“Master Yang, didn’t I tell you? How can a man live seeing only profit? Sometimes you have to take losses too. But what? You asked the Murim Alliance for help because you lost a few paltry coins? Is the Murim Alliance the troubleshooter of your life? Every little thing, and you go tattling to the Murim Alliance. The Murim Alliance is busy too. Those bastards are busy lining their own pockets. So don’t ever do this again. Got it?”
But the man lying collapsed before him, the one called Master Yang, gave no answer. He was already dead. The one nagging him despite knowing his opponent was dead was the Golden Pig, Jisaeng.
He looked irritable by nature. In complete contrast to his nickname, Golden Pig, he was scrawny, and because he tolerated no mistakes, his subordinates could not even breathe properly in front of him.
“Search this man’s house and gather up everything worth money. Wipe out anyone who might become future trouble.”
“Yes, sir!”
The subordinate who received the order went outside. As always, they would make it look as if the place had been pillaged by wandering warriors, then set it on fire.
For the time being, he had to squeeze the surroundings dry like this. The reason was that damned Sinseonchae.
Jisaeng pressed another subordinate.
“Did you find those bastards?”
“Not yet. We’ve sent out more men, so there should be news soon.”
Because the men in charge of Sinseonchae had taken all the assets and run, his finances had taken a serious blow.
According to the investigation, Ilseon and Iseon, who had been in charge of Sinseonchae, had personally gone to the money house and withdrawn the funds. They had even disposed of all the other assets before disappearing. Just thinking about them made his anger shoot to the top of his head.
‘Those stupid bastards!’
If they had kept working under him, they could have made far greater sums.
He had not expected this sort of penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior from Ilseon, at least, who was clever and cautious.
He could not know exactly what they had been thinking or what circumstances there had been. They might have fought among themselves, or perhaps there had been some other problem. Maybe they had been done in by some other bastards.
The smell of money was like the smell of blood; packs of jackals were bound to gather. In any case, whatever the reason, once he caught them, he intended to tear them apart alive. Even if they had already been done in by someone else, he would kill them again.
“Find those bastards no matter what! If you can’t, you die.”
“Yes! Understood.”
Knowing it was no joke, the subordinate turned pale and ran out.
Just then, another subordinate came and reported.
“Daeho is waiting at Seojangwon.”
The Iron Sword Four Tigers.
Jisaeng had drawn in these men, who had made quite a name for themselves in the unorthodox factions. He intended to entrust Sinseonchae to them.
It would be best to have his own direct subordinates handle the work, but given Sinseonchae’s nature, that was impossible. In preparation for any problems, they had to be people who had no connection whatsoever to the Sado Alliance. Especially if the Murim Alliance took issue with this matter, troublesome complications would arise.
Jisaeng left the building and walked toward the carriage. On the coachman’s seat, a round-faced man was looking up at the sky.
When Jisaeng came out, the coachman greeted him respectfully.
“Let’s go to Seohogwan.”
The carriage set off, and the subordinates mounted their horses and followed behind.
Jisaeng sent a voice transmission to the coachman on the driver’s seat.
—Please judge whether the Iron Sword Four Tigers are suitable, elder.
His tone was endlessly courteous and respectful.
The person pretending to be the coachman was the real Golden Pig, Jisaeng.
In the past, Iseon had told Geom Mugeuk that he had seen a tattoo on Jisaeng’s coachman, and that person was this very coachman.
—By now, do you not have a good eye for people yourself?
—I have not learned even one-hundredth of your discernment, elder.
—Excessive humility is flattery.
—I apologize, elder.
—Trust your own eyes and decide.
The man had already lived as the fake Jisaeng for over ten years. He thought like Jisaeng and lived like Jisaeng. At times, he even felt as if he himself were the real Jisaeng.
During all those years, there had been no crisis severe enough to threaten his life. One might think that by now he could reveal himself and live openly, but the real Jisaeng lived while hiding himself thoroughly.
The man thought Jisaeng was truly remarkable. Even just from what he knew, Jisaeng had amassed a tremendous fortune he could not spend in a lifetime. If it were him, he would never be able to wear those shabby clothes and play coachman.
—How are this month’s finances?
—We are still short twenty thousand taels for the money we must send to the higher-ups.
He could not make a report saying that because this or that had happened, they could not send up the tribute this month.
That is your problem.
That had always been the higher-ups’ stance.
—Do not worry. One way or another, I will handle it so that neither the higher-ups nor you, elder, are affected.
—Do so.
Whenever something like this happened, the real Jisaeng had never once said, I’ll cover it with my own money this month. Usually, the man thought he was truly incredible, but when he saw aspects like this, he also felt disappointed. Did one really have to be this obsessed with money?
Then again, in a sense, even that was remarkable. He was a man with a firm philosophy of life when it came to money. He lived for the fun of earning and gathering money. To him, money was everything.
So he had once asked.
“Why do you not become independent?”
It was because he thought that with the real Jisaeng’s mind, he would amass enormous wealth wherever he went. As things stood now, more than two-thirds of the money he earned was offered up to Yaryul Han.
At that time, the real Jisaeng had answered like this.
“No matter how much money I earn, in the end, someone like me will take it all from me.”
He meant that in the end, someone with powerful backing would seize it.
“When greed becomes excessive, it turns into disaster.”
Hearing the greediest person he knew say such a thing left the fake Jisaeng with a strange feeling. If greed truly became disaster when excessive, then he himself would be disaster incarnate.
The carriage arrived at Seohogwan.
The fake Jisaeng and the subordinates went inside first, and the real Jisaeng got down from the carriage. In truth, this moment was the one he liked most after making money.
Peering at the world while hiding his identity.
The strange pleasure that came from no one recognizing his true face. The joy, as if he had become a god, of manipulating humans like pieces on a chessboard.
With his hands clasped behind his back, the real Jisaeng began strolling around the courtyard.
* * *
The one waiting for Jisaeng in the reception hall was Daeho, the eldest of the Iron Sword Four Tigers.
Between them hung a blind set up by the subordinates. It was a special blind that allowed Jisaeng’s side to see the other side, while preventing the other side from seeing Jisaeng.
“I am honored to meet you, honored sir.”
The moment when the fake Jisaeng had to become the real Jisaeng.
This fake, too, was feeling a strange pleasure. It was the moment he became the grand figure known as Jisaeng, one of the four men serving Yaryul Han, the second-in-command of the Sado Alliance.
No matter who they were, they bowed their heads before him, and he hoped the pleasure granted by power would last forever.
“You’ve worked hard coming all this way.”
“If you call for me, elder, I ought to run ten thousand li in a single breath.”
Looking at the man seated before him, Jisaeng was inwardly pleased.
‘Perfect.’
From the beginning, he had been the one Jisaeng liked best among several candidates. In Jisaeng’s eyes, he looked nothing like a tiger and every bit like a wild dog. That was why he was perfect.
Someone of sound mind could not carry out work like Sinseonchae. It was work only those who felt not the slightest pang of guilt even after destroying a person’s soul could do. Therefore, it was not work for tigers, but for wild dogs.
In that respect, the Iron Sword Four Tigers were suitable in many ways. Their past lives proved it. They had committed all manner of wicked deeds that were truly difficult even to put into words.
“I’ll be frank with you. The men who handled this work before harbored other intentions, so I dealt with them myself.”
The fact that those bastards had run off with the money was something that absolutely must not become known.
“Betrayal means death.”
“I will offer my loyalty until the day I die.”
“Once the work begins in earnest, even mentioning our alliance means death.”
“I will keep that in mind.”
“As long as you keep those two things, you will be able to make a great deal of money.”
“I will work as hard as an ox.”
Daeho smiled. His smile revealed a vulgarity that could never be hidden.
“And before long, I would like to see your brothers as well.”
“They came with me. Contact me whenever you wish.”
“I will send word soon.”
“Understood.”
After bowing respectfully like that, Daeho withdrew.
After he left Seohogwan, the fake Jisaeng came out of the building and climbed into the carriage.
—What do you think?
—Judging by his physiognomy, he is full of greed and pettiness, but at the very least he does not have the look of someone who will betray easily. He seems suitable for this matter.
—Then I will proceed.
Thus the carriage, too, left the place.
* * *
Daeho returned to his lodgings.
He was in a good mood. Though he had always gone around saying he had been born a villain, he had been growing sick of that villainy. Just when he had been thinking he should pull off one big job and retire, Jisaeng had chosen them.
“You bastards! It’s done!”
The very moment Daeho opened the door and stepped inside, he flinched in shock.
Iho, Samho, and Saho were sitting asleep on chairs lined up side by side.
And among them sat a young man he had never seen before.
At first, he thought it was a young man his younger brothers had called over.
‘I told them not to bring in outsiders.’
But immediately, another thought arose. They had called someone over and then fallen asleep? Or were they trying to tease him? Doing something they had never done in their lives?
These thoughts flashed past in an instant.
Daeho’s hesitation did not last long. Just as he turned with lightning speed to flee, it happened.
Daeho’s entire body froze.
At some point, a man wearing a white mask had appeared behind him. The moment his gaze met the eyes within the mask, cold as sheets of ice, his body froze stiff. He had met all kinds of evildoers, but this was the first time he had ever seen eyes so terrifying.
Geugak Soma slowly reached out and lightly sealed Daeho’s internal energy. Though Daeho had rolled around the murim as much as anyone, he could not so much as twitch a finger even as the other man touched the acupoints around his dantian.
Behind Geugak Soma, two more men entered. They were none other than the Poison King and Seo Daeryong.
“I’m not going to interfere. I’ll just watch.”
The Poison King walked past Daeho and sat on the desk, while Seo Daeryong closed the door.
Geom Mugeuk called to Daeho.
“Come closer.”
Daeho slowly walked toward Geom Mugeuk.
‘I have to keep my wits about me if I want to live!’
That was his only thought.
When he came near Geom Mugeuk, he was finally able to look closely at the others, Iho, Samho, and Saho. Their bodies had already gone rigid.
‘They’re all dead!’
Daeho’s heart sank. There were no wounds on their bodies, but they looked as if they had been taken down without even drawing their swords. Who on earth were these people?
“Do you know who we are, doing this?”
“The Iron Sword Four Tigers. You’re the eldest, Daeho.”
When he answered accurately, Daeho quickly said,
“We’ve been entrusted with an important task. You’ve made a grave mistake.”
“You mean taking charge of Sinseonchae for the Sado Alliance? What’s so impressive about that?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Daeho was startled.
“You knew who was behind us and still did this?”
At that moment, Geugak Soma walked forward, stared intently at Daeho, and said,
“There’s no need to waste time. Give me just half a quarter-hour. I’ll turn him into an obedient dog.”
The hairs all over Daeho’s body stood on end at once, and his entire body trembled.
Then the Poison King spoke politely to Geugak Soma.
“May I step in for a moment?”
Geugak Soma looked at the Poison King. The Poison King could not meet Geugak Soma’s eyes.
Geugak Soma readily nodded and took a step back.
“By all means.”
It was the first moment the two had shared an understanding since leaving the main cult.
The Poison King rummaged through his bag and took out a medicine bottle as he said to Geom Mugeuk,
“How can you trust that kind of human and proceed with the work? On the other hand, you can trust gu poison without question.”
Inside the medicine bottle, a hideous insect was wriggling.
“Once this thing settles in his brain, he’ll cut off his own arm if you tell him to.”
At those words, Daeho went ashen. Just imagining that repulsive thing entering his head already made him want to vomit.
Geom Mugeuk smiled and asked the Poison King,
“Didn’t you say you weren’t going to step in?”
“Now that I’ve actually seen him, I want to test it. It’s been quite a while since I tested it on a person.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have time to test gu poison.”
“Then feed him this, at least.”
The Poison King took out another poison bottle from his bag.
“It’s a poison that will make all the organs in his body melt down and kill him if he doesn’t take the antidote every day. Tell him to try betraying us if he wants.”
“It must leave no poison behind later.”
“Whose poison do you think this is, for you to worry about that?”
“Then this is perfect!”
The next moment, Daeho cried out urgently.
“Please spare me! What do you want me to do?”
The four men’s gazes turned toward Daeho. Daeho’s entire body was trembling. It was a bizarre combination that seemed neither villainous nor righteous.
Until now, he had experienced all manner of evildoers, but this was the first time he had encountered people who evoked such primal fear. They seemed like opponents against whom no trick would ever work.
Geom Mugeuk approached him and spoke in a gentle tone.
“Big brother, I’ll be in your care from now on.”
The moment he heard those words, Daeho understood. These people intended to play the role of his brothers. That was also why they had already killed all three of his younger brothers.
Geom Mugeuk held out the Poison King’s poison to him.
“Big brother, drink this first, and then let’s talk about what you need to do.”
“You don’t need to make me drink it! If you just spare me, I’ll do anything you tell me! I swear on my name, on my parents—no, I swear to heaven and earth! If I don’t keep my word, may heavenly punishment strike me dead!”
At that, Geom Mugeuk pried open his mouth and poured in the medicine.
“I don’t believe you. Now, drink it all down!”