Escort Road
She was short, but her eyes burned with a venomous blue-green fire.
Dang Yeohye glared up at me with those fierce, bulging eyes—me, who had shot up like a weed over the winter.
She had been treating us like thieves from the start, hopping around and snarling, looking for all the world like an enraged Chihuahua.
"Come on, is something stuck in your ears? We didn't steal it. We just forgot to return it."
"You little shit, that's the same damn thing!"
How was that the same? One side had zero intent.
If you really had to put a label on it, it was more like mislaid property than theft.
"You were so obsessed with that poison pill you forgot to collect it yourself. Let's call it mutual fault and move on."
"Mutual fault my ass! You stole a priceless Tang Clan hidden weapon!"
"I said we didn't steal it."
"Aang? Then you should've tracked me down and returned it in the middle of everything!"
"How was I supposed to know you were holed up training somewhere? Dig through the entire mountain range? You should've come looking for us."
I hadn't run off anywhere all winter. I had been grinding day and night at the Eunseong Merchant Group.
Everyone already knew I was staying there after I flashed the Eunseong token at the Rogue Association last time.
"Fuck, I couldn't move back then because I was digesting the damn poison pill!"
"Not my problem."
"This bastard's way of talking is seriously pissing me off!"
Her sudden bellow made Ilhong flinch where she was hiding behind my back.
Technically she was the one who had brought the thing without even realizing it, so I had nothing to feel guilty about.
"Young Lady Dang Yeohye!"
Uncle Neungsam came sprinting over at the sound of his master's trademark shrill voice. He gave us a quick, long-time-no-see nod, then frantically tried to restrain his master before she fully lost it.
As expected of Uncle Neungsam—unlike a certain someone, he valued reason and logic.
"Haa… Anyway, you two. Do you have any idea how serious this is? A Tang Clan hidden weapon was in an outsider's hands, even if only for a little while."
The real Dang Yeohye was now pressing us calmly and deliberately.
Just as she was getting ready to lay into us properly, a weathered old voice drifted over from nearby.
"Keh-keh, what's all this racket about?"
An old man reeking of midday booze strolled right between us.
"Ah, shit, who's this geezer? Can't you see we're having an important conversation—"
Dang Yeohye started to yell at him to get lost, assuming he was just some random drunk, then froze solid the moment she saw his face.
Words died in her throat. Her dark-green eyes began to tremble violently.
"…Junior of the Murim, Dang Yeohye, greets her great senior of the righteous path."
Remembering her earlier slip, she hurriedly bowed at the waist and offered a proper cupped-fist salute.
Apparently she was acquainted with the Dragon Head of the Beggar Sect.
"Euhng? What're you on about? Great senior? This old man is just a Daoist of the immortal-wind bone who came down from Mount Tai not long ago—the Divine Wind Daoist."
"……."
Hwang Geolgae's completely unexpected reaction left everyone baffled.
Dang Yeohye broke out in a cold sweat as the great elder of the orthodox path she hadn't seen in ages doubled down on a concept that wasn't landing at all.
"This girl's eyes must have been clouded. I mistook you… Divine… Wind Daoist."
"That's right, that's right. Good thing those crooked eyes of yours are fixed now."
The head of all beggars playing at being a Daoist—and doing it poorly.
She had to be screaming inside. Even a passing beggar-god would have laughed.
"So then, Divine Wind Daoist… what brings you to a place like this…?"
Hwang Geolgae answered her "why the hell are you suddenly here" question with a shameless face.
"My feet just brought me. Is there anywhere under heaven this old man can't go?"
That was actually true.
The man would dump his own sect and vanish like the wind the moment he felt like going somewhere.
"Young Master Dan, who exactly is that person?"
Body servant Neungsam whispered, startled by his master's rare display of deference.
"Just a crazy old man who thinks he's a Daoist."
I answered in a mosquito-sized voice.
Thwack!
A wine bottle flew out of nowhere and smacked me square in the face.
What kind of Daoist had zero hesitation about beating kids, anyway?
No matter how you looked at it, the guy was a total fraud.
"Anyway, from what I overheard just now, it seems you had some trouble with the children?"
At those words Dang Yeohye jerked her bowed head up and launched into her complaint.
"Divine Wind Daoist! Please listen to me! These bastards, I mean—!"
"Heh, 'these bastards'? Your language is rather harsh toward the children this old man is teaching martial arts to."
"Hup— Sect Leader… I mean, Daoist, they were your disciples…?"
Dang Yeohye's startled eyes flicked rapidly between the two of us.
Another slip right after "who's this geezer." Her lips pressed tight in a pure "I'm fucked" expression.
"Dan Mujin, you blockhead. Explain what happened."
"Uhh, well, you see…"
The reason I had gone in so hard earlier was because I trusted that this old man would be nearby and somehow clean it up.
Not because he cared about me, of course—because he felt sorry for Ilhong, the Haomu Gate Lord's daughter stuck to my back like a cicada.
"…So yeah. That's how it went."
Last time I had only mentioned fighting the Blood Night Manor and completely skipped the part about accidentally walking off with the hidden weapon, so I filled in the blanks.
Hwang Geolgae fixed his gaze on Ilhong, who was peeking out from behind me.
"Ilhong."
"…Yes, Old Master Hwang."
The boy whose beauty was hidden behind a human-skin mask blinked anxiously.
"You weren't trying to steal it, right?"
"No, of course not."
"Good. Train hard."
The interrogation ended so anticlimactically it was almost hollow.
And of course Dang Yeohye, watching the whole exchange, wore an expression of pure disbelief.
Ignoring her, Hwang Geolgae took the hidden weapon from Ilhong and casually handed it back to its original owner.
"Huh? Wait, that's it…? For real?"
Her heavily made-up eyes twitched nonstop, asking if he was seriously letting it go.
But what could she do? A high-ranking member of the Nine Great Sects had decided to bury the matter.
The second daughter of the Tang Clan had no choice but to shut up.
"It wasn't stolen, and you got the item back. What's the problem?"
"But still, a Tang Clan hidden weapon left in an outsider's hands—"
"Heh-heh, kids who don't know anything can make mistakes. You're making a huge fuss over nothing."
"…It's not a small offense!"
Hwang Geolgae shook his head as if to say hidden weapons were piled high in the Tang Clan warehouses anyway.
"Is it as big an offense as calling this old man a geezer and telling him to get lost?"
"……Now that you mention it, no."
"Then we're good."
Left with nothing to say, she pouted her lips like a duck.
She had already committed her own crime. What else could she do? If she didn't want every beggar in the Central Plains as an enemy, she had to back down.
Or go fetch the head of the Sichuan Tang Clan herself.
"Then this girl will take her leave."
Dang Yeohye stuffed the cylindrical hidden weapon into her green martial robes.
She shot me and Ilhong a brief look, clicked her tongue, and withdrew with Neungsam.
Hwang Geolgae quietly eyed the back of my head.
"You little bastard. I'm busy, so stop causing trouble."
"I didn't do it."
"This old man will be watching the entire escort journey."
"It really wasn't me."
Hwang Geolgae left without believing me for a second, saying he had things to do.
I felt a little wronged. It wasn't like I only ever caused accidents.
"We dodged that one, Boss."
Running into that woman on the escort road of all places. It felt like an unexpected storm had just blown through.
"But are you okay losing the hidden weapon? You were researching and tinkering with it every night."
She had stayed up disassembling and reassembling it, even visiting the black market, yet her expression was surprisingly calm.
"It's fine. 'Prepare for the unexpected,' right? I knew a day like this might come."
As she spoke, Ilhong casually pulled something from her robes.
The shape in her hand somehow reminded me of the Tang Clan's device.
Crude and unimpressive, but it had holes for black powder and needles, plus a rough trigger mechanism.
"I hired blacksmiths from the black market and already made something similar."
She proudly showed me the hidden-weapon device that, while inferior to the original, was more than enough for a surprise strike.
Honestly, I didn't know whether to call this good preparation or something else.
"Ilhong, you've got it all planned out, huh?"
She must have been using the gold and silver I invested to tinker away at all sorts of things.
When I was a kid and got allowance, I just blew it all as fast as possible.
"I fragmented the work among several smiths so the design wouldn't leak. Took a bit of time."
The original had been returned to its owner, but the blueprints and design had already been fully copied into her head.
She hadn't stolen a physical object—she had stolen knowledge.
I felt a tiny bit nervous, but the Dragon Head who doted on her would handle any fallout, so whatever.
"That's our Ilhong. Thorough and meticulous."
"Hehe."
Ilhong beamed bashfully at my praise.
I decided to just enjoy the fruits of her labor. Better to grab whatever you can while you can.
In the jianghu you never knew what might happen.
That was what they called preparing for the unexpected.
What was written as an escort journey and read as a forced march continued.
Day after boring day of nothing but forests and mountains no matter how far we walked.
I walked and walked until I couldn't tell whether my feet were pushing me forward or I was just riding on top of them.
Originally I had planned to flop onto a wagon like cargo.
But Hwang Geolgae had grabbed me and told me to treat every single step as footwork training, so I was stuck as a full-time pedestrian.
A full week of carefully walking while circulating internal energy.
Then one more uncomfortable element appeared.
"Ugh, what's her problem?"
Ever since it came out that I was Hwang Geolgae's disciple, a certain petite woman had started staring daggers at me from not far away.
Whether I was sleeping or resting, that fixed gaze was enough to give me neurosis.
And if I tried talking to her first, she would whip her head away like she was in a bad mood.
What the hell was I supposed to do? She was stronger than me, so I couldn't even shake her off.
"Boss, eat up."
When noon rolled around, meal distribution happened.
Ilhong handed me a crumbly rice ball, half a piece of dried pollack, and a few scraps of greens.
We were in a hurry, so we had to eat while walking. Employee benefits around here were a disaster.
It was a meal that would make any food cop cry, but having lived as a beggar actually helped in times like this.
The other rogues looked like they were chewing shit, but Ilhong and I just chomped away without complaint.
Then, while quietly eating, I noticed a strange metallic taste in the rice.
"Hm?"
On top of that, the Heavenly Killing Star flinched and reacted the same way it had long ago when I stupidly swallowed a mushroom.
Back then I just thought my tongue felt weirdly cool and interesting—turns out it had been a poison mushroom.
And now, that someone's gaze felt even more sticky than before.
"Hey, did you put something in my food?"
I glanced sideways at Dang Yeohye and asked.
"Yeah."
So this bitch was the culprit. Fuck.
I was speechless. How was she so brazen about it?
"You're seriously weird. That's my special experimental poison, but you're totally fine."
She stared at me with open curiosity.
Maybe this was why people said never get involved with the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Putting weird shit in someone else's rice just to satisfy her own curiosity…
"Are you trying to kill people or what?"
"It's not like that. You'd just shit your guts out spectacularly."
A poison that didn't threaten your life but socially annihilated you.
No wonder something had bubbled in my stomach and then vanished. Thanks to the Heavenly Killing Star, I had saved face this time.
"Hey, you wanna try another poison I made?"
I had no idea what this crazy woman was proposing.
"What kind of poison now?"
"Just one that makes you puke and shit everything out until you pass out for a few days. Honestly, calling that a poison is a stretch."
Why did she only develop vicious poisons that destroyed human dignity?
Was this somehow related to that older brother who had sworn revenge last time?
"Hell no. Absolutely not."
"Even though the symptoms are this mild?"
They were not mild at all.
I wasn't some lab guinea pig.
"I'll pay you a ton of money."
"…How much?"
"Boss, are you insane?"
Crap. I had almost been swayed by the lure of cash for a second.
Come to think of it, this woman was completely broke right now.
That was why she had revealed she was an expert and joined this escort—to freeload meals and ride the wagons in comfort.
"What an unfair world."
If your martial arts were strong enough, you got treated well and never went hungry wherever you went.
Meanwhile I was walking all day and eating stinking rice balls.
Thanks to Ilhong I snapped out of it and was about to deliver a firm rejection.
Right then, a tense shout rang out from the very front of the column.
"Everyone halt! Rogues and escorts, defensive positions—!"
Something had happened at the head of the procession.