“Without any conditions? You’re just letting us go?”
Once Jin Sohan’s words were passed along, the people working at Moonlit Night Pavilion were caught between shock and bafflement.
Some couldn’t believe it.
But when Choo Sahyeok actually handed travel money to anyone who said they were leaving and sent them out immediately, Moonlit Night Pavilion grew busy in a way it never was.
It couldn’t not.
There were many women who’d been dragged in here after being seized by the Blood-Whisper Sect. At the words that they could leave right away, tears and laughter crossed on the same faces, and as they hurriedly packed what little they had, the whole place erupted into chaos. And with that came the unavoidable question—what on earth had happened for something like this to be possible?
A courtesan named Buyeon spoke up, because she had seen something.
“I saw the young master talking to the Pavilion Master, and… maybe it was him. When I woke up after passing out, the stench of blood was everywhere. The men are all keeping their mouths shut. And after that, the Pavilion Master hasn’t been seen… earlier this morning, I saw only that young master walking around, looking through everything.”
“Really?”
“Why would I lie?”
Buyeon was the courtesan who had approached Jin Sohan’s side after he’d been made to take an aphrodisiac. She clearly remembered his face and what he was wearing.
The rumor spread in an instant.
An unknown young man had killed the Pavilion Master, and now he was letting everyone go.
On top of that, Choo Sahyeok’s underlings were saying similar things. That there would soon be a bloodbath here, so they needed to run—fast.
But the ones about to leave all gathered on the first floor, agreeing on the same thing: before they went, they wanted to see the person sending them away at least once.
They felt like they had to offer thanks, at the very least.
That news reached Jin Sohan through Choo Sahyeok.
Jin Sohan frowned.
“So they’re not leaving—they’re waiting?”
Choo Sahyeok answered.
“Yes. They’ve all gathered saying they want to see you, Troupe Master, and offer their thanks before they go.”
Choo Sahyeok was quietly surprised as well.
Because Jin Sohan looked annoyed.
“Where are they?”
“They’re waiting on the first floor.”
“Fine.”
When Jin Sohan went down with Choo Sahyeok, just as he’d said, the first floor was packed with people preparing to leave.
The moment Jin Sohan appeared, the courtesan named Buyeon cried out.
“Young master!”
Buyeon swept her gaze over the crowd and said,
“It’s him.”
From all sides, voices poured out in a noisy rush—thank you, we’re grateful, we’ll repay this kindness.
But how could they possibly repay it?
Jin Sohan hadn’t done it expecting anything back from them in the first place. So there wasn’t really anything he needed to say. Still, since they were gathered like this, he calmly swept his eyes across them, wondering if there might be a face he recognized.
As Jin Sohan stood there for a moment, looking down without saying a word, the entire Moonlit Night Pavilion fell silent.
There was no one he knew.
Was he supposed to be glad?
Or was he supposed to be sad?
With bitterness settling in, Jin Sohan spoke in an even tone.
“Did you all take your money?”
“We did.”
“Thank you, young master!”
When the thanks surged again, Jin Sohan lifted a hand and pressed the noise down.
“This isn’t the time to be lingering. Leave West Black Road, or go home safely. It’d be best to get out before night falls.”
“Young master, please—at least tell us your name.”
“Why are you freeing us like this?”
Jin Sohan answered, intent on sending them off quickly.
“I’m someone who came to take revenge on the Blood-Whisper Sect… just know that much. Now we part ways. Go. Live well.”
“Ah…!”
With nothing more than that simple line, Jin Sohan turned away. The people stared up at the second floor, flustered.
But Jin Sohan was already gone from sight.
Someone spoke.
“This isn’t the time. The Blood-Whisper Sect will come. He knows that—he’s telling us to hurry and go. Let’s move… now!”
The doors of Moonlit Night Pavilion opened, and people began streaming out.
Jin Sohan sat down in an inner seat on the second floor and spoke to Choo Sahyeok.
“There were too many. If we’re not careful, we’ll draw attention.”
“Yes.”
“Tell your underlings to escort them to somewhere quiet.”
Choo Sahyeok replied.
“Understood. But some of my underlings said they want to leave as well, so I don’t have many hands.”
“It’ll be fine. Rein them in one more time. Some of them might run to the Blood-Whisper Sect.”
“Hm. They won’t.”
At Choo Sahyeok’s words, Jin Sohan leaned back in a more relaxed posture and looked up at the ceiling.
With the people gone, Moonlit Night Pavilion was quiet.
The guests had been sent out even before the staff. Since this was a pleasure house backed by the Blood-Whisper Sect, the moment they declared they were closing, people had no choice but to disappear without argument.
Jin Sohan had truly dismantled Moonlit Night Pavilion.
Choo Sahyeok’s mood was strange.
He had never spent his life doing favors for anyone, and what had happened today left him genuinely bewildered. More than anything, when he saw the people of Moonlit Night Pavilion smiling in joy, some unfamiliar emotion surged inside him, shaken loose by a new kind of experience he couldn’t name.
This… feels like I’m dreaming.
*****
And so Moonlit Night Pavilion became empty.
With even the few remaining underlings sent out as escorts, the vast pleasure house was reduced to Jin Sohan and Choo Sahyeok sitting face-to-face, tilting their cups from early evening.
Choo Sahyeok spoke.
“Even the cooks all left. What will you do about meals from here on? There are ingredients in the storeroom, but I’ve never cooked in my life.”
Jin Sohan’s answer was simple.
“We can go eat at a nearby inn.”
“Yes.”
Watching Jin Sohan’s expression—somehow, faintly lonely—Choo Sahyeok asked another question.
“What about the ones you locked up? When will you let them out?”
“Who did I lock up?”
“Most of them are suppliers.”
“Let them out tomorrow.”
“That quickly?”
When Jin Sohan nodded, Choo Sahyeok let out a sigh.
“Wouldn’t it be better to kill them? A few might run straight to the Blood-Whisper Sect.”
Suppliers were the ones who fed goods into the black markets. If they were released alive, someone would leak words somewhere. But from what Choo Sahyeok could see, Jin Sohan seemed to have already accounted for that.
“Let them. Drink.”
“Yes.”
As Choo Sahyeok accepted the cup respectfully, Jin Sohan asked,
“And Ha Jigwang?”
“The drifter? Looks like he slept one night and left. You gave him a sword, and he runs off immediately… drifters aren’t worth much.”
Jin Sohan didn’t respond.
From the start, he hadn’t acted expecting anything from that man, either. He’d only given him the sword because he seemed to like swords.
That was all.
And besides, Jin Sohan didn’t see people the way Choo Sahyeok did. That man could’ve gone to gather his companions, and Jin Sohan thought he’d show up again later—one way or another.
Jin Sohan spoke.
“…Anyway.”
“Yes.”
“The Blood-Whisper Sect Master’s been sitting on that seat a long time. He’s past fifty now, isn’t he?”
“Of course. He’s a vicious one. He has plenty of enemies.”
“He likes women too, I bet.”
“If I answered twice, my mouth would hurt. When he isn’t busy, he even wanders around pleasure houses and lives there. Lately, he must be busy—he hasn’t shown his face at all. Even inside the Blood-Whisper Sect, there are plenty of girls who serve only the Sect Master. After crushing his rivals, he became the king of West Black Road.”
“And they say his martial arts improved a lot…?”
“Do you know the Ghost Blade Sect Master?”
“I’ve heard of him.”
“Back when the Blood-Whisper Sect Master was young, he was under the Ghost Blade Sect Master. I don’t know what good things he ate with all that money, but his inner energy kept deepening, and they say he was constantly guided by Unorthodox experts he invited from outside. You could call him a man who built himself up from nothing. And now he’s absorbed the Ghost Blade Sect.”
At that, Jin Sohan watched Choo Sahyeok’s expression, then replied.
“You were originally from the Ghost Blade Sect?”
“Hm… you noticed? Positions like executive posts in pleasure houses, merchant caravans, and escort agencies are all dead-end assignments. The ones who get pushed out in internal power struggles take them. Most of the Ghost Blade Sect people scattered like this.”
Jin Sohan answered indifferently.
“Blood-Whisper Sect or Ghost Blade Sect—it’s all the same trash…”
Each time their words cut off, silence seeped into Moonlit Night Pavilion.
Choo Sahyeok had reached the point of resignation.
Because Jin Sohan’s face, from start to finish, looked lonely.
He wasn’t trying to run.
No reinforcements were coming.
He sat there with no measures at all, as if he planned to face the Blood-Whisper Sect and die a blazing death.
Choo Sahyeok asked.
“This is your hometown, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“What was it like before?”
“Who knows. It’s hazy. It was when I was a kid… just thinking about it vaguely, it feels like it was fun. Eating together, training, playing, getting scolded, fighting… there wasn’t any time to be lonely.”
“Where did they all go? Did they scatter?”
Jin Sohan replied.
“What do you think you’ve been listening to? The Mystic Lunar Dance Troupe was here. When the Blood-Whisper Sect took it, most of them must’ve died. I don’t see a single face I know…”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked…”
“When your underlings get back, you should leave too.”
“…What?”
That was truly a shock.
Jin Sohan looked toward the silver chests Choo Sahyeok’s underlings had moved and said,
“Take enough money for you and your underlings.”
A sour feeling rose in Choo Sahyeok.
This insane bastard…
Before he realized it, Choo Sahyeok asked bluntly,
“Will you detox me too?”
As if he’d forgotten, Jin Sohan pulled out a wooden case from his clothes, pinched up a single blue pill, and held it out.
“I almost forgot. If you’d gone like that, a few days later your limbs would’ve melted off…”
Choo Sahyeok grabbed his forehead.
Jin Sohan was grinning softly as he watched the flustered Choo Sahyeok, who didn’t know what to do.
Not even knowing what the blue pill was, Choo Sahyeok snatched it and swallowed it, then said,
“Why are you laughing?”
Choo Sahyeok’s tone was getting rougher by the second.
Jin Sohan smiled and replied.
“Because what you just ate was real poison. Your face says forty-something, but the way you drop your guard—you’re a complete chick.”
“….”
Choo Sahyeok’s already-reddish face began turning the color of jujubes.
He couldn’t tell what was true and what was a lie.
Ah, this is pissing me off. This guy, seriously…
Then, as if he’d suddenly made up his mind, Choo Sahyeok swallowed down his anger and said,
“Fine. I’ll stay here too. I need to watch how well you fight, Troupe Master. I’m a dead man anyway… before I die, I might as well watch something interesting.”
When Choo Sahyeok came out boldly like that, Jin Sohan burst out laughing.
Choo Sahyeok laughed too and continued,
“So you can laugh.”
“Do what you want.”
“Yes, I’ll do what I want. The Blood-Whisper Sect Master is scary, but if I say I was forced to cooperate because I was made to take poison, he’ll probably throw me a lifeline or two. Either way, I’ll just serve whoever wins. That’s what the Unorthodox Faction is, isn’t it?”
“Then you’re saying the Blood-Whisper Sect Master wasn’t your master until now?”
“My body was bound, that’s all… he wasn’t someone worth admiring. You don’t have to believe me.”
Jin Sohan curled his lip in a grin.
“Cocky bastard.”
“Cocky?”
“Who said I’d accept you. Get lost, you bastard.”
Choo Sahyeok tilted his head.
Interpreted plainly, those words carried the implication that Jin Sohan intended to win.
With a truly serious mindset, Choo Sahyeok stared at Jin Sohan.
Huh. I thought he was just some weird lunatic… but he’s strange in another way.
His mouth was filthy, but somehow, being cursed at didn’t feel unpleasant anymore. He was getting used to Jin Sohan’s way of speaking. And oddly enough, the more Jin Sohan told him to get lost, the more Choo Sahyeok wanted to stick around. He even started feeling like it didn’t matter whether what he’d swallowed was poison or a miracle pill. When Jin Sohan killed the Moonlit Night Pavilion Master, he’d been that violent—yet the way he shoved money into the staff’s hands and sent them away… what kind of resolve was that?
With a grave expression, Choo Sahyeok asked,
“Troupe Master, are you really confident? Just tell me that much. We don’t know if a hundred will come or two hundred will come. Plan for the future. You’re young, and your skill is excellent, yet you’re sitting here without any plan at all…”
Jin Sohan returned to his blunt expression, poured another drink, and snapped,
“Drink.”
So Choo Sahyeok let out a long sigh, then downed a cup with Jin Sohan.
And strangely enough, tonight, the taste of the liquor was nothing short of perfect.