Becoming a Hero — 3
Be a hero.
If I'd resolved to take responsibility for every one of these women, then I had no choice but to be shameless about it.
"Lady Hayeon. I've come to return the Golden Sore Powder."
Sibi had told me she saw Hayeon heading into her room, so I stood before her door.
"I'm coming in."
I opened the door and stepped inside, but there was no trace of anyone within. She really wasn't here.
All I could see was a window left open on one side. Had she bolted the moment she sensed me coming? Did she hate seeing my face that much?
"Lady Hayeon! I know you're nearby."
I shouted loud enough for the whole estate to hear, but no answer came back.
"Lady Hayeon. Stop hiding and come out already."
I scoured the mansion from top to bottom, yet I couldn't find even a whisper of Im Hayeon.
There was a time she'd hidden awkwardly in a jar — had she really gotten this good at concealment already?
Fine. I'll find her if it kills me.
When it comes to tracking someone in hiding, nothing beats spreading your qi sense wide.
"Hnnnngh!"
Eyes shut, fists clenched at both sides, I concentrated on my qi sense until my black hair nearly turned yellow with effort.
Feel the qi around me. Find Im Hayeon.
Honestly, I had no idea how any of this worked, but it couldn't hurt to try. Surely I'd feel something.
I kept my eyes closed for a moment.
There. Footsteps behind me. She was behind me all along!
"There you are!"
I spun around, reaching out to grab her.
"Goodness! Young Master Kang Yunho. Whatever is the matter with you? Are you feeling unwell?"
Oh. It was Sibi, on her way to hang the laundry.
"It's nothing."
"Were you in such a rush you couldn't find the privy? Shall I fetch you a chamber pot?"
So my half-crouched lunge had looked like that. I waved my hands in frantic denial.
"Have you seen Lady Hayeon today, by any chance?"
"She was right in front of you until a moment ago. The instant you turned around, she vanished, though. Shall I go fetch her for you?"
What. She was watching me the whole embarrassing time?
To think I couldn't sense her even when she was right in front of me.
Well, of course not. A man barely scraping by as a second-rate martial artist had no hope of finding the Shadowless Divine Thief — a thief whose concealment arts could make even a lifelong veteran bow their head.
"Never mind fetching her. Does the estate have any liquor on hand?"
"Yes, of course. Shall I set out a drinking table for you?"
"No. Just bring me three bottles of the strongest thing you have."
I wandered the grounds, waited in her room, tried everything — but she never showed herself, even as night fell.
She was definitely still inside the estate. And more than that, she was close by. She simply had no intention of being found.
Very well. Searching is defeat. But I had no intention of giving up entirely.
I wanted to talk with Im Hayeon. There had to be a way.
If I can't find her, I'll make her come to me.
I picked up the prepared bottles of liquor.
Will they stay by my side, or leave it?
The choice rests entirely with them, but I had no intention of standing by and watching until every last decision was made.
Im Hayeon is a confirmed heroine of this world.
With Jegal Hyang, I set a snare. With Im Hayeon, I must cast a fishing rod. I had to make it clear that what I held was a line and bait — bait she would have to decide whether to bite or not.
Using me as the bait, of course.
There was a broad flat rock in the mansion's inner garden, and by chance the moonlight was shining brightly upon it.
The perfect spot for sulking while drinking. I set the bottles I'd gotten from Sibi on the rock and sat down myself.
Let's start with a light swig or two.
"Puh!"
I sputtered.
This stuff is lethal. Did they grab the wrong bottle — the medicinal kind?
Looking at its color, it seemed like a well-made liquor. I brought it to my nose and a fragrant aroma stung my nostrils. Let me try sipping it slowly this time.
Drinking it carefully, I could tell at once — the aroma was rich, a genuinely fine spirit.
Let's empty this first bottle quickly, then.
Perhaps I'd drunk too fast; the intoxication hit me all at once.
Immediately, I raised my internal energy — the Tang Clan's special technique for purging toxins, learned from Hwarin. Through my pores, the alcohol's heat left my body in an instant.
Any true martial artist would surely raise hell at someone wasting fine liquor like this. But what I wanted wasn't the buzz.
The scent of that potent liquor drifted softly through the air around me.
I'm drunk, you see.
That smell would reach the nose of the Shadowless Divine Thief, hidden somewhere close.
The groundwork was laid. Now — I let down my long tied hair. And, as if the drink had made me stifled, I loosened my collar a bit too.
Behold: a tantalizing morsel caught on a fishhook.
I am defenseless prey — a man who looks as though he could pour out his heart at any moment, drowning in drink.
"Mm, good wine."
I sipped slowly and waited for Im Hayeon. Should've brought some jerky. Chugging liquor this strong raw — my stomach might not survive it.
Incidentally, the moon is awfully bright tonight.
Buying a can of beer and a fat chicken leg from the convenience store and sitting on some quiet bench watching the night sky — that used to be its own kind of romance.
"Ah~ oppa, stop it~" A woman's stuffy-nosed voice and a man's voice dripping with ulterior motives would drift over, and I'd pack up my things muttering, Yeah, for a lifetime single like me, esports reruns at home are the way to go.
I was lost in old memories, sipping my drink, when I felt a presence behind me.
"Why are you drinking like that, when you're not even a drinker?"
A cold voice — yet laced with worry she couldn't quite hide — drifted from behind me.
Good. West is roughly... that way, right?
I opened my mouth while gazing not at Im Hayeon behind me, but at the western sky.
"Gazing at the waning moon in the western night sky, my thoughts grew heavy, and I had no choice but to drink."
I put on the face of a man burdened with worries and took another sip.
Anyway, I'm now certain — this liquor is far too strong.
"That's east, you know."
Oh.
"......"
"What were you thinking about?"
Manage your expression. Squeeze that brow with everything you've got.
"I was thinking of my fiancée, who must be worrying over me even while ill herself."
"......"
I heard Im Hayeon draw in a sharp breath, and then felt her feet retreat behind me.
No — Lady Hayeon. If you can't endure even this, we can't have our conversation.
Fine. Change of tactics! Emergency plan, activate!
"......And I was also thinking of myself — a man with a fiancée, and yet a heart that wavers so easily."
Gap deployed! I have a fiancée — but there's still room for one more!
Thankfully, I felt Im Hayeon's footsteps stop.
Phew. Emergency plan: success.
With a sorrowful expression, as if to show how my heart tossed and turned, I gripped the neck of the bottle and shook it.
"......Is she pretty, that woman?"
Good. Im Hayeon had found the courage to step toward me.
How should I answer?
"Beautiful enough to stand beside Lady Hayeon herself."
They say that since Hwarin fixed her skin, she's hailed as the finest beauty in all of Sichuan. Simply complimenting looks is amateur hour.
Im Hayeon. You are beautiful — just like you.
Rate Hwarin's looks highly while elevating Im Hayeon. Keep leaving that door open, always.
"And her figure?"
A difficult question.
Comparing Hwarin of the Toppled Zhongyuan with her mid-sized... assets, versus Im Hayeon — whose midsection may sag but whose lower body is toned by lightness skill, and who boasts the hips of a goddess built for easy childbirth...
Which one should I pick?
"A figure every bit as beautiful as her face."
No need to choose between the two, after all. I'm sitting here planning to choose both.
"Hmph! M-my chest is bigger, you know!"
So she had to win at something. Im Hayeon would not retreat.
"My fiancée is larger than any woman I have ever laid eyes on."
Im Hayeon is a model-tall beauty with a magnificent chest too, but alas, beating Hwarin of the Toppled Zhongyuan is simply impossible.
"Bigger than... me? That can't be......"
Despair crept into Im Hayeon's voice.
No. Despair is forbidden.
"My fiancée is the master of Daseogak. We ran the bookstore together, and I wrote the books — until her body began to fail her. On her hardest days, just like yours, Lady Hayeon, she stayed by my side."
You went through the very same trials, and your feelings for each other deepened because of it. As I spun out the story of Hwarin, I kept offering her that opening, over and over.
"Is your fiancée very ill?"
Time to drop another hook.
"The Tang Clan says full recovery will take ten years."
"Ten... whole years?"
Im Hayeon asked, genuine astonishment in her voice.
"When the Tang Clan tearfully told me to give her up, I did everything I could to soothe them, and promised a marriage in ten years' time. That's the promise I returned with — and yet here I sit, a man with a heart in turmoil, drowning in liquor."
I'm sorry, Hwarin.
I smiled bitterly, caught between my feelings for the fiancée I'd left behind and this new feeling taking root — the smile of a man in pain.
"Do you love her?"
"I do. Enough to wait those ten years for her."
An unchanging promise, without even a flicker of hesitation or wavering emotion.
"And me?"
"......"
"And me?!"
Her voice, craving an answer — the question of a wounded woman — struck me with a dull ache.
"I cannot say it now."
"What? Then right now......"
I turned around. The expression on Im Hayeon's face — the first I'd seen from her all day — was on the verge of tears.
"Saying those words aloud is easy."
I rose and slowly approached her.
"Don't come over here just to console me! You're just going to lie!"
"How can you say that? Everything in our past — every single thing I did for you, Lady Hayeon — was always sincere."
I always treated you with my whole heart. I gazed at her wounded expression.
"Then what... what is it......"
As Im Hayeon turned her eyes away, her expression softening, I drew slowly closer.
"The feeling that overflows in me toward you, Lady Hayeon. That feeling — it would be easy to speak aloud."
The heart I hold for her is true.
Speaking this affection would be the easiest thing in the world. But I mustn't.
I pressed a hand to my chest, gripping my heart firmly — as though it must not be allowed out yet — and tensed my fingertips.
"Then why?!"
"Because it would be irresponsible."
"Irresponsible... you say?"
"The moment I speak my heart to you, Lady Hayeon, you will remain by my side — no matter what you truly feel."
I looked at Im Hayeon with unwavering conviction.
"Hmph."
"You stand at a crossroads right now, Lady Hayeon. Become the Shadowless Divine Thief to stay beside me — or remain a runaway courtesan and live an ordinary life far away. If I do not speak my heart, you can still choose, even now."
"I can still choose?"
"Thanks to doing my utmost in Wuhan, you — once bound by the shackles of a courtesan — finally have two paths before you, paths that no longer require you to be a courtesan at all. You still have time."
"So that's why you only now revealed that you have a fiancée?"
I nodded.
All I could offer her, in the end, was a fishing line. The final choice had to be hers.
"I have not the slightest desire to become your shackle, Lady Hayeon. So the only words I can offer you now are a promise."
"A promise?"
I slowly raised her trembling hand and wrapped it tenderly in both of mine.
I don't want to let go.
I wish she wouldn't leave. But the decision is hers to make. And so there was only one thing I could say.
"I will take responsibility. I want to take responsibility for you, Lady Hayeon, for the rest of your life. The words I spoke before the Hyangju will never change — that is my promise."
Just as my promise to wait ten years for Hwarin will never change,
Im Hayeon — my promise to take responsibility for you will never change.
That was everything I could say, right here and now.
"So those are words you'll only be able to say... when everything is over."
I looked at her, letting my overflowing heart for my Lady Hayeon show more plainly than ever before.
"When your troubles are resolved — when my heart, my honest heart, no longer remains in your life as a shackle, when it becomes the words that embrace our weary, everyday lives — then I will say it. A hundred times, a thousand times, whatever it takes."
I didn't know what choice she would make.
But please don't go.
"......Give me a little time to think."
"What am I supposed to doooOoO. Young Master Kang had a fiancée all alonNgGg!"
Jegal Hyang was rolling around on her bed, utterly at a loss.
"I-I don't want to lose him, noOoOo!"
"I feel exactly the same."
A figure had appeared without warning at Jegal Hyang's bedside.
"Hyaaht?! H-Hayeon uni?!"
The woman before her was Im Hayeon — the very person Kang Yunho had spent all day searching for.
"I came to have a little chat."
Im Hayeon closed the open window behind her and looked down at Jegal Hyang.
"B-but the window was locked, I swearrrr!"
"Don't worry about it."
I very much SHOULD worry about it, thoughhHh! Jegal Hyang swallowed the words — they surged up to her chest but absolutely refused to climb any higher — and nodded.
"Wh-what business brings you here at this hourrrr?"
What on earth could bring her here in the dead of night? Jegal Hyang regarded Im Hayeon with mounting tension.
Im Hayeon glanced between Jegal Hyang and the window several times, let out a small sigh, and then finally spoke.
"Shall we form an alliance?"