Hunters and Prey
"Dudu. It seems the hunt has begun."
"Yes, yes. Olanggamokya."
Lee Go-nap-hap gave a listless reply to Olanggamokya's report.
He was lying in ambush with his men in the forest near Anchuunbugu.
He had stripped off his fine silks and dressed in the clothes of an ordinary hunter.
He let out a long, lazy yawn.
"This is truly tedious."
"You can say that again, Dudu."
Irongha was quick to agree with him.
Olanggamokya spoke up.
"The beaters and hunters are dispersing now. We need only slip in at the right moment."
"That's the way of it."
Lee Go-nap-hap furrowed his brow.
"But how in the world are we supposed to find that woman out here?"
That was the problem.
The Sacred Forest was vast enough for three hundred-odd people to scatter about and enjoy the hunt at their leisure.
How was anyone meant to find a single woman in all this?
"That Ichige fellow ought to do something himself, at the very least lure the woman out to us. Instead he just dumps the whole matter in our laps and tells us to manage it as we see fit. The nerve."
"He certainly is an insolent piece of work."
As Lee Go-nap-hap grumbled, Irongha hastened to chime in.
Lee Go-nap-hap had disliked Ichige from the very first moment he laid eyes on him. A man with nothing to his name who strutted around like some great noble-born lord, forever scheming—what a repulsive creature.
The amusing thing was that Ichige, for his part, regarded Lee Go-nap-hap as a pathetic fool who dreamed of nothing but escaping his father's shadow.
"By the way, that woman they call Wol-yeong is fairly pretty, I must say."
Irongha changed the subject.
For passing a tedious stretch of time, nothing did the trick quite like lewd talk.
"That much is true. Old man Onyan Isiha kept his only daughter hidden away like some precious jewel, so who was ever to know? Fine face, fine figure—the whole package. Quite the prize."
Lee Go-nap-hap concurred.
The truth was, he had never set eyes on Onyan Wol-yeong before today.
It was an arranged marriage, but even Lee Go-nap-hap could hardly help being curious about his bride-to-be's face.
"Fairly pretty" was, in fact, a considerable understatement of Wol-yeong's beauty.
Lee Go-nap-hap had been unable to tear his eyes away from the moment he first saw her. Her fresh, unadorned loveliness, the slender line of her neck, the curve of her shoulders glimpsed between the folds of her garments, the gentle swell of her bosom.
Even Lee Go-nap-hap, who had had his way with countless women in Jianzhou, had never once encountered a woman of her caliber.
"And she's not merely pretty, either. Honestly, there may be no shortage of women on the floor of Hwangseongpyeong with faces as fine as hers, but... how should I put it—there's something about her that makes her seem untouchable. Like you couldn't just knock her down and have your way."
"Exactly!"
Lee Go-nap-hap agreed wholeheartedly.
Wol-yeong possessed something one dared not lay hands upon. A single blossom blooming atop a sheer cliff, so difficult to pluck.
The memory of it made Lee Go-nap-hap's loins grow heavy.
"If that woman looked anything like that wretch Ichige, I'd have kicked the whole Onyan clan to the curb without a second thought, bloodline be damned."
"Oh, how dreadful that would be."
Irongha cracked a joke, and Lee Go-nap-hap yawned.
"Well, we're to marry her regardless. A pretty rice cake is a pleasure to eat as well as to look at."
Truthfully, he could not quite understand his father Lee Man-ju's obsession with the Onyan clan. Simply remaining Dudu of the Jianzhou Guard was a fine lot already—why go so far as to claim the whole of Jianzhou?
Even now, no one alive dared look down on his family.
And yet...
Lee Go-nap-hap kneaded his heavy loins. The chaste image of Onyan Wol-yeong he had seen but moments ago refused to leave his mind.
Irongha snickered.
"She's only just come of age, hasn't she? Heh heh heh... isn't that just the right age to devour raw? She won't even know the taste of a man yet. Heheheh..."
Irongha giggled, his face twisted into something lecherous.
This kind of vulgar talk was evidently nothing new between them, and Lee Go-nap-hap broke into a crooked grin.
"Hmph... there are times a virgin does appeal to me. The way she trembles, not knowing a thing, is rather endearing. But honestly speaking, a ripe woman is better. If a girl's too young and ignorant, you have to teach her everything step by step. What a bother."
"Heh heh... true enough, I suppose. A well-seasoned woman who knows it all can be delicious in her own right. Though you do sometimes find a young one who knows more than you'd expect."
"Ha! That stiff-necked old codger Onyan Isiha must have guarded his only daughter well."
"Who can say? With daughters of great houses, it's often the reverse. Heh heh..."
The two men's conversation knew no restraint.
In truth, Lee Go-nap-hap was already a married man in his thirties—an "ahjussi" who had seen it all and more.
And a notorious lecher whose appetites were the talk of all Jianzhou. One can well imagine Onyan Isiha's feelings upon receiving a demand dressed up as a request—hand over your barely-of-age only daughter at once—from a man whose infamy he knew all too well.
All the more so with Lee Go-nap-hap himself coming in person to deliver it.
"In any case, from what I've seen she is delicate and frail. Just your taste, isn't she, Dudu? Though I suppose you prefer them with a bit more meat on their bones. Plump and well-fed."
"That much is true."
Lee Go-nap-hap admitted it.
The truth was, the moment he laid eyes on Wol-yeong, he had struggled to suppress the naked desire to make her his as soon as possible.
"What about you, Irongha?"
"As for me, I'm more taken with the woman beside her."
"That handmaiden? Her face looked passable, but aren't her shoulders a bit too broad? She seemed almost like a man."
Lee Go-nap-hap frowned.
Irongha smirked.
"That's the real delicacy, my lord. No doubt she's ample there too."
He cupped both hands in front of his chest as he continued.
"She looked solidly built—strikes me as a woman who's trained her body. She's had some martial training, that one."
A lecher Irongha might be, but he was Lee Go-nap-hap's trusted confidant and knew his way around a blade, so he could read such things well enough.
"Well, well. So you fancy that one more, do you, Irongha?"
"Honestly, I get more of a thrill from bedding women who've had martial training. Heh heh heh... Dudu, might I have a go at that one?"
"Do as you please."
Lee Go-nap-hap answered indifferently.
"Speaking of which, I wonder when that cur Ichige intends to show himself."
Lee Go-nap-hap let out another long yawn—then froze mid-motion.
"Well, well. Speak of the tiger and he appears."
"Sir?"
"Never mind. Our dear meal-ticket approaches."
Irongha and Olanggamokya turned to look where Lee Go-nap-hap was staring, and understood.
It was Ichige.
"Ah, Lord Ichige. His Excellency the next head of the Onyan clan deigns to grace us with his presence."
"Let us be off, shall we?"
Ichige ignored Lee Go-nap-hap's sarcasm.
"I trust you've had pleasant words with your elder brother?"
"Not yet. I mean to meet him after we've brought you lot in. Well, my brother is ever the same."
"What in the world is wrong with your brother, anyway? A woman cannot inherit the clan, so in the end he'll have no choice but to hand the family over to you. Good for sister, good for brother-in-law—no, wait. That's not it. The daughter marries the Dudu of the Jianzhou Guard, so that's good; the half-brother is good; our clan is, well... good. Everything is good, isn't it?"
Whatever his bitterness toward his half-brother, Ichige's heart had curdled. A rootless Hurigai upstart, daring to presume upon the Onyan clan!
Ichige swallowed his anger. For the sake of the lineage, the lesser must be sacrificed. One day the Hurigai and the Odoli alike would have to be dealt with, every last one of them.
"As I understand it, Lord Man-ju has sealed off all the outsiders coming toward Anchuunbugu."
"He has. Though he cannot stop everyone up to the rank of chieftain. The Kunuma brothers—surely even you have heard of them?"
"How could I not? That madman. They say he calls himself the Rakshasa of Slaughter."
Ichige furrowed his brow.
Kunuma's infamy was widespread. He had swept across every corner of Jianzhou committing murder, arson, and every manner of atrocity—he chose his crimes freely.
The peculiar thing was that rape alone he never committed. Not out of any principle, but simply because he hacked men and women, young and old alike, to pieces without discrimination.
"And that Temusi-i fellow—how did he come to be here, and what exactly is he doing?"
"How should I know?"
Lee Go-nap-hap shrugged. He had no particular desire to entangle himself with Kunuma either.
"In any case, let us mind our own business."
"Very well."
Ichige personally guided Lee Go-nap-hap's party. He had once been a man of Anchuunbugu himself, and so knew every path and passageway intimately.
"See that stream bed there? Follow it and you'll arrive."
"You aren't coming, Lord Ichige?"
"What use would I be along?"
Lee Go-nap-hap smirked.
"Reluctant to take part in kidnapping your own niece?"
"Mind your own thoughts, and cover your face. You were never here."
"I'll manage. But where are you really going?"
"Were you not listening? I told you I'm going to meet my brother."
Lee Go-nap-hap shrugged, then led his men into the forest.
Ichige watched him go with distrustful eyes.
"If only he'd do the job properly. To think the day has come when a fool like that struts about calling himself Dudu of the Jianzhou Guard... What in heaven's name is this world coming to?"
Meanwhile, Hong-wi, Temusi-i, Wol-yeong, and Oun-yeong—the four of them—were riding hard in high spirits, chasing down a herd of wild boars.
—Grrk, grrk, grrk...
Cornered, the boars glared at Hong-wi's party, snorting steam and pawing the earth with their hind legs. Their cries were not unlike a tiger's roar. At any moment, they might charge.
Tung Jugang and Hong-wi studied the beasts with caution. Tung Jugang, naturally, had boar-hunting experience, but so did Hong-wi. Both knew well that a wild boar, if struck head-on, would lose none of its fury—that one must avoid the frontal charge and strike from the flank or behind.
Tung Jugang threw his spear first. With a dull thud, it struck a boar in the side.
But a boar was a beast with tenacious vitality, and it did not die from a single blow easily. Hunters who knew this never approached the animal unless it lay sprawled on its back with all four legs pointed at the sky.
The next instant, the boar lunged forward like an arrow. Tung Jugang barely evaded it, but in doing so tumbled from his horse.
Hong-wi's heart lurched—then the next moment he saw Tung Jugang spring nimbly to his feet. He seemed to have escaped serious injury.
Wol-yeong urged her horse forward. The boar faltered for an instant, then narrowed its eyes—and charged straight at her. Its tusks looked ready to tear her and her horse to ribbons at any moment.
"Ah!"
Hong-wi gasped in admiration.
She wheeled her horse nearly in place to evade the boar's attack, then twisted her upper body, drew her bow, and loosed an arrow. It was truly astonishing horsemanship—no one would have believed it the skill of a girl barely fifteen. Not only could she turn her mount on the spot, a feat of riding in itself, but her archery from horseback was dead accurate as well.
Yet the boar's fury had not broken. If anything, it had grown far more frenzied, and it began to rampage wildly.
The beast gave chase to Wol-yeong's horse. She veered this way and that to evade its charge, and even in the midst of it landed two more arrows.
Hong-wi raised his spear.
"Hyah!"
The spear left his hand, hurtling toward the boar's neck. But the beast was no ordinary quarry. It caught the whistle of parting air and twisted slightly, so the spear flew a little wide and buried itself in its right shoulder.
'That beast!'
Hong-wi was surprised, but not flustered. Any ordinary animal struck like that would have lost the use of its right foreleg and collapsed, or at the very least gone lame.
The boar's endurance, however, was extraordinary. It used the tip of its snout as though it were a foreleg, and there was not the slightest sign of its speed diminishing. Hong-wi had hunted boars before and knew this well, so he was not overly alarmed.
Instead, he began to ready a second strike.
Tung Jugang, too, was watching the boar intently. His horse had bolted, but for a man thrown from a mount, his injuries were slight. He had exactly one spear remaining.
Between the foreleg and the armpit.
Tung Jugang held his breath and took careful aim. Fortunately, the boar paid him little heed—it had been thrown from a horse, after all, and hardly looked dangerous.
The beast's interest lay with the mounted three: Hong-wi, Wol-yeong, and Oun-yeong. The boar charged at the riders circling around it, but its efforts were spent in vain, draining its strength for nothing.
Tung Jugang waited, patient and precise.
'Now!'