There were quite a lot of masked figures surrounding us, nearly twenty of them.
I could clearly feel an Unorthodox Sect aura coming off them.
“Let me get straight to the point. Hand over that letter.”
“What letter? I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t play dumb! We know you have that letter.”
That meant they had an informant inside the Imperial Palace. Or they’d seen me enter the palace and jumped to conclusions.
“No, this is driving me crazy! What in the world are you talking about?”
“The letter the Emperor entrusted to you, you bastard!”
Yeah, just from that, it was obvious they weren’t exactly fond of His Majesty.
In that case, there was no way I could meekly admit I actually had the letter.
“What are you saying? Why would His Majesty entrust a letter to me? I’m nowhere near qualified to handle such an important task.”
“So you truly don’t have it?”
“No, seriously, you’re going to make me lose my mind!”
“Phew, it really sounds like he doesn’t have it.”
“What should we do?”
“It doesn’t matter. Either way, he knows about us now, so we can’t let him live. Kill them!”
“Yes.”
They all charged at us at once.
I’d given them a chance to walk away alive, and they just kicked it aside.
We were outnumbered, sure, but we had three Peak-level warriors and four First-rate warriors.
Did they seriously not know anything about me?
The incident in Luoyang last time wasn’t exactly a secret, and anyone even slightly interested in the martial world should’ve known about my and Escort Guard Seo Wu’s skills.
Could they really not know?
Or maybe they just never connected the dots.
Either way, thanks to them, I now knew two important things: they were after the letter I carried, and there was a spy inside the Imperial Palace.
Which meant…
“Try to capture them alive if you can. But don’t push yourselves so hard you get hurt.”
“We obey!”
And with that, a full-on fight broke out, the street erupting into chaos.
Naturally, my Escort Guards’ martial skills were far superior, so the battle flowed heavily in our favor.
By the time we’d taken down several of the masked attackers without suffering a single injury on our side, a whistle blast sounded and the constables came pouring in.
“Damn it! Fall back!”
They bolted, leaving their fallen behind.
They were insanely fast.
The Head Constable hurried over to us and asked,
“Are you all right?”
“Yes, we’re fine.”
“I’m relieved you’re unharmed. And, uh… I’m sorry, but I’ll have to ask you to come with us to the magistrate’s office.”
I nodded at the Head Constable’s words.
It was a hassle, but procedures were procedures.
Last time in Beijing, when I’d been suddenly attacked by rebels, I’d been with the Embroidered Guard, so they handled everything and I didn’t have to go to the magistrate’s office in person.
But this time was different.
The Head Constable glanced over the ones we’d subdued and shouted,
“Tie them up!”
“Yes, sir!”
The good thing was, most of the ones we’d taken down were still alive, so they could be captured.
“Ah, while you’re at it, gag them too. They might try to bite their tongues and kill themselves.”
“You’re right, we’ll do that.”
The Head Constable seemed to think it was a good idea and gave fresh orders to the constables.
And then we headed for the magistrate’s office.
When Ji Hyeon saw us arriving with the Head Constable, he rushed over in surprise.
We’d met before, after all.
“What in the world happened?”
“To put it simply, we were ambushed by masked attackers.”
“What? An ambush?”
“Yes, there were about twenty of them. They ambushed us, but ran as soon as the constables showed up. Luckily, we managed to capture a few of them.”
Ji Hyeon clicked his tongue as they looked over the gagged, bound attackers being dragged in.
“No matter how you look at it, attacking the Dragon-Phoenix Martial Gathering’s heroes, the Handsome Young Hero and the White Butterfly Sword Hero, is nothing short of suicide.”
At those words, the eyes of the subdued attackers went wide.
Judging by their reaction, they really hadn’t known who I or Escort Guard Seo Wu were.
“Well then, I’m sorry for the trouble, but could I ask you to give a formal statement?”
“Of course.”
Only after we finished giving our statements could we finally head to the pleasure house where the banquet was being held.
“Did something happen? You were late, so I was getting worried.”
I gave an awkward smile at Branch Chief Eun’s question and answered,
“There was just a lot to take care of on the way.”
There was no need to ruin the mood by saying we’d been ambushed on the road.
Especially since no one was hurt.
“I see.”
I smiled to show everything was fine and looked deeper into the pleasure house.
Our merchant group’s people were enjoying the banquet, watching the courtesans dance and play music.
Of course, there was no alcohol.
But the food was good, and they had a sweet fruit drink to go with it, so it should be fine.
The drink was made by mixing water and honey, then adding dried fruit to give it color, a pleasant tartness, and a fragrant aroma.
I walked over to them and asked,
“Are you enjoying the banquet?”
“Ah! Deputy Merchant Lord!”
“Come, have a cup of this. It tastes absolutely amazing.”
“Ah, then pour me one.”
I accepted a cup of the sweet fruit drink and took a sip. It really was good.
“All right then, enjoy yourselves. I’ll be heading out now. Branch Chief Eun, please come with me.”
Branch Chief Eun quickly replied,
“Understood.”
No matter what kind of banquet it is, you can’t really enjoy yourself with your superiors sitting there.
When you let people relax, you have to give them some real space.
If alcohol was involved, there’d be a high chance someone would lose their senses and cause trouble, but with no liquor that risk was much lower.
“Hmm, I guess people can still cause trouble while sober.”
Which, honestly, would be good for me.
Since I could filter them out before they caused an even bigger mess.
“So just enjoy yourselves within reason and head back later.”
When I went down to the first floor, the pleasure house’s proprietor greeted me politely.
And no wonder—they’d been suffering ever since the Prohibition Decree went out, and now I’d brought them a huge company banquet.
From the proprietor’s perspective, it probably felt like receiving a great favor.
“Thank you for choosing our establishment.”
“I just came here again because your food is always good.”
“Thank you. Our house chef’s skills really is exceptional.”
Of course.
He used to be an imperial palace chef.
Of course, no one knew that yet.
That fact only came out later, and when people questioned why the chef had abandoned the honor of being an imperial palace chef, the chef answered,
“What’s the point of making delicious food if the person eating it can’t truly enjoy it?”
Since it involved palace matters, he couldn’t say more, which only fueled everyone’s curiosity and wild speculation.
Much later, while I was chatting with Prince Jinseung, who I was on friendly terms with, this story came up by chance.
“I can kind of understand what that chef meant.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Because it’s palace food, the procedures are incredibly complicated. First off, for every dish made each day, they have to record everything from the ingredients to the cooking method.”
“Isn’t that only natural?”
“True, but that’s not all. His Majesty doesn’t personally pick up the dishes from the table. When His Majesty points to a dish, a Eunuch serves some into a bowl and brings it before him. But here’s the thing—once His Majesty has pointed to a particular dish about three times, they can never serve that dish again.”
“…Because of poisoning?”
“Exactly.”
Prince Jinseung nodded and continued,
“Just think how frustrated the chef must’ve been when most of the dishes he made were too delicious to be served again.”
Listening to that, I felt sorry not only for the chef who fled the palace without being able to fully use their talent, but also for the Emperor, who couldn’t even relax and enjoy delicious food.
Still, in the end, the chef got to use his talent freely and be happy, and the people eating that food were happy too.
It was a win for everyone.
I turned back to the proprietor and said,
“Then, I’ll leave things in your hands.”
“Naturally.”
“Oh, and…”
I glanced around, then leaned in close and whispered,
“I know you have illegal liquor stored away.”
He flinched at my words.
This establishment did have some excellent liquor set aside for emergencies, and they’d secretly been serving it to high-ranking Beijing officials.
But they’d been caught, suffered severe punishment because of it, and in the process it had been revealed that their chef was a former imperial palace chef.
Honestly, it had been a pitiful mess.
You couldn’t run a pleasure house in Beijing without minding the moods of high officials.
But when everything came to light, the one who took the heavy punishment was the proprietor, while those officials only received a light scolding.
At my words, he quietly asked,
“Would you… like me to offer you some?”
“You’re saying something incredibly dangerous right now.”
“…”
“Even if anyone asks you for alcohol, do not serve it under any circumstances. And if anyone at tonight’s banquet makes an outrageous demand, tell me who they are.”
“Sorry?”
“And one more piece of advice… it might be best to just set fire to your liquor storage.”
“…”
“Well then, I’ll be going.”
And I left the establishment together with Branch Chief Eun.
.
.
.
Back at the temporary residence, I washed up and changed into sleepwear. Then, before lying down on the bed, I sat in front of the low table.
Then I took out the two sealed envelopes from my robe.
When His Majesty had entrusted these two envelopes to me, he’d acted a bit different from usual.
He’d actually looked apologetic.
He already knew. Just carrying these would put my life in danger.
What in the world was in this letter that it was enough to get me ambushed?
Part of me wanted to tear it open right away, but that would be disrespectful.
Knowing His Majesty, he had almost certainly prepared some way of telling if the letter was opened beforehand.
So I set aside the letter that had to be delivered and picked up the envelope with the recipient’s details written on it instead.
I tore it open and read what was inside.
Huh?
Gansu?
Gansu, at the far northwestern edge of the empire?
I’d just arrived in Beijing, with a mountain of things to do here, and now I had to go all the way to Gansu?
Damn it.
If I’d known it would be like this, maybe I should’ve refused.
But what power did I have to refuse the Emperor’s command—no, “request”?
“igh.
I let out a small breath and looked over the personal details.
The recipient of the letter was someone in Gansu named Bang Hyo-myeong.
But if I was getting ambushed in Beijing just for being asked to deliver the letter, was this person really going to be all right?
For all I knew, Elder Bang Hyo-myeong might also be under threat from the same mysterious group.
With that uneasy thought, I flipped to the next page.
“…”
It was a letter His Majesty had written to me. As I read it, I felt a bit sheepish.
He wrote that I was probably cursing him right about now, but that this had been an unavoidable choice.
In return, he promised to give as much support as possible for establishing the Beijing branch.
In short, it was payment for my service.
Well… I guess it couldn’t be helped.
I scratched the side of my head, sighed, and called out to Palgap.
“Palgap!”
“Yes, did you call for me?”
Palgap appeared the moment I called.
“You’re still awake?”
“I had a feeling you’d say we should leave tonight, so I went ahead and prepared everything in advance.”
“…”
The more Palgap trained with the martial arts manual the King of Assassins left behind, the King of Assassins Finger Technique, the more he seemed to be turning into the perfect attendant. That couldn’t just be my imagination, right?
“Then, should I call the Escort Guards?”
“Yeah. And bring Branch Chief Eun and Squad Leader Jeong Chung as well.”
“Understood.”
Palgap moved at once.
No matter how I looked at it, leaving now felt like the best way to catch our enemies off guard.
Soon, Branch Chief Eun and Squad Leader Jeong Chung hurried over.
I gave them a brief explanation, picking out only the key points.
It was the Emperor’s letter, after all, so I couldn’t go into detail.
“So, I’m sorry that I have to leave again right after arriving.”
“Not at all. It can’t be helped, can it? But where are you headed?”
“Guangdong.”
“That’s incredibly far.”
In truth, I wasn’t going to Guangdong at all, but you know what they say.
“If you want to fool the enemy, you have to fool your allies first.”
“In return, His Majesty said he would give as much support as possible for establishing the Beijing branch.”
“Is that so?”
“Of course. If I’m going all the way to Guangdong and back, that much compensation is the least that makes it worth it, right?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“Then I’ll leave everything here in your hands while I’m gone.”
That night,
I slipped out of Beijing in secret with only Palgap and the six Escort Guards.
Our destination, of course, was Gansu.
The next day, at a secluded Manor in Beijing, a man rushed inside in a panic.
“This is an emergency!”
“What is it?”
“They say he left last night.”
At that report, the man ground his teeth.
“I thought he’d leave a few days later!”
“…”
“We must make absolutely sure that letter he carries never reaches that person. If that letter gets delivered, our entire plan will be thrown off!”
That meant everything they’d built up while playing their game of wits with the Emperor would crumble.
Still, he had a feeling that stopping that man, Eun Seo-ho, wouldn’t be easy.
‘I’ve been tricked by that fox of an Emperor!’
Not only had the people who attacked Eun Seo-ho last night failed, several had been captured and the rest had barely escaped.
Because he’d been so focused on that mess, he’d neglected to properly keep track of Eun Seo-ho’s movements—and that had been his mistake.
“So, did you at least find out where he went?”
“Yes! They say he’s headed to Guangdong.”
“Send a pursuit team immediately.”
–TL Notes–
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