Ffft-fft-fft—
Seeing something fall and embed itself in a shower where he had been sitting just a moment ago, Ju-hwan opened his eyes wide.
“Wh-what is this?”
What had stabbed densely into the spot were needles. Yes, the very needles women used when sewing clothes.
‘If I had stayed sitting there......’
A chill ran down the back of Ju-hwan’s neck, and he trembled without realizing it. Then the Magistrate’s voice reached his ears.
“Tsk, I told you not to hesitate.”
The Magistrate muttered in displeasure as he set his chopsticks down with a tap. At that reaction, Ju-hwan felt the tightly drawn string of tension snap.
Before Ju-hwan could say anything, Chun-hyang, somehow looking a little wronged, plucked the needles out of the wooden platform one by one and said,
“That does not mean I can truly kill someone you went to the trouble of sparing.”
“All mouth and no action. He noticed the moment you raised your power, so even if you had gone all out, you would have failed. I told you, your ability can only be used properly once you abandon the very thought that you need to raise your power.”
......What the hell were they talking about?
While Ju-hwan stared blankly at their back-and-forth, Chun-hyang, who had returned to her place after retrieving all the needles while listening to the Magistrate’s nagging, pouted her lips and muttered quietly.
“That is easy to say.”
“What did you say?”
“I said that if it were that easy, I would be you, my lord, not myself.”
Ju-hwan opened his eyes wide as he watched Chun-hyang answer back to everything without yielding even to the Magistrate.
‘Wow, is it fine to not lose a single word like that? He definitely does not seem like he would let that slide.’
But contrary to Ju-hwan’s expectation, instead of flicking her forehead like he had done to him, the Magistrate spoke again in a tone like he was soothing a child.
“Well, there is some truth to that, but I do know how to judge people. Surely, if it is you—”
“The soup will get cold. May I eat first? I have been rolling around since morning, so I am hungry.”
Not only had she cut off the Magistrate’s words before he could finish, but despite asking for permission, Chun-hyang was already scooping up a large spoonful of soup. Seeing that, Ju-hwan’s mouth fell open.
Her boldness in hearing the words of that madman—no, that ill-tempered Magistrate—as if they were the barking of a neighborhood dog was surprising enough. But the way Chun-hyang, who looked as though she lived only on dew, ate was exactly like a servant from a minister’s household.
‘To think Namwon’s greatest beauty was this kind of person.’
While Ju-hwan was dazed for a moment at the sight of the fantasy he had built up shattering, the Magistrate, seemingly already used to this side of Chun-hyang, shook his head with a sigh.
“Ugh, fine. Just eat.”
“Now, now. Then as promised, you are buying the drinks today, my lord?”
Clerk Jeong, who had watched the conversation between the two settle for the time being, cut in and asked. At his words, the Magistrate let out a hollow laugh and muttered as if to himself.
“Hah, good grief. How did only starving demons like these attach themselves to me?”
“Oh-ho, someone might misunderstand if they heard that. Was it not a fair wager? Is that not right, Special Military Officer Seong?”
Chun-hyang, who had displayed the mystical technique of finishing an entire earthenware bowl of soup and rice in only three spoonfuls, nodded shortly instead of answering, her face prim. Seeing that, the Magistrate’s face twisted, and he suddenly snapped at Ju-hwan sitting across from him.
“This is all your fault. You pay.”
......What the hell was he talking about?
Why had the cost of drinks suddenly been dumped onto him?
“Is there anyone who can explain what in the world is going on?”
At Ju-hwan’s mutter, as if he had no idea what was happening, the Magistrate tossed out,
“We made a wager over whether she could take your head or not, and she just failed, did she not?”
You should have just let yourself get hit. Why did you have to notice and guard yourself there? Tsk.
At the Magistrate’s added words, sounding truly annoyed, Ju-hwan let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
“Hah, so you are saying you made a wager with my life on the line?”
“She failed to kill you. Annoyingly.”
“You are perfectly fine.”
“You could have gotten hit by a few at least. Dodging all of them like that, without any sense.”
At Ju-hwan’s question, Chun-hyang, Clerk Jeong, and the Magistrate all answered at the same time.
......No, but these people.
Just as Ju-hwan’s eyes flared and he was about to say something, someone’s voice rang out.
“Hehe. My lord, you have come. Ah, you did not need to come personally. If you had only called, this lowly one would have brought it to the government office.”
When he turned his head toward the sound, there stood a middle-aged man wearing a flat-brimmed hat pulled low. The eyes that smiled obsequiously at the Magistrate, as if ready to give him both liver and gallbladder, seemed to openly declare, I am flattering him right now.
Ju-hwan lifted the nearly empty bowl of soup and rice to his mouth and drained it, not wanting his frown to be noticed for no reason.
“It happened to be mealtime, so I stopped by. Revenue Clerk, do not mind me and do what you came to do.”
At the Magistrate’s answer, strength entered Ju-hwan’s hand around the earthenware bowl before he realized it.
......So that man was the Revenue Clerk of Namwon Protectorate.
Ju-hwan swallowed the curse rising up his throat together with the broth.
He had no good feelings toward the Revenue Clerk of Namwon Protectorate.
Not that there was any petty local clerk toward whom he had good feelings, but this Revenue Clerk was worse. When refugees from Imsil had flooded in, including Il-gu’s group, this was the man who had openly sold identity tablets.
At that time, the post of Magistrate of Namwon Protectorate had been vacant, and Wansan, where the Provincial Governor was, was far enough away that it took a full day’s ride on horseback. So perhaps it had been inevitable that the local clerks who held practical authority would become corrupt.
Among them, the Revenue Clerk, who handled tax collection, grain receipts and disbursements, and household registry management, was truly a power among powers.
In the end, those with money could buy not only identity tablets, but also prime land around Namwon Protectorate and settle again. But most refugees, including Il-gu’s group, were pushed onto the path of wandering and begging as they were.
When he glanced around, it seemed he was not the only one with poor feelings toward the Revenue Clerk. The gazes of the people glaring at the Revenue Clerk were sharp.
But the Revenue Clerk paid no mind to the gazes around him. He squeezed his rear into the already cramped wooden platform and sat down as he spoke.
“Oh my, Clerk Jeong was here as well. No, but this person here is someone I have not seen before. Who might he be?”
At the Revenue Clerk’s attitude of treating Chun-hyang, who sat beside Clerk Jeong, as if she were not even there, Ju-hwan frowned without realizing it.
Yet Chun-hyang herself seemed used to it and simply focused on the food before her.
‘No. When I said one wrong word earlier, they came down on me like they were catching a rat, but they are just letting his attitude pass?’
While Ju-hwan grumbled inwardly, glancing at the calm Magistrate who gave no particular scolding even at the Revenue Clerk’s attitude, whether the Magistrate knew his thoughts or not, he spoke in an indifferent tone.
“His name is Song Ju-hwan. I picked him up this time.”
Picked him up.
Was he some piece of trash lying by the roadside?
Just as Ju-hwan bristled and was about to say something, the Revenue Clerk reacted first.
“Oh my, so this is that thunderbolt fellow.”
The Revenue Clerk fussily looked Ju-hwan up and down, then continued.
“To think that after breaking the government office, he is not only walking around on two perfectly fine legs instead of receiving the heavy flogging, but even sharing a table with you, my lord. Your grace is truly as boundless as the sea.”
“Yes. I am something of a living Buddha.”
The Revenue Clerk’s blatant flattery should have grated, but the Magistrate merely nodded and drank his soup.
‘Well, nobles are all like that, I suppose.’
He did not know what he had expected, but the disappointment rising inside him made Ju-hwan grip the innocent soup bowl harder.
***
“Hey! See here! Song Ju-hwan! Hey!”
With his chest somehow feeling stifled, Ju-hwan had shaken off the Magistrate’s group trying to hold him back and left Willow Tavern to walk alone.
Then, when he turned around at the sound calling him, there stood Choi Ju-pal, the rumored leader of the Jupali Gang who had supposedly been beaten by the Magistrate until his rear burst open and then crawled out of Willow Tavern.
Fortunately, he no longer seemed to be crawling, but perhaps because Ju-hwan had heard the tavern keeper and Mal-nyeon talk about it, his gait somehow looked rather awkward.
In any case, Choi Ju-pal looked around in a way unlike himself, as if watching their surroundings, then sidled up and put an arm around Ju-hwan’s shoulders. At the sour smell of sweat coming from him, Ju-hwan furrowed his brows hard without realizing it and spat out shortly,
“What?”
“Ah, come now. It has been a while since we met. Instead of being glad, why are you so prickly? Now that you have become a Special Military Officer, are you trying to draw a line between yourself and street lives like us?”
“I do not recall us being that affectionate. And the rumors said you were crawling, but I suppose it was not that bad?”
At Ju-hwan’s sharp answer, Choi Ju-pal’s eyebrow shot up for an instant, but he soon forced a smile and said,
“Ah, you heard that too? Is that not because that damned mad Magistrate goes around privately flogging innocent commoners like us, trusting only in that power he happened to Awaken? I only had my backside split open, but Brother Wangcho under the bridge had all his kernels knocked out by that vicious Magistrate and can never chew meat again. I have seen all sorts of corrupt officials until now, but that man is on another level. Another level. I have never seen such defective trash in my life.”
At Choi Ju-pal’s words, his gang nodded fiercely.
It was amusing that they left out their own violence, but bravado was practically the essence of ruffians.
To Ju-hwan, who only nodded moderately and let the words flow past, Choi Ju-pal spoke in a low voice.
“So, what I mean is...... no matter what, we cannot just leave things like this, can we?”
“Leave what?”
“Beating powerless people like us can be generously passed off as a nobleman’s nasty hobby, but—”
After speaking that far, Choi Ju-pal swept his gaze around and asked quietly in an even lower voice.
“......Did you hear that story?”
“What story?”
“The story that he even lays hands on children.”
“Do not be absurd.”
Ju-hwan’s face twisted hard as he looked back at Choi Ju-pal. At the same time, the Magistrate’s smooth face came to mind.
Even before he took office, the rumors had been widespread.
That he was a ruined man who lost all sense when it came to anything wearing a skirt, and that he had been demoted and sent here after even touching another man’s woman in the north.
Moreover, the story that his first New Arrival Briefing on the day he took office had been a gisaeng inspection, and that he had dragged out Chun-hyang, who was not even on the gisaeng registry, and forced her to attend his bedchamber, had already spread beyond Namwon to Wansan.
Somehow, whether by coaxing or trickery, he had eventually dragged even Chun-hyang, who had resisted so fiercely, to his side under the name of Special Military Officer.
It was certain he was no ordinary schemer.
In any case, his persistent womanizing alone was enough to make one click one’s tongue.
And on top of that, he was laying hands on children?
It was hard to believe. At the same time, the thought that he might very well do that too made Ju-hwan glance up slightly.
‘They do say humans never stop at just one vice.’
Seeing hesitation pass across Ju-hwan’s face, Choi Ju-pal continued.
“Ah, I am telling you, it is certain. You know that not long ago, he rounded up all those butcher caste bastards who had fled into the mountains, right?”
Ju-hwan nodded.
Of course he knew. That had been the decisive trigger that got his own nose pierced.
When the Wansang Merchants heard that some newly arrived Magistrate had found those people whom even their former Special Military Officers could not locate and dragged them all down, how furious had they been?
Whether Choi Ju-pal knew Ju-hwan’s thoughts or not, he continued speaking.
“The things being handed out to just anyone over there at Willow Tavern are what he made by rolling those butcher caste bastards day and night, are they not? They say he lured them in with promises of identity tablets and places to live, then locked them in the butcher-caste village and squeezed them day and night, and not just one or two have collapsed.”
“Huh.”
Ju-hwan frowned.
It was not new for butcher caste people to be treated as less than human. If it had been bearable, why would they have fled into the mountains said to be teeming with wild beasts and even Dire Species?
But to think he had tracked them down and dragged them back, then was squeezing them again.
If that was true, then that Magistrate bastard really was defective trash under heaven after all.
As if excited by Ju-hwan’s reaction, Choi Ju-pal added in a subtle voice,
“Among those caught back then were little children too, and they say once that defective trash takes those whose foreheads have not even dried of blood inside, he does not come out for three days and nights.”
“Such—”
No, surely not.
That Magistrate bastard looked so normal.
Surely not.
Ju-hwan, having lost his words at the shocking statement, heard Choi Ju-pal say,
“You seem doubtful, but everyone who should know already knows.”
If you truly cannot believe it, confirm it yourself.
You are the one he personally gave a Special Military Officer’s position to, are you not? You may be faster than me at confirming whether the rumor is true or false.
At Choi Ju-pal’s added words, Ju-hwan asked,
“So. If that is true, what do you intend to do? Overturn things? Leaving aside whether that is possible, assassinating a local official means beheading at minimum.”
At Ju-hwan’s words, Choi Ju-pal grinned as if he had been waiting.
“That only applies if the local magistrate is human. If he is human garbage who sucks the blood of commoners and even lays hands on children, the story is different, is it not?”
Ju-hwan’s eyes shone sharply.
For the leader of a mere ruffian gang to say, it was far too bold. There had to be someone behind him, inciting him.
Was it the Wansang Merchants?
Or some other noble bastard?
“Who is inciting you?”
But at Ju-hwan’s question, Choi Ju-pal merely shrugged as if it were no great matter.
“What changes if you know? All we have to do is rise up because we could not endure it any longer. The people above will take care of the rest of the headache-inducing matters, so when the time comes, we can slip out properly.”
If we take a nice share then, it will not be a losing deal, will it?
Choi Ju-pal smiled subtly and whispered.
In other words, if they first overturned things and caused a disturbance, giving the general shape that the common folk had risen up because they could no longer endure the corrupt official’s tyranny, the people above had said they would take care of things by either pushing the Magistrate out or quietly cutting him down amid the chaos.
Ju-hwan carefully observed Choi Ju-pal.
Judging by that attitude, it seemed more likely that he did not know who the real backer was.
Well, when had anyone ever explained everything down to people like them? In the end, they were treated as chess pieces all the same.
Of course, this stupid bastard did not seem to have thought as far as the fact that if the matter succeeded and the Magistrate was impeached, his own head would be cut off as the ringleader of the popular uprising.
‘Not knowing that this nice share is his travel money to the underworld.’
Ju-hwan looked for a moment at Choi Ju-pal’s innocent face, his eyes shining as he waited for an answer with only the simple thought that he could repay the humiliation he had suffered at the Magistrate’s hands, then let out a short sigh.
In any case, having heard this much, it would be awkward to pull his foot out now.
Moreover, a plot to assassinate a local official. Merely hearing about the plan was enough to get one hanged.
Still, he had to know for certain what that side wanted from him if he was to find a way to survive.
‘In other words, I refuse to be a chess piece.’
“So. How far has the discussion gone?”
After a silence, Ju-hwan opened his mouth, and Choi Ju-pal, as if excited, tightened the arm he had around Ju-hwan’s shoulders and brought their heads close together before speaking.
“So—”
Ju-hwan listened to Choi Ju-pal’s words.
***
“Whew, shall we stop here for today?”
I lifted my head from where it had been buried in a pile of papers and spoke while stretching. When I stretched my arms out wide, each joint seemed to scream from the long hours of hard labor.
As I massaged my stiff shoulders, that bastard Yu-bong, who had taken over one side of the writing desk, spoke in an indifferent voice without even taking his eyes off the document he was reading.
“There is still some left.”
The place he pointed to with his chin had a mountain of paper bundles still piled high, not reduced in the slightest.
No, how was there not less work after doing it and doing it, but more?
And I was sure I had planted my ass at the writing desk as soon as I finished dinner and started clearing it out......
Yet that much was still left?
Was this real?
“I do not know. I am sleepy. I am going to sleep.”
I roughly found an empty spot on the writing desk and planted my head there, and then I heard that bastard Yu-bong’s annoying voice.
“You will have to look at the things from the Works Office too, you know?”
“What did they submit again already?”
At the words Works Office, my head shot up before I knew it.
The bastards in the Works Office—more precisely, the people of Wailing Pool Village the Works Office had gathered—had been acting all this time like people possessed by ghosts who had died wanting to work.
The root of all evil had been allowing them to use some of the Dire Species by-products as research materials.
At first, those who had only been used to making what they were told to make found it quite unfamiliar.
But they were quickly bewitched by the words that they could do whatever they wanted with the supplementary materials, and that if what they newly created was judged useful, they would be rewarded with one lump of black jerky.
“Jang says he seems to have found a method for that improvement project.”
“Already? No, do those people not sleep?”
At my surprised question, that bastard Yu-bong shook his head as if sick of it and said,
“Do not even ask. I heard two of them collapsed after clinging to that matter day and night.”
At those words, my brows furrowed on their own.
“Tell them to work at a reasonable pace. If someone saw that, they would think I was grinding people down.”
In truth, the one being ground down was me.
I looked at the documents densely filling one side of the writing desk and let out a deep sigh.
Just reorganizing civil administration after a three-year vacancy was already enough to keep me busy. But because of whatever rumors had spread over me swinging the heavy flogging rod—no, the Ghost Cudgel—a flood of lawsuits, large and small, had come in too. On top of that, the mad bastards in the Works Offi—no, the improvement proposals coming up from the Works Office.
At this rate, I was really going to die of overwork.
They said Joseon kings generally died young because of overwork. Indeed.
......No, wait.
I was not even a king, so why was I this busy?
I was pressing down the lament for my own lot that rose on its own when that bastard Yu-bong looked up at me as if he had something to say.
“Speaking of that—”
!!!!
At the sound that suddenly came to me, I raised my hand and stopped him. To the bastard who raised one eyebrow in displeasure, I asked shortly,
“Did you not hear something just now?”
“What sound?”
Ignoring the bastard as he tilted his head, I stood, threw open the paper sliding door, and listened again while standing in place.
As if cutting through the quiet night air in the darkness that had settled pitch-black, a faint sound rang again from far away.
—re!
And soon, the sound became clearer.
Fire!!!
Fire—!!!!
“!!!!!”
I glanced at that bastard Yu-bong as he belatedly scrambled to his feet with a crash, then kicked off from where I stood and ran out.