flying.”
Beopgong waved lightly at Yeon Ryang, then looked back at me.
“Kid. Throw more. You have plenty of hidden weapons.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. Throw them like I’m your enemy.”
Beopgong smiled broadly and crooked a finger. His golden eyes, reflected in the moonlight, curved with a chilling gleam.
It did not look as if he would let me go until I played along.
I exhaled and slid my hand into my sleeve. Beopgong lowered his stance and drew up his energy.
Under the pressure, which gave me the illusion that his hand was closing around my throat, my fingertips trembled faintly.
Grinding my teeth at the feeling of being pushed back by his presence, I gripped a handful of Feather-Needles and scattered them.
Even beneath the shower of Feather-Needles, Beopgong was utterly relaxed.
“Ack!”
I was the one who screamed and retreated. The needles his protective energy bounced away came pouring right back at me.
Holy crap, isn’t that cheating?
Stunned, I knocked the hidden weapons aside with my throwing knife, and Beopgong chuckled obnoxiously before swinging his fist.
He moved so fast he left afterimages, and it felt as though several people were attacking me at once.
Holding my throwing knife in a reverse grip, I was about to drive it straight down when I flinched and changed its path.
I had nearly planted the blade into Beopgong’s shoulder.
Startled, I retreated and threw a security mark. Beopgong snatched it lightly from the air and asked, “Kid. How long are you going to keep running? Don’t do that. Hit me once.”
“How am I supposed to when you deflect everything?”
“Then use your fists!”
“How am I supposed to use my fists on you? What lunatic gets into a fistfight with a Shaolin disciple? Brother! Do something about this old man!”
“...Sorry. Your brother still hasn’t sobered up.”
“Oh, come on!”
I screamed and rolled across the ground to avoid Beopgong. Every time he swung his arm, huge hand-shaped pits were gouged into the earth.
When I still could not counterattack, Beopgong seemed to lose interest. He hooked my ankle and lightly tripped me.
Then he straddled my back where I lay sprawled on the ground and pressed down on me with force.
“Aaagh! Why are you so heavy, old man?”
“You can withstand the Thousand-Pound Drop? Not bad. Kid, you’re sturdy.”
“Ah! Aah! I said don’t press down!”
“Wow. You still won’t collapse even like this.”
As he chuckled and pinned me down, Beopgong asked in a low voice, “Tang Clan kid.”
“What?”
“Why did you change the path? You could have stabbed me. What held you back?”
Beopgong asked as if he truly could not understand. At the strange question, I turned my head to look at him.
“If I drove it down like that, you would’ve gotten hurt.”
“Do I look like someone who would get hurt by your clumsy attack?”
“Well, no...”
“If I weren’t your brother’s friend and I were after your life, would you still act this soft?”
“Of course not.”
“Really? If I became your enemy, you could use your hand without hesitation?”
Beopgong asked again in a serious voice and rose to his feet. I rubbed my aching back and met his eyes.
At the strangely reproachful look in them, my shoulders shrank on their own.
“Let’s change the situation. What if it weren’t me, but Yeon Ryang over there? What if Yeon Ryang betrayed you? What would you do? You couldn’t stab him, could you?”
“What kind of—”
“Wow. You still haven’t been hunted enough. You’re actually hesitating over this.”
At Beopgong’s sarcasm, Yeon Ryang stepped in front of me.
“Beopgong. Stop.”
“Every now and then, there’s someone like you. You have talent, and your bones and muscles are good. You’re smart too, and you follow what you’re taught. But when the time comes to use your hand on a person, you hesitate.”
“I told you to stop.”
Ignoring Yeon Ryang’s attempt to rein him in, Beopgong continued.
“Do you know why? Because you know your own martial ability, and it scares you. You can vividly picture blood and flesh flying. So you end up letting go entirely.”
“I...”
My lips moved, but I avoided Beopgong’s gaze.
...Of course I don’t like hurting people.
“You, listen. If killing feels wrong and you use your hand half-heartedly, all you’ll do is pile up grudges and debts. That’s the stupidest thing you can do.”
“Beopgong!”
“Be quiet for a bit. I’m talking to your sister. Kid, I’m not planning to discuss your morality, but you can afford to be a little less nice. Don’t think too deeply.”
Beopgong paused for a moment, then shook his fist at me.
“First, crush them with force. Crush them so thoroughly they can’t even think of taking revenge, and everything works out.”
“Crush them?”
“Right. Martial artists are all blockheads who talk with strength. They don’t care what kind of person the other party is. All they care about is whether you’re stronger than them or not.”
His voice was full of certainty.
“If you want to have a rational conversation, beat them first. Once you’ve beaten them moderately well, they’ll all listen carefully to what you have to say.”
“Don’t teach a child weird things...”
Yeon Ryang pressed a hand to his forehead as if he were going mad.
I rubbed my chin as I mulled over Beopgong’s advice. His phrasing was rough, but he was not wrong.
Yeon Ryang also told me to break the weapon first. Isn’t this the same idea? It means that if I make them lose the will to fight, I can solve things through conversation too.
“Sohae. That isn’t it. Don’t be tempted.”
“It isn’t?”
“No. It isn’t.”
Yeon Ryang shook his head firmly and glared at Beopgong.
“Fake monk. Watch what you say.”
“What’s there to watch? I said it gently enough. Anyway, kid, I’m not saying your temperament is bad. Knowing exactly what kind of strength you have and what you can do with it is an advantage. It’s far better than not knowing your place and running wild.”
“...”
“And it’s not as if you’re the only one who loses your head in real combat. All the orthodox kids are like that. They only know those predictable sparring matches on a stage their elders prepared for them. If they get cut even a little, everyone makes a fuss, drags them to the medical wing, and pours wound medicine on them first. How would they ever develop a sense for real combat? You’re younger than them, so your situation is better.”
Beopgong patted my shoulder as if comforting me and smiled playfully.
“Don’t worry. I can solve your problem. This is another one of my specialties.”
“Solve it? How?”
“First, retrieve your hidden weapons. We have somewhere to go.”
“At this hour?”
“Yeah. Follow me. You too, Yeon Ryang.”
“Beopgong. It’s late. A child should be sleeping.”
“...Huh. You really became a father while I wasn’t looking. She won’t die from missing one night of sleep.”
Repulsed by Yeon Ryang’s words, Beopgong jerked his chin.
While I retrieved my hidden weapons, Yeon Ryang, with a reluctant expression, whispered something with Beopgong. When I approached them, Beopgong gestured.
“Let’s go.”
Beopgong seemed to know the surrounding geography perfectly and strode down the dark road.
Just as I began to feel uneasy about how far we were going, Beopgong stopped in front of a path leading into a narrow valley and spoke.
“Kid. You know the saying that you pull out an ox horn while it’s hot, right?”
“I do.”
“This is that moment.”
“What?”
When I blinked at the incomprehensible words, Beopgong jerked his chin toward the valley across from us.
“That’s Ghost-Spirit Valley. A place crawling with unorthodox faction bastards.”
“Ah. Yes. But why are we going to an unorthodox faction den at this hour...?”
“If you deal with those bastards, you’ll get a sense of what you need to do. Now, go! Kid!”
Then he lifted me bodily and threw me into the valley.
The sensation of my body floating through the air made a scream burst out of me on its own.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Is this old man actually insane?
