Chapter 13: The Slacker ets His Match (2)
"Yeonho."
Baek Muhan called Wi Yeonho in a low voice.
"Ah, just let sleep a bit more..."
Wi Yeonho was completely letting his guard down.
Lately, Wi Yeonho had grown strong enough to surpass even Baek Muhan’s violence.
As Wi Yeonho grew stronger, Baek Muhan weakened.
Once Wi Yeonho was finally freed from Baek Muhan’s tornt, his long-lost laziness had gradually returned.
"Yeonho."
"I said, just a little more sleep. Don’t you trust ?"
At this point, a stone would usually co flying his way. Having endured endless tornt from Baek Muhan, Wi Yeonho could easily guess what was coming.
He braced himself, ready to dodge the incoming rock.
"Co here for a mont."
But Baek Muhan gently coaxed him instead.
"Huh?"
Without another word, Wi Yeonho got up. He had a strange feeling—Baek Muhan seed different from usual.
As he rose to his feet, he saw Baek Muhan seated in ditation before him.
"What’s going on?"
Baek Muhan smiled and pointed to the spot in front of him.
"Sit."
At his words, Wi Yeonho knelt and sat before Baek Muhan. There was an air of gravity in Baek Muhan’s voice that was hard to disobey today.
"Listen to carefully."
"Yes, sir."
"I’ve spent my whole life mastering martial arts."
"......"
"My only wish was to reach the end of martial arts. So I turned away from everything else. In pursuit of martial arts, I beca a crotchety old man and found myself alienated even by my own clan."
"I can imagine."
"You want a beating?"
"No, sir."
The brief gentleness that had appeared on Baek Muhan’s face vanished, and the demonic look he usually wore returned.
‘Of course. He hasn’t changed.’
This man had tornted Wi Yeonho nearly to death for the past five years.
"Looking back, it makes sense that the clan never ca to find . Thinking about all that I’ve done... I ignored my child and abandoned my family for the sake of martial arts. I thought that once I reached the pinnacle, everything else would follow. But I was wrong. Martial arts are sothing done by people. If one doesn’t walk the path of a human being, what aning is there in reaching the end of the sword?"
"......"
Baek Muhan smiled as he looked at Wi Yeonho.
Wi Yeonho had helped him realize that.
For the first ti, he had tried teaching soone. He’d gotten angry, frustrated.
But as he watched Wi Yeonho slowly improve, he had felt joy—had co to understand what true happiness was, and what it ant to feel affection.
"I was foolish. That’s why I didn’t teach you the Radiance Sword Style."
"Then what have I been learning all this ti?"
"That was giving you the frawork."
"The frawork?"
"I gave you the frawork I created when I devised the Twelve Radiant Sword Forms. Martial arts, too, are sothing expressed by a person. If the person isn’t reflected in it, then it’s nothing but a shell. I gave you the frawork. So now, fill that frawork with yourself."
"I don’t really understand what you an."
To the confused Wi Yeonho, Baek Muhan rely smiled.
A gentle smile, like one a grandfather would give to his grandson, made Wi Yeonho's heart grow uneasy for no reason.
"You don’t need to understand it just yet."
"Then I guess I haven’t gotten that strong, huh?"
"That’s not true!"
"......"
"A disciple of the Radiant Sword, weak? Don’t be ridiculous! You think I’d sit back and let that happen?"
"But you said you regretted your cranky nature."
"Silence!"
Wi Yeonho flinched and shut his mouth.
People don’t change so easily.
He could talk like that, but if Baek Muhan really wanted to fix his personality, he'd have to be born again.
"Anyway, I’ve given you the frawork. Now, it's up to you to pour your life into it and forge your own martial arts."
"You say that like we won’t be seeing each other again."
Baek Muhan smiled.
Wi Yeonho felt strange as he saw that smile. It had already been five years since they started living together. He had seen countless expressions from Baek Muhan over that ti, but this was the first ti he had seen him smile like this.
A smile that seed gentle, yet tinged with sorrow. One that sohow comforted the heart, yet also stirred unease.
That was exactly the kind of smile Baek Muhan wore now.
"Yes, it’s ti."
Wi Yeonho’s face turned to stone.
"What do you an?"
He shook his head and gave a faint chuckle. But his movent looked strangely desperate.
"Master, co on now, that’s a bit much for a joke. You think I’ll fall for that?"
Baek Muhan simply gave a quiet, serene smile.
"You’re serious?"
"I am."
"You said thirty years! You told at the beginning it would take thirty years to master it! There are still twenty-five years left! You have to live at least twenty-five more years!"
"Yes, that could’ve been the case."
"Then let it be so. Or maybe not. Actually, if I had to spend another twenty-five years with you, I might shrivel up and die."
Wi Yeonho shook his head side to side, but an unmistakable unease rose on his face.
Baek Muhan wasn’t the kind of man to joke about things he didn’t an.
"Yeonho."
"But there’s still ti! You said once you speak sothing aloud, no matter what, you’ll keep your word! That ans there are still twenty-five years left!"
"I did say that."
"Then!"
"Controlling your qi within your body was not as easy as it may have seed."
"......"
"My strength is spent now. It's ti for us to part ways."
"Is it because of ?"
Wi Yeonho's voice trembled.
"No. It’s not sothing for you to bla yourself for. It was fate. To be honest, even having this conversation with you like this is already going against the natural order. I must pay the price."
"Don’t talk about natural order. If that’s what it is, then it’s sothing worth breaking."
"Is that so?"
"I’ll go outside. I’ll eat a ton and fill you up with inner energy myself."
"Just your words are enough. Thank you."
"I can do it! You think I can’t?"
Baek Muhan gave a gentle smile.
"You already know… that it’s impossible, don’t you?"
"......"
"It’s ti."
"Why didn’t you tell ?"
There was a quiver in Wi Yeonho’s voice.
"If you had, I would’ve gone out earlier, made sure to eat properly and train! It’s not like I could’ve run away anyway!"
Baek Muhan shook his head.
"It’s fine."
"What’s fine about it!"
The Radiant Sword smiled softly at the furious Wi Yeonho.
"I enjoyed the ti we spent together."
"......"
"So I figured… maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to disappear like this. I could’ve bought myself a bit more ti if I had done things differently, but… it wouldn’t have been as joyful as it was."
"That’s a strange thing to say."
"It is, isn’t it? I, too, wanted to see you travel the world a bit longer. But this is enough."
"How is it enough?"
"Because I can already see it."
"......"
"I can already see you roaming across the world, clear as day in my mind."
"No. Without you, I’ll probably hole up in my room and never co out again."
"And what of it?"
Baek Muhan's smile deepened.
"Even so, it's fine. No matter where you go or what you do, the fact that you are the proud disciple of , Baek Muhan of the Radiant Sword, will never change."
"...Master."
"Yeonho."
"Yes."
"Look upon the world. Take the world into yourself. If you do, everything else will follow naturally."
"Yes."
"And before you look at the world, look at people first. I was so busy gazing at the peak that I never looked at what lay beneath my feet. Do not make the sa mistake I did."
"I understand."
Baek Muhan looked at Wi Yeonho with warm eyes.
"Do not forget."
"......"
"I will live on within you. Even if I can no longer see you, even if no one in the world knows I ever existed... I reside in each of your gestures, in every stroke of your sword. So even if we part, it’s not truly a farewell. Yeonho, watch people, traverse the world, and complete yourself. You don’t have to be exceptional. You don’t need to be great. Just…"
Baek Muhan’s smile was softer than ever.
"Be happy."
"Master…"
Baek Muhan’s figure gradually began to fade.
"No! No, this isn’t right! You can’t go yet!"
Baek Muhan did not respond.
He simply closed his eyes in silence, a gentle smile lingering on his lips.
"No! I said no! You can’t do this yet! There’s still so much I haven’t learned! No, it’s fine even if I don’t learn it! You don’t have to teach anymore! So—so just a little longer! Even a single day more!"
At last, Baek Muhan’s figure vanished completely.
Even knowing he could not grasp it, Wi Yeonho instinctively reached out and clutched at the empty air where Baek Muhan had stood.
"Just a little longer…"
The cold air of the cave wrapped around Wi Yeonho’s body.
He stood there for a long ti, gazing at the empty space and at his hand that had caught nothing, saying nothing.
His lips slowly parted as he stood, like a statue.
"You could’ve told a little sooner."
If not today, even if he had said sothing yesterday, he could’ve at least prepared himself.
"To tornt right up to the end… no wonder people called you cranky."
Wi Yeonho turned to look at the cave wall.
The marks left by his sword during training.
The traces made by Baek Muhan while demonstrating techniques.
And the places where the stones had been embedded from being beaten by Baek Muhan.
Wi Yeonho slowly approached the wall and brushed his hand over one of the sunken spots.
"If this is all you left behind, what am I supposed to do with it?"
He let out a long sigh.
There truly hadn’t been a shred of kindness in that man. If he were being honest, he had suffered so much under him. He should have felt relieved, even freed.
"What am I supposed to do now…"
And yet, for so reason, his eyes kept turning red.
"Master…"
Tears finally flowed from Wi Yeonho’s eyes.
Once they started, they wouldn’t stop. The tears kept falling, as if to wash away all the ti they had spent together.
Wi Yeonho remained in that cave for three more days.
Though he knew it was ti to leave, his feet wouldn’t move. The mont he stepped outside, it felt like even the mory of Baek Muhan’s presence in this place would begin to fade from his heart.
But no one can stay in one place forever. At last, Wi Yeonho rose to his feet.
It was ti to leave this place.
He slung the bundle he had brought over his shoulder and turned his head.
"Let’s go."
But there was no reply.
"I'm going. I'm going to live comfortably now, resting as much as I want."
Wi Yeonho’s monologue continued.
"So don’t nag for not getting up. Don’t scold for sleeping too much, and don’t curse for being lazy. This is all because you went and used your strength recklessly and vanished like a fool."
For a mont, he felt as if Baek Muhan was smiling gently at him.
"I’m not coming back."
Of course, no answer ca.
"I'm serious, you know?"
Just then, he heard Baek Muhan’s voice—like a fleeting illusion.
― So what of it? We’re still together, aren’t we?
He knew.
It wasn’t Baek Muhan’s voice.
It was the answer Wi Yeonho had imagined for himself.
Wi Yeonho smiled.
"Well, that’s true, I guess."
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