WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 44: In April, All the Flowers of the World Have Faded (15)

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"He probably never imagined that touching a single courtesan would lead to this. The ties and retribution of the human world are this tangled and weighty."

At the voices drifting over, Choran's ears perked up.

"Um... I. I drew Miss Eun-yeong too! I, I'm not very good at drawing, but... still. It's Miss Eun-yeong sitting beneath a willow tree. Hello? ...Am I really that bad at drawing?"

"I'll buy it."

"Excuse me?"

"Please give me the one beside it too. Is this Eun-yeong from behind?"

"Yes. It's Miss Eun-yeong's back while she's standing there dozing off. ...I! I definitely didn't draw her from behind because I couldn't draw Miss Eun-yeong's face well."

"Please. I'll buy it."

"...!"

Choran bought every one of Eun-yeong's drawings that had not sold.

Master Wang, her husband, silently paid the silver from beside her.

"Thank you."

At Choran's thanks, Master Wang only shrugged once. He did not look her way, trying to hide his reddened eyes.

Choran's lips crumpled as if she might cry.

After sniffing once, she looked over the whole feast, which was filled with Eun-yeong, then closed her eyes.

The boisterous voices.

The fresh, sweet scent.

Even with her eyes closed, the scene of the feast rose before her as vividly as if she could reach out and touch it.

Step.

Choran could almost see Eun-yeong slipping into the crowd like a cat.

She would scan the area with quick glances, sneak through without anyone noticing, pick out only the sweets, then vanish back into the crowd.

At the thought of it, the heart that had shrunk as though it might disappear seemed to stretch itself a little.

Choran opened her eyes and unconsciously looked for Yeon Sowol.

From far away, Yeon Sowol, who had been watching her side closely, smoothly looked away. As if he had simply been looking around and their eyes had happened to meet.

This time, Choran looked for her husband.

He had stayed at her side the entire time, but now he stood a short distance away with other people.

They were all influential figures from Shinheung County, people who normally had not associated much with her husband.

"Wonderful. Of course it is. A shrine for Miss Eun-yeong. Our family was already planning to hold memorial rites for her every year."

"Ho ho. That is good news. A good deed. We must soothe such resentment. She slew the villains who had been gnawing away at Shinheung County, then fell at such a blooming age."

"That's right. We should step forward. Let's establish the shrine, and we should hold the memorial rites together while we're at it. Master Wang's household can host them."

"Wonderful! I could not be happier."

Her husband's face had blossomed. He had been given a reason to keep company with the local notables he had wanted to associate with but could not, due to his lesser reputation.

Choran understood that and felt happy with him, but part of her also felt a little sad.

'You only help me, right to the end.'

She glanced back at Yeon Sowol.

Just then, his gaze passed over her side again.

Choran smiled faintly. Feeling lighter, she looked around the feast.

The stories stirring up the gathering had already turned to Yi Yubaek and Hang Inwoo.

"The tale of Miss Eun-yeong and Young Hero Yeon's loyalty is good! But that isn't the only story Shinheung County has."

"What else is there?"

"There is! If the child is such a tiger, what must the father be like?"

"Ah..."

"That's right. Gang Leader Hang Inwoo and Great Hero Yi Yubaek."

Choran already knew the story, but she stopped to listen, her eyes shining.

Hang Inwoo had not originally been from Shinheung County.

He had come from Shaoguan in eastern Guangdong.

For reasons unknown, when he was found in the wild hills near Shinheung County, his chest and belly had been ripped open by a blade.

Normally, it would have simply been written off.

An unidentified martial artist's death in the hills.

But Hang Inwoo was extraordinarily fortunate. Yi Yubaek, who had happened to be passing nearby, spotted him.

Yi Yubaek cared for Hang Inwoo with devoted attention.

He urgently bought Golden Wound Medicine, said to be more precious than gold, for two or three times its market price and treated his external injuries.

He emptied out the wealth he had saved, along with the assets of the martial academy inherited from his master, to obtain spiritual elixirs. Then he gave them to Hang Inwoo to treat his internal injury.

And that was not all.

Though he was a martial artist who had only just kindled True Flame, he personally performed qi guidance to help Hang Inwoo absorb the spiritual elixirs. He accepted a risk that could have killed him as well if anything went wrong.

Everyone laughed at him.

Why go that far for a complete stranger? Was he an idiot?

Yi Yubaek had answered them like this.

'My master was wrongfully killed by his disciple. I killed my senior brother with my own hands. So... now I want to see at least one more martial artist survive.'

Everyone had only clicked their tongues.

That was how Hang Inwoo survived.

Yi Yubaek cared for him until he had fully recovered.

After Hang Inwoo recovered, Yi Yubaek even taught him martial arts personally.

He did not pass down any martial arts to him. He simply gave Hang Inwoo advice on the martial arts he already possessed and oversaw his training.

And so, they did not become master and disciple, only sworn brothers.

People laughed again.

At Hang Inwoo's level, they said, he would never become first-rate no matter what Yi Yubaek did. Even if he did, why bother? Not everyone who received kindness would be grateful for it.

But Hang Inwoo proved them wrong by reaching the first-rate realm in two years. He joined Yi Yubaek's battle against the Heat Cauldron Sect and saved Yi Yubaek's life.

That was how Yi Yubaek became Shinheung's foremost martial artist.

"If not for Yi Yubaek, Hang Inwoo would have simply died there. Even if he had survived, he would have languished as a second-rate martial artist for the rest of his life. Yet thanks to Yi Yubaek, he rose so high."

The storyteller spoke excitedly.

"But Hang Inwoo is a man who knows loyalty too. He risked his life to fight beside Yi Yubaek. And that is not all. He is now mobilizing every member of his gang to search for spiritual elixirs. What do you think that is for?"

"Ha! It must be for Great Hero Yi Yubaek!"

"That's right. It's for Great Hero Yi Yubaek. I heard he suffered some internal injury in this battle. Hang Inwoo must be trying to heal him."

"Since he owes him a spiritual elixir himself, he means to repay him with one?"

The storyteller nodded in satisfaction at the answers coming from all around him.

"Exactly. This is the loyalty of the Jianghu. It began with Yi Yubaek and Hang Inwoo, passed to Young Hero Yeon Sowol, and then passed on again to Miss Eun-yeong."

"Kuh!"

The clinking of cups rang out loudly from every direction.

Warm tears ran down Choran's cheeks.

She turned toward Yeon Sowol.

Once again, his gaze happened to pass over her side.

Choran strode toward him.

His back was straight.

His white robe rustled softly in the breeze.

His slow-moving gaze watched the people at this feast whom he needed to keep an eye on.

That gaze returned to Choran, whom it had just passed over.

"Young Master Yeon."

She stepped within two paces of him and spoke. Her crushed lips looked as if she were holding something back.

Yeon Sowol quietly looked at Choran.

His eyes were cautious, as though he did not know how to treat her. As though he could not guess what she felt.

"I like the Jianghu."

She said it.

"I live in the countryside, covered in dust, so I could never say I understand everything. But still... I think I like the Jianghu now. Even if I cannot live there. I think I like knowing that a place like that exists somewhere in this world. Just that."

She bowed deeply, as though she might fly away.

"Thank you. It was good, being able to take a boat ride, even for a little while, upon the rivers and lakes of Young Master Yeon and Eun-yeong."

Yeon Sowol only moved his lips, unable to say anything.

Choran smiled as though she understood it all.

"May you remain vividly red, always."

Yeon Sowol lowered his head deeply.

A small smile rested on his lips too.

Because he felt a little relieved.

* * *

"Jin Geol."

As the sun sank and the day's feast neared its end, Yeon Sowol called out to the new friend he had made.

"What?"

"Are you out of money, by any chance?"

"Why?"

"You definitely received one nyang of gold for writing that poem so well."

"I did."

"Then why are you still dressed like that?"

"Heh heh."

Jin Geol laughed.

"I drank some alcohol. Expensive stuff."

"Alcohol? With one nyang of gold?"

Yeon Sowol tilted his head.

It was hard to make an exact comparison, but if he had to, one nyang of gold felt like roughly ten million won in twenty-first-century South Korea.

And he had spent that on alcohol?

"I ate good food too. Bought drinks for my drinking companions. Bought drinks for women too. I even went on a separate boat ride once."

"..."

Yeon Sowol was speechless for a moment.

"You spent all of it? In just a few days?"

"I did."

"Then you have no money."

"No. Actually, I do."

Jin Geol slipped a yellow gold yuanbao worth one nyang from his robe and showed it to him.

It was the gold Yeon Sowol had seen before the Governor-General of Liangguang.

Yeon Sowol's eyes widened.

"Didn't you say you spent one nyang earlier?"

"I did."

"Did you already have another one?"

"No."

Jin Geol grinned.

"Actually, when I pretended to receive the cup that day, I pocketed one more."

???

Yeon Sowol's eyes shook with shock and horror.

"Y-you stole it?"

The Governor-General of Liangguang's gold?

"Now, now. Stole it? Who do you take for a thief?"

Wasn't he a thief?

"I simply scooped up a cupful from a river that overflowed."

Still a thief.

Yeon Sowol was once again speechless.

"...What were you thinking, doing something like that when you could get caught...?"

Jin Geol looked at Yeon Sowol meaningfully.

"The Governor-General of Liangguang is a civil official. Even if he studies Nature Learning, that only makes him sharp at prediction and judgment. He cannot directly read movements like a martial artist using qi sense."

"...The Commander-in-Chief was there too."

"I checked. He was watching elsewhere. Even an unmatched master cannot watch everywhere at once. And since he is a government martial artist, his qi sense is a little weaker. My hands are rather quick too."

"..."

"Sowol."

Jin Geol spoke boastfully.

"I do not take a gamble unless I am certain."

Yeon Sowol thought, ‘Martial artists really were all insane, and I should never trust them.’

"Oh? That look in your eyes is disrespectful."

"No. Not at all."

"Hah. This is unfair. There are so many lunatics in the world, yet you look at me as if I am one."

"It can get worse than this?"

"Of course. A man I know named Yeon Seonhong once shouted at the Governor-General of Liangguang, 'What do you people know about the common folk? Isn't all the doctrine of Nature Learning nothing but useless speculation?'"

"...No."

"Isn't that right? I saw it myself."

"No..."

Yeon Sowol found himself at a loss for words.

"I have not seen many people that insane. Especially among people our age. There certainly will not be any in Guangdong. We would have to leave for other regions before we might find a few."

Yeon Sowol flinched.

A person would do something on par with such fabricated slander?

'Martial artists really are...'

Jin Geol grinned as Yeon Sowol shook his head.

"Someday, I would like to introduce you to those fellows too."

"...Well, perhaps there will be a day for that someday."

He said that, but Yeon Sowol did not think that day would come soon. He still had things to learn under Yi Yubaek, and after that, he would need to find another master and keep learning. At the very least, he would spend several years studying martial arts and would have no reason to mingle with lunatics from other regions.

'...Not that I see why I need to mingle with them at all.'

Apparently, sneaking a gold ingot from the Governor-General of Liangguang was nothing much by their standards.

That was terrifying if true.

"Who knows. You might see them soon."

"We have to be in the right circumstances and at the right time. It will be difficult for at least a few years."

"Predictions like that fail more often than they come true, my friend."

"...Is that a curse?"

"No. It is just true. The world works that way. Things keep popping up out of nowhere, contrary to expectations."

"Definitely a curse."

"...A perceptive person is not popular, my friend."

Yeon Sowol and Jin Geol bickered as they emptied the little alcohol left in the bottle together.

The feast gradually drew to a close.

Those who had been treated until they were stuffed began spreading tales of the feast wherever they went.

That fragrance...

The food...

The alcohol...

And there was a young hero named Yeon Sowol...

There was a woman named Eun-yeong, the sworn younger sister of a courtesan named Choran...

There were men named Yi Yubaek and Hang Inwoo...

And now Yi Yubaek, Hang Inwoo, Yeon Sowol, and every martial artist in Shinheung County would head to Heavenly Road Mountain...

Sometimes, an entertaining story traveled faster than horses.

All of Guangdong came to know Yi Yubaek and Yeon Sowol, and people began to feel their hearts swell at the thought of the Heavenly Road Mountain Expedition.

"...Should we go? I would like to get to know them."

"Ah! They are truly admirable. I have to see their faces at least once."

Living unusual lives themselves, the martial artists of the Jianghu were clear about their likes and dislikes. Their hearts stirred by the story, they began looking toward Shinheung County.

By the time April was nearing its end, a piece of news set Shinheung County ablaze.

"Ha. So Hang Inwoo finally obtained a spiritual elixir? And an incredible one at that."

"They say it will not only heal Great Hero Yi Yubaek's internal injury, but may even raise his realm by one level."

"That is splendid news!"

"The kindness he gave has returned to him once again."

"Will there be another feast, then?"

"I do not know about that... but there will certainly be one after the Heavenly Road Mountain Expedition."

"Heh heh, I am already looking forward to it."

It was the last day of April.

Hang Inwoo, who had not even shown his face at the feast because he had been searching for a spiritual elixir, sent someone over.

There had been so much good news that he wanted to have a drink together for the first time in a while.

Footnotes:

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