Is There Anyone in the World Who Knows Me? (5)
Is There Anyone in the World Who Knows Me? (5)
"Pu...."
I spat out a leaf and frowned. A branch had smacked my face, leaving a red mark. Sannyeo was resting in lotus position, and I was checking the map to see where we were.
"Where are we?"
Of course, I'd never learned map reading, so staring at the map told me absolutely nothing. There was a stream flowing beside us, but was this a river? It was way too narrow to be one, so would it even be marked on the map?
I put the map away again. As soon as the tension eased, the wound on my cheek began to sting. Traveling with Sannyeo was rougher, cruder, and more perilous than I'd imagined. Because she literally ran full tilt ignoring the terrain, branches whipped my face at her speed, and the wind made it impossible to see straight.
Even when I tried to ask her to slow down just a little,
[Eoup! Upeurup! Eo-eok!]
nothing but weird sounds came out, and we couldn't exchange a single word. After running like that for a full day, Sannyeo said she'd take a short rest and sat in a corner, while I touched the wounds on my face and muttered.
"Jeokro. Jeokro. So you finally kill your master."
"Hm? What did you say?"
Sannyeo had apparently just woken from her rest. She blinked and looked at me as she asked. I pretended I hadn't said anything and unfolded the map I'd stuffed in my pocket again as I spoke.
"...So, where have we gotten to?"
Sannyeo studied my face closely, then smiled. My face was getting wrecked, and to her it seemed to be an enjoyable thing. She wiggled her fingers with her manacled hands and said,
"We still have a long way to go. All rested now?"
I swept a hand down my cheek and said,
"...Can't we rest just a little more?"
Sannyeo grabbed my hand and forced me up as she said,
"For revenge, you'd do anything, right?"
Fuck.
*******
Chang'an had always been a grand city, ever since Dong Tak abandoned Luoyang and fled here. The high walls he'd built to protect his greed had repeatedly burned and crumbled with the flow of history, only to be restored again.
Even when the tales of old heroes became martial valor stories from a time before the foundations of martial arts were set, the scars of the wars they left behind clung intact to those walls.
"Alright, next... Ah, jeez, you scared me. No, what on earth have you been doing to get your face looking like that?"
And my face was full of the battering marks from traveling with Sannyeo. If a stranger saw me, they'd think I was a runaway slave, my face so swollen and filthy that I smelled of dirt with every breath. I gave a light snort and blew a pebble out of my nostril.
The guard swept his gaze over me as though looking at a Beggars' Sect beggar. I didn't mind his gaze and pulled my identification from my pocket.
"Sect Leader of the Crimson Ring Sect. Docheol."
"...What kind of mishap could befall a man who's even a Crimson Ring Sect Leader?"
The guard scrutinized me with a dubious look even after seeing the badge issued by the state. I did not want to give the guard a detailed report of my stupid choices and their consequences. I took back the badge and said,
"Got kicked by a horse."
The guard didn't ask any more. If a conversation with a martial world man dragged on, he'd be the one to lose out. I rubbed my cheek, found the nearest inn that wouldn't draw attention, and slipped inside.
******
"Ah, aah...! Gently...! Be gentle...!"
"If people heard that the famous Sect Leader of the Crimson Ring Sect makes such a fuss over a little scrape, what would they say?"
Sannyeo looked pleased.
Unlike a few days ago, when I'd been gleeful thinking it was a stroke of genius, I was draped over a chair with a deathly pallor, having medicine applied. Sannyeo was humming a tune while spreading the ointment the inn servant had brought onto my face.
"I didn't do this on purpose, but your body can't keep up with my speed, so what can you do? You'll just have to endure it with your body."
"F-fuck...!"
"You going to keep wailing like a girl? You said you wanted to be called a great hero, didn't you?"
I had nothing to say to that.
I was a great hero.
A great hero didn't bow to this much pain.
But my hands were trembling, and my face kept flinching as I cried out in pain. No matter what, dabbing ointment on scraped skin was too damn painful.
Sannyeo wore a dumbfounded expression at the sight of me. She tilted her head, gave me a pathetic look, then smiled again as she smeared the medicine on, slap, slap.
"Ge-gently...!"
"...This is actually kind of fun."
It was a genuinely entertained expression. It was the very same expression she wore when contemplating revenge, so I didn't grumble any more and bore the pain.
"Hm?"
Some time passed?
She paused while applying the medicine and lowered her hand. I glanced sideways to see what was up, and she was looking toward the hallway as she said,
"Someone's here."
Sannyeo left those words and disappeared. No sooner had she vanished than a voice came from beyond the door.
"Sect Leader Docheol. May I come in?"
It was a calm voice. It was clearly the informant I'd arranged to meet in Chang'an. I remained seated in the chair, put on a composed expression, and lowered my voice.
"Enter."
"Ah, yes. Excuse me.... Oh my. Sect Leader. What's happened to your face? Did you perhaps suffer an attack..."
"Got kicked by a horse."
"...?"
Because I said it with a deadpan face, he wore a puzzled expression. I cut to the chase.
"Let's get straight to it. How is the situation unfolding? Has Jong Yuseop entered Chang'an?"
The man kept stealing glances at my face even as he sat down and continued.
"Yes, Sect Leader. Jong Yuseop hasn't entered Chang'an yet, but from what I've heard, he'll arrive tomorrow or the day after."
"Has he already settled on lodgings or a place to store the goods?"
"Yes. There's a warehouse Venerable Geumbok mainly uses for transactions in Chang'an, and a separate mansion permanently leased for meeting clients. If you look at a map of Chang'an, here and here."
The informant pulled a map from his waist and indicated the locations. I rubbed my chin as I spoke.
"Even if it's a mansion, his client meeting spot must be fixed—where is it?"
"The guest room on the second floor. Since it's been leased for so long that they have staff, we couldn't infiltrate anyone inside, but we were able to acquire an interior map."
He took out another map. It was a floor plan of a four-chamber, two-story mansion. Inside the neat rectangles, there were detailed descriptions of what each room was used for. Among them, I pointed to a place labeled 'Tea Storage Room' and asked,
"What's this?"
"I'm told it's a room for storing the precious tea leaves used when receiving guests. Usually, they keep the door tightly locked and forbid outside access."
"Precious tea leaves, huh.... What about the security at the warehouse storing the goods?"
"Considering Venerable Geumbok's past transactions, even though they keep valuables, because it's in the heart of Chang'an, security isn't particularly tight. Usually on the first day, they post soldiers and a few martial artists, and the ones in charge shake off their travel fatigue by drinking at an inn."
"Good news."
The fact that warehouse security wasn't tight was good news. Besides, if they were shaking off travel fatigue at an inn, infiltrating the mansion first to do my work would be easy. I rubbed the wound on my face and grinned brightly. The informant said with an eager expression,
"So, what's the plan? Are you going to attack him?"
I shook my head.
The events set to unfold from tonight were not a grudge-fueled attack by someone. They would be a terrible tragedy caused by Jong Yuseop's mismanagement and incompetence.
"He won't even know he's been attacked."
On every mission undertaken by the already mentally fragile Jong Yuseop, I would bestow misfortune while concealing all outside interference. I would make him fail mission after mission, driving his mind to the extreme.
"He'll really be so resentful, wondering why the world keeps handing him such misery."
When a peak master feels the world is tormenting him, what kind of sound will he make as he cries?
Those who make others weep tears of blood receive the same in return.
With the informant's eyes full of expectation behind me, I waited for night to come.
********
The informant brought up my wound again. His eyes were on the spot that was slightly swollen because the ointment hadn't been fully applied, the spot where the branch had struck hard and scraped the skin off.
"By the way, it must have been very painful when you treated it. The wound is more serious than I thought."
"It hurt a little when applying the ointment. But this much pain is nothing compared to the suffering of the people groaning in torment under Venerable Geumbok."
"As expected...! I'd heard the Sect Leader of the Crimson Ring Sect is a great hero, and it's truly so."
"You bet it is."
Deolkeong! Deolkeong!
The windows rattled.
It seemed the wind agreed with me, too.