It's easy to overlook, but the concept of 'normal' is never absolute.
When someone is called a normal person, it means they don't deviate significantly from the social and cultural norms of their environment.
This implies that someone considered normal in one place might be seen as strange if dropped into a completely different setting.
Now, Namgung Do-Wei was painfully realizing this fact.
'Am I the one who's wrong?'
He didn't know how things had been in the past, but now he prided himself on not being stubborn. Yet, what was happening right before his eyes was hard even for him to accept.
No, no matter how much he thought about it, it wasn't his fault.
Who could have imagined such a scene?
A disciple of Mount Hua was straddling the son of the Tang Family lord, punching his jaw repeatedly, while a female swordsman of Mount Hua was mercilessly breaking the arm of the Tang Family's young lord.
Well, let's say that's understandable. It could happen. Someone with a heart as vast as the ocean might calmly accept such things as "Well, that can happen."
But when a monk who has taken a disciple's vow stamps his foot on a Tang Family member's face, and a female swordsman from the Tang Family stabs her own brothers with a sword, even those people would have to see things differently.
Huh? It seems like one person is missing…
"Step on him! Step on him!"
"Kill him!"
"Aaaaaaah!"
Oh dear, Taoist Yoon Jong. Why are you getting stepped on there? Oh my, being trampled so enthusiastically…
Namgung Do-Wei, watching the chaotic scene before him with eyes full of disbelief, soon squeezed his eyes shut. After seeing a white marten dressed in Mount Hua's black martial uniform leap up and sharply strike a Tang Family member's cheek, he no longer wanted to think.
'What is happening to the world?'
The champions of Shaanxi and Sichuan were clashing here at the Yangtze River.
It sounds grand and magnificent, but in reality, it was like a street brawl… No, more like a gang fight in the back alleys.
The Namgung Family members, pushed to the corner of the training ground to avoid the brutal and terrible fight, watched the brawl as if it were a rare spectacle.
"Mount Hua definitely has good stamina."
"There was a perception that the Tang Family is weak in chaotic fights, but that's not necessarily true. In such a brawl, it's hard to avoid poison attacks."
"For that, the Mount Hua folks are fighting well."
"They've been trained by someone more poisonous than the Tang Family's poison."
"Ah, I see. Understood."
Don't understand! Why would you understand that!
It's like 'one who stays near ink gets stained black the most'—the Namgung Family seems to be getting stranger. Those who would have frowned at such a sight now genuinely admire and even applaud.
But what could Namgung Do-Wei say? After all, he was the one who brought them into the Heavenly Friends Alliance and made them like this.
"Ah, no. Is it really okay for things to be like this?"
Though it was a bitter assessment for him, the current Namgung Family was hard to compare to those two sects. Anyone who knew the Heavenly Friends Alliance would consider those two sects its core.
Yet those two core sects were now fighting while hurling curses at each other.
'Won't this only build up bad feelings?'
He found it hard to understand the meaning of this training. But the bigger problem was that there was no way to stop Chung Myung or Tang Gunak. So the remaining method was…
"Um, um…"
"Yes?"
"Well…"
Namgung Do-Wei swallowed dryly and looked at Im So-Byeong. Unlike Namgung Do-Wei, Im So-Byeong was calmly observing the situation with the attitude that nothing happening in this household was surprising. He slightly raised his chin and met his gaze.
"Why do you ask?"
Namgung Do-Wei's expression became extremely awkward.
He understood that. In the Heavenly Friends Alliance, there were no boundaries between sects or distinctions between righteous and evil. Anyone who could trust each other with one heart could enter the Heavenly Friends Alliance's fold.
And the Green Forest had proven itself worthy of being a proud member of the Heavenly Friends Alliance. From the moment its leader, Im So-Byeong, risked his life to join the fight against the Demonic Cult, no one could doubt his true intentions.
'I know… I definitely know that.'
Even if he understood intellectually, it wasn't easy to speak to Im So-Byeong.
He was the lesser head of the Namgung Family. He had never once imagined a day when he would speak familiarly to the leader of the Evil Sect. To him, the Green Forest King was nothing more or less than a sacrificial lamb whose neck he would one day have to cut with a declaration.
No, to be honest, who were the Green Forest? Leeches who occupied a decent mountain and sucked the lifeblood of passing civilians…
"Young lord."
"Yes?"
"Right now… it seems like you're insulting someone with your eyes after calling them here?"
"N-no way."
Namgung Do-Wei was a scion of a prestigious family. Rarely in the Heavenly Friends Alliance, he understood what basic manners were. He calmed himself and began to speak.
"Well… shouldn't we calm things down a bit?"
"Why bother talking?"
"Excuse me?"
Im So-Byeong shrugged as if annoyed.
"Taoist Chung Myung will handle it. The Tang Family lord is also here."
"Ah, no. I know that… but I worry that it will only build up bad feelings."
"Oh?"
At that moment, Im So-Byeong looked at Namgung Do-Wei with a meaningful gaze.
"Ah, so you have insight that sees further than the Mount Hua's Sword Saint and the Poison King?"
"Yes?"
"So you alone have noticed what they didn't notice and are now telling me the countermeasures? And you want to use me, who has some status, as a messenger so they won't feel uncomfortable?"
"W-wait…"
Namgung Do-Wei was visibly flustered. Could it really be interpreted that way?
"In other words, those two are very uncomfortable, but the bandit boss is ridiculously easy to deal with?"
"…I-I didn't say that!"
"Ah, the bandit leader in front of you is so stupid he can't catch on unless you say it directly?"
"…"
Can a person be this twisted?
'Was he always like this?'
When they went to the Southern land together, despite frequent grumbling, he thought this man was very sharp and broad-minded…
This reaction was clearly strange even to the Green Forest members, as one bandit tilted his head and quietly asked Im So-Byeong.
"Boss, why are you so pissed? It doesn't seem like he said anything wrong."
"There's nothing he can't say."
"Yes?"
"The problem is the person who said it."
The bandit who spoke to Im So-Byeong glanced at Namgung Do-Wei.
"…Is there a problem?"
"Problem? There's no problem on their side. The problem is with me!"
"…No. What do you mean? Keep…"
"Why?"
At that moment, Im So-Byeong glared at the bandit with shining eyes.
"Why? Born in a bandit's family, I even took the civil service exam to rise in the world but failed, ending up as a bandit. Do you think I'm twisted with rage seeing a young master born into a prestigious family living in comfort?"
"…"
"Ha! What a ridiculous thought! I'm not envious at all! Of course, no matter how much I recite the principles of the martial alliance, I'm just a bandit, and that guy lives a comfortable life where if he kills a decent person on the street, people just say 'Ah, the dead must have done something wrong.' But I am not envious at all. Why would I envy him?"
"…Please take a breath and speak."
Not only the Green Forest members but even the Namgung Family became somewhat solemn at those words.
Once Im So-Byeong started speaking, he didn't stop.
"Ah, I was wrong. It was my fault. A noble person entrusted me with a task, and a lowly Evil Sect member must somehow fulfill the order! How about I go and deliver the message now?"
Maybe it could have ended awkwardly like that.
If Namgung Do-Wei had just briefly apologized for his short-sightedness here, it might have been so. Of course, he intended to and was about to apologize immediately.
But things rarely go as planned in life; small fires often quickly turn into big ones.
"Hey, you're taking it too harshly."
Startled by the voice from behind, Namgung Do-Wei turned around.
One of the Namgung Family swordsmen standing behind looked at Im So-Byeong with a displeased face and muttered.
"Being so twisted like that."
"S-shut your mouth…"
Namgung Do-Wei hurriedly tried to cover the swordsman's mouth. Despite appearances, Im So-Byeong was the Green Forest King. No mere Namgung Family warrior could speak so freely to him.
But before his words ended, someone responded.
"Twisted?"
"…!"
Namgung Do-Wei's head sharply turned the other way. A fierce-looking Green Forest member behind Im So-Byeong spat on the ground.
"Oh dear. Seems like you have no hardships in life and no respect to show. How dare a lowly grunt talk back to the Green Forest King?"
"What? Do these bandits think words are candy to throw at people?"
"Bandit? Yeah, I'm a bandit. And you? You still think you're the old Namgung Family? If it weren't for Mount Hua, guys like you would've been killed long ago."
"Oh, really? Who? You? Surely you don't mean you could do that? Know your place, bandits."
"Who doesn't know their place?"
The Namgung Family swordsmen gripped their sword hilts and slowly moved. The Green Forest members also gripped their waist swords and stepped forward threateningly.
"Consider yourselves lucky. If this weren't the Heavenly Friends Alliance, you'd all be dead."
"Who says that! If Taoist Chung Myung weren't keeping you as his servants, we'd have exterminated you ourselves."
"What? Servants? You abandoned your own family and ran away here!"
"What? Running away? The bandit has the nerve to spout nonsense?"
The atmosphere became extremely tense.
Just as the flustered Namgung Do-Wei hurried to stop everyone.
"Oh, nice. The atmosphere."
"Ch-Chung Myung, Taoist!"
Chung Myung appeared, strolling over. He glanced at the Green Forest members gripping their swords and the Namgung Family swordsmen, frowning deeply. Namgung Do-Wei stepped forward to try to calm the storm.
"I'll handle this…"
"Perfect timing."
"Yes?"
Chung Myung shrugged.
"No need to explain, setting the mood beforehand was good. You were bored just watching anyway, right?"
"…"
"But there's one thing I don't like."
"Uh, what is it…?"
"You're still the Namgung Family and the Green Forest. If you have complaints against one another, you should fight with swords or fists. Why are you just talking instead of using those good swords?"
"Yes?"
Chung Myung folded his arms behind his back and gestured.
"See over there? They're fighting."
"…Yes."
"Yeah, no difference. The side standing last today rests tomorrow. The losing side works until dawn."
"…"
"Start on your own. The winner comes to report to me."
"W-wait. Taoist Chung Myung? Taoist Chung Myung!"
After finishing his words, Chung Myung left without looking back.
Namgung Do-Wei, staring blankly at his retreating back, turned around with a pale face.
A Green Forest member gripping his sword approached the Namgung Family with a smirk, and the Namgung swordsmen looked at them disdainfully.
"Wow, I really didn't want it to come to this."
"Unintentionally, really."
"Can't be helped. I have no ill feelings at all."
I'd rather be cursed at, honestly.
"You all heard that, right? Let's show those gentlemen how terrifying the murim world is today!"
"Let them know exactly what happens when bandits come down from the mountains!"
At that moment, Namgung and the Green Forest, who usually disliked each other, unleashed all their grievances and charged at each other.