Chapter 20. Brothers and Senior-Junior Brothers

Lee Byeok and Hyuk Dae-woong climbed the mountain side by side.

Before long, they found a place where oak trees were moderately dense.

Hwoong, kwaak!

The axe dug into the tree trunk.

Hwoong, kwaak!

Hyuk Dae-woong’s axe-wielding was skillful.

With just a couple of swings, a tree lost its balance and tilted.

Kwaak, kuung!

Soon, the tree fell.

But without a moment to catch his breath, Hyuk Dae-woong immediately started chopping at a nearby tree again.

Lee Byeok silently waited for him to speak, chopping the tree Hyuk Dae-woong had felled into transportable sizes.

“Thank you. Byeok.”

Hyuk Dae-woong, who had been absorbed in chopping for a while, finally opened his mouth. It was a rather serious voice.

“What do you mean?”

“For protecting Senior Sister when I wasn’t there.”

“……”

Hwoong, kwaak!

“Because you were there, it probably ended with just that. Right?”

“…No, it was because of me in the first place.”

Jaegal Somi had said.

If he hadn’t touched the disciples of Qingcheng, it would have ended without being a big deal.

“No, you did nothing wrong.”

But Hyuk Dae-woong was firm.

“No matter who the opponent is, turning tail and running away while leaving Senior Sister to be harassed is not an option. Absolutely not.”

Kwaak, kuung!

Another tree fell.

On Hyuk Dae-woong’s back, with his shirt thrown off, the trained muscles that could not be completely covered even by the bandages writhed dynamically.

“Huu.”

Only then did Hyuk Dae-woong catch his breath. And he looked back at Lee Byeok.

An awkward smile hung on his lips.

“This damn wood, if I had my inner energy, I could have torn it apart with my bare hands. It’s really frustrating to have lost my strength. Right?”

“……”

“Qingcheng Sect, was it?”

Hyuk Dae-woong turned back again.

Kwaak! The axe dug into the wood.

“Anyway, even if I had been in your place, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything.”

Hwoong, kwaak!

When he tried to save Jaegal Somi by confronting the disciple of Qingcheng, Lee Byeok had once again, albeit imperfectly, used his inner energy.

The reason was still unknown.

In the moment he desperately wished for it, there was just a handful of inner energy.

Only that much of a memory remained.

“And if Senior Sister had suffered an irreversible wound, I wouldn't have been able to forgive myself for the rest of my life either.”

Hwook, kwaang!

Hwook, kwaang!

“So I wanted to say that. Thank you. Protecting Senior Sister was protecting me.”

“……”

“Byeok. The question you asked me a while ago, remember? What senior-junior brothers mean to me.”

Of course, he remembered.

Against the tiger, Hyuk Dae-woong had risked his life, leaving Lee Byeok behind.

Despite that, Hyuk Dae-woong had not been able to give a proper answer to the question.

“I thought about it carefully while I was lying down. And I’ve come to my own conclusion.”

Teok. Hyuk Dae-woong put down the axe.

He tilted his head back and looked up at the sky.

“Senior-junior brothers are brothers with the character for ‘master’.”

Lee Byeok’s body trembled slightly.

“Ahaha, does it sound too much like a pun? I guess even if I say it like this, I’ve never had a real brother.”

“……”

He let out an embarrassed laugh.

Kwaak! And Hyuk Dae-woong resumed his chopping.

Lee Byeok suddenly felt a wave of dizziness. His hands and feet grew cold.

“Anyway, I don’t care what your past was like. Everyone has a past. Whatever happened, we’ve become senior-junior brothers now, and we’ve more or less exchanged our lives for each other.”

Hyuk Dae-woong continued calmly.

“So just as you protected us, I will protect you in the future. Because it’s natural for brothers to protect each other.”

I will protect you.

A ripple spread in Lee Byeok’s heart.

Waves spread inside his empty body. Jaegal Somi had also said something similar to Lee Byeok before.

They recklessly risk their lives and recklessly protect each other. The bond of senior-junior brothers is no different from that of real brothers.

“……”

It suddenly came to him.

When he had wounded the tiger.

When he had confronted the disciple of Qingcheng.

When he was filled with the single-minded thought of ‘I must protect’, forgetting everything else, Lee Byeok’s body found its inner energy.

When he prayed that there was something he absolutely had to protect, his body had, as if by a lie, allowed him just a handful of power.

Inner energy he couldn't feel normally.

Power that was not in his Qi Center, but somewhere else.

But… what does it mean to protect?

—I will protect your back with all my might, so you, Big Brother, please protect this clan. Do you understand?

Kulleok. Lee Byeok coughed.

Like a lie, the smell of blood rose up his throat.

His body suddenly grew heavy, and his breathing became ragged.

Lee Byeok took a step back.

Cheolpeok!

And Lee Byeok’s retreating foot stepped on muddy ground.

A humid air began to fill the atmosphere.

The clear weather that had marked the beginning of autumn was gone.

In the suffocating humidity, a whitish fog enveloped Lee Byeok.

Lee Byeok became dazed.

“……”

Lee Byeok looked around.

A familiar terrain. A damp smell.

More than anything, the figure of Hyuk Dae-woong chopping wood had disappeared.

Lee Byeok realized. This was no longer the mountainous region of Tranquil Valley where Flower Pavilion Village was located.

Kunming, Seosan Mountain.

Near the Seonwoo Clan.

Of course, such a thing could not possibly happen. All of this was just a hallucination his mind was showing him.

But nightmares show the most terrifying things imaginable.

The moment a premonition brushed past him, Tremble, Lee Byeok’s body trembled.

Peok!

And pain erupted.

A blade dug into his spine.

—Big Brother. I am sorry.

“…Hyeop.”

—I am truly sorry, but please die.

Hwicheong

Lee Byeok’s body swayed.

Teolseok. His collapsing body soon fell silently to the side.

But Hyuk Dae-woong, unaware of this, was engrossed in swinging his axe.

“Hahat, how awkward. I said some embarrassing things, didn't I? Well, at this rate, it should be soon… Byeok?!”

***

As a child, Seonwoo Byeok had once caught a cold. But he himself did not admit it.

If he didn't admit it, all pain was nothing but an illusion. Seonwoo Byeok swung his sword as always.

That was all he had.

But that alone was enough.

Whether it was a tangible object, or an intangible pain, he thought there was nothing in the world that could not be cut by the sword.

Come rain or shine.

Seonwoo Byeok was the first to be on the training ground every morning, and he was also the last to be standing.

At the time, among the young blood relatives of the clan who lived together, such eccentric behavior of Seonwoo Byeok was often a subject of ridicule.

His younger brother, Seonwoo Hyeop, had strode up to such a Seonwoo Byeok.

“Uhm… Big Brother…?”

“……”

He had suddenly addressed him as Big Brother.

A legitimate son and an illegitimate son could never be brothers. But was it out of pity, or some other feeling?

Seonwoo Hyeop had hidden the medicine he had obtained by feigning illness and secretly brought it to Seonwoo Byeok.

Seonwoo Byeok felt indebted.

The sword grew sharper day by day.

Even after time passed and their positions were reversed to the young master and the one who could not become the young master, nothing was to change.

Something that would never change.

That was what Seonwoo Byeok thought.

Therefore, if there was a reason for his death, it would be that he did not know of the change in his closest kin. Hyeop, still.

‘I wanted to protect you.’

Cut down and crushed, Seonwoo Byeok fell down the cliff. His hands and feet fluttered like old cloth.

In the sensation of floating, Seonwoo Byeok finally admitted that there were things that could not be cut even with a sword.

And now, he wanted to be at peace.

He wanted to hit the bottom quickly and be crushed, that was what he thought.

But no matter how far he fell, Seonwoo Byeok never hit the bottom.

The depth of the cliff was infinite, and the light from the sky grew more distant.

Only time passed meaninglessly.

—…Byeok. What does this make me.

—Ehyohyo, the big one and the little one taking turns being sick, I feel like I’m going to die first.

Occasionally, a few voices would echo between the cliffs.

Seonwoo Byeok didn’t particularly want to think, but when he heard the voices, his thoughts would move on their own.

And at some point, he realized.

They were all voices calling for him.

“……”

Lee Byeok opened his eyes.

His focus did not come easily.

Looking around with a blurry vision, he could tell it was the familiar quarters of the Falling Sword Sect.

Lee Byeok sat up. He stood up, planting his two feet on the ground. His balance was not good.

His legs were as thin as if by a lie. He could not gauge how much time had passed.

Lee Byeok approached the window.

Kkiik.

As he opened the tightly shut window frame, a sharp wind flowed in.

The dim outside made it impossible to tell if it was dawn or dusk.

“…Snow.”

Lee Byeok realized it was snowing outside.

It wasn't a heavy snowfall, but it seemed the season was winter.

Everything was quiet. Deolkeok. A sense of fear arose in Lee Byeok.

Even though he was standing on two feet, he couldn’t tell if his body was properly attached to the ground.

“Cough!”

A cough erupted.

And he recognized the fact that his whole body was as hot as a ball of fire. It seemed he had caught a cold.

But what was more terrible was the sense of unreality, as if even the pain was not his own.

I am Lee Byeok.

He had to make that fact certain.

Cheolkeok. Lee Byeok went out the door.

In the light snowfall, his gaunt body moved towards the place he was thinking of.

***

Peek.

Wang Suyeon carefully peeked inside the main gate.

For some reason, the main gate of the Falling Sword Sect was open, despite the rather early hour.

But there was no one in the training ground.

If it was a time when no one had woken up yet, coming to visit was in itself a rude thing to do.

Creak.

“Hwaaam.”

Just then, a door opened in the distance.

Stretching, Jaegal Somi walked out into the courtyard that doubled as a training ground.

“Somi unnie!”

“Huh? Suyeon. What brings you here so early?”

Currently, the Falling Sword Sect was temporarily closed. For the village children, it could be called a sort of vacation.

“My father asked me to bring this to the Sect Leader……”

Wang Suyeon held out a bundle.

It was nothing special. Wang Suyeon’s father, being an herbalist, often did business with the medicine peddler Lee Jincheon.

Pisik. Jaegal Somi laughed.

“You ran all the way here at the crack of dawn just for that? Hoping to see the little one thanks to the errand?”

“N-N-No! …Actually, yes.”

“You too, you’re so devoted. What do you even like about that lazy sleepyhead?”

“Ah, ahaha……”

Wang Suyeon let out an awkward laugh.

“Go on in and see.”

“By myself? Is that okay?”

“What does it matter? Whether you go alone or with someone, the person in question is just sleeping away anyway.”

“Th-That’s true……”

Wang Suyeon’s complexion darkened.

Lee Byeok had collapsed. And he had not regained consciousness for over two months already.

The cause was unknown.

He didn't even have any noticeable wounds.

Very occasionally, his fever would rise like someone with a cold, and then go down on its own.

Other than that, as if he had forgotten how to wake up, Lee Byeok was in a deep sleep with a peaceful face.

But Lee Jincheon spoke as if it were no big deal.

It was just a natural process he had to go through at some point, and all they had to do was wait.

“Well, don’t worry too much. That Sect Leader guy, as a person, he’s completely untrustworthy, but as a martial artist or a physician, he’s quite reliable.”

“Ahaha… then I’ll be back!”

Tadat. Wang Suyeon took a step.

Jaegal Somi watched her retreating back for a moment with a slightly complicated smile.

Wang Suyeon, who had seemed like just a child, was beginning to show some grace.

“Ehyu, what a mean punk.”

With a small sigh, Jaegal Somi picked up a broom.

Although it was light snow, it would be better to sweep it before it started to pile up in earnest.

Whoosh! Boom!

“U-Unnie! Somi unnie!!”

“Huh? What’s wrong? What happened?”

Wang Suyeon came running in a single breath.

“B-B-B-Big trouble! O-Oppa isn’t in his room!”

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