Chapter 117. A Purposeless Meeting (1/2)
Chapter 117. A Purposeless Meeting
Now that I think of it, I seemed to have been enjoying that time back in the day.
Having thousands of people move under my command.
Having thousands of enemies move according to my will.
Walking along the fine lines of both as I adjusted the balance of power accordingly.
Because I was young and inexperienced at the time, I seemed to have regarded a battle where thousands were at stake as a sort of a ‘play’.
The time when I stopped regarding this as a ‘play’ was when Un Hui got injured.
Thanks to this, I came back to reality, and killed someone for the first time.
You might say that this was my very first murder.
– Neng Ha Young. Found in the letters of King Shura, Cho Ryu Hyang.
* * *
The Sichuan branch of the church.
In the gardens located here, a boy and a middle-aged man were sitting together comfortably.
The middle-aged man was leaning back on a tree as he looked amusedly at a boy, and the boy was looking at the man with a troubled expression.
It was Cho Ryu Hyang, and Gongson Chun Gi
The two didn’t speak for a bit.
In the end, the one who opened his mouth first was Gongson Chun Gi.
“You made quite a scene, didn’t you.”
“Somehow it all ended up that way.”
It really did end up that way.
There was no other way of putting it.
When Cho Ryu Hyang closed his mouth, Gongson Chun Gi asked a question.
“Did you learn anything?”
After thinking a bit, Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.
“Yes. I learned much.”
When one needs to be cruel, he must be cruel.
Was there anything more important than that?
Gongson Chun Gi, after looking at Cho Ryu Hyang’s face, grinned.
“That’s good. You can leave the rest to me, now.”
Cho Ryu Hyang attempted to say something, stopped, and turned to his teacher.
He smiled, and spoke.
“You seem to be an amazing person.”
“Hm? How did you reach such an obvious conclusion?”
“You just keep saying all the words I needed to hear.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, that is so.”
Gongson Chun Gi put his hand on his young disciple’s head, and grinned.
“I too had to go through what you went through. After it all passes, it feels like nothing significant, but while it happens, it feels complicated and harsh. I know you well. And you’re doing much, much better than I expected you to. So don’t worry about what others think of you.”
“……”
Cho Ryu Hyang’s eyes trembled.
Despite looking a bit too relaxed at times, Gongson Chun Gi was an amazingly wise man.
This strangeness was only one of his many charms.
“You did well to leave your enemies alive. Keeping alive your enemies is harder than killing them, after all. You don’t have to worry about what others say about you behind your back.”
Cho Ryu Hyang paused for a moment, and nodded.
The thing he had been worried about.
His teacher already knew what it was.
“I heard something like this had never happened before.”
Gongson Chun Gi stroked his chin, and nodded.
“Well, that is true. We never left our enemies alive. We killed both our allies and enemies.”
“…..How frightening.”
“Frightening… I suppose you can look at it that way.”
After thinking for a moment, Gongson Chun Gi slowly opened his mouth.
“We had to do this back in the day. Our enemies multiplied if we left them alive. Sometimes, we need to be cruel for the sake of survival.”
Cho Ryu Hyang nodded.
He, too, knew of the church’s history.
He could only bitterly smile.
‘The church is constantly surrounded by enemies.’
The church never held hands with anyone, and constantly fought all those who were different from them.
They needed to become strong in order to survive in such an environment, and had to become cruel as well.
After surviving for so long, the church had finally gained enough power.
And in this church, weaklings were not accepted.
They simply killed all those in their way.
Because of this, the event of Cho Ryu Hyang letting his enemies live sparked much controversy within the church.
After all, this was not what they did.
“No matter what anyone says, I’ll support you. I don’t like seeing death either.”
Cho Ryu Hyang scratched his head.
“That’s what I thought as well, but I didn’t think things would become so troublesome.”
“Tsk, so you’ve misunderstood. This wasn’t supposed to bring trouble in the first place.”
“What?”
So why was there a meeting about it right now?
Gongson Chun Gi smiled playfully.
“You’ve been doing so well that some old men got very annoyed. This is something that they’ve started, so you don’t need to worry about it. Just watch.”
“……”
He couldn’t understand.
And that emotion reflected directly into his face.
Gongson Chun Gi smiled, and kneeled down to Cho Ryu Hyang’s eye level.
“And if you think about it, aren’t all these people basically money? You’ve done something great. Being criticized for doing something good is kind of comical, but you’ll see why this is happening soon enough. You get what I’m saying?”
“Yes.”
When Cho Ryu Hyang nodded energetically, Gongson Chun Gi smiled yet again.
“Right. Plus, wasn’t the reason why we came out to Sichuan to get money in the first place? We got a bunch from this battle. These old men are the strange ones here. The fact that they’re doing strange things for their own greed annoys me quite a bit. But they’re needed occasionally, so I’ll let them off.”
Gongson Chun Gi lightly tapped Cho Ryu Hyang’s back and stood up.
“I prepared everything in advance, so don’t worry about it.”
“……Understood.”
As Cho Ryu Hyang scratched his cheek, Gongson Chun Gi asked a question.
“So I heard you caught an assassin?”
“Yes.”
“You want to know about the people who wants to kill you?”
Cho Ryu Hyang looked at Gongson Chun Gi silently.
What was that question supposed to mean?
Of course he’d want to know.
But there must be a reason why he’s asking this question.
“The people who are trying to kill you are people who you will have to take care of. They’re quite annoying at times, but you can’t go without them.”
Cho Ryu Hyang finally understood what Gongson Chun Gi was trying to do.
“You might not like it, but that’s what you have to do. So just ignore them. If you try to find out who they are, I won’t stop you.”
Cho Ryu Hyang thought.