Chapter 57
Part 7: The Root of Evil
Elder Yeom’s daughter, Yeom Baek-ha, was waiting for her father and the First Young Master.
If she were to be a little more honest with herself, she was waiting for the First Young Master more than her father.
They were probably discussing matters related to her illness.
That conversation might change her fate, but she was not particularly concerned.
She was a bold girl.
It was a temperament befitting someone who was called the Law Enforcement Assembly by Elder Yeom’s subordinates and received their awe all to herself.
More than that…
“Oh my, how cute. What is your name?”
The small white beast lying at her feet, Baekho, began trotting toward the Fourth Young Master’s maid.
“No! Baekho, come back!”
Baekho obediently returned to her feet.
After sending off the maid, who walked away with visible regret, Yeom Baek-ha looked down at Baekho.
“I told you it’s dangerous.”
Baekho fluttered his ears and looked up at her with a whine.
“No means no.”
Just as Baekho gave up and was about to sit down with his chin propped up, another maid spotted him.
“Oh my, what an adorable cat.”
The moment Baekho sprang to his feet, Yeom Baek-ha reached out and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck.
Another maid also walked away with regret.
It had been like this for a while now.
For some reason, Baekho had been especially attracting people who “didn’t know what he was” today.
“Honestly, you little troublemaker.”
She played with him for a moment, tickling Baekho’s belly.
Perhaps because this place carried so much of the smell of blood, Baekho’s wild nature kept being stimulated.
“Those people aren’t bad people who deserve to be punished, so stay quiet. All right?”
When Baekho nodded with a slightly sullen expression, she placed him back down on the floor.
“Good. Stay calm like that until Father comes to get us.”
Just then, another voice rang out.
“Hehe, a good child listens well to its master.”
At that, Baekho sprang to his feet again.
Excited, he was about to wag his tail and approach the owner of the voice.
“Oh, honestly…!”
Yeom Baek-ha stopped mid-command.
Baekho had raised his tail and frozen in place.
“Hehe, what is wrong? Come here, little tiger.”
The woman crouched down where she stood and beckoned to Baekho.
But Baekho kept his tail stiffly raised and did not move an inch.
“Tiger? Did that maid just call Baekho a tiger?”
To anyone else, Baekho “normally” looked like nothing more than a white cat.
With startled eyes, Yeom Baek-ha looked at the woman crouching before her.
The woman was dressed neatly in the maid uniform of Wongakjeong, and she was beautiful enough to startle Yeom Baek-ha.
What was especially unique about her was that the color of her irises was very faint. When reflected by the sunlight, they almost seemed to gleam like golden eyes.
“Now, come here.”
“…!”
For a moment, Yeom Baek-ha thought she saw the woman’s pupils split vertically.
And she was startled once more when Baekho lowered his tail, folded his ears, and obediently approached the woman.
“D-danger…!”
But contrary to her thoughts, Baekho merely entrusted himself calmly to the woman’s hand.
“Oh my, my, my. Your fur is so soft.”
The woman smiled brightly and tickled Baekho.
Then Baekho rolled over, showed his belly, and began acting cute.
“Baekho…”
At that moment, Yeom Baek-ha felt both astonishment and hurt.
“Oh my, is this child’s name Baekho, the White Tiger? What a wonderful name. It suits you well.”
When the woman praised him, Baekho waved his front paws and eagerly acted cute.
The woman smiled at the sight and said,
“What wonderful fur you have. It would be perfect for making Master a new winter coat.”
Baekho stopped moving.
At that, the woman burst into laughter.
“I am joking. Only joking.”
But Baekho had already fled back to Yeom Baek-ha’s feet.
He hid beneath the hem of Yeom Baek-ha’s skirt, poked his head out, and glared at the woman.
The woman smiled and said to Yeom Baek-ha,
“He is a large one, so feeding him must be difficult.”
Yeom Baek-ha was flustered by those words.
“Um, by any chance, can you recognize what our Baekho is?”
“Ah, that is…”
The woman, Jeong-ah, was just about to answer.
“You trash from the Sword Clan!”
At that single shout, the noisy courtyard fell deathly silent.
***
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the man standing before the gate.
He was a gaunt man.
He wore ragged clothes, and grime ran down him in streaks, making him filthy beyond measure.
He limped into the courtyard and shouted,
“Sword Clan! You murderous bastards! You cursed bastards!”
The eyes of the warriors standing guard gradually grew fierce.
“Is he mad?”
At Yeom Baek-ha’s mutter, Jeong-ah shook her head.
“He is not mad. He is simply…”
Yeom Baek-ha looked at Jeong-ah.
What was she seeing?
Her eyes were steeped in sorrow.
“The clothes you bastards are wearing! The swords you bastards have at your waists! If we sold even one of those, this entire village wouldn’t have to worry about starving for a whole day! You bastards who deserve heavenly punishment!”
The man grabbed a warrior by the collar.
“What? You came to help? Weren’t you the ones who made us like this in the first place?!”
The warrior’s eyes narrowed, and his hand slowly moved toward the hilt of his sword.
But when he saw the Fourth Young Master raise his hand from afar, telling him to stand down, the warrior swallowed a sigh and folded his arms.
“Are you not the ones who locked us inside this land called Luoyang and are raising us like livestock?! Answer me!”
The man shouted, spitting as he spoke, but the warrior remained silent.
The man limped around and pointed at the Sword Clan people he could see.
“You needed cheap labor, so you made us end up like this! And yet you dare to babble about helping us or not?!”
In accordance with the Fourth Young Master’s will, his people gave no response.
When none of them reacted at all, the man went toward the poor instead.
“You there! You! Did your mother not die last month? If those bastards had given her a proper prescription, she never would have passed away, would she?!”
At the man’s words, the poor man he pointed at turned his head away.
The man bit his lip at the poor man’s reaction, then turned his head.
“You there! Aren’t you the lady from the house down below?”
The woman he pointed at hid behind the others.
The man limped toward her.
“Why did two of your children die, ma’am? Is this not all those bastards’ fault? Why are you just quietly taking whatever those bastards hand out to you?!”
When the man tried to grab the woman, the other poor people stopped him.
“Hey, why are you acting like this…!”
“Calm down! At this rate, you’re going to get yourself in serious trouble!”
The man violently thrashed his body.
“You’re all damned idiots! Damned crippled fools! The root of evil is right in front of your eyes! Your enemies are right in front of your eyes!”
“Hey now! What is wrong with this man!”
When the man’s resistance grew too violent, the poor had no choice but to shove him away.
The man tumbled pathetically across the ground.
He sat there on the ground and screamed until his throat nearly burst.
He howled.
“Just as those bastards intend, you risk your lives and work yourselves to death! And even then, you can’t properly feed a single member of your family! Yet you take what those bastards give you, bow your heads, and thank them…!”
The man’s voice cracked and grew hoarse, but he did not stop.
“You are worse than dogs and pigs! That is why you live being treated as less than dogs and pigs!”
He staggered to his feet.
“I hear there is someone here called the First Young Master of the Sword Clan or whatever. I am going to see that bastard’s face for myself!”
The Fourth Young Master smacked his lips.
“They say that bastard lives in a paradise, bathes in tea, and wipes his ass with golden paper?!”
The warriors with their hands on their sword hilts were only waiting for him to lower his hand.
“Come out! You son of a bitch! You bastard who sells your mother’s name to deceive the ignorant masses!”
The Fourth Young Master’s hand slowly began to lower.
The man had crossed the line.
Even if they did not kill him, it was time to subdue him.
“I am not afraid of death! You cowardly bastard! Come out here and, if you want to kill me, kill me with your own hands…!”
A thunderous roar rang out, and white smoke billowed thickly.
The warriors all drew their swords at once and formed a wide encirclement.
“A-a tiger?!”
“It’s Baekho!”
Within the white smoke, the one lightly pinning the man down with a front paw was a tiger.
And it was no ordinary tiger.
It was a white tiger the size of a house.
“U-ugh…”
The man grabbed the tiger’s front paw and tried to struggle, but there was no way it would work.
Just the tiger’s growl alone made the roof shake and roof tiles fall.
The poor, who had been trying to flee in utter panic, all collapsed where they stood, and even the warriors felt their knees trembling.
“Honestly, even though Father asked me to hold back, I simply cannot bear to listen to any more of this.”
Amazingly, there was a young girl on the tiger’s back.
“Lady Yeom!”
At the Fourth Young Master’s shout, Yeom Baek-ha looked down at him.
“Oh my, Fourth Young Master. You were here.”
The girl smiled beautifully.
“He is one who dared to defile and insult the name of the Sword Clan.”
Her once delicate voice was now filled with an authority that was difficult to approach.
“With the authority granted to me as an Enforcement Envoy of the Luoyang Sword Clan, I hereby declare that a field tribunal shall be opened on this spot.”
When the tiger, Baekho, opened his mouth, fangs the size of a person’s palm revealed themselves menacingly from within.
At the declaration of a field tribunal, the Fourth Young Master sighed and stepped back.
In any case, this was a moment when the Sword Clan’s dignity had to be upheld in some form.
If the Law Enforcement Assembly stepped forward, then at the very least, the effect of punishing one as an example to a hundred would be certain.
One of the warriors, unable to take his eyes off Baekho, asked the Fourth Young Master,
“My lord, is that young lady truly an Enforcement Envoy of the main house?”
The Fourth Young Master sighed and nodded.
“Yes. She is.”
At his words, every warrior sheathed their swords and withdrew.
There was no one here insane enough to interfere with an Enforcement Envoy’s field tribunal.
“From this moment on, this envoy shall state your charges. First, you deliberately defiled the name of the main house before the people. This is…”
The girl’s voice rang out clearly.
“How frightening.”
It was the head maid’s mutter.
“An Enforcement Envoy riding a famed beast. So that is the true form of the Law Enforcement Assembly…”
The plump maid was startled.
“The Law Enforcement Assembly? You mean that Law Enforcement Assembly? It was not just a rumor, but a real person?”
“Yes. Because she is sickly, she has not been active outside, so she is merely regarded as a rumor.”
As the tiger’s jaws slowly approached, the man wet himself and flailed in terror.
“If she had been healthy, there probably would not have been a single servant of the main house who did not know her.”
The plump maid swallowed dryly.
An Enforcement Envoy riding a white tiger the size of a house.
An Enforcement Envoy, who was already no different from a messenger of the underworld, riding something that itself might as well have been a messenger of the underworld.
“…That concludes your charges. Do you have any objections?”
All that could be heard was the man’s screams.
“I shall take that as none.”
Now, all that remained was the sentence.
“Then, by the authority granted to this Enforcement Envoy by the Luoyang Sword Clan, I shall render judgment…”
Baekho’s eyes, clearly frightened, darted back and forth.
“Step back.”
At that low voice, Baekho returned to the form of a small cat along with a puff of white smoke.
“Stop.”
Was there truly someone who dared to obstruct an Enforcement Envoy’s field tribunal?
Everyone’s gaze turned toward the owner of that voice.
“First Young Master…?!”
The one approaching Yeom Baek-ha and Baekho was none other than Yeon Sang-hyeon.
He raised his hand and slowly brought it toward Baekho’s head.
Amazingly, Baekho avoided his hand, lowered his head, and backed away with faltering steps.
Yeom Baek-ha nearly fell flat onto the ground, but one of the maids threw herself forward and caught her, lowering her safely.
It was I-ryeong, the eldest of the triplet maids.
“Th-thank you.”
“It was nothing.”
Just then, Baekho came running over and leapt into her arms.
Despite her call, Baekho merely buried his head in her embrace and trembled.
“Baekho…?”
It was the first time even she had seen Baekho so terrified.
Even when her father was truly angry, Baekho would merely hide behind her and stare at him.
Yeom Baek-ha held Baekho close and looked at the First Young Master with trembling eyes.
She was not the only one.
Everyone was looking at the First Young Master.
The First Young Master was looking down at the man who had barely escaped death.
Though he had only been pinned down for a short while, the man was already covered in blood.
He did not appear to have any serious wounds, but he could not easily get up.
“You…!”
Amazingly, however, the man’s eyes had not died.
The eyes with which he looked at Yeon Sang-hyeon were filled with venom.
“So you are that bastard from the Yeon family…!”
Perhaps because Baekho had pinned him down and injured his ribs, the man could not shout properly, but the hatred in his eyes was genuine.
Yeon Sang-hyeon approached the man.
“Yes.”
His voice sounded strangely unfamiliar.
“I am the First Young Master, Yeon Sang-hyeon.”
No one could easily read any emotion from Yeon Sang-hyeon’s eyes as he looked down at the man.