Chapter 1236: Who Did You Say Has Come? (1)

Gwak Hwan-So stared at the scene before him with a cold, set face.

In the Great Sea Hall, where only Southern Island’s disciples—true mountain disciples—should enter, there were now people wearing another sect’s civilian robes instead of Southern Island uniforms.

Gwak Hwan-So quietly clenched and unclenched his fist.

Rage surged to the top of his head.

It wasn’t that outsiders had entered a place only true mountain disciples could enter. It was because those wearing civilian robes were none other than Southern Island’s own true mountain disciples.

“You lot. I heard you’re leaving Southern Island.”

When Gwak Hwan-So spoke, some disciples glanced around nervously and then mumbled.

“Yes...sahyung.”

Gwak Hwan-So bit his lip for a moment, then spoke again.

“You expect to be expelled from the sect?”

If he’d asked that with such an angry face usually, everyone would have been terrified. Gwak Hwan-So is among Southern Island’s great disciples and is blunt and quick-tempered by nature.

Of course, everyone still found Gwak Hwan-So awkward in the situation. But...

“...We have no choice.”

Now they spoke boldly words they normally wouldn’t dare utter.

“So what are we supposed to do... Four Sects Alliance could strike anytime, and there’s no way we can win by fighting.”

“You...!”

“We know. We know we should die together in times like this. But...sorry, sahyung. We’re not as brave as you.”

“Is that even something to call words?”

“Don’t blame the disciples too harshly, sahyung.”

Before Gwak Hwan-So could say more, someone else cut in.

“It’s not a matter of courage.”

Gwak Hwan-So looked silently at the interrupter.

“We’re not people who renounced the world. Southern Island’s disciples all have families. Even the disciple Go Hong, who just spoke—don’t you know he has an elderly mother at home?”

“...”

“It’s good to keep loyalty to the sect, but if we die, what happens to the families we leave behind? Throwing away our lives to save pride isn’t true courage.”

The expression left Gwak Hwan-So’s face. They knew he was truly angry, but this time they didn’t back down easily.

“Sahyung, you have no family, so you can’t understand how we feel. Be angry if you must, curse if you must. But don’t call us dishonorable. Filial duty is as important as loyalty to the sect.”

At that moment, Lee Ja-Yang, who had been silently standing behind Gwak Hwan-So, snorted a laugh.

“I didn’t realize our sahyung Yu Gong had an elderly mother. Weren’t your parents dead for some time?”

“Ja-Yang!”

“He’s right—so now everyone who says they’re leaving the sect happens to have an elderly mother and a family to protect? Is there no one without family or parents who bore them, you bastard?”

Mockery was thick on Ja-Yang’s face.

“You’re just scared and running away—why all the words? You said ‘curse if you want, be angry if you want,’ but don’t you want to hear it to your face?”

“Don’t speak so recklessly!”

“Sahyung. You seem not to know, I’m choosing my words carefully. If I’d spoken recklessly, one of us would have drawn a sword by now.”

“...”

“I wish they’d hurry up with whatever expulsion ceremony. Understand that out of ritual I must call someone like you as ‘sahyung.’ Try to grasp my feelings.”

Yu Gong bit his lip and glared at Ja-Yang. Ja-Yang was about to sneer again when Gwak Hwan-So stopped him.

“Enough.”

“...Great sahyung. That man...”

“Didn’t Yu Gong get married not long ago?”

“So what if he did!”

“The child is only a hundred days old. A suckling who can’t even recognize his father’s face.”

At that, Ja-Yang was briefly silenced and chewed his lip.

“Still...”

“Stop it.”

Gwak Hwan-So shook his head with a heavy face.

“This is a decision made by the main members of the sect. A lone disciple shouldn’t debate right and wrong over what the sect has decided. The Sect leader made this decision after deep thought, didn’t he?”

Ja-Yang turned his head in clear displeasure. But he no longer reproached Yu Gong or Go Hong.

Above all, they couldn’t speak further because they knew how Gwak Hwan-So—who would normally scold them most loudly—must feel to say such things.

Gwak Hwan-So stared at the two and sighed as he spoke.

“You seem to have misunderstood me—I have no objection to you leaving the sect.”

“...Then...”

“But as with people, there’s a minimum courtesy that must be observed between disciples and the sect.”

Gwak Hwan-So stared coldly at those in civilian robes.

“Have you been formally expelled?”

“...”

“I heard you requested an expulsion ceremony from the Sect leader and planned to hold it once the storm passed. Isn’t that so?”

“...That’s correct.”

They all avoided his gaze as if ashamed about that matter.

“That means until the expulsion ceremony is held, you are still Southern Island’s disciples. But...”

Gwak Hwan-So’s gaze grew icier.

“Why is the Three Waves—the three-wave emblem—missing from your chests where it should be?”

Three Waves: the three-wave pattern embroidered on Southern Island disciples’ chests. It is Southern Island’s symbol and the pride of its disciples.

But those who had changed into civilian robes naturally lacked the Three Waves emblem on their chests.

“This place is only for Southern Island’s true mountain disciples. You must know that and still consider yourselves Southern Island disciples. So what on earth were you thinking coming here dressed like that?”

“We...”

Gwak Hwan-So spat the words out.

“I understand your stance. I’m not trying to denounce your decision to leave the sect. But you owe at least a minimum respect to those who brace for the seal—it’s courtesy to those who shared hardships under the same roof and to the sect that has been your shelter, isn’t it?”

Those in civilian robes lowered their heads deeply.

They weren’t without excuse. They had intended to be expelled and leave the sect today, but the sudden typhoon prevented them from departing Southern Island.

It felt awkward to put the uniform back on once it had been shed.

But as Gwak Hwan-So said, if they truly felt that way, they shouldn’t have set foot in the Great Sea Hall. Only those who still consider themselves Southern Island’s true mountain disciples may enter.

“If you won’t wear Southern Island’s uniform again, if you won’t have the Three Waves symbol engraved on your chest anew, then at least leave now. This place is for Southern Island’s disciples.”

Those about to protest opened their mouths but, upon seeing Gwak Hwan-So’s face, bowed and silently left the hall one by one.

Gwak Hwan-So sighed deeply. With those in civilian robes gone, the hall looked markedly empty.

‘This isn’t all of them,’ he thought.

Those who had only been watching would likely slip out after the expulsion ceremony, or vanish one morning.

How many will remain? How many will be here tomorrow, and the day after? After a week, will even half of them stay?

Lost in thought, he soon let out a short, bitter laugh.

‘What’s the use of thinking.’

There was a time they all shared the same dream: to make Southern Island the world’s greatest sect. To show the Central Plains sects, who sneered at them as country bumpkins from the South Sea, just how powerful Southern Island could be.

But now that dream was swept away like a pavilion built of sand on a white beach. What remained were only fools who couldn’t bring themselves to abandon a ruined dream.

“Ja-Yang. What about the third class disciples?”

“...I’ve prepared to drag them out, spanking them if they cry they won’t go out. They’re clueless kids; we have to send them out.”

“Good. Well done.”

A blatant look of contempt crossed Ja-Yang’s face.

“Those kids say they’ll die with Southern Island, but the ones who lived off Southern Island and strutted around are running away to save themselves.”

“...”

“Getting older doesn’t mean you become a decent person, sahyung.”

“Enough.”

Again Gwak Hwan-So shook his head, and Ja Yang shrugged and spoke indifferently.

“Don’t pretend to be a good man. Normally you’d be the angriest of all.”

“What good would anger do?”

“Isn’t it because you’re too angry?”

Gwak didn’t answer. Maybe he really was. But he soon shook his head.

“Those who are going can go.”

“...”

“I am Southern Island’s great disciple. My concern is for Southern Island’s disciples—why should I care for those who refuse to be Southern Island disciples?”

Ja-Yang snorted with a laugh.

“So the ones you should care about are the stupidest in the Southern Island. They’re the ones willing to give up their lives.”

“Exactly why I must care—because they’re fools.”

Gwak Hwan-So gave a small laugh.

He meant it literally. Those who’d stay to the end are the dumbest, most thoughtless even in this wide Southern Island—those who would try to smash a rock with an egg.

“Still, don’t we at least get one thing out of it?”

Ja-Yang shrugged and said.

“It’s a pity we didn’t make Southern Island the world’s greatest sect, but later we can at least be known as the sect where the world’s dumbest gathered.”

“Is that something to be proud of...”

“Better to leave something than nothing. Isn’t that right?”

Ja-Yang joked. Seeing his sun-darkened face, a smile crept across Gwak Hwan-So’s mouth.

“Yeah. Well, that’s not entirely wrong. Even searching the world, there won’t be folks as dumb as us.”

“Exactly. If we’re the best at something, that’s enough, isn’t it?”

The two looked at each other and half-smiled—bittersweet self-mockery mixed with awkward pride.

Then it happened.

Bang!

“Sahyung! Senior sahyung!”

The hall doors burst open as if to be smashed in, and a Southern Island disciple, drenched to the skin, dashed in flustered. Gwak shouted in surprise.

“What is it? What’s happened?”

“They-they’re here!”

“Who? Surely not Four Sects...!”

“Mount Hua has come right now!”

“...Who came?”

“Mount Hua! Mount Hua!”

“...Who?”

“Geez! I’m telling you Mount Hua came! They’ve arrived at the mountain gate!”

In that instant Gwak’s gaze went through the open doors. Rain and wind raged fiercely.

“...They came here?”

Ja-Yang also murmured in a startled voice.

“...Are they really insane?”

At those words, Gwak Hwan-So snapped fully awake.

“Let’s go!”

He ran without hesitation ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ out into the raging rain and wind.

“S-sahyung! Let’s go together!”

Ja-Yang and the other disciples scrambled to follow him.

Whoosh!

The downpour stung their faces like needles. But there was no time to worry about such trifles.

‘They came here?’

Through this typhoon, to Southern Island, which might soon be at war with the Four Sects Alliance?

There’s a limit to stupidity. At that level it’s not stupid; it’s madness. It’s utterly absurd.

But at that moment, the image of Mount Hua they’d once met came to mind—the faces they saw at the martial arts contest, pale and gaunt, but nonetheless proud.

And the many stories about Mount Hua’s arrival.

Whoosh!

Running full tilt, Gwak Hwan-So saw the scene before the mountain gate: Southern Island disciples at a loss and about a dozen people standing before them.

‘R-really...’

The rain was truly torrential.

It poured so hard their vision blurred and it was hard to see ahead.

When Gwak Hwan-So reached the gate he slowed and looked at the roughly dozen people standing there with such presence...

“...It’s cold!”

“This is the south!”

“How can we help being cold! Damn it, we survived and came all the way here!”

“How long must we wait?”

“I’ll never pee south again!”

“...Food. Somebody give us food...”

...No—he stared at these strange creatures, looking either like drowned rats or beggars starved for months, venting every irritation.

Then someone who’d been openly grumbling turned his head and saw Gwak.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

“That pale courtesan fellow from before...”

“That ignorant country bumpkin from before!”

“Who’s the bumpkin, you bastard!”

Gwak couldn’t help but shout back.

The pale fellow—like a courtesan’s brother—swept his seaweed-like bangs aside, stepped forward, and declared arrogantly.

“I am Baek Cheon, Mount Hua’s Acting Sect leader. I have come here as an envoy of the Heavenly Friends Alliance. Let me see your sect leader!”

Rumble!

Before he finished, the sky flashed and thunder roared ominously. Baek Cheon glanced up, his face paling, and said again.

“If possible, quickly—before lightning strikes...”

“...”

“Hurry.”

Gwak thought: this is a little...no, very different from what I expected.