Chapter 49 - If You Refuse, I'll Cling to Your Trouser Leg

The first to arrive at Merry Life Tavern was Jang Ho, the Demon Army commander.

His enormous frame and scarred face overwhelmed everyone in the tavern. Not a single breath could be heard from the patrons as he crossed the first floor and climbed to the second. Only once he joined our table did time begin to flow again.

"Have you been well, Second Young Master?"

"I've been well. I hope I haven't dragged a busy man out here for nothing."

"I would have been very disappointed if you hadn't invited me."

"Of course I had to invite you. This is the first time all my people have gathered for a drink. Here, let me pour you one first."

I filled Jang Ho's cup.

"Thank you."

Seo Daeryong and Jang Ho exchanged greetings as well. They had met during the anonymous-letter incident. Sitting beside the already small-framed Seo Daeryong, Jang Ho looked three times as big.

After a drink, I asked Jang Ho, "You've been busy, haven't you?"

"I was busy when I first took office, but things have settled down a little now."

"If you ever have a problem or something troubling you, come see me anytime."

"Of course. You'll be the first person I come to."

Jang Ho was as dependable as ever. Contrary to his appearance, he was emotional and sensitive, and he valued his relationships with others.

With his arrival, the pace of our drinking picked up. His capacity for liquor matched his enormous frame.

As we drank, Seo Daeryong kept stealing glances at Jang Ho. He wasn't watching his reactions; there was envy in his eyes.

"Jealous?"

Seo Daeryong flinched when I hit the mark.

"Of what?"

"Are you jealous of Commander Jang?"

Drawing courage from the liquor, Seo Daeryong answered honestly.

"Yes, honestly, I am. I once wanted to become someone like the commander myself. Though I failed."

"It's not too late."

"You said that before. When I lamented that it was already too late, you said you were disappointed in me. But what can I do if it is too late? I'm already thirty-two."

"It's still not too late."

Seo Daeryong nearly lost his temper, then drank the liquor in front of him instead. Had it been anyone else, he would have shouted at them not to speak so casually just because it wasn't their life.

He swallowed his anger with the liquor, but his face was still flushed.

"Is it really not too late?"

Knowing he was asking in earnest, I answered in earnest too.

"Well, it is late."

"Ugh, I knew it."

Seo Daeryong looked disappointed. Apparently, part of him had hoped it truly wasn't too late.

"But there are advantages to that, too."

"Such as?"

"You'll put more heart into your efforts. Even a single sword thrust will have more of your strength behind it than anyone else's, and even a single step will carry deeper thought."

"Even so, isn't the reality that I'll never catch up?"

"You can catch up. Ah, here comes a perfect example. The very embodiment of defying reality!"

Seo Daeryong and Jang Ho followed my gaze down to the first floor. Yi An's large frame drew every eye as she hurried upstairs toward our table.

"There she comes. Someone who started down that road a step ahead of you, who practically lives on the training grounds these days, and who's still that cheerful."

The first thing Yi An did when she reached us was apologize.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I had to wash up and change my training clothes, so I'm late."

"We're only having drinks. What's the rush?"

"Of course I have to hurry. I'm joining such distinguished company."

Yi An greeted the two men.

"Hello, Commander Jang. Investigator Seo."

Both men stared at her as she greeted them brightly. Thinking it was because she was late, she apologized again.

"I'm sorry. I kept you waiting, didn't I?"

Seo Daeryong was staring because I had called her an example to follow, but Jang Ho had another reason. He addressed her politely.

"Something about you has changed, Miss Yi An."

"Me?"

"Yes. You feel different somehow."

The commander of the Demon Army certainly had a keen eye.

Yi An stole a glance at me, then smiled.

"Being trapped in training hell has even made me lose weight. I look a little different, don't I?"

Of course, both Yi An and I knew that wasn't the reason. Her qi presence had changed after she learned the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art. For now, her knowledge of that art was a secret she must never reveal to outsiders.

Jang Ho must have sensed that weight loss alone wasn't the cause, but he asked no further questions about the change.

"With the weather so gloomy, I've been desperate for a drink myself. Pour me some!"

Yi An held out her cup, and I filled it to the brim.

"You've been working hard at your training, Yi An."

"It's no hardship. It's what I ought to be doing. Besides, I know you train far more than I do, Young Master. You even cut back on sleep for it."

Seo Daeryong looked startled.

"Really?"

"You didn't know?"

At Yi An's question, Seo Daeryong looked at me.

"Anyone would take him for the sort who slacks off."

"Exactly. But beneath that lazy-looking exterior is an incredibly hardworking martial artist."

Seo Daeryong looked at me, then Jang Ho, then Yi An again. Then he drank alone.

"I feel like I'm the only loser here."

"But you work hard at your job, don't you?"

At Yi An's attempt to console him, Seo Daeryong hung his head.

"I put today's work off until tomorrow to come drinking."

"Oh dear. And your exterior looks so diligent, Investigator Seo."

Yi An teased him gently. At times like this, she was unmistakably a young woman who looked perfectly at home laughing brightly.

"Come on, let's have a drink to today's loser!"

Yi An raised her cup, and we toasted. The loser took no offense, declaring, "That's me," as he joined the toast last.

"Well? Everyone here is working so hard. Would you like to learn martial arts properly too?"

"What? From you, Pavilion Master?"

"No."

"Then from whom?"

Without realizing it, Seo Daeryong looked at Jang Ho.

"Why are you looking at him? He's the busiest of us all."

"Oh, he trained the enforcement martial artists before, so I thought perhaps..."

"If I found someone to teach you, would you learn? You couldn't become a formal disciple, but that person could teach you proper martial arts."

"Who is it?"

Instead of telling him who it was, I said, "Your resolve comes first. Tell me when you're ready to swear you'll remake yourself. Then I'll tell you who."

I had Seo Daeryong in mind as the next Pavilion Master of Yellow Springs Pavilion. But he was too young to take that position. He didn't have an impressive martial lineage or political connections either. He needed something to qualify him for the office.

Then someone suddenly came to mind.

Someone who seemed utterly unsuited to him—and who might, for that very reason, be an even better match.

"I'll give you a quarter of an hour. Think it over."

"What? I have to decide right here?"

"With things like this, the longer you think, the harder it is to decide. Once tonight's drinking is over, we'll be back at square one. Both you and me. You know that, don't you?"

Seo Daeryong fell into serious thought, while the rest of us drank and looked outside, where rain seemed ready to pour down at any moment. We drank quietly for his sake. Yi An, Jang Ho, and I all had plenty on our minds these days too.

By the time we had emptied a bottle, Seo Daeryong had made his decision.

"I'll give it a try."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"This will change your life."

"I'm prepared for that. What else is there to life? When an opportunity comes, you seize it! If things go wrong and I die, bury me somewhere sunny!"

"I'll bury you beside a road lots of pretty women pass along."

"Sounds good."

Seo Daeryong drained the cup before him with gusto.

"Oh! Congratulations!"

Yi An applauded enthusiastically, and Jang Ho offered his congratulations.

"If anyone else had suggested it, I wouldn't have considered it. But coming from you, Pavilion Master, it somehow made me more easily persuaded... I thought, seize this. This is an opportunity."

Yi An smiled in agreement.

"Our Young Master's powers of persuasion are the greatest of all time."

Jang Ho nodded as though he agreed too.

In high spirits, Seo Daeryong drained another cup. Despite his usual poor tolerance, he was drinking far too much.

"But as you know, I've worked as an investigator for ten years. I stayed up plenty of nights trying to become a special investigator, too. Giving all that up leaves me feeling..."

"Why would you quit being an investigator?"

"What?"

"You don't have to quit. You're the person Yellow Springs Pavilion needs most. Why would you quit? I meant you should learn martial arts after working hours."

Seo Daeryong took that as a joke.

"You want me to die of exhaustion?"

"But you'll fulfill that unrealized dream of yours."

He stared at me as I answered seriously, then looked startled.

"Wait. You're serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. You're starting late anyway, so what's the hurry? Take your time and learn after work."

"I'm in a hurry precisely because I'm late. Can I become a master learning that way? Shouldn't I stake my entire life on this challenge?"

Seo Daeryong looked at Jang Ho for support, asking whether he agreed. But Jang Ho offered none, merely looking at me as if to tell him to listen.

Unable to find reinforcements, Seo Daeryong returned to the battlefield.

I spoke to him calmly.

"That's usually why people fail. You think you can stake your whole life on it, but in practice, it isn't so easy. Having time to spare from morning to night actually makes things harder. Why am I making no progress when I have so much time? What am I even doing? You sink into self-loathing and a sense of defeat. You achieve far more when you keep doing your job and carve out bits of precious time to work at it. Then it can become a pleasure rather than a chore."

It was Yi An and Jang Ho, rather than Seo Daeryong himself, who nodded. His feelings seemed complicated.

"And what matters is who teaches you. If you learn from a true master who's a good match for you, the amount of time you train doesn't matter all that much. Learning from someone like that for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea would be worth more than all the drivel some incompetent spouts in a lifetime."

"A true master? Who?"

Even Yi An and Jang Ho were curious about whom I intended to make his teacher.

"They'll be here soon."

"They're coming here?"

Not just Seo Daeryong, but Yi An and Jang Ho were startled too.

"Then you knew Investigator Seo would make this decision?"

"Am I a fortune-teller? How would I know? I thought of it on the spur of the moment."

"Then this person doesn't know about any of this?"

"Of course not."

"Good heavens!"

Seo Daeryong had another drink. Already far beyond his usual limit, he was entering the stage where one drink demanded another.

"The ultimate contest is whether we can get permission. If not, we'll have to cling to a trouser leg and beg."

We all drank together, vowing to get that permission.

Yi An told Seo Daeryong to just touch the cup to his lips, but he said he couldn't do that with something so important ahead of him and drained it clean.

"I don't know who it is, but I'll get permission no matter what. If they refuse, the right trouser leg is mine. You take the left, Pavilion Master."

Seo Daeryong was flushed with excitement, perhaps because he believed something he had cherished for so long was finally going to happen.

"If it's a teacher the Young Master found for you, they must be a truly wonderful, kind person."

As luck would have it, no sooner had Yi An said that than lightning flashed.

RUMBLE! BOOM!

A thunderbolt struck, and thunder rang out.

"It looks like it's about to start pouring in earnest!"

It happened just then.

"Ah, there he is."

At my words, everyone's eyes turned toward the first floor.

Someone was entering the tavern.

Recognizing him, Yi An clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream.

Jang Ho flinched too, his eyes widening.

Seo Daeryong, whose back was turned, was the last to look around.

I got to watch his shock unfold in real time: his eyes widened, he let out a short scream, and he spilled his liquor as he tried to spring to his feet.

THUD.

The man who had reached our table set an enormous saber on the floor.

Savage demonic qi poured from his small, slitted eyes.

"What insolence. Who do you think you are, ordering me to come and go?"

The newcomer was none other than the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.

SHHHHHHH!

As though it had been waiting for him, the rain began to pour.