“...”
“...”
“Younger Brother.”
“Yes, Brother Gu?”
“I think I need a little time to prepare myself.”
“You have to strike while the iron is hot if you still want to call yourself a man. Keep hesitating like this and something precious between your legs might just fall off.”
“...”
Normally, even with death staring him in the face, Gu Ak was confident he would rage and fight back rather than cower in fear.
Yet right now, he was fidgeting like a puppy desperate to relieve itself.
Not that anyone could blame him.
He was on his way to do something he had never once imagined doing in his entire life.
I’m supposed to live as a man of the righteous path? What the hell...
There was only one difference between black and white.
Whether one placed personal desire above propriety and righteousness.
On the larger scale, it meant exploiting the weak because greed had blinded you.
On the smaller scale, it could mean swallowing your temper instead of exploding simply because something pissed you off.
Gu Ak might be able to manage the former.
He had very little confidence about the latter.
“By the way, Younger Brother. You did tell Clan Head Baek... your father about this beforehand, didn’t you?”
“...”
At Yanghwi’s silence, Gu Ak felt a chill so deep it nearly crawled through his bones.
This little bastard couldn’t possibly...
Instinct had an unfortunate tendency to be most accurate when it predicted disaster.
And when they finally arrived at Baek Family Manor—
Gu Ak’s premonition became reality.
“Yanghwi, what do you mean? Blood Axe wishes to become a retainer of our family?”
Yanghwi answered energetically, paying absolutely no attention to Gu Ak’s feelings.
“Yes, Father!”
“...Is that truly so, Blood Axe?”
“...”
Gu Ak stared silently at Yanghwi.
Then he sent him a voice transmission.
—Younger Brotherrrrr!
—This isn’t what you told meeeee!
Yanghwi responded just as energetically as before.
“I said I’d bring you into our family! I never said I’d gotten anyone else’s approval beforehand!”
Gu Ak desperately restrained the urge to smack that cheerful little head from behind.
Meanwhile, Baek Muryang let out a sigh.
“It seems true, at least, that you wish to join our family, Blood Axe. Why have you made such a decision?”
“...”
The silence stretched.
So did Gu Ak’s struggle with himself.
At last, he spoke.
“I’ll be honest, Peerless in Chivalry. No... Clan Head.”
Gu Ak lifted his head.
His eyes were filled with firm resolve.
“I was born at the bottom of the Black Path and have lived by the blade my entire life. Yet even a man like me eventually found something precious enough to cast everything else aside for.”
Then he happened to notice Rangrang watching them from behind one of the pavilion’s pillars, half her body hidden from sight.
“Rangrang is my lover. She is a woman for whom I can abandon everything I’ve built until now. So...”
Would placing himself under Baek Family Manor truly allow him to escape all the debts, grudges, and murderous intent he had accumulated?
Baek Family Manor was, after all, merely a small martial family whose Clan Head had only reached the second-rate level.
And yet—
Gu Ak’s gaze settled on one boy.
Thud!
He dropped to his knees.
“Clan Head. I ask that you accept this Gu as a retainer of the Baek Family.”
“...”
Baek Muryang remained silent for a long while.
He stared at the bowed head of the kneeling Gu Ak, then turned toward Yanghwi.
Finally, he looked up at the sky.
“Perhaps this too is fate. Gu Ak, I accept you as a member of our family.”
“I shall serve you with the utmost devotion, Clan Head.”
“No. There is no need to toil like a dog or horse for me. I know your capabilities, and I will treat you with the respect they deserve. However...”
Baek Muryang’s expression hardened as his voice became firm.
“The foremost value upheld by the rules of our family is chivalry. Blood Axe Gu Ak, you must wash away the stain of that epithet. Therefore, as your Clan Head, I give you an order. Perform one act of chivalry every day until you earn the epithet One Chivalrous Deed a Day.”
For an instant, bewilderment spread across Gu Ak’s face.
Perform acts of chivalry?
Every single day?
Gu Ak had spent his entire life believing that chivalry was merely fancy wrapping used by stuffy fools.
Yet he immediately lowered himself onto one knee and offered a formal fist-and-palm salute.
“At your command! I shall obey the Clan Head!”
Baek Muryang personally took Gu Ak by the hands and helped him to his feet.
“I sincerely welcome you. Gu Ak, I grant you White Wing Pavilion among our detached residences. From now on, you shall be known as the Master of White Wing Pavilion.”
“I am endlessly grateful for your generosity, Clan Head.”
Yanghwi watched the scene with a satisfied expression.
After weighing every possibility, he had decided there was more to gain than lose by dragging Gu Ak into the family and had simply gone for it.
Apparently, things had wrapped up rather nicely.
While every retainer’s attention remained fixed on Gu Ak, Yanghwi quietly slipped out of the manor.
Let’s see. He should be watching from somewhere...
Yanghwi glanced around until he spotted Yeo Unjeok standing alone atop the high pavilion where they had first met.
He launched himself upward.
“Old sir.”
“You’ve come.”
“You know, you could come inside and watch from up close.”
The grand disturbance Yanghwi and Yeo Unjeok had stirred up had destroyed the Blue Snake Gang, cut the Red Bridge Gang in half, wiped out more than half of Agan County’s Black Path fighters, and, finally, brought tremendous profit to the Baek Family.
In other words, everything was over.
There was no longer any reason they could not bring Yeo Unjeok into the Baek Family.
Yanghwi looked at the greatest prize on the entire board.
“Don’t you want to meet your daughter? If you wish, I can escort you inside myself.”
“...No. Not yet.”
Yeo Unjeok took a step back.
Yanghwi asked,
“There’s no need to be afraid. Sister Rang will welcome you, and having you in her life will be a blessing to her.”
Yeo Unjeok’s gaze, which had remained fixed on Baek Family Manor, finally shifted.
Then he let out a breath of admiration.
“Hah. Young Master, you truly are nothing like a child your age. You see straight through the heart of a weathered old man like me as though it were nothing.”
“I hear that often.”
Yanghwi understood how Yeo Unjeok felt.
The man surely wanted to run to his daughter right this instant, speak to her, and hold her hand.
But sometimes, the more precious someone was to you, the harder it became to approach them.
And on top of that, the old man is an enemy of the martial world.
The instant his identity became known, not only Yeo Unjeok himself but Rangrang would be dragged into danger as well.
Still, it was not as though he had committed atrocities like some bastard of the unorthodox path or lunatic of the demonic path, and he had managed to remain hidden all these years.
It probably would not become a serious problem.
Yanghwi studied him for a moment, then spoke.
“Old sir. Why don’t you become a guest retainer of our family?”
“Hmm? You know what I am. I’m an enemy of the martial world.”
“Then come under a new identity and claim to be Sister Rang’s father. You can manage that, can’t you?”
“At the very least, you know my true identity.”
A secret that had already been discovered could cease being a secret at any moment.
That was no different from placing one’s weakness in another person’s hands.
“That stopped mattering the moment Sister Rang and Brother Gu became members of our family, didn’t it?”
“...I suppose you’re right.”
“I learned something after chatting with Sister Rang whenever I had the chance. She’s a very lonely person. She needs family, old sir.”
Accepting Yeo Unjeok into the family carried risks on an entirely different level from taking in Gu Ak.
Even so, Yanghwi had to bring him in despite that burden.
Yeo Unjeok was the key that would allow the Baek Family to grow even faster.
“When you come to our family, use the alias Yeo Hyeok. Sister Rang will live as Yeo Arang from now on, but you must live as Yeo Hyeok. As long as you keep that one condition, we will accept you as a guest retainer.”
Having finished, Yanghwi could see the conflict rising within Yeo Unjeok.
“A peaceful life with your daughter. You want that, don’t you?”
“...I do. Desperately. Desperately enough to give up everything I have for it. Which is why I must ask—what do you want in return, Young Master?”
“It’s simple. Forge two books for me.”
Yeo Unjeok’s eyes widened.
“Young Master. You have some idea of my martial prowess, do you not?”
“Roughly.”
Through instinct, inference, and circumstance, Yanghwi had already arrived at a fairly accurate estimate.
He had no idea how Yeo Unjeok, once known as Turning a Deer into a Horse, had acquired such martial prowess in the first place.
“And you’re saying that making two books is enough?”
“Yes.”
“...”
For the first time, a trace of peace entered Yeo Unjeok’s worn, weary eyes.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t even thanked you.”
“I don’t recall doing anything worth thanking me for.”
“You saved my daughter before the poison could kill her. You lent your schemes to a man branded an enemy of the martial world. In the end, you even created a place where my daughter could live happily with the man she loves. And now you extend the same hand even to a sinner like me.”
Hmm.
Now that Yanghwi heard it laid out like that, he supposed he really had done quite a few things worth being thanked for.
But none of it had been done for gratitude.
Yanghwi had merely pursued the values he had learned since his previous life, values that had now become principles by which he lived.
With a little personal ambition for the revival of his family mixed in on the side.
“Well, if an elder insists on expressing his gratitude, I suppose I have no choice but to accept it. Then let me ask for something as a token of that gratitude. Make those two books for me. There is only one condition.”
“Tell me.”
“You must make both books look like ancient texts roughly two hundred years old. But you must do so blindfolded, without seeing a single word of their contents.”
“...Hmm.”
Yeo Unjeok immediately understood what Yanghwi wanted.
“Martial arts.”
Yanghwi nodded readily, the corner of his lips lifting.
“After all, I possess one of your weaknesses now. So I thought I should show you one of mine in return.”
After decades of experience in the martial world, Yeo Unjeok had no difficulty understanding what Yanghwi meant.
“I swear on my daughter that I will never look at the contents of those books.”
“Thank you. Then when will you visit our family?”
“Before that, let us settle the accounts properly. Those two books are payment for everything you’ve already done for me. What do you want in exchange for accepting this old man as a guest retainer?”
Yeo Unjeok’s most important role was producing those two books.
Truthfully, Yanghwi did not expect much else from him.
After all, it would be absurd to live one’s entire life treating other people as tools to exploit.
“Hmm. If you insist on balancing the scales, then whenever I need it, lend me your strength from time to time.”
“Will that truly be enough?”
“Isn’t that basically what a guest retainer does? Lounge around most of the time and occasionally step in when needed.”
Remarkably, that really was about the full extent of the obligations borne by guest retainers of the great clans.
“Ha ha ha. Hahahaha.”
Yeo Unjeok laughed, a complicated mixture of emotions in his voice.
Yanghwi reached into his clothes and took out two books.
One bore the title Record of the Heaven-Covering Sword.
The other, Heaven-Harmonizing Origin Art.
They were the manuals of the two divine arts he had written out in advance.
“If you do decide to come to our family, I’d like you to bring these with you after turning them into ancient books. Consider it an excuse for us to accept you as a guest retainer.”
Keeping his eyes shut, Yeo Unjeok asked,
“Set the limits for me. If I work on them, how much may I see? And what condition should I make them appear to be in?”
“You may look at the titles, so you can open your eyes. As for their condition... make them look fairly well preserved.”
Yeo Unjeok accepted the books and read their titles.
Record of the Heaven-Covering Sword. And Heaven-Harmonizing Origin Art.
If the boy wanted them made to resemble ancient texts, then he clearly intended to pass them on to Baek Family Manor and needed both an excuse and a plausible origin for them.
Had the boy created them himself?
Or did he have a separate master from whom he had inherited a true legacy?
Yeo Unjeok did not know which.
But—
He discovered my weakness. Then he granted me an even greater favor. And now he has willingly handed me one of his own weaknesses.
Judging by the decades of experience Yeo Unjeok had accumulated, the Young Master before him was someone he could trust.
More than that, he was a once-in-ages prodigy whose side could only become more valuable with time.
“Young Master.”
“Yes, old sir.”
Yeo Unjeok showed proper respect to the child of the family he would soon serve.
“I will carry out your request perfectly. Seven days from now, I shall visit Baek Family Manor.”
And so—
Yanghwi, and the Baek Family with him, gained Blood Axe Gu Ak and Yeo Unjeok, Turning a Deer into a Horse.