Gold, Silver, and Bronze
"Come out, Dog-Beating Dragon!"
"How dare you sneak into the Clan Lord's residence like a coward!"
Furious shouts shook the main hall. Word that an intruder was here had spread like wildfire, and Tang Clan martial artists poured in like storm clouds. Seething with excitement, they sealed the building so tightly we had no hope of escape. No one had turned the Tang Clan upside down like this in nearly a decade; their faces went past mere disbelief straight into pure outrage as they bellowed for me to show myself.
What answered their cries, though, was not me—but the Tang Clan's own lord, Dang Yangcheon.
"Silence—!!"
A single roar split heaven and earth. The deep, crushing rebuke of a Transcendent Realm master made the entire Sichuan Tang Family Manor quake as if struck by an earthquake. Martial artists staggered, stumbled, and scrambled backward in shock.
"L-Lord Dang Yangcheon?!"
"H-how… how are you even on your feet…?"
The Tang Clan warriors' eyes went wide with disbelief. The frail, wasting figure they had been told to expect was nowhere to be seen. In his place stood Dang Yangcheon, radiating a presence more intense than ever before.
"Whoa. So that's the famous scolding shout of a Transcendent Realm master."
I watched, mildly impressed. One word, and he'd just ripped the soul clean out of several hundred fighters.
"…What in the world is going on?"
"Young Clan Lord Dang Ak said his condition was critical…"
"They said it was a matter of days… that we had to make a decision…"
They milled about in confusion, utterly lost. Dang Yangcheon looked them over and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk. What a pack of simpletons."
Rather than waste more words, he simply flicked out a glittering streak of Sword Force and dragged it downward. A nearly ten-foot ribbon of light carved through solid marble and stone as if they were tofu, splitting the ground cleanly in two. The brutal demonstration of power shut every mouth at once; the Tang martial artists flattened themselves against the earth.
"Your crimes will be dealt with later. Disperse."
"Yes, sir!!"
Leaving only the unconscious Dang Ak behind, the hundreds of warriors scattered like dust. Once the courtyard before the main hall fell quiet and everyone could finally breathe again, Dang Yangcheon's sharp gaze swung toward me.
"So then, young man—what exactly did you say your relationship with Yeohye was earlier?"
"…"
I thought we scrapped that particular cover story ages ago.
I shot Dang Yeohye a look that screamed So how are you planning to clean this up? She promptly found something fascinating on the floor to stare at. Looks like she made the mess, and I was the one stuck mopping it up.
After the chaos settled and everything grew still, Dang Yeohye found herself alone with her father in the Clan Lord's study. Dang Yangcheon had summoned her to hear the full story of everything that had happened.
"I-it was just something I said on the spur of the moment."
Clearly feeling guilty, she was the first to break the silence. Dang Yangcheon set down his teacup and nodded as if he'd expected exactly that.
"Of course. As if you of all people would find a lover so easily."
The way he said it—as if her entire track record made the idea self-evident—made something in Dang Yeohye's chest flare up for a moment.
"Anyway, tell me what happened. What in the world have you been through?"
At his question, she began laying out every twist and turn of the past months: fleeing the clan after being isolated, meeting a certain brat named Dan Mujin in Beijing and wiping out the Blood Night Pig, the encounter with the Soul-Seizing Demon Lord, the Blood Cult's raid on the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, and finally the journey all the way to the Southern Man to save the Poison Spring. Last of all, she carefully described how Dan Mujin had thrown himself in front of the Human-Faced Spider Lord's venomous fangs for her sake.
The more Dang Yangcheon listened, the stranger his expression became.
Don't tell me this girl actually… that boy…?
His daughter had always known only one way to process emotion: pure rage. Yet whenever the story touched on Dan Mujin, her face and voice shifted through colors he had never seen before. Her features softened. She grinned without realizing it, then looked sulky, then puffed up with a little pride while boasting that the kid had beaten the Blood Night Pig and a whole parade of masters—"Pretty impressive for my little brother, right?"
Watching her the whole way through, Dang Yangcheon's eyes gradually narrowed.
"So, Father… would it be all right if I gave that guy one of the Tang Clan's gold tokens…?"
The Tang Clan possessed tokens of gratitude bestowed when a blood relative received a great favor. Among them, the gold token could be issued only at the Clan Lord's discretion, and only when the entire clan had incurred a massive debt. She was asking for one of those. For reference, only a single gold token currently existed out in the jianghu. The Sichuan Tang Clan had enjoyed an unrivaled golden age for the past decade or more.
"W-would that not be allowed?"
She wanted to hand that boy a gold token badly enough that she was fidgeting and asking again—completely out of character.
"Heh. Never thought a day like this would come for me."
Dang Yangcheon drained his teacup with a hollow laugh. So this was the feeling every father eventually faced—watching his daughter begin to leave. And of all people, it was coming from the girl the whole clan had nicknamed the Poison Dog for the way she used to thrash her peers day in and day out.
"You said this young man Dan Mujin's realm was Peak, correct?"
"Yes. When I first met him he seemed like Second-class, but every time I saw him his realm had climbed higher."
Bizarre resistance to poison, a Peak-level achievement at that age despite a mediocre school, and the sheer nerve to take Dang Yeohye's personality in stride without blinking. If they were going to hand him rewards and a gold token anyway, bringing him into the family itself might not be a bad idea. Better to shower favors on one of their own than on some complete outsider.
"You've reached marriageable age yourself, after all."
"…"
Knowing her vicious temperament, Dang Yangcheon had never once broached the subject before; Dang Yeohye looked faintly startled.
"It might not be so bad if you acquired a real husband before long."
The words carried layers of meaning. Watching her eyes dart around as she tried to parse them, Dang Yangcheon smiled quietly.
"I'll grant the gold token. Use it well and put in some effort."
"…!"
The first gold gratitude token the Tang Clan had issued in over a decade. The moment she grasped the full weight of what that meant, the tips of her ears flushed scarlet.
"I-I'll try."
The girl who was always so full of fire now stammered like a shy young woman.
"The revolution is complete."
That was the first thing I announced the moment we got back to the shabby inn near the Tang Clan estate.
"I kind of figured, Boss—the whole of Sichuan Province was buzzing about it."
Ilhong looked impressed, adding that she never thought I'd actually charge in through the front gate.
"See? This is the kind of guy I am."
With Dang Ak ousted and Clan Lord Dang Yangcheon restored, the succession mess was wrapped up. Our detective agency's long first commission looked ready to finally close. I'd had to attend a few Tang Clan assemblies to testify about Dang Ak's crimes, and every single time the Clan Lord kept giving me these meaningful looks that left me feeling… weird. Under normal circumstances, a man that rich and well-connected in Sichuan was the kind of person I should have been buttering up first. But sticky stares from a middle-aged guy? That was nowhere near my type. I got out of the Tang Clan as fast as I could.
"Still gives me the creeps just thinking about it."
Those eyes, like he was sizing up prey. I hugged my arms and gave a full-body shudder.
"Hey, Dan Mujin."
Dang Yeohye returned to our lodgings with Neungsam. The servant's back was piled high with bundles—apparently for us.
"Sis, why the sudden change of wardrobe?"
Instead of her usual martial robes, she'd shown up in elegant, feminine silk and a careful layer of makeup.
"D-does it look good?"
"Nope."
"…!"
Her fist rose for a second, then settled again as she took a deep breath. Reaching Transcendental Peak had clearly taught her something resembling patience.
"Cute suits you way better than grown-up, Sis."
"Wh-what are you even saying…"
The first look had just been a kid borrowing her mom's clothes and makeup. Ending on a compliment seemed to please her; she fussed a little, looking pleased despite herself.
Thud.
"Young master, Clan Lord Dang Yangcheon prepared this as payment for the Human-Faced Spider Lord's venom."
It was no small chest. Even cracking the lid a little sent gold and silver light pouring out in a dazzling cascade.
"Heh. Look at all this."
Considering I'd nearly gotten myself killed, the money felt about right.
And that wasn't the end of it. Dang Yeohye drew a glittering gold token from her robes.
"Nearly twenty years, and only one of these has ever been released to the world. Consider yourself honored."
Just like before, she scratched her own name into the gold token with her fingernail and held it out. The thing was a decent size, and her nail sank in with soft ease—definitely pure gold.
"Just so we're clear: if you melt this down for cash, you're dead."
Same warning as when she'd given me the silver token. Its value had nothing to do with the weight of the gold itself, so don't do anything stupid.
"That makes the full set—gold, silver, and bronze, Boss."
"Yeah. Achievement unlocked."
How the hell did I end up this tangled up with the Tang Clan? All because of the girl standing right in front of me, no doubt.
"So what can I actually do with this, Sis?"
She glanced at me sidelong.
"You once said you wanted wealth and fame, didn't you?"
"Yeah, sure. Who doesn't?"
Of course, on top of that I also had a ticking clock forcing me to wander the world accumulating good karma—but she didn't need to know the details.
"Someone who's collected the gold, silver, and bronze tokens… might just be able to ask the Tang Clan to let him marry one of its daughters as a live-in son-in-law…"
She let the sentence trail off, voice going soft at the end. So that was her idea of seizing wealth and glory. Becoming a son-in-law would put the Tang Clan's power and fortune at his fingertips, after all. Problem was, I needed to roam around doing good deeds—not get buried under family politics. Didn't apply to me.
"Ahh… so it can't just be exchanged for cash?"
"You little— I just told you—"
She kicked me in the shin again with those skinny legs. Same as last time, though—she'd held back. Didn't hurt a bit. Was the girl with anger-management issues finally turning into the girl who managed her anger well?
"You said you wouldn't hit me anymore!"
"Because you keep saying crap like that…!"
She huffed and puffed, face twisted with anger she was visibly forcing back down. Watching the wild little beast who'd used to unsheathe her claws at the drop of a hat get house-trained like this… yeah, I felt a weird flicker of pride.
In the end, Dan Mujin left the Tang Clan saying he'd think about how to use the gold-silver-bronze rewards later. Dang Yeohye stood there blankly, watching his back as he waved and walked away without a shred of lingering attachment.
"Hey, Neungsam."
"Yes, young miss."
She pressed a hand to her chest and spoke as if the sensation puzzled her.
"When he just… leaves like that, something feels weird right here."
A strange emotion was spreading through her core, and she didn't know what to do with it. The feelings that used to sit locked behind a heavy bolt had started coming free lately, and all kinds of thoughts kept bubbling up.
"Do you think I… maybe like that guy?"
She pointed after the young man seeping deeper into her heart with every day and asked the question aloud.
Neungsam, who had been listening in silence, finally opened his mouth with an expression of pure disbelief.
"Wait—you're only realizing that now?"
The way he sighed "Oh, for heaven's sake" as if life itself was too much made Dang Yeohye kick him in the shin again.
"Ow!"
This time she'd put some force into it; Neungsam hopped on one foot, clutching his leg. She'd been honest about her feelings, and he had the nerve to look at her like she was an idiot.
"Ugh… so what are you going to do about those feelings, then?"
"…It's not fair if I'm the only one. So I'm going to make him get seeped into, too."
She still didn't know where this emotion was headed—but people of the Tang Clan finished what they started, no matter what.
"Heh. Then this Neungsam will give you everything I've got, young miss."
So the day had finally come for her, too. Neungsam grinned as he rubbed his shin.