Show Your Face, Then Leave (3)
Baek Wontae talked with him for a while and quickly came to a realization.
This bastard’s a pushover.
The Dang siblings were bad enough, but this guy was thick as a wall too. If he had doubts, he could’ve just ripped the damn hood off and been done with it, but instead he kept babbling on, asking for understanding like some timid schoolboy.
Thanks to that, Wontae didn’t lose a single exchange and crushed him completely, but...
Now he’s grabbing on to me?
If he really pulled the hood off, what was he supposed to say then?
Dang Ihwa’s face was already all over Hamwon by now.
If the Dang Clan started asking around the city, they’d trace the trail back to Ihyeon too, then the travel route would come out, and from there Heokryeonhyang would be exposed as well.
Wontae wasn’t ignorant of any of that.
If they got caught, the math stopped working.
He didn’t like it, but he’d have to use his body.
Clench.
Baek Wontae caught his wrist.
Dang Rim’s shoulders jerked.
He was useless when it came to capability, but his body wasn’t weak. In fact, trying to make up for his incompetence, he had trained over and over again. The results still fell far short of what he’d hoped, but his strength was far beyond that of an ordinary man.
He didn’t even need to spend internal energy on some flimsy little thing like this. If he used Dang Clan inner power on a commoner, it could cause poisoning, so he couldn’t use it anyway...
In any case, the man’s grip didn’t feel like anything at all. He could simply ignore it and yank the robe open.
But...
He couldn’t move.
...What is this pressure?
The man definitely had no strength and no internal energy.
He was at least a handspan shorter than him, too.
And yet his hand wouldn’t move.
An inexplicable fear had crawled over him.
Then—
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
The innkeeper rushed in and barked at him.
“You there! Let go of her this instant. Right now!”
She pointed at Dang Rim with the tip of her finger.
Startled, Dang Rim let go of the robe hem.
Baek Wontae shoved his wrist away as if flicking off something dirty.
The innkeeper narrowed her eyes and demanded an explanation.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but you. You’re one of the Dang Clan people who served my great-uncle, aren’t you? Why are you causing trouble here?”
Dang Rim stammered out an excuse.
“S-sorry, ma’am. It’s not trouble, it’s just that...”
The innkeeper cut him off.
“I heard enough. What was it—an out-of-town couple? Dang Clan criminals? I’ve known those people for ages! Say something that makes sense!”
There was anger in her voice.
To be honest, the moment she heard the words Dang Clan, a shadow had crossed her face.
It was clearly the kind of thing it would be dangerous to get tangled up in.
But to her, a kind neighbor mattered more than danger.
Dang Ihwa glanced at the innkeeper.
The innkeeper caught sight of Ihwa through the gap in the robe and gave a slight wink.
She was the sort of woman who was usually diligent and kind.
And now that woman had thrown herself into this mess with her robe pulled over her head, plainly in danger, so naturally she’d extended a hand.
The innkeeper raised her voice even more.
“I know those people well! They’ve got nothing to do with the Dang Clan, so stop harassing them and let them go! No matter how important the Dang Clan is, you can’t go around grabbing innocent people like this!”
Dang Rim swallowed hard.
Now an outsider had stepped in too, and not just anyone—someone related to a merchant elder.
He had to back off.
But then—
The surname Dang is wasted on a useless tall bastard like you.
His sister’s sneering voice rang in his head.
At first it had only been a simple suspicion.
But after getting destroyed in words by that man and watching the woman keep hiding her face, the suspicion had curdled into something like certainty.
Years and years of chasing her down, all of it for nothing.
And now that he thought he’d finally found the decisive clue, he ran forward like a man possessed.
“Ma’am, then let me ask one thing.”
The innkeeper frowned.
“What now?”
“You said you know them well. Then do you know this couple’s names?”
The air in the inn froze.
Everyone except Dang Rim looked taken aback.
“If you really know them, then you should at least be able to call them by name. But you keep saying ‘that side’ or ‘those people’—that’s a little unnatural, don’t you think?”
His voice turned cold at the end.
“Maybe the innkeeper here only meant to help two strangers out of the goodness of her heart. If so, that’s simple. Just tell us their names, and we’ll be on our way politely.”
Of course the innkeeper didn’t know the man’s name.
And she couldn’t just blurt out Ihwa’s name as Hahou Hwa, either.
Even without knowing the details, she could tell the woman was being threatened.
If I say the wrong thing, Hahou-ssojeo could end up marked by the Dang Clan...
And even if her great-uncle had some connection to the Dang Clan, getting marked by them herself would be dangerous too.
Even if Hamwon lay outside their direct sphere of influence, she knew full well how terrifying they were.
They stopped at nothing and eliminated anything that stood in their way.
What made them frightening was that you never knew how far the danger would reach.
On one side, Baek Wontae clenched his teeth.
He hadn’t calculated for this.
For Dang Rim, on the other hand, this was a stroke of luck.
He himself didn’t even know it was luck.
“Uh... th-that...”
He reached instinctively for the most common surname in Hamwon.
“T-they’re just the Jang couple! How could I not know that?”
His voice shook, but he forced a laugh into it.
Baek Wontae’s fingertips twitched.
“Jang... is that so.”
Are they actually acquainted?
Dang Rim’s insides burned.
It had been a shot in the dark, a question tossed out without much thought, but maybe it was a useful one after all.
And he accepted the situation exactly as it stood.
If it were my sister, what would she have done...?
If it had been his sister and she’d felt suspicious yesterday, she would’ve followed them immediately and ripped the truth out of them on the spot.
He wasn’t like that, so he’d dragged this out until it turned into a disaster.
He couldn’t trust himself.
To get out of this, he’d have to bite down hard, just like his sister would.
He looked down at Baek Wontae.
“Can you prove it?”
Dang Ihwa went rigid.
Jang? ...He wants her to prove she’s a Jang?
No matter how smart Baek Wontae was, could he really clean this up?
Even if he argued, the other side would never just accept it.
And if that happened, they’d be at a stalemate.
Keep this up too long and something ugly was bound to happen.
Dang Ihwa stole a glance at Baek Wontae.
Her eyes widened.
He was smiling.
This is lucky.
One word had slipped from the innkeeper’s mouth.
Jang.
An absurd coincidence, and a stroke of luck.
Because he had a hidden ace.
He rummaged through his bundle.
Then he held out his hand.
What he was holding was...
“...Jang-pyeong. Resident of eastern Hamwon... single...”
Dang Rim’s voice trailed out weakly.
What he’d been reading was a Sinpae.
One of the Sinpae belonging to the thugs who’d been turned into a bloody mess at Physician Yang’s pharmacy.
Baek Wontae had been carrying them around.
Just in case.
“The reason it says single is because we’re newlyweds.”
Baek Wontae smiled as naturally as breathing.
“We were supposed to get them reissued after the honeymoon, so my wife turned hers in early. What did I tell you? I said to hand it in later. Stuff like this happens when you rush things, doesn’t it?”
Dang Ihwa nodded reflexively.
An escape route had opened up.
Already, dozens of ways out were unfolding in Baek Wontae’s head.
Ihwa’s name turned into a blank space, and whatever name Dang Rim tried next, he had no way to verify it now.
It’s over.
Dang Rim gritted his teeth.
He had lost any grounds for holding the couple here.
“Anyway, that’s settled now, right? Making me dig up someone else’s Sinpae and all—what are you, the local constables?”
He narrowed his eyes and looked down at Dang Rim.
“If you’ve still got something to say, go ahead.”
That was when a heavy voice rolled out from the rear doorway.
“What’s all this commotion?”
Dang Rim spun around in alarm.
The merchant elder was walking over with his hands behind his back.
“Elder of the caravan, that is—”
Dang Rim started to explain, but Baek Wontae stepped in first.
Without hesitation, he went straight up to the elder.
“Good day, sir.”
His posture was courteous.
“May I ask whether you know this man?”
Dang Rim’s eyes went wide.
W-what is he doing...!
The merchant elder stroked his beard and asked, “He’s one of my attendants. Is there some problem?”
And then Baek Wontae’s method acting began.
He put on the most wronged expression he could manage.
“The thing is... this fellow here was clutching my wife and trying to pin a false charge on her.”
“P-pinning a false charge on her? I wasn’t—!”
Dang Rim waved both hands in a panic, but—
“Enough.”
The elder’s gesture cut him off.
“I’d like to hear the whole story.”
Baek Wontae had been waiting for that invitation.
He laid out the entire sequence of events.
He suspected my wife was connected to the person the Dang Clan was chasing.
Show me your face.
I’ll pay you, so take off the robe.
He grabbed at the clothes and tried to force the robe open...
He made every line sound as provocative and misleading as possible, turning each phrase into something that could only be read one way.
The merchant elder’s brows twitched.
“I... am afraid of the Dang Clan.”
Baek Wontae lowered his head.
“I would never dare repeat everything I heard there aloud. I understand it’s Dang Clan internal business. But one thing is clear: my wife has been falsely accused and held here. She has absolutely nothing to do with the Dang Clan. I beg you, sir, please consider the matter and persuade your attendant...”
He dragged the last sentence out deliberately.
“...to let us go. We’re newlyweds on our way to our honeymoon, and this is what we get? What a thunderbolt from the blue.”
And the innkeeper added fuel to the fire.
“Great-Uncle, he questioned me too. He acted like I wouldn’t even know the names of a married couple and told me to name them.”
The merchant elder’s face twisted like a ghost had crawled across it.
“Dang Rim, what in the world do you think you’re doing!”
His shout shook the inn.
“You’re trying to harass a newlywed woman over nothing more than a fleeting suspicion? And now you’re dragging my niece into it too!”
“E-elder, that’s not it, I was just—”
“Silence! I thought you were a kind man, so I’d been giving you the benefit of the doubt, but this is a grave misjudgment indeed! No matter how important the matter, there are boundaries that must be kept!”
“I-I’m sorry...!”
“Why are you apologizing to me!”
Dang Rim bowed toward Baek Wontae and Ihwa.
“To the couple... I sincerely apologize for my rudeness. Please understand my foolish mistake with generosity and forgive me...”
“Now you’re speaking my language.”
The merchant elder let out a tired sigh.
“As the one who employed him, I apologize as well. I’ll sort this out here and now, so you two hurry along and enjoy your honeymoon.”
“Before that, there’s something we need to do.”
“Something you need to do?”
Baek Wontae walked up to Dang Rim.
“Our carriage already left. The entire travel schedule’s ruined, and my wife suffered both physical and mental harm because you kept her here.”
He held out his hand.
“You should compensate us.”
Dang Rim swallowed hard.
He couldn’t refuse.
With trembling fingers, he took a silver tael from his robe and handed it over.
It was the entirety of their travel money.
Baek Wontae accepted it.
“You really didn’t have to go this far... but I suppose thanks to you, we’ll have a pleasant trip.”
He took the woman’s hand and calmly walked out of the inn.
Dang Rim, left behind, stared after their backs in a daze.
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