The four-horse carriage rolled smoothly toward our destination. Though the horses and carriage were the same as yesterday, the difference in ride quality was night and day.
We had a new driver.
Having finally escaped the driver’s seat and settled beside me, Hyuk Mujin said with a carefree expression, “I guess everyone has their own natural talents. I’m hopeless at driving a carriage.”
Hopeless, my ass.
This was a man Wolhwa, the Lower District Sect’s Shanxi Branch Leader, had brought with her. Naturally, he was no ordinary coachman.
The man silently holding the reins was a Level 50 First Rate martial artist. A coachman and a bodyguard—the picture fit perfectly.
“Mujin.”
“Yes?”
“Please, just keep quiet. Then you’ll at least do okay.”
“……Why am I always the one you pick on?”
“Because you’re always spouting nonsense, you idiot.”
Wolhwa, who was sitting across from us and watching, let out a quiet laugh.
“It’s nice to see how comfortable you two are with each other.”
“He just has no respect.”
“No respect? I wasn’t going to bring this up, but I’m two years older than you, Captain. Some of my friends already have children.”
“You don’t.”
“Well, no. That’s true.”
“And even if you were twenty-two, you’d still be younger than me. Anyway, you’re younger.”
“What are you talking about? Even the stray dogs of Shanxi Province know you’ve only just turned twenty.”
“If you don’t believe me, fight me.”
“……Since we have company, I’ll leave it at that.”
Wolhwa beamed at Hyuk Mujin’s ugly excuse.
“Oh, I don’t mind. Though I can’t speak for Young Hero Jin over here.”
Everyone’s eyes naturally turned toward one person.
Jin Mukyung, who had kept his mouth firmly shut until now, flinched before speaking.
“I-I don’t mind.”
“……?”
What the hell? Did he just stutter?
My eyes widened at the unexpected response, and Jin Mukyung subtly looked away.
Oh, this is getting worse.
He wasn’t usually like this. Normally, he would have glared and demanded to know what I was staring at.
I asked him sincerely, “Are you sick?”
“……Not at all.”
“You should look people in the eye when you talk to them.”
“……Shut up. Don’t talk to me.”
He was acting really strange today.
There was no way a Peak master like him had gotten motion sickness.
He had been full of energy until this morning, but now he was clearly not himself.
Come to think of it, he seems to have been like this ever since we got into the carriage.
Just as I was narrowing my eyes and watching Jin Mukyung—
Poke, poke.
Hyuk Mujin nudged me in the side and whispered so quietly that only I could hear.
“Look at the Second Young Master.”
“What about him…? Ah.”
Only after hearing Hyuk Mujin did I notice the bizarre sight.
I couldn’t believe I had missed it until now.
What is he doing?
The four-horse carriage brought from the Jin Family of Taiyuan was quite luxurious. The interior was about the size of an ordinary room, with seats spacious enough to accommodate twice our number without trouble.
And yet…
Why is he sitting like that?
Despite all the available space, Jin Mukyung had crammed himself into the farthest corner of the carriage. No, crammed didn’t quite cover it. He was practically compressed.
What is this, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters?
Was he attending a magic school instead of Heaven’s Gate Temple?
Hyuk Mujin and I weren’t the only ones watching his strange behavior.
“Young Hero Jin, you look very uncomfortable. Why don’t you come over here? There’s plenty of room.”
Jin Mukyung went rigid at the sound of Wolhwa’s alluring voice.
His creaking reply came a moment later.
“I-I’m fine.”
“……”
He didn’t look fine at all.
I quietly whispered to Hyuk Mujin, who wore an expression much like mine.
“You think he’s acting strange too, right?”
“This goes beyond strange.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
We exchanged meaningful glances.
“My goodness. Who would’ve imagined?”
“Exactly. Who knew the great Heaven Shaking Sword was so shy around strangers?”
“That’s exactly what I—huh?”
“Why are you reacting like that? You shouldn’t criticize someone for their personality. If there are thick-skinned bastards like me, there can be timid people too.”
“No, wait. Just wait a moment.”
Hyuk Mujin stumbled over his words.
“What exactly are you talking about?”
“Obviously, Jin Mukyung…”
An eerie voice suddenly cut in.
“Shut up.”
No matter how spacious it was, we were still inside a carriage. Everyone could hear us.
Faced with Jin Mukyung’s murderous glare, Hyuk Mujin and I shut our mouths at the same time.
Wolhwa was the one who dispelled the grim atmosphere.
“Where are my manners? I haven’t properly introduced myself yet. I’m Wolhwa, Shanxi Branch Leader of the Lower District Sect.”
“……I am Jin Mukyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan.”
“What a dull reaction. Young Master Jin over there was extremely surprised when he first learned who I was.”
“I heard the general details from him. I also heard that you rendered our family a great service.”
Jin Mukyung politely clasped his hands.
“Though it comes late, allow me to express my gratitude.”
“Not at all. It was a fair transaction.”
Wolhwa smoothly added, “Though I have yet to receive proper compensation.”
“Our family will not forget the Lower District Sect’s goodwill.”
His behavior and manner of speaking were still awkward beyond belief, but he was doing much better than when they had first met.
Looking at the handsome man and beautiful woman sitting together like a picture, Hyuk Mujin exclaimed,
“A promising young martial arts master and a peerless beauty… Whew, just looking at them makes my heart race. Don’t you agree?”
I turned away and pretended not to hear him.
Judging by the killing intent prickling my skin, Hyuk Mujin’s heart wouldn’t be racing much longer.
Winter days were short-tempered.
How long had we traveled along the mountain road? The sun quickly set, and darkness descended. The carriage stopped two shichen later, around midnight.
“We’ve arrived.”
The first thing I saw upon stepping out of the carriage was a moderately sized wooden building.
A chill greeted me the moment I entered. A statue in human form gazed solemnly down at us.
What did they call places like this again?
Oh, right. A shrine.
I had heard they were places where the spirit tablets of the dead were enshrined and memorial rites performed.
The Guandi Temples that appeared at the drop of a hat in martial arts novels came to mind. I examined the statue, but I couldn’t tell who it depicted.
“This shrine was abandoned after a famine several years ago, but it seems the local commoners still visit from time to time.”
Just as Wolhwa had said, the shrine’s interior was bare, but signs of human presence remained—footprints in the dust covering the floor, for instance.
“I’ll prepare the place.”
At the words of the coachman and bodyguard, whom I assumed to be a member of the Lower District Sect, we headed outside.
More precisely, one of us was dragged out by someone.
“Follow me.”
“Gah! Captain! Captain!”
I ignored Hyuk Mujin as Jin Mukyung dragged him away by the collar and looked up at the sky.
Hmm. The moon sure is bright tonight.
“What are you doing?”
“As you can see.”
Wolhwa smiled faintly.
“You seem to enjoy looking at the scenery.”
“I’ve been getting into it lately.”
The only scenery to be found in the modern world was the nightscape seen from some high vantage point. Even that consisted of sad lights created by office workers working overtime.
Now this is real scenery.
There were no dense forests of skyscrapers, apartment complexes, or industrial sites.
In place of asphalt roads, damp dirt paths and crisp air filled the entire world.
Living in a place like this would be genuinely healing.
The problem was that it was also an easy place to get killed.
Somehow, people were more frightening here than monsters.
I didn’t even need to go as far as the Head Elder or Jopil. What had happened at the Phoenix Inn just yesterday was enough.
“Oh, right. What happened to those guys?”
“If you mean the mounted bandits from the Red Wind Band, they’ve been detained. Of course, we had to call a physician first.”
I’d beaten the shit out of them, so of course they’d needed treatment.
But there was another word that caught my attention more than that.
“The Red Wind Band?”
They’re a rising power from Gaoyuan. They’re fairly large, and more than anything, the Red Wind Band Leader is said to possess formidable martial arts.
Northern Gaoyuan.
I had first learned of that place from a map during the war with the Mount Heng Sword Sect.
One thing puzzled me. Gaoyuan was a considerable distance from Honju, where the Phoenix Inn was located. As far as I knew, the journey took more than a week even if you rode day and night.
“How did people like that end up all the way here?”
“Toward the end of the war, Lee Cheonbaek hired countless wandering martial artists and mounted-bandit groups. Many of them met their end at Eight Spring Gorge, but some survived and fled.”
“So the Red Wind Band was among them?”
Wolhwa shook her head.
“The Red Wind Band Leader… He was quicker-witted than I expected.”
“Then what happened?”
“He watched the situation until the very end. He kept a close eye on Eight Spring Gorge from only two shichen away, then turned his horse around the moment he heard how the battle had ended—along with the two hundred men under his command.”
Two hundred people.
What would have happened if the Red Wind Band had joined the battle at Eight Spring Gorge that day? There would have been an enormous number of casualties, and it might even have affected the outcome of the battle.
“We were lucky.”
“We were. For the Mount Heng Sword Sect, it was incredibly unlucky.”
Wolhwa continued as she firmly packed tobacco leaves into her long-stemmed pipe.
“The Red Wind Band headed north immediately. They targeted the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s main base after most of its forces had withdrawn.”
“……Huh.”
They were natural-born plunderers.
The moment the tide of the war turned, they headed north and sank their teeth into the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s throat while most of its main force was away.
They had preserved their forces by staying out of the battle, and they must have been well-rested too. They would have been in peak condition.
“Young Master Jin, you heard how it ended, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
After two days of fierce fighting, the Mount Heng Sword Sect ultimately emerged victorious—but at the cost of the Young Sect Leader, who was supposed to succeed his father.
“But the rumors I heard said that wandering martial artists and mounted bandits were mixed together.”
“A tiger doesn’t become a dog just because it has lost its teeth. The Red Wind Band Leader had recruited quite a few wandering martial artists as well. They would have made excellent shields.”
Tap, tap.
Wolhwa took out a fire starter, lit it, and drew on her long-stemmed pipe.
“The mounted bandits Young Master Jin defeated were probably the ones who fled at that time. Even if the Red Wind Band is unusually disciplined for a mounted-bandit group, it doesn’t mean they have no deserters at all. I’m not sure what they were doing in Honju, though.”
“Deserters…”
“That’s why the surrounding area has been so unsettled lately. Wandering martial artists, bandits, mounted bandits, even dark-path figures—they’re all starting to rear their heads now that the Mount Heng Sword Sect’s strength has been so badly diminished.”
“They’ll have no choice but to accept our proposal.”
Wolhwa gave me a prim smile.
“Strictly speaking, it isn’t our proposal. It’s the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s, isn’t it? Still, from my perspective, this is certainly a good time to pressure the new Sect Leader.”
“By the way…”
“Yes?”
“Do commoners really visit this shrine in weather like this?”
“Of course not. Hunters, perhaps. Why do you ask all of a sudden?”
I pointed toward the mountain path.
Through the light snowstorm that had begun to swirl, I could see torches climbing toward us.
Comments
Comments need a network connection.