Chapter 851

It was an especially beautiful day.

Warm sunshine, a cool breeze, and wisps of pure white cloud.

The people working up a sweat wore smiles, and the well-kept main road bustled with crowds.

Perhaps that was why someone who always seemed pressed for time suddenly spoke to his coachman just as the man was about to set off in a hurry.

“Could we take it a little slower today? There’s no particular rush.”

“Pardon?”

“I’d like to take my time on the way back. Look around outside, too.”

The coachman wondered at his employer’s uncharacteristic mood, but put the question aside and eased the reins.

All he had to do was follow orders, after all. And he much preferred guiding the horses slowly and safely to shouting at people to get out of the way.

Still, he’s acting strange today. Did something happen inside?

The coachman glanced sideways. A sturdy wall, built up in two and three layers like a fortress, filled his view.

At their usual pace, it was one thing. At this rate, it would take a full fifteen minutes to reach the end of that wall.

Good grief. It’s impressive no matter how many times I see it.

The enormous estate stood not on the outskirts, but right in the heart of the city. The land was as valuable as it came.

Owning so much of it was proof enough of the family’s tremendous power, but that wasn’t what amazed the coachman most.

It was nothing like this when I first saw it.

A fallen great family.

There had been no better way to describe it. That was the cold reality, as the coachman and everyone else nearby had seen it.

Yet no one could have guessed that a family slowly declining, its past glory behind it, would rise in barely more than two years to rule an entire city.

Just goes to show, you never know what’ll happen.

The coachman looked up at the flag flying high above the stone wall. A breeze caught the silk, and four characters written in a bold, flowing hand caught his eye.

Jin Family of Taiyuan.

The owners of that enormous estate had become a symbol of Shanxi Province.

The changes to the Jin Family of Taiyuan had been swift and unmistakable. The pavilions and walls, shabby and crumbling when the coachman first saw them, had been repaired until they looked as solid as a fortress. Supplied with fine weapons and elixirs, the family’s martial artists now had a righteous light in their eyes that hadn’t been there before.

And that wasn’t all.

The entrance, once crowded with debt collectors demanding payment for the reckless Third Young Master’s unpaid bills, was now so packed you could hardly set foot there—but for entirely different reasons.

Merchants from other regions came to entrust their business to the Jin Family Escort Bureau. At the end of each month, shopkeepers of every kind lined up to pay tribute, along with the martial arts sects and Branch Leaders under the Jin Family of Taiyuan.

So many of Shanxi Province’s most important people came and went that they nearly wore out the threshold. Some people with nothing better to do even loitered nearby, spreading whatever they’d seen and heard.

Just like the two men squatting beside the roadside wall now.

“Didn’t she come today, either?”

“Didn’t who come?”

“Oh, come on. You know perfectly well who I’m waiting for. Why do you keep asking?”

“Don’t tell me you’re at it again…”

“What do you mean, ‘again’? I’ve been devoted to her from the start.”

“Cut the nonsense. If your wife catches you, she’ll beat you to death—and I’ll get killed, too.”

“It’s fine. You only die once, don’t you?”

“I’m telling you, it’s not fine. Your wife’s arm is thicker than my calf.”

“Good grief. You call yourself a man, getting scared like that? Just answer my question. Didn’t she come today, either?”

“She was here just four days ago. Of course she didn’t come today. Do you think she’s an unemployed layabout like us, with nothing but time on her hands?”

“Damn it. I thought maybe this time I’d get to see her up close.”

“Just give it up already. What would you do if you saw her up close?”

“Do I need another reason to see Shanxi’s foremost beauty? I saw her from far away once, half a year ago, and my blurry old eyes cleared right up.”

“Have you considered that one good whack from your wife might make everything go dark? And calling her Shanxi’s foremost beauty hardly does her justice. She leads the Mount Heng Sword Sect despite being a woman—and she’s formidable. If you cross her the wrong way, you won’t walk away in one piece.”

The man gazed dreamily into space, then swallowed.

“…Well, I heard she’s got some old man following her around like a shadow, and he’s got one hell of a temper.”

“If temper were all he had, would they have called him the Tiger of Mount Heng? Quit acting up and go home while both your legs still work. Take care of your kid.”

“Take care of him? He’s all grown up.”

“Already? Time flies. I remember him being born just about this time last year.”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“…Are you insane?”

The two men’s voices gradually faded.

Listening from his seat, the coachman gave a quiet laugh and gathered up the reins he’d let slacken for a moment.

Clip-clop. Clip-clop.

Drawn by four fine horses, the carriage made its slow way down the main road, just as his employer had asked.

In the past, a single four-horse carriage would have taken up half the street. But now the road was several times wider, and the crowds packed into it simply moved aside a little and carried on talking.

Most of what they said was idle chatter, but some of it was worth the coachman’s attention.

“Have you heard? The Jin Family of Taiyuan’s blacksmith shop has been making nothing but weapons lately.”

“I thought you were about to say something important. That’s been going on for a while, hasn’t it? The Jin Family of Taiyuan is a Murim sect. It’s hardly strange.”

“True. But for the past six months, they’ve dealt exclusively in weapons. If you want farming tools, you’ll have to go at least as far as Gohyeon.”

“Well, now. Gohyeon’s a good three or four days on foot. Luckily, the tools we bought earlier are so sturdy we won’t need more.”

“That’s because the craftsmen Old Man Jang brought with him know their trade.”

“Hey, don’t call him Old Man Jang. The Jin Family of Taiyuan trusts him with important work. You ought to call him Elder Jang Taebo now.”

“Ah, it’s a habit. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more worried I get. They say things in the martial world are tense these days. Do you think something big is about to happen…?”

“Put your worries aside and finish your game of Go.¹ Dark Heaven or whatever can make all the trouble it wants; in the end, it’s a Murim affair. We have the Great Nation farther afield and the Jin Family of Taiyuan standing firm right here. What’s there to worry about?”

“I only brought it up because the rumors coming from all over don’t sound good. And things up on the northern plateau have changed after being quiet for the past year or two. Something isn’t right in the martial world.”

“What’s going on up north now? I thought the Jin Family of Taiyuan had wiped out the mounted bandits.”

“Do mounted bandits disappear just because you uproot them once? They’re like weeds. They keep coming back. And a few merchant caravans that headed north last month…”

Even with his employer’s instructions, there was only so long the coachman could keep the horses moving slowly.

Come on, get to the point.

He was still trying to catch the rest of the story as the carriage left the main road when his employer, who had spent the ride silently watching the scenery, suddenly spoke.

“Everyone has a lot to worry about. Then again, it’s happening around them. How could they not notice?”

“Y-yes?”

“I mean those people. You’ve had your ears pricked up this whole time. Why are you so surprised?”

“Uh, well. It’s just…”

The coachman swallowed and stammered on.

“You’ve never spoken to me first while we were traveling, so it caught me off guard.”

“Ah. Well, I suppose it would.”

The coachman glanced over his shoulder. Through the pearl-bead curtain, he caught a glimpse of his employer nodding as though it were nothing.

He also glimpsed skin powdered white and lips red as cherries.

He’s definitely acting differently today.

What had gotten into him?

The coachman had served him for nearly a year, but his employer remained a mystery. He was always smiling, yet somehow it never seemed genuine. And there was only one occasion when he ever spoke to the coachman first.

When they reached their destination.

A brief “Thank you for your hard work” was both the beginning and the end of their conversations.

But today he spoke first, and he hasn’t even looked at his bamboo slips on the road.

His high-ranking employer was always busy. He had a mountain of work to handle and people to meet everywhere.

After nearly a year of seeing him like that, perhaps it was only natural that today’s change felt so strange. Perhaps that was why the coachman let a pointless curiosity he would normally have kept to himself slip out.

“Um, has something happened?”

“Hm?”

“Ah, well…”

The coachman regretted the question the moment he asked it. Nothing good could come of upsetting his employer, especially one so high-ranking.

But his employer was more forgiving than he’d expected.

“Hm. Something happened? Yes, I suppose it did. I heard some bad news not long ago.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

“No, why apologize over that? When you bow and scrape too much, it makes me uncomfortable, too. Brings back old memories.”

“Pardon?”

“Memories I never want to go back to. For example…”

His employer trailed off and gazed out the window.

Beyond the wooden lattice, children were laughing in a clean, orderly street.

“Going three whole days without food, then standing in the street singing to please people dressed in silk. Memories like that.”

“……!”

“Oh, don’t get the wrong idea. I’m not saying it to make you feel bad. It’s just something that happened.”

The coachman’s mouth fell open at the thought that someone of such high standing had lived through that. His employer watched the people passing slowly by and smiled faintly.

“It’s nice to see everyone looking so happy.”

It had happened a very long time ago.

But in someone’s memory, it remained a brand that would never fade.

Poverty. Death. Sorrow. Anger.

The days he had spent doing everything he could to escape the shackles that had gripped his throat since birth flashed past.

“I managed it somehow back then…but can I do it this time, too?”

The quiet mutter scattered on the wind.

The coachman didn’t dare say another word. He kept guiding the horses while his employer took in everything passing slowly around him.

As they drew nearer to their destination, hoofprints in the dirt came into clearer view. At last, his employer knew the time had come.

“Could I ask you a favor?”

“A favor…sir?”

His employer nodded at the coachman’s question.

“Yes, a favor. Consider it an apology, too, for not being very warm toward you until now.”

“Th-there’s no need to say that, sir. If you need anything, please give me an order, Deputy Military Commissioner.”

His employer—or rather, Hong Jin, Deputy Military Commissioner of Shanxi Province—parted his red lips.

“I’ll get off here. Go to Honghwaru right away and tell them. Or should I say the Lower District Sect’s Shanxi branch?”

“……!”

“You thought I wouldn’t know, didn’t you? But they’ve probably figured it out to some extent already. No matter how secretly the Embroidered Uniform Guard operates, they can’t avoid that many eyes.”

The fact that Hong Jin knew his identity, and the existence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, said to act only on the Emperor’s orders.

The coachman couldn’t decide which shocked him more. Then he realized what he needed to ask.

“What would you have me do, Deputy Military Commissioner?”

“Tell them everything that’s happening. Then have them use every bit of the Lower District Sect’s information network to find one person.”

“One person?”

“Someone who can protect us in any situation—or rather, His Highness Prince Shangshan. The most trustworthy person in all Murim.”

Hong Jin spoke slowly, emphasizing every word.

“The Blazing Flame Divine Dragon, Jin Taekyung.”

“……!”

“Go. Hurry.”

That was all.

The carriage sped away like the wind. Hong Jin watched it until it vanished, then turned.

A group of riders descended on him amid the thunder of hooves.

“By imperial decree, you must come with us, Deputy Military Commissioner.”

“And His Highness Prince Shangshan?”

“Rest assured. He is unharmed—for now.”

“For now… All right, then.”

Hong Jin smiled.

Then he walked toward his young lord.