Capture
“Hrrm.”
Bok Ha-gyu frowned and pulled his back away from the inn wall. Because the kick had come while he was leaning backward, he hadn’t been able to put his weight into it properly. Even so, it had clearly caught me off guard.
My left arm, which had blocked his fist, ached with a deep throb. I kept my face calm and looked at him as if nothing were wrong.
“Do you want to keep going?”
“Why? Are you tired?”
“If you want, I can do this all day.”
I squared my shoulders and raised my broadsword with open confidence.
Bok Ha-gyu fell silent for a moment, as if savoring the exchange they had just had, then sheathed his sword.
“You’ve got skill too good to be wasting down here polishing the bottom of the Haomu Sect.”
“I’m not part of the Haomu Sect.”
“Then they won’t be backing you either.”
“Right now, the Martial Alliance inspector is my backer.”
“Hmph. So you trust the Martial Alliance because you’ve got nothing else to trust?”
“Bring that woodcutter here tomorrow morning.”
“What are you plotting?”
“Are you not going to catch him? The opium dealer.”
“We’re sweeping Seochon so thoroughly even a needle couldn’t hide. He’ll get caught and dragged in before long.”
I studied Bok Ha-gyu closely with renewed eyes.
He had decent martial skill and plenty of backbone, but his mind for schemes was sorely lacking. Should I call it honest, or just plain simple?
The fact that black night underlings had already come looking for me because they had learned I’d bought firewood from the woodcutter who had purchased opium was proof enough that their arrangement was already badly botched.
Still, if he had been as sharp as he was sturdy, he wouldn’t have been a unit leader. He would have been the gang chief.
“If you catch anyone and beat them senseless just because you’ve got your eyes red and wild, that bastard will only go deeper underground. If he hasn’t been caught yet, that means he’s no ordinary man. In a case like this, you need bait to reel him in. Let’s meet here tomorrow, with that woodcutter.”
After I explained it in terms he could understand, I left the Wanderer’s Inn.
Bok Ha-gyu must have taken precautions beforehand, because there wasn’t a single black-clad thug or passerby in sight.
*
I went straight to Geuk-hwan, explained the whole situation, and went with him to the annex.
While Geuk-hwan met with the inspector, I waited outside. One of the Martial Alliance men standing guard at the door caught my eye.
“Where are you from, brother?”
“None of your business.”
The Martial Alliance member answered curtly.
Not just anyone could join the Martial Alliance. The younger heirs of the orthodox nine sects and the five great families had connections, but I’d heard that among the smaller and mid-sized factions, everyone fought each other viciously to claw their way upward.
That was why even ordinary Martial Alliance men carried themselves with the pride of imperial exam graduates.
Usually, if you asked what school someone belonged to, they’d puff up and launch into boasting about their sect and their deeds.
He wasn’t some black-clad thug I’d run into on the street, and he wasn’t a host fighter from the Haomu Sect living on his skill as a guest. Yet he was acting strangely cold.
Was he looking down on me as a wandering nobody? I watched him more closely, and the wariness in his face was obvious.
I was thinking of provoking him a bit more when Geuk-hwan came out.
“Go in.”
“You’re not coming with me?”
“He said he wanted to speak to you alone.”
Inspector Pyo Hol-deuk didn’t even offer me a seat when he saw me. He got straight to the point.
“You made contact with the Black Night Gang? Any results?”
“Apparently the man selling opium in Seochon lately has been giving the Black Night Gang headaches too...”
I described the opium dealer’s appearance, the same man I’d seen at the Wanderer’s Inn.
Pyo Hol-deuk’s eyes flashed sharply.
“That must be him. Where is he now? Has the Black Night Gang caught him?”
“We’re setting a trap for him tomorrow.”
“You’re certain? There can’t be any mistakes.”
“In exchange for cooperating, the Black Night Gang wants assurance that their safety will be guaranteed. They want the Martial Alliance to acknowledge that they have nothing to do with the opium dealer.”
“Understood. That can be done.”
Pyo Hol-deuk agreed readily. He didn’t hesitate at all when dealing with black-clad gangs.
“The Black Night Gang wants it in writing.”
“Tsk, tsk. As expected of black-clad types, they’re suspicious by nature.”
He sat down at the table, picked up a brush, and scribbled across the paper without hesitation before taking out his seal and stamping it.
“There. Take that to them.”
It had been written in haste, but it wasn’t a difficult hand to read. It stated that the Black Night Gang had cooperated with the Martial Alliance investigation and that, in the name of the Martial Alliance inspector, they were guaranteed to have nothing to do with opium.
Pyo Hol-deuk’s name and seal were stamped at the bottom too.
My doubts thickened in my head.
Men at the top of any organization always made promises with their mouths only.
When asked to put something in writing, they’d usually bristle and ask whether I didn’t trust them, or they’d fly into a rage.
They didn’t want to leave any trace that could cause trouble later, in case they ended up trying to cheat someone out of money.
No matter how blinded you were by the chance to claim credit, to hand over a document bearing your own name and seal so casually was reckless.
And the other side was black-clad scum the Martial Alliance didn’t even count as human.
Black-clad gangs were targets for extermination, not partners for negotiation.
Even if something had to be exchanged, it was best to settle it verbally and leave no evidence behind.
That way, no one could dirty your name by saying you were involved with black-clad scum, and no one could later grab you by the throat with it.
If he were a normal inspector, he would first make all sorts of plausible verbal promises, then, once the opium dealer was caught, immediately act as if he had no memory of them.
Then he’d file a report tying the Black Night Gang to the opium dealer’s backing.
The Black Night Gang would claim they had cooperated with the Martial Alliance, but with no proof, that would be dismissed as filthy lies. The matter would then be crushed with force.
Whether it was the government or the martial world, the people at the top always handled things like that.
If the Black Night Gang made a mess of this document, it would become a lasting headache.
Pyo Hol-deuk didn’t seem the least bit bothered. He had only the expectation of capturing the opium dealer in his eyes.
As if, even if trouble came later because of this paper, it wouldn’t be his problem.
“Once the opium dealer is caught, I won’t forget your contribution either.”
Pyo Hol-deuk smiled kindly and said it as though he were granting me a favor.
I almost wanted to test him. If I asked him to guarantee things in writing, he looked exactly like the type who’d gladly draft another sheet.
My throat itched with the urge, but I didn’t want to get any deeper into this, so I turned away there.
By the time I left Simhyangru and walked into the alley, subtle gazes had attached themselves to the back of my head.
When I looked back, the gatekeepers in Yongcheon Escort Agency uniforms were whispering among themselves before jerking and turning their eyes away.
*
The next morning I went straight to the Wanderer’s Inn. Bok Ha-gyu had brought the woodcutter just as I’d said he should.
I handed over the document I’d received from the inspector the day before.
“Will this do?”
Bok Ha-gyu read it without saying a word, then looked at me with skeptical eyes.
“The inspector wrote this so easily?”
“It wasn’t easy.”
I shook my head and pointed at the woodcutter, who was being held among the black-clad men.
“I’m taking this friend out for a bit.”
“Where to?”
“To eat.”
“There’s food here too, isn’t there?”
“With those ugly faces glaring at me, do you really think I can swallow a bite?”
Bok Ha-gyu stared at me for a long moment, then let us go without complaint.
He had the Martial Alliance inspector’s guarantee in writing now, and he probably also knew where this woodcutter lived.
If I failed to keep my promise to him, I wouldn’t get to meet Jeok Chu-yeong.
I took the woodcutter to Poongcheon Inn and fed him there.
He wolfed down dumplings and thin noodles like a man who hadn’t eaten in days.
What he’d made from selling firewood wasn’t much, and after buying expensive opium, he must have had debts stacked up everywhere.
“How did those bastards know to come looking for me at Poongcheon Inn before?”
The young woodcutter paused in the middle of a dumpling and answered quickly.
“I didn’t know. You said you’d stopped by the Wanderer’s Inn that day, right? Those bastards dragged in every martial artist who had been in the inn and beat them senseless. A few of them recognized you, I guess. I think they heard your name and description, then the guys collecting protection money mentioned Poongcheon Inn. I got caught on my way home.”
I recalled one by one the rough-looking faces I’d seen at the Wanderer’s Inn when I’d gone to buy grain and dried meat.
“There wasn’t anyone there who could’ve recognized me.”
“Didn’t you go toe to toe with Escort Leader Pung Gang-ik and cut down dozens of bandits? They say you handle a broadsword like a ghost...”
Suddenly Gu-sam came to mind. Then I remembered Pung O-bok, the boy who had learned fists and kicks from him, gazing up at me with shining eyes.
I was a nameless nobody with no epithet, but looking back, I had made a fair amount of noise in Seochon.
It wasn’t anything spectacular, but apparently it was enough to reach the ears of martial artists who spent their lives eating, drinking, and cutting people down.
No wonder the Black Night Gang thugs who had swarmed Poongcheon Inn hadn’t drawn their blades easily...
“Did you tell them where my house was?”
The woodcutter stopped his chopsticks and looked me straight in the eye.
“I didn’t tell them. If I had answered their questions obediently, my face wouldn’t look like this.”
Good eyes. Not cruel enough to hurt others without cause, but strong enough to resist violence by shaking his head at it.
Whether this woodcutter had said anything or not, the Black Night Gang would have found my place in the end.
He must have known that too, yet even when he was dragged to Poongcheon Inn and faced me, he kept his mouth firmly shut.
That was when I understood: even if he was too weak to avoid getting beaten, he wasn’t a man whose spirit broke with his bones.
I didn’t know how many people the opium dealer had dealt with in Seochon, but for now, this woodcutter was the only way to reach him.
I had to get this man to open his mouth and cooperate.
If I just beat him and pressed him, and he kept denying everything or wrapping himself in lies, there’d be no answer at all.
That was exactly what he had told the Black Night Gang too: that the opium dealer had approached him first on the way back from a visit to the physician, and that he had bought opium from him only once at the Wanderer’s Inn.
It wasn’t true. The first time I went to buy firewood, I could already smell opium on the woodcutter’s body.
And since I later saw him dealing at the Wanderer’s Inn, he had bought it at least twice.
There must be a separate way to meet the opium dealer. As I talked with him and coaxed him gently, it turned out to be exactly as I had expected.
Go to a certain place and perform a certain action, and the opium dealer would confirm it before coming to sell opium.
“What do you want?”
“I need to get back the opium the Black Night Gang took from me.”
“Anything else?”
The woodcutter fell silent, staring only at the table, then continued.
“For treatment costs, the days I couldn’t work, and everything else, I should get three taels of silver...”
“What’s your name?”
“Hwang Hae.”
“Have you ever seen the sea?”
“No. My father gave me the name because he wanted me to live as wide as the sea, but I’ve never even seen Dongting Lake, let alone the sea.”
Probably because of his sick mother, who was down to her last days.
For some people, family was the pillar that let them settle down and live with purpose. For others, it was a shackle that wouldn’t let them leave.
“If you extort money from the Black Night Gang, you won’t be able to keep living in Seochon.”
“That doesn’t matter. Whether I die this way or that way...”
“If I make sure you get all that, will you help catch the opium dealer?”
“Of course.”
After the meal, we went outside. The Black Night Gang thugs who had come to watch him followed at a distance, hovering and keeping their distance at once.
We went to the Wanderer’s Inn, and I held out my hand.
“Add ten taels of silver to what you took from that friend.”
“Give it to him.”
At Bok Ha-gyu’s order, his subordinate opened the purse without a word of complaint.
I took the opium and the silver, then led Hwang Hae out through the back door. Hwang Hae’s eyes widened at the huge sum he had probably never seen in his life.
“This is too much...”
“Whether it’s three taels or ten, the fact remains that you squeezed money out of the Black Night Gang. Since you’re already on their bad side, you might as well come away with fuller pockets. Once this is over, it’d be best to leave immediately.”
“...Yes. I suppose that’s how it will have to be. This will be the last opium.”
With a grim expression, Hwang Hae clenched the paper-wrapped opium tightly in his hand.
Now that there was no more opium to be found in Seochon, the dying mother would take it all at once and cross the Three Reaches River without pain.
If things went well, Hwang Hae would leave Seochon before nightfall.
“Don’t go to Dongting Lake. It’s crawling with martial artists. You’d run into three bandits before you’d even walked ten steps. Head east and go to Hangzhou instead. The sea there is outstanding. There are plenty of beautiful women too, and the shrimp and crab dishes are excellent.”
I found myself remembering, with some faint ache, the days I’d spent in Hangzhou learning the Thousand Steel Saber Technique from the one-armed saber master Mun Hwi.
Hangzhou had been a world completely different from my hometown of Seochon.
I could admit that the saying “heaven under the sky” wasn’t empty talk, but I still couldn’t bring myself to grow attached to it in the end.
The more splendid and prosperous a city became, the more that hollowness grew, because the people I truly wanted to see were never there.
“If you do go to Hangzhou, be careful around one martial artist.”
“I should be careful around all martial artists.”
“That’s true enough, but... there’s one man you should be especially wary of.”
“Who is it?”
“You’ll know when you see him. He’s infamous for leaving corpses piled up wherever he goes.”
I went with Hwang Hae to the local physician’s house. Hwang Hae pulled out a stone embedded in one side of the wall and shifted its position.
“If we leave it like this, the opium dealer will come to the Wanderer’s Inn tonight. That’s how we met before. May I stop by my house for a moment?”
After looking up at the sky, I nodded. There was still a long way to sunset.
This was the poor district on the outskirts, with cramped shacks pressed shoulder to shoulder.
When he lifted the mat hanging in place of a door, several rats scattered into the dim dark.
On the filthy dirt floor lay a gaunt old woman with sunken eyes and white hair, all alone.
She was a patient being slowly, stubbornly eaten alive by an incurable chronic illness.
“I’m back.”
Hwang Hae went inside, and the mat fell back into place. I stepped off to one side and waited, watching the back mountain stained with autumn leaves.
Two black-clad men who had been tailing us from the Wanderer’s Inn stared from a distance while chewing something.
After a long while, Hwang Hae came out with a strong smell of opium clinging to him.
“Is it done?”
“...She passed peacefully.”
His voice was hoarse and heavy. He couldn’t lift his head, and tears were plainly visible on his face.
With the money he had extorted from the Black Night Gang earlier, Hwang Hae had hired laborers and buried his dead mother in a nearby hill grove.
It was closer to disposing of a body than performing a funeral, but as long as wild beasts didn’t tear her apart, it was a decent end.
By late afternoon, I returned to the Wanderer’s Inn.
I had baited the hook and cast it. Now all that was left was to wait for the catch.
The sun went down, and the interior of the inn darkened.
It was the busiest time of day, yet half the tables were empty. The ones occupying seats were all members of the Black Night Gang.
They didn’t block the entrance, in case the opium dealer noticed anything suspicious.
Martial artists who entered without understanding the situation quickly sensed the tense atmosphere and the ugly looks being thrown around, then tried to back away quietly, only to be seized without mercy.
Even if Hwang Hae shook his head, they weren’t released. They were tied up first and shoved into the kitchen.
When about seven men had been piled up, a martial artist with his face hidden under a bamboo hat came in through the back door.
He quickly swept the room from beneath the wide brim, then walked toward the table where Hwang Hae was seated.
He didn’t even take off his bamboo hat before sitting down across from him. Once Hwang Hae confirmed his face, he gave a slight nod, lifted his teacup, and set it back down.
“Catch that bastard!”
The Black Night Gang sprang up all at once and swarmed the opium dealer.
The dealer gritted his teeth and shoved his chair back before sprinting for the rear door. He slammed a shoulder into a black-clad thug blocking his path and forced his way through.
The black-clad men poured out after him. More thugs hidden in the alley also rushed in.
Clattering footsteps, curses, and shouts followed, until at last a cheer erupted.
After a brutal beating, the opium dealer was dragged back into the inn and dumped onto the floor.
He had been surrounded by dozens of men in an instant and hadn’t even had time to draw a blade.
“Cough, cough...”
The bloodied opium dealer curled up tight and convulsed. It was the same face I’d seen before.
“Just thinking about how much trouble this filthy bastard caused us...”
A big black-clad thug, eyes gone wild with fury, pulled out a dagger.
He had orders from above, so he couldn’t kill the opium dealer. It looked like he meant to vent his frustration by cutting off a few fingers instead.
I extended my broadsword and blocked his path.
“Back off. From here on, this man’s mine.”
I shot him a look carrying cold murderous intent, and the black-clad thug’s face twisted hard in front of his underlings.
“If you’re confident, try coming one step farther. I don’t think the Solitary Ripping Leader would care if I cut down one man.”
Only then did the thug swallow hard, sheathe his knife, and step back.
I sent a Haomu Sect man waiting nearby to fetch a carriage, loaded the opium dealer into it, and headed for Simhyangru.
---