Setting Off to Learn the Martial Arts!
The moment Mom received Paejon's reply, I rushed through the last of my preparations to leave. She, for her part, would not hear of my going empty-handed, and had three whole carriages made ready, packed with gifts of every kind.
"Do we really need to lay it on this thick?"
"Of course we do. You only say that because you don't know the man. A show of sincerity on this scale is simply what's due."
"Well then, I'll be off."
"Don't forget your regular reports. And see that you learn a great deal."
Mom saw me off with the corner of her mouth tipped up.
"Move out!"
She shouted it to the driver the moment I climbed into the carriage.
"Moving out!"
The carriage at the head of the line pulled away, and the others fell in behind it, the whole procession rattling and jouncing as it went.
"Leaving is all well and good, but... Haryeon, what am I supposed to do with you coming along? At this rate, every bit of my getting stronger is going to be on full display."
I said it looking straight at Haryeon, seated across from me.
"I'm only here as your escort, so don't mind me. I won't get in the way of your training." She smiled with her eyes as she said it, insisting she was nothing more than a guard.
"Did Mom put you up to this? If that's all it is, you don't have to force yourself to humor her."
"She did ask me first, yes. But I meant to come anyway. I'm not dismissing your way with people. It just feels a little like setting a child down alone on the riverbank."
Hey. That's just a fancy way of saying you don't trust me.
I shot her a look. Haryeon only scratched her cheek.
"Speaking of which, Tomusa, aren't you sitting a little too close?"
"The carriage is cramped. Even if it's uncomfortable, please bear with it."
She offered this while leaving all of a handspan of space open beside her.
Well, she looks pleased enough. That'll do.
We had been on the road a little over an hour when Tomusa leaned out of the carriage and began trading hand signals with the others.
"What are you doing?"
"Bandits may appear from here on. I've shared what we know with the escorts."
Ooh. Bandits.
The word sent a tingle racing all through me — and set my heart pounding, too.
"We're not actually going to end up fighting them, are we?"
"The bandits in these parts take their coin and open the road. The chance of a clash is extremely small."
Thank goodness. Not that I'd been planning to have my first real fight against a pack of bandits.
"But why don't we just wipe the bandits out? With our family's strength, we could clear out every bandit in the area easily enough, couldn't we?"
"For the most part, it would be a loss."
"A loss?"
"Commit a great deal of manpower and money to rooting out bandits, and the first loss is the cost itself. Then, once the aftermath thins the people you have available, the businesses and the estates grow difficult to run, and income falls — a second loss. Lastly, even if you wipe them out, they swarm right back. Wherever bandits vanish, new ones always spring up. It is more economical simply to pay them and have the road opened. Besides, so long as the bandits are there, the convoy work that comes to us only increases."
So in the end, the murim turns on profit and loss.... Our family wasn't running its affairs for the sake of any great cause, so I could understand it.
"The Murim Alliance stays out of bandit hunts for much the same reason," Haryeon said. "Even the Five Great Families and the Nine Sects and One Gang find the cost of a suppression campaign far from trivial. They'll sanction bandits who commit truly vile acts, or enemies of the murim — that much is true. Beyond that, they do their part simply by applying enough pressure that those people don't go too far."
So even the Murim Alliance has its hands tied. When all was said and done, the orthodox faction was shorter on money than the unorthodox sects or the Demonic Cult, and forcing through a grand campaign of eradication would be hard for them as well.
"But are the forces of the Black Path really that strong?"
"Draw the scattered Black Path together under a single banner, and they would be threat enough to the orthodox, the unorthodox, and the Demonic Cult alike," Haryeon said, her voice gone rather serious.
I would have to look through the written account once we arrived. I had lived shut up at home, so there had been no cause to bother with it until now — but knowing what was coming, I could hardly sit still. And when I met this man called Paejon, I ought to ask him why he had thought that way.
Come to think of it, was there anyone I knew who got swept up in the original story? Of the people who appeared in the novel, there was no one but Haryeon's mother, and even she only showed up for a moment.... In any case, I would go through the account. Even if we kept clear of the novel's plot, the threats bearing down on us were worth heading off before they arrived.
"What are you thinking about? Don't tell me all that talk of bandits scared you." Haryeon spoke up in a teasing voice.
"Wh-what are you talking about?! I was just thinking about something else for a second."
"If you are weary, young master, you are welcome to lean on me."
Tomusa, piling on right beside her.
"I said it's not like that!"
With a jolt, the carriage came to a stop.
"It seems the bandits have shown themselves. I'll step out. Please wait here."
Tomusa climbed down and headed for the front of the line.
I couldn't make them out clearly, but with my hearing sharpened I could follow every word.
"Well, well. If it isn't the honored lord come from the Yu Family of Zhejiang."
A woman with a rough, husky voice addressed Tomusa.
"Then today as well, we'll pay the toll by the carriage."
"Aye. You can hand it right over to me."
Coins clinked as Tomusa brought the money out, and before long the carriage started forward again.
I stole a glance up to get a look at the bandits. True to the name, they wore clothes that left their chests bare for anyone to see. Honestly, in this world an outfit like that might even have passed for ordinary — but I couldn't bring myself to stare a hole through them, and I turned my eyes away.
That was when my gaze met a bandit's whose frame was even bigger than Tomusa's.
"Hold it! Stop!"
The bandit brought the whole procession to a sudden halt.
"Hey, milord. You never said there was a man riding along."
"Wasn't the agreement that you'd take payment by the number of carriages?"
"No. If there's a man aboard, that's a different story. First, have the man step down."
"I refuse. Clear the road. The toll has been paid."
Tomusa shot back at the bandit, her voice gone sharp.
"Hey! You, the man in there — get down!"
The bandit bellowed loud enough to make the mountain itself ring.
"Young master, there is no need for you to step down. Please stay as you are."
"Haaah? Milord, just what do you think you're pulling?"
The contest of nerves between Tomusa and the bandit began. At a wave of the bandit's hand, the others who had been hiding in the brush came creeping out one after another, and the warriors of our family looked ready to draw their swords and fight. But I didn't want a fight, so I opened the carriage door and stepped down without a fuss.
She stood a full head taller than me, and I had no choice but to look up at her. The bandit studied me for a long moment before she opened her mouth.
"Tch. You're so pretty I got caught up admiring you. You really shouldn't go hiding a young lord this lovely."
"What's this about?"
I watched her, on my guard as best I could manage.
"Heh. Let's take this nice and slow. The man stays. The carriages are free to leave."
She moved to lay a hand on my shoulder, and Tomusa snatched it out of the air.
"Just say how much it'll take."
"Money? Forget it. No matter what you pay, I'm not handing this man over."
Pretty sure that isn't your line to say.
"I'll ask one more time. How much will it take?"
Dust lifted off the ground beneath Tomusa's feet, and a moment later a wind came roaring up, wrapping itself around her.
"So you want to test whose strength is greater, is that it?"
Dust kicked up beneath the woman's feet as well, and the hems of her clothes began to snap and billow. Leave the two of them like this, and a fight was certain. Their skill looked to be of a kind, and our side was outnumbered besides; even if it came to blows, there was no telling whether we would win. One way or another, I had to keep a fight from breaking out.
"Young lady, I'm pressed for time on this road, so let me buy you a drink later. How about we meet again then?"
"Young master...!" Tomusa cried, badly startled by what I'd said.
"And that drink — would you be pouring it for everyone here?"
"I'll pour only when it's just the two of us, young lady."
At that, the woman grinned wide.
"So we leave this escort out of it, and it's the two of us?"
I gave a quiet nod.
"Then you can go. Young lord, you'll be taking this road on the way back, too."
"You have my word."
The woman shook Tomusa's hand off as she said it. Tomusa glared at her with a fierce heat in her eyes, but the bandit answered with nothing more than a snort. I took hold of Tomusa's shoulder and climbed back into the carriage.
"All right, move out!"
At the bandit's word, the carriage was free to roll again. It rattled and jounced on its way, and Tomusa sat with both fists planted on her knees, trembling.
"Young master, I am sorry.... I was useless...."
I wrapped my hands around hers as she blamed herself.
"It isn't your fault, Tomusa. I was the one who didn't want a fight, and I let it pass for that reason alone. Don't blame yourself."
"Even so... I... I...."
"Tomusa, you trust me, don't you? I decided as I did because I had my own reasons. So please, don't blame yourself."
Tomusa drew a deep breath and let it out.
"Understood. I will trust you, young master, and wait."
I stroked her head once — and yet she kept nudging it back into my hand. The shock must have been great enough that she was acting spoiled, and my own choice had been high-handed and sudden besides, so I simply pulled her into a tight hug. Only then did Tomusa seem satisfied, and her mood eased.
"I should have been the one to help. I'm sorry. I came along calling myself an escort, and I was hardly any use at all." Haryeon ducked her head, looking ashamed.
"You're an escort in name only, aren't you? Don't take it to heart. It isn't as though anyone could have seen that coming." I waved the apology off. "And you were wearing your sword, ready to step in if it came to that."
"Haha. You caught me."
Haryeon scratched her cheek, embarrassed.
"Then let's pick ourselves up and make a hard run of it, all the way to Fujian!"