Ambush at the Abandoned Wolf Den
Deep in the jungle, beneath the shade of the trees.
The party heading for the rendezvous had stopped to rest, perching on the moss-slick rocks strewn beneath a massive trunk, when Noona looked up at the sky and turned to Geom-bong with a question.
After all, in this little party of Do-ryong, Geom-bong, and Changryong, the leader was clearly Geom-bong. Gyu-seong hyungnim—Do-ryong—was a man of the Peng Clan, so he had little love for anything that required thinking. Changryong, for his part, seemed utterly incapable of standing up to Geom-bong. No one had ever formally named a leader, yet everyone simply accepted that Geom-bong was the one in charge.
“Geom-bong, would it be all right if I made some animal calls?”
“A-animal calls?”
Geom-bong blinked at Noona’s sudden request to start imitating beasts, and the rest of us turned to stare as well, wondering what on earth she was talking about. Then Geom-bong’s eyes slid toward me—as if expecting me, the one connected to the Beast Palace, to explain whether this was some foreign custom from that place. Yunnan was treated by the people of the Central Plains not even as a border region of the empire, but as something beyond the frontiers entirely, almost another country. The Beast Palace itself carried that same foreign air.
I had nothing useful to say. I’ve only been a Beast Palace person for a short while myself, you know.
Noona simply smiled and answered for herself.
“I was thinking of calling out to see if any of the Beast Palace’s creatures might be nearby. We have children scattered all across Yunnan—hawks, eagle-owls, monkeys, wolves, that sort.”
“But this isn’t Yunnan, is it?”
Geom-bong pointed out that we were well away from Yunnan and that the effort might be pointless. Noona shook her head.
“National borders are drawn by people, not by beasts. If any of our children have crossed over, I want to pass word back to the Beast Palace.”
Just as Sister Seol said—borders meant nothing to animals. She wanted to check whether any Beast Palace creatures might have wandered into the territory of Dai Viet. Geom-bong gave her permission. We were already moving carefully because of the possible presence of the Blood Cult, but a few animal cries were hardly going to draw special attention.
“Ah. I see. Animal calls should be fine, shouldn’t they? We already hear them from the jungle now and then.”
—Piiiik!
The instant Geom-bong agreed, a sharp whistle burst from Noona’s lips and carried into the trees—exactly like the cry of a hawk. She watched the sky for a long moment, then finally shook her head.
“Looks like there’s nothing nearby.”
We were probably still too far from Yunnan. At the sight of her disappointed face, Changryong’s eager, almost fawning voice cut in. The man had already gone from mere respect to something that looked suspiciously like love.
“We’re still some distance from Yunnan, so let’s check again farther along, Young Lady Seol. Still—to be able to call beasts with sounds like that is truly impressive. As expected of the Beast Palace!”
“We should. Heh. Thank you for the praise.”
Changryong grinned like an idiot at Noona’s reply. Geom-bong fixed him with a look of pure pity and began dredging up his dark history.
“Is it because you use a reed of a spear for a weapon? Why is a man’s heart as soft as a reed? Not long ago you were going on about dueling for Poison Flower’s honor or some such—mph!”
“Hey now! Geom-bong, th-that was as a friend. Just as a friend…”
Changryong hastily clamped a hand over Geom-bong’s mouth and tried to laugh it off with an awkward smile, only for Hwa-eun’s utterly flat voice to spear him like a thrown dagger.
“You’re not a friend, Changryong.”
“What? Uh… th-that is, well…”
He had barely managed to muffle Geom-bong’s sarcasm when Hwa-eun’s declaration that he was no friend left him completely deflated. Speechless, Changryong stared down at a random rock and began picking at the moss. Aigoo. The kid’s going to cry at this rate.
I jumped into the conversation before Changryong’s mental state completely collapsed. Time to change the subject.
“By the way, Geom-bong, how much farther to the rendezvous?”
Geom-bong, who had been glaring at the moss-picking Changryong with open contempt, turned to me with a completely different, smiling expression.
“If nothing goes wrong, we’ll arrive around evening, Young Hero So-ryong.”
“Then we’ve rested enough. Let’s hurry. Things get troublesome once the sun goes down.”
“Ah, shall we? All right then.”
Everyone rose from their resting places and prepared to set off toward the rendezvous—everyone except Changryong, still hunched over and too absorbed in ripping moss to hear a word. Geom-bong’s scolding cracked out at once.
“Are you coming or not!? You’re supposed to be guiding us!”
“Huh? Ah—right!”
Changryong shot to his feet in alarm and stuck close behind Geom-bong. Watching them, a thought drifted through my mind. Don’t tell me Geom-bong likes Changryong?
Not that it was any of my business who liked whom, or who stopped liking one person and started liking another. I was never very good at reading that sort of thing, but something about it still felt off.
I was rubbing my chin and trailing after them when Sister Seol slipped up beside me and asked quietly, curious about what had me so lost in thought.
[What is it, little brother? What are you thinking about?]
[Ah, nothing. I just suddenly wondered whether Geom-bong might like Changryong.]
[You only just figured that out?]
[What?]
Noona’s tone said it was the most obvious thing in the world. Hwa-eun’s voice joined in from the side.
[The reason I’ve been deliberately keeping my distance from Changryong is because Geom-bong likes him. It’s been years, and the fool still hasn’t noticed a thing.]
[Exactly. I’ve never seen such a dense man. Even when they eat she quietly pushes the tenderer cuts toward him, and when they sleep she covers him with grass. Yesterday she barely touched her rabbit and gave most of it to him, saying she was full.]
From “you’re not a friend” all the way to “dense fool.” I almost felt sorry for the guy. Still, if a woman had been devotedly looking after him for years and he remained completely oblivious while trailing after other women, the criticism was only natural.
I used to wonder why Hwa-eun treated him so coldly. It was just him reaping what he sowed.
My own gaze shifted from mild pity to something closer to exasperation. Looking at Geom-bong, I spoke with genuine sympathy.
[By the way, that guy seems to have fallen for Sister Seol. I feel bad for Geom-bong.]
He had more or less sorted out his feelings for Hwa-eun, only to fixate on Sister Seol next. Sister Seol glanced at Changryong and answered flatly.
[I can’t stand men like that.]
I had thought that if Noona liked someone it wouldn’t be a bad match, but the man already had a claim on him—and he was that sort of man—so of course Sister Seol wanted nothing to do with him. While I was at it, I decided to find out what her type actually was. If a man who suited her ever appeared, I could introduce them later. Noona was a healthy beauty brimming with wild vitality, after all.
[Then what kind of man does my sister like?]
I asked to learn her ideal type. Noona linked her arm through mine and answered.
[Me? A man like our So-ryong, of course.]
Heok! Sister, that’s dangerous territory! For a second I panicked that Sister Seol might have some… younger-brother preference, but she only looked toward Changryong and Gyu-seong hyungnim walking ahead, a demure little smile on her lips.
[Hmm. If I absolutely had to choose, better a flower bear than a rat, I suppose? They’re cute, aren’t they?]
[Flower bear?]
[So-ryong, there’s a bear that’s white and black and looks incredibly cute.]
A white-and-black bear… a panda? “Flower bear” clearly meant panda. Looking at Changryong and Gyu-seong hyungnim, I understood exactly what Sister Seol was saying. The rat was Changryong; the panda was almost certainly Gyu-seong hyungnim. Whether it was a Peng Clan trait or not, hyungnim’s build really was bear-like.
My adoptive father’s frame is no joke either. So Sister Seol’s type is beast-like men… I felt as though I had glimpsed a tiny secret of how the Peng Clan, who often looked short on intelligence, managed to continue their line.
By the time the sinking sun had painted the sky gold, Changryong, walking at the front, spoke up.
“We’re almost there. The abandoned wolf den at the foot of that hill is our rendezvous.”
I followed his pointing finger. At the base of a large mountain, a low rise of rock and man-high grass came into view. Only two or three kilometers remained.
“Understood. The sun will set soon, so let’s hurry.”
“Yes, Young Lady Seol.”
Noona nodded at Changryong’s words, then drew close and whispered in my ear.
[Little brother, we’re near the rendezvous now. Tell Cho up in the sky that she is not to come down under any circumstances until I call her. No matter what happens—absolutely not.]
Her voice was unusually firm. I tilted my head and asked back.
[Cho? Why?]
[Just in case. We’re heading there assuming the rendezvous is safe, but someone might have been captured and the location leaked to the Blood Cult.]
Sister Seol’s words hit me like a blow to the back of the head. She was right—if anyone had been taken, walking into the den would be like walking into a tiger’s mouth.
[Wouldn’t it be better to call Cho down and go together? If she’s with us, the other side might think twice.]
My opinion ran opposite to Sister Seol’s. I wanted to put Cho on full display and scare them off. She shook her head.
[There’s no need to show every card we have. If someone really has been captured and the rendezvous is compromised, we may have to run all the way to Yunnan. If we reveal our full strength from the start, they’ll prepare countermeasures.
Remember this, Ryong. In the murim, you always hide at least three-tenths of your true ability.]
[Understood, Sister Seol.]
She was right. We might be facing a long pursuit, and if the enemy knew our full strength and set something waiting ahead of us, the escape could be cut short. In my mind I asked Cho to stay aloft no matter what happened below, and not to descend until I called her—except when resting in a truly safe place.
〈Cho, until Daddy calls you, you must not come down from up there. Understand? Except when we’re resting somewhere safe, you are not to come this way until Daddy calls. Got it?〉
Cho first sent back a feeling of confusion, but after I repeated the request she reluctantly agreed. With Cho secured, I next approached Yo-hwa and told her that even if danger arose she was not to act until I said so.
[Yo-hwa, if a dangerous situation comes up, look after Sister Seol and Hwa-eun. Understand? Don’t step forward first.]
—Kishi?
[I have Cho, so I need you to take care of the two of them. All right?]
—Kishit!
Heeding Noona’s warning, we made every possible preparation and continued toward the rendezvous. The sun had already set and the surroundings were darkening. About two or three hundred meters from the abandoned wolf den that was supposed to be our meeting place, Changryong raised a hand and brought us to a halt.
He scanned the area for a moment, doing something I couldn’t quite follow. A short while later a man stepped out of the nearby grass, a pair of judge’s brushes held in both hands.
“It’s been a while, Changryong. I was quite surprised by the report that four unknown companions had joined you.”
“It has been a long time, Elder Shin Haeng-ja. We were surprised ourselves, so your reaction is only natural.”
The man who appeared was the one Changryong had already briefed us about—the overall commander of the Murim Alliance’s intelligence operations under secret orders, deputy pavilion master of the Flying Dragon Pavilion, Bang Sun, known by the alias Shin Haeng-ja, the Swift Walker. His lightness skill was said to be so extraordinary that he had earned the name. He looked us over and spoke.
“To find children of the Beast Palace and the Tang Clan in a place like this… Let’s save introductions and talk for inside.”
“Understood, Elder.”
We followed him to the entrance of the abandoned wolf den—a sizable earthen cave. Shin Haeng-ja ducked his head and was just stepping inside when a piercing noise split the air overhead.
—Piiiiiiik!
“A signal whistle!?”
Shin Haeng-ja’s eyes flew wide. In the next instant, torchlight flooded the surroundings.
“A-ambush! Gaaah!”
Someone’s warning cry, followed by a scream of pure agony, tore through the night sky.