The Big Score - 2
"So a phantom letter flew in, I hear."
"What phantom letter?"
"They say a strangely folded piece of black paper was found sitting in some rich man's estate."
"The Shadowless Divine Thief? What did she make off with this time?"
"That's exactly the problem! She leaves the paper behind first, then comes back for the plunder! Thanks to her, every rich house that received a letter is in an uproar trying to hire guards!"
"So the answer to Unhyeon's troubles was a phantom letter? Announcing the burglary in advance? What kind of thief pulls a stunt that insane?"
Why on earth would the Shadowless Divine Thief send out such letters? It made no sense. And yet he burned to know. The young man kept reading.
"Children have been vanishing from the poor village of late. Because it is a poor village, the constables cannot be bothered to care, and men of the martial world have no reason to act — so ought I not be the one to step forward?"
"I hear that thanks to the phantom letters, many places now hire guards against a thief called the Shadowless Divine Thief, who prowls about every night. Is guarding the common folk from thieves not work enough for a chivalric hero?"
Left to his own devices, the Young Hero Unhyeon of today was bound to come to serious harm. So, at the strong urging of the two women, Unhyeon reluctantly agreed to take the safe work of guarding vaults.
"Young Hero Unhyeon, all you need do is stand watch before the vault. Should the Shadowless Divine Thief appear, simply pull the handle here."
"So you are the one who runs the gambling den."
Unhyeon had known perfectly well who his employer was. A man who operated a gambling den on a scale the state had outlawed — and of the notoriety that spread of it in whispers, he had heard plenty.
"Someone has to do such work, does he not? And it is precisely because a wretch like me does it that I can pour silver into the temples and drop alms into the hands of the poor."
Every rumor Unhyeon had ever heard was apparently slander. A misunderstanding, nothing more. True, the man ran a gambling den — but he was also, supposedly, a fountain of charity.
Laughing away Unhyeon's hostility, the employer touted himself with practiced ease.
"...I understand."
A man who gave bountifully to the poor? Could Unhyeon possibly have misheard? What he had seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears was certain — and yet, lost, Unhyeon could not find his bearings.
"Unhyeon! What is the meaning of this! He's exactly the sort of man you should be cutting down right this instant—and yet... Gah! To think I'd be the one saying 'never stand idle in the face of injustice'!"
He had certainly felt frustrated by all that rigid chivalric conduct at some point. And yet here he was, startled half out of his skin to catch himself turning into Unhyeon right before his own eyes.
"It has been a while."
As though it were the most natural thing in the world, a disguised Shadowless Divine Thief appeared before Unhyeon.
"So the phantom letter was the Shadowless Divine Thief's way of arranging a meeting with Unhyeon? The Shadowless Divine Thief's love letters are on a whole different level."
Not as the maiden Ok-ryeon, but as the Shadowless Divine Thief — just how did she mean to untangle Unhyeon's troubles?
"Return whence you came. Grateful though I am to you for the life you spared, I have no intention of standing by while you carry off what belongs to others."
"I'd rather not, thanks. Either stand there nicely while I open the vault — or let go of that handle you're gripping for dear life. Quickly, if you please?"
"She even saw through the trap!"
"...This is what you wished for. Wha—?!"
The moment Unhyeon lowered the handle, the floor of the vault chamber gave way all at once.
"Grab hold!"
The bottom of the pit bristled with spear blades packed point to point. The Shadowless Divine Thief snatched Unhyeon up on the spot and kicked off toward the one safe pocket within the pit.
"She changed direction mid-fall? Just how sublime is her lightness skill?"
"What in the world is all this...?"
Unhyeon murmured, staring wide-eyed at the spear blades that might so easily have strung him up like a honeycomb.
"Doing away with two thorns in his side at a single stroke — two birds with one stone, no? Did you know the black-path martial artist you killed used to serve under this man?"
"He assured me, most clearly, that he was a merchant who bestowed much upon the poor."
"What about now?"
A cellar. Rooms strung out along a long corridor. The Shadowless Divine Thief showed him the children inside — gaunt as winter branches, hunched over, making something with their hands.
"What is this?!"
"I'm told that crafting the tools for rigged gambling calls for the delicate hands of children."
"So he was a rotten, vile bastard after all!"
"Intruders! Seize them!"
"Spear blades behind you. Sword blades ahead. You do know what you must do if you want to live?!"
Unhyeon obediently drew his sword. But it was not the sword of the Unhyeon of ordinary days.
Even the man who drove those children on with a whip might be somebody's beloved family. Was it truly right for him to swing his blade? Would his sword not forge yet another grudge into the world?
The tip of Unhyeon's sword trembled — yet what trembled was not the sword of Ten Thousand Variations. It was Unhyeon's heart, unable to find its bearings.
"Unhyeon! This is hardly the time! Do you see how many black-path thugs are right in front of you!"
Worrying, even with his life hanging in the balance. Of course, for a man who had lived his whole life gazing at nothing but the ideal of the chivalric hero, there could be no weightier dilemma — but a dilemma has to be survived to count as a dilemma at all.
"Why are you hesitating!"
The Shadowless Divine Thief saw at once that something was amiss with Unhyeon.
"I... I..."
There was no way he could speak his dilemma aloud. A foolish one, if foolish it be. But then, it was a dilemma no one else could ever hope to understand.
"Don't tell me you're searching for the perfect reason to swing your sword?"
"How could you tell?"
In the heartbeat of a standoff, Unhyeon stared at her, stunned.
"Measuring this, calculating that — you call that a chivalric hero? How are you any different from some haggling merchant?"
Weighing profit against loss — was that chivalry? Fearing the grudges it would sow — was that chivalry?
Into Unhyeon's wavering heart, her words drove in like a thrown dagger, sharp and unerring.
"The moment you take a sword into your hand. The moment you set foot in the murim. You have thrown yourself into the river of grace and grudge. And do you know what separates you from me?"
"And what would that be?"
He had taken her for a mere thief, nothing more. And yet, if anyone could find the answer to his question, he thought it might be her.
Lost, Unhyeon asked in search of that answer.
Meeting Unhyeon's desperate eyes, the Shadowless Divine Thief raised her dagger, fixed her gaze on the black-path thugs before them, and opened her mouth.
"Even if my whole body is soaked through, I will not pretend not to see the children who have fallen into the river."
Let the world curse her as a thief — it changed nothing. If she had to become the evil one herself, then she would judge great evil with her own hands, in her own way.
"The Shadowless Divine Thief..."
He had thought her a mere thief.
Before Unhyeon's eyes stood another chivalric hero — one who bore the name of righteous thief.
"Ohhh, so THIS is it! A chivalric hero bearing the name of the Shadowless Divine Thief! She sent Unhyeon that love letter so she could counsel him — senior of the murim to junior!"
"Young Hero Unhyeon! There seems to be some misunderstanding! Lend me your aid in seizing the Shadowless Divine Thief this very moment, and I shall fill your pockets to the brim with gold!"
With half his men already felled, the owner — sensing which way the wind blew — burst upon the scene and shouted to Unhyeon.
"Master. The children..."
"The children? A misunderstanding, I say! I took in those children so they would not starve come tomorrow, and I am raising them as my own!"
A green novice of the murim. Fob him off with any excuse roughly to hand, and he would swallow it whole. So the owner spoke, smiling a secret, triumphant smile —
blissfully unaware that Unhyeon had changed.
"They were children abducted from the poor village."
"Ha... You knew? No help for it, then. ATTACK!"
At the man's command, black-path martial artists flooded the cellar from wall to wall. Not one among them was a master, granted — but they were numbers enough to set a murim novice's knees knocking.
"I will not be swayed by doubt ever again."
Yet Unhyeon did not tremble. He did not waver. For the first time that day, Unhyeon gripped his sword with iron resolve.
"What nonsense does the whelp spout! ATTACK!"
"Gulp."
What was about to happen? Heart in his throat, as though he himself stood at the scene, one spark from the flashpoint, the young man turned the page.
Unhyeon stood in the middle of a river.
The sword was, without question, cutting down his enemies — and still, Unhyeon stood in the middle of a river.
In the very middle of the river of grace and grudge, he stood, a single sword in hand, amid the raging current.
Loosen his footing even a little, and the river would swallow him and drag him under. Release the sword, and he would never cleave his way up through the flood.
"I cannot become a chivalric hero."
The sword aimed against the current trembled beyond counting. Shrouded in doubt, he could not take one step forward.
He had to find the way. But how?
"Even if my whole body is soaked through, I will not pretend not to see the children who have fallen into the river."
Yes. That was it — fearlessness. He would not fear the grudges that chivalric conduct begot. He would not be shaken by doubt.
Though the tip of the sword may tremble, it is I and no other who judges all things; it is I and no other who binds and severs the threads of grace and grudge.
On two unmoving feet, he would stand against the river.
"Though my swordtip trembles ten thousand times, I myself do not waver."
From the days of his childhood to this very moment. A conviction that would never bend. Though all creation turned to something else, the one thing unchanged — himself.
"At the center of the Eight Trigrams stands I myself."
It was yet one more hidden key — the gate to carrying the Eight Trigrams Sword Technique into its next stage.
"Wh-what in the—! Kgh!"
Before the sword of Unhyeon, transcended to a new realm, the black-path men who had packed the room to its walls sank to their knees in a single breath.
"'Go out into the world, and lay up good deeds.' Because this is a sword that could never be forged on Mount Wudang in a lifetime of trying — so that was why you bade me descend and swing my sword in the world."
A sword born for those who would cast off every doubt and become chivalric heroes.
That was the Eight Trigrams Sword Technique.
"As expected of the successor of the Five Great Patriarchs! As expected of Unhyeon! To think he would seize yet another enlightenment! Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!"
The young man rejoiced as though he had shaken off a doubt of his very own.
"Well, well. What an interesting collection inside this vault."
"What reason had you to help me?"
Unhyeon asked, staring blankly as the Shadowless Divine Thief swung the vault open. Why on earth had she helped him? Her aid kept arriving, and he could not fathom why.
"Here. Take this."
"And this is?"
"The secret ledger. You see, there are things I can do — and things I can't. Oh my, look there. The constables, forever one step too late, come swarming in."
"Have we... perchance met somewhere before?"
"You're fluttering your eyes at me at a time like this?"
"N-no, that is not what I... Before us, constables and swords. Behind us, the lake. Every road of retreat is sealed. Unmask yourself now, and I will help you."
"No road of retreat, you say? Who, pray tell, do you think I am?"
The Shadowless Divine Thief kicked off toward the lake.
"What—?! How — the water?!"
"A human being, walking on water? Who does she think she is — Bodhidharma?!"
Was she performing the One-Reed Crossing of the Great Master Bodhidharma — the legend of crossing the Yellow River atop a single reed leaf? As a realm of legend unfolded before their eyes, Unhyeon and the young man could only wear the very same expression.
"And here I thought talk of chivalric heroes was bound to be dusty, sermonizing stuff — just like the innkeeper said."
Yet there was not a dull moment in this discourse on chivalry at all. A beautiful phantom thief called the Shadowless Divine Thief; dilemmas wrestled with and resolved into hard-won enlightenment amid breathless peril; even the scene where Unhyeon, doubt cast aside and stronger than ever, swept his enemies away in a single stroke. Every last bit of it gripped him hard enough to squeeze the sweat from his palms.
"Right this instant, I want to rush out and swing a sword until I'm strong like Unhyeon."
The young man could hardly contain the thing boiling up inside him. The sole reason he did not bolt straight for the training grounds then and there was that he had yet to see how Pungun Hyeopgaekjeon, Volume 3, would end.
"So Volume 3 is drawing to a close too, huh? Feels like drinking seawater — the more I swallow, the thirstier I get."
The young man turned the page.