Tang Yu-hyeon took Seon U-yun to the Green Bamboo Inn.
Others did not know it, but it was an inn operated by the Cloud Dragon Trading Company, which made it the safest place for a private talk.
"Welcome, sir!"
"Show us somewhere quiet."
"And how shall I bring the food out?"
"Something filling."
"Leave it to me!"
Even as the practiced serving lad showed them to their seats and laid out food and liquor, Seon U-yun looked around with a stunned expression.
CLACK.
Only when the sound of the door closing came did Seon U-yun look Tang Yu-hyeon in the face.
"Eat slowly and let us talk."
Ordinarily Seon U-yun would long since have tipped a cup with him, but he did not move even as Tang Yu-hyeon tilted the bottle.
Whether he thought his true colors were already exposed, or was confused at being unable to read Tang Yu-hyeon's intent, the line between his brows cut deep.
"There is no need to make it complicated."
Only after Tang Yu-hyeon had filled his cup did Seon U-yun look at him properly.
"It is simply that the one I cannot forgive and the one you wish to take revenge on are the same."
"Why can't you forgive her? Because she touched the Tang Clan?"
One and all, they hide and play ignorant about his identity, and then the moment it is out, the Tang Clan is the first thing they bring up.
"Heh. Not a wrong answer. Though not the right one either."
Tang Yu-hyeon offered an amiable smile.
"Running wild in Sichuan is a thing I could remove after they crossed the line, and it would not be too late."
Then the smile vanished, leaving only a sharp gaze.
"But I greatly dislike those who see people as numbers."
Clearing away vermin that dared touch the Tang Clan was no hard thing.
Even without the standing it once had, wiping out one minor sect within Sichuan was nothing at all if he used the Cloud Dragon Trading Company's intelligence.
Which was surely why, even holding enough information on the Moon-Crossing Pavilion to fill a bamboo scroll, he had made no move until now.
But seeing people as numbers and handling them like goods was another matter.
That was the outrage of one who had forgotten the Way.
There was no need to extend mercy even to things that had forgotten the least duty owed by a human being.
"So I intend to destroy them."
Seon U-yun looked quietly into Tang Yu-hyeon's eyes.
It was an attempt to judge the truth by the eyes, said to be the most honest part of the human body.
".......Can you make them vanish without a trace?"
"If you help me."
At the unwavering voice, Seon U-yun hesitated a moment, then nodded.
"Understood. I'll tell you everything."
Seon U-yun unspooled the story he had carried inside, very slowly, in detail.
Tang Yu-hyeon combined his account with the information he had received from the Tang Clan and understood the situation.
'Just as I thought.'
His guess had not been wrong.
Gwak Hwa-ran, who had grown the Moon-Crossing Pavilion with her own force and her skill in handling people, wanted to build an unorthodox sect of her own.
She used her swollen influence to tie herself to other unorthodox sects and, with a sharp eye, picked out lesser talents, took their families hostage, worked them as she pleased, and gradually widened her power.
Seon U-yun was one of those victims.
But even for Gwak Hwa-ran, who had seized Sichuan's underworld and feared nothing, a wall had come.
Martial arts.
With the few martial arts manuals she had learned before storming out of the Cloud Forest Sect, a lay branch of Diancang, and the fire arts she had picked up in back alleys, she could not rise past the beyond-peak realm or past Sichuan's underworld.
Then she heard that the Tang Clan held the inner core of a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp, and set about leading Tang Yu-hyeon slowly into a trap.
'Which failed in the end, because I came into this body.'
Tang Yu-hyeon tapped his cup.
To learn the workings inside the Moon-Crossing Pavilion, he needed Seon U-yun's help.
But Seon U-yun had already fallen out of Gwak Hwa-ran's favor once, and having turned the Azure Flower Pavilion over today, she might try to kill him.
'I did not gain a helper only to let him die.'
The finger drumming on the cup stopped.
"It must have been hard to bring out. Thank you for telling me."
At that Seon U-yun's eyes welled and he rolled his lip in between his teeth.
To come apart this much simply from letting out the story he had held inside.
Young was still young.
"I have a way to destroy the Moon-Crossing Pavilion. Will you do it with me?"
"Of course! If I can destroy the Moon-Crossing Pavilion, I would give even my soul!"
'I do not need the soul.......'
Tang Yu-hyeon snorted a laugh and tilted the bottle.
This time Seon U-yun lifted his cup with both hands and held it out.
GLUG-GLUG—
The sound of the cup filling was clear.
Without another word, both of them knew.
That drinking this liquor made them, for a time at least, partners who would help one another and repay betrayal with death.
Seon U-yun tossed the drink back the moment the cup was full.
"Khhhh!"
Throat scraped by the bitterness of the liquor, Seon U-yun immediately filled Tang Yu-hyeon's cup.
Tang Yu-hyeon emptied it quietly but quickly and set it down.
Seon U-yun swallowed hard from the tension.
He felt he had reached a place from which there was no going back.
"Let me explain a few plans simply. First, go back to the Moon-Crossing Pavilion."
"What?"
Seon U-yun crumpled his brow.
But Tang Yu-hyeon's expression was calm and unmoving.
"You must save your sister, must you not?"
Tang Yu-hyeon's plan did not stop at simply destroying the Moon-Crossing Pavilion.
He was thinking of the return of those the Moon-Crossing Pavilion had plundered to their former lives, and of the lives they would live afterward.
If Seon U-yun did not go back, his sister was as good as dead.
Whether to pressure Seon U-yun or to threaten those who might look at him and try to escape the Moon-Crossing Pavilion, she would plainly lose her life by some cruel method.
"Uh......."
Not having expected him to think that far ahead, Seon U-yun let his mouth fall open blankly.
"And in fourteen days I will bring the Tang Clan's forces and strike the Moon-Crossing Pavilion. So on that day, keep yourself well hidden."
It was a warning that if he did not hide, he would be taken for one of them and killed.
When Seon U-yun shrank back in sudden fear, Tang Yu-hyeon looked him straight in both eyes and said,
"Trust me. I will not let you regret it."
How could a man he had known for so short a time be trusted more than one he had known for near ten years?
Thinking that he had finally gone mad, Seon U-yun nonetheless nodded deeply.
The eyes that had wavered with anxiety were steady now.
"I'll trust you."
***
Seon U-yun set his heart firmly and left the inn.
The moment he stepped into a dark alley to return to the Moon-Crossing Pavilion,
FWUMP!
his sight was cut off all at once.
On top of that, someone covered his mouth and bound his body with rope.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
He thrashed, but there must have been sleep poison on the hand over his mouth, for the strength drained out of him.
His slowly fading consciousness returned only after cold water was dumped over him.
SPLASH!
"Puh! Puh!"
Seon U-yun forced up eyelids that would not open well because of the water.
Ornate red clothing showed faintly.
'The Moon Orchid Enchantress!'
The instant he judged where he had been taken and who stood before him, Seon U-yun slammed his head hard against the floor.
"Pavilion Mistress! Please hear me out for just a moment!"
"And why should I?"
Before he could crawl on newly freed arms as far as her feet, kicks came flying from all around him.
"The Azure Flower Pavilion is a tavern I entrusted to my own younger brother with my own hands. Blood or no blood, his will was the same as mine; he was a child who would have done great things."
Sworn siblings or not, she had arranged for him to have lower martial attainment than her own, and the show of affection was loathsome.
"And you got such a child killed over some stupid good-for-nothing? Even so, is there any need for me to hear you out?"
"There was, urk! There were circumstances that left me no choice!"
When Gwak Hwa-ran raised her hand slightly, the martial artists surrounding Seon U-yun stepped back as one.
Seon U-yun clutched at where he had been struck and barely managed to raise his upper body.
"It seems the good-for-nothing heard that there were strange men in the Azure Flower Pavilion. The Master of the Azure Flower Pavilion tried to establish the truth, but he would not listen; he decided the Azure Flower Pavilion was a den of evil and killed them all. I swear I did not know he would act so simply!"
Gwak Hwa-ran adjusted her hair ornament and watched Seon U-yun crawl to her feet and lie flat.
When she lifted his chin with the tip of her foot, the eyes filled with terror showed well.
However far beneath her he stood, Seon U-yun had never once submitted this far, never letting go of that boyish pride of his, and it pleased her considerably.
"I understand. Even one as capable as you may make mistakes. I do not doubt your loyalty."
Gwak Hwa-ran extended her leg, and a shoe embroidered with flowers flew off and struck Seon U-yun's head.
THWOK!
Perhaps from the aftereffects of the sleep poison, his head rang.
Seon U-yun held his head and looked up at Gwak Hwa-ran.
Gwak Hwa-ran smiled smoothly and tipped her chin.
"What are you doing sitting there? I have shown you trust, so prove yourself."
In other words, fetch it and put it on her.
So that he would know his place.
It was a notion very much like her.
Seon U-yun clenched his teeth, picked up the shoe, and fitted it to her foot.
His hands shook with humiliation, but showing it would only give Gwak Hwa-ran her amusement, so he held it back desperately.
".......How is it?"
"Hmm. It pleases me."
Gwak Hwa-ran smiled with satisfaction and leaned back into her chair.
"A-yun. There must be more news you have to give, to make me happy?"
"Of course. The Tang Clan means to clean up the Sichuan region, and they said the Moon-Crossing Pavilion is to be struck in fourteen days."
"This is certain information?"
"He boasted of it proudly, so it is certain."
"Very well."
Her narrowed eyes swept over Seon U-yun.
It was good that he had brought word of the Tang Clan striking the Moon-Crossing Pavilion.
But what use would a boy who had never learned martial arts and was poor even as bait be in a war with the Tang Clan?
Her reckoning done, Gwak Hwa-ran crooked a finger and called a subordinate.
"He must miss his sister. Take him to her."
"Th-thank you!"
"Thanks for what? The two of you will die side by side, hand in hand."
"Pardon.......?"
"Bind his hands and feet and lock him up."
"Yes!"
"Wait, Pavilion Mistress! This is not what was promised!"
Seon U-yun thrashed to the last even as his hands and feet were bound behind him.
"You mean my promise to protect your younger sister? That was a story for while you were useful. If you would blame something, blame your own incompetence."
"That is.......!"
"Clear him away, quickly!"
"Wait! Pavilion Mistr—"
Seon U-yun tried urgently to call her back, but Gwak Hwa-ran's subordinate forced sleep poison into him and the sentence was never finished.
It must have been stronger than what he had taken on the way in; drowsiness rushed over him in an instant.
***
Seon U-yun woke on the night of the following day.
"Ngh......."
"Orabeoni, are you awake.......?"
"Hui!"
The moment he heard Seon U-hui's voice, Seon U-yun squirmed and worked his body.
He wanted to get to her side quickly and check on her, but with his hands and feet bound it was not easy to move.
"How are you feeling? Are you all right?"
"Mm-hm. I'm all right......."
Contrary to her words, she burned with fever and her voice was cracked.
Seeing how deeply the illness had set in, Seon U-yun shook with the sense of betrayal.
He had known the promise would not be kept, but he had not known she had been left to rot like this.
Now he understood what it meant to weep tears of blood in rage.
"Hui. Do not worry. Your Orabeoni will protect you. I met a noble person recently, and he said he would come to save us."
"Really.......? That's a relief."
Just as he smiled back to set Seon U-hui at ease, an unpleasant smell stung his nose.
'The smell of burning?!'
Before he could find the source of the smell, shouting came from outside.
"A raid!"
"Where are these bastards from?"
"How should I know? Run first if you want to live!"
"What about these ones?"
"Have you forgotten? Burn them to death!"
'Damn it!'
Seon U-yun stared at the light beyond the window and chewed his lip.
The huts here were all timber, and the ropes were coated in oil.
If they set fire to it now, they would die before anything could be done.
Seon U-yun thrashed to work the rope loose.
He did not stop even as his wrists chafed red.
'Please! Please! Please.......!'
He had to save his sister.
He did not want to die.
But the rope, tied fast, would not come loose as easily as he wished.
"Please, hurry.......!"
CRASH!
With a great noise, the hut's door swung open.
A man the size of a house stood blocking the doorway.
With the light at his back his face could not be seen well, but it was not hard to guess that he was the new keeper of this place.
"Found you."
The unfamiliar man spoke with a familiar voice.
Then the man's body tipped and pitched forward, revealing the one who had stood behind him.
"Really. You were in a hard place to find."
It was Tang Yu-hyeon.
"You showed me your trust, so I came to save you as promised."
He stepped over the man, came inside, and cut the ropes binding Seon U-yun apart with ease.
"Come out. We have a debt to repay."