The Big Heist (1)

"Tale of the Wind and Cloud Chivalric Hero is getting a Volume 3?"

"How long has it even been since Volume 2 came out? I figured we'd be waiting at least half a year, no matter what."

"Dangga Pungun has put out three volumes in a single year! What kind of impossible writing speed is this?!"

This was a world where a single book could take years to see print. Volume 2 had only just come out, and the great Unhyeon-versus-Dang Jeong debate was still raging—and now they were announcing a Volume 3?

The patrons of Daseogak had been unable to collect themselves since the announcement for Volume 3 of Tale of the Wind and Cloud Chivalric Hero.

"If that's how it's going to be, then just give us Dangga Pungun Volume 4!"

"Could it be... that Author Hopil has lost interest in Dangga Pungun...?"

"Oh, come now! Don't say things that'll bring disaster! The notice said it plainly—once the debt issue is settled, it goes straight to print!"

The devoted readers of Dangga Pungun grumbled their disappointment, but even that grumbling settled quickly, for the pace of Volume 3's release was extraordinary beyond all precedent.

"Anyway, it's heeeere! Tale of the Wind and Cloud Chivalric Hero Volume 3 is fiiinally out!"

"The tale of Unhyeon living under one roof with the beautiful lady instructor and the Shadowless Divine Thief—LET'S GOOOOO!"

The shock passed quickly; the joy and the thrill lasted far longer. For devoted readers, even a wait without promise was simply the price of Hopil. And so, at this piece of welcome news—hardly a formal announcement—they cheered until the walls of Daseogak rang.

"I tell you to go to the hall, and instead you go traipsing who-knows-where from the crack of dawn! You turn twenty the day after tomorrow—when are you going to get your head on straight?!"

In a certain estate in Wuhan, a mother was shrieking at her child, who had slipped out at first light and only wandered home past midday.

"Mother! I went out with the Hall Master and the other hall members!"

Ordinarily such an answer would have made him squirm, but today, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of all days, the son replied with the confidence of a boy whose errand had been perfectly legitimate.

"What? Where?"

"To a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠place where one learns to still the heart and wait in calm patience, so as to grasp the true heart of chivalry."

"He doesn't look like he's lying... Did you go to the temple with the Hall Master and see to a hundred and eight prostrations at dawn?"

This was the Hall Master, after all, famed for ruling his students with an iron hand. And though the mother eyed her son with misgiving, his brazen composure left her no ground to press the point.

"I did training far more important than that! I'm tired, so I'm going in to rest!"

If Mother found out, he was a dead man. Fearing she might catch sight of what lay against his chest, the son feigned exhaustion and retreated to his room.

What he drew from his robes was Volume 3 of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tale of the Wind and Cloud Chivalric Hero.

The truth of it was that he had stood in line since dawn beside the Hall Master—himself a devoted reader of the tale—simply to buy the new volume.

"Reading it the very day it released!"

So this was why a man trained, was it? He had been on his feet in line for half the day since dawn, yet felt not the least bit tired.

The young man pushed aside his copy of Volume 2—thumbed to rags by countless rereads—and, unable to hide the anticipation written on his face, opened Volume 3 to its first page.

"Even after rescuing Lady Jin Soyu, he doesn't slack in his work as a chivalrous hero. Oh! And the Shadowless Divine Thief?"

Hadn't the three of them only just begun living under one roof? What on earth was going to happen between them? The young man could not tear his eyes from the page.

"Ooh. The Shadowless Divine Thief, all right! Now that is a firm character!"

Approved. With a temperament like that, wouldn't she make a worthy counterpart to Jin Soyu, who had crossed the brink of death at his side? The corner of the young man's mouth crept upward.

The Shadowless Divine Thief looked put-upon, but by no means displeased.

"If I pulled a stunt like that, people would tell me to take a hint."

Picturing Unhyeon's face on the hanging scroll sold at Daseogak, the young man smiled ruefully.

"Hahaha! She lifted the purse of that brute who tried to assault her!"

When they called her a righteous thief, he had wondered—but she was, in word and deed, the very Shadowless Divine Thief.

A bold personality, and beauty to match. The young man had adored Jin Soyu enough to read Volume 2 to rags, but he could not deny the Shadowless Divine Thief's charm.

"Surrounding them in the middle of a meal—how despicable!"

Even for Unhyeon, there were far too many. What on earth was he to do? Would the Shadowless Divine Thief step in? The young man's eyes skated across the lines as fast as he could read.

"Even in a crisis, his first thought is for the innocent! That's our Young Hero Unhyeon!"

Unhyeon was not one to flaunt a confidence he did not have. Just as the young man expected, the Eight Trigrams Sword Technique unfurled before the Black Path martial artists.

"Ooh. In Volume 2, this same situation spelled disaster—but a single enlightenment changes everything. A whole horde of Third-Rate Martial Artists swarming in wouldn't even qualify as opponents now!"

Without realizing it, the young man clenched his fist at Unhyeon's exploits. To think a crisis carried over from the previous volume could be settled so easily. Unhyeon's growth filled him with joy, as though it were his own.

Back at the mansion, the Shadowless Divine Thief began binding Unhyeon's wounds.

"That's right. Sometimes he really ought to look after his own skin first."

Unhyeon's deeds were admirable, but every so often the young man wished he would set aside that single-minded devotion and look to his own safety first. He nodded along with the Shadowless Divine Thief's words.

Fair words. But he could not live that way. Under his maidservant's frustrated gaze, Unhyeon chose to speak of the past.

Just as his master once had. He would never turn his face from anyone his hand could reach. From boyhood to this very day, Unhyeon's resolve had not changed.

Of course, the young man reading the scene took away a rather different impression.

"Unhyeon, you rascal. Forget Taoist master—that boy is a master of romance..."

He planned that, didn't he? Completely?

To bare the sincerity at the heart of his chivalry before a righteous thief who stole even to feed the destitute—what a calculated strike.

Had even the Shadowless Divine Thief, peerless in all the world, been struck speechless before Unhyeon?

From that day on, the Shadowless Divine Thief's manner toward Unhyeon grew softer and softer.

"There she is! Lady Jin!"

Lady Jin Soyu, who had been busy settling the debt problem, had finally arrived on the scene.

"Hehehe. This is driving me mad! Yes! This is the flavor you must never skip in Author Hopil's novels! Lady Jin—prim and proper as a model wife—is jealous!"

The moment the subtle war of nerves between the two women began, the smile would not leave the young man's lips.

Pleasant days indeed: a martial student of the Pungun Martial Arts Academy making a name for himself as a chivalrous hero, and the hearts of two women deepening for one man. And yet Unhyeon's own face was not entirely bright.

"Unhyeon, wounded? What on earth? Just how formidable a master was this attacker?"

The face of Unhyeon, who had taken such fulfillment in his chivalrous deeds, looked darker than usual today.

"The hero and the grudges he reaps. Yes. That's part of why the martial artists of the orthodox sects so rarely perform chivalrous deeds."

The young man recalled what the Hall Master had once said.

That the orthodox sects cry "chivalrous hero" with their lips, yet not one of their martial artists actually steps out into the jianghu to perform such deeds. That men will dress justice up in service of their own interests, for in this world few delight in standing forth for another's sake. That watching Unhyeon's actions, they ought to ask themselves once more what true chivalry is.

Day after day, the Hall Master said all this while heaping praise on Tale of the Wind and Cloud Chivalric Hero.

"Don't tell me... has Author Hopil, too, looked upon the murim of today and cast down a koan for us to ponder?"

This was Author Hopil, after all, who loved chivalrous heroes more than anyone.

Unhyeon, who had entered the world to become a chivalrous hero. Unhyeon, whom no Black Path man should ever have been able to harm—and yet he had been wounded by his very own chivalry.

The anguish that is a chivalrous hero's lot: what one believes right may not be right at all. It may give birth to yet another victim.

What would you do in his place? Surely that was the koan he had cast down.

"Even in Dangga Pungun, Unhyeon makes his name as a chivalrous hero. Did he find some answer, then?"

For a mere academy student who could only admire chivalrous heroes from afar, it was not a question that offered an easy answer.

But if it was Unhyeon—his name still ringing as a chivalrous hero's even in the age of Dangga Pungun—then surely he had reached some conclusion of his own.

As though the illness of heart Unhyeon had caught were nothing worth naming, the Shadowless Divine Thief laughed and vanished down the night road.

What answer would Author Hopil offer them through the Shadowless Divine Thief?

In search of that answer, the young man turned to the next page.