“We still have the most important matter left to discuss. Don’t you agree?”
Ju Hwaran stood with her sword lowered at her side, beautiful and cold.
A frost-sharp aura surged around her, directed at one person.
“Captain Song.”
Everyone followed Ju Hwaran’s gaze. At its end stood a man who appeared to be in his early thirties. He was fairly handsome, save for the fierce upward slant of his eyebrows.
Song Ilseom’s lips twisted, and a chilly voice emerged.
“Are you calling me?”
The people still inside the pavilion fell into exactly two groups.
The outsiders, who had no idea who Song Ilseom was, looked confused. The escorts of the Yongbong Escort Bureau had gone rigid.
Chief Escort Heo Jun was the first to step forward, faint anger showing on his face.
“You stand before the Young Bureau Head. Show some respect.”
“I’ve shown enough respect. But you people have been saying the same thing for ten years.”
“How dare you…!”
“Then let me dare to ask you this: why does the Chief Escort lecturing me about respect call the Young Bureau Head by her name in front of everyone?”
“Th-that’s…”
“You needn’t answer. I don’t care what you call the Young Bureau Head. Just don’t demand courtesy from me.”
His tone and behavior were obnoxious, but Song Ilseom did have a point.
As I watched Heo Jun struggle for words, Wolhwa whispered to me.
“Young Master Jin, do you know that man well?”
“Who? Heo Jun? Or…”
“The young, handsome one, obviously. I already know who Chief Escort Heo is.”
“Then why are you asking me? You’re the Shaanxi Branch Leader of the Lower District Sect, of all people.”
“It’s nice that you think so highly of me, but what could a Branch Leader who’s been at her post for less than half a year possibly know? A disciple from a famous major sect would be one thing, but even I can’t keep track of every ordinary escort.”
“An ordinary escort… Do you know who he is?”
“Hmm. I know that one of the Dragon-Phoenix Three Escorts is young and has a nasty temper. That’s about it.”
Song Ilseom. Position: escort captain.
That was about all I knew of him too.
But I knew one thing Wolhwa did not.
Song Ilseom’s strength.
He’s quite a master. Stronger than the Ten Dragons and Phoenixes.
If there was one thing I had learned from going back and forth between the Murim and the modern world, it was that Level was never an absolute measure.
Some people had high Levels but were utterly useless, while others were stronger than people above their Level.
Song Ilseom was the real deal. I could tell just from his gait and the minute movements of his hands. He was a swordsman with extensive combat experience and exceptional martial arts.
How many people his age are that strong?
He might not be a disciple of some prestigious sect, but with that much skill, his name should have spread through the Murim long ago.
The saying about a needle in a bag existed for a reason. Exceptional talent was bound to reveal itself eventually.
Yet no one knew the needle was there. Not for ten whole years.
There was only one possible answer.
The needle had deliberately kept itself hidden—and done such a thorough job that even the people of the Yongbong Escort Bureau, who had spent years with him, had no idea how strong he truly was.
Well, well…
A thought suddenly crossed my mind. I could not be certain yet, but this was clearly someone I needed to watch carefully.
I’d like to step in right now, but…
This was a knot Ju Hwaran had to untangle herself.
While I finished preparing to intervene at any moment, Heo Jun recovered from his hesitation and pressed Song Ilseom even harder.
“Captain Song. No, Song Ilseom! Enough nonsense. Confess everything!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Fine. I’ll ask you directly. Where did you hide the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng?”
“I know nothing about it.”
“It’s not too late. If you admit your crimes and tell us where the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng is, even now…”
“I said I don’t know.”
At Song Ilseom’s answer, Heo Jun stared at him with eyes that had gone flat and cold.
“Is this really how you intend to play it?”
“I could say the same to you.”
“I gave you one last chance for old times’ sake… but I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Heo Jun raised his hand. More than twenty escorts spread out around Song Ilseom, sealing off every escape route.
The two middle-aged escort captains who appeared to be the other members of the Dragon-Phoenix Three Escorts joined Heo Jun in surrounding Song Ilseom from three sides.
The atmosphere pulled taut as a bowstring.
That was when Ju Hwaran, silent until now, abruptly spoke.
“Everyone, stand back.”
“Hwaran, he won’t confess willingly. We should subdue him first, then—”
“Wait, Uncle Heo. I have something to ask him.”
Whoosh!
Her wrist turned. The flat of her flexible sword, curving like a snake, struck one of the bamboo slips piled on the table and sent it flying toward Song Ilseom.
“What is this?”
“There are quite a few interesting records here.”
Song Ilseom checked what was written on the bamboo slip and muttered.
“This is…”
“That’s right. Records of the escort missions you were responsible for over the past two years.”
“You’ve collected only the failures.”
“Why do you think the Lower District Sect and the Beggars’ Sect gathered this information?”
“They must have suspected a connection to the Zhongnan Sect.”
“You were responsible for fifteen escort missions over the past two years. Ten of them failed, and every failure forced the Yongbong Escort Bureau to pay a substantial contractual penalty.”
Ten failures out of fifteen. His success rate was below fifty percent.
At that point, even Song Ilseom’s parents would have suspected him, never mind the Beggars’ Sect or the Lower District Sect.
Ju Hwaran continued calmly.
“That isn’t all. The missions on which you served as assistant escort captain contain a remarkable number of suspicious details.”
“I did my best every time, but I failed. That is the only answer I can give the Young Bureau Head.”
“That isn’t enough.”
Whoosh! Clatter!
The flexible sword swept out again. More than twenty bamboo slips caught in its sword wind, sailed through the air, and scattered at Song Ilseom’s feet.
“Are these all records connected to me? There certainly are a lot.”
Clicking his tongue, he propped his sword beside him and began picking up the bamboo slips one by one to read.
“That bastard…”
Chief Escort Heo Jun looked ready to charge at the traitor then and there, but at a glance from Ju Hwaran, he had no choice but to let his sword droop.
They did not have to wait long.
“So that’s how it was.”
Song Ilseom set down the final bamboo slip and arched his fierce eyebrows.
“How did you know?”
“You were clever. Clever enough that each incident could be dismissed as a simple mistake.”
“You figured it out from this alone? You’re sharper than I expected. I thought you were merely a child, but… I underestimated you.”
“That is truly unfortunate.”
“What is?”
“Though not a single drop of blood connects us, I thought of you as family.”
“Family? What weak-minded nonsense. Time changes even mountains and rivers. How could people be any different?”
At some point, Song Ilseom had gone from formal courtesy to openly talking down to her. Yet somehow, the change felt as natural as flowing water.
Like a man finally shedding a stifling set of clothes, he asked with an air of relief, “So what will you do now?”
“Punish the criminal.”
“Children resemble their parents. But can the daughter of Junzi Sword1 truly do it?”
Ju Hwaran answered coldly.
“It is something I have to do, and I will do it.”
Hissssss!
Her flexible sword, charged with internal energy, rose stiffly into the air. Ju Hwaran’s hardened face was reflected in the transparent blade.
Her voice came low.
“No matter who it may be.”
Whoosh!
She moved without warning, faster than anyone else in the Yongbong Escort Bureau.
Ju Hwaran might have only just entered the Peak realm, but she was still a Peak master. The essence of speed permeated both her sword arts and her movement technique.
Thrust!
The flexible sword streaked through the air like a ray of light and pierced its target precisely.
A wet sound rang out as it pierced flesh. Blood spurted into the air, followed by a scream from a single man.
“Gaaah!”
Ju Hwaran’s eyelids trembled as she watched him sink to his knees, scattering blood.
What followed was a question for one man.
A condemnation of the person she had never once doubted.
“Why did you make that choice, Uncle Heo?”
“H-Hwaran.”
The man raised his head.
Chief Escort Heo Jun’s face was deathly pale.
Whoosh!
Heo Jun’s hair stood on end, and a chill ran down his spine. But by the time he registered the faint sound of something cutting through the air, it was already too late.
Thud!
The blade piercing his flesh was cold as ice. The pain that followed burned like fire.
Chief Escort Heo Jun dropped to his knees with a scream.
Even then, only one thought circled through his blank, bleached-white mind.
It’s all gone wrong.
The unexpected appearance of Jin Taekyung had overturned the entire situation, but that had not necessarily been bad for Heo Jun.
Over the past two years, he had secretly skimmed off several thousand silver nyang2 by disguising his thefts as mistakes—sometimes small, sometimes audacious.
He had already amassed an enormous fortune. If this incident led to the Yongbong Escort Bureau’s revival, his authority as Chief Escort would only grow.
Best of all, he could escape the guilt of betraying those who trusted him.
Two birds with one stone.
But then…
Why now, of all times?!
If he cut Song Ilseom’s throat, everything would be over.
Song Ilseom would have died branded as a traitor who had betrayed the Yongbong Escort Bureau and colluded with the Zhongnan Sect. The whole matter could have ended quietly, without any further trouble.
I even hid my identity so thoroughly from the Zhongnan Sect, just in case. How did they figure it out?
Pain.
And shock even greater than the pain froze Heo Jun where he knelt.
A low voice pierced his ears.
“Why did you make that choice, Uncle Heo?”
Heo Jun’s bowed body trembled.
He knew that voice. How could he not?
It belonged to the girl he had watched over since she was a newborn.
She had been his sworn brother’s treasured jewel, the one and only niece he had once regarded as more his own child than his biological children.
And…
She was also the person who had driven a sword through his shoulder.
“H-Hwaran.”
Heo Jun slowly raised his head and met Ju Hwaran’s downward gaze.
Unlike her calm voice, her eyes trembled with emotion. At the sight of them, a feeling he had momentarily forgotten reared its head.
Hope.
I can survive.
Heo Jun recognized the turmoil in Ju Hwaran’s eyes at once.
She was torn between affection and betrayal. That was his only remaining escape.
“I was wrong. It was all my fault!”
“Uncle.”
“Spare me. Please, I’m begging you!”
Heo Jun cried out desperately, heedless of the stunned escorts or the other people watching a trusted superior expose his betrayal.
His dignity? Their contempt?
A dead man could feel neither.
He would do anything if it meant surviving this place and seeing tomorrow’s sun.
“Urgh. Hwaran…”
Heo Jun groaned in pain. Ju Hwaran’s flexible sword had passed straight through his right shoulder, and the hand gripping its hilt trembled faintly.
“Then at least make an excuse. Tell me why you did it. Why you had no other choice.”
If excuses would have raised his chances of survival even slightly, Heo Jun would already have offered every one he could invent.
But he knew Ju Hwaran too well. The fact that she had swung her sword meant she was already certain. A clumsy excuse now would only hasten his death.
He had to beg without reservation and appeal subtly to her emotions.
“It was all this foolish uncle’s fault. I have nothing else to say.”
Heo Jun let his head droop and reddened his eyes.
The effect was immediate. He felt the strength behind her sword weaken and continued.
“I am ashamed to admit that I once accepted a bribe. Then, after my hyung3 suddenly collapsed, the Zhongnan Sect used it as leverage to approach me, and I… I was afraid I would be cast out. I didn’t want to leave the Escort Bureau I had devoted my entire life to, and I trusted the Zhongnan Sect when they promised they wouldn’t hurt you.”
“…”
“I intended to cooperate only once—just once—but by then, I had already stepped into a swamp I could never escape.”
“Is all of that true?”
“How could I lie to you?”
Despite his claim, Heo Jun’s entire story contained only one truth.
He had accepted a bribe.
He had been the one to approach the Zhongnan Sect after Junzi Sword collapsed, concealing his identity as he did so. Their secret relationship had continued for two years.
I only have to get through this moment. Just this moment!
Tears streamed down his face. They held no remorse—only terror of death and a desperate desire to survive.
“Please forgive me…!”
The onlookers shook their heads at his desperate plea. More than a few escorts turned away, unable to bear the sight.
Ju Hwaran did not.
She stared at Heo Jun, biting her lip, then abruptly asked, “How did you steal the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng? I never let it out of my sight for even a moment.”
“Th-that…”
“Tell me the truth.”
“…I mixed a mind-clouding drug into the food. Everyone was exhausted, so a small dose was enough.”
The mind-clouding drug was a narcotic that clouded the mind and induced sleep. Its effects had been undeniable.
Even Ju Hwaran, a Peak master, had fallen into a deep sleep, mistaking the drug’s effects for the exhaustion of the journey.
“So that was why you were outside my room that night.”
“I had to conceal my presence even as I left. That bastard—no, Captain Song—remained awake until dawn despite taking the drug.”
Song Ilseom, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, muttered expressionlessly.
“So that was a mind-clouding drug. No wonder I felt unusually tired that day. Use something better next time—assuming you have a next time.”
What a goddamn bastard.
Heo Jun barely swallowed the curse rising to his lips and looked at Ju Hwaran.
“Hwangbo Eom, that old man, threatened me. He said that unless I switched the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, he would kill me and my family and wipe out the Yongbong Escort Bureau. I only wanted to protect everyone!”
“Then you made the wrong choice.”
“You’re right. I even went to my hyung’s3 sickbed once and confessed everything in tears. But… but I couldn’t undo my mistake.”
“Your mistake?”
Ju Hwaran’s eyes trembled at the mention of her father, but only for an instant.
Then she gave a small shake of her head.
“No. You’re wrong. It wasn’t a mistake. It was a choice, Uncle.”
“Hwaran…!”
“My father often told me that every choice carries responsibility. Though he failed to make the family business he inherited prosper, he never once regretted the choices he made.”
Heo Jun suddenly realized that the conflict and uncertainty he had seen in Ju Hwaran’s eyes were fading.
It can’t be.
No.
It could not be.
This could not be happening!
Tears and cold sweat streamed down Heo Jun’s cheeks.
He desperately raised his voice.
“Give me one chance! Just one last chance! I’m your father’s one and only sworn younger brother, and your uncle, aren’t I? Hwaran, for the sake of the bond we’ve shared, please!”
“The bond we’ve shared, you say?”
“Yes! I shared thirty years of hardship and joy with my hyung.3 If your father were here—if it were him—he would not take my life so easily!”
“Uncle Heo. No—Chief Escort Heo Jun.”
Heo Jun stopped pounding his head against the floor and looked up blankly.
His niece’s eyes met his.
They were eyes he had never seen before—cold and utterly devoid of hesitation.
“You’re right. If my father were here, he would have forgiven you. But…”
Her low voice continued toward the frozen Heo Jun.
“I am not Junzi Sword Ju Hogun. I am Dagger Hidden Flower Ju Hwaran.”
The next instant, silver sword light filled Heo Jun’s vision.
Swish! Slice!
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