Covet the Neighbor's Woman All You Like, But Never Touch What's Mine (3)
"Follow me."
No honorifics, right off the bat.
Jin Yigang was led to a building some twenty *jang* from the main gate, above which hung a plaque reading Enlistment Pavilion. Two soldiers in gleaming armor stood guard at its front, and the presence radiating from them was anything but ordinary.
These guys are strong.
He followed the man inside. The interior was just as lavish — stepping through the door felt like walking into the sitting room of some great noble house. A dozen-odd people sat at desks buried under mountains of paperwork, and not one of them so much as glanced up when he entered. A door at the back led further in, and faint sounds of activity could be heard beyond it. The man who had brought him handed over the documents and left without a word.
"Who are you, and from where?"
The man occupying the central desk asked the question.
"Je Su-ryong, second son of the Jecheon Uiseon Family."
"The Jecheon Uiseon Family, hm..."
The man rifled through the stack of papers.
"Here it is."
Pulling out one bundle, he checked a few more details, then flicked a document across the desk.
"Fill this out first, then press your seal."
Jin Yigang examined the paper.
— Sworn Pledge. The undersigned shall raise no objection against the Empire, even in the event of being listed missing or killed in the course of duty. Name. Signature. Seal.
"What happens if I don't sign it?"
Jin Yigang asked.
The man simply stared at him.
This was Sa Il, Station Commander of the Geumwi Daicheonguk. Sa Il had met thousands of people in this room. Not one of them had ever asked what would happen if they refused to sign — and not one had ever dared to drop their honorifics, either.
"Just curious."
"You're being short with me."
"So are you."
"You little—"
Sa Il shot to his feet.
"Answer the question you were asked, you brat."
"What a murderous bastard you are."
Sa Il's hand closed around the hilt of his sword.
"Sa Il!"
A cold voice rang out from the door at the back of the room.
The man standing there appeared to be in his mid-thirties, and the aura he exuded was staggering. A true master. Jin Yigang thought to himself. Even to someone like him, who knew next to nothing about martial arts, this man's presence made his strength unmistakable. The figure in indigo martial robes was the Jade-Faced Demon Hand, Sagong Pyo — the Southern Jinmusa and overall commander of the punitive expedition's recruitment, third in rank within the Geumwi Daicheonguk and wielder of immense bureaucratic and martial power.
"My apologies, Commissioner."
Sa Il bowed his head.
"You asked what happens if you don't sign?"
Sagong Pyo looked at Jin Yigang as he spoke.
"Yep."
Jin Yigang nodded.
"You'll be dismissed."
"Sent home?"
"Correct."
"If I get thrown out, it's no fault of mine, so the family won't take any damage. Do whatever you like."
"You will be recorded as never having reported here at all. And responsibility for that failure will fall upon your family."
"Well then I suppose I have no choice but to say *yes sir*. Give me the brush."
Jin Yigang held out his hand toward Sa Il.
"I didn't give you permission."
Sagong Pyo said.
Jin Yigang stared at him evenly for a long moment.
"So I'm a hostage."
He nodded slowly.
"A hostage?"
"'Collateral,' if you'd rather soften it."
"And why do you think you're collateral?"
"There's no way a man like Paegonmaja Mu Daebo came to *escort* me. If he didn't carry me here out of courtesy, then he dragged me here — which makes me collateral. And if you refuse to process my enlistment, I'll go with Mu Daebo to see your superior. If your superior won't hear me out, I'll go see Deputy Lord Yulhancheon. I happened to cross paths with him once, and we're on friendly enough terms that he'd indulge a small request or two."
"..."
Sagong Pyo glared at him.
Normally, when the bureau bore down on a man like this, he would grovel and apologize. But intimidation from a Jinmusa didn't land on this one at all. Worse, if Yulhancheon got dragged into it, things would become very inconvenient indeed.
"You believe the Jecheon Uiseon Family will protect you?"
"It's common sense that fists sit closer than the law. I wouldn't lean on the Jecheon Uiseon Family if my life depended on it — not even for a speck of eye-filth. So what will it be? Shall I leave now?"
"Give him the brush."
Sagong Pyo said quietly.
Sa Il held out the brush. Taking it, Jin Yigang filled in the blank fields.
"Take this."
When he finished writing, Sa Il set a rectangular copper plaque down in front of him. Engraved into its face were the numerals 1997.
"What do the numbers mean?"
"It means you are number 997 of the Tenth Army."
"A thousand men per army, then?"
"Correct."
"So where am I supposed to go?"
"Go find out yourself."
"...You sour bastard. Fine, I'm off."
Jin Yigang walked out.
"Il-su!"
"Yes, sir."
A man in black clothes nearby answered. He was Sagong Pyo's trusted right hand, the Dark Demon, Il-su.
"The arrival is registered as Je Su-ryong, second son of the Jecheon Uiseon Family — a Grade 5 proxy."
"A Grade 5 *and* a substitute?"
"The eldest son, Jecheon Ryong, is in closed-door training and cannot appear, so they sent the adopted son in his place."
"His martial skill?"
"None, sir."
"A swaggering Grade 5 substitute without even martial arts to his name. What a piece of work."
"..."
"How many have come so far?"
"Two hundred recruits remain to arrive."
"What sort of unit is he headed to?"
"The Tenth Army is the roughest outfit in the entire punitive expedition — nothing in it but the hardest cases. And the Twin-Ten Squad he belongs to is composed entirely of Grade 5 proxies, with more than a few called *mad dogs* even among them. It's possible..."
"Possible what?"
"That he may die before ever reaching the Demonic Cult's main mountain."
"Throw in the Five Killing Ghosts."
"With him, sir, the hundred is already full."
"Is five more going to be a problem?"
"Understood."
Il-su bowed his head.
That same moment, Jin Yigang wandered the grounds until he finally stumbled upon his quarters. It was built in the shape of an army barracks, with the characters for Ten-Ten painted above the door.
He opened it.
Dozens of eyes swung toward him at once.
"What the—?"
Jin Yigang blinked. Double-decker bunks ran down both sides of a central aisle, and not a single empty space was visible. He walked in slowly, scanning for a vacancy.
A hundred-odd pairs of eyes followed him. The room held eighty men and nineteen women, and the aura rolling off them was ferocious — it put him in mind of the gambling den from that life-or-death wager long ago, before he'd thrown everything away.
There was exactly one open spot, right beside the door. But even it had a squatter: the man in the neighboring bunk had sprawled across both. He was built like a grizzly bear.
Jin Yigang drew the Blood Yellow Demon Umbrella from his back and gave the big man's face a few brisk taps.
One eye snapped open.
The man stared hard at him. Jin Yigang pointed the umbrella at the empty half of the bunk. Move.
"Get lost, punk."
With a bark, the brute shut his eyes again.
Jin Yigang regarded him quietly. Then he propped the umbrella across the bed frame and drew the dagger Mu Daebo had given him.
With the dagger in hand this time, he tapped the man's foot.
"Touch me once more and I'll kill you."
Killing intent seeped from the man's closed-eyed body — a thick, unhurried menace, the kind that promised he really would do it. Every soul in the room was suddenly watching the two of them with relish.
"I'll take it?"
"Do it."
"One nyang on Padun."
"One nyang on Bandy-Legs."
"Five nyang on Padun."
"Two on Bandy-Legs."
Whispers rippled through the bunks.
Jin Yigang's hand rose into the air.
"Bets are in!"
He fished five silver nyang from his pouch and threw them to the floor.
"Bet on me."
With that, he brought the dagger down without mercy.
*Thock!*
"AAAARGH!"
The big man leapt upright — and in that exact instant, Jin Yigang snatched the umbrella from the bed frame and swung. The stab with the dagger and the grab for the umbrella happened in a single flash of lightning.
*CRACK!*
The umbrella struck squarely against the big man's temple.
"Ughh—!"
He toppled sideways in a heap, knocked clean out.
"What a waste of a good frame, you bastard."
Jin Yigang pulled out the dagger he'd just planted, wiped the blood off against the man's leg with a few smooth strokes, and drove it back into its place. Then he eyed the unconscious brute for a moment, gripped him by the legs, and dragged him to the floor.
*Thud.*
It was a rough landing, but the man was in no state to notice. Jin Yigang fished a towel out of the man's belongings, gave the floor a few wipes, set his chest-box down in the vacated bunk, and claimed his spot.
"Damn it all. Coldest spot in the whole room."
He grumbled, pulled the fur-lined coat from the box, and wrapped himself in it.
"That one's not walking anywhere for a while."
Someone said.
"No, he'll be fine. The vessels and muscle are untouched — a few rough days and he'll mend."
The old man beside him said.
"Vessels and muscle untouched?"
"He stabbed around the muscle, the vessels, and the tendons."
"Really?"
"Why do you think there was barely any blood?"
The two broke off their conversation and looked at Jin Yigang.
"The name's Du Maenggun. Do you know who that bear you just speared is?"
The old man asked. Triangular-faced, he bore the epithet Divine Wind Sun-Moon Palm and was a martial artist of no small reputation in the Jianghu.
"Nope."
Jin Yigang shook his head.
"That's Padun, the Great Iron Demon — one of the Absolute Ten Evils."
"The Absolute Ten Evils?"
"Getting a little scared now?"
"Terrified."
Jin Yigang picked up the Blood Yellow Demon Umbrella and climbed down from the bunk.
"Ugh—!"
Padun, apparently coming to at last, shook his head and rose — and the umbrella once again cleaved through the air.
*CRACK!*
Its tip caught Padun precisely on the temple.
"AAAGH!"
He shriamed and dropped unconscious again.
"That bear's met his match for sure."
remarked the bald old man who'd been chatting with Du Maenggun — Master Wind Cloud, Oh Gwang, a man even more famous as a storyteller than as a fighter.
"Hard to say. We'll see."
"Hey, elder."
Jin Yigang called to Du Maenggun.
"What is it?"
"I get my cut."
"Your cut of what?"
"The five nyang I put down just vanished."
"Don't know anything about that."
"Me neither."
Du Maenggun and Oh Gwang shook their heads in unison.
"That money's soaked in poison, by the way. Take it without my say-so and you'll have a very bad day..."
"Hrk!"
With a strangled gasp, a woman bolted upright from her bunk. Her fingers were turning a filthy black.
Classic poisoning, plain and simple.
"Th-the antidote. Give me the antidote."
The woman said, staring at Jin Yigang.
"Don't have one."
Jin Yigang shook his head.
"Wh-what did you say?"
"This poison never had an antidote to begin with."
"I'll — I'll give you double."
"Quadruple it and I'll teach you the cure."
"Quad—?"
"Yep."
"If it climbs any higher, not even the Great Immortal could fix me."
"F-fine. I'll pay."
"..."
Jin Yigang studied her in silence.
"The antidote."
"Didn't I say I'd show you the *method*?"
"Then teach me the method."
"Cut off... your finger."
"..."
The woman gaped at him, dumbstruck.
"You've got about half a *gak* left. Fail to cut it off in time, and it won't be a ruined finger — it'll be a ruined arm."
"You son of a—!"
*Whoosh!*
The woman launched herself at Jin Yigang. The plan was obvious: subdue him and shake the antidote loose.
*CRACK!*
"Kghk!"
A cry rang out and her body flew backward, sailing through the air before crashing down.
*Thud.*
She lay motionless, out cold.
"Did you see that?"
Du Maenggun asked.
"Nope."
Oh Gwang shook his head.
"Hot damn! The man's the real thing."
Jin Yigang picked the Blood Yellow Demon Umbrella back up.
"D-don't, Gu-chil—"
*CRACK!*
"UGH!"
Padun, who had barely clawed his way back to consciousness, dropped off again.
"Covet the neighbor's woman all you like — but never touch what's mine. Keep that one rule, and you and I will get along just fine 'til the day we die."