How Could This Be Real?
Seoan was a paradise on earth.
No, let me correct that.
Money could make a paradise.
“Ahhh, this is practically a peach-blossom utopia~”
Soaked to the bone in a steaming hot bath, I hummed to myself and thought back over the past few days.
The carriage ride with Cheonga, who had a strangely clingy sort of charm, had been mentally exhausting to the point of torment.
No matter how much I’d rented a luxury carriage with money and hired stout escorts so I didn’t have to lift a finger, a journey was still a journey. It wasn’t my body that felt tired, but my mind.
After three dull, pseudo-scholarly days on the road, we had finally begun spending money in earnest.
The moment we arrived, we rented the finest inn in the city and spent our days being waited on while stuffing ourselves with top-grade dishes!
To me, who had once hidden away in the mountains, digging up wild roots and tearing into stinking game meat, the pleasures of a civilized city were an almost unbearable temptation.
“Even if it’s declined, a great city is still a great city. Hah. I’m getting drunk on civilization.”
I rose from my thoroughly softened body, washed up properly, and sat by the window.
Busy citizens bustled through the streets below.
And there I was, living like a layabout for days on end.
This was the taste of success.
As expected, no matter the era, money was king.
“Should I go get something to eat soon?”
What should I have for lunch today?
Yesterday, I’d eaten neiyu yusi, a dish of grilled shark fin. It had been unfamiliar, but delicious.
Should I go with meat today, then?
Just as I stepped out of my room, brimming with anticipation, I ran into Cheonga at the door.
“Oh. Cheonga, let’s eat. Come on, let’s go eat.”
“Unni....”
Somehow, even in the middle of this luxurious life, her face looked dark.
“How long are we going to do nothing but play around?”
On the first day she’d arrived in Seoan, she had seemed content to eat with me and enjoy the comfort of the high-end inn. But after several days of the same routine, she had begun to grow restless.
“Let’s talk while we eat.”
This runaway daughter of a prestigious family didn’t understand my heart at all.
We’d only been enjoying a life I hadn’t even dreamed of for decades for a few days—there was no way I was already bored.
Still, I could at least agree with her in part.
I walked ahead, and Cheonga followed obediently behind me.
Unlike my worries, she really was a good kid who listened well.
She was so obedient, in fact, that it almost made me feel guilty.
Standing at my side, she adjusted her face veil and let out a long sigh.
“I’m sorry. I do like seeing you happy, Unni, but if I think about the villains running wild out there, I can’t help worrying.”
“Mm-hm, I understand. But for now, endure it while looking at my adorable face.”
Her eyes landed on my face.
When I smiled at her with satisfaction, Cheonga pressed her lips together and abruptly turned her head away.
My looks really were ahead of their time for the Central Plains.
To think they could even ensnare women.
Feeling pleased with myself, I made my way into the inn’s dining hall.
We took a seat in a separate area reserved for honored guests, and I spoke to Cheonga, who had followed me in with a sulky expression.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a plan too.”
That wasn’t a lie.
I hadn’t just been lazing around all this time.
In the martial world, where else did information flow?
Through the Beggar Sect and the Hao Clan.
Using the excuse of flashing money around, I’d made acquaintances by giving alms to beggars, then wandered through expensive restaurants gathering bits of gossip from the customers.
I hadn’t made any overt moves, since both organizations were the sort you didn’t want to get too deeply involved with, but by now they must have noticed me as well.
And along the way, it had been very easy to hear that after Shaolin posted its wanted notice, far more people had begun searching for information about the Bigeup.
“What we’re after is really popular, after all.”
“That’s true.”
“So if they’re searching openly, they won’t show themselves. That means we need to make them reveal themselves.”
Perhaps because I’d said what she wanted to hear, Cheonga leaned forward with obvious interest.
Such an innocent child.
“How?”
“Who do you think has the Bigeup?”
For convenience’s sake, I called it a Bigeup, but most of the black history in my memory had taken the form of novels, aside from a few setting notebooks.
After all, culture was something you could only afford once you were doing well enough to survive.
Unless they’d stumbled across one by chance, there was no way commoners—most of whom were illiterate—would have such things.
“Most of them would be young martial artists from wealthy families. People sensitive to trends, and easily tempted.”
“...That makes sense.”
“And how do young people act when they suddenly gain great power?”
“They cause trouble, I suppose.”
Cheonga answered with a very serious face.
I raised a finger and wagged it side to side.
“No. They show off.”
“Pardon?”
“They can’t control the power they got so easily, so they end up parading it around.”
The closest proof was sitting right beside me.
That girl who kept talking about some dark justice and firing off beams right in front of the inn.
She had her reasons for hiding her identity, but in my opinion, if she hadn’t covered her face, she would’ve been caught by Shaolin monks long ago.
Having heard me out, Cheonga seemed to reach some great realization and nodded deeply, her expression moved.
“The person we met in Yanghwajin was like that too. As expected, Unni saw right through it at a glance.”
No, I saw through it twice.
I hid the truth and smiled.
No need to tell her that.
“But what does that have to do with our situation now?”
Cheonga lowered her voice carefully when she saw the server bringing our food.
Once the server finished laying out the dishes and withdrew with a respectful bow, I picked up a large chicken drumstick and whispered, “Who do young people with power and money go to places like this to impress? Fancy restaurants like this, of course.”
With that, I bit into the drumstick.
Juice ran down my hand; it was cooked beautifully.
The flavor was excellent too.
As expected of a restaurant recommended by Beggar Sect beggars.
It was a little contradictory that they knew so much about fine dining, but I assumed they weren’t trying to hide the fact that they were the Beggar Sect and let it go.
Seeing me stuff my cheeks full of meat and chew with obvious satisfaction, Cheonga gave up arguing and quietly picked up her chopsticks.
Hm. Not a bad excuse.
To be honest, it was hard to predict what the people who’d obtained the Bigeup would actually do.
My black history was so thoroughly buried that I couldn’t even remember what most of it had said.
The two I’d found so far had both been novels with that classic chuunibyou flavor—something about darkness and such—but there was no guarantee the others were the same.
Would the person who read them commit crimes, or hole up deep in the mountains? There was no telling.
At least for now, this indulgent lifestyle still hadn’t grown stale, so I just wanted to enjoy it to the fullest while I had the leisure.
My silver tongue still hasn’t rusted, huh.
With the nagger finally silenced, I happily set down the cleanly stripped chicken bones and was about to reach for the next piece of meat when the inn door swung open and a group of young men came in loudly.
They were wearing expensive-looking silk robes and flashy ornaments. At a glance, they looked like the sons of wealthy families gathered for some social outing.
They swept their eyes over the dining hall, then swaggered over to a table far from ours and sat down with haughty ease.
Talk about perfect timing.
Cheonga’s gaze locked onto them with sharp intensity.
“...I think they’ve arrived.”
Right. Why did they really have to arrive now, of all times?
Since she’d already brought it up, we couldn’t just leave the table carelessly.
Cheonga closed her eyes and began concentrating in silence.
She was probably trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.
Which meant there was nothing for me to do.
Taking advantage of the opening, I secretly picked up the chicken drumstick she hadn’t touched.
I knew it probably wasn’t polite to eat both drumsticks of a chicken by myself, but perhaps because of the curse of that cursed body, my appetite seemed to have a weak resistance to restraint.
...Was that too much of an excuse?
Just as I was biting down on the drumstick, Cheonga opened her eyes.
“Unni...”
“Hm? What, you don’t like the drumstick?”
“...That’s not it. They’re coming over.”
“Huh?”
With my mouth full, I turned around.
A young man had approached to just beside our table.
“What brings the two young ladies here?”
“We came to eat.”
Cheonga answered coolly to his question, which was asking the obvious.
The young man smiled brightly and continued. “Haha. Of course. It wouldn’t be cheap, either, and when I saw two young ladies eating alone, I thought I’d ask after you.”
His eyes were full of friendliness.
But beneath his words lay the arrogance of a rich family’s son.
So he does know we’re pretty.
Traveling with Cheonga had taught me something: both she and I were especially eye-catching even among martial artists.
I’d thought the women we met were all just pretty girls, so the martial world must have an unusually high average, but that wasn’t it at all.
Our beauty was the kind that made heads turn wherever we walked.
I’d let it slide because, oddly enough, I liked the attention a little, but confident men did sometimes come up and start talking to us like this.
Beyond his shoulder, the other young men watching us were full of expectation.
So this is... what, a pick-up attempt?
Who would’ve thought I’d ever get hit on like this in my life.
I was snickering inwardly when a chill voice spilled from Cheonga’s lips.
“...You really are showing off.”
“Showing off?”
The young man’s brows twitched.
At his slightly irritated reply, Cheonga only grew more imposing.
“Those who possess the Bigeup are drawn to one another.”
“Bigeup? What are you talking about?”
The young man’s expression hardened.
The feeling that he’d misstepped because he’d been fooled by appearance was plain as day.
Unable to sense the murderous edge in Cheonga’s gaze, he wore a displeased look and voiced his complaint. “Looks like you’ve only just scraped together enough money to come to a place like this for the first time. For us, this sort of place is everyday life—it’s not showing off or anything.”
“Is that so? Then why did you come over to us?”
“Well, because your faces are rather pretty, so we thought we might—”
“Wait!”
I hurriedly cut him off and stepped in.
The young man’s eyes shifted to me.
Because of Cheonga’s attitude, he seemed to be getting increasingly heated, and the look he gave me was pretty cold too.
Hey, I’m the one who saved your life.
If you’d actually said the filthy joke you were thinking just now, you’d have been blasted into the next world on the spot.
I swallowed the injustice that he would never understand.
“It seems neither side is pleased with this exchange, so how about we all step back?”
“...What strange women. You’ve ruined the mood.”
The young man bristled at my answer, but after staring at my face for a moment, he withdrew and returned to his table.
Phew. Good thing I’m pretty.
It was only natural that no one in this world could stay angry after facing my fatal cuteness.
Cheonga, however, still stared at them intently, unwilling to let her guard down.
“Cheonga. Just because someone shows off doesn’t mean they’re necessarily the owner of a Bigeup.”
“...Unni, do you think I was just guessing?”
Oh? She wasn’t?
Frowning, I followed her gaze—and the target wasn’t the young man we’d just spoken to.
She was watching the other man at the table, the one sitting with him.
“I can feel something strange coming from him. He’s probably the one.”
“Really?”
There was really someone in the inn dining hall showing off who also had a Bigeup?
How was that actually real?
Perhaps sensing Cheonga’s stare, the man met her eyes and gave a slight smile.
Seeing her hand move toward her sword at that smile, I hurriedly stopped her.
“Hold it, Cheonga. You planning to smash the inn to pieces?”
“Wouldn’t it be better to deal with him quickly? I have more than enough money to cover the damages.”
“That’s not the point. Money can’t solve everything.”
“The darkness within me is howling.”
“Absolutely not.”
Cheonga puffed out her lips and let go of her sword.
It would’ve been nice to handle it quickly, sure, but we needed to avoid anything too conspicuous.
Besides, we already drew attention just by existing. And now you want to smash the inn?
I turned back to look at them again.
The young man who had joined his companions was clearly irritated by Cheonga’s rebuff and was complaining bitterly about something, while the others laughed and teased him.
They look ordinary enough.
Come to think of it, both Cheonga and I only looked like ordinary beauties on the surface.
If Cheonga was sensing it, then there was a strong chance he really was connected to the Bigeup.
As I racked my brain over how to handle it, the inn door slammed open with a clatter, and someone shouted as they strode in.
“I’m late! Sorry about that!”