Let's Go Together

Now that the matter had been raised, Myo Su-jae seemed to want the date of departure nailed down outright.

“When would you be able to set out?”

“I shall settle my affairs here and leave within ten days.”

“Oh! That is well. In a fortnight there is our sect leader’s sixtieth-birthday feast¹, so if you time your coming to that, it will do nicely. Hahaha. Then I have business of my own and shall take my leave. I must meet the people we are to invite for the feast.”

Myo Su-jae paid their courtesies to Namgung Hak and to me and left the Namgung Clan in haste. Their step looked light, perhaps because the business was settled.

“It was my own blunder. I ought never to have let you meet the Snake God Sword. Ahh, Scholar Cheon. How came you to make such a promise…”

Namgung Hak reproached himself bitterly, which was the measure of how little he liked my leaving the Namgung Clan.

“It is the road to peace for the murim.”

“It is a dangerous business. If it is money you want, I shall give you money, and land besides. You would do far better not to go.”

“That is only a small part of it. I have heard it myself and I know — what a hellion Mak Ji-mong is, and what an enormous nuisance he is even among the unorthodox sects. If a man like that truly becomes the Hyeoncheon Sect’s next sect leader, he will be more than equal to making a war of power with the Namgung Clan. Even now Mak Ji-mong is the one arguing that they must widen their reach further. The Murim Alliance marks him a person to be watched as well, so I am well informed.”

What I said was true. There were people who feared the day Mak Ji-mong would come into his own.

“Ho ho ho. How is it that Scholar Cheon alone should shoulder the future of the murim?”

Namgung Hak gave a broad, hollow laugh, unable to keep back his admiration for my high spirit.

“When the future is plain to see, there is nothing so foolish as sitting still. If the element of danger is taken away beforehand, the whole people may live at ease and keep their lives — so there is nothing that cannot be done.”

“How am I to stop Scholar Cheon, whose will is to give up his whole self for the great cause.”

He could not break my stubbornness in the end. As I stepped out of the room I heard a low murmuring behind me.

“Ho ho ho… Scholar Cheon is a man who lives out ‘if I enter not hell, who then shall enter hell.’”

‘If I enter not hell, who then shall enter hell’ was a saying of the Buddha’s, and what it meant was this: ‘If I do not go down into hell, who will?’²

I came back to my quarters and looked for Yeo-seol, meaning to explain that I might be leaving the Namgung Clan.

“The young lady has been pleased to go out for a little.”

“Alone?”

“It would seem so.”

“Ahh.”

Nobody suspected Yeo-seol of being the Ice Sacred Body, so she was safe enough; still, I could not let her wander about as she pleased.

“She will most likely be playing with the Du-sik Gang on North Road. She never goes beyond that quarter, so please do not worry overmuch.”

Namgung Mu-baek’s quarters were quiet as well, so I asked Eun-bi.

“Where has the young master gone?”

“He went off to the Ice Palace annex at first light.”

So that was why he had been so hard to catch sight of lately.

I smiled. He had been carrying Jong So-bin in his heart, and now that she happened to be lodging in the house itself, he must be pleased beyond measure. Night and day he stayed at the annex, keeping company with the Ice Palace people.

If it goes well, there may be good news to come.

It would be no bad thing, I thought, if Jong So-bin and Namgung Mu-baek came to be a match. Quietly enough, the two of them suited each other well.

I walked North Road with the merchants greeting me as I went. Their goodwill had not worn off. I did them no harm, and I took no profit of any kind off them, which was reason enough.

“Have you not seen Du-sik?”

By the time I reached the noodle stall there was still no sign of him, so I put the question to one of the merchants.

“A while back I saw him taking the young lady off toward the end of North Road.”

So I went on toward the far end. Past that point the street turned into a run of taverns and courtesan houses, inns and eating houses. There was no sign of Du-sik even there, so I asked another merchant.

“Ah, I saw Du-sik going into the Cheonsangnak Tower with a little young lady.”

A sigh escaped me. The sound of music would have drifted out, and Yeo-seol would have pestered Du-sik until he took her in. She loved it so well that when I played the qin for her now and then she would listen the whole night through.

When I stepped into the Cheonsangnak Tower, Du-sik was there, and he came running and bent at the waist to me.

“Scholar. I. That is, well…”

He was fidgeting and did not know where to begin, so I spoke first.

“I know. Yeo-seol will have dragged you here.”

“…I am ashamed to say it, but yes. I did try not to come here.”

“Never mind. You’ve had a hard time of it, humoring Yeo-seol. So where is she?”

“Miss Cheong took the young lady off to the annex.”

I unfastened my purse and handed it to Du-sik.

“What is this?”

“You can’t come all this way and just leave again. Have some wine and listen to the music. There’s plenty in there, so eat well — good wine and good dishes with it.”

Du-sik opened the purse, saw it full of silver coins, and his eyes went wide.

“There is no need for this.”

“Never mind. I’ve been wanting to buy you a proper drink for once. Just take it that today is the day.”

His gang were so shabbily dressed that I thought they would get no service however much they paid, so I called for the tower’s chief steward.

“Oh-ho, and how do you do, Master Scholar Cheon?”

“You know me?”

“To trade on North Road without knowing the Master Scholar who is one of its Three Treasures — that would make no sense at all.”

The nickname made me cringe past all bearing, but at a moment like this it had its uses.

“These friends here are men of mine. I have given them silver enough, so see that they are well looked after.”

“Need you even say it? We shall attend them with all our hearts.”

“Thank you, Scholar.”

Du-sik and his gang bent at the waist. The people in the hall stared at street thugs bowing to a pretty-faced scholar as though they were watching something uncanny.

Just then one of the performing courtesans came over.

“Master Scholar Cheon, the young lady Yeo-seol is with Sister Cheong Yo.”

“Is that so?”

“She says she has something she would say to you as well.”

“Lead the way, then.”

It had been a long while since I had seen Cheong Yo myself, so I followed the courtesan out.

I was shown to an annex set well apart from the Cheonsangnak Tower. When I went into the room, Yeo-seol was messing about gleefully with a qin.

“Yeo-seol. Those qin are precious things. You mustn’t handle them carelessly.”

Performing courtesans bought costly qin so as to draw good music out of them, and they were not instruments to be handled carelessly.

“Huh? Brother? How did you get here?”

“You weren’t at home, so I came out looking for you.”

“Am I a baby? When it’s time I’ll go home on my own.”

The absurdity of it made me laugh in spite of myself.

“Brother, but this Sister plays the qin really well, you know?”

Yeo-seol pointed, and Cheong Yo rose and greeted me.

“It has been a long while, Master Scholar Cheon.”

“It has indeed. Yeo-seol has no memory, and no manners with it. I hope she has not been a trouble to you.”

“Not at all. I have had a merry time with the young lady Yeo-seol. I had no idea the young lady would love music so.”

Even when I was teaching her music, Yeo-seol tended to attend to it more closely than to anything else.

“The young lady came into our tower and walked straight into the room where this girl was playing, without a word of warning — it quite startled me.”

A girl who had been in the corner of the room greeted me.

“Master Scholar Cheon. How do you do. Do you remember this girl?”

“Of course. I remember. Are you not Miss Song-ran?”

There was no chance of my forgetting Song-ran, who could not see and yet had an unmatched gift for judging music.

“I was told you had something to say to me. What is it?”

“The truth is that today I received a request to play at the sixtieth-birthday feast of the Hyeoncheon Sect’s sect leader.”

So this was what Myo Su-jae had meant by being busy; there were this many people to be seen.

“You may or may not know it, but Mak Yeo-heun, the Hyeoncheon Sect’s sect leader, is the Unorthodox Supreme.”

“I know it. But they offer so enormous a fee for the playing that I could not refuse. They say they will pay enough that this girl could leave the Cheonsangnak Tower and live out her days alone and above it all.”

It stood to reason that to call the finest performing courtesan in Anhui to a dangerous place, they would have to pay a price of that order.

“And so?”

However it stood, the choice was Cheong Yo’s alone, and it was not for me to argue it this way or that.

“I have heard that Master Scholar Cheon too is going to the Hyeoncheon Sect on business of his own.”

I gave a wry smile.

This Snake God Sword has a loose mouth.

Cheong Yo went on.

“Might you consent to travel with me on the road to the Hyeoncheon Sect? Otherwise I must take a whole train of armed escorts along, and that would be far too much bother… Ah, and of course I shall pay a fee to match.”

She put it roundabout, but what she meant was that I should travel with her and act as her escort.

“What strength have I to offer? Cumbersome as they are, you will want armed escorts.”

“I shall hire female armed escorts, of course, but traveling with Master Scholar Cheon seems to me the surest thing of all.”

While I turned it over a moment, Yeo-seol cut in.

“That’s right. Sister, come with us. I’ll allow it.”

“Mm? Why would you be going?”

“What? So Brother was going to dump me at the Namgung Clan and go off alone? Fling me aside like that?”

“No, no. It isn’t dumping you, it’s leaving you safe at the Namgung Clan.”

“That’s Brother’s idea of it. To my mind, it’s dumping me.”

If I went to the Hyeoncheon Sect I had naturally assumed I would leave Yeo-seol behind; taking her along had never once entered my head.

Yeo-seol’s eyes sparkled, as though a good idea had come to her.

“Then let’s do it this way. I’ll go with this Sister and come back together with her.”

“What?”

“I want to see something of the gangho too. Being stuck in the Namgung Clan and nowhere else, I’m bored to death.”

And yet, come to think of it, taking Yeo-seol to the Hyeoncheon Sect was rather safer for her than leaving her alone at a Namgung Clan I was not in. The eyes of the Demonic Cult, the Blood Cult and the Ice Palace’s Elders’ Council would all be fixed on the Namgung Clan, where Jong So-bin was.

“Let’s think about that.”

The moment I had said it, Yeo-seol flung her arms round my neck.

“My Brother, just as I knew. The handsomest man in the world, and a good Brother who listens to his little sister besides.”

And at last she was rubbing her cheek hard against mine, while Cheong Yo watched with envy in her eyes.

“I have truly never seen a brother and sister on such good terms.”

“When the memory goes, even an enemy stops being an enemy.”

I looked Cheong Yo full in the face and put it to her.

“But it does not seem to me that Miss Cheong proposes so dangerous a venture purely for the money. Has something happened?”

Yeo-seol was clinging to me like a cat, and I prised her off to ask it. It seemed to me there was another reason for Cheong Yo’s wanting to leave the tower.

“So there is no escaping Master Scholar Cheon’s eye after all.”

When Cheong Yo could not readily bring it out, Song-ran spoke.

“The truth is that lately his Excellency the Regional Military Commissioner of Hefei has been pressing to take Sister Cheong Yo as a concubine. These days searches keep coming into our tower, and there have been a great many days we could not open for business.”

Cheong Yo let out a sigh once Song-ran had brought it out.

“So it seemed to me it would be better if I were away from Hefei for a while. I feel I am doing the other performing courtesans harm.”

I could not keep back a sigh of my own. Wherever one went, performing courtesans as accomplished as this found it hard to get clear of the hands of men in power. She was a beauty and a fine musician besides, and that roused the wish to own her.

Yeo-seol listened on, and then her eyes went darting this way and that, as though she could not work out where she was supposed to get angry. Plainly some bad business was passing back and forth, and she must have been able to follow very little of it.

“What’s a concubine?”

Song-ran answered.

“It means another wife, one who isn’t the principal wife.”

She must have grown close to Song-ran in the meantime; Yeo-seol talked with her like a friend.

“Really? Is his Excellency the Regional Military Commissioner high up?”

“Mm. He’s high up. You could think of him as the commander-in-chief of all the soldiers in this province of Anhui.”

“However high he is, isn’t he a bastard? Who does he think he is, carrying this Sister off?”

There was likely nobody but Yeo-seol who would call a Regional Military Commissioner a bastard. A man of that standing held power enough to sit down alone with Namgung Hak, and the post took in the whole military administration of a province, which carried more weight than one might suppose.

A man like that would never be shaken off, so getting out of his way was the best policy. I could understand her difficulty.

“Very well. I shall travel with you.”

She broke into a wide smile.

“Thank you, Master Scholar Cheon.”

Just as Cheong Yo had chosen the perilous journey to the Hyeoncheon Sect for reasons of one kind and another, I too had two further reasons of my own for going.

In Jiangxi there was a sworn brother of mine, the one man of my whole intake in my days of service at the Murim Alliance whose mind ran with mine. After two years he went back to his home province over trouble in his family, and word of him had scarcely reached me since.

His family was at Nanchang in Jiangxi. I could hardly travel all that way with no purpose in it, and I meant to use the chance to look my friend up. As it happened, Nanchang lay beside Poyang Lake, no distance at all from the Hyeoncheon Sect, so calling on him would be no hard matter.

And there was one thing I wanted with all my heart, and it lay sleeping in the Hyeoncheon Sect’s secret vault.

Getting hold of that was why I had not refused their invitation.