Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
55. Stalemateless (13)
At the words ‘Heavenly God’s son’, the Ho tribe members and Ung tribe members, who received great grace from Heavenly God, reacted and reflexively politely bowed.
Heavenly God’s son, Sinin, walked up to Eun-ho, who was the first to kneel down and spoke warmly, personally helping him stand up.
“Please raise Your head and stand up. It was not me, who bestowed You[1] grace, but my father.”
After Sinin gave permission, the people, who showed courtesy, raised their heads and observed Sinin, Pungbaek, Usa, and Unsa, who descended from the sky.
Each one of them was attractive and had a pretty face, but among them the most eye-drawing was Sinin.
Everyone couldn’t hide their admiration for Sinin’s face, which held goodness, and voice that rang like clinking jade.
“It seems You already know who I am, but I’ll officially introduce myself.”
Sinin introduced the people, who he brought with him.
Pungbaek and Usa, who looked exactly the same, were said to be twin brothers, and at a glance, there was no way to differentiate who is who.
“There are two, who appear exactly the same, eh?”
At Hwang-ho’s words, Cheong-ho, who gave him a sound thrashing to relieve her insides, during the sparring, added a word.
“Among the Ho that sparred with me a moment ago, there were people, who looked exactly the same. I had a feeling as if I consequently faced the same Ho.”
“Ah, thinking about it, there were also such Ho, eh?”
After Pungbaek and Usa, the one who was introduced was Unsa.
Unsa had a very different atmosphere from Pungbaek and Usa, who were extremely resembling each other.
“I only recently raised to the divine position, and held the same position as Pungbaek and Usa, Unsa.”
Unsa politely greeted the audience.
Hwang-ho, looked at that scene, and gave a short review.
‘Because Pungbaek and Usa are so extremely similar, Unsa looks out of place with them. If I was to nitpick, Unsa resembles Sinin.’
Sinin, who finished the introduction, looked at Baek-ho, who stood at Eun-ho’s side, and spoke:
“Glory to the Ho’s best martial artist, who took root in this land. I wish You generously display those martial arts and protect this land.”
After Sinin’s congratulatory speech ended, light suddenly sparkled in the sky.
The heaven opened for a very brief moment, and a bundle of cotton cloth[2] flickering with mystical energy slowly descended.
Sinin, who received the cotton cloth bundle from the sky, checked the content, and then stretched it out towards Baek-ho with a smile.
Inside that cotton cloth was a great sword.
Heavenly God, who was amazed by Baek-ho’s martial arts, sent a gift.
“I have a great sword that my dongsaeng, with talented hands, gifted to me.” [3]
Baek-ho refused two times, but after Eun-ho at his side shook his head, he accepted the third offer.
The moment the bundle of cotton cloth in the shape of a great sword landed in Baek-ho’s two hands, the cotton cloth melted into air and disappeared, and the content was revealed.
It was a pure white great sword, matching Baek-ho’s name.
When everyone was amazed by the energy of the great sword, it hid without trace as if burrowing into the back of Baek-ho’s hand together with a brilliant light.
Sinin, who directly heard the voice through Heavenly God, added an explanation.
“Even after hearing that Baek-ho already has a favorite sword, that great sword chose Baek-ho. That great sword also knows very well that You don’t have a place for it right now. It’ll reveal itself when a necessary moment comes.”
Together with Sinin’s words, the competition hosted by Heavenly God ended, and onlookers all went their ways.
But the Ho didn’t scatter.
According to Heavenly God’s will, they came to live together.
Like the Ung tribe before, there were voices that the leader of the Ho tribe should be the victor, Baek-ho, but Baek-ho rejected that position, and Eun-ho took the position of the leader.
Though his martial power was weak, with Baek-ho as his backing and wisdom to win against Hwang-ho, Eun-ho became the leader without opposition.
Although there was no one to oppose Eun-ho becoming the leader, there was a person, who was picking fights.
“Eun-ho, if you’re idle, how about having a rematch with me? Opportunely, this one isn’t busy.”
Hwang-ho, who barged into Eun-ho’s study, spoke with sparkling eyes.
Eun-ho took on Hwang-ho’s argument as if he was waiting.
“Good that You came, Hwangho-nim. Opportunely, I was brewing tea. I thought it’s time for You to come soon, so I prepared Hwangho-nim’s share.”
Aiming for the time when Baek-ho and Cheong-ho weren’t around, Hwang-ho requested a spar with Eun-ho, but no matter how he provoked him, Eun-ho softly treated him to tea and passed over it, like now.
Thanks to Eun-ho’s eloquence, he always passed over it, and he of course never had any spare worthy of a spar, and instead when he came back to his senses, he undertook work.
Without knowing what kind of trick he used with the tea, when drinking tea offered by Eun-ho, the conversation about the spar was easily brushed aside at some point.
Though dissatisfied, at some point Hwang-ho became accustomed to the taste of tea served by Eun-ho and unknowingly ended up enjoying the tea.
“Sinin will come to visit today. I hope Hwangho-nim will accompany me.”
Hwang-ho didn’t replay right away to Eun-ho’s suggestion.
While postponing the answer, Hwang-ho fell into thoughts while drinking tea.
‘These days, Sinin often comes to the Korean Peninsula, eh? Sinin has the blood of Heavenly God and a human. Even though there would be fewer restrictions on moving between heaven and ground, he would soon reach the limit, then he probably won’t come to this land any longer, right?’
While the Ho tribe was forming a group and settling in this land, Sinin often visited the Korean Peninsula together with Pungbaek, Usa and Unsa, and had exchanges with the Ho tribe.
Among the Ho tribe members, he especially became very close with Cheong-ho, and was said to be researching the martial art ‘Taehokwon’ Cheong-ho invented with her.
Even so, Hwang-ho thought skeptically about it.
He thought that Sinin who was neither a Ho nor a human would leave this land one day.
Cheong-ho also thought so, and though she didn’t show it in front of Sinin, she felt lonely, and because Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho played a prank on her to soothe her loneliness, a big quarrel broke out.
“Hwangho-nim didn’t talk to Pongbaek, Usa and Unsa-nim yet. How about having the conversation with the Three when Sinin-nim visits today?”
Eun-ho suggested, but Hwang-ho’s heart wasn’t exactly moved.
Putting Sinin aside maybe, it was because the impression of the three was dim.
The fact that just remained in his memory was that Pungbaek and Usa were twins.
“Why this one has to do such work?”
“Soon those People will stay in this land with us.”
Eun-ho spoke with a face full of conviction.
“Soon, Sinin-nim will descend to this land and lead humans to manage this land together with us. Pungbaek-nim, Usa-nim and Unsa-nim will also follow Sinin-nim’s will.”
Eun-ho’s eyes, who said such, and the fragrance of the tea left Hwang-ho with strangely deep impression.
And according to Eun-ho’s words, Sinin and those three ended up staying in this land.
* * *
After saying that Sinin ended up staying in this land, Hwang Jiho stopped talking for a while.
With eyes that seemed to say ‘close your eyes’, Hwang Jiho looked at Eun-ho’s descendants, who were fighting their drowsiness.
Eun-ho’s descendants obviously wanted to hear more about Eun-ho’s activities, but Hwang Jiho and Jeok-ho firmly shut their mouths and stood up.
“It’s deep into the night, eh? Today is late, so sleep.”
“… Yes? But the story about the foreign enemies didn’t come out yet?”
“Ung tribe also didn’t come out!”
“How and when did Eunho-nim fall asleep?”
Eun-ho’s descendants clung to them, asking for more stories, but their eyes and voices were full of drowsiness.
The tigers coaxed the mumbling Eun-ho’s descendants, laid them down on beds and covered with blankets, and the children, who babbled for a moment, while laying down, immediately fell asleep.
‘I guess they were really tired. They came out outside after a long time, so they probably were very excited.’
After Eun-ho’s descendants came here, they were banned from going out of the mansion.
As such, when they came out after a long time to offer flowers to our family, they would be very thrilled about an outing after a while[4], even though the trigger for coming out was to offer condolences[5].
The sight of the descendants chatting and then falling asleep tired, reminded me of my dongsaengs, who would return from a picnic and talk about it to their hearts’ content, and then fell asleep.
Hwang Jiho, who had checked if Eun-ho descendants are sleeping, came to me this time.
“You too, go to sleep.”
I still wanted to hear more about Eun-ho.
My feelings were complex, but it was a bit too much to ask for it when Eun-ho’s descendants weren’t here.
“I have something to ask.”
“Speak. If I think the answer will be long, I’ll answer tomorrow.”
At those words, I decided to postpone the several questions I prepared and instead ask a question that could be answered with ‘yes or ‘no’.
“Before, you have said that the trigger for drinking tea was because the being, who you respected, enjoyed tea. Was that Eun-ho?”
Hwang Jiho always enjoyed and drunk tea.
He almost didn’t filter the morning tea and drunk it, and every time I visited, he would serve tea matching the season or the situation that day.
Before, when I stayed at Hwang Myeong-ho’s great mansion, I had such a conversation with Hwang Jiho, who drunk the morning tea.
— Since when did you start to drink tea?
— I don’t remember clearly since when. I just recall that I started because the being I admired the most enjoyed tea, eh?
And in the story told by Hwang Jiho just now, Eun-ho always treated Hwang Jiho to tea, and based on Hwang Jiho’s description, he of that time didn’t seem to enjoy tea that much.
In other words, the trigger for him to drink tea, the being he respects the most, was Eun-ho.
“Right.” [6]
The commonalities between Hwang Jiho and me increased.
As I recalled that I learned the tea ceremony and table manners because of Cheon Seong-heon, I had a subtle feeling.
I didn’t have favorites when it came to selecting drinks, but I, who if had to pick among the drinks, would drink juice, started to enjoy tea thanks to Cheon Seong-heon.
“For you to trouble yourself asking about it right now, I guess tea is related to ‘Seong-heon’, eh? Is your tea expertise related to ‘Seong-heon’?”
Considering the events that happened today, the conversations we shared and the timing of the question, he wouldn’t able to help it, but arrive at such a conclusion.
As Hwang Jiho also answered my question, I decided to answer honestly.
“Ye.”
“… Is that so, eh?”
Hwang Jiho rubbed his temples, tightly closed his eyes, and then opened them.
Hwang Jiho seemed to draw a similar conclusion to me.
As I and Hwang Jiho stood without a word, Jeok-ho and Baek Ho-gun, who were observing from the distance, took a step to approach.
“… Hwang-ho? Jo Uisin? What are You doing not going to sleep?”
“…”
They were at a distance, but the sharp-eared[7] tigers knew what I and Hwang Jiho were talking about.
The conversation’s content wasn’t exactly a problem, as we talked about Cheon Seong-heon, while mentioning tea, they might have thought it was strange.
“It’s nothing. We just exchanged questions and answers with each other.”
When I thought that Hwang Jiho ended the conversation with such evasion, and was about to turn around.
Hwang Jiho grabbed me and threw a question.
“Then I’ll ask one more question.”
“Do it.”
“Jo Uisin, is Stalemateless your title?”
The gazes of the tigers, including Hwang Jiho, poured towards me.
“Yeah.”
At my answer, Hwang Jiho nodded as if he liked it.
“Is that so, eh? It’s a much better alias than Unknown Supernova.”
Why was he picking fault with Unknown Supernova here?
‘Does he not like something about Unknown Supernova?’
Compared to Red Wall Phantom Thief, it was a fairy[8] like alias.
I couldn’t understand, but thought that the geezer was also confused because of Eun-ho’s story, so I let it go.
And the next day.
I headed with the tigers to the Silver Light (Eunhwi) Building.
Together with Cheon Seong-heon, who couldn’t move.
*~*~*
[1] You — you plural
[2] cotton cloth — 무명천 (mumyeong-cheon), ‘무명 (mumyeong)’ meaning cotton, can also mean unknown/nameless, the same word as in ‘Unknown Supernova’.
[3] “I have a great sword that my dongsaeng, with talented hands, gifted to me.” — if someone was wondering, yes, he is using plain (aka, impolite in this situation) form.
[4] a while — literally ebb and flow of a tide
[5] condolences — 조의 (joui)
[6] “Right.” — okay, take a deep breath with me. Putting aside that Jo Uisin’s question is imprecise because he asked about ‘respected being’ and not ‘most respected being’, letting this bastard slip, that answer also isn’t that precise! ‘그렇다 (geureota)’ literally means ‘to be like that’, and in Korean is often used as a confirmation, but it can also be used as meaning ‘it’s similar’ or even in some very specific circumstances ‘NO’. Okay? Deep breaths, deep breaths.
[7] sharp ears — literally ‘bright ears’.
[8] fairy — as a female immortal
Translator’s note: You know, if it turns out that my theory that Hwang-ho’s ‘most respected one’ isn’t Eun-ho, then I’ll be the prophet, but if it turns out I’m wrong, this arc will just serve as proof of the depths of my insanity.
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