The Kidnapping

— Clunk. Clunk.

The jolt of the rocking cart pulled Yi Sungwon’s eyes open. The first thing he saw was the escorts sprawled about the cart bed. He reached at once for his internal energy.

The qi won’t move.

The internal energy in his dantian had scattered and would not gather. He must have been struck with qi-dispersing poison. It surprised him that bandits would go so far as that, but the wooden needles they had attacked with had been smeared with poison too, and men who came equipped like that were no ragtag rabble.

He caught sight of Jo Yeonggwang, the young bureau head of the Shandong Escort Bureau, flung down among the rest.

Young Bureau Head…!

Yi Sungwon worked his body across the boards and laid his ear against Jo Yeonggwang’s chest.

— Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart was beating steadily. His color was hard to make out, but for the moment his life did not seem to be in danger.

Just then he heard the bandits murmuring outside.

“Hey, hold up. Let’s stop and take a piss. I’ve been holding it a while.”
“Be quick about it. The chief finds out and we’re for it.”
“I said all right. It won’t take a moment.”
“Ah, hell — now you’ve said it, I need to go too. I’ll come with you.”

The footsteps receded. Once he could no longer feel the bandits anywhere near, Yi Sungwon called to Jo Yeonggwang in a small voice.

“Young Bureau Head. Young Bureau Head.”
“…”

Words alone would not rouse him, so he nudged him with his head, but however much he prodded, the man did not stir.

Then the bandits’ voices came back toward the cart.

What do I do.

Yi Sungwon was torn. His head told him to leave the young bureau head and run, alone if he had to, but the thought of answering for it to the bureau head afterward frightened him.

All the while the bandits were drawing nearer, their chatter louder and louder.

Yi Sungwon turned it over, and in the end his mind was made up.

Run for it, even if I go alone.

There was no guarantee another chance would come, and with his internal energy beyond use, if he did not go now he might never get out at all. The best he could do was slip away from this place and carry word that the young bureau head had been taken.

Forgive me, Young Bureau Head. I will get word to the Bureau Head without fail and come for you.

Yi Sungwon looked at him and swore it. Then he climbed carefully down from the cart, holding his breath for fear even that would carry, and stole away a step at a time. He had decided fast enough that he was behind a tree by the time the bandits got back.

A moment later they reached the cart, snickering.

“Ah, that’s better. Let’s move.”
“Get a move on. If we’re late the Boss might have us killed.”
“True enough. That fellow who was running Tugeum Hall the other day — he beat him to death on the spot, didn’t he.”
“Heard he was pounded to a bloody pulp. Nothing left but a slab of meat.”
“Ugh… Let’s go, quick.”

The bandits set the cart moving again. Luckily, they never counted heads. Whether that was because there were so many of them or because their boss had them frightened, Yi Sungwon could not say, but either way the luck was his.

— Clunk. Clunk. Clunk…

The rolling of the cartwheels grew fainter and fainter. Still Yi Sungwon could not move. The bandits might come back, and so he stayed frozen where he was and held his breath.

“Hooo—”

Only after a long while did he let the breath out and sink down where he stood. There was no strength in his legs. He had ridden many an escort run, but he had never known anything like this.

He ran a hand over the back of his neck. It felt as though a cold blade had been drawn across his throat. One slip and today would have been the day of his own funeral rites.

Yi Sungwon staggered to his feet. His legs shook under him from what he supposed was sheer strain.

I have to get word of this out!

Spent to the last, he ran along the mountain path. But he could not draw on his internal energy, so he had no lightness skill either¹, and he made no speed at all. Jinan, where the Shandong Escort Bureau stood, was far beyond him in this state. He had to find another way.

Then, all at once, something the young bureau head had said to him a little while before came back.

“Father says young hero Yang has outstanding discernment and is a man who will go far, so I mean to make his acquaintance in advance.”

Yang Mujin!

A man the bureau head praised that highly could be trusted, and could be asked for help. And as it happened, Qingzhou was close at hand. He would be hard put to find anyone better suited.

Wait just a little longer, Young Bureau Head.

Yi Sungwon forced the strength back into his shaking legs and went down out of the mountains.

Watching him go from up in a tree, Duho nodded.

Good. It went to plan.

Yi Sungwon would never know it, but Duho had arranged every piece of it. The bandits wandering off to relieve themselves, the loud talk, all of it was deliberate, done to give him the gap he needed to run.

Where the man would head now that he had gotten away was obvious. The Yang manor in Qingzhou, where Yang Mujin was. Nothing else lay nearer, so of course he would.

Time I got moving too.

Duho set off in the direction the cart had gone. The young bureau head and the rest of the bureau’s men had to be put up properly, and it would be trouble if one of the Great Saber Gang happened to recognize a Shandong Escort Bureau face.

I looked out the window of my room. The sun was sinking low. I drank my tea and gauged the time.

They should be here soon.

I had no fear of anything going wrong. Duho would not fail at something this simple.

I was pouring more tea into the emptied cup and waiting when a commotion started up outside. A moment later Elder Kang came into view.

“Young master, a man from the Shandong Escort Bureau has come.”

There he is.

I asked, pretending not to know.

“What has he come about?”
“I could not say. I asked him, but he says he will speak of it to the young master directly.”
“Is that so? Where is the man?”
“At the main gate.”
“Let’s go.”

I left the room and headed for the main gate.

A man sat slumped in front of the main gate as though he had collapsed there. He was a sight. He must have come down that mountain more or less rolling. His clothes were torn in a dozen places and caked with dirt, his hair was a wild tangle, and every stretch of bare skin was covered in scrapes and cuts. Anyone could see he had been through something terrible.

Duho did his work properly.

He really is worth trusting with a job.

I bit back a smile before going over to him.

“Here now! Get a hold of yourself!”

I shook the man awake. At my voice he raised his head.

“Young hero Yang… is that you?”
“It is. I am Yang Mujin. I hear you are from the Shandong Escort Bureau — has something happened?”

The man seized my sleeve with a bloodied hand. There was desperation in the grip.

“Young hero Yang, help us!”
“Calm yourself first. What is your name?”
“Yi Sungwon. I work as an escort for the Shandong Escort Bureau.”
“Escort Yi, tell me what happened, from the beginning.”
“The Young Bureau Head has been kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped, you say?”
“Bandits ambushed us. Poison smeared on their hidden weapons and all — they meant to do it, that much is certain.”

Gasping as though the breath were leaving him, Yi Sungwon poured out the whole of it. I listened with a grave face put on for the purpose. The further his story went, the more the servants around us murmured in shock.

Small wonder.

The man taken was the young bureau head of the Shandong Escort Bureau, of all people. And in Shandong province, at that. Inside Shandong no other bureau came near it for influence, and with the young bureau head of such a house taken, their alarm was only natural.

When he had finished, I asked.

“Do you know who they were, by any chance?”
“Nothing beyond the fact that they were all masked.”
“No group you can guess at either?”
“…Forgive me. It was all so sudden that nothing comes back to me.”

Yi Sungwon broke off and dropped his head, the picture of despair.

I went on.

“Even the smallest thing will do. What weapons they used, or the way they spoke — anything at all, so tell me.”

At my words Yi Sungwon pressed his lips tight and drew his brows together, visibly racking his brain.

That’s it, Escort Yi. Think. You’ll remember, I’m sure of it.

Give me the answer I want.

I waited without a word. A moment later his eyes went wide, as though something had come to him.

“Ah! I remember something they said to each other.”
“What did they say?”
“That their Boss was fearsome, that he had killed the manager of Tugeum Hall and made a slab of meat of him… That sort of thing.”

The corner of my mouth went up. There it was at last, the answer I wanted. The wait had been worth it.

At his words the color drained from Elder Kang and the servants. No man in Qingzhou could fail to know that story. What had happened at Tugeum Hall was already all over the market street.

I set my face hard and spoke.

“Tugeum Hall… The bandits said that?”
“Yes. I heard it clearly.”
“Hmm…”
“Is there somewhere you can think of?”

Yi Sungwon looked at me with pleading eyes. I met them and stayed silent a while, then nodded slowly.

“If what Escort Yi heard is right… the bandits are the Great Saber Gang.”
“Ah!”

Yi Sungwon’s eyes wavered, and it stood to reason. Every escort of the Shandong Escort Bureau knew the name of the Great Saber Gang, and with men like that holding the young bureau head, of course he was shaken.

I took him by the shoulders.

“Escort Yi, you must keep your wits about you. It is not too late yet.”
“But did young hero Yang not say it was the Great Saber Gang?”
“That is exactly why it will be all right. Unless they are fools, they will not harm the young bureau head of the Shandong Escort Bureau.”

Having settled Yi Sungwon, I gave Elder Kang his orders.

“Elder Kang, take Escort Yi to Doctor Yu.”
“Yes, at once.”

Elder Kang left.

Yi Sungwon looked up at me with tears standing in his eyes.

“Young hero Yang, truly… truly, I thank you. I will not forget to tell the Bureau Head of what you have done today.”
“Not at all. I have only done what anyone ought. See to yourself first, Escort Yi.”

A little later Elder Kang brought Doctor Yu, who looked Yi Sungwon over.

I went into the study and took up a brush. Briefly, I set out why the young bureau head’s kidnapping pointed to the Great Saber Gang, then made for the inn where the carrier pigeons were kept and handed the paper to the pigeon keeper.

“Where will you be sending it?”
“The Shandong Escort Bureau. Express, if you please.”

— Fwrrrr.

A moment later three or four carrier pigeons rose into the air. Bound for the Shandong Escort Bureau in Jinan.

Two days later.

The reply I had been waiting for arrived. I unfolded the letter, stamped with the seal of the Shandong Escort Bureau.

Young hero Yang, thank you for sending word of my son. That they dared lay a hand on my boy — I will make them pay in full for holding this bureau in contempt. I will set out for Qingzhou at once, together with the Hwangbo Clan.

The corners of my mouth lifted as I read.

The board was set.

The Hwangbo Clan has moved.

There was only one thing that meant.

The Great Saber Gang was finished.

The death sentence had come down on them at last.