Eat Your Meal Before You Go
It would be fine.
The blade danced brilliantly before Hwa Yeonseol's eyes. She had never seen such swift, dazzling knife work before—and least of all from a cook.
Morning had come, and Seo Yugyeom was preparing breakfast. His personal philosophy was that no matter if the Thousand Poisons Alliance might come crashing through the door at any moment, a man still had to eat.
Amid flames that leapt nearly to the ceiling, the great round wok rocked back and forth. Within it, all manner of meat and vegetables and spices swirled together in waves of fragrance.
Hwa Yeonseol, who had been watching in a daze, turned her head at the sound of movement behind her.
It was Jin Seongun. He swept the floor, took down the chairs that had been stacked and set atop the table from the night before, and wiped down both table and chairs with a cloth.
*Is this really okay?*
The cook cooked, and the waiter cleaned.
It was, unmistakably, the picture of an inn preparing for its morning trade. The only problem was that last night, several dozen of Deokyang's unorthodox fighters had died in the front courtyard of this very inn.
Jin Seongun—the man who had cut down those same fighters, long the terror of Deokyang's people, with a single stroke of his blade—was now struggling with a stain on the tabletop that simply refused to wipe away.
Hwa Yeonseol felt as though she had stepped into some other world, severed from reality altogether. While she stood there blankly, Seo Yugyeom finished the cooking and began setting dishes on the table one by one.
It wasn't fancy, but the sheen and color of the various stir-fried dishes, and their aroma, whetted the appetite.
"Let's eat."
As Seo Yugyeom spoke and took his seat, Jin Seongun—fresh from his mortal duel with the stain—naturally settled into the chair across from him.
Hwa Yeonseol stayed rooted where she was, neither approaching nor withdrawing. To approach felt awkward with Seo Yugyeom there, but she was hungry, all the same.
Jin Seongun glanced at her and said, "You have to eat if you want to fight."
It was an invitation to come and eat with them.
Hwa Yeonseol hesitated a moment, then approached the table. As she sat, she said awkwardly, "I won't be much help, I'm afraid……"
What Hwa Yeonseol was good at was business, not the blade.
If the Thousand Poisons Alliance and their unorthodox ilk came swarming now, she would be utterly useless.
Thinking of it left a bitter taste in her mouth. Born and raised the daughter of a great merchant guild, she had spent her whole life honing skills that proved worthless at the moment they mattered most.
Watching her expression darken, Jin Seongun said in a tone that made nothing of it, "Everyone has their own fight in this world. They may look different, but underneath, they're all rather alike."
That, too, was something Jin Seongun had only recently come to understand.
He'd never known it in all his years as a waiter. But running the inn, and taking up the blade to fight against martial artists, had taught him that everyone fought and lived in their own way.
A waiter battles the flood of incoming customers; a cook battles fire hotter than any demon furnace.
Even Noh Sangwon, who seemed to carry not a single care in the world, would sit alone in his fabric shop on certain moonlit nights, sighing deep and wrestling with his troubles.
"When our fight ends, Lady Hwa Yeonseol's fight will begin."
With that, Jin Seongun returned to his meal. Sampling Seo Yugyeom's craft anew made him want to finish up his work quickly and head home.
The meal wound down in quiet and peace.
Jin Seongun finished cleaning the inn, and Seo Yugyeom did the dishes. Hwa Yeonseol, having nothing else to do, helped Jin Seongun in the meantime.
When the three of them sat back down around the table, Jin Seongun said abruptly, "Preparations are done. Now we call for our customers."
Hwa Yeonseol's face went blank with confusion, but Seo Yugyeom seemed to grasp the words at once, nodding. "If the inn gets wrecked, Hwaun Merchant Group will fix it. You can manage at least that much, surely?"
Seo Yugyeom looked at Hwa Yeonseol.
Her large eyes rolled this way and that for a moment.
Then it dawned on her, and she spoke with a startled face. "You're luring them here?"
Jin Seongun nodded calmly. He and Seo Yugyeom had already settled this in their talk the night before.
"We left the unorthodox fighters' bodies where they fell on purpose. Everyone in town must have seen the sight this morning and been startled. They won't come anywhere near this place for a while now."
The people had eyes and ears.
They knew that Saryonggangbang and Mokyangmun had vanished of late, that some ominous wind was stirring.
And last night, dozens of unorthodox martial artists had breathed their last before the Deokyang Inn.
The townspeople would surely sense that something grave was about to unfold here at the Deokyang Inn.
"Fighting here means the least harm done."
It was the decision he'd reached after hearing Hwa Yeonseol's words the night before. The Thousand Poisons Alliance would stoop to any foulness to win.
If the bastards took the townsfolk hostage or set some treacherous trap, things would become truly thorny.
Hwa Yeonseol stared straight at Jin Seongun.
Was it her imagination, or did he seem to harbor not the slightest thought that he might lose?
His confidence was admirable, but it worried her a little. However great a master he might be, Jin Seongun looked barely past his mid-twenties, and their opponents were the men who had conquered an entire city's unorthodox underworld.
"What should we write?"
As Seo Yugyeom brought over brush, ink, and paper, Jin Seongun glared at the blank sheet with a grave face.
Hwa Yeonseol found it absurd, but knowing it wasn't her place to chime in, she simply kept quiet.
After a moment's deliberation, Jin Seongun took the brush from Seo Yugyeom and wrote something down.
When Hwa Yeonseol read the words on the paper, a snort of air escaped her despite herself.
Eat your meal before you go.
Above the brief inscription was written Saryeonggeuk's name; below it, Jin Seongun's own.
While Hwa Yeonseol was still blinking, Jin Seongun wore a thoroughly satisfied expression.
* * *
The Golden Flower Pavilion of Hwaun Merchant Group.
The hall that served as the guild leader's residence and office was now packed with vicious unorthodox fighters.
Saryeonggeuk sat in the seat of honor like a man who already owned Hwaun Merchant Group, surveying the faces of the unorthodox crowd.
"Well now, Chief Manager. Doesn't seeing Deokyang's little brothers gathered like this make your heart feel at ease?"
Ho Yeonbaek, the chief manager at his side, looked out over the unorthodox fighters. At the same moment, they looked back at him.
Ho Yeonbaek shrank back without quite knowing why. Something about their eyes seemed to sneer at him, calling him pathetic.
He forced out a laugh. "……Haha. Would that it were so."
The mood in the hall was a peculiar one indeed.
Deokyang's unorthodox fighters bowed their heads before Saryeonggeuk, but their eyes looked troubled.
The Thousand Poisons Alliance's warriors would soon pour into Deokyang. Everyone knew it. Born and raised in Deokyang themselves, these fighters could hardly help but worry.
Saryeonggeuk knew their concern as well, but saw no need to mention it.
Just then, one of Hwaun Merchant Group's serving girls came looking for the chief manager.
Granted permission, she entered the room, flinched at the sight of all the unorthodox fighters, then slipped over to Ho Yeonbaek and whispered softly in his ear.
Ho Yeonbaek's eyes darted about.
Presently the girl handed him a single letter. Reading it, Ho Yeonbaek turned to Saryeonggeuk with a grave face. "A letter has arrived, sir, bearing your name as Vice Alliance Leader……"
Saryeonggeuk took the letter and read its contents.
Eat your meal before you go.
If a killing intent could have been poured into his gaze, the letter would have been torn to shreds on the spot.
Saryeonggeuk glared at it a moment longer, then let out a long breath and scoffed. "The loaches have prepared something, it seems."
The Deokyang Inn was the inn Hwa Yeonseol had fled to.
Ho Yeonbaek knew it, and so did Saryeonggeuk.
"Tonight," Saryeonggeuk said, "we go to the inn."
At that, Ho Yeonbaek voiced his worry. "……Will that really be all right?"
Saryeonggeuk glanced at him.
It was a light motion, but a flicker of murderous intent brushed across his eyes, and Ho Yeonbaek hastily bowed his head.
Looking at him, Saryeonggeuk said, "What could possibly go wrong?"
Then he looked around the room—and saw that the one-armed Leader of Twilight Pavilion and the other unorthodox bastards, the Leader of Blue Night Valley included, wore insolent looks as well.
The Twilight Pavilion's leader's gaze in particular was monumentally disrespectful, so Saryeonggeuk asked in a dry voice, "Have you something to say?"
"I do."
Saryeonggeuk let out a short laugh.
*So the only one in this backwater of Deokyang with any spine to him is the Twilight Pavilion's leader, is it?*
"Then speak."
"The Thousand Poisons Alliance's warriors are expected to arrive by tomorrow, as I understand it."
"And so?"
"The ones in that inn are monsters. They killed dozens of armed men with a single stroke."
"And so?"
"Is there any reason we must go tonight?"
Saryeonggeuk, who had been nodding along, rose silently from his seat. The Twilight Pavilion's leader, whose eyes had been burning with defiance, flinched ever so slightly.
Saryeonggeuk cut a path through the crowd of fighters and approached him.
All eyes watched the tense exchange—and Yang Gwang, the Twilight Pavilion's second-in-command, stepped forward to block his way.
The Twilight Pavilion's leader seized Yang Gwang's arm and began slapping his cheek, again and again.
By the time Yang Gwang's face had mottled red and blue, the leader was growling, "This son of a bitch doesn't know his place—"
Everyone glared at the Twilight Pavilion's leader in reproach. No matter how you looked at it, humiliating a subordinate who'd stepped up for his sake like that was too much.
But Yang Gwang himself was grateful. He had flared up for a moment and moved to bar Saryeonggeuk's path—and in that same instant, the man's killing intent had tickled the back of his neck.
Had his leader not intervened, he would be dead.
Having saved Yang Gwang's life, the Twilight Pavilion's leader bowed his head to Saryeonggeuk. "My apologies. I've failed to keep my subordinates properly in line."
Saryeonggeuk studied his eyes for a moment. He could see perfectly well the impure current flowing within them, but made no mention of it.
To be precise, he had no reason to.
*The bastard will be dead soon anyway.*
This was why Saryeonggeuk was intent on heading to the inn before the Thousand Poisons Alliance even arrived.
He intended to drag every last one of these bastards there and have them killed. Then, once the exhausted monster was worn down, he would finish it himself.
After matters were thus settled, the Alliance's forces would arrive, and Hwaun Merchant Group and Deokyang alike would fall naturally into the Thousand Poisons Alliance's grasp.
A clean, elegant scheme, without a single loose thread.
Saryeonggeuk held the Twilight Pavilion's leader's gaze for a long moment, then said, "We go to the inn. Tonight."
"……"
The leader stared into Saryeonggeuk's eyes.
He could feel it plainly: any further defiance meant death.
After a stretch of silence, he bowed his head. "……Understood."
The face of the Twilight Pavilion's leader, head lowered, had frozen colder than ice.
* * *
The hour when dusk hung from the eaves.
The evening sun stretched long through the inn's open door.
Hwa Yeonseol had settled off to one side, gazing outside, lost in thought.
Since earlier, not a single soul had passed by the inn. Just as Jin Seongun and Seo Yugyeom had said, the people of Deokyang had evidently sensed something coming.
Jin Seongun had told her to take shelter somewhere for a while, but she had refused.
If Jin Seongun and Seo Yugyeom fell, she was a dead woman regardless. That truth would not change no matter where in the world she fled.
*Even if I could spend my whole life in hiding, it would mean nothing if the guild were taken from me.*
Just as martial artists who lose their arts often give up on life itself, so too—for a woman born and raised within the guild—had that place been the whole of her existence.
As the scenery beyond the door shifted slowly from crimson to deep indigo—
A long shadow suddenly fell across the entrance. No figure could be seen. Only that someone was standing quietly at the threshold.
Hwa Yeonseol shot to her feet and, without meaning to, held her breath. Her body had begun to tremble finely.
She had already felt Saryeonggeuk's presence once, back at the guild.
Merely sharing a room with him had terrified her so—then how much deeper a fear would this be, him coming with his killing intent set upon her?
Just then, a hand came to rest lightly on her shoulder. At the same instant, the trembling in her body subsided.
"It'll be all right."
Having breathed a touch of the Yeowol Mind Art's gentle inner energy into her to calm her, Jin Seongun walked out toward the entrance to greet his guests.