Chima was passed out drunk. He had drunk so much that he didn’t even realize I was there.

“Chima-nim, Chima-nim!”

No matter how many times I called him, he didn’t wake up. At times like this, he was nothing but a complete drunkard.

I suddenly grabbed Chima and threw him into the lake.

Splash!

Chima sank into the water and didn’t come up for quite a while.

“Seriously, I can’t deal with this!”

I jumped into the lake as well.

Chima was sinking like a corpse under the water. I grabbed him and brought him back up to the surface.

“Snap out of it!”

When Chima opened his eyes, he finally recognized me.

“Lee Gongja?”

I climbed onto the boat first. Chima didn’t get up; he floated on the water, staring up at the sky.

“Aren’t you coming up?”

“I’ll stay here.”

“Is this youthful rebellion? Honestly, I can’t stand it. At least your face is handsome enough for me to tolerate it.”

“Stop looking at my handsome face and just give me some alcohol.”

“Now you want to show off the miracle of drinking while lying in the water? How many martial arts skills is this for you, Chima?”

When I didn’t give him the alcohol, Chima reached out his hand. The liquor on the rowboat flew into the air and landed in his mouth. He drank while lying down.

“The rumors are true, huh?”

Chima didn’t answer.

“What exactly happened?”

As if he didn’t want to answer, Chima swam away lying down, moving away from the boat.

I rowed after him.

“You said to reconcile, but you’re going to duel? That means you want to fight me, right? Come on, let’s settle this.”

“It’s not because of me. It’s because of that old man. The liquor I gave him as a gift — he threw it away. Right there, in the front yard, to show off.”

Chima, sensitive to smells, realized the liquor had been discarded. It was a bad start.

“And you know what that old man said to me?”

Chima sat up. He laid down the empty bottle and sat on it. Neither the bottle nor Chima sank.

“He said I live in denial because I’m drunk. Among the Ma Jons, I’m the most pathetic. So I told him, isn’t there a senior who lives in denial even when not drunk? Who’s more pathetic?”

“You’re both adults, yet you act like children. How mature you are.”

“He started it first!”

“So?”

“I was going to let it go there. But then he went and compared me.”

“With Geukak Soma, huh?”

Chima nodded and imitated Blood Heaven Butcher’s voice.

“You’re worse than a mask-wearer. The mask-wearer only hides their face, not their heart.”

He was so good at the impression that if you closed your eyes, it really sounded like Blood Heaven Butcher speaking right in front of you.

“Where do you get off comparing me? Especially to someone like Geukak Soma! I almost lost my temper.”

“So?”

“What do you mean, so? I got mad and fired back. I said I’m better than a timid man who suffers his whole life because of one woman.”

I shook my head with an expression that I couldn’t help him.

“You didn’t just poke the dragon’s wrath, you tore it apart.”

“That old man is a dragon scale, so what am I? Some kind of fish scale? He started it first!”

Splash. Chima dove into the water. He must have gone all the way to the bottom because he stayed down a long time before surfacing.

Only his head came out of the water, and I asked him,

“Just go apologize and say you were wrong. Take the insults quietly and say sorry. If you apologize, they won’t want to fight.”

“No way. If anyone should apologize, it should be them.”

“Then you have to fight.”

“I don’t want to either!”

“Then what do you want to do?”

“I don’t know.”

Chima swam away again. I didn’t chase him and rowed in the opposite direction. Then Chima swam after me.

“I don’t want to fight Butcher because of you.”

“Because of me?”

Unexpected words came from his mouth.

“If I fight Butcher, the Butcher you like so much will die.”

I rowed faster, leaving his serious expression behind.

“I don’t believe drunk people.”

I heard Chima’s voice from behind.

“I said he’ll die!”

“Okay, okay. Sober up and wait. I’ll go see Butcher. If you’re still drunk then, you’re dead to me!”

After leaving Dae Chirim, I went straight to Blood Heaven Butcher.

He was training even today. His moves were rougher and more intense than usual. The atmosphere felt like the eve of a decisive battle.

“Why train like this just to catch a drunkard?”

Blood Heaven Butcher put down his sword and sat on a rock in the yard, his whole body soaked in sweat.

“What happens if the Ma Jons break the rule not to fight each other?”

“Nothing happens.”

“You mean there’s no penalty?”

“That’s right.”

“Then why does the rule still hold?”

“Because someone always dies. The probability of death in battle is high. Even if you don’t die from your opponent, the loser’s life as a Ma Jon ends. Who would follow a defeated Ma Jon as leader?”

“Knowing that, you still want to duel?”

“Why? Are you worried I’ll be kicked out of the Ma Jon?”

“You’ve lived as a Ma Jon your whole life. Living as an ordinary person won’t be easy.”

Then Blood Heaven Butcher said something unexpected.

“Do you think I’m foolish enough to risk my Ma Jon status because of that sneaky guy?”

“Then why fight?”

“For you.”

Ironically, both men said they were acting for me — one not fighting for me, the other fighting for me.

“That guy suddenly started acting nice to me. Of course, it’s because of you. You must have told him to reconcile. Knowing that, I think he deliberately provoked him.”

“I heard Chima mentioned Senior Sword Master.”

“What does it matter? Everyone thinks the Sword Master is my big weakness, but it’s not true. At this age, people often use weaknesses strategically.”

“So you didn’t get angry and want to fight, but intended to provoke a fight?”

“Yes. I thought you could use this. When problems arise like this, you inevitably intervene. I think it’s easier for you to use him.”

“You thought that far?”

“Did I misjudge?”

“No. You did well.”

“I’ll follow your will this time. If you say fight, I’ll fight. If you say don’t, I won’t. This fight isn’t mine — it’s yours.”

Blood Heaven Butcher saw the essence of this matter. I was the one who tried to make peace, and now I was the mediator. In the end, this problem was between me and Chima. Blood Heaven Butcher must have expected I’d come to see him.

“Don’t expect me to reconcile with him. But I understand you need him. If it were someone else, I’d stop it completely. But for you, I think you could even bear that sneaky guy. Not Chima, but I trust you. So use this chance to bend him to your will.”

Suddenly I thought: I can’t afford to lose any fights from now on. With someone like this by my side, how could I?

There were so many things I wanted to say to him that I swallowed them all.

“Thank you very much.”

As I bowed politely and turned to leave, Blood Heaven Butcher quietly said behind me,

“You owe me for the tonic I gave you.”

He’s not giving me tonic but a life elixir.

“You didn’t want to die, huh.”

By then, Chima had sobered up and was waiting at Chimmong Pavilion, dressed in new clothes.

“What did that old man say? You’d probably side with him.”

“What Blood Heaven Butcher said doesn’t matter.”

“What? Why? Did he badmouth me again? Didn’t he?”

“This is a matter between Chima-nim and me. It started because I asked Butcher to reconcile.”

“I tried.”

“This made me realize for sure that reconciliation between the two is impossible. This issue is strictly between Chima-nim and me. We have to resolve it ourselves.”

“How do you intend to resolve it?”

I put the bottle of liquor I brought on the table.

“By drinking.”

Chima asked in surprise,

“By drinking it out?”

“Let’s drink until we die. What’s the point of snacks?”

Chima, who was staring blankly at me, burst out laughing. It was the loudest laugh since I met him.

“Good, that’s it. This is why I like you, Lee Gongja!”

Chima called Yeobin.

“Bring the alcohol. Bring all the liquor I saved!”

I started drinking with Chima.

The last time I fought my father without any restrictions was the first time. This drinking session was the same. Until now, I drank carefully to avoid mistakes. But today, I just drank. I went back to the days when I was a wandering ronin, drowning in alcohol.

“You drink so well. How did you hold back until now?”

“There can’t be two Chimas in our school.”

Chima laughed heartily at my words. When I started drinking seriously, he was overjoyed.

Drinking in this pavilion had a different charm from the boat.

Chima told stories about meeting women in his youth, rumors about other Ma Jons, all kinds of stories.

I also spoke frankly about my childhood, my brother bullying me, and about my father, hiding nothing.

We gradually got drunk.

Though I bravely kept drinking, my tolerance couldn’t match Chima’s. He drank twice as much as me.

“Ah, now I get it why Chima jumped into that lake.”

I jumped into the lake again. Swimming a lap, I felt somewhat revived.

“That lake is my appetizer.”

“From now on, I’ll drink slowly.”

“Stop drinking. You’ve had enough already.”

“Did you know? The coolest thing about Chima is that he never forces others to drink.”

“Is that really the coolest thing?”

“It is. That’s what makes him truly cool, not anyone else. Ah, I’m getting drunk.”

I lay back flat.

Chima didn’t scold me for being rude. He kept drinking, and I listened to his stories lying down. Some might not have endured the scene. Chima boasted a lot, but it didn’t bother me. Honestly, it was interesting.

While drinking, I suggested,

“Shall we have an arm-wrestling match?”

“Arm-wrestling? Using [N O V E L I G H T] internal power?”

“Of course not. A man-to-man match, what do you say?”

“Sounds good. But just playing isn’t fun. Let’s bet: the winner’s wish is granted.”

“A wish for just arm-wrestling?”

“This is the real competition. The sect leader, the martial alliance leader, and the disciple leader gather to compete. An arm-wrestling match deciding the fate of martial arts! Martial artists love this kind of thing.”

“Alright then. Go take a dip in the water first. Don’t make excuses later that you lost because you were drunk.”

“No problem. Someone like you!”

We cleared the table and wrestled. How could he beat my young strength? As I pushed his arm down, I felt him secretly using internal power.

“I knew it! You drunkard!”

I started using internal power too.

Then Chima seriously started using his internal power. Was all the alcohol he drank like internal power? Unexpectedly, his internal power was strong. It was the kind of internal power that made it no exaggeration to say he could kill Blood Heaven Butcher.

But he couldn’t beat my internal power. Today I didn’t hide my tolerance or internal power.

Bang!

The table broke, deciding the match.

“Punish the cowardly drunkard! I won!”

I jumped up and jumped around like a child.

“This is invalid. You used power first! I drank more! I’ll go dive in and come back, and then we’ll have a proper match!”

His unreasonable insistence that he used power first wasn’t going to work.

I ignored his words and leaned against the railing. The setting sun, just starting to fall, dyed the whole world red. I looked at the scene for a moment, then, unable to say it to him, spoke while looking at the red lake.

“Everyone says Chima is sneaky and suspicious, but I liked drinking with him.”

“!”

“You know how some people are? Everyone else thinks they’re bad, but I think they’re good. Chima is that kind of person to me. I liked his arrogance, his boasting, even the hollow look in his eyes sometimes. So I got anxious. Why did he approach me? Honestly, I didn’t care if his intentions were impure. Who doesn’t have secrets or selfish plans? I was fine with that. I just hoped one thing: that it would be something I could understand. Please, don’t be someone I can’t be friends with.”

Chima’s eyes trembled as he felt my sincerity.

“You really have a problem with drinking, Lee Gongja. When you get drunk, you say everything on your mind.”

I finally looked at him and said,

“Brother.”

Chima’s eyes widened in surprise.

“From today on, let’s be brothers. That’s my wish.”

“You won even though I did?”

“I wanted it too.”

Unexpected emotions of surprise and passion were written all over Chima’s face.

“You… you must be crazy.”

“Getting that from you, Chima, or rather brother, and from all the Ma Jons, I guess I really am crazy.”

“That madness is what’s scary.”

Chima adjusted his posture, brought a cup of alcohol, and poured me a drink.

“Brother, have a drink.”

“Yes, brother.”

I drank the liquor he gave me. This time I poured for him. He drank as well.

“Don’t be too touched. It’s true that I’m drawn to you, but half of this is because I need you as my successor. So half is sincere. The other half is filled with alcohol. Well then, I’ll leave for today.”

Just as I was about to awkwardly get up, Chima suddenly said,

“It’s because of me.”

Unexpected words came from his mouth.

“I’m the reason Butcher and Sword Master’s relationship soured.”

Looking at me, surprised, Chima confessed something even more astonishing.

“I sowed discord between the two.”