A small wooden hut deep in the forest.
It was one of the Embroidered Guard's safe houses.
Inside, a man hung unconscious in midair, bound hand and foot.
The tendons and meridians in all four of his limbs had been severed.
Warrior Jang Won had done it himself. He'd flown into a rage after finding a letter hidden inside the man's clothes, one intended for the people he had been secretly colluding with.
“All you needed to do was tie him up…”
“No. An Embroidered Guard can easily break ordinary restraints and escape.”
“…”
Well, when he put it that way, I couldn't exactly argue.
Still, looking at the man like this made me feel as though we were the villains here.
Then again, it wasn't as if this was our first time doing something like this.
I looked at Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am and nodded, and he splashed water over the bound man.
Splash!
The man regained consciousness and opened his eyes. The moment he realized what was happening, he shouted.
“What is the meaning of this?”
“You're the one who should be explaining yourself. What the hell have you done?”
Warrior Jang Won threw the letter we'd found on him right in front of his face.
Slap!
His eyes trembled the instant he saw the letter lying on the floor.
“So every investigator sent here until now died because of you, Mo Gyeong! Hah!”
Ah, so that bastard's name was Mo Gyeong.
Apparently, Agent B had merely been some sort of code name.
“…”
“Why did you do it?”
“Why bother asking?”
“I'd at least like to know the reason.”
Mo Gyeong answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Money, obviously. Heh heh heh. They paid me quite well.”
“You betrayed His Majesty the Emperor and your own comrades for mere money?”
“Mere money?”
He grinned.
“You need money if you want to eat well and live comfortably, don't you? Does loyalty to the Emperor or faith in your comrades put food on the table?”
“…”
“Am I wrong?”
This was bad.
Warrior Jang Won's face was turning so red with rage that I was starting to worry he'd have a stroke before we got anything useful out of this bastard.
I stepped forward and spoke.
“Of course. Money is important, and loyalty to the Emperor or faith in one's comrades doesn't put food in your stomach.”
“Oh… I knew a merchant would understand.”
So he knew who I was.
Good thing we'd abducted and locked him up before he could meet anyone. Otherwise, he might have exposed my identity to the very people we were trying to investigate.
I'd have to thank Lady Seohyang for that.
I raised my head and smiled at him.
Behind me, Warrior Jang Won was staring at my back as though I'd personally betrayed him.
“But even if you have enough money to eat well and live comfortably, can you really call that living well as a human being?”
“What?”
“If all you care about is stuffing yourself and living comfortably while ignoring everything else, how are you any different from a pig in a sty?”
– Kui? Kui!
Hm? You're saying that doesn't apply to you?
You're a Spirit Beast who understands honor and righteousness?
Of course. Of course you are.
I slipped a hand into my sleeve and gave Geumryeong's rump a reassuring pat.
“The reason we're called human is because we understand how a human being ought to live and act accordingly. Isn't that right?”
“…”
He couldn't immediately come up with an answer to that.
“All right, then. Let's have you answer a few questions.”
I continued.
“Who were you planning to deliver this letter to?”
“…”
“Go on. Answer me.”
“I only wrote it for my own records.”
Warrior Jang Won apparently couldn't stand it any longer. His fist slammed straight into Mo Gyeong's face.
Bam!
“Ghk!”
“Let's make this easy.”
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
Warrior Jang Won drew his sword, drove it into Mo Gyeong's thigh, and mercilessly twisted the blade.
“Uuuurgh!”
Ouch. That had to hurt.
Still, why wasn't he talking?
Was it sheer stubborn pride?
Or maybe he thought keeping his mouth shut would spare him from an even harsher punishment.
After all, the greater this affair became, the more severe his sentence would become as well.
Maybe he was trying to make sure a crime that might end with beheading or hanging didn't turn into something horrific and brutal like death by a thousand cuts.
Ah! In that case, he might try to kill himself before it ever reached that point…
“Careful! He might bite off his tongue!”
Thud!
Crunch!
Damn… Warrior Jang Won was a terrifying man.
He'd just smashed the man's teeth to pieces with one punch.
“Ugh…”
Warrior Jang Won looked at the groaning man and spoke.
“You're an Embroidered Guard too, so you should know this much. When it comes to torture, no one in the Empire can match us.”
“…”
Mo Gyeong's eyes darted wildly.
“Our ship to Hainan Island doesn't leave until tomorrow, so we've got plenty of time. And no one ever comes out here. All right, then. Let's have some fun.”
.
.
.
A while later.
I once again made a solemn promise to myself.
I would never, ever do anything that might put me on the Embroidered Guard's bad side.
There was a very good reason for that. Mo Gyeong had spilled everything in just two hours.
“Tch! He couldn't even last two hours! He was never fit to call himself an Embroidered Guard in the first place.”
Excuse me…
Lasting two whole hours was already incredibly impressive, you know?
In any case, thanks to that, we learned who he'd been trying to pass information to and got a fairly clear picture of what had been happening all this time.
Most importantly, the County Magistrate of Xuwen County was involved in the whole affair.
Of course, we'd suspected as much already, but suspicion and hard evidence were two very different things.
And now we even had a written confession.
We locked Mo Gyeong inside the Underground Prison here. The safe house was small, but perhaps because it belonged to the Embroidered Guard, it even had a proper underground prison.
Then we returned to the inn and wrote an interim report on everything we'd uncovered so far.
At the same time, I drafted a request for reinforcements.
If we wanted to completely dismantle the Mu Merchant Group and turn Xuwen County upside down, we'd need more manpower.
“Warrior Jang.”
“Yes.”
“Choose your fastest man and have him deliver this letter to the Provincial Command Office in Hunan.”
“Understood.”
Guangdong had its own Provincial Command Office, of course, but I'd deliberately requested support from Hunan because I had to consider the possibility that Guangdong's Provincial Commander was involved in this affair.
That was the worst possibility, of course, but I couldn't afford to rule it out.
For now, we had to proceed under the assumption that none of the officials in Guangdong could be trusted.
Imperial Guard soldiers dispatched under absolute secrecy were already standing by in Hunan, and Embroidered Guard agents had been sent there as well.
Either the Provincial Commander or the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner in Hunan could take command of them and scour Guangdong from top to bottom.
And what was I going to do?
I was heading to Hainan Island to turn that place upside down.
.
.
.
The next day.
I woke up early in the morning.
Since today was the day we were leaving for Hainan Island, Palgap had been bustling around since dawn.
I headed to the Mu Merchant Group with my guards.
The gatekeeper greeted me warmly, and I was shown into the Reception Room with all due courtesy.
After waiting there for a short while, Senior Supervisor Wang Seok hurried inside.
“What brings you here so early in the morning?”
“I wanted to see how the grain purchases were progressing.”
“You have nothing to worry about. Everything is proceeding without a hitch.”
Without a hitch, my ass.
His eyes alone were enough to tell me something was wrong.
“I'm leaving for Hainan Island today.”
“Ah, so you're finally heading over.”
“Yes. It took me longer than expected to secure a ship, so it looks like I'll be delayed by another three or four days.”
“I see.”
“I'll stop by again on my way back to Beijing. I'd like to collect the twenty thousand sacks of grain we contracted for at that time.”
“Of course. We'll have everything prepared so you can take it with you immediately.”
“Then I'll be on my way. It's almost time for me to leave.”
I rose from my seat, and he bowed politely.
“Have a safe journey.”
I left the Mu Merchant Group.
That should buy more than enough time for the Embroidered Guard and Imperial Guard forces from Hunan to march in.
“Ah, Escort Guard Myeong Jong. Let's stop by the market for a moment.”
“Why is that?”
“Deputy Gwak asked me to buy something for her. I need to pick it up before we leave.”
At the market, I bought what she'd asked for.
An umbrella, of all things.
If she'd specifically asked me to prepare one, was it supposed to rain today?
After returning to the Sea Song Inn, I headed for the harbor with Warrior Jang Won.
“Welcome. We pay our respects to the Great Hero, Handsome Young Hero.”
The sailors' eyes were filled with unmistakable warmth and admiration as they looked at me.
Hadn't they said they were from Hainan Island?
“We'll do everything in our power to make your journey comfortable.”
“Thank you.”
We boarded the ship, and it departed almost immediately.
“It takes about four to five hours to reach Hainan Island from here.”
In other words, if it were an overland journey, it would be close enough for a casual day trip.
“Is the sea route to Hainan Island dangerous?”
One of the sailors answered my question.
“For such a short trip, it isn't an easy route. The winds are strong, the waves can get rough, and there are reefs as well. But sailors with our experience know how to steer around the dangerous spots. Hahaha. So you don't need to worry.”
“I've heard quite a few ships traveling to and from Hainan Island have run aground.”
“Yes. It's a terrible tragedy.”
“I also heard that because of those accidents, relief grain and relief funds sent to Hainan Island by the Imperial Palace failed to arrive properly.”
“That's right. In fact, back then, a great many sailors and shipowners volunteered to help. We said we'd transport the grain, the materials needed for repairs, and anything else Hainan Island needed without taking a single coin.”
“You offered to do it for free?”
“Yes. It was for Hainan Island. How could we possibly refuse? But…”
He glanced around before moving closer and lowering his voice to a whisper.
“The people above us wouldn't let us handle it. Instead, they gave the work to a bunch of complete amateurs who'd never done anything like it before.”
“What? They really did that?”
“And look what happened. They all ended up at the bottom of the sea, didn't they? Worse, all those precious supplies went down with them… Agh, what a waste.”
“That's terrible. Truly terrible.”
I sighed along with him, putting on an equally regretful expression.
Especially since those supplies had actually ended up in the wrong bastards' stomachs.
“Anyway, when the people of Hainan Island were on the verge of starving to death, the Sect Leader of the Hainan Sect arrived with an enormous stockpile of grain. The Hainan Sect's shipowners immediately rushed out and ferried it all to the island. Thanks to them, the people of Hainan Island escaped starvation.”
“Are things all right now?”
“Yes. Hainan Island has good farmland and plenty of fruit, so now that we've made it past that crisis, things are all right.”
“That's a relief.”
“The Sect Leader of the Hainan Sect told us that when Handsome Young Hero heard what had happened to Hainan Island, you shed tears and gave us a generous donation.”
Ah…
“Thanks to you, I was able to keep my own family fed as well. I truly don't know how I could ever repay such kindness.”
“I only did what needed to be done.”
Now I finally understood why the sailors had been looking at me that way.
My donation had actually helped them and their families survive.
This was getting a little embarrassing.
I'd made that donation because I wanted to secure a docking site for the Eunhae Merchant Group's ships on Hainan Island, yet they were thanking me as though I'd done it entirely out of pure generosity.
More importantly, judging by what the sailor had told me, far too many things here didn't add up.
A bunch of complete amateurs, huh…
Could it be?
“Have a large number of outsiders entered Hainan Island recently?”
“Outsiders… Now that you mention it, I've been seeing unfamiliar faces around the island for a while.”
Just as I expected.
I smoothly changed the subject.
“I'd like to have some pearl jewelry made as a birthday gift for my wife, and someone recommended a man named Cheon on Hainan Island. Would you say he's a good person to visit?”
“He does deal in pearls, but… personally, I'd recommend a man named Yeon instead.”
He didn't say anything outright, but his expression made it obvious that something about Cheon bothered him.
“Is there some kind of problem with Cheon?”
“There's nothing wrong with Cheon himself, but… a while ago, he brought in a large number of outsiders, and they've been going around causing trouble. It's made people rather uncomfortable.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. He was the one who brought them here, but he hardly seemed to care what they did afterward. They only settled down after the Hainan Sect gave them a stern warning. Frankly, though, I still don't like them.”
There's definitely something here!
“Those men… are they martial artists?”
“Yes. He hired them because he said he needed people to protect his pearls.”
In that case, I'd have to pay this Cheon a visit.
Just then, one of the sailors carried a bowl toward the bow of the ship, placed something inside it, and set it alight.
A plume of red smoke began rising into the sky.
“What's that?”
“It's a signal showing that we're a ship returning to Hainan Island.”
“I see.”
A while later, our ship arrived at Hainan Island.
“You can disembark now.”
“Thank you.”
“Here's the fare, sir.”
Palgap held out the payment for our passage, but the shipowner immediately waved both hands.
“No! You saved my family, and you saved Hainan Island itself. How could I possibly take money from our benefactor?”
“No. You must accept it.”
I took the money from Palgap's hand and personally placed it in the shipowner's palm.
“Every service deserves fair compensation. Besides, you have a family waiting at home. You need to put food on their table.”
“…Thank you.”
“Then I'll use your ship again at the time we agreed upon.”
“Yes. And even if it's before then, contact us whenever you need a ship.”
At that moment, around ten people dressed in martial uniforms came running toward us.
From their clothing, they appeared to be disciples of the Hainan Sect.
Two of them stopped in front of us, unfurled the enormous scroll they'd brought on long poles, and raised it high overhead.
[Welcome to Hainan Island, Great Hero – Handsome Young Hero, Deputy Merchant Lord of the Eunhae Merchant Group and Benefactor of Hainan Island]
Huh? What was with that banner?
Then another four disciples approached while pulling flowers from enormous baskets and scattering them all around us.
Hainan Island was an exceptionally warm place.
Flowers bloomed here throughout all four seasons, so it probably wasn't difficult to find this many even at this time of year.
Still… wasn't this welcome a little too extravagant?
Fwoosh!
At that moment, Lady Seohyang opened her umbrella, and I finally understood why she'd asked me to buy one.
So it really was going to rain today after all.
A rain of flowers was still rain.
–TL Notes–
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