Chapter 330

Around midnight.

The four figures who had left the Yongbong Escort Bureau disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The members of the bureau who had come out to see them off shivered in the cold wind, but Ju Hwaran stood there without moving.

As if someone might come back if she waited just a little longer.

It was then that she heard a voice from the darkness.

“They’re gone.”

The escorts who had been startled by the voice that appeared without warning split apart to either side. Ju Hwaran, however, remained composed.

“Yes. They’ve left.”

“Are you disappointed?”

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t.”

“It can’t be helped. The people who are going to leave leave, and the people who are going to stay stay. That’s the way of things.”

“The way of things…”

Ju Hwaran murmured the words quietly, then slowly turned around.

“Which side is Captain Song on?”

“Me?”

Song Ilseom gave a quiet laugh and ostentatiously swung the travel pack over his shoulder.

“Which side do you think?”

“Is that why you pretended to have passed out drunk?”

“It’s been ten years. I’d say I’ve done my duty by now…but is that still not enough?”

“No.”

“…”

“It isn’t enough. You still haven’t done your duty.”

Song Ilseom’s brow furrowed at Ju Hwaran’s unhesitating answer.

“Still not enough? Even after I protected the Yongbong Escort Bureau—and you—for ten years?”

“Can that compare to the debt of gratitude owed for my grandfather’s lifesaving deed?”

“You…”

Song Ilseom raised his voice and took a step forward. The escorts nearby flinched and gripped their sword hilts.

They had not heard the hidden truth of his origins. To them, Song Ilseom was still someone they had to be wary of. In particular, the other two escort captains who belonged to the Dragon-Phoenix Three Escorts alongside him openly showed their hostility.

“Lower your voice. It won’t do you any good.”

“We don’t know what the Young Bureau Head thinks, but we’re not convinced. No matter how we look at it, there’s something suspicious about you.”

The two escort captains stood in Song Ilseom’s way with grim expressions.

“Enough. Step aside.”

At Ju Hwaran’s calm voice, the two escort captains stammered.

“Y-Young Bureau Head.”

“But this man hasn’t completely cleared himself of suspicion yet—!”

“I said step aside. I have something important to discuss with him, so everyone return to your posts and take care of the remaining work.”

“Hmm…”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

The two escort captains moved their lips as if they still had something to say, then slowly nodded.

Song Ilseom watched their backs as they walked away with the other escorts. Then he clicked his tongue at Ju Hwaran.

“I can’t tell whether they’re loyal or stupid. They’ve come this far and still can’t tell friend from foe.”

“Your premise is wrong.”

“What?”

“They aren’t loyal or stupid, as you assume, Captain Song.”

A question flashed through Song Ilseom’s mind.

Could it be?

The insight came in an instant.

He was a born fighter and a martial artist through and through, but that did not mean he was stupid.

Once he understood the situation, Song Ilseom muttered quietly,

“Well, this is a real mess.”

Ju Hwaran nodded.

“They deliberately ruined escort missions and contracts, siphoned off funds in the confusion, and manipulated the ledgers with great care. There’s no way Uncle Heo did all of this alone.”

“Just how far does this conspiracy reach?”

“We’ll have to determine the exact number and identities from this point forward…but at the very least, we should include two people.”

Ju Hwaran’s gaze swept over the backs of the two escort captains as they grew more distant, then settled on Song Ilseom.

“I’m going to root them out completely.”

“Why didn’t you reveal it right there after the Chief Escort was killed?”

“The confusion would only have grown worse. Besides, if I can’t accomplish even this with my own strength, I have no right to become the Young Bureau Head of the Yongbong Escort Bureau.”

“Are you confident?”

Ju Hwaran stared at Song Ilseom in silence.

“How about putting away that travel pack you’re carrying and taking it out again a year from now?”

“You want to use me to root them out?”

“Captain Song, I need a blade sharp enough to cut down anyone right now. As it happens, the right person is standing right in front of me.”

“I refuse. And stop calling me Captain.”

“Then how about hiring the Soul-Chasing Guest?”

“What?”

Ju Hwaran shrugged.

“The Soul-Chasing Guest of the world won’t be cheap…but given your connection to our family, perhaps you’ll make an exception?”

“So I’m supposed to repay the life-saving kindness that way?”

“If that were the case, I would have asked for something much bigger.”

“A moment ago, you said I still hadn’t done my duty in return for the Escort King’s lifesaving grace.”

“That was because there were too many eyes watching us. My grandfather told me as well. He said that all he had done was save another person.”

“Ha!”

Song Ilseom burst out laughing.

Ten years ago, Junzi Sword Ju Hogun had said the same thing to the young man who had come to him carrying a faded jade hairpin.

“Though we met a generation apart, you came to find us in the end. That’s enough. Don’t let the ties of the previous generation bind you. Live your own life.”

“Pardon?”

“My father told me that what he had done was simply save another person. I feel the same way. And…thank you for growing into such a fine young man.”

It had been a shock.

From childhood onward, Song Ilseom’s life had been one continuous struggle. His parents had died young, and when his only support—his grandmother—passed away as well, he had to make his way alone without anyone to help him.

He had stolen weapons from piles of corpses, cut down wandering martial artists who tried to rob him of his rightful pay, and proven himself through countless life-and-death duels.

I thought he would ask me for something.

To Song Ilseom, who had lived as a wandering martial artist, that was only natural.

If Ju Hogun had wanted him to eliminate someone, Song Ilseom would have done it willingly. It would have left a bad taste in his mouth, but it was something he had always done.

One more among the countless requests he had completed.

But Ju Hogun had been different.

He was the first “adult” Song Ilseom had met after becoming an orphan with no one in the world.

Maybe that was why the words had slipped out before he could think.

“Ten years.”

“Hmm?”

“I’ll leave after ten years. Though all I know is how to kill people, I’ll protect you and your child no matter what happens. Just as the Escort King did several decades ago.”

Song Ilseom kept his oath.

He became an escort of the Yongbong Escort Bureau and faithfully followed orders. While he remained at the bureau, he followed the Chief’s daughter like a shadow and protected her at his request.

As the years passed and the child grew into a beautiful young lady, strange rumors circulated about the two of them, but he paid them no mind.

Whether the Chief collapsed or the Escort Bureau fell apart, Song Ilseom silently remained in place.

I’m only doing my duty.

Song Ilseom opened his tightly shut eyes. Then he abruptly spoke to Ju Hwaran, who had been watching him.

“I’m leaving in a month.”

“…”

“If you discover the identities of the traitors, I’ll lead the way and weed them out. A month will be enough.”

Seeing Ju Hwaran’s expression, Song Ilseom spoke bluntly.

“Don’t make that face. I’m only going to Xianyang to pick up an elixir and bring it back.”

“An elixir?”

“That’s right. It should be able to cure the Chief’s illness. The Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng was too potent and might have the opposite effect, but the elixir I obtained this time should definitely work.”

“H-how did you get an elixir like that…?”

“Enough. I’m tired of talking, so don’t ask any more questions.”

Song Ilseom waved a hand.

It was an elixir he had managed to acquire after searching for more than two years. It was not a legendary elixir like the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, but it was better suited than anything else to restoring the Chief, who had fallen into qi deviation.

He had been forced to pour every last bit of the enormous fortune he had earned as the Soul-Chasing Guest into it, but money could always be earned again.

“Do you know something?”

Song Ilseom’s calm voice continued.

“There’s nothing more difficult than saving a person’s life. What came naturally to you…was the hardest thing for me.”

Song Ilseom had made a living by killing people.

It was only after joining the Yongbong Escort Bureau that he began protecting someone instead.

“Captain Song…”

Ju Hwaran stared at him with moist eyes, but when she saw his furrowed brow, she hastily corrected herself.

“Ah, Great Hero Song.”

“How long are you going to keep getting confused?”

“I’m sorry. I was so surprised that I said it without thinking…”

“Then why don’t you create a position while you’re at it?”

“Pardon?”

“I don’t want to be Chief Escort. I’m terrible at escort missions, and that position requires managing people.”

“Yes, yes?”

“Guard Hall Master. Yes, that sounds good.”

While Ju Hwaran was still stammering, Song Ilseom turned around and began walking away.

Not toward the gate outside, where darkness had settled, but toward his own quarters.

“I shouldn’t have packed the travel bag.”

As she watched Song Ilseom’s back recede with those quiet words trailing behind him, dimples appeared beside Ju Hwaran’s mouth.

Whoosh!

With taut rigging and sterns slicing through the current, the fast ships surged forward like the wind. Men with their bronze-colored upper bodies bare pulled ropes and rowed oars. At least fifty men were visible on the deck of each ship.

There were five fast ships in all, meaning they had nearly three hundred men.

“Faster! Faster!”

“You louts! How can you call yourselves members of the Water Dragon Stronghold when you’re this slow?”

The Water Dragon Stronghold was a major river fortress belonging to the Yangtze River Channel League.

Its members proudly called themselves the heroes of the Yangtze, but the name used by ordinary people was a great deal less flattering.

“River bandits! They’re river bandits!”

“Why the hell are those bastards here?”

The shipmaster who spotted the five fast ships promptly collapsed into his seat.

His opponents were not some band of random thugs, but the Water Dragon Stronghold of the Yangtze River Channel League. There was no way to outrun their fast ships, and he could not even dream of fighting them.

This day has gone completely to hell.

No. There was only one way to get through this quietly, at least.

The shipmaster called over the youngest sailor passing by with a dejected look on his face.

“Hey!”

“Yes, shipmaster.”

“Tell the passengers to pay up.”

“Pardon?”

“Collect the money! They have to pay the toll, don’t they?”

The fact that they belonged to the Yangtze River Channel League was both unfortunate and fortunate. Once they were caught, there was no way to escape, but they did not simply swing their swords without reason.

The Yangtze River Channel League insisted that they were in a different class from the common river-bandit rabble found everywhere under heaven, but in the end, one was no different from the other.

“Phew… I’ve really lost today’s business.”

The shipmaster was sighing deeply when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

“Excuse me.”

“Gah! You startled me! Who are you?”

“I’m a passenger.”

“I know that.”

The shipmaster looked at the young man who had appeared out of nowhere. Judging by the sword at his waist, he seemed to be a martial artist, but…

He looks kind of dumb. With that protruding mouth, he looks like he talks a lot, too.

Third Rate martial artists were a dime a dozen.

It wasn’t as if he had never dealt with one or two of them before. The shipmaster sighed and opened his mouth.

“Why did you come over? If this is about collecting money, I have nothing to say, so go back to your seat. Don’t try anything stupid and end up crossing the Sanzu River.”¹

The young man watched the fast ships drawing rapidly closer.

“Are they river bandits?”

“Can’t you tell by looking? They’re the Water Dragon Stronghold of the Yangtze River Channel League. There isn’t a person in Sichuan who doesn’t know them.”

“The Yangtze River Channel League…”

“Running won’t help. You’ll never escape those fast ships. Once they spot you, it’s over. Completely over!”

“That ship must be pretty fast.”

“What kind of question is—”

The shipmaster was about to answer irritably when he suddenly sucked in a breath and closed his mouth.

A shadow rose behind the young man, a full head taller than him.

The man had shaggy hair, and a great mound of hides rose high above the pack frame on his back.

The giant stared blankly at the shipmaster, then spoke to the young man.

“Mujin.”

“Yes?”

“Let’s take that ship.”

The shipmaster wondered if he had heard correctly.