Disclaimer: I do not own TAL (A manhwa by Kang Im) or any of its characters. The last translated chapter I've read before writing this was ch 158, and since I can't read Korean, I can only guess what happens after from the pictures (and with the help of my good friend Google Translate) So if I get details wrong… yolo?
Spoilers ahead.
"Thank you."
A silver haired girl thanked the Tal. Her smile couldn't take any of the sadness away from her voice. It was obvious that she had exhausted all the tears she had in her petite body and more in the time Yi-Mae was gone.
"I thought you were scary," The girl, Jenna, admitted. She clutched the parchment she was given like it was her last hope in the world. "But it turns out you're really kind."
"…I just know what it feels like to lose someone you depended on. Though it wasn't as bad as you guys." Yi-Mae quickly added.
Yes, unlike Hiljo, that man was alive. But after that event, Yi-Mae doubted that man would ever be the same, no matter how long he would rest. The friend he depended on was gone, and he was partially to blame. He shouldn't have depended on him in the first place. The days that were spent intentionally... jokingly pissing each other off with that endless game of hide and seek. Did he even seriously try to find him in those days? Even if everything felt like a game, he should've properly done his job. The relationship between them should have stayed master and subordinate, no matter what pretences they held.
How did it begin? When did he forget that he was his master's strength?
TAL chapter 52
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The story's just begun, but let's do a quick check.
Left leg? Check.
Left arm? Precariously supporting him on a branch on a cliff. But still, check.
Right arm and leg? Missing in action.
At least the rest of his black and white existence was somehow holding together.
Gotaya had carelessly placed his right side open when he was swarmed with enraged chachaoong. It was always harder to keep them alive than it was to kill them, and the challenge left him dismembered and on the verge of falling into the ravine. But the real reason why he was having such a hard time was because he managed to get hit by a strange poison that inhibited his regeneration ability, meaning he was in for a long wait if he wanted his limbs to recover. It should be expected that in a crowd this big, something different would be thrown at him. If that didn't happen, even a hundred of these fleas would be no match for him. So much for trying to support 'Yi-Mae'.
A sword had rather accurately pierced him through the heart and pinned him to the cliff behind him. One of them must've thought he was human, since they struck a meaningless spot. It was common knowledge that to kill one of his kind, you'd have to be chopped to pieces. Giving a yongma stab wounds was like trying to cut an apple by poking it with a needle.
Gotaya shook his head to clear his thoughts after he realized he compared himself to a fruit.
With missing limbs, he had three options:
1) Let go of the branch and try to pull the sword out before his own weight rips him in half (He'd probably fall anyways)
2) Ask Ja Yun for help (No.)
3) Swing his body and use the momentum to get out. (Hurts like hell) ~Correct answer~
Since choice number 3 seemed to be the correct choice… why did Gotaya have a feeling he would make more of these painful choices in the future? He was about to begin sawing himself in an attempt to break free when a voice called from above.
"What happened to you, Gotaya?" An all too familiar figure with long, dark hair and a brown Yi-Mae Tal mask peeked out from the edge of the cliff. His white robes billowed in the spring breeze. Thinking back to this day, a 17 year old Ja Yun was taller than a 17 year old Yu Jin. Maybe it was because he erased his memories when 'Yu Jin' was 15, and hadn't updated that illusion since then?
"…" Gotaya remained silent at the sight of his master.
"You must be getting old, if you can't even beat these guys. I guess that white hair isn't just for show, hm?" Ja Yun teased. "We might be the same age, but you look way older—"
"STOP." Gotaya glared. Amongst all the reactions people had when they saw him, the words you-look-older came second only to omg-you're-a-yongma. And Ja Yun wouldn't let him hear the end of it.
"…Just get me out of here." He sighed. Letting his master watch him while he sawed himself in half would be worse than just asking for help.
"Was that an order? You call me a terrible master, but what's this?" Ja Yun shook his head. "Ah, what has this world come to, my own yongma is ordering me around. You're like expired meat from the supermarket. Meat that loses to all the other meat… A totally useless piece of old meat, even the mass produced meat bags over there would be more useful."
The mass produced meat bags were, of course, the dozens of chachaoong completely trashed and knocked out by Ja Yun.
"If you don't help me, I'll turn you into ground beef once I get out of here." Gotaya's patience was wearing thin.
"Is that so? Well, good luck with that then—" The masked Tal quite literally, peace'd out. Bye bye!
"JA YUN!"
"I'm joking, geez. No need to yell." Ja Yun suddenly appeared behind him, clutching on the same branch he was dangling on. His speed was always impressive. "This will hurt, alright?"
With a gruesome splurt, the sword was pulled out.
"Gah!" Gotaya yelled. "You twisted that on purpose just now didn't you!?"
"It's not my fault, you're the one who's squirming. Be more grateful when receiving help." Ja Yun shrugged off his complaints.
"Do you want me to tell everyone that the real reason you don't take off your mask is because you have an uneven tan on your face? From playing by yourself in the sun for too long?"
"In case you forgot," Ja Yun raised the sword he had just pulled out. "I tend to throw the thing I'm holding when I get irritated… hm?"
Snap! The dreaded sound of wood cracking interrupted the conversation. The two looked at each other for a split second. Then at the gaping abyss below them.
"Uh-oh."
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A four thousand foot plummet and a struggle landing with missing limbs later, the two found themselves at the foot of the mountain. It was quiet, with a few trees overlooking the crag.
Gotaya propped himself upright on a rock. The bleeding had stopped, but his regeneration was still much slower than normal. Meanwhile, the Tal was surveying the area but oddly enough, he stayed in the vicinity.
"…What is it?" Gotaya asked cautiously. This is usually the part where his shitty master asks him for a favor. "Normally you'd be long gone by now."
"I can't just leave you alone like this." The Tal took a seat beside his yongma, and pointing at the missing limbs. "I'll wait here until you regenerate, at least. …You can stop giving me that suspicious look now."
"…" e_e
"You know, this reminds me of the time we got lost in the northern mountains." The chachaoong decided to just ignore the distrustful glare.
"You mean it reminds you of the time when I told you not to go to the northern mountains but you went anyway and I tried to stop you from falling off a snowy cliff, but we both fell anyways?" You could see the veins on his temples bulge. "And then you went ahead nagged at me until I carried you back down?"
"Erm… is that so..?" Ja Yun vaguely remembered something… like that… happening… ?
"You think it's fun carrying a grown man down a mountain, huh?" Gotaya probed at him. "Taking care of an idiot with a fever, huh? You even know full well that YOUR wellbeing affects MY wellbeing, and that I feel exhausted when you are sick. Do you think it's easy doing hard labour when you're tired? Do you? Now that I think about it, why didn't you use your ability to heal yourself? Downgrading me to a porter, and being ported down a mountain... You like seeing people suffer, hm? Your S tendencies-"
"I get it, I'm sorry." Ja Yun raised his hands in defeat. He shouldn't have brought it up. "Just rest, alright? If you get too angry, your blood pressure will rise-"
"That's not possible for a yongma and you know it, you bastard-"
After a good whack, silence fell between the two.
"Why did you go after those guys anyway?" Gotaya finally asked. The irritation was thick in his voice. "If you're going to purposely put yourself in trouble, at least call me before you do. If you die, I die too."
"Haha, it's a secret." Ja Yun chuckled.
Gotaya decided to let it go. Knowing how stubborn he was, a secret would stay a secret once Ja Yun decided that it would be so. But rather than the snowy mountain memory, this event was almost identical to something he'd rather not recall.
It reminded him of the day he experienced death.
Bonus: I like drawing so ta-dah! A somewhat younger Gotaya~
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The art style is inconsistent in manwha. Sometimes he's drawn older or younger looking than this. Same goes for Yu Jin's transformed version. The twins are always spot on though. I can sense the love for them, but not the main characters...