Monopolizing Fortunes (26)
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Monopolizing Fortunes (26)
Namgung Baek-jung spoke.
"I'll give you a chance to live. How did you come by this jade token? Where is Cheol-hyeon right now?"
"I already told you how I got the token, and I don't know where Cheol-hyeon is. Go find yourself a good fortune-teller."
Namgung Sang-yeon stepped in.
"Brother, I'll take this one."
"It seems there's no other choice."
Do Tong-dal sprang to his feet.
"The old saying about choosing your friends carefully never misses, does it! Fine, fuck it—torture me, kill me, do whatever you want!"
Namgung Sang-yeon spoke to the warriors nearby.
"Take him down to the basement. Third room."
Two of them dragged Do Tong-dal away. Namgung Baek-jung watched Do Tong-dal being hauled off and said.
"Looking at his eyes, I doubt he'll open his mouth easily."
"Three days at the most."
* * *
The head of the last resisting bandit rolled across the ground. As he drew a deep breath, the stench of blood pushed deep into his lungs.
Once, it would have made him retch. Now it was just one more smell among many.
Namgung Cheol-hyeon took out a cloth and wiped the blood from his sword. The bandits he had cut down alone numbered over thirty, yet the blood he wiped from the blade hadn't even soaked one side of the cloth.
Even standing among the rows of corpses, his mind grew steadily calmer. His fingertips no longer trembled.
"It seems I've truly overcome my fear."
To confirm it, he had annihilated two mountain strongholds and one bandit group. He had done what a chivalrous hero ought to do, and the results weren't bad either.
"I'm newly grateful to that friend Tong-dal."
He wanted to go back to Hangzhou and buy him a proper drink. No—if he was honest, what he really wanted was simply to see Do Tong-dal.
"Would he come if I invited him to the Orthodox Faction Tournament?"
With his fearlessness and martial skill, he might even win the Dragon-Phoenix Tournament. He wanted to show Do Tong-dal the sight of him raising the victory banner.
The first friend he had ever made kept circling through his head, and whenever he thought of something good, he found himself wanting to share it with him.
"Is there anything I can do to help Tong-dal?"
In truth, he owed Do Tong-dal his life. If he had failed to overcome his fear and remained the cowardly Young Head, he might well have taken his own life.
He had imagined it every day. Not a single day had passed without the thought that he would rather die than remain a disgrace to his family.
So Do Tong-dal could be called his savior. He wanted to repay that debt somehow, but nothing suitable came to mind.
At the same time, he couldn't exactly lend the Namgung Clan's power so that Do Tong-dal could rule the nights of Hangzhou.
For the Namgung Clan, foremost of the Five Great Clans, to become entangled with the Underworld was not a matter that concerned Namgung Cheol-hyeon alone.
"Should I introduce him to Seol-rin?"
It didn't seem like a bad idea. Namgung Seol-rin would throw a fit, but once she got to know Do Tong-dal, she would surely warm to him too.
"If that girl is left as she is, she'll grow old as a spinster, so it'd be good for everyone. Heh heh heh...."
All the way back to the Namgung Clan, thoughts of Do Tong-dal never left Namgung Cheol-hyeon's mind.
His mind was like that of an innocent young man suffering through his first love. When he had nearly reached the Namgung Clan, Namgung Cheol-hyeon hit on a good idea.
"The clan has plenty of usable martial arts!"
The Namgung Clan didn't possess only its own martial arts. Like the Nine Sects and One Gang or the Five Great Clans, any sect with a long history inevitably had a secret archive unknown to the outside world.
That archive contained numerous martial arts from other sects, as well as arts long since lost to the world. Among them were several that Do Tong-dal could learn.
Do Tong-dal was too old to start learning martial arts from scratch, but since he already had skill, they would help him.
The Namgung Clan came into view in the distance. When he had walked out that gate four months ago, he had felt nothing but despair.
He had even resolved never to return if he could not shake off his fear. But now he felt like a triumphant general.
Even if no one else recognized it, he himself felt that proud. That was why his expression as he waved to the two warriors guarding the clan gate was utterly carefree.
"Have you all been well?"
"Oh! Young Head!"
The warriors were shocked, as if a dead man had come back.
"Is my returning such a surprise?"
He asked it like a joke, but one of the warriors dashed inside.
"The Young Head has returned!"
He shouted loudly enough to shake the whole clan. Namgung Cheol-hyeon, suddenly self-conscious, scratched the back of his head.
"No need to make such a fuss over me."
The remaining warrior asked.
"Young Head, what happened?"
Namgung Cheol-hyeon answered as he stepped through the main gate.
"I was just out sightseeing."
"Goodness, you say that so casually. The clan has been in an uproar."
Well, with the Young Head missing without word for over four months, that was only natural. He felt a twinge of guilt toward his family.
'I'm going to get an earful from Father.'
He was walking with that thought when the warrior following him spoke.
"Did you know that the young lady brought back a man from Hangzhou who had your jade token?"
Namgung Cheol-hyeon's steps stopped dead.
"A man with my jade token?"
"They say he's some Underworld thug... were you robbed?"
"What did they say his name was?"
"Do... something, I think...."
"Do Tong-dal?"
"I think that was the name."
A foreboding chill swept through his entire body.
"Then where is he now?"
"The Chief Hall Master took him away, so he's probably not in good shape."
"Uncle did? Damn it!"
He didn't know the details, but one thing was clear: Do Tong-dal was suffering.
He launched himself toward the Seonghae Pavilion at the very back of the clan, and from the left Namgung Seol-rin appeared.
"Brother!"
Her hair was wet, so she must have been bathing when she heard he had arrived.
"Is it true you brought Tong-dal back from Hangzhou?"
"Yes! He claimed you gave him your jade token, but that's impossible! There's no way some Underworld thug could be your friend!"
"So?"
"He was brought here, and Uncle is interrogating him right now!"
"You fool! He's my one and only friend! The jade token was a keepsake I gave him so he could find me when he visited the clan later!"
"What?"
"When did Tong-dal get here?"
"Th... three days ago."
"Three days?"
His vision went dark. If he had been tortured for three days under Namgung Sang-yeon's harsh hand, there was no way his body was intact.
Namgung Cheol-hyeon rushed into the Seonghae Pavilion, but two warriors standing guard blocked his way.
"Stop!"
They hadn't yet recognized Namgung Cheol-hyeon's face, but Namgung Cheol-hyeon had no time to stop.
"Out of my way!"
Namgung Cheol-hyeon struck both warriors in the chest and shoved them aside, then opened the door and took the stairs down to the basement.
Fortunately, the four warriors guarding the basement entrance recognized Namgung Cheol-hyeon quickly.
"Young Head!"
"Tong-dal! Where is Do Tong-dal!"
One of them answered quickly.
"Room Three."
"Ah!"
The groan escaped him because that was the room used for the harshest torture.
Namgung Cheol-hyeon kicked open the door to Room Three.
"Who's there!"
The man sharpening a blade on an iron bar shouted. It was Yun Ga-hyeong, Hall Master of the Amcheon Hall, and there was one more person whose name he couldn't remember.
"Young Head!"
Namgung Cheol-hyeon's gaze shifted to the center of the basement.
Creak—. Creak—.
The chains swayed slowly, letting out an unpleasant sound. And from those chains hung a person, like meat in a butcher's shop.
Torn, swollen, and bruised, the original shape was unrecognizable, but he knew at a glance that it was Do Tong-dal.
"Tong-dal!"
Namgung Cheol-hyeon cut through the chains in one stroke and caught Do Tong-dal as he collapsed. The sword Namgung Cheol-hyeon had flung aside after cutting the chains clattered across the basement floor.
"You bastards... I'm... Cheol-hyeon's... friend...."
Do Tong-dal, barely conscious, mumbled those words.
"A physician! Call a physician! Hurry!"
Namgung Cheol-hyeon ran with Do Tong-dal in his arms, shouting at no one in particular.
* * *
The room was wrapped in deep silence. After Namgung Cheol-hyeon finished speaking, no one could bring themselves to speak.
As if whoever spoke first would bear all the blame, the four of them simply stared into empty space with unfocused eyes.
"It seems we have made a grave mistake."
Namgung Baek-jung's words, breaking the long silence, were the sort that didn't need saying.
Namgung Sang-yeon spoke.
"If only he had explained the circumstances when Seol-rin first brought him in. No—if he had at least said something when he was taken to the basement, he wouldn't have suffered like that."
"It's my fault. Tong-dal protected my secret even while enduring that. That's the kind of friend he is."
"Heh heh heh... To think I would see in an underworld thug the kind of chivalrous spirit that is hard to find even among orthodox heroes."
Namgung Seol-rin spoke.
"It was my mistake from the start. I was rash. I shouldn't have distrusted him just because he's an Underworld thug. I'm sorry, Brother."
"I'm not the one you should apologize to."
"Of course, I must apologize to Do Tong-dal as well."
Just then, a voice came from outside.
"Clan Head, Physician Hwang is here."
"Come in."
Physician Hwang entered, his hair half-gray and his beard the same color. He had served as the Namgung Clan's physician for thirty years and was, as far as Namgung Cheol-hyeon knew, the finest physician there was.
Namgung Cheol-hyeon asked hurriedly.
"How is Tong-dal?"
Physician Hwang's dark expression gave him a bad feeling.
"There will be scars, but the external wounds will heal without issue. However...."
"However what?"
"His arms had been hung up for three days after their pressure points had already been sealed for far too long......"
"What about his arms?"
"I'm afraid they will be difficult to save."
The words felt too unreal, so Namgung Cheol-hyeon asked again.
"What do you mean, difficult to save?"
"He may lose the use of both arms."
"That can't happen!"
The shout was loud enough to make everyone in the room flinch.
"Heal him no matter what! Use whatever medicine it takes! I'll personally procure every ingredient needed, so you must heal Tong-dal's arms!"
Physician Hwang glanced fearfully at Namgung Baek-jung, then spoke with difficulty.
"The muscles and meridians can perhaps be saved, but the fine meridians are already dead. No matter how potent the elixir, that cannot be repaired."
Namgung Cheol-hyeon grabbed Physician Hwang by the collar.
"Y... Young Head...."
"If you can't heal him, then who can? Name a physician who can heal him!"
Namgung Baek-jung pressed down gently on Namgung Cheol-hyeon's arm.
"Cheol-hyeon, this is not Physician Hwang's fault."
Physician Hwang's face, half-lifted into the air, drained of color. With Namgung Cheol-hyeon's current momentum, it looked as though he might smash Physician Hwang's head in.
"Clan Head."
A warrior's voice came from outside. After receiving permission to enter, the warrior opened the door. In his hands was the sword Namgung Cheol-hyeon had left abandoned in the basement.
It was the sword Namgung Baek-jung had given Namgung Cheol-hyeon on his sixteenth birthday, a treasure Namgung Cheol-hyeon cherished second only to his own life.
Namgung Cheol-hyeon released Physician Hwang's collar and accepted the sword the warrior held out. His gaze fell upon his own face reflected in the blade.
That face, looking as if it might burst into tears at any moment, was pitiful and revolting.
A worthless wretch who had crippled the arms of a friend to whom he owed his life.
"Aaaargh—!"
The sword Namgung Cheol-hyeon brought down against the floor snapped in two. But no one could stop him or blame him.
Using the broken sword like a cane, Namgung Cheol-hyeon slumped to the floor, and his sobs lingered in that space for a long time.
* * *
"You're saying I've lost the use of both arms?"
Lying in bed, Do Tong-dal's tone was unexpectedly calm.
"I'm sorry. It was my oversight."
Namgung Sang-yeon's apology seemed sincere, but it did nothing to ease Do Tong-dal's heart.
"So I've become a cripple. Again. Heh heh heh...."
"The Namgung Clan will provide whatever compensation it can. So if there is anything you need, tell me."
* * *