The declaration of the winner caused an uproar in the audience.
Woaaaah!
Shouts resonated on the summit of the mountain.
The crowd praised White Tiger for his overwhelming power, beating his opponent with just one strike.
“So that’s the famous White Tiger of the west…!”
“I could hardly see the wooden sword!”
“I heard Red Tiger is also good though. What a shame.”
“I wanted to see if his rough mouth is backed up by skill though.”
“Still, he lasted longer than we thought.”
“Wait, over there. Is that…?”
The audience’s gaze shifted to a dark aura.
There was a man with hair as dark as the night, and a woman with fiery hair and eyes.
They were Hyunmoo and Jujak, later revered as part of the Four Auspicious Beasts along with White Tiger.
During this time, Hyunmoo and Jujak were already widely known, and everyone was surprised that they showed interest in White Tiger.
Hyunmoo flapped his long sleeves and spoke excitedly with Jujak while imitating White Tiger’s sword technique.
“What an interesting power. I want to be close to him.”
“Not bad. Actually, really good. Shall we go talk to him?”
“Hmm… I don’t think now is the right time.”
Hyunmoo looked at White Tiger with a gentle gaze.
White Tiger was walking toward the silver-haired and blue-haired tigers who were waiting for him.
Hyunmoo’s eyes staring at White Tiger had a gentle white light hovering over them.
Jujak realized that Hyunmoo was looking at White Tiger with his eyes and predicting his future.
When Hyunmo spoke again, it was after the light disappeared from his eyes.
“We will have another chance. Let’s leave this opportunity for the tigers to know each other.”
“That is your prediction?”
“Close enough.”
“…Alright.”
Although Jujak was disappointed by Hyunmoo’s words, she decided to back down and trust in his prediction.
Meanwhile, Yellow Tiger, who was sitting near them, must’ve heard their conversation.
But unlike them, he has no intention of backing down.
‘Unlike them, I am a tiger. Their prediction has nothing to do with me. Should I run to White Tiger instead of going to Red Tiger?’
He knew that even if he tries to soothe the defeated Red Tiger, he wouldn’t be soothed at all.
Yellow Tiger thought that perhaps he should talk to White Tiger to increase his chance of winning against him so that he could avenge Red Tiger.
However, if Yellow Tiger were being honest, he wants to observe and talk to White Tiger for himself, regardless of wanting to avenge Red Tiger.
‘Red Tiger, I’ll go to the finals instead of you and take on White Tiger. I’m afraid you must bear the pain of defeat on your own first.’
Considering the order of matches, White Tiger would surely be in the final round, and for Yellow Tiger, it was fait accompli that he’d also reach the finals.
Yellow Tiger drank some of the kimchi soup he packed and then killed his presence to follow White Tiger.
White Tiger’s face gradually became strange.
‘It’s different from his blank expression. He looks a little down.’
Yellow Tiger didn’t imagine White Tiger to have a happy expression in secret, but this was even more unexpected.
Reading his expression, there seems to be a slight relief, but also a hint of regret.
‘Come to think of it, he said his brother doesn’t want a meaningless fight. Is that one his brother?’
Yellow Tiger silently watched the silver-haired young man walk in front of White Tiger.
The handsome silver-haired man had a gentle smile, but Yellow Tiger felt like he was somewhat more fragile compared to White Tiger and the blue-haired woman next to him.
The concept of strength is relative, so seeing the delicate silver-haired man between two strong-looking people made him look quite weaker.
‘That blue-haired woman doesn’t look weak at all. Seeing him stand between those two people makes him look weak. If I had met him one on one, he wouldn’t have looked as fragile.’
It wasn’t until the buzzing crowd completely settled down that the silver-haired young man finally stopped walking.
The silver-haired man turned and spoke to White Tiger.
He had a soft voice, but his words seem to have a hidden meaning.
“Congratulations on your win.”
“Congratulations.”
Following the silver-haired young man, the blue-haired woman also congratulated White Tiger.
White Tiger hesitated for a moment before thanking the two.
“…Thank you, Silver Tiger, Blue Tiger.”
Blue Tiger frowned.
She sighed before looking at Silver Tiger.
Silver Tiger nodded once and softly asked something, a smile still on his face.
“Are you glad that you won?”
“…”
White Tiger lowered his eyebrows slightly, his mouth shut.
Silver Tiger waited for an answer, but seeing that his brother was silent, he began to speak again.
“I’m not very happy with your win just now, hyungnim. Did you forget why I made that wooden sword and gifted it to you?”
The wooden sword’s white paint was peeled off here and there.
The pure white wooden body did not seem to be strong enough to withstand White Tiger’s power.
He at least managed to not break the sword by controlling his strength, but the paint was ruined.
‘It seems like the paint comes off when the sword is wielded even just a little bit. Did he make it that way on purpose?’
It looked decent in White Tiger’s hands, a man who showed amazing skill in martial arts, but the wooden sword itself actually looked shabby.
White Tiger made an excuse in an apologetic tone.
“I couldn’t let it go. He was being arrogant.
Hearing White Tiger’s excuse didn’t change Silver Tiger’s expression, but he said what he wanted to say.
“I told you in advance that Red Tiger and Yellow Tiger would surely provoke you in any way they can. Why did you forget your dongsaeng’s request and acted like that?”
“…”
Yellow Tiger was surprised at the sudden mention of his name, but he didn’t make the mistake of faltering and showing his presence.
Silver Tiger was speaking as if he knew Red Tiger and Yellow Tiger well.
‘It’s true. I would’ve provoked White Tiger in some way as well. But how does he know that when he hasn’t seen me before? Well, perhaps the mountain spirit or the river spirit talked about me.’
Yellow Tiger was interested in Silver Tiger who seem to know well about him and Red Tiger.
His behavior also suggests that he controls the superior White Tiger.
Silver Tiger continued speaking while Yellow Tiger’s eyes sparkled.
“You looked at me and Blue Tiger-nim before the match started. Did you want to fight even after seeing our faces?”
White Tiger gave an excuse again.
“Blue Tiger wanted to fight too. I thought it wouldn’t matter if I fought because Blue Tiger was going to fight too.”
“The Taehokwon art that Blue Tiger devised isn’t perfect yet. It doesn’t matter if it’s somewhat exposed to the world. No one will be able to predict its next moves from just a few steps.”
Silver Tiger’s words flew smoothly like water and crushed White Tiger’s excuse.
White Tiger couldn’t refute further.
Silver Tiger spoke again.
“Blue Tiger-nim needs a colleague to develop Taehokwon together. It will be helpful if people show interest in Blue Tiger’s Taehokwon after seeing it in practice. Blue Tiger-nim’s case is different from hyung’s.”
“…I’m sorry.”
In the end, White Tiger apologized to Silver Tiger.
Silver Tiger examined if White Tiger’s voice and expression showed sincere reflection.
“It can’t be helped, it’s already revealed. It would seem awkward to hide it all of a sudden after everything. You should fight in the next matches, but show no more than what you displayed in your match against Red Tiger.”
“Alright.”
“If your power peeks out and you know that it would break the sword, please keep your promise to forfeit immediately.”
“…Alright.”
To the point where the wooden sword would break?
That white wooden sword seemed designed to withstand only a certain level of force.
‘He wasn’t using his full power against Red Tiger?’
Yellow Tiger was shocked as he grasped the context of their conversation.
However, that wasn’t the most shocking thing.
“Now that I said what I wanted to say to you, hyung, I want to talk to Yellow Tiger-nim. Rather than talking unilaterally, I prefer to talk to him face to face.”
Silver Tiger knew that Yellow Tiger was near.
Having no more reason to hide himself, Yellow Tiger jumped from the tree he was hiding behind.
Hwik!
“Hahaha! How did you know I was here?”
Blue Tiger looked fed up with Yellow Tiger who appeared shamelessly with an excited smile.
Silver Tiger spoke politely to Yellow Tiger whose eyes were still shining.
“Yellow Tiger-nim, you’re known to be crazy about things that you’re interested in. That’s why you came to the west mountains to see my hyung. I knew you would come here to observe my hyung who just beat Red Tiger-nim.”
“I see! So why didn’t you make me leave? Weren’t you all talking about a secret?”
“Yellow Tiger-nim is one of the tiger people.”
“Is it important that I am? I see. Perhaps it has something to do with White Tiger saving his strength.”
“Yes, that is correct.”
Silver Tiger nodded.
Silver Tiger’s voice stayed consistently soft, but the content of his words was heavy.
“Someday, the Tiger Clan will fight a war on this land. I want him to refrain from revealing his power to the world in preparation for that time.”
Tiger Clan.
War.
Hearing those two words turned Yellow Tiger speechless.
To think that someone is preparing for a future war when the match organized by the Heavenly God was simply to let the tiger people meet each other.
Yellow Tiger unknowingly spoke in a lower voice.
“Why do you think so?”
“This land is not rich. Resources are limited and barren. Meanwhile, more and more lives are appearing on this land.”
“The number of gods watching over this land is not small. As long as their grace is at hand, no one will starve.”
Silver Tiger gently refuted Yellow Tiger’s words.
“The gods are fickle. They’ll get tired of watching this land one day. At most, we’ll only have the Heavenly God who attached himself to us.”
Yellow Tigers couldn’t think of what to say.
He’s only encountered some gods a few times, but he knows how unpredictable they were.
“It is impossible for everyone in this land to live without shortage with only the power of Heavenly God alone. We should someday develop the power to live in this land without the help of gods. However, we still need more time.”
There was a faint sense of anxiety in Silver Tiger’s voice.
However, Silver Tiger quickly collected himself and spoke to Yellow Tiger again.
“So I am going to beat you.”
“…What? What does that have to do with anything you just said?”
Yellow Tiger was obviously dumbfounded, but Silver Tiger remained firm.
His voice was calm and full of confidence.
“Yellow Tiger-nim, you are born with precious talent. It’s the power that can watch over this land and the Tiger CLan someday. So I will beat you as fast as I can to prevent you from showing that power to the world.”
