Return of the Mount Hua Sect [EN]: Chapter 1008

Chung Myung took a big gulp of alcohol. “Glug, glug, glug, glug.”

“Khrrr!” He screwed up his face, tossing back the liquor with gusto, then roughly wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

“It has a strong taste, right? Ah, there’s nothing like drinking while looking at a river.”

He glanced at Namgung Dowi, who was sitting next to him.

“Hey, why aren’t you drinking? Don’t tell me you don’t like alcohol?” Chung Myung asked.

“Ah, no. It’s not that I dislike it,” Namgung Dowi replied.

“Then?” Chung Myung asked.

“It’s just a little awkward…” Namgung Dowi said as he stared at the bottle in his hand. Raised under the strict rules of the prestigious Namgung Clan, he wasn’t used to drinking straight from the bottle like this.

Plus, they were sitting on a patch of grass. What more needed to be said about the awkwardness?

“Is it hard to drink because we are not being proper?” Chung Myung asked.

“It’s not that, but…” Namgung Dowi trailed off.

Chung Myung chuckled and started gulping down the liquor again. “Khrrr.”

He wiped his mouth again and said casually, “Guys like you become alcoholics later on.”

“Huh?” Namgung Dowi asked.

“We have one among us. That So-rim monk. At first, he went on about how a monk could drink alcohol, but now he really likes it and steals my alcohol now, you know?” Chung Myung said.

“Really? Monk Hye-yeon? Are you, perhaps, referring to Monk Hye-yeon?” Namgung Dowi asked, surprised.

“Yeah, that bastard!” Chung Myung confirmed.

“Monk Hye-yeon drinks…? He steals liquor from the training hall?” Namgung Dowi asked, still in disbelief.

“Yeah! That’s right!” Chung Myung looked angry.

“I raised a tiger cub,” he muttered.

Namgung Dowi, who had been blankly staring at Chung Myung, burst into a small laugh.

“Is it funny?” Chung Myung glared at him. Namgung Dowi quickly stopped laughing, waving his hand.

“It’s not the training hall that’s funny, but the situation itself,” Namgung Dowi explained.

“What do you mean?” Chung Myung just sighed deeply. Namgung Dowi quietly stared at the bottle he was holding, then slowly raised it to his lips. And, like Chung Myung, he gulped it down.

“Kehek! Kehehehek!”

“Oh ho?” Chung Myung said, amused.

“Wh, what kind of liquor is this! Cough! Cough!” His face turned bright red, and he coughed a lot. It was truly a strong liquor that felt like it was burning his throat.

Chung Myung grinned. “This is what liquor should be.”

“Wh, what is this liquor? It’s poison!” Namgung Dowi exclaimed.

“Tsk, tsk. This is why rich kids are like this,” Chung Myung clicked his tongue as if he was pathetic.

“So, can’t you drink it?”

“I…” Namgung Dowi paused, lost in thought, then looked back and forth between Chung Myung and the bottle.

After a moment, he bit his lip slightly and began to gulp down the liquor. Chung Myung clapped. “Oh. You drink well.”

“Glug, glug, glug.”

“Kyaa. You know how to drink.”

“Glug, glug, glug, glug.”

“Huh?”

“Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.”

“St, stop drinking! You crazy bastard!” Chung Myung, horrified, forcibly pulled the bottle from Namgung Dowi’s mouth.

“Khaaaah!” As if he had swallowed some deadly poison, Namgung Dowi clutched his reddened throat with both hands.

“Are all the Namgung bastards can’t control themselves?” Chung Myung muttered, ‘But they didn’t seem this ignorant in the old days…’ Even as he spoke, Namgung Dowi couldn’t come to his senses and continued to cough.

After a while, he managed to stop coughing and said, “Kh… It’s good.”

“Doesn’t look good at all?” Chung Myung asked. Namgung Dowi shook his head and looked down at the bottle in his hand.

“In the past, I might have said this wasn’t liquor… But now I think I know why people drink this.”

“Doesn’t sound like you know at all?” Chung Myung said.

“Hehe. I feel… good, Dojang,” Namgung Dowi said.

“Your tongue’s getting twisted,” Chung Myung observed.

Namgung Dowi shook his head a few times as if trying to come to his senses.

It felt like his body was already heating up, even though he hadn’t been drinking for long. Normally, he would have suppressed and expelled the alcohol using his inner energy, but he didn’t feel like doing that right now.

“Dojang,” Namgung Dowi called out.

“What?” Chung Myung responded.

“Don’t you have another bottle?”

Instead of answering, Chung Myung looked up at the distant sky.

“Why do only these kinds of things gather around me?”

Is the world wrong? Or is he wrong?

– Do you even need to ask?

“Kaaah!”

“Why, why are you suddenly like this?” Namgung Dowi asked, confused.

“No, nothing.” Chung Myung glared at the sky once, then flopped down on the spot.

“Ugh, I’m getting drunk,” he mumbled.

Namgung Dowi stared blankly at him, then cautiously called out to Chung Myung. “Dojang.”

“What,” Chung Myung replied.

“Why did you call me out here?”

“Huh?”

Namgung Dowi sighed quietly. “Isn’t there something you wanted to say?”

“Just called you,” Chung Myung said.

“Yes?”

“To drink.”

Namgung Dowi was silent.

“Drink, drink. What’s life? Just drinking,” Chung Myung said.

Anyone who expected something from Chung Myung was bound to be disappointed. It was a very natural thing in Hwasan, but unfortunately, Namgung Dowi was not yet aware of that fact.

“Ha…” A mixture of laughter and sadness escaped his lips. Turning his head to look at the darkened Jang River, Namgung Dowi murmured, “Actually… the truth is, Dojang.”

“Huh?” Chung Myung grunted.

“I didn’t want to leave this place yet,” Namgung Dowi admitted.

Chung Myung didn’t particularly respond, but Namgung Dowi continued to speak slowly, as if he didn’t care anymore. “No, actually, to be honest, it’s not that I don’t want to leave this place, but… I didn’t want to return to Anhui. Frankly, I was a little… scared. If I leave this place and return to Anhui…”

He would truly have to become the head of the family and lead the Namgung Clan.

It was still too heavy a burden for Namgung Dowi. What he thought would come at least twenty years later had suddenly crashed down upon him overnight.

Moreover, it was not a normal Namgung Clan, but the enormous responsibility of becoming the head of a Namgung Clan that had lost more than half, perhaps more than eighty percent, of its strength.

Namgung Dowi spoke sadly, making fun of himself. “A little while ago, I got angry.”

Chung Myung remained silent.

“I got angry because things weren’t going my way. I pretended to be disappointed that they didn’t trust and follow me.”

Namgung Dowi slowly shook his head. “But… that anger might not have been directed at them. No, it wasn’t. What I was really angry about… was myself, who was thinking the same way as them, perhaps even more terrified than they were.”

“Hmm,” Chung Myung hummed.

He covered his face with both hands and said, as if sobbing, “It’s difficult, Dojang. It’s too difficult. The burden is too heavy for me. I don’t know what to do…”

Chung Myung didn’t respond.

I wish I had twenty more years… No, even ten would help. If I were older, maybe I would be stronger, not so easily worried.

Chung Myung made a sound in his throat, like he was thinking.

Chung Myung had been quiet, but now he quickly sat up straight. He looked very seriously at Namgung Dowi.

“…Clan Lord!”

As their eyes met, a strange feeling of hope grew in Namgung Dowi’s heart.

Maybe he would be told off for not being good enough.

Maybe he would be praised for doing well.

Either way was okay. Namgung Dowi needed someone to judge him and guide him, someone to say if his choices were right or wrong.

Maybe… this Hwasan Sword Saint could guide him.

But…

“There.”

“Yes.”

Chung Myung pointed to the liquor bottle behind Namgung Dowi.

Chung Myung’s eyes drifted to the liquor bottle behind Namgung Dowi. He seemed to think for a moment, then…

“Hand me that bottle next to you. There should be some left.”

“…”

“What are you doing?”

“Liquor… you mean liquor?”

“Yes, that one.”

“…”

“Hurry.”

“Yes…”

Feeling very tired, Namgung Dowi chuckled and gave the bottle to Chung Myung.

‘What am I even saying?’

He knew it.

No one could help, no one could give advice. All people could offer were empty words. In the end, he had to deal with it himself.

He knew that… he knew it, but…

Chung Myung put the bottle to his mouth, his Adam’s apple moving quickly.

Glug! Glug! Glug!

“Kroooooh!”

Chung Myung took the bottle away and sighed happily, then put the bottle down.

“Well, I heard you saying some interesting things.”

He clicked his tongue, looking at Namgung Dowi.

“Why do you think things would be different if you experienced this ten years later?”

“…Pardon?”

“What makes you think things would be any easier if you experienced this twenty years later?”

“That’s…”

“Enough, kid.”

Chung Myung waved his hand and sighed, “It’s not true that the world gets easier when you get older. Now that I’m older, I can tell you that’s not the case. It only gets more complicated in your head than when you were young.”

“C-Clan Lord?”

‘Now that I’m older?’

“Ha. When I was young. Seems like ages ago.”

“…”

‘Is this guy making fun of me?’

Namgung Dowi stared at him, confused. Then, Chung Myung asked calmly,

“Was everything easy for Namgung Hwang?”

Namgung Dowi’s body froze at those words.

“…My father…”

He tried to say something, but Chung Myung’s next words stopped him.

“Was the father you knew really someone who lived so easily?”

“…”

“No. I don’t think so. It would be wrong to say he had an easy life. It wouldn’t be fair to him.”

That’s right. It couldn’t be.

Namgung Hwang always did his best. Sometimes he made mistakes, and sometimes he failed, but he always tried his best.

“Then, if Namgung Hwang were here right now, what would be so different?”

“…”

“It wouldn’t be.”

Chung Myung shook his head.

“The situation might be a little better, but your father would still have worries. He would have more expectations and responsibilities than you.”

“…”

“A person is just a person. Everyone feels pain when stabbed with a sword, and no one’s heart is made of steel. Even strong people feel pain and get hurt.”

Namgung Dowi bit his lip.

“But, kid. What it means to grow up is…”

“Yes.”

“…learning to pretend that you don’t hurt, even when you do.”

Namgung Dowi closed his eyes.

He remembered Namgung Hwang leading the way.

That’s right. He must have been in pain. He must have been suffering, both physically and emotionally.

But he couldn’t show it. Because Namgung Dowi was behind him. Because there were people he had to protect in the Plum Blossom Manor, his family home. Because people were looking at him.

“Carrying a weight… that’s what it means to grow up.”

“…”

“It’s normal to feel pain and struggle. You have to feel pain and you have to struggle. It will never be easy for someone who carries more and tries to lead.”

Chung Myung drank some alcohol.

He looked at the river, then at the manor behind him.

To the place where everyone from Hwasan lived.

“I don’t know for sure, but…”

Chung Myung looked at Namgung Dowi.

“There will be something there for you. Something that Namgung Hwang gave you. Something he passed on to future generations.”

Namgung Dowi clenched his fist.

He had it. Yes, he did.

Namgung Hwang had passed it on to him. What the Namgung sword was.

That the sword of a leader is not about controlling, but about protecting from the front.

How could someone who has to fight enemies and go against strong winds not struggle and worry?

“That’s all you need.”

“…”

“What you need has already been passed on. That’s what it means to carry on.”

“Clan Lord.”

“If you still don’t know, think about it.”

“What do you mean…?”

Chung Myung grinned.

“What you want to pass on to future generations.”

“…”

“That will be the path you have to take.”

Namgung Dowi stared at Chung Myung for a long time. Then, he looked at the river.

The spirit of Namgung flowed in that river.

What kind of life did they want Namgung Dowi to live?

“Clan Lord.”

“Hmm?”

After a long silence, Namgung Dowi spoke slowly.

“Can… can I do well?”

“Well, I don’t know about that, but I think you’ll be a good clan leader.”

“…Pardon?”

Chung Myung looked back and grinned.

“If people complain to you, it means they believe in you. They trust you to fix things. A leader who people trust will be a good leader.”

Namgung Dowi turned his head, following Chung Myung’s gaze.

“Young Clan Lord!”

“Young Clan Lord, where are you!”

The Namgung swordsmen were all outside, searching for him.

“I…”

Namgung Dowi bit his lip. His head drooped, and his shoulders trembled.

Chung Myung watched him, a small, warm smile on his face. It was a gentle smile, like moonlight on water, and for a moment, Namgung Dowi felt a little less alone.

“So, let’s drink tonight, kid.”

“…Yes, Clan Lord.”

The night got darker over the Jang River. The water flowed quietly, reflecting the stars. The air smelled of damp grass and the strong, sweet smell of the liquor Chung Myung drank. A cool breeze blew from the river, making the grass whisper.