Chapter 96: Chapter 96
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Appearing after the incident ended, Branch Head Gal Woo-seon, without even looking around the scene, immediately picked up his son on his back and left to find a physician. Ultimately, the scene had to be organized by those remaining.
In the meantime, Jang Geon exited the basement and went above. Stepping outside the shrine door, the night rain that had ceased was drizzling again softly. Holding a leaf of tobacco in his mouth, Jang Geon stood beneath the shrine eaves and watched the Martial Alliance people moving busily despite getting wet in the rain.
Having smoked half his tobacco, someone slyly approached his side. It was Jo Won-sik of the Gamsan Branch.
“…You were certainly a person worthy of receiving a medallion. Clearing out the Returning Dragon Gang single-handedly and even rescuing the Branch Head’s son.”
“I didn’t know the son would be here.”
“Are you saying you were lucky? Even so, that merit doesn’t disappear, so do not worry. Our branch will probably prepare a medallion for you. Along with a reward.”
Jo Won-sik chuckled grumpily, stroked his chin, and continued speaking.
“…Those dead guys below, I know two of them are the Wang brothers. Because I knew their faces originally. Then that third figure must be the person you were chasing. Is that right?”
“That’s right.”
Nodding his head, Jo Won-sik suddenly saw Jang Geon smoking tobacco and began fumbling around to roll one for himself as well.
“First, those three corpses will be taken to the branch for a thorough autopsy. Though formal, through it we can draft documents to send to main headquarters. Then support will come from main headquarters as well, and after that, we can pull out the roots of all demonic practitioners in this Gamsan City. Seeing that more appeared despite the Imperial Army’s search, this time we must thoroughly investigate everyone, regardless of commoners, martial artists, or merchants… But where is your fire?”
While speaking, Jo Won-sik looked around Jang Geon with a bewildered expression. Outside the shrine, though there were campfires or torches carried by Martial Alliance warriors, no small lamp flame suitable for lighting tobacco was visible.
Without answering his question, Jang Geon stared blankly at him, flicked away his finished tobacco, stepped out from the shrine eaves, and began walking into the drizzling night rain.
“H-Hey! Jang Geon! Where are you going!”
“It seems I have no further work to do.”
“No, what… You have to tell me where you’re going so I can deliver your reward!”
Jang Geon did not answer the shout behind his back. He simply walked step by step past the busy Martial Alliance warriors, into the alley where he handled the Returning Dragon Gang, and past the rogues being carried away and arrested, walking between the two taverns that had looked like a temple gate. Light rain covered his face damply.
As he was about to leave the tavern street as he was, Jang Geon suddenly discovered his discarded bamboo hat rolling on the street before the tavern. Approaching to pick it up and dusting it off, it seemed no one had stepped on it since he tossed it. He dusted it off properly and put it on his head. There was no problem using it to block the rainwater trickling down his face.
Afterward, he walked the still-dark streets of Gamsan City while getting hit by the night rain. Because the time had drawn closer to dawn than night, once he departed the tavern street where Martial Alliance warriors were running about, no people could be found on the broad streets of Gamsan except for beggars cowering below walls and drunkards.
Continuing to walk, Jang Geon soon entered the courtesan house street. Passing courtesan houses with flickering lights scattered here and there, the place Jang Geon arrived at was the courtesan house where he had met the Martial Alliance secret contact. Arriving in front of it and knocking loudly, the door soon opened slowly.
“…Welcome.”
The clerk who had already welcomed him once erased his surprised look and stepped aside before the door. Passing him, Jang Geon immediately began ascending the stairs.
“Warrior, your outer coat and hat…”
The clerk called him, but Jang Geon ascended the stairs without answering. Arriving at the top floor, the door was wide open, and the secret contact sat reclining on a long chair on one side, smoking a long pipe. Seeing Jang Geon come up, she spoke softly.
“You came faster than expected. How did Green Snake… are you hurt?”
While speaking, seeing Jang Geon’s wet appearance covered in blood and rainwater, she set down her pipe and rose from her seat. She then quickly approached and examined his right shoulder and chest.
“You are hurt. Wait a moment, I have medicine.”
From a box on one side of the room, she brought a thick salve and bandages, sat Jang Geon down, and removed his upper garment. Obediently following her lead, Jang Geon set down his bamboo hat and sword, sitting quietly on the chair while she applied the salve.
Sitting opposite him and applying the medicine, she glanced up at him and asked.
“Didn’t you move together with the Gamsan Branch? Even if it was the Returning Dragon Gang, they were just thugs after all, so the only dangerous ones should have been the Wang brothers and Green Snake.”
“Going back and forth was bothersome. I just went alone.”
“…Then are you saying you disposed of the Returning Dragon Gang members and three demonic practitioners alone?”
Jang Geon kept his mouth shut at her question and looked at her. She also stopped her hand applying the salve and looked up at him. A moment later, gazing into her eye shape, Jang Geon spoke.
“Your real face.”
“…The Muscle-Bone Transformation Art isn’t a technique used casually anytime. If used too long or too often, one’s original form collapses and life becomes endangered. It’s a technique used when an operative of the Dark Dragon Corps deems it truly necessary.”
“How much do you know about those guys called the Palace?”
At Jang Geon’s question, entirely disconnected from the previous question, Dark Dragon Agent No. 3 was momentarily at a loss for words. However, she soon resumed her hand applying the salve and parted her lips.
“Sufficiently, as much as necessary.”
“Knowing sufficiently, did you neglect the demonic practitioners entering Gamsan City?”
“…It seems you didn’t squeeze out all information from Yang Goeng. The Dark Dragon Corps is an organization specializing in information gathering and secret ops, not a strike force. Even if we gathered all Dark Dragon operatives on the New Continent right now, we couldn’t defeat a single strike team of the Martial Alliance in a head-on clash.”
Jang Geon spread his arms for her hands beginning to tie the bandage and continued speaking.
“So in the end, when the Imperial Army left Gamsan, you had no strength and were sitting idly by.”
“We were not sitting idly by. We were taking action to move and support the Martial Alliance branch. Had the incident dragged on longer, we could have used the Martial Alliance main headquarters, or if urgent, external sects or groups. Even if we couldn’t subdue them, we had identified where, how, and what kind of acts they intended to commit.”
“Did you also know what kind of act was being committed against the Branch Head’s son?”
Binding the bandage, she paused her hands briefly, checked Jang Geon’s eyes with a glance, and let out a light sigh.
“…What became of him? Did you kill him?”
“I didn’t kill him. But I don’t know if he will be able to regain consciousness.”
“What kind of state was he in? Did he appear to be moving according to his own will and attacking you? Or did he look like a mere moving doll?”
To Jang Geon’s ears, it sounded as if there were a difference between those two.
“Like a mere doll.”
“Then he will become a simpleton. That is a rather decent outcome.”
“A simpleton is decent?”
To wrap the bandage around, she briefly came close as if embracing Jang Geon. Clinging so close, she looked up at Jang Geon and spoke.
“I don’t know if you know, but Green Snake, whom you disposed of, possessed the surname Namgung. Tracing back, it’s an ancient family going back to the ancient Zhou Dynasty. In fact, before the Han Empire was established, their family prestige was tremendous. They say that even if they didn’t found a nation, they exerted influence here and there.”
At the sudden emergence of history, Jang Geon remained quietly silent.
“And as an old family, they possessed great attainment in sorcery and spellcraft. During the Warring States period, it was said to be so extraordinary that they could even offer sacrifices to heaven and alter the weather. They can’t be compared to modern Taoists. However… they made a wrong choice.”
An ancient family, a wrong choice. Jang Geon felt he knew clearly.
“Yes, when Qin fell, they sided with Xiang Yu. At first, that Demon King obviously seemed like he would win, so it wasn’t a particularly strange story, and there were many old families that moved toward Xiang Yu, so they might have been swept along by the trend. At any rate, they collapsed along with that Demon King when he fell. However, thanks to having accomplished so much, over the long centuries past, they evaded the eyes of the Empire by moving from shade to shade, frontier to frontier, continuing that tenacious life. And in that process, their sorcery turned dark and gloomy.”
She tied the end of the bandage and took her hands off.
“The spell attempted on the Branch Head’s son, Gal Won-myeong, is also such a dark spell. A cruel spell that breaks one’s mind through torture and drugs, inscribes demonic arts into the body through evil sorcery, and thereby turns a person into a complete slave… However, the truly terrifying point of that spell is that the party involved looks intact on the surface. To the extent that even someone fairly close wouldn’t recognize it.”
Sitting in an upright posture, she looked straight at Jang Geon and spoke.
“In the end, Branch Head Gal had no choice but to move. It was only a matter of time before the back alleys of Gamsan were bound to be cleared out. However, the Martial Alliance, which had not moved for weeks, had already lost much of the public sentiment of Gamsan’s people, and even if they cleaned up the city, they wouldn’t hear good praise. And Branch Head Gal would have ended up discovering his son at the Returning Dragon Gang stronghold after wiping it out.”
Jang Geon could roughly picture the situation that would unfold after that. Discovering his beloved son, Branch Head Gal would not try to give him up, even if his son were somewhat strange, and even if there were advice from the secret contact. Wang brothers aside, Green Snake, who held considerable status, would have escaped before the Returning Dragon Gang was wiped out, and then the Gamsan Branch would have fallen into the hands of Green Snake, Namgung Yeo-jun.
The ways that fellow could use the Branch Head’s son were endless. He could extract secrets of the Gamsan Branch, or assassinate someone. Or by committing reckless acts, he could further shake the already shaken public sentiment of the Gamsan Branch, or going further, by merely detonating demonic qi to cause chaos, he could shatter the Martial Alliance’s influence in Gamsan City.
Thinking up to that point, Jang Geon met her eyes again and asked.
“Did moving like a doll mean that spell was incomplete?”
“That’s right. Stopping it then can at least prevent him from becoming a minion of demonic practitioners.”
Jang Geon slowly nodded his head.
“You truly seem to know sufficiently.”
She also nodded in return.
“Our fight with them is far more complex and older than your imagination. We have also identified most of their recent movements that have grown fierce enough to surface.”
“Most of them?”
She let out a light sigh once more.
“…Yes. We couldn’t identify all of them. Lately, manpower has been quite short. So tell me about what happened in the east. If it is proper information, our Dark Dragon Corps will consider it owing you a favor.”
Jang Geon pulled up the corners of his lips into a slight smile as he looked down at her, then erased the smile and began telling the story. Of course, he did not tell everything. It was merely a story that during his journey he met a person of that tribe who suffered severe injuries, was asked for revenge, and came all the way here following the clue he provided.
Listening to the story, Dark Dragon Agent No. 3 instantly noticed there was a hidden story. Jang Geon also knew she noticed, but did not decorate his words further.
Tilting her head slightly, she spoke.
“Then did you come all the way here merely at the request of a native you met on the road, and fought solely because of that?”
Jang Geon nodded his head. And looking into her eyes as they turned mysterious, he spoke.
“Does this count as placing you in my debt?”
“…Yes. It was information worthy of that. Whenever you need it someday, the Dark Dragon Corps will assist you.”
“Then can you tell me why the Imperial Army left Gamsan?”
At the question that immediately followed, she smiled and shook her head.
“That is confidential information of the Imperial Army. I said I would help you, not that I would look into everything you want.”
At that subtle smile and words drawing a firm line, Jang Geon shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I didn’t think you’d tell me. Then tell your people to handle things properly so those bastards can’t do stupid things.”
Saying so, Jang Geon stood up from his seat. And he slowly began putting on the clothes he had removed to bind the bandage. A moment later, strapping even his half-broken sword to his waist, he looked for his bamboo hat, which was held in Dark Dragon Agent No. 3’s hands. She sat on the chair holding that bamboo hat.
She looked up at Jang Geon with that exact mysterious smile she had worn moments ago. Meeting that gaze, Jang Geon twitched his eyebrows slightly, and she spoke.
“Listening to the sound, the rain has grown fiercer.”
“My clothes will get wetter.”
She rose from the chair. And tossing the bamboo hat she held aside with a flick, she approached close to Jang Geon and placed her hand on his chest.
“There is also a way to dry them before going.”
“…The Gamsan Branch will be looking for me.”
Giggling softly, she shook her head.
“If you considered that, was there any need to seek me out today of all days?”
Jang Geon nodded his head and removed his outer coat.
“That’s true.”
He removed the clothes he had painstakingly put on again. Just as she said, to dry clothes, one had to spread them well and hang them somewhere. However, both people in that room didn’t seem to care about such things, as all the clothes they were wearing rolled around messily on the floor.
The sound of rain beginning to fall again covered the sounds inside the room.