Chapter 627

The temporary lodging we’d been assigned was decent enough. It wasn’t as lavish as the accommodations in the Central Plains, but it was clean and had everything the Fire Dragon Pavilion and I needed for our stay.

That didn’t mean we’d been welcomed without reservation.

“Hmm. Does anyone know what’s stuck between my chopsticks?”

Hyuk Mujin shot his hand up at the surprise quiz I’d sprung on everyone in the middle of the meal.

“Okay, Mujin. Let’s hear it.”

“A bug!”

“Correct. A centipede, to be precise. So why is it in our food?”

“Hmm. Perhaps it’s a custom of the non-Han people of Nanman?”

Namho, who had eighty years of experience being one of those people, picked out something that looked like a pine caterpillar and muttered, “First I’ve heard of it…”

I could have understood roasted locusts, more or less. But it looked as though someone had dumped live insects into the food. I couldn’t defend that.

Sama Pyo sighed as he watched Taishan, who was still determined to bury his face in his plate.

“So we aren’t welcome after all.”

There was no way we could eat this. Song Ilseom set down his chopsticks and answered calmly.

“It’s probably because of the Heavenly Demon Escort Bureau incident.”

I agreed. But I didn’t think Yayul Mok had personally ordered it. Someone who was Young Palace Lord wouldn’t resort to anything this petty.

So this was the work of other non-Han people within the Nanman Beast Palace.

We’d been hated ever since we entered Nanman. Even the ugly duckling hadn’t had it this bad, I thought, just as Ju Hwaran quietly appeared. She’d gone upstairs before the meal to wash up.

“Huh? You’re done already?”

How long had she been up there? Not even Recruit Number 54 at the Nonsan training center could wash that fast.

She gave me an uneasy smile. “Ah, yes.”

“……”

I had a bad feeling. I kept looking at her, and after a moment’s hesitation, she spoke.

“Actually…”

By the time I’d heard the whole story, all I could do was laugh in disbelief.

“They gave you boiling-hot water in this weather? With something like filth mixed into it?”

Hwaran nodded, looking uncomfortable.

“I wasn’t going to say anything. It could have been a mistake, and I didn’t want it to cause trouble…”

“It wasn’t a mistake. And don’t worry about causing trouble. We’ve already got another problem.”

Only then did she notice what had happened to our meal. She offered a brief assessment.

“Ugh.”

“Just checking—you’re not going to eat it, are you?”

“No. Of course not.”

I’d never heard Hwaran answer so firmly. I clicked my tongue and stood.

“Captain, where are you going?”

“To make a scene.”

Sit still and people take you for a sack; let them get away with enough and they’ll take you for wrapping cloth. That was how the world worked.

We were here to persuade the Nanman Beast Palace, so I’d keep it within reason. But I had to raise hell at least once if I didn’t want this to happen again.

I was about to fling open the door when I remembered something and stopped.

“Oh. One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Make him stop eating.”

No one had to ask who I meant. Only one person was wolfing down his third bowl of colorful insect fried rice.

Sama Pyo looked at Taishan with sorrow in his eyes.

“Taishan. Stop…”

Yeah. Please stop.

It was the largest tree I’d ever seen.

Dozens of grown men would have needed to stretch their arms out to encircle its trunk. It towered at least several dozen jang¹ above me.

The sight drew a silent gasp from me, but I hadn’t come to admire the tree. I’d come to see someone.

“Hey. Get down.”

Rustle.

The thick leaves shook. A beast growled low, and Yayul Mok’s displeased voice came from above.

“You again. How did you find this place?”

“I asked. Someone told me you come here a lot.”

“Who?”

“The guy who manages the pavilion.”

“Hwang Gae?”

“Maybe it was Hwang Gae or Ddong Gae. Something like that.”

“He’s not the sort to tell a Han Chinese where I am.”

“Maybe not a Han Chinese. He was pretty forthcoming with my fist.”

“……”

“Come down. My neck hurts.”

I doubted he’d come down just because my neck hurt, so I kindly added, “Before I break the tree.”

“My ancestors’ ancestors planted this tree. It took root here a thousand years ago.”

“Then, sometime far in the future, your descendants will say, ‘There used to be a thousand-year-old tree here, but some Han Chinese bastard came and ripped it out by the roots.’ And when the child asks, ‘Why, Mom?’ she’ll say, ‘Because our ancestor wouldn’t come down from the tree when asked nicely.’”

“……”

“So get down before I destroy the environment.”

I wondered if I’d really have to pull it out if he refused again, but Yayul Mok loved nature more than I’d expected.

Rustle. Tap.

The White Tiger stepped from branch to branch and landed smoothly, letting out a low growl at me. Yayul Mok gave its neck a light stroke and glared.

“Madman.”

“Come on. You’re only noticing now?”

I scratched the back of my head bashfully. Yayul Mok’s face reddened, and he snarled like a wild beast.

“What happened to Hwang Gae?”

“Oh, him? All four limbs are fine. He’s a little scared, though.”

“You’re out of your mind. You come here asking for help, then bully the people of Nanman?”

“You’ve got the wrong idea. I didn’t lay a finger on him. I did grab him by the collar, though.”

I wasn’t some neighborhood thug. I hadn’t gone around acting like that even in the Central Plains. I always started by asking nicely and only used my fists when that didn’t work. This time, I’d had plenty of reason.

“Insect fried rice. Bathwater mixed with filth.”

“What?”

“If that isn’t a traditional custom, then the Nanman Beast Palace’s treatment of its guests is pretty terrible. Don’t you think?”

Yayul Mok frowned. After a moment, he let out a sigh.

“I think I have a general idea of what happened.”

“If you had a general idea, you should have warned them beforehand.”

“I didn’t think they’d show their hostility quite so openly…”

He stopped mid-sentence, then dipped his head toward me.

“I’m sorry. I sincerely apologize.”

“…Oh.”

“What’s that reaction?”

“Nothing.”

I was a little surprised. We hadn’t known each other long, but Yayul Mok seemed too proud and rough-edged to bow his head so readily.

The type to admit when he’s wrong and not hold a grudge?

It was easy to make a mistake, but hard to admit it and apologize sincerely.

In that sense, the young Young Palace Lord of the Nanman Beast Palace had a better personality than I’d expected.

“I’ll replace the people responsible as soon as I get back. Hwang Gae and everyone else involved. Nothing like this will happen again.”

“Well, if you’ll do that…”

“It was my mistake. Again, I apologize. I’d appreciate it if this didn’t reach my father’s ears.”

“Why? Does he hit you when you do something wrong?”

Yayul Mok bristled. “What kind of nonsense is that?”

“If not, never mind. You went so far as to ask me not to tell him, so I thought you might get beaten for three days and three nights.”

“My father has never laid a hand on me even once.”

Well, if your father was the Beast Miao King, you’d probably grow up fine without him laying a hand on you. At that size and with that martial power, he could probably get his son, grandson, and maybe even his great-grandson through puberty without any trouble.

While I was thinking that, Yayul Mok hesitated, then added quietly, “I’ll be fine. The others won’t. If my father finds out, he’ll come down on them like thunder.”

“Ah.”

“You’re guests my father welcomed. You Han Chinese have every right to protest how you’ve been treated. But I don’t want Hwang Gae or the others punished for it.”

“Because they’re pissed off about that fucking Dick Demon Escort Bureau?”

“…You’ve got the name a little wrong, but yes. That’s one reason.”

“One reason. Sounds like there’s another.”

Yayul Mok stared at me silently for a while. Then, as he stroked the chin of the now-quiet White Tiger, he opened his mouth.

“The Great Faction War.”

“Hmm?”

“We shed far too much blood in the Central Plains. Under my father’s leadership, all of Nanman’s tribes joined forces, and as many as ten thousand warriors went to the battlefield. But the number of those who returned home alive was less than a quarter of that.”

Grrr.

The White Tiger accepted his touch, then looked up at its master with worried eyes.

Yayul Mok went on, his voice heavy with conflicting emotions.

“Someone’s parents. Someone’s children. Friends and relatives who had grown up together since childhood. Most of them left for the battlefield with smiles on their faces and never returned. Even I, who was born long afterward, wasn’t exempt.”

“You did?”

“Under ordinary circumstances, I’d never have become Young Palace Lord. That’s the real answer to the question you asked earlier.”

I thought back to our conversation just after we’d left the Beast Miao King. Then I understood.

“You had older siblings.”

“Three. One of them was my elder sister. She was young, and she was a woman, but I heard she was as brave as any warrior. If she hadn’t participated in the Great Faction War, she would have married the man she loved. My father and Uncle Baeksang would have become in-laws as well as sworn brothers.”

“Wait. Then…”

“What you’re thinking is right. In the war between Han Chinese that they called the Great Faction War, my father lost two sons and a daughter. Uncle Baeksang lost the son he treasured more than his own life.”

Yayul Mok smiled bitterly and added, “Don’t blame Hwang Gae too much. He lost his parents and all his relatives.”

I had nothing to say, so I simply closed my mouth.

I’d heard about the Great Faction War so many times my ears practically rang with it, but I hadn’t known Nanman had suffered losses like these.

No. If I was honest, I hadn’t thought I needed to know. Nanman was in the Outer Lands, tens of thousands of ri² from the Central Plains. I’d thought of it as a separate land, far removed from Murim.

The others who still talked about the war probably thought the same way. Only Jeok Cheongang and a tiny handful of others had even mentioned that Nanman had suffered heavy losses.

So they must have all been carrying old resentment. The Heavenly Demon Escort Bureau incident from recently must have been the flashpoint.

Whatever Reward they’d received after the war, the wound was still there. It had only just begun to heal, barely forming a scab, when this happened.

“Only a few decades ago, we united and risked our lives fighting for the Han Chinese. And now, you killed some of us.”

Yayul Mok’s voice reached me, cold and seething.