The Second Test - 8
The Three-Eyed Sword, Jo Cheol.
A wanderer who had raised the martial arts of his whole body to ripe mastery by the age of forty. By forty-two, people had begun calling him a master — wanderer though he was. And how, exactly, was a man who had lived hand to mouth by hiring out his blade supposed to climb to such a height?
The people around Jo Cheol sang his praises over their cups, but the heart of the Three-Eyed Sword knew better.
I cannot cross the wall.
He had cobbled together a mishmash of arts and grown strong through real combat. He knew how to swing a blade to take a man's head, and where to set his feet to stay alive — but that was where it ended. Because the arts he had learned had, in a word, no foundation.
Even the old man who had once deigned to look over his techniques surely never imagined he would come this far. He had scraped his way to the title of master, but smashing through the wall and going beyond it? Utter fantasy.
Jo Cheol had learned that truth in the cruelest way possible.
It should have been me who died at Hogajang.
Hogajang, a power in its death throes, had hosted a death match to wrest back the initiative in its struggle against Hyeongmun. There, Jo Cheol's oldest comrade had died. It hadn't even been a glorious battle — the man had been spent like a discard against an opponent no one could hope to face, and the reason he had been chosen as the discard was simple. He was a wanderer. Jo Cheol was only in his early forties, with some room yet to grow; his comrade, in his fifties, had stood still for more than a decade.
Jo Cheol had barely kept his own life through a clash of several hundred exchanges. The tide of Hyeongmun hardened into certainty, and Hogajang fell. That day, the Three-Eyed Sword understood. He could picture the next ten years well enough — with Hogajang gone, he would hitch himself to whatever patron would take him.
And after those ten years?
What would become of him then? What would become of a man who would never, ever cross the wall? Jo Cheol looked down at the cold corpse of the man who had been his comrade.
I'm done. Time to throw it all away and go into business.
His one talent was taking his own measure, and taking it fast — a wanderer slow to know his place simply became a cold corpse the next morning. He did not want to die. So — business. A second life. That was why Jo Cheol had fled with Hogajang's spoils and a certificate from the Mangeum Money Exchange in hand.
"Master Jo, the disposal of your spoils is all finished."
Before Jo Cheol's eyes lay a sum that would not change his life — but would certainly buy him a second one.
"And how much do I owe you for the service?"
Having counted the money, Jo Cheol put the question to the Joseon man his hometown junior had introduced him to.
"A fee? You are the hometown elder brother of our Chairman! May heaven strike me down!"
"You didn't run your legs half off getting all of it sold on time?"
Every last item had been liquidated within two days flat. It could not have been an easy job.
"There is no one in the Joseon Hometown Association who hasn't tasted Chairman Kang's kindness. What hardship is this beside that?"
"My junior is really that prominent?"
To think the junior he barely remembered had become a figure of towering connections in Wuhan. Even now, Jo Cheol couldn't quite wrap his head around the reality that when he had needed a favor, the words the Chairman's hometown elder brother opened more doors than the name of the Three-Eyed Sword ever had.
"Whenever someone in the Association falls into dire straits, he drops everything and wades in. Why else would we raise every single glass with a toast to the Chairman's health and long life?"
"I believe I've seen him a time or two myself."
"He is the man who gave us a new homeland. Spend the money on wholesome food for the Chairman instead. That is what serves me — and what serves the Joseon Hometown Association."
Without a whisper of greed, the Joseon man pushed the entire pile of money across the table toward the Three-Eyed Sword.
So I did raise one hometown junior properly after all.
The more he turned it over, the more remarkable the boy seemed. Jo Cheol thought of Kang Yunho. The boy had walked out of that destitute village of Hwajeon rather than starve, scratching meals from scorched earth — and all unknowing, Jo Cheol's own footsteps had been followed here by that same hometown junior. His life had not been a hollow one after all. A joy he could not contain spread through the Three-Eyed Sword's chest, as though the boy had taken his hand and called that life worthwhile.
"A new homeland..."
The Three-Eyed Sword thought of Musu Village, wiped away by famine and pestilence. In his youth it had been a place he swore he would never return to; at some point, it had become a homeland he had lost. Older now, and looking back, he saw it for what it was — a village full of no-account fools, fools who threw themselves into other people's troubles as if they were their own. A village that smelled of people. A homeland there was no returning to.
At some point, he had become a man with no homeland at all. But it no longer mattered. Because his hometown junior was building that very village — the Musu Village of their childhood — right there in Wuhan.
A faint smile spread across the lips of the Three-Eyed Sword.
"By the by, great fortune is about to smile upon the Joseon Hometown Association."
"Great fortune?"
"You haven't heard the news? Being the Chairman's hometown elder brother, surely you of all people would know?"
"What are you talking about?"
Jo Cheol gave the man a puzzled look. Something important concerning his junior, then? Judging it worth knowing, Jo Cheol pressed for the answer — and what came out of the Joseon man's mouth was the last thing he expected.
"The Chairman is soon to become the Mangeum Lord's grandson-in-law, is he not?"
"...What?"
"By now, the news of me should have reached the Three-Eyed Sword's ears."
He had gotten his money back without losing a coin — and since I had no wish to catch a blade somewhere on the road to my in-laws', groundwork was in order. So I said it while waiting with Young Lady Jegal at the very inn the Three-Eyed Sword had set his heart on.
"W-will it really be all right?"
"Whatever he's thinking, he will be here inside the appointed hour. The only road left open to the Three-Eyed Sword ends with me."
It was not for nothing that I had burned the boat he might have escaped on. It was not for nothing that I'd let it be known the inn would pass to Jeon Gilsan if today's deal fell through. Whether to satisfy his curiosity about me or to salvage the contract, the Three-Eyed Sword had no choice but to appear at this place, today, no matter what.
"I am so worried about you, Young Master Kaaang."
Young Lady Jegal looked up at me with eyes swimming in concern.
"It will rattle him, yes, but it is hardly the kind of news that makes a man draw his sword on the spot. It is the marriage of a hometown junior who idolizes him. If anything, he may well decide his junior's connections have handed him a graceful way to end his flight. The odds favor him misreading it in exactly that way."
After all, I hadn't spent all this time cultivating my image as a hometown junior who worshipped the Three-Eyed Sword for nothing. In the tidbit I had deliberately let slip, there was not one word about my coveting his money. Nothing but a single tie of kinship. Enough to prick his sense of crisis, perhaps — but far more likely to set him dreaming of how to put those connections to use.
"Still..."
"You really needn't worry yourself sick... Hm? Young Lady Jegal?"
Head bowed, Young Lady Jegal had seized my sleeve. Then, staring hard at the floor as though mortified, her trembling lips parted.
"I-if it comes to it, I w-will protect you."
"Hahaha. If it truly comes to that, I place myself in your hands."
Not that I intended to ever let it come to that.
I tipped my head back laughing at her valiant little pledge — and caught sight of a familiar pigeon sailing into the inn.
"Coo! Coo-coo-good!"
"So Jo Cheol set out at once. My thanks, Gugu."
"Chairman. Shall we prepare?"
Mansik, the man who had spent these past days fanning the flames at Jo Cheol's side, asked me.
"An impatient fellow makes an early start. Very well."
Now it was time for the finish.
What is the meaning of this? Explain yourself. I had no intention whatsoever of squaring off against an enraged Three-Eyed Sword.
Before the inn's door, Mansik spread three fingers.
Three. Two. One.
"Kang, my junior! What is the meaning of—!"
"What do you all think you're doing, showing up in a mob without a shred of a plan?!!"
The instant the door swung open, I let loose a thunderous roar.
"...My junior?"
Careless of the bewilderment in Jo Cheol's voice, I looked the other way entirely.
"Honored Three-Eyed Sword, one moment, I beg you. The Chairman is occupied with urgent business."
"Oh dear...! Elder brother! You're here early."
Belatedly wearing a wry smile, I made my way over to Jo Cheol.
"What I came to say... no, hold on. Why on earth are there so many Joseon people here?"
Having grasped that the target of my roar had been not him but the crowd of Joseon compatriots packed into the inn, the Three-Eyed Sword asked me, astonishment plain on his face.
"There was business I had to clear away before you arrived. I summoned only those compatriots in direst need of urgent help, yet there are more of them than I expected. Ah — allow me to present Young Lady Jegal Hyang, of whom I spoke to you before."
You see, I had no intention of handing you the initiative. So I introduced Young Lady Jegal, smooth as flowing water.
"P-pleased to make your acquaintance."
"Oh-ho. Of that Jegal Clan? A surpassingly beautiful young lady, this one."
"I ought to see to your business first, elder brother, but this is, ah..."
I glanced about me as though at a loss.
There are simply too many Joseon people here, you see. The words you'd like to say — that you are in truth a debtor who bolted with the money, and that you nearly fainted to discover your creditor's future grandson-in-law sitting across the table — are far too mortifying to utter in this crowd. Am I not right?
"It's quite all right. See to your work. I'm the one who came early."
Just as predicted, the Three-Eyed Sword nodded with a sheepish look.
"Then allow me to see to the most urgent matters first."
You see, I have no intention of ever matching wills with a master, one on one, if I can help it.
In the blink of an eye, a line of Joseon folk had formed before me. You are merely one item on today's agenda. Any chance of this turning into an interrogation had been wiped out in a single stroke.
And the stage I had dressed did not end there.
"Chairman! Forgive me for coming with no word at all, I'm so s-sorry. There was no way left to feed my family — at this rate, I truly thought we would starve."
At my encouraging nod, a Joseon man in threadbare clothes spoke in a voice raw with desperation.
"Chairman, it is not the baby's father's fault! I heard tell there was a most brilliant Chairman in Wuhan, so I am the one who talked her pa into making the journey!"
"Have you anywhere to sleep tonight?"
I clicked my tongue and asked the couple.
"If we spend what little we have, perhaps a week or so..."
"At dawn tomorrow, go to the wharf where the Joseon folk gather. Say my name and they will find you work. Mansik — that half-abandoned village you lived in before, you still have a house there, don't you? Find out whether it stands empty."
"Plenty of Joseon families living round there, so it should be vacant."
"Ch-Chairman!"
"The little one hasn't even been nursed yet, has she. Hand out some meat and a bushel of rice. Until they're on their feet — a month or two, say — they must not go hungry."
"Chairman! Thank you! Thank you, thank you! We will repay this debt if it takes our lives!"
"Keep it. Spend your gratitude on your compatriots instead. Off you go — next!"
Well? And how do you enjoy Kang Yunho's charity hour?
Glancing sidelong, I caught a flicker of astonishment crossing the Three-Eyed Sword's face. Be more astonished still. I staged every inch of this situation on purpose.
I had given orders days ago to gather those in need, specifically for today. A benevolent Chairman of the Joseon Hometown Association. People moved to their knees by his aid. My charity was real, and so were the people who needed it. In a scene where everything was true, exactly one thing was special: the staging. Every last piece of it was theater, arranged to gild me in the Three-Eyed Sword's presence.
"Thank you, Chairman! Thank you so very much!"
By the time Jo Cheol had walked in on this, doubt about me must have filled his heart to the brim. Could he have some hidden tie to the Mangeum Money Exchange? Could he know the truth? Could he be nursing some sinister design?
No.Look closely. I am a man who gives to people like this. How could you think such a thing?
Every soul in the room was left singing my praises. To doubt me here would take courage beyond the common run.
Right. My junior would never. Have you seen how he reveres me? How he showers these people with kindness? How could such a boy be scheming to tear the money from my hands?
I waited for the moment to ripen — for the hour when even the Three-Eyed Sword would be drunk on the crowd's adoration of me.
"Elder brother, time to put your seal on the contract now, wouldn't you say!"
And when I called my hometown elder brother with the sunny smile of a man without one dark thread in his heart—
"R-right!"
—the Three-Eyed Sword found himself nodding along, suspicion washed entirely away.
"My junior — here is your membership paper for the Joseon Hometown Association."
Wiping his thumb, the Three-Eyed Sword handed the document over to me.
"I'm sorry for the trouble, elder brother. Some of the mutual-aid society's members grumbled that if you were truly a brother-in-law by marriage it might be one thing, but isn't this special treatment?"
Pressed onto the paper was Jo Cheol's fingerprint seal, inked in blood.
"Suits me well enough. I mean to earn my bread in Wuhan from here on. Though pressing one's seal in blood is a curious custom."
"A vow sworn in water dries away when the water dries. A vow sworn in drink vanishes when the drunkenness lifts. But a vow sworn in a Black Hair's blood will bind us to the very end."
Of course, yours was the only seal actually made in blood.
The Three-Eyed Sword and I were bound now, tight as hemp cord. Lend a fingerprint a profound meaning, and the knot only pulls more devoted.
"Oh-ho. Such weight in a little fingerprint..."
"Chairman, the contract payment Master Jo brought — the sum checks out to the last coin."
As Mansik finished counting the money in the corner, I nodded as though I had never doubted it for an instant.
"Then all that remains is your seal on the contract."
"My junior."
When I slid the contract toward him, Jo Cheol looked at me with a strained smile, like a man in a difficult position.
"Yes?"
"The truth is, there is a small problem with that certificate."
"A small problem?"
"Walk out of here with that certificate as it stands, and you will find yourself in a very awkward spot indeed. Now, where should I even begin the explanation..."
And while the Three-Eyed Sword squirmed, unable to hold my gaze, I drew the certificate and the money back behind me.
Good. Phase one: complete. Now for what follows.
"That is not it, though."
Time to show my true face.
"Hm?"
"Let this contract proceed as it stands, and a very great problem arises — and you will find yourself in very great difficulty indeed."
I said it with a gravity I had never once shown the Three-Eyed Sword in all our acquaintance.
"What?"
"Mansik!"
"Brazier's ready, sir."
Without a heartbeat's hesitation, I flung the contract into the fire.
"What in the world do you think you're doing?! Burning the contract?!"
I gave the Three-Eyed Sword's strangled cry not the slightest acknowledgment. The contract, thrown to the flames, collapsed into ash in an instant — like a lie that crumbles at the first touch.
"It was a contract that could never stand from the very first. What use have we for its paper?"
When the contract had vanished without a trace, I looked at the Three-Eyed Sword with a faint smile.
"Your jest goes too far."
In the Three-Eyed Sword's eyes, I watched the flame of desire — dashed to nothing a moment before — catch hold and spread into rage.
"Does this — does this look like a jest to you?"
"Then I suppose you are testing my patience."
The frost-blue point of the Three-Eyed Sword's blade came to rest before my nape. Testing your patience, are you? Then at least pretend to have a little of it.
"Ch-Chairman!!!"
"Y-Young Master Kang!"
It's fine. This is well within expectations. Holding back those who surged forward, I faced the Three-Eyed Sword as though I did not know the meaning of fear.
"Can you truly not fathom why I am doing this?"
I did just toss you a piping-hot morsel of bait, didn't I? Unless you are a goldfish, recall it this instant.
"Surely not... because of what I just heard?"
"And what might you have heard?"
"That you are to be the Mangeum Lord's grandson-in-law..."
Thankfully, not a goldfish.
"The Mangeum Lord's daughter is the lady of the Jegal Clan, and Young Lady Jegal Hyang is the Clan Head's youngest daughter — so I imagine it must be so."
"You were never truly a mere branch of the family, then...?"
A Black Hair, betrothed to the direct bloodline of the Jegal Clan. For Jo Cheol, a man of the murim, it would be all but impossible to swallow.
But you see — the surprises do not end there.
"Jo Cheol! That is far enough!"
"Three-Eyed Sword! Will you not lower your blade?!"
Armed warriors of the Mangeum Money Exchange kicked open the inn's doors and burst inside.
"Why are Mangeum warriors here of all places? ...Don't tell me. Was this whole affair staged — every last one of you in the same conspiracy...!"
His hometown junior had betrayed him.
The color of fury washed over Jo Cheol's face as he stared at the Mangeum swords. The moment betrayal devoured every other feeling and he began to wheel on me with eyes fit to kill—
"Did I not tell you to stand down and wait for my word?!!"
—I took my place, squarely, at the Three-Eyed Sword Jo Cheol's side.
"What?!"
Perplexity flashed through Jo Cheol's fury-warped eyes. A fine reaction. With the calmest face I could muster, I spoke to him.
"Brother Cheol. Lower your sword."
"You? You deceived me? You, of all people...?"
The point of the Three-Eyed Sword's blade shook with rage.
A single word isn't enough for him to read the situation, then. Very well — time to remove all doubt.
"No."
"Chairman!"
Everything was in place. I took one bold, unhurried step — straight toward the point of his blade.
"What do you mean, no?! What are you saying?! Speak!"
Taking back the Three-Eyed Sword's certificate is easy. But taking a man's money without earning his enmity — that is impossible.
Or is it, truly?
"I stepped forward for one reason alone — to save your life, brother."
After all, if that had really been so, I never would have attempted any of this in the first place.