Chapter 543

Thud. Thud.

Footsteps shook the ground, and people on the street moved aside to clear a path.

Black Dragon Saber Sama Pyo knew the wary looks were not because of Taishan walking beside him.

The rumors about us have spread, then.

It would have been stranger if they hadn’t.

A grimy yellow knot protruded from the belt of a beggar dozing against an alley wall. Faint calluses marked the palm of a stallkeeper swatting at flies.

The Beggars’ Sect. The Lower District Sect.

And those were only the ones he could spot at a glance.

Countless eyes watched him wherever he went in Henan. Before half a day had passed, word of what he had done today would reach any number of people.

Not that I intended to hide it.

Trying to conceal his movements would only invite greater suspicion. Sama Pyo had no intention of ruining things through half-baked caution.

—My lord.

Taishan’s cautious Sound Transmission reached his ear. Without showing any reaction, Sama Pyo pointed to a small noodle shop off to one side.

“I’m in the mood for thin noodles today. Shall we stop for a bowl?”

“Hm?”

“You must be full. Say so if you don’t want any.”

“No! Taishan likes noodles!”

“You should have said so. Excuse me. Ten bowls of thin noodles… No, make that twenty.”

The middle-aged woman running the shop looked as though she doubted her ears.

“…How many bowls did you say?”

Sama Pyo had chosen the noodle shop for a simple reason. Perhaps because of its poor location, it had no other customers. They could sit with their backs to the street and exchange Sound Transmissions out of everyone else’s sight.

It also helped that the owner appeared to be an ordinary commoner with no connection to Murim.

“Twenty bowls. As you can see, I have a hungry ghost with me.”

“Y-Yes!”

It must have been an unexpected windfall for her. As her eyes lit up and she hurried to work, Sama Pyo barely moved his lips.

—You had something to say.

The small chair creaked under Taishan’s weight. Balanced precariously on it, he answered.

—My lord. Taishan worried.

—About what?

—Did not obey Sect Leader’s orders. Taishan worried about my lord.

A bitter smile touched Sama Pyo’s lips.

—I wondered if that might be the reason. So it was because of that person after all.

—Disobeying bad. Sect Leader gets angry. My lord in danger.

—Yes. He is more than capable of that.

Sama Pyo looked down at the chopsticks neatly arranged on the table.

They brought to mind his father, Black Night King Sima Gong. A man with no paternal affection whatsoever.

He probably thinks of his children as chopsticks.

Replace one when it falls on the ground. Put it away when it no longer pleases him.

His seven older brothers and nine older sisters had been discarded that way. Sama Pyo was the last—and best-made—chopstick the Sect Leader of the Black Dragon Demon Gate had chosen.

And even I might be replaced someday.

His father was well past eighty, but his appetite and libido were as vigorous as ever. Three wives and four concubines had not been enough for him; he had taken more than ten concubines in all. Sama Pyo had no shortage of blood relatives, older or younger.

But—

—Don’t worry.

—Hm?

Sama Pyo took a sip of the lukewarm water the owner had brought him.

—He is heartless. That is precisely why he cannot easily cast me aside.

Black Night King Sima Gong was indeed a heartless man. He could set aside parental affection and assess reality with a cold eye.

By the same logic, there was no other successor who could replace Sama Pyo, whose martial talent surpassed even Sima Gong’s in his younger days and whose calculating mind ran deep.

Besides…

—There will be no punishment. I’ve taken a different route, but it still leads where my father wants to go.

—My lord. Taishan does not understand. Taishan is stupid.

Sama Pyo smiled at Taishan, who could only tilt his head in confusion.

—You don’t need to understand. Just stay by my side. All right?

—Taishan listens to my lord. Taishan is good.

Taishan nodded vigorously. Just then, the owner began setting bowls piled high with thin noodles on the table.

“Careful, they’re hot. Take your time—”

“Wow! Taishan! Thank you for the food!”

“Oh my goodness!”

The owner stared in shock as Taishan lifted a bowl of steaming noodles and gulped them down.

Sama Pyo let out a quiet laugh at the sight. Then his face went rigid.

“Hmm.”

Taishan looked up from his noodles.

“My lord. What is it?”

“…”

“My lord?”

Still staring at something, Sama Pyo murmured, “No. Nothing. I must have seen wrong.”

But he knew he had not mistaken the person who had passed by. He knew what that person’s presence meant, too.

“…Perhaps I should have just obeyed the order.”

“Hm? My lord. What did you say?”

Sama Pyo answered with a sigh. Taishan already had the last bowl in his hands.

“You shameless glutton. Finish stuffing your face.”

“Wow! Taishan will give his life for my lord!”

“Here you go.”

A voice clearer and lovelier than a Young Chang piano.¹ A hand held out two bamboo slips to me.

What’s going on?

Less than half an hour had passed since the two uninvited guests from the Black Dragon Demon Gate had left and Jeok Cheongang had gone to the latrine. Now another unexpected visitor had appeared, and this one left me at a loss.

I blinked at her, then finally managed to speak.

“W-What are these?”

“Applications.”

Ju Hwaran looked as though she wondered why I had to ask. “One for me and one for Captain Song.”

Behind her, Song Ilseom muttered, “I never agreed to this.”

“I hired you, didn’t I? If you’re my escort, of course you have to come with me.”

“This wasn’t in the contract. It’s a breach of contract. If I join the Murim Alliance, I’ll need hazard pay…”

“I’ll pay you double.”

“Then that’s a different story.”

Maybe it was all the money she had wrung out of the Zhongnan Sect. Ju Hwaran was showing off the sort of easy spending only someone young and rich could manage.

Watching her, though, I felt as stifled as if I’d stepped into a greenhouse in midsummer.

“So. You’re serious?”

“Yes. I am.”

Ju Hwaran nodded without hesitation and met my eyes.

“I want to join the Two Dragons Pavilion.”

“…!”

I had suspected as much, but hearing Ju Hwaran say it herself left my mouth dry. I thought for a moment before speaking.

“I won’t accept you just because we know each other.”

“If I’d planned to rely on our connection from the start, I would’ve come without an application, wouldn’t I?”

She smiled. I sighed inwardly.

“It’ll be dangerous. Very dangerous.”

“I know. The Two Dragons Pavilion is directly under the Alliance Leader’s Office, and unlike the other pavilions, it cannot even command its own squads or battalions. It will probably function more like a special operations detachment.”

Exactly right.

Mae Jonghak wanted to deploy Cheongpung and me, two considerable assets even within the Murim Alliance, as a small detached force. It was also why most of the leadership had agreed to the arrangement.

“Young Lady Ju, if you know that, why—”

“Great Hero Jin.”

Ju Hwaran cut me off.

“Did you say that to the other applicants?”

“What?”

“That it’s dangerous. Did you ask why they were applying when they knew that?”

Her quiet voice went on.

“It’s strange. You put up a notice because you needed people, and now you’re trying to talk me out of it.”

“That’s…”

She gave a quiet laugh when I hesitated.

“You don’t have an answer, do you?”

She had me there. I scratched the back of my head and reluctantly nodded.

“Honestly? No, I don’t.”

“I came here as a martial artist. I’d like you to judge me as one.”

“As you are……”

“I might fall far short by your standards, but I’m a swordswoman who has reached the Peak realm.”

“Since we’re being honest, you do fall pretty far short. Song Ilseom might be another story.”

Poke.

Hyuk Mujin, who had been watching with bated breath, gave me a discreet jab in the ribs.

He needn’t have worried. Ju Hwaran’s gaze did not waver.

“Even compared with the other applicants?”

“I can’t say for certain, but probably.”

“What about experience?”

“Experience?”

“I started accompanying my father on escort runs when I was twelve. In experience and knowledge of the land, I don’t think I fall short of any seasoned veteran of the martial world.”

She had a point. Ju Hwaran had been heir to the Yongbong Escort Bureau, once among the most renowned escort bureaus in the world. For the past several years, she had even run it herself after her father collapsed from qi deviation.

I can’t dismiss the experience she gained from that.

Escort bureaus traveled far and wide. To complete their assignments on time, they used whatever means they could, learning the roads and gathering information wherever they went.

And during the Great Faction War, Ju Hwaran’s grandfather, the Escort King, had completed his legendary Ten-Thousand-Li Journey² while evading the Demonic Cult’s countless watchers.

“Great Hero Jin.”

Her powerful voice pierced my ears.

“I have no intention of becoming a burden. But please think about this objectively. Set aside everything that’s happened between us until now. Are Captain Song and I truly of no use to the Two Dragons Pavilion?”

“…!”

“I’m fully prepared for what this entails. Even if you reject me, I’ll accept it.”

I closed my eyes.

Ju Hwaran was right. This was something I had to consider coldly.

The person waiting for my answer was not the woman I had walked beside one night in a garden where the flowers were just beginning to bloom.

Dagger Hidden Flower Ju Hwaran.

She was a martial artist skilled enough to be counted among the Ten Dragons and Phoenixes, and the Young Bureau Head of the Yongbong Escort Bureau.

She also had abilities we would need on the missions ahead, given that the Two Dragons Pavilion would operate as a detached force.

Then why?

Why did I hate admitting it? Why did I want to stop her, even if I had to be unreasonable?

“Um, Captain.”

I opened my eyes. Hyuk Mujin watched me nervously before going on.

“I think you’ve forgotten something.”

“What?”

“All the other applicants ran away. Every last one. They probably won’t come back tomorrow or the day after, either.”

“I know, you punk. Old Man Ilyang got carried out of here half-paralyzed. So?”

“No, I mean… that’s all I wanted to say.”

Hyuk Mujin flinched and turned his head away.

But I understood him perfectly.

“Whew.”

I sighed and looked straight at Ju Hwaran.

“Before I answer, there’s one thing you should know, Young Lady Ju.”

How was I supposed to bring it up? As I hesitated, she smiled.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“What?”

“I saw them on my way here. With someone that big beside him, how could I miss them? And from what people were whispering, I could more or less tell where they’d come from.”

Ju Hwaran continued calmly.

“Why would that be a problem?”

“…!”

“I think I’ve given you enough time to consider it. May I have your answer?”

I studied her. The tangle in my head seemed to have cleared.

Or perhaps it hadn’t, not entirely.

But right now, at least, I knew what I had to say.

“Yes. All right.”

A bright smile spread across Ju Hwaran’s face.