It Hurts a Lot When the Axe You Trusted Strikes Your Instep
A peaceful spring day, the flowers in full bloom.
In one corner of Sichuan, a certain household was in such an uproar that even the cat, sprawled out luxuriating in the warm sun, could bear it no longer and bolted.
Faced with a scene more riotous than a marketplace on the eve of a festival, I promptly let half my brain leak out my ear and thought:
Who am I...
"What do you mean even I can't go in?!"
Where is this...
"No one apart from the Clan Head may enter!"
What was I doing...
"Is it true there was an intruder here last night?"
And why am I standing here like this...
"Move it."
There was Dang Mulin pitching a fit to be let in, the Red Sky Squad Leader barring her way, the Dark Sky Squad Leader who had come running at dawn with sweat pouring off him, and the servants muttering amongst themselves as they took in the spectacle of the Medicine Hall...
The commotion, which had rattled everyone awake with a clamor to shame a barnyard rooster, finally quieted only when the Clan Head himself made his appearance.
At his brief command, the Red Sky guards posted at the Medicine Hall door gave a curt nod and stepped aside.
Dang Mulin followed the Clan Head, the Executive Hall Master, and a handful of Executive Hall warriors through the doors, glaring daggers at the Red Sky guards the entire way.
"You lot and I are going to have a little chat later."
Her words, delivered with eyes steeped in murder, made the Red Sky guards shudder from head to toe as they silently cursed their own squad leader.
The Young Lady could've simply been waved through, but nooo—thanks to that stubborn blockhead, we're dead meat...
"Hang in there..."
The Dark Sky Squad Leader offered his consolation, patting the shoulder of a Red Sky guard who had gone limp contemplating the future awaiting him, and was about to follow Dang Mulin inside when—
Hup— a hulking man came back out through the door and planted himself squarely in his path.
"I'm afraid you won't be going in?"
The Dark Sky Squad Leader tilted his head up to look at the towering figure.
"Ha? Yun... are you out of your mind?"
The Red Sky Squad Leader answered, gazing down at him from on high.
"Young Lady Mulin, fine—I could see letting her pass. But you? Not a chance."
He pressed on, wholly unmoved by the glare the Dark Sky Squad Leader leveled up at him.
"With the culprit possibly being one of our own, we can't exactly let just anyone wander into the scene of the crime, now can we..."
At that, the Dark Sky Squad Leader let out a low growl.
"Yun... do you say that not knowing I'm the one who sprinted here with the Young Master slung over my back when he collapsed?"
The Red Sky Squad Leader merely shrugged, utterly unbothered by the fury in the man's voice.
"You never know..."
Just as the air between the two was about to turn thoroughly ugly—
the Medicine Hall Master stomped over, shouldered his way between them, and barked:
"Stop pouring all that energy into worthless nonsense and go do something actually productive for once!"
At the sight of the Medicine Hall Master glaring them down in displeasure, the Dark Sky Squad Leader put on an aggrieved expression.
"But... he started it—"
"Quiet!"
The Medicine Hall Master cut his protest off mid-word.
"And Yun isn't exactly wrong in the first place, so you go and cool that head of yours too!"
"Pfft."
At the Red Sky Squad Leader snickering at him over the Medicine Hall Master's words, the Dark Sky Squad Leader grumbled under his breath and soon trudged off.
"Muyeong, are you all right...?"
With the din outside having abruptly gone silent, a middle-aged man had opened the door and stepped in—and I found myself still groping for an answer to his question.
"Uh... um... I think my body's fine."
"I see... thank goodness."
At my hesitant, fumbling reply, the middle-aged man let his relief show and murmured something that sounded half like talking to himself.
.......
After a moment, breaking the awkward silence that had settled over us, the middle-aged man spoke up.
"It seems you don't quite remember who I am."
When I panicked and began flailing for a response, he quickly put on an air of calming me down and continued.
"I am your father."
When I could only sit frozen, unable to manage a single word, he hurried to soothe me.
"It's all right... I heard from the Medicine Hall Master that you've lost your memory, so I understand completely. The fact that you've woken at all is more than enough to be thankful for."
Saying this, he kneaded both my cheeks with eyes brimming with tender affection.
Once more with my cheeks in somebody's grip, I clicked my tongue inwardly.
Tch... is grabbing and mauling someone's face the moment you're happy to see them the house rule in this family...
Perhaps catching at least a hint of my discomfort, the Clan Head finally released my cheeks and said:
Those chilling words, spoken in a gentle voice from a face of utmost benevolence, sent an inexplicable shiver down my spine.
"In any case, the Red Sky Squad will be attached to you for a while. It'll be a little inconvenient, but just bear with it."
Having said his piece, the Clan Head glanced around, and the moment his attention slid off me, the stiff-faced middle-aged man stepped up and asked:
"Muyeong. Did you sense anything out of the ordinary last night?"
Hearing this, I replied in a tone laced with puzzlement.
"Um... honored Elder? But what on earth happened that everyone suddenly came looking for me and caused all this commotion?"
He didn't answer right away; at my impertinent question he pressed a hand to his head, then gave me his reply.
"Haah... just call me the Executive Hall Master, or simply call me Uncle. Whichever suits you."
He racked his brains over where to begin, and after a while spoke slowly.
"The truth is, someone broke into the Medicine Hall last night and attempted to assassinate you."
Bewildered, I asked him to repeat himself.
"...Assassinate?"
"Yes... in any case, in the dead of night someone slipped into the Medicine Hall like a rat and tried to kill you. Why they didn't lay hands on you directly and chose such a tedious method instead, I can't say..."
The Executive Hall Master chewed on his lip, apparently deliberating, then asked me.
"You're quite sure you never felt anything suspicious during the night?"
I couldn't hide my bewilderment at his words as I thought:
Someone tried to assassinate me? Aside from getting my cheeks smacked hard enough to see stars last night, nothing out of the ordinary happened...
Brow furrowed, chin in hand, I mulled it over before answering the Executive Hall Master.
"The thing from last night that left the deepest impression on me would be..."
At my words, not only the Executive Hall Master but every soul standing around me fastened their attention on me.
Bathed in that scorching barrage of stares, I pointed at someone and spoke.
"Th-that... all I remember is that lady there suddenly showing up and wailing her heart out..."
"Huh...?"
Dang Mulin, singled out without warning, stood there with a vacant look on her face, letting out a sound like a balloon losing air.
At the same moment, every gaze inside the Medicine Hall swung from me to her.
"I... I only wanted to make sure it wasn't a dream, that Muyeong had really come back to life, the moment I came to my senses..."
Watching Dang Mulin stammer, her face a portrait of pure panic, the Executive Hall Master addressed her.
"Hmm... Mulin, let's go have a talk at the Executive Hall for now, shall we."
With those words, several Executive Hall warriors who had been combing the area for clues drew close to Dang Mulin's side.
"Uncle! There's no way it could have been me!"
To Dang Mulin's cry, her face twisted into the very picture of worldly injustice, the Executive Hall Master replied.
"Of course... as if you of all people would ever dream of harming Muyeong. I merely mean for you to accompany us to the Executive Hall for a short while, so the investigation can proceed without a hitch."
With that, I watched several warriors stride resolutely toward the flustered Dang Mulin, thinking, now this is a scene I've seen a hundred times in comics... and observing the whole thing with a faintly entertained air.
"Uncle!!! Father!!! N-no! Please!"
Before long, Dang Mulin could do nothing but scream as the Executive Hall warriors seized her by both arms and hauled her off, heels skidding along the floor.
Seeing me watch the spectacle with my mouth hanging wide open, the Executive Hall Master cleared his throat.
"Ahem..."
"Don't worry yourself too much. No one for a moment believes Mulin meant you any harm. It's only that if we're to catch even the smallest clue, it's better she be questioned at the Executive Hall while her memory is fresh, so we've little choice in the matter."
Seeing me look up at him at that, he went on with a sheepish smile.
"Mulin will most likely be released from the Executive Hall around lunchtime... er, rather, she'll be out by then."
At that, the Clan Head fixed the Executive Hall Master with a frost-chilled stare.
"Ahem... ahem..."
The Executive Hall Master coughed several times over, then turned to me.
"Well then, the questioning here is more or less finished, so the Clan Head and I will be on our way. Rest well, now."
With that, the Clan Head and the Executive Hall Master walked out of the Medicine Hall.
Watching their receding backs, I sank into thought for a while.
Nobody came last night except my sister, did they? No matter how dulled this body's senses are now, with the experience I've got, there's no way I'd have missed someone?
Just as I was scratching my head over the puzzle—
"Whew... now I can finally get a breath in."
The Medicine Hall Master came shuffling over, flapping his hand.
"Honestly, those two are true grandmasters of the art of killing a mood."
Grumbling after the pair who had just departed, he took hold of my wrist and spoke to me.
"By the way, Muyeong... how in the world are you so perfectly fine?"
For an instant, the question left me utterly bereft of comprehension.
"Pardon?"
At the Medicine Hall Master's words, I was busy thinking, is this old man the culprit? when—
"The man standing guard over the Medicine Hall took in a stray whiff of the smoke drifting out and went down foaming at the mouth, yet you drank the stuff straight from the source—and you're standing there without a mark on you? I simply cannot understand it."
And he was saying all this with the face of a man confronted by something genuinely beyond understanding.
Uh...?
Something about his words snagged on a wrongness, and as I turned the phrase over in my head—
...took in a bit of the smoke...
It hit me all at once, and I asked the Medicine Hall Master carefully.
"Was I... nearly poisoned, by any chance?"
To that, the Medicine Hall Master gave his answer wearing the face of a man beholding a prize idiot.
"Yes... someone burned poisonous herbs inside the Medicine Hall in the middle of the night to poison you. And you didn't even know it was happening?"
The Medicine Hall Master's rasping voice soon stopped reaching the ears of me, who stood dazed and sunk in thought, and at the overwhelming sense that something had gone irretrievably wrong, I could do nothing but curse under my breath.
Ah. I'm screwed.
The Medicine Hall Master kept saying something at the sight of me, but none of it reached my ears.
Ah... if I'd just keeled over dead from that poison then and there, would I have made it back to my original world...?
My life.....