Monopolizing Fortunes (142)
Monopolizing Fortunes (142)
"This way."
As if she had expected him to accept, Jeong So stepped aside and pointed the way.
Go Seon-hwa's residence, reached by treading through the darkness, was immaculate. Compared to this place, the lodgings of the Hwangdae Merchant Company people felt like a pigsty.
"Welcome."
Go Seon-hwa greeted him with a bright smile, and the room already had a drinking table set out. She must have been certain that Do Tong-dal would come.
When Do Tong-dal gave a slight bow, Go Seon-hwa indicated the seat beside her.
"Sit here."
At a narrow table, the seat beside her was quite close. Do Tong-dal sat where Go Seon-hwa had offered.
"I should have repaid you long ago for saving my daughter's life, but I'm a little late. Of course, a single drink is nowhere near enough for the debt I owe you."
"Yeon-seon and I were both lucky."
"You're more modest than I'd heard."
Do Tong-dal could roughly guess how the rumors about him had spread.
"Rumors aren't worth believing."
"Of course not. I only trust my own eyes."
Go Seon-hwa's eyes gleamed strangely as she said that.
"Where are my manners? Here, have a drink."
As she filled his cup, Do Tong-dal poured wine into Go Seon-hwa's cup as well.
"I hear your martial arts are incredibly strong?"
"Not enough to go around getting beaten up."
"So you were a hidden master."
"If I'm a hidden master, then you, madam, are a hidden beauty."
"I'm glad if I've pleased the warrior's eyes."
The two of them emptied the wine bottle while chatting about this and that.
"Sodong-hyeon, Henan Province."
That was her answer to Do Tong-dal's question about where she was from.
"So you were living there and then married the company head."
"No. There's a more complicated reason."
"But the Dongui Martial Hall treats you with the utmost courtesy. The Hwangdae Merchant Company gets the cold shoulder."
"What can I do? The Hwangdae Merchant Company has collapsed, and my father still holds power."
"Just what kind of person is he......."
"You only need to know that he's someone high up. If you stay with me, a lot of things will get better for you from now on."
After saying that, she lightly touched Do Tong-dal's knee, but to Do Tong-dal it felt no different from a block of wood touching him.
He briefly wondered, 'Could she be the Society Leader's daughter?' then dismissed it. Jang Bu-ok and Go Seon-hwa were clearly a political marriage.
Jang Bu-ok's business acumen was impressive, but he was not so great a figure that the Society Leader would give him his daughter. Especially not to Jang Bu-ok, who was already married.
'A Protector or an Elder, then.'
Do Tong-dal probed here and there to dig up information on the Revenge Society, but nothing important came out.
In fact, he could say he had gotten everything he could from the place name Sodong-hyeon, Henan Province alone.
If she was from the Revenge Society's upper ranks, she would have belonged to the Revenge Society from the start, so Sodong-hyeon, where Go Seon-hwa was born, was highly likely to be the Revenge Society's point of origin.
After emptying three bottles of wine, Do Tong-dal spoke.
"It's late, so I should be going."
"Leaving already? There's still plenty of night left."
"If a drinking session goes on too long, the next day is rough."
Go Seon-hwa smiled with her eyes.
"Then shall we move somewhere that isn't a drinking session?"
"Of course we should. Rest well."
Do Tong-dal sprang to his feet and crossed the room, and the flustered Go Seon-hwa called after him. But Do Tong-dal walked out of the room without looking back.
He had drunk wine he didn't like with a woman he didn't like, and the wine felt like it would sit heavy in his stomach.
Do Tong-dal did not return to his lodgings but secretly climbed over the wall of the Dongui Martial Hall. He needed to relay the information he had dug up today to Ha Su-ran and Baek So-gu as quickly as possible.
He didn't know whether they were still staying here. If they had already left, he would have to hurry and send a messenger pigeon at least.
Do Tong-dal went to the Heunghwa Inn, where Namgung Seol-rin and the others were staying. Since it was late at night, there were not many people coming and going.
Because he had to move covertly, Do Tong-dal also climbed over the wall of the Heunghwa Inn. He had heard the room number where the three of them were staying, but he did not know specifically whose room it was.
Inn layouts were all similar, so he could tell which number a room was just by looking at the windows.
'They said rooms two hundred seven through nine.'
Do Tong-dal scaled the wall and crawled up to the nearest window of room two hundred seven.
Knock! Knock!
There was no answer when he knocked on the window. They were not the sort of people to fall so deeply asleep that they would miss a presence like this.
Do Tong-dal quietly opened the window and slipped into the room. The moment he entered, he could tell it was Namgung Seol-rin's room.
The clothes hanging on the wall, for one thing, and a woman's scent was unmistakably different from a man's.
"Where did she go at this hour?"
But then the sound of water lapping came from the bathroom attached to the room.
"A bath in the middle of the night."
No matter how close they were, he had no desire to come face-to-face with Namgung Seol-rin coming out of the bath.
But he was a step too late. Just as Do Tong-dal was about to turn around, the bathroom door flew open.
Fleeing in a panic would have looked strange too, so he just stood there awkwardly. Namgung Seol-rin was drying her hair with a towel as she came out and spotted Do Tong-dal.
"Who's there!"
Her mouth asked, but her body was already lunging at him. The towel came down over Do Tong-dal's head like a club.
"W-wait......!"
Do Tong-dal sprang back and narrowly dodged the towel. He hurriedly shouted at her as she was about to swing the towel again.
"It's me! Me!"
"Huh? Tong-dal?"
"Yeah!"
"Why are you climbing through my window in the middle of the night?"
Do Tong-dal averted his gaze as he spoke.
"Let's talk after you put some clothes on."
"Oh my!"
She quickly covered herself with the towel she had been using as a club.
They did not know it, but at that moment Won Dae-yeon and Jang Yu-seom had come to the door of Namgung Seol-rin's room.
Masters like them could not have failed to sense such a commotion. They had been about to open the door and enter when they heard Do Tong-dal's voice.
They flinched to a stop, and the two of them exchanged glances in the air. Then their heads nodded at the same time.
—We should go back to our rooms, right?
Jang Yu-seom mouthed the words, and Won Dae-yeon answered the same way.
—We'll have to close our ears.
Heh.
Wearing similar grins, the two of them returned to their respective rooms.
Inside the room, Namgung Seol-rin's questioning continued.
"Forget the clothes. Just tell me why you came."
She thought, 'Depending on the reason, I might not need to put clothes on after all,' and blushed.
"I have important information about the Revenge Society's origins."
Namgung Seol-rin felt a surge of indignation.
'Of course.'
Suppressing her anger, she asked.
"What kind of information?"
"Sodong-hyeon in Henan Province might be where the Revenge Society was conceived. It's not certain, but the likelihood is high, so tell Strategist Ha and the Sect Leader to look into it. Are the two of them still here?"
"They already left."
"Then send a messenger pigeon. It's urgent, so make it quick. I'll be going now."
As Do Tong-dal moved toward the window, Namgung Seol-rin spoke.
"Was that really the only reason you climbed through my window in the middle of the night?"
"I didn't know it was your room."
"Really? Look me in the eye and say that."
Do Tong-dal turned his eyes to Namgung Seol-rin, then immediately shifted his gaze elsewhere.
She had covered the important parts with the towel, but strangely, that sight was even more suggestive.
"Look at you, look at you. You can't even look me in the eye, so you did have another reason. You did."
"What other reason would I have?"
"For example...... this."
There are things you can know without looking.
Thud!
Like the sound of a towel dropping onto the floor.
"Wh-what are you doing?"
"I heard you confessed that you like Sis Su-ran?"
"You two really talk about everything."
"So I told you to wait your turn."
"What turn?"
"I come before Sis Su-ran."
"Since when is there such a thing?"
"Fine. It's just an excuse. But if you go to Sis Su-ran first, I don't think you'll ever come back to me."
"That won't happen."
"Does 'that won't happen' mean you won't go to Sis Su-ran, or that even if you do, you'll still come to me?"
It could be both, and it could be neither. When he couldn't answer readily, Namgung Seol-rin spoke.
"Sis Su-ran might just be an excuse. I want to stop barking around you like a fierce dog. You might pat my head, or you might kick me away. What are you going to do?"
"Why insist on this right now......."
"Since it's come to this. I'll never have the courage to undress in front of you again, so since it's come to this, decide now."
"......."
"Today is the last time. If this isn't enough, then I'm not in your heart. I don't want to stay by your side as an ugly woman."
Do Tong-dal turned around. His expression was as if her naked body didn't even register in his eyes.
"I'm a thug."
"Who doesn't know that?"
"I'm a thug now, I'll be a thug later, and that won't change until I die. There's absolutely no chance that I'll ever become someone other than a thug."
"I'm not hoping for that."
"Really?"
"You becoming a chivalrous hero or an official isn't what I want. If you wanted to become one, I'd cheer you on, but what I like is you as you are now. The thug Do Tong-dal."
"No taking it back later."
"You stop adding more women."
"I'd like that too, but why do women keep....... Oof!"
Namgung Seol-rin grabbed Do Tong-dal by the collar and kissed him. Without needing to search his memory, it was the first kiss of her life.
So it was closer to a headbutt of the lips than a kiss. Do Tong-dal grabbed both of Namgung Seol-rin's cheeks and pushed her away, a wry laugh on his lips.
Namgung Seol-rin's face, with her eyes squeezed shut and her lips thrust out, looked like a carp.
"I'll teach you, you beginner miss."
* * *
Because he had spent the night with Namgung Seol-rin and returned at dawn, he had only slept for one shichen, but he was not tired.
Right after the meal, Seo In-sik came and told him that Jang Bu-ok was looking for him. He went without much thought, but Jang Bu-ok greeted Do Tong-dal with a sharp expression.
Before Do Tong-dal could even ask why he had been summoned, Jang Bu-ok brought up the matter first.
"You went to my wife's room last night?"
"Yes. I thought it would be rude to refuse the invitation."
"That invitation went on for quite a while. All night, in fact."
"Pardon?"
"Did you think I wouldn't know that you only returned to your room at dawn? Barely a day after becoming my daughter's master, you have an affair with my wife! Do you think you still deserve to be my daughter's master after that!"
He had thoroughly misunderstood. Raising his voice to protest at a time like this would only turn it into a shouting match.
Unlike Jang Bu-ok, Do Tong-dal asked quietly.
"Are you interrogating me after confirming this for certain?"
"You accepted my wife's invitation to drink and returned at dawn. What clearer proof could there be?"
"Have you checked with your wife?"
"Do I really need to check that?"
"If you're going to brand someone a shameless scoundrel, you should have proof to match. It's true that I accepted Madam Go's invitation and drank with her. But that's all. I never created an improper situation with Madam Go."
"Are you telling me to believe that?"
"If you can't believe my word, then confirm it with Madam Go. Shall we go?"
"Wh-what?"
"There can't be physical evidence in a matter like this, so wouldn't the word of the person involved be the surest proof?"
"Are you telling me to become a pathetic man who asks his wife if she had an affair?"
"Of course, you wouldn't have needed to ask. Before, it must have been all too obvious."
Judging from the behavior Jang Bu-ok and Go Seon-hwa had shown so far, it was clear this was not the first time.
Do Tong-dal continued speaking to Jang Bu-ok, whose face was reddening.
"Before, you must have known and pretended not to, letting it pass. Is the reason you're angry only at me because I'm Yeon-seon's master?"
"I cannot tolerate a shameless scoundrel serving as Yeon-seon's master."
"I'm glad you have Yeon-seon's interests at heart. If asking Madam Go directly is uncomfortable, then ask that girl named Jeong So who attends her. When I met Madam Go and when I left. Madam Go wouldn't be afraid of being caught having an affair, so the maid would have no reason to lie."
"Then where were you all night?"
"Madam Go isn't the only woman in the world. Honestly, she's not my type."
Do Tong-dal turned away as he spoke.
"If you come to apologize, I'll accept it."
* * *