Chapter 123: Chapter 123

Having left the cleanup of the tea house to River Rock and the tribe warriors, Jang Geon and Son Gwang immediately moved to search for bookstores in Gowon City.

The sun was already rising close to noon. The sky was clear, and the moderate sunlight was good for moving about. Many Central Plains people and natives came and went along the streets of Gowon City, buying items, making deals, or moving cargo. Merchants carrying loads of hides stacked high on cattle, horses, or carriages were the most numerous, and those were mostly buffalo horns and hides.

As Jang Geon was watching them while brushing past, Son Gwang, who was taking the lead, spoke:

“Hey, Warrior Jang?”

“Why?”

Son Gwang turned around to look at Jang Geon with an anxious expression.

“…Did that woman tell the truth?”

“That she lied while dying?”

“Considering how she endured torture, I think that is also a possibility. Diverting our attention to a wrong place while continuing their plots behind our backs.”

Jang Geon gestured with his chin for him to keep going and spoke:

“Even if that information were not true, we would still have to run around Gowon City to find the demonic practitioners anyway. So even if it happens to be false information, we can simply consider that we started our inquiry from a bookstore.”

“C-Can you really recognize demonic art practitioners?”

Son Gwang spoke as if Jang Geon’s ability was baffling. However, Jang Geon looked at him with blank eyes without answering, and Son Gwang, catching that gaze, quickly set off on the road again.

Before long, they found a large bookstore in the middle of a street bustling with people coming and going. Upon stepping inside, an elderly man smiled and greeted them:

“Welcome. Is there a book you are looking for?”

Looking at the elderly man, Jang Geon glanced at Son Gwang with an eye signal. True to an intelligence agent directly under the Emperor, Son Gwang understood the meaning and stepped forward.

“Ah, well. What is it, I am looking for something good.”

“…This is a bookstore? Have you come to the wrong place?”

“Ah why, you know. Something good among books.”

“…Uh-huh?”

Son Gwang brought up such useless talk and held the elderly man in conversation. Meanwhile, Jang Geon went deeper into the bookstore and looked around its interior. Inside the dim space, bookshelves lining the walls were packed with all kinds of miscellaneous books.

In ancient times, after paper was invented in the Han Imperial Palace, it became an important imperial enterprise, and over hundreds of years, an immense amount of paper was sold and spread. Subsequent strong imperial authority ensured no major wars, so books made of paper were rarely lost, and as the imperial family emphasized the preservation of books and paper, that trend naturally spread to noble families and commoners alike. As that period grew extremely long, paper and books became items that even ordinary commoners could sufficiently obtain if they wished.

Thanks to that, even a bookstore in a frontier city like this could fill its shelves with books. Of course, the bookstore itself was not very large, but still, this amount would number at least several hundred volumes.

Having a brief thought while looking around the bookstore, Jang Geon soon turned around. It was a bookstore whose smell of old books he liked, but other than that, no peculiar points could be seen.

“…No, so I mean, that… good thing… you know.”

“Is this fellow teasing someone right now? What is that good thing! What is it! You say it’s not erotic manuals! You say it’s not the Four Books! What is it!”

“Th-That is…”

At that moment, Jang Geon passed by them toward the door and bowed his head slightly to the elderly man.

“Sell plenty.”

“Uhm? Ah, right. Come again next time.”

The elderly man reflexively accepted the greeting and turned his head back to Son Gwang. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t about to let himself be teased.

“Then I shall be off too!”

“H-Hey…!”

However, Son Gwang quickly followed behind Jang Geon and escaped the old man’s anger. Stepping outside and finally catching his breath, he turned to Jang Geon and asked:

“That place doesn’t seem to be it. He was an ordinary old man.”

Jang Geon looked at Son Gwang dumbly and said:

“Good thing?”

“…Th-The truth is, the field of books I know is extremely limited, so if I ask for that, a problem might arise with my usual forged identity…”

“Your talent for drawing attention is truly grand.”

At those words that were hard to tell whether praise or teasing, Son Gwang shrank back slightly.

“I-I can do better at the next bookstore. If it’s not a prepared act, I don’t do it well…”

Jang Geon chuckled at what he offered as an excuse. Certainly, if one could change face, build, and voice, it seemed one didn’t need to act well. Because the same action could look different in intent depending on the outward appearance.

“Where is the next one?”

“Ah, this way.”

The next bookstore was on the same street not very far away. It was slightly larger than the bookstore run by the old man, and a young scholar even gave book explanations to patrons. Son Gwang displayed a much more plausible appearance there than the previous time, but that place too was a bookstore where no particularly suspicious points could be found.

Stepping outside, Son Gwang looked down at a storybook in his hand with a gloomy eye. He had bought a book he wouldn’t even read just to draw attention well. Raising his head, he spoke to Jang Geon:

“…It seems we were deceived after all. For demonic practitioners to hide in a bookstore like this. No, to begin with, unlike tea houses or inns, multiple people cannot stay long, right?”

“They don’t necessarily need to stay long, as long as they can hand down orders or information. Viewed with such eyes, a bookstore can also be an excellent stronghold. Since information can be hidden and delivered inside books being traded.”

Son Gwang wore a serious expression as if finding Jang Geon’s words plausible. Certainly, if orders and information were handed down like that, few people would feel anything strange. And come to think of it, the Dark Dragon Corps was also utilizing agents in a similar manner. It was just that because he was an agent alone in such a remote frontier, he was distant from such espionage activities, making it feel unfamiliar.

Having thought that far, Son Gwang suddenly became curious about Jang Geon’s identity. Of course, he also knew Jang Geon’s rough personal background, but that information alone could by no means properly explain Jang Geon’s current insight or his martial prowess. However, he soon set aside his curiosity.

If he was this curious, the same question would have already been raised at the higher levels of the Dark Dragon Corps, reported to higher ranks, and Jang Geon would have been investigated more deeply. Yet, seeing that he was completely fine like this and held no particular hostility toward the Dark Dragon Corps, higher management must not have found anything particularly strange. Then there was no reason for him to step up further.

Son Gwang did not know that after Commandant Fierce Tiger died in New Sichuan and Dark Dragon Agent No. 3 kept silent, Jang Geon’s information failed to ascend to higher levels of the Imperial Army. He was simply too far away.

As both Jang Geon and Son Gwang kept quiet and organized their thoughts while moving, they soon arrived in front of a new bookstore. Looking at the sign of that bookstore, Son Gwang spoke:

“That… It seems this place isn’t it either…”

“Why?”

He scratched his head and answered:

“This is a bookstore where I frequently obtained materials about the natives. I have known the owner elder for a long time too. He is a person who has operated a bookstore here for at least thirty or forty years, and he is someone with many ties to the native side. It is hard to imagine he is a demonic practitioner of the Palace.”

Hearing those words, Jang Geon looked around the surroundings. Since it was far from the main street, not many people were passing by, but at the same time it appropriately caught the eye, making it a place where whatever business one ran wouldn’t go bankrupt. If he had set up shop there with the intention of opening a quiet bookstore, it was not incomprehensible, but still, the suspiciousness could not be helped.

Looking around, Jang Geon soon approached the bookstore. Son Gwang thought of stopping him again, but ultimately just followed behind him.

Opening the bookstore door and stepping inside, Jang Geon saw an old man sitting on a chair in a corner reading a book with a sullen expression. As Jang Geon and Son Gwang stepped inside, the old man merely raised his eyes to check their faces and then lowered his gaze back to the book.

“If there is a book you’re looking for, pick it out yourselves. We don’t do recommendations here.”

It by no means looked like an attitude for doing business. However, the bookshelves inside the bookstore, which looked much wider than seen from outside, were packed full. However, what was even more surprising was not the quantity of books, but the neatness inside the bookstore.

The condition of the books was without exception top-notch, and it was hard to find dust on top of the bookshelves. When Jang Geon pulled out a book visible in the middle, though old thumbprints remained on the paper, there were no lost or torn parts. Looking at it, it seemed he did not handle such books at all.

Meanwhile, as the old man seemed to have no interest in patrons at all, Son Gwang also tried not to draw his attention. Deep down, he seemed to trust the bookstore owner he had known for a long time.

Having looked around at such Son Gwang, the bookstore interior, and the books, Jang Geon put the book he had pulled out back in its place. No trace of martial arts could be found from the old man. He seemed to be merely a bookstore owner who worked hard at managing books.

However, the moment he put the book back into the bookshelf, Jang Geon felt a faint draft of wind at his fingertips and paused slightly. Jang Geon remained still like that for a moment with his hand placed on top of the bookshelf.

A moment later, sensing a presence, the old man reading the book moved only his eyes and looked up. The owner of the presence was Jang Geon.

“What is it? I told you to pick out the books yourself.”

“I want to look around the inner part.”

“…Inner part? What inner part?”

The old man asked as if unable to understand what Jang Geon was talking about. Jang Geon did not swagger relaxed as if knowing everything. He merely looked down at the old man with cold, settled eyes.

“…I don’t know what you’re talking about. There is no inner room on the first floor here. Are you saying you want to see my room on the second floor? That’s just my household belongings?”

“Then as you first said, I shall look for it myself.”

Jang Geon spoke like that and turned his body. And Son Gwang, looking at him and the old man with anxious eyes, discovered at that moment that the expression of the old man looking at Jang Geon’s back turned cold as ice as he abruptly stood up. Shocked, Son Gwang hurriedly shouted to Jang Geon:

“Warrior Jang! Watch out…”

However, even before his words ended, Jang Geon had already turned back around toward the old man and was holding the iron skewer he had extended. The old man’s arm trembled violently.

“…How did you find this place?”

Jang Geon did not answer that question and quietly examined the old man. The skill of standing up and extending the skewer initially was reasonably fast, but that was something to be said considering the old man’s age. The old man currently exerting all his strength to somehow extend the skewer seemed completely unversed in martial arts.

“Murong San-san told me before she died.”

“San-san…?”

As if startled, the old man loosened his grip and opened both eyes wide, then soon chuckled.

“…That brat had such useless rebelliousness since childhood. It wasn’t a temperament suited for a snake.”

“Well. Among the demonic practitioners I’ve seen so far, her resolve was the firmest.”

The old man, who hadn’t expected Jang Geon’s answer, laughed nonchalantly again as if that statement was funny, and keeping his caught right hand as it was, he moved his left hand. Seeing a small bamboo canister held in that extended left hand, Jang Geon felt an ominous premonition, pushed the old man away, and spun his body around.

Immediately after, along with a small pop noise, a wind-ripping sound whistled. Subsequently, heavy thudding sounds also echoed.

“Wh-What is it?”

Son Gwang inside the bookstore was startled by that noise, threw himself behind a bookshelf, and quickly popped only his head out to examine the situation. The chair the old man had been sitting on and the bookshelf over there had fallen into a mess.

Jang Geon was standing there perfectly fine, dusting off his clothes.

“…For flying hidden weapons to change direction and return. How did you do it?”

In front of Jang Geon, there was the old man collapsed on top of the books of the bookshelf. Five or six thin iron skewers were embedded deeply into his body, and beside him, shattered bamboo canister debris rolled around. It was a one-time hidden weapon device using a mechanical mechanism.

A moment ago, iron skewers had poured out from inside toward Jang Geon, but as Jang Geon spun his body, the hidden weapons were swept up in that vortex and returned to the old man.

“An application of fist arts.”

“…That’s a fist art the Tang Clan would really hate…”

The old man left behind a single brief remark like that and his breath ceased. Son Gwang, who approached beside Jang Geon, looked at the old man’s corpse with unbelievable eyes.

“…There was no sign of practicing martial arts either… He was a person who operated a bookstore in Gowon City for a long time…”

Whether the old man was originally a person of the Palace or recruited later was unknown. Because the party involved was dead. Glancing at the old man while dusting his clothes for a moment, Jang Geon soon turned around.

The intention of the old man who hadn’t even practiced martial arts attacking at the risk of his life was obvious. He had bought time for the figures in the internal secret space Jang Geon had felt to escape.

Jang Geon approached the bookshelf attached to the wall where he had felt the airflow earlier, raised his hand, and felt a faint wind once more. His eyes rapidly scanned the bookshelf, and soon discovered a hole cleverly hidden between books. Without hesitation, he put his hand in there and pulled a small rod-like mechanical device. With a clunk sound, a small door opened on one side of the bookshelf.

“Warrior Jang! Let’s go together!”

As Jang Geon vanished with a swoosh inside that door, Son Gwang behind him quickly followed suit. Beyond the door, dark stairs appeared, and Son Gwang barely managed to steady himself from almost falling down them as he descended. Exiting the staircase passage, a spacious basement and Jang Geon’s back came into view.

“Warrior Jang, let’s move after speaking. Still, I decided to give you reward money later…”

Son Gwang’s mouth shut. It was because he realized that over Jang Geon’s shoulder, far across the basement where dark torches flickered, another figure stood showing his back.

The moment he saw him, Son Gwang felt goosebumps break out across his whole body for reasons unknown. And the moment he turned his body around and looked over here with eyes gleaming blue, Son Gwang unwittingly lost strength in his legs and collapsed to a sit.

“Wh-What on earth is…”

At that moment, momentum overwhelming the air erupted from that figure, extinguishing all torches in the basement. Son Gwang froze stiff all over as if fallen into midwinter ice water and stopped breathing. His eyes buried in darkness burned blue as he looked over here.

However, there was one light that did not go out. That was a brazier fire near Jang Geon. Thanks to that, half of his face was buried in shadow, and half sparkled in the brazier light.

And those two eyes were calmly settled, facing the monster in the darkness.