TL/ED – Miso
Yeon So-wol had never once thought of himself as a fussy man. If anything, he was the easygoing sort.
The type who, when a hair turned up in his food, would just flick it aside and keep eating rather than bother complaining.
So on his first night in the wuxia world, he tried his best to put up with it.
Even though there were strange hairs stuck to the bedding.
Even though there was some yellow stain on it too.
He really did try to put up with it.
Because this wasn't the 21st century.
It was somewhere like ancient 'China'.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.He had no wish to make a scene and draw attention for nothing.
But.
But!
"Excuse me. Innkeeper, sir. The bedding smells awful. And it's a bit damp......."
The smell, at least, he couldn't stand.
In the end Yeon So-wol went to the innkeeper and spoke as politely as he possibly could.
That this wasn't right.
That something seemed to have gone wrong.
That if it smelled this bad, then no matter how much this was a wuxia world, surely the place hadn't been made ready to receive guests.
At that, the innkeeper thrust out his hand.
'?'
When Yeon So-wol, not grasping what it meant, only blinked, the man snapped with irritation.
"You want the bedding swapped for fresh, don't you? Five wen."
"......Sir. I'm mentioning it because the smell is really quite bad."
"That's what I said! You want it swapped. Five wen."
The innkeeper waved his hand, annoyed.
Yeon So-wol felt it all over again.
That in this place, the concept of a 21st-century customer complaint did not exist.
Even if the bedding stank, this was a world where having it changed cost money.
"Yes."
Yeon So-wol held out five wen.
He had paid a fortnight of room and board with a single silver ingot and gotten a hundred wen back in change, so it wasn't as though he had no money at hand.
He only felt a little forlorn.
Still, the new bedding he got was decent. There was a yellow stain, and a faint damp smell of mildew, but at least nothing like a urine reek. And no hairs, either.
Yeon So-wol sighed, pulled the blanket over himself, and slept.
That was when it started.
Yeon So-wol's war with smells.
Everything else he could put up with.
The rude people he ran into wherever he went.
The disorderly streets without a shred of public decency.
The merchants who thought of nothing but how to swindle him.
Even the unsanitary food he could bear and accept.
And if he didn't bear it, what then?
Once he thought that way, he'd grit his teeth and endure somehow.
Because if he didn't get used to it fast, he'd be the only one suffering.
But.
"Urgh."
The smell alone he simply could not endure.
The body odor coming off passersby. The stink of hair oil. The rotten, gamy stench out of the eateries. A urine reek from god knows where. The smell of shit.
Every kind of smell took its turn hammering away at Yeon So-wol's soul without pause.
Beyond just turning his stomach, it left him chilled and feeling physically ill.
In the end, when about three days had passed, Yeon So-wol was very nearly at his limit.
'......Can I do this?'
Yeon So-wol could say it with pride.
That for three days he had worked truly hard.
He'd spent those three days out gathering information, looking for the best possible way to train in martial arts.
Which martial sect he should aim for. What he ought to focus on learning. How to get in as a disciple.
He worked harder than he had preparing for the Seoul National University entrance exam.
But.
The smell.
That damned smell.
Far from growing used to it, he found it strangely more revolting as time went on, and Yeon So-wol's spirit came to the very edge of breaking.
'Is this right? Do I really have to live like this? Here? Can I....... do this?'
Even so, Yeon So-wol somehow gathered up his crumbling resolve. He stepped outside as though fleeing.
Out onto streets lined with swindlers who had not one piece of proper information and still demanded a wen apiece just to spin whatever tale they'd heard. Because that was the only way he could gather anything. He gritted his teeth and went out.
And he met the merchant Jo Man-seok.
"......."
At the entrance of Jo Man-seok's shop, Yeon So-wol stood blankly for a moment.
'Is this heaven?'
The smell.
There was no smell!
No.
If anything, a fragrance.
Something like a sharp, clear scent of medicinal herbs filled the shop and spilled out over the street besides.
The feeling of a soul being healed. Yeon So-wol shivered.
"Who's there?"
At the voice from inside, Yeon So-wol snapped back to his senses, and,
"Ah. Yes. Sir. Um. But what is this fragrance?"
he asked before he knew it.
He had meant to ask about the Hall of Refined Arts and the man called Great hero Yi Yu-baek, its Hall Master, but he simply couldn't hold the question in.
'Damn. I'll have to spend a few more coins.'
Nothing in this world was free.
Having asked about the fragrance, he'd have to settle up for that separately. Yeon So-wol fingered a single wen in his pocket.
Just then.
"Oh? The young fellow knows a thing or two. And such neat bearing, too. Clear eyes, it puts me in a good mood. All right. I'll let you in on the secret, just for you. This incense is myrrh, cassia bark, and pine resin, mixed two to one to one and burned. How's that? Worth enjoying, isn't it?"
So answered Jo Man-seok, an old man with snow-white hair tied up neatly.
And Yeon So-wol hadn't even handed over a coin!
What's more, not a trace of foul breath came out of Jo Man-seok's mouth as he spoke.
Yeon So-wol's eyes went wide.
It felt as though light were coming off the man.
'Grace......! So this is what grace means!'
The true meaning of a word he'd never had much occasion to use in his life came to him right then and there.
"Sir......."
Yeon So-wol bowed his head low.
His shoulders shook.
"Wh-what's the matter, lad?"
Yeon So-wol bit down hard on his lip.
'Wow. I almost cried just now.'
He hadn't cried even on the day he was dropped into this world out of nowhere. And now he'd nearly cried over something like this.......
"Are you all right?"
At Jo Man-seok's kindly question, Yeon So-wol nodded vigorously.
'I want to live like this man.'
However senseless and filthy the world might be, if he could at least keep what lay within reach of his own hands clean and in good order, then he could live in it.
Yeon So-wol found the courage to try living once more.
Become a martial artist and get strength and money.
And then live like a human being for once.
From that day on, Yeon So-wol went to see Jo Man-seok every single day.
Jo Man-seok was not only full of grace, he was also enormously well-informed.
Precious information that others wouldn't part with even for coin flowed freely from Jo Man-seok's mouth.
"Like I told you. You can't learn martial arts. You have to take them up by fifteen at the latest. Otherwise turbid qi builds up, your whole body stiffens, your qi and blood get completely blocked, and your constitution turns useless."
"Sir. Even so, I have to learn martial arts."
"What's to be done when it can't be done? Unless you've got a legendary Great Restoration Pill, it's impossible!"
He did have one, in fact.
A Great Restoration Pill.
But Yeon So-wol didn't say so, not even to Jo Man-seok. It could have been dangerous.
"Still. I want to go as far as I can, at least."
"Hah. I'm telling you, you could work yourself to death and your progress would be negligible. Even with a Great Restoration Pill it wouldn't happen right off. You'd have to train like a dog for years and become a martial artist people call Third-rate at minimum before your body could even take the pill. And without one? You'd stay Third-rate your whole life. And if you were overflowing with talent, you might just barely hear yourself called Second-rate by middle age. Is that the life you want?"
"Yes. Any life at all. As long as I can learn martial arts."
"Ngh......."
Jo Man-seok leaned back.
Then he asked in a far softer tone.
"You said that's what you came for? All the way from Annam to here?"
"Yes, sir."
A young woodcutter from Annam (Vietnam).
This was the backstory Yeon So-wol had put together over the past few days.
The story went that one day, while living as a woodcutter in Annam, he saw the martial arts of a martial artist from the Central Plains, and was so deeply moved that he took a ship by way of Hainan Island and came all the way here to Guangdong Province.
This backstory, built on thorough field research with the skills he'd honed prepping for his Seoul National University interview, proved effective indeed.
"Hmm. Your devotion is admirable, I'll grant you that. It even calls to mind the tale of the Sixth Patriarch, Chan Master Huineng, going in search of Great Master Hongren......."
Even Jo Man-seok, who had said nothing but "hopeless" from start to finish, went soft before this backstory.
That was exactly what Yeon So-wol had been aiming at.
Xinxing County here in Guangdong Province was the birthplace of Huineng, the great teacher of Buddhism.
Huineng, who had spent his life as a woodcutter, attained enlightenment at thirty-two from a single passage of the Diamond Sutra and ran all the way from Guangdong to Hubei to beg for teaching.
In Xinxing County, even a seven-year-old on the road knew this story well.
That was why he had deliberately made a backstory that would call it to mind.
But in the end Jo Man-seok shook his head again.
"Even so, it's no good. Buddhist devotion and martial arts are different things. Mind you, they say Great hero Yi Yu-baek of the Hall of Refined Arts isn't only the Foremost Expert of Xinxing, he's a benevolent man who loves raising people up....... but that's only for those who show the makings of it. You chisel where you can see the grain, and you polish where you can see the shine. Even Yi Yu-baek isn't the sort to say he'll make a gem out of a common stone. Ahem. No offense to you, of course......."
"What if I showed my sincerity?"
"Sincerity?"
"Yes. When I left home, I sold off everything my family had. All that my parents left behind, too. If I offer it up and ask him to take me in, might his heart move even a little?"
He'd only been here a few days, but Yeon So-wol had learned fast. That the people here were very sensitive to 'sincerity'.
Even Jo Man-seok, full of grace as he was, had been kinder than usual on the days Yeon So-wol arrived bearing a gift.
Jo Man-seok's expression turned serious.
"You. Are you that serious about it?"
"Yes. That's why I came all the way from Annam."
"......Then give it a try. If you go that far, Great hero Yi Yu-baek's heart might just move. And your bearing alone is out of the ordinary."
"Is it, really?"
"Of course."
"I think I'm quite ordinary, though......."
"Not a chance. You don't pick your nose while we're talking, you don't cough in a man's face, and when an elder speaks, you listen, don't you?"
"......!"
"You're a rare young man who knows his manners."
"I-I see."
"That's right. So give it a go. And don't be too disappointed if it doesn't work out."
A positive answer, come from the most learned and wisest person Yeon So-wol knew.
It was a single interview chance that would never come twice, but with this much, it was worth the gamble.
'Hall of Refined Arts, accepted......!'
Yeon So-wol steeled his will.
"Ah, but that show of sincerity. Never do it anywhere else. The White Dragon Gang, say. Or the Severing Sword Sect. Only try it with Great hero Yi Yu-baek at the Hall of Refined Arts."
"Why is that?"
"They might just take your money and throw you out. Yi Yu-baek and his disciples wouldn't, but."
"......Do the martial sects of the Murim do that sort of thing?"
"They do it because they're martial sects of the Murim."
"......."
"I don't know what kind of fantasy you've got about Jianghu practitioners, but."
Jo Man-seok lit his long pipe.
In this world, even a gentleman full of grace smoking indoors was a matter of course.
Fwoo.
He blew out white smoke and spoke.
"Never trust a Jianghu practitioner."
At that, Yeon So-wol thought.
So Jianghu practitioners are something like thugs.
Yeon So-wol walked in through the front gate of the Hall of Refined Arts.
'Ahh......!'
The Hall of Refined Arts was rich with the scent of grass and mint.
Even the Hall members training with their shirts off gave off no smell. They were all clean and dignified.
The second heaven he'd seen since coming to this place.
No. A world where common sense worked.
Yeon So-wol knew it instinctively.
'I have to learn here, no matter what.'
And so,
"Hm? Who might you be?"
the moment he came face to face with Yi Yu-baek, a beardless, handsome man in his late thirties, Yeon So-wol's mind raced.
Is this man Yi Yu-baek?
He is.
His looks match what the rumors said.
Above all, this fragrance.
Not merely an absence of smell, but a crisp lemon scent rising faintly as though he'd put on perfume, and a soft, sweet fragrance beneath it.
The first 'pleasant' scent he'd smelled since falling into this place.
There couldn't be anyone like this other than Great hero Yi Yu-baek, the Foremost Expert of Xinxing.
The instant he finished judging, he moved at once.
Thump.
"Hm?"
Down on his knees first.
Fwap!
And flat on the ground at the man's feet.
"I greet Great hero Yi Yu-baek, Foremost Expert of Xinxing. This lowly one is Yeon So-wol, a woodcutter from the land of Annam, across the southern sea. Having long admired the martial arts of the Jianghu, I have taken ship and braved a hard road all the way here to seek instruction. I beg you, do not cast me out as unworthy; if you would grant me even a single line of teaching, I would count you my benefactor for life."
This too was a set of lines he'd honed over days of hard information-gathering.
Having heard the rumor that Yi Yu-baek revered the teachings of Confucius and Mencius, he'd crafted the most courteous phrasing he could and had Jo Man-seok look it over.
Sure enough, Yi Yu-baek's reaction wasn't bad.
"Well, look at this one. He knows his manners."
Yi Yu-baek's disciples standing beside him laughed too.
"He's nothing like the one who came last month. Neat bearing, too."
"Right. And he doesn't stink."
"Ah, senior brother, last month, you mean that guy? The one who said he'd join as a disciple if we beat him in a spar."
"Yeah. That one. Shame I only broke the one arm of his. I went far too easy on him."
"Senior brother. Actually, I went and found him afterward and broke one of his legs too."
"Oh. Well done."
"Senior brothers. Still, that guy wasn't so bad, was he? The number of lunatics who show up spouting all sorts of nonsense about wanting to be disciples......."
"That's true enough."
"......."
Yeon So-wol broke out in a cold sweat.
The level of common sense here astonished him every time.
But precisely because of that,
Yeon So-wol, who had prepared to conduct himself at a level of common sense, was shining tremendously right now.
Yi Yu-baek was thoroughly pleased.
"A rare young man who knows his manners. So Annam has young men like this too. It brings Chan Master Huineng to mind, oddly enough. ......But."
Yi Yu-baek's face took on a look of regret.
"How old are you? Doesn't look like you've reached twenty yet."
"I'm eighteen now."
Yeon So-wol gave his age by the international count. [TL: Traditionally a Korean counts as one at birth, making him a year or two older by that reckoning.]
Yi Yu-baek sighed.
"Too late to take up martial arts. Why not look into some other line of work? You'll never reach greatness through martial arts."
Yeon So-wol lowered his head.
"I came all this way looking to martial arts and nothing else. I have nowhere to fall back to."
"When it's time to step back, one steps back."
"I gave up everything I had and came for martial arts alone."
"Still, when it's time to step back......."
Yi Yu-baek, about to repeat himself, broke off.
Because Yeon So-wol, head still bowed, had lifted up a small box.
"What's this?"
A smile spread across Yi Yu-baek's face as he opened the box.
Three yellow gold ingots lay heaped on soft silk.
Yeon So-wol didn't begrudge spending the money he had. He still had the beads left, anyway.
Three gold ingots was a sum striking even to the wealthy Yi Yu-baek.
Enough for a family of four in a farming village to live on for three years.
For Yeon So-wol, with his woodcutter backstory, it was a lump sum he could only have scraped together by pooling a lifetime's savings and every last bit of family property.
"You. You really were serious."
Yi Yu-baek nodded deeply.
He tucked the box into his robe and asked,
"What martial arts do you want to learn? Anything in mind?"
"I'd like to learn the lightfoot technique and footwork."
The best option he'd turned up in all the information he'd bought coin by coin. That was exactly the lightfoot technique and footwork.
"Interesting. Why?"
"Because with footwork I can evade an opponent's attacks, and with the lightfoot technique I can run away."
"You'd learn martial arts to dodge and run? Why?"
The truth was, it was because of the power of the Star of Thousand Deaths.
Since he could kill anything just by touching it, he had no need for powerful attacking techniques.
Instead, footwork to slip past an opponent's attacks and bore in, and a lightfoot technique to pull himself out lightly if it came to that, were far more useful.
But he couldn't tell Yi Yu-baek that.
Yeon So-wol made something up on the spot.
"Because if I can just dodge and run away, I can keep from seeing filthy things."
"Hah! Splendid. One does not enter a state in peril, nor dwell in a state in disorder. Now I'm starting to see it. How to cut and grind that stone of yours." [TL: a saying from the Analects of Confucius, on avoiding places where danger and disorder reign.]
Yi Yu-baek laughed.
He held up three fingers.
"Three months. Keep up with my training for three months. Then I'll take you as a disciple. But if you can't keep up, I can't take you."
A conditional acceptance.
Yeon So-wol dropped flat at once.
"Thank you. I'll repay your faith in me."
And as he did, he thought.
'Surely. If the answer's no after three months, he'll give the gold ingots back, right?'
He surely would.
Not just anyone gets called a Great hero, after all.
He was a man of character even Jo Man-seok acknowledged.
He was even a man who smelled good
'Please!'
Yeon So-wol was desperate.
Having dropped out of the sky with no foundation whatsoever, all he could do was pray.
And so a road opened for the eighteen-year-old Yeon So-wol.
A road to becoming a martial artist.