“If you guide me well, this money is yours.”
Namgung Seol hadn't even finished speaking.
Someone's shadow darted like lightning toward the bundle of bank notes on the table.
Whoosh—!
There was the sound of air being split.
Before my hand could even move, the bundle of bank notes was already gone.
“Heo-eo, a daughter of a prestigious clan truly is generous!”
Old Man Wang, who had somehow moved behind the counter, was licking his finger as he counted the bank notes.
His hands moved so fast and flashy that it was like watching the sleight of hand of a card sharp.
My jaw dropped in disbelief.
“Hey, Elder! She gave that to me!”
“Quiet!”
Old Man Wang glared and shouted.
“If you leave, who's going to carry our shop's noodles? Who's going to do the dishes? The enormous business losses that happen while you're gone! And compensation for my mental suffering! We've got to calculate all that, don't we?”
“Business losses, my foot! This is coming from the man who threatened to dock my pay if I took even a single day off!”
“That's exactly my point.”
Old Man Wang shamelessly raised his chin.
“I'm the one who hired you. So it's only right that I set your price.”
“......”
I was at a loss for words.
It happened all the time, but Old Man Wang's shamelessness was on another level.
Old Man Wang quickly changed his expression.
Then he made the most aggrieved face in the world toward Namgung Seol.
“Heroine, listen to me. This boy may look like this, but he's the pillar of our shop. If you're going to pull out a pillar like that, wouldn't it be a shame with only this much in consolation?”
Old Man Wang even added a sigh.
“Besides, a round trip to the Hebei Peng Clan...... ugh, that'll take at least half a month.”
Namgung Seol tilted her head.
The amount of money didn't seem to matter much to her.
“So, you are saying it is not enough?”
“Not enough doesn't begin to cover it!”
Old Man Wang's eyes gleamed with greed.
“You'd have to pay this boy's daily wage, hazard pay, and overtime pay too. Of course!”
I was dumbfounded.
Since when had he ever looked after my daily wage like that?
That old geezer was planning to use my body as collateral to scrape up some capital.
“Very well.”
Namgung Seol took another pouch out from her robes.
It was heavy.
“Will this be enough?”
Thump.
The pouch hit the table with a dull sound.
Old Man Wang's eyes bulged as if they would pop out.
He quickly snatched the pouch and untied the string.
Inside were two or so gleaming gold ingots.
“Heuk!”
Old Man Wang made a sound like he was about to stop breathing.
I was surprised too.
Not silver, but gold ingots.
That woman really was an unworldly sucker...... no, a noble benefactor.
“M-Master! No, Heroine!”
Old Man Wang bowed down on the spot.
“Take him right now! You can even have him bury his bones there!”
“......”
“Hey, Lee Gap-saeng!”
Old Man Wang slapped my back with a few thumps as I stood there dazed.
“What are you doing? Why aren't you packing? Go with her right now!”
“Unbelievable.”
It was so absurd I could only laugh.
I glared at Old Man Wang and held out my hand.
“I'll pack, but we need to settle up.”
“Huh?”
“My share.”
I gestured with my chin at the pouch of gold ingots clutched in Old Man Wang's arms.
“I know you're going to keep all the gold ingots, Elder. But you want me to walk into a tiger's den empty-handed? If I die on the road, I'll at least need money for the funeral, won't I?”
Old Man Wang hesitated.
He held the pouch of gold ingots tightly to his chest and agonized for a long while.
His expression changed dozens of times.
He hated to part with it.
He'd eat a flea's liver if he could—what kind of heart tries to bite off even my share?
“Eing, tsk tsk.”
Old Man Wang clicked his tongue and rummaged inside his robes.
Then he pulled a few crumpled sheets out of the bundle of bank notes he'd grabbed earlier.
“Here. Take it.”
Whish.
A few bank notes came flying at my chest.
My eyes widened when I checked the amount.
It was more than...... I'd expected.
It easily came to a hundred taels of silver.
What had gotten into the man who usually trembled at handing over even ten taels?
“Buy yourself something tasty on the way.”
Old Man Wang turned his head away, feigning indifference.
“The Peng Clan bastards are famous for their awful food.”
“......”
I was speechless for a moment.
Because I saw that the corners of his eyes had grown ever so slightly moist.
“And.”
With his hands clasped behind his back, he mumbled.
“Don't die. Come back alive.”
“......”
“Without you around, I'll be too bored to live.”
A corner of my chest tingled.
That stingy old geezer.
Would it kill him to say it nicely?
But there was no way I couldn't tell the sincerity in those rough words.
We'd been bickering and getting by together for over ten years.
We'd built up every bit of affection, both the spiteful kind and the fond kind.
I grinned and tucked the bank notes into my robes.
“Don't worry. I'll go pull up one of the Peng Clan's pillars by the roots and bring it back.”
“Stop talking nonsense and just bring back some liquor when you come.”
“I'll buy you a bottle of the finest white liquor.”
“Good. Buy an expensive one. If you bring back cheap stuff, you won't get so much as a drop of broth!”
I ran to the kitchen and packed my things.
One bundle.
A few changes of clothes.
Emergency rations.
And the most important thing.
The <Yin Kill Secret Record>.
That was enough.
When I stepped outside the inn, the rain had stopped.
The smell of earth rising from the wet ground stung my nose.
Namgung Seol was waiting for me, adjusting her bamboo hat.
Her profile was as beautiful as a painting, but when I thought of her terrible sense of direction, the road ahead looked bleak.
“Are you ready?”
She asked.
“Yes. Let's go.”
I looked back at the inn once.
The old signboard.
The Heavenly Fragrance Pavilion.
I didn't know when I'd be back again.
No, maybe I'd never come back at all.
But strangely, the anticipation was bigger than the fear.
And a hot fever stirred in my chest.
A frog in a well.
No, the moment had finally come for a waiter in an inn to take his first step out into the rough sea called the martial world.
“Let's set off, Miss.”
I took the lead and started walking.
The most expensive and most dangerous guiding job of my life had begun.
***
“Now then, let's head north.”
I raised my hand and pointed down the main road.
Namgung Seol nodded.
And without hesitation, she turned in the opposite direction.
Step, step.
There wasn't a shred of doubt in her steps.
She was so confident that even I almost got confused for a moment.
‘Huh? Did I get the way wrong?’
But no.
Above all, the biggest problem was that the direction she took wasn't even a path.
“Miss.”
“What is it?”
“That's a cliff.”
“......”
Namgung Seol's foot stopped just before it stepped out into thin air.
She looked down at the precipice beneath her feet.
Far below, a pitch-black river gaped open its mouth.
Namgung Seol calmly stepped back as if nothing had happened.
Her expression didn't change one bit.
“I knew that.”
“Pardon?”
“I was only going to take in the view.”
“The view? Of the bottom of a cliff?”
“......The rivers of Hebei flow swiftly. Hmm.”
She cleared her throat and started walking again. This time it was the forest path to the right.
“That's a field of wild boar dung.”
“......”
“And next to it is a thorn thicket.”
“......”
“Miss.”
I pressed my hands together and said.
“I'm begging you, would you please just follow behind me?”
Namgung Seol's face turned as red as a carrot.
The youngest daughter of the Namgung Clan.
The world's greatest beauty.
Even she had a fatal weakness.
The compass in her head was broken.
And very seriously at that.
‘No wonder she went all the way to Sichuan and back.’
I shook my head and took the lead.
“This way. Watch your step.”
The real mountain trek began.
Since it had just rained, the ground was muddy.
It was a path where an ordinary person would have slipped several times.
But I walked as if dancing.
[Put eyes on the tips of your toes. Read the energy of the earth, and entrust your body to its flow.]
A passage from the <Yin Kill Secret Record> flashed through my mind.
I avoided the squelching mud and stepped only on hard rocks and tree roots.
My inner arts were meager, but my senses had opened.
Through the soles of my feet, the bumps and dips of the ground drew themselves like a map.
“Waiter, you walk rather well.”
Namgung Seol, following behind me, said as if impressed.
I glanced down at her feet.
It was unbelievable.
Even though I'd dodged this way and that, the heels of my shoes were caked with mud, yet her white shoes were as nice and dry as if they had just been washed.
It seemed to be the weightless body technique of experts, said to leave no trace even when stepping in muddy water.
“If you roll around in this line of work for ten years, this much is basic. Trip while carrying noodles, and you won't get so much as a drop of broth.”
“It does not seem like a simple knack...... your breathing is not disturbed in the slightest either.”
Her eyes gleamed sharply.
No sense of direction or not, an expert was still an expert.
I deliberately looked elsewhere and turned my head away.
“Climbing mountains is hard, so I'm holding my breath out of sheer grit. Please stop making me talk. It drains my strength.”
Had we walked about half a day?
The sun was slowly sinking.
We sat down on a fallen old tree to rest for a moment.
Chewing on a piece of jerky, I casually asked.
“By the way, Miss.”
“Speak.”
“Earlier, you said it was a birthday gift for the Peng Clan Head, right?”
“I did.”
“Then are you just going to congratulate him?”
It was simple curiosity.
The Namgung Clan and the Hebei Peng Clan.
Both belonged to the Five Great Clans, so it was natural for them to have dealings.
But for a direct daughter to come alone for the Clan Head's birthday, and over such a long road at that?
Usually, they'd send a servant, or the Clan Head would go himself.
It seemed like there was a story behind it.
Namgung Seol stroked the silk box she was holding.
Her eyes softened, just a little.
“I am going to pay my respects...... and to set a date for the wedding.”
“A wedding?”
The jerky I was eating nearly got stuck in my throat.
I hurriedly pounded my chest.
“W-with whom?”
“Is it not obvious? Mister Peng Mu-gwang, the eldest son of the Hebei Peng Clan.”
“Cough! Kheuk!”
In the end, I choked.
Peng Mu-gwang.
The moment I heard that name, an image came to mind.
The Peng Mu-gwang I'd heard about in rumors wasn't a person.
A monster said to stand easily over seven and a half chi tall (about 230 cm), with forearms as thick as a grown man's thighs, chewing raw meat instead of rice.
Even his nickname was ‘Man-Eating Bear.’
A bear that ate people.
I glanced at Namgung Seol.
Skin as white as snow.
A slender neckline.
A pure, delicate beauty who looked like she'd be blown away if the wind blew.
And then there was Peng Mu-gwang.
‘Beauty and the Beast?’
No. This was closer to prey being thrown in front of a beast.
Just imagining it was horrifying.
I couldn't picture that slender body standing next to that bear of a man no matter how I tried.
“What is the matter?”
Namgung Seol held out a water flask with worried eyes.
“Would you like some water?”
I gulped the water down and barely calmed myself.
“N-no, I'm fine. I was just...... a little surprised.”
I chose my words as carefully as I could.
“The eldest son of the Peng Clan...... he's, um, a very sturdy man, isn't he?”
“That he is.”
Namgung Seol nodded.
“I have heard rumors that he is as strong as a giant and that his blade technique is magnificent. Since it is a match my father arranged, he must surely be a fine man.”
She was calm.
As indifferent as if she were talking about someone else.
A political marriage.
A deal in which the prestigious clans of the martial world tied their children together in marriage to combine their power.
Namgung Seol was also just a piece placed on that enormous board.
This young lady, who had freely gotten lost and wandered about, was walking into the prison called the Peng Clan on her own two feet.
I felt a strange pity.
“Miss.”
“Hm?”
“Did you know the Peng Clan people eat a ton? If you marry into that family, one bowl of noodles won't come close. You'll probably have to eat a whole sack of rice.”
“Really?”
Namgung Seol's eyes widened slightly.
“Hmm, that part I rather like.”
“......”
It was a joke, and she took it seriously. She really was a hopeless woman.
“But, Miss.”
“Speak.”
“I hate to ask, but why did you come out alone?”
I asked carefully.
“No matter how much of an expert you are, Miss, the martial world is a dangerous place. Don't young ladies of prestigious clans usually travel with guards?”
At my question, Namgung Seol stopped walking.
She made a distant expression, as if gazing at faraway mountains.
“My elder sister told me so.”
“Your elder sister?”
“Yes.”
A strange heat came into her voice.
It was closer to deep admiration than sisterly affection.
“My elder sister, the pride of our clan and my goal, told me.”
Namgung Seol lightly stroked the white jade sword at her waist.
“You too are a martial artist who has learned the Boundless Azure Sky of the Namgung. Do not grow up like a potted flower. If you are a sword of the Namgung, you must know how to step into the martial world alone.”
“......”
“So I sent away all the guards they assigned me and came out.”
She smiled proudly.
“Trusting in my sword.”
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
That elder sister of hers, honestly.
Was she raising her little sister to be strong, or driving her to her death?
But one question still remained.
Had all those guards really gone back?
Or was there a shadow following along behind the Clan Head's back, worried about the naive youngest daughter?
Maybe there were more unseen eyes around us that I simply hadn't noticed.
Either way, it was a headache all the same.
If there were eyes secretly watching, I had to be careful how I acted.
If I did something suspicious for no reason, the shadow's blade would reach my neck first.
“Now, let's go. We need to get over the mountain before sunset.”
I brushed myself off and got up.
That was when it happened.
[Open the Ear Gate.]
Without thinking, my hearing opened.
The sounds of the forest rushed into my ears.
The sound of the wind.
The sound of leaves rustling.
The sound of insects chirping.
And then.
Skritch.
I heard a very faint sound.
It wasn't my footsteps, or Namgung Seol's.
It wasn't the sound of stepping on fallen leaves.
It was the sound of something brushing past over the fallen leaves.
Experts.
And ones who were masters at erasing their presence, too.
Goosebumps ran down my spine.
Were they Namgung Seol's guards?
Pretending to keep walking, I stole a sidelong glance behind us.
The forest path was empty.
I couldn't see anything.
But my ears were clearly telling me.
‘Someone's there.’
Not just one.
Two.
No, three.
Had they followed us from the inn?
Or from the entrance to the mountain?
They didn't seem to be guards.
Keeping their distance, they were following us as if driving prey.