It was an unfamiliar sight.
Ever since the village where he had lived was devastated by a Dire Gate, Ju-hwan had survived by wandering the streets. No, even before that, back when he still had something called a home.
Ju-hwan had never seen a sight like this.
In other words, the sight of people who had eaten their fill contentedly patting their full bellies.
“Kuh, this is killer. Big Sis, give me just one more bowl over here.”
Il-gu, who had lifted and drained an earthenware bowl as large as his own face, sprang to his feet and ran toward the tavern keeper ladling soup for people as he shouted.
“Who is your big sister! You already got one extra bowl earlier! Stop eating and get lost already.”
The tavern keeper scowled hard and shook her head, but Il-gu raised his voice without backing down.
“No, why are you being like that? The Magistrate said we could eat till our bellies burst.”
“Goodness, really. Do you think this place is some relief station for beggar bastards?”
At the tavern keeper’s words, several people helping with her work nodded.
This tavern at the edge of the marketplace beyond the Three Gates of Namwon Protectorate was called Willow Tavern because of the large willow tree standing beside it.
It was called a tavern, but at best, it had been a quiet place used only occasionally by traveling peddlers who went from village to village selling goods. Now, because it was close to the Works Office, it was being used as a meal station for those helping with the Works Office’s tasks.
That was right.
A meal station.
A place that distributed meals.
To Ju-hwan, a meal station was a place where, when natural disasters like droughts or floods struck, one could barely receive thin gruel mixed with dirt. Even to get one serving of that, one had to be prepared for a literal fight among starving ghosts.
But what about this place?
Even if the fierce-looking tavern keeper was glaring, that was all. Everyone stood quietly in a line like gentle sheep, waiting for their turn.
Ju-hwan knew. That was impossible without the learned belief that one’s turn would definitely come.
He had never heard or seen that there was a place like this anywhere in all Eight Provinces......
Ju-hwan looked down at the earthenware bowl placed before him. Though it contained a good amount of mixed grains, what lay before his eyes was unmistakably rice. And beside it, still steaming hot, was, shockingly, meat soup.
Meat soup.
It was unbelievable, but the dark pieces visible between the thickened broth full of taro stems and dried radish greens were even black jerky, Dire Species meat said to fetch whatever price one named.
“They are really just handing this out like this?”
Ju-hwan muttered anew, as if dumbfounded.
......His eyes really had seemed slightly crazed. Perhaps that man truly was mad.
Ju-hwan suddenly recalled the eyes of the new Magistrate, who had easily subdued him, and trembled without realizing it.
In any case, the man had run his mouth saying they would go mad or whatever, so Ju-hwan had thought he was only bluffing while tossing them something barely fit to put in their mouths.
“But this really tastes insane.”
Ju-hwan muttered quietly and scooped up a spoonful of the meat soup. Among the dried vegetables that had been simmered for so long they had softened, the savory and chewy texture of the black jerky spread more the more he chewed, making saliva burst from his glands until his jaw ached.
“Stop eating and go do the rest of your work. And if you stupidly stuff yourself like that, your belly will burst and you’ll die. The fodder we fed you would be the only waste.”
At the tavern keeper’s words, several people nearby burst into laughter, and Il-gu frowned and grumbled.
“Goodness, treating a person like a cow. Isn’t this too much, even for you?”
“A cow can at least be butchered and eaten after it dies. If you die, there’s no use for you at all, so how dare you compare yourself to a cow?”
“No, but listen to this woman talk. I’ve heard enough and enough again, and now I’m just speechless.”
As if he could no longer endure it, Il-gu twisted his face and strode one step toward the tavern keeper.
‘That idiot.’
That bastard was usually gentle, but his short temper was his flaw.
Ju-hwan, who had been chewing meat soup with his mouth full, was about to hurry to his feet to stop him when the tavern keeper’s powerful voice rang out.
“Goodness, is there still some fool glaring at people here in Willow Bend?”
At that spirited voice, Ju-hwan looked again toward the tavern keeper. Far from being frightened, she was looking at Il-gu with eyes that seemed to have seen the most pathetic thing in the world.
“Hey, Mal-nyeon. What happened to those bastards from the Jupali Gang or Fruit Fly Gang or whatever they were called?”
At the tavern keeper’s words, Ju-hwan raised one eyebrow.
If she meant the Jupali Gang, that was the name of the ruffian gang controlling the lower side of Namwon.
The young girl whose name had been called raised her voice excitedly as if she had been waiting.
“They caused trouble here, and our Magistrate smashed all their asses open with the Ghost Cudgel, then they crawled out of Willow Bend. From what I hear, they’re still crawling around. That spot where that gentleman is sitting is where the bloodstain from back then never got wiped clean.”
“Hiiik!”
Several bastards sitting where Mal-nyeon had pointed sprang to their feet in shock. Seeing that, the tavern keeper snorted and continued.
“And what happened to those beggar mobs called the Boss or Weed or whatever?”
“The leader of that Weed or grass-blade mob or whatever got hit wrong by our Magistrate’s Ghost Cudgel and lost all his corn right there. What’s dangling over there is the corn we collected back then.”
In the bowl beneath the eaves where Mal-nyeon pointed, something glittering in the sunlight had been placed.
Ju-hwan had wondered why an ordinary tavern had such delicate stone decorations, but those were human teeth......
Seeing Il-gu’s face, which had been exuding a menacing air until just now, turn white, the tavern keeper delivered the final blow.
“And how was that local official from the mountains or whatever?”
“Oh, don’t even ask. That gentleman came in all full of himself, but before our Magistrate even swung the Ghost Cudgel, he wet himself and ran away. Do you know how much I suffered cleaning up the stink he left behind?”
I thought noble gentlemen were so refined their piss wouldn’t smell, but goodness, it was so strong.
Oh, right. The spot where you’re sitting now, old man, is that very spot.
At Mal-nyeon’s added words, Il-gu twisted his face and brushed at his trousers.
“You heard that, didn’t you? How do you expect to live out your natural life when you are so ignorant of rumors? If you have neither the wit to use your head nor the eyes to judge people, just do as your elders tell you. How dare you run your mouth with X-shit, X-shit?”
Just as Il-gu, who had briefly shrunk back at the tavern keeper’s words, was about to flare up again—
“Oh my, the Magistrate has arrived.”
At those words, not only Il-gu, but the eyes of everyone nearby who had been eating while glancing sideways at the quarrel between the two all turned toward the tavern entrance at once. Ju-hwan also turned his head and looked that way.
There stood the new Magistrate Byeon Hak-do, the man with whom he had fought yesterday—no, to be precise, the man who had completely crushed him—walking inside.
“What is this? Is someone causing a disturbance?”
At that one sentence, a chilling silence settled over the surroundings. Il-gu, who had been huffing as if he would seize the tavern keeper by the collar at any moment just a little while ago, had already returned to his seat and was sitting quietly.
Seeing Il-gu’s shoulders, at least a handspan broader than other men’s, hunch in maximum humility, the tavern keeper snorted and spoke to the Magistrate.
“Oh, my lord, truly. This isn’t a village school, so places like this need to be a little noisy for it to feel like people are living, don’t they?”
“Well, if nothing is wrong, that is fortunate. Tell me if any bastards start a riot. I have been looking at documents all morning, and my shoulders feel as if they are stiffening up. It would be nice to get some exercise for once.”
At the Magistrate’s words, Clerk Jeong, who had entered behind him, spoke as if scolding him.
“Goodness. My lord, if someone heard you, they would think you went around privately flogging people.”
“Private flogging? It is discipline maintenance. Discipline maintenance. Work like this tends to attract flies.”
Does it not?
The Magistrate’s eyes went precisely toward Il-gu.
Even though he had spoken lightly, as if tossing out a joke, Il-gu could not withstand that gaze. With a pale face, he hurriedly rose from his seat.
“I-I-I have finished eating, so I’ll go work now. B-Brother, I’ll go ahead first. Hey, those of you done eating, lift your asses and get up. Why are you all dawdling?!”
Il-gu bowed roughly toward Ju-hwan like that, then hurried out of the tavern. The rest of the bastards, who had only been watching the mood, all followed after him in a rush.
“Are you not going?”
“Do you not see that I am still eating?”
Ju-hwan raised one eyebrow as he looked at the Magistrate, who had come and sat right in front of him even though no one had particularly called him. Then, when Chun-hyang and Clerk Jeong beside the Magistrate squeezed in too, the wooden platform where Ju-hwan had been sitting became packed with the Magistrate and his people.
In the meantime, the tavern keeper brought over a low table full of food. Seeing that the amount of food differed clearly from what he and Il-gu’s group had been eating, starting with the size of the bowls, Ju-hwan raised his voice before he realized it.
“Huh? Look at how this tavern keeper treats people differently.”
At those words, the tavern keeper’s eyes flared again, but the Magistrate spoke first.
“Soup and rice belong to the heart of the person holding the ladle. Should she not have that much discretion to make this work worth doing?”
Is that not so?
The Magistrate asked the tavern keeper with a grin.
But the gaze contained a warning that she should also keep it within reason. The tavern keeper, who had not shown even a hint of being cowed among ruffians built like bandits, gave an awkward laugh and nodded stiffly.
‘He only smiled slightly, yet this much pressure. As expected.’
Ju-hwan muttered inwardly and glanced at the person before him.
His own complacency in thinking there could not be much to a mere desk-bound scholar had been his mistake. He had heard rumors that the man had beaten and driven out the Special Military Officer in the protectorate and several former Special Military Officers like dogs, but he had thought they were exaggerated stories because a desk-bound scholar had exerted some force.
But who would have thought that he, a Fifth Bloom ability user, would be unable to touch even a single hair on him and would be utterly defeated?
He had said he would go under the man, but with the restriction removed, he had no intention of devoting his life in loyalty. He refused to be used as a chess piece in the power struggles of noble bastards, so all he had to do was settle in quietly for now, then slip away once the situation looked right.
......Though judging by that gaze that chilled the liver and gall, if he ran and got caught, he would probably be dead.
‘Well, I just have to not get caught, don’t I?’
While Ju-hwan muttered inwardly and sank into thought, he saw the tavern keeper place a bowl of soup in front of Chun-hyang and hurriedly returned to reality. Then he raised his voice without realizing it.
“No, wait! No matter what, getting less than Chun-hyang is a bit much, isn’t it—?!”
THWACK!
“Urgh.”
Stars flashed before his eyes.
After the sudden impact, Ju-hwan realized a beat late that the Magistrate before him had rapped him on the head.
“To call your senior’s name carelessly, have you still not come to your senses? I am certain I told you clearly. Even if her Blooming was later, Special Military Officer Seong entered her name on the military roll first, so she is your senior. If you still cannot properly distinguish above and below, I can beat you until you understand. What will you do?”
The gaze that had still held some laughter until just now had settled coldly and was glaring at him.
Ju-hwan realized he had made a mistake, quickly straightened himself, and bowed his head.
“My mouth ran off. I was wrong. Forgive me.”
“You should apologize not to me, but to this side.”
At the Magistrate’s words, Ju-hwan looked at Chun-hyang sitting beside him.
Chun-hyang, wrapped in the black military robe that symbolized a Special Military Officer, was looking this way with an expressionless face. That face was certainly outstandingly beautiful, as if proving the rumors that she was Namwon’s greatest beauty.
Ju-hwan had been gazing at that face in a daze for a moment when his eyes widened at the strange sense of wrongness that suddenly came over him.
‘What is this feeling, like I am about to die at any moment......?’
Before he could organize his thoughts, Ju-hwan’s body moved first.