Novel Test - Chapter 5.6

Episode 1

Prologue (序) – Meeting a Legend

 

 

 

 

 

Chirr, chirr.

The low chirring of insects.

On a night filled with that insect song, a man was staggering down the street.

A brown liquor bottle clutched in his hand.

His appearance was utterly shabby.

His coarsely grown beard and shaggy hair had grown to the point his face was hard to make out.

Was it because it was a small village, or because this man was well known?

Someone who recognized him stepped aside and grumbled at him.

“Tsk, tsk, there he goes again. Live that recklessly just because you’re young and you’ll ruin your health.”

From early hours till night.

This shabby-looking man would stagger around drunk all over the village. Many pointed fingers at him and laughed.

A mysterious man who suddenly came to this village one day.

At first the villagers looked at him with curiosity; before long they started to think him pathetic—a young punk who didn’t work and was drunk every day.

And even when someone spoke to him, he would always drink alone without much of a reply.

It was the same today.

He was like a deaf man, like a blind man.

Because he paid no heed to anyone’s words, nor to everyone’s pointing fingers.

“Ugh! The stench of booze!”

At the terrible reek of alcohol coming off him, a middle-aged woman passing by pinched her nose and snapped. Even under the sour looks aimed at him, he raised the bottle to his lips.

As if none of it had anything to do with him.

Even stumbling drunk, the man always made his way back home. His dwelling lay a ways from the village, a place that took about half a shichen to reach.

He dragged his drunken body up the mountain path.

After quite some time had passed like that.

A shabby house perched halfway up the mountain, looking as if it might collapse at any moment, came into view.

That was the man’s dwelling.

His house, which could barely keep out the wind and rain, was a mess from lack of upkeep.

Plod, plod.

As he moved forward, the man raised the bottle in his hand to his lips.

Only after the remaining liquor burned its way down his throat did he slowly lower his hand.

Just then, with the house right before him.

A low, baritone voice slipped out of him.

“Who’s there.”

Through the hair grown wild and masking his face, the man’s eyes flared sharply.

A figure utterly at odds with the wreck he’d been a moment ago.

At the very moment the transformed man let the question out, the closed door slowly opened.

What appeared was an old man who looked well past seventy. He was fairly tall, and his gentle eyes brimmed with strength.

He smiled faintly.

“I’ve waited a long time. Isn’t your return a bit too late? Cheonyo(天妖).”

The name Cheonyo that came from the old man’s mouth. It was the name of this shabby man.

As if they had known each other long ago, the moment he recognized the other, the wariness in the eyes of the man called Cheonyo slowly faded.

With Cheonyo standing there in silence, staring at him, the old man spoke.

“What are you doing. Not coming in.”

“If anyone saw, they’d think this was your house. This is my place.”

“Heh heh, why be so particular. Come in first.”

At the old man’s words, Cheonyo slowly stepped inside.

The room he entered was a wreck.

It was cramped, and filthy from not being cleaned.

Cheonyo nudged aside the things strewn across the floor with his foot and sat across from the old man.

No sooner had he sat down than the old man opened his mouth.

“How long has it been? About ten years since we last saw each other?”

“I don’t know when we last met, and maybe it’s because I’m seeing a face I didn’t particularly want to, but I’m not feeling especially cheerful.”

“Is that so? I found myself thinking of you from time to time over the past ten years.”

“My sleep was often restless—must’ve been because of you, old man.”

“Haha. Though we were enemies, I don’t think things between us were all that bad, were they?”

“Which is why you’re still alive even after showing up in front of me like this.”

An indifferent answer.

In it were the feel of arrogance and confidence. An old man who didn’t seem ordinary, and a man who spoke to such an old man without hesitation.

It was a sight that would spark curiosity in anyone who saw it.

Cheonyo rubbed at his mouth and spoke.

“Enough with the idle chatter. What’s your business?”

“What do you mean?”

“The reason you came to find me. There must be a reason you sought me out, old man.”

Ten years.

A full ten years.

They hadn’t even asked after each other in all that time. For the old man to show up out of the blue now, there was clearly a reason.

At Cheonyo’s question, the old man gave a faint, rueful smile.

A silence hung between them.

Cheonyo spoke as if annoyed.

“If you’ve nothing to say, then get out…….”

“Watch over.”

At the old man’s words, the man flinched.

The old man, calmly looking at him, continued.

“Only you. You’re the only one who can protect that child.”

At the old man’s words, a far longer silence than before fell between them.

It was Cheonyo who broke the silence that seemed it would never end.

“……We’re not close enough for that kind of request, are we? Why me?”

“Why you, you ask?”

The reason for choosing this man.

There was only one.

“Only you can protect that child against all under heaven.”

No one could be confident of guarding someone as perfectly as this man could. All the more so because it might mean turning the entire murim into enemies.

Cheonyo, half-bent at the waist as he gazed into the old man’s eyes, asked.

“Who is it? The child all under heaven is after.”

“My granddaughter.”

“Your granddaughter?”

Cheonyo asked again, as if he couldn’t understand.

He couldn’t grasp who would dare lay a hand on this old man’s granddaughter.

Perhaps reading the curiosity in Cheonyo’s words, the old man spoke.

“I know. It wouldn’t make sense. For certain reasons soon…… that child will be in danger. So I’m asking you to protect her. You, my granddaughter.”

He mentioned only “certain reasons” and did not properly explain.

But Cheonyo did not ask what they were either.

Just the fact that this old man had come to him in person to ask was enough to tell him how dangerous it was. Dangerous enough that even a dozen lives wouldn’t suffice.

They didn’t even have such deep ties. No, if anything, the two had been enemies in the past. And yet this would mean accepting a danger that could cost him his life.

And yet, the reason Cheonyo could not immediately refuse the old man’s proposal.

“……I owe you a debt, Elder. Are you asking me to repay it?”

Ten years ago, he had incurred a debt to this old man. And to Cheonyo, it was a very great one.

The old man said.

“Right. I know well how shameless this is. But you’re a man who doesn’t move for money or status. That’s why, banking everything on that one favor I showed you long ago, I’ve come. Grasping at straws, I traveled a long way. To ask you to protect my granddaughter.”

The old man’s words were earnest.

A long journey undertaken with only this one man in mind. And the fervent wish that he would say yes.

In a low voice, Cheonyo asked.

“Very well. Then let me ask. If I accept, what is it you want me to do?”

“Let that child live a happy life.”

“You know that’s a difficult request, don’t you?”

“I know. And that I can’t promise how many years it will take. You may have to stake your whole life on it. And the rest of my granddaughter’s life as well.”

“Your granddaughter’s life…… can you stake it on me?”

“On you, can I?”

The old man, who had been giving a faint, wry smile, grew serious. He suddenly seized Cheonyo’s sleeve and yanked him hard toward himself.

Their gazes tangled as the distance closed naturally.

With a heavy look, the old man went on.

“Not at all. I can stake it only on you.”

With that, the old man quietly stared at the man.

Cheonyo pressed his lips together and gently closed his eyes, as if lost in thought.

A single debt owed to this old man.

He had thought he would repay it someday.

But he hadn’t thought it would be like this. He had retired from the murim. And now he would have to show himself to the world again to protect a single person.

Squeeze.

His tightly clenched fist trembled faintly.

In truth, the answer had been decided from the moment this old man came.

Cheonyo opened his mouth.

“……I’ll protect her. Your granddaughter.”

“Truly?”

The old man’s voice quivered as he released the seized sleeve.

He had come a long way to ask, but he had no certainty. That was why each step to this place had been fearful. Because if not this man, no one could do it.

Cheonyo asked.

“How should I protect her? Shall I go, or will you send your granddaughter here.”

“Neither. For now, it’s better that you remain out of sight.”

“Then how am I to protect her?”

“Before long, something big will happen in the murim that anyone can see. Come then.”

“Do I come to find you?”

“No.”

The old man took a sheet of paper from his breast. When Cheonyo received it, the old man continued.

“I’ve written here the name of someone who will help you. Go find him.”

“All right.”

Cheonyo nodded as he spoke.

He soon went on.

“I need some basic information about the granddaughter I’ll be protecting. Tell me what you can.”

“Nothing much. She’s eleven years old…….”

“Eleven?”

“Yes.”

“Haah, this is going to be a headache. I’m not confident with children.”

“She’s a good child. There won’t be much to worry about.”

“If she’s only eleven, there’s no need to ask about her martial arts technique.”

What Cheonyo most wanted to confirm was the martial arts technique of the one he would be guarding. But if she was only eleven…… he could guess what level that would be.

The old man asked.

“Anything else you’re curious about?”

“No. Nothing.”

He had learned what he wanted to know, so there was nothing more to ask.

Looking at him, the old man spoke with a smile.

“I’ve disturbed your rest too much. I can’t be away for long, so I’ll take my leave.”

“I won’t see you out. I’m tired.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Cheonyo lay down on the floor right there.

He quietly closed his eyes with his back to the door. Watching Cheonyo’s back, the old man slowly straightened up.

It was a small room, so a single step was enough to reach the door.

Opening the door and stepping outside, the old man turned his body. Then, toward Cheonyo lying with his back turned, he spoke in a low voice.

“Thank you for granting an old man’s last request.”

Creak.

With the words, the door closed. And beyond that door, the eyes of Cheonyo, who had been lying as if asleep, gleamed in the dark.

The hazy pupils now filled with a burning light.

After some time had passed since the old man left, Cheonyo rose from where he lay. Then he picked up a portable brush that had been lying around in a corner of the room.

Leaving the room, he walked to the back of the house.

Out back, where the undergrowth had grown wild. Where Cheonyo stopped, a carrier pigeon sat in a cage.

Looking at the carrier pigeon, Cheonyo lifted the portable brush and swiftly wrote characters on a sheet of paper.

 

―Reactivate the shuttered information network.

 

Tying the note to it, Cheonyo sent the carrier pigeon into the sky.

Flutter.

A carrier pigeon cut through the dark night sky and rose. Cheonyo stared absently in the direction it disappeared.

The late-night meeting between Cheonyo and the old man.

No one knew that a legend that would shake the murim had begun.

 

* * *

 

The old man walked along the mountain path.

As he descended the quiet mountain path, a single carriage stood there. And the middle-aged man who had been stationed beside the carriage hurried over.

“Did your meeting go well?”

“Yes.”

Seeing the smiling old man, the middle-aged man’s face brightened.

“Did it work out?”

“Fortunately.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you. We’ve achieved our purpose, so…… let’s go.”

As the old man opened the carriage door with those words, the middle-aged man called out respectfully to him.

“I will attend you, Murim Alliance Leader!”