The Tang Clan's Daughter
Tang Hye-seo appeared at Poongcheon Inn with her guard, Bi-hyeon, about an hour later. Unlike before, she wore a dark-blue martial outfit and had pulled a bamboo hat low over her face. In that getup, she could have passed for a slight martial artist—or an ordinary female hero.
The moment she sat across from me and lifted the bamboo hat, the whole place seemed to brighten. Maybe it was because the plain dark-blue clothes offered so little contrast, but her striking features stood out even more than usual.
Gu-sam, who had come over to take our order, stared so hard his eyes practically popped out of his head.
"Tsk, you're going to wear your eyes out."
I clicked my tongue and gave him a pitying look, but Gu-sam still couldn't pull himself together.
He should've considered himself lucky.
If a grown man had stared at the daughter of the Tang Clan like that, there was a good chance he'd end up with black needles in both eyes and spend the rest of his life blind.
Most beauties had gentle hands, but the Tang Clan was an exception.
Tang Hye-seo was the most frightening woman in Seochon. No, on second thought, she was the second most dangerous woman in Seochon.
I might have been better with a blade, but when it came to killing people, Tang Hye-seo was one cut above me.
One flick of her sleeve, and a poisoned needle could fly out and lodge itself between my brows. She could even slip poison into the tea I was drinking without anyone noticing.
"A peerless beauty like you, and somehow you ended up with a great hero like this one..."
"Shut up and take the order."
"What do you do best here?"
At Tang Hye-seo's question, Gu-sam brightened and rattled on happily.
"From simple noodles to dumplings to full banquet dishes, there isn't anything we can't make. Our innkeeper's from Chengdu, so Sichuan food is especially our specialty..."
"Oh? You're from Sichuan? How interesting. Then bring me twice-cooked pork and shredded pork with green peppers first. That's all right, isn't it? I'm paying."
"Then let's do that."
If I could eat for free, I'd be grateful even if they served me cold rice soaked in tea water.
Gu-sam disappeared into the kitchen in a flash. After sweeping his eyes over the quiet inn, Tang Hye-seo studied my face for a moment.
"Things seem to be going well lately. You look positively radiant."
It sounded like polite flattery, but it wasn't far from the truth. I had met Do Goeng-il, learned the latter eighteen forms of the Thousand Steel Saber Technique, obtained an internal-energy cultivation manual, and even eaten spiritual herbs.
There was nothing in the martial world more thrilling than growing stronger than you had been yesterday, so yes, things really had been going well.
"I've been getting by all right. Did things turn out the way you wanted too, miss?"
I had thought things were over when she caught the traitor Tang Do-hun and returned to Sichuan. Chengdu was a long way from Seochon, and there wasn't a single sect here connected to the Tang Clan. Honestly, I had figured I would never see her again.
Tang Hye-seo let out a tired sigh, as if the mere thought of it gave her a headache.
"The whole sect turned upside down while we were rooting out the traitors. We raided every shady den in Sichuan, dragged people out, beat confessions out of them, and quite a few died or got injured in the process... Chengdu's still a mess."
From the look on her face, it seemed they still hadn't recovered the stolen Iron Arm Armor.
I doubted she had come all this way simply to avoid the chaos, and bringing her aunt along made me even more curious. I wanted to ask, but I didn't.
Just knowing that the deputy head of the Jeodok Hall had betrayed the Tang Clan, stolen one of their divine treasures, and tried to sell it off was already dangerous enough. There was no need to make myself even more suspicious by digging deeper.
Tang Hye-seo rested an elbow on the table and suddenly leaned her upper body toward me.
"There's a Black Spot here too, isn't there? You've been there, haven't you?"
A fragrant scent rushed over me, and before I knew it, her face was so close I could make out the tiny beauty mark beneath her eye.
My reflection wavered in her clear pupils. I was making the most dazed face I'd ever seen. It was unfamiliar, but not unpleasant.
My mouth went dry, and for some reason my chest stirred strangely.
Then I remembered who the woman sitting across from me was, and the expression and feelings that had floated up without weight sank straight back down.
Of everyone aside from family, how many had ever gotten this close to Tang Hye-seo and lived?
If she had been trying to catch me off guard so I couldn't lie, then it was an effective move.
I jerked back in surprise, straightened myself, and swallowed awkwardly.
"...Only once. I went to see if I could find a padded vest or a suit of mail."
I added the part about the armor to hide the fact that I had really gone there looking for spiritual herbs. Tang Hye-seo leaned back in her chair and tilted her head.
"A padded vest? A suit of mail? You wear things like that? Were you in the army or something?"
"Have you ever worn a padded vest?"
"No."
"A properly made one is pretty useful. It can stop one or two slashes. Finding a loyal companion who's willing to take a blade for me is a lot harder than just buying a padded vest and putting it on."
Tang Hye-seo looked like she didn't quite understand.
"Why not kill them before they get the chance to cut you?"
That would be possible for someone from the Tang Clan. Needles flew faster and farther than blades.
"Could you accompany me to the black market?"
"Are you asking me as a request?"
Tang Hye-seo nodded.
"Don't tell Haomun about it. Let's just the three of us go and come back before long."
That was tempting enough. I wasn't a Haomun man, so I had no duty to report it.
Besides, I needed to find spiritual herbs before the five pills I had left were gone. If I could earn some money and stop by a black-market apothecary too, there was no reason to refuse.
The only thing that bothered me was Tang Hye-seo's purpose.
"What business do you have at the black market?"
"We confirmed that one of the black-market brokers in Sichuan sent a carrier pigeon this way. He killed himself before he could be caught, so we don't know the exact recipient, only that it was somewhere around here. Chances are it was another broker in the same black market. I need to take a look."
"Does your aunt know you're going to the black market?"
Tang Hye-seo's pretty eyes narrowed.
"...That's disappointing."
I didn't know what she had been expecting, but I was sorry to disappoint her.
Still, if some lowly wandering nobody like me kept hovering around her niece and annoyed her aunt, I might end up drinking poisoned tea before I knew it.
Tang Hye-seo had grown up in a nest of vipers, so she probably had no fear of the Tang Clan. But I had seen and heard too much by now. I knew exactly how little Tang Clan people valued human life.
"I said I'd ask around, so it'll be fine. Aunt doesn't pay much attention to what I do anyway. If it's all right with you, let's eat and head out right away."
"Let's leave early tomorrow morning."
Tang Hye-seo tilted her head. "Why? Is the black market far?"
"The last time I went there, we took a carriage in the morning and didn't arrive until sunset."
"That's pretty far, isn't it?"
"It's the closest city to Seochon."
Tang Hye-seo narrowed her eyes and turned to look out the window. She watched the busy midday street for a moment before speaking again.
"It's nothing compared to Chengdu, but this town is fairly decent too. You said it wasn't like this in the past?"
"Until ten years ago, it was just a poor farming village with around twenty households. Back then there wasn't even a proper road, so people mostly went by mountain path."
"Hmm. For it to change this much in only ten years..."
Tang Hye-seo fell into thought, looking genuinely puzzled.
"Your dishes are here."
Gu-sam came back out, still bright-eyed with excitement, and set the food down.
"They look decent enough."
"Hehe, they taste even better. Enjoy!"
Tang Hye-seo picked up her chopsticks, her face full of anticipation. After taking one bite of the twice-cooked pork, she blinked in confusion. When she tasted the shredded pork with green peppers too, she tilted her head slightly.
"This is... strangely fascinating."
"Is it bad?"
"No, it's good... but it's Sichuan-style food, not actual Sichuan food."
Even so, it seemed to suit her palate. Tang Hye-seo didn't set her chopsticks down and kept eating.
I started eating too.
Even when I was wandering as a lone drifter, and even after I came back to my hometown, I had usually eaten by myself. Then and now, the people I ended up sharing a table with were mostly martial artists who wore swords at their hips.
Martial artists were the sort of hopeless creatures who could draw steel in the middle of a meal if something displeased them, so I could never fully let my guard down. If they were within reach of my blade, I had to keep track of every move they made, and that always kept my nerves taut.
If I wanted to eat with my shoulders relaxed, being alone was easier.
But sitting across from Tang Hye-seo and eating together, I found that for the first time in a long while, I didn't feel tense even though I wasn't alone.
"Why are you staring at me like that? Did I get something on my face?"
Tang Hye-seo wiped a bit of sauce from the corner of her mouth and frowned in confusion.
Apparently, I had been staring at the Tang Clan's daughter without realizing it.
"No."
I picked up a piece of meat with my chopsticks and glanced over at Bi-hyeon, who was seated at another table.
He was eating too, talking quietly with Gu-sam. He didn't even look this way.
The last time I had gone to the black market with Do Goeng-il, we'd hired a carriage from Haomun. The roads were still terrible, but unlike then, we were riding in a Tang Clan carriage, so my backside didn't hurt nearly as much.
The view through the window and the wind blowing in from outside made the changing season feel even sharper. Winter was almost here. I wondered where that old man, who had no relatives at all, had gone off to. He wasn't actually planning to spend the winter by himself at that supposedly ruined Cheongsan Sect, was he...
After we had ridden for a long while, a shabby inn came into view, its flags snapping in the wind at the foot of a distant mountain.
"There's an inn out here too?"
"That's a Black Spot."
At once, Tang Hye-seo's eyes lit up.
"You mean those lunatics who hunt martial artists?"
"So you know what a Black Spot is?"
"What martial artist doesn't? I'd heard about them so often before I even entered the martial world that I was sick of the name."
Most people run in terror when they meet a viper in the mountains. Snake catchers, who make their living trapping vipers and selling them, are the ones who go looking for them instead.
From the Tang Clan's point of view, the Black Spot was something like a snake catcher.
Poison and hidden weapons owned by Tang Clan members were traded secretly at outrageous prices in the black market. Since that meant big money, the Black Spot merchants had every reason to welcome the business.
If a Tang Clan member disappeared or got caught by a Black Spot, a pursuit squad would chase them to the end of the earth.
I heard there were already well over a dozen Black Spot merchants the Tang Clan had tracked down and killed. And yet they still hadn't been completely wiped out.
"Because it's a cell network, they're hard to trace. What's the trap in that inn?"
"If you pull the iron lever beside the cash desk, the floor splits open to both sides."
"How deep is the pit?"
"About five zhang."
"And yet it's still standing? Impressive."
"They're cowardly people."
The ten or so bandits who had already died after falling into that pit, along with the man who had been guarding the Black Spot, were probably still rotting there somewhere, wasted and forgotten.
Or maybe the Black Spot had already retrieved the bodies and dug a new pit.
Tang Hye-seo couldn't take her eyes off the Black Spot as it slid past the window. I was worrying about how to stop her if she suddenly suggested we go there ourselves, but thankfully she wasn't that reckless.
Still, seeing something like that so close to my hometown left a bad taste in my mouth.
Maybe I should've just set the place on fire back then.
Once the Black Spot vanished behind us, my irritation eased little by little. Anything became more tolerable once it was out of sight.
Even so, the sun definitely went down faster than it did in summer. By the time we reached Baekgye-hyeon, the city where the black market was located, it was already dark night.
Before getting off the carriage, Tang Hye-seo took something out and covered her face completely, as if the bamboo hat alone wasn't enough.
"How do I look?"
When she lifted her head, her face was hidden behind a mask of a young man with a short beard.
The craftsmanship was surprisingly good. If I saw it at night, I might actually have been fooled.
"What in the world is that?"
"If some unfamiliar beauty showed up in the black market, everyone would be shocked. I can't exactly help it, can I?"
It seemed she had used it more than once, because she was perfectly calm about it.
We took a room at the Haomun inn she had stayed in before and went into the black market.
I had wondered how she was planning to find the right shop without a letter of introduction, but Tang Hye-seo had a wooden token recognized by the black market.
She also seemed to know where she was going in advance, because she found the shops we needed without any trouble.
Once I realized what she was looking for, even I was more shocked than the apothecary.
"You're here to buy poison? What kind of poison do you need? There are many kinds, of course. Numbing powders, deathblight poison..."
"Do you have qi-dispersing poison?"
Tang Hye-seo asked in the lowest, roughest voice she could manage.
She was clearly trying to imitate a man, but it came out sounding more like a eunuch.
"Huh?"
The apothecary studied the three of us rapidly, as if testing the waters, with an inscrutable look.
"Even in a place like the black market, we don't have something that rare."
Tang Hye-seo, who probably knew better than anyone else, pretended not to know a thing.
"Is qi-dispersing poison really that rare? I heard it has no effect at all on those who don't have internal energy."
"That's why the people who make it and the people who seek it out are both few and far between. Among qi-dispersing poisons, the only worthwhile ones are Sinseonpye and Gun jasan, and both of those are among the Sichuan Tang Clan's eight great poisons. They're rarely leaked outside the sect, the recipes are top secret, and if anyone gets caught smuggling or selling them and the Tang Clan finds out, they all get wiped out..."
"So you can't get them?"
"I'm afraid that's difficult..."
At Tang Hye-seo's gesture, Bi-hyeon handed over a payment slip.
Ten taels of silver.
When the apothecary saw the amount, greed shone wetly in his eyes.
"Think of it as an advance. I don't care how much it costs. Get me Sinseonpye or Gun jasan."
"Where should I contact you?"
"I'll come back in about ten days."
Tang Hye-seo made the same request at the other black-market brokers too.
A Tang Clan member was searching for the clan's own qi-dispersing poison in the black market. I was starting to get a rough sense of what was going on.
Apparently Tang Do-hun had sold off not just the Iron Arm Armor, but the qi-dispersing poisons as well.
If the black-market brokers in Sichuan had already circulated the poison, then the broker in this area who received the carrier pigeon would be the one involved here.
I didn't ask a thing. I simply followed along in silence.
If there was something I needed to know, Tang Hye-seo would tell me. If she didn't say it, then she must have had her reasons.
We spent the rest of the evening moving through different parts of the black market, visiting five brokers and wasting five payment slips before returning to the inn.
All that was left now was to wait for one of the brokers to bite.
"I'll step out for a moment."
I left Tang Hye-seo and Bi-hyeon at the inn and went out alone.
I was thinking of checking the apothecary we had visited before. There were only eighty taels of silver in my money pouch, but maybe I could still buy one or two low-grade spiritual herbs.
As I came out of the alley, I ran into a man who was utterly drunk. He was wearing shabby clothes and didn't even have a sword at his waist.
He reeked of liquor so strongly it was hard to breathe.
I reached for the dagger at my waist and stepped aside.
"Hurk!"
The drunkard retched and lurched forward, collapsing right in front of me. He hit the ground with a dull thud, and a pale cloud of dust rose up from the earth.
He must have been doing manual labor all day, because his clothes were covered in dirt.
I waved a hand to brush the dust away, turned on my heel, and headed for the apothecary.