The Pro and the Motor-Mouth
Seol-hyang had repeatedly warned me not to stray from beneath the ginkgo tree, but my curiosity got the better of me.
That booming cry of "Unjust!" had simply been far too compelling to ignore.
Fortunately, the distance between the yabawi table and the ginkgo tree was short. Shuffling my feet, I crept forward and peeked at the gambling game. While a commotion around a shell game was hardly an uncommon sight, there was still nothing in this world quite as entertaining as watching a good fight.
May the best person win!
Or rather, may 'unjust' win... Wait, that doesn't sound right.
A thick crowd had already swarmed around the table. Using my tiny frame to my advantage, I wriggled through the forest of legs and poked my face out just in time for another thunderous reprimand to ring across the street.
"Outrageous! Unfair! This is unequivocally wrong!"
Wrong! So wrong!
His delivery was so stirring that it made you want to chant right along with him. Squeezing past the last few onlookers, I finally caught sight of the figure ready to wage an all-out strike against injustice.
"...Huh?"
Wait, he's just a kid...?
Standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, glaring daggers at the scammer, was a young master who looked ten years old at most. His voice had carried with such commanding volume that despite its boyish timbre, I never would have imagined him to be a child.
The boy wore a black scholar's cap adorned with delicate gold foil, paired with a fine silk robe and an embroidered vest. Even at a glance, he was unmistakable—the son of a wealthy, noble household.
"Have you no shame?! How dare you swindle a destitute old man who possesses next to nothing?"
Oho... An apostle of justice, are we?
"Return the money you so wrongfully extorted this instant!"
His presence was astonishing. Taking a closer look, the boy's eyes possessed an unmistakably bizarre intensity. In stark contrast to his fair, rather delicate features, his gaze was piercing and burned with an eerie brilliance. To put it kindly, his eyes were brightly luminous; to put it less kindly...
Yeah, that kid has a couple of screws loose.
Regardless, his tirade made the situation crystal clear. A pitiful, ragged old man sat slumped by the table with a hollow, devastated look on his face, clearly today's designated mark.
The shell game being run was simplicity itself: three small wooden cups and a single carved wooden token. Guess which cup hid the token and you won coin; guess wrong and your money vanished. This self-righteous young master had evidently decided to champion the poor old man after he squandered every last copper on consecutive losses.
"Turn the cups over right now! If there is a wooden token inside any of them, I will roast my hand in boiling oil!"
With boundless conviction, the boy threw down the gauntlet. The yabawi operator merely shrugged as though inconvenienced.
Confidence really is everything.
He was barely ten, yet by charging in with sheer bravado, he had this seasoned swindler looking utterly cornered. Soon, however, the scammer launched his counterattack.
"Listen here, young master. You weren't the one who lost any coin, so why cause such a ruckus? We won that money fair and square!"
"What? Fair? Unfair is what it is!"
"Just go on your way. This is no business for a precious noble boy to meddle in."
"What? Meddle? This isn't meddling, it is the sacred duty of a true gentleman!"
"If you keep obstructing our honest trade, we won't be able to hold back much longer..."
"If you can't hold back, go report it to the magistrates, then!"
Whoa!
The crowd burst into cheers, clapping at the boy's fearless tongue.
A bona fide motor-mouth.
The boy didn't give an inch. Glaring menacingly, the scammer pressed on.
"And if we lift the cup and the token is right there, what will you do then?"
"Such a thing is impossible, but if it is, I shall pay you ten times the wager!"
"Ten times? That's a whole nyang, you know!"
"One nyang or whatever it may be, I will not lose, so do not fret. But if I am right, you will return double what you took from that elder!"
"Eh? Double? We're merchants, young sir. That's a bit much..."
"Quit your yammering and open it!"
Not only was the boy brimming with bluster, but he had a fiery temper to match. When the swindler hesitated, seemingly cowed by his momentum, the boy lost his patience entirely.
"Fine, I'll do it myself!"
In one swift motion, he flipped the final cup.
And then...
Clatter!
...Out rolled a wooden token, settling neatly onto the felt.
Oh.
Little motor-mouth.
I think you're totally screwed.
The boy stood frozen in absolute disbelief.
"No... How could this be? This is impossible! By every law of mathematics and probability, this is an impossibility! How could someone lose over twenty times in a row without a single—"
"Aigoo, look who suddenly has a lot to say! What did I tell you? I'm an honest man!"
Grinning ear to ear, the scammer held out a greedy hand.
"Now then, pay up. One nyang!"
"..."
The young master stood struck dumb, blinking rapidly.
Yup. Unhinged. Definitely unhinged.
Just as the thought crossed my mind...
"Hehehehe!"
A bizarre chuckle slipped past his lips, stretching into an eerie giggle. What kind of reaction was that?
"What are you laughing for? A fine young master like you must easily have a nyang on him."
"Hehe. Well, you see..." The boy beamed, his cheerful grin looking utterly out of place. "I don't have any money."
...What a tragic twist.
"Excuse me?!"
Infuriated, the scammer jabbed a finger hard against the boy's shoulder.
"Ha! You really are something else, aren't you? Fine! I'll march straight to your house and collect the debt from your parents!"
"Hehe." The boy gave another bright, angelic beam. "Actually, I don't have a house, either."
"What kind of utter nonsense is—!"
...Should I step in, or shouldn't I?
Step in... or stay out of it...?
By that point, I was frantically glancing back toward the ginkgo tree. If Seol-hyang would just return right now, it would be far better to slip away and pretend I'd seen nothing. But there was still no sign of her.
Right then, a burly brute who looked like a mountain bandit pushed through the crowd, stepping menacingly toward the boy. Intimidated by the man's towering bulk, the young master instinctively edged backward.
"A real man's word is worth a thousand gold! A scholar who loves his fancy words ought to know that much, wouldn't you say?"
"...Well, of course I know that."
"Then if a man gives his word, he must keep it! If you haven't got the coin, strip off that fine silk coat of yours!"
"My clothes? Then what am I supposed to wear on my way home?!"
"Not our problem. Why, what're you gonna do? Claim you're not a man after all, but a little wench like that girl watching over there?"
...Excuse me?
'A little wench like that girl.'
The filthy insult had been accompanied by a thick finger pointing directly at me!
Did this son of a gun really just say that to my face?
Before I could process the insult, the brute roughly snatched the gold-foil cap right off the boy's head with callous, violent force.
Ha...
That tore it.
It seemed this swindler and his thuggish lackey were under the mistaken impression that this little noble was the only person around who couldn't stand things that were unfair, unjust, outrageous, and entirely wrong.
"Excuse me for a moment."
Wriggling through the sea of legs once more, I marched straight into the center of the ring.
Step aside, amateurs.
A pro has entered the field!
The scammer stared down at me in utter bewilderment, his face practically screaming: Where on earth did this little thing crawl out from?
To be fair, if a four-year-old waddled up to you with an expression of grim, solemn determination, anyone would find it absurd.
"Shoo, little girl. We don't let babies play. Run along home now, scat!"
Ugh, what a cliché line.
Still, I had anticipated this much.
"Mister."
"What?"
"You said you're an honest man, right?"
"...Yeah, so what?"
"What happens if you're not an honest man?"
"What? What do you mean, what happens?"
"Then you'll give back the money this grandpa lost... and that young master over there..."
I jutted my chin toward the boy, who was now in the miserable process of being stripped of his vest after losing his hat.
"You'll give him all his clothes back, too, right?"
"Hey, what kind of rubbish are you babbling?! Get lost! This is a game for grown-ups. We don't play with little girls like you."
First age discrimination, and now sexism? How charming. Too bad for him, I hadn't come here to play his silly game in the first place.
"Hey, mister."
"I said go away!"
"Just once. Stay right there for one second. Let me do this one thing, and I'll leave right after."
"Ha."
The scammer glared at me, flabbergasted.
There was no time to lose. I took tiny, rapid steps backward.
One step, two steps, three, four...
That should do it.
"Mister, hold still right there!"
"Hah, first an arrogant noble brat, and now a rat-sized girl. Today's business is completely ruined!"
While the scammer was busy grumbling, I swiftly whipped the slingshot from my waist and loaded the pebble I had stashed away earlier.
"What... What are you doing?"
Before he could even finish his sentence—twang!
The slingshot snapped, unleashing the stone.
And as expected...
Bullseye!
It struck the scammer's left wrist with pinpoint accuracy.
"Ow!"
We were close enough that the impact packed a real sting, causing him to instinctively jerk his left arm upward.
And in that very instant—
Clatter, roll!
Tumbling out from the folds of his rolled-up sleeve, two extra wooden tokens hit the ground and bounced across the stones.