I Plan to Live Until I Die
Having thrown off his pursuers and galloped another three miles or so, Lee Yeok finally slowed his pace.
"Whoa, whoa."
The black horse snorted violently. Despite the sweltering heat, steam rose from its whole body, and foam flecked its mouth.
"You've earned a rest. Take a breather."
Lee Yeok had already dismounted and was stroking the horse's neck as he spoke. Ahn Eunchae climbed down after him, wearing a look of doubt.
"Rest? We don't even know if we're safe yet..."
Then she saw the figures blocking the road ahead, and her mouth snapped shut.
A coffin lavishly decorated with red feathers, and a deep teal robe — those were the first things to catch her eye. It was a bizarre combination. To Ahn Eunchae, the man looked like some shamansistic charlatan.
The moment his face came into her line of sight, her heart seemed to drop through the floor. He was a young man, around their own age. His features were unremarkable in themselves, but there was something in his eyes — something like a starving beast. Simply meeting his gaze was enough to steal the breath from her lungs.
"Red and teal? Even a dog wouldn't be caught dead in that."
Lee Yeok said it with a sneer.
Ahn Eunchae silently prayed he wouldn't provoke the man, but she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth. Fortunately, the young man's expression didn't so much as flicker.
"Of course, you could never wear something like this. Do you have any idea what it's worth?"
Lee Yeok snorted.
The young man in teal went on in the same frigid tone.
"You've gone and caused trouble again, haven't you. And this time, it's a big one."
"Trouble? What trouble? I've never caused trouble in my life."
"The client you killed. His sister is no ordinary person. She's an outer-door elder of the Yangcheon Sect."
"The Yangcheon Sect?"
"One of the immortal sects. People like us could flap and crawl until the end of days and still never touch an immortal sect. That's just common sense."
Lee Yeok flashed a grin.
"So how much is my head worth?"
"Ten thousand silver nyang."
"Gah!"
Lee Yeok put on an expression of profound shock.
"A whole ten thousand? Incredible. It almost makes me want to kill myself."
"Relax. I'll do it for you."
"You will?"
"I'll even burn incense for you around this time every year."
Lee Yeok's hand still gripped the silken whip coiled at his hip, but to Ahn Eunchae, he didn't look like he was preparing to attack or defend at all. Her anxious eyes darted back and forth between the young man in teal and Lee Yeok.
"I have no intention of dying today."
"Oh? Then when do you intend to die?"
"I'm going to live until I die."
A faint crease formed between the young man's brows.
"You lunatic."
Deciding there was nothing more to say, he drew the sword at his side.
THUD!
At that very instant, another player entered the scene. A man leapt down between the young man in teal and Lee Yeok.
He rose slowly to his feet, his frame every bit as imposing as the black horse's owner. In his hand he carried a massive axe.
At the same moment, movement stirred behind them. A man with a spear was approaching — clearly in league with the axe-wielder.
"Hey, you over there dressed like a clown. You a bladesman too?"
The spearman called out to the young man in teal.
The young man didn't answer.
"Young one, are you? Your whole road lies ahead of you — let your seniors have this one."
The young man in teal replied flatly, without expression.
"Who are you after? If it's the woman, take her. All I need is that thief."
"We've business with both of you."
"Planning to rob two marks at once?"
The spearman chuckled.
"If you want to eat in this line of work, you'd better be industrious."
Lee Yeok's face soured. Three formidable masters — and he'd have to fight them all while protecting Ahn Eunchae. That was no easy prospect.
"This has become a bother."
He'd considered scooping up Ahn Eunchae and running, but even a man as confident in his speed as Lee Yeok couldn't be sure he could shake three masters while carrying her.
"No help for it, then..."
With a long sigh, Lee Yeok turned to Ahn Eunchae.
"Miss, I'm abandoning the job."
"What?"
"Even after deducting the thirty thousand nyang, you still owe me 515 nyang, remember? If heaven smiles on you and you survive, I'll come collect. If you don't survive... well, let's call it a breach-of-contract penalty plus a funeral offering. That works, right?"
Ahn Eunchae was struck speechless.
"Oh, and I'll need compensation for the horse too. Five hundred nyang. You can see for yourself — a fine steed like this doesn't come cheap. Your total debt comes to 1,015 nyang."
Lee Yeok gripped the dumbfounded woman's hand tightly in both of his and spoke with utter sincerity in his eyes.
"Survive. You must survive — so you can pay me back my 1,015 nyang. I'm begging you."
With those parting words, Lee Yeok vanished in an instant.
The two bladesmen and Ahn Eunchae — all three of them — stood gaping. They had been watching him the whole time, and he'd simply evaporated. It was like watching a ghost.
Only the young man in teal showed no reaction, as though he'd expected exactly this.
"No ordinary lightness skill. I'll track him down later. Secure the woman first."
At the spearman's order, the axe-wielder began striding toward Eunchae. Terror welled up in her — and it was then that her eyes fell on the young man in teal.
"Y-you there... Mister... handsome stranger whose name I don't even know!"
Ahn Eunchae shouted.
"I'm hiring you! You're only after that thief, you've got no quarrel with me, right? Save me, and I'll give you the money Lee Yeok was supposed to get! Thirty thousand silver nyang!"
The spearman snorted.
"What a shameless little wench."
The axe-wielder stopped mid-stride and turned. He was confident enough in his own skill that he didn't seem particularly tense — if anything, he looked amused, curious to see what the young man in teal would decide.
The young man, expressionless as ever, finally spoke.
"I am a bladesman."
Eunchae shivered, gripped by a premonition of what would come next.
"But I'm no escort. I take payment only for killing people."
Ahn Eunchae felt her stomach turn. He was the same breed of lunatic as Lee Yeok!
"Then kill those two right now!"
"On credit?"
Desperate, Eunchae answered without a moment's thought.
"Take the horse as a down payment! The two of us riding it can cover hundreds of miles in a single hour...!"
CRACK!
No one could say what had happened. The young man in teal had moved like the wind — just like Lee Yeok, he was beyond the reach of the eye.
All Eunchae managed to catch was the sight of him suddenly attacking the axe-wielder, the man's panicked face, and the axe in his hand — cleaved clean through, like a block of tofu.
The spearman was just as lost. Only after the axe-wielder's head had left his shoulders did he finally come to his senses.
"What the—!"
The young man in teal lunged straight for the spearman. His movements flowed like wind over water, without so much as a heartbeat's pause.
"You little whelp, how dare you—!"
The spearman never finished the sentence. A throwing knife, flung from the young man's left hand like a shot, was already streaking toward him.
Shaaaang!
CLANG!
The spearman batted the knife aside and roared again.
"Parlor tricks, is it—!"
But he collapsed before the words had fully left his mouth.
Crash!
A silken whip was buried deep in his spine.
"Lee Yeok...!"
There he stood, retrieving his whip with a smirk, and Ahn Eunchae couldn't tell whether the feeling rising in her chest was fury or relief.
"Don't be angry, Miss. Thanks to my brilliant plan, everything worked out nicely, didn't it?"
"Plan? You were genuinely trying to run away!"
Lee Yeok didn't look the least bit inclined to defend himself.
"I was going to subtract the horse fee again, but you went and gave it away as a down payment to some other guy? Your debt remains thirty-one thousand and fifteen silver nyang."
She wanted to say a great many things, but having just survived a brush with death and finally catching her breath, Ahn Eunchae had no strength left even to reply.
Lee Yeok smirked and addressed the young man in teal.
"Hey there, Turtle."
"For the millionth time, my name is Ye Gwi."
"Sure thing, Turtle."
A flicker of resignation passed through Ye Gwi's eyes.
"So you've made a contract with this girl. What now? If you cross me, she dies too — unless you plan to play bodyguard and see her all the way to Jinseong."
Ye Gwi walked over to Eunchae, who had sunk to the ground.
"Listen here. The price of a human life is a thousand nyang a head. You currently owe me two thousand."
"Hey, Turtle. I'm the one who caught the spearman."
Ye Gwi brushed the protest aside without a second glance.
"You can pay me back in Jinseong. Don't even think about running — I'm coming with you."
Then he turned back to Lee Yeok.
"...A contract's a contract, I suppose. I'll postpone killing you until we reach Jinseong. Who knows — I might make more on the road than your head is worth. And if I'm in a good mood, I might just let a piece of trash like you pass."
Lee Yeok grumbled.
"Sounds a lot cushier than my lot. Should've become a bladesman myself."
"You wouldn't qualify, but our old man would love you. He's been waiting for you to come crawling and pour him tea."
"Hah. Just looking at a young turtle turns my stomach. You think I want to see an old turtle's face too?"
For the first time, Ye Gwi's expression darkened.
"Watch your mouth. That's my father you're talking about."
"Since when were you a filial son?"
Lee Yeok swung himself onto the black horse in one fluid motion. Eunchae, her movements suddenly quick again, climbed up behind him.
"That horse is mine now. Get off."
Ye Gwi said. Lee Yeok snorted.
"Just borrowing it for a bit. You really want to watch a delicate young lady walk all the way to Jinseong on foot?"
Before Ye Gwi could fire back a word, Lee Yeok was off. Cursing under his breath, Ye Gwi scrambled after them.
The black horse, having rested only briefly, seemed to have recovered its strength in no time and tore down the road.
In high spirits now, Lee Yeok let out a great shout.
"Let's go! To Jinseong! To collect my thirty-one thousand and fifteen nyang!"