Episode 1141 But what can I do? (6)
Baekcheon quietly approached the lush bushes and lowered his posture a little. This is because the sound of weapons clashing could be heard more clearly from closer.
‘Two?’
It didn’t seem like the sound of several people fighting…
He minimized his presence as much as possible and moved forward cautiously. I approached the place where I could hear the sound and carefully turned the thick bushes to the side.
‘uh?’
At that moment, Baekcheon unconsciously opened his mouth at the unexpected sight in front of him. The moment the sound comes out.
“Shh.”
A voice came from right next to me. A frightened Baekcheon tried to scream, but a hand quickly covered his mouth.
“Shhh.”
“….”
Naturally, it would be impossible for someone around 100,000 years old to obediently allow another person to see his or her face, but this person was an exception. This is because the person who covered his mouth was none other than Yu Iseol.
“quietly.”
When Baekcheon nodded silently, Yu Iseol took her hand away from her mouth. There were a lot of questions about her appearance, but that wasn’t important right now. First, I turned my gaze and looked at the scene in front of me.
Chaaeaeaeang!
Sword and sword clash.
A young man wearing a pure white military uniform flipped backwards and fell mercilessly.
“Ugh!”
An uncontrollable moan escaped the young man’s mouth, but there was no time for him to act harshly. The young man reflexively turned his body to the side.
Coooooo!
His foot fell where the young man’s face had been just moments before, leaving a clear footprint on the ground. It was so obvious what would have happened if I hadn’t turned around.
However, before he could feel relieved, the person who stepped on the ground kicked the young man in the back, who had twisted his body.
bang!
The young man flew away like a frog kicked by a child and landed on a large tree trunk.
Coooooo!
The stuck body slid down and fell. Lee Cheongmyeong, who was looking at the scene indifferently, opened his mouth in a calm voice.
“wake up.”
“….”
“Why? Have you done enough now?”
Hearing those words, the young man Seol Sobaek’s fingertips twitched.
“Cough!”
When I coughed dryly, blood came out. Seol So-baek stood up shakily. I stumbled several times as if all the strength in my body was gone, but I somehow managed to stand by using my sword as a walking stick.
“Reaction was slow.”
Cheongmyeong looked at him with indifferent eyes and said.
“It’s inevitable that your strength will run out. Because I don’t have enough power. It can’t be helped that the speed is slow. Because I lack strength. But the delay in reacting itself is entirely your problem.”
Seol So-baek’s hand holding the sword was trembling. It’s not because I was shocked by Cheongmyeong’s words. I am shaking from sheer exhaustion to the point where my stamina is completely depleted.
His condition was already ruined.
The uniform, which was as white as snow in the North Sea, was covered with dust and stained yellowish-yellow, and black blood had dried here and there. His face, which was originally white, had lost even the slightest trace of blood and looked almost as pale as a corpse.
“why?”
Cheongmyeong looked at Seol Sobaek and asked coldly.
“Shall we stop here?”
“Oh no, Dojang!”
Seol So-baek grasped the sword tightly with trembling hands.
“If you want to stop, you can stop. “You’ve done enough.”
“no!”
Seol Sobaek gritted his teeth and said.
“You said what the master said. “It’s up to you to decide whether you’ve done enough or not!”
“….”
“I’m not good enough! So we need to do more!”
Cheongmyeong chuckled.
“Like that?”
“….”
“Let’s be honest. You don’t have to do this. No one will ignore you because you are weak. “At least as long as I live, no one in the North Sea will touch you.”
Seol Sobaek gritted his teeth.
“And objectively speaking, you tried hard enough. No one can tell you that you had a good time. So, before you get hurt…”
“No!”
Seol Sobaek shouted and interrupted Cheongmyeong. It was a voice that was almost like a scream. His bloodshot eyes stared straight at Cheongmyeong.
“I did enough, I worked hard!”
The grinding sound could be heard clearly.
“What does that mean? In the end, all that means is that I am too weak to even participate in ice palace training!”
“Isn’t it obvious? “You started learning martial arts too late, and you didn’t become a palace lord because you were strong in the first place.”
“Why is that so natural!”
Seol So-baek shouted as if he was angry.
“Have you ever understood something like that? How could the archers be so weak when the ice palace’s owner is so weak? And can you protect the people of the North Sea?”
“….”
“Just because you’re young doesn’t mean you lose responsibility! Saying that you will get stronger later is not comforting! Doesn’t that ultimately mean that I am weak and unable to do what I need to do now?”
Seol Sobaek corrected the sword that was stuck in the ground and pulled it out.
“You will become stronger. As the bingungung lord, I will be qualified to lead the bingungung like other munlords. “As soon as possible!”
“Anyway, this foolish guy….”
“Thanks to someone I learned from.”
At that moment, Cheongmyeong rushed towards Seol Sobaek and swung his sword. Seol So-baek quickly raised his sword to block, but at that moment, his body was thrown away.
Although he reacted in time, he was unable to withstand the power of the sword of Cheongmyeong.
“Wow!”
Seolsobaek, who was severely injured, eventually vomited red blood. Seeing that, Cheongmyeong approached with a sad look on his face.
“It’s unfair, isn’t it?”
“….”
“I reacted clearly, but I lost strength. There’s nothing I can do about this. So how on earth am I supposed to win? Are you saying we should just keep losing?”
Xue Xiaobaek’s eyes wavered slightly. Because those words directly represented his feelings.
“by the way. Gangho is really that kind of place. It’s unfair and infinitely unfair. effort? There is no guarantee that you will receive a fair reward even if you work hard. But…”
Cheongmyeong laughed softly.
“But what can I do? If all you can do is try, you should do that. is not it?”
Seol Sobaek forced his trembling body to stand up.
“Cough!”
Even though I coughed with difficulty, I firmly regained my position. Cheongmyeong asked about this more calmly.
“You know, right? There is little chance that you will grow up to be able to do your part before this war breaks out. “There is even less possibility of him playing his role as the lord of a single palace.”
Seol Sobaek nodded.
“Are you still going to do it?”
“yes!”
“Even if it’s meaningless?”
“yes!”
Seol So-baek’s answer did not contain a single hesitation. Seeing those intense eyes, a satisfied smile appeared on Cheongmyeong’s lips.
“It looks like you didn’t get hit much. “Then shall we beat them until they say they can’t do this anymore?”
Cheongmyeong rushed towards Seol Sobaek in a straight line. At that moment, Seol Sobaek also gritted his teeth and kicked the ground in response to Cheongmyeong.
No sparring. Baek-cheon, who was watching the one-sided beating disguised as a sparring match, turned his head and looked at Yu Yi-seol.
“Samae.”
“yes.”
“…Since when have you been doing that?”
“when?”
Yu Iseol tilted her head slightly. As if those words are difficult to understand. But before Baekcheon could elaborate again, her answer came out.
“Is it the first day? Starting the next day.”
“next day?”
“Starting the day after Bingung came.”
Bai Qian flinched for a moment and looked at Xue Xiaobai again.
‘Isn’t today the first time?’
So, does that mean that Cheongmyeong has been beating them during the day and dragging Seol Sobaek out at night to train them?
No, no. That’s not it.
‘When did Binggung come?’
So, Binggungju was holding on despite being beaten one-on-one like that every night?
‘It’s crazy…’
It’s not a particularly strange sight. Because he was always influenced by Cheongmyeong as much as Seol So-baek… no, even more than that. But aren’t he and Seol Sobaek different in the first place?
There is no way that young palace lord could endure such training that even Baekcheon could not endure.
‘But you’re holding on, right?’
Baekcheon was inwardly confused as to how to accept this scene. At that time, Yu Iseol whispered in an indifferent voice.
“I’m growing.”
“…huh?”
“Different from day to day. Amazingly fast.”
Yu Yi-seol is not a person who evaluates people generously. For a person like that to say something like this, it must really mean that Seolsobaek is getting stronger quickly.
‘Is it talent?’
no. That won’t be it.
Of course, it’s not that she doesn’t have talent, but when Yu Iseol says this, she means that there is something other than talent. And there was no need to worry about what it was.
“Aaaaaah!”
Seol Sobaek rushed towards Cheongmyeong. I was wondering if I could even get there without falling, let alone reaching it properly.
When Baekcheon saw that, he clenched his fists without realizing it.
‘That much…’
I tried too hard. And I worked too hard. No one can deny the fact that Baekcheon did his best.
But at this moment, Baekcheon realized something.
‘I knew that too.’
I think I worked hard enough, tried enough, and thought to myself that it would be difficult to do more than this.
I could feel it as I watched Seol So-baek dragging his feet and swearing that he would swing his sword one more time. Before we knew it, Baekcheon had become someone looking down on someone from above.
‘I…’
Baekcheon bit his lip slightly and turned his head to look at Yu Iseol.
“Why Samae?”
“…At first by accident.”
Probably so.
Yu Iseol has long hated showing her personal training to others. It must have been very difficult to train in a manor where not only Hwasan but also other sects were present.
‘No, you mean… does that mean that even after doing that much, Samae continued to practice individually?’
Even Baekcheon hasn’t been doing it lately.
“After that…”
Yu Iseol tried to say something but closed her mouth. This probably means that it is difficult to say the exact reason.
But Baekcheon seemed to know why Yu Iseol wanted to watch this scene.
bang!
Cheongmyeong kicked Seol Sobaek in the side and sent him flying. And he opened his mouth without any hesitation towards Seolsobaek, who was lying down.
“It’s not that easy to lead people.”
“….”
“It’s not difficult to stand in front. But leading is a completely different thing from standing in front. You must work harder than anyone else and never fall behind. And you must be confident that you are clearly moving in the right direction.”
“…yes.”
“Confidence comes from concern. It comes from the suspicion that what I thought might be wrong. One day, you too will face a moment when you fall into the illusion that you are still right because the conclusion you came to after thinking about it over and over again led me to this point. “The moment when you mistakenly believe that you can just do what you have been doing until now.”
When Baekcheon heard those words, he clenched his fists.
“Remember that.”
Cheongmyeong said coldly.
“When the position changes, what was right becomes wrong and what was wrong becomes right. And no one knows when that time will come. “Maybe it’s a year from now, maybe tomorrow, maybe it was yesterday.”
“….”
“So if you don’t want to be wrong, you have no choice but to constantly worry and doubt.”
Seol Sobaek nodded his head with difficulty.
“That’s what it means to lead. It’s hard work. But if you can do it…”
Cheongmyeong held the sword and swung it around.
“Binggung can really get a proper palace lord.”
“…of course it will happen.”
“I mean, who can’t do it? “Come and see.”
“yes!”
Seol Sobaek gritted his teeth and rushed towards Cheongmyeong again.
Cheongmyeong watches Seol Sobaek with his sword lowered, and Seol Sobaek moves forward with full force. Above them was a bright moon.
Baekcheon closed his eyes without realizing it.
‘It wasn’t stagnant. I was just frozen in place.’
He grabbed the sword that was almost like his own body. He felt the feel of the sword, which he had become so accustomed to and had become comfortable with, one by one, from the beginning, and dug deeper and deeper into himself.
