Half Each
Hwangbo Jeong, head of the Shandong Merchant Guild, was furious as fire.
"What the hell have you done!"
Crash!
The cup he hurled shattered against the floor. For a man who prized face above nearly everything, throwing things was rare.
"The Hwangbo Clan is not some third-rate rabble! And you pulled a cheap stunt like that?"
"U-Uncle…"
"Don't even call me that! Once this gets out, you will no longer be Hwangbo!"
"What do you mean by that…?"
"If you were going to do the job, you should never have been caught! If it went wrong, you should have silenced every witness—even if it meant murder! And if you couldn't manage that either, you should have taken full responsibility and died!"
That was what a great clan's honor demanded.
"Don't commit the crime in the first place. If you do, smother it with apology and compensation. If that fails, bury it by force. And if even that fails, kill everyone involved and rewrite the whole affair. There are that many ways—and what did you do?"
From the moment of his birth he had been handed a wealth of options. A destiny that could afford a few mistakes. But a mistake so catastrophic it burned through even those?
"Born of Hwangbo blood and still unable to manage that—do you even deserve to keep living?"
What Hwangbo Jeong was questioning was qualification itself.
Are you even fit to be a member of the Hwangbo Clan?
The question cut to the bone. The bloodline that had always stood around him like a fortress was now turning to devour him.
"Uncle. Please—help me."
Hwangbo Taeseong dropped to his knees.
I never should have trusted Gu Donggu.
Drunk, the man's plan had sounded flawless. So Taeseong had handed him everything. He had expected Ja Gangcheon, hearing of his acquaintance's attack, to come charging in a rage.
If even one of ours died in the brawl, that alone would give us pretext to strike Deungmyeong Manor.
Once the fighting started, the main family would not be able to look away.
Just as the Shandong Merchant Guild did, the main house will not turn its nose up at what Deungmyeong Manor holds. And Song Jain is there, isn't she?
Personally she was a burdensome opponent—but if the main family moved, the story changed.
We might even pry open the secrets of the Poison Valley records.
If Song Jain stood with Deungmyeong Manor, that itself could become a pretext. He had thought it perfect…
But Ja Gangcheon's response had defied every prediction. He had seized only the man marked as the culprit—and Gu Donggu. If those two named Hwangbo Taeseong as the mastermind—
That has to be stopped!
He could think of no way to stop it. So he had come to Hwangbo Jeong and fallen to his knees like this.
"First, catch the real culprit."
"W-Who…?"
"You idiot! The one who actually stabbed the labor-hall director! There has to be a real stabber, doesn't there?"
"Ah!"
"If that man ends up in Deungmyeong Manor's hands as well, I will formally sever every tie with you."
"What are you saying?"
"You expect me to get splattered with the same filth? Once they have the real culprit, where do you think they'll go next? Deungmyeong Manor has Song Jain—someone who has spent a lifetime in the murim. You think that woman will kill only you and leave it at that?"
It was already too late, but if he wanted to live he had to do something.
"I'll go at once."
Hwangbo Taeseong sprang up and left.
Cutting through the dawn air, Ja Gangcheon arrived at a cluster of huts by the shore.
Heading south along the coast, it was about half a shichen away, at the end of a side path off the main road. No ship could moor there; the sea could not be dammed to trap fish. The absurdly placed settlement was called Dog Marsh Hollow.
The name meant they lived by doing dirty errands. Some fifteen huts housed about thirty people.
Thud.
Ja Gangcheon leapt high and landed in the center of the hollow. He deliberately loaded the landing with internal energy; the huts shuddered hard.
"What's going on!"
Men burst from the huts in alarm; others who had been fishing farther off came running late. Their eyes, warily fixed on the stranger, were those of a wolf pack whose territory had been invaded.
"What brings a young master we have never met to a place like this?"
Unlike the rest, the one who approached first and spoke was a stooped old man. Mottled face, sparse white hair hanging wild—he was the village head. Every commission in Dog Marsh Hollow went through him.
"I came looking for the people who attacked Uncle So Yeondok."
"And why would you look for that here?"
"Gu Donggu told me."
At that, the old man's gaze went cold and still.
"I take it you did not hear anything pleasant."
Hearing that, Ja Gangcheon stretched out a hand.
"Ghk—!"
The old man clawed at the fingers locked around his throat. The men drew weapons as one—rusted swords, axes, sickles—none of which posed the slightest threat to Ja Gangcheon.
"If you want to live, do only what I tell you. I have no particular reason to leave any of you breathing."
Then someone dropped low and closed in on Ja Gangcheon's back.
Boom!
Ja Gangcheon's foot moved like lightning and burst the approaching man's head.
That single strike silenced the surroundings. Strength drained from the thrashing old man's eyes as well. He had been shocked by how freely Ja Gangcheon dealt out death.
"I—I'll hand him over."
Thud!
The old man collapsed, rubbed his throat, then shouted at a man nearby.
"Bring Heukseo!"
"Headman…"
"Do you all want to die? We'll collect the price from Gu Donggu later."
Every gaze swung toward one man. The one stumbling backward in panic was a short fellow in his early forties with jutting cheekbones.
"Y-You son of a bitch of a headman! You ordered the job!"
He was still screaming when Ja Gangcheon moved.
Crack!
"Aaaagh!"
Both ankles shattered in an instant; he crumpled, howling. Ja Gangcheon seized him by the scruff and swept a look over everyone in Dog Marsh Hollow.
"All of you here. If I meet you again, I will kill you without fail."
Leaving the warning, he dragged the man called Heukseo toward the edge of the hollow.
Just then someone came clattering up from a distance. Leading an old fighter from the Shandong Escort Agency was Hwangbo Taeseong.
"You…"
Hwangbo Taeseong saw Heukseo in Ja Gangcheon's grip and a clutter of thoughts crossed his face. Ja Gangcheon, for his part, showed no reaction and simply meant to walk past. That sat poorly with Taeseong.
"Why are you just leaving?"
He could not hold the question in. Ja Gangcheon answered.
"Right now the only thing I can do is kill you. That wouldn't be enough."
"What?"
As Ja Gangcheon passed, Hwangbo Taeseong lost control and struck. His target was not Ja Gangcheon. The blow was aimed at Heukseo, still clutched in Gangcheon's hand.
Thup.
His hand stopped dead above Heukseo's crown. The internal-energy strike, blocked, spun a small vortex that mussed Heukseo's hair.
"What are you—"
For a brief moment when Hwangbo Taeseong appeared, Heukseo had dared to hope. He had not heard the full plan, but he had known the Hwangbo Clan stood behind it. Yet Taeseong had tried to kill him instead.
"You bastard!"
Ja Gangcheon ignored Heukseo's raging and spoke to Hwangbo Taeseong.
"There really isn't a single thing you're good at."
Leaving that scathing verdict, he hauled Heukseo away.
Back at the manor, Ja Gangcheon summoned the memory once more.
It was when Northern Heavenly Castle was just beginning to grow large. There was so much envy and jealousy. Among all of it, the fighting with the North Sea Ice Palace was truly savage and bitter.
The most entertaining thing on the island had always been the murim stories his mother told. His father's tales were interesting enough, but they always carried a stifled weight somewhere. The story of how Northern Heavenly Castle became the hegemon of the unorthodox path never grew old, no matter how many times he heard it.
What tipped the tense standoff in our favor was catching a minor weakness of the North Sea Ice Palace. We did not use it at once.
Why not?
If we had struck then, we would only have left a small wound. So we used that weakness to find a larger one. We kept gathering weaknesses until the North Sea Ice Palace could no longer move against us freely.
Wouldn't that just lead to fighting in the end?
We had nothing to fear. But when a better method exists, there is no reason not to use it.
What method was that?
Ja Gangcheon recalled the story from those days—and put it into practice.
"Haa."
Hwangbo Jeong looked down at his kneeling, head-bowed nephew and sighed.
"In the end you can't accomplish a single thing."
"His martial skill is better than mi—"
Hwangbo Taeseong could not finish the sentence. He could not admit that Ja Gangcheon was stronger than he was. He was Hwangbo blood; he had enjoyed every privilege of the clan. From childhood he had been given spirit medicines and the clan's exclusive techniques, all taught by the finest masters. And now, at a mere seventeen, some rootless nobody was outmatching him in martial skill.
By any means necessary—I will kill that bastard!
He was cursing Ja Gangcheon in his heart when a sturdy man in his mid-fifties opened the door of the detached hall and entered. He was captain of the Shandong Merchant Guild's guest retainers, one of the men Hwangbo Jeong trusted most. He did not so much as glance at the kneeling Taeseong; he strode straight to Hwangbo Jeong and delivered an urgent report.
"Of those held at Deungmyeong Manor, the two besides Gu Donggu have been moved."
"Jeong Chilseong and the one called Heukseo?"
"Yes."
"Moved, all of a sudden?"
"The Lord of Deungmyeong took both of them to the black market."
"What!"
Bang!
Hwangbo Jeong slammed his chair and shot to his feet.
"You're telling me he just handed our weakness to Haomun?"
"We cannot know the full details. Our intelligence network does not reach inside the black market…"
"Insane…"
Even in this mess, Hwangbo Jeong had been nursing an inner way out.
Now that it has come to this, the only way to avoid utter disgrace is for the main family to move. To kill the filthy rumors, we will have to strike Deungmyeong Manor—and I will lead that strike myself and monopolize the businesses in Gyounam.
He had even dreamed of absorbing Deungmyeong Manor with the main house's power and expanding beyond Shandong. The report just now had shattered that calculation.
Of all things—Haomun.
If they crushed Deungmyeong Manor now, the Hwangbo Clan would never be able to hide that they had silenced witnesses to cover their shame—because the organization holding that information was none other than Haomun.
We handed our weakness to an enemy.
Haomun would want the Hwangbo Clan to move. And through every mouth they could mobilize, they would certainly condemn them.
"Damn it all!"
Crash!
The tea set he swept aside clattered and rolled across the floor.
"You—return to the clan at once!"
"What? But if I leave it like this—"
"If you're not here we can at least deny it! Go back to the clan this instant and shut yourself away or take penance or whatever you like! Never show your face before me again!"
"Y-Yes, Uncle."
Hwangbo Taeseong bowed his head, drained of all strength.
At the same hour—
"Noona. Take these two for me."
Yeonhui looked at the two men trussed up and dumped like cargo and let out a disbelieving laugh.
"You're not the naive, world-blind Manor Lord I thought I knew. Did the Chief Steward tell you to act this cunning?"
Having come to Haomun alone, Ja Gangcheon answered only with a faint smile. He was still putting his mother's story into practice.
Once we held the North Sea Ice Palace's weakness, we did not press them with it ourselves. We handed it to the Moyong Clan, who already hated them. The North Sea Ice Palace found its shame laid bare before its most troublesome enemy.
That was why he had come to Haomun. Gu Donggu, however, he still kept locked in Deungmyeong Manor.
"You know who these two are?"
"Would you believe me if I said I didn't?"
"No."
"Fine. But if I take them in, you understand our relationship changes."
"Meaning?"
Yeonhui's smile deepened.
"Personally, I prefer accomplices to friends. The accounting is so much cleaner."
Ja Gangcheon thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Call it whatever you like. I agree we should both use this chance."
"And how exactly am I to use the Manor Lord?"
"Don't use me. Use these two as leverage and devour the Shandong Merchant Guild branch. We'll tear it half and half."
The turn of phrase was so unlike Ja Gangcheon that Yeonhui briefly wondered whether someone else was wearing a skin mask. Ja Gangcheon, for his part, was remembering his mother's words again.
We told the Moyong Clan: let's tear the North Sea Ice Palace half and half.
Right now he had become the protagonist of the story his mother used to tell.
"You don't want to?"
"Of course I do. I'm delighted. But the Shandong Merchant Guild branch—I'll take that as my spoils."
It was not merely symbolic. Just as she had opened a little teahouse by the harbor, she wanted free use of that seat of power.
"Fine."
"This is the first time the Manor Lord and I have smiled and reached an agreement like this. Our relationship must be improving."
"What are you talking about? We've always smiled and agreed."
That line turned Yeonhui's stomach. She thought,
Where did the innocent boy I first met go?
Once again she suspected a skin mask.