The awards ceremony was as splendid as the martial arts tournament itself.
The winner was given a gold plaque and prize money. What made it an even greater honor was that the Murim Alliance Leader personally presented the award.
The gathered heroes chanted Seo Daeryong’s name. In all his life, this was the first time Seo Daeryong had ever heard his name called so many times. It likely would never happen again.
As he handed Seo Daeryong the gold plaque, the Murim Alliance Leader said,
“Your skills were outstanding. I hope you will devote yourself to the peace of murim in the future.”
“Thank you.”
But what the Alliance Leader truly wanted to say was sent by sound transmission.
—If you injure a martial artist of the orthodox faction with that saber art, you will certainly die by my hand.
Seo Daeryong did not dare argue and meekly took only the gold plaque and prize money before coming down. After all, he was grateful enough that they had given him the award despite knowing he was a demonic practitioner.
Jin Haryeong, the runner-up, was likewise given a plaque and prize money.
“Well done.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do you feel it now? Just how vast this gangho is?”
“Yes. I thought that even if I couldn’t be a dragon, I could at least be a snake, but I realized I was only a frog in a well. I’ll devote myself even more from now on, Grandfather.”
That was enough. The Murim Alliance Leader patted her shoulder with a satisfied smile.
As Jin Haryeong received her award and descended from the stage, she glanced at Geom Mugeuk, who was standing far away.
Geom Mugeuk looked at her and waved. The feeling that came through was, You did well, friend.
The moment she saw that, tears suddenly welled up in Jin Haryeong’s eyes. She had not thought much of it until now, but seeing Geom Mugeuk made a needless sense of sorrow surge within her.
Since she could not shed tears in front of the gathered heroes, she strode forward bravely. They say Jin Haryeong cried at the awards ceremony. They say she cried out of frustration. The thought of such rumors spreading was truly dreadful.
Someone beside her said something to her, but without even looking, she quickly walked away from the place.
The person who had spoken to her was none other than Jo Sin. Looking utterly embarrassed, he could not follow after her. In his arms was a gift commemorating her victory.
He could not give it to her, since he had engraved the words Congratulations on your victory onto a dagger. He truly had never imagined she would lose. He was supposed to give this to her in grand fashion after she won.
“Damn it! Curse it all!”
His gaze turned toward Seo Daeryong. Seo Daeryong was still overwhelmed by all the congratulations.
‘That country bumpkin actually won? Does that make any sense?’
The master bastard had won, and the attendant bastard was seducing the woman he was to marry. They were truly a pair of bastards who deserved to be beaten to death. There was no way this matter could end well.
In that state, brimming with anger, Jo Sin returned to his quarters.
When Jo Sin entered his room, he flinched in surprise. A man was waiting for him inside.
He was Cheol Gon (鐵坤), the man who delivered the orders of the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society.
At first, Jo Sin had once thought that this man, Cheol Gon, might be the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society disguised as an errand runner. That was how extraordinary the aura Cheol Gon exuded was.
‘A man like this is just a subordinate? Then just how incredible is the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society?’
He had yet to see the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society in person, but it had been promised that he would meet him if he safely concluded this matter.
In any case, Jo Sin was displeased that the man had entered his room without permission, but he could not show his dissatisfaction.
“You’ve come?”
“Wasn’t it Young Master Jo who called for me?”
“I called you?”
“Did you not say you were confident about the marriage with Jin Haryeong?”
“Of course.”
Just a year ago, Jo Sin had been falling behind in the succession struggle of Jinryong Manor.
That was when these people, the Cheonmyeong Society, appeared before him. He could not refuse their offer to make him the heir if he joined hands with them.
It was good that he had become the heir with the Cheonmyeong Society’s help.
Once he was confirmed as the successor, they made one demand. Marry the granddaughter of the Murim Alliance Leader. It was not an impossible demand. Jinryong Manor was a family with more than enough standing to become in-laws with the Murim Alliance Leader.
Jo Sin persuaded his father and even provided an enormous sum of money to the Murim Alliance in an attempt to bring this marriage about.
The reason he chose the timing of Soryongjeon was that he would be able to see her often. With his family background and his own appearance, praised as handsome wherever he went, he was confident he could win Jin Haryeong’s heart without much difficulty. Until he learned of the existence of that damned attendant, that was.
“From the rumors I hear, you’re standing in line behind an attendant.”
“Where did you hear such nonsense? That man is my subordinate.”
When Jo Sin spoke confidently, Cheol Gon stared intently at him. The moment their eyes met, Jo Sin felt cowed, just as he had when they first met. If this killing intent that made him shrink back had been deliberate, Jo Sin would never have lost his nerve.
But Jo Sin could feel it. This killing intent came from the man’s innate nature. It was a primal killing intent that could only be exuded by someone who attached no meaning whatsoever to killing people. A killing intent that made him feel that if he challenged him recklessly, he would be hacked to pieces and tossed into some filthy gutter.
“That man is your subordinate?”
“I recruited him for the sake of my marriage with Jin Haryeong. I’m going to use him to make the marriage succeed.”
It was not a lie. He had promised the attendant bastard a hundred thousand nyang and made him one of his own. Of course, that had not been his plan from the beginning.
Cheol Gon stared at Jo Sin once again.
If that gaze had belonged to some clever man trying to read him, it would have been easier to endure.
But the gaze now was closer to indifference. The blunt gaze of a murderous fiend to whom truth did not matter, for whom only the result needed to be good.
As one could tell just by looking at Cheol Gon before him, these people were not ordinary. They were not the sort of mediocre force behind the common rumors that said some incident had occurred in some region and so-and-so had been behind it.
They were special. If this side kept its promise, they would certainly grant the promised reward in return. They were villains who moved only for their own interests, but precisely because of that, they were the sort of people from whom one could reliably obtain what one wanted. That was why he had joined hands with them.
Cheol Gon rose from his seat and walked to the window.
“Come here and look at that.”
Jo Sin walked over carefully and stood beside him.
“That broken sapling over there is one I stepped on and snapped on my way in. Whoever planted them planted them too close together. Like that, neither tree can grow into a great tree.”
Cheol Gon slowly looked at Jo Sin.
“We hope you will grow into a great tree.”
Jo Sin knew the words contained no sincerity.
Cheol Gon did not care in the slightest. Whether he became a great tree or not. If the leader of the Cheonmyeong Society told him to kill Jo Sin, he would kill him; if told to leave him alive, he would leave him alive. To him, Jo Sin was not even worth as much as that broken sapling.
If he could, he wanted to shout that he should go say that great tree nonsense to his own children. Jo Sin absolutely detested receiving this kind of interference and pressure from anyone. Showing courtesy to villains would only make them look down on you more.
But Jo Sin did not dare.
“I will not disappoint you.”
“I’ll prepare the wedding gift money and wait.”
Cheol Gon quietly left the room.
Once he disappeared, Jo Sin let out the breath he had been holding. It was a sigh in which tension, fear, irritation, and anger were all mixed together.
The marriage was one thing, the attendant another, and the Cheonmyeong Society yet another. None of the problems were as easy as he wished. It felt as though the life he had lived so comfortably until now had entered a new level of difficulty. Of course, that did not mean Jo Sin would give up.
‘I’ll pay them back properly someday.’
He did not yet speak those words aloud. That was something for after he had raised his family into the strongest power in murim.
* * *
“The prize money is a full ten thousand nyang!”
Seo Daeryong was beside himself with joy at the unexpected windfall.
Seo Daeryong handed me five thousand nyang.
“Here, since we won this together, let’s split it in half.”
“Planning to regret it later?”
“Five thousand nyang is more than enough for me. With this, I’ll treat Commander Jang and Martial Artist Lee. And also…”
“Also?”
“I’ll buy something delicious for the woman who cheered for me.”
“Did you arrange to meet?”
“No, I don’t even know her name yet.”
He would know soon enough. She would certainly approach Seo Daeryong in some way. I wondered what method she would use.
“She’s someone who cheered for me long before I won. In that sense, she’s special.”
Seo Daeryong was already completely smitten with that woman.
“Oh, right. You’ll come to the banquet with me, won’t you?”
The Murim Alliance had invited the winner and all those who advanced to the main tournament to hold a celebratory banquet.
“I should.”
“I’ll go buy some clothes to wear to the banquet for a bit. Come with me, won’t you? I’ll buy you a set too.”
“I’m fine. You go buy yourself something nice.”
“I will. I really am going to buy an expensive set of clothes this time!”
Once the excited Seo Daeryong left, I spoke into the air.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance. The situation was too urgent at the time.”
I was speaking to the martial artist sent by the Alliance Leader, the one hidden around me. When I took Seo Daeryong to Chungui, I had dashed off using Quick Step, so he had not been able to follow me.
After returning to the Murim Alliance, I sensed that he had hidden himself near me again, but because I was training with Seo Daeryong, I had no leisure to speak to him separately. From his perspective, he must have felt displeased in various ways.
But as always, the hidden martial artist showed no reaction at all. He was truly a man faithful to his orders.
Being sorry was one thing. I did not tell him that the woman who approached Seo Daeryong was someone from the Cheonmyeong Society. I judged that there was no need to tell him in advance.
* * *
I did not enter the banquet hall.
The main character of today had to be Seo Daeryong, after all. As if I had truly become an attendant, I stood outside the banquet hall, observing the situation within.
But somehow, Jin Haryeong found out and came out to where I was.
“Why aren’t you going in?”
“It just feels stuffy.”
“Shall we walk for a bit?”
“Sounds good.”
I strolled through the inner garden with her.
“To tell you the truth, before the final match, I went looking for you. Do you know what I was going to say? If you asked me, I could lose on purpose. I was going to tease you like that.”
It seemed she was still embarrassed and bothered by having lost the duel. She was talking more than usual, and faster too.
“Without even knowing I’d lose like this. Isn’t it ridiculous? When I think of that, I don’t know if I’ll even be able to sleep from embarrassment. By the way, where did you go? Oh, right, which organization will your young master be entering this time? And you…”
I cut off the words pouring out of her.
“Friend, stop.”
Only then did Jin Haryeong exhale deeply. After calming herself for a moment, she revealed what was in her heart.
“Yesterday, after I lost and saw you, I felt like I was going to cry.”
“It’s all right to lose once in a while.”
In truth, it was all right to lose many times. As long as one had the will to keep moving forward. When seen in old age, failures like this were truly nothing, so why had they felt then as though the heavens had collapsed?
Perhaps that was why one missed one’s youth even more. Those days, that time when even the smallest thing made one’s entire body and mind respond with a lively throb.
“I don’t want to have such a weak mindset already.”
“First, put down the burden of being the Alliance Leader’s granddaughter. The Alliance Leader is the Alliance Leader, and you are you. Because of that burden, you can’t even feel happy. You placed second in this huge tournament.”
Jin Haryeong smiled brightly.
“What? You’re already feeling better?”
“Yes. Seeing you trying so hard to comfort me made me feel better.”
“That was easy. Making you feel good.”
“Do it often from now on.”
She firmly believed that Seo Daeryong would enter the Murim Alliance. Naturally, she assumed that I would live here with him as well.
“I might return to my hometown.”
At those words, she was startled.
“Return? Why?”
After staring at me for a moment, she asked carefully,
“Do you perhaps have a woman back home? A woman you like?”
“I do.”
For an instant, she flinched in surprise. Perhaps because I answered too easily, she looked half-doubtful.
“There’s a woman prettier than you.”
“Prettier than me? Then the credibility of your words suddenly drops sharply.”
“You’re the foremost beauty of Hubei, aren’t you? The one over there is the greatest beauty under heaven.”
She relaxed and laughed. It seemed she thought I was teasing her.
“Be sure to show me next time, that greatest beauty under heaven!”
“If the opportunity comes.”
Would the day ever come when Ian and Jin Haryeong met? That was something even I could not know.
By the way, what was Ian doing right now? She was probably immersed in martial arts training even at this very moment. Had she overcome her limits and advanced to the next stage? Ah! I miss you, Ian!
After strolling through the inner garden, I returned to the banquet hall with Jin Haryeong.
When we arrived at the banquet hall and looked inside through the window, Seo Daeryong was surrounded by the rising talents.
I did not know what they truly felt inside, but everyone was smiling and trying to build a connection with Seo Daeryong. From now on, Seo Daeryong would enter one of the Murim Alliance’s core elite organizations and rise swiftly through the ranks.
“Our young master looks happy.”
No one ignored him now, the short man with the gloomy impression. Clothes made the man, and he looked brighter than usual.
Yes, enjoy today to your heart’s content.
As Jin Haryeong watched Seo Daeryong, she said to me,
“I’ve talked so much with you, but I’ve never properly spoken with your young master, the one who actually defeated me.”
“Go and talk to him.”
“I don’t want to. I’ll stay here. Even if I go in, all I’ll receive is more consolation, won’t I? Your consolation is enough for today!”
Just then, someone new entered the banquet hall.
When I confirmed who it was, I was startled. Astonishingly, that person was the very woman who had cheered for Seo Daeryong.
Seo Daeryong was also startled when he saw her. Only those who had been invited were attending the banquet, yet she had appeared.
How on earth had she entered when she had not been invited?
Receiving everyone’s gaze, the woman slowly walked toward Seo Daeryong.