Chapter 163: Chapter 163
* * *
Leaving the Je Clan banquet venue, Jang Geon headed straight for Birak Garden. That was because there were people he needed to meet there.
The farther he got from the banquet venue, the quieter the surroundings became. Perhaps due to the clamor of the banquet venue resounding far off in the distance, that silence became even more prominent. Because of that, the path walking toward Birak Garden felt like leaving a crowded city to enter a quiet mountain temple. In truth, since he would meet a monk at its end, it was not an altogether wrong thought.
Thus on the path toward Birak Garden, a few servants passed by. Perhaps because of the abundant guests inside the manor, they appeared very busy. Among them, some mistook Jang Geon for a lost guest trying to ask for directions, only to soon recognize him as Jang Geon and bow at the waist.
Jang Geon was soon able to arrive at Birak Garden. Since the few other guests who had stayed there were all at the banquet venue, the inside of the large pavilion was very quiet.
Slowly ascending the stairs, Jang Geon stood before a certain room, lightly tidied his clothes, and knocked tap-tap on the door. Soon the door opened, and the faces of Jin Gyeon and Seo-ha appeared.
“Warrior Jang? Why are you not at the banquet venue…”
Unlike Jin Gyeon who let his words trail off looking at Jang Geon’s face, Seo-ha quickly trotted over and clung tightly to him. Patting the child’s head, Jang Geon replied:
“It was too noisy. It seems I can never get used to such gatherings.”
At that answer, Jin Gyeon twitched his lips about to say something, but seeing Jang Geon looking down at Seo-ha with a small smile, he simply closed his mouth.
After watching Seo-ha rub her face against his robes for a moment, Jang Geon soon waddled inside with the child attached to his leg. And only after entering did he speak to Jin Gyeon as if just remembering:
“…May I come in for a bit?”
“Hehe. Please do.”
Jin Gyeon laughed as if not offended in the slightest. Instead of Jang Geon who stepped inside, he even closed the door for him and walked toward one side of the room. Where he headed, a few simple garments were laid out. Seeing that, Jang Geon noticed that Jin Gyeon and Seo-ha had been preparing to depart.
“Did you not recite the incantation just a moment ago?”
“Hmm?”
Jin Gyeon, who was picking up garments, turned back at Jang Geon’s question and laughed softly.
Before the banquet, prior to the ritual where the clan elders recognized Je Sang-cheon as Family Head, Jin Gyeon’s recitation of the blessing incantation took place first. Citing many Buddhist scriptures, he bestowed good words and blessings upon the Je Clan’s future. For that moment, the noisy banquet venue briefly felt like the main hall of a large temple.
Since the event proceeded well, had he remained there, he would have been able to meet not only Je Sang-cheon who had now become Family Head and many figures of the Je Clan, but also key figures of New Sichuan and New Continent sects. If he possessed good eloquence, he might have drawn alms for Shaolin Temple there, or going further, secured donations beyond simple alms. After all, the very reason Jin Gyeon returned to the New Continent was because the former Family Head of the Je Clan had made large donations.
However, as soon as his work ended, Jin Gyeon returned straight to Birak Garden and was preparing to leave. Jang Geon asked why he was preparing to leave already.
“Well… it is something I felt over the past few days, but Donor Je Sang-cheon, who became the new Family Head, in truth seemed to have no great interest in our temple. He merely assumed a form of respecting it since it was a temple his father gave alms to. Had I remained there, he might have displayed an uncomfortable demeanor.”
Jin Gyeon spoke with a continuously smiling face.
“Furthermore, after entering the manor, it felt far too suffocating. Coming to New Sichuan this time, I intended to visit a few temples located here, and at night view the Night Illuminated Boats floating on New Sichuan Bay. But citing safety and such, they did not let me step outside Birak Garden, so it felt more suffocating than being at a mountain temple.”
“Night Illuminated Boats?”
Jang Geon asked, bewildered. He understood that since the Je Clan’s treatment was lukewarm, he felt like leaving quickly. However, even Jang Geon, who had lived on the New Continent for quite a while, heard the term Night Illuminated Boat for the first time.
Just then, Seo-ha, who was clinging like a cicada to Jang Geon, raised her head, looked up, and spoke:
“They say it’s a very large boat floated only at night. They say the lanterns on that boat are so bright that people living near the pier spend the night using the light from that boat instead of lanterns in their own homes. That’s why it’s called a Night Illuminated Boat.”
When the monk Jin Gyeon unexpectedly said he would view boats, it seemed there had been Seo-ha’s strong assertion. Looking up at Jang Geon, Seo-ha’s eyes were shining brightly. Jang Geon playfully pinched the tip of the child’s nose. At that, Seo-ha made a nasal sound by herself.
Teasing Seo-ha like that, Jang Geon spoke:
“Then have you decided on a lodging to stay at after leaving the manor?”
“Mmm. I thought of receiving help from temples I drop by along the way…”
“Then let us go to my older brother’s house. There are plenty of empty rooms.”
Jin Gyeon hesitated as if slightly embarrassed.
“Th-there is no need to go that far, Warrior Jang. Inconveniencing your elder brother for no reason is…”
“He will not consider it an inconvenience. If he does, I will secure a room at the best inn in New Sichuan for you.”
Teasing Seo-ha’s face, Jang Geon raised his head and met Jin Gyeon’s eyes.
“However, I guarantee that my older brother’s house will be ten times more comfortable than such an inn room.”
At Jang Geon’s guarantee, Jin Gyeon unconsciously raised his hand in a single palm sign and laughed.
“…Is that so? Then I must certainly go. Here, just because it is an ancient clan family, the room is merely spacious and feels like a bed of thorns, so it was far too uncomfortable. Hahaha.”
Listening to the conversation between the two while hanging onto Jang Geon’s leg, Seo-ha looked back and forth between them with a slightly blank face, then quietly tugged Jang Geon’s collar and asked:
“…Where are we going?”
Patting Seo-ha’s head, Jang Geon replied:
“To a house much more bustling than here.”
“A bustling house?”
“Yeah. My uncle’s family is there too.”
“…Family?”
At the child’s gaze looking up at him with wide eyes, Jang Geon slowly knelt down on one knee to match her eye level. Since she had certainly grown much bigger than in the past, kneeling down like that reversed their gazes so Jang Geon looked up at Seo-ha and Seo-ha looked down at Jang Geon.
“Hmm, my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece, and a newly made friend’s family are staying there too. The house is spacious, but there are also many people, so at times it gets noisy. With four children, absurd commotions happen often too. But in any case, it will be better than here. How about it, do you want to go check it out?”
“…Will you be together?”
Jang Geon nodded while looking into Seo-ha’s eyes.
“Of course.”
A smile slowly rose at the corners of Seo-ha’s mouth. It was not a boisterous laugh. It was simply a bright child’s face. Seo-ha soon nodded her head and embraced Jang Geon. Embracing Seo-ha back for a moment, Jang Geon let out a *urgh* sound and stood up with the child attached to him. Laughing with a small voice, Seo-ha grabbed Jang Geon’s hair.
Stepping back to one side, Jin Gyeon quietly watched that sight while rolling his prayer beads. In a low voice, he muttered, “Amitabha…”
Carrying Seo-ha attached to him, Jang Geon looked at him and spoke:
“Are all your belongings packed?”
“Hehe, I have gathered almost everything.”
“Then let us leave quickly. I dislike staying here any longer.”
Jin Gyeon nodded his head.
“Let us do so.”
Jang Geon, Jin Gyeon, and Jin Seo-ha thus quietly crossed the main gate and left while the Je Clan manor was boisterous with the banquet. In all three people, no sign of regret leaving Birak Garden could be found. Seom Ji-young and Je Sang-cheon, who were busy with the banquet, learned that they had left only when that night arrived.
* * *
Inside a dark, large room, a tiny lamp light was shedding a dim illumination. The lamp light was far too small to illuminate the entire room.
However, even with just that small light, the grotesqueness inside the room was sufficiently exposed. On the walls of that room, talismans with yellow paper and red drawings were messily attached, and from the ceiling, straw ropes entangled with unknown herbs or poisonous plants hung down, along with small animals like birds or rabbits strung through iron hooks with their blood-red bellies wide open.
Even what was faintly visible was a scene that sufficiently inspired eerie chills, but because of the dark shadows, that grotesqueness was doubled. Due to the flickering lamp light, the shadows wriggled, making it look as though black monsters were sliding across the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Just then, in the middle of the room that was thought to contain only grotesque decorations, something smoothly raised its body. Covered in a black robe, its exact appearance was not revealed. It was merely bizarre that its two arms emerging outside the robe and resting on the floor were pale as corpses and gauntly thin.
Before that entity that raised its body, a small water bowl was placed. The reason that water bowl now sloshed and glinted in the faint lamp light was because the black-robed existence had been covering it with a prostrate body.
Yet inside that sloshing water bowl, surprisingly, a hazy picture was moving. Though not clearly visible because it was too dark, it appeared to be two men and one young girl.
From a thin gap buried between the robes, that entity’s eyeball flashed. That eyeball was gazing precisely at the hazy picture inside that water bowl.
It spoke:
“…Nine Yin Death Acupoint… Jang Geon, you truly obstruct our path every single time…”
The voice flowing out from the gap in the robe was an unpleasant, terrifying voice as if scraping iron. Having leaked a soliloquy, he slowly swept his hand that had been resting on the floor over the water bowl. It was as if caressing them from far away.
That hand soon smoothly disappeared into the robe and then popped out again. Inside that hand, a new tool was held.
Inside the dark room, a *tinkle—* sound of a bell rang out. Thanks to being enclosed on all sides, the sound echoed against the walls, creating a terrifying resonance. It was clearly a clear, crisp bell sound, but strangely it was a sound that felt eerie and made one’s nerves sharp.
And as that sound rang out, others who had been prostrate inside the room smoothly raised their bodies. Because the room was dark and the lamp light was far too small, how many they were exactly could not be confirmed.
One among them stepped forward slightly on knees, prostrated again, and opened his mouth:
“Please issue your command, Serpent Duke.”
A *tinkle—* sound of a bell rang out. The one called Serpent Duke had lightly gestured with a hand.
“…As long as that foolish Imperial Princess is holding out, the organization here in New Sichuan cannot be maintained any longer. Even what currently exists would have vanished had I not come…”
“F-Forgive me, Serpent Duke. General Tang devised a plan to turn crisis into opportunity while dealing with the traitor, but…”
Once more, a *tinkle—* sound of a bell rang out. The one making excuses hurriedly shut his mouth.
“…Are you intending to blame the deceased General Tang? Cease it, before I feel like tearing you to death…”
“Y-Yes. Understood. Forgive me, Serpent Duke.”
Buried inside the robe, Serpent Duke’s eyes looked into the distance.
“…We will withdraw completely from New Sichuan. Remaining longer will only increase meaningless deaths. Instead…”
At the word ‘instead’, the prostrate one covertly raised his head.
“Instead…?”
“…While clearing out the stronghold, we will target the Nine Yin Death Acupoint in the gap. Since we failed to deal with the traitor and even lost General Tang, we must compensate for the losses through the Nine Yin Death Acupoint. Furthermore, if we obtain that Nine Yin Death Acupoint, the completion of the Great Plan will be right before our eyes…”
“…B-But… then what of the Azure Dragon Sword…?”
Serpent Duke’s eyes turned toward the prostrate one. Meeting those eyes, the man hurriedly stuck his head back onto the floor and shouted:
“The two of them cannot remain attached forever! As long as he is human, a small gap is bound to open eventually! Before the New Sichuan stronghold is completely cleared out, I will definitely find a gap!”
After his urgent shout, the inside of the room rapidly grew chilly. The prostrate man trembled violently while gritting his teeth. Though it was a very brief instant, it felt as though hours had passed.
Just then, Serpent Duke shook the bell again to make a sound.
“…Withdraw. I must contact the Main Palace…”
“Yes! We shall withdraw!”
He and those prostrate behind him all crawled backward and withdrew. That appearance looked as if being sucked into the shadow that the lamp light did not reach.
After they all vanished, Serpent Duke thrust the bell into the chest of the robe and covered his body over the water bowl. And at that instant, a wind blew from somewhere and *whoosh*, blew out the lamp light. Afterward, in a space darker than dark, a skin-crawling *hmmm—* sound echoed faintly. Black ghosts were dancing in the dark.
* * *
Holding a writing board in front of the merchant guild, Jang Un was checking a inventory list. Standing before him was a freight wagon, and a man who appeared to be the owner of that wagon was bowing obsequiously.
“Hehe, Manager. Why are you looking so strictly again? Do you not trust me?”
Quietly reading the writing board, Jang Un froze at those words. And with the same expression as when reading the writing board, he raised his head and met that man’s eyes. The wagon owner looked at him as if asking what was wrong.
After gazing at the wagon owner like that for a moment, Jang Un soon turned his head and shouted:
“Sang-pal!”
“Yes— Manager!”
Sang-pal, a merchant guild employee, promptly answered and came outside. Jang Un gestured toward the wagon and said:
“Unpack everything.”
“Yessir—”
Without a second word, Sang-pal answered and approached the freight wagon to begin untying the ropes. Seeing that, the wagon owner panicked and said:
“Th-Th-That… M-Manager! Why are you doing this all of a sudden? D-Did I make some mistake?”
“Mistake? Well, I don’t know. That’s why I’m saying let’s verify it.”
“Pardon? Ah, ahh…”
After making foolish noises for a moment, the wagon owner hurriedly bowed low to Jang Un and spoke:
“F-Forgive me, Manager… I made a slip of the tongue… There is no issue with the goods present, Manager… Just…”
Jang Un lightly raised a hand. At that, Sang-pal, who was unpacking freight, tactfully stopped his hands. The wagon owner’s words continued:
“Forgive me, Manager… Just… the quantity inside the wagon will be slightly short…”
Holding the writing board, Jang Un slowly shook his head.
“My good man. What times are these that you cheat on quantities? If Sang-pal verifies it for a moment, you’ll be caught right away. And you couldn’t even do that properly so you showed obvious signs?”
“…Forgive me, sir… My wife’s medicine costs were short…”
“Make sure the original quantity is matched by today. And if such a thing happens next time, then without a second word I will simply report it to the Merchant Guild Association. Do you understand what I mean?”
The wagon owner bowed at the waist almost to the point of prostrating.
“Yes, yes, sir. Of course I know. Thank you, sir.”
“Then go quickly and finish up the work.”
With a face turned white and pouring cold sweat, the wagon owner repeatedly said thank you and left on the wagon. As Jang Un stood with hands behind his back watching the receding wagon, Sang-pal approached from the side and asked:
“You forgave him easily? Even though he cheated on quantities.”
“…That man’s wife being sick has been going on for over two years now. Nursing that illness, he blew through almost all his household assets… When a person is driven to extremes, they occasionally have bad thoughts like that. And it’s not like he did it multiple times; I let it slide because it’s just this once.”
Jang Un answered bluntly and turned his body. And then he froze. That was because he saw Jang Geon grinning at him, a monk repeatedly nodding and reciting Buddhist prayers, and a young girl hiding behind Jang Geon carefully peeking over here.
And the moment he saw that young girl, Jang Un felt an ominous imagination flash through his mind. That was why he reflexively ended up shouting:
“You finally did it! What about the child’s mother!”
Jang Geon’s smiling face froze just like that.