A Night of Sticky Fingers
To think the wives of the high-ranking officials would be the first to come steal the secret manual. Although she found Banya's words hard to believe, Yeongso decided to sleep with him in the outer quarters until the martial arts tournament was over. After all, sleep was precious.
As she was about to leave Hwining-dang, Yeongso spotted her husband installing small mechanical traps around the drawing room.
"Why are you installing a tripwire trap that shoots arrowheads right in the direction of the entrance?"
"Because, my lady, shameless thieves always walk right through the front door."
Banya lifted the table cover and attached a device of a different shape to its underside. After slipping on a pair of gloves, he spread a fine, ash-colored powder along the edges of the cover.
"Are you serious? You're even using the poison of the Grey Rust Serpent?"
"Let their fingers rot right off, the thieving wretches."
"You look far too excited about this..."
Even after that, Banya continued to set up all kinds of hazardous traps inside and outside Hwining-dang. Watching him quietly, Yeongso realized he wasn't just guessing the intruders' paths. He was systematically constructing a defensive formation based on precise tactical arrays.
If all of these go off, I feel like the entire pavilion will collapse.
When she voiced her concern, Banya assured her she didn't need to worry about anything attached to the walls. He claimed not a single hanging scroll would be damaged.
When she asked what would happen to the chairs and vases that weren't attached to the walls, his only response was that he would buy her exact replacements.
So they are going to be destroyed.
Yeongso quietly pocketed a mountain-ridge-shaped brush rest from the desk. It was a gift from Yeong-hyeok.
"Is all of this really necessary...?"
"Just wait and see." Banya smiled smugly. "You said you're touring the tournament grounds with the officers' wives tomorrow, right? I wonder how many of them will show up in one piece."
He spoke with absolute certainty. "I bet not a single one of the twelve will be unscathed."
The first to arrive at the tournament grounds was Lady Lee. She was the cold-faced beauty whom Yeongso had advised the previous day on how to advance to the sixth stage of the Red Lotus Kill.
Lady Lee appeared with a fluttering silk veil covering half her face, claiming she had caught a sudden cold and needed to avoid the chilly breeze.
"Shall I have a maid brew some ginger tea for you?"
"No, it is fine. You do not need to trouble..."
Lady Lee cut herself off, raising a hand to her mouth with a grimace as if holding back pain. It seemed she had injured the area around her lips.
More notably, five of Lady Lee's fingernails had turned pitch black.
The Grey Rust Serpent poison!
While Yeongso hesitated over what to say, Lady Sang arrived, limping heavily with dark bruises ringing both of her eyes.
"A-Are you alright?"
"Hohoho, it is nothing. My husband and I had a massive fight last night, you see. Whenever we bicker, we always end up in this state."
Lady Sang laughed, telling her not to worry because she had beaten her husband half to death in revenge. For some reason, her palms were stained pitch black, just like Lady Lee's fingernails.
The other wives filed in one after another. Their injuries were remarkably diverse: one had a splint on a broken arm, another had lost several teeth overnight, and one even showed up on crutches.
Even the taciturn Mo Paeyeon arrived wearing a lumbar support belt, leaning heavily on her maid for support.
The bizarre thing was that every single one of them claimed they had gotten into a fight with their husband.
But if that's the case, why are all of your hands stained black...?!
While the Grey Rust Serpent poison was not difficult to detoxify, the contact area would turn black, and the stain would persist for a full day. If detoxification was delayed, one's fingernails could rot and fall out entirely—just like Lady Hong, who had lost all ten of hers.
Having lost every single fingernail, Lady Hong covered her mouth with her heavily bandaged hands and smiled sheepishly.
"Lady Dan is the last to arrive."
"Should we make her drink a penalty cup? Or perhaps demand she gift us all jade bracelets?"
"Oh, look, there she is."
"Oh dear...!"
Dan Myomyo rolled in on her wheelchair. Bandages were wrapped tightly around both her neck and her legs. Flashing her signature coquettish eye-smile, she apologized for her lateness. Though she looked the most battered of them all, her hands were as pristine and pale as a baby's bottom.
Yeongso asked what on earth had happened in the span of a single day. Myomyo replied with a bright, beaming smile.
"I had a fight with my husband."
"But... I was under the impression that your husband has been away on business for the past five days?"
Myomyo flinched for a split second, then burst into a fit of giggles.
"Not Myomyo's husband! Someone else's husband!"
"Ah..."
"And Myomyo won!"
No matter how generously one looked at her, she did not look like a victor, but Yeongso decided to let it slide.
"I wonder how many of them will show up in one piece. I bet not a single one of the twelve will be unscathed."
Amazingly, Banya's prediction had proven entirely correct.
News of the Unorthodox female disciples' martial arts tournament, hosted by the Alliance Leader's wife, Baekri Yeongso, spread like wildfire across the entire Gangho.
Regardless of age or gender, whenever people gathered, the tournament was the sole topic of conversation.
"Is it true the grand prize is the original manuscript of the Gale Flying Shadow Steps?"
"Damn it, should I crossdress and enter?"
"In all my years, this is the first time I've ever regretted not being born a woman."
While the men of the Unorthodox Path scrambled to recruit every female acquaintance they knew, the sect leaders of various factions personally stepped forward to urge their female disciples to participate.
"Just register first! Do you understand?"
"Special training for everyone starting today!"
"How many roots of snow ginseng and fleeceflower do we have left in the vault? Bring out every last one!"
Word even reached them that the Orthodox factions were showing signs of agitation. At this rate, her first official endeavor as the Alliance Leader's wife was bound to be a resounding success.
"For all we know, people might not even show up on the day of the tournament."
Despite having maintained such a detached attitude, even Yeongso found it difficult to suppress the smile spreading across her lips when the morning of the tournament finally arrived.
The area in front of the Thousand Death Alliance was a literal sea of humanity! It bustled with participants and spectators who had gathered from all corners of the country.
According to the reports, so many people wished to participate that registration had been forced to close two hours prior.
"It looks like we will have to hold the tournament over the course of three days."
Hearing this, Banya applauded his wife. Yeongso, who was grooming herself in front of the mirror, offered a soft smile.
"I... I will do this properly."
"You have already succeeded. What more is there to do?"
Banya shook his head, marveling at the unprecedented crowd gathered at the Thousand Death Alliance. "Not even my inauguration ceremony drew a crowd like this."
"That is because you killed so many peo—"
Under the guise of revenge, hadn't he raided every single Unorthodox sect to teach them a lesson? Having slaughtered everyone who deserved it, it was only natural that the mere mention of Hwa Banya's name made people's knees knock.
Furthermore, by the very nature of the events, a martial arts tournament was bound to attract a vastly different crowd size than a bloody inauguration. Yeongso wanted to say something along those lines, but she realized she had chosen the wrong way to phrase it.
"Hmm..."
Yeongso held up a white butterfly-shaped hair ornament toward Banya's reflection in the mirror. "Should I wear this?"
"Smoothly changing the subject, I see."
Banya approached her. Taking the white butterfly ornament from his wife's hand, he set it down and held a lavish amethyst hairpin against her hair. It seemed he wasn't entirely satisfied. Banya pondered for a moment.
Only when he placed a dangling boyao hairpin adorned with ruby butterflies against Yeongso's hair did a satisfied smile grace his lips.
"Let's go with this. It gives off the perfect vibe of being the wife of the Bloody Butterfly Fan."
Yeongso returned his smile as she looked at her husband through the mirror. Having just made a slip of the tongue, she needed to humor him.
Why don't you just write 'I am your wife' on my forehead while you're at it? She swallowed those words down.
Just when she thought she had safely navigated the crisis, Banya inserted one more hairpin and asked,
"My lovely wife. Do you truly believe no one will die at an event hosted by you?"
"Fearing exactly that, I established a rule that anyone who kills or maims their opponent will be disqualified."
"What I mean is... do not let your guard down for even a second."
Whether inside the tournament grounds or outside. He was advising her to keep her wits about her until all the strangers had departed from the Thousand Death Alliance.
"You mustn't underestimate an Unorthodox martial artist's obsession with a secret manual. Especially if it belongs to the Sword Ghost."
Banya's voice sank low. "We are absolutely mad for him."
It was two days later, near the very end of the tournament, when Yeongso finally understood the true weight of her husband's words.
The rankings had been decided, and only the award ceremony remained, when—
"Aaaack!" A piercing shriek echoed from somewhere.