Chapter 199 - Do I Look Like Someone Who Would Let Things Be Taken from Him?

Seated at his desk reading documents, Go Wol asked without looking up, "Cult Leader, is something troubling you lately?"

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader was leaning against the window, gazing outside.

"Troubling me? What would be? Why ask all of a sudden?"

The two had been traveling throughout the Central Plains, devoting themselves to building an intelligence organization. Go Wol was always busy, while the Wind Heaven Cult Leader, serving as both bodyguard and assistant, had relatively little to do.

"You seem troubled."

"Who has a more leisurely life than I do? Nothing's troubling me."

"It's busy people who have no time for worries."

"I told you, there's nothing."

At that firm answer, Go Wol lifted his eyes from the documents and looked at him. Nothing, indeed. The Wind Heaven Cult Leader staring out the window was clearly downcast, and something seemed to have been weighing on him lately.

"Are you having a hard time?"

"Hardly."

"I am."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader turned toward him. Go Wol added, sounding sincere, "It's hard. I couldn't have endured it without you helping me at my side."

"Then who told you to work so hard? Since when were you overflowing with loyalty?"

"Should I start slacking off now?"

"As if you ever could."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader turned back toward the window.

"Normally, you're the one who says it's hard and you're dying. This isn't like you."

"What is like me? No, never mind. You'll only reel off more insults. Don't!"

That was hardly enough to stop Go Wol.

"Someone who seems petty on the outside but has a heart as vast as the sea. Someone who appears to drift through life but has a grand vision in his heart. Someone who bickers but has hidden depths. That's you, Cult Leader."

"Hmph! You mean the opposite, don't you? That I'm petty, I drift through life, and I bicker?"

"And someone quicker on the uptake than anyone else!"

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader wore an I-knew-it expression. Normally, he would have unleashed a torrent of remarks, but his gaze remained fixed outside. Go Wol rose from his chair and walked over.

"Are you homesick, perhaps?"

"Speaking of homesickness, this trip has taught me for certain that I'm not fond of my homeland. I don't think of it at all. I have no desire to go back, either. Maybe I'll visit once before I die, but otherwise I doubt I'll ever go again."

"Not homesickness, then. What could it be?"

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader's lips moved. He seemed to have something he wanted to say, but changed the subject instead.

"Why hasn't the Second Young Master come? Are you sure you contacted him properly?"

"He's busy, isn't he?"

"Busy, my foot. We've slipped down his list of priorities. He'll finish everything he wants to do, then think, 'Oh? That shackled fellow from back then sent word asking to see me. Should I meet him? Or not?'"

"If that's true, isn't he investing far too much money in that shackled fellow from back then?"

Enormous sums were being poured into this undertaking. Their intelligence network did not yet cover the entire Central Plains, and funds were already running low again.

"He must have money to burn."

"Cult Leader, what are you angry about? Are you depressed because you aren't losing weight?"

"Hmph! If I put my mind to it, I could lose it all in a month."

"Didn't you say that a month ago?"

"When you're older, being too thin makes you look poor."

"You look far too well-off."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader whipped around with a scowl, and Go Wol gestured that he had only been joking.

"What's troubling you?"

After a pause, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader said, "If I tell you, you'll tease me again, won't you?"

"Let's hear it first."

"You won't promise not to tease me, will you?"

At last, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader brought it up.

"Remember Seok Chung, whom we met a little while ago?"

"I do."

Building an intelligence organization in the Central Plains involved a tremendous amount of work. They had to meet countless people. In the process, they inevitably encountered people like Seok Chung.

"That bastard said things he shouldn't have to me that day, and acted rudely too."

Go Wol nodded. Would the man have done so had he known the Wind Heaven Cult Leader's true identity or strength? Since the Wind Heaven Cult Leader had been introduced merely as a wealthy man, Seok Chung had swaggered and behaved insolently, putting his faith in his paltry martial skills.

"You showed admirable restraint."

"I keep thinking about him. I should have smashed him then. No, at least I should have lectured him about his behavior. I held back because I wanted things to go smoothly. But now I can't stop thinking about it."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader had lost count of how many times he had killed the man in his imagination. In truth, the offense hardly warranted death, yet murderous anger kept welling up inside him.

"You remember that foul-faced bastard from before? I managed to hold back then. But this time, I can't seem to. Ah, I know. Don't say it. I know perfectly well how petty I am. But what can I do when it keeps coming back to me?"

"I understand."

"You understand?"

"He was a fucking idiot. I wouldn't have stopped you if you'd beaten him up."

"Really?"

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader brightened.

"Then should I have beaten him? Should I go find him and beat him up now?"

Go Wol merely watched him in silence. Only then did his excitement subside.

"Go on. Say what you want to say."

"There's nothing."

"I said, say it!"

"This is how everyone lives. You've avoided all that ugliness until now because you're a cult leader. Everyone else lives by putting up with it. Beating people because you're angry, because they've offended you, because they're rude... Very few people can live that way."

"You want to say only people like the Second Young Master can live that way, don't you?"

"You're no different. That's how you used to live. You've lived comfortably all your life, and you've only just started having to hold back."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader nodded, as though conceding at least that much.

Go Wol understood his struggle. How difficult must it be? He had gone from a life in which he envied no one to following Go Wol around as a bodyguard, without even a single attendant. It always left Go Wol thinking:

'You must have done me some terrible wrong in a previous life, Cult Leader.'

Go Wol walked to his side, and they gazed outside together.

"It doesn't keep coming back because you're petty. It's because pent-up anger has accumulated in your heart."

"Pent-up anger?"

"Traveling around the Central Plains doing this work is a first for you, isn't it? Meeting people, then meeting more people. It may not seem like much, but anger builds up without you realizing it. You've been holding back for my sake all this time."

"I'm glad you recognize that. Still, talking about it has made me feel a little better."

"From now on, don't hold back. Just beat them up."

"No. I'll keep holding back. If I was born petty, I should at least make an effort. However I live, I'll die in the end. I won't let my life end pathetically."

Go Wol looked at him. The Wind Heaven Cult Leader meant it.

"Want to let loose and curse the Second Young Master until you feel better?"

"May I?"

"Go on! It's been a while!"

As though he had been waiting for permission, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader shouted, "You lazy Second Young Master! When we ask you to come, you should hurry over! What are you doing that's taking so long? Have you forgotten us? Just you try! You've never been eaten by one of the fish you keep on the hook, have you? I'll just chomp! Swallow you headfirst! No matter how much you dismiss us as that cult leader and that shackled fellow from back then, we're living perfectly well! You rotten Second Young Master! You ugly Second Young Master! You cheat with your lightness arts! Ah! Even shouting like this makes me feel better. Strategist Go, you do it too! It'll clear away everything that's been weighing on your chest. Nothing feels better than cursing the Second Young Master."

Then Go Wol said with a grave expression, "Cult Leader, how dare you utter such outrageous remarks?"

"Huh?"

At Go Wol's sudden change, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader blinked as if to ask what he was playing at. Then he sensed someone behind him.

He slowly turned.

Geom Mugeuk was standing there, having arrived unnoticed.

"You've been cursing me again, I see."

Why now, of all times! He had been caught cursing him before, too. The Wind Heaven Cult Leader was flustered, but he was not one to simply back down.

"Second Young Master! First, stop appearing whenever I curse you! Not that your presence would keep me from speaking my mind, of course..."

Just then, the Fist Demon entered behind him.

The instant he saw him, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader's expression turned serious. All playfulness vanished from his face, and he became the Wind Heaven Cult Leader once more. Lowering his voice, he greeted the Fist Demon.

"It has been a long time."

"A pleasure to see you."

They exchanged fist-and-palm salutes. The Fist Demon, too, displayed a different qi presence from when he was alone with Geom Mugeuk. At this moment, they were a cult leader and a Demon Supreme. This was how they had always been; meeting Geom Mugeuk was changing them all.

Geom Mugeuk introduced Go Wol to the Fist Demon.

"This is my strategist, Go Wol. He would be perfect if only he could play Go well."

Go Wol smiled and said, "I've refrained from learning because I don't wish to clash with the chief strategist just yet."

He said that because the chief strategist was the one who taught the Heavenly Demon Go. It was also an expression of confidence: if he learned and taught Geom Mugeuk, he could enable him to defeat the cult leader.

"Please, come in."

Geom Mugeuk and the Fist Demon came in and sat down.

Go Wol brought out tea.

"I'm afraid this is all I have to offer."

"You've been working hard so far from home."

"I'm enjoying the work, thinking of it as a tour of the Central Plains."

Geom Mugeuk addressed the Wind Heaven Cult Leader respectfully.

"Thank you for all your hard work. With you protecting Strategist Go, I haven't had to worry about him at all."

"I do it because I want to."

Go Wol added to the praise for the Wind Heaven Cult Leader's efforts.

"Without him, I would have died several times by now."

Indeed, danger had struck on several occasions, and the Wind Heaven Cult Leader had seen them safely through.

Geom Mugeuk looked at him warmly. He knew how much the man had sacrificed to come to him. Of course, he had done so because of Go Wol, but Geom Mugeuk was the one reaping the benefits. The man always spoke of becoming that cult leader from back then, but Geom Mugeuk had not the slightest intention of letting that happen.

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader said to the Fist Demon, "I heard that you had left the Cult with the Second Young Master."

"I've been enjoying some leisure for the first time in a long while."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader asked casually, "Has the Second Young Master taken anything from you, by any chance?"

"Taken anything?"

"Let your guard down for a moment, and what was yours ends up in his hands. I wondered whether you might have experienced the same thing."

His eyes seemed to say, You must have lost something too, so the Fist Demon shook his head firmly.

"Nothing of the sort."

As he spoke, the Fist Demon gave him a look that said, Do I look like someone who would let things be taken from him?

Amid this invisible battle of wills, the Wind Heaven Cult Leader felt privately aggrieved.

'Am I the only one who's lost everything to the Second Young Master?'

Even now, he occasionally thought of the sacred relics he had given Geom Mugeuk. Having left his cult, he no longer coveted the relics themselves or felt attached to them.

But sometimes he wondered whether he was a fool who gave away everything when he needn't, whether he was the only one living at a loss. Such feelings had contributed to his recent gloom.

Then Geom Mugeuk said, "Oh, I've taken the Fist Demon as my master."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader started in surprise.

"Truly?"

"Yes. He is my master now."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader could not contain his astonishment. Then, as he looked at the Fist Demon, his spirits lifted.

'You've lost something too! He's taken your entire self!'

What delighted him most was this:

'I'm not the only one being taken advantage of!'

It was an immense comfort to him. Of course, the Fist Demon would never admit it.

Go Wol offered a fist-and-palm salute in congratulations.

"My heartfelt congratulations on forming a master-disciple bond."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader also congratulated the Fist Demon.

"Congratulations."

"Thank you."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader was itching to speak.

'I hope you don't become that master from back then, either.'

Had they been even a little closer, he would surely have said it aloud.

"I'll step out to speak with Strategist Go for a moment."

Geom Mugeuk and Go Wol went outside.

Only the Fist Demon and the Wind Heaven Cult Leader remained. The latter was the first to break the awkward silence.

"You've made a momentous decision."

"Somehow, that's how things turned out."

Indeed. By the time you come to your senses, this is where you find yourself. A smile formed on the Wind Heaven Cult Leader's lips.

This time, the Fist Demon put a question to him.

"You, too, have made a momentous decision."

"To a Demon Supreme, my situation may look rather ridiculous."

"Ridiculous? Why would you say such a thing?"

"Seeing me abandon the Wind Heaven Cult and come to the Central Plains to do this all alone."

Ordinarily, these two would not have exchanged a single word. But with Geom Mugeuk as their common bond, they were having a conversation they would never have had before.

"Why do you say you're alone? You have that strategist from earlier. And my disciple, don't you?"

"Strategist Go tells me you support the First Young Master."

"I do."

The Wind Heaven Cult Leader said something unexpected.

"Don't treat him carelessly just because he's your disciple."

He showed no fear of the Fist Demon whatsoever.

"You've only staked half, but we've staked everything on your disciple."

The Fist Demon drank his tea without answering.

Meanwhile, Geom Mugeuk and Go Wol had come out into the courtyard. Once they were alone, Geom Mugeuk acknowledged his efforts.

"You've been working hard."

"Probably not as hard as you worked to become the Fist Demon's disciple."

Geom Mugeuk laughed without denying it.

"Before I explain why I sent word asking to see you, Young Master, there's something else I'd like to ask of you."

"Go ahead."

"The cult leader has been struggling lately."

In what way? Why? How much?

Geom Mugeuk asked none of those questions. The fact that Go Wol felt the need to speak to him privately told him enough to infer all of that.

"I still dream of the days when I was bound in shackles. Sometimes I even converse with the Thunderous Sound Bell. It seems it's truly difficult for a person to escape the past. I imagine it's the same for the cult leader."

Geom Mugeuk smiled at him.

"I'll speak with him privately."

"Thank you."

Having told Geom Mugeuk, Go Wol no longer worried about the matter.

"Why did you ask to see me?"

Then Go Wol said something unexpected.

"Have you ever heard of Immortal Debt?"