TL/ED – Miso
A world with no internet and no electricity was boring beyond words.
That was why, whenever the people of the Jianghu got together, they traded every scrap of story they'd picked up here and there, hunting for a little stimulation.
The market, the inn, the washing stones, the well, anywhere. Wherever people gathered, there were stories.
Stories that had never once been fact-checked.
Stories dressed up to the hilt purely for the dopamine.
Commenting on them, nodding along to them, they got through their empty lives and their dreary labor.
Talk of the streets. Tales of the back alleys.
Street gossip and alley rumor.
This was the community, the SNS, the messenger app of the age.And there, Yeon So-wol's name came up.
"You hear the news? Some young fellow from Annam called Yeon So-wol went and asked Great hero Yi Yu-baek to take him on as a disciple."
"Hgggk. Ptooey. That one's gone cold already."
"Yeah? Then did you hear this? He got turned down, so he offered up thirty taels of gold."
"Bullshit. Come on. I heard he was a woodcutter, where's he getting thirty taels of gold? Three taels'd knock him flat."
"No, think about it. You know what kind of man Great hero Yi Yu-baek is. He'd change his mind over three taels of gold?"
"Bullsh....... Hm. You reckon?"
"That's what I'm telling you! Three taels of gold is big money to us, but you think it's big money to Great hero Yi Yu-baek?"
"Still sounds like a lot, though. Three taels of gold......."
"Nah. Thirty's right. I heard it too. See, the kid's ridiculously good-looking. Way I heard it, some high-born lady back in Annam fell for that face and sent him gold to marry her. And he scooped the whole lot up, crossed the sea with it, and handed it straight to Great hero Yi Yu-baek."
"Ha. Now that's a man."
"......That's a lunatic. How's that a man?"
"You don't get it? Maybe yours just doesn't stand up anymore."
"You son of a bitch? Since when do you know a thing about me?"
The men clustered in a corner of the market, yammering away, suddenly had each other by the collar and were scuffling in the dirt.
While they went at it, the three taels Yeon So-wol had offered were transformed into thirty and hardened into established fact, and, as it happened, there were others listening to that story.
Three men with vicious eyes and hard bodies.
"Hey. You hear that?"
"Yeah. Yi Yu-baek took on a disciple, that it?"
"Right. The prick wouldn't take our Gon-cheol, just broke his arm and his leg."
Gon-cheol was the man who'd gone to Yi Yu-baek last month and mouthed off that if the man could beat him, he'd let himself be taken on as a disciple.
These three were his closest friends, so they carried a grudge against Yi Yu-baek.
"That son of a bitch came into thirty taels of gold?"
"Pisses me off. You gonna just sit there?"
"Been a while since we pulled a job. Huh?"
In this era, most wealth was stored in the form of rice or cloth. Gold made up only the tiniest fraction of it.
So no matter how rich Yi Yu-baek was, thirty taels of gold landing in his lap couldn't be anything but big news.
Compared to rice or cloth of the same value, gold was incomparably small and light.
Thirty taels came to roughly 1.2kg. Perfect for slipping in and walking out with. Enough to live it up for ten years in a middling city like Xinxing County.
"Yeah. Shit. So the bastard's an Expert, so what? We go in while he's sleeping, swipe the gold, walk out. What's he gonna do about it?"
"And how do we know where he keeps it?"
"I know a kid who trained at the Hall of Refined Arts up till last year. I'll ask him where it'd likely be."
"Oh. Nice."
"Shit. One score and we're out of this shithole town."
The men looked around at each other, their eyes glistening.
Yi Yu-baek, Hall Master of the Hall of Refined Arts, declared it flatly.
"Taking up Martial arts at eighteen and ever amounting to anything? Impossible."
He glanced around at his own Hall members, training there in the Hall of Refined Arts.
"That lot started at ten, if they were early. Fifteen at the latest, and they've been training ever since. Even so, maybe one in ten of them will ever amount to anything with Martial arts. Most of them never get past Third-rate and go do something else. The bad ones turn into street thugs."
"True. Like that Gon-cheol, Dung-cheol, whatever his name was, from last month. I broke his leg. Senior brother broke his arm."
"Quiet."
Yi Yu-baek flicked the cheeky disciple on the forehead and turned to Yeon So-wol.
"But they say that when a man's will is absolute, heaven itself is moved. And once heaven is moved, what is there that can't be done? Isn't that right?"
"Yes, Hall Master."
Yeon So-wol bowed his head at once. Playing along here seemed like the appropriate move.
He'd only been accepted on condition, so he had to give it everything.
Yi Yu-baek smiled, pleased.
"He really does know his manners."
Then he waved a hand.
"But So-wol. The way I see it, your will isn't nearly absolute enough yet."
Inwardly Yeon So-wol thought, 'And how exactly would you know that, sir?' but outwardly he lowered his head.
"I'm sorry. I'll work harder."
"No. Nothing to apologize for. Will is a thing that has trouble becoming absolute on its own. So I'll give you a hand with it."
Yi Yu-baek stepped forward.
The three disciples standing beside him started in alarm and tried to stop him.
"M-Master, you're doing it yourself?"
"Please, no. Let me do it."
"It's too much trouble, Master. You should rest. We'll handle it."
Yi Yu-baek shook his head gently.
"No. He came to me, so at least on the first day I should teach him myself."
The disciples shuffled back, hesitant.
Yeon So-wol thought to himself.
That this was a master-disciple bond straight out of a painting.
The master benevolent, the disciples respectful.
'I knew it. This is a place where common sense still works.'
That was what he thought.
Right up until one of the disciples looked at him with pity and muttered.
'......May he rest in peace.'
???
"So-wol. Come stand over here."
Yeon So-wol went and stood facing Yi Yu-baek.
"You want to learn Martial arts so you can dodge properly, was it?"
"Yes."
"No. You've got no desire to dodge at all."
"Sorry?"
CRUNCH!
The instant he asked back, Yeon So-wol was looking at blue sky.
'Huh?'
Thud!
He'd gone over backward.
The ground against the back of his head seemed to slosh. Vicious dizziness. Hot blood came streaming down out of his nose.
'Huh, huh?'
Yeon So-wol had never once in his life been hit like that.
Scrappy kid fights, sure. But one blow that burst his nose and rattled his skull so badly he couldn't get up? Never.
He was still completely dazed when, into his side,
CRUNCH!
the pointed toe of a leather shoe buried itself.
"Gurkh!"
His breath jammed shut. Yeon So-wol rolled across the ground.
Then a cool voice came.
"Get up."
Yeon So-wol knew it in his gut.
'If I don't get up, I get hit more!'
Retching for air that still wouldn't come, he forced his rubbery legs down into the dirt and wobbled up like a fish.
The moment he was standing, the question came flying.
"Why didn't you dodge?"
Yeon So-wol was flustered. The man had hit him out of nowhere and now this.......
Still, he tried to answer somehow. But his breath still wouldn't come, and all that leaked out was a sound like air escaping.
"Ehh...... hah kh......."
"Asking back again, are you?"
He hadn't asked back! He just couldn't breathe!
But Yi Yu-baek didn't give second chances.
CRACK!
This time a fist buried itself in his lower belly.
It was so fast that Yeon So-wol couldn't even react.
"Kh......ah?"
The sky went yellow. His whole body locked up like a lump of stone.
Fwump.
Yeon So-wol dropped where he was.
And then he saw it.
The leather shoe flying toward his face.
'A soccer kick is banned even in the UFC.......'
CRUNCH!
Yeon So-wol saw it once again.
The blue sky.
And the red spray of blood scattering across it.
Flop.
As Yeon So-wol writhed on the ground with a pain like his face had caved in, Yi Yu-baek asked.
"Why didn't you dodge?"
The moment he heard the words.
This time Yeon So-wol wasn't flustered.
Instead he swallowed the pain and rolled across the dirt. Like an earthworm hit with salt.
Whumph!
A heavy kick swept through the spot where he'd been lying a breath earlier.
"Oh?"
A low sound of interest from Yi Yu-baek.
"So you finally feel like dodging? Good. The strength I'm using right now is Third-rate at best. If your will is absolute, you can dodge it."
He closed in on Yeon So-wol as the boy rolled away.
"Eeeek!"
Yeon So-wol bolted in terror.
Yi Yu-baek laughed.
"Yes! That's it! Run! Dodge! Like your life depends on it!"
Tap!
Kicking off the ground in a strange rhythm, Yi Yu-baek glided forward like a swallow in flight and cut Yeon So-wol off in an instant.
"Does your life depend on it?"
He made as if to reach out lightly with a hand, then flicked out a foot, tock-. A Kicking technique aimed at Yeon So-wol's shin.
It was a vicious move. A beginner like Yeon So-wol would try to avoid the Feint of the hand and take the shin strike clean and go sprawling.
But.
"Wagh!"
Yeon So-wol sprang backward and went tumbling across the ground.
"Huh?"
Yi Yu-baek cocked his head.
However much he was holding back and just tapping at the boy, that last attack wasn't something a beginner like Yeon So-wol should have been able to dodge.
'I even mixed in a Feint and he dodged it? Fluke?'
Head still tilted, Yi Yu-baek pushed lightly off the ground again and caught up to Yeon So-wol.
Yeon So-wol caught a faintly sweet scent of lemon.
He turned reflexively, and in his sight was Yi Yu-baek, teeth bared in a white grin.
Like a dog trained to drool at the ring of a bell, Yeon So-wol screamed without meaning to, kicked off the ground and twisted his body.
Whoosh!
A heavy fist grazed past where his head had been. His body shook all on its own.
"There it is. Body's shaking, isn't it? Scared out of your mind, aren't you? That's the attitude of a man who means to dodge. That's how it has to be, always."
The man was insane.
Yeon So-wol screamed a scream nobody could hear.
The man was insane. Insane!
'Old Jo Man-seok was right!'
That low voice telling him never to trust a Jianghu practitioner brushed past his ear.
And in that very moment, the fist he failed to dodge struck Yeon So-wol in the heart.
CRUNCH!
"Eep?"
He let out an idiotic yelp and dropped where he stood.
The impact had stopped his heart for an instant.
When Yeon So-wol realized it, cold gooseflesh crawled up his back.
Cold sweat soaked him through.
'Is this right......? Am I going to die like this?'
Something was off. He'd definitely been told Great hero Yi Yu-baek was benevolent, that he loved raising people up.
A black shoe toe shoved its way abruptly into the bewildered Yeon So-wol's vision.
No. Wait.
CRUNCH!
Yeon So-wol went over backward.
Looking down at him, hands clasped behind his back, Yi Yu-baek asked.
"Why didn't you dodge?"
He wanted to dodge.
Yeon So-wol thought.
He wanted to dodge.
He wanted it desperately.
Really, truly. He wanted to dodge.
With the first day's lesson over, sitting in the quarters set aside for him in the back yard of the Hall of Refined Arts. He turned that thought over and over.
'I want to dodge. Whatever it takes, I want to dodge. No....... I have to dodge.......'
Because it hurt so much.
"I have to do this again tomorrow?"
The thought of packing it in and running away right now rose up out of nowhere.
The sheer brutality he'd tasted for the first time in his life was that terrifying.
But.
'No. When it's hard, you don't run.'
That was one of Yeon So-wol's convictions.
It had been the same when he was studying.
If he rested whenever things got hard, then the next time things got hard, resting was the first thing that came to mind.
So Yeon So-wol never stopped when it was hard. He stopped only once he'd finished what he'd set out to do.
'This world won't be any different. If I run from here because it's hard, next time I'll run from somewhere else too.'
Then his life here would be a complete mess.
He'd go on living in filthy, stinking places.
'That can't happen.'
Yeon So-wol gritted his teeth.
"Ugh......."
A sudden stab of pain curled him up.
It hurt too much to sleep.
"Is this actually okay, though? It hurts in a really strange way......."
Grimacing, Yeon So-wol looked over his own body.
He was one solid bruise.
But the pain he felt wasn't the simple pain of bruising.
It felt like something hot was squirming around inside those bruises.
"Aagh......."
And it was creeping out into his whole body.
If he had to compare it to something, it was like hot earthworms tearing through his muscles and swimming.
Unable to sleep at all, Yeon So-wol went out of the room.
He hunkered down on the wooden porch and curled up.
"Ngh......."
Still, the cool night air outside cleared his head a little.
He was enduring the pain like that when it happened.
Fwump!
Something came vaulting suddenly over the wall.
Fwump! Fwump!
Three of them, no less.
"......Huh?"
All three wore pitch-black masks.
Their eyes met Yeon So-wol's.
In that instant, without a second thought, Yeon So-wol shouted with everything he had.
"Thieves!!!!"
"Ah, fuck!"
The calculation behind it was that if he raised the alarm first, the thieves would panic and run.
But these thieves reacted differently than Yeon So-wol expected.
"Because of that son of a bitch!"
"Kill him!"
"Kill him and run!"
The three masked men pulled daggers from their robes and rushed him.
"!!!"
Yeon So-wol panicked.
But he didn't freeze.
His body, which had spent the whole day getting beaten, rolling and rolling and dodging and dodging, reacted almost on reflex.
Crash-bang!
"The little shit dodged?"
"Get him!"
"Surround him!"
Yeon So-wol rolled off the porch to escape, and the three masked men came down on top of him.
Yeon So-wol dodged. Rolled. Threw himself aside. Just as he'd done all day long. He kept dodging, desperately.
But it was getting more precarious by the moment.
'Why the hell are they going this far!'
He couldn't understand it.
'Why aren't the thieves running?'
It made no sense at all.
Yeon So-wol gritted his teeth.
"Lunatics......."
Blades flashed under the moonlight.
But to Yeon So-wol's eyes they no longer looked like blades.
They looked like nothing more than,
strands of thread.
A world made entirely of thread.
Knives made of thread.
A porch made of thread.
People made of thread.
Sky and moon and stars made of thread.......
Yeon So-wol twisted his body. He caught hold of the man swinging the knife and shoved him away with a foot.
And then,
'Die.'
He cut the threads tangled around him.
Snip.
Snap.
Thud!
Clatter.
Fwump.
Heavy bodies pitched face-down onto the porch.
"......."
Yeon So-wol shoved them off and got to his feet.
"......."
Yeon So-wol took one of the daggers and stabbed the already-dead corpses in the throat.
Killing a man with the power of the Star of Thousand Deaths left no external wounds. Someone might find that suspicious.
Shunk.
Thunk.
Riiip.
The feel of the blade tearing into flesh wasn't remotely pleasant.
Yeon So-wol shuddered.
A little later, the people of the Hall of Refined Arts came running into the back yard.
Yi Yu-baek was among them.
"You killed them?"
"......Yes."
Yeon So-wol hung his head, his hands covered in blood.
He'd killed men, whatever the reason.
"I'll have to stand trial......?"
He might be going to prison.
'How did everything get so twisted up?'
Yeon So-wol hadn't cried once since arriving here.
But this time he really felt like it.
'What did I do that was so wrong?'
One raw deal after another after another.
Yi Yu-baek spoke to the utterly deflated boy.
"I had a look at their faces. Thugs from this neighborhood."
Yeon So-wol stared blankly at Yi Yu-baek's face.
He didn't understand why the man was telling him that.
Surely not. Did being thugs mean no prison?
"Thugs they may be, but they're martial artists at Third-rate level. And you somehow held off all three on your own?"
Had he?
Yeon So-wol thought that if he hadn't spent the whole day being chased around by Yi Yu-baek, he wouldn't have survived.
'......Not that I'm grateful.'
And what use was any of it, if he was going to prison.
Yi Yu-baek said to him.
"In any case. Looks like you're strong in a real fight. From tomorrow we can push the training harder."
"Sorry?"
Yeon So-wol was stunned.
'Training? Then what about the trial?'
That was the first question.
'And it's possible to push the training harder than this?'
That was the second.
To that single word, "Sorry?", into which all of it was compressed, Yi Yu-baek answered quietly.
"Asking back again, are you?"
!!!
Gooseflesh shot through Yeon So-wol and his head snapped down on reflex.
"No, sir. Thank you! Hall Master."
And above him, Yi Yu-baek laughed softly.