SLAP—!
The third floor of the Moon-Crossing Pavilion. The Pavilion Mistress' room.
The Moon Orchid Enchantress, Gwak Hwa-ran, struck Seon U-yun's cheek.
For a woman who had chewed her lip in rage, her face was cold.
"A-yun."
"Yes, Pavilion Mistress."
Seon U-yun clutched his swelling cheek and lay flat at Gwak Hwa-ran's feet.
"You dared lay hands on the Moon-Crossing Pavilion's warriors? You must have lost your mind."
He had lost his mind.
That was exactly it.
Only moments ago, Seon U-yun had thought that something in him had gone wrong, that he had lost his mind.
Otherwise, busy as he was staying alive, busy as he was looking after his sister, there was no reason he should have worried over Jeong Chun-sam and stepped in.
'You knew it would come to this, and still you asked him to help?'
The struck cheek hurt.
But what hurt more was the part of him that thought the choice had not been a bad one.
Giving help and receiving it — was that not a privilege granted only to children?
Anything else, that is, any help not given to a child, always demanded a price.
That was why Seon U-yun could not escape the Moon-Crossing Pavilion even under Gwak Hwa-ran's violence.
Because he had to repay the cost of medicine for his ailing sister.
Because he had to protect the sister held under the Moon-Crossing Pavilion's protection.
And yet Tang Yu-hyeon had offered help to a man with no ties to him at all, and Seon U-yun had accepted it.
How was such a thing possible?
Admitting the question he had carried, digging up what he had kept covered, was painful.
'Damn it.......!'
Seon U-yun clenched his teeth.
'Get a hold of yourself.'
What mattered right now was avoiding Gwak Hwa-ran's suspicion and staying alive.
Every choice carried a price.
But in this place there was no adult who could give help without a price.
So he could receive no more help here.
"My apologies, Pavilion Mistress. But there was no other way to deceive Tang Yu-hyeon."
"No other way, was there?"
"Yes. Some wind has taken him lately; he has been going about helping people."
"That good-for-nothing? Hah! It is not even funny."
"Just so. He must have read some tale of heroes somewhere and filled his head with nonsense. So I meant to flatter him along and draw him out gently."
"Hmm."
"Only, I did not expect him to kill the Moon-Crossing Pavilion's warriors in the process. That is plainly my failure. I fall far short of you, Pavilion Mistress, and so I blundered. Please forgive me."
Gwak Hwa-ran tapped the tip of her foot.
Two of the Moon-Crossing Pavilion's people killed was worth her fury, but looking back on it, Seon U-yun's judgment had not been bad.
Luring in a young master lost in the delusion that he could save anyone he reached a hand out to was easy.
Inflate his abilities, deceive him into thinking it was all used for the sake of good, and squeeze the wealth out of him.
Whatever the reason, if the hole the money came out of had changed, then the one receiving the money had to change with it.
"Very well. You have admitted your fault, so I will ask no more of it."
"I thank the Pavilion Mistress for her generosity."
Gwak Hwa-ran looked down at Seon U-yun, then rose abruptly and took down a treasured sword hanging on the wall.
A black blade and a blue temper line.
It was the Moon Shadow Sword.
"What I want is not a sword like this. I want the Tang Clan's wealth, and beyond that, the Tang Clan itself."
Gwak Hwa-ran stopped short of gripping the hilt and instead adjusted her hair ornament.
"A-yun, you are a clever child, are you not? Put that little head of yours to good use. Otherwise I will have to sell your sister, won't I?"
Seon U-yun's fists tightened.
Making a person aware of what she held and how great a weakness it was to him — that was Gwak Hwa-ran's specialty.
".......I will take care."
"You may go now."
At the wave of Gwak Hwa-ran's hand, Seon U-yun bowed at the waist and left the room quickly.
CLACK.
Behind the closed door, flames rose in a pair of eyes.
***
The next day.
Tang Yu-hyeon frowned at the sight of Seon U-yun seated across from him, as though by appointment.
His cheek was badly swollen, with a thread-thin cut across it.
"Who struck you?"
"If I say who, will you avenge me?"
"If you wish it."
"Ha ha. Never mind. There isn't a soul working where I work who lives without being struck."
"You think I do not know that?"
He had heard well enough what life outside the courtyard was like.
If he said he knew, someone might rage at him — how could one who had eaten and dressed well inside a peaceful courtyard so much as speak of the life outside it — but Tang Yu-hyeon could not bring himself to turn away from them.
And so, knowing it would be called hypocrisy, he could not help but hold out a hand.
"I only ask because I am concerned."
Tang Yu-hyeon drew a small measure of wound salve from his robes and dabbed it onto Seon U-yun's cheek.
"Tsk. This will need a few days of it."
Tang Yu-hyeon set the wound salve down in front of Seon U-yun.
"I have no need of it, so take it and use it."
"Come now. You think I will accept that?"
"Well?"
".......Naturally I accept it with thanks."
Seon U-yun took the wound salve carefully in both hands and tucked it into his robes.
Tang Yu-hyeon let out a breath of disbelief.
Words and deeds had never matched so neatly.
But for a line thrown back in jest, Seon U-yun wore an odd expression, like a child who had been given something precious by a stranger.
Tang Yu-hyeon let it pass without pointing it out.
Soon Seon U-yun composed his face and asked, poking at the food with his chopsticks.
"By the way, why the Azure Flower Pavilion today? You liked the place we went to before."
"Who said that? I came because it was quiet and the food was decent, that is all. Besides, how could a man who has already caused a commotion go back to that place?"
"That's true enough."
Seon U-yun nodded to show he was satisfied.
But Tang Yu-hyeon knew: had he not gone to a tavern under the Moon-Crossing Pavilion, Seon U-yun would have taken him to the previous one.
"Well. For now let us enjoy the drink."
No sooner had he tipped his cup than singing rose from the platform at the center.
A lute and a zither played at either side, and in the middle, girls with their faces hidden behind paper flowers danced in time with the music.
".......It seems I have come to a pleasure house, not a tavern."
"This must be that kind of place. Let's finish this and move somewhere else."
Tang Yu-hyeon nodded and cast his gaze back at the girls.
They spun as one, and the cloth wound about their arms flared out.
As the paper flowers, spread wide like fans, came down, the girls' faces were revealed.
Among the lovely children stood Jeong So-hui.
"Why is she......?"
Seon U-yun muttered blankly.
Why was the daughter of the man they had handed money to only the day before dancing in a tavern under the Moon-Crossing Pavilion?
And with a forced smile, worse to look at than weeping.
"Whooooa—!"
"Hoo! Young as she is, she dances well!"
Amid the applause and the cheering, only the two of them could not smile.
Meanwhile the master of the Azure Flower Pavilion, the Drunken Gold Ghost Lord Geum Yu-sang, climbed onto the platform and bowed and scraped.
"My thanks for enjoying the dance of our pavilion's dancers. For today only, whoever calls the highest sum for each dancer will have her pour his drinks herself."
Geum Yu-sang yanked Jeong So-hui's arm roughly.
"Urk!"
"The first dancer is First Joy!"
"Twenty taels!"
"Fifty taels!"
"A hundred taels!"
"Two hundred taels!"
"Five hundred taels."
Tang Yu-hyeon cut through the excited voices in a single stroke.
Perhaps not registering that chillingly calm voice, Geum Yu-sang shook Jeong So-hui, spraying spittle as he spoke.
"Five hundred taels! Five hundred taels has been called! Do I hear more?"
"......."
"Three calls and we close. Five hundred taels, five hundred taels, five hundred taels! Congratulations!"
Tang Yu-hyeon ignored every word Geum Yu-sang strung out and all but threw the pouch of money over.
He had said five hundred taels, but Tang Yu-hyeon always carried five hundred and two hundred more besides.
What he had handed Jeong Chun-sam was likewise seven hundred taels, which even by the Moon-Crossing Pavilion's arithmetic left money to spare.
And yet Jeong Chun-sam's daughter, Jeong So-hui, was dancing as a dancer in a pleasure house under the Moon-Crossing Pavilion.
Which meant something had happened to Jeong Chun-sam.
"Y-you called for me?"
Jeong So-hui came to Tang Yu-hyeon's side with a liquor bottle in trembling hands.
"Do not pour yet. I would like you to answer what I ask."
"Yes.......? Wh-what would you like......."
"I most certainly gave your father money yesterday. Your father said he would go straight off to repay the debt to protect you. Did you not see it yourself?"
"Yes. I saw it too."
"Then why are you here?"
"Th-that is....... My father passed away, and the debt came to me. Hhk! But I have no money, so I could not repay it and was brought here......."
Tang Yu-hyeon believed Seon U-yun's word.
Jeong Chun-sam was not the sort of man to abandon his daughter and run off with the money.
Then who had killed him and shifted the debt onto Jeong So-hui?
'The Moon-Crossing Pavilion.'
His head cooled to a cold rage.
'Bastards who deserve to be killed to the last with poison.'
Tang Yu-hyeon reached into his sleeve for a needle.
GRIP.
But Seon U-yun stopped him.
The hand clamped on his arm was trembling.
"There's something I want to ask. Before you came here, weren't you shut up somewhere? Somewhere like a small storehouse."
"Um....... Yes! It was cramped, and maybe because there was a sick person, there were only a few people and a strange smell too, and it was frightening!"
"Was the sick one a girl about your age?"
"Yes! She had her hair braided down to about here, with a red hair tie!"
Jeong So-hui pointed a finger at about her shoulder.
At that, Seon U-yun's face turned grave.
"Did that girl look very ill?"
"Terribly! Her breathing was all wheezy and she was feverish, and all she had was a wet cloth laid on her forehead, so I was worried!"
"These mad bastards......."
Seon U-yun snarled under his breath.
Tang Yu-hyeon understood.
What he had wanted to confirm, even at the cost of prolonging the lives of men who deserved killing on the spot, was his sister's safety.
The safety the Moon-Crossing Pavilion had promised him while wringing him dry.
"They said they were looking after her.......!"
Seon U-yun hung his head and balled up his own clothes in his fist.
He kept his voice as low as he could, but he could not hide the fury leaking out between his teeth.
Having confirmed that his sister's safety had not been kept, Seon U-yun's rage turned wholly upon the Moon-Crossing Pavilion.
'So now we look at the same enemy.'
Tang Yu-hyeon laid a hand on Seon U-yun's shoulder.
"It seems you and I need to have a proper 'talk.'"
He would have liked to offer an easy smile, but the fury kept the corners of his mouth from rising well.
"What we have had until now was neither talk nor anything else, was it?"
No answer came back.
But no answer had been needed to begin with.
"Those things over there. Can you kill them?"
"Of course."
Tang Yu-hyeon hid Jeong So-hui behind him and spoke gently.
"Child. Close your eyes and cover your ears a while. What follows is not a fine sight for young ones."