Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
55. Stalemateless (11)
Uproar broke out at Heavenly God’s declaration of victory.
Whoaaa!
Shouts rang out with the energy to split the mountain.
Baek-ho showed an overwhelming martial prowess even with just a wooden blade, and the audience cheers were unceasing.
“That is the famous Baek-ho of the West Mountain…!”
“It almost didn’t look like a wooden sword!”
“I heard that Jeok-ho’s abilities are also quite formidable, so that’s a pity.”
“That rough mouth of his was quite worthy, so I wanted to see how he would do.”
“Even so, didn’t he endure for pretty long?”
“Wait, just now, the ones over there…”
The gazes of the audience members, who talked about Baek-ho and Jeok-ho’s spar, turned to a secluded place.
In that place was a man with long, black like night hair, and a woman, whose hair and eyes seemed to burn like fire.
They were Hyeonmu and Jujak, who alongside Baek-ho, would be worshiped as the Four Beasts in the future.
At that time, Hyeonmu and Jujak’s names were already widely known across the continent, so when they showed interest in Baek-ho, everyone was surprised, but nodded.
Hyeonmu fluttered a long sleeve, imitating Baek-ho’s swordsmanship, and then spoke to Jujak with an excited voice.
“That power is interesting. I want to become friends.”
“It’s not bad, eh? No, it’s pretty good, eh? Should we speak up to him?”
“Um… It doesn’t seem like a good choice to speak right now.”
Hyeonmu looked at Baek-ho with gentle eyes.
His gaze was directed at Baek-ho who was walking towards the silver-haired and blue-haired Tigers, who were waiting for him.
In the eyes of Hyeonmu, who quietly looked at Baek-ho, kind energy[1] lingered, and Jujak realized that Hyeonmu was watching Baek-ho through the eyes foreseeing future.
When Hyeonmu opened his mouth again, it was after the energy of foresight disappeared from his eyes.
“There will be opportunity later, let him spend time among the Ho.”
“Is that your foresight?”
“Similar.”
“… Got it.”
At Hyeonmu’s words, Jujak decided to trust Hyeonmu’s wisdom and foresight and meekly stepped back, even thought she found it regretful.
On the other side, Hwang-ho, who opportunely was around, heard Hyeonmu’s foresight, but didn’t step back unlike them.
‘Unlike them, this one[2] is a Ho, so the foresight that it’s not a good choice to speak with him right now doesn’t apply, right? Shall I follow Baek-ho, instead of going to Jeok-ho?’
It was obvious that if he tried to speak up and soothe Jeok-ho, who was just defeated, it would just rub Jeok-ho’s insides.
Rather, he thought of talking with Baek-ho and figuring out his personality to raise the chances of victory for Jeok-ho’s sake.
In fact, putting aside saying it was for Jeok-ho’s sake, he decided to chase Baek-ho, because he found Baek-ho fun and wanted to observe him.
‘Jeok-ho, I’ll climb to the finals instead of you and face Baek-ho. So first endure the pain of defeat alone, please.[3]’
Considering the confrontation table, the meeting with Baek-ho would have to be in the finals, but in Hwang-ho’s head, the fact that he would climb to the finals was already established.
When Hwang-ho followed Baek-ho for a while, while hiding his presence, and already counting his chickens[4].
Baek-ho’s face gradually became somewhat strange.
‘I heard he maintains an expressionless face, but something is different. His face lost a bit of energy, eh?’
He didn’t think Baek-ho would make a rejoiced expression after, but he also didn’t expect him to make a face like he was dying.
If he was to trouble himself reading that expression, it was a face that was relived, but a bit regretful.
‘Thinking about it, didn’t he say that the dongsaeng doesn’t want a fight? Is that the dongsaeng?’
Hwang-ho didn’t say a word and observed the silver-haired youth, who walked up in front of Baek-ho.
The tall and handsome silver-haired youth had a smile that seemed gentle, and according to Hwang-ho’s feelings, when compared to the blue-haired woman at his side and Baek-ho, he looked somewhat soft and weak.
In the relative concept of strength, the silver-haired youth couldn’t help but look weak between the two strongmen.
‘Besides Baek-ho, the blue hair is also not bad. As he stands between the two, he looks very weak, eh? If they faced 1 on 1, he wouldn’t look so weak.’
After the audience’s cheers fell completely quiet in the distance, the silver-haired youth at last halted in his tracks.
The silver-haired youth turned around and spoke up to Baek-ho, but though his tone was soft, there was an edge to his words.
“Congratulations on Your victory.”
“Congratulations.”
After the silver-haired youth, the blue-haired woman also gave congratulations.
Baek-ho hesitated a little, and then opened his mouth to thank them.
“… Thanks, Eun-ho, Cheong-ho.”
Cheong-ho frowned at the word thanks.
After sighing, Cheong-ho looked at Eun-ho.
When Cheong-ho looked at him, Eun-ho nodded once, and then asked softly, smiling like before.
“Are You happy that You have won?”
“…”
Baek-ho dropped his eyelashes a bit and shut his mouth.
Eun-ho waited for Baek-ho’s response a little, and then seeing he would keep silent, he opened his mouth again.
“A moment ago, I didn’t ask hyung-nim to win. Have You forgotten the reason I made and gifted You this wooden sword?”
The white paint of the white wooden sword that Baek-ho held was peeling off here and there.
It seemed that the pure white wooden sword wasn’t strong enough to endure Baek-ho’s power.
The wooden sword barely didn’t break, because he was controlling his strength, but the thin layer of paint didn’t manage.
‘It seems that the white pain will peel off if you just swing the sword a little, eh? It was made like this on purpose?’
As Baek-ho held it in his hand, when showing off outstanding martial arts, it looked plausible, but the wooden sword itself appeared undignified and shabby.
Baek-ho opened his mouth with an excuse.
“I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know after hearing such arrogant words.”
Even after hearing Baek-ho’s excuse, Eun-ho’s expression didn’t change, and he had something to say.
“I told You beforehand that if the opponent is Hwangho-nim or Jeokho-nim, They will provoke You with some kind of method. Then did You forgot this dongsaeng’s plea and acted?”
“…”
Hwang-ho was surprised, because his name suddenly came out, but he didn’t make a mistake of it appearing outside and revealing his presence.
Eun-ho spoke as if he knew Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho very well.
‘Certainly, if I was Baek-ho’s opponent, I would provoke him with some kind of method. But how does he know it when he didn’t see me even once? Well, it’s obvious that the Mountain Spirits or River Spirits with loose mouths would chatter about this one.’
Hwang-ho’s interest in Eun-ho, who predicted his and Jeok-ho’s actions, and controlled Baek-ho well, grew.
Hwang-ho’s eyes sparkled as he continued to observe Eun-ho.
“Before the spar started, You looked at me and Cheongho-nim. Did You want to spar even after seeing my and Cheongho-nim’s faces?”
At those words, Baek-ho’s excuses continued.
“Unlike me, you said it was okay for Cheong-ho to fight. As Cheong-ho planned to fight, I thought it would be no problem if I also fought.”
“The taehokwon Cheongho-nim invented didn’t take shape yet. As such, it won’t be a problem even if some of it is revealed to the outside. Will there be anyone who can predict after being shown the baby taking their first steps, whether that child will shoot a bow or swing a sword?”
Eun-ho crushed Baek-ho’s excuse with the words flowing like water.
Baek-ho couldn’t refute and completely shut his mouth.
Eun-ho added a few words and made his point even clearer.
“Cheongho-nim needs colleagues to develop taehokwon with Her. It will be helpful if the people who see the possibilities in Cheongho-nim’s taehokwon through the spar and partake in it, increase. So Cheongho-nim and hyung-nim’s positions are different.”
“… Sorry.”
In the end, Baek-ho apologized to Eun-ho.
Eun-ho confirmed that Baek-ho’s voice and expression contained the signs of self-reflection, and opened his mouth again.
“It was already revealed, so it can’t be helped. Rather, it will look awkward if You suddenly hide Your claws. Starting from the next match, don’t show the martial arts beyond what You showed when fighting against Jeokho-nim.”
“Got it.”
“Promise me that if You show enough power to break that wooden sword, You will immediately forfeit the spar.”
“… Got it.”
Enough to break the wooden sword?
It seemed that the white wooden sword was designed to not be able at all to endure a certain degree of power.
‘He had controlled his power when facing Jeok-ho and won?’
Hwang-ho, who had figured out that fact from the conversation’s context, was astonished.
Hwang-ho’s astonishment didn’t end there.
“As I finished passing my words to hyung-nim, I now wish to have a conversation with Hwangho-nim. I prefer to talk face-to-face rather than talk one-sidedly”
It seemed that Eun-ho was certain that Hwang-ho was there.
Because Hwang-ho had no reason to hide his body any longer and also thought that he wanted to have a direct conversation with them, he promptly jumped from the tree and revealed himself.
Swish!
“Hahahaha! How did you know this one was here?”
Cheong-ho made a disgusted face at Hwang-ho appearing shamelessly, while laughing excitedly.
At Hwang-ho, who asked, while his eyes shined, Eun-ho spoke politely.
“Isn’t Hwangho-nim someone obsessed[5] with interesting beings? So You had come a few times to the West Mountain to see hyung-nim, correct? I thought that after watching Jeokho-nim get involved with hyung-nim, You would come here.”
“That’s right, eh! Then why didn’t you chase me away and leave me alone? Weren’t you having a secret conversation?”
“Because Hwangho-nim is a member of the Ho tribe.”
“Is it important that I’m ‘Ho’? I guess it’s related to Baek-ho holding back his power, eh?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Eun-ho nodded as he spoke.
Even though Eun-ho’s voice was uniformly soft, the content was boundlessly heavy.
“One day, the Ho tribe will fight in a war on this land. I want to avoid revealing the battle power to outsiders in preparation for that.”
Ho tribe, war.
Hwang-ho, who heard those two words, was completely speechless.
When the Ho tribe members were just meeting and about to form a group on the sparring ground organized by Heavenly God, there was someone, who thought about war?
Hwang-ho asked with a voice he unknowingly lowered.
“Why do you think so?”
“This land isn’t rich. Resources are limited and barren. In contrast to that, the number of beings, who obtained life in this land, gradually increases.”
“There is no small number of gods who watch this land. With their grace touching it, no one will starve.”
Eun-ho softly refuted Hwang-ho’s words.
“Gods are whimsical. They will one day grow sick of watching this land, will they not? At best, only Heavenly God-nim, who is attached to us, will remain.”
Hwang-ho couldn’t speak back to those words.
It was but a few times he came across[6] a god, but he knew very well how unpredictable of beings they were.
“It will be impossible to for everyone in this land to live without insufficientness on Heavenly God-nim’s power alone. We need to grow our strength to live in this land without the power of god one day. But we still need more time.”
Eun-ho’s voice revealed faint anxiety.
But Eun-ho hid that feeling right away and spoke to Hwang-ho.
“So I’ll win against You.”
“… What? You drew such a conclusion from your words just now?”
Hwang-ho said as if it was absurd, but Eun-ho spoke firmly.
Eun-ho’s voice was calm and quiet, as if he was never anxious, but full of confidence.
“Hwangho-nim, You were born with a precious talent. It’s a power that can one day carry this land and the Ho tribe. So I plan to take You down early and hide that power.”
*~*~*
[1] energy — or qi
[2] this one — okay, listen, so this literally translates to ‘this body’. And I’m going crazy.
[3] Jeok-ho, I’ll climb to the finals instead of you and face Baek-ho. So first endure the pain of defeat alone, please. — Those two sentences seem to be using archaic formal (it would feel somewhat poetic nowadays) speech? It’s not addressee raising, so Jeok-ho isn’t higher than Hwang-ho, but it is still polite… He is not using this type of speech when talking to Jeok-ho out loud. He is not usually using that speech at all in fact, it’s very sporadic.
[4] already counting his chickens — literally ‘drinking alcoholic kimchi juice’.
[5] obsessed — literally ‘Can’t move his four legs’
[6] come across — 접하다 (jeopada), this word can also mean to receive power from a ghost/spirit/god (as art shamans do).
Translator’s note: Just saying, but Hwang-ho would make such a good spy. First meeting and he already solidifies his position as serotonin junkie. Also, I guess Hyeonmu’s eyes are just like that…
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