The Strong One Is Hyung
Cheongu and Ja Gangcheon headed for the harbor.
"Assign someone to me. I need to be able to reach you whenever I need."
At Ja Gangcheon's request, the Deputy Caravan Master led the way.
The place they arrived at was the southernmost edge of Jinhae Port — a cluster of small storefronts, one of which served as the Haeryong Sect's office.
"You said it was a labor office?"
"It's the Haeryong Sect's main source of income. They supply everything from sailors to market hands and take a finder's fee. They also steer shipowners looking for cheap daily goods toward the Southern Market."
The great trade market that handled real commerce belonged to Uirim Hall, so the Haeryong Sect had settled for the Southern Market. Even so, plenty of large vessels put in there, and the introduction fees added up nicely. In return, they collected only a token protection tax.
"They work hand in glove with the merchants, so there aren't many complaints."
"Then why call them a black society? That just sounds like a labor broker."
"They fight other outfits for monopoly rights over Southern Market deals. And if a merchant tries to deal with a shipowner directly, they shut it down."
It was a kind of exclusive distribution right — and they tolerated no one trampling it.
"We're here."
They had stopped before a shabby two-story building. The ground floor was a warehouse; the stairs to the second floor ran up the outside wall.
A big man stood on the steps. The Deputy Sect Leader spoke to him.
"Go fetch Panseok."
The doorman bolted up the stairs and soon reappeared with a bald giant who stood a full six feet tall. The man was so massive the doorway looked narrow around him, and coming down the stairs he seemed liable to bring the whole structure down. Yet his hairless face wore an expression of pure, guileless innocence.
"Panseok. From now on, you serve this gentleman and move as he orders."
Then the Deputy Sect Leader dropped his voice and passed along the essential point.
"He's a murim master. Attend him without a single mistake."
"Ah! A murim master. Understood, hyung-nim."
Panseok's appearance fascinated Ja Gangcheon.
"People can actually get this big."
He had heard of such things from his parents, but seeing it for real still felt unreal — and that very strangeness only sharpened his curiosity.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ja Gangcheon."
"Yes, hyung-nim. I'm Panseok."
"Hyung-nim?"
"Yes. Hyung-nim."
Something about that felt off. Ja Gangcheon glanced at Cheongu beside him.
"Is that the right way to address me?"
Panseok answered for him.
"The strong one is hyung."
"'One'?"
"Ah! The strong younger brother is hyung."
"The younger one is the hyung?"
"Yes, hyung-nim. Speak comfortably. That makes it easier for me too."
Ja Gangcheon felt a little dizzy and looked at Cheongu again.
"Probably best not to pick at it."
It was too tangled a problem even for Cheongu, who had already given up.
"All right. Hyung. We'll do it that way."
"Yes, hyung-nim. Looking forward to working with you."
Panseok's broad face broke into a pure, simple smile.
Back at the caravan compound, Cheongu showed Panseok to his room, then went straight to Ja Gangcheon's. His steps were unusually quick — his mind was racing.
"Coming in."
"Yeah."
Hearing the reply, Cheongu stepped inside. Until now he had simply followed without explanation. It was time to ask.
"Are you really going to fight Uirim Hall? If you just want to solve the caravan's problem, there are other ways."
"This is for me."
"How is it for you?"
"I'm going to settle here. When my parents come, I want a place where they can rest easy. To build ships and stay, I need the Caravan Master's help."
For the work Ja Gangcheon intended, he needed someone he could trust. A caravan master with both connections and ability was indispensable.
"But the other side has the Ghost-Faced Twin Killers. They won't sit still."
"Exactly why we have to finish this fast."
"Can you actually win?"
"Out in the open, it'd be hard. So I'm going to lure them somewhere I can."
When Ja Gangcheon spoke with that certainty of victory, Cheongu could no longer argue. One question remained.
"Then why use the Haeryong Sect? If you asked, the caravan people would help you wholeheartedly."
"People might get hurt in the process of drawing them out. I don't want caravan folk getting hurt."
"So because the Haeryong Sect is a black society, it's fine if they get hurt?"
"Yeah."
Not a flicker of hesitation.
Cheongu had the sense that Ja Gangcheon's standards were still rough around the edges. There was plenty left to learn — but he did not press the point now.
"All right. If there's anything you need me to do, just say so."
The problems were tangled and many, but Cheongu chose simply to trust Ja Gangcheon.
The giant called Panseok was a foundling with no family name. He had grown up doing menial work in a fisherman's house like a servant, and at fourteen he had entered the black society.
Born with monstrous strength and a massive frame, his youth had never been much of an obstacle.
He was twenty-five now. Ten years grinding through the underworld without dying had at least earned him a middling position — though for all his power he was so thickheaded that no one ever gave him anything important.
Which was why, this time as well, he had been assigned to guard a young murim master.
Early morning.
Hearing they were going to Uirim Hall, Panseok's eyes went wide.
"Is hyung-nim going to teach Uirim Hall a lesson?"
"Yeah."
"Thank you, hyung-nim!"
"I'm doing it because I need to. And it could put you and the Haeryong Sect in danger."
"That's how it always is, so it's fine. But are we really going straight to their headquarters?"
"Hit the main nest and the rest will come running on their own."
"Whoa! Hyung-nim really is smart!"
"Honestly, I'm just copying something my father used to do."
As a chivalrous swordsman who had stood for the whole of murim, Blue Cloud Sword Unhak had left countless stories behind. Among them were no end of accounts of him dealing with black societies that preyed on the common people.
Ja Gangcheon was putting one of those stories — told to him by his father — into practice exactly as he had heard it.
The place they arrived at sat directly behind the harbor: a building bearing a plaque that read Uirim Merchants' Association. Even along the boulevard of the trade market, it held the choicest location.
"A black society sits out in the open like this? Don't they call it a black society because it hides in dark back alleys?"
"Their backers are just that solid. The authorities can't touch them, and no other black society dares come near. So they flaunt it."
Ja Gangcheon glanced once more at the plaque, then started toward the gate guarded by two men.
"Hyung Panseok. Tell the Sect Leader we've started. Until I say otherwise, no one interferes."
"Yes, hyung-nim."
Watching Panseok sprint off, Ja Gangcheon stepped up to the gatekeepers.
"Who the hell are you?"
The two men on the door saw how young he was and did not bother to raise their guard. Not that raising it would have changed anything.
Crack!
Ja Gangcheon closed the distance and lashed out with a kick. Both men's knees shattered; they went tumbling across the ground. Neither of them even understood what had hit them — they could only scream.
"Cheongu. I'll go in alone."
"It sits a little wrong with me, but for efficiency's sake, fine."
"A little more training and you'll be able to come with me."
"I'm not sure that's a good thing, but I'll work at it."
Two months of nothing but internal energy training left him in no condition to fight.
"Be careful."
"Yeah."
The simple answer was strangely reassuring.
"I'll be back."
Ja Gangcheon opened the door as lightly as if he were dropping in on a friend.
In the black market tucked into the alleys behind the trade district, Cha Seokchu was going over the ledgers when he received an absurd report.
"Our headquarters got hit?"
"Yes. The Uirim Merchants' Association was attacked. Hyung-nim Cheolryeong rushed back the moment he heard — and got taken down the same way."
"Hah. What little bastard has that much nerve."
"They say he looks about fifteen…"
At those words, a face rose in his mind. A subordinate with a broken leg had already reported a young martial master.
"So that brat finally…"
Uneasy, he had deliberately dragged the Haeryong Sect into it. If they cleaned the problem up, fine; if not, at least it would buy time.
Once those people arrive, everything gets sorted.
Tribute day was nearly here. He only needed to hold out a little longer.
"Is the brat alone?"
"There's also a fellow named Cheongu from the Donghae Merchant Group, but he seems to be just showing the way."
"Is that so?"
Cha Seokchu rubbed his chin, thinking.
Strong as his martial arts may be, he's still a kid. If enough of us jump him, we can make a fight of it.
With headquarters ransacked, standing by would be a disgrace.
"Call every man we have. I'm going myself."
Cha Seokchu gathered as many subordinates as he could and headed back to headquarters.
"Ugh…"
"P-please, spare us."
Moans drifted up from a floor stained with blood.
"I didn't kill anyone."
At that single remark from Ja Gangcheon, more than thirty men bit back tears and shut their mouths. Not one among them still had all four limbs intact. Ja Gangcheon had broken at least two places on every man.
"They say the end of a black society man is always wretched. You never saw this coming?"
His father had said it.
How could men who cast aside honor and live by evil ever meet a happy end? From the start they chose greed over happiness. They live trapped in a hell of their own making.
Looking at the men writhing in pain, hell did come to mind.
"Father was right."
As he spoke, the door burst open and a massive figure bellowed,
"Hyung-nim! That bastard is coming!"
"Who?"
"Cha Seokchu! The master of Uirim Hall!"
At those words, the terrified faces of the Uirim Hall men brightened.
"Hyung Panseok."
"Yes, hyung-nim."
"Come in and hit them for me, will you?"
"Doesn't look like there's anywhere left to hit."
"Then hit the places you think you shouldn't."
That had been his mother's advice.
When you hit someone, hit where it hurts most. It's the most efficient and the fastest way.
"You want me to go that far?"
"Hyung. They're a black society, aren't they? They make their living tormenting and killing people."
Panseok looked wronged.
"I've never killed anyone just to make a living! I only killed the son of a bitch who tried to force himself on a ten-year-old! And the man who raised hell in the office — I only hit him once. His wife and kids had collapsed from hunger, and he was headed for the gambling den, so…"
Ja Gangcheon listened to the heated outburst, then tilted his head.
"Black society stories are pretty complicated too."
"That's how I've lived."
"All right. If you don't want to, I'll do it."
"No, sir! I'll do it!"
Panseok picked up a nearby club.
Thud! Thud!
"Urgh! Gah!"
"S-stop!"
As the thrashing began, Ja Gangcheon walked slowly out of the building. The men Panseok had spoken of had arrived.
"The brat's got some nerve."
Trusting the fifty men at his back, Cha Seokchu stepped forward and looked Ja Gangcheon over.
"Is that a compliment?"
"Crazy bastard. If you want to die, you could just jump in yourself."
"I can't die in a sea this calm."
The flat, offhand replies made a vein stand out on Cha Seokchu's forehead.
"Cheongu. This is the boss, right?"
"Yeah."
Confirming Cha Seokchu's identity through Cheongu, Ja Gangcheon took one step forward.
"Fine. Since you want it so badly, I'll kill you."
Banking on his fifty subordinates, Cha Seokchu stood at the front — and then he saw the men inside the building being beaten half to death.
"Aaagh! Aaagh!"
"H-hyung-nim!"
"Hall Master!"
Watching his subordinates plead so pitifully, his blood ran backward — not from pity, but from sheer humiliation.
"Shut up! You stupid bastards! What did you even—"
Crack!
Before the sentence finished, Ja Gangcheon's fist smashed into Cha Seokchu's jaw.
"You talk too much."
With his jaw wrenched out of place, Cha Seokchu crumpled bonelessly, foam bubbling at his lips.
That was when it started.
Crack! Snap! Crunch! Boom!
Having numbers only meant it took a little longer. Even so, it was barely half the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
"Hyung Panseok."
"Yes! Hyung-nim!"
"Hit these ones too."
Panseok gave the newly arrived recruits a blazing welcome of their own.