Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 188 - Martial Alliance (2)

Chapter 188 – Martial Alliance (2)

Peng Chae-hyang was the first guest retainer of the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company. Since she wasn’t actually timid unless the other person happened to be a man, she often went out for walks on her own.

After spending all day in Beijing, the very definition of a bustling capital, walking through Mount Wudang with its soft, abundant nature was a fresh experience.

“Ah, Young Lady Peng. Hello.”

“Yes. Hello.”

Peng Chae-hyang smiled and returned the greeting of the merchant. The merchant blushed and turned away.

She still found men burdensome, but she couldn’t show it. To reveal such childishness now that Black Elder and White Elder weren’t by her side would wound her pride.

So she deliberately steeled her heart whenever she dealt with men, and by doing so she found she could at least act natural. Compared with the days when she relied on Black Elder and White Elder as a fence around herself, it was progress enough to call it a giant stride.

“…This is nice.”

Seated in a pavilion, Peng Chae-hyang stared blankly out at the ridges of Mount Wudang.

Leaving Beijing had definitely been the right choice. Coming out alone like this cleared her head and made her feel as though she were growing.

By that logic, she really ought to be grateful to Muk Hui-yeong. Yet somehow, whenever she thought of him, she found herself feeling annoyed instead.

I didn’t think he’d pay this little attention to me.

She knew it was contradictory. Approaching him felt burdensome, and yet she still wanted him to pay attention to her.

Even so, this seemed a bit much. She was a complete outsider here with no one she knew except Muk Hui-yeong, and yet he’d stuck her in the inner residence and never once come to see her. Could that really be right?

It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand him, of course. The merchant company was always busy and rushed. She occasionally saw Muk Hui-yeong himself working frantically as well.

So naturally he wouldn’t really have the spare attention to devote to her. More precisely, there wasn’t any real reason he should. He had only kindly helped pull her out from the family compound. Everything beyond that was something she had to handle herself. She understood all of that in her head, and yet for some reason the sense of disappointment still wouldn’t fade. She couldn’t help wondering if she had always been this emotional.

“Sigh.”

Since it was too embarrassing to put thoughts like that into words, all she could do was crush them into a sigh and throw them away.

“Young Lady Peng!”

At that moment, someone called up from below the pavilion. When she looked down, she saw one of the servants from the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company.

“What is it?”

“The Company Lord is asking for you.”

“Is that so.”

Peng Chae-hyang answered as calmly as she could, but her heart gave a heavy jump. How could it be that she wanted him to pay attention to her, and yet the moment he actually summoned her, she grew afraid? What sort of contradiction was that?

Trying as hard as she could to conceal the wild swings of her emotions, Peng Chae-hyang came down with as much composure as she could manage. The servant kept stealing glances at her, but still performed his duty of guiding her faithfully.

“Company Lord. I’ve brought Young Lady Peng.”

“Yes. Send her in.”

Muk Hui-yeong’s voice was businesslike. When the door opened, she saw him at his desk processing piles of documents and bamboo slips stacked like towers.

“You’ve come?”

“…Yes.”

Muk Hui-yeong asked after her without even looking up.

She understood, seeing with her own eyes just how busy he was. Even so, she felt disappointed. The servant’s glances had felt burdensome, but to have Muk Hui-yeong not even spare her a look left her disappointed in an entirely different way. Peng Chae-hyang had no real experience with men, so she had no way of interpreting her own feelings at all.

“Why did you call for me?”

“I wanted to tell you that it’s fine for you to leave the mountain now.”

“Pardon?”

“You’ve rested a long time already.”

At Muk Hui-yeong’s words, it felt as though a heavy stone had dropped into her chest.

“Young Lady Peng ought to enjoy the journey through the martial world too. I was only the one who helped bring you out. Travel around, go visit any places you’ve always wanted to see.”

“…Ah.”

Of course. That was all it had ever been. Muk Hui-yeong had simply brought Peng Chae-hyang out. She knew that already.

Unlike other men, he’d never once looked at her with lust. She knew he’d only pulled her out of her old life from genuine goodwill alone.

Then why did it still hurt this much? It almost felt like Muk Hui-yeong was turning her away at the door.

Peng Chae-hyang lowered her head. For some reason, emotion surged up inside her and tears gathered in her eyes. She knew full well that crying here would be unsightly, and even clenched both fists tightly in an attempt to stop it, but the tears had already overflowed the banks of her heart.

“Young Lady Peng?”

By the time Muk Hui-yeong noticed that something was wrong and called out to her, it was already too late.

What was this all of a sudden?

Because she gave no answer, I looked at Peng Chae-hyang and saw that for some reason she’d dropped her head so low that her face was hidden behind her hair. On top of that, she was trembling with both fists clenched tight.

What is she doing?

As I watched, two drops of tears fell onto the floor.

“Young Lady Peng?”

I paused my work and rose from my seat, walking toward her.

“Don’t come.”

Peng Chae-hyang’s voice was badly distorted. I stopped at once.

It was clear that she truly didn’t want me to see her crying. Her fists trembled, but she refused to let any actual sob escape.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m like this.”

Peng Chae-hyang kept wiping at her eyes with her sleeve. The more tears stained the fabric, the more guilty I felt. I clearly was the one who’d made her cry.

What exactly had I said? Only that it was fine for her to head down the mountain. I’d thought that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

Because I’d never once imagined dragging Peng Chae-hyang around beside me indefinitely.

She had her own life to live.

And yet maybe I’d gone about it wrongly. While Peng Chae-hyang struggled to stop crying, I stood there and thought about it.

Maybe Peng Chae-hyang had begun relying on me. It was her first journey through the martial world, and I’d played a large part in making that happen. Taking that into account, perhaps I should’ve phrased my words differently.

“Young Lady Peng. I’m sorry.”

“What do you have to be sorry for, Young Master Muk?”

“I don’t know. It just feels like I spoke too coldly.”

“No. You’re busy, so of course you might speak like that. I’m the foolish one. I don’t even know why I’m acting like this myself.”

Fortunately, Peng Chae-hyang’s voice had somewhat returned by then. I opened the door slightly and asked a nearby servant for two cups of warm tea.

“Sit down first.”

“All right.”

Peng Chae-hyang obediently sat in the chair opposite the Company Lord’s seat.

We remained silent. After a little while, the servant came in with the tea. I handed Peng Chae-hyang the steaming cup first.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

“This has gotten embarrassing. I still don’t even know why I cried.”

“That kind of thing happens. You can’t even fully control your own heart.”

Peng Chae-hyang rearranged her disheveled hair. Her clear forehead reappeared, as did her eyes, red like those of a rabbit.

“Don’t look.”

“All right.”

She must have meant that it was embarrassing for me to see her eyes like that. I obediently lowered my gaze and looked down at the green tea instead.

“Can you tell me now?”

“Why I cried?”

“Yes. I can roughly guess, but I could still be wrong.”

It was the kind of question that might’ve been awkward to answer, but Peng Chae-hyang responded honestly enough. And as it turned out, my guess had been more or less correct.

She’d felt as though we’d become somewhat close, only for me to abruptly tell her to leave. I’d thought I’d been speaking quite considerately, but people really did feel things very differently.

“Anyway, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it in that way. My tone was dry only because I was working.”

“I know. By the middle of it I was crying because I felt pathetic. I understood all of that, and yet the tears still came.”

Fortunately, Peng Chae-hyang was the honest sort, so the conversation flowed. If she’d become embarrassed about crying and started stammering out excuses, things might only have gone in circles.

“In any case, if you want to stay longer, you can. The only reason I said that was because I have to move around on a schedule, and I can’t just drag you forcibly along with me.”

“What sort of schedule?”

“I’ll probably have to go to the Martial Alliance soon. And after that, to Zhejiang and Guangdong as well.”

“The Martial Alliance? Ah. Is it that summons?”

“So you already knew about it.”

“Yes.”

Being from the Hebei Peng Clan, Peng Chae-hyang was already familiar with the Martial Alliance’s summons.

“So Young Master is going there as Wudang’s representative.”

“That’s right.”

“How strange. Normally they’d send a main-line disciple. So that must mean you’ve earned Wudang’s trust to that extent.”

In truth, I was only being chosen as the ideal person to go and trample the Zhuge Clan again. But I decided not to damage the Sect Leader’s dignity by saying that aloud.

“Naturally, I’m not going alone. One martial uncle and one senior brother are going with me.”

“That senior brother… you mean that brat?”

Peng Chae-hyang frowned slightly. There was obvious hostility in her tone, so she was apparently still holding a grudge over the word auntie.

“Yes. That’s the one.”

“I see.”

The conversation faltered in a strange place. To break the silence, I spoke first.

“Would you like to come too, Young Lady Peng?”

“What?”

Peng Chae-hyang, who had been staring into her teacup, jerked her head up. Her eyes were suddenly full of starlight, almost as if she’d been waiting all along for me to say that.

Yet the words that came out of her mouth were quite different.

“Would it really be all right for me to come? I’m not going as a representative of the Hebei Peng Clan or anything. I’d only be going as your friend.”

“That doesn’t matter. If you weren’t a martial artist, it would be one thing, but you are unmistakably a martial artist. Besides, having you there would be a good thing for me. They won’t look down on you just because I’m a lay disciple, will they?”

Somehow it ended up sounding as though I were the one making excuses for why Peng Chae-hyang should join.

“I-is that really so?”

The corners of Peng Chae-hyang’s lips lifted slightly. With her eyes still red from crying, the smile looked almost funny.

“Then should we say that’s the plan?”

“Yes.”

“All right. Let me know when it’s time to leave.”

“Yes, yes.”

Peng Chae-hyang drained the still-hot tea in a single gulp and slipped out of the Company Lord’s office. For a martial expert like her, that level of heat was nothing to suppress.

“Whew.”

It felt as though a storm had just swept through. I could feel my fatigue crashing down all at once.

“Maybe that’s enough work for today.”

Stretching, I headed into the bedroom attached to the Company Lord’s office.

And just like that, Peng Chae-hyang joined the trip to the Martial Alliance in dramatic fashion.

Even after that day, I had an absurd amount to do. Company business, naturally, but also the occasional spar or lesson when the senior brothers came seeking help with their martial arts.

At this point I was already at the level where I could guide at least the third-generation disciples.

Among them, Myeong-il in particular came to the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company almost every other day.

But even that busy stretch of life had come to an end. Now it was time to leave for the Martial Alliance.

“To think you’d make a martial uncle wait. The sect really is turning upside down.”

The moment Cheong-yu saw me, he grumbled as always.

“I’m sorry.”

“That face you’re making doesn’t make your apology persuasive at all.”

And with that our greeting ended. Peng Chae-hyang, who’d come with me, exchanged greetings with Cheong-yu as well.

“I am Peng Chae-hyang of the Hebei Peng Clan. It is an honor to meet the renowned Immortal Cheong-yu.”

“Enough with the gilding. I am simply Cheong-yu.”

The greeting between Cheong-yu and Peng Chae-hyang ended plainly. Which meant only the greeting between natural enemies remained.

“Why’s this person here too? Is this Wudang?”

“The Sect Leader already gave his permission. This isn’t your place to object, Little Daoist.”

Myeong-gyeong and Peng Chae-hyang clashed from the very first line. After glaring at each other for a moment, they both turned their faces away sharply in opposite directions.

Cheong-yu clicked his tongue as though he disliked the sight. I too felt the awkwardness keenly.

Then again, Myeong-il and Yeo Hong-yang had once been like oil and water themselves, yet after our Gansu journey they seemed to get along rather better. I could only pray the same would happen this time.

“Don’t look at me!”

“I wasn’t looking at you!”

…Though, admittedly, this pair looked even more difficult.

Come to think of it, while I was at Wudang I’d never once stopped to see the lay disciples. They might well feel hurt by that. Then again, I’d been so busy. Silently making excuses no one else would hear, I started walking.