Childhood Friend of the Zenith - Chapter 54

༺ The Plum Blossom Dragon (4) ༻

I could feel their intense stares.

I didn’t know why, but the people of Mount Hua had suddenly begun staring at me intensely.

Why are they suddenly acting like this?

I slowly scratched my cheek and Shinhyun and Yung Pung, who were next to me, flinched visibly at my movement.

Huh? Why are you all scared?

I couldn’t understand what was going on.

“...Ahem.”

Shinhyun let out a fake cough on noticing the weird gaze I was giving him.

“...Why are you all suddenly acting like this?”

“No, it’s uh...”

“...How can I say this?”

Huh? What was that reaction?

At this point I realized that the people of Mount Hua who had been previously staring intensely at me could suddenly no longer look at me.

Instead they began whispering amongst themselves.

“...I knew he looked familiar.”

“But his eyes aren’t too similar?”

“That’s why it’s hard to make eye contact with him...”

I could hear all of their murmurs.

It was obvious that they were speaking about me, but why all of sudden?

“What are you all talking about?”RêAd lateSt chapters at nô(v)e(l)bin/.c/o/m Only

I finally asked after holding it in for a while.

It didn’t feel too nice to see them whispering about me while standing right in front of me.

Shinhyun responded to the question I’d asked with an audibly irritated tone.

“...Uh, everyone is just surprised that you are from the Gu Clan.”

He was suddenly talking to me more formally.

What did me being a descendant of the Gu Clan have to do with any of this?

“Your little sister is rather famous amongst our people...”

“My little sister?”

I carefully mulled over Shinhyun’s response.

If I was to be honest, I didn’t really know much about my little sister.

I just knew that ever since young, she had been away from the clan and had spent her life in Mount Hua.

So unlike my two older sisters that were in the clan, I didn’t really have the chance to interact much with my little sister.

Now that I thought about it, it was a strange thing for a descendant of a noble clan to be accepted into a taoist clan as one of them.

But back then, I hadn’t really thought much of it.

Of course, in the later days, it was impossible not to know since my little sister gained so much fame.

One thing that I did know about her, however, was that every once in a few years my little sister would come back to the clan for a few days.

Besides that, I didn’t really have much information on her during this time.

“...What about her?”

I asked Shinhyun because I couldn’t figure it out no matter how much I thought about it.

“...Ahem.”

Shinhyun kept opening and closing his mouth as though he couldn’t answer easily.

What’s the big fuss about for him to hesitate that much?

“Sir, I would really like to ask you something.”

Yung Pung interrupted the conversation while Shinhyun was struggling to speak.

“What is it?”

“...Young Master, was senior always like that?”

Senior?

The Shinhyun before me was a disciple of the second generation of Mount Hua, and since he was called master by Yung Pung, it meant that Yung Pung was a disciple of the third generation of the clan.

Let alone me, my little sister was around two years younger than Yung Pung, so I expected them to be in the same generation.

So... why were they referring to her as ‘Senior’?

“...What do you mean by that?”

“Um... It’s, uhh...”

After struggling for a while, Yung Pung shut his eyes tightly and spat out his question.

“Was Senior Gu once a boy-”

I couldn’t hear all of Yung Pung’s words,

Because Shinhyun immediately slapped Yung Pung’s lips with his hands.

“Oufghh!!”

Yung Pung rolled backwards while holding his lips that got slapped, and was sent even further away after being kicked by Shinhyun.

Then in the back, the people from Mount Hua started to kick and beat up Yung Pung as if they had been waiting for it.

Yung Pung’s screams rang out as kicks rained on him.

“O-Ow! Master, please wait...!”

“Is this guy crazy?”

“He was really about to say that out loud? Hey! Who is the direct master of this kid!? Who is responsible for this third-generation student!? Who taught him this way!?”

“It’s you, you idiot!”

“Owww!”

“...”

The situation before me rendered me speechless.

Yung Pung who was getting beaten up to the point where dust spread everywhere... I could’ve sworn that he had been trying to ask me about some boy...

I tried to ask Shinhyun, but Shinhyun strictly refused.

“Uh...”

“You do not need to worry about this.”

“Um... I feel like I do have to.”

“No, no, you really don’t need to. We felt that he needed more teaching anyway, and this is a good time.”

“Huh...?”

Teaching? That was teaching? Could they really treat the one being called the Sword Dragon like that...?

His appearance was completely polar opposite of what I was expecting.

I had expected that he would be the calm and mature type, but what in the world...?

「As expected, they taught him well. It is important for teachers to make bonds with their students like that.」

“Oh... right.”

If this old man had really been the Divine Sword, then I could guess from where it all started to go wrong.

The hand that she held was cold, but she was definitely able to feel the warmth in it. The disciple took this as a sign of love.

She walked at the same pace as her master so that she wouldn’t fall behind.

She kicked away the stones that could trip her as well.

Dust slowly gathered on her pretty clothes, but she didn’t care.

The master calmly patted her disciple’s head.

“Ryunghwa.”

“Yes, master.”

The master was hesitant to speak.

She had something to say, but it was something that her disciple disliked.

“It’s around that time when you return to Shanxi for a little.”

“...”

As expected, the disciple became quiet after hearing her teacher’s words.

The master noticed the slight frown on her face.

The master lightly smiled upon seeing that appearance.

“You are going there to see your family, do you hate it that much?”

“...”

“Ryunghwa.”

“...-family.”

The disciple whispered quietly.

The master moved her ears closer to her.

She was then able to hear her disciple’s voice a little more clearly.

“...They are not my family.”

She sounded like she was about to cry.

The master slowly lifted her head and hugged her student.

“...I’m sorry.”

The master couldn’t do anything but apologize.

It was not her business to talk about such a topic.

She was a disciple she had been asked to teach her, but she had no regrets.

Because she realized not long after, that the happiness she got was from none other than her disciple.

The only disappointment was that her body wasn’t in its healthiest state.

If they had met a bit earlier, she would have taught her more things and hugged her more frequently.

She felt a heavy grudge against time because of that.

The master wanted her disciple to only find happiness in this forsaken world.

Under the moonlight that shone on Mount Hua,

The Plum Blossom Sword patted her student’s head bitterly.

* * * *

– Roooaaar-!

The birds that hid in the forest quickly fled following the roar of a bear.

The area was filled with the corpses of demons.

In a puddle of blue demon blood, Namgung Bi-Ah calmly withdrew her Qi.

How many times had she come across demons?

She counted up until her finger’s limits, but she couldn’t remember any more after that.

She had run restlessly from Shanxi, but after running for a long time, she started feeling doubts about what she was trying to do...

But she didn’t want to go back home.

As she’d found a place that was more comforting than home.

Namgung Bi-ah was someone who found her way with her senses.

To be precise, she moved in the direction where the stench was least present.

But because of that, she would often get lost.

And now, she was already running out of Qi,

A sudden rain had drenched her, alongside the equally sudden appearance of demons in her path,

And because she kept running through the mountain roads, her neat clothes had now turned dirty and ragged.

However, she was familiar with all of those things.

And thankfully, she had come across a lake, so it wasn’t all bad.

“...Just a little more.”

Namgung Bi-ah whispered to herself in the forest where only trees and grass were visible.

She was determined to follow through with her quest.

If you asked how she was so sure about her whisper, not even she would be able to answer.

She just felt that way.

That if she went this way, he would be there.

The only cozy and warm place that existed in this forsaken world.

She cleaned her sword and started to move again.

It was definitely this way.

She just felt that this way was the right direction for some reason.

“I want to see him alr-”

Namgung Bi-ah’s eyes widened and she covered her mouth after speaking without thinking.

...I want to see him?

Why?

Is it because he doesn’t smell? Is that why?

She started to slow down her steps and eventually came to a halt. She then began organizing her thoughts.

She stood still for a long time.

After thinking for a while, she finally spoke.

“I want to see him...? I want to see him.”

Namgung Bi-ah nodded her head.

She didn’t know why, but she felt that she wanted to see him.

And that much was enough.

There was no need to think about it further.

“Only a little more.”

She could feel him from far away.

It was an uncertain certainty.

She still felt like she had some ways to go, but it wouldn’t take that long.

Namgung Bi-ah, after finishing organizing her thoughts, started to move again.