The Moonlit Night Pavilion plaque came down, and a plaque reading Mystic Lunar Dance Troupe was hung in its place.
Jin Sohan, who had killed the Blood-Whisper Sect Master, wanted to live alone for a while, but so many people kept coming to see him that he never got the chance.
“Who is it today…? Are there still more?”
“You absolutely have to see this one today. A survivor… and the heir of the West Gold Escort Agency.”
“The West Gold Escort Agency?”
“People whose escort agency was taken by the Blood-Whisper Sect. They disappeared, then came the moment they heard the news. But there’s a bit of a problem here, too.”
“What problem.”
“The Blood-Whisper Sect absorbed the West Gold Escort Agency and has been running it as the West Wind Escort Agency. It’s similar to what happened with the Moonlit Night Pavilion. The officer who was leading the West Wind Escort Agency seems to have fled the moment the Blood-Whisper Sect Master died, but the escort hands and laborers under him stayed. The West Gold Escort Agency survivor will probably ask the Troupe Master to return the West Gold Escort Agency.”
Jin Sohan let out a hollow chuckle.
“Then return it. Didn’t we decide that anything the Blood-Whisper Sect seized would be restored as long as there were witnesses? And if the people who worked at the West Wind Escort Agency aren’t the sort who lost the public’s trust, I’ll give them some money like I did with the Moonlit Night Pavilion. So they can start over somewhere else.”
The richest person on West Black Road had, absurdly, become Jin Sohan.
He had taken the Moonlit Night Pavilion’s assets first, and after that, Choo Sahyeok and his men stepped in and moved the Blood-Whisper Sect’s vault and property here in one sweep. Jin Sohan wasn’t particularly greedy for money, so he hadn’t even checked the figures properly, but according to Choo Sahyeok, in any case, he was now the biggest tycoon on West Black Road.
Choo Sahyeok replied.
“In any case, they say they’ll offer you thanks. Since you avenged their enemy for them…”
“No, how many enemies did that Blood-Whisper Sect Master have? Everyone says he was their enemy…”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“Why are you talking like it’s someone else’s business? You’re Blood-Whisper remnants, too.”
“What? I’m Ghost Blade Sect.”
Choo Sahyeok spoke with a solemn expression.
“I only waited, building my strength for the right time…”
“You lunatic… You would’ve waited your whole life.”
“Think whatever you want.”
“Ah… this is giving me a headache. I don’t know why this is harder than fighting people.”
It made sense.
The only people Jin Sohan had met while he was growing up were the Demon-Immortal masters.
He returned to West Black Road, got his revenge, and somehow ended up as something like the manager who ran the place. There were so many visitors now that he’d lost count of how many times it had happened. Most came because their livelihood depended on it, or to ask whether they were allowed to keep doing business under Jin Sohan, or else to beg for what had been taken from them, like the West Gold Escort Agency.
Jin Sohan was neither a manager nor a magistrate.
He could understand their suffocating circumstances, but there were so many visitors that his daily life was getting paralyzed, and that made things difficult even for him. He couldn’t just drink like he always did and meet people along the way.
Jin Sohan muttered as if he were stifled.
“I didn’t get revenge to live like this.”
Choo Sahyeok answered with a grin.
“Do you feel empty? Still, I’ve been deeply impressed by how you’ve handled things. I want to give you a fine nickname. The Fine Magistrate of West Black Road, Jin Sohan—how does that sound?”
“Shut up.”
“Yes.”
Even Choo Sahyeok could tell Jin Sohan was worn out.
The reason was simple.
Jin Sohan was a martial man down to the marrow. Outside of anything related to martial arts, he was quietly lazy. For example, if you dragged Jin Sohan off alone to a waterfall, he would get excited, train by himself for days, and splash around in the pool beneath the falls without ever getting bored.
And now that kind of man was dealing with work meant for scholars, so of course he couldn’t stand it.
It was only natural that he found himself more exhausted these days than he had been on the day he killed the Blood-Whisper Sect Master.
I should find a clever scribe and stick him to the Troupe Master.
Choo Sahyeok, keeping his wicked expression hidden, spoke carefully.
“If you handle just this much today, it’ll be enough. It’s late, so I’ll send the rest away.”
“Fine.”
“Yes. Please wait a moment.”
Jin Sohan frowned, having caught the look on Choo Sahyeok’s face as he bowed his head.
“But, Choo Sahyeok.”
“Yes.”
“You’re smiling? You’re enjoying this?”
“Yes.”
“What are you enjoying.”
“That the Troupe Master isn’t someone who can do everything… It feels human, so I keep laughing. I’ll find a scholar who can share this work soon.”
Jin Sohan turned his head and sighed.
“Go.”
“Yes. Please wait a moment.”
Jin Sohan tilted his head.
Why is he smiling. That doesn’t seem right.
Of course, there was another reason Choo Sahyeok was smiling.
Both Jin Sohan and Choo Sahyeok were rough men born and raised in the Unorthodox Faction. But Jin Sohan’s temperament was different even from Choo Sahyeok’s.
He cut down the Moonlit Night Pavilion Master, the Northwind Unit Leader, and the Blood-Whisper Sect Master without hesitation, yet when it came to ordinary people who came to the Mystic Lunar Dance Troupe… or old men who hadn’t learned a single technique, he treated them with an awkward sort of caution.
They said there were people who were strong against the strong and soft against the weak. That was Jin Sohan.
And because of that, Choo Sahyeok was starting to think he might bet the rest of his life on Jin Sohan.
Before that… I should confirm whether I’m truly poisoned.
For days, Choo Sahyeok had asked in subtle ways, but Jin Sohan still refused to tell him what poison he had given him, whether it was really poison at all, and anything else.
*****
“Troupe Master? I brought the guest.”
“Fine.”
After Choo Sahyeok reported first from the first floor, the West Gold Escort Agency survivor slowly climbed the stairs.
Jin Sohan licked his lips, staring at his liquor.
A survivor of the West Gold Escort Agency…
As he was thinking that if the person was around his age, he might offer a drink, Jin Sohan noticed the footsteps coming up the stairs were extremely light.
They’ve learned martial arts.
That wasn’t unusual. Anyone dreaming of revenge would do the same.
But the moment he looked over the person who came up the stairs, Jin Sohan realized his expectation had been wrong.
Huh? Why did I assume it would be a man?
Because it was an escort agency, he had naturally pictured a man in his twenties or thirties with hot blood in his veins. But the person who appeared, with most of their face covered by a strange blue veil, was clearly a woman.
More than anything, the longsword at her waist caught his eye first, and after that, the curved hips no man could have, and the line of her chest she couldn’t hide, left Jin Sohan flustered.
As Jin Sohan quietly rose from his seat, the West Gold Escort Agency survivor looked at him with tear-wet eyes and spoke.
“I pay my respects, Benefactor.”
Benefactor… What am I even supposed to say to that.
Jin Sohan had always lacked proper etiquette in every sense. And this was the first visitor who had ever addressed him as a benefactor.
Jin Sohan answered with a blank look.
“Welcome.”
For a moment, the two of them just stood there, staring.
The woman spoke in a faintly trembling voice.
“I wish to bow to you, Benefactor.”
“No, why would you… Sit.”
After a few awkward, broken motions, the woman sat across from Jin Sohan.
But she still had half her face covered by that strange blue veil.
Jin Sohan spoke.
“With your face covered, you look like an assassin.”
“What? An assassin? Ah, I’m sorry. It became a habit, avoiding the Blood-Whisper Sect.”
“If you walk around with your face covered like that, won’t you stand out more?”
“Yes.”
When the woman pulled the blue veil down with her hand, her face finally showed.
The instant Jin Sohan saw it, he let out a very small sigh.
…You must have suffered a lot.
He understood immediately why she had covered her face.
If he had to express it simply, in one word:
A beauty.
There were plenty of pretty faces in the Moonlit Night Pavilion, and before that, the older sisters in the Mystic Lunar Dance Troupe had been beautiful women, too. It wasn’t because Jin Sohan had lived secluded with his masters and hadn’t seen women for a long time…
This woman herself was a rare beauty.
And for the same reason, she had covered her face with a veil.
Her expression held so many emotions it was hard to count. There was a gaze of curiosity toward the person who killed her enemy, and beneath that, an emotion that feared Jin Sohan as well.
Of course she would fear him.
To live in the world with a face like that.
And even more so in a place like the Unorthodox Faction.
When Jin Sohan said nothing for a moment, the woman finally gave her name.
“I am Ju Yein of the West Gold Escort Agency.”
The moment he heard it, Jin Sohan sighed.
A name that meant wise and benevolent.
He didn’t know who had named her, but it must have been given with the hope that she would live brightly and kindly.
It wasn’t the kind of name that belonged to someone close to revenge.
By contrast, Jin Sohan’s name carried the sense of bright light and savage swiftness. A name didn’t decide everything, but Ju Yein looked far too suited to her name.
Which meant she must have suffered that much more.
“I am Jin Sohan.”
As soon as he gave his name, Jin Sohan brought up the sword at Ju Yein’s waist.
“You learned the sword?”
“Yes.”
“For revenge?”
“Yes.”
Jin Sohan continued with a serious expression.
“Good.”
“Yes?”
“I hope you keep getting stronger. I killed the Blood-Whisper Sect Master, but you will have to protect the West Gold Escort Agency—and yourself—from here on.”
It was a stiff thing to say, but it was also the warmest thing Ju Yein had heard in all the time she had wandered.
What had the Blood-Whisper Sect done to her?
He couldn’t know right away, but Ju Yein’s expression said plenty.
She was struggling not to cry in front of Jin Sohan, but at some point, thick tears began to spill out in heavy drops.
“Thank you, Benefactor…”
Where had she learned martial arts?
Where had she hidden?
How had she heard the news and come?
He was curious, but he didn’t ask.
In a way, she was someone with a fate and a fury of life similar to Jin Sohan’s.
There was only one difference.
Jin Sohan grew strong because of his bond with his masters, and Ju Yein was not yet someone strong enough to kill the Blood-Whisper Sect Master.
Ju Yein’s tears seemed to include even that.
“Don’t watch your eyes. Cry until you feel better.”
Jin Sohan let Ju Yein cry for a while, then reached—half by reflex—for the liquor he had only been watching on the table, and added, as if it were a joke:
“I should’ve killed the Blood-Whisper Sect Master a little more cruelly.”
In front of the crying woman, Jin Sohan drank a cup of liquor.