Chapter 5: The Invincible Porter (3)
Chui passed by the main gate of the Tiger Pit Sect and headed toward the back gate.
If he showed the gold plaque he had received from the Swift Tiger Escort Agency Escort Leader, he could easily enter through the main gate, but… doing so would impose many restrictions on his actions in the future.
Just as he was contemplating how he could get inside.
Creak—!
Suddenly, the back gate opened, and someone ran out from inside.
“You rascal! Why are you just coming now!”
A boy with a tall height, a fat body, and a fierce-looking face.
Out of nowhere, he grabbed Chui tightly by the back of the neck and dragged him inside the back gate of the Tiger Pit Sect.
“Anyway, this is why you shouldn’t entrust work to beggar brats! I took you in out of pity because you looked like you had nowhere to go, but what? I asked you to clean up some horse dung, and you couldn’t take it and ran off already?! Where did the rest of your friends go?! Huh?!”
It seemed there was some misunderstanding, but Chui did not particularly refute it.
The boy with the large build kept shouting at Chui.
“Listen well. I am Woo Dong-won, the honorary stable master of the great Tiger Pit Sect. From now on, you are going to manage the stables under me. It’s nothing much. Just clean the horse dung on time and feed them fodder on time. If you just stick to that, you can get to eat three meals of cold rice at least. How about it? It’s much better than living as a beggar brat, right? So don’t run away and work hard. You lucky bastard!”
At Woo Dong-won’s words, Chui looked down at his own body.
His clothes had indeed gotten very dirty on the way here.
To the extent that he could be mistaken for a beggar boy who did daily labor for a meal.
Woo Dong-won grumbled and pushed Chui’s back.
“Kids these days have no grit at all. Compared to wandering around begging for food, working as a servant in the Tiger Pit Sect is practically living in paradise. Tsk, sigh!”
Soon, Chui headed to the most remote place in the manor of the Tiger Pit Sect.
It was where the stables were.
Woo Dong-won said to Chui.
“You know all the details because I told you the day before yesterday, right?”
“I do not know.”
“You do… not? Are you using informal speech with me?”
As Chui remained silent, Woo Dong-won tilted his head, wondering if he had misheard.
Soon, the fellow began his explanation.
“Sigh, you forgot already? You stupid fool. That’s why you live begging for food. Is it really that hard to remember that you sleep in that single stable stall over there and eat whatever leftovers we leave behind?”
“……”
“Horses are expensive, so separate experts take care of them. There’s nothing for guys like us to do other than cleaning dung and feeding them. If you don’t want to get kicked by a hind hoof and die in vain, don’t even go near the horses.”
Lastly, Woo Dong-won poked Chui’s forehead with his finger.
“Originally, we are useless surplus labor. But the Tiger Pit Sect Leader bestowed grace and hired a large number of starving children nearby. So don’t run away because the work is hard, and work properly. Understa… gasp?”
However, Woo Dong-won could not finish his words.
Clop, clop, clop—Crash!
It was due to a horse that suddenly kicked open the stable door and dashed in.
“Ahhh?! Ugh!”
Chui dodged appropriately, but Woo Dong-won was grazed by the horse’s hoof and ended up with a broken leg.
“Ahhhh!”
Woo Dong-won clutched his leg and rolled on the ground.
“……”
Chui turned his head.
A single large black horse was snorting heavily inside the stable.
It was a famous horse with skin like stone, bones like iron, and a build much larger than other horses.
And now, the owner of that famous horse was snickering outside the stable.
“That fellow, indeed. It really proves its high price. Perhaps because it’s a guy bought for the price of a tile-roofed house, it is truly hard to tame~”
“Young Master. But is this okay? One of the stableboys seems to be injured.”
“Aren’t they just dog-like fellows anyway? It’s fine to just pay the price of a dog. What of it, consider it just another Dog Day that came. Hahaha—”
A young master dressed in silk clothes and a man who appeared to be his escort warrior were conversing.
Several stableboys supported Woo Dong-won, grumbling in low voices.
“It’s Young Master Cao Taibeom of the Cao Family Manor again.”
“Young master my foot. That lecherous bastard.”
“What kind of evil deed has he come to commit this time?”
Chui turned his head, following the gazes of the stableboys.
Cao Taibeom of the Cao Family Manor.
He was a young man with a smooth face, dark eyebrows, deep double eyelids, and an alluring gaze.
Cao Taibeom said while covering half of his face with a folding fan.
“It smells like horse dung, so let’s quickly go to the inner room. I feel as though my clothes are getting dirty just by the gazes of these lowly things brushing against them.”
They tried to leave the stable and head toward the inner courtyard.
Right then.
“I came out in a hurry upon hearing that a guest had arrived, but I did not know it was Young Master Cao.”
There was someone blocking Cao Taibeom from ahead.
A middle-aged man with a tiger-like appearance and a long beard.
He was none other than Ho Yeon-am, the Sect Leader of the Tiger Pit Sect.
An unpleasant light was clear in Ho Yeon-am’s eyes as he looked at Cao Taibeom.
“For what business has Young Master Cao come all the way here?”
Soon, Cao Taibeom clasped his hands in greeting in a relaxed manner.
“For what reason would I visit my in-laws’ home, father-in-law? I came to see my future wife.”
“If you are speaking of our Ye-yang, I have never accepted the marriage, though?”
“Not yet, indeed. Since I plan to marry when Lady Ho turns seventeen.”
“……”
Ho Yeon-am glared at Cao Taibeom with wide eyes.
Cao Taibeom turned his gaze with a sly grin.
“The rumors have already spread all over the neighborhood. That Lady Ho and I will hold our wedding ceremony in a year. The neighborhood children are even making up and singing a song. Lady Ho of the Tiger Pit Sect~ secretly paired up~ Young Master Cao~ secretly embraces and takes her at night~”
“I suspect that Young Master Cao was the one who spread that rumor. To ruin my daughter’s path to marriage.”
“How could that be? What would I lack to go that far just to take as a wife the daughter of the Tiger Pit Sect, which falls far behind the influence of our Cao Family Manor…”
Right then.
“Since it seems neither side has anything to regret, it is naturally absurd for marriage talks to even take place.”
A sharp voice was heard from behind Ho Yeon-am.
Soon, a woman revealed herself from the inner courtyard.
An age standing at the crossroads of a girl and a woman.
A girl with hair like black silk, skin white like white jade, half-moon shaped black eyebrows, eyelashes long enough to catch falling snow, and eyes as large and clear as a lake revealed herself.
Ho Ye-yang.
The precious daughter of the Tiger Pit Sect.
She was the only daughter of the Tiger Pit Sect’s Sect Leader.
She spoke in a cold tone.
“I do not care about the public’s eyes. So Young Master Cao should look for marriage talks elsewhere.”
“No, do you not know how terrifying rumors are…”
“There is no need to hear more of this talk. I will not marry anyone from the Cao Family Manor, let alone Young Master Cao. Now, excuse me.”
A flat dismissal.
Soon, Ho Yeon-am and Ho Ye-yang turned their steps and vanished.
Cao Taibeom, openly ignored, was left alone and smiled fishily.
“…For a mere third-rate sect that has no money and is about to collapse, they are still stiff as ever.”
“Young Master. What should we do?”
“Well, did we not just stop by for a moment of amusement on our way to the courtesan house anyway? Let’s go back. At least for today.”
Cao Taibeom put his arm around his escort warrior’s shoulder and grinned.
“By the way, did you see her? I mean Ho Ye-yang.”
“Today is the first time I have seen Lady Ho’s jade-like face.”
“How was it?”
“Honestly, the moment I saw her for the first time, I thought my heart was going to drop. She was beautiful as if she were not human. Among all the people I have seen in my life, she seems to be the woman to whom the phrase ‘flower-like face and moon-like carriage’ fits most perfectly.”
“Right? She is a beauty that can topple a nation, just like the rumors, right?”
“It seems the rumors actually fail to convey the reality fully.”
“Indeed. I tell you, there is a reason why I am obsessed.”
Cao Taibeom smiled fishily and continued speaking.
“Then, you must also know the reason why I expressed Ho Ye-yang’s appearance as toppling a nation?”
“An appearance that will make a nation fall… I see. I think I understand.”
The escort warrior looked around the entire Tiger Pit Sect and nodded his head.
Cao Taibeom took up the words.
“When a beautiful woman has no money and no power, she becomes unhappy. Ho Ye-yang’s unhappiness all stems from her own face. She is too beautiful for a daughter of a mere sect like the Tiger Pit Sect. Is that not why she is targeted by a rogue like me? I am saying it is all a disaster she brought upon herself~”
“That is also true. To be targeted by the world’s greatest lecher, Young Master Cao, Lady Ho’s future will indeed become quite unfortunate.”
“Hahahaha! You fellow, are those words coming from you who squanders half of your salary at the courtesan house?”
Cao Taibeom and the escort warrior returned to the stables, bantering back and forth.
Perhaps because of the commotion earlier, the stableboys had all vacated the stable and fled long ago.
“Heave-ho. Let’s go to the courtesan house!”
Cao Taibeom leaped onto his black horse that had been placed in the stable.
Yet? For some reason, this black horse with a wild temper just stood still without any reaction despite Cao Taibeom mounting its back.
“What is with this guy? Why is it staying still? Why aren’t we going already.”
Cao Taibeom looked down at the black horse with a puzzled expression.
An exotic famous horse purchased for the price of a tile-roofed house.
This precious treasure, which usually dashed forward with just a single pull of the reins, was unusually gentle today, unlike its usual self.
“What is it? Is it sick?”
The escort warrior touched the horse’s face.
Right at that moment.
Bubble…
The black horse suddenly foamed at the mouth and rolled its eyes back.
And then.
Thud!
It collapsed sideways just like that, stuck out its tongue, and died.
* * *
Chui was standing at a distance, looking inside the stable.
Cao Taibeom and the escort warrior could be seen stomping their feet while looking at the collapsed horse.
They seemed to be examining the horse’s entire body to grasp why the horse died, but.
“A waste of effort.”
There was no way they would ever find out the reason why the horse died.
Because the one who killed that horse was none other than Chui.
Drip—drip—
Blood dripped from the horse’s liver held in Chui’s hand.
Chui, who had killed countless horses on the battlefield, knew over thirty-three ways to kill a horse without any visible external trauma.
One of those was inserting a greased hand into the horse’s anus to extract the liver.
‘Fox Claw Art. The technique of the Fox Sister.’
It was one of the trivial tricks he had learned back when he was rolling around the battlefield as a low-ranking soldier.
A soldier named ‘Mae-gu’ who taught Chui this used to secretly wander the stables and extract the livers of warhorses to eat whenever he went hungry because food supplies did not come.
‘Though he ended up getting caught, was beheaded, and his head was put on public display for three hundred days… well, anyway.’
Chui stared blankly at Cao Taibeom, who was grumbling as he left the stable.
“It seems that is the guy. The lecherous only son of the Cao Family Manor.”
He knew from hearing it from Ho Ye-yang in the past.
That the trigger for the Tiger Pit Sect’s fall was precisely because of the Cao Family Manor.
The Cao Family Manor requested a group called the Black Path Gang to attack the Tiger Pit Sect, and the Tiger Pit Sect vanished from the world.
Ho Ye-yang had said it was a disaster that occurred merely due to a conflict of interests between the Cao Family Manor and the Tiger Pit Sect, but… in truth, the real reason was Cao Taibeom, who lusted after Ho Ye-yang’s beauty.
It was not certain whether Ho Ye-yang herself knew this fact.
However, Chui was sure that he, no, she, must have known this fact.
‘I can see with what kind of heart she burned and erased her own face with fire.’
Branding her face with fire and swallowing charcoal to burn her voice was not merely to change her appearance.
It was because she thought of her own beauty as a curse.
Step—
Finishing his thoughts, Chui quietly moved his steps.
And he began to tail Cao Taibeom, who had disappeared beyond the horizon.
Step—step—
Since he had met his friend’s enemy, what need was there for other words?
Step—step—step—
He only needed to show it through actions.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost