I brought the two Escort Guards back to my annex. Palgap set the tea down in front of us in the reception room.
“Have you been putting up with that kind of sneering this whole time?”
At my question, the two Escort Guards bowed their heads.
“We’re sorry. It’s because we’re lacking that you had to hear things like that, Deputy Merchant Lord.”
“It’s our fault for being so lacking.”
“Don’t say it like that. It’s their fault for being idiots. And from what I saw earlier, you actually have a fair number of colleagues on your side.”
“Ah… yes.”
“That’s right.”
“Stay close with them from now on. They’re comrades who’ll have your backs.”
“We’ll do that.”
I looked at the two Escort Guards. Determination was firmly settled in their eyes.
All that pride they’d had when we first came to the main branch of the Eunhae Merchant Group—their arrogance about being from a prestigious Orthodox Sect and being first-rate warriors—felt like it had been stripped away.
It made me oddly proud to see them growing in a better direction.
I felt like I’d be able to stay with them for a long time.
“And if you run into punks like that gang again, don’t just swallow it.”
“Huh?”
“But if we don’t hold it in…”
“Ah…”
I got what they were trying to say.
“It’s fine. You two aren’t going to get kicked out. You’re not part of the Eunpoong Division anymore, you’re my personal escort squad. If your lord says ‘I’m not releasing them,’ who’s going to argue?”
I let out a small chuckle.
“Of course, it’ll be a headache if you do it in a public place, so lure them somewhere quiet and deal with them there. Hahaha.”
“Hahaha…”
Judging by their awkward laughter, they seemed to think I was joking.
Hm. I wasn’t joking, though…
Anyway, time to get to the main point.
“The reason I called you two here is because I have to go to Beijing.”
“Then when will you be coming back?”
“It shouldn’t take that long. So just focus on your training while I’m gone.”
“Understood.”
“If anything happens while I’m away, talk to the servants in this annex or to my older brothers. You can also go see the External Chief Administrator. Then they’ll either send a letter to me or handle it on their own.”
“We’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing you two grow.”
After giving Escort Guard Myeong Jong and Escort Guard Chang Un my last reminders and sending them back, I headed for the External Chief Administrator.
Something about the group that had insulted Escort Guard Myeong Jong and Escort Guard Chang Un at the dining hall was still bothering me.
“Welcome.”
“I came because I have something to discuss.”
The External Chief Administrator offered me a seat.
“Please, sit.”
I sat down and opened my mouth.
“I’m heading back to Beijing.”
“I heard. You’re traveling together with Young Hero Peng, yes?”
“Yes, that’s how it ended up. So I’d like to ask you to take care of Escort Guard Myeong Jong and Escort Guard Chang Un.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure they become fine escort guards.”
“Thank you. In fact, the real reason I came to see you separately is because something unpleasant happened today.”
“Something unpleasant?”
I explained everything that had happened at the dining hall from start to finish. It might look like I was tattling, but I wanted to make the External Chief Administrator more alert.
“What! You’re saying something like that happened?”
As expected, the External Chief Administrator was genuinely shocked, as if he hadn’t heard a thing.
With this much time having passed, he really should have heard about it by now…
It meant there was a problem in the reporting chain that led up to the External Chief Administrator.
“External Chief Administrator, you truly didn’t know?”
“…”
“I think you’d better take a proper look at the training instructors. If you’re not careful, this could end up shaking the discipline of our Merchant Group.”
“If not for your warning, Deputy Merchant Lord, I would have made a grave mistake. Thank you for telling me.”
The External Chief Administrator thanked me with a stiff expression.
He might hate paperwork and live only for martial arts, but my father wouldn’t have made him External Chief Administrator for nothing.
Just pointing it out this much, he should take care of the rest on his own.
.
.
.
Today was the day we set out for Beijing.
It didn’t take long for each of us to pack.
But since we were traveling with Young Hero Peng, we had to make a few more preparations for him.
It was the end of the 11th Month.
Winter was slowly drawing near.
Young Hero Peng said he would be traveling on horseback. If the guest was riding a horse, I couldn’t exactly lounge in a carriage.
So I decided to ride a horse as well.
And we’d load the carriage with various supplies instead.
“Then, I’ll be off.”
“Take care of yourself.”
“Yes.”
After I bowed, Young Hero Peng also saluted my father.
“Thank you for the generous hospitality. Please stay well.”
“Travel safely.”
And with that, we departed for the Hebei Peng Clan.
The Hebei Peng Clan was a family based in Beijing. It was only a day’s distance from the imperial palace, and because of that, many of its members had thrown themselves into the military.
However, the current emperor favored the Hwangbo Clan, so the Peng Clan had fallen a little behind in comparison.
The old man from the general store was from the Hwangbo Clan too.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
Only the steady sound of hooves echoed around us.
There was no need to hurry, so we didn’t push the horses into a gallop.
I glanced at Young Hero Peng.
Riding in silence with his lips pressed together, he looked more like his true self than when he was talking.
The middle-aged attendant riding with him acted as if that side of him was perfectly normal.
Even as we traveled, Young Hero Peng never relaxed his guard, constantly scanning our surroundings. His attendant was the same.
It made me think they’d been through quite a lot.
That attendant being at a first-rate level, though…
It made me sure there was a story there.
Could that attendant be the one who drew the portrait of his missing uncle he mentioned before?
I wasn’t exactly someone who loved chattering either, but if we kept going like this, I felt like I might die of frustration.
“Young Hero Peng.”
“Yes.”
“You’re really good on horseback. Who did you learn from?”
“Ah, there’s someone in our clan who teaches riding professionally. I learned from that person.”
“As expected of a prestigious clan. You even have someone who specializes in teaching horsemanship.”
“Now that I look, Deputy Merchant Lord, you’re quite good at riding too.”
“Ah, me…”
‘Come to think of it, when did I learn to ride?’
I smiled and glossed it over.
“I learned when I was little.”
Palgap nodded and added an explanation.
“Back then the External Chief Administrator said you had a natural gift for riding.”
Ah. Now I remember.
When I turned thirteen, the External Chief Administrator had taught me how to ride.
But back then it was on a little pony.
Right…
In my previous life, I’d only properly learned horsemanship after I recovered from my illness.
Which meant that in this life, I still hadn’t had any real riding lessons.
“Maybe because you rode that pony so well, you handle a big horse just fine too.”
At Palgap’s words, Young Hero Peng agreed.
“That’s true. Be it a pony or a big horse, the basics are the same.”
Thankfully, it seemed to pass without suspicion.
Chatting about this and that as we went, the sky slowly darkened.
“Looks like we can stay at Third Month Inn tonight as planned.”
I nodded at Escort Guard Seo Wu’s words.
“Let’s do that.”
“Yes.”
Third Month Inn sat at just the right distance so that if you left the main branch in the morning, you’d arrive around evening, which was why the Eunhae Merchant Group made frequent use of it.
I’d heard it was named that because it first opened for business in the Third Month.
“How should we arrange the rooms? Will Young Hero Peng and your attendant be using separate rooms, or will you share one?”
Young Hero Peng answered my question.
“We’ll share a room.”
Escort Guard Seo Wu and Palgap asked the innkeeper for rooms and meals, and we each went to our rooms.
By the time I washed up and came downstairs, Young Hero Peng’s party was already on the first floor.
“You’re already down.”
“I’m usually pretty quick when I wash.”
“I see.”
We each ordered food, and before long the waiter brought out the dishes.
“Please enjoy.”
“Thanks.”
Just as I picked up my chopsticks, I noticed something odd.
It was Young Hero Peng poking through the dishes the way Escort Guard Lee Pil did.
Escort Guard Lee Pil had that habit because of childhood experiences, but…
Now that I look, his chopsticks aren’t the ones from the inn, they’re silver chopsticks.
Noticing my gaze, he flinched, then scratched the back of his neck.
“Sorry. If I don’t check things like this, I can’t digest my food…”
“You must’ve gone through a lot while wandering the martial world.”
“Ah…”
He gave a wry smile.
“It’s been pretty eventful, yeah.”
At his words, the attendant beside him let out a sigh.
“What’s the point of even talking about it? If you put it into books, it’d be over a hundred volumes.”
Young Hero Peng grinned.
“There were plenty of times we barely made it out alive. The first thing that comes to mind is when we ran into Bloodsucking Old Fiend.”
“Bloodsucking Old Fiend? I heard that one died a few years back.”
“It isn’t widely known, but the one who cut down Bloodsucking Old Fiend was our young master.”
Bloodsucking Old Fiend, as his name implied, was an old man who drank blood, a monster who thirsted for youth and preyed on the blood of young women.
In my memory, in this life as in the last, his corpse had been found.
And the hero who cut him down was Young Hero Peng?
“Is that really true?”
At Escort Guard Lee Pil’s question, Young Hero Peng nodded.
“Back then…”
His explanation sounded like listening to one of those stories a storyteller spins.
To sum it up, he’d gone there wondering if the man might be his missing uncle, realized he wasn’t, and then cut him down to escape.
To be honest, the man’s martial arts weren’t that overwhelming, but his movement technique was so fast it would make you believe he was a ghost, which made him a truly troublesome opponent.
So he’d disguised himself as a woman to trick him, wrapped taffy he’d brought as emergency rations around the man’s neck so his teeth would stick to it, then tore both his arms off with his bare hands.
As expected of the Peng Clan’s bloodline, he’d been born with tremendous raw strength.
No, more than that, his quick wits in a pinch were amazing.
“Then why didn’t you make it public?”
“Well… at the time, I didn’t want my movements to be known.”
‘In my last life, some random person was praised as a hero for killing Bloodsucking Old Fiend…’
It’s a relief that at least I got to hear the real story this time.
After we finished eating, we each went back to our rooms and went to bed.
.
.
.
I woke up in a foul mood.
How am I supposed to sleep when someone’s leaking killing intent like this.
Grumbling inwardly, I rose from the bed.
I could feel Escort Guard Seo Wu’s and Escort Guard Jin Yu’s presence in the rooms to my left and right.
Well, with killing intent practically pouring out, there was no way those two would miss it.
I sent them a Voice Transmission.
— Who do you think they’re targeting?
Their Voice Transmission followed immediately.
— Young Hero Peng.
— Young Hero Peng.
‘So my guess was right.’
I sent another Voice Transmission to the two Escort Guards.
— Let’s move.
At the same moment, I heard doors opening and stepped out as well.
“…!”
The two masked men were startled to see us, but then rushed at us, clearly determined to silence us.
Thud-!
Smack-!
But we weren’t about to lose to the likes of them. We took them down in an instant and knocked them out.
Then we fished out the suicide poison pills hidden in their mouths and dragged them into my room.
By then Palgap had woken up as well and already prepared some rope.
As expected of Palgap.
We tied them up, and Escort Guard Seo Wu slapped their cheeks to wake them.
“Slap-!”
“Urk!”
“Smack-!”
“Gah!”
They blinked their eyes open and hurriedly rolled their tongues.
“Looking for this?”
When they saw the poison pills on the table that I was pointing at, despair flooded their eyes.
“You’ve really got some nerve. Going after my life here in Hubei.”
They glanced at each other, then shouted at me.
“We don’t know how you figured it out, but that’s right!”
“Now that we’ve marked you, you’re as good as dead!”
Hey, you two.
I can see you’re just bluffing, you know?
They’re trying to hide that their real target is Young Hero Peng…
Do they seriously not know who I am?
If they knew, they wouldn’t be boldly claiming they were after my life.
A fun idea suddenly popped into my head.
“Is that so? Hehe. You’ve made a very interesting choice, turning His Majesty the Emperor’s man into your enemy.”
Their pupils shook violently.
They clearly hadn’t expected me to say I was the emperor’s man.
“In case you didn’t know, attacking a Censorate Inspector is treated as treason against His Majesty. And as it happens, there’s a great warrior from the Embroidered Guard that I’m quite familiar with nearby.”
“Urk! W-we—”
“We’ll tell you the truth!”
Smiling, I raised my index finger to my lips.
“Shh. That’s enough.”
“…”
“You can go into the details after you’ve been finely ground down by the one hundred and thirty torture methods that the Embroidered Guard is so good at. If you confess now, where’s the fun in that?”
At my words, they started trembling and pleaded, completely cowed.
“P-please, let us confess.”
“We’ll tell you everything honestly. So please, at least give us an easy death!”
“Now you’ve got me a little curious. What’s the truth?”
“W-we came… to take Peng Gang-un’s life.”
“Who’s the one who hired you?”
“That…”
One of them squeezed their eyes shut and answered.
“It’s the Young Clan Lord of the Hebei Peng Clan.”
–TL Notes–
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