Emei, Qingcheng, Zhongnan, and the Hwangbo Clan -1
"Thank you for yesterday."
"Think nothing of it. It was only what I ought to have done."
I nodded as if it were no great matter. Hyeok Gi-rin regarded me with a faintly complicated look.
"Mm. And if you plan to arrange anything of the sort again, at least give me some warning beforehand."
Her earlobes were flushed. Judging by the reaction of the people at the inn yesterday, the whole affair had clearly been a heavy burden for her.
"But wasn't yesterday a good thing? Everyone learned what Hero Hyeok had done, shared in the satisfaction, and lightened their hearts..."
"I take it back! Before you do anything! You must! Tell me first!"
At Hyeok Gi-rin's sharp cry, Heukmyo burst out laughing. Under the heat of Hyeok Gi-rin's reddened face and piercing glare, I could only click my tongue and nod.
Truth be told, the service I had provided Hyeok Gi-rin yesterday ranked as a special-course, top-tier production by Ho Cheon-an's personal standards. Most other martial artists would have been over the moon and left a perfect five-star review.
Our pure-hearted hero, however, still found the admiring gazes and praise thoroughly awkward.
And so, after receiving her earnest admonition, we arrived in Sichuan.
"I am Hwangbo Gyeong-chan. I have been waiting to meet the Jade Dragon Hero, Young Hero Hyeok Gi-rin."
A man from the Hwangbo Clan was already waiting for us.
Hwangbo Gyeong-chan informed Hyeok Gi-rin that a conference of the great sects was being held, and she left to attend.
Regrettably, it was not a gathering we could join, so we agreed to visit her lodgings again that evening.
"Going to a conference where Sichuan's great sects are gathered... I doubt she'll hear anything pleasant," Heukmyo muttered, clearly worried about Hyeok Gi-rin. Well... after making contact with the bandits on her own, the other factions were unlikely to look kindly on her.
"She's only shown us her innocent side. The Jade Dragon Hero Hyeok Gi-rin is the great disciple of the Jeomchang Sect. She won't be that easy to push around."
"Maybe so."
Titles like leading figure among the rising talents of the Later Ten Heroes, or great disciple of one of the Nine Great Sects, were not handed out lightly. She might have bowed her head in silence before the people at the inn, but she was also the one who had delivered the coldest warning of all to the bandits.
She might face checks and pressure, yet she would not simply sit there and take it the way Heukmyo feared.
"We'll loosen up a bit at the Wanderer Inn, rest, and join her in the evening."
"Hmm. Being hounded by young ladies... from Hyeok Gi-rin's perspective, that must be pure torment."
On the way back, while chatting about this and that, we had learned why Hyeok Gi-rin had hired us. From her standpoint, far more convenient guides were available.
Sichuan was full of mid- and small-sized sects allied with Jeomchang. If she simply visited one and asked for a suitable guide, the sect master would come running out, bowing, and attach a whole pack of disciples to her.
Mm.
Given Hyeok Gi-rin's personality, that would be pure horror.
In any case, the reason she had hired us was precisely because young ladies kept throwing themselves at her. A truly enviable reason, if ever there was one. Not only full-body assaults, but plenty of young ladies who simply launched themselves without a second thought—how could one not feel envy?
Yet for Hyeok Gi-rin, those rushing young ladies could only be a burden. No matter how thoroughly she cross-dressed, she was still a woman; the moment bodies made contact, all sorts of awkward complications were bound to arise.
That was why she had hired Sichuan Nangin, who were treated in Sichuan Province as something on the level of a plague.
The bandit-countermeasures conference hosted by the Hwangbo Clan was being held at the Sohyang Inn; we decided to head over around the time it would roughly be wrapping up.
"We'll rest a while at the Wanderer Inn first, then move."
Heukmyo nodded in agreement.
I needed to exchange information with Yu Sa-yeon. We had news of our own to share, and she would have gathered her own while we were off eating Hwaritang and escaping the heat.
"You've been working hard lately. Your face has gone thin."
"Yeah..."
Yu Sa-yeon let out a sigh. In truth, her sighing was nothing unusual. True to her name—a woman of many stories—Yu Sa-yeon always sighed as though she carried the weight of the entire world's worries on her shoulders.
Today, though, the depth of that sigh felt different.
"Something happen?"
"There has. Something very big."
With her usual calm, subdued air, Yu Sa-yeon sighed her habitual sigh and spoke.
"By the way, where's Hyeok Gi-rin? I heard you took her commission."
"There's a conference between the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Clans, so we arranged to meet again this evening."
At that, Yu Sa-yeon squeezed her eyes shut. Her eyebrows trembled; the news had clearly hit her hard. Only then did I straighten from my chin-propping posture. Something had gone wrong.
"Haa. Seeing that Hyeok Gi-rin was summoned, the rumor I heard today about the Sichuan Merchants' Alliance must be true."
"So? What talk came out of there?"
The Sichuan Merchants' Alliance was, without exaggeration, the most influential organization in Sichuan. From the great merchants who could freely manipulate the province's vast wealth down to mid- and small-scale traders, nearly everyone belonged to it.
With the safety that had been one of the greatest driving forces behind Sichuan's accumulation of riches now under severe threat, the Alliance was apparently no longer willing to sit idle.
"They're going to invest."
"In what?"
"In one of Sichuan's great sects."
I did not grasp the meaning at once. Did it mean they would pour massive funds into the great sects already in Sichuan so the bandit alliance could be driven out quickly?
But why call that an investment?
"Hm? If they fund the great sects and the bandits get cleaned up fast, isn't that good news?"
"Heh. If that were all, it would be good news."
Yu Sa-yeon gave a bitter smile.
"The rumor is that the Sichuan Merchants' Alliance will personally invite one of the great sects into Sichuan Province itself, and will provide the entire site and all the funds needed to establish a branch."
That was genuinely shocking news.
"They're trying to attract a branch of one of the Nine Great Sects?"
"Yes."
"Hmm."
The reason the great sects already present in Sichuan had never settled inside Sichuan Province proper was face. An ordinary large sect might have brazenly shoved its rear end into the province without a second thought.
But because they lacked any proper justification for abandoning their main bases and planting themselves anew in Sichuan Province, the Hwangbo Clan and the four sects had been forced to extend their influence only indirectly, through mid- and small-sized sects.
Yet if the merchants of Sichuan spoke with one voice and invited either the Hwangbo Clan or one of the four sects? Justification would appear. They would be able to establish a branch—the foothold for actual control over Sichuan Province.
And it would not be a mere corner of the province. It would be swallowing the entire province in a single bite.
The great sect that resolved Sichuan Province's first true crisis would plant itself directly inside the province...
"This is seriously big."
It was the sort of development that could push the Sichuan Nangin into the back pages of history.
Until now we had felt a sense of crisis over the bandit situation, yet I had never truly believed the occupation of Sichuan Nangin itself would vanish. If a branch of one of the Nine Great Sects were established, however, that occupation could disappear.
The current Sichuan Nangin were, in effect, a brand that monopolized the role of the unorthodox.
Sichuan Province kept developing; people and money kept gathering; competition among the sects grew fiercer; and to survive that fierceness, each sect had to raise the value of its name.
In a Sichuan Province that had no real crises, crises had to be staged—and the only ones who possessed the nature of the unorthodox needed to stage them were the Sichuan Nangin.
Sect after sect had silently clamored to hire Sichuan Nangin, and the Nangin had answered those clamors with cries of delight, solving countless commissions and raking in money. That had been the recent state of the Sichuan Nangin.
Then a genuine villain—the bandit alliance—had appeared.
Having enjoyed a monopoly on villainy, the Sichuan Nangin were bound to take a heavy blow from the mere existence of the bandit alliance. I, the other Nangin, and Yu Sa-yeon had all been startled and forced to scramble as though fire had fallen on our feet, believing we would keep sucking sweet honey from that monopoly forever.
But had I truly thought the Sichuan Nangin would disappear? No.
In the end, Sichuan Province was still supported by five great hands—the Hwangbo Clan and the four sects. No matter how the bandit suppression concluded, as long as those five powers stood behind the scenes, the balancing movements would never cease.
Unless an external disaster like the present one erupted, the only means of raising one's name in Sichuan Province remained the Sichuan Nangin; given time, the sects would have no choice but to hire them again. I had thought the problem would be no worse than a long recession until that time passed.
"Hmm."
But if either the Hwangbo Clan or one of the four sects completely swallowed Sichuan, the situation would change entirely.
More precisely, those five powers would coordinate their interests and reach a conclusion... yet the difference between the current tacit competition and a negotiated division of influence was night and day.
The moment they coordinated their interests and settled matters, what would be the very first action they needed to take?
"If that happens..."
"They'll try to bulldoze the Wanderer Inn first, won't they?"
The Sichuan Nangin were the only means of building a reputation in Sichuan Province—and therefore the only possibility that could ruin the blueprint the great sects had drawn.
They would try to root them out by any means necessary.
"Mm."
"Ho Cheon-an. Stick close to Hyeok Gi-rin from now on, and if you pick up even the smallest scrap of information, tell me at once."
"Will do."
"This information was quite important. The mere fact that the Nine Great Sects are rushing into a conference is itself a sign that some proposal has been made. I'm heading out right away. I'll work out countermeasures together with the sects of Sichuan Province."
"Good luck."
Watching Yu Sa-yeon's hurried departure, I thought.
In the end, the sparks had fallen on the sects of Sichuan Province as well. From their perspective, the bandit situation was something they could simply endure for a while. The bandits' strength was not something a few allied local sects could handle by joining forces, and support from the great sects had been a foregone conclusion.
The local sects only needed to wait until the great sects sent their experts, then step forward.
But the merchants of Sichuan Province—the greatest victims of the bandit crisis—would not tolerate that lukewarm attitude.
With the Merchants' Alliance playing the extreme card of inviting a great-sect branch, the local sects would have no choice but to scramble for countermeasures in shock.
It was entirely possible that the merchants, furious at the local sects' attitude, would drag in another great sect. After all, the merchants of Sichuan had suffered truly enormous losses at the hands of the bandits.
Since any major incident would force them to rely on the great sects anyway—why not simply invite a great sect into our own parlor!
Sichuan Province would continue to develop, and forces eyeing that development would keep appearing. Situations beyond the power of the local sects alone would only increase; rather than summon people from the great sects every time, why not establish a branch in Sichuan and invite them in permanently!
Such a conclusion was entirely possible under the circumstances.
Yet I found the conclusion deeply unsettling. Just as the idea of four mountain strongholds banding together to assault the golden land of Sichuan Province in revenge for the Makyeobu had been perfectly plausible yet left a lingering unease, this too left an unease that would not fade.
"Merchants... the Golden Family, perhaps."
I recalled the day I had run into Yeo Il-ye at the main gate of Hwanggeumga. At the time I had simply assumed that, as a prestigious house, Yeo Il-ye had been running errands there... but looking back, that made no sense.
Back then Yeo Il-ye had been in a period of hunting her true enemies with fire in her eyes; would she have had the leisure to handle sect errands?
Someone she suspected of being her enemy must have been inside Hwanggeumga, and she had used the errand as cover for reconnaissance.
Still... this hypothesis had far too many holes.
So many that I hardly knew where to begin pointing them out... but first, the most important point—motive.
If someone in the Golden Family was Yeo Il-ye's enemy, then what they were aiming for by orchestrating the present affair was easy enough to understand.
They wanted the martial force that would protect them from Yeo Il-ye's sword. A shield that could stop the current Yeo Il-ye. The strength of the local Sichuan sects would never be enough, so they had engineered this to keep the Hwangbo Clan, or Qingcheng, Emei, or Zhongnan, close at hand.
The Golden Family itself had suffered massive losses from the bandits, yet nothing is more important than one's own life.
"Mm..."
One question remained, however.
The Jeomchang Sect.
Among the great powers that could take up residence in Sichuan, the Jeomchang Sect was also included. If Jeomchang obtained a justification for direct intervention in Sichuan Province, Yeo Il-ye would likewise gain the authority to approach the Golden Family closely.
How, then, did someone in the Golden Family intend to exclude Jeomchang?