The Strange Disturbance
When morning came, I hauled my stiff body upright with a groan.
"Ugh...."
I’d come out alone for a change of pace, stuffed myself full of sweet snacks until I was ready to burst, and gone to sleep. No wonder I felt bloated.
After washing up, I looked into the bronze mirror, and even after cramming pastries into my mouth right up until I fell asleep, that unchanged beauty greeted me with infuriating composure.
"Unbelievable."
The ultimate beauty—one who didn’t even need maintenance.
No matter how many late-night snacks I ate, my condition never changed.
Just looking at myself made my self-esteem shoot through the roof.
Being pretty really was everything.
I stretched until my joints popped, shook off the last of sleep from my body, and stepped out of the room.
I went out in front of the inn at the usual time when everyone gathered, but as expected, no one was there.
Guess I’m wandering around by myself today.
After eating something sweet and checking my face, I didn’t feel quite as miserable as I had yesterday.
Still, the thought of moving around alone after always traveling as a group made me feel a little lonely.
What should I do now?
Should I go to the Jegal Clan and look for Cheongha?
Or wait for Dokgo Ryeon?
While I was mulling it over, a familiar figure emerged from the inn.
"Good morning, big sister."
It was Cheongha.
Wearing the same clothes as last night, she greeted me as casually as if nothing had happened.
Didn’t she say she was staying the night at the Jegal Clan?
Why was she coming out of here?
"You’re already here? How was it, sleeping at home after so long?"
"Home?" She blinked at me, genuinely baffled. "I stayed at the inn, didn’t I?"
"What are you talking about? You said you were staying at the Jegal Clan yesterday."
"What are you talking about? Why would I go to the Jegal Clan?"
Her reaction sent my thoughts spinning.
Had I really dreamed it yesterday?
No, the sweet aftertaste still lingering in my mouth and the mess in my room were vivid proof that this wasn’t a dream.
I’d definitely fallen asleep after stuffing myself with snacks alone.
It hadn’t been some misunderstanding or a dream.
Then why was she acting like this?
Was she messing with me?
Cheongha seemed just as thrown off by my reaction and furrowed her brow, thinking hard about something.
"You really don’t remember?"
"I feel like... something’s coming back to me."
Sure, our Cheongha could be a little slow sometimes, but this much?
I left her there, lost in thought, and looked around.
Dokgo Ryeon, who had left saying she had business to attend to, still showed no sign of returning.
First, I needed to solve this strange situation.
I grabbed Cheongha’s arm and tugged her along.
"Let’s eat something first. You only had grass yesterday, so your brain’s probably not working right."
Of course, I said that because I was hungry.
Cheongha, still wearing that troubled expression, let herself be led without resistance.
**
We reached the dining hall and started eating, piling the table high with greasy meat dishes from the very start of the morning.
The sizzling sounds and rich aroma that drifted up with them washed away the heaviness from last night. "Meat really is the best. People have to eat meat. Yesterday I had way too many greens, so I’ve been feeling sick since this morning."
Of course, the real reason I felt sick was because I’d been stuffing snacks into my mouth right before bed.
As I busied myself with my chopsticks and shoveled meat into my mouth, Cheongha, seated across from me, voiced her confusion.
"Yesterday... didn’t we eat dinner at the inn?"
What was she talking about?
"Yesterday, we went to the Jegal Clan and had that suffocating dinner together, didn’t we? Don’t you remember?"
"No. Didn’t I eat braised pork with you yesterday?"
That was the day before yesterday.
The moment I saw her face, tilted in genuine confusion as she asked me back, I was seized by a strange sense of unease.
Just to be sure, I mentioned a particularly memorable event from the day before.
"Then what about when I pointed out the flaws in the formation to Jegal Hyeon yesterday?"
"What are you talking about? My eldest brother is extremely proud. He would never talk about formations, especially not in front of outsiders. Just imagining it makes my spine go cold."
Cheongha truly seemed to know nothing at all, and she rubbed her own forearm as she shivered.
There was no way that was an act.
For one final confirmation, I looked at her seriously and asked, "You... don’t normally show signs of dementia, do you?"
"Big sister, that’s going too far."
The look on Cheongha’s face, utterly dumbfounded, made me certain of it.
This was an incident.
No matter how dim Cheongha was, there was no way she’d forget everything that had happened just yesterday.
She’d experienced something last night and lost part of her memory.
I’d worry about the sightseeing later. First, I had to solve this incident.
But before that, I’d better finish eating.
**
After leaving the dining hall, we decided to wander through Yangyang as usual.
Walking familiar streets, following the same roads as yesterday, I tried asking Cheongha about this and that, but got nowhere.
Like in some cheap novel, she didn’t clutch her head and cry out in pain while trying to remember.
It looked as though yesterday’s memory had simply been cut out cleanly.
"How strange."
"I’m sorry, big sister."
Cheongha had accepted that I wasn’t joking and was trying her best to recover her memories, cooperating as much as she could.
"Who do you think did it?"
"Hard to say. Normally I’d suspect my second brother, since he dislikes me, but... I don’t know if he has the ability to cause something like this."
"Doesn’t seem like it."
For all his arrogant attitude, he didn’t look particularly capable.
He was just a classic side character—the second son who felt inferior to the brilliant older brother.
If the Jegal Clan had done it, that would be the orthodox sort of development, but it probably wouldn’t be that easy.
I kept walking and thinking, but the answer didn’t come.
Then, out of nowhere, Cheongha stopped and stared fixedly at something.
"That’s odd."
"Yeah, who could it be?"
"No. I mean those people."
Following the direction of her finger, I turned my head and saw a long line stretching out in front of a single restaurant.
The surrounding shops were nearly empty, but only that place was swarming with people.
"What’s that? Is it some famous restaurant?"
"No. It’s just a regular noodle shop. Mostly locals go there once in a while."
"Really? Then what’s going on?"
I couldn’t suppress my curiosity and walked over to the end of the line.
"Hello. Is there some event going on here?"
"Huh? No."
"Then it must be really delicious, to have such a line."
When I spoke to the man at the very back, he wore a vacant expression and darted his eyes around.
"Come to think of it, why was I waiting here?"
As if his muttering were some kind of signal, confusion spread through the line like a contagious disease.
"Come to think of it?"
"Why was I doing this again?"
"I did feel like eating something suddenly, but was it really worth standing in line for this long?"
The murmurs rippled outward like waves, and before long the long queue had scattered in an instant.
Cheongha and I stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the scene.
Did I just ruin someone’s business?
When I saw someone coming out of the shop, I hurriedly started walking away.
I’m sorry, owner. I didn’t mean to.
After walking a little farther, we came upon a group of men sitting in an open lot, already drinking before noon.
"No, the winner of this Yongbongjihoe is definitely Hwa Rin, the Jinshan disciple of Mount Hua."
"What nonsense. I know her reputation well enough, but even so, wouldn’t Huangbo Jin, the young master of the Huangbo Clan, be the favorite? He’s the direct descendant of the King of Fists, after all."
"If we’re saying that, I hear the Sword Empress’s prized disciple is participating this time too. I’m betting on her."
The men, drunk on liquor, were loudly arguing about the upcoming Yongbongjihoe contestants.
Now this I couldn’t resist.
I leaned in slightly and started gathering information about the participants.
I also half-hoped my own name might come up.
But then one of them went blank for a moment and, out of nowhere, flared up and shot to his feet.
"No matter what, the winner is Jegal Hyeon, the young master of the Jegal Clan!"
Then, as if on cue, the men who had been shouting for different contenders a moment ago all rose to their feet and agreed with him at once.
"That’s right. The Jegal Clan really is the best."
"Strategy wins in the end. The age of brute force is over."
"Jegal Clan best! Jegal Clan best!"
What the hell was this?
I stared at their bizarre behavior, unable to follow the sudden turn in the conversation.
Were they showing special deference because of local influence?
Even so, the Jegal Clan as the winner of the Yongbongjihoe? Come on.
And yet, the moment they started shouting, even the merchants nearby quietly began nodding along.
"The Jegal Clan really is something."
"Indeed. The Jegal Clan is the best."
...
I turned away from the absurd sight and looked at Cheongha.
"Is Yangyang always like this?"
"Please don’t say that. I’ve never seen anything like this either."
The men who had been drinking created that eerie scene, then sat back down as if nothing had happened and started talking about an entirely different topic.
Something was wrong.
Deeply wrong.
Cheongha’s memory loss, the people outside the noodle shop, and those men just now.
Everything was suspicious beyond belief.
Something strange was happening in Yangyang.
"Big sister, everyone seems to be under some kind of spell."
Cheongha looked at me with a worried face.
"Yeah. This isn’t normal."
And luckily, you’re one of them too, Cheongha.
Fortunately, none of these strange incidents had affected me.
It had been the same last time.
The hypnosis Black Leopard had used didn’t affect me much either.
In other words, this was an incident related to a Bigeup.
A strange phenomenon spreading through the city right before the Yongbongjihoe.
Textbook. The very definition of a cliché.
"No choice."
Ironically, I felt my heart begin to pound.
The things I’d encountered so far had all been trivial incidents, but this one was on a much larger scale.
And there was no doubt the incident was tied to the Yongbongjihoe.
Which meant it was the main event.
The chance to stand at the center of the Murim world had finally arrived.
"Big sister, I think we should tell the Jegal Clan about this. If the disturbance is this severe, the clan will definitely take it seriously."
Cheongha had apparently reached the same conclusion I had and made her suggestion in a hurry.
But I shook my head.
Cheongha didn’t remember yesterday, so she wouldn’t know, but the Jegal Clan had already shown that they didn’t want outsiders interfering in the clan’s affairs.
Of course, this was a different matter, but my trust and goodwill toward them had already dropped to rock bottom.
"No need."
I came up with a plausible reason to convince her, despite her missing memories.
"Cheongha, think about it. Wouldn’t the Jegal Clan, the so-called minds of Murim, have noticed this phenomenon in their own backyard by now?"
"But...."
"And more than anything, this incident is strange. Isn’t it possible the Bigeup is involved?"
At my words, Cheongha carefully nodded.
"If it’s this severe, then yes, that’s possible."
"Right. If this has anything to do with a Bigeup, then instead of moving with those who form the backbone of the righteous faction, this is something we should solve on our own."
After hearing my explanation, Cheongha reluctantly nodded.
I understood her anxiety.
An incident happening on her home ground.
Potential civilian casualties.
But my reasoning was also more than persuasive enough.
"Big sister, you’re right. If we can handle it ourselves first, let’s do that."
As if steeling herself, the unease in her eyes flared into determination again.
It had activated.
Her righteous dark-angel mode.
"Good! Then shall we start investigating?"
My own enthusiasm surged as well.
The incident itself was genuinely intriguing.
A mysterious phenomenon, with the entire city as its backdrop.
The genius beauty solving the case, with a spirited assistant at her side.
This was perfect.
Murim Detective Song Hyeon, moving out!
We set off toward the marketplace with brisk, resolute steps.
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