A Disguise That Only Makes Things Worse
“……Huh?”
Dang-gyeom blinked his large eyes.
He was a second-generation disciple of the Ghost Sect, and he had only just arrived after being ordered to head straight to Jiujiang. He’d been returning from delivering a special express package to Wuhan when he stopped at a bandit camp along the way and received the summons from above.
But the people standing before him were saying things he couldn’t make heads or tails of.
“I’m saying you should spread the rumor.”
“A rumor?”
“Yes. Make it known that the courier is traveling by boat with a priority shipment.”
“……Why would I do that?”
Of course, informing people about special shipments and Eunha Express was part of a special courier’s job. That was why Dang-gyeom was dressed so ostentatiously in the first place.
Promotion was half of any business.
No matter how useful special express delivery was, who would seek out a service they’d never even heard existed?
That was why both Eunha Express and the Ghost Sect had worked hard to make special couriers known.
But isn’t this a different matter entirely?
There didn’t even seem to be many people in Jiujiang who would request an escort service. Why spread rumors here? It would only make things more dangerous.
“The important thing is to make it seem natural, not like you’re deliberately trying to spread the rumor! That sort of casualness is what matters.”
Dang-gyeom, who had been rendered speechless, could only stare dumbly at the fair-skinned man standing before him—no, to be honest, the most ridiculously handsome young man he had ever seen in his life—as he smiled brightly and stressed his point.
And then he learned one of life’s great truths.
Heaven doesn’t give everything to one person.
It seemed it had given him the face and taken away some of his brains in exchange…….
“Do you understand?”
“……Yes. I understand what you mean. But…… why are we doing this in the first place? There are already water bandits swarming the Yangtze, and the escort guild is in chaos. Won’t this just draw even more of them in?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Pardon?”
“That’s precisely what we want.”
Dang-gyeom smiled back at the man, Baek Cheon, who was grinning brightly.
He really is insane.
Come to think of it, he had heard somewhere that Mount Hua people were all strong, but none of them had a screw loose…….
Now that he thought about it, this man had been outrageous the last time he visited the Ghost Sect too…….
“Then after that?”
“We get on the boat.”
“……On the boat?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to spread the rumor that the special shipment is on a boat, lure the water bandits in, and then actually board the boat?”
“That’s right. But you don’t need to worry. We’ll be getting on too, so the special shipment won’t suffer so much as a scratch. Please trust us.”
Instead of answering, Dang-gyeom slowly moved his gaze from left to right.
Seeing the disciples of Mount Hua all wearing fiercely confident expressions, he couldn’t help but smile.
“……Is there really no one else here who’s a special courier?”
“……”
“If you’re willing, maybe you should call someone else…….”
“Hahaha. What a joke.”
“No, I’m not joking……”
“Time is short. Come, come. We’re counting on you!”
“Hey, you lunatics! Do I look like I’ve got ten lives or something?! At least make some sense……”
In the end, Dang-gyeom, who had started shouting in a fit of rage, was dragged away by Jo Gul and Yoon Jong.
Watching them go, Baek Cheon sighed and voiced his confusion.
“Why can’t he understand?”
“Sasuk.”
“Hmm?”
Dang Soso smiled sweetly and offered her kind advice.
“When you go back to Mount Hua, don’t hang around Chung Myung for a while.”
“……”
“They say you become like the people you spend time with. I think that’s really true.”
That sounded like an insult, didn’t it?
Right? It did, didn’t it?
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Dang Soso, her face red as she trembled, hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth.
“Mm……! Gghk…….”
She couldn’t laugh. It would be wrong to mock the efforts of people who had prepared so hard in their own way.
But…….
I, I can’t hold it in!
This was just too much.
“What is this supposed to be!”
Finally unable to stand it, she shouted, and the other disciples turned to look at one another. Then, as they took in each other’s ridiculous appearances, they let out helpless snickers.
Jo Gul looked at Yoon Jong and said,
“Sahyung.”
“Yes?”
“……Are you going off to farm somewhere?”
Yoon Jong had thrown on some plain, nondescript clothes he’d gotten somewhere, and with his pant legs hiked up, he looked like he was about to go weed a field.
“Why are your pants rolled up like that?”
“……I just copied some guy I saw passing by.”
“He must have been some woodcutter selling his wares in the market. No sense for fashion at all…….”
Jo Gul clicked his tongue in mock pity, and Yoon Jong, offended, snapped back,
“You punk!”
“What did I do? This is the silk outfit that’s all the rage in Hangzhou these days! Tsk, tsk. I used to be quite the name back in Sichuan…….”
“Have you even been to Hangzhou?”
“……”
The silk robe embroidered with colorful flowers made him look less like the son of a wealthy family and more like some wastrel roaming the night streets.
Still, the two of them were in relatively decent shape.
“Sago…….”
Dang Soso couldn’t bear to look Yu I-seol in the eye and turned her head away. At least she had followed instructions to wear something that looked expensive; the fabric did seem nice enough. The problem was that her top was yellow, her pants blue, and her cloak bright red.
It was enough to make one’s eyes go crooked just looking at it.
“Sago, this…….”
Yu I-seol turned to stare at one person with clear grievance in her eyes and said,
“I at least tried.”
Then everyone’s gaze landed on one person.
“W-what am I supposed to do about that!”
The one under all those stares cried out in a voice thick with resentment.
“W-wearing different clothes won’t change anything! In the first place…….”
“You’re bald.”
“Right, he’s bald.”
“A young bald man isn’t easy to find.”
Tears welled up in Hye Yeon’s eyes.
Was it even reasonable to tell a monk to disguise himself in a way that made him look rich?
If he wore silk, he was just a bald man in silk. If he wore fur, he was a bald man in fur!
And Hye Yeon had even gone so far as to shave his head. No matter how he disguised himself, at best he looked like a defrocked monk who’d fled the temple.
In the end, he had no choice but to wear an ordinary gray robe instead of Shaolin’s yellow one.
“Well, there are mendicant monks too…… so I suppose it’s fine, isn’t it?”
“What else can we do?”
“I can understand the monk.”
The others all expressed understanding for Hye Yeon’s circumstances. Dang Soso cut to the heart of the matter without mercy.
“It’s fine if it’s Hye Yeon, but the others absolutely can’t wear those! Go change again.”
A troubled look crossed Yoon Jong’s face.
“But Soso. Since I was old enough to dress myself, I’ve only ever worn Mount Hua’s daoist robes. I have no idea what I’m supposed to wear…….”
“Jo Gul sahiung.”
“Huh?”
“Go to the nearest market and buy a few sets of clothes merchants wear. Just sling a bundle over your shoulder and pretend you’re a merchant.”
“Oh…… I didn’t think of that. I am from a merchant family, after all.”
“Hurry up and go.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
As Jo Gul and Yoon Jong dashed off in a panic, Dang Soso let out a long sigh.
When it came to martial arts, they were as reliable as anyone in the world. But when it came to ordinary matters, they were worse than common folk.
That was when it happened.
“Are you all ready?”
Baek Cheon, now finished with his disguise, opened the door and stepped inside.
“……”
“……”
Everyone could only stare at him with dazed eyes, unable to speak. Baek Cheon frowned slightly, looking embarrassed.
“What? Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s just…….”
Dang Soso blinked and tried to choose her words carefully.
Unexpectedly, Baek Cheon had actually dressed perfectly for the role she’d envisioned. The dark ochre roughspun clothes looked appropriate for a man doing hard labor, and with his hero’s knot undone and his hair tied back simply, he looked much like the ordinary merchants one would see anywhere.
But…….
“This is strange.”
“Really strange.”
“It’s impressive, in a way, how badly this doesn’t suit him.”
The clothes and the man looked like they belonged to completely different worlds.
He looked less like a merchant than the son of a noble family who had stolen a servant’s clothes and run off.
“The world really is unfair…….”
Dang Soso ignored Baek Sang, who was sighing as though he’d been wronged by heaven itself, and shook her head.
“Sasuk won’t do. Let’s give up on the merchant idea.”
“Huh?”
“Since it’s come to this, let’s go the other way around. Dress from head to toe in silk so that anyone looking at you would think you were some rich young master out for a pleasure trip on the Yangtze.”
“Why should I do that?”
“……It’d be irritating to explain the reason out loud, so just do as I say.”
“……”
“We’re supposed to set out on the boat this afternoon, so we need to move quickly! Got it?”
“Ah, understood.”
“What about me! Why don’t I get an evaluation?”
At Baek Sang’s complaint, Dang Soso snorted.
“Sasuk, you’re fine. You can wear anything.”
“Why?”
“If you wear something nice, you’ll look like a steward who followed a young master out on the road. If you wear rough clothes, you’ll look like a servant. Just stick close to Baek Cheon sasu.”
“……”
Having his soul stripped clean and his bones separated from his flesh in a single breath, Baek Sang watched as Dang Soso clapped her hands briskly.
“What are you all standing around for? Hurry up! Move.”
Just then, Jo Gul, who had come racing back in a sweat, handed out the clothes he had bought to everyone. The disciples all began rummaging through the pile and getting dressed.
“Ugh. What is this even supposed to be?”
“Do you think this will actually work?”
“I don’t trust this at all…….”
“What’s there to trust? We’re only doing it because we were told to.”
Listening to the complaints pouring in from all sides, Baek Cheon let out a long sigh.
Chung Myung.
So this is what it feels like to understand you.
Honestly, I really want to beat the hell out of all of them…….
All of them…….
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“There he is.”
“Let’s go.”
The disciples of Mount Hua watched Dang-gyeom’s back as he boarded the boat.
Unexpectedly, Dang-gyeom had done his job well. Thanks to him, word that a special express courier from Eunha Express had come to Jiujiang had spread farther than expected.
Yoon Jong and Jo Gul spoke quietly to each other.
“They won’t notice, right?”
“There shouldn’t be any problem. Unless they’re stationed here permanently, the information they can get from the bandit stronghold will only be fragmentary.”
“Hmm. I suppose so.”
“Though I’m not sure whether Sasuk thought that far ahead.”
This bastard?
Baek Cheon, who had been listening, was just about to say something when—
“As if.”
“He probably caught a mouse by backing into it by accident.”
“The mouse must have had terrible luck.”
Poke, poke.
His stomach hurt.
Until now, when he had been complaining about Chung Myung with those two, he hadn’t realized it.
He hadn’t realized these bastards were so disgustingly full of complaints themselves.
I wish they’d all die.
Sincerely……!
“Let’s go now.”
“Right.”
Baek Cheon took the lead and started walking. Every time he moved, his colorful silk robe fluttered elegantly in the wind.
“Huh?”
But there was no sound of the others following him, so he stopped and turned around.
“Aren’t you coming?”
“You go ahead first.”
“……Why?”
“Sasuk is a young master and we’re merchants. If we go together, it’ll look odd.”
“You should take Baek Sang sasu and board first.”
“……”
Baek Cheon asked with a faintly displeased expression,
“You’re not just embarrassed to be seen walking with me, are you?”
The only answer was deep silence.
Baek Cheon shut his eyes tightly and turned away.
“Let’s go, Baek Sang.”
“……Yes, sahiung.”
As he headed toward the large boat moored at the dock, a trace of tension settled over his face.
If there was little damage to the merchants themselves, that means they only targeted the special couriers. If I’m right, they’ll definitely come again this time too.
It was a burden to think they might have to face the water bandits on the river, but if they simply let time pass like this, they’d accomplish nothing at all.
If it were him, what would he do?
Baek Cheon lifted his head a little and looked up at the sky.
Every time he did this, Chung Myung’s absence felt enormous. Until now, Chung Myung had acted before Baek Cheon even had time to think, and Baek Cheon only had to decide whether to support him or stop him. But not anymore.
After a brief pause, Baek Cheon steadied his heart and shook his head.
Be cautious, but never hesitate.
Having made up his mind, Baek Cheon boarded the boat.