Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 212 - Aboard a Ship (2)

Chapter 212 – Aboard a Ship (2)

===================

Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

-Swaaaaaa!

The rain was still a torrential downpour itself.

Before boarding the boat, three men were gathered together.

They were Seop Chun, Third Guard Captain of the Heaven and Earth Society’s main hall, Mong Mu-yak, son of the vice society leader and Deputy Director among the direct officials, and Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk of Shaolin known as the Demon-Subduing Fist Warrior.

There was only one reason the three of them were gathered like this.

And that was,

“I will speak plainly. Ja Geum-jeong. I cannot trust your oath of loyalty.”

It was because of Ja Geum-jeong’s oath of loyalty, the vow-breaking monk.

The reason Mong Mu-yak came out in this openly displeased way was simple.

It was because of Ja Geum-jeong’s background and ill reputation.

He had once been a Shaolin warrior monk from what was regarded as the root of the righteous-path murim, and after becoming a vow-breaking monk, he committed outrageous acts like a madman without distinction between righteous and evil factions.

Could such a man truly be trusted?

At Mong Mu-yak’s attitude, Ja Geum-jeong snorted and said,

“Whether you bastards believe me or not has nothing to do with me.”

“What?”

“Even if it is a damned situation, I always keep the words I speak.”

At that, Seop Chun clutched his stomach and burst out laughing.

“Hahahahaha! A damned situation, is it? So swearing loyalty to my lord feels damned to you?”

“Did you think this bald monk was going to say he was happy about it?”

Ja Geum-jeong was a man who never hid his feelings.

Those words only made Mong Mu-yak more wary, but Seop Chun, who had always had a broad and hearty temperament, rather liked him more for it.

“You would not be happy, no. You fell for my lord’s trap and swore loyalty, so how could that feel good?”

“Hmph. You are saying the obvious.”

“Even so, Ja Geum-jeong, you are a true man, so whether you like it or not, I think you will keep a vow you made with your own mouth.”

“Do not keep repeating what this bald monk already said. Even if you bastards do not nag me, I will protect that damned fellow until this life of mine runs out.”

Ja Geum-jeong had the nature of a man who, once he decided something, never looked back.

So while he had been unable to restrain his anger and lashed out at the moment, in the end he had been overwhelmed by Mok Gyeong-un’s pressure and sworn loyalty.

In truth, there were feelings behind it that he could not reveal even to them.

‘……For Mun-hae, for Master, and for Shaolin.’

It was truly strange.

From a mere youth not even out of his teens, Ja Geum-jeong felt an odd kind of fear.

Not now perhaps, but if that fellow truly set his mind to it, it felt as though he would bring not only great harm to his friend Yi Mun-hae but even to Shaolin.

It was nothing more than an instinctive foreboding.

Caught by that foreboding, Ja Geum-jeong had sworn loyalty only after receiving Mok Gyeong-un’s promise that he would never touch those people.

In that moment, the feeling had been utterly hollow.

‘Did I really live all this time only for things to come to this?’

It was right then that a thought suddenly seized him.

‘……Only for things to come to this…… Ah?’

There was something his master, Great Master Gongjeon, head of the Scripture Pavilion, had always taught him.

That everything had cause and natural order, and no matter how one tried to escape it, in the end things could only flow according to that natural order.

Perhaps his gaining such eyes, and even his becoming a vow-breaking monk, had all been for the sake of meeting this very moment.

‘Natural order.’

The moment he regarded all of this as natural order, the afflictions in his heart disappeared.

Since he had already decided to do it, regret and lingering attachment were useless, and he felt only that if this too was his road, then he ought to do his best along it.

To him, Mong Mu-yak said,

“I will be watching.”

“No. If this bald monk says he will do it, who are you to order me around…”

“Ah, ah, ah. Calm down. This friend of mine always talks like that.”

Seop Chun grinned and stopped Ja Geum-jeong.

At first he had been wary of the man known as one of the Three Mad Ones, but after actually dealing with him, he found that rather than being insane, he was straightforward, and because of that he thought the man suited him well.

Ja Geum-jeong, perhaps feeling the same, said,

“Even so, you are at least someone I can talk to.”

“Enough with calling me you, you. Since things have come to this, how about we exchange names properly? My name is Seop Chun, and I am twenty-nine. As you can see, I mainly use a saber. Mong Mu-yak, you do it too.”

“Introducing myself like that is embarrassing…”

“We are going to keep serving the same lord, so are you really going to keep acting like that?”

At Seop Chun’s words, Mong Mu-yak shook his head and said shortly,

“Mong Mu-yak. Twenty-six. Swordsman.”

“Right. That is about enough for our introductions. Will you do yours too?”

At that, Ja Geum-jeong stared fixedly at Seop Chun.

To be honest, he did not especially like introducing himself in this manner either.

Still, he had decided to serve Mok Gyeong-un as lord, and since he might have to spend the rest of his life with these people, it felt awkward to simply ignore it.

“Ahem. As you know, my name is Ja Geum-jeong, and I prefer fighting bare-handed.”

“Why do you not say your age? Is it because you are much older than us?”

At that, Ja Geum-jeong furrowed his brow.

After leaving Shaolin, not once had he told anyone his age.

So he hesitated over whether there was any need, but in the end he said it.

“My age is…… twenty-six.”

‘!!!!!!!!!’

No sooner had the words ended than both Mong Mu-yak and Seop Chun went blank.

With only his grim face and the aura he gave off, Ja Geum-jeong looked to be in his mid-forties.

And yet he was in his twenties?

‘This face is the same age as me?’

Mong Mu-yak wore an expression of complete disbelief.

Had he alone failed to withstand the harshness of time and let his face age away?

This was the first time he had seen such an old-looking face.

Ja Geum-jeong, the vow-breaking monk, glared at Mong Mu-yak and said,

“You little shit, I really do not like that look in your eyes. Want me to send you to the Buddha today?”

He looked ready to throw a punch that instant.

Seop Chun had to hastily stop him.

* * *

-Kwarurururu!

Using the rollers made from dozens of wooden poles, the boat reached the very edge of the river.

Ordinarily it would have had to be moved a little farther before it could be floated, but since the water had already overflowed from the downpour, moving it this far had not taken long.

Everyone who needed to board was already on the boat.

“Slowly! Move it more slowly!”

“Yes!!!”

At the order of Ha Yun, the resentful spirit possessing the body of Wu In-yeom, the captain, the retired naval strongmen moved in perfect order, and the bow of the ship entered the river.

-Chwaaaaaa!

The boat was certainly large, and when the bow entered, water surged upward.

At the same time, the boat, which had been moving forward, let out a creaking sound and began to tilt sideways.

It was because of the tremendous current of the river swollen by the violent rain.

“……Can this really be crossed?”

Seop Chun, who had been standing boldly near the bow watching it, clutched the deck and clicked his tongue.

Only the head of the ship had entered, and yet it was already enough to make one worry that once the whole ship entered, it might be swept away and capsize at once.

Then, at that moment, the tilted part of the bow suddenly began righting itself as though some force had taken hold of it.

“Hm?”

What was this?

The current was still violent, yet the ship was righting itself.

That was because

“Those things are…”

“Those things? Geum-jeong, can you see something?”

In Ja Geum-jeong’s eyes, countless resentful spirits were clinging to the sides of the bow.

They were supporting and pushing against the ship to keep it from being swept away.

It was a truly astonishing sight.

Between the boat’s own quality and the help of this many resentful spirits, it did seem possible to cross the river after all.

Soon, the hull entered the water completely.

-Creeeak! Creeeak!

The ship rocked violently in the tremendous current, causing chaos.

Everyone, including Mok Gyeong-un, had cultivated martial arts, so they did not fall over easily, but their bodies still swayed helplessly.

It was the kind of situation where the ship could capsize at any moment and no one would have found it strange.

Fortunately, though, countless resentful spirits were supporting the boat.

-Uuuuuuuuuu!

-Huuuuuuuuuu!

Perhaps this was a kind of repayment for the fact that before boarding, the main hall of the manor had been completely destroyed and rites had been offered to the resentful spirits.

Thanks to that, even amid the violent current, the ship somehow did not overturn and little by little moved forward.

Though to be exact, it was moving diagonally with the current.

Ha Yun, the resentful spirit possessing Wu In-yeom’s body, tapped his own head and said to Mok Gyeong-un,

-According to the experience and knowledge in this man’s head, even if it takes time, if we move like this, we should be able to cross somehow.

“I see. Thank you for your hard work.”

-……..

Mok Gyeong-un smiled faintly and even raised his clasped hands in greeting to Ha Yun, the resentful spirit.

Seeing that, something unusual appeared in Ha Yun’s eyes.

That was because, while the fight itself had already been settled and there was no need to dwell on it, this human was truly strange.

It was a resentful spirit.

Even occult practitioners feared or guarded themselves against beings like it, yet this human was treating it naturally.

Was he perhaps trying to curry favor because he needed to cross the river safely?

‘No. No, that is not it.’

This person looked at the dead and the living with no difference in his gaze.

It was as if he looked straight at the existence itself.

He was a truly strange human.

Was that aspect perhaps why a being of such high rank as Blue Spirit followed this human?

While it was sunk in such thoughts, Mok Gyeong-un said,

“If it is not too rude, may I ask you something?”

-What is it?

“Leaving aside your evil connection with the Wu family, if your rank reached Blue Spirit, that means you must have possessed a han that kept you here for more than a hundred years. May I ask what it was?”

-……..

It was certainly a rude question.

If he traveled with a high-ranking resentful spirit and possessed occult skill this great, then he must know very well what han meant to a resentful spirit.

Yet Mok Gyeong-un was staring as though he were truly curious.

As if it were pure curiosity.

-……..

It could have ignored him.

But it was not good to make an enemy of someone like this without cause, so in the end Ha Yun, the resentful spirit, opened its mouth.

-I failed to protect.

“Failed to protect what?”

-I failed to protect the one I absolutely had to protect.

“Ah…”

Mok Gyeong-un looked at Ha Yun curiously.

Since most han arose from deep grief and vengeance, he had expected her to speak of some target of hatred.

But Ha Yun’s han had unexpectedly arisen from loyalty.

To think it had remained in the world for so long because it resented itself for failing to protect someone.

-It was more steadfast than it looked.

Blue Spirit, who seemed to see Ha Yun differently now, commented as much.

Mok Gyeong-un, however, was not moved in the same way.

To him, it only meant that Ha Yun had carried such a grievance for a very long time.

“I see. Thank you for answering.”

With those words, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and stepped away from the bow.

Everyone had crowded at the bow to watch the ship’s progress, but he was heading to the stern, where there was no one.

-Pointless fellow.

-What do you mean?

-When you asked what han it carried, I wondered whether you were considering that one as a shikigami.

-It is tempting because its rank is high, but there is no vacancy now.

-That is true.

The number of shikigami Mok Gyeong-un could have was limited.

If it had been possible, he would have made every resentful spirit he met into a shikigami and worked them all to the bone.

Mok Gyeong-un had merely asked out of pure curiosity, seeing how even resentful spirits no more than stray spirits were following Ha Yun.

As he strolled along toward the stern, Mok Gyeong-un stopped midway.

-Why?

-……Are you going to say this time too that you do not see him?

-What? What are you… Hm?

Blue Spirit noticed something.

It was someone sitting on the rear deck holding a long, curved bamboo fishing rod.

From the back of the white-haired head alone, one could tell that it was an old man.

-How did that old living being board the ship?

-……That is what I want to ask.

He had not been visible anywhere around when the boat was launched.

Then how had he boarded the ship?

As he found it strange, Mok Gyeong-un asked Blue Spirit,

-You can see him, right?

-Yes.

At that, Mok Gyeong-un opened the demonic power he had gained from the Three Eyes in his right eye.

He wanted to know the old man’s identity first.

Judging by the fact that he wore a bamboo rain cloak, he did not seem to be a spirit body like a resentful spirit, nor some uncanny being of that sort.

Yet the fact that he gave off not the slightest sign was deeply strange.

And then,

-Kkuguk!

The moment he opened the demonic power of the Three Eyes, strong pressure burst into his right eye, and red capillaries stood out all at once.

-Pshuk!

Bloody tears streamed from his right eye.

At that, Blue Spirit shouted in alarm.

-Living being!

-Pak!

At the bursting pressure in his eye, Mok Gyeong-un hurriedly shut the demonic power again.

Then he covered the right eye from which bloody tears were flowing.

It was to scatter the remaining true qi that had even raised the pressure in his eye by stirring up death aura.

-Sssssss!

Fortunately, Mok Gyeong-un’s judgment was correct.

Once the aura scattered, the eye pressure also rapidly subsided.

-What is wrong?

-I cannot read his aura.

-What? What do you mean?

-Exactly what I said.

When he opened the demonic power of the Three Eyes, he could examine the flow of aura in detail with his right eye.

He could read even spell power, demonic power, spiritual power, and the traces of all of them.

Yet the moment he opened it, his field of vision turned completely white.

He did not understand why, but while enduring that white light and trying to read the aura, the pressure in his eye rose and the pain made it impossible to keep his eye open.

‘Why is my vision filled with white light? Unless the whole surroundings are filled with aura….!’

At that instant, Mok Gyeong-un’s left eye narrowed.

It was hard to believe.

‘……Could it be?’

It was then.

-Living being! Behind you!

At Blue Spirit’s cry, Mok Gyeong-un looked toward the part of the deck where the old man in the bamboo rain cloak had been sitting with the fishing rod.

No one was there.

That meant that, just as Blue Spirit shouted, someone was behind him.

‘I cannot even sense a presence.’

That had nothing to do with the heavy rain.

The opponent was a monster capable of completely hiding his presence.

In that instant, while he was thinking about what to do, a voice came from behind him.

“So seeing this old man earlier was not mere coincidence after all.”