“Speaking of which.”
The Provincial Governor, who had been watching me smile brightly, opened his mouth again.
“Since everyone has gathered like this, I was thinking we might play a little game for entertainment.”
“A game, you say?”
At my question, the Provincial Governor nodded shortly and continued.
“I hear you selected not one, but two new Special Military Officers this time?”
At the Provincial Governor’s words, I glanced at the two bastards seated in the places prepared below Gwanpunggak.
Chun-hyang, with her cold face, was radiating an atmosphere that said not to speak to her as she kept her gaze fixed only on the food before her, occasionally glancing this way.
......It was obvious without even looking. With food in front of her, she probably felt like grabbing the Provincial Governor by the hair for talking so long.
Beside her, that bastard Ju-hwan had his mouth half open, constantly looking around as if everything were so fascinating.
Tsk. What a dim-witted face.
Whenever I saw that face of his, I still found myself doubting whether he was truly a Fifth Bloom ability user.
In any case, even if the king had granted local officials the authority to appoint Special Military Officers, there were not many people who made such full use of it.
It was because fewer and fewer people who had awakened to abilities went looking for the government office. That was also why the magistrates sitting in rows over there were glancing at me with envious eyes.
The term former Special Military Officer originally referred to ability users who became Special Military Officers through the Special Exam, then left for merchant groups. These days, however, many joined merchant groups with better treatment than the government office as soon as they Awakened.
And as a result, the opportunities for local officials to truly exercise the authority over patrol and defense that the central government had granted with great resolve had grown quite rare.
In reality, unless one had a solid backer like the Wansang Merchants behind them, as the Provincial Governor here did, most of them were hollow husks who might as well not exist, like Woo Hoe-jung, who eventually lost his head to me.
‘Well, when even those husks now live playing tiger in front of commoners, that is what makes this the end times.’
As I muttered inwardly, the Provincial Governor’s strategist, as if he was now about to enter the main subject, cut in quietly again.
“From what this lowly one has heard, Magistrate Byeon also awakened an ability strong enough that even five Special Military Officers attacking at once would not make him budge.”
At those words, the Provincial Governor struck his knee with a smack and nodded.
“That is right, that is right. They say his majesty was like seeing the Duke of Loyal Valor in the Imjin year!”
The Duke of Loyal Valor?!
At the familiar name that suddenly rang out, I paused for a moment with a blank face.
Though what he had beaten down were Dire Species rather than Japanese raiders, in this world as well, that great man seemed to remain the unchanging hero who saved the nation.
‘No, but no matter how urgent you are, there are comparisons one simply does not make. And you attach him there?’
Calling Byeon Hak-do the Duke of Loyal Valor.
As expected, was this some advanced form of backhanded insult?
Unlike me, who had gone cold at the Provincial Governor’s flattery that had gone too far, the surroundings were already heating up with curiosity. Soon, I heard the magistrates sitting nearby whispering to one another while glancing this way.
“They say he seated that gisaeng bitch as a Special Military Officer?”
“Still, they say she is quite something.”
“I wondered what he would do after gaining power, but to seat a gisaeng in an official post and keep her at his side. Still, in a way, Magistrate Byeon is quite consistent, is he not?”
They were tearing me down quite openly in front of the Provincial Governor.
When I quietly furrowed my brows, the Provincial Governor, who had been watching me in silence as if observing my reaction, soon opened his mouth.
“Since the Special Military Officers have all gathered in one place, how about it? Why not have them compete against one another and raise the excitement? I will promise a reward to the winning side.”
So he wanted to make Special Military Officers fight while they drank and watched? What a nasty hobby.
Well, if he was going to set the board, there was no need for me to refuse.
Facing the Provincial Governor, who watched me with slyly shining eyes while waiting for my answer, I grinned and opened my mouth.
“To tilt wine cups while watching the skills of Special Military Officers. Indeed, it seems none can match the Provincial Governor’s refined taste.”
At my words, ambiguous as to whether they were praise or mockery, the Provincial Governor smiled subtly.
I drained the remaining wine in one swallow and slowly rose from my seat. Then, after sweeping my gaze once around everyone present, I looked straight into the eyes of the Provincial Governor, who still had his gaze fixed on me, and opened my mouth again.
“This Byeon Hak-do could hardly be absent from a place meant to raise the excitement.”
As I grinned and moved toward the steps beneath the pavilion, the Provincial Governor’s face, which had been relaxed until then, stiffened faintly.
***
“No, but how could you actually come down?”
Chun-hyang spoke as if scolding me, her fist-sized face furrowed as much as it could be.
I had just come down from Gwanpunggak, where the Provincial Governor and the magistrates were, and joined Chun-hyang and Ju-hwan where they stood. After a moment, as if they had been waiting in advance, the servants moved busily at one gesture from the Provincial Governor and cleared the courtyard below the pavilion.
Soon, when Namwon’s Special Military Officers and the Special Military Officers of Jeolla Provincial Office stood facing each other at opposite ends of the empty courtyard, the atmosphere quickly grew heated. Down there were local functionaries, tongin servants, and Confucian scholars from each town. Above, the magistrates and the Provincial Governor were watching this way with interested eyes.
After sweeping my gaze over them once, I answered Chun-hyang, who wore an anxious expression.
“He said he would grant what we want if we win.”
Perhaps she did not like my answer, spoken as if it were nothing, because Chun-hyang frowned hard and said,
“Ugh, my lord, do you believe that? It is obvious, one hundred times out of one hundred, that it will be a trap!”
“It does not matter.”
“What did you say?”
“I said it does not matter if it is a trap.”
We only have to win, do we not?
Besides, did we not come here knowing this would happen from the start?
At my answer, Chun-hyang let out a hollow laugh as if rendered speechless.
“Hah, good grief.”
“Why? Do I seem too reliable?”
Chun-hyang looked at me with a face full of disbelief, then turned her head toward Ju-hwan standing beside her and pressed him.
“Ah, you should say something too instead of staying quiet. You usually prattle so well even about useless things, so why are you so silent today?”
At Chun-hyang’s urging, Ju-hwan, who had been silently watching the other side until then, opened his mouth without taking his gaze from the opponents.
“Chun-hyang is right. I think you should go back up, my lord.”
“What has gotten into you? You are saying something sensible.”
Only then did Ju-hwan turn his gaze and look at me as he continued.
“This is not a joke. They may be dressed like Special Military Officers of Jeolla Provincial Office, but in truth, they are all bastards who already depend on the Wansang Merchants. Ha, Special Military Officers, my ass. Every bastard standing over there was a ruffian who went around closing Dire Gates with me until just last month. Even calling them former Special Military Officers would be wasted on them.”
Ju-hwan frowned and muttered. It seemed they grated on him quite a bit.
“So you are saying they are above you?”
“Of course they are not as good as me, but they are not people to take lightly. Besides—”
“Besides?”
“I told you over and over while we came here. The Wansang Merchants are not easy opponents. We do not know what scheme they have set up here. If we do as that old fart says, all three of us might get quietly cut down right here—”
I did not listen any further and lifted my folding fan to strike the bastard on the head.
“Ow, ow.”
“If you guarded that reckless mouth of yours a little better, I think we would live a little longer.”
Normally, the bastard would have had a lot to say, asking if he was the neighborhood drum or why I only hit him. But this time, he kept staring at the Special Military Officers across from us and spoke urgently.
“No, that is not the problem right now—”
It seemed those bastards were bothering him quite a bit.
Cutting off his words, I answered.
“I know, so that is enough.”
“No, I am saying this is not something to just let pass like that—”
“I told you, I understand. I have no intention of dying here, so do not worry.”
“Then......”
I turned my gaze from Ju-hwan and looked at Chun-hyang, then whispered in as low a voice as I could.
“Go all out from the very start.”
“What?”
“They will be planning to do the same anyway. Inviting someone into one’s own front yard and making them fight usually means intending to kill them and bury them there.”
At my words, the two bastards’ faces stiffened.
“Such—”
“It means they do not even intend to play any complex moves against us. At most, a single line in an official dispatch will say, ‘After inviting them to the banquet and enjoying some entertainment, things went too far and an accident occurred.’ What a clean and beautiful report, no?”
“Hah.”
That bastard Ju-hwan breathed out as if dumbfounded.
It was understandable.
Throughout the entire journey to Wansan, everyone, including Clerk Jeong, had put their heads together and squeezed out all sorts of possibilities, and in the end, it was this.
Well, I rather liked it because it was clean.
Because it was simple, it was an obvious and bold card. A move that showed exactly the confidence of the Wansang Merchants backed by the Provincial Governor—no, the Provincial Governor backed by the Wansang Merchants.
‘They are certain there is no way they will lose.’
Muttering inwardly, I turned toward Chun-hyang.
“The card that will overturn that is you, Special Military Officer Seong.”
“Me?”
As if she had not expected that, Chun-hyang opened her eyes wide and asked back.
“Yes. They will know everything about this bastard, and they will be wary of me too. But there is a high chance they will be looking down on you.”
“......Then, what should I do?”
I whispered into Chun-hyang’s ear as she muttered with furrowed brows.
“Just kill as many as possible.”
“!!!!!”
“What did you say?”
Ju-hwan pressed me, looking back and forth between Chun-hyang, who stared at me with wide, startled eyes, and my face.
Instead of answering his question, I spoke quickly in a low voice.
“I said to do it with the thought of killing as many as possible.”
“Are you seriously saying that right now—”
Before Ju-hwan, who had belatedly grasped the situation and muttered in disbelief, could finish, I looked back and forth between the two bastards and asked,
“Do you think those bastards will simply go home today?”
“That is......”
“If I were the Wansang Merchants, I would have put bounties on all three of our heads today.”
Quite generously.
At my words, Ju-hwan was silent for a moment, then nodded.
“......They certainly seem capable of that and more.”
“Then you understand now, yes?”
Beside Chun-hyang, who nodded, Ju-hwan asked with a serious face,
“Then what should I do?”
“You are a Fifth Bloom, and you want me to teach you every little thing? You should handle yourself for once.”
“Ah, why only me!”
To the bastard who flared up, I added,
“Do what you have been doing. Fry as many as you can. Even if you skin those things, you will only be cursed for it, so there is no need to be careful.”
“......Sometimes, when I look at him, our magistrate seems the most like a ruffian.”
“Pfft.”
At Ju-hwan’s mutter, Chun-hyang let out a small laugh.
No, but these bastards—
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
I looked back and forth between the two bastards, who turned their gazes elsewhere at the same time, as if they had ever been that well-coordinated, then shifted my gaze and looked up at Gwanpunggak.
Just then, my eyes met the Provincial Governor’s as he looked down this way.
“Are you finished talking?”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
When I answered shortly, the Provincial Governor nodded and opened his mouth again.
“Then, since preparations seem to be complete, shall we begin?”
“Ah, but.”
“Is there still something left?”
“Before we begin, I am curious what reward you will give if our side wins.”
If you only say vaguely, “I will give a reward if you win,” it does not quite raise the excitement, does it?
At my added words, the Provincial Governor burst into laughter.
“Haha. Sangwol, I did not know you were so greedy for rewards.”
“I cannot let such a rare opportunity pass.”
“Very well. What is it that you want, Sangwol?”
“A private audience.”
At my words, the Provincial Governor’s face stiffened.