"The Imperial Court?"
A bewildered voice burst from Jang-il's mouth.
The Imperial Court? Why would the Imperial Court come up here of all places?
"Did you just say the Imperial Court?"
Wei Jeong-han also had an expression of disbelief.
However, Wei Yan-ho spoke calmly with a laugh.
"Where does this bandit bastard think he's peddling his nonsense!"
Wei Yan-ho kicked Tae-ho-gun without warning and began trampling on him methodically, yet no one tried to stop him.
"Ow! Great Hero! No! I'm not peddling nonsense!"
"Bah! The two most incompatible things in the world are the Imperial Court and the Green Forest. As if the Imperial Court has nothing better to do than play around with bandit bastards."
"It's the truth, I tell you!"
"Truth my frozen ass! Has the Emperor gone senile!"
"Watch your words! Hey! Watch your words!"
Tae-ho-gun spoke as if he felt wronged.
"That's exactly why I told you it was absolutely secret!"
Seeing Tae-ho-gun's face, which looked like he might die from the injustice of it all, Wei Yan-ho slowly lifted his foot. That expression wasn't something that could be faked through acting.
"Really?"
"Yes!"
"Truly?"
"Ah! I'm telling you it's true!"
"Are you getting angry with me right now?"
"Hehe, as if I would dare."
Wei Jeong-han wiped the corner of his eye.
Even so, someone called a Great General would be considered equivalent to the Grim Reaper in this region, and looking across the entire martial world, he could be said to hold a position worthy of respect…
'I'm sorry.'
Of all people, you had to meet my son.
Thinking that he had to meet his son when there was no one else to meet and suffer such treatment, Wei Jeong-han's heart filled with sorrow.
"Step aside."
Wei Jeong-han pushed Wei Yan-ho, who was tormenting the Great General, behind him and opened his mouth with a serious expression.
"How about you speak properly? Why exactly did the Imperial Court come looking for the Green Forest King?"
"…I don't know that either."
"Good grief, don't be so frustrating and speak clearly!"
When Wei Jeong-han barked at him, the Great General opened his mouth with a rigid expression.
"If I don't know something, I say I don't know. What else can I do? At some point, strange people began appearing around the Green Forest King. They were people I didn't recognize. When I asked the Green Forest King about their identity, he just told me not to tell anyone and said they were people from the Imperial Court."
Jang-il grimaced and spoke.
"Isn't there a possibility that the Green Forest King was lying?"
"You beggar bastard! How dare you babble such nonsense! The Green Forest King is someone who has never spoken a lie in his entire life. Do you think he's like you Orthodox faction bastards who casually lie and backstab people whenever you're bored!"
Having opened his mouth carelessly only to get a faceful of curses, Jang-il quietly turned his head to look at Wei Yan-ho.
Then Wei Yan-ho smiled contentedly and comforted Jang-il.
"See? Even bandits look down on beggars."
"Damn it!"
Jang-il, who had sought help from Wei Yan-ho—the special remedy against the Great General—only to receive more curses, retreated with a face full of dissatisfaction.
The Great General's face was too murderous to confront directly.
"Let's all calm down for now."
Wei Jeong-han organized the situation.
"The Green Forest King I know is also that kind of person. He'd rather not speak at all than put lies in his mouth."
Wei Yan-ho tilted his head.
"Listening to father's words, it seems like the Unorthodox Sects and Demonic Cult are more manly. Father, are you really from the Orthodox faction?"
"What can I do when that's the truth?"
Wei Jeong-han wore a bitter smile.
He too had struggled immensely to establish standards of good and evil while fighting in wars of the past.
Sometimes his comrades seemed more wicked than the enemy—and it wasn't just once or twice. How much effort did he have to put in each time to steady himself?
He had no intention of sheltering his son from this reality. Someday Wei Yan-ho would also have to face such dilemmas, but he wanted to postpone it a little longer.
"You're still…"
"Well, that's how it is, I suppose."
"Hm?"
"My master used to say that people with real obsessive cleanliness evaluate bad guys very favorably when they show even a little good side, but think of their own comrades as the world's worst villains if they have even a fingernail-sized flaw."
"Is, is that so?"
"He said they're people who live life in a tiring way, and thinking about it, father seems to be exactly that kind of person. The people around father must have been quite tired too."
"…"
It felt like getting punched out of nowhere.
"Anyway, so to summarize: the Green Forest King isn't someone who would lie, so it's definitely true that there were people related to the Imperial Court around him, but we don't know exactly what those Imperial Court people did or why they were around the Green Forest King?"
The Great General nodded vigorously.
"That's right."
"Hmm…"
Wei Yan-ho scratched his cheek and looked back at Wei Jeong-han.
"That's what he says."
"That's what he says."
The two father and son looked at each other.
"Then…"
Wei Yan-ho seemed to be thinking about something, then opened his mouth.
"What do we do now?"
Wei Jeong-han made a "hmm" sound, then looked at the Green Forest King. Looking at his emaciated appearance made him feel unsettled.
"Wouldn't it be right to treat the Green Forest King, if only to understand the full scope of this incident?"
"I suppose so?"
"Even if it weren't for the Great General's request, if the Imperial Court has interfered in the martial world, and especially if they've done something with the Green Forest, I get the feeling that some massive conspiracy is lurking."
"Yes. I think so too."
"So we need to treat the Green Forest King."
"Yes. That's right."
"…"
Wei Jeong-han looked at Wei Yan-ho with an unpleasant gaze.
Was this kid acting this way because he didn't know, or was he feigning ignorance despite knowing?
Since he was someone whose ability to avoid bothersome tasks had reached the realm of mastery, it was impossible to get a read on him.
"So do something about it."
"About what?"
"Treatment! Treatment! Treat him! Otherwise, why would the Great General have dragged you all the way here thinking he was crazy, and why would I be explaining this situation to you?"
Wei Yan-ho's eyes widened.
"You want me to do the treatment?"
"Yes!"
Wei Yan-ho tilted his head as he looked at Wei Jeong-han.
"You're not feeling unwell, are you? It seems like father is the one who's sick, not the Green Forest King."
"Argh! You damn brat!"
The Great General and Gong Mu-jin desperately held back Wei Jeong-han, who was about to throw a fit.
"C-calm down."
"Please calm down, senior. It's not like he's been doing this for just one or two days!"
"Grrrr!"
Wei Jeong-han made a groaning sound, then began taking deep breaths. He tried his best to calm down.
After calming his mind through deep breathing for a while, Wei Jeong-han barely managed to open his mouth.
"…Are you saying you can't treat him?"
"That's quite an ambiguous question. I don't know what I should answer. So right now, you're saying you'd like me to treat this old man?"
"Yes! Exactly that."
Wei Yan-ho smiled brightly.
"If you want treatment, you should find a physician. Why are you asking me!"
"Hey, you bastard!"
Wei Jeong-han pointed at him as he spoke.
"Then is the Great General an idiot for coming to find you? He came to you because treatment for Qi Deviation is much better when done by a martial artist of equal level rather than a physician!"
"What? A martial artist does treatment?"
Wei Yan-ho's eyes widened as if hearing this for the first time in his life.
"What kind of unprincipled nonsense is that? If that's the case, why do physicians exist?"
"Grrrr."
When Wei Jeong-han beat his chest in frustration, Wei Yan-ho grinned and said:
"And even if a master could treat Qi Deviation, it has nothing to do with me."
"Why?"
"Because I never learned how!"
Wei Yan-ho was confident.
"My master told me this: he had embedded in my body the methods to deal with all the crises I would face in the martial world. Right now it might feel like I haven't learned anything, but when I actually experience it, I'll find that I already know it all. But…"
"But?"
"As I've mentioned several times already, there's no one with a worse personality than my master. He's unprecedented and will never be seen again in history. There's no way such a person would teach me methods to heal other people! What kind of person do you think my master is!"
Was that an insult or praise?
Why was he making such a proud face while saying such things?
"M-maybe such methods were also embedded in your body."
"Nah, that's nonsense."
Wei Yan-ho waved his hand dismissively.
"Actually, considering my master's temperament, I doubt he even knows methods to heal other people. He's not someone who would waste time on such useless things."
Wei Jeong-han couldn't help but fall into serious contemplation.
Was Wei Yan-ho like this because he was truly rotten from the beginning?
Or was that just Wei Jeong-han's misconception, and had those five years spent in that cave ruined the child?
Thinking back carefully, the Wei Yan-ho of the past was lazy and had aspects that made people angry, but he wasn't such a human wreck.
'Just what kind of bastard was that master of his?'
In the past, he had thought of him as a gracious person who had made his son—whom he didn't even dare touch—into a master, but lately, he kept thinking that the master had turned an already hopeless case into a completely hopeless case.
"So there's no way?"
"Ah, father keeps saying frustrating things too."
Wei Yan-ho spoke confidently.
"If father were sick, would you want to receive treatment from me?"
"I'd rather suffer and die than do that."
"Right? So why are you forcing that on someone else? That old man is unconscious right now, so he can't object—but I don't think forcing treatment on someone without consent is the right thing to do."
Wei Yan-ho was even cold in his self-assessment.
But it seemed there was someone who didn't think that way.
"W-what are you saying?"
The Great General's complexion turned deathly pale.
"Y-you can't heal him? You're saying you don't know how to treat Qi Deviation?"
"Yep."
"Ah…"
The Great General collapsed on the spot as if the sky had fallen. Then he began sobbing in a posture that conveyed deep sorrow.
"Y-you can't heal him. Sob sob."
He cried so sorrowfully that even the hearts of those watching became heavy.
Even Wei San-ho, who could never view bandits favorably, and even Peng Daoji, who had quite bad feelings toward the Green Forest, had to acknowledge the Great General's loyalty to the Green Forest King. Even if their parents were dying, they couldn't sob so heartbreakingly.
Wei Jeong-han sighed and said:
"Look here, isn't there another way?"
The Great General raised his head with a tear-stained face and quietly opened his mouth.
"T-then…"
"Yes?"
"Why have I been getting beaten up until now…"
"…"
"Why!"
"…"
"Sob sob sob."
Learning the true nature of the Great General's sorrowful tears, Wei Jeong-han smiled and gently patted Wei Yan-ho's shoulder.
"Yan-ho."
"Yes?"
"That bastard hasn't been beaten enough. Beat him some more."
"Yes!"
Even while watching Wei Yan-ho's foot flying toward him, the Great General didn't stop his sorrowful crying.
Knowledge is power, but half-baked knowledge becomes poison. Learning about Wei Yan-ho was the beginning of misfortune for him.