34
Chapter 34: Moonlight
[6, 5, 4...]
Dong Bong-su finally entered the partitioned room.
In the partitioned room, just as the boatman had said, there was one oar port on each side. The empty space inside was used as storage, with various lake navigation tools scattered about, and as the boatman mentioned, a fairly large chamber pot with a lid was also provided.
Since he hadn't come to use something like a chamber pot anyway, he stuck as close as possible to the boat's wall.
First, the left side.
Where the oar port was located was the end of the boat. Just as the boatman had said they defecated and urinated there instead of using the latrine, as he approached close to the oar port, a foul smell stabbed his nose. However, Dong Bong-su paid it no mind and pressed his body as close as possible to the hole where the oar would have been placed.
Then he checked Spirit Eyes.
[3.]
Now Spirit Eyes' parameter was indicating 3 meters. On the lower planking 3 meters below this oar port, one person presumed to be an enemy was attached.
'Two for now.'
Combined with the one confirmed at the bow, there were two.
Two might not be the end yet.
Dong Bong-su immediately moved to the opposite partitioned room side. As expected, the distance increased then decreased again.
At the oar port opposite the spot that had just indicated 3 meters.
There was one more enemy at an even closer 2-meter position than 3 meters.
'Three!'
Having confirmed three additional enemies, Dong Bong-su left the partitioned room. And he walked toward the bow. Because there might be more at the bow side besides the enemy he'd confirmed earlier.
"Kul..."
The boatman who had given him directions earlier had already fallen back into sleep. The low snoring sound was rather proof that he was deeply asleep.
Dong Bong-su passed him and approached the bow side. As expected, Spirit Eyes' warning sound increased then decreased starting at 14 meters. And there he confirmed that besides the enemy he'd checked earlier, there was one more person attached to the bottom planking on the opposite side.
'Four.'
A total of four people.
Right now under this boat, there were four enemies with a level difference of 10 or more from him.
Five if Do Heo-ok was included.
One each on both sides of the boat bottom directly below the front and rear.
He could accurately grasp the positions of the four through Spirit Eyes' sense of distance.
Then what was the purpose of these people sneaking onto this boat?
At this point, there was nothing to ponder.
If their purpose was something like kidnapping Namgung Hye, they would have already done it. The only person on this boat who could stop them was Do Heo-ok, but given the circumstances, when he had called these four here, what reason would there be to stop them?
Four peak masters attached under the boat doing nothing?
'They're just waiting for the boat to return where it came from, to the Namgung Family.'
This boat was scheduled to return to the Namgung Family soon, and it was a boat that received no one's suspicion. Who would suspect a boat carrying Namgung Byeok's second son-in-law and second daughter?
That meant these peak masters attached under the boat could infiltrate the Namgung Family without any interference.
These were people with at least a level difference of 10 or more from Dong Bong-su. Whether that difference would be 20 or 30 was completely unknowable.
For four such people to secretly permeate into the Namgung Family...
'Overthrow.'
The 'significant matter, major incident' Do Heo-ok was plotting was indeed as his intuition had said. The first, third, and fourth possibilities all disappeared, leaving only the second possibility.
Do Heo-ok and this force intended to completely overturn the Namgung Family. It wasn't to kill one or two people. Absolutely not.
'They intend to erase the Namgung Family from the Martial World.'
Then D-Day was indeed...
That day.
It would be Do Heo-ok's wedding day.
They must be preparing one by one to cause trouble timed to that moment, and this matter was also part of the preparatory stage for the grand undertaking.
There were no what-ifs here. The possibility that Do Heo-ok and these people were on different sides was 'zero.'
The Namgung Family was in name the Greatest Family Under Heaven. When this pleasure boat returned to the family, they would certainly inspect the boat and confirm whether anyone had snuck on or not. Normally they would be caught there, and even if they were lucky enough to escape the boat and infiltrate inside the Namgung Family, they would soon have their tails caught by the Namgung Family's warriors.
However,
If someone bought them time to hide inside the family and even provided them with places to hide, the story would be completely different. Do Heo-ok would have already prepared all of that, and it would proceed as planned. There was already no one who could stop it.
Dong Bong-su couldn't stop it either.
Even if he returned to the family and said there were intruders, who would believe him? Additionally, if he said the person who hid or would hide them was Do Heo-ok?
It would obviously become a self-destructive move that put him in danger.
It wasn't a choice Dong Bong-su could make.
Then.
'What should I do now?'
Do Heo-ok's plan was progressing step by step, and there was no way for Dong Bong-su to stop it.
Between a rock and a hard place.
With Tang Hwa or Tang O always attached, he couldn't escape the Namgung Family. But if he remained inside the Namgung Family, Do Heo-ok and his backing force would attack the Namgung Family when the time came, and the result was roughly predictable.
In the worst case, all personnel within the Namgung Family would be annihilated.
If he followed Tang O, he might survive if lucky, but that was really only if he was lucky. If he left it to luck every time something like this happened, Dong Bong-su wouldn't have lasted until now without being caught.
Luck was nothing more than a stroke of fortune that only fools believed in, and Dong Bong-su was no fool.
'I must find a certain method.'
As quickly as possible.
When caught between a rock and a hard place, ordinary people would be prone to give up. But Dong Bong-su doesn't give up. He maintains cool reason in any situation and navigates through crises.
If front and back are blocked, he escapes through a side path. If both sides are blocked, he soars upward or hides below.
If even that isn't feasible.
He levels both difficulties.
That was Dong Bong-su's way, and Dong Bong-su was the one who could do so.
Dong Bong-su's gaze had at some point returned from Sosam's eyes to Dong Bong-su's true 'empty' gaze.
What was he thinking?
No one knew yet.
***
A short while later.
Dong Bong-su came up on deck as if nothing had happened and drank with Do Heo-ok.
Right there, he got drunk and recited Sosam's life story fluently. He wrapped up the matter with Tang O by vaguely saying he didn't know why it happened that way.
Do Heo-ok couldn't find any flaws in Dong Bong-su's story and ultimately had no choice but to accept it. That Dong Bong-su knew nothing.
Afterward, Dong Bong-su, drunk, went down to the lower cabin and fell asleep with his head stuck in the oar port inside the partitioned room.
In the end, that night's boat outing ended like that.
Until then, clouds still clung to the moon in the sky. Nevertheless, because the moon was so large, the moonlight brightly illuminated the world.
The full moon wasn't far off.
The midpoint between the full moon and first quarter moon.
Tang Hwa and Namgung Hye, who knew nothing, were looking at the moon with smiling faces even while returning to the Namgung Family, and Do Heo-ok, standing beside them with a triumphant smile, was also looking up at the moon.
However, there was one fact they didn't know.
The fact that there was another person looking at the same moon as them.
Dong Bong-su, with his head stuck in the oar port while smelling feces and urine, was calmly watching the distorted moon reflected on Chaohu Lake clearly.
That moon wasn't as bright as the moon seen directly through the sky, but more secretly, more quietly, and more beautifully, it flowed on Chaohu Lake following the ripples.
***
The time when Dong Bong-su and Do Heo-ok, and Tang Hwa and Namgung Hye's boat outing ended was just as the second watch (9-11 PM) was passing into the third watch (11 PM-1 AM), and this was when the family warriors standing guard made their first shift change.
The boat they rode quickly moored at Chaowan, and Do Heo-ok and the two women disembarked first. Following them, Dong Bong-su was carried off the boat by the boatmen.
Do Heo-ok ordered the family warriors who would change shifts to wash Dong Bong-su and put him to sleep in any empty room in the Heavenly Guest Hall, then returned to the Emperor King Hall with Namgung Hye.
On the path he took, a 'gap in the watch' due to the shift change was occurring, and through that gap, four secret shadows followed behind Do Heo-ok.
Tang Hwa forgot even Tang O's request not to leave Dong Bong-su alone and abandoned Dong Bong-su, who reeked of manure, and went into the Western Heavenly Guest Hall by herself. Though it was a trivial matter, Tang Hwa had become even more disgusted with Dong Bong-su.
She thought that if one was a spirited martial artist, one should know how to handle alcohol to some degree. By her standards, Dong Bong-su, who had collapsed like that from just a few cups of Apple Bud Wine, wasn't even a man. Let alone a talent of the ages. She was certain Tang O had definitely misjudged.
To her, Dong Bong-su was nothing more than a pathetic insect who had luckily won Tang O's favor.
After Tang Hwa disappeared, the Namgung Family warriors who took over Dong Bong-su from the boatmen carried him to the bathhouse inside the Heavenly Guest Hall and washed him carefully.
Though cold water touched his body, Dong Bong-su didn't regain consciousness until then. No, he pretended not to.
As a result of his efforts, shortly after, he was left alone in an empty room at the very end of the Eastern Guest Hall in the Heavenly Guest Hall. The warriors who had washed Dong Bong-su on Do Heo-ok's orders brought him there and returned. From their position, they should return and rest right after the shift change, but they had to wash the smelly Dong Bong-su, so they had reason to feel bad, but befitting Namgung Family warriors, they properly completed their duty to the end.
The Eastern Heavenly Guest Hall was the guest hall on the eastern island across Chaowan, a guest hall for men. Conversely, the Western Heavenly Guest Hall built on the island west of Chaowan was a guest hall for women. Tang Hwa was probably sleeping soundly in the Western Heavenly Guest Hall by now.
Dong Bong-su remained lying on the bed in that same position even after the warriors left. Because there was still one more person who would come looking for him.
Click.
As expected, not long after, the door opened and someone appeared. However, slightly beyond expectation, it wasn't one person but two.
The people who appeared were Tang O and Danri Jiang-hae.
Tang O entered the room, confirmed Dong Bong-su was sleeping, and lightly clicked his tongue.
"Tsk tsk tsk. I gave such earnest instructions not to leave him alone."
Tang O lightly reproached the absent Tang Hwa, then left the room again with Danri Jiang-hae.
Creak. Click.
The room closed, and finally Dong Bong-su's 'time' arrived.
Rustle—
Dong Bong-su's eyes slowly and clearly opened.
***
(Revised) New Murim Online 7th Law: The Passive Skill Spirit Eyes identifies danger factors that approach within Dong Bong-su's 20-meter radius and informs him. The standard is a level difference of 10.
Addition: Spirit Eyes only targets one subject with a level difference of 10 or more that is 'closest' to Dong Bong-su. If there is one person within a 10-meter radius around him and another person at a 5-meter distance, the only subject Spirit Eyes can detect is the single person at 5 meters distance.
※Still, all these laws are neither fixed nor certain.