The Courtesan Gate - 6
"Become the Shadowless Divine Thief? What are you talking about?"
"Miss Hayeon herself would become the Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate."
It was the third option the Gi-mun Hyangju had proposed — making Lim Hayeon the leader of all thieves, the Xiangzhu of the Domun.
"You want me to become the Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate?"
"The moment Miss Hayeon becomes the Xiangzhu, the Domun can no longer claim ownership over her. A Xiangzhu is one of the five heads of the Hubei Haomen. All are equals — no one can own another."
The Domun's entire justification rested on their claim to ownership of Lim Hayeon's miracle. But if she became a Xiangzhu, that justification would simply evaporate.
I explained to her that on top of that, she'd be gaining the Thieves' Gate itself as a powerful backing.
"I understand the reasoning, but is becoming the Domun's Xiangzhu really so simple?"
A fair point.
She was being asked to claim one of only five seats at the top of the Hubei Haomen, out of nowhere. It was a position people spent decades earning — proving themselves in one post year after year, surviving factional power struggles just to claw their way up. Not something you'd casually tell someone to try for.
Except for the Thieves' Gate, that is.
"Well, that's because..."
"Nowhere else would it be possible. But the Thieves' Gate? That one's doable."
"Simun Xiangzhu! You weren't at your post, so I've been looking everywhere for you."
Just as I was about to continue explaining to Lim Hayeon, the Simun Xiangzhu came over, his face wiped clean of worry.
"Nothing wrong with this place except the latrines are too damn far away. Anyway, normally the rule is whoever's the most famous thief says they want the job and it's theirs. So if the Shadowless Divine Thief shows up saying she wants to be Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate, she can have it."
"Aren't there other famous thieves, though? I don't see how I could surpass them just by starting to steal."
"Heh heh. Then name me one famous thief currently operating in Hubei Province."
The Simun Xiangzhu chuckled and posed the question to Lim Hayeon's bewildered face.
"Uh... um... huh?!"
Can't think of one either, can you, Lim Hayeon? I had the exact same reaction just a moment ago.
"What kind of thief gets famous on purpose? That's insanity. The moment you become famous, the authorities come after you, and martial artists start lying in wait for you just for the fame of catching you. Your room to move shrinks, and thieving itself gets harder. A thief is someone who was never supposed to become famous in the first place."
The Simun Xiangzhu shrugged at Lim Hayeon, who was clearly coming to the realization.
"The Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate is the face of all thieves. Even the Gi-mun Hyangju agrees that no one among the thieves would ever step forward to be that face."
That was one reason the Shadowless Divine Thief remained the Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate even after ten years in seclusion. After all, no one else was about to volunteer to be the public face of crime.
"That's right. The only time a thief's name gets known is when he's caught. That Shadowless Divine Thief fellow was the strange one from the start, I tell you."
"If I steal while making a name for myself as the Shadowless Divine Thief, then..."
It was dawning on her. Lim Hayeon's mouth slowly fell open.
"The child of the previous Thieves' Gate Xiangzhu, appearing out of nowhere? They'd hail her as Xiangzhu without a second thought."
Even if Lim Hayeon challenged for the half-vacant seat of the Thieves' Gate, the Domun would have no grounds to oppose her.
Well? What do you think, Lim Hayeon? Pretty good plan, isn't it?
"..."
At the Simun Xiangzhu's words, Lim Hayeon lowered her gaze as if lost in thought.
"Looks like she needs time to think. I'll step into the Gi-mun Hyangju's room for a bit. Come in when you've sorted out your thoughts."
As expected, the Simun Xiangzhu's years as a waiter weren't for nothing. Reading the mood and heading straight into the back room — now that's situational awareness.
"Miss Hayeon."
"..."
Even when I called her gently, Lim Hayeon didn't answer.
Of course she'd have to think it over.
Challenging for the Thieves' Gate Xiangzhu position was, in the end, merely a solution. However well you understood the answer to a problem, actually solving it came down to the person's own heart.
She was the one who hated stealing from others.
One night in Yichang, in that cramped rented room above Daseogak, Lim Hayeon had wept in front of me, saying she didn't want to steal.
Because she couldn't bear to make others weep just to free herself from her status as a runaway courtesan.
Looking back now, even if she had stolen back then, it would have been pointless. Even if she'd robbed a fortune, the Domun never had any intention of letting her go.
But things were different now.
Lim Hayeon doesn't actually hate stealing itself.
The red ginseng theft. The Luqing Escort Agency incident. Whenever it helped someone, she'd crossed into other people's estates without the slightest hesitation.
She'd even suggested we go climb over someone's wall for fun on a moonlit night — honestly, at that point I started to wonder if thieving wasn't her true calling.
All she needs is a reasonable justification.
A reason strong enough to leap over the morality and psychological barriers she'd built up over her lifetime. Given that, she could become a thief as easily as breathing.
The greatest thief in the Central Plains. The Shadowless Divine Thief.
So how would I make her into the Shadowless Divine Thief? How would I erase that psychological resistance?
Already figured it all out.
Just as she had once taken my hand and led me, a man lost under the moonlight, it was now my turn to reach out and take hers.
"You said you'd send Miss Hayeon far away."
I began by presenting a different path.
"I'm sorry?"
Lim Hayeon lifted her eyes to look at me at last, as if to ask what on earth I meant.
"You said I should find a place the Domun's hands could never reach. Live an ordinary life somewhere like that. If we took that path, you'd never have to steal again, and you could live without worrying about the Domun hunting you down."
"Well, that's..."
"But you also said I'd have to part with Miss Hayeon forever."
"...!"
Lim Hayeon's eyes went wide in an instant.
"I didn't want to do it. That's why I begged for another way. But I couldn't ask for your will in the matter — so if it's what you want, you're free to leave."
I placed a hand over my heart and gazed at her with melancholy.
I don't want to let you go. I want to take responsibility for you. What do you want? With my eyes, I laid my heart bare before her.
"As if I'd ever leave!"
Lim Hayeon shot back at me as though I'd said something utterly outrageous.
Good. One path eliminated. Now it was time to give her a reason to walk the only road that remained.
"I want to take responsibility for you, just as my sworn uncle took responsibility for you."
Next came Lim Hayeon's trauma. Time to touch the wound — the reason she'd learned the Shadowless Divine Thief's martial arts yet never once used them.
I carefully took Lim Hayeon's hand.
"Did that man truly go into seclusion for my sake...?"
Perhaps it was simply too hard to believe. Avoiding my gaze, Lim Hayeon murmured in a gloomy voice.
This was my chance to root out her hatred of her father. I had to reframe it all as a misunderstanding, and in doing so, dilute the revulsion she felt toward thieving itself.
"I'm certain of it. Otherwise, why would he have spent ten years carrying out his crusade? Which means it's our turn now — our turn to end ten years of bitterness."
I gave her certainty. Taking her by the shoulders, I spoke with more conviction than I'd ever mustered.
"How?"
"We become righteous thieves. The Phantom Thief, Shadowless Divine Thief."
Once her revulsion toward stealing had been softened, all that remained was to shatter the psychological barrier against thieving entirely.
And for that, too, I had the answer.
"Righteous thieves?"
"I know you can't bear the thought of making people weep through stealing. But listen. This world is full of thieves far worse than the ones who prowl about in broad daylight."
"Thieves worse than thieves?"
Overseers, landlords, predatory merchants, rotting officials. The world overflows with thieves too numerous to count.
"Let's make those worse-than-thieves weep. And with those very tears, let's fill the bellies of the poor and put smiles on their faces."
She despised corrupt merchants, and she had secretly helped the impoverished Joseon expatriates all along.
Become a thief to punish the wicked and provide for the destitute. This was my final move — the one that would bring down Lim Hayeon's last psychological wall.
"Is that what you meant by a righteous thief?"
"Exactly. A thief who is not a thief. A thief who commits the least righteous of acts in service of justice. We become the Phantom Thief, Shadowless Divine Thief."
One who delivers justice through thievery.
That was the phantom thief Lim Hayeon was destined to become.
Lim Hayeon felt Kang Yunho's hand gripping hers tightly, as if he never meant to let go, and thought of her parents.
I never wanted to become that kind of person.
A man who had evaporated in a single instant. Her mother had stared out the window, waiting for word of him until the day she died.
If only that man hadn't disappeared, her mother's illness could have been cured. Any renowned physician would have come to her mother's side at that man's merest beckoning.
If not for a man who would abandon his own family, she would never have gone hungry, never have knocked on the doors of the Gyobang.
A man who discarded his precious family like a rag. She had refused, with all her heart, to live a life like his.
And yet.
He went into seclusion... for my sake?
Lim Hayeon could hardly steady herself beneath the storm of truth that had swept over her all at once.
The father she had resented for ten years. And that father had vanished, it turned out, so that he would not lose her, after losing her mother.
Then what had all those years of resentment amounted to?
Every time she crossed the line at Kang Yunho's playful coaxing, feeling that small thrill of tension and delight, she had told herself blood will out, nursing a quiet self-loathing. What had that been, then?
Lim Hayeon looked up at Kang Yunho's face.
A righteous thief.
The solution he had produced just to keep from letting her go. And with that method, surely, she would bring people more laughter than tears.
Even within his scheme, Lim Hayeon could feel his heart reaching for her.
She didn't want to part from him. She wanted to stay by his side.
She wanted to wake him from his late-morning slumbers, work alongside him through laughter and tears, and take his hand to walk home together at night.
And for that, she would have to steal.
The Righteous Thief, Shadowless Divine Thief.
Lim Hayeon gazed at the man she loved.
If climbing over someone's wall meant bringing happiness instead of tears. Just as her parents had abandoned everything for the sake of love.
If a righteous thief was what she had to become for love—
"All right. I'll become the Shadowless Divine Thief."
Gladly, she would become the Shadowless Divine Thief.
"So you've decided."
When Lim Hayeon and I walked into the room hand in hand, the Gi-mun Hyangju set down her long pipe and asked.
"Yes. I will challenge for the position of the Thieves' Gate Xiangzhu."
Lim Hayeon's face looked more filled with resolve than ever before.
"Once you begin your work, I'll get word to the people of the Thieves' Gate."
"A few jobs and you'll be famous in no time. We'll spread the word ourselves through the waiters and runners."
The two Xiangzhu nodded to us.
Once Lim Hayeon began operating as the Shadowless Divine Thief, the combined power of the Gi-mun and Simun would make her famous. If both Xiangzhu threw themselves wholeheartedly into the effort, word of the Shadowless Divine Thief would spread in the blink of an eye.
That much was the plan the two Xiangzhu had laid out.
"It won't be enough."
The plan was good, but I could see plenty of holes in it.
I decided to plant my foot firmly against their plan, my voice leaving no room for argument.
"Not enough, you say?"
"For Miss Hayeon to become the Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate, she must become the thief who represents all of Wuhan. For that, even if she can't raid the Zhuge Clan Compound or the Demonic Sect, she'd need to hit famous sects, escort agencies, merchant guilds, and wealthy estates until her name echoes through every hall. That will take far too much time."
No one builds the reputation required for a Xiangzhu seat overnight.
She would need either a steady record of results or a string of spectacular ones — and both demanded either enormous time or enormous danger.
"If the Gi-mun and Simun put their backs into spreading the rumors, it's not impossible."
"The problem is the people of the Thieves' Gate. You think they'll hail her as Xiangzhu just because she robbed a few rich houses and got famous for it?"
Rumors could force fame upon her, yes. But the Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate required the consent of the thieves themselves.
If the people of the Domun scoffed — she got famous over nothing, and now we're supposed to make her our Xiangzhu? — the whole plan would collapse at a stroke.
"You've got something else in mind, don't you?"
Yes. Of course I do. I already had one plan prepared for the Phantom Thief, Shadowless Divine Thief.
A plan to give Lim Hayeon a distinction no other thief in the world possessed.
I nodded to the Gi-mun Hyangju, who was watching me with keen interest.
"Miss Hayeon will become a righteous thief. The Shadowless Divine Thief."
"A righteous thief?"
"A rumor that a thief robbed a rich house is just news — it drifts out of people's attention before long. But a righteous thief? That's a different story entirely. A thief, yet righteous? That will capture people's imagination all at once."
"Then explain it to me in detail."
"We rob the homes of the wicked. People will cheer at nothing more than news that a villain's house was plundered. But what happens when the spoils from that house are scattered among the destitute?"
I hadn't told Lim Hayeon to become a righteous thief simply to dismantle her psychological barriers.
A uicheok — a righteous thief.
Because when it came to building a reputation in a short span of time, nothing in the world could beat it.
"So people will relish the villains getting their due and sing the praises of the Shadowless Divine Thief."
"Rumors giving birth to more rumors."
"The longer the Shadowless Divine Thief keeps operating, the more the rich will fear the night — and the more the poor will wait for it."
"Everyone in Wuhan will hang on her every move."
"Yes. Before long, there won't be a soul in Hubei Province who hasn't heard of her."
One wealthy estate robbed, and all of Wuhan would know her name. People's tongues would wag endlessly about where the Shadowless Divine Thief would strike next.
The righteous thief, Shadowless Divine Thief.
That was my scheme to make Lim Hayeon the Xiangzhu of the Thieves' Gate in record time.
"Very well. Do as you two wish."
Winning their approval proved no trouble at all.
"I suppose we can go home now."
We'd have to get straight to discussing the Shadowless Divine Thief's activities, of course — but for now, I could reclaim my everyday life.
The everyday life of me, Lim Hayeon, and the young lady of the Zhuge Clan...
"Huh?!"
"What's wrong?"
Lim Hayeon asked, watching me go pale.
This was bad.
This was really bad.
"Um... you see, I haven't set foot in the estate since the day you ran off, Miss Hayeon."
The estate where one Joseon man and two women lived, once the midnight commotion had died down.
"When is Young Master Kang coming hoooome?"
A silver-haired beauty lay rolling back and forth across the heated floor of her room, writhing in anguish.