The Road to Yichang - 5
Bewilderment.
That was the feeling that seized Dang Geoho the moment he heard of the catastrophe at the Seong Family Manor. The instant the news reached him, he raced there in a single breath.
"I will ask you again. Hwarin. Where has that child gone?"
To Dang Geoho, it did not matter in the slightest that these fools' squabbles had brought the Seong Family Manor to the brink of ruin, or who now held the title of family head. Only one thing mattered: Dang Hwarin. The child he had poured more than ten years of painstaking effort into raising. Her whereabouts were everything.
He had rushed here heavy with worry, sighed in relief when told she was unharmed—only to learn she was missing. That not a single soul knew where she had gone. Rage boiled up from the depths of his gut.
"Great Master. Have you appeared out of nowhere simply to threaten me?"
From Seong Sehui's perspective, the situation was equally absurd. The master of a girl with whom he shared no good blood suddenly barging in and flaring up at him? As a man who was already cutting short his own sleep to rebuild the Seong Family, the sight of this man was far from welcome.
"……Forgive me. Hearing that a child who is like a daughter to me has vanished, I failed for a moment to master my emotions. I apologize."
When Seong Sehui's brow furrowed, Dang Geoho forced his temper down. He stood inside the Seong Family Manor. Elder of the Murim he might be, yet losing his temper at the highest authority of the household was still a clear breach of etiquette.
"I understand."
"Can you tell me where the child has gone?"
"I do not know. After that woman who abandoned heaven's bonds interfered in family affairs, I warned her that punishment would wait if she simply stayed out of the way. I was in the middle of restoring order when she vanished without a trace."
"Tsk. That woman again. You truly have no idea where she went?"
"My late father left a residence in Shaanxi Province as her share. I can only guess she either went there or returned to her hometown."
Seong Sehui's father and Dang Hwarin's mother had produced no children of their own. When a husband died and a previous wife's son took over the household, a childless stepmother's position usually became precarious. Seong Sehui's father had prepared for that very contingency by setting aside a manor in Shaanxi for Dang Hwarin's mother. Of course, the woman herself had never been content with a single manor; she had wanted to devour the entire Seong Family.
"Shaanxi Province, or Yichang."
"That is all I know. I would gladly offer more help, yet family affairs keep me too occupied to be of further use."
Seong Sehui bowed, delivering a polite yet unmistakable dismissal to the rude senior of the jianghu.
"Hah. No, no. You look exhausted. I shall take my leave as well."
Ill-mannered brat. Dang Geoho found the new head of the Seong Family distasteful, yet a guest could not refuse a host's order to depart. He offered a parting bow and left Seong Sehui's office.
Shaanxi Province or Yichang.
Dang Geoho walked out of the manor deep in thought. Both destinations were far, yet Yichang was the nearer of the two. Still, Dang Hwarin's mother had never been on good terms with her own father. The odds of finding her in Yichang were not high.
If he called upon the power of the Sichuan Dang Clan, he could locate Dang Hwarin in short order. But he could not afford to use the clan's strength for that purpose.
I have finally created the perfect vessel. The Sichuan Dang Clan must never catch wind of this.
Within the Sichuan Dang Clan existed a secret faction that conducted the forbidden Dokin experiments. Dang Geoho stood as that faction's de facto leader. The vessel he had spent more than a decade refining—he would never abandon Dang Hwarin.
He carefully stroked the small case nestled against his chest. Inside it rested the poison gland of a spirit beast, potent enough that even a master who merely licked it would have his tongue seared away and die.
All I need do is make her swallow this.
Once she absorbed the gland and formed a poison core within her body the way a spirit beast would, he would finally prove that a Dokin could be created artificially in his generation.
His only real concern was that Hwarin might recognize the gland for what it was and refuse to swallow it.
I shall simply become her godfather in name and tell her to swallow it.
The child had grown up never knowing affection. He would use that. If he offered to become her official godfather and recognize her as a true member of the Dang Clan, the girl who now had nowhere else to go would swallow the poison gland. She would endure the agony of her entire body melting for that alone. She would become a Dokin for his sake. After all, she was the vessel he had spent more than a decade perfecting.
"Young Master Seong Sehui has collapsed!"
"He's foaming at the mouth and gone down!"
The people of the Seong Family Manor poured into Seong Sehui's office in a panic. That halfwit who could not even keep his own household in line had put on airs of exhaustion, so Dang Geoho had merely slipped him a little something. All this fuss over so little. He clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had used a poison that would make it seem like collapse from overwork. After a week or so of hovering near death in bed, the boy would rise again feeling as though he had been dragged back from the underworld. With his mood lightened by the small diversion, Dang Geoho settled on his destination.
"I shall start with Yichang."
A man who carried a venomous serpent in his heart while wearing the bearing of a tiger turned his steps toward Yichang.
"The criminal Dang Hwarin shall raise her head."
I addressed Hwarin in the theatrical tones of a magistrate conducting a formal interrogation.
"Bullshit. What the hell are you on about?"
"Silence! Criminal Dang Hwarin, do you not realize that the reason we still cannot depart rests solely upon you?"
The day after I had laid my true intentions bare to her, we finished breakfast yet still found ourselves unable to set out for Yichang.
"Haaah. Fine. My fault. Happy? You happy now?"
"Silence! Criminal Dang Hwarin, your attitude is far too brazen. Is that why you flung money into the air like dirt?"
"Ugh!"
Hwarin looked half exasperated by my little play-acting, yet the fact that she truly was at fault left her speechless.
The reason we could not leave was simple.
"I never imagined you treated throwing weapons as single-use items."
She had used every last one of her hidden weapons fighting the bandits. And when they ran out she never even thought to retrieve them. She had just strutted off without a backward glance, so I had kept my mouth shut—only to get blindsided like this.
I looked at her with a helpless laugh.
"Throwing weapons are single-use by nature."
Apparently my laugh rubbed her the wrong way, because she offered a half-hearted counter.
So this was a young lady's shamelessness. This woman was the type who would buy yogurt and never lick the lid.
"That's something only a Seong Family young lady can get away with. In our current circumstances you should have thrown them with recovery in mind."
Just as rich men on golf courses never bother hunting for expensive lost balls, she had never needed to recover her weapons while living at the Seong Family Manor. The problem was that the moment she left, her infinite-ammo cheat gun had run dry.
"Hey. Do you have any idea how much extra attention you have to pay if you throw weapons expecting to get them back?"
Hwarin gave me a look that clearly said, What the hell do you know about throwing techniques?
"If it bothers you that much, just tie strings to them before you throw."
In Joseon martial arts novels there was even a famous sect that tied cords to throwing knives and controlled ten of them at once.
"Bullshit. Say something that actually makes sense."
I knew it was nonsense too, so she did not need to look at me like I had grown a second head. Fine—attaching strings to projectiles would warp the trajectory, tangle the lines, and turn into a disaster if an enemy grabbed hold of them.
"Most of what's left is practice-grade. We need new ones, but this backwater place does not even sell throwing weapons. That is the real problem."
In truth I had not planned to say anything until she asked, red-faced, to go shopping for more. After yesterday's medicine sales I had a bit of cash to spare. I had simply intended to buy her some weapons and warn her, "You know we have to sell two bottles of fatigue tonic for every one of these you throw, right?" I had never expected the village blacksmith to stock nothing but farm tools and crude swords.
"And it's not like I can use poison arts either."
Hwarin avoided my frustrated gaze as she spoke. She was right—materials for poison techniques were both scarce and expensive out here.
"Do you know any sword arts or whip techniques?"
The Sichuan Dang Clan was famous for poison and throwing weapons, yet that did not mean they lacked other martial arts. Minor branches practiced whip techniques or swordsmanship from time to time.
"I learned some as a child, but my skill never went deep."
"Shame. If you had practiced diligently we could have used it now."
I tossed out a needless, half-regretful rebuke.
"It was not because I was lazy. I could not practice."
Hwarin shot back in an aggrieved tone.
"Did Dang Geoho order you to train only in poison arts?"
Poison arts would have been her main path, so he might have deliberately blocked everything else.
"No. After I grew up……"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"After puberty they got…… big……"
Hwarin glanced briefly at the parts of her body that would pose serious difficulties for ordinary weapons, then trailed off in embarrassment.
"Ah…… Sorry."
I apologized and turned my head aside, mortified. Right. With a chest like that, practicing whip or sword arts would be less efficient than learning how to fire breast missiles.
"Haaah. Fuck. All because of me……"
Hwarin sighed, looking both frustrated and guilty.
Had I made her worry too much?
"It's fine! I failed to warn you, so part of this is on me. Don't stress over something like this. What could possibly go wrong?"
We could not live here forever. If there was only one path forward, there was no point in both of us fretting. Better to ease my companion's anxiety so the journey itself went smoother.
I smiled as if the whole matter were nothing and spoke lightly.
"Huh? Uh, yeah."
Hwarin's eyes widened a fraction; behind her face veil I saw her lips part slightly.
"Don't worry so much. The next village is far, so pack carefully and let's get moving."
"……You too. No matter what happens I'll protect you, so don't worry."
She studied me for a moment as I spoke so casually, then answered with a tone of quiet resolve.
Why was she suddenly saying something so embarrassing?
"Alright. Double-check the remaining throwing weapons and we'll buy plenty more in the next town."
"Yeah. If we're short on money I'll help sell medicine again."
Hwarin gave me a small smile and nodded. Something about her felt softer today. Had revealing my true thoughts yesterday finally taken effect?
I'm still uneasy, but it's not like an escort party is going to drop out of the sky. Time to leave.
I rose to my feet after settling the matter—only for footsteps to sound beside us.
"Pardon me. Would you happen to be the Maedamja who performed in the open square yesterday?"
I turned to find several men who looked like martial artists.
"I am. And who might you be, if I may ask?"
Surely they had not come to complain that their vigor had not increased. In that case I would simply claim that black-haired barbarians only needed one bottle for the Black Flame Dragon to surge to life, and that results varied by race.
I kept any unease from my face and waited.
The man who had spoken hesitated under my gaze, then said something completely different from what I had expected.
"We are escorts of the Okcheon Escort Agency. The fatigue tonics you sold yesterday—would it be possible to purchase more?"
Huh? Escort Agency guards were professionals at protecting people.
A brilliant idea flashed through my mind.
"Ah! You've come for additional purchases!"
If I played this right, I might just turn them into the escort party that fell from heaven.