Chapter 202 — I Would Rather Live Here
Yeongu flopped down on the wooden floor.
"Phew, I am tired. I would rather live in a place like this too. I want to live and die somewhere with no one around and no news reaching me."
Oryang smiled gently.
"You will be able to do that next time."
"When on earth will that be?"
"Hm."
Oryang placed his hand down again.
"After the great decisive battle, and after something must also be done about Song…"
Yeongu sat bolt upright.
"If you are going, it is better that you know. At first, you will cooperate with Song, but in the end, you will fight them."
"Hah. A fortune-teller, are you?"
Yeongu looked closely at Oryang.
He was small, young, clean, and clear.
His features sat distinctly on a neat face.
His skin was white, as if not a speck of dust had touched it, and held a faint clarity as though it carried light within.
His eyes were not deep, yet they were clear and open.
When met directly, they looked gentle like a child's, but the gaze within them was strangely unwavering.
His pupils shone transparently, and it was difficult to know what was reflected within them.
His lips were thin and even, and whenever he spoke, they lifted slightly, making an expression that was not quite a smile and not quite anything else.
He was not tall, and his body was slight.
His clothing stirred lightly as if riding the wind, and even without putting strength into his body, his balance never faltered.
He seemed to stand on the ground, and yet there was a sense that he hovered just a little above it.
It was a young face, but he looked like someone ancient.
That mismatch caught the eye all the more.
"How do you know all these things? You would need to study a great deal, but objectively, you cannot have had that much time…"
That was right.
Was he not only about twelve years old?
Oryang smiled faintly.
"Shall I tell you honestly?"
"Yes."
"Mm. To speak in Buddhist terms, I have been reborn."
"What does that mean?"
"They call it reincarnation, do they not? I possess memories from before. I am twelve years old, but in truth, I have over two hundred years of memory."
"Ah… heavens. Truly?"
"Yes. Not perfectly, but I remember much."
"Heavens…"
Yeongu's mouth fell open.
He had heard such stories before.
The monks of Tibet did not see death as the end.
They saw it as a continuing flow into the next life, and those with clear consciousness were said to point out the place where they would be reborn within that flow.
Thus, disciples followed the clues and memories left by the teacher to find a child.
If that child recognized the objects and people of his previous life, he was accepted as a reincarnation.
The existence of the Dalai Lama, reborn many times, was proof of this.
Yeongu asked, "Then how did you come to serve Master?"
"Not long after I was born, I suffered a severe fever. After that, the world began to look different. At that time, Master appeared, explained what had come before and after, and took me away. He said I was an immortal from the previous generation, that I had been reborn, and that I had to return to my place. After that, I cultivated under Master for several years and recovered all my former memories."
"I heard Master is over a hundred years old."
"That is so."
"It is a strange and wondrous story."
"It is nothing special. It is an entirely natural story. Things layered over one another block a person's sight, so he cannot see. I saw part of it, and through cultivation, I widened that sight."
"Good heavens, a previous life…"
Oryang smiled faintly.
"It does not matter whether you believe it or not. You were curious, so…"
"You are remarkable."
"I, too, was a martial man in my previous life."
"Ah, truly?"
"The most memorable battle was…"
"The Battle of Palgongsan* remains clearest in my memory."
*The Battle of Palgongsan was fought between Goryeo's founder, Taejo Wang Geon, and Gyeon Hwon of Later Baekje. It was a battle in which Wang Geon suffered a major defeat.
Wang Geon had marched out to aid Silla, but around Palgongsan, he was ambushed by Gyeon Hwon, surrounded, and the tide of battle quickly turned against him.
During the fighting, several generals died in Wang Geon's place. In particular, Shin Sung-gyeom and Kim Nak fought to the end to help Wang Geon escape and were killed in battle.
Wang Geon barely escaped, and this battle is recorded as one of the greatest defeats of early Goryeo.
"What? When was that?"
"At the time of Goryeo's founding."
"I sincerely longed to avoid staining my hands with blood. And then I became like this. Ahaha."
"Did you die there?"
"Something close to it."
"Could I do the same?"
"Junior Brother must do a little more work."
"Oh dear… The world is unfair."
"If you quietly look within, you can directly, by yourself, yourself… mm, no, how should I put this… you can know. There are traces of memory. If you quietly look within, an old future rises."
Yeongu stared blankly down at the yard.
What was supposed to rise?
Nothing rose.
He could not even remember his childhood clearly.
Perhaps his capacity was small, and he had to keep erasing things before he could remember anything else.
"Go! Go and work with confidence. Efforts for peace are followed by a very great reward."
"Oh, I do not want rewards or anything like that."
"You can raise the rank of your soul."
At the word rank, Yeongu's eyes grew round.
That was exactly what he lacked: rank.
He had entered the army when he was young and had not been able to study.
He worked hard belatedly, but study has its proper season.
"What I am doing is a war for peace? Is that it?"
"That is so."
"It sounds absurd. War for peace… Is that not wordplay?"
"War arises from human beings. Who would oppose turning that war toward the realization of peace?"
"Then the rank of the soul rises?"
It was a lowly conversation indeed.
Yeongu's serious questions, meant to make every word certain, could look ridiculous from another angle.
"I killed many people. I thought I could not go on like this."
"You saved more people."
"Ah… then is that enough?"
"Of course, it must be minimized… but one cannot be free from accumulated karma."
Oryang took great care in persuading Yeongu.
The sun was setting.
When the red twilight began to spread wide, Yeongu smacked his lips.
On the flat ground near the mountain summit, the wind cooled first, and the light settled afterward.
Red twilight slowly spread, blurring the boundary between sky and earth.
The mountain outlines that had been sharp during the day softened, and the light remaining on the ridges stretched long until the very end.
A red glow rested on the tips of the grass, and even the rough grain of the rocks grew quiet, as if smoothed one more time.
The distant overlapping mountains sank into darkness one after another, yet this place, standing highest, still held the light.
Even sound lowered itself.
The wind only brushed past, and the sound of human breath grew clear.
As if one layer of the world had been peeled away, only light and breath remained.
In that moment, everything seemed to stop for a while.
"Ah… I said I would go home today. I really must not stay out…"
Oryang persuaded him.
"Sleep here for one night and go tomorrow. It seems we still have many things to discuss."
"I thought you did not let just anyone sleep here."
"I do not believe I said such a thing. Others must have been cautious."
That was true.
It seemed that other immortals had been cautious around him, and Yeongu had taken it that way.
"Please sleep here and go tomorrow."
Since Oryang, who usually did not hold back someone who wished to leave, was doing this for once, Yeongu accepted for the time being.
The promise that he would definitely return home today came to mind.
Among the lies he told his mother, perhaps the most frequent was that he would definitely come home today.