Juyang, who had been on his way back to the Tongjeonso, stopped in his tracks.
His heart kept pounding as if it might burst at any moment.
The look in Geom Mugeuk’s eyes as he had stared at him rose in his mind, and the image of the coin on the table boring through his palm would not leave his head.
One of the swordsmen returning with him asked,
“Are you not going?”
“Go on ahead. And keep your mouths shut about what happened today.”
“Yes!”
Juyang sent the swordsmen on first and sat down for a while by the roadside. He had never experienced anything like this before, so he was angry, his pride was wounded, and he was afraid.
The work of the Tongjeonso was his calling.
He felt the thrill of becoming an absolute master when he saw people bow their heads to him and borrow money. When he coaxed them with sweet words, there truly was nothing more amusing.
And what about the sight of them weeping and begging because they could not pay a few coins of interest? He found comfort in other people’s misfortune.
This work, controlling and manipulating someone else’s life, was a source of such happiness to him.
But for the first time, he felt a sense of crisis shaking the life he had lived with such arrogance. More frightening than the fear of having his hand pierced was the fear that he might no longer be able to do this work.
‘How do I deal with this?’
He had to resolve it before word reached the ears of Jeokpae, the head of the Tongjeonso. If Jeokpae found out… Juyang shook his head. Jeokpae was a man who always made someone take responsibility for losses.
Geom Mugeuk might pierce his hand, but Jeokpae would pierce his throat. That was the kind of man he was.
Just then, his eyes met those of some villagers passing by. They flinched in surprise, bowed their heads in greeting, and hurried away. From their quickened steps, he could feel that they feared him.
Was punishment finally coming down for the evil deeds he had committed, living by ruining other people’s lives?
But Juyang was not the sort of person to reflect like that. If he had been, he would never have suffered something like this in the first place. He was the sort of person who thought this instead.
‘I have to get rid of that bastard somehow.’
Thinking of someone suited to the task, he sprang to his feet and started walking. And today, more than ever, he shot irritable glares at everyone he passed.
* * *
The next day, Juyang did not come to collect the money.
“I told him I’d come find him if he didn’t show up.”
Geom Mugeuk went straight to the Tongjeonso. Today, someone else was sitting in Juyang’s place, lending out money.
When he asked where Juyang was, he was told Juyang had fallen ill and had not come out.
Geom Mugeuk went out to the training yard and shouted.
“Juyang! I’ve come to give you your interest, so come out at once! Juyang! Master Ju! Great Hero Ju!”
At the commotion, the Tongjeonso’s swordsmen came out to watch. He had come to pay interest? A debtor who was usually busy running away whenever they met?
Since there had never been such a disturbance since the Tongjeonso was established, everyone watched with curiosity.
“Juyang! Come out at once!”
Upon hearing the news, Juyang hurried out of the building.
“You!”
Unlike yesterday, when he had treated him coldly, Geom Mugeuk looked at him warmly and smiled.
“They said you were sick, but you look perfectly fine.”
“Do you know where you are, making such a racket?”
“Did I not say I would come find you if you didn’t come?”
Even so, Juyang had not expected him to come all the way here and make a scene. Did he have any idea who might be here? This was a place that handled large sums of money. Did he think there was not a single expert here capable of killing him?
And so the very first thought that arose in Juyang’s mind was this. Setting aside how skilled he was, what his intentions were, and everything else.
‘This bastard is insane.’
Geom Mugeuk held out his hand to him.
“Here, take the interest.”
Otherwise, there was no way he could do this.
The swordsmen watching began to murmur. Those who had been at the inn yesterday retreated a step in tension, while the others chuckled, excited by the amusing spectacle.
It was just then.
“Is that him?”
A man with a heavy voice appeared.
He was dragging a blood-soaked man out with one hand.
When he appeared, the swordsmen all bowed their heads in greeting. He was Janhak, the one who could be called the true blade of this Tongjeonso.
Janhak was the person who stepped forward when trouble arose with martial artists, and he was also the first person Juyang had gone to meet after returning yesterday.
What kind of person he was could be explained by one simple fact. Everyone joked that his name, Janhak, was short for “brutal and inhumane.” There were even people who thought that was actually true.
That was how cruel Janhak was. Everyone who had exposed and opposed the evil deeds of the Tongjeonso had been killed by him.
“Yes, that is him.”
At Juyang’s answer, Janhak threw the man he had dragged out forward.
The man rolled limply across the ground.
Geom Mugeuk approached and examined him. The man, whose entire body was a wreck, barely opened his eyes.
“…Kill me.”
Those were his first words.
How terrible must the pain have been for him to say that as his first words, without even knowing who the other person was?
By contrast, Janhak, the one who had made him that way, was relaxed.
“At first, that bastard was just as full of spirit as you. He flew over that wall as if he had wings and landed right in the middle of the yard. Truly, a hero had descended.”
At that, the watching swordsmen burst into laughter.
“Standing there, he launched into a grand speech. Something about justice, something about chivalry. He treated us like money-grubbing insects, like trash. Not even knowing who the trash was.”
At that moment, the man reacted to the word trash.
“…I am trash. I am trash.”
It was a phrase Janhak had forcibly driven into him. The man was half out of his mind from the brutal torture.
Geom Mugeuk examined his body.
His dantian had been shattered, and the meridians of all four limbs had been severed, leaving him bedridden for the rest of his life. A body not even a divine physician could restore. The bastard had committed an act no human being should commit.
As Geom Mugeuk was examining him, Janhak approached without a sound. He had already heard from Juyang what the opponent had done with a coin yesterday. If what he had heard was true, then this man was quite an expert.
He thought he would first subdue him with a surprise attack, then play with him in place of that bastard for a while.
At this moment, while he was defenseless, his attention taken by that dying piece of trash.
‘Idiot! What is that little bit of sentiment, that little bit of righteousness worth? I’ll fix that mind of yours completely!’
Just as Janhak launched himself and was about to bring down a palm strike—
Piiing!
Thud.
A streak of wind, followed by the sound of something being pierced.
Bang!
Something embedded itself in the wall of the building behind him.
Craaaack.
The force of the impact was so great that cracks spread like a spiderweb around the point where it had struck.
When Juyang confirmed what had lodged there, he recoiled in shock.
What was embedded in the wall was a coin.
Blood trickled down from the coin, running along the wall.
‘Blood? Why blood? Don’t tell me?’
Juyang instinctively looked at Janhak.
Janhak was still standing exactly where he had been. He was touching his forehead, as though it itched. He seemed to be trying to say something, but he only muttered indistinctly, impossible to understand.
A moment later, his body slowly collapsed.
Thud!
Blood was flowing down from the forehead of the already-dead Janhak.
The coin had pierced Janhak’s forehead, passed through the back of his head, and flown on to lodge in the wall.
Everyone was horrified by his death.
How many times had they seen Janhak until now? How many martial artists had he killed and toyed with?
And yet he had died with a coin through his forehead, without even swinging his sword once? It felt so unreal that it seemed as if he had conspired with that young man to put on an act.
At Janhak’s death, tears welled in the eyes of the man who had been tortured. He had endured with one thought alone: that if he ever escaped, he would kill that bastard.
“I imagine you would want to repay him with the same torture, but he is not even worth that. Would that not mean treating that bastard like a human being?”
As always, Geom Mugeuk granted no value whatsoever to the death of an evildoer. Only that way could he face the endless stream of villains. Like moving a stone blocking the road to the side and walking on again.
But he granted value to this man. Though he was seeing him for the first time and did not even know his name, he understood him through the actions he had taken.
“No one else climbed over that wall for the sake of others. Not the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, not the Evil Dao Alliance, not even the Righteous Dao Alliance. They were all either uninterested, in collusion, or calling it an unavoidable necessary evil.”
Geom Mugeuk held the man’s hand tightly.
“You have lived a noble life. Thanks to you, many people will be freed from suffering.”
A faint smile formed on the man’s lips. With his eyes, he made his final request to be killed, and Geom Mugeuk accepted that request. It was a gesture of respect for him.
“May you go in peace, great hero.”
Geom Mugeuk placed his hand on the crown of the man’s head.
There was no pain in that touch. With a peaceful expression, the man breathed his last.
After laying him down as he was, Geom Mugeuk rose to his feet.
Those who had been chuckling just moments ago were all standing there, holding their breath.
It seemed as if he would rage like a storm and sweep them all away, yet Geom Mugeuk was calm. And that made him even more frightening to Juyang.
Geom Mugeuk held out the remaining coin to Juyang and said,
“There is one more left. Shall I give it to you? Or will you come and take it?”
Juyang understood that when the other man said he would give it to him, it meant another coin would be embedded in the wall.
“No. I will receive it.”
Juyang ran over and held out his hand. His heart pounded, and he felt dizzy.
In the tense situation where everyone was watching, Geom Mugeuk slowly placed the coin down.
This time, surely his hand might be smashed to pieces…
But today as well, the coin was placed lightly on his palm.
“…What is it you want?”
As if to say there was nothing he needed to tell the likes of him, Geom Mugeuk lifted the man’s corpse into his arms and strode away, speaking as he went.
“Make sure you come to collect the interest tomorrow.”
* * *
Juyang went straight to see Jeokpae, the head of the organization.
If he wanted to preserve his life, he had to go and report it himself before the report reached him through someone else. If he did not take the beating that came first, the beating that came later would take his life.
Jeokpae did not reside at the Tongjeonso. He did not consider that place safe, with countless people coming and going every day.
He lived in a manor built like a fortress in a remote place. Experts guarded him in layer upon layer, and deep within the inner compound was a palace of beauties. He was a man who knew very well how to spend the money he earned.
Juyang took a deep breath in front of Jeokpae’s residence and steadied himself. Having worked under Jeokpae for the past ten years, he knew well what kind of person he was. As far as Juyang knew, he was the most selfish man alive. He regarded other people’s lives as no more than the lives of flies. Perhaps that was why he had been able to make this business flourish.
A madman claiming to be the young cult leader of the Demon Cult turned out to be an expert.
If he made this report, Jeokpae would throw whatever was within reach at him. If he happened to be peeling an apple, a fruit knife would fly at him; if he happened to be painting, an inkstone would fly at him. He was the sort of man who threw the inkstone, not the brush.
Fortunately, Jeokpae was looking over the ledgers and flicking an abacus. He looked like a ferocious wolf, but when calculating money, he became a fox.
When he was calculating money, it was wise to keep one’s mouth shut.
The sound of the abacus beads stopped for a moment.
“An expert intervened, and there was an incident.”
Jeokpae was not particularly shaken. While running the Tongjeonso, had there only been one or two times when martial arts experts interfered? They had resolved them all somehow and overcome every crisis.
“A young man borrowed ten nyang.”
“Ten nyang?”
Jeokpae raised his head and looked at Juyang with that gaze. He could not have come to him over a mere ten-nyang problem.
“Because of that matter, Janhak died.”
Whoosh. Thwack!
The abacus flew and struck Juyang on the head. Unfortunately, the corner of the abacus hit him, and blood streamed down from his forehead.
“Did I not tell you to properly distinguish from the start the bastards who would become a problem?”
“I am sorry.”
“And after eating Yeomwangchae’s rice for so long, you could not even handle that properly.”
Repeating his apologies, Juyang bowed his head.
“What kind of bastard is he?”
“A madman claiming to be the young cult leader of the Demon Cult.”
Thwack!
Something else flew and struck Juyang in the face.
“How does a madman kill Janhak?”
Juyang lowered his head deeply again and said he was sorry. But it was not as though the young cult leader of the Demon Cult killed him, was it? He forced himself to swallow the words he wanted to say.
“How will you take responsibility?”
“I will accept any punishment.”
“You are certain he is not one of the Demon Cult’s men?”
“The investigator sent word that he is not. From what I have seen as well, he is not a demonic practitioner.”
Jeokpae gestured for Juyang to leave, as if he could not stand the sight of him. It was probably only ending at this much because Juyang had at least been running the Tongjeonso well lately without any mistakes.
Left alone, Jeokpae said in a low voice.
“Look into it yourself and take care of it.”
From behind the wall came a brief reply: yes.
Jeokpae took a new abacus from his desk drawer and began calculating again.
“Why won’t anything add up?”
When writing the ledgers, there were days when the numbers simply refused to match. Wrong, and wrong again. Today was one of those days.
* * *
The next day, at Jeokpae’s summons, Juyang once again hurried to his residence.
Jeokpae stood in the middle of the courtyard with a grave expression.
Before him lay a corpse. It was the very man who had gone out yesterday after receiving Jeokpae’s orders—one of his own hands and feet.
Juyang knew very well just how skilled he had been. He was a subordinate like Jeokpae’s right arm, one Jeokpae had spent an enormous sum to keep at his side, and he could have dealt with someone like Janhak with ease.
And Juyang also knew something else.
He knew who had killed him.
Two coins had been placed on the corpse’s forehead.
The coins seemed to be saying:
—I’ve paid today’s interest too.
Juyang’s heart sank. The fear he had felt until yesterday had not been fear at all. He felt a primal terror surging up from deep within his chest.
Juyang could not tear his eyes away from the coins.
“What are these coins?”
The two coins had now become the most terrifying things in the world.
“They are today’s interest.”
Jeokpae glared at Juyang with frightening intensity.
“You… just who did you lend money to?”
Juyang had expected Jeokpae to react this way. Whenever a problem arose, he was the sort of man who always looked for someone to blame.
You’re the one who sent a man to kill him!
Swallowing the words he wanted to say yet again, Juyang spoke.
“I will go and find out what he wants.”
“You still don’t know after seeing this? What he wants is our money. What other business would an expert like this have with us?”
Jeokpae was a man convinced that anyone who opposed him was after his money. Unexpectedly, that theory was often correct.
“You said he claimed to be a demonic practitioner?”
“He boasted that he was the young cult leader of the Demonic Cult.”
“You’re certain he isn’t?”
“He absolutely is not.”
Now that things had come this far, Juyang even began to think the investigator’s report might have been wrong.
But he still answered with the word “absolutely.” Because he absolutely had to be wrong.
In that case, Jeokpae’s solution was already decided.
“The real thing should deal with the fake.”
That was why he had spent so much money for a day like today.
“We’ll show him just how terrifying the real Demonic Cult is.”