“A private audience, you say.”
To the Provincial Governor, who repeated the words with a stiff face, I said again,
“Please arrange a private audience with the Chief Merchant.”
“......”
At my added words, the Provincial Governor closed his mouth tightly and looked down at me. It seemed he had not expected me to cut straight at him so openly.
The fact that the Provincial Governor and the Wansang Merchants were in a symbiotic relationship no different from one body was something even a three-foot child knew. But in other words, that was no different from government-business collusion.
And since I had pointed that out openly, it was only natural the Provincial Governor would feel displeased.
‘If he called me all the way here, he should have expected at least this much.’
I could hardly come all this way and leave without meeting the Chief Merchant, could I?
“Is that all you want?”
The Provincial Governor asked, all traces of the smile that had remained until a moment ago wiped from his face.
“That is all I want.”
“......Very well. If you win, Sangwol, I will arrange the seat.”
If you win, that is.
To the Provincial Governor, who added that meaningfully, I merely smiled in answer.
***
When I drew up my energy, my senses expanded, and the murmurs around us began to sound much clearer.
“Those people are Namwon’s Special Military Officers?”
“They said that woman was Namwon’s greatest beauty, and it seems that was no empty title.”
“Goodness, look at how bewitching those eyes are. Even I would have given her not just a Special Military Officer post, but anything else too, and kept her at my side.”
I saw the clenched fist of Chun-hyang standing in front of me tremble. She seemed quite furious.
‘Instead of an ability name like Rain of Stealthy Slaughter, something like Fire Fist of Yongdam-ri would have suited her better.’
I muttered inwardly while glancing at Chun-hyang, who looked as if she wanted to jump in at any moment and beat the mouths that were running wild.
What should I do?
It felt a bit late, but should I tell her even now that she could hear everything?
While I hesitated for a moment, the topic of conversation shifted to the side.
“The man beside her looks somewhat familiar.”
“They say he was originally a former Special Military Officer kept by the Wansang Merchants.”
“Then why is he over there? Should he not be on this side?”
“That gentleman took him, they say.”
“A former Special Military Officer of the Wansang Merchants? Is that even possible?”
“What can they do about it? They say that Lord Magistrate’s ability is powerful enough to overturn heaven and earth.”
“Oh, surely not. That must be an exaggeration. His temper looks a bit foul, but he does not look like he has power enough to overturn heaven and earth.”
“How can you tell when that ability of his is not something visible to the eye? Who knows if he will stand there looking fine, then turn into a monster and rampage?”
“But how does a Confucian scholar who reveres Zhu Xi think of taking up a sword instead of a brush and running wild? These truly are the end times.”
Ugh, everyone, it is exactly that logic that destroys a country.
Sighing deeply inwardly out of frustration, I looked ahead. What stood across from us were three burly men wearing the black military robes that symbolized Special Military Officers.
Two Fifth Blooms and one Seventh Bloom, hm.
‘Whichever way one looks at this, it is grounds for a memorial.’
I muttered inwardly while slowly examining them.
As far as I knew, there were ten Special Military Officers under Jeolla Provincial Office. But thirty percent of them were ability users at Fifth Bloom or above.
If all of them truly belonged to Jeolla Provincial Office, that meant there was an issue of fairness.
The Special Military Officer assigned to Namwon had been nothing more than a mere First Bloom, and even then, there were countless towns without even one. Yet Jeolla Provincial Office alone had three experts at Fifth Bloom or higher stationed there? If there were someone who could recognize the abilities of Special Military Officers, it would certainly have caused talk.
If they were not affiliated with Jeolla Provincial Office but were former Special Military Officers called in from somewhere else, that was also a problem in its own way. It would mean the Provincial Governor was privately using Special Military Officers.
‘Even so, pushing three people above Fifth Bloom at us crosses the line a bit.’
The other side must already know that Chun-hyang had Awakened for the first time recently and roughly how skilled that bastard Ju-hwan was.
Even so, saying they would enjoy “entertainment” only with people above Fifth Bloom was no different from declaring their intent to crush us properly today. On top of that, whether they had truly set separate bounty money or not, the gazes with which those bastards looked at us were quite unusual.
“Will this really be all right?”
Rarely, Chun-hyang spoke first. When I turned my head and looked at Ju-hwan, the bastard’s eyes too were swarming with similar worry and unease.
‘There is still a long, long way to go.’
Muttering inwardly, I raised both hands and struck the two bastards hard on the back at the same time.
SMACK—!
“!!!!”
As a loud sound rang out, not only the bastards who had suddenly been hit, but also the spectators and the Special Military Officers across from us opened their eyes wide in surprise and looked this way.
“What are you both so worried about for no reason?”
I am here.
At the words I added, light returned to the two bastards’ eyes.
At the same time, the gong announcing the start of the “entertainment” rang.
***
“Careful! He is coming straight in!!”
Ju-hwan shouted toward Chun-hyang, who was just about to step down onto the ground after avoiding her opponent’s attack. Just as he warned, the iron mace swung by the opponent narrowly brushed over Chun-hyang’s head.
But Chun-hyang’s movements were even faster.
For a moment, a silhouette seemed to pass over the mace swung by the former Special Military Officer, and in the blink of an eye, Chun-hyang appeared behind him.
‘Fast!’
But the opponent was not so easy either. Despite his large build, he twisted his body with swift movements and snatched Chun-hyang’s ankle.
CRASH!
“Keugh—”
Chun-hyang, flung to the ground just like that, let out a short groan. Seeing that, Ju-hwan checked his surroundings and quickly raised a thunderbolt.
KRA-KRA-KRA—!
“Where do you think you are going!”
But before the energy could fully gather, someone dug in from the left. As Ju-hwan hurriedly retreated and raised his rebound force, flames flared up before his eyes.
WHOOSH—
The heat that struck him reached all the way to his palm past the rebound force.
“You should not look away.”
The former Special Military Officer before him spoke with a sneer.
That fire-type ability user was someone Ju-hwan knew as well. Because his ability had good compatibility with Ju-hwan’s lightning, the two had entered Dire Gates together several times.
They had never properly fought, but Ju-hwan was certain the man possessed skill equal to his own.
‘This will not be easy.’
The instincts that had kept him alive until now by ability alone were warning him. Ju-hwan raised his guard sharply and spoke to his opponent.
“Surely you are not planning to burn this whole place down?”
“Well. I think that depends on what you do.”
Ju-hwan spoke again to the opponent, who answered leisurely.
“Is there any need to risk your life for the amusement of the people above? I do not recall you living a life so loyal. Am I wrong?”
“Well, if I do not, it is a matter of life and death.”
You know that well enough too, do you not?
At the opponent’s added words, Ju-hwan frowned and asked,
“Did the Chief Merchant put money on this too?”
“Plenty.”
“Damn it.”
The magistrate had been right.
If bounty money was involved, things would be even less easy......
Ju-hwan already knew, to a sickening degree, what kind of lives the former Special Military Officers controlled by the Chief Merchant lived.
Whether by their own will or someone else’s, the only freedom permitted to former Special Military Officers whose lifelines had already been mortgaged to the Chief Merchant was to drink and play wildly in the gambling dens that repeated every night. When bounty money was placed, they charged in with bloodshot eyes, and when they received money, they ran straight to gambling dens and squandered it on wine and dice. They were truly people living at the bottom.
“I do not know how you got your restriction removed, but even so, are you not playing the Magistrate’s dog this time? The Chief Merchant said that as long as you somehow return, he will treat you generously.”
As you know, that person always keeps what he promises.
The man spoke subtly.
“......”
When Ju-hwan kept his mouth closed instead of answering, the man brought his head close and whispered low.
“Let us strike together.”
“!!!!”
At those words, Ju-hwan looked at him with startled eyes, and the former Special Military Officer nodded slightly as if he had expected it, then quickly added,
“We only need to get rid of that man. We can leave the woman breathing and sell her off later.”
“......”
He gestured with his eyes toward the magistrate standing behind them. Not missing the wavering in Ju-hwan’s eyes, he added again,
“Three hundred Mana Crystals.”
“!!!!”
“With that much, you can play and eat for the rest of your life.”
He was right.
Three hundred Mana Crystals was an amount that even a former Special Military Officer who flew and crawled might not be able to gather in a lifetime.
Seeing Ju-hwan hesitate, the man continued whispering into his ear.
“When I give the signal, strike immediately. Understood? Brother Gwak will deliver the final blow.”
Then he scattered flames as if pretending to retreat.
At the sudden spreading flames, the spectators hurriedly scattered in all directions, and Ju-hwan roughly raised his rebound force to scatter them away while glancing past the opponent’s shoulder toward the back. There, just like the magistrate standing behind him, was someone who had not yet joined the fight and was watching the course of the battle from the rear.
It was a man called Brother Gwak, rumored to be highly skilled even among the Chief Merchant’s former Special Military Officers.
‘That man’s ability was definitely—’
CLANG!
While his mind was briefly distracted in thought, a sharp sound of cutting air rang out. When he turned his head toward the sound, he saw Chun-hyang being struck squarely by the iron mace and sliding backward.
It was fortunate she had raised her sword at the last moment to block it. Otherwise, her fine face would surely have become bloody pulp by now.
Chun-hyang’s condition still was not good. It was clearly visible that she had begun to be driven to her physical limit after repeatedly being helplessly swung around, unable to match the former Special Military Officer in strength or experience.
Ju-hwan’s eyes quickly checked the magistrate.
But contrary to his expectations, the man showed no intention of moving at all.
......Did he not cherish Chun-hyang?
Ju-hwan tilted his head and muttered inwardly.
The story that the magistrate had tried to flirt with Chun-hyang and demanded she attend his bedchamber as soon as he took office, only to be soundly rejected, was a rumor even the mountains, rivers, grasses, and trees around here would know. Moreover, to Ju-hwan’s eyes, the reason the magistrate had suddenly revealed such strength and was acting like a Special Military Officer was clearly all to look good in front of Chun-hyang, who had Awakened an ability.
When he had brought this up, the Personnel Clerk and Works Clerk, excluding Clerk Jeong, had nodded, and the Military Clerk had quietly taken bamboo-tube wine from inside his clothes and sipped it instead of answering. Even without a definite answer like the others, Ju-hwan already knew that meant agreement.
The heart of a man who wanted to look good before the woman he held in his heart was the natural order and principle of the world.
If he had no thought of looking good to Chun-hyang, why would a man who had passed that difficult state examination, and as the top scorer at that, lived loudly with nothing to regret until now, and only now step forward into such rough work?
Pure love.
It had to be exactly that.
Even though he obviously knew no good rumors would spread, he deliberately seated Chun-hyang as a Special Military Officer. Not only that, but he kept her beside him whenever he went anywhere, night or day. If one considered that the pure love of a man, every piece fit perfectly.
It had definitely been so, and yet—
“Ah, why are you not stepping in?! Something terrible will happen at this rate!”
With one hand, Ju-hwan brushed aside the flames falling toward him. Seeing Chun-hyang on the other side rolling across the ground and narrowly dodging the pouring iron mace, he shouted toward the magistrate.
“What? I cannot hear you.”
Even in this situation, as if he still wanted to pretend to be an idle playboy, that damned magistrate bastard only stood in the rear, leisurely unfolded his folding fan, and fanned himself at ease.
“Stop standing there playing around and go help her!!”
“Oh-ho. One must not recklessly interfere in another person’s fight.”
At the answer, still impossibly calm despite Ju-hwan’s urging, Ju-hwan screamed.
“Are you sane? If she gets hurt like that......!”
“What use is a Special Military Officer in name if she is afraid of such minor injuries?”
At the magistrate’s leisurely answer, Ju-hwan let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.
No, dear sir. Is she just any Special Military Officer?! Is she not Namwon’s greatest beauty, Seong Chun-hyang?!
How many idle gentlemen and ruffians had flocked all the way to Namwon from all Eight Provinces just to see that face once? If that beautiful face ended up scarred—
“You should focus on doing your own job. At that rate, will this even end today?”
Are you perhaps hesitating because you have remembered old attachments?
At the magistrate’s usual scolding, which always only came back to him, and the words he added, Ju-hwan whipped his head around and shouted.
“Who is hesitating?!”
KRA-CHA-CHANG—!
At the same time, the thunderbolts gathered in the sky struck down simultaneously on all three opposing Special Military Officers.
“Keugh!”
The man with the iron mace, unable to dodge in time, was struck squarely by the thunderbolt and dropped to one knee on the spot.
Meanwhile, Ju-hwan glanced at the fire man, who had barely twisted away and was glaring this way, then turned his gaze and searched for the leader of the bastards standing in the back.
“He is...... not there?”
The moment Ju-hwan muttered, the ground shook.
RUMBLE!
KRA-KRA-KRAK—!
“Dodge!!”
“Aaaagh!!!”
The ground split with a crack, and piles of stones poured out. The spectators gathered in the direction of their advance scattered in complete terror, but because stones the size of an adult’s head poured out without pause, several people who failed to dodge in time were buried beneath the rocks and vanished without a trace.
“That mad......!”
Ju-hwan, who had moved out of the way early and was watching the sight, furrowed his brows hard. Only then did he remember.
That Gwak bastard’s ability was controlling earth.
“I will give the signal soon. Understood?”
The fire man, sticking beside him as if grabbing him by the collar, whispered quickly and shoved Ju-hwan hard.
Ju-hwan, who had nearly tumbled to the ground, barely caught his balance and climbed onto one side of the ruined banquet table.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE—
KRA-KRA-KRAK!
When the man standing far away released his power again, the stones scattered everywhere poured toward him, Chun-hyang, and the magistrate as if they had received an order.
At that sight, Ju-hwan hurriedly turned his body to leave the attack’s path, then stopped.
It was because he saw the entertainers who had been called in to add excitement to the banquet, huddled in one corner...... no, to be precise, because he met the dozens of eyes looking at him in terror.
If he dodged away from here like this, they would be helplessly buried under that pile of stones.
“Damn it!”
He turned his body and planted both feet firmly on the ground.
His head was shouting at him to run, but he absolutely could not.
Because he remembered the final eyes of his younger sibling, whose life had been taken meaninglessly by the hand of a former Special Military Officer causing a drunken rampage.
And from that moment on, it had begun.
Heaven had granted him this power so he could bring lightning down in its stead upon things less than beasts, things that could not even distinguish Dire Species from humans.
RUMBLE—
He gathered as much mana as he could from his whole body. At the same time that countless stones swallowed Ju-hwan’s entire body, thunder rang through the cloudless sky.
KRA-KRA-KRAANG!
KRA-KRA-KRAK—!
“......”
......Hm?
Ju-hwan slowly lifted the eyelids he had squeezed shut. He should have been buried under the pile of stones, but he did not feel the pain he should have felt.
Had he been hit in the head first?
The moment he tilted his head, only then did he realize something was blocking his vision.
Flutter—
What fluttered white was the hem of a robe.
“......M-my lord?”
Then he belatedly realized it. The one standing before him was the damned idle playboy—no, the Magistrate.
Around the place where he stood, a transparent round membrane was shining clearly. The piles of stone that had failed to invade it were falling helplessly around them with dull thuds.
“H-how......?”
This was on an entirely different level from raising it only to protect oneself from an opponent’s attack. The transparent rebound barrier that had risen roundly around him was large enough to cover not only Ju-hwan, but all the entertainers behind him as well. Unlike everything outside, which had been broken and ruined, everything inside was intact without even a single scratch.
“If you had simply run away, I was going to give you a proper scolding. You managed not to dodge.”
The Magistrate’s voice was heard.
Along with those words, which somehow sounded regretful, the eyes turning this way were smiling.
Even though they were clearly smiling, that somehow chilling gaze made Ju-hwan tremble without realizing it.