Do You Know the Saber?
In the inns of Cheonghwa, a fight broke out if you so much as blinked.
Start one inside the inn and you were banned for life — but what did that matter? Once the fists started flying, somebody usually ended up dead, and the one who did the killing was dragged off in irons.
It was tempting to blame a lack of civilization. The truth was older than that. It was Cheonghwa's long tradition: swallow an insult aimed at yourself if you must, but never, ever swallow one aimed at your family or your sect. A dueling culture carved into the blood of a fighting people erupted without a second thought wherever a crowd gathered, and an inn was as good a place as any.
Kill a man, of course, and your own sect would expel you, so drawing steel at the first slight marked you as third-rate. A true master threw a punch, knocked the offender cold, and stamped the outcome into every witness in the room. Damage got done along the way, but the people of Cheonghwa were so used to it that taking one's compensation and quietly clearing out had become an everyday courtesy.
"You dare insult my master? Count yourself lucky you're walking away with nothing worse than this disgrace!!"
Belong to a famous clan or sect, and you often didn't even take the compensation. Leave a debt hanging, and the day always came when that favor paid you back. These were a people who would repay a kindness decades later if they had to — and who would hunt a grudge across a hundred years, two hundred, and wipe the offender's line off the earth.
The Mount Tai Sect, however, sat too close to the Hwangbo Family of Jinan, and that proximity had dulled its fame. So Jang Jeon-ik, a second-generation disciple of Mount Tai, had sent the man who insulted his master flying and still had to watch the room. From his own seat he could already see the wreck of the table on the far side, and he was certain someone would come to collect.
Ah. Here came one. A wanderer, face hidden beneath a bamboo hat and a gauze veil.
"...Huh?"
Jang Jeon-ik couldn't hide his bewilderment. With every heavy step the approaching figure took, a magnificent woman's pride — the part the veil failed to cover — announced itself with a roar. A sash cinched tight at the waist threw the curves above and below into even sharper relief. A body that could make a man fold in on himself, and yet the face stayed hidden. Was the body introduction enough on its own? Or would unveiling the face as well drop someone dead on the spot — a beauty to topple the age?
Before he could finish the thought, the woman had already stopped in front of him. Cause trouble, and the rule was to state your affiliation and your name first. Jang Jeon-ik spoke as naturally as a man who had done it a dozen times.
"Ah. I am Jang, second-generation disciple of Mount Tai Se—"
"You. You're the one who threw a person onto our table?"
It wasn't what anyone would call a breathtakingly pretty voice, but it still carried a clarity that landed square in a man's chest.
"I didn't throw him, exactly. The man insulted my master, so he paid a fitting pri—"
"Oh, please. You threw him. Why are you brawling where people are trying to eat, you lunatic? If you're going to launch someone, launch them properly. Why did it have to be our table?"
The trouble was that this clear voice had started spitting out words that were anything but pretty, rapid-fire. And the smell of liquor was thick. She had drunk so much fiery wine it was a wonder her tongue wasn't tied in knots.
"Do you have any idea how long I waited to eat one miserable duck? An hour. A whole hour. I sat there drinking for a full hour, waiting! And then the human you threw comes flying in, plants his ass on my duck, and mashes it into the floor!"
"Ah. Right. My apologies. My regrets, and compensat—"
"Regrets and compensation, my ass. The only compensation I want right now is two ducks. I want to eat two of these damned ducks! Bring me the ducks, now!!"
Today Jang Jeon-ik learned for the first time that a clear voice could also produce a noise fit to split eardrums. What a set of lungs. Everyone in the inn was staring at him and at Lupin.
"R-right. Understood. Wait a moment — I'll speak with the cook."
"Sixty."
"...Hm?"
"Fifty-nine, fifty-eight, fifty-seven."
Lupin was counting. Fail to produce a duck within one minute, and she would flip his table as well — more precisely, she meant to throw not only the table but Jang Jeon-ik himself out the window. He felt an instinctive unease, but his movements weren't exactly nimble. She was a woman martial artist with no aura to speak of. She wore a sword, yes, but she didn't look threatening.
He was striding for the kitchen when a waiter blocked his way.
"Ah — hero, you can't go into the kitchen."
"Waiter. Ask the cook whether he can put out two Beijing ducks this very instant. I'll pay handsomely. I was punishing the man who insulted my master, and, well... I ended up ruining that heroine's meal."
The waiter went in, spoke with the cook, and came back shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, hero. Truth is, we're out of duck. The two that just went out were the last of them."
In modern terms, last call. There were no more ducks in this inn. If you wanted one, you caught a decent bird yourself, found another inn that still had some, or quietly ordered something else.
This is a problem.
Jang Jeon-ik went back and explained himself to Lupin, who was still counting.
"Twenty-three, twenty-two."
"I'm sorry. I asked the cook, and there's no duck left.... Could I compensate you some other way?"
"Sixteen, fifteen, fourteen...."
Lupin did not stop the countdown. Right now she was a duck-bomb with the fuse lit. Fail to eat Beijing duck, and she simply detonated — a drunk fit to punch a hole through the sky. Jang Jeon-ik didn't know that. He only sighed, and suddenly ten seconds were all that remained. Lupin set her strength into her right hand and turned her eyes toward the window beside his seat.
That was when it happened.
Flutter.
Someone leapt down from the second floor and landed between them. A rippling robe embroidered in gold thread, a sword strung with glittering silk, and at the waist a pendant hung with jade beads the size of beans. The clothes, the powerful build, those thick manly brows — none of it was ordinary.
So the honored guest who had reserved the entire second floor today had shown himself!
The moment Jang Jeon-ik realized this was the young patriarch of the Hebei Paeng Family, the great house that ruled the Beijing region, he snapped into a fist-and-palm salute.
"Why — isn't this Hero Paeng, the Small Cleaving Saber! I am Jang Jeon-ik, second-generation disciple of the Mount Tai Sect."
"Eight, seven."
Paeng Cheong-ui had never seen the face, but he greeted him like an old acquaintance.
"A hero of the Mount Tai Sect. I am Paeng Cheong-ui."
"Five, four."
Then both men turned to Lupin as if by prior agreement. Lupin, however, was not familiar with Cheonghwa-style introductions. She had come to collect two ducks as compensation. Why would she feel like introducing herself?
"One...!"
Her clenched fist was about to drive into the space between Jang Jeon-ik's brows like a shot.
"Easy, now. I had a feeling it would come to this. Calm yourself first."
Thup.
The flying fist stuck dead center against Paeng Cheong-ui's palm, held up in front of Jang Jeon-ik's forehead.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing? Let go of this!"
If the man had deserved to die, the fist would never have been stopped. Jang Jeon-ik hadn't done anything worth dying for, and Lupin had pulled her strength at the last moment, so she didn't punch through Paeng Cheong-ui's palm.
"Start a duel like this, and word may spread that the young lady is a petty wretch of the martial world. Would you be all right with that?"
"Young lady? You mean me? This bastard killed two of my ducks. Why am I the petty one?"
Her lungs belonged in a magistrate's yamen; they carried clean to the second floor, so Paeng Cheong-ui already knew the whole story. He waved Jang Jeon-ik back — I'll handle this — and the flustered disciple obeyed. Jang Jeon-ik opened his coin pouch, set down ten silver coins, five times the price of the duck, and retreated fast.
The moment Lupin saw it, she raised her voice and jabbed wildly with her still-free left hand.
"Oh? Running? Just you try running! I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth and collect my two ducks!"
"A poor substitute for duck, I'll grant you, but I'll buy you whatever you want. Please, calm down."
At that, Lupin huffed and yanked her caught hand free.
"Hmph. I let it go because I refuse to become a petty wretch over a duck. Remember that."
It slipped out as if oiled, and Paeng Cheong-ui was more than a little thrown. Neither of them had used aura, which meant she surpassed him in raw strength alone. That strength — and the fierce, mischievous face and pink hair he had been seeing past the black veil all along. Anyone could tell. This was Lupin, recently risen to the 13th Seat of the Rounds.
So it was Hero Lupin.
He had heard she was coming to Cheonghwa. He hadn't expected a disguise like this. A scheme of her own, perhaps, to shake off the riffraff? His gaze drifted to the crude sword at her waist.
Is the Lightning Saber stored in there?
Paeng Cheong-ui's heart beat for no good reason. He had been the first to see through the disguise to the truth beneath, and if things continued, he would also be her first sparring partner in Cheonghwa. The expectation alone was enough. They were both saber-users, besides. How could he not want to cross blades and see who was stronger?
But for now, he had to hold back. Both of them had put away a fair amount of drink, and challenging someone who hadn't even eaten would be ridiculous.
Today, better to stack up a favor.
The Paeng Family caught sneers from the other clans — all muscle and no brain, swinging sabers with their heads left at home — but fail to make a strategic call when the family's gains and losses were on the line, and the name Small Cleaving Saber would have cause to weep. Here, generous hospitality came first. To the duel-mad people of Cheonghwa, Lupin of the 13th Seat of the Rounds could only be a very precious guest.
And as if she had been waiting to be treated like one, Lupin was staring a hole straight through him.
"You said it earlier, right? You'll buy me anything?"
Two women and a child. That was all. Paeng Cheong-ui made the misjudgment of wondering how much three people like that could possibly eat.
"Well. As you like. Eat your fill."
One hour later.
Beside Lupin, plates had stacked into a tower, and the tower was swaying. The construction hadn't even stopped. It was still going on. By a rough count she had put away about five times what Paeng Cheong-ui had eaten, and even that wasn't enough, because she was ordering more.
"Two more plates of stir-fried vegetables over here! Extra meat!!"
A flustered waiter came running and bowed.
"I'm sorry, honored guest. Today's ingredients have run out. We can't take any more orders."
"What? Already?!"
The Paeng Family was famous for hearty, combative eating, but Lupin was three times as violent. Anyone watching would have thought she bore a blood feud against the food. Still not full, by the look of her, she turned her eyes on Paeng Cheong-ui.
"Hey! Do something about this!"
His coin pouch was already scraped clean, but inwardly Paeng Cheong-ui crowed with triumph. Thanks to the inn running out of food, he would be the first to host the honored guest every clan and sect in Cheonghwa had been longing for.
"It seems we'll have to change venues. Have you arranged lodging?"
"Lodging? Did we ever arrange any?"
Klein shook her head.
Paeng Cheong-ui pressed in without hesitation.
"Then I'll offer you one of the annexes at the main house. The largest happens to be free, so the three of you may rest there at your ease."
"No. Hold on. I said I want more food. Why are you changing the subject?"
"Our Paeng people eat so well that the cooks take shifts and never leave the kitchen. Whatever the hour, they'll make you whatever you want."
Lupin stared at him through the veil. A tense moment stretched —
"Also... I was hoping you might spare some liquor, too."
For a precious guest, it was a trivial request, and Paeng Cheong-ui couldn't hold the laugh in.
"Kahahaha! As much as you like!"
