The Contract - 1
"Contract dating? Wh-what's that supposed to be?"
I gazed at the woman tilting her head with a thoroughly bewildered expression.
The youngest daughter of the head of the Jegal Clan. Jegal Hyang.
Unlike her beauty, which carried an air of quiet elegance so long as she held her tongue, her expressions and reactions fell apart into something delightful the longer you spoke with her. But she was not a character from the martial arts visual novel I remembered.
So the method I had settled on was contract dating.
Had she been a heroine of the original story, I would have strained every nerve to forge a bond with her—but she was different. We could simply begin a contract dating arrangement on the basis of mutual interest, and end it just as neatly.
Of course, there was a chance she belonged to the opposite route I had never fully cleared, but if I started accounting for every possibility like that, the variables would balloon and the whole plan would collapse under its own weight.
First, an explanation was in order.
"Your being here right now, Miss, is ultimately nothing more than stalling for time. Whether you return to the Mangeum Lord or home to the Jegal Clan, the marriage meetings will not change."
First, let me make her face her situation once more.
"I suppose that's truuue. I know."
Jegal Hyang bowed her head low and heaved a dejected sigh.
Groundwork laid. Time to cast the line.
"But there is a way for you to never again suffer through a marriage meeting, nor run away."
"Is that what this contract dating is?"
"Yes. Privately, we would not be dating at all—but publicly, it would look as though we were. A kind of disguise, you might say. And when the appointed time comes, we simply part ways with a reason."
With my own problems already piled to the rafters, I had no time to rack my brains over a new woman's troubles.
It was a good option for me as well.
"A disguise..."
"For as long as the contract dating lasts, you need never attend another marriage meeting. And since we won't truly be courting, you needn't suffer any heartache over our relationship either."
"Th-then, M-Mis-Mr. Kang..."
Why did she glance at me once and then repeat herself like a broken machine? Don't tell me she'd short-circuited because she couldn't decide what to call me.
"Call me whatever is comfortable. Young Master Kang, Manager Kang, Kang Yunho—any of them is fine."
"Then! I'll call you Young Master Kang. Would that be all right with you, Young Master Kang?"
Like a machine repaired by a professional's hand, she had at last managed to get her words playing again.
"I was dragged out to this marriage meeting against my own will, just as you were."
"Against your will?"
"Your maternal grandfather seized Daseogak and ordered me to attend a marriage meeting with you, Miss Jegal Hyang, saying he would return it if I passed the test he set."
I knew this sort of passive temperament well.
People like her find even one-sided kindness burdensome, as though they've inflicted something on the other person. In moments like this, the right move was: we're the same kind, you and I. I don't want to attend marriage meetings either. Honesty was best here.
"I-I'm s-s-s-s-sorry, it's all because of me!"
That wasn't it either.
Jegal Hyang bowed her head over and over, apologizing.
"Daseogak wasn't taken because of you, Miss. It's only that I, who have no thought of marriage yet, have my own reason for a contract dating arrangement—just as you do."
"Contract dating, contract dating..."
Jegal Hyang, evidently not displeased with the proposal, kept stealing glances at me as she murmured.
It's a good offer—why the hesitation?
Then I have a way to fix that too.
"I understand. Being a lowly barbarian, I'm hardly a desirable match."
In moments like this, one must act wounded if she won't agree to the contract dating. Make her feel guilty all over again.
"I-I don't think that at allllll!"
"Even if it's an empty kindness, I thank you. But to resolve your problem and mine, there is only one way."
"I really don't think thaaat... Huh?"
Stressing each word, one step at a time. I deliberately advanced on Jegal Hyang.
The moment she sensed me closing in, Jegal Hyang began backing away, matching me step for step.
"If you accept my proposal, the impersonation affair and the Dangga Pungun affair can both be settled. And besides—you would like to fall in love with someone you actually love, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you want to marry a man who will cherish you for the rest of your life? Not some match chosen on your behalf by strangers."
It didn't matter that she retreated. Like a hunter patiently driving wary prey. One step, one step, closer.
"Eek! Y-you're, you're too clos—"
Because I could corner her against the wall.
"Miss Jegal Hyang."
I brought one hand to rest against the wall, sealing off her line of retreat. I appeared to have assumed the classic kabedon posture, but no matter.
"Y-yes!"
Jegal Hyang answered with a face frozen stiff.
"Will you enter into a contract dating arrangement with me?"
Expression and voice, gentle. Posture pressing her in, just intimidating enough.
I had arranged the reason and the mood perfectly. Now, let's get her yes and be on our way.
"U-ah, uh! No, I, um... W-wait just a moment pleeeeeease!"
Are you kidding me! She's escaping from THIS situation?
Jegal Hyang abruptly dropped into a crouch, curled her whole body up, and rolled away like a pill bug, vanishing behind a pillar some distance off.
What I had just witnessed—wasn't that the forbidden technique of the martial world, the Lazy Donkey Roll?
— What a shameless creature! If you mean to die, then die! Where on earth did you learn to grovel and roll in the dirt like a shameless, lazy donkey?
— That one has no right to call himself a martial artist at all! He's turned his back on the Murim—a deserter, that's what to call him.
It's a technique that's hardly ever used, you know.
Jegal Hyang was a woman of the martial world too—so did her passive nature make her unpredictable in an entirely different sense?
"Miss? If I was discourteous just now, I apologize."
I offered a courteous apology to Jegal Hyang, who was peeking out from behind the pillar, catching her breath.
"Th-that's not it. I-I'll do it."
"Pardon?"
"I-I'll do the contract datingggg."
"Now then, let us go to the Mangeum Lord."
The moment the breathing of the flushed Jegal Hyang steadied, I urged us to be off.
"Um, w-well. I haven't finished carving the wooden dolls yet..."
She cast a brief glance at the pieces of wood lying in a corner of the room, then spoke with a troubled look.
The wooden dolls—don't tell me they were handmade?
"You may simply say you are going to your maternal grandfather's house, as one ordinarily would."
What possible need was there for wooden dolls to leave her aunt's house?
I left the room together with the hesitant Jegal Hyang.
"Miss, where might you be going?"
The moment she stepped out, a warrior blocked the path directly ahead.
"T-to my maternal grandfather's house."
"You must have your aunt's or Young Master Heo Song's permission before going out."
"Ah... Um. Well..."
Don't tell me she's bad at handling a flat refusal too.
The warrior gave Jegal Hyang a smile that said that's just like you, then slowly extended a hand toward her.
"Your aunt is occupied with the household's affairs, and Young Master Heo Song is away. Kindly return to your room. Hmm?"
However she'd been persuaded, she couldn't give up now.
I seized the wrist of the warrior reaching for Jegal Hyang.
"A granddaughter requires permission even to visit her own maternal grandfather's house nearby?"
I asked the warrior as if the very notion were absurd.
"You there! Who are you?"
So leaving quietly had been too much to hope for, after all. Then there was nothing for it.
I slowly brought my hand to the straw hat that hid my hair. Who might I be? The gazes drawn by the warrior's raised voice swung toward me.
"I am called Kang Yunho, of Daseogak."
Feeling the eyes upon me, I swept off my straw hat and introduced myself with a face brimming with confidence, like a lone warrior charging a great sect armed with a single blade.
"An intruder?! It's an intruder!"
The mansion erupted into chaos in an instant.
"Someone fetch the madam!"
"Hyangi says she's leaving? And where has my son gotten to?"
"No one has seen him since he went out to the tavern yesterday!"
"Drunk himself senseless at some tavern and collapsed somewhere, no doubt! Hyangi! What is the meaning of this!"
Jegal Hyang's aunt—the middle-aged woman, daughter of the Mangeum Lord—arrived before us wearing a face twisted with irritation.
"How do you do, I—"
"Where did I ever grant leave for a lowly barbarian to open his mouth?"
The middle-aged woman bared her teeth and raked me with a contemptuous stare.
Like mother, like son.
"A-Auntie, that's, I..."
Jegal Hyang tried to step forward in her fluster, but if she could step forward that easily, none of today's trouble would have happened in the first place.
She had heard who I was, and still this attitude. It smelled like an attempt to shut me out and manufacture a one-on-one situation with Jegal Hyang.
That much, I couldn't allow.
"That lowly barbarian is Miss Jegal Hyang's marriage prospect."
With an air of perfect composure, I eased Jegal Hyang behind me and planted myself before Heo Song's mother.
"What?! Is that true?"
Heo Song's mother rounded on Jegal Hyang, face stricken, as if demanding confirmation.
"Yesss. My maternal grandfather ordered me to."
Jegal Hyang, hidden behind my back with only her head poking out, spoke up.
"Has my father lost his wits? Introducing a black-haired barbarian as a husband prospect for his own granddaughter?"
"If you've understood, then I'll be on my way. Kindly step aside."
"No."
The moment I took a step forward, Heo Song's mother barred our way.
"I fail to see why you cannot be allowed to leave. And trailing your entire security force behind you, no less."
"..."
"Are you afraid of being called to account, should it come to light that you passed off the innocent Miss Jegal as the author Hopil?"
"I don't know what this insolent barbarian whelp thinks he's saying!!!"
Ma'am. You're throwing a tantrum to dodge the blame, but I can see right through you.
"Miss Jegal. Observe that flustered reaction of hers. I am not wrong, am I?"
"Ah, yes!"
With Jegal Hyang's nod confirmed, I turned my gaze on the aunt, who stood on the verge of detonation.
"It is finished. If you do not wish for matters to grow any more complicated, step aside at once."
"Hyangi! Auntie will persuade your grandfather so you need never attend another marriage meeting! You'll stay within the house for the time being!"
That one was a little too good.
Unable to hide my flash of alarm, I turned my head toward Jegal Hyang.
Jegal Hyang studied my face carefully for a moment—then squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth.
"Ah... Um, well... I'm going to attend the marriage meetingggg."
"Eeek! Stop that barbarian!"
So it came to force after all. I could see warriors moving toward their weapons. Swiftly, I set the Soyun Mind Image Art in motion and raised my voice.
"How dare you lay hands on your blades!!!"
I could not let them wrest Jegal Hyang away. I pressed her back against the wall behind me to shield her, then checked their every movement with a voice that rang through the whole mansion.
"Think carefully! If you draw steel now! You will be drawing it upon the man the Mangeum Lord has received as his granddaughter's husband prospect! You will be drawing it to cage the youngest daughter of the head of the Jegal Clan!"
Could any of you live with that?
"She was no ordinary daughter of the Jegals, but the clan head's youngest?"
"Th-that's so."
"Do nothing rash!"
No—you very much should.
I had no intention of letting the captain of the guard talk the situation back down. Time to hurl oil on the fire, and quickly.
"Nothing changes whether I walk out or not. No—it becomes far graver. If I do not come out, I have already given instruction to send men to both the Jegal Clan and the Mangeum Hall."
"What?!"
"The Jegal Clan, foremost under heaven, and the Mangeum Hall of Wuhan. You may have been following your mistress's orders—but once this becomes known, while blood kin might be spared, those involved will not escape being called to account."
Did they imagine the Jegal Clan would spare the men who drew blades on the clan head's youngest daughter? The madam was family—these men were not. Could they bear it?
I curled one corner of my mouth upward at the man who had just tried to calm things down.
"What are you all doing!"
The warriors, having grasped the situation, did not so much as twitch at the madam's shrieking.
"Loyalty is not blind obedience—it is following righteous commands. Step aside now, and you save your madam and you save yourselves. Think carefully."
Let us pass here, and this stays a small incident; bar the way, and it will not end with one or two corpses. I packed bone into every word as I warned the men around me.
A silence steeped in the fear that one wrong move could bring catastrophe settled over the mansion.
When the brief silence had run its course, the man who appeared to be their captain opened his mouth.
"...We could hold our tongues about what has happened here?"
In the end, a declaration of surrender came tumbling out.
"You! What did you just say?!"
This madam still hadn't grasped her position.
"The moment I walk out that gate, the memory seems likely to fly out of my head along with me."
"...Step aside."
The mansion I had entered disguised as a deliveryman.
With Jegal Hyang clinging carefully to my sleeve, I slipped out of the mansion without further incident.
"Honestly. I told you to take me with you."
In the empty office, stripped of Kang Yunho's presence, Lim Hayeon could not hold herself still for so much as a moment, wearing a groove into the floor.
Nothing will go wrong. If trouble broke out inside that mansion and word of a pink-haired mistress of lightness arts spread through Wuhan, that would be a disaster. Even if you're late, that's fine—just bring it to the Mangeum Hall.
No matter how many times Lim Hayeon recited Kang Yunho's parting words to herself, the image of his back as he walked off alone kept surfacing, and with it a dread she could not shake.
Please be safe.
Lim Hayeon opened the window and looked out toward the mansion. She wanted to hurl herself through it that very instant. It was around the time she was thinking this that she saw it—a familiar crown of a head, pushing open the door of the salon below.
"I'm ho— Whoa!"
Lim Hayeon kicked off from the office, dropped from the third floor in a single heartbeat, and landed before Kang Yunho.
"Are you all right? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Heedless of every eye around them, Lim Hayeon ran her hands over his arms and legs, worry written across her face.
Even if someone cracked a joke about Sister-in-law being unusually zealous today, Lim Hayeon—unlike her usual self—didn't even think to deny it, so intent was she on checking Kang Yunho over.
"I'm in one piece, as far as you can see."
"Haaah. Thank goodness. How did the errand go?"
Lim Hayeon's already generous chest swelled high with a sigh of relief, then subsided.
"I rescued Miss Jegal Hyang, who was being held there. I escorted her as far as the gates of the Mangeum Lord's estate. I've also briefed Jeon Gilsan."
"Then the Dangga Pungun affair is settled now?"
"It will be, once I do one more thing."
"One more thing?"
"Well, about that... Haha."
Why was he avoiding her eyes? At the sight of Kang Yunho's awkward face, Lim Hayeon felt—she couldn't have said why—a strange, instinctive sense of impending doom.
"What is it? Out with it."
"It seems I'm to attend a marriage meeting with Miss Jegal Hyang after all."