Closed-Door Training - 8
"Did you say Moyong Sang-ah of the Moyong Clan?"
A few days before the Red Rakshasa Dan Seowol delivered the mission to Cheon Sohee, she found herself echoing an unexpected name that had just left the Salmak Master's lips.
"I hear the murim calls her the Mantid Maiden these days."
"I have heard the name in passing."
Mantid Maiden. However close the epithet came to an outright slur, the image it conjured—a mantis devouring her groom on the wedding bed—was enough to tell even Dan Seowol, who had little patience for gossip, exactly what manner of woman this was.
"One party wants the Mantid Maiden dead. The other wants her kept alive."
The Salmak Master lifted the two commission letters that had arrived on the very same day, one in each hand, and waved them.
"Is there just cause for the assassination?"
Lend out your blade for nothing but coin, and sooner or later a blade steeped in grudge would come looking for your own throat. Whenever a commission arrived, Salmak made certain—beyond any doubt—whether the target truly deserved to die. That was how the organization had survived so long in the murim as a guild of assassins.
"They claim to bear a grudge against Moyong Sang-ah—sworn enemies who cannot live under the same sky. But that is merely the story on the surface."
"The surface?"
"Anyone claiming a blood feud with Moyong Sang-ah would be a black-haired barbarian, no? Ruined exiles—where would they find the money to hire us? And they come not to killers of their own kind but to our Salmak? Laughable."
The Master laughed as though the whole affair were a farce.
"A textbook proxy job. Do you know who placed the commission?"
"Moyong Bi. Her own flesh and blood, no less. He wasn't hard to find."
"...A familiar tale."
Anyone else might have fallen over in shock, but to an assassination guild it was the oldest story there was. There was a reason folk said power should never be shared, even with family.
When blood kin could not be trusted with power, people inevitably came to Salmak to run their dishonorable errands.
"Orthodox sect types are a sly breed. Strangle your own sister, then have the world believe the black-haired barbarians' grudge reached heaven itself and sent an assassin. He means to ride public opinion, obviously."
The Master shrugged, as if to say he had seen his fill of this brand of snake.
"Why tell me any of this?"
An interesting commission, certainly. But there was no reason she needed to know of it. If a reason existed, there could be only one. Dan Seowol asked, praying her bad premonition would prove unfounded.
"I want the Heavenly Killing Star to go to the Moyong Clan."
"Master."
Bad premonitions were never wrong. Dan Seowol's brow knotted as she called to him.
"Calm yourself, and hear me out."
Reading the storm gathering on his sister's face, the Salmak Master raised a hand to hold her off.
"That child has finally found her path...!"
"If she has found the path, then she must think about walking it. Does she mean to sit there forever, tapping the ground, asking whether it's the right one?"
"...!"
At that single sentence, the glare in Dan Seowol's eyes—poised a heartbeat ago to seize her brother by the collar—wavered.
"Whether they took holy orders or bowed to the demonic path, every Heavenly Killing Star has met the same end. Sit still and wait, and the next Killing Star on your trail simply devours you."
The face the Salmak Master turned toward Dan Seowol was not that of the man who led a guild of cold-blooded killers, but that of an older brother fretting over his little sister's overprotective streak.
"There is a solution."
"I heard the Cheon-gi-ja gave a good answer. That is exactly why I am handing her this mission—a chance to run."
"A chance to run?"
"This mission will serve as her cover. Like it or not, No. 5 will end up rubbing shoulders with people. If the Heavenly Killing Star has truly found her path, then she must also learn how to move among them without incident."
"You mean she is to train herself to hold her killing intent in check among ordinary people."
The Master nodded.
"Precisely. Whichever side she picks, we will see the job handled smoothly—so the Killing Star gets herself some excellent training in fitting into society."
"I see..."
Only then did Dan Seowol nod.
Her disciple had emerged from seclusion having found a way to keep her bloodlust from ruling her. But the Heavenly Killing Star was no wooden doll that sat patiently waiting for its neck to be cut. Meditation alone at the sect's mountain would carry her no further—and even now, at this very moment, the Killing Star was closing in on a disciple who stood still.
If one had at last found one's path in the fog, then it was time to walk it.
"And should she fail, she'll simply run wild inside the Moyong Clan. Cleanup will be tidy enough."
The Salmak Master tossed out the remark with a chuckle at his sister's deathly serious face.
"Master!"
"I only said the words. Can't even joke anymore, it seems."
"I have no intention of losing my disciple."
Dan Seowol's resolve did not bend.
The Salmak Master let out a long sigh at the sight of her, then opened his mouth.
"You think you're the only one? My heart aches too, every time I lose one of the kids. The old fogies used to say—ahem—'Master, that is simply the way of killers.' What a load! Those freeloading layabouts who do nothing but eat, honestly! Do you have any idea what it costs to raise even one decent killer?!"
"I take your meaning."
Sensing her brother sliding into full grievance mode, Dan Seowol hastily cut him off.
"In any case—escort or assassination, either will do. Explain it to her properly."
There, the conversation between brother and sister ended.
"The Moyong Clan?"
After several days of agonizing over how to explain it, Dan Seowol delivered the mission to her disciple—with her own opinion attached.
"The journey alone will take the better part of half a year, so think of it as training that happens to involve travel."
Training, not a mission. She stressed it to her disciple once more.
"..."
Watching her disciple fail to answer the sudden proposal, the Red Rakshasa found the words would not come easily.
It had not been long since the girl emerged from closed-door training. Nor since she heard the news of her beloved. And on top of it all, the disciple was changing—becoming like any other girl of her age.
Dan Seowol knew she had to let her go, and yet she felt crushed by the sense that she was failing to protect her.
"Are you confident you can keep your wits among people?"
"I found my path. And oppa's energy is still with me."
Cheon Sohee brought a hand to her chest, as though cradling something precious. Within it slept a steadfast ally who could stand against even the mighty Heavenly Killing Star with a single strand of energy.
"Very well. Escort or assassination—I leave the choice to you."
If she was ready, she had to be sent. Dan Seowol steeled her heart and spoke.
"Do I leave at once?"
"I will give you time to think. Choose whatever sits easiest."
Cheon Sohee asked her master for one more day, then rose from her seat.
"Ha! The Moyong Clan? All Yukiko sees is one hellish slog ahead!"
A sudden mission, and now a choice to make besides. Seolja had no trouble reading the dilemma written across Cheon Sohee's face.
"They say the trip alone takes over half a year."
The Moyong Clan lay in the farthest east of the Central Plains. Even for Cheon Sohee, the distance weighed heavy.
"And the trip back will take more than a year on top of that! Hup! Wait—doesn't that mean No. 5 won't get to hear a single word about her beloved?!"
"Mm..."
Cheon Sohee had never been one to shy from missions. Raised from girlhood as a killer of Salmak, taking an assignment and moving at its behest was simply how life worked. This time, however, was different.
She would drift too far from Yunho oppa. The letters would stop coming. She wanted news of oppa. She wanted to read the novel oppa writes.
Not a word of him would reach her until she returned to the sect's mountain. That was why Cheon Sohee—who would once have left for the Moyong Clan without a second thought—had spent a whole night wrestling with the decision.
"Yukiko is so sad about this! There is still a whole mountain of things she hasn't taught No. 5! Nin-nin!"
When Seolja looked at her with such openhearted disappointment, Cheon Sohee smiled, small and brief.
"When I return, I'll learn them. Stay alive."
"...!"
"...?"
So utterly unexpected were the words that it took Seolja a moment to understand them.
"Yukiko! No. 5 is worried about her! Yukiko is moved! Deeply moved! Nin-nin!"
A killer's trade was one where no one could say when death would come. That Cheon Sohee had worried for her made Seolja look ready to throw her arms around the girl then and there.
"Take care of yourself."
Cheon Sohee was not Kang Yunho. She did not know how to smile and hold someone who pressed a knife to her throat, who doubted her over and over, who raged at her in madness.
Kindness, answered with kindness.
That much, Cheon Sohee had learned from the one bound to her destiny.
"Nin-nin! Naturally! Yukiko intends to live a long, long time! She will even fall in love with a tall, handsome, gentle man!"
Seolja answered with the face of someone about to weep from gratitude.
How she preferred older men, how her beloved must never laugh at her name, how he should be the sort who didn't sulk over her vanishing on missions but held her close the moment she returned—
Seolja rattled on, piling condition upon condition, and Cheon Sohee—quite unlike herself—heard out every last one.
"Mm. Go find him."
"Ooooh! The composure of a victor! It blinds the eyes! Yukiko is so jealous!"
"I'm off."
"Return safe and sound! Next time, Yukiko will absolutely teach you the Hot Spring Seduction Technique!"
Cheon Sohee waved to Seolja, who mourned the parting, and stepped out of the room. A familiar face was waiting there to meet the Heavenly Killing Star.
"Have you decided?"
As her disciple emerged from the room, the Red Rakshasa Dan Seowol asked with care.
"..."
"Let us cross blades a while."
Master and disciple made for the training grounds.
"You have grown again."
"Because I found my path."
Cheon Sohee answered between ragged breaths. The gap between them was still beyond her reach. But she had closed it by one more step.
At the beads of sweat on her master's brow—something no bout had ever drawn from her before—Cheon Sohee sheathed her blade, satisfied.
"Another report concerning your beloved has come in from Yichang."
"Another report?"
At the mention of her beloved, Cheon Sohee reacted like one of those cats that keep their dignity all day yet come scrambling the instant they hear a treat bag rustle.
"It seems he has run into a spot of trouble with the Haomen."
"The Haomen?"
Cheon Sohee's brows trembled.
"If you have found your path, then there is another way—not to the Moyong Clan, but to your beloved's side."
Reading her disciple's face, Dan Seowol laid out a second option.
"No. It could put Yunho oppa in danger."
The answer came without a sliver of hesitation.
Looking at her master's surprised expression, Cheon Sohee thought of Kang Yunho.
I want to go to Yichang right now. I want to see Yunho oppa's face. I want to hear his voice. I want to eat something delicious with him. But I can't.
Because the Heavenly Killing Star inside me is waiting for its chance.
If the Killing Star longed to kill a single soul in all the world, it would be him. Even crouched and quiet, holding its breath, it must never, ever be trusted. She could not be the one to put him in danger.
"I see. I hear he is dealing with it wisely enough."
Dan Seowol nodded, as though conceding the point.
She had thought that, the path found, her disciple might learn to govern her bloodlust at the Defier of Destiny's side. But this girl would sooner be parted from her beloved than watch him come to harm.
The Red Rakshasa understood, yet again, the depth of her disciple's heart.
"Yunho oppa."
Cheon Sohee called out to her master with a cheeky air, as though she had something she was curious about.
"Something you wish to ask?"
"Can he really become famous?"
At the worry threaded through her disciple's voice, Dan Seowol let out a small laugh. Then she looked at the girl with eyes full of conviction.
"At first I, too, took your beloved's promise with half a heart. But when I read the book he wrote, my thinking changed."
"Dangga Pungun?"
"Yes. Never in my life have I seen or heard its like. A writer who comes once in an age. If that man is your beloved, then perhaps it is no dream after all."
Cheon Sohee nodded at her master's certainty.
She had read it too. It had kept her up until dawn.
She did not care for the hero consorting with other women, but even setting aside that it was oppa's book, the mere rumor of a next volume had her ready to go hunting for it.
And Cheon Sohee remembered the conversation she and Kang Yunho had shared before they parted.
Yunho oppa was striving. Even now, at this very moment, he was striving for her.
Maybe it really isn't a dream.
Perhaps the day she stood at his side was no dream at all. And if so, then she could not afford to stand still either.
"I leave at once. For the Moyong Clan."
A path found must be walked. Cheon Sohee announced the beginning of her new mission.
"Your target is Moyong Sang-ah of the Moyong Clan. Will you kill her? Or will you keep her breathing?"
Killing would be the easy road.
If she wanted to hurry home and hear news of oppa sooner, that road was the faster one.
But.
"I will protect her. I'll go as Moyong Sang-ah's escort."
She wanted to be at Yunho oppa's side. She wanted to guard the place beside him. This new mission was training for exactly that.
To take one new step toward the future, Cheon Sohee accepted the mission.