Monopolizing Fortunes (25)
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Monopolizing Fortunes (25)
He was just stepping into yet another tavern in the dim evening when it happened.
"How dare you try your tricks here!"
A sharp woman's voice rang through the tavern.
"Heh heh heh...... A decent-looking wench in a tavern at this hour is obviously here to sell herself. I'll buy. How much?"
Do Tong-dal sighed the moment he saw the man harassing the woman.
'That bastard Jang So-baek was rotten from the start.'
He had even done prison time over a woman, and the moment he got out, he was harassing another one.
The problem was that this was no ordinary woman. If she wore a blue martial outfit that looked like something a man would wear and carried a sword at her side, she was almost certainly from the martial world.
With a foul temper and no eye for people, making it to this age already counted as a long life.
"I just got out of prison, so I'm in a hurry! If you throw a fit, I'll gouge your eyes out, so come along quietly!"
Jang So-baek reached to grab the woman by the collar.
Thwack!
"Guh—!"
Struck in the chest by the woman's fist, Jang So-baek flew backward, spraying blood from his mouth.
'If that bastard dies here, it'll be trouble!'
If Jang So-baek died where Do Tong-dal was, Jang Jeong-baek's resentment could turn toward him.
The woman, as if one punch hadn't relieved her anger, drew her sword and launched herself forward. Her sword came slashing down toward Jang So-baek, who had landed on his back and was sliding across the floor.
Do Tong-dal slid across the floor on his knees and drew his dagger. The jade ornament hanging from the dagger's hilt swung wildly.
Just as Namgung Cheol-hyeon had hung one on his own sword, Do Tong-dal had attached it to his dagger.
Do Tong-dal managed to slip between the falling sword and Jang So-baek just in time.
Clang!
The woman's sword carried far more force than he had expected, and he nearly lost his grip on the dagger.
"Who the hell are you!"
"Just a passing thug. Let's leave it at this."
"Hmph! You must be in league with that bastard......."
The woman's gaze, mid-sentence, fixed on the jade ornament hanging from the dagger's hilt.
"Where did you get that jade ornament?"
"It's a long story......."
The woman clearly had no intention of listening to a long story. He blocked a sword thrust aimed at his shoulder, and the next attack went for his legs.
He hastily retreated, but the woman's pursuit was astonishingly fast.
Thwack!
Kicked in the chest, Do Tong-dal crashed through a window and tumbled into the alley.
"Guh—!"
The woman was suddenly standing over Do Tong-dal as he groaned.
"You and I need to have a talk."
She said she wanted to talk, then punched him in the jaw and knocked him out. When he woke, he was in the mountains.
The woman was looking down at Do Tong-dal, who was tied to a tree. The round moon floating behind her looked like a halo.
"Where did you get this?"
The jade ornament in her hand swayed left and right.
"I got it as a gift from a friend."
Slap!
Before his head, knocked to the left, could even right itself, the woman's cold voice reached him.
"A lowly Underworld thug like you is a friend of the Namgung Clan's Young Head? Do you want to die?"
Do Tong-dal spat out the blood pooling in his mouth.
"From the look of it, you're from the Namgung Clan. Judging by your face, you're not Cheol-hyeon's younger brother, so are you his older sister?"
He was slapped again. This time there was real emotion behind the blow.
"Cut the nonsense and tell me where the jade ornament came from!"
"I told you the truth. If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do."
Shing—.
Her sword pointed at his throat.
"If you don't answer properly, I'll kill you."
He could feel a thick killing intent backed by firm resolve.
"Where is my older brother?"
"Ah! So you're the younger sister, not the older one."
The tip of the sword pressed against his throat, drawing blood.
"How you came by this jade ornament. Answer."
He couldn't honestly reveal what had happened with Namgung Cheol-hyeon. The fact that Cheol-hyeon had once been a coward was a secret that must never come to light.
Even if she was his younger sister, unless Namgung Cheol-hyeon himself spoke of it, Do Tong-dal had to keep his mouth shut.
"What you're doing to me right now. Are you prepared to deal with the consequences?"
"You're threatening me in this situation?"
"That's exactly why I'm threatening you. If I really did receive that jade ornament as a gift as Cheol-hyeon's friend, what will you do?"
"That's impossible!"
The belief that the Namgung Clan's Young Head could never be friends with a mere thug was too firmly rooted in her.
"Then suppose I'm not a friend but an enemy. Are you going to kill the only person who knows where your brother is?"
The woman glared down at Do Tong-dal with murderous eyes. If she truly seemed about to kill him, he would have no choice but to tell the truth.
His loyalty to Namgung Cheol-hyeon mattered, but it did not matter more than his own life.
'Fuck, I even reincarnated, and now I'm supposed to die here? That's too unfair!'
He believed the woman would not kill him on the spot, but Namgung Cheol-hyeon's younger sister could be a bigger blockhead than he expected.
"You're right."
Fortunately, the woman sheathed her sword. Then she pressed the pressure points on Do Tong-dal's shoulders. All sensation vanished from both arms, as if they had been severed.
"You're coming with me to the Namgung Clan."
"Huh? What?"
That was utter nonsense.
"Why the hell would I go to the Namgung Clan with you!"
"If you face my brother, we'll see whether your words are true or false. Though it's obviously a lie."
"If what you believe is right, then Namgung Cheol-hyeon can't be at the Namgung Clan! Isn't that so?"
"If my brother isn't at the Namgung Clan, you'll be handed over to the torture specialists."
Helping Namgung Cheol-hyeon was turning from a blessing into a curse. The thought 'Should I just tell the truth?' did cross his mind.
There wasn't much time left before Jang Jeong-baek obtained the Mind-Reading Art. So no matter what, he had to stay by Jang Jeong-baek's side right now.
'The Namgung Clan isn't a day or two away. Even if it's in neighboring Anhui Province, the round trip would take twenty days.'
By then, Jang Jeong-baek would have gotten his hands on the Mind-Reading Art.
'No choice, then.'
The Mind-Reading Art was a card Do Tong-dal could not discard no matter what.
"Fine. The truth is......."
He couldn't even finish saying he would tell the truth. The woman sealed Do Tong-dal's mute point as well.
"I don't want to hear any more from you. Let's go quietly."
'Hey! I said I'd tell you the truth! Your brother is a coward! A coward!'
He wanted to scream those words until his throat burst. But with his mute point sealed, he couldn't even manage a childlike babble.
With the pressure points in both arms also suppressed, he couldn't write either. Moving his two perfectly fine legs to follow the woman was the only thing Do Tong-dal could do.
* * *
The rocking carriage was wrapped in complete silence.
Do Tong-dal's mute point had been released. If the mute point was pressed, the tongue stiffened, and even chewing food became difficult. So unless she intended to starve him to death, she had to release it.
When the mute point was first released, he had tried to tell the truth. But Namgung Cheol-hyeon's younger sister, Namgung Seol-rin, had shut Do Tong-dal's mouth with the words, "If you utter a single word, I'll press your mute point again."
After that, his pride kicked in.
'Fine, let's see how this plays out!'
Do Tong-dal gritted his teeth and followed Namgung Seol-rin. But there was a bigger problem than the mute point.
"Hey, are you going to keep the pressure points on my arms sealed? I've heard that if you block pressure points too long, you can lose the use of your arms."
He vaguely remembered hearing something like that in his previous life.
"No one cares about your arms."
"I care."
Namgung Seol-rin only stared out the carriage window and didn't even glance at Do Tong-dal.
If Do Tong-dal lost the use of his arms, he couldn't attack her or run away, so it was convenient for Namgung Seol-rin.
"If you're worried about your arms, tell the truth now."
"Why are you so sure I'm lying?"
"My brother, noble as a crane, friends with trash like you?"
"You don't even know me."
"Underworld trash isn't worth knowing."
Her stereotypes ran too deep to be shaken by a few words.
"You'd better pray my brother is there when we return to the clan. Whether you stole the jade ornament or got it some other way, the sooner the truth comes out, the better for you."
"If Cheol-hyeon isn't there, will you really torture me?"
"It will be pain beyond anything you can imagine. And if you call my brother by name like a friend one more time, I'll cut out your tongue."
Do Tong-dal was getting a sense of Namgung Seol-rin's personality. Once she formed a belief, it never wavered, and if she set her mind to something, she would see it through no matter what.
That might be admirable for a child of a martial clan, but as a human being, she was close to a failing grade.
'Cheol-hyeon has a troublesome younger sister. But are my arms really going to be okay?'
With no sensation, it was hard to even judge whether anything was wrong with his arms.
'Surely nothing will go wrong?'
In his previous life, he had learned firsthand how miserable it was when a part of the body lost its function.
Whether it was a god or whoever had given him another chance at life, he believed they wouldn't play the cruel trick of taking his arms this time.
The carriage Namgung Seol-rin had hired ran without rest and reached the Namgung Clan in just six days. It was far sooner than Do Tong-dal had expected.
If he cleared up the misunderstanding quickly, he might be able to return to Hangzhou before Jang Jeong-baek obtained the Mind-Reading Art.
Do Tong-dal had assumed Namgung Cheol-hyeon would naturally be at the Namgung Clan. After all, he had said he was returning to the clan to prepare for the Orthodox Faction Tournament.
But Do Tong-dal's expectation and hope were spectacularly wrong. Namgung Cheol-hyeon was not at the Namgung Clan. In fact, no one in the clan even knew where Namgung Cheol-hyeon was.
So when Namgung Seol-rin brought the jade ornament, the Namgung Clan was thrown into an uproar.
"You're saying a thug from the Hangzhou Underworld had that jade ornament?"
Namgung Seol-rin answered Namgung Baek-jung's question.
"Yes, Father."
Four months earlier, Namgung Cheol-hyeon had left the clan, leaving only a letter saying he was going out for some fresh air. He hadn't told anyone or revealed his destination, so it was a kind of running away from home.
It had caused a stir, but the mood wasn't one of great worry. He was the Namgung Clan's Young Head, and his martial arts were said to be unmatched among the rising generation, so they believed he would return after clearing his head.
But as one month passed, then two, then more than three, worried voices began to emerge one by one.
With the Orthodox Faction Tournament right around the corner, the Namgung Clan's Young Head was effectively missing.
The clan had mobilized its entire intelligence network to search for Namgung Cheol-hyeon, but they had found no trace of him.
Namgung Seol-rin going all the way to Hangzhou and capturing Do Tong-dal had happened in the midst of all that.
"I'll meet him myself."
Namgung Baek-jung hurried out of his office. It took a while to go around the rear garden, past the Second Training Ground, and reach the First Training Ground by the main gate.
He suppressed the urge to use his Lightness Art and get there in an instant.
Do Tong-dal was kneeling in front of the carriage, surrounded by eight Namgung Clan warriors standing guard.
Just then, Namgung Baek-jung's younger brother, Namgung Sang-yeon, also appeared. After greeting Namgung Baek-jung, Namgung Sang-yeon asked Namgung Seol-rin.
"You caught that bastard in Hangzhou?"
"Yes."
"I heard he's from the Underworld."
"That's right. But from the brief fight, he wasn't ordinary Underworld. His martial arts seemed at least second-rate, even by the standards of the martial world."
"Did you learn anything about Cheol-hyeon's whereabouts?"
"He's keeping his mouth completely shut."
At that moment, Do Tong-dal spoke.
"Keeping my mouth shut? I told you the truth over and over."
"Shut up! Do you think it makes any sense that my brother gave you the jade ornament as a token of friendship! To Underworld trash like you!"
Namgung Baek-jung waved the jade ornament in front of Do Tong-dal's eyes.
"Do you know what this is?"
"I heard on the way here."
"No matter how close a friend you were, he would never have given you the jade ornament that symbolizes the Namgung Clan's Young Head. Isn't that right?"
"Then that friend gave me something troublesome."
"Are you insisting to the end that you are our Cheol-hyeon's friend?"
"I've said everything I can say. The rest is for Cheol-hyeon to......."
Namgung Seol-rin's foot struck Do Tong-dal's cheek. As he crumpled to the ground, her cold voice followed.
"I told you not to talk about my brother like a friend."
No one stopped her. Everyone in the Namgung Clan believed that a mere Underworld thug could never be Namgung Cheol-hyeon's friend.
"Ptui! Fuck, I've lived long enough to see all sorts of things. So what are you going to do?"
* * *