Chapter 11

“You’re weird.”

A dissatisfied voice suddenly rang out.

Straightening his bent back, Cheon-oh looked at Sa-yeong with a faintly bewildered expression. Ever since the incident a few days ago, Sa-yeong had worn a look of profound displeasure; she frowned deeply and immediately averted her gaze the moment their eyes met.

“You’re weird.”

“…Yes, well.”

With that half-hearted reply, Cheon-oh bent back over. The water, which came up to mid-calf, was surprisingly clear, letting him see the fish darting around his feet.

They’re so easy to see and they’re not even moving that fast. Why do I keep missing them?

He’d lost count of how many times he’d been fooled by the slick sensation of fish sliding straight through his grasp. His martial arts uniform, rolled up past his knees and elbows, was already half-soaked.

“I know people exactly like you. There were tons of them where I used to live. People who look perfectly normal on the outside, just like you, but…”

“Noona.”

As Sa-yeong’s tone grew increasingly hostile, Sa-hyeon—who had been nervously roasting a fish over the campfire—quickly cut her off. Clicking her tongue, Sa-yeong corrected her slouching posture and sat up straight.

“Don’t get too friendly with him either. I’m not falling for it.”

“But Master said…”

“Master can say things like that because he’s overwhelmingly strong.”

Because no matter what that little kid tries to pull, Master has the power to stop him. But you and I don’t.

Even with the subject of her complaints standing right in front of her, Sa-yeong spoke with chilling nonchalance. Pulling a small pouch of salt from her robes, she took a pinch, sprinkled it over the fish meant for her and Sa-hyeon, and began expertly picking the meat off the bone.

Naturally, there was no spot by the fire for Cheon-oh, who had yet to catch a single fish.

Having started listening closely again the moment their master was brought up, Cheon-oh simply wiped the splashed water off his cheek with the back of his hand.

Even though he was being openly insulted to his face, he didn’t feel particularly angry or wronged, nor did he feel any pressing need to change her opinion of him. He had vaguely realized that their master was constantly pulling the siblings aside to persuade them to accept him, but Cheon-oh himself had no real desire to integrate.

Perhaps sensing that indifference, Sa-yeong would put on a passably friendly front whenever their master was around, only to turn instantly cold and hostile the moment he left.

Still, as long as their master was putting in the effort, Cheon-oh couldn’t just sit idly by.

“I am truly sorry for eating the honey without permission, Senior Sister. The next time I find a beehive, I will definitely—”

“Ugh, it’s not about that!”

Snapping, Sa-yeong yanked out her hair tie and raked her fingers through her hair until it puffed into a messy mop.

I wonder if Master knows she acts like this. It’s probably all within the palm of his hand anyway. If so, then resolving this is my responsibility, Cheon-oh thought as he watched the siblings.

“Anyway, there is something fundamentally wrong with you. And it’s something you can never, ever fix.”

“…Well, Senior Sister. I do not believe that is the case.”

Normally, he would have let whatever she said slide, but this was a statement he couldn’t simply ignore.

—There is nothing fundamentally “wrong” with you. You are simply undereducated.

“My thoughts are simply not yet mature. I will learn much more and put in the effort from now on, so if you would just give me a chance…”

Just then, a fierce gust of wind sliced past his loosely hanging hand. At the same time, something speared the water with a sharp, violent splash. A second later, when he glanced down, he saw a hand-sized fish thrashing desperately, skewered clean through by a small throwing dagger.

Having thrown it with a level of skill completely unsuited to an eleven-year-old, Sa-yeong stood and brushed off her pants.

“I told you. People like you never change until the day they die. It’s not something you can just ‘learn’ to fix. It’s just habit and pure instinct.”

“…”

“I have no choice but to treat you like a junior brother when Master is around, but don’t expect anything beyond that. Don’t even think about getting close to my brother, and just fend for yourself. You can at least do that much, right?”

He certainly could. It wouldn’t even be difficult. If anything, he’d been feeling a strange awkwardness whenever he tried to mingle with kids his own age.

Without a word, Cheon-oh pulled the throwing dagger from the water. The fish impaled on its sharp tip continued to thrash wildly, unable to slip free.

“Eat that and crawl back whenever you feel like it. I have absolutely no intention of walking back with you, so make sure you come up with a good excuse.”

With those final words, Sa-yeong turned her back and walked away with Sa-hyeon. Troubled by leaving their youngest junior brother all alone, Sa-hyeon kept glancing back over his shoulder.

Watching their retreating figures for a moment, Cheon-oh splashed his way out of the water. The campfire still burned brightly, throwing off enough heat to warm his chilled body.

With the siblings gone, the sound of the small waterfall and the trees rustling in the wind came through clearly, undisturbed by chatter. Feeling oddly more at ease, Cheon-oh turned his gaze back to the pool he’d just stepped out of. The jade-colored pond rippled gently under the waterfall’s impact.

If I need an excuse… why would I return late by myself?

It was obvious the only reason Sa-yeong had dragged him out here since midday—claiming she wanted to play in the water together—was to deliver that exact message. It seemed she truly despised him, but no matter how much he thought about it, he knew he had to improve their relationship.

There was absolutely no benefit in being hated by a disciple their master cherished, and even if he tried to play the victim to gain sympathy, he couldn’t be certain their master would take his side. He had arrived only recently, and he was so weak he couldn’t even catch a single fish; he was at an overwhelming disadvantage.

Yet if he approached her too actively, it would only heighten her wariness.

I suppose I have no choice but to keep my head down and stay quiet for now.

Applying his master’s teachings, Cheon-oh meticulously analyzed the relationship dynamics and reached a conclusion.

Once his hands had warmed up enough, he used the throwing dagger his Senior Sister had left behind to scale the fish, slice open its belly, and remove the innards. Skewering it on a sharpened branch, he held it over the fire, simply copying what he’d seen Sa-hyeon do out of the corner of his eye.

He could understand why Sa-yeong’s guard was so high. Though he hadn’t heard it directly, he could guess the siblings’ background from their speech and habits.

They must have grown up in a harsh environment filled with rough people who used profanity without hesitation, a place where the only person they could rely on was their own flesh and blood.

If so, it was highly likely they had grown up seeing only a skewed, biased version of the world.

Therefore, she is wrong.

His master was right. There was nothing “wrong” with him. He was simply lacking because he hadn’t learned everything yet.

Perhaps because he hadn’t seasoned it, the fully cooked fish tasted like nothing at all. Because it was so small, picking out the bones was also a hassle. Still, perhaps because it was so fresh, he enjoyed the chewy texture.

I wonder when I’ll start learning how to handle weapons like Senior Sister. My body feels almost completely healed now.

The walk back to the Estate of Deep Mists was a bit long, but he had memorized the route. He figured he could always say he’d gotten distracted watching a squirrel. After smothering the campfire with dirt to kill the embers, Cheon-oh stood. Just then, the clatter of hooves echoed from the top of the waterfall.

He looked up—and the first thing that caught his eye was the massive silhouette of a deer, boasting four distinct horns.

***

A torrential downpour began on his way back.

Hoisting the overstuffed sack onto his back, Cho Yoon quickened his pace down the mountain. Absorbed in his work, he hadn’t realized how much time had passed.

The kids had said they were going to play in the shallow waterfall pool all afternoon, and he had even prepared snacks for them to eat when they got hungry, but there wasn’t a guardian in the world who could stay comfortable leaving three young children at home alone—especially when they said they were going to play near water.

Who would have guessed Mount Cheongwe was literally a treasure chest from the heavens?

His original goal had simply been to visit the herb fields from “Cho Yoon’s” memories to gather ingredients to ensure the three kids grew up healthy. However, upon arriving at Mount Cheongwe—an inviolable territory located at the very edge of the Point of No Return Mountain Range—there were hardly any ordinary herbs left.

Instead, the area was overrun with mythical elixirs, the kind ordinary people might never see even once in their entire lives, growing wild like common weeds.

What is all this? Purple Dawn Divine Grass, Golden Bell Fruit, Tathagata Immortal Fruit, Nine-Leaf Divine Grass, Hundred-Grass Silk Lotus Fruit… and I don’t even know the names for half of these! If the Immortal Healer Cho Yoon doesn’t know their names, doesn’t that mean they haven’t even been discovered by the world yet?!

There were so many Ten-Thousand-Year Fleeceflowers and Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginsengs that he could practically boil them down into candied snacks. Thrumming with excitement, Cho Yoon selectively picked only the elixirs that held immense internal energy with zero toxicity or side effects, stuffing his sack to the brim.

During that frantic harvest, the short mountain sun quickly dipped below the horizon, and the notoriously fickle weather of the Demonic Mountain began to run wild.

Yet even as he sprinted through the pouring rain, Cho Yoon’s mood pierced the very heavens. Just the thought of feeding his kids such incredible ingredients made him feel like he was going to burst out laughing.