Chapter 49
Part 24: As Usual
Wongakjeong, late afternoon.
As usual, Yeon Sang-hyeon was meeting with the book brokers who had come to see him in the guest pavilion used to receive visitors.
“Hmm.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon stroked the leather cover of a book.
At that, the book broker wearing round glasses smiled meaningfully.
“As expected of the Eldest Young Master! You truly are a man whom none can rival in learning. It seems you saw through the value of that book at a single glance!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon said as he skimmed through the contents.
“No. I just thought the cover seemed to be made from human skin.”
At the words human skin, the book broker’s complexion instantly turned pale.
He hurriedly asked the foreigner sitting beside him.
The man with red hair and a red beard, who had been sitting there politely with his shoulders hunched, carefully answered the book broker’s question.
After they exchanged a few words in a halting foreign language, the book broker immediately bowed his head to Yeon Sang-hyeon.
“Aigo, Eldest Young Master! Please kill this lowly wretch for letting Your Honorable Body come into contact with such an irreverent object!”
“Leave ‘Honorable Body’ for the imperial family. What is the next book?”
At his words, the book broker’s face lit up, and he rummaged through the red sandalwood chest he had carried in.
“Now then, as for this book…”
The brokers from the merchant association he belonged to were all highly capable, but every single one of them talked far too much.
“Enough noise. Hand it over.”
Yeon Sang-hyeon snatched the wrapped bundle from his hands.
“Haha, as expected, you are decisive!”
Yeon Sang-hyeon carefully untied the silver-threaded cloth and took out an old book from inside.
With delicate movements, he examined the contents of the crumbling book.
“This is…!”
The book broker’s eyes flashed at Yeon Sang-hyeon’s reaction.
“Heh heh, as expected of the Eldest Young Master. That book is truly something I obtained only after the greatest difficulty…”
Ignoring him, Yeon Sang-hyeon asked the foreigner a question.
At Yeon Sang-hyeon’s fluent Hollander language, the foreigner was startled. Soon, his face brightened, and he began conversing with him, adding gestures with his hands and feet.
“…Of course. As expected of the Eldest Young Master, you are even fluent in the Hollander language.”
The neglected book broker took a handkerchief from his bosom and wiped the sweat flowing down his scraped forehead.
A short while later.
“Good. I will buy them all.”
The book broker jumped in delight.
“Your grace is boundless!”
“What grace…”
Yeon Sang-hyeon wrote out a bill for him.
“…May I receive the payment from the inner court this time as well?”
Yeon Sang-hyeon smirked.
“They are reluctant to pay you there, aren’t they?”
The book broker hurriedly shook his head.
“Not at all! Is this not merely a small problem caused by the fact that I and our merchant association have not yet made our names widely known? The Eldest Young Master’s grace, vast as the sea, is something this lowly one…”
While he kept chattering away, Yeon Sang-hyeon exchanged greetings with the Hollander merchant.
Yeon Sang-hyeon smiled, and the Hollander merchant burst into laughter.
He had told him, “Next time, come see me directly without this talkative broker.”
Of course, the broker, whose Hollander language was limited and who had failed to understand, merely wiped his sweat and forced a smile.
***
At that time.
Jeong-ah was filling the bowls of two old monks with enough food to overflow.
The monks, dressed in tattered kasayas so worn out that it was impossible to tell what color they had originally been, smiled as they revealed white teeth.
“Aigo, thank you. May you receive blessings, young bodhisattva.”
“There is no other house where the greens taste as good as they do here. Surely this is all thanks to the merit of the bodhisattva, is it not?”
The old monks, their faces full of wrinkles, repeatedly pressed their palms together toward Jeong-ah.
“Not at all, venerable monks.”
Their bodies gave off a foul smell, and their mouths reeked of rot.
But Jeong-ah showed no sign of noticing and respectfully pressed her palms together in return.
“Please stop by anytime you need anything.”
Then one of the old monks looked at her with a subtle gaze.
“Was there not something else that the young master of this house had asked us to receive on his behalf as alms? What was it again…”
Jeong-ah clapped her hands.
“Ah! Please wait a moment!”
A short while later, the old monks walked away with light steps, carrying even the lumps of smoked meat Jeong-ah had wrapped for them in oiled paper.
“Venerable monks, please take care on your way.”
The monks waved their hands toward Jeong-ah.
“Amitabha.”
“May you be blessed, young bodhisattvas.”
“Give our regards to the master of the house as well.”
As soon as they had gone a little distance away, one of the triplet maids, who had been silent until then, shrugged her shoulders.
“No, I simply cannot understand it.”
“Monks receiving meat as alms?”
“Did you see those white teeth? The wrinkles on their faces must all have been disguised as well.”
Jeong-ah turned to look at them.
“The meat those venerable monks take away is for the child monks at the temple. Mind your words.”
At her words, the girls shrank back.
“I-Is that so?”
At that moment, Sam-ryeong carefully opened her mouth.
“No, but to begin with, where on earth did those old monks come in from?”
At that, the other two twins also clapped their hands.
“Now that you mention it, that is true!”
“This is Wongakjeong, located in the most remote corner of the Luoyang Sword Clan, so why would mendicant monks suddenly appear here?!”
Jeong-ah pressed her palms together and watched the old monks as they grew distant.
“Do none of you know what mountain that is, visible far over there?”
At her words, the triplet maids turned around.
The garden stretching beyond Wongakjeong had become a forest, and the forest grew even farther away into a dense woodland.
And beyond the woodland, they could see the shape of a rugged mountain range that was nothing short of precipitous.
I-ryeong unconsciously murmured the mountain’s name.
“Mount Song…?”
At that moment, Il-ryeong shouted in shock.
“No! Those mad monks are entering the forbidden area!”
I-ryeong stamped her feet.
“Chief Maid! That forbidden area is a demon realm designated as forbidden ground because no master has ever returned alive from it, has there?!”
That was why Wongakjeong’s garden opened out toward nature, and yet there were no defenses whatsoever in that direction.
Jeong-ah smiled.
“Do not worry.”
As she spoke, the old monks disappeared into the forest.
“Those venerable monks came from there even when I first served them.”
***
In the cold winter weather, bright sunlight should have been welcome without reservation, and yet a chilly air lingered around the main gate of Wongakjeong.
“Captain, no matter how you look at it, isn’t suspension from duty too harsh?”
They were talking about what had happened the previous night.
When the Life-taking Ghost Sword said nothing, the special operative disguised as a guard beat his chest as if frustrated.
“I mean, it is true that the fellow was wrong to let Elder Yeom’s butler pass through as he pleased. But how could you report him to the higher-ups over something so small?”
The Life-taking Ghost Sword, who had been leaning against the wall, opened his eyes.
“Something so small?”
When he finally opened his mouth, the special operative earnestly defended the senior guard who had been disciplined.
“We were only trying to give the Eldest Young Master a little trouble. We did that from time to time in the past too, didn’t we?”
The Life-taking Ghost Sword smiled coldly.
“The butler was carried out half-dead, and four young warriors with bright futures lost their right arms.”
His gaze turned toward the special operative.
“And that was a joke?”
“That is…”
The special operative was left speechless.
Not only him, but the complexions of the other special operatives listening in on their conversation also darkened.
The Life-taking Ghost Sword sighed.
“Yes. In the past, it may have been nothing more than a joke. After all, we had never once seen the Eldest Young Master get angry.”
He looked around at the special operatives.
“But since the day all the servants were driven out, have you not all felt that Wongakjeong has changed, and that the Eldest Young Master has changed as well?”
Everyone remained silent.
“Everyone here knows little about one another. But there is something I do know.”
Their gazes turned toward the Life-taking Ghost Sword.
“We have all fought our whole lives to raise the name of the main family, and now, each for our own reasons, we are people who have stepped back from the front line.”
The Life-taking Ghost Sword tapped his own scabbard.
“Treasure the honor you have built up until now.”
He added briefly.
“And all of you, be careful not to be rude to the Eldest Young Master.”
When he finished speaking, the special operative who had been talking with him shrugged.
“It would have been perfect if not for that last part.”
The others also chuckled.
“Listen.”
The Life-taking Ghost Sword tried to say something more, but the special operative had already turned around and was returning to his position.
Without even looking back, he answered.
“Do not play any more pranks? I have to follow orders. Think of my honor? I understand. But telling me not to be rude to the Swordless?”
Another man snorted.
“Come to think of it, Captain, since when did you start calling the Swordless ‘Eldest Young Master’ and ‘Eldest Young Master-nim’?”
A man who had been keeping silent opened his mouth.
“I took on a special mission and lived for ten years with the mountains of Yunnan as my roof and the forests as my front yard. Even so, I never regretted it once.”
He gripped his scabbard tightly.
Two of his fingers were missing.
“But when I returned to the main family after being injured, the family head was collapsed and the main family was in chaos, yet that eldest son of his was nowhere to be seen.”
“Unable to practice martial arts? That cannot be helped, can it? Talent is talent, after all.”
The man who always wore a leather helmet on his head had suffered a serious head injury during a past mission.
“But even after enjoying everything there was to enjoy as the Eldest Young Master, I simply cannot stand the sight of him refusing to take responsibility.”
The man who always stood fixed duty at the main gate had suffered an irrecoverable injury to one leg.
“They say there was a seclusion order given by the family head, yes? But the way I see it, that is nothing but an excuse. Would you shut yourself up inside the house if your own father had collapsed?”
Even the man who usually spoke very little because of an injury to his throat opened his mouth with a cough.
“If he had inherited even half the blood of either his father or his mother, he would not have done that.”
All of them were people who had thrown their bodies away and sacrificed themselves for the Luoyang Sword Clan.
They spat on the ground.
This time, the Life-taking Ghost Sword was the one left speechless.
In truth, were the things they spoke of not all the very thoughts he himself had once held about Yeon Sang-hyeon?
And those thoughts were likely the underlying stance toward Yeon Sang-hyeon among the warriors belonging to the Luoyang Sword Clan.
What could he say here?
That Yeon Sang-hyeon had created that famous Flashing Shadow Instant?
That after seeing him last night, he thought Yeon Sang-hyeon might have learned martial arts?
As they had said, whether or not he knew martial arts was not the heart of the problem.
Moreover, the matter of the Eldest Young Master’s martial arts was not something he could easily let slip from his mouth.
A coward and a cripple.
Should he say that the Yeon Sang-hyeon he had seen was not that kind of person?
But how was he supposed to begin saying that?
The Yeon Sang-hyeon he had seen, who was always dignified? The chilling look in his eyes that he sometimes revealed? His actions that reminded him of his lord?
That alone was far too insufficient to overturn the fact that Yeon Sang-hyeon had remained in seclusion for all those long years.
And to begin with…
…Why am I trying to defend the Eldest Young Master right now?
At that moment, the special operative standing on the outer side turned his gaze toward the main road.
“One unidentified person approaching.”
“Male, silk clothes, unarmed.”
The special operative, sharpening his eyesight, recognized the person approaching.
“What? That man is…?”