The Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion arrived at the Shinhwa Gang.
Chief Steward Jo, who had come out upon hearing the news, greeted her.
“Welcome. You must have had a hard journey coming all this way.”
“Thank you for inviting me.”
Chief Steward Jo’s gaze shifted to Geugak Soma and the Faceless Guests standing behind her. The veil with a single flower painted on it drew his eye.
‘Since this is a competition hosted by the Evil Faction, she’s brought plenty of guards.’
But what of it? How strong could warriors who guarded a pleasure house possibly be? If anything, having so many of them would only grate on An Hupyeong’s nerves.
Chief Steward Jo guided her to the main hall.
When the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion took her seat, Geugak Soma stood directly behind her, and the Faceless Guests lined up to his left and right.
Normally, they would have scattered into every corner of the room, crouching here and there, sitting on the window frames, or perching on tree branches outside the window to peer in. Today, however, they behaved like well-trained warriors.
The Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion glanced behind her. She saw the veil of Geugak Soma standing right at her back.
She was grateful to him not only because he was protecting her. What she was even more grateful for was that he was standing there for her, when he was not the sort of person who should ever have to stand in a place like this.
Her gaze turned forward again. Yes, with him behind her, whom could she possibly fear facing?
As Chief Steward Jo served her tea, he spoke cautiously.
“I should be showing you directly to your lodgings, but there is someone who wishes to meet you, Pavilion Mistress.”
“May I ask who that person is?”
“He will be here shortly. Please wait while having a cup of tea.”
Chief Steward Jo bowed politely and went outside.
“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
Making a guest who had come from far away wait like this, before she had even unpacked her luggage, was clearly discourteous.
It meant either the matter was extremely urgent, or the other party was a rude person.
In this case, it was both.
A short while later, An Hupyeong, a man who would never lose to anyone when it came to rudeness, entered the room.
He was in a hurry. The fact that his father had changed the judge to the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion had grated on his nerves.
Because he was worried that, in his later years, his father might have fallen for some sly temptress from a pleasure house.
An Hupyeong knew better than anyone, having frequented pleasure houses himself, just how well courtesans handled men.
One might think that his father, who had established his own household within the Evil Faction and possessed such profound martial arts, would never fall for something like that. But the stronger a person was, the easier they were to topple.
Because those women knew, like ghosts, how to slip between the vanity and loneliness of those who had reached the summit.
The moment An Hupyeong saw the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion, he was certain.
‘My intuition was right.’
She was beautiful, and she had elegance. There was a dignity about her that made it hard to see her as the owner of a pleasure house. It seemed possible that his father had fallen for this woman.
The warriors guarding him followed in behind An Hupyeong. They lined up behind him with threatening gazes.
Without even greeting the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion, An Hupyeong first flicked his hand at Geugak Soma and the Faceless Guests, ordering them out.
With this very first action, one could tell what sort of person he was.
An Hupyeong was a man who used the power he possessed to his heart’s content.
He was not someone who had grown up minding other people’s moods, and he had lived a life in which, if he told someone to leave, they left. Until now.
But the opposing warriors did not budge.
An Hupyeong’s gaze naturally shifted to the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion. Before he could say anything, she asked first.
“Who might you be?”
He silently looked down at her.
“I am An Hupyeong, the Young Gang Leader of the Shinhwa Gang.”
At that, the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion rose from her seat and cupped her fist politely.
“So you were an esteemed person. I am Yeo Jeong, who leads Cheonhwa Pavilion. Thank you for inviting me.”
“I wasn’t the one who invited you, so there’s no need to greet me.”
Then he looked again at Geugak Soma and the Faceless Guests standing behind her.
Now that you know who I am, get out! He looked at them with eyes that said as much, but they still did not move.
Before the atmosphere could turn vicious, the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion quickly stepped in.
“I am very timid, so I ordered them not to leave my side under any circumstances. Please understand, Young Gang Leader.”
“If a situation were to unfold where you had reason to be afraid, do you think you would be safe just because they were there?”
“At the very least, I would gain some comfort in my heart.”
“So you will not send them out to the end?”
“Please understand the feelings of a timid woman experiencing the Evil Dao for the first time.”
After An Hupyeong snorted, he looked back at his subordinates behind him.
“Throw them all out.”
There was a reason An Hupyeong was coming on so forcefully.
A woman who ran a large pleasure house like Cheonhwa Pavilion would surely not have ordinary nerve, so he intended to crush her spirit thoroughly before beginning. He wanted to see that composed face tremble with unease once the blades protecting her disappeared.
The man who walked out from behind was Xie Qiu, the head of the warriors An Hupyeong kept with him.
As the one responsible for the safety of the Shinhwa Gang’s heir, he was naturally a person with outstanding martial skill.
As he walked toward Geugak Soma, he stopped. Unable to approach any closer, he halted about ten paces away.
Xie Qiu stared back and forth between Geugak Soma and the Faceless Guests.
‘What are these bastards?’
From the moment he had first entered and glanced at them, they had felt strange.
He had met all manner of rough and vicious men from the Evil Faction until now, but this was the first time he had encountered people who gave off this sort of feeling.
They were not rough, yet they were not easy to look down on either. To call it madness, they seemed too sane; to call them sane, they were too bizarre.
How could he know? That he was facing the most peculiar ones among the demons led by the Eight Demon Venerables.
Especially that fellow who drew his gaze!
Seeing him standing in the middle, he was clearly their leader. And yet he was merely staring at him in silence.
He was unpleasant.
Yes, that was exactly the right word. He felt like someone who should not be treated recklessly, but at the same time, he did not give off the feeling of being a true master. Xie Qiu clearly thought that if they fought, he would not amount to much, and yet he did not want to fight him.
Had he read his mind? A faint smile appeared in the other man’s eyes.
‘He’s laughing?’
He was laughing in this situation? Normally, Xie Qiu would already have pierced his heart and lopped off his head. And yet he did not feel like doing so.
The one who broke the taut tension was An Hupyeong.
“What is this? Is he someone you need to be nervous around?”
An Hupyeong looked at Geugak Soma with renewed eyes.
Of course, even if he were a master who could make Xie Qiu nervous, there was no reason for An Hupyeong himself to be afraid. No one would dare harm him.
Because from the moment he was born, he had been wearing the powerful protective armor called the Young Gang Leader of the Shinhwa Gang.
“So, despite my position as the Young Gang Leader of the Shinhwa Gang, I’ve been walking around all this time with a man weaker than some blade-for-hire a pleasure house owner keeps around?”
The corner of Xie Qiu’s eye twitched, but even so, he did not draw his sword.
At that moment, the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion gently soothed An Hupyeong.
“I have been so distracted selling liquor that I am ignorant of the laws of the martial world. So please forgive me generously, Young Gang Leader.”
At that, An Hupyeong asked in a cold voice.
“What is your relationship with my father?”
The Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion already knew why he was acting this way. During her journey here, she had learned a certain amount about the Shinhwa Gang through Cheonhwa Pavilion’s intelligence network in this region. It was information that would be difficult even for Tongcheon Pavilion or Eunwol to learn. After all, what this An Hupyeong had said while drunk at Cheonhwa Pavilion was something only she could know.
“I have never met the Gang Leader.”
An Hupyeong snorted.
And yet he invited her to such an important event? When they had never even met?
Naturally, he thought the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion was lying.
This was why he had tried to crush her spirit. In any case, these lowly things would only spew lies if dealt with through words.
At that moment, Chief Steward Jo’s voice was heard from outside.
“The Gang Leader is looking for you, Young Gang Leader.”
His father was stopping him? An Hupyeong thought his prediction had been exactly right after all.
An Hupyeong turned and walked toward the door.
“You can’t even kill him, so why glare like an idiot? Let’s go.”
Xie Qiu turned away from Geugak Soma. In that brief time, countless thoughts had flashed through his head, but the conclusion he reached at the end was this.
‘I’m glad we didn’t fight.’
Those who knew him would never believe it, but that was truly what he thought.
Whether he knew that feeling or not, An Hupyeong spoke to Geugak Soma from in front of the door.
“I’ve marked you. If you’re still laughing the next time I see you, you’ll die by my hand.”
After issuing that cold warning, An Hupyeong left the room.
Trying to ease the stiffened atmosphere, the Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion said with a smile,
“What will you do now if you can’t smile anymore? It seems you’ll have to change your title.”
At her joke, not only Geugak Soma but also the Faceless Guests standing beside him laughed silently.
The laughter An Hupyeong truly needed to worry about was precisely the laughter of these Faceless Guests.
The moment he insulted Geugak Soma, the protective armor called the Young Gang Leader of the Shinhwa Gang had turned into a scrap of cloth.
Because the ones who would ignore such things and start hacking him to pieces first were none other than these Faceless Guests.
Knowing them better than anyone, Geugak Soma said just one thing to them.
“Don’t laugh.”
For them, laughter meant precisely!
And so those words also meant this:
Do not kill him without permission.
* * *
After leaving the main hall, An Hupyeong glared coldly at Xie Qiu.
“What was that?”
“He was no ordinary man.”
“Yes, I’m sure he wasn’t. Then I suppose you are an ordinary man. Have you been deceiving me all this time, pretending to be extraordinary?”
Xie Qiu made no excuses and lowered his head deeply.
An Hupyeong, too, did not insult him any further. He knew very well how strong Xie Qiu was. The Pavilion Mistress must have brought an extraordinary master with her.
Fine. If she wanted to occupy a place inside the Shinhwa Gang, she would have to make at least that much of an investment.
“Call Mister Yong.”
At the mention of the man who appeared like an all-purpose troubleshooter, Xie Qiu flinched in surprise.
“The Mistress of Cheonhwa Pavilion has come to this competition as a guest.”
“Who said I was going to kill that woman?”
“If Mister Yong steps in, the matter will grow larger. And…”
“What? What are you trying to say? That even Mister Yong can’t win?”
“No.”
Xie Qiu shut his mouth.
For a moment, he thought perhaps that might be true, but then another thought came to him. What if Mister Yong actually came and fought that man, only for it to be revealed that the atmosphere had merely been strange and his skill was nothing special? No matter the result, it would be a problem.
That was why it was right not to call him.
An Hupyeong strode forward as he spoke.
“If it’s something that won’t be solved even if Mister Yong comes, then that means something is happening right now without my knowing, doesn’t it? Call him immediately.”
* * *
Geom Mugeuk and Ian also arrived at the Shinhwa Gang.
Applications for the competition were being accepted at the grand training ground, and there were truly many people present.
There were many women, and many people who had come with those women.
When Ian entered, people naturally looked at her. A beauty that could not be blocked by a veil drew in their gazes.
“They’re lining up over there.”
Because so many people had gathered, applications were being accepted at more than a dozen lines.
“Look here.”
Ian, who had been heading that way to stand in line, discovered a notice about the competition posted on the wall.
“Ah, if you become the greatest beauty under heaven, the prize money isn’t fifty thousand nyang but thirty thousand nyang. As an additional prize, they give you the opportunity to attend a dinner with the Leader of the Evil Dao Alliance.”
Geom Mugeuk thought of the Leader of the Evil Dao Alliance. Come to think of it, it had been quite some time since he had seen him. To think he would miss those little eyes.
“You’re disappointed it isn’t fifty thousand nyang, aren’t you?”
Ian flinched and feigned innocence.
“There’s no way!”
“It feels like you lost twenty thousand nyang, doesn’t it? Be honest.”
“…It is a little disappointing. This is a competition aimed at all of the Central Plains, after all.”
Geom Mugeuk laughed aloud, and Ian laughed along with him.
Ian was happy in this time she was spending with Geom Mugeuk.
Even now, she could feel the gazes around her looking at her, but she focused only on Geom Mugeuk.
Because she did not know when they would be able to laugh and chatter together like this again.
“Now, take a look around, and if there’s anyone prettier than me, please kill her.”
At Ian’s whisper, Geom Mugeuk looked around.
“Then a public enemy of the martial world would be born, wouldn’t one?”
“Your friend is the captain of the Demon-Extermination Unit, so what are you worried about?”
Geom Mugeuk also enjoyed this time with her. There was a comfort that only Ian gave him. And Geom Mugeuk knew very well that such consideration came from her intelligence.
“Let’s go stand in line over there too.”
The two of them stood in the shortest of the dozen or so lines.
It was just then.
From far away, exclamations of “Oh!” erupted one after another.
Naturally, everyone there turned their gaze in that direction.
The crowd parted wide, and through the opening, a woman was walking in.
The woman, wearing palace robes that revealed the shape of her body, drew everyone’s attention.
She was beautiful. Even the splendid clothes she wore were overshadowed by her appearance, making it hard to care what she had on.
There were many beauties here, but hers was a beauty that overwhelmed them all. The only person who could stand against that beauty was Ian.
If Ian’s beauty was pure white, then this woman’s beauty was magnificent. If Ian was intellectual and pure in her beauty, this woman was sensual.
While everyone held their breath, the woman walked toward the line where Geom Mugeuk and Ian were standing.
Standing before the two of them, the woman smiled enchantingly and said,
“This line is the shortest, at least.”