Side Story 44. Red Eyes (2)

Ten thousand applicants for the Number One Cooking Competition Under Heaven.
And the entry fee for the cooking competition was one nyang of silver.
One nyang of silver was not a small amount of money, but it was not so much that it was impossible to pay either.
Over the past ten years or so, the amount of silver in circulation had increased and its value had fallen quite a bit, so anyone who was not too poor could plausibly pay it if they put their mind to it.

So the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild pocketed ten thousand nyang of silver.
And that was not all.
The Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild also took in ticket money for viewing the competition.
Leaving aside the preliminaries, from the first main round onward they had charged admission and given people a spectacle to watch.
That price was thirty copper coins.
And for the good seats, one had to pay in silver.
Sixty-four people advanced to the main round.
Those sixty-four would be divided into groups of eight and undergo the second main round.
And since two from each group would pass, sixteen would remain.
And since a winner still had to be chosen from among them, it was not something that would be finished in a day or two.
The notice for the Number One Competition Under Heaven had spread throughout the Central Plains through the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild’s distribution network.
The promotional notices were the same.
Curiosity-seekers of the Central Plains, gourmets, and even those who were simply bored all began gathering in Hangzhou.

“As expected of the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild.”

Those who noticed this enormous current evaluated it that way.
Even so, it likely could not make up for the massive expenses involved, but the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild had not simply shut its eyes and accepted the losses either.

“I heard a lot of very important people are coming.”

There were even rumors that high officials and famous figures would visit Seok Family Manor to watch the main rounds.

“They say even the prefect is practically left with a seat at the very bottom.”

The prefect of Hangzhou Prefecture was a figure of tremendous power, yet they said many people would be coming before whom even such a man would have to bow and scrape.
People like provincial governors, command ranks of the Imperial Guard in Beijing, and vice ministers of the Ministry of Personnel.

“Oh, here they come.”

The spectators fell silent.
Not long before, the first main round preliminaries, which had lasted three days, had ended.
From three thousand people, sixty-four outstanding contenders had been selected.
Cooking robes had been presented to those who advanced.
They were splendid cooking robes made with red silk.

The sixty-four honored finalists stood in the center of the outer compound.
After that, someone walked up onto the lavishly decorated platform.
He was an old man who did not look especially remarkable.
He was small of build, and the clothes he wore made him look like a farmer who ought to be hoeing a field in some village.
But everyone gathered here recognized who the old man was.

“It’s Seok Sung.”

That ordinary-looking old man, aside from his long-grown eyebrows, was the richest man under heaven.
Seok Sung, standing on the platform, slowly swept his gaze across the venue.
Though countless people were looking at him, he was not nervous in the slightest.
He simply seemed to be examining the contestants and the audience.
Among them would be those he had been waiting for.

Seok Sung opened his mouth in a low voice.

“Bring it.”

Surprisingly, the voice rang out with perfect clarity.
He had clearly not infused it with internal energy, nor had he raised his voice, yet everyone in the venue could hear Seok Sung’s words.
Servants dragged out a box covered in cloth.
After confirming it, Seok Sung looked back toward the gathered crowd.

Then he shouted.

“Wealth!”

That resounding word was clearly filled with force.

“Fame!”

The contestants’ expressions turned serious.

“Or the pure passion to prove your own skill.”

Pride rose on a few faces.
There were certainly many who had come dreaming of becoming the greatest chef under heaven.

“Who is the greatest under heaven? How can something like ‘the greatest under heaven’ be decided? Does the Son of Heaven decide it, or does Heaven itself appoint it?”

People tensed at Seok Sung’s outrageous words, daring even to speak of the Son of Heaven.
There were even officials present here who were connected to Seok Sung.

“No. It is never decided by a mere handful. It is decided only by the ten thousand.”

Ten thousand. Everyone.

“If ten acknowledge you, you are talented. If a hundred acknowledge you, you are a genius. If ten thousand, if hundreds of thousands acknowledge you, then that person becomes the greatest under heaven.”

Not hundreds of thousands, but millions, tens of millions acknowledging something as the greatest under heaven, that was Seok Sung’s wealth.
Perhaps because of that, Seok Sung’s words carried a strange fervor.

“I have spent one million nyang of silver to gather hundreds of thousands here. So let whoever desires it prove themselves and seize the title of greatest under heaven.”

Chareureuk!

He yanked away the cloth covering the box.
At once, a glass case and the golden ladle shining brilliantly within it were revealed.

“Take it!”

As Seok Sung raised a hand and shouted in a ringing voice, cheers burst forth.
The contestants raised their hands with proud faces, and the spectators too applauded and cheered.

And amid the cheers, there were a few whose eyes shone.
Cheongho and Baek Sang-ye were among them.
Baek Sang-ye subtly stepped in front of Cheongho.
She was blocking people’s view.

-Well?

She asked by voice transmission.

-It is.

Where no one could see, Cheongho slightly drew out the Guihon Compass.
The needle of the Guihon Compass was stretched tight, pointing in a single direction.
It was toward the platform where Seok Sung stood.

-So it really is Guihon Jade.

Baek Sang-ye murmured that.
In truth, it felt as though they could have known without even taking out the Guihon Compass.
The violet gemstone set into the handle of the golden ladle.
That gemstone, casting off its bewitching light, was unmistakably Guihon Jade.

‘Interesting.’

Baek Sang-ye smiled to herself.
From the moment Seok Sung had dared speak so freely of the Son of Heaven, Baek Sang-ye had found this interesting.

‘What exactly is he plotting?’

When the competition progressed, they would likely learn that as well.

Seok Sung stepped down from the platform.
In his place, Judge Wang Ho-cheol went up and began explaining the schedule ahead to the contestants.

The one who hurried over to support Seok Sung as he came down the steps was none other than the man in black.

“Why are you staggering like that?”
“Because I’ve got no strength.”
“Your voice seemed strong enough for an old man.”
“If there’s no force in one’s voice, no one will respect you.”

Seok Sung chuckled.
The man in black supported Seok Sung without so much as a smile.
Only after they had gone to where people could not overhear did the man in black mutter,

“I can hear your lifespan getting shorter from all the way over here.”
“You scare easily.”
“Scared? Me? What do you take me for? I’m not the one whose life’s getting shorter, old man. In the end, all those people saw it.”

The man in black was reproaching Seok Sung for exposing the Guihon Jade.
Countless people had seen the Guihon Jade.
Those after the Guihon Jade would surely have gathered.
Seok Sung knew that as well. It was Seok Sung himself who had ordered that extra points be given to participants who seemed to have trained in martial arts.

“Do you know how you’re supposed to grip a club when you beat a dog to death?”

Seok Sung lifted his cane like a club.
Then he gripped the head of the cane.

“You grip it long like this. Grip it long so you can swing it wide. So you can crack its skull open in one blow.”
“Now you’re trying to teach me martial arts too. If you grip it that long and swing it, you won’t be able to block the knife coming at you.”
“Heh heh.”

Whatever the case, Seok Sung had thrown the dice.

“There were many with eyes that were anything but ordinary.”
“That there were.”

Even by the man in black’s judgment, there were many among the contestants who were far from ordinary.
Among them, the Crimson Fighting Fiends were surely mixed in.

“Don’t poke at them for no reason beforehand. We have to catch the head, the head. You understand?”
“Yes, understood.”

Seok Sung shook off the man in black’s support and walked on his own.
Seok Sung’s back, as he staggered along, looked dangerously unsteady.
It looked like a candle burning everything it had before going out, and the man in black clicked his tongue.

Second main round.

It began by forming groups of eight.
The first group, set to go forward today, was called out.

“Son Baek-gu, Jang Yang… Cheongho, …Baek Sang-ye, Jeok-yeom.”

Cheongho and Baek Sang-ye looked at each other.
Whether it was luck or not, Cheongho and Baek Sang-ye had ended up in the same group.
They did not yet know the contents of the test, but Jin Li-yeon, watching, must have thought inwardly.
That it would be nice if senior brother and junior sister worked together and overcame it side by side.

“Senior Brother.”

Baek Sang-ye whispered.

“Don’t get upset when you lose to me.”
“……”

Of course, it did not proceed that harmoniously.

But the test, which had seemed sure to begin in the outer compound, looked to be taking place outside instead.

“Follow me!”

The judge led the eight participants toward carriages.
Several carriages waiting in the outer compound took in the judges and contestants.

-What is this?
-Quiet.

Cheongho hushed Baek Sang-ye when she asked in alarm.
Baek Sang-ye, seeing where Cheongho gestured with his eyes, also stopped using voice transmission.
This time, people who clearly looked like martial artists were following them.
Those riding in the carriage, as well as the drivers, were all martial artists.
And they appeared to be at quite a high level.
If they moved their lips while using voice transmission, it would draw attention.

Baek Sang-ye obediently closed her mouth.
Inside the carriage too, someone who looked like a martial artist was sitting there.

“Why are we moving locations?”

Baek Sang-ye threw out the question.
The martial artist answered without any sign of alarm.

“The test will be conducted at a hill grove outside.”
“Not here? Why?”
“I can’t say. You’ll know when we get there.”

Baek Sang-ye fired off several questions in succession.
But that was all the information she could get from questioning him.
At some point, the martial artist shut his mouth tightly and stopped answering.

Watching the scenery through the carriage window, they saw that they were steadily moving farther from the busy district.
There came to be more grass and trees, and then the road began to slope upward.
By the time the forest had fully thickened around them, the carriage stopped.

“Please step down.”

Cheongho and Baek Sang-ye got down from the carriage.
Their carriage had arrived last, so the others were already out and waiting.

“Is everyone here?”

Wang Ho-cheol, who had judged Cheongho in the first main round, seemed to be in charge this time as well.

“Then I’ll explain the test.”

This round had eight participants.
The atmosphere itself was different from the previous rounds, where five hundred people had been gathered at once.
Though it was not only martial artists gathered here, there was a sharp, blade-like intensity in the air.
The chefs too had entered this competition staking their very lives on it.

“You were likely surprised that the location was changed so suddenly. This hill grove is a woodland estate owned by the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild.”

A woodland estate meant a privately owned forest.
Normally, such things were granted directly by the Emperor to only the highest-ranking great officials.
True to being the greatest merchant guild under heaven, the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild owned such a woodland estate on Hangzhou’s expensive land.

“A true chef must be thoroughly versed in ingredients. Ingredients come from the earth, the sky, and the waters. Therefore, the greatest chef under heaven must also be thoroughly versed in nature itself.”

The expressions of the contestants listening turned strange.

“Basic cooking tools and seasonings will be provided. But all other ingredients must be obtained by your own hands from within this woodland.”

In other words, whether it was wild boar or mountain birds, they were expected to catch it and cook it.
What kind of absurd test was that?
The chefs’ faces turned pale.

“That! Is the will of the Guild Master. So do not worry too much.”

Fortunately, Wang Ho-cheol added further explanation.

“Many animals such as chickens, cattle, and rabbits have been released within this woodland. Various vegetables have also been planted, so you should be able to gather sufficient ingredients. The judging will be conducted directly by executives of the Yellow Dragon Merchant Guild.”

A silence followed.

“The time limit is until sunset.”

Everyone looked up at the sky.
It was not yet noon. The remaining time could be considered long, or short.

“Then. Begin!”

And Cheongho and Baek Sang-ye looked at one another.
The other chefs, and Jeok-yeom with the sword scar on his face.
All of them, without exception, scattered in frantic haste.