Monopolizing Fortunes (182)
Monopolizing Fortunes (182)
Ha Su-ran answered.
"If that many people took part in the blood feud, then it might not simply be about a spiritual medicine, but about the very survival of the two sects."
"Complicated. It's complicated."
Do Tong-dal, who had been thinking for a moment, spoke.
"If a tangled knot is too hard to untie, you just cut it."
"How?"
"For that, I'll have to meet with the Society Leader first and talk. I'd meant to move at a leisurely pace, but things have gotten busy again."
He had intended to use the full month he'd promised the Society Leader to gather information, but it looked like he would have to meet the Society Leader sooner than planned.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The clamor of footsteps coming up to the second floor of the tea house rang out. Do Tong-dal had rented out the entire second floor and told them not to receive any other guests.
But when he saw who was coming up to the second floor, he realized he couldn't hold the tea house responsible.
"Do Tong-dal, you damned bastard!"
The person who came charging over the moment he reached the second floor was Hwangmi Dal, his face flushed red.
His momentum was so fierce that he looked ready to smash Do Tong-dal's skull on the spot.
"Ah...... no, why are you acting like this?"
"Let's start with you getting hit!"
Ha Su-ran hurriedly held back Hwangmi Dal as he rolled up his sleeves.
"Alliance Leader! Why are you suddenly acting like this?"
"You move aside! Are you already on that bastard's side? No! You've always been on that damned bastard's side! Let go of me! Let go!"
Do Tong-dal spoke hastily.
"Makya Sword!"
Hwangmi Dal's movements stopped dead. They called such a thing a trump card, and to Hwangmi Dal, the Makya Sword truly was his trump card.
"Ugh...... I ought to just split that bastard in two with the Makya Sword......!"
"Old man, have a cup of tea here and calm down first."
Hwangmi Dal gulped down the tea Do Tong-dal offered, then cried, "Ah! Hot!" and threw the cup.
"You little shit!"
"Are you in your right mind now?"
Glaring at Do Tong-dal, who wore a smug expression while his fists trembled, Hwangmi Dal flopped down into an empty chair.
"How did I ever end up meeting a bastard like you."
"If it weren't for me, would you even have gotten a look at that Makya Sword on your back?"
"The Makya Sword has saved your life dozens of times."
"The Makya Sword is the real lifesaver here. So why are you so angry?"
"The Second Imperial Princess!"
Those three words gave him no clue at all.
"What about Her Highness the Second Imperial Princess?"
"You're asking because you don't know!"
"Did she confess to you, old man?"
"C-confess! Don't say such dreadful things!"
"Then why are you so angry?"
Beside them, Baek So-gu muttered, "If he'd gotten a confession from an imperial princess, he should be dancing, not getting angry."
"I'm talking about the Second Imperial Princess following me to the Northern Unorthodox Alliance!"
"You even asked me to arrange that."
"That was you screwing me over! What do you think will happen if the Second Imperial Princess comes to the Northern Unorthodox Alliance!"
A superior—and a tremendous superior at that—would be settling into the Northern Unorthodox Alliance. Hwangmi Dal had realized that belatedly and understood that he had been fooled by Do Tong-dal again.
"That depends on you, old man. If you really don't want to, you can just not take her."
"Of course I don't want to take her!"
"But?"
Hwangmi Dal spoke, flustered.
"That's what I should have done......."
"Should have?"
"Uh...... somehow the conversation ended up with us agreeing to go together...... because you made it sound so plausible...... so......."
"Tsk-tsk-tsk...... you got hit somewhere else entirely, so why are you taking it out on me?"
Hwangmi Dal heaved a sigh deep enough to cave in the floor.
"What am I supposed to do about this? Huh? What would be good?"
Another old man with the face of a molting puppy had appeared.
"You've already made the promise, so you can just take her along."
"Does it make any sense to bring an imperial princess to a martial sect!"
"The head of a martial sect even stood guard at the imperial palace, so what's the problem?"
"That was unavoidable because of the Makya Sword!"
"Ah!"
"You've thought of a good idea, right?"
"You can just use your specialty, Alliance Leader."
"What's my specialty?"
"Breaking promises."
"Huh?"
"You tossed aside the promise you made to me like an old shoe, so you can do the same with the Second Imperial Princess."
Hwangmi Dal snapped.
"That wasn't a promise I made to you!"
"Anyway, you can just not keep it. Like you did with me."
"Fine, milk it until the day I die. But I can't withdraw the promise. Whatever you think, I'm someone who keeps his promises."
"Then take her along and put her in closed-door training for about ten years."
"Huh? Oh! That's not bad."
Do Tong-dal watched Hwangmi Dal mulling something over in his head and smirked. Whatever plan he came up with, there was no way it would go as Hwangmi Dal intended.
The important thing was to keep the spark called Ju Seo-in from landing on Do Tong-dal.
"Well, it seems the matter is roughly settled, so why don't you get up now."
Baek So-gu asked.
"Are you going to Luoyang right away?"
"No. I'm going tomorrow."
"Do you have more to do in Beijing?"
"Well...... not exactly......."
Namgung Seol-rin hurriedly stepped in.
"Do you think Tong-dal is as idle as you, Sect Leader? Tong-dal is so busy that even just breathing keeps him occupied."
"Did I say anything?"
Hwangmi Dal said to Ha Su-ran.
"You should head back soon. It seems the two of us have been leaving the alliance empty too often lately."
"Yes? Ah, yes. I...... I suppose I should."
Only then did Baek So-gu make an "Ah!" expression.
"Strategist Ha is going tomorrow too."
"Huh? Why is Su-ran going tomorrow? Even if she goes today, there's still plenty of daylight left."
"Tsk-tsk-tsk...... I don't know how someone with no sense at all—not even enough to use as medicine—manages to run the Northern Unorthodox Alliance."
"I'm the highest-ranking person in the Northern Unorthodox Alliance, so why would I need to read anyone's mood? The one who has to read people's moods and beg is you, Sect Leader."
"That's exactly why you still haven't gotten married."
"It's not that I couldn't, it's that I didn't."
"Guys who couldn't always insist they didn't."
"And why are we talking about my marriage here? How old do you think I am!"
"When I was your age......!"
When the "back in my day" talk started, Namgung Seol-rin pushed Do Tong-dal and Ha Su-ran on the back.
"Hurry out while those two gentlemen are fighting."
Thanks to Namgung Seol-rin's consideration(?), Do Tong-dal and Ha Su-ran slipped quietly out of the tea house.
They hadn't decided on anything in particular to do. They simply walked the streets here and there, snacked on treats, and bought trinkets or clothes that caught their eye.
When they came upon a lake, they even rode a boat, passing the leisurely time they had never been able to enjoy before.
"Really? You'll teach me the Thousand-Face Disguise Art?"
"If you want to take off that stifling veil, changing your face is the only way."
"Even so, it's your secret art, Young Master Do. Is it all right to teach it to someone else?"
"You're not someone else."
"If I'm not someone else...... then what am I?"
Ha Su-ran, sitting side by side with him on a tree stump by the lakeside, shifted her weight toward Do Tong-dal and asked.
"Someone I love."
It had been a question tossed out to tease him, but at Do Tong-dal's too-direct answer, Ha Su-ran's face flushed red.
"If you keep suddenly coming at me like that......."
"Seol-rin taught me to answer like that when you ask like that."
"What? Pfft!"
Namgung Seol-rin for teaching him that, and Do Tong-dal for actually doing it.
"You and Seol-rin really suit each other."
"I'm the one adjusting to her. Otherwise my back would catch fire."
"Who else is there that you adjust to like that besides Seol-rin?"
Even if it had been caused by her own mistake, Namgung Seol-rin had thrown herself from that high place into the deepest darkness for Do Tong-dal's sake.
Perhaps because of that, Namgung Seol-rin felt like a comrade who had long fought through a thorny path together with him.
"Living a life together is probably a process of endlessly adjusting to each other. If you live sixty years and still fight, it means there's still more to adjust, so doesn't that mean a man and a woman being together is as hard as it is fun?"
"Will we be able to fight and adjust to each other for that long too?"
"I'm sure we will. Strategist Ha is smart and wise."
"And what about you, Young Master Do?"
"Don't expect much from a thug. A thug is the most useless job in the world."
"Maybe I should quit being the Northern Unorthodox Alliance's strategist too."
"What?"
"Watching Seol-rin be a thug, it looked so comfortable. So I was thinking of becoming a thug too."
Do Tong-dal waved both hands.
"I don't know about anything else, but the Alliance Leader would try to eat me alive."
"It's fine because I have the Makya Sword."
"That is my trump card, but I don't think even the Makya Sword will be enough......."
"Really?"
"No matter how much the Alliance Leader cherishes the Makya Blade and the Makya Sword, in the end they're just external objects."
"Have you already forgotten the Makya Blade incident?"
"In the end, the Alliance Leader came looking for me. There's no way he would treasure such external objects more than Strategist Ha. Whatever else, the Alliance Leader is a deeply affectionate person."
"The Alliance Leader is like that."
"Ah! If he finds out about me and Strategist Ha, this time the Alliance Leader will really hit the roof!"
"I'll handle that myself, so don't worry. More than that, if I leave, the Northern Unorthodox Alliance will be in bigger trouble."
If Hwangmi Dal was the center of the Northern Unorthodox Alliance, then Ha Su-ran was the wheel that kept it turning.
Their conversation by the lakeside continued in soft murmurs until the red sunset turned to black.
Ha Su-ran was surprised by Do Tong-dal's breadth of knowledge. She hadn't expected Do Tong-dal—whose job was thuggery and whose work was thuggery—to know so much.
The epithet "Ten Excellences" seemed like it should be attached not to Ha Su-ran but to Do Tong-dal.
And when they returned to the inn where they were staying, Namgung Seol-rin was nowhere to be seen.
Do Tong-dal smiled inwardly. Namgung Seol-rin had made herself scarce for Ha Su-ran's sake.
'She's probably not out there catching the night dew.'
Namgung Seol-rin was not catching night dew but pouring down liquor dew. It wasn't that she was upset.
Ha Su-ran was destined to be joined with Do Tong-dal anyway. And Ha Su-ran got along well with Namgung Seol-rin, so she was better than any other woman.
"It stops exactly at Sis Su-ran. Just try bringing another woman."
* * *
Do Tong-dal's heart was resolute as he entered the Revenge Society.
"I have to end this mess quickly!"
The thought 'Did I return to my past for this?' came to him unbidden. This was not work a thug should be doing.
"Once I finish this, I won't even piss in the martial world's direction."
Even if it meant catching his own shit in the air and eating it, he had no intention of associating with the martial world again.
As he entered the outskirts of the village, he sensed that the number of eyes watching him had increased. The outer security had been reinforced, and the interior looked largely emptied out.
'They're preparing to move somewhere else.'
It was clearly in case Do Tong-dal changed his mind. Won Jung-bang, upon receiving word that Do Tong-dal had arrived, wore a puzzled expression.
"Already?"
There was still a long way to go before the promised month was up. Given Do Tong-dal's personality, there was no way he would give up this quickly.
Thinking, 'Surely not,' he ordered Do Tong-dal brought in. As always, Do Tong-dal's expression was unreadable.
Won Jung-bang, who had an exceptional ability to discern what others were thinking, had been able to succeed quickly as a merchant because of it.
By observing a person's expression and exchanging a few words, he could grasp what they wanted, but with Do Tong-dal, that didn't work.
So he asked.
"Surely you haven't already figured it out?"
Someone in the Revenge Society had clearly told Do Tong-dal. Only three people in the Revenge Society knew that name, so it would be one of them.
"There's no need to trouble yourself looking for a traitor. I found out on my own."
"A lie! How could you discover my identity in such a short time!"
"If you bet on a side that's certain to win, that's not a bet, it's fraud. Did you commit fraud against me, Society Leader?"
"You're the one who accepted the bet knowing it was one-sidedly in my favor."
"And I won that bet."
"But what if it isn't complete?"
"Of course it isn't complete. Because you have another identity in Beijing. No—I should say you had one. Since that person is already dead."
Won Jung-bang couldn't even hide his shock. Still, just in case, he asked.
"Who?"
"Song Do-uk."
In the end, that name came out. The two identities of Won Jung-bang, which he had believed impossible to uncover even with a year of investigation, had been exposed by Do Tong-dal in less than half a month.
"How in the world did you find out?"
"Didn't I tell you? Finding a needle on a white sand beach is my specialty."
"Stop the wordplay."
"Before you suffered at the hands of Mount Hua and Jongnam, your martial arts were nothing special, Society Leader. But in eighteen years, you became a master comparable to the Ten Greatest Masters Under Heaven. You accomplished something nearly impossible."
"And with that, you claim to have uncovered my identity?"
* * *