Silence fell over the Western Yao Estate.
The warriors gathering the corpses stopped. So did the tribal chieftains who had clearly just arrived. Everyone stood motionless, looking this way.
No. They were looking at one person.
Me.
Then a cold voice broke the silence.
“The culprit walks out on his own two feet.”
The instant I met Baeksang’s deeply sunken eyes, a hollow laugh escaped me before I knew it.
“Ha.”
Realization struck in a flash. I didn’t need to think any further about where this was going. Baeksang’s greeting had told me everything.
The culprit.
For a moment, I’d forgotten that I fit every condition myself.
Instead of holding up a lantern to search the distance, I should have looked at the ground beneath my feet.
“Uncle Baek, what do you—”
Yayul Mok had been staring at Baeksang in confusion. Now he seemed to understand and fell silent. Namho, who might have caught on even faster than I had, sighed softly.
“Hah. I must be getting old. To fall for a trick this shallow.”
Namho was only half right.
The trap was shallow, but the pit beneath it would be deep enough that, once I stepped in, I wouldn’t easily climb out.
Damn it.
I felt as though I were sinking into a swamp. My chest tightened, and my mouth felt gritty, as if I’d been chewing sand.
I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them, the estate had become a courtroom, and everyone’s place in it was clear.
“Did you hear what Great Chieftain Baeksang said?”
“The culprit? Then could that Han Chinese man really be…?”
The warriors whispered among themselves. They were the spectators.
“I knew this would happen! Didn’t I say over and over that we should drive the Han Chinese out from the start?”
“Hmm. It’s still too early to jump to conclusions.”
“Too early? Even now you’re saying that? Jin Taekyung is the only one capable of doing something like this!”
Unlike the whispering warriors, the chieftains were raising their voices to condemn me. They were the jury.
And then there was Baeksang.
“You stand there so boldly. As if you’ve done nothing wrong.”
He had spoken before them all. He was the judge of this damn trial.
I looked at his impassive face. “Of course I can stand here boldly. I haven’t done anything wrong.”
There was no point worrying about courtesy anymore.
One of the chieftains bristled at my answer. “You bastard! How dare—”
“How dare I what?”
Ssshh!
The wave of qi I released shot toward him. The chieftain who had stepped forward went white as a sheet.
“Ghk.”
I was already at the top of a hundred-foot pole. One wrong step and I’d fall. If I let the momentum of this turn against me, it would be over.
I kept the powerful wave of qi flowing and spoke quietly.
“This isn’t a place where any dog or cow can butt in. Stay out of it.”
“……!”
Someone swallowed hard.
Then a deep voice carried on the wind.
“What a racket.”
Heads turned. A man everyone knew was walking through the gate of the Western Yao Estate.
The Beast Miao King.
His tiger-like eyes were wide, his frame as massive as a mountain ridge. He radiated a pressure like Mount Tai itself, and everyone hurried to one knee.
“We pay our respects to the Palace Lord!”
Their voices rang out as one.
The Beast Miao King advanced slowly, more chieftains following behind him. Then he spoke.
“Am I among the dogs and cattle you mentioned?”
There was no doubt who he meant. I shook my head.
“No.”
“Then I have a question for you.”
His low voice reached my ears.
“Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. What connection do you have to the tragedy here today?”
He wasn’t asking because he suspected me. He was trying to help. I knew that better than anyone, and I answered without hesitation.
“None whatsoever.”
Whispers rose around us.
Baeksang, who had remained kneeling in silent respect, stood.
“Last year, a fire broke out in the western forest. It happened because of the carelessness of drunken Bai warriors, and as a result, more than two hundred livestock and more than thirty houses burned down.”
His voice remained dry.
“A crime demands punishment. I had to execute seven warriors of my own people with this hand. Yet when I asked for their last words, every one of them told me the same thing.”
His unreadable eyes stayed on me, but his words were for the Beast Miao King.
“I am innocent. I did not drink, and I did not start the fire.”
“……!”
“Two Great Chieftains have disappeared from the Inner Palace, and some hundred warriors have been slaughtered. A few flimsy words will not excuse anyone from this.”
The Beast Miao King closed his eyes. I stared at Baeksang.
“Listening to you, I get the strange feeling I’ve already been declared the culprit without knowing it.”
“If you’re truly innocent, prove it.”
“Prove it?”
“Yes. That’s the simplest way. Produce evidence that you aren’t the culprit, and the matter is settled.”
I didn’t get a chance to answer. No sooner had Baeksang finished speaking than he turned to the murmuring crowd and called out:
“I, Baeksang, Great Chieftain of the Bai people, will establish my own innocence before questioning the culprit. Heaven and earth shall bear witness, as will the fifteen chieftains and hundred warriors who were with me!”
“……!”
Damn it. Was this what he’d been after from the start?
I had fully expected Baeksang to have established a sufficient alibi, but the timing and flow with which he revealed it were too perfect.
As though they had been waiting for this very moment, the chieftains following Baeksang raised their voices more loudly than anyone.
“Palace Lord, Great Chieftain Baeksang speaks the truth. He was with us at the Southern Bai Estate from the moment the banquet ended.”
“The Jingpo Chieftain is correct! I, along with the Lahu people, swear it before Heaven!”
“The Wa people vouch for Great Chieftain Baeksang as well! When the tragedy occurred, we were meeting to prepare for tomorrow’s Tribal Grand Council!”
As their voices rose from all sides, Namho groaned behind me. The Beast Miao King’s expression grew grave.
Nearly half the chieftains had openly declared themselves part of a faction. But right now, not even the Beast Miao King could call them on it.
Two Great Chieftains had vanished from the Nanman Beast Palace, and close to a hundred lives had been brutally taken in the Inner Palace itself. Against a disaster like that, a factional struggle—even one that had become an open secret—was a mere ripple.
And then the moment came.
“Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. Now tell me: where were you at the time?”
A question I couldn’t avoid. An answer I couldn’t refuse to give.
Baeksang’s words and the eyes fixed on me felt like an invisible noose tightening around my whole body.
At the same time, someone touched my waist.
Tap.
I didn’t turn around. Namho had been standing behind me all along; I knew it was his hand.
Why?
He had a reason. I sharpened my senses and followed the movement of his finger.
It lasted only a moment, barely brushing my clothes, but I understood what he was trying to tell me.
He was writing two characters.
Silence.
Namho was telling me not to speak. Or perhaps to think again before I said what I was about to say.
The situation was taking an ominous turn.
What if I tell them I met Heugung?
Would they believe me? More likely, Baeksang and his chieftains would turn it against me.
Heugung had said he slipped out of his residence without anyone noticing, and he had even changed his appearance with the Bone-Shrinking Technique.
I can’t prove it.
If Heugung were here, perhaps I could. But unless the wrist he’d left behind could testify, my alibi was worthless.
On the other hand, saying I’d left my quarters for no reason would be digging my own grave. There had only ever been one answer I could give.
“My quarters.”
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind, but little time passed. I answered without much delay, then took a deep breath and continued.
“I remained in my quarters immediately after the banquet ended. Then I was attacked.”
“Attacked?”
Most of those present hadn’t heard about it yet. As the crowd murmured, the Beast Miao King spoke, his face stern.
“Jin Taekyung is telling the truth. I received a report that assassins whose tribes could not be identified attacked them.”
Yayul Mok had been shaken by the turn of events, but he made his voice steady.
“That’s right. Some of the Inner Palace guards and I reached the scene about half an hour ago. We also confirmed that the warriors patrolling the area had been killed.”
After the Beast Miao King, Yayul Mok also came to my aid, and the murmuring around us grew louder.
But I had been watching Baeksang all along, and I realized once again that something was wrong.
“I, too, heard there had been another tragedy in the Inner Palace.”
His voice was cold, his eyes impassive. He turned to Yayul Mok.
“But those assassins entered the Inner Palace so easily, killed the warriors on patrol, and carried out their attack. They must have been formidable. Wouldn’t you say?”
Before I could stop him, Yayul Mok answered.
“Yes. There were around thirty of them, and every one was as skilled as an elite warrior—”
He never finished. He couldn’t.
Because Baeksang’s voice pierced everyone’s ears in the next moment.
“Strong enough to kill a Supreme Peak master who inherited the Fire King’s legacy?”
“……!”
“……!”
“And if this clumsy assassination attempt was meant to keep Jin Taekyung occupied, that makes no sense either. He would have stayed in his quarters if they’d left him alone. Why attack him and draw attention? The more you think about it, the stranger it becomes.”
The air shifted. Dozens of wide eyes turned on me, their stares prickling against my face.
Yet I felt calmer.
Not because I thought I could get out of this. I had already half accepted what was happening.
This trap was large and deep—far beyond anything I had imagined.
When did it start? How much of this was planned?
I stared at Baeksang, still searching for answers, and spoke.
“I don’t think this is the end.”
He nodded at once.
“Good instincts.”
“Something else to say?”
“No. Something to show you.”
Snap.
With his dry answer, Baeksang snapped his fingers. From the half-destroyed gate of the Western Yao Estate, a faint presence began to draw closer.
Step. Step.
Short, uneven strides. Slow footsteps.
Like someone who was ill. Or…
An old man.
I recognized that oddly familiar presence and closed my eyes. When an elderly voice reached me, I opened them again.
“U-Utu-ri of the Bai people. I came at the Great Chieftain’s summons.”
The old owner of the noodle shop stood before the gate.
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