A Clan With Roots (3)

“Hmm.”

Heo Do looked down at the marketplace with a doubtful expression.

“Is this the right place?”

“Yes, it is.”

Song Oe, Vice Unit Leader of the White Tiger Unit, unfolded a map and a document.

“It is exactly as the information from above states. It is marked on the map as well. This is Ziyang County.”

“No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem like an area with a Murim clan or sect.”

“It appears that way to my eyes as well.”

Song Oe shook the document and let out a sigh.

“There has been no report that they have built any proper-looking structure yet. But there is no way the information from above is wrong, so it seems they must be hiding here.”

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you think there is no way the information from above is wrong?”

Song Oe’s eyes widened.

“Surely those snake-headed bastards would not play games over something like this.”

“I am not saying those bastards of the Blue Dragon Unit played games with us. No matter how much they bite and tear at our unit, would they go so far as to manipulate information? They could not do that unless they wanted to die.”

“Then…”

“I’m saying it could actually be wrong.”

Song Oe shook his head without realizing it.

“You know this information came from the Alliance’s central headquarters.”

“Do you think the Heavenly Will Alliance is always right and flawless in how it handles work?”

“Unit Leader!”

Flustered, Song Oe lowered his voice. More than thirty meters behind them, the warriors of the White Tiger Unit were gathered and resting.

Even in front of loyal subordinates, there were things one could say and things one could not.

“Please refrain from saying such things. It could truly cause serious trouble.”

Even before the advice of his loyal direct subordinate, Heo Do’s crumpled face showed no sign of smoothing out.

‘Damn it.’

He had many complaints about the Heavenly Will Alliance’s treatment.

Although they had now been pushed aside by rising forces and remained only an ordinary unit, even just twenty years ago, the Heavenly Will Alliance’s Four Divine Beast Units had been famed as elite forces that made even birds in flight fall silent.

Of course, even then, they could not compare to the Ten Armies, said to be the strongest in the Heavenly Will Alliance. Nor could they be called better than the elite units dispatched by the Nine Sects and Five Great Families.

Even so, the Four Divine Beast Units had been the best. They had been the first armed forces created directly by the Heavenly Will Alliance in its hundred-year history. To them, there had been that symbolism.

Of course, now they had been sucked dry and left as mid-level units that were neither exceptionally outstanding nor particularly lacking.

‘That is why they are doing this. Sending us off to remote backwaters.’

Western Sichuan was full of rugged mountains, and if one went even farther west, one reached the borderlands of Qinghai and Tibet.

The Central Plains were already so vast one could hardly know where they ended, so did a unit as significant as the White Tiger Unit truly need to be dispatched to such remote places? Twenty years ago, no, even ten years ago, such a thing would have been unimaginable.

Unable to overcome the anger and bitterness rising in him again, Heo Do sighed and called Song Oe.

“Oe.”

“…Yes, Unit Leader.”

“When I first entered the White Tiger Unit, the Four Divine Beast Units were units that symbolized the Heavenly Will Alliance.”

It was a story Song Oe had heard dozens of times at least. That was excluding the times Heo Do rambled about it while drunk.

As always, Song Oe lowered his head and took on a solemn attitude.

“Yes, I know.”

“And now, what is this? They dispatched the White Tiger Unit to chase traces of the remnants of a sect that disappeared a hundred years ago, one that only flourished in Nanman at that. And they sent us to borderlands well over a thousand kilometers from central headquarters.”

“…”

“It was two years. A full two years. For two years, you and I searched with nothing but loyalty, from western Sichuan to Qinghai and even the areas near Tibet. We reported dozens of times that there were no suspicious traces, but the only thing that came back was an order to search more.”

Heo Do looked at Song Oe.

Song Oe raised his head and let out a sigh instead of answering. It seemed his superior’s disgust had transferred to him in full.

“And now, we have received orders to transport some master and his subordinates, who have turned the Sichuan Murim upside down. Just when we happened to be on our way back.”

“…”

“Even though the Sichuan Branch and the Investigation and Defense Court are both perfectly present, they are making us do this. They are telling us to bring them in while we are passing by.”

“…”

“I… no longer know what is what.”

Heo Do let out another long sigh.

“Yes, I think I am tired. Honestly, even if we return to the central headquarters, I don’t know how we will be treated. Perhaps while we were gone, they even took away our quarters.”

“Unit Leader.”

“Do you know what truly infuriates me in all this?”

Heo Do took an order from inside his robes and shook it.

“This is not an order sent after being discussed and decided at the Heavenly Will Alliance’s headquarters. It is an order sent through the Branch by an elder of the Hengshan Sect abusing his authority.”

“…”

“And what infuriates me the most!”

Heo Do clenched the order in his fist.

He must have wanted to tear it to shreds.

“Is the fact that I cannot refuse this order, and should not refuse it.”

Song Oe answered gloomily.

“After all, it is an official order.”

“Yes, it is an official order. But since when was an elder of a single sect able to handle the Alliance’s official orders?”

Song Oe could understand Heo Do’s anger. Even he had gritted his teeth to keep himself from cursing when he first received this order.

Though they had left on a borderland mission, they too had eyes and ears, and they also had the experience of the humiliations they had suffered until now.

‘It means a grand personage like an elder is making his way here, so they want us to clear the road in advance and receive him well.’

The Fifth Elder of the Hengshan Sect and the Lotus Seven Swords were coming to Sichuan. Judging from the date the order was sent and the region it had been sent from, they would arrive in ten days.

They must have some business of their own. If this were simply about transporting some master and his worthless subordinates, a person of that level would not have come personally.

It was clear that while he had business in Sichuan, he intended to have the White Tiger Unit handle this matter on the side. Naturally, if this matter was handled well, the merit would go to the Fifth Elder of the Hengshan Sect who had given the order.

‘We’re tools.’

The countless combat units that existed in the world were all like that.

But even if they were tools, if they were oiled properly and cherished, their lifespan could at least increase.

The borderland mission was only something said in anger, and even the Unit Leader accepted that such missions could happen. But this particular order truly could not help draining all strength from them.

“Brother.”

Not Unit Leader, but Brother. At that expression, Heo Do’s anger calmed a little.

Song Oe smiled and spoke.

“Let us finish quickly and have a drink. Even if the Alliance sees us as idiots, I doubt they’ve lost their minds enough to fault us for slacking off one night.”

“I think they have lost their minds exactly that much.”

“Then, well… we resign.”

Heo Do glanced at Song Oe.

“Are you serious?”

“To speak bluntly, if we are only going to receive this kind of treatment, why should we remain in the White Tiger Unit? The White Tiger Unit? Yes, it is a fine unit. I may not be as proud as you, Brother, but I too am someone who takes pride in the organization called the White Tiger Unit. But…”

Song Oe sighed again out of habit.

“They say one should leave while people are applauding. We have clapped until our palms hurt, and now even the soles of our feet are scraping out applause. Why should we not be able to leave?”

“…”

“Let us bury it as a good memory. A life like that would not be bad either.”

In the end, Heo Do gave a bitter smile.

“Yes, you are right too.”

If this had been five years ago, Heo Do’s fist would have flown before anything else at Song Oe’s words.

But his once fiery personality had now been dulled greatly. Was he not forty this year, being treated as washed up, running here and there without having achieved a single thing?

He had lived his life staking everything on his fists, so he had never even held a woman’s hand. His peers now had fox-like wives and lines of rabbit-like children following them around, playing the role of head of household to the fullest.

Before being a man of the Murim, if one was born human, one should know how to do something productive besides throwing fists and shitting everywhere.

“Fine, let us clear this matter quickly. After clearing it, let us quit the White Tiger Unit too. We can go down to some province and open a martial academy. We may be treated as washed up at the central headquarters, but if we are from the White Tiger Unit, the building will be bursting with students.”

“That sounds good.”

Heo Do turned back and shouted.

“Rest is over!”

Seureureuk.

The unit members who had been resting here and there in the forest rose with shining eyes.

Every one of them looked tired, but their eyes were certainly alive. Although all the talented grains had been taken away, the strength of the White Tiger Unit, which had survived real battles through spite and grit, was still Heo Do’s pride.

“As the Vice Unit Leader has likely told you, we received an additional mission on our return. It is an order to capture a white-haired young swordsman and his subordinates and transport them to the central headquarters.”

The unit members smiled.

Smiles etched into tired faces by habit. They too knew how the situation was unfolding. Even so, they smiled like that to muster strength.

“Let’s capture them quickly, throw them at the Branch, and drink ourselves silly for the first time in ages!”

“As you command!”

And so the White Tiger Unit, belonging to the Heavenly Will Alliance’s central headquarters, headed toward Ziyang County’s marketplace.

One of the Four Divine Beast Units, now something like a relic of the past and even expelled from the Heavenly Will Alliance’s Six Units, was on its way to capture a wolf.

Chwaaaaak!

Han Cheol-sang’s wrist movement as he poured meat into the oiled iron wok and lightly shook it up and down was extremely flexible.

Fwoosh!

In the oil that flared up for an instant, pieces of meat sizzled and gave off a delicious aroma.

“It’s fine to slice it wide. But you have to slice it thin. Otherwise, the outside burns and the inside doesn’t cook properly.”

Im Yeo-wol looked at the iron wok with serious eyes.

“Now, once the meat is cooked properly to about this point.”

When he added sauce and scorched it, a wonderful sauce aroma spread over the smell of meat.

“After setting the aroma and seasoning properly like this.”

Han Cheol-sang poured in the vegetables he had sliced to one side.

The screams of vegetables were added to the screams of meat. Han Cheol-sang kept shaking the iron wok with only the strength of his wrist. Then the sauce and meat buried below mixed with the vegetables and produced an even better aroma.

“This is when you add the vegetables. With vegetables too, you have to distinguish well between those with a lot of moisture and those with little. You also have to know what flavor each vegetable gives depending on how much it has been cooked. Since this is your first time, think of adding the moist and thin ones later. That way, you can taste them when they have softened just enough.”

“I see.”

“When you think it has cooked enough, move it to the burner next to it. The one with weaker heat. Then you add a sweetener like honey here. If you add too much, the balance of flavor collapses, so add the right amount.”

“How much exactly is the right amount?”

“I don’t know how to measure. If you do it a lot, you will know roughly.”

“Ah, I see.”

Chiiiiik!

Han Cheol-sang shook the iron wok several times, then poured the dish onto a large plate.

“Well, if you decorate it and do this and that, it will look pretty, but let’s not go that far yet. Honestly, decoration is the one thing there is no need to learn. It depends on each person’s aesthetic sense.”

“Is that so?”

“At least, that is what I think. I didn’t learn it properly.”

Han Cheol-sang set down the iron wok and handed Im Yeo-wol a fresh pair of chopsticks.

Im Yeo-wol picked up the chopsticks and tasted the food, and her eyes widened.

“Is it good?”

“It’s incredibly good.”

“Cooking itself is not difficult. What matters is seasoning. In the end, cooking is all about seasoning, so if you do this often, you’ll improve.”

“Mm, seasoning…”

“By the way.”

Han Cheol-sang crossed his arms.

There were quite a few reddish scars here and there on his thick forearms. They were marks left by splattering oil.

“Why did you suddenly ask me to teach you cooking? You must already be busy training in martial arts.”

Im Yeo-wol smiled softly. It was still awkward, but far more natural than before.

“I cannot just keep eating without doing anything. I don’t even have a proper position, so I should at least do something like this.”

Han Cheol-sang gave a small laugh.

He liked this attitude of hers. Finding work before anyone told her to was an important virtue.

Perhaps she might even realize something while cooking that she had been stuck on in training. Everything in the world was like that.

“I’ll teach you whenever I have time.”

“Thank you.”

“Shall we start with knife work first?”

That was when it happened.

“Steward Han!”

Do Il-gang’s voice rang out.

“Something terrible has happened! Please come outside!”