Happy Birthday, Moyong Bi
A day had passed.
The sun had set.
A bonfire blazed to life.
And the banquet celebrating the subjugation of the Thunder Emperor began.
“Long live the Jegal Family!”
The rumor that I had finally woken up and come to my senses set the entire Jegal Family into an uproar.
I learned later that even the youngest servants walked on tiptoe whenever they passed the room where I slept.
In truth, before the banquet even started, I had already experienced for the first time in my life the genuine reactions of people toward me.
Until now, everything I had received was open contempt and disdain.
I had begun as the illegitimate son of the Moyong Family.
I had been a third-rate martial artist.
Wherever I went, I had been too busy just trying to survive.
I never possessed the kind of strength that could crush others, and I had clawed my way up from the very bottom of the Jianghu.
Even now, though I had the skill, a tangle of circumstances meant I still lacked even the modest reputation that far weaker martial artists often enjoyed.
No nickname of any note existed under the true name Moyong Bi.
That was why these sincere reactions from people felt so unfamiliar to me.
“Moyong Bi, sir! Is your body all right now?”
I was taking a somewhat awkward walk through the Jegal Family gardens on unfamiliar crutches when a massive servant spotted me hobbling along and charged at full speed.
That aggressive rush left me a little flustered.
“Ah, th-thanks to you. I think I’m feeling a bit better now.”
The servant waved his hands vigorously in his thick, rustic accent.
“Aigoo, no need to speak so polite to the likes of me! Just like the rumors said—your character’s upright too!”
He had clearly been gathering firewood; a wooden A-frame still sat on his back. He tossed even that aside and hurried over to me.
“Where you headed, sir? This lowly one’ll carry you on my back! Aigoo, these damned crutches! How dare they make Moyong Bi-nim suffer!”
“Ah, th-that’s all right. This was meant to be a recovery walk of sorts—”
“This lowly one’ll guide you, sir!!”
In the end I had no choice but to be carried on that broad back—as wide as an open plain—and be spun around the entire Jegal estate dozens of times.
“Moyong Bi-nim! Wave your hand, please!”
“Moyong Bi-nim! They want you to wave over that way! Everyone recognizes their benefactor, don’t they? Haha, even I feel proud for no reason. As long as you’re here, this lowly one’ll be your feet!”
And through it all, the embarrassment was entirely mine.
There was another incident as well.
It was the middle of a quiet night.
I woke up thirsty.
There was a bell in the room to summon a servant, but I was keenly aware of my own position.
They might not be martial artists, but they too lived each day fiercely in their own way.
I couldn’t bring myself to wake people who had already endured a hard day’s work just so a freeloader like me could get a drink of water.
Under the blue moonlight I opened the door and stepped out to find water.
“I’m sure there was a well somewhere around here.”
Using the Red Eyes openly felt too conspicuous, so I squinted and peered around.
There it was, a short distance away.
“Ah, there it—”
Splash.
And at the well in the dead of night stood a maidservant drawing water into a jar.
“…Ah! You’re Moyong Bi-nim, aren’t you? My goodness, what a coincidence! To have a private meeting with the Moyong Bi who’s the talk of Chang’an… it must be fate!”
She had tightly cinched her waist sash so her figure showed while she worked.
I blinked.
“Working this late at night instead of resting…?”
“Ah, well, I saw the light go on in Moyong Bi-nim’s room and quickly pretended to be busy… I mean, no.”
The maid covered her mouth with a smile.
“Moyong Bi-nim, you came out because you were thirsty, right?! Let me draw some for you!”
She scooped water into a gourd ladle and held it out.
Blink. Blink.
I blinked hard, seriously debating whether I should drink it or not.
Still, it felt wrong to ignore her sincerity, so I accepted the gourd for now.
Then I froze.
“…There’s something floating on the water.”
“Ah, you’re sharp. You look rough, but your eyes are careful.”
At that she covered her flushed face with her sleeve and turned her gaze away.
“I floated a willow leaf on it so you wouldn’t choke if you drank too fast… Moyong Bi-nim? Moyong Bi-nim, why did you suddenly throw the gourd and where are you going!”
And the climax of it all was the banquet.
“Moyong Bi-nim, you’re truly handsome!”
“Moyong Bi-nim, this is something I brought from home…!”
“Moyong Bi-nim.”
“Moyong…”
Every single person was watching me.
It wasn’t just the maidservants.
Even the members of the Jegal Family itself were all looking my way.
Everyone wanted at least one chance to clasp my hand.
Of course, not every group is made up solely of decent people.
“In a situation where we’re short every single coin for reconstruction, throwing a banquet for some nobody who rolled in from who-knows-where…”
“Anyone watching would think he did everything by himself, right?”
Two guest retainers who had been invited to the Jegal Family—one half-bald, both with swords at their sides—paused while tilting their cups, shot glances my way, and sneered.
They deliberately raised their voices so I could hear every word.
“If I’d stepped in, it would’ve been cleaned up faster. I should’ve come to the Jegal Family even three days earlier.”
“Come now. Heh heh. There’s even a rumor that the Mount Hua Guardian who got kicked out did all the real work and he just stuck his spoon in. Still, even a third-rate like that deserves a chance to hold his head high once in his life—”
KWAANG!
The drinking table in front of the retainers exploded and scattered into the air.
“E-eek!”
The two retainers screamed in shock.
Plates heaped with food shot upward. Wine bottles spun through the air, spraying liquor. Wine and food rained down over the two men who had been badmouthing me.
“U-ugh!”
“My, how unintentional. There happened to be a drinking table in the path I was walking.”
Eun Seollyeong, face veil in place, strolled past them.
She spotted a fallen wine bottle rolling on the ground in front of her, flicked it up with her toes, snatched the neck in a lightning-fast motion, and hurled it sideways.
“And there happened to be a wine bottle as well.”
Clang!
“Aaagh!”
The bottle smashed squarely into one retainer’s skull and shattered.
“Get rid of these trash. Who invited such low-class scum? You have one keuk.”
Jegal Sea followed right behind her, waving her hands sharply at the surroundings.
As they passed, grim-faced servants swarmed the retainers like a dark cloud.
“L-let go…!”
“We were officially invited! You can’t treat us like this!”
The retainers were seized by all four limbs and carried off as if on a litter.
A servant with a back as broad as a wilderness snorted and bellowed,
“This lowly one heard it clear! Those bastards insulted Moyong Bi-nim!”
“Let us go! Treating guest retainers like this! You lowly things dare lay hands on a martial artist’s body…!”
One of the servants carrying them said coldly,
“And by order of Miss Jegal, you’re no longer official guest retainers. You know that drawing a blade on us is the same as challenging the Jegal Family, right?”
“…!”
They were dumped outside the main gate like baggage and sprawled in the dirt.
“Ah… hope that doesn’t cause trouble.”
“Moyong Bi.”
A shadow fell over me.
It was a mountain of meat.
“…Good heavens.”
“This lady selected each piece herself at the market after checking the freshness.”
Eun Seollyeong sat down across from me.
Beside her, a drunk reveler staggered over, reeling from the banquet atmosphere and liquor.
“Whoa, what kind of meat looks this glossy and delicious? Let me just take one piece…!”
Thud.
A finger-wind from Eun Seollyeong dropped the man silently, as if he had simply fallen asleep.
“…Is it even possible for this banquet to end without any deaths?”
“This is for you. You must be the first to touch it.”
Pop.
Eun Seollyeong uncorked a wine bottle with a clear, crisp sound.
The silver face veil that covered the lower half of her face fluttered. Beneath the translucent silk, her red lips were visible.
The blue moonlight truly suited her.
Her long, pale neck stretched white between the collars of her martial robes, following the line of her collarbones.
As she took the bottle in her white fingers, she suddenly asked,
“Moyong Bi. You once said you didn’t even know the day you were born… your birthday. That you’d never once received a celebration.”
It had been just before we parted ways for a while, before we went to watch the fireworks at the ruined shrine.
We had walked endlessly across the open fields.
Back then I had mentioned, very briefly, almost in passing, that I didn’t even know the day of my birth and had never once been wished a happy birthday.
I had even added that as a child I had envied some young master receiving birthday congratulations at a noodle shop.
My face burned.
“…You remember that? That was really just something I said in passing—”
“If you cannot remember when your birthday is, and if you have never once been celebrated…”
Eun Seollyeong glanced around.
She confirmed that Jegal Sea, seated nearby, was looking the other way for a moment.
She confirmed that no one was paying attention to her.
Rustle.
She gently lifted the face veil that covered her nose and mouth.
Beneath the red glow of the banquet flames, she smiled softly.
“There is a gathering like this today, and you are the guest of honor… so how about thinking of it as the first birthday you have ever truly welcomed?”
“….”
Beneath the red glow of the banquet flames, she smiled softly.
“Happy birthday, Moyong Bi.”
“Cough, cough! D-damn it!”
The martial artists dumped outside the gate rolled around in the dust for a long while, coughing.
“Hm? Has the banquet already started? I thought I came fairly early.”
The discarded martial artists lifted their heads.
Their gazes landed on a calm-looking man with gray hair, dressed in the sort of clothes ordinary commoners might wear, standing with his hands clasped behind his back and looking down at them.
“Who might you gentlemen be, and why have you come out of the Jegal Family?”
“Y-you lowly commoner bastard, how dare—!”
Their eyes were already flipped; they needed someone to take their anger out on.
To men whose reason had fled, someone who was neither a member of the Jegal Family nor of high status was the perfect target.
“If you’re curious, go ask your own parents!”
Whoosh!
A fist loaded with internal energy plummeted toward the man’s face.
Clack.
And that fist was caught by a hand that rose as if from the shadows themselves.
“Huh? D-did a person just rise out of a shadow?”
“Tsk tsk. I don’t know what your circumstances may be, but swinging a fist filled with internal energy… the ways of the Jianghu have truly fallen to the ground.”
The gray-haired man clicked his tongue.
“Th-these guys! White headscarves?”
One by one, figures rose from the shadows.
Martial artists whose entire bodies were wrapped in white martial robes and white headscarves.
They stepped out one after another from the shadows of the surrounding walls.
“People rising out of shadows?”
“Wait, that attire…!”
The martial artists’ eyes bulged in shock.
“Don’t tell me—the Baekjao, the strongest direct bodyguard unit of the Namgung Family?!”
The white-scarved Baekjao rose thickly like clouds and surrounded the two guest retainers, looking down on them.
The Baekjao who had caught the fist turned to Yun Hyeon, overall manager of the Namgung Family’s Luoyang branch, and asked,
“What shall we do? Shall we handle them according to our guard unit regulations?”
The middle-aged man wore a troubled expression over his kindly face.
“W-well, no one was actually hurt, so there’s no real need to be rough, is there?”
The Baekjao immediately shook his head.
“I understand your humble modesty, but you are the man the Family Lord himself recognized—the one who rose from a waiter’s status all the way to overall manager of the Luoyang branch. And right now you are not even here as the Luoyang branch manager, but as the representative of the Namgung Family bearing the Family Lord’s personal letter. We absolutely cannot overlook this.”
At those words the gray-haired man sighed and rubbed his brow.
“Well, they were already thrown out by the Jegal Family, so there shouldn’t be any friction with them either… In that case, please take care of it somewhere out of sight.”
“We receive your command.”
The Baekjao leader ordered the others around him,
“Drag these two to the nearby woods.”
“We receive your command.”
White cloth was stuffed into the martial artists’ mouths in an instant.
Before they could even scream, the two were hauled off toward the nearby forest.
The middle-aged man lifted his head and looked into the main gate.
He gazed at the lively banquet grounds.
Then he looked behind him.
“It’s been truly a long time since then. I prepared things as best I could according to the carrier pigeon order… though I wonder if it will be to your liking.”
One of the two remaining Baekjao behind him answered,
“It will be to his liking. Didn’t you personally supervise every step from start to finish and put your full effort into the preparations?”
On their backs, something mountainously large was wrapped in gray cloth.
“Is that so? Well, this will be the first time we formally meet under his real name rather than the name Biryu… When we first met, setting martial arts aside, he still lacked a great deal of maturity. I’m curious how much he has grown both inside and out since then.”
“However, Manager Yun Hyeon. If I may be so bold as to ask one question?”
One of the Baekjao spoke.
“Both the Family Lord and you cherish and try to help that man so much. What is the reason?”
“The reason we cherish him?”
It was under the cool autumn moonlight.
“In this age when people chase money, toy with others by the sword, when martial artists drink and chase women and shout ‘Why help the weak when there’s no profit in it?’ while lusting after power… and not only feel no shame about it but even boast that such behavior makes them bold, free-spirited men who understand reality… so even if everyone else laughs…”
Yun Hyeon, overall manager of the Namgung Family’s Luoyang branch, smiled.
“Because as far as we know, he is the only one who still reeks of a human being struggling to become a proper person.”