Patter.
Patter-patter.
The sound of rain beating on the tiled roof filled the silence of the inn.
The moisture-laden air settled low over the floor.
The customers pretended to tip their cups while glancing sidelong toward the door.
‘She's strong.’
With every step the woman who had entered the inn took, the air seemed to grow heavier by an inch.
Ordinary people who knew nothing of martial arts would probably feel nothing more than ‘something feels chilly.’
But it was different for me, now that my senses had opened up.
The energy radiating from her whole body was like sharp shards of ice.
A chill that looked ready to slice skin at the mere brush of a fingertip.
Step. Step.
Her wet shoes trod across the floor of the inn.
Beneath her bamboo hat, a pale jawline showed.
Black hair, made even darker by the rain.
And at her waist hung a sword adorned with white jade.
The scabbard alone told me.
It wasn't cheap.
No, selling just the scabbard might be enough to buy this inn.
The woman stopped in front of an empty table and slowly took off her bamboo hat.
“......!”
Someone in the inn drew in a sharp breath.
I nearly dropped my rag too.
She was a beauty.
Not just pretty.
It was a lofty, cold beauty, like a single plum blossom blooming in a white snowfield.
Cool, sharp eyes.
A high, straight nose.
Skin so white it was almost pale.
She was an icy beauty who looked like she'd cut you just for staring at her.
But behind that beauty lurked an eerie energy.
‘She's furious, isn't she?’
Her brows were drawn tight.
Her eyes blazed, and her firmly pressed lips trembled.
She looked ready to draw her sword at any moment and turn the inn into a sea of blood.
I tensed up.
Skill that had knocked down a few thugs wouldn't come close.
What if an expert like that went on a rampage?
Hiding under a table was the best plan.
No, even under a table was dangerous.
Maybe playing dead would be better.
That was when it happened.
Rumble-rumble-rumble—!
There was a sound of thunder.
No, I mistook it for thunder.
It was quiet outside the window.
The source of the sound was somewhere else.
It was the belly of that elegant, lofty beauty.
“......?”
Me.
The customers.
Even Old Man Wang, who had been watching nervously from the kitchen, froze at the same time.
Once more.
Grrrrrumble—!
This time it was even clearer.
It wasn't killing intent.
That was hunger.
She staggered, then slumped into a chair.
Her lofty gaze wavered pitifully.
She looked at me.
No. To be precise, she glared at the smell of meat broth wafting from the kitchen.
“Waiter.”
Her voice was dignified, but its tail end trembled faintly.
“Noodles.”
“Pardon?”
“Whatever comes out the fastest. Right now.”
Her eyes wavered desperately.
“I do not care if the noodles are undercooked. No, you may as well bring me raw flour dough.”
“......”
“Do you not hear me?!”
She slammed her hand down on the table.
THUD!
A handprint sank deep into the hard zelkova table.
“I am on the verge of starving to death!”
If she'd grabbed my collar with that kind of strength, my neck would have snapped.
I immediately bowed at the waist.
“Yes! Coming right up!”
Even faster than that, Old Man Wang's shout came flying.
“Hey! Lee Gap-saeng! What are you doing? Roll the noodles!”
“C-coming!”
A moment later.
A steaming bowl of meat noodles was set down on the table.
She picked up her chopsticks.
And from then on, I had to doubt my own eyes.
Slurp!
Smack.
Sluuurp!
Elegance?
Loftiness?
All of that went down her gullet along with the broth.
She inhaled the noodles like a beast that hadn't eaten in days.
Her cheeks puffed up full like a squirrel's, and she paid no mind to the broth splattering at the corners of her mouth.
Just a moment ago she had clearly been like a plum blossom blooming in the snow, but now she looked like a wild beast that had starved for three days.
‘Eating like that with a face like that is a talent in itself.’
With the tray tucked under my arm, I watched her blankly.
She ate well.
Truly, with great gusto.
But there was one strange thing.
Even while eating so frantically, her left hand never let go of the silk box on the table.
When she picked up the noodles.
When she drank the broth.
When she picked up the pickled radish.
Her left hand held the box wrapped up as if cradling a newborn baby.
‘It must be something important.’
A case wrapped in luxurious blue silk.
Even at a glance, it exuded nobility.
There was even a pattern embroidered in silver thread on the outside of the box.
It was either something more precious than life.
Or something like a letter that absolutely had to be delivered to someone.
She drank down the last drop of broth.
Clack!
The bowl landed on the table.
“Haaah......”
A satisfied sigh.
Only then did she take a handkerchief out of her sleeve and wipe her mouth.
That motion, again, was strangely elegant.
And as if nothing had happened, she returned to the expression of a cold, icy beauty.
It was a change in stance hard to believe from someone who'd had her nose buried in a noodle bowl just a moment ago.
Her gaze turned toward me.
“You there. Waiter.”
“Yes, Miss. Was it to your taste?”
I approached with my business smile.
She cleared her throat once, then asked in a deliberately solemn voice.
“From here...... which way must one go to reach the Hebei Peng Clan?”
“The Hebei Peng Clan?”
I made a blank face for a moment.
The Hebei Peng Clan.
The moment that name came up, a memory from a few days ago flashed through my head.
Peng Hwi.
The man who had abandoned his clan and learned a demonic art for revenge.
It had barely been a few days since he left, and now a daughter of a prestigious clan had shown up looking for the Peng Clan.
It was strange for a coincidence.
But I didn't let it show.
A waiter's virtue is pretending not to know.
Pretending not to hear.
The martial world is a place where acting like you know something gets your head cut off.
“Yes, Miss. It isn't far from here. You only need to go about half a day further north.”
“Half a day......”
Her expression brightened noticeably.
Was that the face of someone who had found a spring in the desert?
“What a relief. Truly a relief.”
Relieved, she stroked the silk box she had been holding close.
It was the touch of someone handling something precious.
I asked in a deliberately curious tone.
“What business takes you to the Peng Clan? It looks like you've brought something very precious.”
“It is a birthday gift for the Peng Clan Head.”
She answered shortly.
“It is something my father—no, our Clan Head—told me to deliver to the Peng Clan Head. I must make sure I arrive in time.”
“A birthday gift, huh.”
I looked at the silk box again.
Now that I thought about it, the knot was red.
It had to be a ceremonial gift sent for a joyous occasion.
I nodded and wiped the table with a damp towel.
“You must have had a hard time, coming such a long way. But from your accent, you don't seem to be from around here. Where are you from?”
She raised her teacup and said offhandedly.
“I came from Sichuan.”
“S-Sichuan?”
My hand stopped.
Sichuan.
Sichuan was a faraway land close to the western edge from here.
A distant land you could only reach by crossing rugged mountain ranges and crossing rivers.
In the martial world, an expert from Sichuan was usually one of three.
The Emei Sect.
The Qingcheng Sect.
And the Sichuan Tang Clan.
But the icy beauty in front of me was neither a shaven-headed Buddhist nun of the Emei Sect nor a Taoist priest of the Qingcheng Sect in a Taoist robe.
Then the answer narrowed down to one.
‘The prestigious clan of poison and hidden weapons, the Sichuan Tang Clan.’
I hurriedly bowed my head.
“Oh my, I failed to recognize you! You're a Miss of the Tang Clan! No wonder your bearing seemed so extraordinary.”
Mess with a woman who uses poison, and not even your bones will be recovered.
I did my best to flatter her.
But her reaction was strange.
Clack.
She set down her teacup roughly.
Eyes even colder than before glared at me.
“You there. Waiter.”
“Y-yes?”
“In your eyes, do I look like someone who goes around scattering poison?”
“Pardon? Ah, no, it's not that, it's just that you said you came from Sichuan......”
“Wrong.”
She held her head high.
The sleeves of her silk robe fluttered elegantly.
In a deliberately haughty and dignified voice, she declared.
“I am the youngest daughter of the Boundless Azure Sky, the Namgung Clan.”
Her eyes shone loftily.
“Namgung Seol.”
“......”
Silence passed.
I stared at her with my mouth slightly open.
The Namgung Clan.
A prestigious house of swordsmanship known for the Sovereign Sword Form.
A great tree of the orthodox sects, counted foremost even among the Five Great Clans.
That much was fine.
I knew it was an impressive clan.
But there was a problem.
‘Isn't the Namgung Clan in Anhui?’
Anhui was southeast of here.
Sichuan was to the west.
If you spread out a map, the road from Anhui to Hebei was nearly a straight line.
And she came from Sichuan?
That was no different from going from the main room to the room across the hall by circling ten li outside the front gate.
I asked carefully.
“Um, Miss.”
“What is it?”
“Isn't the Namgung Clan in Anhui? So how did you come from Sichuan......?”
Namgung Seol's eyebrow twitched.
Her pale cheeks flushed ever so slightly.
She cleared her throat.
“Ahem. Well, you see.”
Avoiding my eyes, she rubbed the round rim of her teacup with her finger.
“The lay of the land in the martial world...... is somewhat different from what I saw in books.”
“Different?”
“I was certainly heading north.”
Namgung Seol continued seriously.
“But when I came to my senses, monkeys were screeching and the mountains had grown rugged.”
“......”
“So I merely took a slight detour.”
Slight?
Going from Anhui by way of Sichuan all the way to Hebei was slight?
That wasn't sightseeing; it was an ascetic ordeal.
Now I understood.
Why her shoes were so tattered.
Why thunder had roared in her belly.
‘She has no sense of direction.’
And not just an ordinary lack of it.
A legendary case who didn't have the very concept of north, south, east, and west built into her at all.
An expert of a prestigious clan.
A beauty unrivaled under heaven.
But in reality, she was a bumbler who couldn't even read a single map properly.
The tension drained right out of me.
I thought I now understood what that cold killing intent I'd felt earlier really was.
It wasn't killing intent meant to murder someone.
It was the survival instinct of someone who had gotten lost, wandered around, and nearly starved to death.
“Um, waiter.”
“Yes.”
“By any chance, what day is it today?”
She asked hesitantly.
“It's the fifth day of the fifth month.”
“The fifth day...... of the fifth month......”
She counted on her fingers, calculating something, and soon her face lit up.
“Thank goodness! There is still a whole week left!”
“Until the Peng Clan Head's birthday, you mean?”
“Indeed. I am not late. I am rather fast on my feet, after all. Hahaha!”
She puffed out her chest and laughed heartily.
Fast my ass.
She'd gone all the way to Sichuan and back.
I barely held back a snort.
And at the same time, the abacus beads in my head began clicking rapidly.
‘A sucker.’
Rich.
Ignorant of the ways of the world.
A young miss of a prestigious clan with no sense of direction.
A customer like this was a gift from heaven.
If I just buttered her up well, crumbs of bean powder.
No, lumps of silver were bound to come tumbling down.
I quickly changed my expression.
Into the face of the most trustworthy, kind waiter in the world.
“Oh my, you've been through so much. To have made your way alone through these complicated martial world roads—truly an expert of the Namgung.”
“Hmm. It is nothing worth mentioning.”
She was weak to praise.
I could see her nose rising higher.
“Was the meal to your liking? Should I bring more if it wasn't enough?”
“No, that is fine. I am full.”
Namgung Seol rose from her seat.
Then she took a heavy pouch out from her robes.
Jingle.
A cheerful sound.
She opened the pouch, took out a piece of silver, and tossed it toward the kitchen where Old Man Wang was.
It landed precisely in the basket on the counter.
Clink.
“Proprietor! I shall pay for the noodles with this. Keep the change.”
“Oh my, thank you! Master—no, Heroine!”
Old Man Wang came rushing out with a grin stretching from ear to ear.
It was more than enough for ten bowls of noodles.
Rich households really did spend differently.
I swallowed hard.
But her hand went back into the pouch.
This time what came out wasn't silver.
It was a bundle of high-value bank notes issued by a money house, with a faint bluish sheen.
‘How much is all that?’
My eyes nearly spun.
It was a fortune I could hardly touch even if I rolled noodles my whole life.
She set the bundle of bank notes down on the table with a thud.
Then she looked straight at me and spoke.
“And, Proprietor.”
“Yes, yes! Just say the word!”
Old Man Wang bowed and scraped.
Namgung Seol's white finger pointed precisely at the tip of my nose.
“Lend me this waiter as well.”
“......Pardon?”
Old Man Wang and I asked back at the same time.
Namgung Seol smiled confidently and said.
“It is my first time on the road to the Hebei Peng Clan, you see. I need a trustworthy guide.”
She tapped the bank notes against my chest.
“If you guide me well, this money is yours. How about it? Will you do it?”