Silk Road 4
Left Guardian.
Left Guardian.
Left Guardian.
Bang!
“Ah...”
The tabletop split with a crack.
Damn that Left Guardian. Parasite bastard. Get out of my head.
This was exhausting. No, it was my head that was exhausted.
My meridians weren’t the problem; my skull felt twisted tight enough to send me into deviation before long.
I could feel my madness stirring again.
I wanted to work. I wanted to fight.
Never mind thinking things through—I wanted to slice through the men I was allowed to kill, dozens of them, hundreds of them, until there was nothing left.
Back when I killed that Banghosa.
Back when I butchered all twenty-seven of those trash heaps.
Back when I stripped the wife’s clothes off her and hung her naked in the inner courtyard.
God, that had felt good. I missed the feel of it. I missed the thrill of killing wicked men without hesitation.
Of course, I had killed countless people while working for the Hyeolsadae.
But that was different.
The Hyeolsadae was a trash pile. The Demonic Cult was a trash pile. And his so-called ideal world, the Blood Heavenly Demonic Cult, could be nothing but another trash pile.
Ah. I was already trash myself. I had killed no small number of innocent people in the Hyeolsadae’s service.
Like attracts like.
Left Guardian. Cult Leader. Jin-wol.
Red Lotus Manor. Hyeolsadae. Executioner.
...I’d better get some air.
-
They said winter in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains was colder than in the Central Plains.
But I’d grown up in Go-chon.
It had been a high place, all right, but anyone who had lived through a dugout house that let wind and rain whistle straight through knew just how miserably a place like that failed at being called a home.
If this counted as cold, then I was just being soft.
Still, I had to take care of my body, so I wrapped myself in a long robe and stepped outside.
Red Lotus Manor. Ha Jeok-yeong’s estate.
The garden behind the training yard was plain, yet it held a kind of distant, lingering beauty.
I found the pond, with ice drifting across its surface, and sat down on a broad flat stone.
It was the very spot where I had talked with Jin-wol at dusk.
A starry night. Cold wind. Silent water.
I closed my eyes, quietly sharing in every feeling the world had to offer.
Hsss—
Haa.
Cold. The chill sank all the way into my lungs.
And yet it was refreshing. I could feel the clean aftertaste of old phlegm being washed away.
There was no such place as Ma-hyeon-geom-mun.
Why had the Executioner told me that story?
Chances were, the Left Guardian had known too, at least from the circumstances.
But this was clearly a different matter.
Why had she told me such a secret in the first place?
Especially after going so far as to call me a direct disciple.
No. It wasn’t because she trusted me. It had been a warning.
A warning that the Cult Leader was already planning to purge the Left Guardian, and that I should choose my side before it was too late.
Maybe the moment of choice would come sooner than I expected.
“Cough! Cough!”
Suddenly, I heard someone coughing.
It was an old man.
When I turned toward the sound, I saw him in a white hemp coat, scattering bait into the pond.
For some reason, I’d been feeling restless, so I spoke to him.
“There aren’t any fish living in this pond. Besides, it’s the dead of winter.”
“Haha. Is that so?”
The old man gave an awkward laugh.
There was something fatherly about that gentle smile, and before I knew it, I was smiling too as I moved to sit beside him.
Just then, a gust of wind swept through.
With the wind came snowflakes, one after another, drifting down onto the old man’s basket.
Even so, he didn’t stop scattering the bait.
Noticing my puzzled stare, the old man began to tell his story.
“I lost my wife and son during the war. Manor Lord took me in after that.”
I wondered if what I saw in his eyes was regret.
“For a long time, I did nothing at all. I called for my family, now stars in the sky, over and over again... and I wasted year after year in misery. It wasn’t until three full years had passed, with me eating the manor’s food and doing nothing in return, that I finally realized I was nothing but a burden. And even then, the Manor Lord never said a word.”
So that was it. The old man had lost his family in the war and been taken in by the Left Guardian.
It was a similar story to mine, in a way.
“He truly must be a thoughtful man. I wanted to repay his kindness somehow, so I opened a pharmacy in the manor. I used to be a physician, you know.”
“I did notice a building over there that looked like a pharmacy. I wasn’t sure, though, since no one ever seemed to go in or out...”
I remembered the small, walled-in building to the left of Red Lotus Hall.
But because no one had ever gone there, I’d thought it was abandoned.
“Young lady, you’ve got a sharp eye. These days, no one comes to Red Lotus Manor anymore, but back when the Manor Lord was in his prime, many people came here for treatment.”
The old man was speaking obliquely.
Back when the Manor Lord was in his prime.
That must have been the time Jin-wol had meant.
He probably thought I was some maidservant or attendant and was talking to me as one. He’d never dream I was a disciple.
“So now I’ve got nothing much to do... which is why I’ve been feeding the fish.”
No, sir. I’m telling you, there aren’t any fish in this pond.
“Heh. Are you trying to tell me there are no fish here?”
Ah.
“Of course I know. Sometimes it’s enough just to be doing something, anything, so the heart feels settled. If I were to stand around with nothing to do, I’d feel as though I’d slipped back into those old days when I was nothing but a burden at the table.”
He was wise. Hearing that, I found myself thinking the same thing.
Everyone carried at least one painful memory in their chest.
And memories like that became needles, then knives, and every so often they dug into the heart when you least expected it.
How we dealt with the past was ours alone to decide.
If you tried too hard to look away, you lost yourself.
But if you let it drag you down, you’d never move forward.
Only then did I think I understood why he kept scattering bait into the pond.
He was the same kind of person I was.
Someone who fought endlessly against ghosts, struggling not to let them gnaw away at what remained of his life.
Only his way of doing it was a little different from mine.
Watching him, I said,
“Um, I’m the Left Guardian’s disciple.”
The old man blinked in surprise.
“His disciple?”
“Yes. I guess you didn’t know. I’ve had a bit of a headache lately... would you take a look at me sometime?”
He burst out laughing then, a hearty laugh I hadn’t heard from him before.
“Haha! Yes, of course. I certainly should. I’m a physician, after all. Though you’ll have to give me a little time. I need to get more medicinal herbs and tidy up the pharmacy. And I should clear away the cobwebs too.”
I felt a warmth toward the old man I’d only just met.
I had a feeling I’d be coming out for night walks a lot more often.
“My name’s So-yeon. Please take care of me.”
“I’m Gyeon Yu-hyeon, disciple-nim.”
Would the day ever come when even this pond was alive with fish?
-
The moment dawn broke, the Left Guardian summoned me. It wasn’t to Red Lotus Hall, but to some secret place beneath the main house of Red Lotus Manor.
There, a guest who had rushed over at daybreak waited in silence.
He was a middle-aged man with sharp eyes that seemed to see through all things and a strong, angular jawline.
This was how he introduced himself.
“I’m Jeong-mu, acting Grand Leader of the Heoguyan Merchant Group.”
“I’m So-yeon, disciple of the Manor Lord.”
What an awkward three-way meeting.
Leaning against the wall near the lamp, the Left Guardian said flatly,
“He is of the Hyeolsadae. There is no need to be wary.”
Jeong-mu, the acting Grand Leader of the Heoguyan Merchant Group, was Hyeolsadae.
But wasn’t it the Hyeolsadae’s iron rule that members concealed their identities from one another?
By now, the man must have been thinking the same thing I was. I studied the expressions on the Left Guardian and Jeong-mu’s faces.
It was the Left Guardian who broke the silence.
“As you know, I am heading out for Delingha. I have arranged this meeting in spite of the Hyeolsadae’s usual principles because there is a matter I must entrust to you.”
The Left Guardian took something from his sleeve and tossed it onto the desk.
It was a scroll. The notarized document from Qingyun Tower that he had handed me the other day, the one bearing the Banghosa’s name.
“I had assigned each of you separate tasks. There is no need to keep them secret now.”
He wanted us to speak.
“We were following the trail of the dead Banghosa Gong Tae-o. We traced his movements and investigated the pleasure quarters he frequented.”
Following my words, Jeong-mu’s deep voice rumbled out.
“We were determining the location of the Blood Heart Pill that must have been taken from Northern Route Leader Gong Tae-o.”
I understood at once why the Left Guardian had arranged for me to meet the acting Grand Leader of the Heoguyan Merchant Group.
Without either of us knowing it, we had both been tracking the whereabouts of the Blood Heart Pill.
Gong Tae-o had been the Northern Route Leader of the Heoguyan Merchant Group, while Jeong-mu was the acting Grand Leader.
Then the Blood Heart Pill belonged to the Heoguyan Merchant Group.
And the fact that they were searching for it secretly with Hyeolsadae members suggested it was likely tied to the Blood Cult.
More than that, judging by the circumstances, the acting Grand Leader had probably started investigating before I had.
I must have only been assigned my task after they learned Gong Tae-o had embezzled the Blood Heart Pill.
And now that the Left Guardian was leaving on campaign, he had brought us together so we could join forces and find it.
“Work together and find the Blood Heart Pill before I return.”
“...Understood.”
With that, the Left Guardian turned away.
His figure was swallowed by the dim, foul air of the underground chamber.
And then, all at once, from within the darkness where he had vanished, his final words drifted back to us.
“However, you must do so in secrecy. The Executioner will be after it.”
-
The mission had been handed down, and the Left Guardian had departed for Delingha with only a few attendants.
Red Lotus Manor had already been quiet, and now that they were gone too, it had become a desolate place stripped of all life.
All that remained were the trivial sounds of daily labor—attendants sweeping the snow from the yard with straw brooms, swish swish, swish swish.
On the surface, I was also supposed to have gone out with him.
But the truth was different.
I was staying in a small room tucked into one corner of the Heoguyan Merchant Group, digging into the secrets behind the Blood Heart Pill with the acting Grand Leader.
“Gang Doo-ho transfers one point of the Houmun Token to Gong Tae-o, thereby conveying all related ownership and authority.”
Tracing the chain of events, it seemed the Blood Heart Pill had been what Gong Tae-o gave to this man named Gang Doo-ho in exchange for acquiring something called a Houmun Token.
Then what exactly was a Houmun Token?
“Though the document specifies one point, this Houmun Token may not be an actual object.”
Jeong-mu said. He was seated across from me, glaring at the document.
“It’s a common trick used in the dark offices. It may not be money or a tangible item at all... it could be something intangible.”
Something intangible. Gong Tae-o had traded for something called a Houmun Token.
I thought back on Gong Tae-o.
Weak and spineless, yet shamelessly loud; a lustful bastard who didn’t know his place.
He had been a beastly wretch who kidnapped women he liked and sold them off to pleasure houses.
If the Houmun Token was something without form... a woman?
No. A woman wasn’t an object, but she did have form. And beyond that, I couldn’t think of anything else that fit.
I was going to need to learn more about Gong Tae-o.
Not Gong Tae-o the Banghosa, but Gong Tae-o the Northern Route Leader of the Heoguyan Merchant Group.
“What kind of man was Gong Tae-o?”
“He was clever. Before he went astray, that is. He was always greedy for money, but he was just as good at gathering it.”
“No way that bastard was clever.”
“It’s true. With skill alone, he took the Northern Route Leader position and handled all trade with Persia. He was indispensable in the Tian Shan northern route trade.”
“The Gong Tae-o I knew was nothing more than a lecher.”
“His wife must have eaten away at him. I only heard it secondhand, but I’m told his maternal family arranged a marriage with a lady from a distinguished house, and that woman had quite a temper.”
The memory of cutting off his wife’s arms and hanging her naked from the roof flashed through my mind.
Well, she hadn’t exactly been a sweet-tempered woman, that was for damn sure.
But that didn’t excuse Gong Tae-o’s crimes.
His repressed desires had simply found expression through a taste for sex.
“After that, the Northern Route Leader fell into lust. It was a serious case. In the end, he even dipped into the merchant group’s funds just to chase pleasure.”
“So when he sensed danger, he stole the Blood Heart Pill and ran.”
“Exactly. I investigated as far as I could. It’s certain he stole the Blood Heart Pill from the merchant group’s warehouse and handed it over to someone. But beyond that, I couldn’t find anything.”
“Then this Gang Doo-ho from the document must be the one who received the Blood Heart Pill. And this Houmun Token is...”
Wait. That’s strange.
According to Jeong-mu’s story, Gong Tae-o shouldn’t have had any connection to official office work.
Yet in his later years he had been appointed Banghosa. How, exactly?
Did Gang Doo-ho open that path for him? Then...
“Bhangosa.”
At once, Jeong-mu’s eyes flashed.
“What did you say?”
“The Houmun Token is the post of Banghosa. Gong Tae-o traded the Blood Heart Pill to buy the office.”