Black Night March
Choe Sa-deuk had not come out to greet us when we arrived. The banquet hall was some distance away, and I hadn’t been able to make out his face properly from there.
Seen up close, he looked like exactly what he was: a slick, seasoned merchant with the oily charm to match.
Choe Sa-deuk had boldly declared all-out war on Black Night Gang, but the people with him only traded awkward looks, each waiting for someone else to speak first.
After a round of glances, a middle-aged man with the gaunt frame of a dead tree finally gathered his courage and opened his mouth.
“I understand your intention, Manor Lord, I truly do... but would it not be better to prepare more thoroughly?”
One by one, as though the thought of going to spill blood made them uneasy, the others nodded in agreement.
Choe Sa-deuk’s gaze turned vicious all at once. Everyone flinched and looked away.
“I sent word to Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate two days ago. They should be on their way by now. If we send them back, the rumor will spread for certain. Do you all mean to sit on your hands until we’re stripped down to the bone and this ends in empty ruin?”
It was only half-formal speech, but the tone was unmistakably a reprimand. I didn’t know what kind of relationship Choe Sa-deuk had with those four acquaintances of his, but the hierarchy between them was obvious enough.
“R-right. As long as that bastard Jeok Chu-yeong is alive, how can any of us sleep easy?”
The middle-aged man clearly didn’t have the guts to defy Choe Sa-deuk, so he hurriedly changed his tune.
“But will Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate really do as they’re told?”
“Of course. They’re no-name black thugs, aren’t they? The sort who demand ten things for every one you ask of them. Careless, they’ll pull the very foundation out from under us.”
Frowning, Choe Sa-deuk gave a snort through his nose.
“Don’t worry. Not a single coin will leave our pockets. There’s always a way to handle any kind of dog. You think I’ve only dealt with scum like this once or twice?”
A servant rushed in and bowed low.
“Master, someone has arrived from Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate.”
Choe Sa-deuk picked up the ornate blade hanging on the wall like a decoration.
Clang.
When he drew it, the dazzlingly decorated exterior gave way to a blade so cold and blue it looked made purely for killing.
It was not a weapon that belonged in a merchant’s house, nor one meant to hang untouched on a wall.
Choe Sa-deuk held the stinking sabre and slowly glared at the others as though carving the sight of them into his eyes.
“From this point on, we move as one and see this through to the end. I will not forgive anyone who spouts nonsense or tries to muddy the waters.”
After that stern warning, Choe Sa-deuk led the group outside.
Hoyeongeom watched his retreating back in silence, the look on his face caught somewhere between disappointment and anger. He seemed to have his own thoughts, because he did not move to stop Choe Sa-deuk.
He flicked a glance our way, then Hoyeongeom and the women vanished outside as well.
In the empty inner room, only Ye-hyang and I were left behind.
“This was a Haomu Sect affair?”
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand. Madam Hong-hui ordered that it be handled in strict secrecy.”
“It’s fine. I’m not a Haomu Sect member, so that makes sense. Is the job done?”
“No. It’s only beginning. Let’s go.”
We passed through a long corridor and came out in front of the main house. Dozens of martial artists filled the courtyard, split into two sides and standing off against each other.
Ye-hyang covered her mouth with one hand beside me and explained who they were.
“That giant with the broadsword slanted across his back is A-ryong, number three in Bloodshed Gang, Asura Blade. He’s an aggressive black thug who’s known for drawing blood every time he draws his sword...”
I could already picture the style he used. Heavy-handed saber work, forcing opponents back with brute force from a body built for it.
I’d seen men like him before, both among the bandits I’d cut down and the factions I’d run into in the past.
Back when my martial ability was still low, I’d struggled to beat them. After learning saber techniques, though, I’d found my own way of handling such types and could cut them down with ease.
You don’t become number three in a middling or small faction just by swinging a blade with nothing but strength behind it.
From the aura he gave off, he probably knew a few proper forms at least.
The Bloodshed Gang members standing behind him were ordinary black underlings. Cruel, petty, vicious, greedy, and mean-spirited.
Heaven-Toppling Gate’s faces were no better than the average black thug.
The man at the front wore a scholar’s robe and had grown a rather stylish beard, but his eyes were cold as a snake’s.
He was said to be the gate master of Heaven-Toppling Gate, Manggaek, Ki Ba-yong.
Among black, even a glance could start a murder.
And yet the two armed factions simply glared at each other as though engaged in a contest of stares.
Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate were apparently bitter enemies, coexisting in the same region and snarling at one another. They’d wanted to tear each other apart for a long time, but Choe Sa-deuk had somehow gathered both groups here in one place. All three of them were after the same thing.
Black Night Gang.
Once the first escort agency came to Seochon and people began to gather and money started flowing, black sprang up like weeds after rain.
Anyone could see there was a power vacuum, so Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate had rushed in, drooling at the opportunity. Then Black Night Gang, led by Jeok Chu-yeong, had annihilated them.
In the process, the eldest son of Bloodshed Gang’s leader and Heaven-Toppling Gate’s top disciple had ended up chopped to pieces and dumped in a gutter.
Choe Sa-deuk handed one of the two books he’d obtained earlier to each side.
A-ryong held the book upside down and pretended to open it for a look before passing it to a subordinate.
Seeing that, the corner of Ki Ba-yong’s mouth twitched. He looked like he wanted to openly sneer at the man for being illiterate, but forced himself to endure it.
After the subordinate whispered the contents to him, A-ryong’s eyes flew wide.
“Manor Lord Choe. Is what’s written here true? Is this really the inner cultivation manual our leader has been looking for...?”
“It’s true. Why would I deceive Bloodshed Gang?”
Ki Ba-yong lifted the thing in his hand and spoke.
“Whatever is written in this ledger will be taken by Heaven-Toppling Gate. If you say something different later, that will be a problem.”
“What? Ledger? What ledger? If it belongs to Black Night Gang, Bloodshed Gang has a right to it too!”
A-ryong bared his greed openly, his eyes glinting.
Ki Ba-yong looked down on him with contempt and let out a thin sneer.
“Rights, is it? A stupid illiterate like you? Write your own name in this ledger first, and I’ll generously give you five parts out of ten.”
“What? Illiterate? You son of a bitch! Want me to rip your eyes out and see whether the letters still get in?”
“Enough.”
Choe Sa-deuk swept them both with a cold, sinister stare. Even among those rough black types, his presence did not lose an ounce of force.
“We need to move quickly if we’re to reach Seochon before dawn. Do you mean to ruin the whole thing by bickering? I only need that bastard Jeok Chu-yeong’s head. Divide the rest of Black Night Gang’s property among yourselves as you please.”
There was no reason to refuse. They could avenge their faction’s grudge, make merit, and make money besides.
It would be difficult for Bloodshed Gang or Heaven-Toppling Gate alone, but if they joined forces, it was within reach. The fact that they had brought their subordinates this far already meant orders had come down from above.
“I’ll remember this, you fucker.”
“Kekekeke. Go ahead and look all you want with those blind eyes. You still won’t see a damn thing.”
Once the deal was struck, everyone poured out of the Choe Manor.
They hurried toward the official road in a disorderly scramble, each group competing for speed as they climbed into the scattered carriages waiting by the gate.
Choe Sa-deuk and his people climbed into their own carriage with their escorts and sword-handlers. Hoyeongeom’s group had vanished somewhere in the meantime and was nowhere to be seen.
There was no reason for us to remain at an estate with neither host nor guest, so Ye-hyang and I boarded a carriage as well.
The moonlight was faint and the road ahead was dark, so the coachman drove as slowly as he could.
As a result, the distance between us and the carriages ahead gradually widened.
I didn’t urge him to go faster.
Even if we arrived early, all that would mean was more time spent watching Seochon’s streets soak in blood.
I had no fond feeling for Black Night Gang, but that didn’t mean I was eager to see them wiped out either.
Even if every last one of them died, Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate would only end up clawing each other to pieces over the remaining property. The streets would become a battlefield, and innocent people would fall under stray blades.
Whoever won, once things settled down they’d bribe the officials and carry on doing exactly what Black Night Gang had done before them.
That sort of thing happened often enough in other towns. If blood wasn’t spilled when a power or generation changed hands, then it wasn’t black.
The only difference here was that there was a mastermind behind the whole thing.
“Manor Lord Choe must bear quite a grudge against Black Night Gang.”
Without looking away from the window, Ye-hyang answered.
“Black Night Gang’s leader found Choe Sa-deuk’s weakness and kept blackmailing him, extorting money from him over and over.”
Blackmail from black...
For a magnate of that size, he’d almost certainly have connections deep within the government. And yet rather than going through official channels, he’d dragged in other blac and tried to settle it in the martial world’s own way.
I roughly understood the situation.
Even if a man worked his bones to dust for his whole life, it was no easy thing to escape that muddy pit of poverty.
Raising a fallen family back up by one’s own strength alone required extraordinary talent and a great deal of luck besides.
Passing the civil service examinations was like plucking stars from the sky, and making a fortune in business was no different.
No matter how vast the world was, every place one could reach already had established merchant houses rooted in place. The profitable trades were already being eaten up by other mouths.
If you recklessly pushed a spoon into someone else’s territory, you were liable to end up with a hole punched through your belly.
The only things latecomers could do were the jobs that paid well but demanded they risk their lives, the ones strictly forbidden by state law.
“Was Choe Sa-deuk a smuggler?”
My guess made Ye-hyang start and turn toward me. Her already large eyes went wide enough that the whites showed clearly.
“As expected of Madam Hong-hui’s successor, your insight is no ordinary thing. I only said he’d been blackmailed...”
“If he’s built up so much wealth and paid off the authorities all these years, then there’s no need to drag in black for a hasty knife-through-the-sheath job unless the weakness is something he absolutely cannot let the government learn about.”
Understanding how I’d reached that conclusion, Ye-hyang gave a small nod.
“That’s right. Choe Sa-deuk was a smuggler. After he built up his fortune, he laundered his status through legitimate businesses, but before that he was a notorious black nicknamed the Coin Ghost, the Two-Faced Beast. Salt smuggling, human trafficking, opium distribution. If it could make money, he did it without hesitation. The four people with him earlier were business partners or investors.”
Not one of those crimes was minor.
Salt smuggling was a major capital offense. Beheading was standard, and if collective punishment got involved, every neck in the family could be taken. Human trafficking and opium distribution were both death sentences as well.
If someone threatened to seize evidence and report it to the magistrate’s office, there was no way he could refuse to pay.
He couldn’t go asking the authorities for help, but neither would a vicious black who’d trafficked people and smuggled salt simply sit there and let himself be robbed.
Hooo-woong. Hooo-woong.
When we reached a black valley, the cry of an owl came from somewhere nearby. The coachman cupped both hands together and answered with a similar call.
The eastern woods rustled, and a martial artist sprang out. The coachman pulled the carriage to a stop.
As I got to my feet and reached for the long saber at my side, Ye-hyang grabbed my wrist.
“It’s all right. It’s a Haomu Sect member.”
The martial artist checked the coachman and gave a signal. About twenty Haomu Sect members, all armed with swords and blades, revealed themselves from the darkness.
A few familiar faces from Simhyangru were among them.
Ye-hyang got out of the carriage. She drew a sword from beneath the driver’s seat, fastened it at her waist, and stepped forward.
“What about Bloodshed Gang and Heaven-Toppling Gate?”
A senior Haomu Sect member came forward a few steps and answered.
“They passed through a third of an hour ago.”
“And Choe Sa-deuk’s group?”
“We followed them at a slight distance.”
“Any sign that they noticed?”
“None. They were all too busy racing ahead to care about vigilance or anything else.”
Ye-hyang took a silver token from within her robes.
At once, the Haomu Sect members dropped to one knee in unison. It seemed to be a token carrying the authority of Hong-hui, the Seochon branch leader.
“Tonight, our sect will take over Choe Manor.”
“We obey the order.”
After the reply, the Haomu Sect members went into the brush and brought out horses and carriages. The coachman climbed back up and turned the horse’s head the other way.
Haomu Sect sold information, and it sold wanderers as well.
There was almost nothing it wouldn’t sell, but there was only one case in which the name of Haomu Sect was used to project force.
“Haomu Sect’s revenge?”
Ye-hyang bit her lip and nodded with a grave expression. The carriage turned back along the road it had come from and headed for Choe Manor.
Ye-hyang clutched the scabbard at her waist and stared into the darkness outside the window.
I thought of what I’d heard earlier that day.
To see the path ahead, you had to face your lifelong fear head-on and force your way through it.
The carriage pushed on without pause, traveling through the bottom of a dark night in which everything around us was asleep.