Chương 96: S.05 Time to Fly 04(06)

Scene 03_03. Looking at Jeong-seon, who sat alone in the head seat, Ji-young and So-hui stepped inside. As Ji-young and So-hui came into the wide old Han-ok (Han-ok_Traditional Korean House) dining hall, Jeong-seon rose from her place and trotted up to Ji-young without a word. Jeong-seon, no small girl in height, grabbed Ji-young's hand, dragged over one more chair right next to her own seat in the head place, and forced Ji-young down into it.

As if she had finally finished some preparation, Jeong-seon let out a freed breath and sat in the head place with Ji-young. Ji-young, looking puzzled, scratched the back of her head hard. To push back felt out of place for a day like this — Ji-young swallowed the discomfort of sitting at the head and threw a glance around at the others. Lee Yeon and Hee-jin both, as if to say it was fine, nodded without a word.

Si-yeon, coming out of the kitchen with the last dish, wobbled a little, and Ju-rim sprang up to lend a hand to Si-yeon. The big pot was heavier than it looked. Ji-young: Wait, what did you go out and buy. Why is it so huge? Si-yeon: Ah, the place nearby was running a sale on Jap-byeo (Jap-byeo_Mixed bones for stew broth), so I bought a lot. None of us has eaten anything anyway, so we're all hungry. I simmered it for a good while, it'll be edible.

Setting the huge pot down on the table while grumbling on, Si-yeon lifted the great lid. The steam climbing up reached the ceiling. Jeong-seon, without a word, picked up her own bowl and the ladle first. After Jeong-seon — who heaped a generous serving of the lavish 전골(Jeon-gol_Korean simmering hotpot) — Ji-young, smiling without a word, filled her own bowl to the brim. Jeong-seon's wordless resolve to accept. Not an elder yet, but a Jeong-seon who had resolved to stand at the very front.

Jeong-seon decided, without a stir in her, to walk her own road in silence. To only show it, without words. One by one, the bowls of the others were filled too. Jeong-seon and Ji-young, with their starving stomachs, started eating fast, not minding who saw. Everyone carried the lavish meal on without a word. Jeong-seon, chewing, asked Ji-young — who was also chewing with her mouth crammed full of meat — Jeong-seon: Sis. So, where are me and the Seventh Steward supposed to sleep? Until the construction's done?

Ji-young: Mom's annex at Central. So-hui and Si-yeon are staying there now. Her mouth full, her chewing did not stop. Jeong-seon: How long? Mouth packed with meat, chewing, Ji-young looked over at Hee-jin. Hee-jin, not setting the meal aside either, slid the answer along by looking at Gyeong-seo. Gyeong-seo, late to catch Hee-jin's glance, answered with her mouth full and chewing. Gyeong-seo: About — half a month, I think. We'll need someone for site supervision... since we don't have the full structural diagrams.

Ju-rim: I will take the supervision. Ju-rim too — the fine, lofty look and voice gone without a trace — held the Mixed bones for stew broth in her hands and stripped them clean, and gave a willing answer to Gyeong-seo's careful proposal. Ji-young: Ah, eat fast, gotta go. The Master of the Eastern Province and Yeon-su probably haven't eaten either. Jeong-seon: Don't scold her too much. I felt sorry for her. Watching her fight the traces of two Envoy's Legion all by herself, inside her.

Ji-young: Hey, what do you take me for. I'll coax and soothe and kick her out of the Sealed Sanctum. Don't worry about it. You — pack your stuff properly and follow So-hui. Si-yeon: But, either way — the one who blew a hole through sis was her, right? Ji-young: The Master of the Eastern Province blew the hole? It was the dead-and-gone Putrefaction piece of shit who did it. Si-yeon: Well, sure. So-hui: So, all of you, listen to what I say. You always make a scene by not listening. Jeong-seon: I listened well.

That's why I said I'd come along. I followed your instructions and we even laid Mom to rest in a spot with good southern light — what's the deal. So-hui: Not you. There's one person who won't listen for the life of her. Si-yeon: I'm already dead so I don't have to listen. Ji-young: You'll go and drop me dead with you doing that. Lee Yeon: We will block that. Si-yeon: See? The picked-clean empty Mixed bones for stew broth piled up. The meal carried on, noisier than it had been in a long while.

Even Hee-jin, who normally only ate in silence, was today gentle enough to hold the bones with her hands and pick them clean without pause. Ji-young: Looks like the Strategist was hungry too. Hee-jin: I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday. So that's a full day of fasting. And — word came in too that Seon-woo sis and the Secret Agent ate their meals well enough. Detainees are given regular rations. Ji-young: Like the Strategist's the only one who was starving. We all missed our meals.

Jeong-seon: Ji-young sis, how's your body. Ji-young: Hey. Who do you think helped me. Like I'd still be wobbling around. Jeong-seon: Fair. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Ji-young: Anyway you — So-hui and Si-yeon are gunning for you, so go stay with them and take this chance to get worked over good. Jeong-seon, who had been stripping bones, opened her eyes wide with the bone in her mouth. Jeong-seon: Wait, I live well, why??

Si-yeon: You call that swordwork? Looked like you were flailing around holding a fistful of straw. Gyeong-seo: Ha! Like you fight so well. So-hui: I wonder who was lying flat on her back with Yeon-su after taking some Black Water. Gyeong-seo: Ah, So-hui sis. That was, you know, me shielding you, and I took a bit much of the River of the Dead — So-hui: Ah, sure. Gyeong-seo, with the expression of someone who had bitten salty food, pulled out a fresh bone and clamped it grumbling between her teeth. Si-yeon: Anyway.

You. You said you have to stand in front now and protect the elders. So you've got to learn it by getting your ass handed to you. Jeong-seon: Ah. SSibal. Shall I refuse. So-hui: Don't worry. The Seventh Steward's coming with us. We'll make sure no blood gets drawn. Lee Yeon: For Bishop Yoon Jeong-seon, no — not at all. But for Yoon Jeong-seon the student, I have all the latitude to be as hard as I please. Jeong-seon: Hah... Ju-rim: Jeong-seon took the switch a fair bit, didn't she. From Yeon-ah.

Jeong-seon: Do you know I still have the scars from then?? Lee Yeon: Don't kid yourself. The one who cleaned those scars off you was the former Bishop, you know? I was right there watching. The older this kid gets, the more brazen she gets. Jeong-seon: You want me to roll up. The calves?? Lee Yeon: Roll them up?? If you didn't exist I'd make new ones on you. Ju-rim: Aigoo. This one's past a hundred and eighty, what is she doing picking a fight with a twenty-year-old.

Ji-young, as if it had gone on long enough, even pulled out the ornament binding her hair, rolled her sleeves up tight, and stripped bones clean. The noisy talk did not stop. The relief through chatter — a familiar tradition for those who had striven to leave no regret — was the way of those who had been here before. They did not let themselves grieve only sorrowfully. The deep feeling they had laid for one another like comfort settled warm over the table. Scene 03_04.

Jeong-seon, in plain comfortable clothes, stood with the Stewards. On the green field rising up the hill, no green leaves had yet taken their place, but the light coming down had turned to a respectable warmth. The wind that had been sharp now held a soft heat. Jeong-seon's long hair lifted lightly in the gentle wind. There was no way someone whose loss had been so recent could be whole, as if everything had been settled.

After the noisy chatter, in the silence and the setting that followed, the young Jeong-seon only looked at the stone mound without a word. But she did not want to weep. She felt that now was the time not to weep. To rein in her brimming eyes for a moment, Jeong-seon lifted her head high to the sky, and then brought a steady smile to her face again as she looked down at the stone mound. Jeong-seon: Mom. Once the house is fixed up, I'll come back. You watch over the site supervision with us.

They said Master Ju-rim and Master Jeung-yu will take turns. The silence of one who had lost words could carry no meaning. But as if it didn't matter, Jeong-seon, standing alongside Lee Yeon, went on with her own voice, steady. Jeong-seon: The unni-s said they're suddenly going to beat me up. So funny, right? Those unni-s? Whether it's that they want me to pull myself together the way they pulled themselves together, or whether they're just going to wallop me — anyway, no context, just going to.

After delivering the childlike grumble, Jeong-seon let out a great breath. Jeong-seon: Still, all of them stayed with me to the very end. Now I — like Mom — will stand at the front, and protect the masters who taught me. That's why I'm going to go get beaten, Mom. No matter how Jeong-seon tried to hold them back, her big eyes faded red soon enough. Jeong-seon: I will try not to regret it. I will not regret it. I can't say I did everything without leaving anything undone, but I won't regret it.

So Mom, you be happy too. There. Don't get pushed around by those worm-trash Envoy's Legion. The unni-s and I will cut every one of them down. Just — forget all of it and just live happy. As if she had wrapped her voice all the way around, Jeong-seon offered two deep bows. Matching Jeong-seon's bows, the Stewards together offered two deep bows. After letting a steady breath go, Jeong-seon turned and looked at the Stewards. Jeong-seon: I'll, go get worked over hard, and come back.

Mom — by the will of the former Bishop, each Steward, please attend to the regional sub-temples, and come up with the believers of the main hall. Ju-rim: Understood. Jeong-seon, together with Lee Yeon, moved her step from the stone mound. Toward Jeong-seon as she went down, Ju-rim and the remaining Stewards bent their waists deep. Watching Jeong-seon's back without a word, Ju-rim drew a light smile and turned again to look at the stone mound.

With her steps moved a touch further, Ju-rim ran her hand over the top of the stone mound. Her fine hand moved as if tracing it, and for a moment she summoned up words she would send to the mound. Many words came up, but Ju-rim held her words back. She delivered only a wordless certainty, a wordless resolve. Through the brush between the hills a hushed wind blew in. Scene 04. The firmly shut wooden door let out a small friction-sound as it opened.

Toward the presence sitting slumped low, Ji-young carefully moved her step, came up past the 인불(In-bul_Ghost Light) drawn down inside, and threw the firmly shut door wide. Ji-young, who had stepped in, paid no mind to the eyes around her and plopped herself down. Behind Ji-young, Soo-a, Hee-jin, and I-seon had come along. When Ji-young glanced back briefly and threw a small hand-sign to the others, the three of them — eyeing one another — bent at the waist without a word and stepped back out.

Inside, Seon-woo and Ji-young alone remained. Ji-young: Master of the Eastern Province. Seon-woo: I am sorry. Before Ji-young could even say much, Seon-woo dropped to her knees and offered her bow to Ji-young first. Soaked through with the damp from the Sealed Sanctum's wooden floor, Ji-young — feeling the helplessness and torpor the warped Black Water carried — sat there, taking Seon-woo's deep apology without a word, her head pressed to the floor.

If that could even a little ease Seon-woo's thoughts, she would take it. Watching the head Seon-woo had bowed down to the floor, Ji-young drew a light smile. Lowering her knees a touch, she carefully raised Seon-woo's bowed upper body. Ji-young: There, the apology is plenty received, so, get up. Ji-young's quiet urging and coaxing was passed along through Ji-young's hand on Seon-woo's upper arm to lift her. Seon-woo, slowly, raised the body she had pressed down.

She was so deeply lowered that even the look of grief did not show through clearly — her head was bowed that low. After lowering Seon-woo to sit on the floor, Ji-young sat herself again in a comfortable posture on the Sealed Sanctum floor and carried the talk on. Ji-young: Even so, you were trying so hard to push it out. Seon-woo: It did not go as I willed. The Retribution alone was already more than I could bear, every day. Once putrefaction set in too, I could do nothing about it.

Ji-young: Still, you didn't just hand it over easy. To the very end. Seon-woo: As I have, every day, I cursed myself. Not for a single day have I failed to curse the trace lodged in me. And that trace, in the end, became a blade pointed at The Oldest, finally turned on The Oldest — Ji-young waved a hand. With a light smile, she swung her sleeve to settle Seon-woo, but Seon-woo could still not look at Ji-young properly. Ji-young: It's not as if you wanted to hold it.

Mom and Dae-mo-nim worked hard to draw it out, but it's not as if that's something easy to do. Every last one of them — clingy, pathetic, dead-ex-boyfriend pieces of shit. Seon-woo only sat quietly, head still bowed deep, unable to carry any answer. Even at Ji-young's flat, easy grumble, Seon-woo could not bring herself to smile. With a light sigh, Ji-young gripped Seon-woo's upper arm a little firmer. Ji-young: First — the Inspectorate of the Northwestern Province, let's wrap that up a little later.

Now that we know that piece of shit stays there, instead of marching out and stirring up a fight, this matter — when the Executive Secretary takes office, then. We'll do it then. Seon-woo: May I ask why, to the very end, you do not kill that bastard. Ji-young: I get that you want revenge, but. Um. How do I put it.

Seon-woo: Only then would even a little of the cruelty I directed at The Oldest become lighter, only then would even a little of the cruelty I directed at The Black Doctrine — Reading Ji-young's meaning in her silence, Seon-woo let it lie for a moment and decided to hear Ji-young out, quietly. Ji-young's even, low voice carried on for a fair while. Seon-woo, having only listened in silence, lifted her head a fraction and looked up at Ji-young.

As if a little weight had lifted, Ji-young opened her chest and let her unfussed voice carry. Ji-young: Of course, that doesn't mean I trust every road. I can take them as reference at most. The will toward the choice we've decided to walk is stronger than I'd thought. Just look at Mom. Ah — not that I don't trust So-hui. Every road So-hui carries is, no doubt, accurate. And among them, I chose to trust the happiest result.

To walk a road where all of us, every one of us, can have the best one anyone can have — that's the road I'm walking. Only, each of us has our role. That much is clear. And, Seon-woo nodded, slow. Ji-young: All of this, too — maybe, it was something that had to happen. For all of us. For me. So, don't blame yourself too much, don't be angry. What you did to me, all of it, let it go. Hurry back to the Eastern Province, get some rest. Honestly, I am right now, seriously, dead tired.

At Ji-young's easy banter, Seon-woo at last nodded slow, and looked up at Ji-young in front of her a little more properly. Seon-woo: Your body — is it all right. Ji-young crinkled her face hard and tilted her head. Ji-young: Going to sleep a bit and then think about it. Right now I really don't even know where the hurt is, what the problem is. Ah — speaking of which, I'll grab a shower and go see the Physician. Ji-young pushed her body up to full height.

Patting at her legs as she stood, she put her hand out to Seon-woo seated in front of her. Ji-young: Let's go. Don't stay in here.