The Reason Rules Exist - 1
My daily routine runs like clockwork.
I rise before the sun to run through the Five Animal Frolics, then open the inn for the morning rush. Once the morning trade winds down, Chae Jin comes downstairs and puts me through her spoon-fed instruction, and the rest of the time is nothing but work. After the lunch rush I clean the guest rooms, keep working until Chae Jin appears at my door the way a cram-school tutor swoops down on a slacking student, and get dragged off for forced, spoon-fed lessons in Chae Family Tai Chi. By the time those wrap up, evening has fallen; I do my Frolics again, then see to whatever work remains.
A remarkably regular life, wouldn't you say?
Then a small change entered that orderly existence.
"Thank you, as always."
"It's nothing."
Ever since the Demonic Cult's attack a while back, Hongseong Gate had taken to patrolling Seomhwachon on the village's behalf. They insisted it wouldn't interfere with their training, and for Seomhwachon it was nothing but good news. After all, having martial artists—and friendly ones, at that—walking the walls was a tremendous boon to public order. Naturally, the magistrate's office was delighted enough to chip in a subsidy.
With that subsidy, plus my own coin thrown in, I had been buying up medicine. Ideally I'd have gotten my hands on spiritual elixirs, but those hardly came easy. So instead I steadily stockpiled wound salves like Geumchangyak and internal-injury tonics like Yaosangyak, and whenever I'd gathered enough, I handed them over to the Hongseong disciples.
This was already the third time.
I shook my head at the adorable ash-grey-haired girl clutching the box of medicine.
Sayun. The reason I had come to this world.
Still awkward about receiving things from anyone, she gripped the box tight in her hands.
"Ah. S-so, I hear Senior Sister Hyeonwi helped you with it yesterday?"
"Yep."
"Was anything giving you trouble?"
I had recommended the back yard of my inn as the gathering point where the Hongseong disciples would regroup after their patrols. The reason was simple: so I could treat them to a Dang-gwa or two when they finished. Part of it, of course, was for Sayun's sake—but every other disciple in Hongseong Gate adored her too.
Which meant we were one!!
So a Dang-gwa or two was hardly any loss at all. Whether they knew my heart or not, the Hongseong disciples flatly refused to accept anything for free, and so they had offered to look over my Five Animal Frolics instead—which was, inevitably, how that came to be added to my tidy routine.
Fine by me.
"The Fire form gives me a bit of trouble, though."
Chae Family Tai Chi posed no challenge, not with Chae Jin drilling it into me by force. The Frolics were another story. All I had to go on was what people had shared in the gallery and one lonely secret manual—self-study in the truest sense of the word. That left plenty of hands eager to correct my forms, and, blessedly, Sayun's was one of them.
"Shall we have you run through it, then?"
Sayun took her place right beside me. While her deep, violet-dark eyes settled on me, I extended a hand.
The Five Animal Frolics were a martial art built upon the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements, and each form followed one of those five attributes. The Fire form was, at present, the one I found hardest to master.
"Hmm... I think I see why."
My outstretched hand swept down toward the ground, and as I spun my body and struck the empty air, Sayun nodded with grave seriousness.
"Why so?"
"Your inner energy runs short. For the Fire form of the Five Animal Frolics, I mean."
As I stepped back, Sayun assumed the exact stance I had held moments before—her right hand rising to prop up the heavens, her left sinking toward the ground to press the earth low.
"It begins with Heaven and Earth United as One."
The words left her in a murmur, and her hands moved. The right hand that had held dominion over the sky descended—it signified the sun granting its fire to the great earth, and in the same breath, flame kindled about her fingers. Faint, to be sure, but the qi of fire, one of the Five Elements, had truly taken root there. And yet that fire carried no heat; it was a peaceful flame, the kind meant to watch over those who dwelt upon the land.
"Whew. Like so."
One full cycle of the Fire form complete, Sayun beamed, and I applauded and held out the Dang-gwa I had ready. Flushing scarlet, she glanced back and forth between the confection and me, then bowed her head and accepted it with perfect courtesy.
Seeing her so happy over a treat worth a few coppers filled my chest with pride.
Haha.
"Nothing weighing on you these days?"
"Weighing on me...?"
Chewing her Dang-gwa, Sayun closed her eyes for a moment. She hesitated a long while before softly parting her lips.
"Um. Innkeeper? What sorts of things do men like?"
...Huh?
"Th-there's a man who's helped me an awful lot..."
She flinched mid-sentence, startled. Then she began to tremble, and like a puppy caught in the rain she started apologizing over and over, utterly at a loss.
"N-not that you haven't helped me plenty too, Innkeeper!!"
Waving her arms and legs in every direction at once, she descended into flustered rambling. It was adorable, honestly, like watching a startled puppy—but my superhuman patience proved more than strong enough to keep my face a perfect mask. After rattling on for a good while, she finally hung her head deep, red enough to look fit to vent steam.
I pieced together everything Sayun had said and asked, calm and even.
"So, to sum up: there's a man who's helped you in all sorts of ways, and you can't repay him because you don't know what he likes?"
"Yeees..."
That man was me, without a doubt.
Ah. Pride swelled and echoed through my chest.
Everyone... are you watching this?
Our Sayun says she wants to do something for me...
As the duly appointed representative of fifty million Sayun Dan members, I cast my mind back to the old threads where fellow members had traded ideas about what they'd want her to do for them. Setting aside such gems as "Sayun was the woman destined to become my mother!" and "I want to ask Sayun to co-sign my loan!", along with assorted other senseless drivel—
Good grief.
"Just grow up healthy and safe, wherever you are." That was the best they had?!
These hopelessly modest fools...
"Hard to say. A hundred people, a hundred tastes—who's to say what he'd like? I certainly couldn't."
"I see... Then what about you, Innkeeper? Isn't there anything I could do for you?"
"Me?"
I smiled at Sayun.
"Just grow up healthy and safe, wherever you are."
At my words, Sayun's eyes went wide and round, and then she broke into a bashful smile.
I couldn't keep her long. She left alongside the next Hongseong disciple to arrive, and I returned to my room to see to the rest of the day's work.
—Knock, knock.
"My lord. The Magistrate has come to see you."
Huh? The Magistrate?
I hurried downstairs, where Magistrate Hyeonryeong—a bushy-bearded official with the face of a tiger, flanked by two strapping soldiers—waited for me in his trademark scowl.
"What brings you all the way out here, Magistrate?"
"I have a brief matter to discuss with Innkeeper Yu, that's all."
"You could have simply sent for me."
"You must be terribly busy with your works, Innkeeper..."
"You're hardly the only busy man in this village, Magistrate. Come, let's head in."
Before long, dishes of a decidedly expensive pedigree began arriving at the table.
"I did not come here for a meal, of course. Ahem."
Oh, honestly. I'd watched the man smack his lips at every dish and every cup that appeared. Sure, whatever you say.
His mouth said no, but his body was honest!
"It happens to be dinnertime, after all. You've been run ragged with official duties—allow me the honor of hosting you for once."
"Ahem. Ahem. I do feel rather ashamed, freeloading a meal off you like this."
"Think nothing of it. Now then—please, eat."
Still, this man was no bad sort. He'd done a great deal for Seomhwachon's comfort, and he saw to every duty that fell to him—which meant there was nothing but profit in staying close to him. Elbows bend inward, as they say: as long as he never asked me to cross a line, a friendship with the Magistrate would pay dividends in all sorts of ways.
The drinks made a few rounds, and once the plates had been picked down considerably, he spoke up, his face lightly flushed.
"You know what happened recently. Those Demonic Cult bastards coming here."
"Ah. Yes."
"Quite the affair, that was. Wouldn't you say?"
"Did it, now?"
"And you, Innkeeper Yu, even met a cultist face to face. Word has it you've grown quite close with the Hongseong disciples as well."
"I... have, yes?"
Why bring that up all of a sudden?
When I tilted my head in puzzlement, the Magistrate flashed a sly grin.
"So here it is. Might I ask one small favor of you, Innkeeper?"
"Name it. If it's nothing too difficult, I'll accept."
"I'd like you to enter Hongseong Gate and carry out the investigation yourself."
His tone was grave, and my eyebrows twitched. When my silence demanded an explanation, he simply shrugged and took a long pull at his cup.
"Are you aware that, beyond the cultist Nakilgeom captured, another cultist infiltrated Hongseong Gate?"
"I've heard the story. They say the Sword Saint dealt with it personally..."
"Orders have come down to conduct a proper investigation into exactly that."
"Oh... Don't investigations like this usually bring officials straight from the capital? Why aren't they coming in person for once?"
"They say they'll send people once the report is in. Being Hongseong Gate, it seems they're treading carefully in their own fashion."
Judging by Sayun's letters and the accounts of the Hongseong disciples who had come down the mountain, the training cavern had been smashed to pieces. And that cavern was where the Sword Saint made her residence—the innermost of Hongseong Gate's inner sanctums. In other words, no outsider could simply go poking around in there.
"By long-standing rule, officials must not entangle themselves with martial artists. And since Hongseong Gate has helped us, we can hardly force our way in either..."
So. He meant to hold out his hand to me—the one man on decent terms with Hongseong Gate?
"Of course I know the Hongseong disciples are good people. But even so, they are martial artists. They keep rules of their own, and we cannot force the government's rules upon them, can we?"
It sounded like consideration, but his eyes carried fear and wariness in equal measure. Fair enough, really. However illustrious a sect Hongseong Gate might be, no official could simply set foot on their grounds uninvited—all the more so when they were the very people who had helped him.
"But with you, Innkeeper Yu, it's a different story, no? You're close with them personally, and I hear they've been resting at your inn after their patrols of late."
"Hmmmm..."
"Anything touching on the Demonic Cult is a delicate matter. If this isn't resolved properly, then no matter how prestigious a sect Hongseong Gate may be, no matter how righteous its people, the Empire will move to restrict a good deal of the privileges it grants them. And if that comes to pass, even this office will be powerless to help."
Ah. That would be a problem.
"Very well. Leave it to me."
He looked satisfied at that.
"Good, then. I'll have someone deliver the White Jade Plaque to you tomorrow."
The Demonic Cult had long been the Empire's enemy, and the Empire had made its own preparations in answer. The White Jade Plaque was one of them—a product of the Imperial Anti-Demonic Cult Division, a tool that absorbed demonic qi and identified just which demonic art it had come from. With it, one could determine what manner of cultist the target had been; and if the art proved high-level and the target was already dead, the Empire would cross-reference its existing intelligence to find where that cultist had originally been based, then strike at that place. The higher the art a cultist wielded, the higher his standing—and a stronghold with no high-standing cultists was a stronghold whose defenses had thinned accordingly.
Recalling an event that had cropped up fairly often in Cheonsang Myeongwol, I nodded along.
"But if that's all there is to it, couldn't you simply leave it to Hongseong Gate?"
"Tsk. It's not that I hadn't considered it... but verifying demonic qi with the White Jade Plaque is never settled in one or two tries. And there are a few other matters that need seeing to besides..."
It generally took a full day for the White Jade Plaque to absorb demonic qi, and there were times the attempt simply failed, meaning the whole process had to be run again and again. Back in the gallery, we'd even held a lottery with it to crown the single unluckiest player among us—the reigning champion of misfortune, as I recalled, had failed thirteen times in a row.
In any case, since the Magistrate couldn't rule out failure either, he had evidently been none too keen on palming the job off on Hongseong Gate.
Not that it was bad news for me. I'd been wanting a look inside Hongseong Gate myself.
True, it was a zone forbidden to men—but the other men-only zones in Cheonsang Myeongwol had never been absolutely impenetrable, so there was bound to be a way in here too. And if all else failed, I could simply ask.
Besides, I had something to request of the Magistrate anyway, so the timing couldn't have been better.
"While we're on the subject... there is something I urgently must ask of you, Magistrate."
"Hahaha! What's mine is yours, Innkeeper Yu—we're hardly strangers. Don't stand on ceremony; speak plainly. What is it you want?"
"When I need it—"
My eyes gleamed at the Magistrate.
"—mobilize every government soldier you can raise, and place them all at my disposal. Rest assured, it will be nothing that endangers the Empire."
At my proposal, he too deliberated for a long while before lifting his cup.
Contract sealed.
I had gained one more weapon to wield against the Iron Blood Dan.