Mudskippers -1
The future of the Imperial Palace looked bleak.
"And that, you see, is the exact moment the pure luck fell right into my hands!"
"My word, what a thrilling comeback that must have been!"
"Oh-ho, most impressive."
It was the third day since Du-jak and Hwi-gyeong had shown up at the Gungcheong Hall. From the very first day they'd been muttering about itchy palms and restless fingers, and the truth had become plain enough.
Both of them were severe gambling addicts.
The urge to launch a wholesome anti-gambling campaign rose up in me something fierce, but I'd already resolved to keep my head down and slip quietly out of the Imperial Palace, so I settled for playing along with a few agreeable nods.
"The look on the other fellow's face when the sky came crashing down on him — ah, that was something else..."
"Must have been exhilarating."
"Khh, exactly!"
The way they spun their gambling war stories had all the realism of those over-the-top conspiracy theories floating around the internet, but since the two of them were having such a grand time, I just kept nodding along.
It was the same principle as employees howling with laughter when the boss says, "What do you get if you put a lion in a pot and boil it? The Animal King-stew!" — not because the joke is actually funny.
"Ho Nangin, do you gamble a bit yourself?"
"Haha, just a touch better than most people, nothing more."
I wasn't lying. Bring anyone you like and I could still hit a fifty-one percent win rate.
Du-jak's eyes lit up.
"Is that so? Judging by your track record, it seemed to me you were rather skilled at it."
"A minor talent, nothing more. Though it has proven useful now and then, in one way or another."
"Hahaha! I've even heard the rumor that you flipped a Tang Clan scion on his head with a street wager. Your modesty is excessive!"
Being eunuchs, I supposed, meant easy access to Eastern Depot intelligence. I still didn't know their exact ranks, but the palace maids of the Gungcheong Hall were practically crawling on their bellies around them, so they had to be very high up. Why a pair like that would spend days shooting the breeze with me about gambling was beyond me.
"You must be itching to gamble yourself, no?"
"Haha, I have at least that much self-restraint. How could I indulge in such base gambling while purifying body and mind in preparation to meet His Majesty the Emperor?"
I thought that was a model answer. Their faces said otherwise.
Aren't you two eunuchs? Shouldn't you be pleased when a visitor preparing for an imperial audience is living a model life?
Should I just snitch on these guys to Hyeok Gi-rin and get them straightened out?
If I casually leaked the conversations I'd had with these two eunuchs over the past few days, Hyeok Gi-rin — the Emperor's own sister — might step in and rehabilitate the pair of them. I'd drop a hint right before I left, not while I was still staying here. Honestly, getting so absorbed in gambling talk in front of the Emperor's guest was crossing a line.
Who do they think they are, the Emperor?
And why did monitoring a guest of the Gungcheong Hall require Eastern Depot intelligence in the first place? Using Eastern Depot information for personal purposes — what was that about? Did he think he was the Director of the Eastern Depot or something?
Watching Mudskipper No. 1 and No. 2 run wild in the Imperial Palace — the very residence of His Majesty the Emperor — made me itch to teach them a lesson.
"And then the dice came up six, just like that!"
"Hahaha! Remarkable, truly."
Of course, out loud I kept playing along, diligently maintaining the warm and friendly atmosphere.
Du-jak smiled with deep satisfaction.
"Haha, I'm glad we can talk so freely with you, Ho Nangin. This palace is full of nothing but stiff, closed-off people. Not a single soul who knows how to enjoy life's finer pleasures."
"Indeed. Rest is essential for any person. A cup of wine, a roll of the dice — that's how a man finds the vitality to face another day, is it not?"
The two of them had been batting the conversation back and forth when they suddenly dropped their voices low.
"So, about that... have you any thought of leaving the Imperial Palace for a bit?"
"...Pardon?"
"Haha, we get along so well with you, Ho Nangin. Just sitting around the palace sipping tea and chatting doesn't sit right with me. When free-spirited men like us gather, we ought to share a drink and roll some dice, don't you think?"
Hwi-gyeong nodded in vigorous agreement.
"Absolutely! And you needn't worry about any trouble arising. As you well know, Eunuch Du-jak here has the Gungcheong Hall firmly in hand. You've been cooped up in the Imperial Palace for no small stretch of time — why not step out and catch your breath for a while?"
"There's a place in Luoyang called the Cheonsang Pavilion! Everything from the most beautiful courtesans to the finest wines under heaven gathers there... it is, without exaggeration, the greatest gambling house in the world! A dream destination for every hero and man of spirit in Luoyang. I'd dearly love to keep company with you there."
"Haha. I would like nothing more than to join you both, but I'm afraid that will be difficult."
I stared at the two of them, utterly speechless. A eunuch legitimately leaving the palace and an imperial audience-seeker going AWOL without authorization — those were the same thing to them? What did they take me for, some gambling demon? Even a hardcore addict who got thorns in his mouth if he went a single day without a wager would manage to behave himself for a week in the Imperial Palace.
"Come now, don't be like that... the Cheonsang Pavilion is the greatest gambling house under heaven. Any true gambler ought to conquer it! I'll even put up a portion of the stake myself!"
"I understand your concern about potential trouble. Would it ease your mind if we got a firm confirmation from the Gungcheong Hall maids? There's truly nothing to worry about!"
"Hahaha."
I burst out laughing. Du-jak and Hwi-gyeong. These people, honestly.
They beamed at me from ear to ear.
"Well then — will you come with us?"
"I decline."
Hopeless. Absolutely hopeless.
"Hmm... this isn't easy."
Emperor Yu Gyeong's face twisted with irritation. He'd expected it wouldn't be simple, but Ho Cheon-an's attitude was more stubborn than anticipated.
"An audience with His Majesty the Emperor is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Cherishing that opportunity is only natural, is it not?"
Yu Gyeong clicked his tongue.
"Well, the reports did say he's been keeping his distance from gambling lately..."
For the past several months, Ho Cheon-an had cut off the gambling dens he'd once frequented with such regularity and thrown himself into martial training. The Eastern Depot and Yu Gyeong had no way of knowing that, having already mastered the art of gambling, he simply no longer needed to visit a den unless there was a specific purpose.
In Yu Gyeong's eyes, Ho Cheon-an was a severe gambling addict who would blow five years of hard-earned sweat and blood at the tables without a second thought.
"Perhaps, just as Her Highness the Princess said, he truly has cultivated some self-restraint?"
"It's possible."
Yu Gyeong readily agreed with Sama Gyeong-hwi.
"According to your reports, Ho Cheon-an's last outing was a truly enormous game, was it not?"
"Yes. Around the time the Red Bamboo Hero Yeo Il-ye visited the Wanderer Inn and gave him her Benefactor's Token, he ran an enormous table at Yeongsang-ru."
"And according to your people's 'speculation,' the man who disguised himself as a merchant's son and caused a stir at Seongrak Pavilion during the Sichuan incident was none other than Ho Cheon-an."
Eastern Depot intelligence was compiled strictly on the basis of verified fact. For all that they were an information organization, they also carried the character of a government office. Personal opinions, poorly grounded speculation, and pure gut-feeling deductions never made it into Eastern Depot reports.
"That is correct. We have no way of knowing for certain, but word is he walked away with an enormous sum in gold."
The bodyguards who'd been brought along — Yeo Il-ye and Dang Do-yeon — were both beauties more than capable of drawing every eye in a room. Among those who had witnessed Ho Cheon-an and his escorts that day, many still carried the images of Yeo Il-ye or Dang Do-yeon burned into their memories.
The facts simply hadn't been confirmed. A disciple of one of the Nine Great Sects and a daughter of one of the Five Great Clans showing up at a gambling den, fawning and flirting while bodyguarding a second-rate warrior who scraped by as a Sichuan nangin? Anyone would question the credibility of a story like that.
But look at the situation now. The Emperor of the Great Huang Empire himself had gone so far as to disguise himself as a eunuch. The Eastern Depot had accordingly reported every scrap of unverified minor intelligence to Yu Gyeong without exception.
Even the "speculative" information that Ho Cheon-an had cleaned out Seongrak Pavilion in disguise had reached Yu Gyeong's ears.
"The fact that such exploits never appeared in any memorial to the throne played a part as well."
"Hmph. Even Sama Yeom wouldn't have dared put 'I employed a gambler' in an official memorial. But that isn't the important point. The important point is Ho Cheon-an's state of mind — that after suffering a crushing defeat at a pleasure house like Yeongsang-ru, he still failed to come to his senses and went sniffing around gambling dens again!"
He'd lost a game of over a hundred nyang in gold to some fellow named Dogwi. And not just any loss — he'd been winning the whole table, then made some absurd proposal and gone down in the most disgraceful fashion imaginable.
"After a defeat like that, I tell you! He should never have set foot in a gambling den again!"
Winning a massive sum at Seongrak Pavilion wasn't the problem. What Yu Gyeong was pointing at was the mindset itself — that even after tasting such a defeat, the man still couldn't straighten out and dove right back into the tables.
"That man will seize every opportunity to grab the golpae without a second thought, and sooner or later he'll go under for good."
Even Sama Gyeong-hwi, who had been about to speak in Ho Cheon-an's defense, found himself without a word. In the end, the path Ho Cheon-an had walked made it impossible to deny that he gambled at every opportunity he could find.
"Just prepare the table properly. Ho Cheon-an will come around with a little push. Of course he'd be wary if two eunuchs who appeared out of nowhere suddenly asked him to leave the Imperial Palace."
"...Yes."
Letting the grumbling Emperor Yu Gyeong's complaints wash over one ear, Sama Gyeong-hwi sank into thought for a moment.
That fellow called Ho Cheon-an a great hero...
Sama Gyeong-hwi thought of Sama Yeom. A man of officialdom who, against type, harbored a favorable view of chivalrous martial artists.
And yet Prefect of Sichuan Sama Yeom was publicly known for his dislike of Murim folk.
A fellow who won't even call ordinary men "young hero."
The reason the rumor had spread that Sama Yeom despised Murim people was that he respected only true chivalrous heroes. How many under heaven could truly be called heroes? In a Murim culture that propped up even mediocre types as "young hero" this and "great hero" that, Sama Yeom ruthlessly cut down anyone he didn't personally acknowledge — and the Murim people around him could hardly be expected to endure it.
And that same Sama Yeom had drawn close to Ho Cheon-an, calling him a great hero...
Her Highness the Princess, and even Yeom of all people — if both of them reacted that way, then there must be something to this Ho Cheon-an.
Sama Gyeong-hwi considered it for a moment, then realized it changed nothing. Ho Cheon-an might not be the worthless man Yu Gyeong imagined. But that he was deeply immersed in gambling — on that point, there was no room for disagreement.
Even if he has the bearing of a hero worthy of Sama Yeom's title, even if he has the charm to steal Her Highness the Princess's heart — a gambling addiction still needs to be cured. And if we put him in a crisis, we'll get to see Ho Cheon-an's true worth as well.
Sama Gyeong-hwi recalled the face Ho Cheon-an had shown today. He'd played the empty-headed sycophant, catering to their every whim — then the moment a dangerous proposal was made, he'd shut it down cold.
Sama Gyeong-hwi had taken him for a lucky nangin who'd simply ridden the coattails of the Sichuan incident by accident. But after several days of observation, combined with this and that piece of intelligence, he was beginning to think the man wasn't merely lucky.
A person's true worth is revealed in a crisis. What face would Ho Cheon-an show when he walked into a fully rigged gambling trap? Would he prove himself worthy of the high regard Hyeok Gi-rin and Sama Yeom had given him?
Sama Gyeong-hwi decided to take a more active hand.
"In that case, what if we tried this?"
"Oh-ho..."
Hearing Sama Gyeong-hwi's scheme, Yu Gyeong nodded.
"Not bad at all."