The Throwaway Pawn
It was late at night.
Because fishing boats were still coming in after dark, So Yeondok stayed at the employment office until midnight.
His subordinates had offered to take over, but he did not want to leave—not tonight. A sixteen-year-old boy who had boarded a ship for the first time that very day weighed on his mind. The boy had lost his parents to the sea, yet he had gone back out onto the water to keep his younger siblings alive. A child head of household.
The sea shows no mercy for youth. Are you still sure you want this?
He had spoken the words bluntly, but the boy’s pitiful fate had left him wanting at least to be there when he returned.
The hour was well past midnight when he finally stepped out of the office, watching a boat come in from night fishing far offshore. Then he saw a single shadow under the faint moonlight, and a bad feeling crawled up his spine.
Before he could stop walking, the other man closed the distance. So Yeondok had no time to react before his side burned hot. Twisting his body was the only reason the blade missed a vital organ, but the sudden loss of strength could not be helped.
Even as he fell, So Yeondok seized the man’s collar.
“Wh-who are you?”
He forced the question through clenched teeth, but his attacker only raised his hand again, ready to finish what he had started.
Then, from a distance, a voice called his name.
“Director!”
The assailant flinched at the shout, spun around, and fled.
Thud!
Robbed of his grip, So Yeondok’s body collapsed. Thick blood ran between the fingers pressed to his side, and a warning blared through his skull.
“Over here! Help!”
At the boy’s cry, sailors came running. Listening to the sound of their footsteps, So Yeondok lost consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself facing an absurd situation.
“You caught the man who attacked me?”
Barely half a shichen had passed.
“Yes. We have him.”
The deputy director’s voice shook as he answered through gritted teeth.
“I’m going to see him.”
“The wound isn’t fatal, but they say you need several days of full rest.”
“Lead the way.”
When So Yeondok let the old venom of his Black Society days show, the deputy director had no choice but to yield.
“Carrying you on my back won’t work with a side wound. At least give me your shoulder—or let me carry you properly.”
A wound in the side made a piggyback ride impossible.
“Being carried like a bride would be too embarrassing.”
“Then give me your shoulder. Getting stabbed is already humiliating enough. Ugh.”
The usually deferential deputy director sighed and spoke with the easy familiarity of old friends. It was the way they had always talked when they were alone—something that had vanished once the employment office opened.
“I carried you on my back once, you know.”
“How far back are you digging? Next you’ll bring up the time you got dumped by Wolhyang and threatened to throw yourself into the sea.”
“You little—ugh!”
“Please. Let’s just go quietly.”
Bickering the whole way, they arrived at the employment office warehouse.
Staff who had heard the news had combed the area thoroughly and found the culprit. When the warehouse door opened—
“This is the one?”
It was a face he knew.
“Jeong Chilsang.”
A man he had seen often in his Black Society days. Jeong had run a rival employment office, colluding with ship owners to cheat sailors. So Yeondok had driven him out personally. The last memory he had of the man was of him crawling away like a worm after Panseok had flung him so violently that his leg broke.
“So you do remember me! You devil!”
“You’re the one who stabbed me?”
“I should have killed you then! Heaven is blind! Do you know how many lives you ruined?”
A ghost from the past had come calling. A reformed So Yeondok might have been shaken—but not when the speaker was Jeong Chilsang.
“You, of all people, have no right to condemn me.”
So Yeondok sat in front of the bound man and met his eyes.
“Was it really you?”
He looked around, then picked up a thick skewer. When he checked the point, Jeong Chilsang flinched.
“Untie him.”
“Director.”
“It’s fine. Untie him.”
In the end, the deputy director loosened the ropes.
“W-what do you think you’re doing?”
“Take it.”
So Yeondok held out the skewer.
“Try again.”
“What?”
“Kill me. You said you wanted to.”
“You think I won’t!”
Jeong Chilsang snatched the skewer roughly. But after drawing it back with all his strength, he could not bring himself to thrust. Watching the man threaten and tremble at the same time, So Yeondok was certain.
“Putting steel into a human body is never easy.”
When So Yeondok took a step forward, the terrified Jeong Chilsang simply sat down hard.
“Who put you up to it?”
“I-I did it myself.”
“They promised to clear your debts, didn’t they?”
“W-what are you talking about? I did this!”
At that, So Yeondok took the iron skewer back and held the sharp tip before Jeong’s eyes.
“Last chance. Who ordered you?”
“I told you, I did it!”
Watching the man squeeze his eyes shut, So Yeondok set the skewer down.
“For a coward like you to hold out this long, there must be a background you can’t afford to cross.”
So Yeondok reached his conclusion.
“The Hwangbo Clan put you up to this?”
“W-what nonsense!”
“You never could read a situation. You still can’t.”
“What did you say?”
So Yeondok spoke to the deputy director.
“Treat him as the culprit.”
“Sir?”
“This whole affair was his doing. Wrap it up that way and hand him over to the authorities.”
“W-wait! You’re turning me over to the yamen? Do you know who I belong to now—?”
“The Shandong Escort Agency? Or the Shandong Merchant Guild? One or the other, I’m sure.”
So Yeondok sighed.
“You idiot. Do you know what we used to do in the Black Society when we wanted a fight with someone? We sent a man into the other side’s territory to pick a quarrel. When that man got hurt or killed, we used it as the pretext to start the war. That’s the role you just played. You were supposed to throw your life away so the Hwangbo Clan would have a justification to fight Deungmyeong Manor.”
It was a tactic all too familiar to anyone from the Black Society. There was no reason to get drawn in—better to simply hand the man over to the authorities.
“People of the Hwangbo Clan’s standing would normally be too proud for a stunt like this…”
So Yeondok intended to bury the incident.
“And what about the injustice done to you, Brother? Locking this man up won’t settle the grudge.”
“Leave it. If I swallow this once, it’s over. If the Manor Lord finds out, everything gets complicated.”
“Haa. I’ll do as you say for now—but I don’t know if this is right.”
Displeased, the deputy director seized Jeong Chilsang and started out of the warehouse.
The moment he opened the door, he froze solid.
“M-Manor Lord…”
Ja Gangcheon was standing there.
“Where is Director Uncle?”
So Yeondok hurried outside, and Ja Gangcheon came straight to him.
“Uncle. Let me see the wound first.”
“I’m fi—”
Without waiting for an answer, Ja Gangcheon lifted the man’s shirt and examined the injury.
“That was close.”
“Manor Lord…”
“Is that man the culprit?”
“He is.”
Bang!
Ja Gangcheon seized Jeong Chilsang by the throat and slammed him against the wall.
“Manor Lord! You mustn’t!”
“Ghk—ghk—”
Seeing the coldness settle into Ja Gangcheon’s eyes, Jeong Chilsang felt the true terror of imminent death.
“Manor Lord! That man is a trap! It’s a Hwangbo Clan scheme—you mustn’t take the bait!”
Thud.
“Kraah!”
When Ja Gangcheon released him, Jeong Chilsang crumpled to the floor.
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s what they call a throw. If you dispose of this man, the real culprit will appear later. The Hwangbo Clan set this trap to attack you, Manor Lord.”
Ja Gangcheon nodded, then gripped the fallen Jeong Chilsang’s shoulder.
Crunch!
“Aaaargh!”
Ja Gangcheon’s fingers crushed the shoulder bone and sank into the muscle beneath. Jeong Chilsang thrashed in agony, foamed at the mouth, and blacked out.
Ja Gangcheon bound the limp man with rope, dragged him outside, and threw him into the sea. He held him under until the man was on the brink of drowning, then hauled him back onto the pier and seized the broken shoulder again.
“Manor Lord…”
No one dared try to stop him. The aura surrounding Ja Gangcheon was so fierce that even approaching was difficult.
“P-please spare me. Please…”
Jeong Chilsang begged. But after both shoulders were shattered and he had been dunked in the sea three more times, his words changed.
“P-please just kill me.”
Only then did Ja Gangcheon ask.
“Who ordered you?”
Jeong Chilsang lifted his dazed head and looked in one direction—toward the Shandong Escort Agency’s stronghold in the center of the harbor. Disturbed by the midnight uproar, several people had already come outside.
“Be precise.”
When Ja Gangcheon gripped the shoulder again, Jeong Chilsang jerked and spoke in a rush.
“The branch master!”
“Give me the name.”
“Gu Donggu! Gu Donggu, branch master of the Shandong Escort Agency! He ordered me! He said all I had to do was go and say I was the culprit! He promised me a post in the escort agency and to wipe out all my debts!”
His cry rang across the dark harbor.
“Uncle. Take this man back to the manor.”
“Manor Lord. What are you planning to do?”
Without explanation, Ja Gangcheon moved.
“Manor Lord!”
The direction he took was the sea.
Beneath the moonlight, Ja Gangcheon crossed the dark water and soon arrived at the small cove that held Gu Donggu’s secret pleasure house. He vaulted straight up to the second floor, where he sensed people.
Crash!
He smashed through the wall. Spread before him were a feast of rare delicacies, naked courtesans, Hwangbo Taeseong drinking, and Gu Donggu standing attendance at his side.
“Y-you bastard—do you know where you are—?”
Thud!
Gu Donggu, mid-shout, clutched his stomach and collapsed.
“Ghh…”
A single punch had him retching up bile. Hwangbo Taeseong shouted at the sight.
“What is the meaning of this?! Do you realize you are dealing with the Hwangbo Clan—?”
Ignoring Hwangbo Taeseong, Ja Gangcheon seized the fallen Gu Donggu by the nape.
“Whatever name comes out of this man’s mouth is going to pay the price. Whether it’s the Hwangbo Clan or anyone else.”
With that, Ja Gangcheon dragged Gu Donggu out.
“Stop! I said stop!”
Hwangbo Taeseong’s face flushed as he roared, but Ja Gangcheon’s steps did not slow.
“What are you doing? Seize him!”
Enraged, he shouted at the clan escorts standing guard—but they did not obey.
Our first duty is to protect Young Master.
In the end, Ja Gangcheon vanished with Gu Donggu in tow.
Gu Donggu wished this were a dream.
He had never imagined he would be abducted while sitting with Hwangbo Taeseong—his golden rope, his ticket to everything. Who in all of Shandong would dare ignore a connection to the Hwangbo Clan?
Thud! Thud!
Relentless blows with a club cracked his ribs.
“Ghh…”
This bastard was vicious. People who beat a man usually named the crime or asked questions as they struck. This one did not. With empty eyes, he simply beat him as if the beating itself were the only purpose.
At first Gu Donggu held on out of pure spite. He believed the Hwangbo Clan would come for him soon enough. There would be an uproar. Then the beating would stop.
Those dog-bastards…
The Hwangbo Clan did not appear as quickly as he had expected. Thanks to that, his ribs were only the beginning—ankles, wrists, and shoulders broke one after another. He fainted more than ten times along the way and was repeatedly shocked awake in ice water. The fact that Deungmyeong Manor kept ice on hand was, in this moment, a horrific misfortune.
Then he saw sunlight filtering through a crack in the door.
Morning had come.
The Hwangbo Clan has abandoned me.
By now it would not have been strange if he were dead. If they had left him this long, they had discarded him.
From that moment, his will let go. Thought itself stopped working. In the haze of his mind, only one idea remained.
I want this time to end.
Not knowing when it would stop only made the pain worse.
“Please… stop…”
So he begged. He shed tears and scraped the floor with a broken arm, pleading.
Thud! Thud!
It was useless.
Ah. He’s just going to kill me like this.
The realization left everything hollow. He had clawed for money by exploiting children and done every filthy thing he could to crawl into the Hwangbo Clan’s shadow. And this despair was where it ended. Tears of pure grievance poured down his face.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Even those tears were not permitted. A blow shattered his knee, and a terrible agony surged through him.
“Spare me! Please! I’ll do anything you say—just spare my life! It’s not fair! It’s too unfair!”
Amazingly, the beating stopped.
A scrap of hope appeared out of despair, and he writhed like a worm, rubbing his hands together. Broken bones ground against each other and delivered savage pain, but even so he crawled across the floor. He rubbed his face against the feet of the standing Ja Gangcheon, fawning like a dog.
“Anything you say…”
“Tell me everything. From the beginning to the end.”
It was the first voice he had heard since the beating began three shichen earlier. Like a believer granted salvation by a single word, Gu Donggu began to spill every last secret.