ROTMHS Special Spin-off - Chapter 15

Chapter 15. I Can’t Do This Anymore. Seriously. (5)

“Whose fault do you think this is in the first place?!”

“We had to save the kid……”

“I’m saying, was that really the only way to do it?!”

“I couldn’t think of anything else, so what was I supposed to do……!”

“This is beyond reckless! Who was it? Who said we should send sasuk?!”

“You did.”

At Yoon Jong’s blunt remark, Tang Soso flinched.

“W-When did I ever?!”

“No, you did. I heard it too. You were the one who said to send him.”

“You all thought the same thing! Why am I the only one getting blamed?!”

“Oh? So that’s how you want to play it?”

The disciples began tearing into each other, their accusations escalating as if they might start biting.

Watching the warm scene quietly, Hye Yeon smiled gently and nodded.

“I always feel this, but you all truly get along very well.”

Hearing that, Cheong Myeong also smiled with satisfaction.

‘I guess I should stop hitting him on the head now.’

Does he really say that they get along well after seeing that scene? If you threw him on a battlefield, he would probably start banging a wooden bell, thinking a festival is taking place.

“Isn’t it because you all firmly believe that your words will never truly hurt one another, that you can say such harsh things?”

“Isn’t it a determination to make sure they do hurt?”

“Haha. Amitabha, you really do have a way with words, siju.”

It was tragic. Even when told the truth, he couldn’t accept it. Was it because he grew up comfortably within the cozy walls of Shaolin?

This is why kids need to be tossed out into the wild and rolled around a bit.

“Wait.”

Suddenly, Baek Cheon cut through the chaos, his expression turning serious.

“This isn’t the time to keep making a racket. We need to come up with a practical solution. We don’t even have the travel expenses to return to Mount Hua, so we have to find a way to get money.”

“Wow. Really. A new. Fact. I had no idea.”

“You’re right, but, should you really be the one saying that, sasuk?”

“keu-keuheuheum.”

Baek Cheon coughed awkwardly, his face flushing red.

“So what are you going to do? Do you have a plan?”

“I don’t.”

Shriing.

“H-hey, why are you drawing your sword? Let’s talk first, samae.”

You’re really scary. Seriously.

Watching the mess, Yoon Jong let out a deep sigh and turned to Cheong Myeong.

“Got any ideas?”

“Do these guys think I’m some kind of magic wand! Do they think the answer will come out just by tapping?”

“I’m not going that far.”

Yoon Jong narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at Cheong Myeong.

“But I also don’t believe you came all this way without something up your sleeve.”

“Oh?”

“Now that you mention it…”

“Doesn’t that bastard have money?”

All the Mount Hua disciples narrowed their eyes at Cheong Myeong. But under their scrutiny, he remained completely confident.

“Think about it. This time, the sect leader gave us plenty of money, right?”

“So?”

“If I can spend someone else’s money, why would I spend mine?”

“Hmm. True. Let’s discuss other options.”

“Agreed.”

“…At least pretend to think about it.”

Cheong Myeong had said it himself, but the way they accepted it so easily somehow made him feel a little bitter. What exactly did these guys take him for?

“So what do we do? Is there really no way?”

Cheong Myeong shrugged.

“If it’s money, we can just make it.”

“Huh? You’ve got a way to earn money?”

“There are plenty of ways to make money. But why would we bother?”

“Huh?”

Cheong Myeong grinned, the corners of his lips curling up.

“It’s not like we don’t have money. We just didn’t bring any.”

In truth, Mount Hua was no longer a poor sect. Even if all the considerable travel funds they had brought were gone, it was an amount they could easily replenish the moment they returned to Mount Hua.

The problem was simply that, this far away, there was no way to get their hands on that money.

“So instead of wasting time trying to earn money, it’s better to just borrow it.”

“Borrow? You’re saying we should borrow money?”

“Yeah.”

“Hm. When you think about it, that does make sense.”

Baek Cheon, who had been frowning in thought, suddenly grew gloomy.

“But who would lend us money? They don’t even know what Mount Hua is.”

“Ah, come on. You really hold a grudge.”

Cheong Myeong clicked his tongue, his face twisting in irritation.

“If we’re borrowing, we borrow from someone rich. Preferably the richest person in this city.”

Everyone narrowed their eyes.

“That Lord Song guy?”

“As expected, Cheong Myeong wouldn’t just sit there and let himself be extorted like that.”

“So what’s the plan? An ambush? Infiltration? Or intimidation?”

“…Are you all insane? What do you mean intimidation?!”

“Huh? Then what? You’re just going to ask him straight up? Does he have any reason to lend us money?”

“When did I ever say we were borrowing from Lord Song?”

Jo Geol tilted his head.

“You said the richest person in town. Isn’t that Lord Song?”

“No.”

“…No? Then who?”

Cheong Myeong snorted and sprang to his feet.

“I don’t know who exactly, but I know where. Sahyung probably knows too.”

Everyone looked at each other in confusion.

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“Yaaawn.”

Sunhak Gae let out a long, drawn-out yawn.

[Tl note: sunhakgae (순학개, 佝狢丐). A beggar’s alias. Sunhak (佝狢) literally means ‘hunched weasel/badger’, implying someone quick and scrappy but somewhat shabby in appearance; gae (丐) means .beggar’. Together, the name suggests a nimble, streetwise beggar—likely ironic here, given his current sluggish, overweight state.]

“You’re going to swallow a fly at that rate, Branch Leader.”

“Hm. So what if I do?”

Lying sprawled on a rag, Sunhak Gae scratched his back lazily.

Contrary to his nickname Sunhak (a quick, agile badger), his back—plump and swollen with fat—rippled every time he moved. Just by appearances, Lazy Pig would have suited him far better.

Still, Sunhak Gae had his own defense.

His nickname hadn’t been given for nothing. He hadn’t always been this bloated beggar. In his younger days, he had been quicker and more diligent than anyone.

Everything started to go wrong when he became the branch leader of the Jinan Beggar Union.

‘There’s nothing to do.’

Sunhak Gae yawned lazily once again.

What did a Beggar Union branch even do? On the surface, they managed the local beggars—mediating disputes and making sure they didn’t starve too badly. (Some hunger was inevitable. They were beggars, after all.)

But that wasn’t their real job.

As a faction of the martial world, the Beggar Union’s true priority was gathering intelligence on martial sects in the region.

But in Jinan, there were no such sects.

Ever since the once-dominant Shandong Yoo family had been half-destroyed in the great blood calamity, Shandong had become a land without a master.

There wasn’t a single sect worth the Beggar Union’s attention no matter how hard you looked, and at most, there were only a few tiny black-path sect squabbling over whether to kill each other or let each other live.

So within Shandong, there was no real difference between a Beggar Union member and an ordinary beggar. They were all just beggars, equally bound by their circumstances.

Still, because of the structure of the Union, offerings did come in from the beggars, so the branch members didn’t even need to go out and beg themselves. And what did that lead to?

‘What else would happen? You end up like a pig being fed in a sty.’

Previous branch leaders couldn’t stand such a pointless life and all fled Jinan.

But Sunhak Gae was different. He didn’t think this life was so bad.

‘As long as you can tolerate a lack of money and a bit of filth, isn’t this practically paradise?’

For some people, the lack of money and the filth might be major concerns, but not for Sunhak Gae. So there was no real reason for him to dislike this life.

Yes, this place might be a paradise permitted only to beggars.

Sunhak Gae definitely thought so—at least until some kid he’d never seen before showed up in front of him and started spouting absurd things.

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“So……”

Sunhak Gae blinked. Then he began digging vigorously in his ear.

The young fellow in front of him frowned as if he were blatantly disgusted, but Sunhak Gae didn’t even dare to point out the rudeness. What he had just heard was far too ridiculous to worry about manners.

“S-So…… you’re saying, sohyeop-…”

“Sodojang.”

“Y-Yes. Y-you’re saying that you are… the Mount Hua Divine Dragon?”

“Right.”

“The Mount Hua one who defeated Shaolin’s Hye Yeon at the All-Under-Heaven Martial Arts Tournament?”

“Yes. And this here is that Hye Yeon.”

“Amitabha. A pleasure to meet you, siju.”

“……”

Staring at Hye Yeon calmly pressing his palms together in greeting, Sunhak Gae slowly lifted his head and looked up at the collapsing roof of the hut.

What sin had he possibly committed for the heavens to subject him to such a cruel trial?

“First…… yes. Let’s assume that’s true for now. There’s no way to verify it at the moment, so for now…. yes.”

The moment he finished speaking, the young Taoist brats behind them started whispering among themselves.

“Why can’t he verify it? Wouldn’t he recognize us just by looking?”

“Probably because we’re not famous enough.”

“Fine, but shouldn’t he at least recognize Monk Hye Yeon?”

“Well, technically Hye Yeon only showed his face publicly at the tournament. He might not know.”

“Or maybe this place is just ridiculously incompetent. Looks like they don’t even do any work.”

“Hmm. That does make sense. Could be.”

I can hear all of that, you little punks……

The ones behind them were irritating, but that wasn’t the important part right now. He had just heard something far stranger and far more important.

“But for people like you to be asking me for something like this……”

Sunhak Gae swallowed dryly.

“You’re asking…… to borrow money?”

“Yes.”

Cheong Myeong nodded confidently, while Hye Yeon and the other disciples awkwardly looked away toward the hut ceiling.

Seeing that atmosphere, Sunhak Gae felt a faint glimmer of hope. The one staring straight at him was definitely insane, but the others at least still seemed somewhat human.

The problem was that insane one.

“Sodojang, um…… as you can see, we’re beggars.”

“Yes.”

“You’re asking to borrow money? From beggars?”

“Yes.”

“I mean, from beggars—”

“I know. How many times do I have to say it?”

“……”

Cheong Myeong nodded repeatedly, utterly nonchalant. Realizing there wasn’t even a hint of hesitation in him, Sunhak Gae felt his sense of common sense begin to collapse.

“Does that even make sense?! Asking beggars for money, you lunatics!”

“Please correct that to ‘lunatic,’ singular, not plural.”

“We were against this.”

“You think we wanted to come here?”

Watching the Taoist brats protest as if they’d been wronged only made Sunhak Gae’s insides churn even more.

“Hey, don’t go yelling yourself breathless over nothing.”

Leaning back lazily in the chair provided by the branch, Cheong Myeong idly scratched his pinky nail with his thumb and spoke in a bored tone.

“I said we’ll pay it back. Don’t you trust Mount Hua?”

“That’s not the issue! We’re beggars!”

“I told you, I know. Anyone with eyes can see this is a shack. You think I didn’t notice?”

“A-and you say you know…… ngh……”

The back of Sunhak Gae’s neck stiffened on its own. Normally so laid-back he could be called a lazy pig without protest, he was now reminded—less than a quarter of an hour after meeting this guy—just how short-tempered he used to be.

As Sunhak Gae sputtered, unable to respond out of sheer disbelief, Baek Cheon leaned in and whispered to Cheong Myeong.

“Cheong Myeong-ah, we came because you insisted, but…. honestly, this doesn’t feel right. Let’s just go back.”

“Ah, I said it’s fine.”

“What money would beggars even have to lend?”

“Beggars don’t have money.”

“Right? Exactly. So—”

“But.”

Cheong Myeong grinned.

“The Beggar Union does.”

“Huh?”

“What does it matter whether they’re beggars or not? If they’ve got money, they can lend it.”

Cheong Myeong looked at Sunhak Gae and smiled wickedly.

“Isn’t that right?”

“……”

Sunhak Gae found himself flinching without realizing it.

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