Tu Gate - 9
"I'm home."
What an endless night it had been. I had barely shaken the pursuit from my tail before the mansion finally rose into view, and the sight warmed me more than a soldier's first glimpse of the barracks after a punishing march.
"Darling!"
"Y-Young Master Kang!"
The moment I opened the living room door, there stood Miss Hayeon and Miss Jegal, waiting up for me with worry written plain across their faces.
They must be exhausted — why weren't they asleep? Knowing there were people who would fret over me all night and wait for my return, well... perhaps all this suffering was worth more than I'd thought.
"Ugh!"
Had my tension finally drained away? Perhaps because I could finally believe I was home, the wounds from an entire day of chase throbbed for the first time since morning.
"Darling! You're hurt?!"
The instant I clutched at my injuries and doubled over, Miss Hayeon was at my side in a flash.
"Young Master Kang, are you hurt? Wh-what do we dooooo! Should I fetch a physician?!"
Miss Jegal rushed over as well, panic on her face, utterly at a loss.
"I'm fine. They're just scratches. Ngh!"
They sting more than I expected.
"Stop pretending you're fine and sh-show me where you're hurt, right now!"
"Miss Hayeon, if you get worked up too..."
"You're injured — how am I supposed to stay calm?!"
What's with the waterworks? Tears brimmed in Miss Hayeon's eyes as she stared at me.
"All right, all right. There, calm down."
Apparently, having someone overreact at your elbow makes everything hurt more.
I calmly pulled off my top and surveyed the damage. Mercifully, nothing beneath the skin was harmed. At worst I'd been slashed by a blade and scraped raw slamming into the ground somewhere along the way. Blood welled from the small cuts, but not a single wound was life-threatening.
"Aaah! Y-Young Master Kang, you're bleeding! I-I'll get the Golden Sore Powder!"
"Bandages! I'll grab the spirits and bandages!"
Anyone watching would have sworn a man at death's door sat before them.
Miss Hayeon and Miss Jegal, working in flawless tandem like a pair of ER doctors with a decade of experience, laid out their medical arsenal before me in a matter of seconds.
"It really isn't that bad..."
Under the gaze of two women who looked ready to gag my mouth with a bandage if I dared one more word, I quietly took a seat in the living room chair. Fine. Injured I certainly was. I would behave, take my treatment, and talk it through.
"Thankfully nothing serious. So — what happened out there?"
Having cinched the final bandage tight, Miss Hayeon asked at last, relief finally settling into her voice.
"Half a success. The Do Gate Branch Master caught on — just too late."
From the drinking party that followed my deception of the Do Gate Branch Master, to the chase that began the instant the gathering broke up, I laid out a brief account of how things stood.
"So infighting has actually broken out?"
"I hear the Do Gate launched a surprise attack on the Gi Gate. Come daybreak it won't spread further, but we should treat this as open civil war."
"Then... could it be..."
If the infighting raged on, the Tu Gate Branch Master's installation would never take place. Perhaps too frightened even to ask, Miss Hayeon could only look at me, worry etched on her face.
To reassure her, I shook my head with a smile.
"The ceremony will proceed as planned. I came home with the Tu Gate's promise."
Half a success or not, success was still success — proof enough that the two of us were sitting here, safe and sound.
"Then all that's left is—!"
"It isn't time to relax yet. The Do Gate will thrash to its very last."
It was too early to taste victory. I spoke with firm conviction.
"They know full well who guards this mansion and who dwells inside it. Would they really attempt something so suicidally bold?"
She had a point. Now that I was back behind these walls, we could count ourselves holding the winning hand — what madman would lay fingers on a place defended by the Mangeum Hall, home to the Zhuge Clan's youngest daughter?
That is, if he isn't a madman.
"The Do Gate Branch Master. Watching him through the gathering gave me a fair picture of what sort of man he is."
"What sort of man?"
At the mention of the man who had hounded her so relentlessly, Miss Hayeon listened with a grave face.
"A man who's run his road all the way to its end. His life is gambling, you see. Testing me, his eyes gleamed with outright madness — yet at the drinking party he showed not a flicker of thrill. One look at that utterly dead face and I was certain."
Even I had lost myself for a moment in the performance the Gi Gate Branch Master had so painstakingly prepared. But there before me sat a man whose brain had been pickled in dice.
"There are gamblers who wear a corpse's face all day, only to come alive the moment it's time to wager."
Miss Hayeon, born and raised in Haomen, knew the breed well. Which made her easy to convince.
"People whose lives become gambling all share one trait."
"Which is?"
"They cannot stop halfway, even if it means plunging into the abyss. Never — not once — can they walk away at the very moment that decides winner from loser."
Once gambling takes hold, the brakes in a man's brain break for good. I only lost because the pot was too small. I'll empty every pocket and win it all back. Out of money? Sell the estate. Lost the estate? Then borrow. Addicts who would sooner stake their own skins on one final win than admit the loss and quit.
And their chieftain was the Do Gate Branch Master.
"All that's left is to hold the mansion, and once the sun sets, the installation ceremony begins."
Victory was in sight. Once Lim Hayeon took the seat of Tu Gate Branch Master, more than ten years of the Do Gate Branch Master's labor would burst like foam. However hard he thrashed, he would never become the Mangju of Haomen, and the factions he had gathered to back his bid would lose their purpose and fall to pieces.
"If he were being sensible, the Do Gate Branch Master would have two choices. Lose everything and crawl away with his life. Or stake everything and win what he wants."
There was a way out for him, after all. Abandon every scheme he'd staked his life on building, admit defeat, and walk away.
"Any ordinary man would choose the former."
"But to a gambler, only the latter exists."
To such a man, quitting midway is defeat all the same. For a madman whose life is one long wager, only a single road remained.
"He's going to overplay his hand."
Miss Hayeon said it with a knowing look. I returned that look in kind.
"I anticipated as much."
"I-it's time!"
Miss Jegal held out her hand, and we all took hold of one another.
We hadn't won the best of outcomes, but we had dodged the worst and made it this far. How much preparation had gone into this one day? With the winning hand in our grip, it was time to execute the plan without a waver.
"We move according to plan."
It was time to sit back and savor the death throes of a madman who could smell his own defeat.
"You're certain the Shadowless Divine Thief is inside that mansion?"
A band of martial artists huddled inside a remote building, pointing toward the mansion visible in the distance.
"Every courtesan we tracked down sang the same tune, so it must be true."
A Do Gate officer unrolled a floor plan of the mansion, source unknown.
"However I turn it over, the numbers don't add up. Assaulting the Mangeum Hall's own residence?"
"You're already this far in. Don't imagine this ends with your advance being refunded."
A murderously cold killing intent swept the room in an instant.
"One little joke and he scowls. Clean job, certain pay — right?"
"When has the Branch Master ever come up short on a reckoning?"
"Heh. Fair enough."
The warrior nodded and swept his gaze over the room packed with armed men. Orthodox folk labor under the delusion that the Unorthodox know no loyalty; only the object of that loyalty differs. Given enough coin to make a risk worth taking, even orthodox men could display loyalty aplenty instead of going weak in the knees and bolting.
"Everyone, gather round. Final briefing."
"I'm not exaggerating — with a force this size we couldn't just nab one thief. We could grab the Mangeum Lord himself by the collar."
One of the warriors said it in jest, but it was no idle boast. The situation was grave enough that the Do Gate had pulled in a great share of its main strength. In a full-fledged war between factions it might have been debatable — but a raid like this could not possibly fail.
The officer gave a small nod at the man's words and spoke.
"Today's first-priority target is the Shadowless Divine Thief. Second is the barbarian. Dispose of anyone who gets in the way."
The Shadowless Divine Thief's daughter and her betrothed. Capture both at once, and the Tu Gate Branch Master could be bent to their will through sheer blackmail.
"And the Zhuge Clan's little miss?"
"Subdue her, no more. So long as the daughter comes to no harm, the Zhuge Clan cannot meddle deeply in this affair."
"Now this has become a nuisance."
"We hand the prizes to the Do Gate Branch Master and vanish. Flee to the Jiangnan region, bolt beyond the frontier — your choice. Just don't get caught, and you're set."
"So we commit the deed, then pull our own names out of it?"
"We've secured green hair for everyone. As far as the world will know, today's work was the scheme of men nursing grudges from the Nokcheong Escort Agency affair."
The remnants of the Nokcheong Escort Agency, hungry for vengeance, had abducted Kang Yunho and his lover. Even supposing Kang Yunho was known to keep company with a daughter of the Zhuge Clan, theirs was no formal engagement. And with the youngest daughter unharmed, the clan would hesitate to entangle itself in an Unorthodox affair.
By the time anyone looked, the perpetrators would be long gone from Hubei Province, leaving nothing behind but doctored evidence. The Mangeum Lord would rage upon hearing his granddaughter's account — but the Do Gate Branch Master, crowned Mangju, could wash his hands of any connection to the affair.
It was the best plan the officer could wring from a desperate brain to serve his Branch Master's command.
"I envy the Do Gate Branch Master. He can issue orders like a cur and still has subordinates who tidy up after him like men."
"That is no concern of yours."
How dare he curse the Branch Master. At the officer's glare, the warrior raised both hands in apology.
"Guards inside?"
"The barbarian is good for nothing but running, and the Zhuge girl doesn't factor in. The Mangeum Lord seems to have placed his men with care for his granddaughter's sake, but against numbers like ours they're simply too few — hopeless odds."
For today's work, every blade the Do Gate possessed in Hubei Province had been summoned to Wuhan. Perhaps not if the Mangeum Lord himself stood within — but cracking one mansion that housed a barbarian was well within their power.
"And the Shadowless Divine Thief?"
"Her skill will be considerable. She must not be harmed — clear the rest away first, then take her down together. Any questions?"
A weighty tension and a long moment of silence answered the officer.
"......"
"Move out."
The Do Gate warriors nodded and pulled their masks down over their faces.
"Intruders!"
The sun hanging at its zenith tilted itself aslant and veiled its face behind a passing cloud — and in that very moment, masked men in black appeared before the mansion.
"Cut through."
The guards at the entrance moved to resist, but a single blade cannot stand against several dozen.
"Ugh! F-fall back! Hold them behind the narrow entrance!"
For a handful to face a horde with their backs to a wall was simply a dog's death. Hoping to fight at the choke point, the guards pulled open the mansion's gates.
"You fools! You're holding the door open for them?! Give them no chance to shut it!"
The instant the guards stepped back inside, the intruders shot forward and caught the door before it could close.
"It's open! Break through! All of you, in!"
"No one escapes. The rest of you, over the wall."
In the space of a breath, dozens of intruders flooded into the mansion.
With numbers like these, we'll neutralize this place in moments!
Ten years of comfortable idleness rode on a job that would be over in no time. Finish this one, and retirement. Tally in the savings, and it was more than enough. The mansion's backing, after all, amounted to the Mangeum Hall — rich beyond measure within Hubei Province, but what could money do if we fled to the far ends of the earth? At worst, it was a matter of cutting down a few Mangeum Hall men. Retirement plan in mind, the Do Gate warrior vaulted over the mansion's gate.
It would all be over soon. Every intruder thought the same. But one fact had slipped their minds.
"What the—?! Where did everyone inside go?"
The most fearsome presence in this mansion was not the Mangeum Hall's guards.
"What is this mist?"
Nor was it Kang Yunho, the celebrated bailiff of Wuhan. Nor even the phantom thief who had set all of Hubei Province trembling — the Shadowless Divine Thief.
"Something's wrong! I can't see the men who came in with me! Where is everyone?!"
"D-don't tell me... this is...?"
The one they truly had to fear was the very existence they had written off as irrelevant from the start.
"Khee-hee-hee. It's already too laaaate!"
Never grant them time. Never fight upon the field they have prepared. For any battlefield, however unfavorable, can be remade into a stage for victory.
When the five tiger-like generals had fallen, the will of the chancellor — who alone held the realm in keeping with his lord's legacy — passed down to a single house.
If they have made their preparations, then turn your heels and go.
Across countless years, a fortress line that had turned back innumerable Unorthodox masters and even the chieftains of the Demon Cult. The Zhuge Clan.
The presence they truly ought to have feared was—
"Inside the Myriad Manifestations Chaotic Mist Formation, there is no escaping — none at aaaaall!"
Within a clan teeming with grandmasters of formation arts, the Zhuge family's most treasured jewel — the one said to be utterly unfindable once hidden. A genius of formations who could make even the Zhuge Clan's own people click their tongues in awe.
It was Jegal Hyang.