After-Service Request
“Tell me exactly what happened out there. Leave nothing out.”
Hwang Geolgae’s face was deadly serious.
Back when he’d run into that man during an escort job, he’d told me in no uncertain terms: if I ever met the bastard swinging a wolf-tooth club, I was to hide my aura at once and run for my life.
“He just appeared out of the shadows all of a sudden.”
I could already see the lecture coming for not listening to him again. I put on my most wronged expression and tried to plead my case.
“You little brat, talk sense. The Central Plains are vast—how in the world do you just happen to run into that particular bastard right there?”
“I’m telling you, he really popped up like an assassin out of nowhere!”
I thumped my chest in frustration. It had been a genuine force majeure situation.
When a Transforming Realm master is charging at you from the front with murder in his eyes, how are you supposed to notice what’s coming up from behind?
“Hrm. And he didn’t do anything special? No harassment, no trying to strike up a conversation?”
“Nope. Even when I spoke to him he didn’t answer—just bolted. Like this, whoosh-whoosh-whoosh.”
I mimicked that distinctive, lightning-fast footwork of his.
Jo Harang and the others had stared back and forth in mild surprise, but that was all it lasted.
Still, what the hell was that guy even up to? Running into him in so many different places, he had to be someone operating in the shadows under a false identity.
“So your Heavenly Killing Star was dormant and he failed to properly recognize you… Perhaps that is fortunate, in its way.”
Hwang Geolgae stroked his chin beard, pondering deeply, then reached the conclusion that it might actually be a good thing.
“You’ve been unusually obsessed with that guy for a while now. Who is he, exactly, that you’re this worked up?”
“You’re rather dull yourself. That wolf-tooth club freak is most likely… another Heavenly Killing Star.”
Wait—what?
So that day, three Heavenly Killing Stars had been gathered up on that cliff?
That was actually a little creepy.
“Ordinarily, when Heavenly Killing Stars meet they produce at least a small ‘resonance.’ But you, you strange little bastard, are carrying a dormant one. Nothing about you ever works the way it should.”
Hey now—describing a person like some defective product?
Still, when I’d faced him, the feeling had been a bit odd. A strange sense of kinship I couldn’t quite name.
Maybe it was thanks to cultivating the Seongun Simbeop and accumulating star energy in my body.
“Ah, so that’s why I felt so weird when I met the Purple Micro Star, t— wait.”
Hwang Geolgae’s eyes flew open so wide they looked ready to split.
“What did you just say…?”
“You misheard.”
I immediately shook my head and tried to correct myself.
Of course it didn’t work. Hwang Geolgae sat frozen with his mouth hanging open for a long moment, then hurled the liquor bottle he’d been drinking from and shot to his feet.
“I’ve never seen such a deranged little bastard—!”
The sheer volume made even Ilhong, who’d been ignoring us and training nearby, jump in shock.
He pointed at me with fingers trembling like an alcoholic in withdrawal and kept going.
“You insane brat! Of all the things you could run into! Why does it have to be— Aigoo, I’m going out of my mind! You’re going to give this old man a heart attack and kill me!”
“No, it’s a misunderstanding! I didn’t even mean to meet them in the first pl— Gahk!”
A missile of a dropkick slammed square into the center of my chest.
I ate dirt and rolled across the training ground for a good long while.
“This is the last straw. Today this old man is going to fix that careless attitude of yours. With the Beggar Sect’s sacred treasure itself—the Dog Beating Staff!”
The moment I looked away I caused another disaster, he ranted, and he began swinging the Dragon Head Sect Leader’s Dog Beating Staff with vicious intent.
Whoosh!
“Ugh! Argh! I keep telling you I didn’t approach them first!”
They were the ones who came looking for me like they were drawn by some invisible bond while I was just standing there. What was I supposed to do about it?
In the beginning I hadn’t even known she was the Purple Micro Star when we became friends.
She’d helped me when I was stuck against a wall and guided me to a higher realm. At first I’d genuinely thought, wow, what a good person.
Anyway, I felt deeply wronged.
“You little—! The same with the alumni and the Embroidered Uniform Guard last time! How do you always! Pick out! Exactly the things this old man told you not to do!”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Mysterious trajectories hidden inside empty feints came flooding in. The profound Dog Beating Staff Technique unfolding from the Dragon Head Sect Leader’s fingertips.
The staff tip traced dazzling arcs, striking every part of my body at exquisite angles.
“Ack! Ugh! Stop! Halt! Stop it!”
So this was what people meant by getting beaten so thoroughly that dust flew even on a rainy day.
Hwang Geolgae was thrashing me like a mad dog, fully committed.
“You’re going to kill your own disciple at this rate, damn it!”
“You need a few more!”
Wham!
Then a heavy blow landed on the back of my skull.
Stars exploded in front of my eyes and my entire head felt like it had been rattled for the first time in ages.
Strangely, I’d been hit from behind, yet the blood came out the front.
Sploosh. A nosebleed ran down the bridge of my nose.
“You son of a bitch.”
Even when friends roughhouse, the moment blood appears the eyes go cold.
Getting continuously beaten over something that had just happened to get tangled up while I was working, and now even drawing blood…
I couldn’t take it anymore.
“……I really can’t hold back! Rank insignia off, old man!”
As if agreeing with my rage, pure white internal energy surged through my entire body.
I settled into the stance of the Baekgyeol Singwon and radiated the will to go all out.
“Hah. Fine then. This old man will pulverize you properly……!”
Hwang Geolgae answered my provocation with an expression of pure disbelief.
And so the training grounds of the Eunseong Merchant Group began to turn into complete chaos under the clash of two masters.
Two figures gliding like ghosts. Fierce collisions and waves of qi erupting everywhere, the whole place instantly blanketed in dust.
Just as their fight was reaching its peak, Divine Wind Saber Jo Harang arrived at the training grounds carrying a message from someone.
And when she called out repeatedly only to find the two of them still exchanging ferocious blows without so much as a reply, she turned to Ilhong standing nearby with a puzzled look.
“Ilhong, what’s going on here?”
“Ah, well…… They do this sometimes.”
Ilhong shrugged as if it were nothing special—she’d clearly seen it plenty of times.
“What kind of relationship do that old man and Mujin even have?”
“Master and disciple? Something like that, according to them.”
Ilhong answered while continuing her training, completely uninterested.
Blood flying, curses flying, fighting spirit boiling over—it was the most intense master-disciple relationship Jo Harang had ever witnessed in her life.
“……Nah, no way.”
There was no way a relationship like that actually existed in the world.
She shook her head, eyes full of disbelief.
Once the fight thick with killing intent finally ended, Jo Harang—who had appeared at some point—delivered a message from someone.
A client had shown up at the detective agency. And it was someone I knew very well, apparently.
The Liaoning commission had fallen through, and the Demon Exterminating Squad’s vice-captain had said he’d settle the payment for the head we’d recovered under the cliff separately later.
In the end, I was right back where I’d been before the commission: no clients and no money.
Even from the Moyong Clan I’d received precious spiritual medicines instead of cash, so I was short on ready funds at the moment.
Therefore the moment I heard a client had arrived, I ran straight there.
“Huh?”
But when I got back to the office, just as Jo Harang had said, someone I truly knew very well was plopped down in the client’s seat.
“Well now, Association Leader Gam Un. What brings you here?”
“You’re not calling me Elder Gam anymore?”
“No. Not since the last commission where I got thoroughly screwed over.”
He’d talked it up as a rare named request and filled my head with hot air.
Turned out it was a trap commission that was a minefield in itself.
“Ahem. Stabbing me in the back like that…… That would be your misunderstanding. When an organization on the level of the Blood Cult decides to hide its identity, how is a mere association leader supposed to uncover it?”
Association Leader Gam Un made excuses with an awkward face, claiming he didn’t even have information networks like the Haomu Gate.
He was always the employer handing out commissions to vagabonds, so this was the first time I’d ever seen the man flustered.
“Sss, still leaves a bad taste, you know?”
“Urgh, understand. I had nothing to do with that matter. Why would I personally harm two rising Beijing vagabonds with my own hands?”
“Hmm, because I poached one useful vagabond from you?”
“……We’ve already agreed not to make an issue of that anymore over this case. It’s only until the debt is paid off anyway.”
Well, even if this man was a bit of a shit-stirrer, he wasn’t the type to deliberately hand us over to the Blood Cult.
Not because he was trustworthy, of course—just because he wouldn’t slaughter the golden goose that laid money for him with his own hands.
“Anyway, what brings you here?”
I slid over the bitter tea leaves I always brought out whenever an unwelcome guest arrived at the office and asked.
“Hm. Young man. Do you by any chance remember a brush-wielding fellow named Neung Jinsam who was a client back in your vagabond days?”
“Neung Jinsam? Ah, that guy who became famous for gold-and-beast paintings thanks to my advice?”
“Yes, that one…… Seems he’s run into some kind of trouble lately. So he came looking for you—the man who completes every single commission he’s given.”
Problems arising after that incident. So this was basically an after-service request.
“I’d like to make amends for my previous mistake with this commission. The pay will be generous. What do you say—will you help?”
Apparently our agency’s client this time was the leader of the Beijing Vagabond Association.
I pictured the young man who had once been so dejected, claiming the world refused to recognize his paintings.
But through my advice he had been reborn as an outstanding beast painter.
Yes—back then, blinded by the desire to succeed at the commission, I had sown a wicked seed into this world.
Those bizarre existences that originally should not have appeared yet.
“Let’s hear the story first.”
Was this the weight of original sin?
I nodded heavily.
According to what Association Leader Gam Un told me, Neung Jinsam was currently spending the money he’d earned like water and living it up in grand style.
When someone who’d had nothing suddenly makes a big score, people change.
Whether he was trying to vent all his past grievances or not, word was he was planted in Beijing’s top courtesan house, Cheonhwaru, day after day, drinking himself stupid.
“My, Hero Mujin. What brings you here?”
So when I visited Cheonhwaru after a long time, Ju Wolay—the face of the establishment and the woman countless high officials were desperate to meet—welcomed me with a delighted expression.
She’d almost felt a little hurt that I hadn’t come by more often, she said, and naturally, gently took hold of one of my arms.
“Ahem, ‘Hero’…… Still sounds weird no matter how many times I hear it…… Anyway, you’ve been well, Wolay?”
After I’d rescued her from those bastards last time she’d told me to speak comfortably, so I was doing exactly that.
“Of course. I’ve been waiting for you and living just fine.”
Ju Wolay’s smile curved into a soft crescent at my greeting.
Looking into those beautiful dark eyes that arched like a crescent moon, I wondered if there was any man who wouldn’t fall for that.
Truly the charm of an idol of this era, I suppose.
“Ahem!”
From behind, Ilhong made a pointed throat-clearing sound, clearly uncomfortable.
The sharp look in her eyes said something like “get to work already.”
“But Hero, what business brings you to this house today?”
“Ah, right. There’s a painter named Neung Jinsam staying here, isn’t there? I came looking for him on business.”
The moment I said that, Ju Wolay’s expression instantly turned sulky.
“So you didn’t come looking for me……”
She swayed her body side to side as if disappointed and lightly tapped my arm.
The emotional damage was considerable. I felt strangely guilty and my chest ached for no reason.
“Ahem, well of course I came to see you, Wolay……”
“Boss, get a grip.”
Then Ilhong tapped my shoulder.
It stung just enough that my mind finally snapped back.
Honestly, the beauties of this era had ridiculous destructive power.
“Hah, right. Work first. Work.”
After asking Ju Wolay’s understanding, I searched through several rooms and finally found Neung Jinsam.
A nose flushed bright red. A young man staggering around completely wasted, just like Hwang Geolgae.
Tsk tsk. The last time I’d seen him he’d at least seemed clear-headed.
Was this the end that awaited those who touched forbidden techniques?
“Hey, buddy.”
I grabbed him firmly by the shoulder and dragged the whining, unwilling man out of the courtesan house.
A short while later, back at the Beijing Detective Agency.
And the subject of this commission, Neung Jinsam, who seemed to have come to his senses and was now suffering from a hangover.
“Ilhong, mix up some honey water for him.”
“We don’t have any. That stuff’s expensive.”
That was the current state of our agency’s finances.
I nodded and poured some internal energy into him to clear his head completely.
“Seriously, how did you end up like this?”
When he saw my face he startled—“That little vagabond from back then?”—then at my follow-up question he dropped his head with a self-loathing expression.
“I couldn’t help it.”
“What do you mean you couldn’t help it?”
“My brushwork wasn’t what it used to be, competitors were springing up like bamboo shoots after rain, and in that state I was passing by a courtesan house when I saw Ju Wolay’s lovely smile.”
Ah—the smile of a woman in full bloom that had nearly enchanted even me for a moment.
“Yeah, that I understand.”
I spoke as if I truly got it.
In one corner of the office, two young men were nodding in mutual sympathy.
“Unbelievable. Seriously.”
Watching them, Ilhong muttered in pure exasperation.