An Adult Is Someone Who Handles Their Own Business (1)
“What's your name?”
Du Maenggun asked.
“Gu-chil.”
“Your name is Gu-chil?”
“Family name Gu, given name Chil.”
“Gu-gu-chil?”
“You're not as dumb as you look.”
Jin Yigang opened the box, took out the book called Third-Rate Martial Arts, and read it from the beginning. After a long while, he climbed down from the bed with the book in hand, then swung it at Padun, who was just getting up.
“I've been waiting for this, you son of a bitch.”
Padun leaned his upper body back to dodge the book and sprang to his feet, shouting.
Thwack!
The corner of the book struck Padun squarely on the temple.
“Guhk!”
Padun's massive frame toppled over slowly.
“I was waiting for you to dodge too, you bastard.”
Jin Yigang muttered quietly and returned to his spot.
“When do we eat?”
Jin Yigang asked Du Maenggun.
“It's mealtime now.”
Du Maenggun and Oh Gwang climbed down.
Jin Yigang put the book away in his locker and followed Du Maenggun out. The mess hall stood at the center of the buildings.
Jin Yigang walked along, looking around.
People were pouring out of the other buildings as well.
“Quite a crowd.”
“The largest punitive expedition in history.”
Oh Gwang said.
“How many?”
“Ten thousand.”
“And here I thought people were whining about a manpower shortage……”
“That was at first. When every threat imaginable failed to bring them in, the Emperor changed tactics.”
“How?”
“He offered a reward.”
“What kind of reward?”
“The revival of the Murim League.”
“So he put the League Leader's seat up as the prize?”
“Exactly.”
“Would the martial artists be happy about that? No, wait—judging by the crowd, they must love it. Why?”
“Why what?”
“It's a martial artist's world now, so reviving the Murim League doesn't seem to mean much. Am I wrong?”
“It's nostalgia.”
Oh Gwang said.
“What nostalgia?”
“Nostalgia for the Murim League.”
“So you're saying joining the League has become a mark of success?”
“Right. When someone worked for the Murim League, everyone used to look at them with envy. The world belongs to martial artists now, and a martial artist sits on the throne, but the old sentiment—that getting into the League means you've made it—never changed.”
“So the martial artists wanted the League rebuilt?”
“That's why I said nostalgia. The Emperor promised to satisfy that desire of theirs.”
“Clever.”
Jin Yigang smiled. The Emperor had played his cards well, he thought. When the group reached the mess hall, they went inside. It was enormous.
Du Maenggun's group went to a counter, paid, and ordered their meals.
“We have to pay?”
“You arrived early, remember.”
“So anyone who came before the official enlistment date pays for their own meals?”
“That's right. By the way, you're still using banmal with me.”
“You're using it with me too, old man.”
“……So if I go formal, you'll go formal?”
“Nope.”
“……”
“Then just keep doing what you're doing.”
Jin Yigang went to place his order. Apparently because of the crowds, no one came to take orders—you had to go to them. Picking up your own food was the rule too.
“What's the best thing on the menu?”
Jin Yigang asked the man taking orders.
“Peking duck, sir.”
“I'll take that. And alcohol?”
“We have Jukyeopcheong from Haenghwa Village.”
“Actually brewed in Haenghwa Village?”
Haenghwa Village was the place that first created Jukyeopcheong, and only theirs counted as the genuine article—anything from elsewhere was dismissed as a knockoff. Haenghwa's Jukyeopcheong cost more than three times as much.
“Yes, sir.”
“I'll take that too. How much?”
“Fifteen nyang.”
“Here…… but I have to come pick it up?”
he asked, holding out the money.
“No, sir. Anything over ten nyang is delivered to your table.”
“I'll sit by that window.”
“Very good.”
Jin Yigang pointed to a window on the right. A dozen or so people were seated there eating.
“Am I getting some of that too?”
Du Maenggun asked.
“Think it's enough for two?”
“Plenty for three.”
Oh Gwang said.
“Order something like fried dumplings too.”
Jin Yigang told the two of them, then picked up his teacup and teapot and headed for the window.
“Excuse me.”
The man taking orders called after him.
“What?”
Jin Yigang looked at him.
“You have to leave the teapot here, sir.”
“I just carry the tea?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then set out another teapot.”
Jin Yigang walked on. Once seated, he poured his tea and looked out the window. Beyond the glass stretched a sea of yellow—a sight made of ginkgo leaves piled deep across the ground.
“Beautiful.”
He smiled faintly and sipped his tea.
He had the feeling someone was watching him and turned his head—straight into the gaze of an enormous man.
“Have we met before?”
the giant asked.
“Don't think so.”
Jin Yigang shook his head.
“I'm Cheon Pae.”
“Gu-chil.”
Jin Yigang looked away.
Soon Du Maenggun and Oh Gwang arrived and sat down.
“Let's move.”
Du Maenggun said.
“Why? This spot's fine.”
—Do you know who's sitting over there?
“The big one said he's Cheon Pae.”
“……”
“You don't know who Cheon Pae is?”
“How would I?”
“You're a murim-in, aren't you……”
“Nope.”
Jin Yigang shook his head.
“What about martial arts?”
“You've seen the book I was reading.”
“The one you smacked Padun's temple with?”
“It's called Third-Rate Martial Arts.”
“……”
Du Maenggun stared at Jin Yigang, dumbfounded. Which meant the Great Iron Demon Padun and the Thousand Faces Amira had been bested by a bookish scholar who didn't even know martial arts. Just then the duck, the liquor, and the fried dumplings arrived.
“Let's have a drink first.”
“Why not.”
Du Maenggun shook off his thoughts and picked up his cup. Jin Yigang poured for Oh Gwang first.
“Eat well, now.”
Oh Gwang said.
“Thank the thief, not me.”
“Thief?”
“This was bought with the money that thief stole.”
“So you do know that woman is the Thousand Faces Amira.”
“I don't.”
“Then how do you know she's a thief?”
Oh Gwang asked.
“She stole my money.”
“……”
“And her profession is thieving?”
“Correct.”
“Fine profession.”
Jin Yigang grinned and raised his hand. A server who'd been watching this side came over.
“Yes, sir?”
“Carve up the duck for me.”
“Usually……”
“I know people just tear into it themselves, but this is my first time and I don't know how. So cut it up nice and eatable.”
“Yes, sir.”
The man set to work at once. Just as Oh Gwang had said, the duck was enormous.
“Which part tastes best?”
Jin Yigang asked.
“The skin.”
The answer drifted over from where Cheon Pae's group sat. Jin Yigang looked up. A woman of generous build was looking his way.
“Thank you.”
Jin Yigang gave a slight bow and brought a piece of skin to his mouth.
“It really is.”
Jin Yigang beamed. The crisp skin and the juicy meat were a match made in heaven.
“Add a drink to that and it's perfect.”
“Right now?”
Jin Yigang asked.
“You talk well even with food in your mouth.”
“The fruit of relentless practice. Am I supposed to wait a bit before drinking?”
“Now.”
Whoosh!
Jin Yigang's hand moved like lightning—like a fisherman snatching up his rod to hook a fish rising to bite.
“Whoa—!”
Jin Yigang let out a cry of delight. Skin, meat, and Jukyeopcheong mingled on his tongue, and his mouth turned clean and bright—the taste of heaven itself.
“Could there be food better than this?”
“Why do you ask?”
“One of the ten things I want to do before I die is eat the most delicious food in the world. If this is it, I want to check it off the list.”
“There are far too many delicious foods for that. It won't be.”
The woman shook her head.
“Even so, it's the best I've had so far.”
Jin Yigang refilled his empty cup.
“You sold out Padun?”
the woman asked.
“I politely asked him to move, and he refused.”
“Tapping his face with an umbrella doesn't count as politely asking.”
Du Maenggun said.
“He got hit because he deserved it?”
the woman asked again.
“No. I let him land one hit first. Once I'd given him that, he calmed right down. I seized that moment and just…… with the umbrella, here.”
Jin Yigang mimed striking his own temple with his left hand.
“So Padun calmed down simply because you let him hit you?”
came an androgynous voice.
Jin Yigang turned. A breathtaking beauty was looking his way.
—That's the Iron Phoenix, Munin Mihu.
Du Maenggun told him in a transmitted whisper.
“This is what I stuck him with.”
Jin Yigang drew out the hidden dagger he'd jabbed into Padun's leg and showed it.
“……”
Munin Mihu stared at him, dumbfounded.
“Let me guess something, and don't say a word.…… You're a man.”
“……?”
Munin Mihu looked at him, puzzled.
“Your sex, I mean.”
“What nonsense are you spouting, you brat? The Iron Phoenix is a woman. A woman.”
Oh Gwang said.
“Nope. A man.”
“On what grounds am I a man, exactly?”
“No signal whatsoever. When I see a woman, my heart races, my blood rushes, I even stammer. And she's the greatest beauty under heaven, no less. Yet not even down there does anything so much as twitch.”
Jin Yigang pointed downward.
“Hohohohoho! Hohoho!”
Munin Mihu burst out laughing.
The laughter was unmistakably a woman's.
“And if I really were a man, what then?”
Munin Mihu asked.
“Those three women over there would turn into complete squid, that's what.”
“Squid?”
“Women uglier than men.”
“Hohoho!”
“Kik!”
“Pfft!”
The three women burst out laughing at the same time.
Jin Yigang soon turned his attention back to the food.
“So Padun's injured right now, then?”
the woman who'd first spoken to him asked again.
“You're close with that big oaf?”
Jin Yigang asked, mouth full.
“Not close, but I have to look after him.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm the commander of the Tenth Army. And the Twin-Ten Squad is the Tenth Army's most important resource.”
“Looked to me like a pile of the most useless people they could find.”
“You're in the Twin-Ten Squad yourself!”
Oh Gwang barked.
“I'm including myself in that.”
“Most important.”
The woman rose from her seat.
“Going to see him?”
another woman asked.
“If he's badly hurt, I have to discharge him and bring in a replacement.”
“I'm fine.”
Jin Yigang turned his head.
Padun was walking toward them as he spoke. He limped slightly but looked all right. Yet a suffocating killing intent was pouring off his body as he closed in on Jin Yigang.
“You're going to stop him, right?”
Jin Yigang said to the woman.
“I don't have the authority yet.”
“Didn't you say you were the commander?”
“All I can do right now is a personnel check. Anything beyond that is outside my authority.”
“Then I suppose I'll have to handle it myself?”
“You're an adult, aren't you?”
“If I get hurt, will you discharge me and bring in a replacement?”
“Probably.”
“Then won't my clan suffer for sending me here as a substitute?”
“The blame will come back around. They spent the palace's precious resources to bring me in, and if I turn out to be useless, that's money down the drain……”
“I got a whole thousand nyang, so that would be a problem…… Old man, lend me that thing of yours.”
Jin Yigang said, glancing at Du Maenggun's waist. Hanging there was a club shaped like a constable's six-sided nightstick.
“You're going to fight with this?”
“I don't trust myself bare-handed. Besides, I did buy the Peking duck.”
“Bragging over one duck…… Fine, take it.”
Du Maenggun drew out the club and held it out.
“Thanks.”
The moment Jin Yigang took the club, he charged straight at Padun.