The Debt Comes Due
"Vice President Baek, the protest letters from the businesses under our management keep pouring in."
"The interference is so bad we haven't been able to hold a single class in two weeks!"
"Some of our students are so frightened they've up and quit outright...!"
What in the world was all of this even for!
Baek Gun-ak was thoroughly sick of the directors' denunciations, which had been raining down on him for days on end.
"I said I heard you! You can't handle a handful of thugs, so you come whining to me about it?"
That single outburst silenced the room for a moment.
Baek Gun-ak squeezed his eyes shut.
How did it ever come to this? What on earth is wrong with the Black Tiger Gang?
The Black Tiger Gang of today was not the Black Tiger Gang of old.
The old gang had been reasonable, for bandits. Mutual prosperity might have been out of the question, but at the very least, coexistence had been possible.
The new Black Tiger Gang was a different beast entirely.
Those men were insane.
"Rampage! Put your very lives into it! Just leave the common folk alone!"
"Shield the commoners—fight the academies!"
"Let honest folk pass, and torment anyone wearing martial garb!"
As if they had all swallowed some potion together, they left the common people utterly untouched and struck only at the Martial Arts Academy Association.
Because the commoners suffered no harm, the government soldiers saw no reason to intervene.
They had tried beating the thugs. They had tried threats. They had tried coaxing, and even money. Nothing worked.
"Why do you do this, damn it all! At least tell me the reason!"
Unable to bear it any longer, Baek Gun-ak had personally captured one gang member and put him to the question, but—
"You want to die? Whether it's the government's blade or—no, whether it's the Gang Leader's, dying is dying either way!!"
"What would the likes of you know?! You think we do this because we want to?! We're risking our necks here too!!"
They raged and thrashed about like men determined to drag the whole ship down with them.
Just how mad is this Gang Leader, that his Black Tiger thugs ended up in this state?
In the end, Baek Gun-ak judged that words would solve nothing and resolved to settle it with force.
Some among the gang had indeed trained in the martial arts, but their true fighters had mostly vanished. In terms of raw martial might, the ordinary students alone should have been more than enough to subdue a pack of street thugs.
Or so he had firmly believed.
"You instructors who've only ever swung wooden swords—have you ever so much as held a live blade? Heh heh heh!"
"Wh-what did you just say?!"
"Why are you trembling? Ever stabbed a man before? Hm? I have."
"Hyiiik!"
The ordinary students could not fight properly.
When a naked edge was thrust before their eyes, their bodies locked up on their own. Even in victory, the thought of what if I get hurt strangled the breath from their lungs.
No—before any of that.
The mere thought that they might be the ones to maim another human being turned their minds a blank, searing white.
"A-Academy Director, I simply can't."
"You wretches! What do you think you're doing?!"
"I-I can't do it! How could anyone cut a person with a sword—!"
"I-I'll just quit the academy altogether. I'm sorry."
Mastering martial arts did not make a man a warrior. A lofty realm did not mean one knew how to fight.
The directors and instructors, or perhaps the close disciples taught personally by a director's own hand, might have been another matter—but the vast majority of students were merely ordinary people who had learned a little martial arts.
And even when the directors and their inner disciples somehow managed to drive the gang off, the problem remained. The very next day, the thugs would come strutting back with fresh bandages wound tight around their heads, eager to raise hell all over again.
And so the association, able to neither advance nor retreat, had been driven to this pass.
"Let us set everything aside and discuss candidly what is to be done. Executives—what do you believe we should do?"
At that, the executives raised their voices in a clamor.
"Let's declare war on the gang outright! Even if blood must flow, let's root out these bandits once and for all, I say!"
"What lunacy is that?! Students are already fleeing in terror as it is!"
"Then what would you do?!"
"What about slipping the county magistrate some coin and asking him to move the government soldiers?"
"And who exactly is paying for that?! I will not contribute a single coin!"
"Director Seo, how can you...!"
The meeting hall plunged into chaos in the space of a breath.
Finally at the end of his rope, Baek Gun-ak let loose a bellow.
"Enough! What is the matter with the lot of you!"
His vicious bark shut the directors' mouths at last. But the look in their eyes had changed from what it once was.
He can't even manage the affairs of his own White Horse Academy, and there he is puffing his chest.
Isn't the Vice President supposed to present some manner of solution the moment a problem arises?
In that instant, Baek Gun-ak's eyes flashed.
"......"
The directors flinched and slunk their gazes away.
"What good comes of quarreling among ourselves? Now is the time to discuss a plan with level heads. Do I make myself clear?"
"......"
"......"
Pressed flat under his menace, the directors answered nothing and merely kept their mouths shut.
Letting out one long, heavy sigh, Baek Gun-ak turned his gaze about the room—only for it to stop on a single spot.
"And why, may I ask, does Director Hwang have nothing at all to say?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Hwang Jong-baek, seated at the far end of the room, gave a violent start.
"Ah... w-well, nothing much occurs to me either, you see..."
"No difficulties at Blue Dragon Academy, then?"
"D-difficulties, you say."
Hwang Jong-baek rolled his eyes round and round before continuing.
"Ev-even if I did have troubles, everyone here is suffering together—how could I pile my voice on top? It would only add to the confusion, so I thought it best to hold my tongue. Heh heh heh..."
At the sight of it, Baek Gun-ak looked upon him as though seeing him for the first time.
"So Director Hwang is the sort of man who grows stronger in a crisis. This Baek has misjudged you."
"Ah, er. Th-that's hardly—it's nothing of the sort."
Drenched in a cold sweat, he averted his eyes.
The truth of the matter was that Blue Dragon Academy had no problems at all.
Because the Black Tiger Gang wasn't touching them, that was why!
—Senior. I hear the Black Tiger Gang is stirring again these days. Do be careful.
—Huh? I haven't heard any such thing.
—I'm sure it will be nothing, but best you know all the same. I'm telling this to you alone, in secret.
That was what Jin Cheong-un had said when he came calling not long ago.
He had lived a long life, but never once had he met a man so utterly incapable of playing innocent. Wasn't that practically announcing it to the whole world?
Sh-should I say something?
But was something not strange about this?
A man who commanded bandits who would betray their own mothers over their morning rice—and he couldn't keep a straight face?
He told me on purpose!
He was testing him!
Hwang Jong-baek's face went a deathly, bloodless white.
I must never speak of it! Never!
One careless word, and it would all be over that very day.
He had to hold his tongue. Absolutely, unconditionally.
And come to think of it, that whole story about being from the Martial Arts Alliance was clearly a disguise as well. What disciple of the Alliance, of all places under heaven, would commit such savage outrages?
Then what in the world is he? D-don't tell me—a wanted fugitive of the Alliance? A hidden chieftain of the heterodox sects, weaving his conspiracies?!
Hwang Jong-baek's misunderstanding only deepened, and deepened, and deepened.
Convinced that he had entangled himself in some vast and terrible scheme within a scheme, he writhed where he sat.
Of course, Jin Cheong-un truly had come from the Martial Arts Alliance, and the gang's newfound obedience owed itself to nothing more than a judicious blend of threats and beatings—but Hwang Jong-baek knew none of this.
"If you have no countermeasures to offer... then only a single card remains on the table."
Baek Gun-ak finally made his decision.
"And what would that be?"
"If our own academies cannot lift a hand, there is only one thing left, is there not?"
"Y-you don't mean to beg help from the youth association or the merchant guild...?"
"Would that not simply be fleeing the wolf and inviting in the tiger?"
Having rebuffed the one executive, Baek Gun-ak declared:
"We will borrow the power of the Martial Arts Alliance."
"......!"
"Tomorrow, I shall request an audience with the Yichang Branch Head."
Baek Gun-ak was certain that this would settle the matter once and for all.
Baek Gun-ak looked upward with a tense expression.
He stared for a long moment at the plaque over the entrance, then turned to the attendant who had followed him.
Martial Arts Alliance — Yichang Branch
"Did you pack the gifts properly?"
"Yes, Vice President."
"Give them here."
Baek Gun-ak received the box from his attendant's hands.
"Wait for me here. I shall return."
He drew one deep breath, put steel in his eyes, and stepped inside.
"Baek of the Martial Arts Academy Association. I have an appointment with the Branch Head today."
"Ah, Vice President Baek. He is expecting you. Please, go on up."
Baek Gun-ak swallowed a gasp of admiration as he studied the guide's bearing.
Truly, the Martial Arts Alliance is the Martial Arts Alliance.
It fell short of his own hard-won standing, granted—but even a man who looked to be the lowest-ranking member of the Alliance carried a bearing that would not have disgraced one of his association's executives.
Thus swallowing his nerves, he stepped into the Branch Head's office.
"Ah, welcome, Vice President."
A middle-aged man with a serene, clear-eyed countenance rose and greeted him with a gentle smile.
It was the Bamboo Leaf Sword, Sanggwan Pyeong—a genuine master of the Jianghu, whose martial arts were said to have reached their very peak.
Baek Gun-ak clasped his hands in a formal salute at once.
"I apologize for requesting a meeting without so much as a message. Have you been keeping well?"
"What could possibly trouble me? Come, come. Sit."
Over a cup of tea they exchanged pleasantries, and when the mood had warmed to just the right degree, Baek Gun-ak opened his mouth.
"Do you recall what you said to me, back when I lent you my aid in that matter of yours?"
"Hmm. That I would grant you one favor, whatever it might be. Has something come up, then?"
"Today, I have come to collect that debt. Tell me—what do you know of the Black Tiger Gang?"
Sanggwan Pyeong went still for a beat.
"...I know of them. Why do you ask?"
"Are you aware that they have risen again of late?"
"......"
"They are attacking the Martial Arts Academy Association as we speak. I wished to handle it with the association's own strength, but the bandits' outrages have grown so severe that we can neither advance nor retreat."
Sanggwan Pyeong's face hardened in an instant. Baek Gun-ak found this a shade curious, but reasoning that the man was at least listening in earnest, he seized the moment and pressed on.
"In the name of the Martial Arts Alliance—upright under heaven—I make this request. Could we not show those lawless wretches, who throw the people's livelihoods into disarray, exactly what for?"
Baek Gun-ak slid the gift he had brought discreetly across the table toward Sanggwan Pyeong.
Tk!
But suddenly he felt a hand barring its path and looked up.
"......?"
Sanggwan Pyeong was holding out his palm to stop him.
He spoke with the most troubled expression imaginable.
"...I am sorry."
"Branch Head?"
"I truly do wish to help you. But I cannot involve myself in this matter."
"May I ask the reason?"
"I cannot say."
In that instant, Baek Gun-ak's expression froze over.
"If you do this, Branch Head, I daresay your own position in Yichang will not remain so comfortable."
Sanggwan Pyeong went rigid.
He glared at Baek Gun-ak with faintly uncomfortable eyes for a long moment, then let out a sigh.
"I do not know the details myself. There were simply a few warnings handed down from above."
"Warnings? Whatever can you mean by that?"
Sanggwan Pyeong's brow creased a little.
"Did I not just tell you I don't know?"
"If a man of your standing does not know, then who in the world possibly could?"
"Branch Head, is it? Aye, a branch head is quite the lofty post."
Then he gave a dry, crooked smile.
"But even so—a branch head is all that I am."
What use would a mere branch head have for the affairs unfolding in the Alliance Headquarters—nay, in those towering heights far, far above?
Some time ago, Sanggwan Pyeong had been rocked by the news of the Black Tiger Gang's destruction and had gone straight to the local Beggars Sect sub-branch.
He had gone partly to verify whether the claim that they themselves had handled it was true—and partly, if it was, to demand why the Alliance had never been called.
And there, he had heard something very far from ordinary.
"Nothing much, friend. Just... ahh, best you look the other way and leave it be. Word is the ones above want it kept quiet too."
So had said Jang Chil-sam, the Beggars Sect Yichang Sub-branch Leader, hedging all the while.
Who knew what manner of thinking had driven him to bury himself in a rural backwater like this—but it was well known that Jang Chil-sam had once operated in the Intelligence Division of the Alliance Headquarters itself.
And a man of that caliber had spoken of the ones above.
In that moment, Sanggwan Pyeong had understood.
That the Alliance was conducting some secret business in Yichang.
That the Black Tiger Gang was entangled in that scheme—and that perhaps some great personage of the Alliance had come to these parts.
"See here, Vice President. What in the name of heaven have you people been doing out there?"
"I... beg your pardon?"
"What on earth did you lay hands on, that... Whew. No. Don't tell me. I don't even want to know."
"Wh-what on earth are you saying?"
Sanggwan Pyeong cut him off, clean and flat.
"I am truly sorry, but this time I cannot help you. I shall pretend I heard nothing at all. Please go."
And so Baek Gun-ak left the branch building with his dignity in tatters, shoved out the door as though drifting on the tide.
For a while he simply stood staring at empty air, dumbfounded—and then his fury detonated.
"What in the hell is going on!"
His face twisted hideously as he roared.
What had a pack of local street thugs possibly done, that the Martial Arts Alliance of all powers behaved this way?
What did he mean, what did you lay hands on? What had they been doing? What had he touched recently, that...!
The Martial Arts Alliance?
In that instant, Baek Gun-ak went very still.
"Don't tell me... Jin Cheong-un?"