Stolen Goods 6
Shintu and I had both been paralyzed, leaving us in a state of mutual destruction—but this was inside the Sacheon Tang Clan.
As far as I was concerned, that meant she was already caught for certain.
I was just starting to celebrate inside when Yeondu’s cry rang out.
—Shaaa!
Startled that I had collapsed, the little snake licked frantically at my face and shoved her head against my cheek over and over. She clearly thought I was hurt, but with my pressure points locked I could only move my eyeballs; there was no way to tell her I was fine.
I want to say don’t worry, but I can’t even speak.
After shaking me for a moment Yeondu seemed to get angry; she smacked the backside of the woman sprawled on top of me a few times with her tail, then wriggled off toward the clan lord’s hall and vanished. She was probably going to fetch Hwa-eun and the others.
I considered sending a mental call to Cho or Hyang, but if Yeondu had gone, people would be here soon enough. In the meantime I decided to take it easy and simply enjoy the fact that I had caught Shintu.
Three wishes, huh? What should I ask for? Then again, a thief’s “wishes” would probably just mean stealing something from somewhere. That makes wishing a little awkward…
While I was mulling over those three wishes, a distinctly feminine scent drifted gently from the chest pressed against mine.
Does this woman wear some kind of perfume? Anyway, she’s kind of heav— Wait. Woman!? Hold on—was Shintu a woman!?
The sudden doubt hit hard. Grandfather Mandok Shin-gun had clearly said Shintu was a man of roughly the same generation as himself.
Then who the hell is this? It doesn’t seem like Bone-Shrinking Technique…
For a second I wondered whether she had used the face-changing Art of Disguise and the Bone-Shrinking Technique that Grandfather had once explained during a lecture on martial arts, plus some voice-altering skill I didn’t know about, to produce a full gender-swap effect. But the woman had already changed faces once—from Sister Seol’s to this one. And the unmistakably feminine body scent rising from the unconscious woman draped across my chest argued powerfully that she really was a woman.
More than that, even if the face were fake, once she lost consciousness and her arts unraveled she should have reverted to her original body. She was still a woman.
I hastily sent a mental shout to Cho and Hyang.
Hyang! Cho! Bring Mom or anyone nearby to the entrance of the Golden-Haired Bee King’s house—Dad’s down! Hurry!
I sent the urgent call because a new suspicion had struck me: what if the woman was only bait? What if the real Shintu was still out there? Even collapsed inside the Tang Clan I couldn’t fully relax. No guards had been posted on this side so my position wouldn’t be given away; if the genuine Shintu found us he could simply scoop us both up like a fisherman snatching clams while the cranes fought.
Please… don’t let me get stolen. Don’t let me become loot!
I waited in a cold sweat, but thankfully the faces that appeared belonged to the Tang Clan. Sister Seol came from the main gate, still half-dressed in something like sleepwear; from the direction of the clan lord’s hall came Hwa-eun with Hyang and Yeondu draped over her shoulders, followed by the clan elders and warriors.
—Cock-a-doodle-doo.
As the first light of dawn broke, a rooster crowed. The people rushing toward us stopped and turned toward the sound.
“A rooster!”
“The rooster’s crowed!”
Shintu’s challenge letter had set the deadline at the first crow of the cock. I still didn’t know who the woman was, but the rooster had crowed, so Shintu would withdraw. That was the unwritten rule of the murim.
Still, if Shintu withdraws, is there no reward?
I had been told three wishes if I caught Shintu; I was curious whether there was anything for simply making him retreat. And I still wanted to know who the woman I had caught actually was.
The woman lay unconscious on a bed after being bitten by Yeondu. Grandfather released my pressure points, examined her briefly, then ordered her moved to a guest chamber. So instead of being treated like a captured thief she was receiving guest hospitality.
“So who exactly is that woman? At first I thought Shintu had used Bone-Shrinking and Face-Changing Techniques, but that wasn’t it.”
I gazed at her and asked. Grandfather approached the bed, took her wrist, then held it up for us with a smile.
“Looks like the old thief passed his title to a disciple. This child is probably the new Shintu.”
“That woman is Shintu!?”
“Her!?”
A woman who looked barely older than Hwa-eun was the new Shintu. Hwa-eun and I stared at Grandfather in shock; he pointed at the wrist again.
“Isn’t Heavenly Silk wrapped around this wrist? Heavenly Silk is Shintu’s sacred treasure. That means this child is Shintu. I wanted to thrash the old man, but I suppose I’ll have to settle for the disciple.”
The fine thread—like Yo-hwa’s silk—coiled around her wrist confirmed her identity. The moment her status was clear, Hwa-eun’s eyes turned sharp and cold.
“Why would a young woman Shintu come to steal our So-ryong? It doesn’t seem to be about the poisonous creatures. Surely she doesn’t have some other intention?”
“Other intention?”
“Like… she took a liking to So-ryong?”
“Come on, I’ve never even met her.”
I looked incredulous at Hwa-eun’s suggestion. She waggled a finger.
“People kidnap men or women they’ve only seen from afar because they fancy them. It happens. Think about Changryong, So-ryong. If Changryong had harbored even a slightly wicked thought, wouldn’t it have gone that way?”
She meant a blackened Changryong might well have done exactly that. I had thought the idea absurd, yet when she mentioned Changryong I found myself nodding. Hwa-eun herself had said she had never held a private conversation with him either.
When you put it that way… it kind of makes sense? Wait—so in this world the only daughter of the Sacheon Tang Clan and the Divine Thief herself both fall for the reincarnated me? That might not be so bad…
While I stared at the woman’s face again, wondering whether Hwa-eun might actually be right, another distinctly displeased voice came from the side.
“If she’s Shintu, so much the better! A hero of the Central Plains murim locks my pressure points and strips my clothes!? Just wait till she wakes up! I’ll—I’ll challenge her to a duel!”
Sister Seol was furious for a very specific reason. When we had arrived at the training ground where the Golden-Haired Bee King lived, the woman had been wearing Sister Seol’s exact face, figure, and clothes. I had wondered how she came by the distinctive garments of the Savage Beast Palace. It turned out she had locked the pressure points of Sister Seol and every Beast Palace warrior moving with her, dragged Sister Seol into the bushes, and stolen her clothes.
Beast Palace clothing, unlike Central Plains dress, resembled the light garb of Yunnan’s minority tribes—short skirts and simple tops. Central Plains women wore a full layer of white undergarments and underclothes beneath their outer robes; Beast Palace women wore almost nothing under the outer layer except the thinnest underthings. Being dragged into the bushes and stripped was essentially the same as being left naked, which explained the rage. The fact that the clothes Shintu had left behind didn’t even fit properly only made her angrier.
Under the twin icy glares of Hwa-eun and Sister Seol, the woman on the bed began to break out in a cold sweat. Even in her dreams the two women’s chilling stares were apparently giving her nightmares.
The next day an unexpected visitor arrived at the Tang Clan.
We were resting after lunch when the announcement gong sounded at the Nine Truths Gate. Hwa-eun and I hurried over and found a shabby-looking beggar smiling at us.
It was Geolhwang.
“Have you been well?”
“Elder Geolhwang!?”
“We greet Elder Geolhwang.”
The smiling man was the same Geolhwang who had helped us once before. We offered respectful bows and carefully asked,
“What brings you to the Tang Clan, Elder? Have the outer warriors been negligent in attending you?”
“Has anything been lacking, Elder?”
Hwa-eun and I phrased it politely, but the real meaning was, “Did you run out of mealworms and come looking for more?” Since he was one of the three strongest figures in the murim we had been quietly sending him modest little “not-quite-bribes” of mealworm snacks. The warriors had reported they were taking care of him, yet we still wondered whether he needed more or found something unsatisfactory.
Geolhwang simply laughed and clapped my shoulder.
“Heheh. No chance of that. The warriors are doing fine. I feel your good will as well. I just came to see you today.”
“To see me?”
I blinked at the sudden declaration. Then his voice transmission arrived.
[I hear you caught Shintu’s disciple?]
Disciple?
The woman still unconscious from Yeondu’s bite had been called the current Shintu by Grandfather, yet Elder Geolhwang referred to her as Shintu’s disciple. According to Hwa-eun the Beggars’ Sect dealt in information; their intel would be more accurate than even Grandfather Mandok’s. So the woman was probably Shintu’s disciple after all.
“Yes, well, how did you—?”
[Don’t answer. Just listen. That bastard is hiding nearby.]
?
I flinched at the news that someone was lurking close by. The transmission continued.
[I sent my sworn brother’s disciple in my place to give you a little help. But before I could even tip you off, the wine had already been poured and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Still, your hearts seemed to match, so I just watched. Never thought you’d actually catch her. Khehehe.]
He sounded thoroughly delighted. So the reason the real Shintu hadn’t come himself and had sent a female disciple instead was Geolhwang’s information operation. He was taking full credit for the whole scheme.
[No need to thank me too much. There was the Na-ok matter as well, so I wanted to give you a reward. My sworn brother may be a thief, but his skills are outstanding; three gifts from him will be a great help.]
Apparently he had intended the three wishes as a reward for the help we had given Na-ok. Since he had told me only to listen, I saved my thanks for later and simply invited him inside.
I was genuinely grateful he was looking out for me, and I couldn’t leave him standing at the gate forever.
“Elder Geolhwang, please come inside the clan. Since you’ve come all this way, at least have a meal and look around…”
Just as I was about to lead him in, Geolhwang suddenly turned and shouted toward the rear.
“What are you doing, you bastard!? Get out here already and go collect your disciple!”
At his yell a light breeze stirred, and a sturdy-looking old man appeared behind Geolhwang, scratching his head.
“Nice to meet you, young hero. I’m the Thief Emperor, Shintu Gal Ji-heung.”
So this was the famous great thief of the murim? His build looked more like a cattle thief’s. The old man whose physique could have belonged to a Paeng rather than a Gal offered me a greeting.
“It is an honor to meet you, Elder Shintu. So-ryong greets you.”
Clothes! This is the Thief Emperor? Wait—he’s supposed to be a thief. Was the thief a cattle thief the whole time!?
After I finished greeting the cattle-thief-looking man, Geolhwang asked a question, apparently finding my self-introduction odd.
“So-ryong? Isn’t your surname Wi?”
“Ah, I was adopted by the Southern Savage Beast Palace, so my name became that.”
“Southern Savage Beast Palace!?”
Geolhwang’s eyes flew wide at the news of my adoption. The Thief Emperor poked him in the ribs.
“Elder Brother, you never mentioned this.”
“I only just heard it myself, you idiot. I knew he’d gone south recently, but adopted already? What a strange fellow. Not long ago he became the successor of the Poison Emperor, and now he’s the adopted son of the Beast Palace.”
Geolhwang eyed me with open curiosity. I was about to answer that once a man becomes truly devoted to poisonous creatures, becoming an adopted son of the Beast Palace isn’t all that hard—when another question came from the side.
“Anyway, Yeong-ryeon isn’t hurt, is she? If the old Mandok Shin-gun thought she was me and didn’t hold back, that would have been serious. Looks like the old man’s martial arts have improved. I was sure that once the wine was poured even Mandok Shin-gun wouldn’t be able to catch her. So—she was caught by Mandok Shin-gun, correct?”
He clearly assumed his disciple had been taken by Grandfather. I called Cho and the others out of my mind realm.
“Hyang, Seol, Bing, Yeondu.”
—Tssrrr?
—Kku-kku?
—Shaaa?
The named creatures popped out of Hwa-eun’s and my arms and answered with their cries. The Thief Emperor blinked in surprise. He hadn’t looked that startled, so his strong martial arts must have already sensed something in my embrace; the fact that the something answered human speech, however, clearly astonished him.
A moment later a shadow fell across the sky and Cho appeared as well. I spoke to the Thief Emperor.
“Your disciple was caught by these children, Elder.”
“!”
“!”
Beggar and thief both stared with eyes as wide as saucers.
“Hic… I’m sorry, Master.”
“It’s all right. Not getting caught among those things would have been stranger… Even I couldn’t have guaranteed I wouldn’t be caught…”
“Hic…”
The Thief Emperor had wanted to check on his disciple first, so we took him to the room. His disciple had just woken. After reuniting master and disciple we moved to the clan lord’s hall, exchanged greetings with the elders, and finally heard from the Thief Emperor why he had tried to steal me.
“…and so I wanted to ask for a little help from you.”
“Ahh. In other words, you want to raise a spirit silkworm to obtain cocoons, but you need my help for that?”
“Exactly! Since you caught Yeong-ryeon I’ll naturally grant you three wishes, so don’t worry about that—just grant this request as well. I’ll repay you separately for it!”
Silkworm, huh…
From the rough explanation I understood well enough. He needed to raise a special kind of silkworm but didn’t know the method, so he was asking me to help. I nodded and asked,
“You said there aren’t many eggs left?”
“That’s right. Only three left.”
“And the wishes for catching your disciple—you’ll grant any wish at all?”
“Of course. As long as it doesn’t go against the Way, I’ll steal whatever you desire and erase whatever life you name. Just say the word!”
He thumped his chest as though he would pluck the stars and moon from the sky for me. Smiling, I answered,
“Then… would you hand over those eggs—ah, give them to me?”
“Hm? You want to see them once? So you’re going to grant my request!?”
He shouted with joy. I answered again.
“Of course I’ll make sure you get cocoons. But my first wish is those eggs.”
“?”
Why the question mark? Eggs confiscated.
Moths are poisonous creatures too. Confiscation was the only option. He had said he would grant any wish, after all.