The Do Gate — 6

Who would have thought that flapping my mouth would land me taking the Yangtze's water temperature? Back in my old world, I'd never once checked the Han River's — the closest I'd ever come to it was cycling along its riverside paths in college.

"Lady Hayeon?"

Just as I was weighing a second plunge to calculate the river's average temperature, a pink streak flashed across the ship. Lady Hayeon swept away every warrior around me in the blink of an eye, then turned to face me, pink hair streaming behind her.

"I came to save you."

I think I might just fall for her.

No — if this were our first meeting, I'd have fallen first, without a doubt. Of course, seeing as she fell for me first, history has no room for what-ifs.

"Where in the world did you fly in from?!"

"Did another ship catch up to us?"

"No ship! She just ran across the water!"

"What nonsense ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠are you spouting?!"

Lady Hayeon's sudden arrival threw the whole deck into an uproar.

"Lady Hayeon. But how did you get here?"

Come to think of it, where had she appeared from? I looked around — she clearly hadn't come by boat. It felt like staring death in the face mid-arcade game, only for a stranger to drop in a coin and send an ally character falling straight out of the sky.

"I-I told you I'd been practicing, remember?"

Practicing what, exactly? There was nothing out here but the river. Don't tell me... For an instant, the image surfaced of Lady Hayeon shyly alighting atop a blade of grass.

"So you seriously pulled off the Water-Striding Art — the Jesus Walk?"

"You can shower me with praise later. Are you hurt anywhere?"

Lady Hayeon tucked me behind her back as she asked. She had really, truly mastered the Jesus Walk?

"Nothing worse than a bellyful of river, I'm glad to say. ...But look here."

I stepped close and lowered my voice to a whisper by her ear. Her arrival honestly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠felt like being handed an army of ten thousand men — and yet.

"Yes?"

"Can you truly handle all of them?"

"Of course. Just trust m—... Huh?"

Where our gazes landed, enemies kept boiling out of the cabin door ahead.

"Ah..."

In a heartbeat, the deck was swarming with armed warriors.

"She walked across the water?"

"Th-that's impossible."

"Did some hermit immortal come out of seclusion to aid her?!"

Fortunately, a few of them had witnessed Lady Hayeon's water-striding entrance, and the warriors held back, unwilling to act rashly. If we could only stall for time, our allies would come running. There had to be some way.

"Don't cower! She's just a wench with fast legs!"

Dan Wan-gwi bellowed at us, still clinging to the ship. The man looked a hair's breadth from death's door himself — and still he obstructed us to the very end.

"Stay behind me. I can handle them."

Lady Hayeon looked flustered for an instant, but her words were meant to put me at ease.

"It is you who should stand behind me, my lady."

I said, stepping out in front of her.

"You?"

If Lady Hayeon could perform the Jesus Walk, her mastery must have climbed by whole realms. Armed sailors or no, they might well be no match for her. But whether she could fight while shielding me into the bargain was anyone's guess.

Which meant the finest path was to bring the enemy to heel without fighting at all, no?

"How dare you show such insolence to the Mangju of Haomen!"

I raised my voice and cried out like a loyal minister who had just witnessed an insult to his king.

"What? The Mangju of Haomen?"

"Don't listen! He lies!"

Dan Wan-gwi — you mustn't react that desperately, friend.

"A lie? Then look at the Haomen members lighting up the Yangtze as they hunt that man down! Dan Wan-gwi has already been stripped of his post as Do Gate Hyangju by the Mangju! His faction lies shattered to the last man! As we speak, you are all aiding the flight of a traitor to Haomen!"

Unless the captain was a fool, one look at the Haomen members blazing across the river would tell him everything. Nobody would care a whit anymore if Dan Wan-gwi died. And a man who understood which way the tide had turned might, just might, take our side instead.

The captain scowled as he studied Dan Wan-gwi.

"Is that true? Je Jong-mo?"

"...I'll pay handsomely to keep my neck."

"Well, then... he's going to bolt anyway."

Wasn't he agreeing a touch too easily? This is what you get from scoundrels who only look out for number one. Honestly, if everyone moved purely for righteousness, love, and social order the way I do, none of this would ever happen.

Hold on. Social order?

"I am Kang Yunho, bailiff of the law!"

The moment I drew the bailiff's token — the very emblem of my office — from my coat, the sailors advancing on us faltered.

"A bailiff, you say?"

Every eye fixed on the token in my hand.

"Aiding a criminal's flight is strictly forbidden under national law! The man before you stands wanted by the Hubei magistrate's office for murder, contract killing, robbery, fraudulent gambling, rape, theft, arson, stalking, and a full catalogue of other crimes!"

Crossing the center line, driving against traffic, hit-and-run, indecent exposure — even snapping the horns off other people's model kits. In short, a wretch who had committed every wicked deed under heaven and not one good one.

"What?!"

"As a bailiff, I had been conducting a joint operation with the Mangju of Haomen to bring Je Jong-mo to justice. He fled mere breaths before his arrest and boarded this very vessel. Hand Je Jong-mo over peaceably, and I shall overlook every ancillary offense committed in the course of rescuing me!"

I declared it with the iron gravity of a secret royal inspector unveiling his imperial plaque.

"Captain..."

Good. Everyone's wavering. That they're glancing at one another means it's landing. Time to press harder.

"The magistrate's ships will arrive presently and surround this vessel! All uninvolved parties, surrender at once!"

Striding boldly forward to prove my token no forgery, I met Lady Hayeon's eyes.

— Isn't the encirclement claim stretching it a little, my dear?

— Well, one has to try everything first, doesn't one?

It beat the two of us taking on this many sailors by ourselves.

"Captain! What do we do? Last time we helped a stowaway aboard, they dragged the lot of us to the magistrate!"

"Th-they said if we got caught again, they'd seize the ship!"

"Damn it all!"

— You see? It's working.

"..."

You see, a large vessel can only set sail with the state's blessing. You can hide a man; a ship is another matter entirely. And authority is not so easily ignored.

"Now then! Lend us a hand in subduing Dan Wan-gwi without fuss, and the magistrate's office will see you rewarded—"

"There's not a single magistrate ship anywhere in sight!"

A voice drifted down from atop the mast — the sneeze that ruins the finished meal.

"Right. So that's how it is...?"

Fellows. Why the suspicious grins? I'm telling you, I'm a bailiff. Why are you re-gripping your weapons?

I retreated behind Lady Hayeon once more and asked her.

"Tell me — does the Jesus Walk happen to come in a two-seater?"

"..."

We were done for.

The ship pressed steadily on. So it would end in a fight, then. How many hidden weapons had I brought, again? A few seemed to have been lost flailing about in the river. Could we actually win? Trusting Lady Hayeon looked to be the only card left. As I stole a sideways glance at her battle-ready stance, something caught my eye at her breast.

"Lady Hayeon, is that—?"

No time. My hand darted to the object jutting unnaturally from her clothing.

"You're — touching me there — now, of all times?!"

"If you'd been carrying it all along, you might have handed it over sooner."

"Oh! Is that—?"

What I drew from her breast was a small cylinder — the trump card I'd pressed on Lady Hayeon when the antidote was set to send her into enemy territory. With this, we had a fighting chance.

"Lady Hayeon — do you happen to have a favorite special-attack name?"

"Why do you ask all of a sudden?"

"Just making conversation."

"...The Poison Killing Domain?"

A name dear to me in more ways than one came tumbling right out.

"That one's off the table — someone else holds the rights to it."

"I'm sorry — what?"

"CHARGE!!!"

The warriors on the deck rushed us.

"We're here, Mangju! Make the jump, if you please!"

Had they closed the gap while we stalled for time? Our allies' voices carried from across the water.

"Jump!"

"Hold on just a—"

Lady Hayeon caught me by the waist and stopped short. Our eyes locked.

Lady Hayeon — simply wait until I give the word. It lasted only a heartbeat, yet passing meaning between us came without the slightest difficulty.

"They're getting away! Stop them!"

At Dan Wan-gwi's shrieking cry, the warriors closed to within arm's reach. One beat more and we'd be cut down. I felt the hand entwined at my waist tighten — but Lady Hayeon did not move.

Whatever I was about to do, she trusted it absolutely. I could feel her faith in me, plain as day. Then it was only right that I answer that faith in kind.

Swiftly, in a sequence only its rightful owner would know, I worked the small cylinder in my hand.

The safety came undone. I raised the cylinder high. The vibration inside the tube thrummed against my clenched palm.

"DIIIIIE!"

The moment a horde of enemies surged right up to my eyes, the weapon's lid sprang open. For a weapon entrusted to me carrying a sliver of the Tang Clan's secret art — the Flower Rain Across the Sky — only one name would do.

"Hrk!"

The darts had no eyes of their own — save for the direction of their launch, they scattered without mercy in every direction.

"GYAAAAAGH!"

Above the pitch-black Yangtze, the black ship turned into a field of the slain in an instant.

"My dear — wh-what in the world was that?"

"I'll have to ask them for one more of these later."

On the black deck that had crawled with enemies, no one remained standing but the two of us.

"Kheheheh. You godforsaken brats..."

No — one person more.

"Dan Wan-gwi?"

He survived even this?

"Step aside."

Lady Hayeon brushed past my shoulder, her face gone hard as stone.

"Lady Hayeon."

"I want this filthy ill-fated tie ended. Here and now."

Her gaze was fixed on her nemesis. Even at a glance, Dan Wan-gwi hung straddled across the border between this world and the next. Yes. This had to be seen through to its end. And the one suited to tie it off was not me — it was Lady Hayeon.

I nodded once and quietly watched her back as she walked toward her enemy.

"Dan Wan-gwi."

Lim Hayeon called the name of the man who had hounded her so relentlessly. His arm hewn off. His body hurled from a tower's topmost floor. His innards ruined by a soul-return pill, his flesh shredded by hidden weapons — and still a slick madness glinted in Dan Wan-gwi's eyes.

"You two! If it weren't for you two bastards!!! The Mangju's seat! The Haomen! Every last shred of wealth and glory should have been MINE!!!"

A lifetime of preparation, ruined — and because of those two alone. Je Jong-mo spewed out the bile of it. But Je Jong-mo was not the only one whose lifetime had been wrecked.

"If not for you, my mother would still be alive."

Lim Hayeon packed into that flat, level voice a fury past burning — a fury already ash.

"Kheh..."

"I never would have been raised a courtesan. I would have lived an ordinary life. I would never have stood before you like this."

She would never have spent a lifetime misunderstanding her father, cursing him. Would never have kept her mother's deathbed vigil alone, weeping. Would never have gone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hungry as a child and been forced onto a courtesan's road that neither she nor her parents had ever chosen. The man before her was the mortal enemy who had shattered her young life and her family, who had ruined her hometown beyond repair.

"Heh heh. Then ours is a grudge that can only end with us killing each other."

Squeezing out his final strength, Dan Wan-gwi seized his blade.

"No. It won't be the two of us — only one of us dies today."

They could no longer live beneath the same sky. Lim Hayeon's feet moved.

"Guh!"

She had long since broken past the wall. One punch from Lim Hayeon sent yellowed teeth spinning into the Yangtze. A kick tore the enemy's balance away. The blade he swung with the last of his strength she caught and snapped, wrist and all. Her knee crushed into his jaw and sent Dan Wan-gwi's body bouncing into the air. For her mother. For the courtesan sisters and little ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ones who had died. For everyone this man had sent to their graves. Bearing grudges past all counting, the Divine Thief hammered her fists down without pause. It had never been a fight at all. The joints of Dan Wan-gwi's body gave way, one after another.

"Kheheheh. Yes! Kill me! You mangy bitch!!! I'll curse you from beyond the grave!"

Lim Hayeon stared blankly as Dan Wan-gwi crumpled, vomiting blood. The enemy lay writhing in a spreading pool of red, but the grudge-filled glare he fixed on her would not go out.

Lim Hayeon picked up one of the fallen blades — and found she could not immediately swing it at her enemy. It was not that she didn't want him dead. Nor had the grudge suddenly drained away. He was the filthiest piece of refuse in all of Haomen. She only feared that his death at her hands would leave a dirty stain that would shadow the rest of her life like a brand. It was nothing more than a small hesitation.

"You fucking bitch. What's this, suddenly scared to kill a man? Kheheheh. Dog of a bitch. Should've killed you instead of your mother!"

In that instant, something black and filthy welled up in Lim Hayeon's chest. Yes. It was time to settle it. Filthy or not, the knot had to be tied by her own hand.

"And so it ends—"

"Let it be."

From behind Lim Hayeon came a voice like a parent's, gently anxious, chiding a child playing too near the water's edge.

"...I have to be the one who kills him."

Lim Hayeon said it without turning to face her father.

"He is not worth your killing."

No. She had to do it herself. It was the instant Lim Hayeon raised the blade high—

"What, going to spare me? Father and daughter spewing shit in stereo—guhk!"

Crunch. With the wet snap of a neck breaking, the previous Shadowless Divine Thief did what a husband — what a parent — had to do. A fresh corpse tumbled across the blood-soaked ground. For a man who had driven so many into torment, it was an end far kinder than he deserved.

"Hayeon."

The previous Shadowless Divine Thief, Wang Jongho, looked at his daughter — her expression frozen — with startled eyes. It had not been merely to settle a grudge. It was what a good-for-nothing father simply had to do. He could not let his little girl's hands be stained. Could not let her live shackled to the past. Unlike himself, who had nothing left but aged days, she was a child with a future to live. A child who had suffered so much on his account. From here on, she had to look only toward the good, to love the man she loved, and live that way. Filthy refuse was a thing to be swept away by a worthless father's hands — never by his daughter's clean ones.

The previous Shadowless Divine Thief, Wang Jongho, called the name of the daughter he had ached for across ten long years.

"...Dad."

The voice of a daughter who had misunderstood her father all her life trembled. Every emotion there was swept across Lim Hayeon's face, and out came words that seemed they might never leave her lips again. With the refuse that had tormented them so doggedly lying at their feet, father and daughter bade farewell to the madman who had wrecked their family's lives.

The father walked to her slowly. He gathered the daughter he had yearned for his whole life into his arms, and wept.