Escape - 4
A perfect plan.
No matter how flawless a scheme you craft inside your head, the moment it collides with reality you realize it was never perfect at all.
I had drawn it up with such ambition. My theory had been airtight. And yet it failed. Confidence shatters, and the urge to just sink down under the weight of frustration hits hard.
But if you stay down, that is where it ends.
When you take a hit, you catch your breath, shake off the frustration, and get back up. You revise the plan you thought was perfect, shore up the weak spots, and push forward again.
Just like my brand-new Hwarin-ho.
"Man and horse as one! New Hwarin-ho! Let's gooooo!"
"What the hell are you even saying?!"
"Hahaha! Green hair spotted ahead! Fire the revolution beam, now!"
"What is that supposed to mean?!"
"Shoot the new throwing weapons I restocked for you!"
"Then just say that from the start!"
Dang Hwarin whipped the freshly restocked throwing weapons from her robes and unleashed them from horseback without missing a beat.
"Guaaah!"
"Keugh!"
Even from the back of a galloping horse her weapons punched clean through the vital points of the Green Forest officers. As expected of New Hwarin-ho's latest armament. A true revolution beam fully qualified to carry out the revolutionary task.
A fully reloaded mobile battery named Dang Hwarin. A pureblood three-guan warhorse with just a little more horsepower than my own legs. And the rider who had achieved perfect unity of man and mount—Kang Yunho.
Given enough time and budget, even a plan can be made that much more perfect.
I tore through the path Dang Hwarin was carving open with her revolution beams, weaving left and right without a second of hesitation.
Breaking through the battlefield under cover of the chaos took only an instant.
Riding the thoroughbred like mad, we left Heokho Fort behind and before we knew it we were on a quiet mountain path.
The night sky glittered with stars; only the chirping of insects filled the air. It was hard to believe that mere moments earlier we had been right in the middle of a noisy war zone.
Normally one would avoid night driving on mountain roads, but the Heokho Fort people had maintained their toll roads so well that simply following the path should get us out of here without trouble.
"Is this really okay?"
I was thinking that next time I should not settle for mere man-and-horse unity and should learn some flying-slash technique I could use from horseback, when Dang Hwarin spoke up from behind me.
"What, did you want to join the revolution and become a righteous bandit yourself?"
I had seen her enthusiastically tying on a red headscarf the moment I put one on.
"No, that's not it."
A faint note of discontent colored her voice. Don't tell me you actually started thinking about flipping the whole world because you were unhappy?
"The fort lord and his inner circle were so strong that if we'd stayed we would have taken heavy losses on both sides."
The fort lord's martial power alone was enough to hold every last man of Heokho Fort in thrall through sheer terror. We had stirred them up and given them courage, but the objective gap in skill still had to be acknowledged.
We had filled the shortage of fighting power with the marksmen, so the revolution would succeed—but if we had stuck around, both of us could have been badly hurt.
"It might have succeeded easily thanks to us."
"Even if the revolution succeeds, what happens when they ride that momentum and start shaking down corrupt officials? How do they clean up after themselves? Half of them will be dead or crippled and barely any will be left. The moment the government army shows up, they're wiped out."
Officials and the Murim do not interfere with each other—that is the unwritten rule of the jianghu. But the Murim touching the government is a completely different story.
Even rotten public authority is still public authority. Challenge it and a million imperial troops will come down on your head. Only a lunatic would still be hanging around for that.
"You're the one who started that revolution."
"Hey. I just gave a little push to the madness that was already there. I didn't start it. And thanks to it, we got out, didn't we?"
This woman was saying some dangerous things. I had only created chaos so we could escape. A guy who already got his whole clan wiped out for treason was not about to come all the way here and try for a second crown.
"If the Hwalbindang starts shaking down corrupt officials, won't you get caught too, Yunho?"
"How are they supposed to find some random black-haired guy named Kang Somebody?"
"The Hwalbindang people will remember."
"That's exactly why I appointed a new party leader before we left. That guy will lead the Hwalbindang. And if someone betrays him and the leadership keeps changing, they'll still remember Hong Gildong and the Hwalbindang, but they'll completely forget who the old party leader even was."
Honestly there was no need to worry about any of this.
For all their strength as Green Forest bandits, they were still just one mountain fort. The government army was not about to pour serious effort into wiping out a single fort of righteous thieves when they were not even a proper rebel army.
"...Is that how it is?"
Dang Hwarin accepted my words with a bitter little note in her voice. I glanced back; she had turned her head to look the way we had come.
Don't tell me that after listening to my speech she really thought something like, I'm going to burn down the entire world that made me miserable?
"Hwarin."
"Yeah?"
"You don't have to grab weapons and try to change the world just to be happy. As long as there's someone who will take your hand, a person can get back up and become happy again."
So let's not think scary thoughts. I changed her fate so she would not become the Poison Butterfly Dang Hwarin; I did not want to see Revolutionary Dang Hwarin either.
She turned. Her eyes met mine—I had been watching her with open worry. Had she really harbored that kind of resolve?
Surprise flickered across her face, then she gave a small nod and lowered her head as if embarrassed.
Maybe our hearts had connected. I faced forward again and urged the horse on.
"...I can't tell if you're amazing or just insane."
She muttered it under her breath, but there was fondness in her voice.
"Where else are you going to find someone as ordinary as me?"
I answered in the light tone of those light-novel protagonists who always introduce themselves as "just an ordinary high-school student."
"Heh. Bullshit."
As if she had finally let go of whatever lingering attachment she still felt, she laughed at the joke and wrapped her arms tightly around my waist.
This horse has no front airbags, but the rear airbags are definitely present and accounted for.
The ride quality was excellent; this was going to be a safe trip.
We laughed and argued over whether to name the horse Flying Dragon, Cao Cao, Golden Thread, or Stormbringer the whole way toward Yichang.
"Waaaaaaah!"
At Heokho Fort, where the revolution had just succeeded, Green Forest bandits wearing red headscarves roared to the heavens after changing the Mandate of Heaven.
In the center of the crowd stood a man who had been born with a red birthmark somewhere on his body; his father had carelessly named him Jeokrin—"Red Scale."
"The Party Leader has left us."
Jeokrin calmly announced the heavy truth to the throng.
"Why has the Party Leader left?!"
"Don't tell me he ran away?!"
"Th-the Party Leader is gone?!"
Still drunk on the joy of victory, the bandits all turned to him in shock.
"He left because he feared that if he stayed he would become a bourgeois head of the Hwalbindang, just like the dead fort lord. He abandoned the position, the power, and even the wealth and glory he could have claimed for himself."
At his words the red-scarved Green Forest men recalled how the Party Leader had said only the day before that the Hwalbindang needed no head.
"Then what do we do now?"
"If the Party Leader is gone, who will lead us?!"
"The Party Leader! Before he left, he wished that we would never lose the spirit and banner of this revolution, and that we would carry it through exactly as he taught! For that purpose! He commanded me—me, who has written down every word he ever spoke and engraved those words upon this red breast—to lead the Party! Therefore! With this book that records the Party Leader's words! I will lead you all!"
Jeokrin raised high the book in which he had recorded Kang Yunho's every utterance and showed it to the Hwalbindang members.
"Party Leader! What should we do now?"
One quick-witted bandit tried flattering the new leader.
"Silence! How dare you call me Party Leader while the true Party Leader still lives?!"
Jeokrin exploded in fury and scolded the man who had tried to suck up to him.
"Th-then what should we call you?"
"I! Am nothing more than a secretary who has written down every word of the Party Leader and acts according to those words! From this day forward, address me as General Secretary!"
Jeokrin hugged the book of Kang Yunho's words to his chest as if he meant to carve them into his very heart.
"General Secretary! What should we do from now on?"
"We will not immediately begin shaking down corrupt officials."
Jeokrin spoke in order to lay bare the plan burning inside his chest.
"We swore to become righteous bandits! How can we not shake down corrupt officials?!"
"You want us to keep being ordinary bandits?!"
"That wouldn't be a revolution!"
"If we start shaking down officials right now the government army will appear! They will crush Hong Gildong's spirit! They will crush the Party Leader's Hwalbindang! And! We have not yet carried out the final words the Party Leader left us!"
"W-what were the Party Leader's last words?"
"Did none of you hear them? Green Forest of the Central Plains, unite! Did you all fail to understand what that meant? It was the Party Leader's teaching that before we take down the great bourgeoisie we must first re-educate the small bourgeoisie!"
Jeokrin reminded the Hwalbindang of the offhand remark Kang Yunho had made at the very end.
"Small bourgeoisie? Heokho Fort has already become the Hwalbindang. Isn't that done?"
"There are still so many who think this way! That is why the Party Leader bestowed the office of General Secretary upon me! We are not yet one single Party! There are seventy-two Green Forest forts! We have only one Party and seventy-one forts remaining!"
Heokho Fort might have been one of the stronger forces among the Green Forest, yet it was still only one fort out of seventy-two.
"Unite every Green Forest fort of the Central Plains into a single Party?"
"Not seventy-two forts, but one Party?"
"Turning the entire Green Forest into the Hwalbindang is the Party Leader's dying wish?"
Every member of the Hwalbindang finally grasped the true meaning of the Party Leader's words and stared at the General Secretary in open astonishment.
"Before we take the great bourgeoisie, we will first re-educate the small bourgeoisie in the other seventy-one forts!"
"On the day the Green Forest becomes one Party! As a true single Party! The Hwalbindang will overturn this world!"
"Waaaaaah! General Secretary Su Jeokrin! Truly the one appointed by the Party Leader himself!"
"General Secretary Su Jeokrin will lead us!"
"Wait!!! From this day I am no longer Jeokrin of the Su clan—Su Jeokrin!"
Jeokrin raised a hand and cut off the cheers of the Hwalbindang.
"You are not Su Jeokrin? Don't tell me you intend to abandon your name?"
"That is correct! The Party Leader caressed my face and stripped away my red scales! He remade me into a man who truly exists for the single Party!"
"Remade you?"
Just as the vanished Party Leader had done, Jeokrin pressed a fist to his chest and opened his mouth so that every member of the Hwalbindang would hear his new name.
"From this day forward, address me as General Secretary Su Tallin."
A fully loaded magazine named Dang Hwarin. A thoroughbred warhorse. A reliable money pouch. And rear airbags for safety.
With everything in place we reached Yichang without a single worry.
"That big house over there is my maternal grandfather's."
In the distance stood an imposing mansion. Just looking at it made one feel that the owner inside would be the sort of man of honor who would cheerfully lend out a printing press the moment he heard his granddaughter needed help.
"You did well."
"...You too."
Dang Hwarin still clung tightly to me so she would not fall off the horse. I would have loved to keep enjoying the soft rear-airbag sensation against my back, but the journey was truly over.
With a mixture of pleasure and regret I brought the horse to a stop in front of the mansion.
"Fuck! This is mine!"
"I grabbed it first!"
"How the hell did you clean out the entire warehouse?!"
What now?
When we arrived the front gate was smashed and a crowd of people were fighting one another over the household goods.
"What is going on here?"
I asked a man who was standing at the gate, calmly reading documents and watching the chaos.
"Do you happen to know the owner of this mansion?"
I guided his gaze toward Dang Hwarin so he would understand she was a relative.
"Yes. He's my maternal grandfather."
Hwarin answered while casting an anxious glance into the mansion.
"Hey!!! Someone from this household has shown up!!!"
The man bellowed into the mansion.
"What? Really?"
"Who is it?"
"The granddaughter! That bitch's daughter!"
Everyone inside poured out at once and surrounded us on horseback in the blink of an eye.
We weren't even dealing with bandits—what the hell was this?
"What is the meaning of this?"
I demanded an explanation from the man who looked the most well-to-do, acting as spokesman for the situation.
"Name!"
The well-dressed man glared up at us irritably and demanded Dang Hwarin's name.
"Pardon?"
"What is your name?"
"Hwarin."
"Hwarin, Hwarin, Hwarin! Here it is! Dang Hwarin. Mother changed her surname to Seong Hwarin after marriage. Inheritance: the bookstore on the main street."
The man flipped through the ledger in his hands and confirmed that Dang Hwarin belonged to this household. Inheritance?
"Just what is going on here?!"
I shouted, face twisted with disbelief at the absurd situation. The man answered with a face just as fierce.
"The owner of this mansion died of illness two months ago! Then that daughter of his shows up, refuses to pay the debts, grabs the property, and runs off in the middle of the night! If you're the granddaughter—pay us our money!"