RPPL C37

The journey from nearly the end of the land all the way up north was not an easy one. Even while estimating the route and the time it would take, Bipa was endlessly lazy. Only Chajo was burning with impatience.

“I told you to go on ahead.”

At this point, it seemed as if Bipa was dragging his feet just to tease Chajo. In Muyun’s opinion, that was correct.

While Muyun packed their belongings, Bipa gathered the jujube and peach tree branches he had collected, bundled them up, and put them in their travel pack. He also packed his old fan and a silent bell. Of course, he also packed a straw rain cape and a wide-brimmed hat.

“I told you, we need to hurry.”

“So go on ahead. Didn’t you say the ladies looking for you are lined up?”

“Well, I am… hmm, quite spiritually gifted.”

It wasn’t even a compliment, but Chajo puffed up with pride. Bipa replied indifferently.

“Then go. Ride a cloud or something.”

“How can a person ride a cloud?”

Chajo scoffed and shook out his robes. Dust billowed up. It made one wonder just where he had gotten them and how long he had been wearing them.

In the end, Bipa insisted on wearing clothes of the color he usually wore. A style that, according to Chajo, was like plain water that didn’t stand out at all. Though in Muyun’s eyes, it didn’t look like plain water in the least.

Bipa had a unique, sorrowful air about him. It gave him a mysterious, misty aura. Even when he was just blankly watching a line of ants, Bipa was someone who looked as if he were deep in thought. Therefore, in Muyun’s view, pale colors suited Bipa better than dark ones.

The wound on Muyun’s ear was healing quickly. Unlike his worries, it didn’t get infected or swollen. The small ruby earring went very well with his eye color. Bipa felt proud of his own discerning eye for managing to pick out something good even in that chaotic mess.

“Once we leave, will you go on ahead then?”

When Bipa asked after finishing all the packing, Chajo nodded eagerly.

Unable to overcome that stubbornness, Bipa reluctantly got to his feet. He put on a cheollik and his cotton shoes. He didn’t go as far as to put on a dapho (T/N: a sleeveless or short sleeved garment). Even so, he looked much more formally dressed than usual, and it was a pleasing sight.

“You look like a military officer.”

Bipa chuckled and lightly slapped Muyun’s shoulder. Muyun, with his bow slung over his shoulder, awkwardly touched the hem of his clothes. Wearing clothes that fit for the first time in a while felt strangely stuffy and uncomfortable. Moreover, the rustling sound they made with every movement was not very pleasant. It seemed he was not the type of person suited for luxury.

“Let’s get going now.”

Leaving Muyun standing outside the brushwood gate, Bipa turned his back and faced the house. A sense of déjà vu made Muyun hastily grab Bipa, who was about to take a step.

“You’re coming back, right?”

“……”

Uncharacteristically, Bipa hesitated for a moment. The old fan in his hand slowly swept across the main beam.

All he had to do was strike it a few times.

Normally, Bipa would always demolish the house before leaving for a long journey. Because the god protecting the house had long since departed, it would soon decay anyway.

It was something he always did without any lingering attachment.

“……”

But in the end, Bipa put the fan away. It was a place that held many memories with Muyun. At the very least, he didn’t want to destroy it with his own hands.

“Let’s just leave it.”

Bipa smiled and turned back. Chajo, who had been waiting outside, saw them and gave a nod.

“You’ll say you don’t want to go together, right?”

Chajo mumbled regretfully. Bipa and Muyun nodded their heads at the same time.

“Well then, may your journey be peaceful.”

Bipa waved his hand as if to cut off Chajo’s long-winded farewell and pulled Muyun along. Muyun heard Bipa mutter, “Just hurry up and go already.” He let out a small laugh at the grumbling sight.

Chajo strode away with long steps, disappearing to the west. Bipa turned his steps northward. He had been thinking he should leave soon, but he hadn’t known he would be pushed out like this by someone else’s will.

“Let’s go. It’s a long way.”

Bipa looked back at Muyun. And his eyes met a strangely low gaze.

In just a little while, Muyun would catch up to Bipa’s height. The difference was slight. Bipa looked forward to that time and also felt a little sad about it, so he secretly wished for that moment to be postponed, even just a little longer.

❀࿐

As soon as they went north, the cold they thought had retreated was felt once again. It felt as if they had gone back several months. Back to when he was sixteen, not seventeen.

If he hadn’t been sold to the Saetani and had lived with the slash-and-burn farming community, he might have died before he even turned sixteen. If he had been lucky enough to live, he would have had his coming-of-age ceremony and gotten married like everyone else.

Muyun preferred his current life, which had flowed in a completely different direction and become unpredictable. To be more honest, he liked that he was living that life with Bipa.

“It’s been so long, I don’t recognize anything.”

Bipa gave an awkward laugh and dragged Muyun here and there.

The place they were heading to was the house he had lived in back when he stayed in the old capital city. This was what Chajo meant by ‘owing a favor’. The house Bipa had lived in belonged to Songui. As such, he would have managed to take care of it somehow all this time.

The house was probably the same, but it had been so long that the way there was not. Bipa kept circling around downtown Gaeryeong.

“There are really a lot of people, and it’s so complex.”

“Because it’s a very, very old place.”

The nation’s capital, Gaeryeong, was a place where goods and people gathered. It was the most prosperous, the most glamorous, and the most corrupt place.

Because it was such a large place, the scenery that appeared in different spots as they walked was varied. Just a moment ago, it was an alley full of dazzling silks and accessories and fragrant food, but now, children covered in filthy grime were playing, kicking a burst pig’s bladder.

As the strangers passed by, the children stopped playing and looked up at them. Muyun saw that the children’s eyes were filled with fear.

Mixed among those gazes were some that were not human. From shady corners, from cracks in the walls, from the gaps in the straw of sunken thatched roofs that hadn’t been refilled, they were furtively following Muyun.

Muyun indifferently turned his eyes away. He knew now that those Doui things could no longer harm him.

“What’s that now.”

But it seemed Bipa was not the same. His gaze was directed under a wooden porch where there was no sign of human presence. Different from the countless other gazes, a moon-yellow eye was staring fixedly this way.

“This neighborhood has become interesting while I was away.”

Bipa smiled and approached it. The surrounding children cried “Wah!” and scattered, disappearing in all directions. In the silence, Bipa tilted his head under the porch. Then he reached his hand in and pulled something out.

In his hand, a fox was dangling. Dangle, dangle.

The fox was small and so skinny you could feel its bones. It held its front paws together as if gripping Bipa’s hand tightly, curled its tail toward its belly, and trembled with its hind legs tucked in as if holding its pee. It looked completely terrified.

“How on earth did you end up here?”

Bipa burst out laughing at the vermillion legs clinging tightly to his hand and the black-tipped paws that looked as if they were wearing cotton shoes.

Watching this, Muyun unknowingly put a hand to his forehead.

“Now all sorts of things are getting attached to him…”

It was already a daily routine for Muyun to chase away the young spiritual creatures that flocked to see Bipa. Bipa tended to give more of his heart to strange beings, and he had an even bigger soft spot if they were small and weak.

As Bipa came closer, Muyun bent down and looked into the fox’s eyes. Translucent, amber-colored pupils were glaring fiercely back at him. Contrary to its appearance, he could feel it had lived for a long time.

The fox, startled by Muyun’s face suddenly thrust at it, furiously clawed at the air. Then, by a stroke of luck, it slashed Muyun’s lip vertically. His lip was torn, just missing the corner of his mouth.

“Are you okay?”

Bipa, surprised, took the fox away. Instead of answering, Muyun pressed the back of his hand firmly against his mouth. Because it was his lip, it bled quite a lot. It didn’t hurt. But he pretended it was quite painful and said to Bipa.

“Master, it seems ferocious, let’s just let it go.”

“…It’s true that foxes aren’t exactly very weak.”

Muyun disliked all strange beings, but he disliked foxes the most among them. The memory of the alpha fox injuring Bipa and making him bleed was still vivid.

But Bipa, as if he didn’t even remember that incident, was just scratching the fox’s belly and doting on it.

“Master.”

Muyun muttered in a very low voice.

“This thing, are you going to keep it?”

Bipa glanced at him cautiously in response to the look in his eyes as he asked. This was Gaeryeong, not the mountains. If he left it here, it would be pushed around and eventually disappear. It would probably get stones thrown at it by mischievous children, too.

It would be nice to take it in for a while and release it in the mountains when they leave Gaeryeong.

The only reason he was minding Muyun’s feelings was because he remembered how Muyun used to tell him like a habit that he didn’t need any other disciples or friends.

“For now, we should… probably keep it with us, don’t you think?”

The fox was looking up at Bipa, pretending to be as pitiful as possible. Then it made eye contact with Muyun, let out a cry, and burrowed into Bipa’s arms. Sparks flew from Muyun’s eyes.

“You little fox.”

“Let’s say ‘fox cub.’ The two are a bit different, you know. The nuance.”

Then he slyly placed the fox in Muyun’s arms. He was telling him to get along with it. It would be even better if he grew fond of it and thought of it as a younger sibling.

But Muyun seemed like the eldest son who had no interest in his younger siblings. He casually grabbed the fox by the scruff of its neck and lifted it. It was quite a funny sight, growling with its tail curled up to its navel.

After briefly checking on Bipa, who had started looking for the house again, Muyun glared at the fox and silently threatened it. He was telling it not to even think about sticking by the master’s side.

“Muyun, here…”

Then, just as Bipa was about to turn his head, he wiped the expression from his face and pretended not to notice. At the same time, he sneakily bit his injured lip with his teeth to make it bleed again.

At that, Bipa came over in surprise. Feeling the touch of Bipa’s hand gently pressing a white cloth to stop the bleeding, Muyun smiled triumphantly.