Chapter 122: Chapter 122
Jang Geon approached the corpse Son Gwang had been examining and pulled out the sword stuck in its back. Flicking the blade with a swish, blood dripped onto the floor of the tea house with a patter.
Son Gwang, who was watching him, turned his eyes away and looked around the tea house. Not only were the corpses of dead demonic practitioners tumbling here and there, but it was also a complete mess with debris of tables and chairs ruined by their fight with Jang Geon, as well as broken plates and cups.
At that moment, a middle-aged man peeked his head out from the kitchen Jang Geon had emerged from. He examined Jang Geon, Son Gwang, and the others for a moment, and feeling they didn’t seem likely to harm him, he slowly stepped out of the kitchen and looked inside the tea house.
“C-Corpses are…”
Son Gwang spotted him, walked straight over, and demanded:
“Do you know who they are? Did you take them in as patrons knowing who they were?”
“I-I do not know… I only received threats to operate the tea house just like usual…”
“What do you mean by that?”
The middle-aged man shuddered at the sight of the corpses tumbling around the tea house and continued speaking.
He was indeed the owner of this tea house. He had been running a tea house here in Gowon City for ten years, but recently patrons who were somehow strange had increased. Every time, figures whose faces were different but whose voices were identical met at this tea house every morning, acting like acquaintances among themselves and chatting.
The tea house owner had not known at first, but after hearing the same voices for several weeks, he naturally came to realize it. At the utterly bizarre and creepy sights unfolding in his tea house, he tried his best to pretend not to notice, but eventually unable to bear it any longer, he attempted to request help from native warriors or other merchants.
“…Then a man named Scholar Im, who appeared before me having somehow found out, said that if I, my family, and the attendants of this tea house did not want to be killed to a person, I should just shut my mouth and stay quiet…”
The tea house owner’s eyes looked back and forth between San-san, who was frozen stiff, and one of the corpses.
“However… I did not know that the very attendants were among them… Though I did think that woman was ill-suited to do this kind of work…”
“Indeed, was I too pretty to work in an old tea house like this? I should have used a more ordinary face.”
Son Gwang instantly wore a dumbfounded expression at her brazen retort. Even though she was frozen stiff by Jang Geon’s meridian-blocking technique—Son Gwang assumed it was meridian-blocking technique—and could not even turn around to look at them, her tone of speech was remarkably casual, as if talking to a neighbor friend.
“…Do you not know your own situation right now? Or do you have something to back you up?”
“Where would a life wandering beneath the shadows have anything to rely on? I’m just speaking comfortably.”
While Son Gwang let out a hollow laugh, there were people snooping around in front of the tea house door. They were likely people looking inside wondering what was going on given the commotion inside. Seeing them, Son Gwang approached the door and waved his hand, saying:
“All of you, go away! Do not come in recklessly!”
“What’s going on?”
“Whoa, those are corpses!”
Son Gwang could not stop the clamoring crowd. Wondering what to do, he spotted a boy among them and called out to the fellow.
“You, kid.”
“Yes?”
He pulled out a silver coin from his bosom, showed it to the fellow, and said:
“Go fetch the warriors. Tell the guests who stopped by last night that their help is needed. Just say that and they will follow on their own. Then this silver coin will be yours.”
His eyes lighting up upon seeing the silver coin, the boy nodded vigorously and sprinted off toward the other end of the street. Confirming that the fellow was heading toward the tribe alliance, Son Gwang pushed away the people trying to look inside and slammed the tea house door shut.
Having shut the door and exhaled a sigh, looking back inside the tea house, he saw Jang Geon, who had sheathed his sword, pick up a tumbled chair and set it down before the demonic practitioner named San-san.
Having set up the chair, Jang Geon approached San-san, who was rolling only her eyeballs. And he looked at her silently.
“We meet again after just one night, don’t we? Did you spend last night well?”
Facing him, San-san spoke first. It was in that same devoid-of-tension tone. It was as if her lively demeanor from the past had been a disguise, and this current tone was her true speech.
Jang Geon, who was quietly watching her even after hearing the question, opened his mouth:
“Looking at your altered face, I understand. Back then, you were something like Gale Blade, wasn’t it?”
San-san’s eyes widened.
“…How did you see through that? You can see through the Transmutation Art?”
“The friend from the Dark Dragon Corps back then must be dead.”
This time, Son Gwang’s eyes, having approached to the side, widened. It was because he could not follow Jang Geon’s words. San-san answered, her chin flinching as if nodding:
“Right. I also killed our snake who was being carried off back then. I could have taken him and assigned a new mission, but honestly, taking him around was a hassle. Anyway, by doing that, we prevented a bit of our information from leaking. Though to begin with, that guy didn’t know much.”
“Strict.”
“It can’t be helped. People on our side tend to be hot-tempered, perhaps because of the martial arts they practice, so if we don’t do that, discipline won’t hold.”
San-san flinched again as if wanting to shrug her shoulders. Watching her like that, Jang Geon pulled out a tobacco pouch and rolling paper from his bosom. And rolling it slowly, he spoke:
“Then can you be just as strict with yourself?”
San-san laughed.
“Why? To torture me? Not in some dim basement, but in a bright tea house like this? It’s such a place devoid of atmosphere. Interrogating a spy should be done while laying out gruesome saw blades crusted with dried blood. Simultaneously, you should entice with promises of what to give if I defect, or threaten to show a truly terrible state. On our side, when we catch the Dark Dragon Corps, we do it like that… You are definitely not from the Imperial Army, are you?”
“What…!”
While her words continued, Jang Geon silently rolled the tobacco, but Son Gwang listening beside her flared up and took a step closer when the Dark Dragon Corps was mentioned. Rolling only her eyeballs, she looked at him and continued:
“Ah, this side is indeed from the Dark Dragon Corps, huh? So there really was Dark Dragon Corps in Gowon City. Since no matter how much I searched, only faint traces came up, I thought there were no agents residing fixedly in Gowon City. Though since you don’t do anything properly, it made sense I couldn’t find you. Well, is it obvious for an agent wandering such a frontier?”
Son Gwang’s expression turned frigid. With a deeply settled face, he turned to Jang Geon and said:
“…Since the rest of the demonic practitioners are all dead, we must interrogate this woman. We need to find out how many more demonic practitioners are hidden in Gowon City and how to find them. So… if it is alright with you, let us move locations. Soon native warriors will arrive, and then we might have to hand this woman over to them.”
Having finished rolling the tobacco in the meantime, Jang Geon put it in his mouth. And raising his head, he looked into San-san’s eyes. Unlike her mouth speaking carelessly as if having given up everything, deep in her eyes was a firm part unbelievable for someone who had lost her mind.
Jang Geon, gazing into her eyes, spoke:
“There is no need to go far.”
He flashed his hand in an instant and poked various places on San-san’s body with the index and middle fingers of his right hand. Not to mention Son Gwang, even San-san herself who was being struck in her acupoints was startled by that speed. And in that swift handwork, Son Gwang could recall Jang Geon’s technique he had seen last night.
“…Kkeuk! Hreuk!”
As if that expectation was not wrong, soon from San-san’s body standing stock-still, the sound of bones crushing began to echo with a crunch. Her body trembled as if having a seizure, and white foam trickled down from the corners of her mouth. Simultaneously, her build and face contorted and changed with crunching sounds. It was the appearance when Jang Geon had first met her.
The tea house owner, sitting to one side calming his mind, cowered in fear again seeing that sight. A hiccuping sound emerged from his mouth.
Jang Geon, who had actually bestowed the acupoint striking upon San-san, turned around, returned to the chair set up earlier, flopped down onto it, and pulled out a fire canister from his bosom, striking it to light a fire. Afterward, lighting the fire canister to the tobacco in his mouth, Jang Geon blew out a long plume of smoke and leaned his body against the chair’s backrest. In that appearance, there was no haste or threatening aura whatsoever. He simply looked relaxed and calm.
Son Gwang looked at such Jang Geon and San-san who was trembling violently with her eyes half turned upward, and swallowed hard. The sight of a woman standing stock-still in the middle of a ruined tea house undergoing convulsions held an inscrutable creepiness.
Earlier when she provoked them, he had thought he would make her pay the price, but now seeing her actually suffer, he could not bring himself to open his mouth carelessly.
“How much do you know about the east of the New Continent?”
Son Gwang realized a bit late that Jang Geon’s abruptly blurted words were a question directed at him and fumbled for a moment.
“Uh, well… the, the east, right? Th-There are sayings that it’s extremely fertile, and conversely that it’s merely desolate… Also sayings that far more natives live there than on the western coast…”
“What about sayings that the stronghold of the Palace is on that side?”
Son Gwang hesitated for a moment. Detailed stories about that were contents belonging to top secrecy even within the Dark Dragon Corps. But soon firming up his thoughts, he opened his mouth:
“It is not exact information. It is merely conjecture based on circumstances. Just as I told you last night, quite a few people departed for the east past Gowon City in the old days, and among them there must have been descendants of demonic families. However, combining information from recent intensified clashes with them and native information, we have come to be able to specify the location a bit more definitively.”
Jang Geon held the tobacco in his mouth and looked at him as if telling him to continue. Even during that time, San-san was trembling violently while making suffocating noises. Glancing at her, Son Gwang quickly continued:
“…According to native legends and stories, if one travels very far northeast from here in Gowon City—that is, much farther than the distance from New Sichuan to this place—there is the mother lake of all river streams in this land, a massive lake whose size is no different from a sea. It is so large that if legends are correct, Dongting Lake in the Central Plains is a giant lake that cannot even compare.”
Jang Geon seemed to know where that lake was.
“In recent legends, there are sayings that strangers from the west left in search of that eastern lake, and judging by how people of that region who occasionally interacted in the past have been very quiet for the last few decades, internally within the Dark Dragon Corps, the location of the Palace is specified to be near there. However, just hearing the natives’ words, that distance is so far that it is by no means a distance to dispatch an army, so I understand there is much debate with the Imperial Army commander side currently.”
“…Did they flee all the way to the Five Great Lakes? Tenacious bastards.”
“Pardon?”
Having finished speaking, Son Gwang heard Jang Geon’s murmur and asked back, but Jang Geon said no more. Instead, keeping the tobacco in his mouth, he stood up from the chair and approached San-san. Her face was now turning pale and dying.
Confirming that, Jang Geon’s hand poked her body once more. Her body, which had been trembling until now, collapsed onto the floor with a thud.
Jang Geon took a puff of tobacco and squatted in front of her.
“Well, can you still talk like earlier?”
Her eyes, which had been sprawling like a doll with snapped strings, leaking only wheezing wind sounds, slid over and looked up at Jang Geon.
White foam flowed messily at the corners of her mouth, and inside her thick clothes, cold sweat had poured so much in that short moment that a musty smell exhaled. Her breath was thin as if about to die immediately. In that state, she spoke slowly:
“What I… will tell you… is only… that my name is San-san…”
Hearing that answer, Jang Geon tilted his head slightly and spoke:
“I can inflict that pain from moments ago on you until you die. It will probably take about half a day to die completely. One third of that is enough for your muscles and bones to suffer irreversible aftermaths. Shall we do more like that?”
At Jang Geon’s words, she trembled violently. Son Gwang beside him thought it was out of fear. But he soon felt his thought had been too hasty.
She was laughing.
“I think… I understand how you… treated other snakes until now… Indeed, from your perspective, we are monsters killing innocent people and trying to tear down a perfectly fine Han Empire… Since you wouldn’t listen even if I made excuses, I won’t make them either… Kill me or let me live, do as you like. There is nothing I will tell you. Eventually, the Martial Alliance and the natives will clash.”
She spoke like that and closed her eyes.
Son Gwang was panicked watching that sight. Because Jang Geon had severed all the demonic practitioners’ breaths, she was the only remaining thread. Judging by the number of demonic practitioners here, they might have been all of them, but if not, other demonic practitioners would hide in deeper darkness and try to accomplish their goals in even more vicious ways. Just seeing San-san’s attitude of refusing to say anything right now, it was not difficult to guess these were not all of them.
Jang Geon held the tobacco in his mouth and quietly stared at San-san who had her eyes closed while squatted. Just as Son Gwang was thinking if he should bring up some words, Jang Geon spoke:
“Is it Namgung San-san? Or Tang San-san?”
San-san’s eyes popped open involuntarily. Her eyes looked up at Jang Geon again.
“…What?”
“In the old days, families often used the name San-san for baby daughters. Though nowadays when the New Continent opened, it’s a name long past its trend. But those called demonic families are usually old families, so it makes sense they would still like old trends.”
She glared at Jang Geon as if asking what he was trying to say. It was a gaze hard to believe came from someone who had been laughing nonchalantly with a dying face until moments ago.
“…Why does my family name matter?”
“Since it doesn’t matter, you can tell me. Is it Zhuge San-san? Paeng San-san is a bit weird. Then Murong San-san?”
Murong San-san tried her best to conceal her expression, but she could not avoid Jang Geon’s sharp eyes. Jang Geon blew out a long trail of smoke and said:
“It’s Murong San-san.”
“…Why does that matter? In this situation, surname or whatever…”
Her expression contorted for the first time. Though piecemeal information, the Palace was ultimately a group formed by old families and people who had been oppressed by the Han Empire gathering together. There, the surname would be a force that powerfully bound them together, as well as a shackle they could never escape. Naturally, it was abnormal in any situation for someone belonging there to deny it. And whether due to the pain of bone-dislocating agony or because her unrevealed real name had been uncovered, for whatever reason, it also meant a crack had opened in her heart.
Realizing that, she let out a long sigh and soon twitched her body. Immediately after, red blood gushed from the corners of her mouth where until now only white foam had flowed.
“Uh, uh!”
Seeing that, Son Gwang looked at Jang Geon in surprise. It was because he wondered if his torture had been excessive. However, Jang Geon maintained an unshaken, calm expression.
“…You aren’t… surprised.”
“Having already checked your pulse, there’s no way I wouldn’t know. Though it is peculiar.”
Murong San-san vomited blood while lying down, yet chuckled wheezingly.
“Peculiar…? Calling the Three-Polar Soul-Returning Acupoint merely peculiar… If Snake Lord who created this heard it, he’d be pretty pissed off…”
“No matter how grand the name sounds, in the end it’s just an internal energy technique for suicide. It’s too crude.”
“Wh-What is it? What are you talking about?”
Son Gwang heard the dialogue between the two and asked in surprise. Jang Geon casually replied while taking a drag of tobacco:
“We picked the wrong subject for interrogation. This woman was preparing for suicide even before she was first struck in her acupoints. Since she endured the bone-dislocating agony, I wondered if she wanted to live… We should have picked the guy who stepped forward babbling at first instead.”
“Pardon? Th-Then the remaining lead on the Palace is…?”
“Since I can roughly recognize those who practice demonic arts, I’ll have to run around directly based on that. Seeing how many were gathered at just one intermediate stronghold in this small city, it doesn’t seem like it will take very long.”
“…Look for a bookstore.”
Jang Geon and Son Gwang’s eyes turned toward Murong San-san. She looked up into empty air with dimmed eyes and said:
“There… General Namgung is there… It’s a shame we couldn’t share a drink together, Jang Geon…”
She spoke briefly like that and soon stopped breathing.
Son Gwang looked at her as if he could not understand her, but Jang Geon merely smoked his tobacco calmly. He sat in that spot until River Rock led warriors to the tea house a short while later, gazing at the dead Murong San-san’s real face.
“…There are few bookstores in Gowon City. We will find it quickly.”
Jang Geon flicked away the burned-out tobacco listening to Son Gwang’s words and stood up.
“Lead the way.”