Ten Headbands Before Dawn
"What a mess out there."
The night I had been waiting for had finally arrived. It was all well and good that my lover's promotion trial had begun, but night was also the hour when the mafia rose to go to work. From far in the distance, the sounds of an uproar came drifting over from the pleasure quarter.
Setting aside the wistful ache of that dizzying sensation still lingering on my lips, it was time to move. My lover would be returning with a promotion to her name — surely that called for a celebration of some sort.
"We will escort you to the banquet hall," a Thieves' Gate executive told me.
"Is it close by?"
"The Domun bastards are prowling the streets with bloodshot eyes; there's no need to make ourselves conspicuous. A carriage has been prepared." The executive gestured toward a carriage standing in wait — since when? I hadn't heard so much as a wheel squeak, and it definitely hadn't been there a moment ago.
'That carriage looks suspicious.'
Surely it wasn't a kidnapping? I had not the slightest intention of letting anything spoil Hayeon Soseo's lucky day. It was a petty suspicion, but in times like these, every action and every intention had to be weighed with care. I toyed with the Tang Clan hidden weapon stashed in my breast. If anything went wrong, I would bolt on the spot. I took my time surveying the area around the carriage.
"Oh, for heaven's sake! Nobody's kidnapping you, so hurry up and get in!" The coachman — a familiar face — stuck his head out, the picture of exasperation.
"Mamen Hyangju?"
"The Gimun Hyangju took the heaviest losses. Gimun's territory sits right on top of the Domun's, you see. However well she fortified herself, holding off alone the assault of the Domun — who have gobbled up sixty percent of Wuhan's forces — was beyond any single gate."
The Mamen Hyangju gave me a brisk account of Haomen's current situation.
"Is the Gimun Hyangju safe?"
"Thankfully, she has gone to ground with her core forces intact. The Simun Hyangju is dug in and holding out at his home base."
"And yourself, Mamen Hyangju?"
"I'm ferrying someone important somewhere, so this business can be ended quickly. I hear you dealt the Domun Hyangju quite the blow at midday?" The Mamen Hyangju's mouth curled upward in evident good humor.
"I got lucky."
"When the Simun Hyangju heard the news, he said that the next time our Lucky Charm stops by his inn, he'll serve him the full course."
"Hahaha."
"Once a new Thieves' Gate Hyangju is raised and the four Hyangju join their wills, the Domun Hyangju's faction will fall to pieces. His ambition has become something that can never be achieved — and so, to anyone watching, which side to attach themselves to could not be clearer."
"Then after tonight passes, all his thrashing about will be for nothing."
I could see the winning goal at last. And the moment we crossed it, I fully intended to sit back and savor the loser's wailing to my heart's content.
"Be careful. Ten years ago, it was precisely that kind of 'thrashing for nothing' that cost me my son and my grandson."
"......."
The Mamen Hyangju's flat, emotionless advice bored straight into my chest.
"I was so sick of it all back then. The ones who used to eat a single meal a day — once they could eat three, they ought to have learned a little contentment. What was a mere Mangju's seat worth, anyway? Too much blood had already been spilled. So I said that if only the situation could be contained, we should paper over it all and be done."
"Could that be why the former Domun Hyangju's disciple was allowed to become Hyangju?" I had heard the current Domun Hyangju rose to his seat despite being his predecessor's disciple. By rights, the seeds of internal strife should have been torn out root and stem — so why had they been left alone?
"The fault is mine. I buried my own grief, so I assumed the other side could bury theirs as well. But they say old habits die hard — who could have imagined they had spent ten years preparing for this?"
"A wound that is only hastily bound is bound to fester and rot."
The Mamen Hyangju nodded, heavy and slow.
"....... Here we are. No pursuit."
"Thank you for the ride."
"If you hadn't given it your all, you would never have come this far. So this time, I intend to give everything I have as well."
It was the voice of a man worn ragged by every storm the world could throw at him. And yet the old man's eyes blazed with a will fiercer than anyone's.
"And I will do my utmost."
With a parting word to take good care of the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju, the Mamen Hyangju melted back into the darkness.
"The ceremony for the Thieves' Gate Hyangju will conclude when the sun rises. Until then, please remain at the banquet hall."
Following the Thieves' Gate people, I arrived at a mansion tucked away in a remote corner of Wuhan.
Never had I imagined that the ceremony for a Thieves' Gate Hyangju would turn out to be a wuxia-style game of tag. A manhunt between masters of the lightness arts would be a spectacle worth paying to see. Perhaps I should have gone along to watch after all.
"Quite a crowd has gathered." Setting my regret aside, I looked around the spacious mansion.
Whether or not the people inside had worked out who I was, they kept shooting me sidelong glances and whispering among themselves.
"He's the old chief's sworn brother, so it should be fine, right?"
"It's not that I'm scared. He's a bailiff. If I get hauled in this time, all my little ones starve."
"Why not take the chance to get acquainted? If you get arrested someday, he'd at least smuggle you in a decent meal."
How adorable — a whole crowd of walking arrest records. To think this many thieves were gathered under one roof. If I summoned the constables on the spot and hauled them all off, wouldn't that make me the finest bailiff in the Central Plains?
"Ahem. This is the investiture of a Thieves' Gate Hyangju — the first in over a decade, is it not? Everyone has come running from every corner of Hubei Province the moment word spread." Had he caught the naked ambition glittering in my eyes? The executive coughed awkwardly, then made a point of declaring, with great force, that we had come to congratulate Hayeon Soseo.
Understood. I won't arrest anyone. I won't. For now, I'll simply commit the faces to memory.
"Is there nothing in particular for me to do?" I asked, all the while filing away the ones I could cash in later, should my superiors ever come demanding results.
"Would you keep this safe?" The executive carefully produced a small wooden box from inside his coat.
"This is... a ring?" Inside lay a single heavy ring, the sort one might expect to find in a fantasy novel.
"When the Hyangju arrives, the Thieves' Gate disciples will pour the liquor they have each brought into the great vat over there at the front." Following the line of the executive's finger, I spied an enormous liquor vat — roomy enough to fit Hayeon Soseo with space to spare.
"Liquor?"
"They pour in their loyalty to the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju. Then the Hyangju herself ladles the liquor into a great cup and drinks." On the seat of honor, left empty for the guest of honor of this drinking feast, sat a single colossal cup that could have passed for a pencil holder.
"That is quite an enormous cup."
"Afterward, the Thieves' Gate Hyangju will share the vat's liquor with the disciples in her capacity as Hyangju. With that, the ceremony is complete." By drinking deep of their loyalty, the vat that embodied it — the very symbol sitting before her eyes — became the Thieves' Gate Hyangju's own. She would then pour out her own liquor for all assembled, declaring that as master of the Thieves' Gate, the Thieves' Gate now belonged wholly to her. The executive walked me through the ceremony's meaning step by step.
So the Unorthodox was the Unorthodox, even within Haomen. A quintessential underworld drinking rite. Apparently ceremonies of this sort hardly change at all, no matter how much the world turns.
"Then what is the ring for?" What did one even use it for? Surely not something to dissolve into liquor.
"It is a ring passed down through the generations, the symbol of the Hyangju's authority. When the Hyangju issues an official command, or exercises the rights of her office, the ring's seal is required." I had thought the ring's ornamentation unusual — but it was an actual seal? Hold on. If this was the Thieves' Gate Hyangju's seal, then surely...
"So this seal was the one vote the Domun Hyangju wanted so desperately." I said, gazing at the ring. So the "one vote" had never meant a mere show of hands.
"It is not as if the Domun Hyangju could simply steal or forge the ring — but in the end, a document bearing this seal is indeed what he needs."
"A ring handed down through the generations. Thankfully, it seems my sworn brother left it behind when he vanished." Without it, the investiture itself might never have taken place.
"Haha. Well... yes. That is so." The executive gave a sheepish laugh and nodded.
"What am I to do with the ring?"
"As acting Hyangju, Young Master Kang, we ask that you hand it over to her the moment the ceremony ends."
I nodded without protest. Sworn younger brother of the former Hyangju, acting head for the current one — as her lover, it was the perfect final task to crown the whole affair.
Wuhan was a city of staggering breadth. Even a game of tag on a small schoolyard takes time — and this manhunt had all of Wuhan for its playing field.
Midnight had crept up on us. The moon hung high in the sky, yet the moon was not what I was waiting for. The game of tag could not possibly end before sunrise. It was not supposed to be able to end.
"How?"
"What in the world happened?"
"Has something gone wrong?!"
What now? A buzz of voices rose near the entrance. People were crowding toward the mansion gate. Had some famous executive arrived? I had no particular interest, and I was turning my head to rest my eyes when—
"Huh?"
A lone figure came cutting straight through the crowd of Thieves' Gate disciples. Was I seeing things? It was a pink-haired woman I knew all too well.
The instant our eyes met—
"There you are!"
Hayeon Soseo, her face radiant with color, closed the distance in the blink of an eye and thrust her face up to mine.
"Hayeon Soseo? Mmph—!"
Mmm. Just like that, the ache from earlier was paid in full.
"I'm back." Hayeon Soseo announced her return, a smile beaming across her whole face.
"What is the meaning of this? I was told the ceremony would not end until sunrise." Morning had yet to break. Why had she appeared with the moon still hanging overhead? Had some calamity struck?
"Well, you see..." She gave a playful little smile and looked at me as though daring me to guess. When had I seen that expression before? Ah! I remembered. It was the look she wore when I had polished off a lovingly laid-out Korean meal and asked who on earth had cooked such a thing. And my answer back then, if I recalled right...
"What is the meaning of this!!!"
Just as I opened my mouth to venture the guess, a tremendous bellow erupted behind me.
"Don't tell me the executives conspired among themselves and rushed the ceremony to a finish!"
"However dire the situation, there are things one hurries and things one does not!"
"They say she is the former Hyangju's own daughter! Hasn't this crossed the line a mile and then some?!"
"We may acknowledge the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju's deeds — we never agreed that every last procedure could be thrown out!"
All hell had broken loose. Complete pandemonium. I exchanged a brief glance with Hayeon Soseo, then quietly watched as she stepped out before the disciples.
"Silence!"
The executive who had returned at her side quelled the uproar in a single stroke.
"This is hardly a matter for quiet...!"
"Look to the Thieves' Gate Hyangju's right hand."
"Her right hand?"
Every gaze in the room — mine included — swung to Lim Hayeon's right hand.
"Behold."
Hayeon Soseo raised her right hand, proud and unflinching. Gripped firm in her hand were white headbands.
The count: one, two, three. Four, five...
"...Ten?"
Anyone could see it — ten headbands in her hand. The headbands of every single executive who had taken part in the ceremony.
"Th-there's no way...?"
Bewilderment. Shock. Awe. Eyes brimming with a tangle of countless emotions turned upon Hayeon Soseo.
Headbands she claimed, proud and unequivocal, as her own trophies. No one present could fail to grasp what that meant. The ten executives who had witnessed her skill firsthand now stepped close before her,
"I swear my loyalty to the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju!"
...and knelt before the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju's ascension.
"I swear my loyalty to the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju!"
Thud! One after another, the remaining executives dropped to their knees.
"I shall swear my loyalty to the new Thieves' Gate Hyangju!"
At the last, even those who had stood frozen in astonishment sank down. And when every soul of the Thieves' Gate in the mansion had finally knelt—
The face that, moments ago, had brimmed over with love was already, somewhere along the way, the face of the Thieves' Gate Hyangju.