The Green Forest Alliance
Hmm. I must have been denser than I thought.
Black Cat was surely wrestling with some complicated feelings right now, standing face-to-face with Hyeok Gi-rin. From Black Cat's perspective, she probably wanted this gathering wrapped up as quickly as possible.
Best to just confirm the upcoming schedule and make myself scarce.
"So, Great Hero Hyeok Gi-rin, what are your plans going forward?"
"For now, I intend to meet with the bandits and try to negotiate."
Hyeok Gi-rin's expression suggested she didn't expect any major breakthrough from meeting the bandits either, but it was still a necessary step. There was plenty of information you could only get face-to-face.
"I would like to borrow a wandering warrior's insight and wisdom for that meeting as well, if I may."
"Hmm. Understood."
Normally, external escorts weren't brought along to important meetings—was she offering to share critical information with me? The more intel I could gather, the better.
"Huhu. Just as the rumors say—a person overflowing with chivalrous spirit. This Hyeok finds herself bowing her head in respect."
"Haha, you flatter me."
"Ahem!"
Black Cat cleared her throat.
"If we wish to reach the stronghold by midday, it seems we will need to set out at the crack of dawn tomorrow. It would be best to retire early tonight in preparation."
Hyeok Gi-rin nodded and rose from her seat first. I was about to stand as well when Black Cat caught my sleeve.
"What is it?"
"Senior. Aren't you being a little too free with yourself?"
"Hmm?"
"Hyeok Gi-rin tosses you a few compliments and you go all soft and gooey… How can you just promise to dive headfirst into a death trap when we don't even know how the bandits will react?!"
"We're already traveling with Hyeok Gi-rin, so we might as well squeeze out every bit of value we can. And if you think about the risk, sticking as close to her as possible is the right call. If conflict breaks out with the bandits, we need to know what's happening so we can intervene."
"Even so…!"
Hmm. I must have been lacking in consideration again.
Black Cat's heart had to be a tangled mess right now. Simply facing Hyeok Gi-rin was an enormous burden for her. She would want to put as much distance between them as possible, yet because I had stepped forward, she was now stuck staying even closer to Hyeok Gi-rin.
"Haha, don't worry. I'll stick right by Hyeok Gi-rin's side."
"…Senior?"
"You hang back a bit and collect yourself. I'll take good care of Hyeok Gi-rin."
Black Cat trembled. Hmm. Had I been a little too blunt? She had been vehemently denying any feelings for Hyeok Gi-rin, after all.
"Senior! I told you I don't have any interest in Hyeok Gi-rin!"
"Yeah. I get it. Hyeok Gi-rin can just be overwhelming, that's all. So I'll stay with her one-on-one—you use long-range security as an excuse and keep some distance. I'll handle talking to Hyeok Gi-rin just fine!"
I left it at that and bolted for my guest room. Once Black Cat got into bed and kicked her blankets around for a while, her emotions would settle. Better to face her tomorrow than deal with her at the peak of her agitation.
"That's the plan, then!"
"Senior! Senioooor!"
I ignored Black Cat's cries and fled to my room as fast as I could.
The next morning.
Clop. Clop.
A peculiar journey began. Just as I had told Black Cat the night before, I steered my horse in close beside Hyeok Gi-rin.
At which point Black Cat spurred her own mount forward and wedged herself squarely between the two of us.
I shot her a look that asked what on earth she thought she was doing. Black Cat jerked her head away.
I waited, half expecting a telepathic message—but she kept her face turned and said nothing.
Hyeok Gi-rin addressed her with an awkward expression.
"Ah… young lady. Do you have some business with this Hyeok, by any chance?"
Black Cat had inserted herself between me and Hyeok Gi-rin, and she had turned her head away from me. That meant she had been looking toward Hyeok Gi-rin the entire time.
Because of the Shadow Image Qi Gong, no one could pinpoint Black Cat's actual gaze—so the mere fact that her face was angled that way was enough to put Hyeok Gi-rin on edge.
"…It's nothing. Sorry for making you uncomfortable."
"Haha, not at all. Riding side by side like this feels rather pleasant and companionable, in its own way."
Hyeok Gi-rin offered a vague smile as she looked at Black Cat, and Black Cat—apparently feeling some remorse for having made her uneasy—turned her eyes forward again.
"Hmm, come to think of it… if I talk with her… that means I'm not talking with Senior… so this method existed all along… and the charm effect won't work anyway…"
Whatever she had been muttering, Black Cat suddenly lifted her head.
"Young Hero Hyeok!"
"Yes. Please, go ahead."
"Did you race here from the Jeomchang Sect specifically to suppress the bandits?"
"Well… the truth is a little different."
Hyeok Gi-rin wore a bitter smile as she continued.
"Come to think of it, both of you already know about my junior sister's circumstances, do you not?"
Black Cat and I nodded.
"Then this will be easy to explain. It is because of my junior sister. I left the sect because I wanted, at the very least, to free her to devote herself fully to her own affairs."
"I see. You must be very close to Young Lady Yeo Il-ye, to go so far as to take action yourself."
"I wonder. Whether I can truly call us close is hard to say."
"Hmm. That's a strange thing to hear. You're out here running around on her behalf, and you still wouldn't call yourselves close?"
"It is true that I care for my junior sister. But whether that makes us close… I am not so certain. Yes. Perhaps I simply bolted from the sect because I wanted to grow closer to her."
"Huhu. Young Hero Hyeok has a talent for making simple things sound complicated."
"Hahaha. I hear that rather often."
What was going on here? I had no idea what change of heart Black Cat had undergone, but she had completely cut me out and taken exclusive charge of Hyeok Gi-rin.
As I watched her sudden transformation in bewilderment, the conversation between the two of them gradually grew livelier.
"Cats, you say. Even at our sect, little friends who come sniffing after food pay us visits now and then. Haha. Though we rarely have anything those little friends would actually enjoy."
"Try setting out a cardboard box somewhere warm and sunny. Even without food, some of them will stop by just to rest."
I suddenly felt like the awkward outsider circling a conversation between popular kids, unable to find a way in. Hyeok Gi-rin looked like a man on the outside, but she was a woman underneath—and in no time at all she and Black Cat had clicked, chatting happily about one topic after another.
"Huhu!"
"Hahaha!"
"Wahahahaha! Woo-hahahahaha!"
Whenever the two of them burst out laughing, I chimed in with a laugh of my own here and there—but it never felt like I was actually part of the conversation.
And so we rode on for a long while, with me thoroughly left out.
"The stronghold is coming into view."
We had reached Mount Jeongnam, where the bandits had made their nest.
Unless you had knotholes for eyes, Okryong Sinhyeop—the Jade Dragon Hero, Hyeok Gi-rin—was someone anyone would recognize on sight. The bandits belonging to the Tiger King Stronghold and the Tasty Ones recognized her just as easily.
"This is brutal."
Hundreds of bandits had us surrounded, shooting murderous looks our way. My heart pounded on its own and my mouth went bone-dry—but Hyeok Gi-rin did not so much as twitch an eyebrow, maintaining perfect composure.
The bearing of the foremost among Hou Yi's Ten Marksmen. It almost felt as though she alone was suppressing the savage aura pouring off hundreds of bandits.
After a long stretch of that silent contest of wills, we were finally escorted into the stronghold.
Inside, at the center, four people sat in oversized chairs.
So that was why they had kept us waiting so long—they had been preparing this cheap little stage production.
"Welcome to a stronghold of our Green Forest Alliance. To think we would meet the renowned Jade Dragon Hero herself."
"I am Hyeok Gi-rin, the Jade Dragon Hero."
"Wang Maeng-ho, Chief of the Tiger King Stronghold. Starting from this side: Chinese Restaurant, Chief of the Eight Treasures Stronghold; Green Vegetables, Chief of the Clear Vista Stronghold; and Seafood Scallion, Chief of the Delicacy Stronghold."
The moment the brief introductions were finished, Hyeok Gi-rin threw a fastball straight down the middle.
"Hahahaha! Preposterous! The mountains have their own laws! Even the Jeomchang Sect cannot bend the laws of the mountains!"
"How long do you believe you can hold out on Mount Jeongnam? You have stirred up far too great a storm."
The four chiefs exchanged glances, then snorted.
"That is hardly for you to worry about!"
There was definitely a backer behind these four. This was not something a mere four stronghold chiefs could handle on their own. They were pulling off something unprecedented in the Sichuan murim—and they were this calm? That kind of confidence only came from a powerful force standing behind them.
Hyeok Gi-rin seemed to sense it as well; her expression hardened.
"Watch yourself! The Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest have not forgotten that your junior sister harmed one of our brothers!"
"The matter between my junior sister and Mak Yeo-bu was nothing more than a personal grudge. If the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest insist on inserting themselves into a private feud, then the Jeomchang Sect will not stand idle either."
Hyeok Gi-rin's presence shifted in an instant. A pressure that sent involuntary chills down the spine dominated the hall.
"A-Are you threatening us?! The brothers of the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest will not sit still! Will the Jeomchang Sect plunge the world into chaos?!"
Gulp.
Under Hyeok Gi-rin's piercing aura and icy tone, the four chiefs' throats bobbed repeatedly.
In the end, the murim was a world where strength decided everything.
The Jeomchang Sect's true full power didn't even matter. If Hyeok Gi-rin and Yeo Il-ye alone went on a tour of the strongholds, the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest would not last a few years.
Only now did I understand why Hyeok Gi-rin had come to the stronghold in person.
Certainly, even if the bandits ran around claiming "this is all Yeo Il-ye's fault" while committing these acts, anyone could see how little sense that made.
But people who fix their resentment on the wrong target were hardly rare in this world. Sometimes, regardless of the truth, the mere blooming of suspicion was enough to prove fatal.
Hyeok Gi-rin had decided to visit the stronghold herself and deliver a warning, precisely to prevent that kind of disaster.
The chiefs went deathly pale and could not utter a sound. No matter how formidable a backer they had, that backer could not take a Jeomchang Sect sword in their place.
"Furthermore—do not harm anyone. If word reaches me that you have taken lives, then regardless of the Jeomchang Sect, this Hyeok Gi-rin will not forgive you."
Leaving only those final words behind, we departed the stronghold.