A few days later, I formally ascended to the position of Pavilion Master of the Yellow Springs Pavilion.
Early in the morning, martial artists from the Yellow Springs Pavilion arrived at my residence.
The man at their head was Special Investigator Seo Daeryong, who had investigated the Demon Army with me.
“We have come to escort the Pavilion Master.”
“Investigator Seo. So you came.”
“I volunteered.”
In truth, this small, gloomy-looking man before me had played a major role in my becoming Pavilion Master of the Yellow Springs Pavilion.
“Let us go.”
I decided to take Ian with me.
“Ian, you come along too. You need to learn how an organization is run.”
“Thank you!”
As if she had thought I would leave her behind again, she was overjoyed enough to fly.
“We’re not going there to play. Go and learn. How an organization functions, and how you ought to treat your subordinates. Learn everything, without missing a single thing.”
“Yes!”
When we arrived at the Yellow Springs Pavilion, all the investigators had come out and were lined up at the entrance. It seemed this was how they welcomed a newly appointed Pavilion Master.
As I passed, they all cupped their fists in unison and greeted me in loud voices.
“We greet the Pavilion Master!”
I had expected them not to welcome my appointment. But their gazes were more favorable than I had imagined.
So I quietly asked Seo Daeryong, who was standing beside me.
“Did you tell them you’d cut their monthly pay if they didn’t pretend to welcome me?”
“No.”
“Then why is the atmosphere so good?”
At that, Seo Daeryong lifted his foot and mimed stomping down on the ground.
Seeing that, I understood the reason for their welcome. It was because of Go Dang, the First Unit Leader of the Demon Army. Go Dang had killed the investigator who first went to investigate him, and this time he had injured an investigator.
In that situation, I had smashed Go Dang’s head in and killed him, so to them, I had given them a satisfying revenge. On top of that, whatever resistance they might have felt toward my being far too young to sit in the Pavilion Master’s seat would have been somewhat offset by the Heavenly Demon’s bloodline, and since I had even killed the Demon Army Lord, my martial prowess had also been proven.
“Would you say a few words?”
At Seo Daeryong’s words, before entering the building, I turned toward my subordinates.
I slowly looked over each of their faces one by one, then delivered a brief statement.
“I don’t know whether my becoming Pavilion Master will make you happier or more miserable. But one thing is certain. Your hearts will beat faster than before.”
After saying only that, I turned and entered the building.
A murmur rose behind me. There was no need to worry about how they would take my words. They would find out soon enough.
When Seo Daeryong, who had guided me to the office, was about to leave, I kept him behind.
“Investigator Seo, you didn’t think we’d meet again like this, did you?”
“To be honest, I was very surprised.”
“I came because I missed you, Investigator Seo.”
As if empty flattery did not work on him, Seo Daeryong’s expression did not change at all.
“Ian, you must absolutely avoid men this blunt. They’re no fun for life.”
“Instead, he might be the real deal.”
Ian took Seo Daeryong’s side.
“No, this fellow is thin soup without a single scrap of substance.”
This time, Seo Daeryong stepped forward himself.
“I may not be rich broth, but I am not bland either.”
“Oh, you’ve got a temper. You’ll need that temper often from now on.”
Quick-witted Seo Daeryong immediately understood what I meant by those words.
“No. I am bland soup. Please don’t look for me when there is dangerous work.”
“I’m going to pour rice into that thin soup and eat it. With plenty of spicy seasoning mixed in.”
Seo Daeryong stepped backward. He was only pretending to be frightened for no reason; Seo Daeryong was a brave man. I knew that great courage and spirit dwelled in that small body.
“Now, tell me about this pavilion. I know nothing.”
As if he had been waiting for that, Seo Daeryong began explaining.
“As you know, the Yellow Springs Pavilion is the institution that safeguards and enforces the cult’s rules and laws. We root out corruption and handle various incidents that occur within the cult. The total personnel number one hundred: thirty investigators and seventy enforcement martial artists.”
The enforcement martial artists assisted and guarded the investigators, and were in charge of arresting criminals.
“There aren’t as many as I thought.”
“It is not an organization that needs large numbers.”
The Yellow Springs Pavilion was an authoritative organization everyone feared. Of course, there were exceptions like the Demon Army, but most demonic practitioners were afraid of the Yellow Springs Pavilion.
“Of the thirty investigators, five are special investigators. Special investigators mainly take on cases considered difficult and important, but in ordinary times, you may regard them as the same as regular investigators. Enforcement martial artists are not assigned separately to investigators; they are dispatched as support whenever necessary.”
After listening to his explanation, I asked him.
“Investigator Seo, what do you think is the greatest problem with the Yellow Springs Pavilion?”
After hesitating for a moment, Seo Daeryong answered.
“No organization in the cult can escape the influence of the Eight Demon Venerables.”
He had not singled out the Yellow Springs Pavilion, but his meaning was that the Eight Demon Venerables were the greatest problem after all.
“Are you under that influence as well?”
“I am not. As I told you, I am a loner.”
At the very least, that meant he had not entered the cult’s politics for money or promotion.
“That does not mean I am a man of great conviction. You can simply think of me as a grumbling malcontent.”
“That’s why I like you. I dislike people who lean too much toward ideals.”
I glanced back at Ian as I spoke.
“I like reasonable people. People who take care of themselves first.”
Knowing that I was speaking about her, Ian merely smiled faintly.
My gaze turned back to Seo Daeryong.
“You said it before, didn’t you? That the cult would not change. What do you think? From now on, how about changing the cult with me?”
“What if you pour out all that passion and then leave? Just as suddenly as you came.”
“When the time comes for me to go, I’ll have to go.”
“And I, who burned with passion alongside you, will be left alone amid the ashes?”
“That’s none of my concern. You said you were a loner to begin with, didn’t you? So, will you do it?”
At my shamelessness, Seo Daeryong let out an exaggeratedly deep sigh, but his answer differed from his action.
“I will.”
“Your reason?”
“Did you not already show me that reason while handling the Demon Army matter?”
“I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
“Yes. Please leave it to me.”
In good spirits, I held out my hand to him, and Seo Daeryong clasped it firmly.
‘What will you do when I leave, you ask? What else? You’ll sit in my seat.’
In any case, I had taken office to a warmer welcome than expected. What I needed now was to make them clearly recognize who I was.
To do that, I needed an example. Someone very venomous and wicked.
“Among recent cases related to the Eight Demon Venerables, is there one I need to look into again?”
The words “look into again” were a roundabout way of saying “handled unjustly.”
Seo Daeryong understood my meaning at once.
“Of course… there is.”
The words “of course” once again pointed back to the problem of the Yellow Springs Pavilion that Seo Daeryong had spoken of earlier.
“Bring it to me.”
A short while later, Seo Daeryong brought the documents.
After checking the contents of the case, I let out a long sigh.
“You’re doing this on purpose to get me killed, aren’t you?”
The case Seo Daeryong had brought happened to be related to the Blood Heaven Saber Demon.
“I do not wish to do this either, but… it is a recent case, and it fits what you said.”
“So why does it have to be the Blood Heaven Saber Demon of all people!”
Ian, who had been watching, quickly cut in.
“Young Master, you really must restrain yourself this time. Elder Saber Demon must be on the verge of exploding.”
I handed the documents to Ian.
“The story written there is too unjust to bury for that reason. Ian, read it and bury it if you can.”
After reading the contents, Ian could not bring herself to close the documents and sighed.
“I can’t let this one go.”
I sprang up from my chair.
“Let’s go. If fate calls me, I must answer.”
In truth, this was nothing like fate. It was only an inevitability caused by an old man who had left trash lying around him.
* * *
Gwak Su was drunk.
He had fallen into a deep despair that even alcohol could not help.
His son, who attended a martial academy, had been beaten by a group of friends. His son had suffered a head injury and had not regained consciousness even after ten days.
The owner of the Pungryu Tavern, Jo Chunbae, who knew his circumstances well, sat down before him.
“Is it true that those bastards were released?”
Gwak Su drank one cup after another.
“Damn it! Goddamn it!”
An investigator from the Yellow Springs Pavilion had investigated the matter. Naturally, he had thought the bastards who caused the incident would be locked up in prison. But the three of them had been found innocent and released. It had been handled as an injury suffered while sparring with a friend.
“It’s all over. They say the father of the boy who led this is Baekdogwi.”
Baekdogwi was the leader of the Hundred Saber Ghosts.
“Good heavens!”
Jo Chunbae sighed. If the other boy’s father was a subordinate of the Blood Heaven Saber Demon, and not merely one of the Ten Saber Ghosts but Baekdogwi, then this matter was finished as it stood.
“The Yellow Springs Pavilion investigators are all the same. Those sons of bitches are even worse.”
“Shh! Lower your voice. What if someone hears?”
Jo Chunbae looked around and tried to calm him.
“Let them hear. Tell those Yellow Springs Pavilion bastards to kill me first! Tell Baekdogwi to come himself and kill me!”
Bang!
Gwak Su slammed the table. As the liquor bottle shook and nearly fell, Jo Chunbae quickly caught it.
“Please! Hold yourself back.”
“If my son doesn’t wake up, my wife won’t live out her natural span.”
Jo Chunbae knew those words were no exaggeration. Gwak Su had only one son, and he had watched for a long time just how dearly the couple had raised him.
“He will wake up.”
“If he doesn’t, I’ll kill that bastard and then take my own life.”
It was right then. A voice came from behind them.
“And can you kill him?”
When the two men turned their heads, three young men were standing at the tavern entrance.
“You?”
The one who had just asked in a voice full of mockery was the young man in the middle, and this young man was Yang Ho, who had led the assault.
“What gives you the right to talk about killing someone else’s precious son?”
Gwak Su sprang up from his seat.
“You! You!”
When he encountered Yang Ho in a situation he had never expected, he was shocked and flustered. But soon he shouted in fury.
“You bastard. Because of you, right now… Save my son! Save him, I said!”
His emotions were so intense that he did not even know what he was saying, but Yang Ho looked indifferent.
“You bastard! We haven’t heard a single word of apology from you!”
At that, Yang Ho stepped forward and bowed politely.
“I’m sorry. I truly committed a crime worthy of death. This will never happen again. Satisfied? I clearly apologized. So you should stop calling me this bastard and that bastard too, sir.”
“What? What did you just say?”
“I’m not your child, am I?”
The two bastards beside him snickered, and Yang Ho was also barely holding back his laughter.
Gwak Su, drunk and furious, could not restrain himself and tried to draw his sword, while Jo Chunbae rushed in and desperately stopped him.
“Hold back. Hold back! If only for your family, hold back!”
If Gwak Su drew his sword here, it was obvious he would be killed by Yang Ho. Gwak Su was a low-ranking martial artist of the Outer Hall, and though Yang Ho was young, he had properly learned martial arts from childhood.
“Mister, are you crazy? You told me to apologize, so I did, and now you’re trying to kill me.”
He could have simply left, but Yang Ho continued to provoke Gwak Su as if he had come here with that very intention.
“You really have no conscience. Go on, kill me. If you can kill me, try it.”
How could a human being be so shameless? Gwak Su wanted to stab him on the spot.
But he could not. He could not win, and even if he did kill Yang Ho, that would be an even bigger problem. The moment he did, everything would be over. Not only he, but his unconscious son and his grief-stricken wife would all be killed by Yang Ho’s father.
“Young men, you should leave at once. Quickly.”
Jo Chunbae tried to usher Yang Ho and his friends out, but Yang Ho acted like someone who had given up on being human.
“I wondered who Dong resembled to be such a coward, and it turns out he took after his father.”
At that moment, Gwak Su lost his reason.
Gwak Su drew his sword, and as if he had been waiting, Yang Ho’s fist flew out.
Struck in the face, Gwak Su crashed into a table behind him and fell over.
“That bastard clearly drew his sword first!”
The two standing behind Yang Ho shouted that they had seen it, as if they were witnesses.
Yang Ho rushed in and began beating Gwak Su.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“A bastard who only guards a warehouse dared to report me to the Yellow Springs Pavilion?”
This was the reason he had not left and had picked a fight. Because he had been reported to the Yellow Springs Pavilion, his father had severely scolded him, and unable to overcome his anger, he had come to vent it.
Only after beating him to his heart’s content did Yang Ho rise from Gwak Su’s body.
“This is all your fault, mister. I told Dong to go home and steal some money, but he said he couldn’t. Said it was money his father earned through blood and sweat. That idiot, acting righteous all by himself. Am I the only piece of trash here? So how could I not beat him? This is all your responsibility. Got it?”
“…You confessed with your own mouth!”
Gwak Su’s lip was split, and blood flowed from the wound beneath his torn eye, but in that moment, he found a certain hope.
“What confession?”
“Everyone here heard it! Why you beat my son. You confessed that it wasn’t a spar, but an assault.”
Yang Ho looked around fiercely.
“Well then, is there anyone here who heard what I said?”
There were several customers there, but no one could step forward. Even Jo Chunbae, the tavern owner, could not step forward. The moment he did, he would not only have to close down his business here, but his life would be in danger. It was the same for the customers.
“They say no one heard me? Heeheehee.”
At Yang Ho’s laughter, Gwak Su finally shed the tears he had been holding back.
“Ugh, hngh!”
He was so furious he could not endure it. The reality in which the bastard who had left his son comatose could mock him and laugh while he could do nothing was too wretched. As a father, he was ashamed, and he was so sorry. He did not want to shed tears, but they kept flowing.
“A grown man is crying like an idiot. Like father, like son indeed. Hahaha.”
The bastards who had come with Yang Ho also giggled and laughed.
It was right then. From the second floor of the tavern, a young man’s voice rang out clearly.
“I heard it.”