Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Chapter 60 A Divine Move (5)

An hour and a half.

That was how much later I was than usual because I'd been working overtime.

I'd come home just an hour and a half later than my usual quitting time, yet I was greeted by the extraordinary sight of Lia, Sani, and the immortals picking up Go stones from the floor as though they were gleaning fallen ears of barley.

I could roughly guess what had happened without needing an explanation.

I grabbed Sani by the scruff of his neck as he tried to sneak away while watching my reaction, then pulled his cheeks hard.

-Streeetch.

"Didn't I tell you not to fool around with the Go board?"

"Owowow! It hurts! It really hurts!"

Only after we'd gathered every Go stone scattered across the floor could I finally go upstairs to the bathroom.

But I couldn't relax and wash away my fatigue in the shower. Things downstairs still hadn't been properly settled.

(You said you'd make sure the Go stones didn't get lost, so why did you throw them all over the floor? I thought my cheeks were going to tear!)

(Why, you little rascal!)

I had no choice but to come back downstairs before I'd even finished drying my hair.

"Would you like some coffee?"

"Ahem. I'd appreciate that."

"I want milk!"

"All right. Milk for you and Lia."

-Clatter. Clatter.

Without even needing to consult a recipe, I quickly prepared five cups of coffee and two glasses of milk, each measured out precisely.

It had taken a bit of a detour, but in the end, I was leaning back against the coffeehouse sofa with a cup of coffee after work.

As I enjoyed a brief moment of leisure while looking at my phone, the area where the immortals were seated grew restless again.

"You tell him."

"Weren't you the one who suggested bringing it in the first place?"

"Come now, we all agreed!"

"Then let's go together."

The four of them nodded as though they'd made up their minds and approached me.

"Is there something you'd like to say?"

"Here, take this."

There it was again. That dreadful habit nonhuman visitors to the coffeehouse always seemed to have.

This time, the object they suddenly held out didn't even come with the vague excuse of being payment for coffee.

"I appreciate the thought, but I'll have to decline. It's far too valuable for me."

"How can you refuse when you don't even know what it is?"

"That's all the more reason to refuse."

It was a small silver rod about the length of a finger, attached to a necklace chain.

A dragon had been intricately carved into it, making it look exceptionally valuable even as a work of art.

"Just take it and have a look!"

-Hummm.

The rod resembled a tiny dagger sheathed like a silver ornamental knife. But when the little dagger was drawn from its sheath and forcibly placed in my hand, it grew in the blink of an eye, instantly transforming into a finely forged sword.

"What on earth is this..."

"It's the Yongcheon Sword. We thought an object that had been in the mortal world until recently would be more familiar to you, so we brought it."

The Yongcheon Sword.

It certainly sounded like the sort of sword whose name would produce a string of absurd legends if I searched for it online.

"What do you think?"

Their eyes were filled with anticipation and confidence.

"What would I ever use this sword for? I don't need it, and it's far too much. I'd like you to take it back."

"Why would you refuse such a peerless treasured sword? We chose it after careful deliberation!"

"I have no occasion to use a sword."

"Does an age of chaos send a letter announcing its arrival? If you keep it close, a time will surely come when it proves useful."

"I still don't want it."

In the tense standoff, the immortals were the first to raise the white flag.

"If you accept this, we won't ask you to become our disciple anymore. Nor will we ask you to play Go with that strange device."

"No! We'll even learn how to play Go on that device ourselves! How about it?"

"Really?"

"We give you our word!"

I hadn't expected a counteroffer at all.

The sword they'd brought as a gift was undoubtedly a burden.

But their promise to stop forcing me to play Go, combined with their willingness to learn how to play on a laptop, was a temptation I couldn't easily resist.

Hadn't I been drawn into their games and played fifteen matches straight through until morning?

If that happened again, I was certain my body wouldn't survive it.

Just as I was about to fall into deeper contemplation, the immortals' final words settled the matter.

"We brought it because we want you to be able to protect yourself. Though you possess extraordinary eyes, your body is that of an ordinary mortal, is it not? And you're not alone, either."

In other words, it was intended as a weapon for self-defense.

Like pepper spray or a collapsible baton.

And my own body wasn't the only thing I had to protect.

____________

Having concluded a satisfactory transaction(?), the immortals climbed onto Yongman's back despite his complaints that they were leaving already.

"Didn't you say you were going to make him your disciple? Aren't you losing out by just giving him a sword and leaving?"

"How foolish. Yongman, weren't you the one who said that child wouldn't live even a hundred years?"

"Exactly. That's why you need to make him your disciple quickly."

"A hundred years is but a fleeting instant. If we wait out that brief moment, we'll gain a fellow Go player with whom we can play for countless ages."

"Not a disciple?"

"We were the ones receiving instruction from the beginning. If we must distinguish master from disciple, wouldn't that make us the teahouse owner's disciples? Hahaha."

Even the very first game they'd played face-to-face had been an even game, not a handicap game with stones placed in advance.

Whatever the difference in their abilities, the teahouse owner had never once asked for instruction.

On the contrary, they were the ones who had found pleasure in the teahouse owner's Go and descended all the way to the mortal world.

They had even brought him the most precious item among the countless priceless treasures they'd won through wagered games of Go.

The four immortals were certain that whether Jinseong submitted to the cycle of reincarnation or broke free of it and ascended to the Celestial Realm, he would inevitably meet them again.

"Those who meet are destined to part, and those who leave are destined to return. After parting, there will surely be another meeting. He is a man who does not forget kindness, so he will not turn his back on us when we meet again."

"You're going to visit all the time anyway."

"Ahem! We're talking about a hundred years from now!"

Since Yongman's grumbling wasn't entirely wrong, a momentary look of embarrassment passed across the faces of the four immortals as they ascended into the heavens.

___________

"So, you're saying those immortals gave you this?"

"Yes."

After everything had been settled, the Elder Nine-Tailed Fox arrived at the coffeehouse. Upon hearing the whole story, he asked again in surprise.

"Good heavens! This..."

"What's wrong?"

"Did you even know what the Yongcheon Sword was when you accepted it?"

"I just looked it up. Apparently, it was a sword used by General Im Gyeongeop. They say it was lost during the Korean War, but somehow it seems to have ended up in the Celestial Realm."

"That's not what's important. The Yongcheon Sword is a treasured sword bestowed by a dragon. It's in an entirely different class from famous swords forged by human hands that acquired their names through accumulated bloodshed and resentment. If it disappeared during the war, someone among the heavenly gods must have seized the opportunity to retrieve it."

"This thing?"

-Hummm.

When I held it and drew it from its sheath again, a sword that looked well over a meter long sprang forth.

"Have those old fools all gone senile from playing nothing but Go? To think they'd give you something so precious."

"It's because Jinseong is incredibly amazing!"

"He certainly is remarkable, but those fellows must have warehouses piled high with treasures won through wagered games of Go. What troubles me is that they chose this sword of all things."

"That's why I accepted it too."

"What? Did they give you some kind of warning?"

"They didn't say anything else in particular, but their eyes looked similar to mine."

They were people who had spent thousands of years playing Go.

Reading the sequence of moves was much like seeing the future, and that wasn't so different from my Divine Eyes.

There must have been some reason they felt compelled to give me the sword, even to the point of abandoning their long-cherished desire to become my masters.

Especially considering how they'd expressed concern for my safety and added that I wasn't alone.

And when I said I would accept the sword, all four of them had looked relieved.

I didn't know what future they'd seen, but their reactions suggested that once I held the sword, I wouldn't have to worry too much about that future.

"Tsk. The problem is that there's something in your future that requires a sword to resolve."

"If you're just going to keep saying such ominous things, you'd be better off helping Lia with her homework. I need to sort through the packages that have piled up."

"Homework?"

"Lia can see the future too. Apparently, she saw a future in which she read a storybook with you sometime today."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

"This! Yesterday, I drew a picture of Grandpa Nine-Tailed Fox reading me a storybook!"

Lia brought over the picture diary she'd drawn the previous day and showed it to the Elder.

"You drew your picture diary in advance?"

"Yes! Because something might come up and I might not have time to draw it!"

"No, but then that wouldn't be a diary..."

As expected, the Elder reacted exactly as I had when I'd first seen Lia's future diary.

While the nagging old man was distracted, I hung the sword, now small again, around my neck and got up to sort through the delivery boxes piled up beside the counter.

Perhaps because they contained a large quantity of heavy powder, the boxes were wrapped with several layers of thick plastic strapping.

The scissors I normally used to cut packing tape couldn't even scratch it.

"Hmm."

Just as I was considering fetching a kitchen knife, an appropriate tool came to mind.

Wasn't it hanging around my neck right now?

-Whoosh. Snap.

As expected of a renowned sword.

All I'd done was bring it into contact with the straps, and they'd been sliced cleanly.

I hadn't even felt the sensation of anything touching the blade.

A trivial thought suddenly crossed my mind.

'Don't tell me this is the moment the immortals foresaw when I'd need a sword?'

Nah, surely not.

___________

Saturday morning, in front of the entrance to a luxury apartment building.

A set of thick, stubby fingers repeatedly pressed the numbers on the keypad, failing each time.

"Let's see... Press the pound sign, then 1321... No, it was 1324. Damn it. I always get this confused whenever I come here."

"Mister, I need to get inside."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

A young man who had been waiting behind him for some time finally lost patience and tapped his access card against the reader.

The person who at last managed to enter the building was none other than Park Gidong, 9-dan.

Master Park Gidong pulled the mail that had been stuffed into mailbox 204 until it was practically bursting, then boarded the elevator.

And it was only after the alarm had sounded and some time had passed that he finally managed to open the door to apartment 204 as well.

"Good grief, it's like I'm raising a child."

-Roll.

As Master Park Gidong tiptoed around the floor, which was so cluttered with rubbish that there was hardly room to step, he eventually knocked over a liquor bottle.

"Oh, come on. My socks are completely soaked. Hey, clean up after yourself. This isn't a pigsty."

"Hmm. What?"

National Champion Han Seun's terribly hoarse voice came from the filthy floor right beside the bed.

Master Park Gidong, having already given up on his soaked socks, dragged his feet closer.

There, sprawled on the floor where the voice had come from, was National Champion Han Seun, who had somehow managed to clear enough space to lie down.

"Why are you here?"

"What do you mean, why? I came to see whether National Champion Han had drunk himself to death so I could arrange a specialist cleaning service! But even though you're alive, this place still needs professional cleaning. Ugh, the smell. How can anyone live like this?"

"It's my day off."

"Good grief, as if you've ever stopped drinking on workdays! Oh, right, we don't have time for this. Hurry up, wash, and get changed. We're going out."

"What a bother. Are they trying to interview me again? Just tell them I'm sick and send them away. I drank too much yesterday, so I really am sick."

"That's not it! I found him. Dangsan-ri from OnGame."

"What? Seriously?"

"Ow, you're going to burst my eardrums! So hurry up and wash. Let's go see him right now."