Chapter 328

“Guh… ghk.”

Blood bubbled up from Heo Jun’s slashed throat.

He thrashed and clutched at his neck, but it was already too late.

Ju Hwaran’s single sword strike had been fast and precise. It had accomplished its purpose without a single mistake.

“Grrk…”

It was the dying gasp of a man on the verge of death.

What had he wanted to say? It’s unfair? Spare me? Or perhaps, I’ll curse you even in death?

Heo Jun’s lips, which had been opening and closing as blood rattled in his throat, suddenly froze.

The strength drained from his struggling limbs, and the light went out of his eyes as they stared at Ju Hwaran, stained with countless emotions.

Haaa…

The last breath he exhaled in this world scattered into the air.

Heo Jun, the sworn brother of Junzi Sword Ju Hogun and the Chief Escort who had spent thirty years with the Yongbong Escort Bureau, died just like that.

At the hands of the niece who had once looked up to him as family.

“…Uncle Heo.”

Ju Hwaran’s quiet voice drifted through the air. Her back looked strangely desolate.

After gazing down at Heo Jun’s lifeless body for a moment, she slowly turned around.

Her obsidian-like eyes swept past the escorts of the Yongbong Escort Bureau and turned toward the outsiders.

One person at a time. Then, at last, she looked at me and saluted everyone with clasped hands.

“I, Ju Hwaran, Young Bureau Head of the Yongbong Escort Bureau, have been discourteous before my seniors in the martial world.”

Pain sometimes made people mature. I hoped she had grown another step through this ordeal.

It’s a relief that she seems calmer than I expected, but…

Something about the atmosphere felt awkward.

Just as I was thinking that, something pressed down hard on my foot.

I looked down and saw a flashy women’s shoe.

As far as I knew, there was only one person here who might wear something like that.

When I looked at her questioningly, Wolhwa gestured to either side with her eyes.

Only then did I notice everyone staring at me.

The people around me had parted neatly to either side, all of them looking straight at me.

And at the end of that line stood Ju Hwaran, still holding her salute.

…What is this?

Was there something on my face?

As I stood there flustered, Wolhwa whispered so softly that I could barely hear her.

“Young Master Jin, say something.”

“Pardon?”

“Young Lady Ju greeted you. You need to respond on everyone’s behalf.”

“Why do I have to do it?”

“Hurry. Young Lady Ju will grow old waiting.”

“…”

Well, she had aged about ten seconds in the meantime.

I wasn’t sure why I had to speak when we had Huashan’s leading candidate for Sect Leader, the Beggar Prince, and the Lower District Sect’s Shaanxi Branch Leader standing right there, but I gave an awkward bow anyway.

“There’s no need to call it discourteous. And I’m not a senior in the martial world, so you can treat me casually.”

“How could I do that?”

Ju Hwaran raised her head and spoke calmly.

“Great Hero Jin and the other seniors are Benefactors of the Yongbong Escort Bureau. Without your help, we would have suffered a terrible calamity… and we would never have been able to punish the traitor.”

A trace of bitterness crossed her face as she added the final words.

Perhaps she felt it herself, because her voice grew firmer.

“I will repay the debt we owe you today without fail.”

It wasn’t as if we had done anything extraordinary—but the help I and the other sects had provided had certainly been substantial. From Ju Hwaran and the Yongbong Escort Bureau’s perspective, even bowing a hundred times would not be enough.

Being called Great Hero is still a little much.

Even Young Hero made me cringe. This was a whole new level.

I suddenly felt as if I should grow a beard, so I changed the subject.

“Repay the debt to the other people here, not me. More importantly, what are you going to do now?”

“We’ll recover the bodies first and return to the bureau. There’s a lot to take care of.”

“You must be extremely busy.”

Ju Hwaran was managing the bureau in place of her unconscious father.

The day would fly by just dealing with the aftermath of the long escort mission, and with one crazy incident after another on top of that, even ten bodies wouldn’t be enough.

Ju Hwaran nodded at my words and opened her mouth.

“Even so, we have enough time to host Great Hero Jin and his companions.”

“You have enough time? That’s a relief… Huh?”

“You and your companions are Benefactors who saved me and my family. I can’t send you away without offering you proper hospitality.”

“Um, Young Lady Ju, the thing is…”

“Are you perhaps very busy?”

I was busy. Extremely busy.

Jeok Cheongang had a treatment window of at least six months and at most eight.

Within that time, I had to search the vast land of Sichuan for the mysterious person known as the Divine Physician.

It took us a week to get from Henan to Shaanxi. Reaching Sichuan will take another week at the very least.

And that was assuming I used my movement technique to the fullest.

Everything about the Divine Physician was shrouded in mystery. No one could predict how long it would take to find him.

That was why I had already begun feeling anxious after spending only a day in Xi’an.

And I’m already late today.

The sun had been high in the sky for quite some time. Our entanglement with the Zhongnan Sect had cost us a considerable amount of time, so I needed to start running myself ragged from this moment on.

And yet…

“No, I’m not busy.”

The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.

What had just happened? That was the exact opposite of what I had intended to say.

While I stood there in a daze, Ju Hwaran cautiously asked,

“Great Hero Jin, are you really all right? If you have something urgent to attend to, we can postpone it until later.”

Thank you. Thank you so much for saying that first.

That was just like her—sharp and perceptive. Her words scratched exactly where I was itching, and I answered without hesitation.

“No matter how urgent it is, can’t I share one meal with you?”

“Yes.”

“I was hungry after exerting myself so much anyway. That works out perfectly. Let’s go.”

Am I a fucking idiot? Seriously?

I needed to go to Sichuan. Why was I going to the Yongbong Escort Bureau?

But by the time I came to my senses, I was already carrying a wooden A-frame carrier on my back.

Just as I let out a deep sigh inwardly, one person who had seemed completely detached from the entire situation caught my eye.

As I stared at him, he spoke first.

“What? Do you have something to say?”

This was the first time someone’s casual speech had sounded so natural upon first meeting.

In any case, since he had dropped the formalities first, I felt more comfortable too.

“I was just wondering if you weren’t coming.”

“I have no reason to.”

“Then come up with one.”

“…”

“Since I know you have time to spare, let’s have a conversation.”

“A conversation?”

“Yeah. A conversation.”

Song Ilseom raised his eyebrows as he looked at me, then straightened from the slanted position in which he had been leaning.

It was early spring. The bright sun disappeared behind the western mountains less than two shichen after we arrived at the Yongbong Escort Bureau.

Oil lamps lit the guest hall, where a magnificent feast had been laid out on the table. Cheongpung and Gung Gibang stared wide-eyed as they shoved food into their mouths.

“Mmph. Benefactor. This is delicious. Mmph-mmph-mmph.”

“…Eat as much as you want. Preferably don’t talk.”

The food did look delicious.

At least until Cheongpung deliberately showed me what was in his mouth.

“Gobble, gobble. This Escort Bureau sure knows how to cook. Young Bureau Head, could you distribute the leftovers to the members of our sect as well?”

Gung Gibang really was a beggar to the bone.

As he continued his meat-centered massacre, Ju Hwaran nodded.

“Of course. Tell them to come by whenever they’re hungry.”

“Oh, whenever they’re hungry?”

“…Not quite that much.”

If every Beggars’ Sect disciple in Shaanxi Province descended on this place, the four hundred thousand silver nyang we were supposed to receive as compensation would disappear into food costs.

Gung Gibang grinned, exposing his yellow teeth.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure there’s nothing to worry about.”

Hyuk Mujin, who was at least eating normally, whispered,

“That makes me even more worried.”

“You said it.”

At this rate, would the Yongbong Escort Bureau go under because of the Beggars’ Sect instead of the Zhongnan Sect?

I was inwardly determined to warn him when Ju Hwaran spoke to me.

“It’s a shame the others didn’t come.”

“Yeah. The food is good, too.”

The others in our group—in other words, Baek Museong, Heukgeol Beggar, and Wolhwa—had all declined the invitation.

I wasn’t sure why, but they seemed to change their tune after Wolhwa fixed the two of them with a long, hard glare.

In any case…

“You aren’t eating very much, considering that.”

“No, it’s delicious. Look. I’ve already finished two bowls of rice.”

“That’s strange. Why does it look like you’ve eaten so little?”

“It’s all relative. Look at them. They’re waging the Great Faction War against the food.”

Schlurp, schlurp!

Gobble, gobble!

Chomp, chomp, chomp!

Ju Hwaran nodded as if she had gained enlightenment.

“Ah.”

“Mujin and I are the normal ones. The one who’s actually eating little is over there.”

Song Ilseom answered in his blunt voice.

“I’ve been saying this for ten years, but the food here is too salty. Spicy and salty food is too stimulating and makes the body feel heavy.”

“Someone suddenly comes to mind. If she were here, she would have beaten you to death with a ladle.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“There’s someone like that. If she hits you once, you’ll scream without meaning to. I’ve been beaten by her plenty of times myself. Strangely, I could never dodge even once.”

“Great Hero Jin, is that true?”

“You mean you?”

Ju Hwaran asked back in surprise, and Song Ilseom’s eyes flashed.

“Even if the person who defeated the Taeeul Merciless Sword says that, she must be an extraordinary master indeed… Can you tell me her name and sobriquet?”

“Kim Jeonghee. Her sobriquet is Lady.”

“Hmm. I’ve never heard of her.”

Of course he hadn’t. She was my mother.

Without showing anything on my face, I continued in a solemn tone.

“In any case, she always said that you had to eat all kinds of food without being picky if you wanted to grow big—or rather, become strong.”

“Hmm.”

“So stop whining about the side dishes and fucking eat.”

Song Ilseom pondered this with a serious expression, then picked up his chopsticks and began eating the side dishes.

The more I watched him, the stranger his personality seemed.

He’s strange, but he doesn’t seem dangerous.

A few shichen earlier, I had briefly suspected Song Ilseom of being dangerous in the worst possible way.

It had been a fairly reasonable suspicion. An exceptional Peak master who had hidden his strength for ten years. I had already encountered a similar case in Shanxi Province.

Dark Heaven.

The Head Elder and the Five Gates of Shanxi, who had been lying low for decades. Somehow, Song Ilseom’s behavior had overlapped with theirs.

But the longer I spoke with him, the suspicion faded and only curiosity remained.

What the hell is this guy?

His blunt manner of speaking and behavior. He seemed rough to the point of being crude, yet there was a peculiar air of refinement in his appearance and various other aspects of him.

Perhaps that was why his casual speech sounded so natural.

Well, this is something.

I stared at Song Ilseom.

He was chewing his side dishes thoroughly with an exaggerated grimace. After swallowing, he spoke.

“That look again. What is it?”

“I was just thinking about your identity.”

“Are you that curious?”

“Yes. Very.”

Talking with this guy was like driving down a wide-open highway. That was why it felt comfortable.

Before long, everyone else—including Ju Hwaran—had perked up their ears and was watching Song Ilseom’s mouth.

He seemed displeased by the attention and raised his eyebrows.

“There’s nothing special about it. I only stayed at the Yongbong Escort Bureau because I had ties to the previous generation.”

“You had ties to the previous generation?”

“To be precise, my father received a great favor from them.”

Huh? Wait a second. That sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

I turned my head and saw Ju Hwaran staring at Song Ilseom with her eyes wide.

It was clearly the first time she had heard this story in ten years.

“May I ask your father’s name?”

“Song Pyosan.”

“Song Pyosan… I’ve never heard of him.”

“That’s hardly surprising. It happened almost fifty years ago.”

Almost fifty years ago? Was he talking about the Great Faction War?

Before we could ask, Song Ilseom continued as if it were nothing important.

“The Guangdong Chen Family was a clan forgotten long ago. My mother was saved with the help of Escort King Ju Gongsan, but she feared the greedy martial artists and had her child carry on her surname. It was a wise decision.”

It felt as if I had been struck in the back of the head. Ju Hwaran stared at Song Ilseom with trembling eyes.

“Then could it be that you…?”

Instead of answering, Song Ilseom pulled a faded jade hairpin from his robes and held it out.

It was the only escort fee a young escort surnamed Ju had ever received from a woman in the final stages of pregnancy more than fifty years ago.