Volume 3 Release - 1
Daseogak is a remarkably hard place for a big-time thief to rob. A thief is supposed to slip in light and slip out lighter, but books are bulky and heavy.
Of course, in the murim world a single secret manual or treasure map is enough to touch off incidents and bloodshed — but if Daseogak had ever stocked a book like that, the long-term loan secured against the building would have been settled ages ago. To steal books from Daseogak and turn a profit, you would have to haul them out by the boxload, and the mere thought of it is daunting.
Anyone who has ever accumulated a mountain of books will understand. Every moving season it is one box, then two, then three, an endless procession of book boxes — until one day you arrive at the value of owning nothing.
It is time I set you all free. The weight I have carried was never the weight of knowledge, nor the weight of joy — it was the weight of greed. Let me cast off these useless desires at last.
And so, without quite meaning to, I attained an enlightenment worthy of the Buddha himself.
"There's been a break-in — please pass word to the merchants' guild."
Being merely a bookstore, I had never worried much about major thieves, yet here they were, actual thieves. I hurried next door to inform the merchant in the neighboring building. I could have gone straight to the government office, but someone had to stand guard, so word through the merchants' guild was the better course.
"Thieves in Daseogak? Understood!"
Back inside Daseogak, I stood in the middle of the printing room, staring at a box whose lock had been smashed.
"So they really did take it."
The book that should have been inside was gone.
Unbelievable. All I had worried about was the Shadowless Divine Thief sneaking a preview — it never once occurred to me that a real thief might break in.
I looked over at the thief bound and unconscious beside me. Dropped by Lim Hayeon's footwork, he did not so much as stir no matter how I prodded him.
Should I wake the trussed-up bastard and interrogate him? If we failed to catch the ones who fled, this could turn into a real headache.
— BAM!
While I was still deliberating, the door of Daseogak burst open with a bang. Through it marched a woman with a man by the nape of the neck in each hand.
"I caught them all!"
It was Lim Hayeon — the enraged reader.
"Where did you people come from? I don't recognize a single face from Daseogak or this neighborhood."
To intimidate the three bound thieves, I lowered my voice into a growl.
"......"
"You think glaring at them will open their mouths? Step aside."
Lim Hayeon pushed in front of me, her face dark with fury.
"Do you happen to know the art of interrogation?"
"The martial arts I have mastered include methods for drawing information out of a man, you see."
"Then by all means."
So the thief's craft included ways of prying secrets out of a man's head? Either way, I was about to witness a rare spectacle indeed: a thief interrogating thieves.
I nodded and stepped aside.
"You thieving dogs! How did you find out that Volume 3 was being printed? Tell me everything you know, this instant!"
"GYAAAAAAAH!"
Ooh. Pressing their qi points to inflict pain and pressure them into talking. A proper murim-style interrogation, all right.
Among the famous methods is one known as splitting the sinews and dislocating the bones — said to go as far as snapping joints and wrenching them from their sockets, a truly vicious art. By comparison, Lim Hayeon's approach of prodding the qi meridians seemed almost gentle.
"Miss Hayeon. Start with questions that are easy to answer — yes or no. That is how you make an interrogation go smoothly."
Her technique looked beyond reproach, so I offered a tip from the polished world of modern interrogation.
"Good thinking."
Lim Hayeon nodded at my words and turned to the thieves.
"Uuugh..."
Yes. No. Begin with short answers, then move on to simple questions — hometown, name — crumbling the wall around a man's heart piece by piece. The refined art of interrogation.
And what question would Lim Hayeon ask?
"Speak up! Does Lady Du Eung-hyang appear in Volume 3 of Dangga Pungun?"
...What?
"Don't tell me the story heartlessly moved on to the next volume without giving Lady Du Eung-hyang, the lawful wife, so much as a single line?"
Poking at the thieves' meridians, Lim Hayeon pressed her case in a tone of desperate earnestness.
"Uuugh!"
"Don't tell me only Gu Sook-jeong gets a mention! That I absolutely cannot accept! If that concubine appears, then Lady Du Eung-hyang deserves to be mentioned twice, three times over!"
"Mmmph!"
"Yes! No! You can't even manage an answer? I'm disappointed. Oh, I see how it is! You're trying to hog the contents of Volume 3 all to yourself! Men with no sense of a thief's honor need the rod — it's medicine! Manager! Go fetch me a good sturdy club!"
"Miss Hayeon."
"Don't tell me you're such a paragon of virtue that you believe even thieves shouldn't feel the rod?"
"No, that's not it—"
"Then what?!"
"You have to take the gags out of their mouths before they can talk, you know."
"Ah..."
Red-faced, Lim Hayeon awkwardly removed the gags from the thieves' mouths.
"Sniff... I never even got to read the book. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for stealing it."
"We only did as we were told! Please, spare us!"
As if their "interrogation savings" had only just matured, the thieves began to confess.
"Who put you up to this?"
"Well, you see..."
"Hey! Keep your mouths shut!"
The oldest-looking of the three bellowed at his terrified companions. So you're the leader, then.
"Tell it straight. Otherwise you'll be dragged to the magistrate's office, and no one escapes the rod there. Push your luck far enough and you may never walk again."
I bore down on them with my most fearsome voice.
"Boss!"
"Shut it! Once we're outside, a little money changes hands and we walk free!"
Talking about bribes, are we? So there really was someone behind this.
"These bastards! Manager, step aside!"
Lim Hayeon surged forward again, her fury not yet spent. I gave way — this much was enough.
"So you refuse to confess the truth?"
I asked the one who appeared to be the leader.
"Did we steal gold and jewels? No! We pinched a single book! If it were a martial manual or a treasure map, perhaps — but you really think we're facing some grave punishment?"
"Hahaha. You truly believe that?"
"Has this black-haired barbarian bastard lost his mind? Got nothing to say, so he just repeats the question."
I met the thief's brazen stare with a sneer.
Right. Someone outside would grease the officials' palms. And since Dangga Pungun was just a book, they were confident they would be written off as petty offenders and walk free without punishment.
On top of that, I was a black-haired barbarian.
Once, long ago, I went to a government office to report a theft, only to take a slap and a boot out the door — what business did a barbarian have setting foot in a government office?
Anywhere else, that would have been fair enough.
But here's the thing. This was Daseogak of Yichang.
"Is it true that thieves broke into Daseogak?!"
The door of Daseogak swung open and people came pouring in, bristling with energy.
"Head Constable! And the merchants' guild members, too!"
Through the door came the Head Constable, the official in charge of public order, his constables at his heels, and the merchants of the guild besides.
"The Head Constable happened to be leaving work, so I grabbed him and we ran straight here."
"Why on earth is the Head Constable of Yichang here?"
The thieves could only gape at him, eyes round, mouths hanging open.
Why was the Head Constable here? Why indeed.
"My official duties have kept me so buried I haven't set foot in Daseogak in an age. Have you been keeping well?"
"While I was in Sichuan, the whole Tea Book Club missed your hearty laughter, Head Constable. To meet you again over a matter that reddens my face — I could not be sorrier."
For the Head Constable of Yichang was a member of the Tea Book Club.
"You fool! What is there to be ashamed of! It's these damned sons of bitches who should hang their heads! Are these the thieves?"
"Th-the Head Constable... knows the barbarian bastard?"
"Because of these men, Dangga Pungun Volume 3 came within a hair of never seeing the light of day."
I sighed like a man who had nearly lost everything and poured out my grievances to the Head Constable.
"What! Dangga Pungun — because of those bastards?"
"They say there is a mastermind behind it all, but not one of them will open his mouth. I am dreadfully afraid another thief will break in before Volume 3 can even be published."
"Worry no more! I'll see to it these men never steal again — and I'll run the mastermind to ground, down to his in-laws and his fourth cousins!"
"Please — punish one to warn a hundred."
"Good heavens. It can't be."
"You told us it would be fine — it's only a bookstore run by a black-haired barbarian!"
With their last hope snuffed out, the thieves' faces crumpled beyond recognition.
"S-spare us! We only did as we were told! That man is the mastermind!"
And who might that be?
At last, the thieves began to give up their mastermind.
"I have already dispatched constables and runners after him. Run your business with an easy mind!"
The culprit turned out to be a merchant visiting from another city. He had apparently chanced to overhear what I said while making my rounds to the bookstores today about the printing problem, judged there was money in it, and set the whole scheme in motion.
"My thanks for your trouble."
After seeing off the Head Constable and the guild members, I turned to Lim Hayeon, who looked a touch deflated.
"You as well, Manager Kang."
"I thought I had been thorough with security. To think someone would have the audacity to break right in."
I muttered in disbelief, looking toward the shattered window.
"From the outside, that window must have looked loose. It probably seemed easy enough to open, too. Of course, it was a trap — the moment anyone came through, a mechanism would sound a loud alarm and even loose hidden darts."
Lim Hayeon gazed at the broken window as she spoke, for all the world like the proprietor of a security firm.
"So the problem was that it looked loose."
A few months away, and I had evidently failed to attend to some detail or other.
"Exactly. To greenhorns, appearances are everything. Daseogak's security is not nearly as lax as it looks, you know. You would have to use the Ascension technique to carefully open the third window on the second floor — and even then, you would only just barely slip in unnoticed."
"Miss Hayeon?"
How do you know that so well?
At my puzzled tone, Lim Hayeon seemed to realize her slip of the tongue; she averted her gaze, flustered.
"Ah... that. I-I only came in to fetch dinner. I hadn't the slightest thought of entering the printing room..."
"Aren't you hungry?"
"Pardon?"
I smiled as if nothing were amiss at Lim Hayeon, who was floundering in embarrassment.
After all, I knew perfectly well that nothing stops the Shadowless Divine Thief once she sets her mind on getting in.
If anything, I wanted to praise her. She had both the skill to steal it and the longing to see the next volume, and still she had held back so admirably.
And thanks to her coming back for a meal, we had rounded up every last thief in a single sweep.
"Ah, that is..."
As if her empty stomach had only just now made itself known, Lim Hayeon clutched her belly and looked away in embarrassment.
A perfect opportunity, really.
Time to sound out the management position.
Credit for catching the thieves. Her devotion to Dangga Pungun. And self-restraint of this caliber — more than enough to justify floating the idea casually.
"Shall we head out together?"
First, I would buy her a fine dinner and test the waters.