A Damn Good Thief
Won Gisang, branch manager of the Muhan Bank Yichang Branch.
True to form for a seasoned, capable merchant, he stepped forward to patch up the greatest crisis of his career.
"Gentlemen, I believe there has been a misunderstanding between the two of you. Why don't you come inside and—"
"Silence."
At Sama Hui's bark, Won Gisang shut his mouth and retreated.
That crazy, manners-lacking little brat...
Such thoughts, of course, he kept carefully tucked away inside.
Won Gisang fidgeted restlessly, watching the two men from a slight distance.
For a long while, Sama Hui and Jin Seongun simply stared each other down in silence. Both seemed to feel a profound distaste toward the other.
Impressive, honestly.
Jin Seongun was genuinely awed.
He had spent most of his life as a powerless waiter, which meant he had dealt with every conceivable specimen of troublemaker and degenerate. Yet never before had he met anyone so purely, so concentratedly obnoxious and grating as the man before him.
Even Seomun Ak, who bore the illustrious reputation of being a legendary wastrel, seemed no match for this man's sheer unpleasantness.
His refined yet exquisitely sensitive features, his clothing, his expression, his aura, the very energy he radiated—everything about him was authoritarian and insufferable.
Jin Seongun found himself realizing, once more, just how formidable the Sama Clan truly was.
That a man like this could live to this day without getting himself cut down meant only one thing: the backing of the Sama Clan was that solid.
"What are you staring at?"
Sama Hui asked.
It was hardly a fair question, coming from a man who was glaring right back at him, but Sama Hui had never been one to concern himself with such things.
Neither, of course, was Jin Seongun.
"I was thinking about how unbearable you are."
"..."
The warriors of the Sama Clan all wore expressions usually reserved for witnessing a madman.
Sama Hui's face was even more of a sight. It seemed this was the first time anyone had ever said such a thing to his face, because it flushed crimson in an instant.
Losing his composure, he raised his voice.
"Do you understand what it means, the words you just uttered?"
"You mean the part about you being unbearable?"
"...Not that. I'm talking about what you said before—that a thief broke into this compound and escaped just now."
"I was merely stating facts."
"What your words imply is a claim that our Sama Clan's formation was mocked by a mere thief. Do you truly believe you can take responsibility for that?"
Classic.
Twist a man's words out of proportion, then crush him under the weight of the clan's name and authority.
Of course, being a man who kept Seomun Ak around, Jin Seongun was thoroughly immune to such tactics.
"He fled in that direction. If you have some way to verify it, by all means, go check."
He didn't understand the principles of formations.
But if these people were truly skilled formation masters, they ought to be able to find something anomalous in that area.
With that thought, Jin Seongun moved to leave. He had too many customers to serve today to keep wasting breath on this degenerate.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Sama Hui's shrill voice chased him from behind.
Jin Seongun turned to glance at him once, then shook his head side to side.
A torrent of threats came pouring out—demanding he stake his neck on a wager, demanding he state his name, and more besides.
Jin Seongun, naturally, didn't hear a word of it.
Soon after Jin Seongun disappeared, a man approached the still-fuming Sama Hui.
A formation master of the Sama Clan, he hesitated for a moment, glancing nervously around.
Sama Hui's long, sweeping eyebrows twitched.
"What now?"
"Th-there is something I must report..."
The man glanced this way and that, then leaned in close to Sama Hui and spoke in a very small voice.
"...It's certainly not the thief, of course, but there are traces of someone leaving over the wall—not through the main gate."
Sama Hui glared at the man. How could someone who climbed over the wall not be the thief?
For no good reason, his face burned and humiliation welled up inside him.
Sama Hui uselessly glared in the direction Jin Seongun had vanished.
Meanwhile, branch manager Won Gisang could only pray, with everything he had, that Jin Seongun would not relocate the fight to the inn.
...I really should send a gift over to the inn.
So thinking, he stared at the back of Sama Hui's head.
Did martial artists have eyes in the back of their heads?
The moment Sama Hui abruptly spun around, Won Gisang broke into a sheepish grin and dipped his head in a bow.
Son of a—
Upon returning to the inn, Jin Seongun went straight to find the Martial Gods. More precisely, Shin Tu, the self-proclaimed greatest thief in all of history.
"I saw that thief today."
The moment Jin Seongun said this, the Martial Gods each stopped what they were doing and looked over.
After a brief silence, it was—somewhat surprisingly—the Blood Demon who spoke first.
"Did you kill him."
"He got away."
What followed was a silence even longer than the one before. The expressions of the Martial Gods grew noticeably graver.
Shin Tu's face, in particular, was a masterpiece.
In the grave tone of a man witnessing the impossible made real, Shin Tu asked:
"He got away? You? Were there perhaps multiple thieves? I don't know if they still do it these days, but back in my day, some of them worked in groups, you know."
"There was one."
"Then why did you let him go?"
Jin Seongun explained, step by step, what had happened at the Muhan Bank compound. As he did, Shin Tu's expression brightened by degrees.
"Ahh, so it was those dog-son Sama Clan bastards and their blasted formation! Hahaha! Well, of course it was."
How to put it. He looked like a man terrified that his reputation as the greatest thief in history was about to be stolen from him.
Jin Seongun nodded and said,
"The formation was indeed the reason—but setting that aside, his skill was exceptionally high. I nearly failed to sense his presence at all, and once I lost him the first time, he was gone for good."
"Tsek!"
Shin Tu suddenly let out a sharp bark.
When Jin Seongun gave him a baffled look, Shin Tu continued.
"Whose disciple are you?"
"Elder Sangwang, Elder Blood Demon, Elder Daji, Elder Shin Tu..."
"Right. You are wholly and completely my disciple. Do not forget that I was the first of them all to take you in."
"..."
"How dare a disciple of me, the Shadowless Divine Thief, spout such feeble nonsense! Special training starts now. As the saying goes, a true thief spends his whole life nursing his regrets over the one thing he failed to steal. He will come back. You weren't planning to hand the credit over to those Sama Clan dogs, were you?"
Jin Seongun fell silent for a moment.
He had no particular intention of going out of his way to hunt down a thief. Whether it was the Sama Clan or anyone else, surely catching the thief was enough to settle the matter.
Shin Tu must have read it on his face, because he twisted his features into a fierce scowl. Though it was still gentler than the Blood Demon's smile.
"The way to catch a thief is to become a thief even greater than he is. The Body-Shifting Transposition is a technique refined for facing martial artists—it is ill-suited to thievery."
"I have no intention of becoming a—"
"Tsek!"
A second bark.
Shin Tu's special training commenced shortly thereafter.
The Sword Immortal, Sangwang, Daji—even the Blood Demon—all wore expressions of mild disgust at the sight of him.
Having endured Shin Tu's special training, Jin Seongun returned to the inn. He felt so confident he could steal absolutely anything that his mood was faintly unpleasant.
Crossing the inn's entrance hall while greeting Han Seongchun and Seo Yugyeom, Jin Seongun abruptly stopped in his tracks.
"..."
The Heaven-Killing Short Blade was in his hand.
He had stolen it, purely out of habit.
"...Young hero, you dropped this on the floor."
Jin Seongun handed the Heaven-Killing Short Blade back to Seo Yugyeom.
Seo Yugyeom thanked him warmly, and Jin Seongun felt a quiet, lingering sense of shame.
He felt as though he had become a damn good thief against his own will. Resolving to be careful with his hands for the time being, he stepped outside.
Even though it was still terribly early, a long line of people had already formed in front of the inn.
They were folk who had gathered to drink the Yanghe Daqu, since business opened only after half an shichen.
Jin Seongun glanced around briefly, then called inside.
"Young hero Seomun hasn't arrived yet?"
It was odd, since Seomun Ak was always the earliest to show up for work.
Han Seongchun's answer came promptly.
"The Seomun Clan Patriarch has come to Yichang, so he's gone to pay his respects, you see."
"Ah, so the Patriarch himself has come."
Jin Seongun nodded.
They had said martial artists of every stripe would come flooding in over the thief, and it seemed the Seomun Clan had stepped in as well.
That said, if the Patriarch of the Seomun Clan was personally getting involved, the thief must have caused far more trouble than expected.
I really should have caught him when I had the chance.
Jin Seongun clicked his tongue in regret.
And in the middle of it all, he spotted a welcome face.
Shin Mok, and Mun Hyosang, the new Chief Manager of the Hwaun Merchant Group.
The two had apparently grown close in no time, chatting amicably from a distance, with the local merchants joining in the conversation as well.
Before long, Shin Mok stretched out a hand and pointed at one shop.
A small bookshop directly beside Seongun Inn.
"From here."
Jin Seongun's extraordinarily sharpened hearing caught the sound of their conversation.
Shin Mok swept his outstretched hand sideways in a long, slow arc.
Starting from the bookshop, then the butcher's, the tea house, the pottery shop, the apothecary, all the way to the grain store...
"To here."
The moment Shin Mok said this, the color drained from Mun Hyosang's face, and the owners of the pointed-out shops departed cheering and celebrating.
Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Jin Seongun approached them.
"What were you all discussing?"
Shin Mok answered in place of the worn-out Mun Hyosang.
"Those shops I just pointed out. I bought every one of them. No, wait—the Hwaun Merchant Group bought every one of them."
"...I beg your pardon?"
"We're tearing them all down and expanding Seongun Inn. Truth be told, I was thinking of buying out the other side too, but they say that rascal Noh Sangwon absolutely refuses to sell."
Only then did Jin Seongun understand why Mun Hyosang looked so pale.
Before long, Jin Seongun sent a whispered transmission to Mun Hyosang.
— I will cover a substantial portion of the cost, so do not worry.
Mun Hyosang started violently and exclaimed,
"Wh-what? No, you must not! Compared to the grace you have shown the merchant guild, my honored guest, what are a few shops?"
"It's just that your expression looks so terrible."
"My expression is not about the money, it's—"
Just then, Shin Mok cut in with a hearty laugh.
"The shops I just bought. I paid three times their worth. If you're taking a man's livelihood, that much compensation is only proper, no?"
Mun Hyosang's face crumpled into a look of utter despair.
Only then did Jin Seongun understand. The chief manager's suffering was not merely from spending a large sum—it was from paying a sum that defied all reason.
At the end of the day, the chief manager was still a merchant, and so paying three times a shop's fair value made him feel as though his very flesh and bones were being shaved away.
"Ahem, in any case. I understand Elder Shin Mok's reasoning perfectly. Quite right, of course. These are all people who have run their businesses here for years. They deserve proper compensation... most certainly they dooo."
By the last word, his voice was trembling slightly.
Mun Hyosang bowed deeply to the two of them and made to take his leave.
Shin Mok grabbed him.
"Leaving like that? You wound me."
"I beg your pardon?"
By this point, Mun Hyosang was genuinely afraid of Shin Mok.
What shocking thing would come out of his mouth this time?
Shin Mok's words followed.
"Since such a great sum is being invested, I ought to meet the guild leader myself and express my gratitude. And while I'm at it, I'll have a look at the guild's buildings as well—give them a bit of a touch-up."
Mun Hyosang's eyes flew wide open. Color came rushing back into his deathly pale face.
Jin Seongun thought that Chief Manager Mun was a man as transparent as water.
Before long, Chief Manager Mun, restored to vigor, bowed low and expressed his thanks.
"I-it is an honor, Elder!"
A work by Shin Mok was beyond price.
High officials, transcendent martial artists—even members of the imperial family could not obtain one simply by wanting it.
And that man was offering to carve his work onto the Hwaun Merchant Group.
Mun Hyosang, thinking he had already piled up a momentous achievement the instant he became chief manager, felt the corners of his mouth curl all the way up to his ears.
After the conversation wrapped up.
Jin Seongun returned to the inn once more.
The people in line looked up at him with eyes full of expectation.
Everything was already perfectly prepared for opening.
The very moment he reached for the signboard hanging at the entrance—
"This shabby little hovel sells the Yanghe Daqu?"
A voice came, all too familiar and needling.
Jin Seongun turned his head.
There stood Sama Hui from the compound earlier, staring over with an expression of utter disbelief.
Around him were warriors of roughly his own age, and judging by the energy they radiated, they seemed to be late-stage prodigies of the Orthodox factions.
Who is that person?
Jin Seongun's gaze drifted naturally toward one woman.
It was not because of her dazzling, exceptional beauty.
Setting aside Seo Yugyeom, he had never seen a martial artist radiating that level of presence at such a young age.
Soon, someone in the line recognized them and shouted,
"Jiryong (Formation Dragon) Sama Hui!"
Jin Seongun looked at Sama Hui without particular interest.
The man wore a haughty expression as if it were simply his everyday face.
With a nickname like Formation Dragon, he was presumably a master of mechanical formations. Though he had failed to catch a single thief.
While Sama Hui basked in the crowd's attention, someone else murmured quietly.
"G-Geumbong (Sword Phoenix)? Are the Namgung Clan stepping into this matter in earnest as well?"
Jin Seongun realized she was a daughter of the Namgung Clan. Judging by the energy she carried, the epithet of Phoenix was hardly an exaggeration.
Before long, the group led by Sama Hui advanced toward the inn's entrance.
As a waiter whose duty was to manage the floor, Jin Seongun spoke in a calm, even tone.
"As you can see, there is a line."
Sama Hui cast a dismissive glance down the long queue and gave a contemptuous snort.
"You expect me to stand out in this blistering sun, lined up alongside those rabble?"
"..."
Jin Seongun marveled yet again.
This man truly operated on another level.
Meanwhile, Sama Hui's arrogant voice pressed on.
"That said. So the man who postured so grandly was nothing more than a waiter at some backwater inn like this?"
"That would be the case, yes."
"Haha. Before you get a taste of our wine, I ought to straighten out that insolent attitude of yours first. It will be better for you too, you know. Martial artists will keep flooding into this town for a while yet—who's to say some lowborn wretch like you won't go strutting about without knowing his place and end up dead on a blind blade?"
Jin Seongun stared straight at him.
Before long, Sama Hui began to draw up his energy.
Just around the time the Sword Phoenix behind him began to frown faintly—
"Aaah—!"
A desperate cry rang out from far down the street.
Everyone's eyes—Jin Seongun's, Sama Hui's, all the rest—turned toward it.
There stood Seomun Ak, both eyes blackened into bruises. He had said he was going to meet the Patriarch, and it seemed a certain amount of discipline had taken place.
And then Seomun Ak came sprinting toward them, shouting with the most desperate expression and voice the world had ever known:
"Aaaah, he's going to kill me!"