Chapter 330

Around midnight.

The four figures leaving the Yongbong Escort Bureau vanished in the blink of an eye.

The members of the bureau who had come to see them off shivered in the cold wind, but Ju Hwaran stood perfectly still.

As if someone might return if she waited just a little longer.

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

“They’re gone.”

Startled by the voice’s soundless arrival, the escorts parted 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. Those who leave, leave. Those who stay, stay. That’s the way of things.”

“The way of things…”

Ju Hwaran murmured the words, then slowly turned around.

“Which are you, Captain Song?”

“Me?”

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

“Which do you think?”

“Is that why you pretended to pass 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 stepped forward. The nearby escorts flinched and gripped their sword hilts.

They had not heard the hidden truth of his origins. To them, Song Ilseom was still someone to be wary of. The other two escort captains who made up the Dragon-Phoenix Three Escorts with him were openly hostile.

“Lower your voice. It’ll be better for your health.”

“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 blocked Song Ilseom’s path 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. Everyone return to your posts and take care of the remaining work.”

“Hmm…”

“Y-yes, ma’am.”

Their mouths worked as if they still had more to say, but the two escort captains finally nodded and slowly withdrew with the other escorts.

Song Ilseom watched them leave, then clicked his tongue at Ju Hwaran.

“I can’t tell whether they’re loyal or stupid. After all that’s happened, they still can’t tell friend from foe.”

“Your premise is wrong.”

“What?”

“They’re neither loyal nor stupid, despite what you think.”

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 grasped the situation, Song Ilseom muttered, “What a damned mess.”

Ju Hwaran nodded.

“They deliberately sabotaged escort missions and contracts, siphoned off funds amid the confusion, and carefully doctored the ledgers. There’s no way Uncle Heo did all of that alone.”

“Just how far does this conspiracy reach?”

“We’ll have to determine the exact number and identities from here on…but at the very least, those two must be included.”

Ju Hwaran’s gaze swept over the retreating backs of the two escort captains before settling 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 silently at Song Ilseom.

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

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

“Captain Song, right now I need a blade sharp enough to cut down anyone. As it happens, the perfect 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 renowned Soul-Chasing Guest won’t come cheap…but given our past connection, perhaps you’ll offer me a discount?”

“So I’m supposed to repay that lifesaving debt this way?”

“If that were my intention, I would have asked for something much greater.”

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

“That was because too many people were watching. My grandfather said it himself. He was merely one person saving another.”

“Ha!”

Song Ilseom could no longer hold back his laughter.

He remembered what Junzi Sword¹ Ju Hogun had said ten years ago to the young man who had come to him carrying a faded jade hairpin.

“Though a generation passed before we met, you came to find us in the end. That is 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 source of support—his grandmother—passed away as well, he had been forced to make his way alone, without anyone’s help.

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 someone eliminated, Song Ilseom would have willingly done it. It would have left a bad taste in his mouth, but killing was what he had always done.

It would have been just one more among the countless requests he had completed.

But Ju Hogun had been different.

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

Perhaps 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, I’ll protect you and your child no matter what happens. Just as the Escort King did several decades ago.”

Song Ilseom had 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 her father’s request.

As the years passed and the child grew into a beautiful young woman, strange rumors began circulating 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 and 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 done more harm than good, but this elixir should definitely work.”

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

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

Song Ilseom waved a hand.

He had managed to secure the elixir after more than two years of searching. It was not a legendary treasure like the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, but nothing else was better suited to restoring the Chief after his qi deviation.

It had cost him every last coin of the enormous fortune he had earned as the Soul-Chasing Guest, but money could always be earned again.

“Do you know something?”

Song Ilseom continued in a quiet voice.

“There’s nothing harder than saving a person’s life. What you took for granted…was the hardest thing in the world for me.”

Song Ilseom had made his 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 glistening eyes, but when she saw his furrowed brow, she hastily corrected herself.

“Ah, Great Hero Song.”

“How long are you going to keep getting that wrong?”

“I’m sorry. I was so surprised that it slipped out…”

“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 I’d have to manage people.”

“P-pardon?”

“Guard Hall Master. Yes, that will do.”

While Ju Hwaran was still stammering, Song Ilseom turned and walked away.

Not toward the gate and the darkness beyond it, but toward his own quarters.

“I shouldn’t have packed my bag.”

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

Whoosh!

Sails stretched taut and sterns sliced through the current as the swift ships raced forward like the wind. Bare-chested, bronze-skinned men hauled on ropes and pulled at the oars. At least fifty men could be seen on the deck of each ship.

With five swift ships in all, their force numbered nearly three hundred.

“Faster! Faster!”

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

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

Its members proudly called themselves the heroes of the Yangtze, but ordinary people had a rather less flattering name for them.

“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.

These were no ragtag thugs. They were the Water Dragon Stronghold of the Yangtze River Channel League. There was no outrunning their swift ships, and fighting them was out of the question.

This day has gone completely to hell.

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

Looking utterly dejected, the shipmaster called over the youngest sailor passing by.

“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 claimed this set them apart from the common river-bandit rabble found everywhere under heaven, but one pack of bastards was much the same as another.

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

The shipmaster was heaving sigh after sigh 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 studied 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 dopey. That mouth of his sticks out, too. Bet he never shuts up.

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.

“What do you want? If this is about the money, I’ve got nothing to say. Go back to your seat. Don’t try anything stupid and end up crossing the Sanzu River.”²

The young man watched the swift ships drawing rapidly closer.

“Are they river bandits?”

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

“The Yangtze River Channel League…”

“Running won’t help. You’ll never escape those swift 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 snap at him when he sucked in a breath and clamped his mouth shut.

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

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

He 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.