Suspicion
"Ha-hah. That would be rather difficult for us. Farewell, then."
With those words, Kim Hobu gave a slight bow and slowly sipped at his tea.
Is this bastard serious?
I never imagined he'd refuse outright without even pretending to consider it. If Yushin Village hadn't been within the Kim Clan's territory, I could understand — a hundred times over, even. There'd be no profit in it. But for him to be this indifferent when a village inside their own domain is in danger? It made no sense.
Is this even possible?
As the story went, the Kim Clan of Sacheon collected fees from the villages in their territory in exchange for protecting them from the Japanese raiders — a kind of protection tax. Naturally, the more villages there were, the more revenue they gathered.
No matter how I turn it over, it doesn't add up.
When pestilence sweeps through a village, even with a physician at hand, fewer than half the people survive. You might as well consider the village wiped off the map entirely.
There was no way Kim Hobu didn't know that. For him to refuse without a moment's thought over something that would clearly cost his own clan — it defied all common sense.
When I stayed silent for a long while, Kim Hobu set down his teacup and rose to his feet.
"It seems you have nothing more to say, so I'll take my leave. It was a pleasure to meet you, Young Lord Mujin."
Kim Hobu offered a thin smile and instructed the attendants to clear the room. Just as he was about to step out of the chamber—
"Don't you feel any pity for them?"
"Seonhwa?"
It was Seonhwa, who had kept quiet the entire time, speaking through gritted teeth. At her words, Kim Hobu's eyes widened briefly before he murmured, almost to himself.
"Pity, you say..."
"Yes. If you pity them, then shouldn't you naturally help them? They're people, same as us."
"Seonhwa, wait—!"
"What. I'll be direct about it."
As I moved to restrain the slightly riled-up Seonhwa, Kim Hobu cut across my words.
"I don't know who this young lady might be, but I feel no pity for them whatsoever."
"...Why not?"
"Because they're not the same kind of people as me."
What?
What is this bastard trying to say right now?
"They're commoners, after all. Do you feel pity when you watch ants get crushed underfoot? Ha-ha-ha."
"......"
Not only I, but Seonhwa too — who had been speaking through barely contained fury just moments before — went silent.
That guy is completely insane.
Hard as it was to believe, I had a feeling Seonhwa was thinking exactly the same thing I was.
"People... are dying..."
Seonhwa forced her trembling lips apart, shock written across her face. As a commoner herself, she couldn't help but be shaken by Kim Hobu's words.
"Yes. They'll die. But since it isn't me dying, there's no problem at all."
Ha. Ha.
Kim Hobu waved a hand with a laugh and turned away once more.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going. Ah — should you wish to discuss a transaction over this matter, I'll put you up for two days or so. Take your time and think it over."
With those parting words, Kim Hobu opened the door. Beyond it stood a tall warrior and a girl with pale yellow hair.
"...Young Lord. I've come to escort you."
"Oppa! That Young Lord of the Wang Clan is in there, isn't he? I want to see his face too. I'm dying to know how impressive he really is, with all those rumors flying around."
"Mm."
Kim Hobu looked troubled by the girl's demand, then shot me a meaningful glance. It seemed to say: a simple greeting, that's all.
Honestly, my first instinct was to refuse. But now that we were inside the Kim Clan's estate, some measure of appeasement was necessary.
When I gave a grudging nod, Kim Hobu, who had been blocking the doorway, stepped aside.
"So you're the Young Lord of the Wang Clan, are you? I'm Kim Yeonju."
Talking down to me? Is she out of her mind?
"What? Why aren't you saying anything? Cat got your tongue?"
I was already irritated, and she just had to dig her fingers into it. I couldn't tell whether she was doing it on purpose or was simply this rude.
"And here I heard you were quite the prodigy. All lies, apparently."
"...Lies?"
Kim Yeonju pointed a finger at me and twisted her mouth into a contemptuous sneer.
"You're about my age, and you expect me to believe you made Choe Chunghon drink dirt? Obviously it's a lie to keep me in check. You're trying to push me out — the famous Kim Yeonju of the Six Great Clans."
Heh-heh.
The way she eyed me sideways while saying it made me genuinely want to smack her. For a moment I wondered why I should even have to put up with this treatment.
I'd come asking to borrow a physician because a village was stricken with plague, only to get an earful of nonsense, and now I was being sneered at by this rabid little witch. My old temper — the one I'd reined in somewhat after spending years with Seonhwa — was starting to claw its way back out. Push me one more time, and clan be damned.
"Yeah, sure. You've seen my face, so that's enough. Off you go."
When I said it with a dismissive wave of my hand, the girl's eyes sharpened. No wonder she's that bastard's sister — look at those knife-edged eyes of hers.
"You just admitted it, didn't you? That you lied."
"Yeah, I did. So kindly disappear from my sight."
Because talking to you is pure agony.
"Hmph! Then go die along with those villagers!"
The yellow-haired girl spun around and stomped off, huffing and puffing. She must have been thoroughly furious. But what was I to do? I was the angrier one.
"You little bitch."
"?!"
Believe me, that was me holding back a great deal.
Following an attendant's guidance to an empty room, we collapsed onto the floor almost immediately.
"I'm exhausted..."
"Same."
I never thought she'd actually start bawling right there.
I'd held it in as long as I could, then let out one satisfying curse — and the moment I did, she burst into tears. She cried so miserably that I spent a full hour soothing her before I could finally slip out of the room.
'WAAAAAAH...!! Hhic...! I'll kill him!'
'My bad, okay? There, there. Be good now, hm? Stop crying.'
'WAAAAH...!'
'OW! Don't bite me! What are you, a dog? Good grief — loosen that jaw. Before you bite your own cheek.'
'KYAAAAA!'
I hadn't known she'd go so far as to claw at her own hair in her fury, or shriek like a dying animal. I wanted desperately to believe she was nowhere near my age.
So that was my full picture of the Kim Clan's youngest daughter, Kim Yeonju: a complete brat. It wasn't my place to say, but let's just say she'd never been taught any manners.
'On the way out, don't even make eye contact.'
I was afraid she'd show up in my dreams.
"Whew. Exhausting. Exhausting."
At my groaning, Seonhwa shot back with a look of utter disbelief.
You're the one who started it, Young Lord Mujin."
"That may be, but she threw the first stone."
"...It's exactly the same."
"What is?"
Seonhwa didn't answer my question. She only gazed at me, calm and knowing.
Meeting her eyes, I felt an inexplicable prickle of guilt, so I glanced away — and Seonhwa let out a sigh.
"So what do we do now? It doesn't look like we'll be borrowing a physician after all."
"No kidding. And we can't just turn back like this."
People would start dying on the third day, so we had to decide within two. Go home empty-handed, or find some way — any way — to bring a physician back with us.
And the latter carried a very high risk of entangling our clans politically. Kim Hobu had just used the word transaction — which, as I read it, meant a deal struck clan against clan.
If the Wang Clan's affairs were running smoothly, I might have opened the door a crack. But right now we were locked in a pitched contest of strength with Choe Chunghon.
Striking a deal with the Kim Clan would mean shattering, with my own hands, the delicate balance of power I'd barely managed to set in place before leaving for closed-door cultivation. Every scrap of my attention was already insufficient for Choe Chunghon alone — dividing it toward the Kim Clan as well would be gambling with everything.
I was sorry to the people of Yushin Village, but the moment the Wang Clan fell, the nation would fall with it. There was no choice to make.
'But why two days?'
I couldn't quite understand why he'd specifically offered two days. Two days was just barely enough time to bring a physician back and begin treatment in earnest. Yet Kim Hobu had granted exactly two days, as if he'd calculated it down to the hour.
'Something's off here.'
And there was one more strange thing: Kim Yeonju herself.
She had told me, point-blank, to go die along with the villagers — as if she'd known all along they were stricken with plague. Let's concede, a hundred times over, that Kim Yeonju knew. But how could she know something her own brother didn't? It made no sense. Unless Kim Yeonju were the Young Lord instead of Kim Hobu, there was no way her intelligence network could outstrip his.
So perhaps she'd eavesdropped on our conversation outside the door? I could state with confidence that this wasn't the case either.
'She never registered on my qi sense.'
Kim Yeonju first entered my qi perception at the exact moment Kim Hobu proposed the transaction. In other words, she couldn't possibly have overheard us.
And one thing more. Suppose she'd known all along and simply pretended not to. Then why, the instant I brought it up, did she come right out and declare she wouldn't lend a physician? Pretending not to know means you're trying to hide something — but flaunting your refusal the moment I speak contradicts that entirely. Which meant she wasn't hiding that. She was hiding something else.
To sum it all up: these bastards were suspicious as hell.
When I laid all this out for Seonhwa, she nodded.
"Now that I hear it, that does hold together. The problem is we have only suspicion — no proof."
"Then we find it, starting now."
Rushing back home would be pointless anyway. Given how things stood, we were better off spending these two days digging up evidence. And then we'd use it to blackmail them.
Of course, it would have to be meaningful enough for blackmail to actually work. Deliberately spreading the plague, for instance — something like that.
...I was beginning to understand, a little, why Wang Inho kept the Kim Clan at arm's length. If my suspicions were right, in sheer viciousness they might well trade blows with Choe Chunghon himself.
After a brief rest, we slipped out of the room. With time in short supply, we needed to move at once.
