A Great Family
A guest arrived like rain after a long drought.
The one who broke the taut standoff between Jo Harang and Dang Yeohye — a clash that looked ready to spark into open flame — was none other than an ordinary-looking stranger.
He wore a scholar's robes with long, flowing sleeves and a dignified air, but the solid muscle showing beneath the cloth and the firm weight of his steps quietly betrayed that he had trained in martial arts.
This client was clearly carrying some kind of secret. Then again, who ever walked into a troubleshooter's office looking for help without one?
"What brings you here?"
At my question, he slowly scanned the people inside the office one by one.
Jo Harang with the massive greatsword across her back, the short but clearly foul-tempered Dang Yeohye, and even Ilhong, who looked far too pretty for a man.
"I came looking for a young hero by the name of Dan Mujin."
The man's gaze finally settled on my face.
Someone must have told him the troubleshooter was a handsome one when they made the introduction.
"They said he had an infuriatingly good-looking face, so it must be you."
"…"
Beside me, Dang Yeohye crossed her arms and let out a snort of laughter.
"Whoever introduced him, it was definitely a man."
She was defending me, claiming that fellow men found me just a little too annoyingly handsome.
"It's fine. You don't have to console me."
Later, I would have to get the name of whoever had referred or introduced this guy.
Filing that plan away, I put a question to the man I was already treating as a new client.
"So, what kind of work did you come here to ask for?"
At my gesture of invitation, Jo Harang brought over a fresh pot of guest tea. For some reason, though, the tea she set in front of Dang Yeohye was nothing like the clear, clean brew she poured for the rest of us.
What kind of leaves did she steep for her, exactly?
"Troubleshooter, do you know anything about poisons?"
At that question, the short young woman who had been slurping down her distinctly astringent-looking tea reacted at once.
"Ha, do I know about poisons? Of course I do. Who in the world knows more about poison than the Poison Claw Mountain Blood?"
It was the voice of a woman whose pride in her unmatched poison arts even within the Sichuan Tang Clan was written all over her tone.
The man glanced sideways at the unsolicited interruption.
"Troubleshooter, who is this little brat?"
Dang Yeohye's facial muscles twitched as if she were having a spasm.
"You little—!"
"Hold it. He's my client. No disrupting business."
She half-rose from her seat, then froze at my restraint.
"Huff… huff…"
After that she seemed to settle into steady, deliberate breathing, trying to force her anger back down.
Strange. Normally she never lets a short joke slide, but the moment I tell her to stop, she actually listens.
It felt oddly satisfying, like taming a fierce beast.
"This is Dang Yeohye, a daughter of the Sichuan Tang Clan. She's that height because she took the wrong medicine as a child and… well."
My introduction made the man look mildly surprised.
"Ah, the Sichuan Tang Clan. Fair enough. That does explain the claim."
So that was why he dressed like a scholar — he clearly did not know the famous epithets circulating through the jianghu. The moment the Sichuan Tang Clan came up, he nodded and looked Dang Yeohye over with fresh interest.
"So then, client — what exactly did you come here to request?"
From the look in his eyes, I already understood it was poison-related.
"A certain problem has arisen within the family I serve."
A family that kept a scholar-retainer on staff — that was bound to be no ordinary house.
"What sort of problem?"
"A poisoning. One of the maidservants was found dead, and a deadly poison called Ten-Step Soul-Chasing Powder was discovered."
An extreme poison I had never even heard of. This was Dang Yeohye's field far more than mine as a troubleshooter.
She kept her mouth tightly shut, still honoring my earlier request that she stay quiet. Judging by the slight puff of her cheeks, she was also a little sulky.
"The investigation concluded it was an inside job. Either an infiltrator, or someone who turned."
"So you want us to root out that infiltrating poisoner — or the traitor?"
"Exactly that."
If that was the job, I was reasonably confident.
This body, with the Heavenly Killing Star jammed into its skull, could read murderous intent just by watching carefully with eyes wide open. Only recently I had caught a cook at the Eunseong Merchant Group trying to lace the food the same way.
"Which family is it, exactly?"
"That I cannot say. I would like it kept secret going forward as well. In exchange, I will pay extra."
Fair enough. An ugly incident inside a family was not the kind of thing you wanted broadcast around the neighborhood, and if they were offering hush money on top of it…
I nodded in understanding.
"So we all go in and root out the poisoner inside the family. As quietly as possible, without being discovered."
"That's the idea, but not everyone here can go. If a crowd of outsiders suddenly shows up, the poisoner might notice. One or two people I can pass off as part of an existing schedule, but more than that…"
A secret, small-scale infiltration to identify a hidden criminal without causing a stir.
I swept my eyes over the people in the office.
I obviously had to go for the investigation. Next, the person most useful for this particular job…
My gaze stopped on Dang Yeohye, who sat with her features drawn tight like an irritable cat.
"You'll help, right?"
"Hmph. Who knows."
Still sulking? Because I shut her down earlier?
"Noona, help your little brother out this once."
But I had a secret weapon.
The moment I pulled out the word noona in a coaxing tone, the corners of her mouth began to curl upward little by little.
"…Hmph. Fine, I guess. Since my little brother is begging like this, this noona will help."
She said it as if she were doing me a reluctant favor, but a bright smile had already spread across her face.
And just like that, I had the free services of the Tang Clan's successor — the Poison Claw Mountain Blood, Dang Yeohye of the Transcendental Peak Realm.
Neungsam was always saying the young lady was surprisingly easy to handle if you knew how. I was starting to understand what he meant.
"…Noona?"
Ignoring the client's faintly startled reaction, I rose from my seat with Dang Yeohye.
"Then, while the iron is hot — lead the way to the entrance of this family whose name you cannot speak."
If a poisoner really had infiltrated the place, dithering too long could get the target killed. That would be a disaster. With my first client in a while, I was determined to crank the motivation all the way up.
"Jo Harang, Ilhong. I'll be back soon. Hold down the office for me."
As I turned away after saying that, the two of them wore the exact expressions of dogs left behind when their owner went out to work.
What's with them? Usually they barely react when I leave on a job.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go already."
The new client gave my shoulder a light shove, as if to say that for someone who had just talked about striking while the iron was hot, I was taking my time.
"Right. Let's go."
I can soothe them when I get back.
Following the client's lead, Dang Yeohye and I walked the streets of Beijing.
Which family was he taking us to? Every time we passed a spacious manor or an elegant tiled building, I glanced over wondering if this was the place — only for the client to walk right past. He began guiding us deeper into more remote, tucked-away corners. Just how secret and important was this family, that we had to go this far in?
Then we rounded a crooked alley corner, and a middle-aged man whose face was oddly familiar stood waiting for us.
"Eunuch Uncle…?"
I called out carefully, my face full of disbelief at the man who had appeared out of nowhere.
His features twisted at once, and his eyes shot flames of pure rage at me.
"You goddamn little—! Still running that mouth of yours, I see."
It was Cheon Su-gong — the Princess's closest retainer, whom I had crossed paths with once while dealing with the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
After that day I had figured we would never run into each other again. Of all places to meet him again…
"Why is Uncle Cheon Su-gong popping out of a place like this?"
A man as busy as he was with the Princess's palace affairs — why was he standing in a back alley as if he had been waiting for us?
Even as I asked the question, the answer hit me on its own.
I looked at the new client with a startled face; he quietly averted his eyes from mine.
"Wait a second. Then that family you mentioned earlier — is it possibly…"
You are not talking about the imperial clan that rules the Central Plains. Right?
"Hey, Mujin, what is it? Why'd you freeze up all of a sudden?"
Dang Yeohye asked, puzzled that I had suddenly gone rigid in front of a stranger.
Cheon Su-gong took one look at my shocked face, snorted a laugh, and opened his mouth.
"Dan Mujin, you thunderstruck little savage."
"Y-yes…?"
He stepped closer as I edged backward, continuing without pause.
"You and I are going to do a job together."
He claimed he had the perfect assignment tailored just for me.
It was an extremely ominous line — the kind that belonged at the start of a certain movie.
I had clearly taken the wrong job.
The guest I had thought of as rain after a drought turned out to be a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky.
Which was how we ended up walking toward the Imperial Palace — a destination that had never been on the schedule.
In ordinary times, even setting foot near the place was forbidden. For a martial artist to approach it could mean a thrashing at best and a very real risk of losing one's life. The Princess's palace, where the Son of Heaven's daughter resided, was a strictly guarded forbidden zone; even looking at it from a distance required caution.
And the moment the entrance to the Princess's palace came into view, Cheon Su-gong ordered the man I had thought was the client to bring a human-skin mask.
"Put this on. You'll need a disguise."
It was partly to transform me into someone else, Cheon Su-gong explained, and partly because I had caused so many incidents that my face needed covering.
Caused incidents — does he mean the times I stood against Director Wang of the Wardrobe Bureau to save the merchant group, or the time I beat the Embroidered Uniform Guard senseless?
"Ah, if it's that, I already have one."
I pulled my usual skin mask from my robes as I said it.
"What? Why does a brute like you carry a disguise tool around?"
"I have family circumstances of my own…"
For the record, this was a special custom human-skin mask that Ilhong carefully adjusted every time my frame grew larger. It clung to my face as naturally as my own skin.
"But who am I supposed to be disguising myself as? I thought we just had to catch a poisoner."
"Stop whining and put the skin on. From this moment, you are a eunuch of the Princess's palace."
A eunuch. Was he telling me to become one of those peculiar beings I had once seen in the Eunseong Merchant Group's silk rooms?
"Is there a special reason I have to be a eunuch?"
Cheon Su-gong nodded as he answered.
"The Princess's palace is a thorough Forbidden Men's Zone. Unless you are of the imperial blood or have the Son of Heaven's personal leave, no man may set foot inside."
In other words, smuggling me into the Princess's palace was a dangerous gamble even for Cheon Su-gong if it were discovered.
"Ahh, a Forbidden Men's Zone…"
I was fairly sure I had seen the term somewhere in a textbook or history book.
In eras like this, princes who were not the crown prince were each given a title and a fief and sent far away, while princesses were married off in political alliances across the realm. So if word spread that an outside man had been coming and going from a princess's residence… that political marriage would run into problems.
Unfortunately, this was still an age that demanded chastity of women.
"But Cheon Su-gong, you said Forbidden Men's Zone, and eunuchs are still men… ah. They don't have that, do they."
I swept my eyes over the two of them in a flash of understanding.
"…Cheon Su-gong, please allow me to cut out that bastard's tongue."
The man, grasping the meaning of my look, bulged a vein on his forehead and made a vicious request.
"No, Wisu. That tongue of his is the very thing that will tell us who the poisoner is."
Thankfully, Cheon Su-gong restrained him. So the man's name was Wisu.
"Is that brat truly that exceptional?"
"He spotted a Shadow Assassin Sect killer before I did."
"Hoh…"
Wisu glanced my way with something like surprise.
"I haven't actually agreed to take the job yet, you know."
I raised a hand mid-conversation, feeling somewhat rude for interrupting.
My master had told me not to get involved with the imperial house any further, after all.
"Too late. You have no choice but to accept."
"…Why?"
"You have already heard far too many confidential matters of the Princess's palace, and you have insulted this body as a eunuch once again… Wisu. What is the penalty for insulting the Eastern Depot?"
"At minimum, the tongue is cut out. In a serious case, the head can come off."
"There you have it."
The two eunuch uncles glared at me as if daring me to say another word.
"Ahem."
It just slipped out. They must have been holding a lot in.
Even setting aside the personal grudge of the latter charge, it was true that I had heard secrets of the Princess's palace. Walking away halfway through no longer looked easy.
"If you succeed, you will be paid a reward that matches the work. You can trust me on that."
The Princess's palace had recently secured a money pipeline through the Eunseong Merchant Group, Cheon Su-gong muttered, so I should look forward to it.
Hmm. It is imperial palace work. They will almost certainly take care of me financially.
"What to do…"
The job was to find a poisoner — or assassin — who had slipped into the Princess's palace.
I had already done something similar once at the Eunseong Merchant Group. I had found the culprit without much trouble. It was my specialty, after all.
Come to think of it, all I had to do was hide inside, root out the criminal, and point. As long as I was careful, it did not look especially hard.
"I'll do it."
"Hey, have you lost your mind? Don't you know about non-interference between court and Murim?"
Dang Yeohye dragged me aside, raised a qi barrier, and whispered urgently.
I had heard that long ago the imperial court and the Murim had clashed in a massive conflict, and ever since then the two sides had watched each other like a hawk and a chicken. The Murim did not meddle with the court, and the court did not meddle with the Murim — not unless something serious forced their hand.
"Even if it's Murim… I'm just a wandering troubleshooter. I don't belong to anything in particular."
"Ugh. Look, I'm from the Sichuan Tang Clan. If something goes wrong… it gets messy."
For me it would be my own responsibility, but for her it could bring disgrace on her family.
"You already cut ties with your family. You don't really care what happens either way."
"…That's true. As long as I look after Neungsam."
This was the same person who had declared she would ditch the succession struggle entirely and run off to join the Myeolmade.
"Help me, noona. Are you going to leave your little brother to walk into a death trap alone?"
I grabbed Dang Yeohye's wrist and pleaded again.
"Nngh. If my little brother is going to put it like that… fine. All right."
Once I explained that we would wear human-skin masks and hide our identities, she finally nodded, however reluctantly.
She was a woman to begin with, so she could disguise herself as a maidservant and walk right in.
And that was how, on the verge of entering the Princess's palace, I secured a reliable ally.
"Then let's go — into the Forbidden Men's Zone."
From my face down to the ash-gray official robes, I entered the Princess's palace fully dressed as a eunuch.
Waiting to receive me was the head maidservant of the Third Princess's palace.
The lines at the corners of her eyes suggested she was no longer young, yet her bearing was elegant and her posture impeccably disciplined.
"So you're the new arrival?"
"Yes, well…"
When I explained, as I had been coached, that I was a eunuch newly assigned to the Princess's palace, she slowly looked me up and down.
"My, you're quite handsome… What a pity."
Her gaze stopped near my face, and she wore an expression of genuine regret.