Chapter 37. Ogu's Survival Tale
"Thanks."
Hwa Yeo-wol bowed her head slightly and tried to pull her hand away, but Won Seung tugged it firmly instead.
She stumbled forward as a result.
Her pale forehead caught the moonlight, drawing his eye. The shadow of her lowered lashes fell dark beneath it.
Without thinking, Won Seung leaned in and brushed his lips lightly against her forehead.
Hwa Yeo-wol's eyes widened round.
Her big, startled gaze fixed straight ahead... but she took in everything.
The guards lurking in the shadows of the alley... the warrior peeking through the open door before hastily turning away... even the sight of herself and Won Seung standing under the moonlight....
It felt like the world had frozen still.
The moment Won Seung pulled back, Hwa Yeo-wol's legs nearly gave out. When he reached to steady her, she waved him off.
"I-I'm going in."
Hwa Yeo-wol bolted through the door.
Won Seung stood there blankly for a moment, staring at the door where she'd vanished.
Creak.
Only when it shut with a groan did he snap out of it.
It was an impulse even he hadn't expected from himself.
He lingered under the bright moonlight, then tilted his head back to gaze at the sky.
A full moon hung there.
'They say the moon makes fools of us...'
Won Seung blamed the damn moon. But he knew it wasn't at fault.
I'm the one enchanted.
Won Seung had grown up alongside girls in dirt-caked training garb, teetering on the edge of life and death. Women had never held much interest for him.
But Hwa Yeo-wol, Yang Yeon-seo, So Sansan—they were different from the trainees. With their fair skin, delicate white hands, fine clothes, vibrant makeup, and that dizzying fragrance... well, it wasn't just the moonlight bewitching him.
A sixteen-year-old's hot blood wasn't something inner energy could tame.
Won Seung smacked his own forehead.
'Friends, my ass... Won Seung, you're a real bastard.'
He trudged back through the night streets to Baekhwa Pavilion.
The front door was shut, so he circled around to the alley side entrance.
Jong Bi, feeding porridge to the skeletal Ogu propped in a chair, shot him a fierce glare.
"Why're you so late?"
She'd done the cooking, but he'd taken all the credit—so her tone was naturally sharp.
And now he'd dumped a dying man on her to save.
'I'm an assassin! Not some healer!'
Ignoring Jong Bi's sullen stare, Won Seung approached Ogu.
Could a person really wither like this? The once-vibrant Ogu had become a walking skeleton.
His abdomen was wrapped tight in white cloth.
Won Seung had suspected as much, but not to this degree.
He drew near Ogu, who was laboriously slurping the porridge Jong Bi fed him.
"Eat slow and build your strength. Then we talk."
At Won Seung's gentle words, Ogu burst into tears.
Locked in Gwancheonbang's prison, Ogu felt utterly wronged.
'What did I even do wrong...?'
They hadn't fed him, so he'd starved. Clutching his empty gut, he cursed Gu Ja-ang.
He'd endured that hellish agony without spilling a single secret... and this was his reward? Resentment sprouted wildly in his heart.
After more than ten days without food, a guard came and said,
"Stubborn bastard. Gonna hold out to the bitter end? Gu the Strategist says no more water now, either. You'll die like this. Come clean and beg forgiveness."
Ogu was speechless, dumbfounded.
He'd pleaded that he hadn't betrayed them, but they wouldn't listen... What more was there to say?
When Ogu held firm, the guards cut off water too, claiming Gu Ja-ang's orders. A person could survive a month without food, but without water? Two or three days at most.
Ogu's grudge sank into his bones.
'Even as a ghost, I'll have my revenge.'
Yet he didn't die, even after five days without a drop.
"Ugh..."
Tormented by hunger and thirst, Ogu couldn't fathom why he was still alive.
On the sixth day, a sudden realization hit.
'That medicine!'
The liquid and pill Won Seung had forced on him!
That had to be it!
He wasn't some immortal herb eater... Nothing else explained it.
For some reason, despite not eating or drinking, he wasn't dying—thanks to Won Seung's medicine. Hope flickered in Ogu's chest.
'If I play dead and get out...'
Maybe he'll save me?
Clinging to this strange hope amid his suffering, Ogu racked his brains.
His survival was a miracle. Even the guards found it odd.
So if he just played dead "naturally"... wouldn't they dump him in the river?
Gwancheonbang's base hugged the Sang River. Bodies needing discreet disposal went into the river as fish food.
Ogu knew the drill—he'd done it a few times himself.
'When I "die," that's how they'll handle me. Then... I just survive the river.'
Resolved to escape, Ogu lay collapsed, holding his breath.
If only he'd learned some breath-holding technique like Turtle Shell Method... But Ogu had no such advanced arts.
He breathed as faintly as possible, feigning death.
The guard reported it to the warden, who inspected Ogu in the cell.
Not quite dead, but his breathing was so faint—death was imminent.
"Hmph. Might as well be dead. Better to end it than drag on like this."
The warden was tired of daily reports to Gu Ja-ang. Mercy-killing Ogu seemed kinder.
He drew a dagger and plunged it into Ogu's gut.
Ogu twitched at the searing pain but stifled any cry, going limp instead.
"Dead for sure. Tough son of a bitch... No water for seven days, and now this. Dump him in the Sang River."
He ordered his men, then went to report to Gu Ja-ang.
As expected, Ogu was tossed into the Sang River.
Splash!
The icy water shocked his dazed mind awake. Gulping river water restored a bit of his strength.
Drifting downstream, once clear of Gwancheonbang territory, Ogu thrashed to shore.
'If I just find him... he'll save me.'
Clutching this bizarre faith in Won Seung, Ogu sought out Unhwa House.
But the errand boy said Won Seung had already left. Ogu's emaciated body crumpled; he collapsed right there. The boy scowled.
"You filthy beggar! Get lost!"
He kicked Ogu, but there was no strength left to protest. Near a month starved, plus the warden's stab wound—he could barely stand.
Yet he couldn't linger at Unhwa House, Sangyang's top inn and gambling den. Gwancheonbang eyes might spot him.
Grinding his teeth, Ogu staggered down the street—and spotted Hwa Yeo-wol passing by.
'That woman...?'
The Cheongsu Gate girl who'd come looking for Won Seung at Unhwa House.
Hoping against hope, Ogu trailed her. He saw her meet Yang Yeon-seo and So Sansan, then enter Baekhwa Pavilion.
Ogu circled the alley, scaled the wall—but his strength failed, and he fell flat on his ass.
He scrambled to hide, but Jong Bi, the assassin, heard and came flying—catching him red-handed.
Won Seung sighed after hearing Ogu's long tale.
"That's brutal. Starving a loyal subordinate to death? If I hadn't given you that Vitality Preservation Pill, you'd be gone already."
"Pardon? Vitality Preservation Pill?"
"You got beat up by my servant that day. Figured you took internal injuries, so I fed you one. Lets you go a month without food."
"Ah! So that wasn't poison? That's... that's what kept me alive!"
"You think I'd just poison someone willy-nilly? I'm not like that."
Won Seung pulled a pill from his sleeve and handed it over.
"This'll restore your depleted energy quick."
Ogu was overcome—his hunch had been right.
This guy's decent... not like Gu Ja-ang....
Truth be told, Ogu had brought some of this on himself. He didn't know he'd ranted about Gu Ja-ang in front of Won Seung.
In his agony, words had spilled out unchecked.
-Little shit. Vile bastard. Cold-blooded monster without a drop of pity....
From those few curses, Won Seung had gauged Gu Ja-ang's character—especially his paranoia.
So he'd treated Ogu's bruises and swelling with "pain-relief salve(?)" and sent him back.
The Vitality Preservation Pill? Insurance for enduring torture.
As Won Seung predicted, Gu Ja-ang grew suspicious of Ogu's unscathed return and threw him in prison.
"If I'd known you were under suspicion, I'd have gone explain and sprung you from that dungeon. You wouldn't be skin and bones now."
Won Seung felt a twinge of guilt.
He'd planned to recruit Ogu once word came he'd been discarded by Peng. But opening Baekhwa Pavilion had kept him too busy—he'd forgotten.
Unaware, Ogu seethed, cursing Gu Ja-ang and vowing revenge.
"No, no. Gu Ja-ang's the villain here. I'll have my revenge for sure."
He slid from the chair, knelt, and choked up.
"Sniff... I'll serve you faithfully. I'll tell you all about Gwancheonbang and Gu Ja-ang's schemes."
"What good's that info to me? Just eat first. Gotta build strength."
Won Seung kindly helped him back to the chair.
"Sniff!"
Ogu's tears flowed anew.
Jong Bi shivered down her spine, eyeing Won Seung.
Releasing Ogu like this—planting seeds of distrust and betrayal. Had he known Ogu would suffer this much and let him go anyway? If so...
He's a devil.
Yang Yeon-seo showed up the next day with her brother Yang Dae-hyeon. On the way, they'd run into Jong Wonbo and a scholar named Mun Yeok-su, who joined them.
"Never knew this place existed."
Yang Dae-hyeon scanned the interior as he entered. Not much space, but with just ten scrolls and two tables, it didn't feel cramped.
Jong Wonbo looked around with haughty airs.
"If even I didn't know, it must've opened recently. Ah! That one?"
Strutting about, he suddenly startled and approached Anmoksaeng's painting.
"Oh! A copy, but it holds up to the original. Pretty decent, actually?"
Yang Dae-hyeon smiled mildly at Jong Wonbo's show of knowledge.
"You've seen Anmoksaeng's Thousand-Day Waterfall?"
"I have. The Grand Academician Jong in the capital showed it to me once."
Won Seung, emerging from the back room into the shop, overheard. He realized who this boastful Jong Taegaksa was.
'That little punk's grandpa must've become Grand Academician.'
The Hanrim Academy scholar from Won Seung's childhood visits with his father—that was him. He'd bragged endlessly while showing off Anmoksaeng's Thousand-Day Waterfall....
Won Seung entered laughing heartily.
"Hahaha! Didn't know Brother Jong had such an eye for art. Spot on—that's Anmoksaeng's Thousand-Day Waterfall."
"Huh? You?"
Jong Wonbo scowled at Won Seung.