The Opening Move Begins with Ho Cheon-an -1
Yeongsang-ru. Seongrak Pavilion. Manhwa-ru.
These were the places ranked highest among the prosperous entertainment houses of Sichuan Province.
In this Murim Cheonha, the entertainment houses handled every aspect of nightlife. Alcohol, gambling, music, women… everything that belonged to the culture of the night tended to gather in one place.
Yeongsang-ru specialized especially in fair and square gambling, while Manhwa-ru was renowned for the exceptional quality of its courtesans.
Then what was Seongrak Pavilion’s weapon?
The reason people ranked Seongrak Pavilion at the top was its sheer scale. A massive scale on an entirely different level from the other houses. Cheap food and drink born from that scale, low gambling exchange fees, and so on.
But that was only the surface reason. The real reason was something else entirely.
It provided “entertainment” to its special customers.
Suppose a rich man wanted to enjoy gambling. Even if that rich man could not gamble at all, if two professionals teamed up to feed him the tiles, fleecing one person was no trouble at all. In that fashion they toyed with people who knew nothing and simply wanted to enjoy a game.
Harassing those who had come for ordinary night fun, satisfying their sense of superiority.
Seongrak Pavilion specialized in this shady VVIP service.
Entertainment houses were, at their core, almost entirely underground industries, and once conscience was abandoned the ways to make money became endless. Seongrak Pavilion was the ultimate end of that descent into the shadows—willing to sell even ordinary customers if it meant profit.
That was why the gambling dens of Seongrak Pavilion were filled with fake gamblers who strutted about as if they were gambling gods, real professionals in tow. It was no exaggeration to say the dens themselves were playgrounds for the special customers.
“…Seongrak Pavilion Master Yu Ji-gyeong.”
“Ahem. Have you forgotten our agreement?”
“Huu.”
Disguised Yeo Il-ye forced her killing intent to settle. It was hardly a real disguise—Heukmyo had simply put her whole heart into dressing up Yeo Il-ye, a woman who had never looked as if she would put anything on her face in her life. The beauty mark dotted beneath her left eye made her seem like an entirely different person.
Concealing the face completely would have been less suited to their true purpose than this level of makeup.
“Young lady.”
“…Speak.”
“I understand that you wish to erase Yu Ji-gyeong this very moment. Or rather, ‘guess’ is a more fitting word than understand. But for today, please endure for the sake of this Ho Cheon-an’s face.”
“Of course. I agreed to Benefactor’s plan as well.”
Yeo Il-ye offered a fist salute. Today’s disguise concept for her was a beautiful bodyguard hired by some wealthy man.
A gorgeously made-up face and form-fitting, splendid martial attire. The sharp gaze unique to martial artists had not dimmed in the slightest, yet her outward appearance was beautiful enough to snare the eyes of anyone who passed by.
“However, controlling my emotions as I resolved is not so easy.”
“From tomorrow it will be fine.”
“…I do not believe I will grow used to it in a single day.”
Ah, well, I already said it’ll be fine tomorrow. Yeo Il-ye did not look convinced by my words, but as long as she did not go berserk today, that was enough.
“Well then, let’s go in.”
When one gambled, being harassed by the house was never a rare occurrence. In the end you lost everything and walked out, yet until that moment you kept winning. How many entertainment houses had raised a storm simply because a little money had piled up in front of me, even when I had every intention of losing it all and leaving?
This body of mine had never forgotten the scorn received from gambling dens during the years I trained at the tables.
I had owed Seongrak Pavilion quite a bit as well.
And even without those petty grudges, I had always wanted to try it once.
Sweeping up money at a gambling house without a single worry about the aftermath.
From today until the day of execution.
I would clock in to Seongrak Pavilion every single day without fail and rip out the very roots of the place.
Gu Ju-jin was scouting for prey again today. The economy of Sichuan Province had not been good of late, but that had nothing to do with Gu Ju-jin. His father ran a usury business in this very Sichuan, after all.
Hehe, the water’s good these days.
The harder the times, the more people flocked to the gambling dens. Opportunities to earn money vanished and methods dried up, so desperate riffraff aiming for sudden fortune poured into the houses.
The hit feel is good—really good.
Staging a scene of winning large sums in collusion with the house’s own gamblers, then savoring the envious and jealous gazes of the onlookers, had been entertaining enough. These days, however, fleecing these riffraff was more fun.
When they stared desperately at the tiles, never even noticing the techniques the professionals used, and lost every last coin, the faces steeped in despair were simply hilarious.
Who to toy with today? Leading two of the house’s gamblers, Gu Ju-jin prowled the floor.
Hmm?
“…Young master. Please stop around here.”
“Don’t stop me, Hyang-dan!”
Ohho…
A woman who appeared to be a bodyguard was blushing as though the present situation were deeply shameful.
“Kh… Relying on gambling, of all things… What will become of you…”
Splendid martial attire over a firm figure. A face beautiful enough to make even passersby turn their heads. And that innocent, stammering air as if the entertainment house and gambling floor themselves were foreign to her. She possessed every element that could stir a man’s blood.
At once Gu Ju-jin swept his gaze over the man speaking with the bodyguard. An ordinary face that seemed a little past thirty. The clothes looked expensive, yet they clearly had not been properly cared for in days. His build was average, but the degree of training was far from ordinary. A martial artist?
“This is the only way our merchant group can survive!”
What, a merchant?
If he was not a martial artist, so much the better. Gu Ju-jin smacked his lips. Today he would fleece this fellow. If he scratched carefully enough to make the man lose his reason, he might even be able to do something about the bodyguard standing behind him.
Gu Ju-jin was one of Seongrak Pavilion’s special customers.
If he spent the money and placed a special request, he might get to taste that warrior tonight.
With that thought, Gu Ju-jin watched the table.
“Hehehe… What a greenhorn.”
“Go suck more of your mother’s milk! Or beg the young lady behind you for it!”
“Wahahahaha!”
The bodyguard trembled. The young man hurriedly placed his bet.
Gold coins.
Greed bloomed across the faces of everyone at the table. Forgetting even their harassment of the bodyguard, they all sank into the magic of gold; the tiles circulated in silence.
And then…
“I-I won!”
“This is ridiculous!”
“Beginner’s luck, damn it…”
Those seated at the same table as the young man spat curses and flung their Golpae. The winner was the young man. He rejoiced with flamboyant abandon.
“Euha, euhahaha! Did you see? Instantly won gold coins, didn’t I!”
“….”
The bodyguard looked at the young man with an ambiguous expression and merely nodded.
A man who seemed to have run out of betting money spat curses and left his seat. Gu Ju-jin sat down as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The moment Gu Ju-jin took the seat, one of the men still guarding it flinched and rose. Gu Ju-jin was a somewhat known figure at Seongrak Pavilion. Naturally, Gu Ju-jin’s own gambler claimed the vacated place. The board was now set for Gu Ju-jin, his gambler, another man whose temper was fully ignited, and the young master.
“Brother, may we begin?”
“Ah, sorry! I got a little too excited! Let’s continue!”
Gu Ju-jin smiled as he felt the drinkers turning their attention this way. The flamboyant display and words like “gold coins” had clearly drawn the eyes of those drinking. Spectators who recognized Gu Ju-jin quietly drifted closer, and attention began to gather.
Hehe, I can enjoy myself today.
Judging by the way he had casually produced gold coins, the young master’s stake was not small. The attention of the gambling house, the despair-steeped face of a worldly-ignorant young master, and the thought that he might even claim the pretty bodyguard behind as a bonus—Gu Ju-jin could not help laughing.
Even without that, the young master’s pathetic gambling skill, utterly ignorant of the ways of the world, was enough to draw laughter on its own.
Whether the surrounding gazes weighed on him, his arms trembled until he dropped a Golpae. Gu Ju-jin and the audience alike burst into roaring laughter.
“Hahahaha! The table must have looked funny to you!”
“Get lost right this instant!”
The crowd poured jeers. The young master looked around with a pale face amid the hostile atmosphere. The bodyguard kept her silence.
That bodyguard, Yeo Il-ye, felt a true chill run through her.
…A terrifying man.
Yeo Il-ye knew Ho Cheon-an’s true gambling skill—the divine hand technique that had toyed with two Super-Peak Realm experts right under their noses.
Yet Ho Cheon-an was delivering a performance so complete that even she fell into confusion.
The killing intent born of having to remain still inside the enemy’s very stronghold. The fury of enduring blatant sexual harassment she had never once experienced in her life. All of it cooled into something cold and still.
Ho Cheon-an, who could easily fleece anyone inside this entertainment house if he merely put his mind to it, was enduring the mockery pouring from every direction while acting terrified.
How can he do that?
If he exerted even a fraction of that hand skill, the people gathered here would soon let out gasps of admiration. They would send gazes of envy, awe, or respect. Ho Cheon-an could have basked in those gazes. He possessed skill that made such gazes only natural.
Yet he did not.
Even with more than enough ability to achieve his purpose, he accepted mockery, lost face, and pursued perfection still further.
Because Yeo Il-ye herself had once ruined great matters—matters of dealing with her enemies—unable to master momentary anger and emotion, the rational figure of the present Ho Cheon-an loomed all the larger.
“What? Lucky!”
“Hahahaha! That greenhorn! Look at the scared face even after winning!”
Even Yeo Il-ye, who knew nothing of gambling, felt a chill once she saw through Ho Cheon-an’s design, the reverse side of it. While he repeated winning and losing, gold coins piled at his seat, yet not a single person grew wary of him.
They only grew angry at his good luck, laughed at the opponents’ mistakes, and attached absurd excuses like beginner’s luck.
…Is this the difference in vessel?
Mockery. Contempt. Curses. Ho Cheon-an paid no mind to any of them. He simply stripped away emotion and steadily walked the steps like a machine, all to achieve his goal.
“Gold coins! Ten nyang! Damn you!”
Gu Ju-jin raised veins on his neck and screamed. Ho Cheon-an showed joy at his luck and fear at Gu Ju-jin’s attitude, all while acting the sucker who could not control his greed and kept making foolish choices.
“Uaaaaaak!! This is ridiculous!”
Of course the loser was Gu Ju-jin. He glared at the gambler beside him, who was pouring cold sweat. Gu Ju-jin’s own gambling skill was too pathetic to even call him a gambler; the times he had toyed with people using the tables had been purely the work of the professionals Seongrak Pavilion attached to him.
Unable to blame the gambler in front of a crowd, Gu Ju-jin rampaged, smashing innocent fixtures.
Seeing him scream and cause a disturbance, the onlookers raised their voices in laughter.
“Hahaha! Look at that self-destructing figure! How did such a man ever make a name as a gambling expert at Seongrak Pavilion!”
“Gu Ju-jin’s reputation was empty after all!”
Ho Cheon-an pinched his cheek into a clumsy smile and hugged the gold coins.
“Euha, euhaha! Did you see, Hyang-dan! I—I did it!”
Then he quickly began counting the coins. People smacked their lips at the sight. The sum Ho Cheon-an had won was fully thirty nyang in gold. Even a greenhorn who did not know the first character of gambling was no complete fool. Happy with today’s luck, he would surely flee.
Suddenly Ho Cheon-an’s expression crumpled into a crying face.
“One nyang short of paying the merchant group’s debt…”
He hugged the gold coins to his chest and wore a conflicted look. The VIPs of Seongrak Pavilion flocked over with greedy expressions, eager to tear into the sucker who now held dozens of gold coins.
That idiot used up every scrap of luck he will ever have in his life and still wants more!
Hehe, a big fish has appeared today!
Yeo Il-ye had been honestly skeptical of the present operation. Smash every special customer and make Seongrak Pavilion stagger. Could one man simply standing at a gambling table truly damage a house this large? She had not been able to shake the doubt.
But now it seemed possible.
Even though one of the special customers had lost dozens of gold coins in an instant and dropped out, the others were flocking without the slightest wariness.
“G-good… Just a little more and I can pay the debt…!”
“I’ll sit!”
“What nonsense! Get lost! My party and I will take the seats!”
No—it was not merely a lack of wariness. A fight had broken out over the seats, each man scrambling to be first into the tiger’s jaws.
Amid the finger-pointing and fistfights, Ho Cheon-an hugged the money and trembled as if terrified.
Really…
If this flow continued for days on end—if Ho Cheon-an’s design fit so perfectly that the present scene no longer felt like a part of reality but merely a farce—
Would it not be possible to topple this Seongrak Pavilion?
Thinking that, Yeo Il-ye gazed at the shabby back of Ho Cheon-an. The man performing the act of trembling and clutching gold coins in the middle of a brawl looked so pathetic that even a lover waited for ten long years would have fallen out of love at a single glance.
Yet to Yeo Il-ye, Ho Cheon-an felt larger than any other person alive.
That day Ho Cheon-an won more than a hundred nyang in gold coins.
And Yeo Il-ye returned after turning dozens of attackers into rice cakes.