What the hell are you up to? (1)
“Oh……”
“He won.”
Chung Myung stood with his sword pointed at Do Hyeon’s throat as he lay sprawled on the ground. At the sight, the disciples of Hwasan let out deep sighs of relief.
They had never thought he would lose, but if Chung Myung had somehow been defeated, they might really have had to take down Hwasan’s signboard. Fortunately, it seemed they had escaped the worst.
“That was nerve-racking, honestly.”
“It really was…….”
Yoon Jong shook his head.
Once again, he realized that fighting the Evil Sects or the Demonic Cult would be preferable to this. Fighting someone in power was more trouble than it was worth.
“So what do we do now?”
“Who knows?”
The disciples of Hwasan all turned their eyes to Chung Myung. Wasn’t he always the one who sorted things out at times like this?
“Hmmmm.”
Chung Myung gave the sword pointed at Do Hyeon’s throat a little flick. Then he let out another long, thoughtful hum.
“Hmmmmmmm.”
For a moment, a wild gleam flashed in Chung Myung’s eyes. His gaze darted between Do Hyeon’s smooth throat and his own sword.
“Why is he doing that?”
“Who knows…”
While Hwasan’s disciples merely looked puzzled, unable to fathom Chung Myung’s intentions…
“That, that bastard couldn’t be.”
Baek Cheon alone seemed to understand what it meant. He jolted in alarm and cried out in horror.
“You’re not seriously thinking that if you just slit his throat right here, we won’t have to worry about him coming back to bite us later, are you?”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung whipped his head around to look behind him.
“Whoa, how’d you know? Did you learn to read minds while I wasn’t looking?”
“Hey, you crazy bastard! What the hell are you doing!”
“Well, I mean… That would keep him from causing trouble later, wouldn’t it.”
“How would that keep us out of trouble! You’d be turning a small problem into a disaster! What do you think would happen if we got caught doing something like that!”
“Then we just don’t get caught, right?”
“That’s easier said than done!”
Baek Cheon cautiously reached a hand towards Chung Myung as though he were handling a bomb on the verge of exploding.
“Now, be good. Put that sword down first.”
“Grr…”
“Quit fooling around, you bastard!”
“Grrrr!”
“Ugh.”
As Baek Cheon clutched the back of his neck and toppled backwards, Jo Geol and Yoon Jong naturally moved to support him.
“Calm down. Sasuk. It’s hardly the first time he’s done this.”
“That’s precisely the problem…”
“And don’t cry.”
“Sniff.”
Watching Baek Cheon wipe his eyes, Jo Geol shook his head.
“It’s hardly the first time, but he does seem especially out of his mind today.”
“That’s true too.”
Chung Myung, who had been growling like a wolf… no, actually, more like a rabid dog, rubbed his chin.
“Tsk. Better to leave no loose ends.”
“Then you should let me live.”
“Hmm?”
Chung Myung’s gaze shifted to Do Hyeon in front of him.
Despite the blade before him, Do Hyeon regarded Chung Myung with calm eyes.
“If I return alive, I will leave you all alone. I have enough sense to recognize that I owe you my life.”
“Oh, really? That’s wonderful news, but wouldn’t it be simpler to just get rid of the source of any future trouble?”
“That’s foolish.”
“Huh?”
Do Hyeon looked Chung Myung straight in the eye and spoke.
“If I were merely an ordinary man of power, you might be right. But I am the head of the Eastern Depot. The Eastern Depot will not disappear simply because I am gone. Instead, they will do whatever it takes to find whoever killed their leader and restore their honor.”
“…”
“The full might of the Court will be devoted to tracking you down, and every imperial solider under heaven will pursue you. If you can bear the consequences…”
“Oh dear! What is someone as distinguished as yourself doing lying in such a shabby place.”
“…”
“You’ll catch a chill lying on the cold ground, you know? Come now, let’s get you up.”
Chung Myung lowered his sword with truly dazzling speed and helped Do Hyeon to his feet.
Do Hyeon shook his head at the shamelessness of that sudden change. Living in the den of vipers that was the Imperial Palace, he encountered people whose outward demeanor belied their true thoughts as routinely as he ate his meals, but…
‘This man is something else entirely.’
Stranger still, he somehow found it difficult to dislike him.
“You lunatic, please……”
Only then did Baek Cheon let out a deep sigh of relief. He then led his fellow disciples over to Chung Myung and Do Hyeon.
As the masked figures approached the two men, the Eastern Depot agents surrounding them grew agitated and raised their flexible swords.
“Stop!”
Bang Hwi roared. But his shout was directed not at the disciples of Hwasan, but at the Eastern Depot agents under his command.
“Do not act rashly until the Grand Eunuch’s safety is assured!”
“…Yes.”
Knowing that Do Hyeon’s life was still in Chung Myung’s hands, they could do nothing.
As Chung Myung smirked at the sight, Baek Cheon asked him.
“What are you going to do now?”
“Hmm. Who knows?”
“Couldn’t we just leave? He said he wouldn’t forget that we saved his life, so he won’t come after us.”
“Tsk, tsk. How can you be so soft.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung’s face twisted into a fierce scowl.
“Officials will go back on what they said in the morning by evening. What makes you think you can trust him?”
“….He doesn’t seem like that sort of person.”
“He’s from the Eastern Depot, I tell you, the Eastern Depot? You have no idea how devious eunuchs can be.”
Baek Cheon tilted his head.
As Chung Myung said, trusting an official was dangerous, but honestly, Do Hyeon did not seem like the sort of man who would do that.
“Then what are you going to do.”
“Hmm. I think we can decide that later.”
“Huh?”
“Let’s check what we came to check first.”
“Huuh?”
⠀
“…Should we really be doing this?”
“I don’t know either.”
“I don’t think even riding on the back of a charging tiger would feel like this.”
“A tiger, you can just beat into submission.”
“That’s true, Sago.”
The disciples of Hwasan shuddered.
Their eyes turned towards the two men walking ahead. Chung Myung was walking with his sword resting brazenly on Do Hyeon’s shoulder.
“How much farther do we have to go?”
“We’re almost there.”
“I think I’ve heard that at least three times now, you’re not leading us around in circles for nothing, are you?”
“Do I look like a man with that much time on his hands?”
“Hmm. Now that you mention it, not really. Though you did come all this way just to catch a few little rats.”
“As someone who was beaten soundly by one of those little rats, I fail to see the humor. You’re far too modest for someone of your skill.”
“I’m quite something when it comes to modesty. Hehehehe!”
Watching the two men chat idly as though they were out for a stroll, Jwa Gohak looked up at the sky.
“……Can this really be right?”
“I know how you feel… But as someone who’s been through this before, my advice is to give up. Trying to understand will only make it harder on you.”
At Yoon Jong’s explanation, the disciples of Hwasan all nodded in unison.
But even those words failed to comfort Jwa Gohak. He could still see the battered old sword pressed against Do Hyeon’s neck. That sword, which looked incapable of properly cutting even a single reed, was touching the neck of the most powerful man in the country.
‘He’s threatening Do Hyeon and holding him hostage to make him show us the way?’
Do Hyeon, the Grand Eunuch?
What kind of human being could even come up with something like this?
Had living in the mountains and grazing on grass made them forget what power was, or what it meant to face the consequences, or had all that talk about becoming one with nature made them decide they’d rather hurry up and be buried underground so they could become one with it that way?
“If I ever deal with a Taoist again after this is over, I’m not even a human being.”
“What was that?”
“…Nothing. Nothing at all.”
Jwa Gohak hid the tears that had begun to well up.
Wouldn’t even the Great Confucian scholars who had sent him here call upon the gods of heaven and earth if they saw this? Confucius had cautioned against strange phenomena, feats of strength, chaos, and spirits, but right now, Jwa Gohak himself felt like praying to the gods of heaven and earth.
“I would simply like to know what on earth we’re doing.”
“What are you talking about. Who was it who kept insisting we had to check?”
“No, that was…!”
Before Do Hyeon showed up in person!
They were supposed to expose Do Hyeon’s corruption, so what was the point of checking the evidence right in front of him. Do Hyeon would cover this up faster than Jwa Gohak could bring anyone here.
“Then shall we just leave?”
“Uggggghhhhh.”
Jwa Gohak groaned, tearing at his hair.
But leaving without examining the evidence right before his eyes troubled him just as much. Even if it would vanish without a trace, he ought to at least confirm it first…
“Oh, there.”
Just then, Tang Soso’s sharp voice rang out from ahead of him.
Jwa Gohak’s gaze snapped forward.
‘Is this the place?’
What had brought him here in the first place.
Do Hyeon had been secretly stockpiling weapons. With the aim of setting some plan in motion in Beijing.
Then one of two things had to be here.
A vast stockpile of unused weapons. Or Do Hyeon’s private soldiers armed with those weapons.
As it turned out, Jwa Gohak’s suspicions were not far off the mark.
A great basin opened up beyond the dense forest. It was there, unmistakably. What Jwa Gohak had been looking for.
Enormous warehouses.
They had not been built to last, but merely thrown together well enough to keep out the wind and rain.
There was nothing strange about that. It was what he had expected. If there was anything that defied his expectations, it was not the fact that the warehouses were here, but the sheer number of them.
“Five, six… seven…”
Jwa Gohak muttered blankly.
Eight.
There were no fewer than eight enormous warehouses, each seemingly large enough to hold at least a hundred people at once.
After staring at the sight in a daze, Jwa Gohak moved forward as though spellbound and flung open the doors of the nearest one.
He slowly raised his head.
Countless crates. Crates that could not possibly be empty were stacked all the way to the ceiling.
After staring vacantly at the crates before him, Jwa Gohk turned.
The next warehouse, and then the one after that.
He opened them all, but their contents were no different.
Every warehouse here was filled with weapons. A quantity so staggering that even the word enormous fell short.
“…These are all weapons?”
“This is absurd.”
“Wait… These can’t be the only warehouses, considering how the carts split up earlier, doesn’t that mean there are at least two more places like this?”
“……Surely not.”
By now, even the disciples of Hwasan could not hide their bewilderment.
People who had followed a stream in search of a river, only to find an ocean suddenly spread before them, would have reacted much the same way.
Yet even their astonishment paled beside Jwa Gohak’s.
For a while, he stood as though frozen, silently staring at the weapons filling the warehouse, before abruptly turning and striding towards Do Hyeon.
Do Hyeon was calmly watching Jwa Gohak approach when it happened.
Grab.
Jwa Gohak seized Do Hyeon by the collar in a single motion.
“Gasp.”
The disciples of Hwasan stared at Jwa Gohak in alarm.
Enemy or not, Jwa Gohak had shown Do Hyeon more respect than anyone else among them. Yet now he had grabbed Do Hyeon by the collar without any warning.
“You….. You bastard.”
Jwa Gohak gritted his teeth and glared at Do Hyeon.
“What the hell… just what the hell are you up to?”
Do Hyeon’s impassive gaze met Jwa Gohak’s blazing eyes.
________
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