Chapter 1278

Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1278. I wasn’t wrong (3)

Editor: Hoamzz

Co-Translator: Xoxo

Chwaaaak.

The now rougher waves crashed against the ship, churning up white foam. Chung Myung watched the scene silently with sunken eyes.

‘How frustrating.’

If it were just running on one’s own feet, one could simply push off harder. If it were on horseback, one could spur the horse onward, but when moving on a ship pushed by the wind, there’s a limit to how much speed human effort can add.

So from now until the moment they arrive in Gangnam, they'll just have to kill time like this.

‘Anyway, this sort of thing really doesn’t suit me.’

In a way, this is perfectly natural. Yet to be frustrated by the nature, perhaps Chung Myung was never meant to be a Taoist in the first place.

“You look lost in thought.”

Chung Myung turned his head at the voice. Nokrim King, Im Sobyeong, approached him with a grin.

“Or maybe there’s nothing going on in that head of yours.”

“....”

“Which is it?”

“This one, I guess?”

As Chung Myung gestured toward his fist with his chin, Nokrim King slowly stepped back.

Chung Myung chuckled and turned his gaze back toward the sea... No, to be exact, toward Gangnam.

“How long will it take?”

“Well, at this pace, we should arrive by midnight.”

"Longer than I thought."

“Well, if Dojang did what you’re best at and just swam across, I’m sure Dojang would get there in no time, but…”

Im Sobyeong flicked his gaze toward the deck. Hainan Sect disciples sat clustered here and there, resting like horses that had collapsed in exhaustion.

“But then those yangban would be completely done for.”

"Hm."

Chung Myung let out a soft sigh. Im Sobyeong looked at him with a peculiar smile.

“You sure about this?”

Chung Myung remained silent. But it seemed Im Sobyung hadn’t actually expected an answer. He calmly continued.

"Of course, I'm just someone who does as told, but aren't you someone who must bear responsibility?"

“Anyone listening to you would think you don’t care if you drop dead.”

“For a strategist, it is a natural death to meet the wrong superiors and end up dying. That's how strategists are meant to die."

"...Is that something Nokrim King should say?"

“What does it matter if I’m Nokrim King or whatever shit? That’s the role I expected to play in Heavenly Comrade Alliance anyway.”

Chung Myung couldn't help but smile. What a truly peculiar person.

However, from Im Sobyeong's perspective, Chung Myung seemed to be the peculiar one.

"Of course, I know everything Dojang does has its reasons, but....”

Im Sobyeong swept his gaze over Hainan Sect disciples with slightly cold eyes.

"I don't understand. Will dragging along such luggage actually help?"

“....”

“Having one sect of Ten Great Sect into our rank would certainly serve a significant symbol to the world, but… I’m not sure, justification is only meaningful when it eventually becomes power.”

Im Sobyeong continued speaking with a strange expression.

“I don’t think prioritizing immediate gains over far-off justification necessarily makes someone wrong.”

"What are you trying to say?"

“Nothing in particular.”

Im Sobyeong shrugged.

“I’m simply asking. I wonder if it would serve any help for us to save those pathetic people who have fallen down exhausted as if they fought the world’s battles alone when they've barely even swung a sword properly.”

At those words, Chung Myung glanced at Hainan Sect's disciples. They looked completely drained.

Well, he couldn’t entirely blame them. For people who had lived their entire lives without seeing blood, it would be stranger if they weren't shocked by witnessing heads being severed and limbs flying through the air before their eyes. Especially in times like these.

But... Chung Myung also knows. What Im Sobyeong said wasn’t entirely wrong.

Having excuses doesn't change the situation. Chung Myung still had to break through Gangnam with these youngsters who knew next to nothing about real battles. That Gangnam where Evil Tyrant Alliance stood guard.

“If you were going to object, you should’ve done it sooner.”

“Have you ever actually listened when I objected?”

Im Sobyeong scratched his chin with the end of his fan.

“Strategists fundamentally hate inefficiency. Arguing when nothing will change anyway is a waste of time. Pointlessly straining my voice.”

Chung Myung stared at Im Sobyeong without saying a word.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“No....”

Chung Myung shook his head.

“I feel like I’ve heard that before.”

“Probably more than once or twice, right?”

“Right.”

- What's the point of saying anything? You’re just gonna do whatever you want, Sahyung! Might as well be preaching to a cow’s ears!

Chung Myung laughed unconsciously. A memory of Cheong Jin yelling at him with veins bulging in his neck flashed through his mind.

It seemed nothing much had changed about Chung Myung after all. He thought he had changed so much, yet here he was.

“Well, maybe saying something could actually change something.”

"I wonder."

Im Sobyeong looked at Chung Myung with a strange look in his eyes and said.

“If it were just plain stubbornness, perhaps.”

“....”

"But this seems like more than simple stubbornness."

Chung Myung smiled and shook his head.

“You’re giving me too much credit.”

“Of course, that may very well be the case. No, honestly, the chances of that being the case are muuuuuch higher, and I know it.”

...But this punk? Chung Myung quietly glared at Im Sobyeong, but Im Sobyeong quickly looked off into the distant sea, feigning innocence.

Then he spoke softly again.

"Yet I still can't stop you."

"Why?"

To Chung Myung’s question, Im Sobyeong paused for a moment before answering with an entirely different subject.

“Ever since I was a child, listening to old stories or studying history, there was something I could never understand.”

“What is it?”

“It’s that the smartest people always end up serving under idiots, suffering endlessly, and then dying miserably.”

“....”

“A strategist’s role has originally been held by the brightest minds of their age. Then wouldn’t the conclusions they draw be the closest thing to a right answer?”

"Right."

"Yet those at the top always refuse to listen until they collapse in ruin, and only then do they regret, spouting predictable lines like 'Ah, I should have listened to that advice back then.'"

“Are you insulting me now?”

“Tsk. Please listen until the end.”

Although Chung Myung shot him a deeply displeased look, Im Sobyeong ignored him and continued talking.

“Do you know what my biggest question was when I saw those situations?”

“...Why won’t the people above listen?”

“That’s not it. Those at the top are usually a bunch of dimwits who don’t listen anyway. It’s always idiots who end up in charge. What’s the point of cursing someone stupid for being stupid? They’re just born stupid… N- No! I'm not talking about you! Put down that fist!"

“…Watch it, you.”

When Chung Myung spoke in a tone that showed just how little he liked the conversation, Im Sobyeong smirked.

“At any rate, that wasn’t what frustrated me. What I couldn't understand was why the smartest people would suffer such unreasonable hardships under such people. They could just build up their own forces instead.”

Chung Myung gave a short laugh and asked back.

"So?"

“That’s why I thought I would never do that. I should create my own force that only listens to me and completely destroys the force led by those idiots!”

“That’s why you became Nokrim King?”

"Well... that was half thrust upon me."

It was true he was pushed into it, but if he really hadn’t wanted to be Nokrim King, there were many ways to avoid it. But he didn't. Because there were things he wanted to try himself.

"So? Then you could have just done as you thought."

"Yes. Of course, I did as I thought. But I soon realized. That was just the delusion of a child who didn’t know reality.”

Im Sobyeong clicked his tongue sharply as if annoyed.

“So what if you’re right? Nobody even pretends to listen. Even if you suggest the right approach, they dismiss it as the ramblings of a scholar.”

“....”

“Persuasion? Oh, that’ll do. Of course, I’ve tried. But people don't even consider the possibility that they might be wrong. Even if nine out of ten points I make are correct, they’ll latch onto the mistakes and declare everything you said is nonsense. And I swear, at times I just wanted to …!”

"You couldn't win, could you?"

"...So I endured."

Chung Myung patted the drooping shoulder of Im Sobyeong.

"You've suffered."

“…Don’t even get me started.”

Chung Myung chuckled as he looked at Im Sobyeong's exhausted face.

Truth be told, Im Sobyeong’s personal martial arts prowess was not all that lacking. The problem was that it wasn’t on par with what one would expect from Nokrim King. Moreover, until recently, he was ill and couldn't even display half his abilities.

In a place like Nokrim, where the law of the jungle applied more than anywhere else, how effective could Im Sobyeong’s words have been?

It was obvious what hardships he must have endured without even seeing them. At first, except for Nokchae who was loyal to the previous Nokrim King, nobody would have properly treated Im Sobyeong as Nokrim King.

“Still, once you got older and your skills got stronger, your voice must’ve carried more weight, right?”

“If all I wanted was to laze around comfortably in Nokrim, perhaps. But what difference would that make? I would have been just another idiot, worse than the last Nokrim King.”

“Well, yeah.”

Im Sobyeong stared at Chung Myung intently.

“It was during those times that I saw something. Someone who pouts nonsense, makes unbelievably stupid decisions, keeps gambling on absurd chances, basically an idiot who seemed destined to die an early death… N- No. I mean that's how you were before! Before! Cough! Cough! Oh, my illness is acting up..."

“....”

“And yet!”

Im Sobyeong grinned.

“Despite the unimaginably foolish judgments and stepping into certain death, there are people who willingly follow such a person.”

“....”

“It was then I realized. Ah. Such people exist in a different category altogether."

Chung Myung shook his head with a bitter smile again.

“You’re overestimating me again.”

“Of course.”

...But this bastard?

“But you know.”

"Hm?"

"It seems I'm not the only one making this overestimation?"

Im Sobyeong chinned slightly toward Hainan Sect's disciples. Chung Myung glanced in their direction as well.

"People who were living peacefully and comfortably in Hainan Sect are now walking into death's jaws, leaving behind the sect they've lived in their whole lives just because some unknown person showed them one path. They’re willing to die there if they must.”

“....”

“Do you think this is logically possible?”

“Because it’s the right path.”

"That's exactly the point."

Im Sobyeong chuckled.

“If people live their lives only choose the right path, there would be no wars. If knowing the right path meant people would follow it, the world would be overflowing with virtue. But look at the state of the world.”

“....”

"Dojang isn't someone who shows some exceptionally righteous path that others don't know about."

Im Sobyeong smiled broadly.

“You’re the kind of person who makes others walk the path they already know but never dared to take.”

Im Sobyeong's gaze moved past Chung Myung toward Gangnam.

"Even if that path ends in death."

Chung Myung stayed silent, his face growing slightly more solemn.