Tonight, We Hunt the Bourgeoisie
The Do Gate was moving again.
Having asked the Chief Constable to track down the gambler who had brokered the paper cranes, I hurried back toward the mansion.
"We've picked up a tail. I'll take the carriage onto the main road."
The guard Mangeum Jeonjang had hired for me quietly informed me of the pursuit.
"Should I prepare?"
Just how many hidden weapons had I packed along, again? A tail the very moment word spread that the Do Gate was moving? Their identity couldn't be more obvious.
"Fortunately, they show no sign of trying to corner us. Ah—it seems they've realized we've noticed them. They're falling back now."
The guard stole a glance out the window, then smiled as though to tell me not to worry.
"That's a relief."
"The other side appears to have made a mistake."
"A mistake?"
"I hesitated to bring it up, since I wasn't certain myself. For some time now, suspicious eyes fixed on you, Young Master Kang, have been lingering about."
"Could they be the same devils who attacked me last time?"
"That's... a little strange, actually."
The guard trailed off, clearly unconvinced of his own theory.
"Strange how?"
"They're not as aggressive as before, and it never rises to the level of true malice. You've been on everyone's lips lately, Young Master, so it may simply be people hoping to glimpse your face who drifted a bit too close."
Did I overplay my hand?
Who was the culprit who killed the master of the house? Not the Shadowless Divine Thief—a fake. The true culprit was the master's son by a concubine. Why was he the culprit? How did the late master behave? What was the evidence?
I had staged a deduction show so magnificent that most people would never witness one in a lifetime, and now people were turning up at Daseogak just to see the face behind the rumors.
"It seems my worthless bit of fame is putting you fine guards through trouble."
"Shall we add more escorts next time and turn the pursuit back on them?"
"No. That would only thin the manpower guarding Lady Jegal at the mansion. So I really am popular. I'll have to remember that."
I tossed out the joke lightly, hoping to loosen the guards wound tight as bowstrings.
"Haha! Where there's fame and money, flies are bound to gather. We'll be watching over you for the time being, so worry not. Ah—here we are at the mansion."
"I'm in your hands."
Had it been someone come to gawk at the face behind the rumors? Or the Do Gate?
Either way, I went inside to pass along what I had heard.
"So the Do Gate finally caught on."
I told Lim Hayeon and Jegal Hyang what the Do Gate was up to.
"With word of the Shadowless Divine Thief spreading across all of Wuhan, it's about time they noticed."
I simply hadn't predicted the form the interference would take. I never believed the Do Gate would stay oblivious forever. The news was unwelcome to Lim Hayeon, but she nodded as though what was due had finally come due.
"A fake Shadowless Divine Thief using paper cranes. If the goal was to put a stain on the name, they put real thought into it."
Never mind that my declaring every last bit of it fake had reduced their whole scheme to waste paper in an instant.
The Do Gate devils couldn't have known I would become a bailiff, either. Neither had I, for that matter.
"Something about this is strange."
Lim Hayeon murmured the words with a dark look, puzzling over something.
"What is?"
"If they'd caught on to our plan, shouldn't the Do Gate be moving more aggressively? There'd be no need to bother with a fake Shadowless Divine Thief instead of going after the Gi Gate or the mansion itself."
True enough.
If they knew about the Shadowless Divine Thief plan, snatching Lim Hayeon outright would be the logical move. Why circle around to it by scratching at the thief's reputation instead?
Lim Hayeon put the question to me, but no clear answer surfaced in my own head either.
"U-umm..."
As the silence stretched on, Jegal Hyang glanced between the two of us and called to me in a small voice.
"Lady Jegal? Did you have something to say?"
"M-might it be so they don't c-commit the error of striking the grass and startling the sssnake?"
No need to startle the snake by rustling the grass. That could well be it.
"They may simply not be certain yet."
"Yeees. That's it. Hehe. That's exactly it, yeees."
Jegal Hyang beamed and nodded, delighted that even her few words had gotten through.
"What are you two talking about?"
"That the Do Gate hasn't fully confirmed the Shadowless Divine Thief's identity is Lady Hayeon."
I unraveled Lady Jegal's meaning for Lady Hayeon without fuss.
"Ah..."
"To everyone else, the Shadowless Divine Thief is nothing more than a thief out of Hopil's new novel. And the government office has gone on official record denying any connection between Daseogak and the Shadowless Divine Thief."
Ours was a world of non-interference between officials and the martial world, but when it came to theft, the yamen's word could never be brushed aside.
Kang Yunho is innocent. The thief is merely a crook trying to cash in on the good name of the author Hopil. Pick a fight with Daseogak, and the authorities will not stand idly by.
With a notice bearing the official seal posted for all to see, even the Do Gate had no choice but to second-guess itself.
"Officially, I'm at this moment under protection somewhere in the Wuhan Gyobang. As far as the world knows, ties between us were severed long ago."
Since her return to the mansion, Lim Hayeon had kept to the grounds entirely, save when she went out as the Shadowless Divine Thief.
Her recent outings, too, had been made in a face-concealing outfit, using only carriages and boats operated by the yamen—no risk of exposure at all.
"The Do Gate can hardly be sure the Gi Gate has divined who Lady Hayeon's father is. The fact that she is the Shadowless Divine Thief's daughter is a secret that would profit no one to spill."
"A textbook case of striking the grass and startling the snake. If I truly weren't the one playing the Shadowless Divine Thief, then charging out aggressively for no reason would only cost them. They'll be reasoning it could put the other Branch Masters wise to the Do Gate Branch Master's designs on the Mangju seat."
"Yeeees. E-e-even if treasure lay in a hibernating bear's den, you wouldn't want to be the one to wake the bear."
Lim Hayeon nodded along, regarding Jegal Hyang with open admiration that her mind had run that far in a heartbeat.
The Zhuge Clan, through and through. The Murim Alliance doesn't recruit its people one by one for nothing.
"Time to prepare the next phase, I'd say."
If the other side was moving, so had we. Grinning to force some brightness back into a mood that had sunk under the approaching threat, I said it lightly.
"You're really going to go through with that?"
Lim Hayeon asked, worry written across her face.
"We've prepared our hearts out together, haven't we? Let's finish it before the situation closes in on us."
Fortunately, we were still one step ahead of the Do Gate.
Even if the Do Gate couldn't be certain, their wariness was fact. And when your opponent hesitated to set foot forward, you had to stride out first.
"Coo. Coo-coo-coot!"
"A letter from the Gi Gate."
A familiar spirit beast came sailing in through the window.
Gugu. That rascal even knows how to work a window. Wait—didn't I latch it? Don't tell me it can pick locks too?
"Coo. Come here."
"Coot!"
While I stood there aghast, Lim Hayeon deftly untied the letter from Gugu's leg and spread it open.
"What does it say?"
"They're asking to meet at the Tu Gate. The Branch Masters have called a gathering."
While the Do Gate floundered about,
the news we had been waiting for finally came flying in.
"Move!"
A warrior with a blade at his hip came pounding up in urgent strides and shouted at the men standing guard before the great tent.
"The meeting is in session. Come back later."
"I bear news of the utmost urgency! Out of the way, now!"
"That won't—"
"Let him through."
"L-Loyalty! Go in."
At the weighty voice from within the tent, the guards flinched and trembled from the shoulders, then parted to let the armed warrior pass.
Tsk. Interrupting a council.
As the man entered the tent, countless warriors came into view, standing along a long table.
Every face among them was hard and fierce, and every eye shot disapproval at the man who had barged in on their council—but not one of them could actually voice a complaint.
For the one who had granted the armed man entry sat at the head of that table, in the seat of honor.
"Speak."
At those words, the hall went silent in an instant.
The man who had burst in dropped to one knee before the seat of honor in proper courtesy.
To slog all this way bearing news, only to be received like this. I kneel now—but the news I carry will soon have the rest of you on your knees. The man opened his mouth.
"W-we have found the whereabouts of the Dangsu!"
The place where the man stood was Hwalbindang, once known as the Black Tiger Band.
"What?!"
"Is that true?!"
The hall erupted in an instant.
"Wh-where is the Dangsu?"
To think the Secretary-General Sutallin himself—foremost under heaven—would let his voice shake. The same thought flashed through every head present, yet not a soul dared put it into words.
"He has been in Wuhan."
"The Dangsu, in Wuhan? What has he been doing there?"
The man who had cast aside all power, riches, and glory, and stepped down from the Dangsu's seat. How had he lived, all this while?
Sutallin had always wondered and never had a way to learn. He lent his ear to the bearer of the news.
"The people of Wuhan speak of the Dangsu as an innkeeper who sells food, and a shopkeeper who sells books."
"Ha! The Dangsu himself, become a merchant?"
The leader of Hwalbindang, turned into a merchant who could be felled with a single stroke of a blade. Someone could not hide his disappointment.
"Mind your tongue! He relinquished all power and stepped down rather than let himself rot into a bourgeoisie!"
"These new recruits, honestly! Daring to slander the Dangsu!"
The executives who had wept upon hearing the Dangsu's words with their own ears now bared open hostility at the sneering newcomer.
"Wh-what did I say? I only meant that the one who truly ought to be Dangsu still occupies the Secretary-General's seat, that is all."
At the very center of the uproarious hall, the man who had brought the news allowed himself a hidden smile.
Pitiful creatures, the lot of them.
So this is the joy of holding information before others do. The man savored that secret pleasure for a moment, then opened his mouth again to share the truly shocking news.
"The world speaks so only because it does not know his true face! The Dangsu has been wearing a mask all this time to blind the eyes of the world!"
Every executive's gaze snapped to him at once.
"A mask?"
"What do you mean?"
An innkeeper selling food. A keeper of a bookshop. Not a soul in Wuhan had seen through the Dangsu's disguise.
But from him alone—from him, a member of Hwalbindang—he had not been able to hide it.
"The Shadowless Divine Thief! The phantom thief who appeared in Wuhan! The very thief the world hails as a righteous bandit! He is the Dangsu's own man!"
The phantom thief, the Shadowless Divine Thief. Only one man alive would ever conceive of a righteous thief. The Dangsu of Hwalbindang. Kang So-and-so, and no one else. The man was certain of it.
"What?!"
"Is this true?"
"Yes! Beyond all doubt! Not long ago he was even hauled before the government office over his righteous deeds and made to suffer terribly!"
The man, who had spent his days circling Kang Yunho, began laying out everything he had unearthed.
"Those filthy official dogs!!! How dare they lay hands on the Dangsu!!!"
"To your blades! This settles it—we march on Wuhan!"
"C-calm yourselves!"
"The Dangsu is being put to the torture even now, and you call for calm?!!"
The hall churned like a cauldron brought to a rolling boil.
"Lower your blades."
The Secretary-General of Hwalbindang, Sutallin, spoke with a calm voice to the executives who could not hold their fury in check.
"Secretary-General! Even you, Secretary-General... Gah! Your hand!"
In truth, only Sutallin's voice was calm. The hand gripping his sword hilt had gone black-blue with rage, and it trembled without pause.
"Continue."
Secretary-General Sutallin is holding himself back. The hall went quiet once more.
"Even while enduring such torment, the Dangsu kept his identity hidden! No—rather, the officials were the ones deceived! They never once glimpsed his true form, and in the end they even apologized to him!"
"Slipping clean past those vile officials. As expected of the Dangsu."
This was the man who had borne agony without complaint all the way through the great undertaking of the old days. Torment that would have broken any ordinary warrior. As ever, it could only be the Dangsu. Sutallin let out his admiration.
"Yes! Even now, the wicked rich of Wuhan shiver through sleepless nights, terrified the Shadowless Divine Thief will come calling!"
The man rattled off the Shadowless Divine Thief's exploits, gathered in Wuhan, half in boasting.
"I thought it strange. A phantom thief? A righteous bandit? What devil would dare, knowing neither shame nor place, to do the work of our Hwalbindang? I sent men to look into it. And there it is. It was the Dangsu."
"We barely manage our work at the ragged edge of Hubei, yet he practices righteous thievery in the very capital of Hubei—in Wuhan! It could only be the Dangsu!"
"Whoa! I joined Hwalbindang only recently, and I'd heard the Dangsu's tales until my ears were worn smooth, but he truly is a man apart."
"As expected of the Dangsu! Even his vessel stands on another level!"
The hall boiled over once more—in a different sense than before. All but one man.
"It is my fault. My fault alone."
Secretary-General Sutallin rose from his seat and struck his own chest, his voice gone cold.
"Secretary-General?"
The foremost Secretary-General under heaven, wearing so pained a face? What in the world was happening? The executives were at a loss.
"I must have fallen from the Dangsu's favor."
"Impossible, Secretary-General! You merely paused to draw breath after great sacrifice, all so that a single party might be forged!"
Seventy-two Green Forest dens, forged into one party.
They had risen with a grand purpose, surely—but great sacrifice had followed merely to bring one more Green Forest den under their banner.
"He knew all of it! He saw everything, and he moved once more—to rebuke me! And to put courage into us!"
Sutallin choked the self-reproach out as though retching, then turned his eyes on the executives once more.
"He knew?"
"Power! Wealth! He set it all down and returned to the wilds as a nameless man! And now the Dangsu asks: I can still play the righteous thief myself—so what is it you are all doing?"
Sutallin roared at the executives as if to say: I know this, so why don't you?
"Just so!"
"He has been watching over us all along!"
"In the breast of the man who returned to the wilds, the hwalbin heart—the will to save the poor—still blazed! Those whelps who drink the tears their wealth brings as if it were wine! Beholding the bourgeoisie of Wuhan—those rich who weep and swill—he could no longer stand by!"
What on earth had I been doing all this while? As if the Dangsu had slapped him awake yet again, Sutallin clenched his fist until it shook.
"Dangsu!"
"We long to see the Dangsu!"
"Kh-hk!"
"I was the fool! Chasing after territory, I let righteous thieving fall by the wayside! We must show the Dangsu! We must let him know! That the hwalbin heart still burns within us! Rise! Every one of you, take up your blades!"
"Loyalty!"
Every bandit in the hall raised their blades. And before them all stood the Secretary-General. Sutallin.
Stung awake by the Dangsu's backhand, Hwalbindang stretched out its limbs once more.