The Hangzhou Ghosts
That story was first heard in the family head’s hall of the Seoho Gwak Family.
Knock, knock.
The moment they returned, Gwak Yeon and Gwak Ho-shin headed straight for the family head’s hall.
Gwak Seo-ryong greeted them with a great booming laugh.
“……You’ve worked hard!”
Their faces looked worn from whatever they had endured. Yet the voice that still shook the room carried pride, joy, and a touch of fatherly satisfaction.
“Yeon, Ho-shin. You’ve both done well. Especially you, Yeon—this was your first time leading an outside mission, yet I hear you guided everyone with real skill.”
“Ah.”
“I received it all by letter!”
Smiling, Family Head Gwak Seo-ryong flipped over two sheets of paper already laid out on his desk. On the reverse of each letter, still bound with string, was stamped the seal of the sender’s organization.
Cheonhae Merchant Group
Hubei Pang Family
The letters had arrived ahead of Gwak Yeon’s party. Gwak Seo-ryong tapped the two missives with a thick finger, unable to hide the delight in his voice.
“It can’t have been easy, yet both of you handled it splendidly!”
“Thank you.”
“……Thank you.”
Emotion was contagious. By now a faint smile had touched the lips of Gwak Yeon and Gwak Ho-shin as they bowed their heads. Strangely, the fatigue that had piled up seemed to lift.
But the praise was only beginning.
“Leader Yeo praised the two of you to the skies! For words like ‘look forward to the reward for this job’ to come from Yeo Geum-hwi’s own mouth means the relationship with the Cheonhae Merchant Group is likely to continue for a long time.”
From the Cheonhae Merchant Group’s side as well.
“And just what did you do at the Hubei Pang Family? Family Head Pang himself, together with Elder Moyong, has declared he will push our family as a candidate for the Seven Great Families! You’ve won the Pang Family’s heart thoroughly!”
From the Hubei Pang Family’s side as well.
Both sides were singing the praises of the Seoho Gwak Family they had met this time.
That meant the chances of the Seoho Gwak Family joining the ranks of the Seven Great Families had risen dramatically.
Seven Great Families
For the Seoho Gwak Family, entering the fold of the seven strongest houses under heaven meant far more than simply becoming a core power of the martial world.
The hidden forces of the martial world that the family is hunting.
It meant the odds of finding the origins of the great evil Gwak Yeon pursued—roots that might well be tied to one of those houses—would leap upward.
“About the Hubei Pang Family, Father.”
“Hm?!”
Gwak Yeon spoke up. Information gained at the family level would likely reach him anyway. Better, then, to keep the Seoho Gwak Family from wasting strength on unnecessary suspicions.
“Last time you mentioned that one of the Seven Great Families might be connected to the Blood Cult.”
“I did.”
“I believe we can rule out the Hubei Pang Family.”
“……Is there a reason?”
Gwak Seo-ryong’s eyes gleamed. Gwak Yeon hesitated a moment. He could not say the conclusion had come through a vampire’s senses and powers. He decided a rough explanation would still be useful if believed, and opened his mouth.
“For ten days I spent time with the young master of the Hubei Pang Family.”
“Young Master Pang Mu-gwang, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“While helping him train I walked every corner of their estate. The Hubei Pang Family—or at least the Pang Mu-gwang I came to know—is not the sort who would turn a blind eye if his house were colluding with such a wicked force.”
“Hmm.”
“Of course, a man’s heart is hard to know even a single step deep…… but the heart I felt while crossing blades with him left no room for anything of that kind.”
Gwak Seo-ryong regarded his son for a long moment after the answer. The faint smile that had begun when he heard of helping Pang Mu-gwang train had by now become a hearty, open laugh.
“Haha! Yeon, you’ve already learned how to read people!”
Then he continued.
“As it happens, information came in not long ago. The Hubei Pang Family has absolutely no connection to the likes of the Blood Cult.”
“What kind of information?”
“For your own sake I cannot reveal that part yet. But it is certain fact—you may trust it.”
His eyes held conviction. Seeing that Gwak Seo-ryong had reached the same conclusion, Gwak Yeon found himself wondering by what channels his father obtained such intelligence.
“……One more thing.”
Gwak Seo-ryong’s expression turned slightly serious. He raised a large finger and pointed at Gwak Yeon’s mouth.
“That remark just now was a little dangerous. In the end you were not wrong, but you still lack the life experience to judge people purely by intuition. Especially in matters that touch the family’s grand strategy, you must always base your judgment on solid evidence. Remember that well.”
“……I will keep it in mind.”
“You too, Ho-shin.”
“……Yes.”
After cautioning both sons, Gwak Seo-ryong’s face brightened again.
“At any rate, we are moving forward little by little. Before I die I may yet purge the family’s great enemy and face my father with a clear conscience.”
Gwak Seo-ryong’s father was the little boy Gwak Yeon had saved in his previous life. Once more the strange thread of fate crossed his mind.
Suddenly Gwak Ho-shin, who had remained silent until now, spoke.
“But…… is something the matter?”
“Hm?”
Gwak Seo-ryong’s complexion looked weary. At his son’s worried question he answered lightly.
“Ah, nothing much. There are matters I must settle for the Seven Great Families business. Hangzhou has been a bit noisy of late as well.”
“What is happening in Hangzhou?”
“Nothing major, but……” He paused, then continued. “Before you left on the merchant escort, had you heard the rumor of the ‘Hangzhou Ghost’?”
Gwak Yeon flinched. With a pounding heart he listened on.
“They say he was someone who hunted down the black-path scum who hid throughout Hangzhou committing evil.”
“If he was punishing the wicked…… then a chivalrous hero?”
“Perhaps the original one was.”
Gwak Seo-ryong nodded quietly at Gwak Ho-shin’s question. This time Gwak Yeon asked.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean the first man called the Hangzhou Ghost may well have been a righteous wanderer.”
“Which means—”
“Yes. Right now more than several dozen people are claiming to be the Hangzhou Ghost.”
At Gwak Seo-ryong’s next words, both brothers understood at once.
“The problem is that most of them are black-path types who drifted in from outside Hangzhou.”
“………!!!”
They now knew why Hangzhou had grown so noisy.
Hangzhou Ghost.
The moniker that had attached itself to Gwak Yeon while he used a vampire’s powers to purge the wicked throughout Hangzhou had, at first, worked in the city’s favor. Black-path thugs, terrified of the Hangzhou Ghost’s existence, stopped harassing ordinary folk. Not long before Gwak Yeon left on the escort mission, acts of chivalry—helping the common people and striking down the wicked—had begun to appear one after another.
Then people started calling themselves the Hangzhou Ghost and going out at night to kill black-path scum.
At first, no doubt, the intent had been to brandish the terror the Hangzhou Ghost inspired in this city and thereby suppress the black path more effectively.
But then other forces began using the title in a different way, seeking to exploit the Hangzhou Ghost’s restraining power over the existing black path. The board flipped completely.
New black-path groups sprang up like bamboo after rain, eager to seize the illegal territories the old Hangzhou black path had controlled.
Black-path men claiming to be the ghost that hunts black-path men; black-path men claiming to be the ghost that hunts those ghosts; black-path men claiming to hunt even those—
Hangzhou Ghost.
At some point the words had become nothing more than a label for greedy new black-path outfits that had poured into Hangzhou to snatch the illegal businesses the old ones had held.
“I’ve seen about eight of them just around here.”
“Fewer than I expected……”
“In the past week alone.”
“Good grief.”
At the cook’s words Cheon Gang let out a sigh. He set down the bowl of noodles he had been lifting with both hands for the rich broth, an incredulous look on his face. Only yesterday, on the way back to the family, he had been singing about how badly he wanted Jeowun-banjeom’s noodles—yet now, with the bowl right in front of him, his appetite seemed to have vanished.
The cook glanced back and forth between him and Gwak Yeon sitting opposite, wiped his hands on a towel, and gave a small sigh.
“The number of thugs coming around demanding protection money has shot up too.”
“What sort of people?”
“No one in particular. The faces that show up every week keep changing.”
“Ah.”
Gwak Yeon nodded with a heavy expression. It matched exactly what he had heard yesterday upon arriving at the Seoho Gwak Family estate.
And it matched what Gwak Ho-shin had told him that very morning after returning to the family and reuniting with Samho-gak, the unit he led.
……Lately the number of security requests coming into our Samho-gak has increased sharply.
The black path itself is boiling up again.
It was all too coincidental. New groups were forming to seize the territories once held by the black-path outfits Gwak Yeon had wiped out in Hangzhou. Whether they were remnants already lurking in the city or newcomers who had just entered, they were swarming to establish a fresh illegal order.
Crazy bastards……
Yet something felt off. Even in his previous life Hangzhou had always been a place with plenty to eat, so insect-like black-path scum had flocked there. But it had never fallen into this level of chaos, because forces above them had always kept order.
The city’s foremost black-path power that never showed its face, a major unorthodox sect, or some force straddling the orthodox and unorthodox worlds whose roots were tangled with them.
Even Gwak Yeon, who had purged quite a few black-path men, had never expected any of his catches to be Hangzhou’s first- or second-rank bosses.
Killing the old black path and devouring their territory was the natural law of that world…… but for so many to be running wild like this?
Is someone hoping for this?
The true heavyweights who only appeared at the underground auction a month and a half from now. If the rumor that real masters controlled Hangzhou’s darkness was true, this current might well be a flow they were deliberately allowing.
“Have you spoken to the constables?”
“They were the first ones I went to! But their workload has exploded lately, so the bribe rates they’re demanding have more than doubled from before.”
Gwak Yeon was dumbfounded. Not because they demanded bribes—honest constables or captains were rare to begin with. The problem was that even after taking twice the old rate, they were still too busy to move.
The fake Hangzhou Ghosts…… if I catch and squeeze a few, something will come out.
Having reached a conclusion, Gwak Yeon looked at Cheon Gang and asked,
“Gang.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“You brought the Horingu?”
“Yes. Just in case I brought my staff as well!”
“Good.”
Gwak Yeon rose slowly from his seat. There was still quite a bit of time left until the day of the secret auction that Goechok would attend.
Until then—more than a month and a half from now.
“Come to think of it, this will be the first time you go with me, won’t it?”
“What do you mean, Young Master?”
Those fakes claiming his name were excellent prey for blood-drinking—and at the same time,
“……Hangzhou trash cleanup.”
“Oh.”
It would be a fine chance to check whether this Cheon Gang was the sort of man who could stand with him against great evil.
“That…… sounds fun!”