Yokai Come to the Countryside Café

Chapter 60: Divine Move (5)

An hour and a half.

It was a late hour because I had to work overtime.

It was just an hour and a half later than my usual time off work, yet a bizarre scene unfolded where Ria, Sanyi, and the Immortals were picking up Go stones from the floor as if they were gathering barley grains.

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

I grabbed the scruff of Sanyi’s neck, who was trying to sneak away, and pulled her cheek hard.

-Smooch.

“Didn’t I tell you not to mess around with the Go board?”

“Ouch ouch ouch! That really hurts! It truly hurts!”

Only after picking up all the scattered Go stones from the floor was I finally able to head to the bathroom.

But I couldn’t unwind in the shower at leisure. The traffic control downstairs wasn’t completely settled yet.

(You said you’d take care of the Go stones, so why did you throw them on the floor! I thought my cheek would tear off!)

(Still, this rascal!)

I had to go back downstairs to the first floor without even drying my hair properly.

“Would you like some coffee?”

“Ahem, I’ll enjoy it.”

“I want to drink milk!”

“Alright, you and Ria get milk.”

-Clink. Clink.

Without even needing to look at the recipe, five perfectly measured cups of coffee and two glasses of milk were soon served.

Though I had taken a bit of a detour, in the end, I leaned back on the café sofa with a cup of coffee after work.

While I was briefly enjoying some leisure time on my phone, the spot where the Immortals were seated became noisy again.

“You say it.”

“Weren’t you the one who suggested bringing it first?”

“Oh, come on now, we all agreed!”

“Then let’s go together.”

The four of them nodded as if they had made up their minds and came to me.

“Do you have something to say?”

“Here, take this.”

There it was. That nasty habit of non-human beings who come to the café.

They handed me something without even the vague excuse of it being for coffee.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I must decline. This is too much for me.”

“You say that without knowing what it is!”

“It’s precisely because I don’t know what it is.”

It was a small silver rod, about the size of a finger, with a necklace chain attached.

A dragon was engraved on it, and even as a piece of art, its value seemed extraordinary.

“Just listen for a moment!”

-Vwoong.

The rod was a small dagger sheathed like a silver ornamental blade. But the moment that small dagger, unsheathed, was forced into my hand, it instantly grew and transformed into a finely forged sword in the blink of an eye.

“What on earth….”

“This is the Yongcheon Sword. I figured you'd be more comfortable with something recently existing in the current world.”

Yongcheon Sword.

Definitely a name that, if searched online, would bring up a slew of fantastical legends.

“What do you think?”

Their eyes were filled with expectation and certainty.

“What would I do with this sword? I don’t need it, and it’s too much. Please take it back.”

“Why reject this peerless treasure sword! We carefully selected it!”

“I have no need to use a sword.”

“Does a time of chaos send a letter ahead? If you keep it close, surely you’ll find it handy.”

“Even so, I don’t want it.”

Amidst the tense standoff, it was the Immortals who first raised the white flag.

“If you just accept this, we won’t ask you to become a disciple anymore. Nor will we pester you to play Go with that strange item.”

“No! Instead, we’ll learn how to play Go with that ourselves! What do you say?”

“Really?”

“We give you our word!”

The counteroffer was completely unexpected.

The sword they brought as a gift was certainly a burden.

But the promise that they would no longer force Go on me, and even learn how to play it on a laptop, was a temptation I couldn’t easily refuse.

Hadn’t I already played 15 straight games till morning, bewitched by their Go?

If that happened again, I wouldn’t survive it.

Just as I was falling deeper into contemplation, the Immortals' final words drove the wedge in.

“We brought it so you could protect yourself. Even if you have extraordinary eyes, your body is still that of an ordinary human, is it not? And you're not alone.”

In short, it was meant as a self-defense weapon. Like pepper spray or a baton.

And the thing I needed to protect wasn’t just myself.

Having concluded a satisfying transaction(?), the Immortals insisted on climbing onto Yongman’s back despite his grumbling protest.

“You’re making him a disciple? Isn’t it a loss to just give him the sword and leave like this?”

“You simpleton. Didn't you yourself say that child won’t even live a hundred years?”

“So you should quickly take him as your disciple.”

“A hundred years is but a fleeting moment. By waiting through that moment, you gain a Go companion to play with for eons.”

“Not a disciple?”

“Since it’s us who’ve been learning from the beginning, wouldn’t that make us the disciple of the teahouse owner if we had to draw a line? Keh keh.”

Even our very first game wasn’t a handicap match with stones already placed, but a fair game on equal terms.

There may have been a gap in skill, but the teahouse owner never once sought to teach.

On the contrary, it was they who had enjoyed the teahouse owner’s Go and descended to this world, bringing with them one of the finest of all the peerless game records they had ever won in bet matches as a gift.

The four Immortals were certain that Jinseong would meet them again, whether he followed the cycle of reincarnation or broke free and ascended to the Heavenly Realm.

“Those who meet must part, and those who part must meet again. One who does not forget grace will not turn away from us when the day comes.”

“You’ll be coming often anyway.”

“Ahem, we were talking about a hundred years later!”

Since Yongman’s grumbling wasn’t entirely wrong, a brief moment of embarrassment passed across the faces of the four Immortals ascending to the sky.

“So you’re saying you received this from those Immortal fellows?”

“Yes.”

After everything had settled down, Elder Gumiho, who came to the café, heard the full story and asked in surprise.

“Well! This is….”

“What’s the matter?”

“Did you accept this knowing what the Yongcheon Sword is?”

“I just looked it up. It said General Lim Gyeong-eop used it. It was said to be lost during the Korean War, so I guess it somehow ended up in the Heavenly Realm.”

“That’s not the important part. The Yongcheon Sword is a treasured sword bestowed by a dragon. It’s on a whole other level from treasured swords crafted by human hands and named after soaking in blood and flame. It was surely retrieved by one of the heavenly beings during the chaos of war.”

“This?”

-Vwoong.

When I held it and unsheathed it again, a sword easily over one meter long sprang forth.

“Were those old men out of their minds from playing Go all the time, giving something this precious to you?”

“Jinseong is incredibly amazing, that’s why!”

“Well, that’s true, but… their warehouse must be full of treasures won from bet games, and the fact that they gave you this sword of all things—it bothers me.”

“That’s exactly why I accepted it.”

“What? Did they give you a hint?”

“They didn’t say anything specific, but they had eyes similar to mine.”

They were people who had played Go for thousands of years. Reading ahead in Go was akin to seeing the future, which wasn’t so different from my Divine Eye.

There had to be a reason they gave me the sword while even giving up the chance to become my teacher.

Especially since they expressed concern for my safety and mentioned I wasn’t alone.

And when I said I would accept the sword, all four had looks of relief on their faces.

I don’t know what kind of future they saw, but the moment I took the sword, it meant that future no longer needed to be worried about.

“Tsk, the fact that there’s something ahead that can be solved with a sword is already a problem.”

“If you’re just going to jinx things like that, then go help Ria with her homework instead. I have to sort out the piled-up deliveries.”

“Homework?”

“Ria can see the future too. I think in one of those futures, she was reading a picture book with you today.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

“This one! She drew it yesterday—Grandpa Gumiho reading her a picture book!”

Ria brought out her drawing diary from yesterday and showed it to Elder.

“She drew the diary in advance?”

“Yes! Just in case something came up and she couldn’t draw it!”

“No, but if that’s the case, it’s not really a diary….”

As expected, Elder reacted the same way I had when I saw Ria’s future diary.

With the nagger distracted, I hung the now-small sword back around my neck and got up to sort the delivery boxes piled on the counter.

Maybe because it contained heavy powder, the box was tightly bound in several layers of thick plastic banding.

Not even scissors or a knife could make a scratch.

“Hmmm.”

I was wondering if I should go grab a kitchen knife when a perfect tool came to mind.

Wasn’t it already hanging around my neck?

-Vwoong. Snap.

As expected of a divine sword. I merely brought it close and it sliced cleanly. I didn’t even feel it touch.

For a brief moment, a silly thought passed through my head—“Wait, could this be the very moment the Immortals foresaw that I’d need the sword?”

Nah, no way.

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

Thick, stubby fingers were repeatedly pressing the wrong code, failing each time.

“Let’s see now… press the pound sign, then 1321… no, it was 1324. Dammit. I always get confused coming here.”

“Mister, I need to get in.”

“Oh! Sorry about that.”

The young man who had been waiting behind finally lost patience and tapped his entry card.

The person who finally got in through the main door was none other than Park Gidong Sabom.

Park Gidong Sabom pulled the stuffed-full mail from mailbox 204 and took the elevator up.

The front door of unit 204 took ages to open after setting off the alarm.

“Phew, raising a kid, seriously.”

-Roll.

Because the floor was so cluttered with garbage, Park Gidong Sabom had to tiptoe around, but ended up knocking over a bottle of whiskey.

“Ah, now my socks are soaked. Hey, at least clean up a bit. This isn’t a pigsty.”

“Hrm, what?”

The cracked voice of Han Sewoon Kuksu came from the messy floor right beside the bed.

Giving up on his already-wet socks, Park Gidong Sabom shuffled closer.

On the floor where the voice came from, Han Sewoon Kuksu was sprawled out, having somehow made space to lie down.

“Why are you here?”

“Why? I came to check if Han Kuksu drank himself to death so I could call a special cleanup crew! Even if you’re alive, this place still needs one. Ugh, the smell. Can a human really live like this?”

“It’s my day off.”

“Oh, like you don’t drink on workdays? Geez, there’s no time for this. Get up, wash, and get dressed. We’re heading out.”

“So annoying. Another interview or something? Just tell them I’m sick. I really am—drank too much last night.”

“No, I said it’s not that! I found him. Dangsari from Ongame.”

“What? Really?!”

“Geez, don’t scream. So go wash up. We’re going now.”