Constable — 1
"We would like Young Master Kang to become a constable, so that he might be the one to catch the Shadowless Divine Thief."
Constable Jeong made the request with a deeply apologetic air, as though he knew exactly how much he was asking of me.
"You want me to become a constable whose job is catching the Shadowless Divine Thief?"
"As you know, constables avoid getting entangled with murim folk at all costs."
"Yes, I'm well aware."
Constables were hardly renowned for their martial prowess. It was a poorly paid trade where a man scraped by from month to month—anyone with real skill in the martial arts would have no reason to live as a constable in the first place.
"The higher-ups keep ordering us to make an arrest, but what chance do the likes of us have against a phantom thief trained in the martial arts? It's hopeless, truly."
Constable Jeong heaved a small sigh and unburdened himself of the front line's misery.
"And what does any of that have to do with offering me a constable's post?"
"The officials put their heads together trying to devise some way to catch him, and it seems your name came up in the process."
"My name?"
"You struck down the master of the Nokcheong Escort Agency with your own hands and resolved the ghost ship case, did you not? A case tangled up with murim folk—the very sort every constable flees from—and you settled it so remarkably clean."
So that was where the offer had come from. Word had spread that I was some renowned constable after the ghost ship affair, and one of the officials had apparently caught wind of it.
"I was simply fortunate."
"Even if a gifted fortune-teller swore today was a constable's luckiest day, the moment murim folk appear, he turns tail and runs."
"Haha..."
"And besides, are you not a close friend of the author Hopil? You would understand the mind of the Shadowless Divine Thief from Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon better than anyone, so they judged there was no one more suited to the task."
So with no talent for catching the Shadowless Divine Thief within their own ranks, they meant to headhunt a qualified outsider. A constable, hm. It wasn't a bad position, all things considered.
Unlike official posts won through the examinations, it was an appointed office secured through the podu or the local officials—meager pay, certainly, but a trade that would let me put rosé sauce on my tongue every once in a while.
If you'd asked me a year ago, I'd have nodded along without a second thought.
"I'm grateful you think so highly of me. But as you can see, my businesses keep me terribly busy, so the constable offer is..."
"If only you consent, the higher-ups have promised to grant you every manner of tax exemption and administrative convenience your businesses could require."
"...I find myself listening with great positivity indeed."
You should have led with the benefits, sir.
"And should you become a constable, there is one more great advantage that belongs to you alone, Young Master Kang—a man from Joseon."
"Another advantage, you say?"
"A constable eats the grain of the state. It is a rank underwritten by the government itself. Once the Shadowless Divine Thief case is closed, you may simply keep the title like an honorary post. No one will look down on you then."
Constable Jeong was telling me that once the Shadowless Divine Thief affair wrapped up, I could retain the constable's rank without performing a single duty.
Quite a tempting set of terms. With an official standing to my name, people would certainly be far less quick to dismiss me as a mere barbarian.
I lifted my gaze past Constable Jeong's shoulder—to Lim Hayeon, who was eavesdropping on our conversation with just her head poking out from behind the doorframe.
The instant our eyes met, she nodded. So Lady Hayeon thought it a good offer as well.
Of course she did. For someone who was quietly aiding the Shadowless Divine Thief's exploits, becoming the very constable charged with hunting her down came with staggering advantages.
There was no reason to refuse.
"I'll give it a try."
"Kwahaha! Well decided! I feel as though I've gained a thousand soldiers and ten thousand horses!"
When I went to the government office to accept the post, the Chief Constable welcomed me with a great booming laugh.
"I hardly know whether a barbarian such as myself is fit to sit in a position of such weighty responsibility."
"A barbarian? The future son-in-law of the Zhuge Clan! Who dares speak such nonsense! If the burden weighs on you, simply going through the motions will be quite enough. Do you require any special training for catching the Shadowless Divine Thief?"
I shared a roof with the Shadowless Divine Thief. Sitting through training seemed a touch unnecessary.
But an outright refusal might make me look lukewarm about the whole affair, so I cast about for a decent excuse.
"The truth is, back in Joseon, I once shadowed the careers of the men known as Renowned Constables."
"Hoh. Is that a fact."
The Chief Constable, evidently fascinated by the notion that I had plied the same trade in Joseon, stroked his beard and eyed me in surprise.
"I trailed two men by the names of Jeon Il and Go Nan, recording their deeds and transcribing their words."
They were on television every time I switched it on, so I 'saw' them often enough.
"So you served as a kind of scribe, then."
"I could never compare to those illustrious men, but because I recorded their deeds and words—recording the tales—and trailed them even into perilous ground—running the risks—people took to calling me Sullok Heomju, the Tale-Recording Risk-Runner."
I had scoured the internet for material and posted diligently online, so it was true enough, in its way.
"You were known by the alias Sullok Heomju?! Remarkable! So that's how you cracked the ghost ship case!"
The Chief Constable clapped his hands together as though a great truth had at last dawned on him.
"I suppose that after so long at their side, I came to approach a case with much the same cast of mind."
Really, it's because I love detective fiction and forensic crime dramas.
"Sullok Heomju! I find myself eager to see what the Joseon way can do. Here—the waist tablet that certifies a constable's rank! Wear it at your hip, and the guilty will bolt on sight! Even the innocent will lower their eyes!"
The Chief Constable handed me the tablet that marked a constable's authority.
"Thank you. Am I to conduct the duties alone?"
"Work as you see fit. If you need help, you're free to keep patrol officers at your side to assist you."
"There were those who proved helpful during the ghost ship case. I'd like them to accompany me as well."
"Hmm. Good. The higher-ups have already given their blessing, so if it's your wish, I'll take them on as temporary patrol officers. Only—"
"Only?"
Don't tell me he means to drag them in for vetting. That would be a problem.
Wondering what would come out of his mouth, I watched him with a slightly tense face. The Chief Constable coughed awkwardly and pressed on.
"Ahem. You'll be paying the temporary patrol officers' wages yourself."
So that's why constables' pay is such a pittance.
"Haha. But of course."
"Do well, Renowned Constable of Joseon! Settle this one affair cleanly, and a report may go straight up to the court itself. Who can say—the Emperor might even grant you an official post! Kwahaha!"
The Emperor, he says. We shared a hearty laugh over the absurdity, and then, nodding along to the Chief Constable's request that I carry his regards to Mangeum Hall and the Zhuge Clan, I took my leave of the government office.
"I will now commence the appointment ceremony for Lim Hayeon's commission as a patrol officer."
A guest room at a Wungi Inn branch.
Like some official installing a minor functionary into his post, I unfolded a random sheet of paper and stood before Lim Hayeon wearing my gravest expression.
"Ugh! Do we really have to do this too?"
"Thanks to it, crossing the Yangtze was never this easy before. You may extend your range of operations south of the river from now on."
We were at that moment across the Yangtze, in the southern part of Wuhan, near Donghu.
Ordinarily we would have had to mind the eyes of watchers, but the moment I flashed the tablet that marked a constable, we were waved aboard a government-run boat without a fuss.
"A-are we doing patrol work toooooo?"
Jegal Hyang asked me, brimming with curiosity.
"You two need only lend a hand when it truly matters. The investigation itself will be little more than a formality."
"Did you finish visiting all the places robbed by the fake Shadowless Divine Thief today?"
"We made the rounds of every place the Shadowless Divine Thief was said to have hit. Most of it was much ado about nothing—common burglars broke in, and the household cried that it was the Shadowless Divine Thief's doing."
Flashing east one moment, west the next. That is how the legend of an elusive chivalrous thief is usually built. I shared with the two women everything my fellow patrol officers and I had turned up in today's rounds.
"Is the fake Shadowless Divine Thief mere baseless rumor, then?"
"Tomorrow we will tour the places where black paper cranes were reportedly left behind. We'll be traveling by carriage, so I'd have both ladies move with us."
Today's investigation had really been about narrowing the field in advance so the two of them could move with us; all that remained was to keep busy tomorrow.
"C-can we really catch the fake Shadowless Divine Thieeeeef?"
Jegal Hyang asked, sounding none too certain.
"It doesn't matter if we can't catch him. We need only expose him."
"Hm? It doesn't matter if we can't catch him?"
Lim Hayeon echoed my answer, puzzled.
"Our goal, first and last, is to spread the Shadowless Divine Thief's illustrious name far and wide. So my task is not to catch the Shadowless Divine Thief—it is to lay bare what this impostor has been doing."
"True—so long as the ugly rumors about me are weeded out, that's enough. But won't you take flak for no good reason if you go about it that way?"
Lim Hayeon looked up at me with a worried face.
"The way of the official, you see, is not to solve problems but to be seen solving them. The higher-ups told me themselves they expect nothing extraordinary of me."
Even the famed Renowned Constable of Joseon never solved his cases. We did all there was to do. From here on out, you're on your own—every man for himself.
Truly, the survival craft of a model official.
"Y-young Master Kang, you know the hearts of officials so weeeell."
"Haha. Well, I am a man who has received both the tablet and the binding rope."
I laughed it off breezily and set the tablet and the coil of rope from my breast down on the table.
"Did they teach you how to use a binding rope at the government office?"
Perhaps because it was a rope she had spent her whole life hoping never to cross, Lim Hayeon stared at the one I'd set down for a long moment before asking.
"I was pressed for time, so I only collected the rope."
"And what if you bind the culprit only for him to wriggle loose and flee?"
"I-I heard constables are meant to master the art of binding toooooo."
"I know the gist of it. No separate lessons required."
Why did everyone keep giving me such doubtful looks? I did not need remedial instruction in the tying-up of people.
"Here, then."
Lim Hayeon came to me without a word, brought her wrists together in front of her, and held out her hands.
"Hm?"
"You only grabbed it and came straight back because you were busy, didn't you? I'll help you practice, at least."
"I'm, as it happens, a better hand at tying than you'd think."
"Mm-hm. Keep that overconfidence up and you'll lose a thief you've already caught. I'll slip out of it in a heartbeat without using a scrap of inner power—go on, try."
"You'll regret it."
You sure about that?
"Who do you take me for?"
Lim Hayeon smirked, the very picture of confidence.
It was hardly confidence without foundation. She had mastered the Shadowless Divine Thief's martial arts; no doubt she had insights of her own into escaping bonds.
Whereas I was a rookie constable who had never once bound a criminal in his life. I hadn't even received proper instruction in the tying of knots.
From where she stood, this must have looked like a golden chance to teach me a lesson about the gravity of binding technique.
But I'll tell you something, Lim Hayeon.
It was true that I had never once tied up a criminal. But it was also true that I was hardly unacquainted with tying up a person.
"Very well. Don't say I didn't warn you."
I took up the binding rope and snapped it taut in a single beat.
One year ago.
The hour had come for the Joseon big brother who, once upon a time, in the grip of his own private torment, had spent every single day binding his voluptuous childhood friend to make his triumphant return.
"W-wait a moment! What is this!"
In a single breath, I had sealed away the movement of her arms. Then I eased Lim Hayeon carefully down onto the bed.
"You're the one who asked for this."
With practiced ease, I pinned the backs of her knees beneath my hip as I spoke.
"Hih! Th-that tickles! Hah! Th-this is a little le-lewd, isn't i-it!"
"This is perfectly standard binding procedure. Say the word and I'll untie you at once."
Truthfully, I had no idea what counted as standard. Everything I knew, I had learned from doing this with Sohee.
Physical contact was unavoidable in this line of work, surely. And this much had to fall within normal bounds, didn't it?
"No... it's, um. D-don't stop... keep going."
Perhaps because her lips were pressed against the bedcover, Lim Hayeon murmured it in a voice so small that only I could have heard.
"Then I'll tie you up properly."
"Hah! Wh-why are you so practiced at this! Hah!"
"Y-young Master Kang! A-after you're done with Hayeon Eonni, p-please do me tooooooooo!"
I'm sorry—what?
"Nnngh... untie me. Quickly..."
Victory was mine.
Face buried in the bed, Lim Hayeon glared up at me with resentful eyes, one of them brimming with the faint gleam of a tear.
"I believe someone said she could get out of it on her own."
What a sight it was. Almost too fine a thing to be enjoyed over a cup of cheap tea.
Not that I have a taste for such things, but contemplating the two women lying helpless, limbs bound, turned out to be less objectionable than I'd have guessed.
Lim Hayeon's arms and legs were bound fast behind her, and the more she kicked, the more the single rope lashing her wrists to her ankles in a straight line set off her figure all the more.
Sohee, your big brother's still got the touch, after all these years.
Not as fast as in the days when I tied you up daily like my life depended on it, but since it was only limbs this time, my touch hadn't dulled one bit.
And since Sohee had come to mind, I decided I'd write her another letter once I returned to the residence.
"Nngh! Fine, you win! Untie me! Lady Jegal is suffering over there, you know!"
"Hnn, hnn... being bound up all snug like this, like I'm back inside a wardrobe... somehow it feels sooooo reassuringooooo..."
"..."
I had wondered why Lady Jegal wasn't putting up any resistance at all. She was enjoying this far too much.
Even Lim Hayeon went slack-jawed at the look of pure contentment on Lady Jegal's face.
Time to let them out, I decided. But just as I set down my teacup and made to rise, the door of the guest room swung open.
"Association Head! Is the lodging to your satisfac—... Gah!"
Oh no.
The innkeeper of the third branch—a middle-aged man of the Joseon Hometown Association—met my eyes with a face frozen in horror.
"So the Association Head... has hobbies of that sort..."
Please. The face of a man straining with all his might to understand is a very painful thing to behold.
"It's not that—we were, ah, practicing binding techniques..."
"I understand completely. There have been more than one or two occasions when I've wanted to tie my wife up and run for the hills myself."
I said it's not that.
His earnest effort to put himself in my shoes was admirable service spirit, truly, but there was no call to exercise it on this particular occasion.
"Constable Kang! We've got trouble! ...Huh?!"
Why do you keep turning up, Constable Jeong?
"Well, you see... we were in the middle of binding practice."
I wrung out excuses for dear life, desperate to clear up the misunderstanding for the two men.
Whether to escape the mortification or simply on instinct, the two women buried their faces in the bed like ostriches hiding nothing but their heads from danger.
I had to contain this situation, and fast.
First, in defense of the ladies' honor, I hastily dragged a blanket over their trussed-up forms, then ushered my two visitors out of the room.
"As expected of the Renowned Constable! I've never seen binding work like that in my life! Is that how they do it in Joseon? I've neither heard tell nor laid eyes on its like!"
It's called Aesu-aemu, a custom unique to Joseon. We mostly practice it in bed, you see.
"Now then—what brings you here?"
I asked Constable Jeong with perfect composure, as though nothing whatsoever had happened.
What on earth could it be this time?
Only then did Constable Jeong seem to recall the purpose of his visit; he cried out to me, his face going white with alarm.
News I had never once imagined.
"Ah! B-big trouble! The Shadowless Divine Thief has killed a man!"