HDCLSSRS Ch 19

Chapter 19 A Humble Man in a Noble Place (4)

 

“I feel like I can finally breathe.”

Seong Muyeon lightly wiped the sweat from his forehead and let out a relieved sigh.

Baek Ryeoil hadn’t seen him look this clean since the day he was assigned to Chwijeongjae as his quarters. He looked around the room in a daze, when Seong Muyeon tugged on the blanket beneath his body.

“Ah, please move.”

“Huh?”

When Baek Ryeoil stepped aside, Seong Muyeon rolled up the blanket and threw it into his arms.

“Go wash this.”

“Huh?”

“It’s disgusting! Take it and wash it clean! And while you’re at it, wash yourself and change your clothes too. You stink, you know?”

Baek Ryeoil pulled at the front of his robe and sniffed himself. Indeed… After being drenched in blood and dust during the battle, he had only dipped himself in a stream to rinse off the blood on the way back, so the smell was quite unpleasant.

“Hurry up!”

“Ah, okay…”

Just as Baek Ryeoil was about to leave the room, he paused and turned his head.

“But aren’t you going to wash too?”

“Oh, right.”

Seong Muyeon followed him out.

Baek Ryeoil led him into a secluded forest. A little deeper in, a clear pond appeared. It was one of Mount Hwasan’s ponds, called Ongnyeoji.

Baek Ryeoil stripped off his clothes without hesitation, not caring that the area was completely exposed, and trudged into the water.

Seong Muyeon checked the water temperature before undressing.

“Ah, it’s freezing!”

“What are you doing? Not coming in?”

“The water’s like ice!”

“You won’t die.”

“I will die.”

With a loud splash, Baek Ryeoil emerged from the water.

Seong Muyeon’s gaze instinctively dropped lower. Something as impressive as its master’s martial strength was swinging closer and closer.

Baek Ryeoil grabbed Seong Muyeon’s arm and tugged.

“Stop making me use my hands. I said you won’t die.”

“How would you know, Master? No, thank you! I’d rather not bathe!”

Seong Muyeon clung to a tree and resisted. A tug-of-war broke out between the one pulling and the one refusing to be pulled.

“Such a pampered young master, aren’t you picky?”

“That’s not why! You don’t know anything!”

Seong Muyeon could not bathe in cold water. It wasn’t just pickiness — he really could die. His frail body couldn’t regulate temperature like a healthy person’s. If he entered such icy water, he could easily bid farewell to life.

At that moment, a group of boys came rushing in. They seemed to have come to bathe, but froze when they saw Baek Ryeoil already there. After some hesitation, unable to contain their curiosity, they approached and spoke.

“Senior Baek, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, just washing up. Jeez, aren’t you embarrassed with kids watching? Hey!”

To Seong Muyeon, it seemed like Baek Ryeoil was the shameless one. Even in front of young disciples, he revealed himself in all his natural, swinging glory.

“Is that the person you brought earlier? The one people said was a beggar?”

“I’m not a beggar!”

Seong Muyeon yelled from where he still clung to the tree.

“Then what are you two fighting about?”

Eventually giving up on prying Seong Muyeon off the tree, Baek Ryeoil asked the boys,

“Do any of you have a bathtub?”

“A bathtub? No, we just bathe here. Why bother?”

“Right? So it’s not me who’s weird, right? He’s the weird one, right?”

Tears welled up in Seong Muyeon’s eyes from the injustice. He thought only the Demonic Sect was full of crazies, but Mount Hwasan was no better. He felt like a two-eyed man in a one-eyed world.

“Ah, our master does have one, though.”

“Really?”

Baek Ryeoil quickly jumped back into the water and started scrubbing himself. The boys also entered the pond.

Seong Muyeon sat a little away from the water’s edge, gloomily watching the scene. To him, they all seemed like people whose pain receptors had stopped working.

“…”

When the boys began splashing each other playfully, he moved as far away as possible.

After a quick bath, Baek Ryeoil threw on his clothes over his wet body.

“Let’s go. I’ll get you a bathtub.”

“Huh? From where?”

Baek Ryeoil casually headed off somewhere. When they arrived at a certain hall, he walked right in and came back carrying a large bathtub with one hand.

“See? Told you.”

“That looks stolen.”

“A Daoist has no private property. What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is still mine.”

“…I don’t think that’s right.”

Still, the thought of bathing in warm water made Seong Muyeon’s heart flutter.

He heated water in the kitchen hearth attached to Chwijeongjae. The hearth was so clean it seemed it had never been used — apparently, no one cooked here.

Seong Muyeon created a splendid bath in one corner of the kitchen. As he loosened his waistband, he glared.

“…Are you really going to just stand there and stare?”

Baek Ryeoil was leaning against the kitchen wall with his arms crossed, staring intently at him.

“It’s just between guys. What, you gonna sneak off once I leave? Pretend to bathe then run?”

“Where could I even run to, from you, Master?”

“You never know. There could be another Gunjasan-like situation.”

“There isn’t anymore. Really.”

But Baek Ryeoil didn’t let his guard down one bit.

In the end, Seong Muyeon undressed under Baek Ryeoil’s sharp, watchful gaze. Just taking off the rags he’d worn for days felt refreshing.

He dipped his toes in the tub first to check the temperature, then slowly immersed himself.

The hot water embraced his overworked muscles. A sigh of delight escaped him. This was his first proper bath since encountering Baek Ryeoil.

‘It would’ve been perfect without the watchdog.’

Baek Ryeoil didn’t blink once, eyes glaring as if he’d burn holes through him.

“Stop staring. I’m going to wear out.”

“But you know…”

Baek Ryeoil trailed off uncharacteristically.

“Why didn’t you learn demonic arts? You’re the son of the Demonic Cult’s leader.”

His persistent gaze had been examining the body that showed no signs of martial training. When clothed, he merely looked somewhat thin, but his naked body revealed the truth. Scrawny limbs and a torso so bony it looked skeletal — “healthy” would be the last word to describe him.

“I had no talent, so I couldn’t.”

“None of the other cult leader’s sons are like that. Only you? Strange.”

“Exactly.”

Unlike Seong Muyeon, his six brothers each excelled in their own fields — all above average at the very least.

Truthfully, they all had different mothers. So perhaps the cause lay in genetics, but he didn’t want to blame his late mother, so he said nothing more.

Baek Ryeoil didn’t pick any more fights until the bath was over. It seemed he was shocked after only seeing the rugged men of Hwasan and then encountering Seong Muyeon.

‘If I can earn the sect leader’s trust, there won’t be a safer place than here.’

Though brought here unintentionally, the more he thought about it, the less it seemed like a bad thing.

Seong Muyeon decided to settle in Hwasan.

To do that, he first had to build trust.

“Hey. I’m really not going to run away anymore, okay? So please relax.”

Seong Muyeon called out over his shoulder. But all he got in return was a cold snort.

“…I mean it.”

So this was why people said first impressions were important. Damn it.

White blankets flapped in the yard, drying under the sun.

Sip.

Seong Muyeon tilted a teacup against the hazy view of Mount Hwasan’s majestic scenery through the wide-open window.

“…Where did you get that?”

“The tea leaves? They were in the kitchen.”

Baek Ryeoil let out a dumbfounded chuckle. Seong Muyeon hadn’t even been in Chwijeongjae for half a day but already acted like it was his home. Few people had nerves of steel like that.

Baek Ryeoil looked around his room again. It was spotless. Seong Muyeon had thoroughly searched the place, found unused bedding, and laid it out, making the place feel like new.

Sip.

‘Not bad.’

After eating food someone had brought in a tiffin box and finishing his tea, it truly felt like paradise. Once the teacups were cleared and the last of the cleaning done, the sun was already setting behind the mountains.

Baek Ryeoil came back with a sturdy-looking rope. A bad feeling struck Seong Muyeon, and he instinctively stepped back.

“W-What’s that for?”

“It’s a rope.”

“Yes, but why the rope…”

Baek Ryeoil firmly tied their wrists together.

“I figured you might try to escape while I’m sleeping. This way I’ll know immediately, right?”

When Baek Ryeoil tugged his arm, Seong Muyeon was pulled along. Baek Ryeoil lay down on the bed.

“Come on, lie down here.”

He patted the spot next to him.

“Sometimes I… no, I often want to crack open your head and see what’s inside, Master. Must we really do this?”

“I should be the one saying that. Aren’t you coming? I’m exhausted. Because of you, my thigh even got a bald patch!”

Baek Ryeoil used his strength to subdue Seong Muyeon again. Seong Muyeon’s knees buckled far too easily. Baek Ryeoil barely moved his limbs, and before he knew it, Seong Muyeon was laid flat on the bed.