Chapter 66: Chapter 66

* * *

“…I am sorry, Chief.”

“It’s fine. The Je Clan’s successor was stupider than known, and there was another variable. I cannot place the blame solely on you. Did you find out who ultimately secured the treasure map?”

Aside from the one who apologized and the one called Chief, a third party present at the scene opened their mouth.

“No, there is no special information yet. However, to crack Li Shimin’s, or more accurately Li Zhi’s code, they will eventually have to find someone who can interpret that code. And there is only one person in New Sichuan capable of doing that.”

“That makes sense. Then losing it isn’t truly losing it.”

“Chief! Please give me one more chance! This time, without doing anything foolish, I will bring back only the treasure map!”

“No. Due to the commotion at the inn, the attention of the Martial Alliance and the public has focused on it. At times like this, rather than having a portion move separately, everyone must move together. We must not leave a tail behind, but become wild beasts to bite and tear apart our prey.”

“…Understood.”

“Keep this in mind. Depending on the result of this work, we may spread our wings and open a grand beginning, or we may tumble down without even properly starting.”

The one called Chief stood up from his seat afterwards and muttered in a low voice.

“The Mandate of Han has ended.”

“Soon the time of the Yellow Heaven shall come.”

Shadows in the dark room began moving secretly.

* * *

Jang Geon and Yang Goeng retrieved their horses from the inn, led them, and wandered the streets of New Sichuan.

Yang Goeng was walking ahead with relentless steps, as if he knew the place to go with certainty. And Jang Geon was following behind him, thinking about the ruffians wearing yellow masks.

When they returned to the inn to retrieve their horses, the ruffians who had attacked first were all gone. Because they had taken even those injured while fighting the black market warriors, what Jang Geon saw was an entirely empty inn.

As Jang Geon alone, it was not easy to guess their identity. According to Yang Goeng, they were not the Imperial Army, but one couldn’t trust this fellow’s words alone either, and judging by the appearance of the Je Clan at the transaction site, another ancient noble clan might have interfered. Or perhaps the Martial Alliance, seeing other forces causing a riot in their own front yard, had interfered.

At any rate, Jang Geon, who had picked up the treasure map in that mayhem, chuckled softly, thinking what did it matter who they were. They wore yellow masks. Then could they be something like the Yellow-Mask Bandits? To him, who had never heard the name of Zhang Jue in the history of this world, it merely sounded like a joke.

While his thoughts continued, Yang Goeng’s steps left the bustling district of New Sichuan and stopped in front of a general store on the outskirts. Tying his horse’s reins in front of the shop, he spoke.

“We’ve arrived. Since dragging time out won’t do any good, rather than a complete translation, let’s just find out how to get there.”

Jang Geon tied Jojo’s reins beside him and asked.

“You’re in a hurry.”

“Of course I’m in a hurry. What we hold in our hands is ultimately stolen goods, and not to mention the Je Clan, unidentified bastards are targeting it too, right? If we drag time out further, it’s a situation where all kinds of trash will get involved even more. Naturally, it’s a situation where Brother Jang should be in a hurry too!”

Tying the reins, Yang Goeng rattled off all that in a rush, then hurried inside the general store. Jang Geon shook his head gently and followed behind him. However, just as he stepped inside the general store a beat later than Yang Goeng, something suddenly flew toward his face.

Automatically catching it, he found it was a wooden figurine. Carved in the shape of an old man sitting in a chair. Seeing what kind of situation this was, a woman inside the shop was throwing all kinds of objects toward Yang Goeng.

“Get out! Get out, you bastard!”

“L-Li Yeon! W-Why are you acting like this!”

“Why? Did you ask why, you bastard!”

The woman was a tall, long-limbed beauty, whose tightly bound hair in the back and rolled-up sleeves seemed to show she was an active person. Such a woman distorted her face as much as possible and flared up in anger at Yang Goeng.

“Why? Because I’m about to get killed by the black market thanks to you, fuck!”

“A-Ah, no, what do you mean by that!”

Raising a wooden box high, the woman threw it straight at Yang Goeng. Yang Goeng dived and rolled across the floor to dodge it, and thanks to that, the inside of the general store was becoming even more of a mess.

“You brainless bastard! Rumors spread so fast I’ve already heard everything! You said you’d steal it in the middle of the night! But you gathered people and raided the transaction scene? If you pull that shit, naturally the black market will glare wide-eyed and try to dig out the circumstances! Then naturally I, who interpreted the map, will get caught!”

“N-No! Those weren’t people I mobilized! It’s true!”

Excited, the woman eventually picked up a heavy handaxe, but stood dead in her tracks upon hearing Yang Goeng’s words.

“…It wasn’t you?”

“Of course not! Where would I have people to mobilize like that! We were going to steal it in the middle of the night!”

“We?”

Only then did the woman spot Jang Geon standing tall at the door. Perhaps out of breath from throwing things and yelling at the top of her lungs, she stuck the axe onto the adjacent table with a thud and looked back and forth between Jang Geon and Yang Goeng.

“…What? Who is that man?”

“Jang Geon.”

Glaring at Yang Goeng, the woman looked at Jang Geon in slight bewilderment at those suddenly intruding words.

“…Pardon?”

“I am Jang Geon. And you?”

“Ah, yes. Well… Li Yeon, I am called Li Yeon.”

Jang Geon naturally set the old man figurine he held in his hand upright on a nearby shelf. Amidst the overturned mess, that alone standing intact possessed a subtle charm.

“I cannot follow the conversation between you two right now. Would you let me know the circumstances?”

“Ah, Brother Jang. This friend is a friend who makes replicas of ancient relics…”

Lying on the floor, Yang Goeng slowly stood up and attempted to introduce Li Yeon like that. However, midway through, when she abruptly pulled out the embedded axe with a thunking sound, he shut his mouth. Holding the axe, she smirked at Yang Goeng as if telling him to shut up, and Yang Goeng had to follow with an awkward smile and remain silent.

Looking at Jang Geon, Li Yeon introduced herself.

“I study ancient relics here in New Sichuan. From relics brought over from the Central Plains to this New Continent over the past hundred years, to items of the native people who originally lived in this land, to items brought here by Western merchants traveling from far away, if it’s a thing of the past, I receive and interpret it without discrimination.”

“Interpret?”

“Yes, interpret. How the people back then would have used this item, what meaning lay in their behavioral patterns, and how their lives were according to that, and so on. Even a small rice bowl holds hundreds of years of history.”

“So you were an archaeologist.”

Her expression turned slightly blank.

“…Archaeologist? Hmm. That pronunciation sounds pretty nice. I should introduce myself like that from now on.”

Looking around the messy general store, Jang Geon continued speaking.

“Why is such a person entangled with a scoundrel like that fellow?”

“Ah… Well…”

She hesitated as if it were difficult to bring up the story to Jang Geon whom she had met for the first time. Seeing her like that, Yang Goeng nodded as if she could trust him. Looking at Yang Goeng suspiciously, she nevertheless began her story.

“…Well, relics from the Central Plains or the Western Regions are quite expensive due to the distance… Of course, rich people in New Sichuan or Heavenly Empress City pay a lot of money to find out where their family genealogies or heirlooms came from… But that’s only once or twice…”

Jang Geon could understand what she was stumbling through to explain. She was a forger who copied relics of ancient royalty and sold them to the new rich of the New Continent. Knowing Yang Goeng, a thief and swindler, was a matter of course.

And the reason she had flared up in anger like that just now was also clear.

After the horse bandit obtained the treasure map and brought it to the black market, the black market brought only a portion of that treasure map copied out to Li Yeon—the person most well-versed in relics in New Sichuan—thinking to find out whether Li Shimin’s treasure map was real.

However, deciphering the codes and symbols of the old Li Clan, she immediately noticed that the entire code was a kind of map, namely a treasure map, and came to think of stealing it away. So she brought in Yang Goeng as the person to steal the map. It seemed she was Yang Goeng’s informant whom he thought was inside the black market.

“That fellow steals it, and you intended to decipher the rest to find the treasure?”

“…Yes.”

Hearing her answer, Jang Geon crossed his arms and looked at Yang Goeng with disdainful eyes. Yang Goeng fidgeted uncomfortably under that gaze, because naturally he had never mentioned such a story when dividing the profit ratio.

“Hey.”

“…W-What is it, Brother Jang?”

“If you could make out the map yourself, you wouldn’t have come here, right?”

Li Yeon immediately glared fiercely at Yang Goeng with angry eyes. Cold sweat poured down his face.

“E-Ey, what are you saying? Of course I had to come here. Wouldn’t we need to interpret the map to go find the treasure?”

“But you didn’t mention a word about this side. Only making a promise with me to split seven to three.”

“Seven to three? Seven to thrrrreee? What happened to splitting five to five with me, you bastard!”

She thrust the handaxe in her hand toward Yang Goeng, and Yang Goeng backed away in terror at that gleaming axe blade.

“Ehei! Don’t be like this! We just need to split the ratio among the three of us again! At any rate, because of those strange masked guys, it’s out of the question for just the two of us to take it! We need a swordsman!”

Because Li Yeon was about the same height as Yang Goeng, when she grabbed him by the collar like that and thrust the axe blade at him, Yang Goeng had no choice but to shrink back servilely. Even so, rolling his tongue somehow in the midst of it made him quite something.

Watching the two squabbling people with eyes filled with slight absurdity, Jang Geon suddenly changed his expression. Then moving in a flash, he grabbed both Yang Goeng and Li Yeon and pushed them into a corner. The two cried out in surprise.

“Ugh! What is it!”

“Why are you doing this!”

Simultaneously, from outside the general store, a long spear pierced through the wall and flew inside.

Driven with powerful force, the spear slammed with a thud into the spot where the two had been grabbing collars and shouting moments ago, trembling vibratingly.

“…W-What is that?”

After Yang Goeng’s bewildered muttering, only silence filled the general store. Inspecting the perforated wall and spear with sunken eyes, Jang Geon approached the general store door. Peeking subtly outside the wooden window beside that door, the outside was densely covered with people wearing yellow masks. Among them, a man who was a head taller than others and gave off the feeling of a nimble leopard was resting a long spear over his shoulder.

Jang Geon immediately dodged to the side. Simultaneously, a flying spear pierced through the wall once more, wrecked the interior of the general store, and drove itself in.

Sensing the force laden in that spear, Jang Geon felt a small surge of competitive spirit and gripped his scabbard with his left hand. Although there were plenty of masked men outside, the only one who felt threatening to him right now was the single man throwing spears.

Right then, the man’s resonant voice rang out.

“Bring out the item! Soon we will set fire to that place! Unless you want to burn to death, you had better come out immediately!”

Hearing that voice, a hollow laugh came out of Jang Geon. To think they came out in a swarm wearing masks right in the Martial Alliance’s front yard and even announced arson? It was equivalent to advertising for them to come arrest them. Perhaps having a similar thought, Yang Goeng shuffled over on his haunches and spoke.

“Do you have any idea who those stupid bastards are?”

“No.”

“Fuck, they say ignorant bastards are more dangerous. Then what do we do? Do we carry the treasure map out? We should at least stall for time until the Martial Alliance arrives.”

Jang Geon shook his head and spoke.

“Don’t waste energy for nothing, let the Martial Alliance handle those fellows themselves. And we cannot wait for the Martial Alliance either. If the Martial Alliance learns of this treasure map, things will become even noisier.”

“…Then what are you going to do?”

His gaze turned to Li Yeon.

“Is there a back door here?”

“Pardon? Y-Yes, yes. There is.”

“Let’s go.”

“H-Hold on, Brother Jang! Our horses are right out in front…”

Ignoring Yang Goeng’s voice, Jang Geon approached the back door of the store following Li Yeon’s guidance. And inspecting the door, he kicked it open violently before Li Yeon could even open it.

“Ack!”

The yellow-masked man holding his breath beyond the door let out a choked cry and tumbled backward. Simultaneously, stepping up with a flash, Jang Geon recklessly charged at the three other masked men behind that masked man.

Appearing suddenly after kicking the door open and attacking without a trace of fluster, the masked men were struck once each and knocked unconscious without even being able to offer proper resistance. Following behind, Li Yeon widened her eyes into big circles at that sight.

“I told you, right? We need a swordsman.”

Yang Goeng nudged her while saying that. As she nodded blankly, someone over there yelled out.

“Over there! Those fellows came out the back door!”

At the shout of the masked man on the roof of the adjacent building, the other masked men began charging over while shouting roaring cries. Confirming that, Jang Geon turned his head, looked into Li Yeon’s eyes, and asked.

“Have you learned martial arts?”

“Pardon? Ah, w-well, just basic self-defense martial arts…”

Jang Geon nodded.

“Then excuse me.”

“Uh, ah!”

Scooping her up with a flash, Jang Geon blew a long whistle, leaped lightly up onto the wall, and began running. Watching that blankly behind him, Yang Goeng snapped back to his senses and ran.

“W-Wait! Take me along too!”

At the sight of the masked men giving chase while yelling behind him, Yang Goeng followed after Jang Geon with all his might. Jang Geon running precariously atop the wall, Li Yeon carried by him, and Yang Goeng running for his life below soon looped around the back alley and emerged onto the main thoroughfare. From behind, masked men holding spears and swords were giving close chase.

“Oh!”

Sweating profusely within that brief moment, Yang Goeng let out a short cheer. Standing before them as they emerged onto the main thoroughfare were Jojo and Yang Goeng’s horse. Yang Goeng’s horse was being held by its reins in Jojo’s mouth.

Running as if flying, Jang Geon seated Li Yeon first and lightly mounted Jojo’s saddle. Next, Yang Goeng also mounted his horse, and the two horses began galloping. A swarm of masked men emerged, stared at them with foolish eyes, then snapped to their senses and moved.

“Horses! Bring horses!”

“Pursue them! Don’t lose them!”

However, Jang Geon, Yang Goeng, and Li Yeon were already galloping far ahead.