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The pungent, cloying perfume stung the nose.
Shouts from heavily drunk patrons rang out.
The peculiar heat of alcohol and quickened breaths.
Lights and shadows muddled the screens in a chaotic flutter.
Un Ji-kang pushed through those unpleasant sensations and climbed the stairs.
Each floor thinned the noise, but the atmosphere grew heavier.
On the top floor of the tavern—the one reached only by paying a large sum—clear speech was rarer than slurred, collapsing syllables.
Un Ji-kang’s steps stopped before the largest end chamber on the top floor.
“Oh my, even the young master!”
Coquettish voices drifted from beyond the paper screens.
Thud!
An attendant guarding the closed room bowed to him.
Un Ji-kang nodded toward the interior.
The attendant nodded.
Un Ji-kang tapped his shoulder and whispered into his ear.
“Kill anyone who runs out of the room.”
“Yes.”
Screeech!
He slid the paper door open and was hit by a wave of lustful stench—a mix of heavy perfume, liquor, and sweat.
Bukgung Bi-beom lay buried in it.
Having been busy with affairs and unable to check on things for days, he had immediately ended up in a place like this.
Un Ji-kang felt multiple pairs of eyes on him and spoke.
“Everyone out.”
The women stared in a dazed, half-asleep haze, none grasping his words.
He snatched a liquor bottle from the floor and hurled it at the wall.
Smash!
The bottle struck the wall, shattering into powdery fragments.
A force no ordinary inner energy could mimic.
Liquor slapped across the floor with a resonant sound.
“Out.”
Un Ji-kang repeated.
Only then did the courtesans stir and rise. Then—
“Don’t leave.”
Bukgung Bi-beom, his outer robe half undone, sprawled on the floor and spoke.
He slurred in a drowsy tone.
“The entertainment isn’t even over—where do you think you’re going? Can’t you have more fun with me!”
Shouting that, he lunged at the woman beside him.
The woman screamed with delighted glee.
No matter which warrior arrived, she would be safe.
The man pressing into her arms would protect her.
After all, he was the Bukgung Family’s young master—she believed that firmly.
But today was an unlucky day for her.
Bukgung Bi-beom felt her body go limp.
A pinprick of red appeared on her brow.
Her eyes clouded, and her whole body sagged.
She died before she even realized.
“Everyone out.”
Un Ji-kang warned for the third time.
This time even Bukgung Bi-beom’s shouting had no effect.
The courtesans muffled their voices and hastily bolted from the chamber.
Scree, bang!
Un Ji-kang snapped the door shut, on edge.
Now only Un Ji-kang, Bukgung Bi-beom, and the corpse of a woman remained in the room.
“Commander Un, are you mad?”
Bukgung Bi-beom said sharply.
But today his anger paled beside Un Ji-kang’s.
“Why didn’t you go?”
“What?”
“Why didn’t you follow my orders?”
“What are you talking about?”
Un Ji-kang crouched to meet Bukgung Bi-beom at eye level.
The red lantern backlit Un Ji-kang’s face, lending it an odd cast.
Un Ji-kang enunciated each word slowly and asked again.
“Why did you not go to Namsa Lake?”
“You mean that?”
Pfh—Bukgung Bi-beom snorted hotly.
He composed himself and spoke.
“I was too bothered to go. Why?”
……
Un Ji-kang rose.
“Too bothered. So you didn’t go because you were too bothered.”
His expression and tone were utterly emotionless.
Bukgung Bi-beom noticed something odd.
Now that he thought about it, there wasn’t a single sound from the women who had fled.
As if they had all dropped dead the moment they stepped past that door.
“Two Wang family attendants are dead, and our expensive hireling, Gu Ma-cheon, is dead.”
“Quite a number have died. What happened?”
“They died at Namsa Lake.”
“The place you told me to go this time? You sent me somewhere that dangerous?”
“Do you know who killed them?”
“Who was it?”
“Flying Swallow Manor’s Yeon Mujin.”
……
Bukgung Bi-beom’s chest prickled.
Flying Swallow Manor, Yeon Mujin.
They were names that had lately unsettled him.
“Controlling Namsa Lake could bring in thousands of gold coins a year. It’s black-market money that could be funneled straight into Solitary Cloud Manor’s coffers.”
“Hmph.”
Bukgung Bi-beom staggered and tried to rise.
“A paltry few thousand coins.”
He chose to sneer at Un Ji-kang’s words instead of apologizing.
Of course, his pride mattered more than a few thousand coins.
“Yes. That paltry few thousand coins.”
Un Ji-kang said that. The next moment—
Whoosh!
When he came to his senses, Bukgung Bi-beom found his throat suddenly gripped by Un Ji-kang’s hand.
“…Kek!”
“That paltry few thousand coins is nothing compared to your pride—the cheap pride you call the Bukgung Family’s honor. But listen: Bukgung Yoon went to Namsa Lake. The daughter you mocked went, with escorts, and overturned our entire plan. Depending on her silver tongue, the rights to Namsa Lake will transfer to Flying Swallow Manor. How large a loss do you think this is? A few thousand? Tens of thousands? If it goes into the enemy’s pocket, isn’t it hundreds of thousands?”
Un Ji-kang threw Bukgung Bi-beom against the wall.
Bukgung Bi-beom choked and coughed from pain and spasm.
“If you’d simply gone, things would be different. You could have shown your face, expressed regret as the Bukgung Family’s young master, taken responsibility. If you’d said those two sentences, none of this would have happened. Wasn’t that my order? You say you were ‘too bothered’—that’s why you didn’t go?”
Sss—
As Bukgung Bi-beom coughed, he heard a blade whisper past his ear.
When he looked up, Un Ji-kang’s fingernail grazed his earlobe.
Un Ji-kang pressed his nail to Bukgung Bi-beom’s jaw; he slowly tilted his head up to avoid being pierced.
“Do you mock the elder’s words? Was your desire to become Family Lord all a lie? The daughter you scorn, Bukgung Yoon, is now holding a knife to our throats. And you—unaware of that—have the leisure to play with courtesans?”
Bukgung Bi-beom struggled violently.
“Listen carefully. You stupid, lazy, thoughtless, ambitionless, uninspired maggot-pig—you should simply obey the elder’s orders. Flying Swallow Manor is causing trouble for us. It’s stirring up quite the annoyance. If you don’t want even a fingernail-sized piece of your holdings taken, it’s time to crush them. If you defy the elder’s orders even one more time, I’ll bore holes from under your jaw to the top of your skull. Understand?”
This time Bukgung Bi-beom nodded vigorously.
Un Ji-kang withdrew his nail. Unwilling to touch him further, he struck the wall with his fist.
Thud!
His handprint left a deep dent in the wall.
Since getting involved with Flying Swallow Manor—no, Yeon Mujin—everything had begun to go awry.
At first he thought coincidence, but it wasn’t.
There were the deaths of Flying Swallow Manor’s informants, the looted Wang trading family, and now the incident at Namsa Lake.
He believed the real problem was not Bukgung Yoon—she did not possess such capability.
The real problem was the one pulling the strings behind Bukgung Yoon.
It was Yeon Mujin.
He wanted to tear him apart.
“Sixth Young Master.”
Bukgung Bi-beom, coughing and choking, looked at Un Ji-kang with tears and snot streaming down.
“Thanks to the Sixth Young Master, this matter has been ruined. But there is one hope: that Bukgung Yoon lacks the capacity to take over the Southern Four Alliance. Unless you want to become an idiot who watches his bowl stolen right before his eyes.”
The youngest daughter, long kept penned by Flying Swallow Manor, was no sleeping dragon.
Yeon Mujin had schemes and force, but still lacked what was needed to play the grand game.
Un Ji-kang still thought so.
There was still time to make up for mistakes; Solitary Cloud Manor could still take flight.
But there were things that had to be done for that to happen.
“Sixth Young Master. Send envoys to the Jegal clan and the Hwangbo clan. Propose holding a grand banquet at Solitary Cloud Manor.”
Now was the time to strengthen their internal foundation rather than strike outward.
That was Un Ji-kang’s assessment.
After finishing matters at Namsa Lake, Bukgung Yoon and her party traveled along the main route toward Taiyuan.
Bukgung Yoon rode in a carriage while the External Protection Troops guarding her rode horseback.
However.
“Master Yeon, why are you riding here?”
Bukgung Yoon asked Yeon Mujin, who sat opposite her.
He propped his head with one arm and sat in a relaxed, half-reclining posture.
“I’m a patient here—a patient.”
“Wasn’t your injury to your arm?”
“When you ride, you jolt about; both arm and leg ache.”
“For that, you seem quite comfortable.”
“Since I’m resting anyway, I should rest fully to heal faster.”
……
A white cloth was wrapped around Yeon Mujin’s left arm.
It was the mark of wounds received while protecting Mo Cheol-jung.
Bukgung Yoon watched the yawning Yeon Mujin and spoke.
“This time you were too reckless.”
“It couldn’t be helped—we had to save the leader of the Dispersing Lotus Union.”
“Captain Yeon, do you have multiple lives? Why do you always resolve things so dangerously?”
“When you originally had nothing at all, sometimes you have to patch things with your body.”
……
“I’ve paid my dues with my body enough, so when we return I’ll rest well. I’ll lie on the floor for about a fortnight and pick at ginger candy, so don’t worry.”
“That’s not allowed. You know I won’t send your monthly stipend if you don’t work.”
“This is exploitation.”
At times he seemed serious; at others he was utterly casual.
It was the first time Bukgung Yoon had felt so at ease talking with someone.
“I’ll buy you lots of ginger candy, so work. It’s convenient to snack on while working.”
“Oh? Have you tried that?”
At Yeon Mujin’s question, Bukgung Yoon’s face flushed instantly.
“At our manor, only Hye-ran and I eat it.”
“Hye-ran clung to it so much…”
“Surely you didn’t take the child’s share to eat?”
Bukgung Yoon narrowed her eyes and glared.
Her face, burning red like a persimmon, was rather endearing.
“Captain Yeon, I didn’t steal it.”
“Then?”
“We shared it.”
“I bought that with my money, you know.”
“Captain Yeon’s monthly stipend is given by me, isn’t it?”
“If you look at it that way, Flying Swallow Manor’s profits belong to the Bukgung Family Lord. Then you stole the Family Lord’s share.”
“Captain Yeon.”
“Yes.”
“Be quiet.”
Yeon Mujin stared at Bukgung Yoon for a moment, then asked.
“Manor Lord.”
“Yes?”
“Have you tried that before?”
“…No, I haven’t.”
“Huh…”
Now that he thought about it, Yeon Mujin had never seen Bukgung Yoon eat snacks other than fruit.
“Have you ever tried candied fruit skewers?”
“I know what that is.”
“But have you actually eaten one?”
……
Bukgung Yoon clammed up.
“Then how about fried cakes? Twisted fried dough? Baked cakes? Sugary confections?”
Bukgung Yoon suddenly stared out the window, pretending to be occupied.
Yeon Mujin said, “She hasn’t tried any of these.”
“You’ve wasted your life.”
“To say life’s been wasted just from not trying those petty snacks?”
“No.”
Yeon Mujin said seriously.
“This is a very important matter.”
Whatever made him call it important, Yeon Mujin wore a truly serious expression.
He looked more solemn now than when dealing with the Namsa Lake affair.
“Manor Lord. Nearby there is a place called Unhwa County.”
“I see.”
“Unhwa County, with its rivers and hills, has long been rich in local goods. It’s not too bustling nor too remote—it’s the kind of place travelers crossing provinces might spend a night.”
“So?”
“Hear me out. There’s something famous in Unhwa: the Unhwa market, held every five days. On market days Unhwa fills with people and offers a fair amount of food and sights.”
“Yes.”
“And that market day is today.”
“No.”
Bukgung Yoon cut him off.
Yeon Mujin paid no heed and continued to respond to her words.
“Just rest one more day and go.”
“No.”
“What’s the point of returning early? You’ll simply be stuck cooped in the manor, won’t you? Since we’re out, why not eat something delicious and watch people a bit before returning?”
“There’s no time for that.”
There were mountains of tasks waiting back home.
“We must review supplies and funds to send to Namsa Lake, assess the scale of the damage, check what has happened within the family in my absence, and also…”
“Manor Lord.”
Yeon Mujin interrupted Bukgung Yoon.
“If the manor would fall simply because you were gone another day, then it would have been better to have perished already.”
……
“And you said you haven’t tried sugar glazed fruits?”
“What does that have to do with anything…”
“Hey, you lot!”
Yeon Mujin was being relentless.
He threw open the carriage door and shouted.
“Turn the horses around! We’re spending the night in the village!”
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