The Flower Beggar's Scandal
“Are you acquainted with this beggar?”
Meanwhile, Cheong, who had just sent one man packing, was flustered. What in the world was this woman’s problem? She was acting as if the Jade Qilin himself had appeared. …No, he actually had appeared?
Cheong pondered for a moment. Should she pretend to know him or not? The conclusion came quickly. Pretending to know him now would only bring trouble. After that whole distribution incident, he would probably just click his tongue at her beggar act and kick her away with a sour face. She would have to wait until the Martial Arts Tournament to see him in proper form.
While Cheong was calculating her escape route, Paeng Daesan suddenly strode toward her with large, urgent steps and grabbed her wrist.
“Aah, what are you doing?”
“Shut up and come with me.”
Truthfully, she could have shaken him off anytime she wanted. She could have even swung him around like a weapon. But slipping away through the alley while breaking through the Jade Qilin’s female guardian’s defenses seemed less advantageous than simply following along for now. So she let herself be dragged away obediently.
However, that wasn’t the case for her wrist.
“Oh my, what are you doing? No matter how urgent you are, this won’t do. First, you should set a deep, atmospheric mood. Hmm. Even when you squeeze that hard, it doesn’t break.”
At the sudden pressure on her wrist, Cheong spoke up. The beautiful wrist of the Sosu Magong, one of the Ten Great Demonic Arts, was like an indestructible diamond. It could withstand hammer blows, and while it wasn’t completely unbreakable due to her realm, it was extremely difficult to damage.
“You, what exactly have you been doing? What’s with this appearance?”
Cheong flinched. As a Paeng Daesan expert, she recognized that his voice had dropped to the lowest, most dangerous register from the very start—the ultra-low frequency tone that signaled maximum danger.
Cheong tried to play it off with some banter.
“Ah. You caught me? You recognized me pretty well. Wow, so this is what having a good friend is like? Long time no see, San.”
Paeng Daesan’s eyes trembled violently. Of all the possible ways to reunite with his female friend, this was the most horrifying scenario. Meeting Seomun Cheong again was the worst.
“You, what in the world, that man who just left—”
Paeng Daesan’s voice shook. If Paeng Cho-ryo had heard it, she would have recognized it as the sign of an impending explosion of rage, but since Cheong wasn’t the ultimate authority who had raised Paeng Daesan, she had no way of knowing.
“Ah. That guy? I don’t know why there are so many like him these days. A perfectly normal guy tried to solicit me in broad daylight, so I beat him up, took his money, and chased him off.”
“What?”
Paeng Daesan’s expression twisted. He recalled the subtle look on the soliciting man’s face, streaked with tears. It meant the man had gone to paradise to meet his grandfather, been beaten senseless, and barely crawled out of the Yellow Springs River. After a brief moment of deep relief came a volcanic eruption of rage.
“Ha. You call that an explanation? What? You beat him up and took his money? You’re willing to throw away your dignity for a bit of cash? Do you even plan to show your face in the Central Plains again?”
“San, my friend, first calm down a little……”
“Do I look like I can calm down? Ha, do you even know what the entire city’s men are saying about you right now?”
“Uh……. There’s a beggar woman with a nasty temper who beats up anyone who touches her?”
“Ha. They’re saying there’s a beggar prostitute who sleeps with a hundred men a day, a local attraction. Even though I only arrived around lunchtime today, I already heard about it.”
“What?”
Cheong’s expression also soured instantly.
“Those damn bastards, which son of a bitch started that rumor? Who? Who said that?”
“Every single man in the manor.”
“That fucking bastard.”
Cheong’s insides boiled. What the hell was this? Fine, she was wrong. She should have smashed his head with the Black Killing Demonic Palm instead of just giving him a honey fist.
“This won’t do. Who were they? I’m going to cut their limbs into a star shape.”
The light slowly faded from Cheong’s eyes. Seeing her seethe with uncontrollable rage, Paeng Daesan’s own anger deflated instead.
“Haa. Alright, I understand you didn’t know. What exactly were you doing while disguised as a beggar that you didn’t even hear such talk?”
“No, I really didn’t hear it.”
Cheong’s voice was filled with injustice. After all, it was talk that circulated among men. There was no way a woman—and the person in question—would have heard it.
“……First, you should explain why you’re dressed like a beggar.”
“Ah. This? Well, it’s a long story……”
Cheong explained what had happened in Jumadian. The old man, sob sob. The unorthodox faction, bang. The jerky, yum yum. The human traffickers who chose castration over receiving a gold plaque in a bizarre decision. And the ten-thousand-gwan bounty.
“……So I didn’t want to cause trouble for anyone, and I disguised myself as a beggar to avoid attention as well.”
“What the— haa. I guess that’s just like you.”
From what he heard, Cheong hadn’t done anything wrong. Besides, the Black Point was originally a den of the worst scum who dealt in all kinds of poisons, drugs, stolen goods, slaves, and even human flesh.
“Well, it’s fine. Anyway, only two people know my identity. No, three if you count you, San. I already got promises from the other two. You’ll keep the secret, right, San?”
Anyway, the flower beggar of the manor was someone who would disappear soon. The only people who knew her identity were Ajun and the uncle. The uncle had agreed to pretend not to know, and she had already spoken to Ajun, who was a good listener for a kid, so there was no problem. The Beggars’ Union was handled by using Grandpa Nugok’s name to act like they didn’t know each other. So if she just left, that would be the end of it. The flower beggar would vanish from the world.
“Ha, you think you can disappear so easily with that body?”
“What’s wrong with my body?”
“You’re asking because you don’t know? Is there another woman in the martial world with that height and that vulgar—no, large. Ahem. ……broad frame?”
Paeng Daesan said this while averting his gaze for some reason. Cheong burst out laughing.
“Why are you choosing your words so carefully? Why can’t you just say vulgar breasts and deduct three points?”
“……You remembered that. And breasts, damn it, I didn’t say anything that vulgar.”
“Ah, was that Seolgajik?”
“Just who— ahem, I’ll withdraw the point deduction, so just forget it.”
“No. I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. And people in this world judge by appearance more than you’d think. If you’re wearing beggar clothes, you’re a tall beggar. If you’re wearing Sinnyeo Sect robes, you’re a female martial artist of the martial world. And what are you going to do if I say I’m not?”
Paeng Daesan looked dazed for a moment. Come to think of it, very occasionally, she did say things that overflowed with profound insight.
That was when it happened.
“Wow, but how did you recognize me at a single glance? Even though I went through Body Reconstruction and my limbs changed length?”
“Hmm. Still, you should be careful. Rumors can be twisted and attached however maliciously people want. What would you do if such a terrible scandal stuck to you?”
Paeng Daesan changed the subject.
“San! You’re worried about me!? Wow, Seomun Cheong is moved. A sea of tears from being moved. Don’t worry. In that case, I can just reveal my face. Here, look. Ta-da!”
“Revealing your face won’t change anything.”
Paeng Daesan’s words cut off abruptly. It was the fate of anyone who faced Cheong’s harmful face without mental preparation. Her bright, childlike smiling face, her eyes filled with radiant affection, the smile born from deep joy—it was so dazzling it hurt to look at. And her red lips curved playfully. For some reason, in a world suddenly faded to gray, that single red color alone was impossible to look away from.
But that only lasted a moment. Cheong gave him no time to let his guard down.
“Look. I got prettier, right? This is the power of Body Reconstruction. Ah. Body Reconstruction is really something. I can’t explain it with words. You wouldn’t know unless you experienced it. Some people still don’t know, right? How would a Peak mid-stage practitioner know about Body Reconstruction? Ah, how pitiful.”
That damn mouth of hers. Paeng Daesan’s eyebrows twitched.
“Mid-stage, my ass. I’m Peak late-stage now.”
“Yeah, yeah, now you’re coming to your senses? See, when you look at my face, you can’t look anywhere else, right?”
“Ahem.”
Having fully understood its power, Paeng Daesan could only respond with a cough, his pride wounded. Seeing this, Cheong grew triumphant.
“I had a plan, so I properly acted like a beggar. If I looked like a half-baked beggar, everyone would get suspicious, wouldn’t they?”
In that instant, Cheong’s good karma decreased by one point. Because she actually hadn’t had a plan. However, Cheong, who didn’t have her status window open, didn’t know this. Sometimes, ignorance was bliss.
“Then what are you planning to do now?”
“The flower beggar’s exit, obviously. I was planning to stay sprawled out until the Martial Arts Tournament, but that won’t work. I’ll slip away like this, then take a bath at night. Ah. I really hate getting dirty, you know? Understand. It’d be weird if a beggar was clean.”
“It’s fine.”
She had expected the fastidious Paeng Daesan to be horrified, but an unexpectedly straightforward affirmation came back. What? Was this a friend privilege? Had this guy Paeng Daesan finally learned the value of friendship?
“Ah. Right. If I disappear like this, won’t it be troublesome for you, San? You’ll become the guy who slept with the beggar who gets a hundred customers a day.”
“Don’t even joke about that. It’s something that must be hidden forever.”
“Your voice is getting low again. Hmm, how about this? Actually, the flower beggar was a great demonic leader hiding her identity, and the righteous hero San of the orthodox faction found out and drove her away after a fierce bloody battle.”
Even to Cheong, the story she had just made up on the spot seemed quite convincing. It could explain the flower beggar’s disappearance while simultaneously raising Paeng Daesan’s name—a perfect two birds with one stone plan.
“Then see you at the Martial Arts Tournament.”
“You’re leaving again just like that?”
“Then?”
“I don’t think it would be so bad to become the guy who slept with a beggar. No, I rather like it. Those annoying women following me around will fall away, so it’s actually a good opportunity. Besides—”
“Besides?”
“Hmm. Never mind.”
Paeng Daesan swallowed his words. If it was later discovered, coordinating their stories would only make it more suspicious, so he couldn’t say he didn’t know. But a man doesn’t make a show of his good deeds.
“What, why did you stop talking? There are two kinds of actions that make people angry. One is stopping mid-sentence.”
Cheong looked at Paeng Daesan as if to say, go on. Paeng Daesan quietly waited for the rest. After a long staring contest, Paeng Daesan realized he had been had.
“Forget it. Let’s just stick together and get a room at an inn. You can clean up properly and then slip away. What kind of woman bathes secretly at night? What if someone peeks?”
“Oh. San. I’m getting moved again.”
“Forget it. After you slip away, come to the Jangwon Do-mun. We’re going to the same place, so there’s no reason to go separately.”
“Sorry, but that won’t work.”
“What? Why?”
Paeng Daesan’s eyebrows twitched. Cheong answered with a serious expression.
“Because as a swordsman, I cannot endure the disgrace of staying at the Ban-Geom-Mun. Indeed.”
“Pfft.”
Paeng Daesan suddenly burst out laughing. Though he was clearly trying to hold it in, his face turned bright red as he struggled to contain the air trying to escape from his lungs.
“Can’t you just laugh if you want to? Does laughing feel like losing?”
“I didn’t…… laugh……”
“You di…… didn’t laaaugh……”
“Kuhuk.”
Paeng Daesan suddenly made a sobbing sound. Yet he still refused to let any air escape from his lungs. Should she call him a truly vicious bastard?
“Fine. So it’s the Jangwon Ban-Geom-Mun? Ah. Is that Paeng Sojeo there too?”
“That Ban-Geom-Mun nonsense again. If you mean my sister, unfortunately, yes.”
His laughter hadn’t completely subsided, so Paeng Daesan’s voice rose about half a note higher. Cheong quickly changed her tune.
“Then it’s the Jangwon Do-mun after all. As a sworn friend who has shared the Dao with Paeng Sojeo, insulting the Dao is the same as insulting me. After all, a sword is nothing more than two sabers put together, isn’t it? From now on, I’ll call sabers twin swords. Since the Wolgwang Twin Sabers are two, the day when the Wolgwang Twin Twin Sabers will roar is not far off.”
At that, Paeng Daesan’s gaze toward Cheong sank heavily. It was the look of someone wondering what kind of woman this was.