Iron Token
Now that I’d gotten Hanjunggeom, and somehow ended up running into Baek Jin-ah and Dang Yeong-young again too.
But that wasn’t why I’d come to the Murim Alliance in the first place.
I was here to see the library. That had always been the real purpose, so now I was finally going to do it.
"Huh. So you really weren’t from the North Sea Ice Palace?"
The old man muttered as he looked at me with obvious suspicion.
Dao Woon-jin, the host of the Murim Alliance guest hall and a disciple of the Wudang Sect.
If it hadn’t been for the Thorny Immortal standing behind me with her usual cold expression, and Baek Jin-ah by my side having already vouched for me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to persuade this old Taoist at all.
"Very well. Since your identity is this well established, the Alliance can hardly keep doubting you. Please wait a moment."
Dao Woon-jin said that, went inside for a bit, and then came back out toward us.
Then he set the iron token on the table and wrote down the number engraved on it in the registry.
"What was your name again?"
"Baek Harin."
"And you said you don’t know your sect."
"Yes, that is correct."
"Then who will serve as guarantor?"
"I will."
"I’ll do it too."
At Dao Woon-jin’s question, the Thorny Immortal answered, and Baek Jin-ah spoke right after her.
At that, the Thorny Immortal’s brows twitched, while Baek Jin-ah merely kept smiling faintly.
"Girl. Why would you be the one to guarantee this child?"
"Of course, Senior Sister’s esteemed reputation alone would be more than enough. But if we add the name of the North Sea Ice Palace as well, wouldn’t that make it even more certain?"
There was not a single flaw in Baek Jin-ah’s words.
So the Thorny Immortal, unable to object, simply stared at her for a while with her usual impassive face before saying, "Then so be it."
In the end, the Thorny Immortal had no choice but to let it go.
And the one most shocked by the whole scene was Dao Woon-jin.
That Thorny Immortal!? She’s yielding that easily!? Did she maybe owe the Ice Palace a debt or something!? What on earth is going on here?!
But Dao Woon-jin had spent many years as the guest-hall master, so his face didn’t twitch at all as he calmly said, "Then I’ll enter both the name of Jongnam’s Thorny Immortal, Mae Yeong-ok, and the name of the North Sea Ice Palace’s Young Palace Lord, Baek Jin-ah."
As soon as Dao Woon-jin wrote the names in the registry with his brush, Dang Yeong-young poked her head up over the table and said, "Dang Yeong-young of the Dang Clan too."
The Thorny Immortal and Baek Jin-ah both turned to stare at her.
"And why are you joining in now?"
"Yeong-young. Are you sure? A guarantee isn’t something you can just hand out so carelessly."
"Huh? You two did it too, didn’t you? I’m an adult too, you know?"
Despite their attempts to stop her, Dang Yeong-young remained completely unshaken and spoke with total composure.
At that point, I couldn’t help but sigh too.
"Yeong-young. They’re right. Dang Yeong-young and Dang Yeong-young of the Sichuan Dang Clan are different things. If I were some criminal wanted by the martial world, then the Dang Clan would become accomplices too."
"Will you become a wanted criminal in the martial world?"
"That was just an example."
"Are you going to do bad things? Commit crimes? Do something against the Alliance?"
"No. That’s not what I meant. It’s not as if the only choices are being hostile or opposing someone. You know perfectly well what I’m saying, so why put it like that?"
"Then it’s fine. For something like that, I can take responsibility too. As Dang Yeong-young of the Sichuan Dang Clan."
With how calmly and shamelessly she said it, not only I but even the Thorny Immortal and Baek Jin-ah were left speechless.
Honestly, now I kind of wanted to meet the people of the Sichuan Dang Clan. Were they basically all saints?
"So. Should I write it down, or not?"
"Please do."
At Dao Woon-jin’s question, Dang Yeong-young gave her answer again without hesitation.
Hearing that, Dao Woon-jin moved his brush and wrote her name down as well.
After adding a few other names to separate registries, he picked up the iron token and held it out to me.
"Here you are. Miss Baek has now been formally registered with the Alliance. If you lose it by any chance, getting another one issued will not be easy, so do not lose it under any circumstances."
With that, I took the iron token.
A token about the size of half my palm. Words and numbers were engraved on it.
The number was written in Chinese numerals rather than Arabic ones, which made it a little unusual.
It didn’t register at a glance. One, six, three, seven, two, nine... was that 163729? So this meant I was the 163,729th person to be registered?
Were there really 160,000 martial artists registered with the Murim Alliance? Was this because it was China or something?
No, wait. Maybe this was cumulative? But if I thought about it that way, the number still felt kind of too low.
Anyway, after receiving the iron token, I headed off in earnest for the library.
"By the way, then everyone else has one of these too, right? Except me?"
When I asked, the Thorny Immortal nodded, and Baek Jin-ah and Dang Yeong-young took out their own tokens to show me.
But Baek Jin-ah’s and Dang Yeong-young’s tokens were gold. Not solid gold, maybe just gilded?
"Those are gold tokens?"
"Mm-hm. I am, after all, the Young Palace Lord of the Ice Palace."
"And I’m direct blood of the Dang Clan."
Wow. Bloodlines really were everything, huh?
The North Sea Ice Palace came from beyond the borders, but since Baek Jin-ah was the Young Palace Lord, they just gave her a gold token, apparently. And as for the Dang Clan, well, that was perfectly understandable.
"What about you, Senior Sister?"
When I asked, the Thorny Immortal pulled out her token with her usual frosty face.
Only hers was a little smaller, and instead of gold, it was silver.
"Huh? Why isn’t it a gold token? It’s silver?"
"That isn’t a silver token. It’s a platinum token."
Baek Jin-ah explained kindly, and hearing that, I felt a little flustered.
What was this? It really had the strong smell of a game system in here.
As far as I knew, platinum wasn’t all that precious in this era.
They probably wouldn’t even have called it platinum.
Maybe they didn’t even know platinum existed. If anything, they might have just thought of it as a kind of silver.
Still, even if I was thinking all that, I had no intention of saying it out loud, so I just let it go.
Come to think of it, they were making twelve-kilogram swords here. What was platinum, really?
And there was no way a lower tier could be above gold. Obviously.
"Is there anything above that too? Like a diamond token or something?"
"A diamond token? Ah, you mean diamond. No, there’s nothing like that."
Hm. At least they had some sense. No diamonds, then.
"Then why does Senior Sister have a platinum token? Is platinum the standard for senior martial masters?"
"Yes, that’s right. Someone of Senior Sister’s caliber would naturally be given a platinum token."
"Are there a lot of people with platinum tokens?"
"Not really, I don’t think. Even the head of a small or medium-sized sect would have a hard time getting one."
Ah. I see. So, as expected, this too depended on bloodline or reputation.
"When do you get a platinum token? Can I get one too? If they don’t give them to just anyone?"
"Why are you already worrying about that? What’s so special about a platinum token? Just become capable enough to deserve one."
The Thorny Immortal said it like it was nothing.
That’s why you can’t talk too long with successful people.
What about a home run? You just have to watch the pitch all the way and put the bat on it cleanly.
Getting into Seoul National University? I never even went to cram school. I just studied thoroughly by watching regular classes and free lectures.
What’s the difference?
"So after iron tokens come silver? Then gold, then platinum? Nothing else?"
"There is."
"What is it?"
"Below the iron token, there’s a wooden token."
"Ah."
The reason I didn’t start with a wooden token was probably because of the Thorny Immortal.
The guest-hall master I’d seen earlier seemed to be of the same rank as the Thorny Immortal, but even he had been subtly respectful. He’d even called her Senior.
Thinking about that, the Thorny Immortal’s influence really seemed to be far greater than I’d expected.
Hm. Maybe it wasn’t influence. Maybe I should call it her temper?
With that, we arrived at the library.
As soon as the library manager heard that the Thorny Immortal had arrived, he hurried out to greet her personally and spent a long time flustered in front of her.
Then, continuously watching the Thorny Immortal’s expression, he explained to me, Baek Jin-ah, and Dang Yeong-young how to use the library.
The rules weren’t all that complicated.
The library had six floors in total. Since I had an iron token, I could only go up to the second floor.
Silver tokens were allowed to the third floor, gold tokens to the fifth, and platinum tokens to the sixth.
"But... isn’t there another floor above that?"
I could understand the missing fourth floor, since this was China. In old apartment buildings back home, they’d sometimes label the fourth floor as F instead, too.
"Just pretend that place doesn’t exist. Think of it as a place that isn’t there."
The Thorny Immortal said that in place of the library manager, then fell silent as if she had no intention of speaking further.
When she put it like that, it only made me more curious. For some reason, it made me want to go there even more.
It was basically no different from saying, Please come here!
"Haha. The top floor is a place that only platinum token holders, and those with the Alliance Leader’s personal approval, may use temporarily."
Thankfully, the library manager cleared up my curiosity, and I nodded.
So there must be some special manuals up there. Maybe even demonic arts?
After hearing the full explanation, I finally entered the Murim Alliance’s library.
It was a fairly large hall.
As soon as I stepped inside, the first thing to greet me was the smell.
A heavy smell. The scent of paper that had soaked up the years.
Since books were weak to moisture, the inside of the library was extremely dry.
And through that dry air, the smell of old books created a feeling of reverence all on its own.
You could say it felt like the printed words themselves were pressing down on me.
I went up to the second floor, and the Thorny Immortal, Baek Jin-ah, and Dang Yeong-young followed me without going any higher.
"Hm? You can go farther up, can’t you?"
"Do I need those manuals?"
"I don’t need any separate manuals, and I’m not especially curious about them either."
"Any poison arts up there are already things my family has anyway."
The Thorny Immortal tossed the words out dismissively, and Baek Jin-ah said it with a soft smile, while Dang Yeong-young kept looking around but didn’t want to stray far from my side.
Honestly... I didn’t get it. Why did they all want to stay with me like that?
Were they really that interested in watching me learn martial arts?
Well, I guess that would be a little strange, in a way. It was kind of absurd.
With that thought, I stopped worrying about them and started looking in earnest for any worthwhile martial arts manuals.
---