Return of Mount Hua Sect - Chapter 1733



Only Noblemtl

Episode 1733. What is right? (3)

People sometimes drink alcohol.

Some are happy, some are sad, and some are bitter. The deep fragrance comforts all of them without asking.

But on days like today, when the bright moonlight falls on the ends of my sleeves, alcohol drinks me up.

Slurp.

Cheongmyeong reached out and poured alcohol into the glass in front of him.

On top of the old eaves. Where the scent of old roof tiles drifts in. Where there are many people together, but where it feels like there are only two of them in the world.

Choke.

The fully filled glass floated into the air on its own. But at that moment, a bony hand reached out and gently pushed down the glass.

“Leave it.”

“… … .”

The glass was slowly placed back on the floor. Then Baekcheon reached out with both hands and grabbed the glass.

It’s not an easy task.

Those hands that were trembling like aspen trees were telling us how difficult it was for Baekcheon to lift that small cup with both hands.

But Baekcheon bravely brings the glass to his lips. More than half of the alcohol falls to the floor, and in the short time that passes, cold sweat breaks out on his forehead.

“hmm…….”

Baekcheon, who had taken a sip of alcohol, puts his glass down on the floor without making a sound.

“Good.”

“… … .”

“There are some good things about losing my martial arts. I can’t remember how long it’s been since alcohol felt like fire.”

At those words, Cheongmyeong let out a snicker.

“Then why don’t you start perming it a long time ago?”

“It’s a crowd.”

Baekcheon shrugs his shoulders.

“I can hold a glass, but it’s hard to hold a bottle. I need someone to pour me a drink.”

“There must be over a hundred people over there that you can command with just one finger.”

“Yes. But.”

Baekcheon said in a slightly bitter voice.

“Because your eyes are scary.”

“… … .”

“The eyes that look at me as if they don’t know what to do.”

Baekcheon laughs briefly.

If he opened his mouth here, the words that would follow would have been too heavy, so Cheongmyeong simply poured more alcohol into the empty glass.

The moon rises in a filled glass.

The moon I’ve seen in the past. The moon is no different now. But now it’s a moon that can’t help but be different.

The world does not change. Nevertheless, the reason the world appears different is because the person viewing the world has changed. What does the world look like to Baekcheon now? Is that world really the same as the world he knew?

“You finally found it.”

“what?”

“I’m there. A human who can’t even sense my presence.”

At those words, Baekcheon chuckled and picked up his glass again.

With those still trembling hands.

“I didn’t find it.”

“… … .”

“I just assumed it would be like that. That it would be there.”

The wine in the glass is emptied into Baekcheon’s mouth.

Cheongmyeong, who was watching the scene, grabbed his glass and poured the full alcohol into his mouth.

A small heat lingers on the tip of my tongue.

But this is just the taste of alcohol that Cheongmyeong feels, and it will be different from what Baekcheon feels right now. They are in the same place and sharing the same alcohol, but they had to drink different alcohol.

Cheongmyeong’s gaze glances down the eaves. He can see it. No, he can feel it. Even though he was driven out after hearing the order to evacuate guests, he can’t bear to leave Baekcheon’s residence and is just loitering around.

“They are people who have no answers.”

“… … .”

“How dare you make so much noise, man.”

And Baekcheon seemed to know that too. Even without having to see it with his eyes or feel it with his senses.

But Cheongmyeong looked at Baekcheon without saying a word. With emotionless eyes that made it impossible to know what was inside.

“It’s empty.”

“hmm.”

Cheongmyeong picks up the wine bottle and pours more wine into Baekcheon’s empty glass.

Slurp.

The wine was filling up again, but Baekcheon didn’t touch the glass this time. Instead, he raised his head and looked up at the moon in the sky.

“What do you think?”

“… … .”

“Are you going to convince me too?”

At those words, Cheongmyeong burst into a light laugh again.

“It was Sa-suk who called me to drink. Not me.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

Baekcheon smiled slightly.

“So? Just because the order of events has changed doesn’t mean my mind will change.”

“well.”

Cheongmyeong didn’t bother to answer.

There was no need to find any great reason or deep insight. It was just a matter of knowing. Any kind of choice is up to you. Any advice or help is meaningless.

Because I’ve already seen it.

An era where the two letters of death have become insensitive. An era where the two letters of injury are considered blessings. Those who had to hold broken swords and shed tears in that cruel world.

What did Cheongmyeong say to them at that time?

“I am not qualified.”

“… … .”

After hearing those words, Baekcheon quietly lowered his gaze and looked at the alcohol in his glass.

“Qualifications… … .”

Baekcheon’s dry fingertips, like the branches of an old tree, touch the wine glass.

“Since we started this war.”

Maybe blandly, maybe bleakly, or maybe bitterly.

Baekcheon’s voice flows out slowly.

“How many people died?”

“… … .”

“I just realized it. Each and every one of them… … must have had something.”

Things you shouldn’t lose.

“But… … . I didn’t think their deaths were that great.”

A few wins and a few losses.

In the midst of war, the meaning of death fades. I know that each and every one of them can never be light, but unlike the words I recite, I cannot mourn each and every one of those deaths.

“That’s why it was funny.”

Baekcheon held the glass with trembling hands.

“What’s so great about losing an arm? What’s so great about losing a scholarship?”

“… … .”

“To this extent… … .”

What would have been the next words?

Is it really that much of a fuss? Or is it really that much of a pain?

Cheongmyeong didn’t know the answer. And he couldn’t bring himself to ask. He just looked at Baekcheon with dark eyes as he lifted his glass to his lips.

Baekcheon is fiddling with his empty glass, and Cheongmyeong is looking at him. The confrontation that isn’t a confrontation between the two continues for quite a while.

“Cheongmyeong-ah.”

“okay.”

“Do you know when I have the hardest time?”

“… … .”

A bitter taste forms at the corner of Baekcheon’s mouth.

“It wasn’t when those damned bastards came and told me to go to Jongnam, and it wasn’t when I found out Soso, who had treated me, was sobbing silently outside the door. It wasn’t when the priests who had proudly looked at me couldn’t bear to look me in the eye, and it wasn’t when Jang Moon-in grabbed me with a face I had never seen before and shed tears. Even… … it wasn’t when I couldn’t even hold a spoon properly and buried my face in my bowl like a dog, struggling to survive.”

Cheongmyeong’s eyes closed.

It’s not that he can’t look at it. It’s just that it’s too heavy. The person he’s looking at. The world he has to face.

“I just woke up from sleep.”

“… … .”

“At that time, I forgot everything. So without thinking, I raised my hand and tried to rub my face. But… … .”

Baekcheon let out a self-mocking sound.

“My arm won’t move.”

“… … .”

“The hand I barely raised is twisted and withered as if it’s not my hand. The moment I see it, I realize it again. Ah, this is who I am now.”

Baekcheon’s dry laughter flows out.

And Cheongmyeong couldn’t respond to that dry smile. He just silently filled the empty glass with alcohol.

How many rounds of alcohol were passed around?

Cheongmyeong, who had been watching Baekcheon’s hands shaking more and more as he drank more, broke the long silence and opened his mouth.

“Private school.”

“……why.”

“Aren’t you thinking of going to Jongnam?”

“… … .”

Baekcheon raises his head and looks at Cheongmyeong.

Even Cheongmyeong couldn’t tell what was in his eyes.

“Of course, Sasuk has a deep affection for the volcano… … .”

“affection?”

“… … .”

“Is that what you think?”

“Private school. I… … .”

“A hundred times.”

The clear words that came out in a muffled manner were buried in Baekcheon’s voice.

“No, maybe more than a thousand times. That’s when I decided to go to Jongnam.”

“… … .”

“And yet I’m still here. Do you know why?”

“well.”

Baekcheon’s gaze turns downward.

What he saw were the shaman’s old-fashioned halls, but what he was looking at were not halls.

“Because I’m scared.”

“… … .”

The answer was unexpected even to Cheongmyeong.

“Going to Jongnam?”

“no.”

Baekcheon’s head nods slightly.

“Facing each other.”

“… … .”

“I chased you.”

“Private school.”

“I hate to admit it, but I wanted to be like you. Unwavering, unyielding, and capable of anything.”

“I’m not that kind of person.”

“I know. But the important thing is that I thought so. And… … that’s what I wanted to happen.”

Another laugh escaped Baekcheon’s lips.

He also knows. That Cheongmyeong is not as strong as he thinks. What he sees is nothing but the sharpness of the thorns that a small human being desperately erects to avoid being hurt.

But he wanted to be like that too.

“And then at some point I realized. Someone was… … looking at me, like I was looking at you.”

“… … .”

“That’s why I’m scared.”

Baekcheon grabs the glass. His hand feels so precarious that it almost feels pitiful.

And Cheongmyeong saw. Baekcheon’s slightly lowered eyes were red. That’s why Cheongmyeong closed his eyes. There are things in the world that should not be seen.

“Go to Jongnam?”

Baekcheon chuckled. With the saddest face in the world.

“Then those who looked at me as I looked at you will know that there is nothing more important to the volcano than ignorance. The time we spent together, the words we spoke, everything, nothing weighs as much as a single swing of the sword.”

“… … .”

“Me, who used to say that there were things more important than things like inaction… …. Looking at me like that.”

A low sigh escapes Cheongmyeong’s lips.

“Private school.”

“I have to live.”

“… … .”

“Going to Jongnam and reclaiming Muhak is nothing. The problem for me is what comes next. Just by living, I will become a wedge in the volcano. I will live as evidence that all the words I say with my mouth open are nothing more than the generosity of the strong.”

Baekcheon’s bloodshot eyes meet Cheongmyeong’s sunken eyes.

“I… … I can’t stand it, Cheongmyeong. I can’t stand being the volcano’s shackles, and the volcano being my shackles. I don’t have the courage to look into those eyes.”

Cheongmyeong turned his gaze towards the distant sky.

The sky was dark and dark. In that sky, someone’s eyes were looking down at Cheongmyeong.

“I don’t know if you’ll understand.”

I know. Deep down.

So I couldn’t help but ask.

“… … So you’re going to rot away?”

Baekcheon smiled faintly.

“There are things you have to lose to understand.”

“… … .”

“I think I know what the ancestors of the volcano felt like as they died. They must have wanted to run away. They must have wanted to run away. They must have wanted to throw everything away right away, escape from that pressure, and breathe.”

Cheongmyeong closed his eyes.

The one he had lost was before him again.

“But that couldn’t be the case. Their lives would be a milestone for those watching. There were things more important than my life, more important than my misery.”

“… … .”

I didn’t know.

Those who died crushed by the weight placed on their shoulders.

Those who trembled in fear but did not back down until the very end.

There must be someone who understands their hearts now. Their feelings that even Cheongmyeong did not fully know, and perhaps they still do not know.

That’s why it’s sad. That’s why it’s pitiful.

For them, there was a liberation called the end. But Baekcheon’s suffering was only just beginning.

Those who are bound by chains that cannot be escaped. No, those who have put chains on their own feet. And those who must groan endlessly.

The world calls such things illusions.

Cheongmyeong is a ghost bound to the eyes of the dead.

But Baekcheon wants to become a ghost bound to the eyes of the living.

What could be more painful?

“Are you planning to stop it?”

Cheongmyeong opened his eyes and saw Baekcheon.

Those who have died and become ghosts, those who are alive and will die.

Cheongmyeong quietly poured wine into Baekcheon’s cup.

The glass was filled with alcohol as if for the first time. As if it were a lie that it had already been filled several times.

So the two drank in silence.

But Baekcheon didn’t know.

He may be able to stand his own chains, but some people may not be able to stand the chains that are tied around his ankles.

It was two days later that the unbelievable news of the Baekcheon Wave was delivered.