A cart drawn by an ox was passing along the road that ran between the fields.
Riding in that cart were Geom Mugeuk, Ian, and Jin Hagun.
The three of them had been walking when the old man driving the cart offered to take them as far as the village.
Jin Hagun sat perched on the end of the cart, looking back, while Ian sat leaning against it. Geom Mugeuk had simply lain down in the cart with his eyes closed.
Jin Hagun had never sat in an ox-drawn cart before. It was also the first time he had ever traveled this slowly.
Creak, creak.
Each time the cart swayed, his dangling feet swayed with it. Beneath his feet, the dirt road they had traveled stretched farther and farther behind them.
The past two days had been so much fun.
The three of them had hunted together, roasted meat over a campfire and eaten it. They had admired magnificent scenery, then gone to an inn famous for its food and tried the dishes there. At night, they had fallen asleep while looking up at the stars.
Those two days had passed so quickly he hardly knew where they had gone.
But no matter how enjoyable it was, if the companion with him had not been Geom Mugeuk, he might already have resolved to stop playing around and return to martial arts training.
As Geom Mugeuk had said, it seemed a workaholic was a workaholic after all.
Jin Hagun glanced behind him.
Geom Mugeuk had fallen into a soft, even sleep, and Ian was looking down at him. There seemed to be many thoughts in the depths of her gaze.
Sensing Jin Hagun’s eyes on her, Ian turned her head. When their eyes met, she smiled brightly.
At that kind smile that lifted a person’s spirits, Jin Hagun gave a faint smile in return, then looked behind him again.
The last beauty just before the sun set dyed the world red.
At the blowing wind, the grasses bent low, then raised themselves again. It looked almost like flames spreading.
Like a boat crossing a sea of sunset, the cart continued onward.
By the time they arrived at the village, it was already dark, so they looked for an inn first.
“There are two rooms left.”
Three people, two rooms.
“Please have a look at the rooms first.”
The innkeeper guided the three of them to the rear courtyard where the guest rooms were.
“If you happen to be husband and wife, then this spacious room should suit you.”
This experienced innkeeper did not presume to guess who the husband was.
“Do we not look like husband and wife no matter who sees us? Come, Ian. Let’s use this room.”
Before Geom Mugeuk could take Ian away, Jin Hagun stepped forward first.
“I will sleep in this room with this friend, so please rest comfortably.”
“Interloper!”
Geom Mugeuk tried to shake off his hand, but Jin Hagun dragged him along.
Ian smiled and bowed politely.
“Thank you.”
She could tell that Jin Hagun was not interfering, but respecting and considering her. No matter that the other party was Geom Mugeuk, they were not yet husband and wife, so it was only proper to offer Ian a separate room.
In truth, Ian had stayed in the same guest room as Geom Mugeuk several times before. During the contest to select the greatest beauty under heaven, for instance, since their opponent had been an assassin, they had stayed in the same room.
“Ian, you know, right? Later, when the night grows deep…”
Jin Hagun forcibly dragged Geom Mugeuk into the room.
The room was spacious, with a large bed and even a separate small bed, so there seemed to be no inconvenience at all for two people to sleep there.
Jin Hagun opened the window wide. Lamps lit the darkened rear courtyard, making for quite an elegant scene.
“How does it feel on the third day?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, Jin Hagun answered while looking out the window.
“I’m still not sure.”
He still felt as though he was wondering, Is it really all right to play around like this?
“Do you regret it?”
“No.”
More than regret, it felt unfamiliar. Already, for three days, he had done nothing. He wondered if there had ever truly been a time when he had lived so thoughtlessly. What was even more surprising was that there was nothing set for him to do tomorrow either.
“Grandfather must have been informed by now.”
Since this was something he had done without even receiving permission in advance, he was concerned about his grandfather, if no one else.
“The Alliance Leader would instead say you did well. He would say, ‘My grandson has finally found some ease.’”
It was probably something said to make him feel better, but hearing it still put his mind at ease.
“In that case, I should use the large bed.”
“There is absolutely no correlation there!”
But Jin Hagun was already throwing himself onto the large bed.
***
The next morning, Jin Hagun opened his eyes.
When he turned his head, Geom Mugeuk was not in bed.
Jin Hagun rose from the bed and drew back the curtain. The moment he looked outside, he was startled.
He had thought it would be dawn or early morning, but the sun was already high in the sky.
‘Have I ever slept this late in my life?’
Aside from when he had been very young, this was the first time.
He could not believe he had slept until so late. His nerves were always on edge, and he had never slept properly; he would wake several times a night.
To think he had slept so deeply, oblivious to the world! If someone had launched a surprise attack, he would have died.
Just then, the door opened and Geom Mugeuk came in.
“You’re awake?”
“Why did you not wake me?”
“I just woke up too.”
Geom Mugeuk did not forget to make a joke about this late morning.
“I slept without waking even once too. Last night, the successors of the Murim Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult nearly changed! My elder brother almost shouted hurray!”
Jin Hagun realized he could not tell anyone about this. If the people of the righteous faction found out, they would call him mad. How could he fall so sound asleep while sleeping beside the successor of the Divine Cult?
Then Ian’s voice came from outside.
“If you’re awake, let’s go look around the village. I went scouting, and as for food, let’s eat outside.”
Jin Hagun merely washed his face and left the inn with the two of them.
The marketplace at lunchtime was bustling with people.
Was it because he had not eaten breakfast? The place where their footsteps naturally came to a halt was a cart selling street food. Meat and vegetables had been grilled and skewered, and the aroma whetting their appetites was downright violent.
After reaching an agreement through glances with the other two, Geom Mugeuk ordered three.
Jin Hagun pulled the meat off the skewer with his teeth and marveled at the taste.
“It’s delicious!”
He had seemed like he would eat in a dignified manner, but after finishing faster than anyone else, he ordered and ate one more.
“Don’t tell me this is your first time eating street food.”
“It is.”
Geom Mugeuk was not the sort to let this pass.
“You look like you were raised terribly rough, but you were more pampered than you seem.”
“What about me looks that way?”
Jin Hagun wiped the sauce from his mouth with his sleeve. If he had been with his subordinates, it would have been an unimaginable act.
It was an intentionally deliberate deviation, but that alone gave Jin Hagun a great sense of liberation.
Of course, it was even more fun because there were people beside him widening their eyes and saying things like this.
“Ian, it seems we brought the wrong person. The next Murim Alliance Leader sleeping late, gluttonizing, and wiping his mouth with his sleeve?”
“What should we do? It seems we were deceived.”
Pretending not to hear, Jin Hagun paid for what they had eaten.
“I will pay for the skewers.”
Geom Mugeuk shouted.
“And one more thing! Now he’s showing off too!”
Jin Hagun moved on. There was much to eat where the carts were lined up.
This time, it was noodles.
It was also Jin Hagun’s first time eating noodles while standing on the street. It was also the first time he learned that such delicious noodles could be so cheap. Even if Geom Mugeuk teased him about having been raised pampered, he had nothing to say.
After thus taking a simple meal, they went to the stalls and looked at the goods for sale.
‘They sell all sorts of things.’
He had passed through countless marketplaces, but now that he thought about it, he had never once been curious. What they sold there, how much the prices were. He had had no interest to begin with.
Whenever he walked down a road, he thought only of his destination. He thought only of the people he would meet there, and focused only on how he would resolve the matter.
The only time he paid attention to the roadside was when there was a possibility of an ambush.
He had ultimately worked so hard in order to protect these people, yet he felt that he knew nothing about them.
Just then, Jin Hagun’s eyes caught sight of the swindlers.
“Come, come! Guess right and get three times your money! Guess wrong, and we just take what you bet! Three times!”
When Jin Hagun showed interest, Geom Mugeuk came over and urged him on while pretending to stop him.
“Don’t tell me you’re going to gamble now?”
“Why would I not?”
Jin Hagun walked over there.
The swindlers ran their shell game with their backs to an alley from which they could flee at any time.
Jin Hagun stood among the onlookers and carefully watched the swindler’s hand movements.
Then he placed a coin on the plate at the far right.
“I will win and treat you to dinner too.”
That confidence lasted only a moment.
When the plate was lifted, the die was in the middle.
Jin Hagun looked at Geom Mugeuk with a startled expression.
“It was definitely on the right.”
“The better your eyes are, the more you get fooled. You have to know the principle behind the trick.”
Jin Hagun shook his head as if amazed. Geom Mugeuk smiled and said in a low voice.
“I want to tell them. Do you know how historic a day this is in your swindling lives?”
Jin Hagun bet two more times, but failed both times.
“If I keep going, I’ll go bankrupt.”
Seeing him leave so readily, Geom Mugeuk asked.
“You’re just going?”
“If I do not?”
“You scoundrels! You are deceiving good people with trickery! You won’t punish them?”
“A fool who falls for that is the foolish one.”
“Ooh! Just now, I thought you were of the unorthodox faction.”
Geom Mugeuk turned and said behind him.
“Ian, this friend is already starting to fall. Even if we don’t bother tempting him…”
Ian was up ahead, busy choosing items at a street general store. She held up a small comb and waved it.
“Please buy me this.”
“Buy it with your own money.”
“No, Young Master should buy it for me.”
“I refuse.”
Then Jin Hagun spoke as if frustrated.
“Just buy her one. How much could that cost?”
Geom Mugeuk shouted to Ian.
“Hagun orabeoni here says he will buy it for you.”
Jin Hagun flinched in confusion.
“Orabeoni?”
“You said you were putting down all titles like Alliance Leader and unit leader, did you not? Then you are orabeoni. What else should she call you? Mr. Jin? Young Jin? Young Hero Jin?”
Hearing it, it was not exactly wrong.
“Do not treat this warrior carelessly. Telling her to call me orabeoni is rude to her as well.”
“You have returned from the unorthodox faction to the righteous faction?”
At those words, Jin Hagun could not hold back and let out a small laugh. Yes, no matter how deliberately he tried to deviate, could his nature change so easily?
Jin Hagun went to Ian and paid for the comb.
“Thank you. I’ll have to leave this as a family heirloom!”
“It is nothing.”
Ian repaid the price of the comb with a piece of advice.
“When you date a woman later, you must not do everything she asks you to do.”
When he looked at her with eyes asking why, Ian answered.
“If you do too much for her, she’ll come to think of it as natural. Somehow, I feel like Young Alliance Leader would do everything.”
She had seen him well. If he were to date a woman, he felt he would most likely grant nearly all her wishes.
“I think being good at refusing is actually a way to protect love.”
Perhaps embarrassed after saying it, Ian smiled bashfully.
“I just picked that up from somewhere. Honestly, I don’t really know either. Ah, I’ll go look over there.”
Ian went into a weapons shop, and Geom Mugeuk went into the clothing store across the street.
“Do you perhaps have floral-patterned pajamas here?”
Watching them, Jin Hagun shook his head.
“Look here, you two have switched places!”
There was nothing new about the marketplace, but being here with those two made it a new world. It was so much fun.
The place Jin Hagun ambled toward was an open lot in the middle of the marketplace. There, medicine peddlers had gathered people and were selling their wares.
“Come, come! If children take this medicine for just three months, they will shoot up tall!”
Jin Hagun stood among the people and watched their performance.
Just as Jin Paecheon had once enjoyed the amusement of sitting in a tavern where no one recognized him, Jin Hagun likewise savored the pleasure of blending in among people like this, with no one recognizing who he was.
“Then what happens if an adult takes it?”
A muscular man tightened his abdomen, and the wooden club the medicine peddler swung at him snapped in half.
“For children, it all goes into height, and for adults, it all goes into muscle.”
Jin Hagun laughed.
‘That is an effect not even the Murim Alliance’s spiritual medicines can produce.’
As he was watching, someone spoke from behind him.
“Has some mysterious force disguised as medicine peddlers appeared?”
When he turned around, Jin Haryeong was standing there.
“You found me well.”
Her elder brother had sent an urgent message saying to meet him here. She had rushed over, startled by the sudden message, but his expression looked more relaxed than she had expected.
“I came with Young Cult Leader Geom. Warrior Ian is with us as well.”
At the news that Geom Mugeuk and Ian had come, Jin Haryeong’s eyes widened. And she was even more surprised by what followed.
“I took leave. The entire Demon Extermination Unit is on leave.”
“You did, Brother? Truly?”
She looked at him in disbelief, then soon nodded. Geom Mugeuk must have persuaded this stubborn brother of hers.
“I thought you’d want to see him too.”
As Jin Haryeong watched him showing off his muscles and then suddenly spinning a plate, she abruptly said,
“Aren’t you worried? I still haven’t completely given up my feelings for him.”
“I am worried.”
“Then why did you call me?”
She had been surprised by the fact that her brother had personally sent the message. If anyone were to contact her, it would be Geom Mugeuk, not her brother.
“Because that’s how people’s hearts are. The more you stop them, the more they want to do it; the more they don’t see someone, the more they want to see them.”
“You mean I should meet him and then give up?”
Jin Hagun could not answer that it wasn’t so. How could a human relationship be severed simply because people didn’t see each other? You had to see them in order to cut it off.
“Well, if I end up with him, you’ll be plagued by all sorts of rumors for your entire tenure as Alliance Leader.”
For those of the righteous path, especially the old masters and eminent seniors, it was something absolutely unacceptable. Political enemies would even arise, accusing Jin Hagun of colluding with the Demonic Cult.
“If I’d met him as someone of ordinary status, you wouldn’t have opposed it then, would you?”
Since her brother liked Geom Mugeuk this much, she had expected he would have actively supported them.
Unexpectedly, Jin Hagun shook his head.
“You would have opposed it?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I think you would have suffered.”
Jin Hagun conveyed to his younger sister the feelings he had never spoken until now.
“You must feel it too, but that friend was born with the fate of becoming the protagonist of the murim. He was born with a destiny to save the murim rather than to be devoted to his woman. I want my sister to live as the protagonist of her own life.”
Jin Haryeong found a flaw in her brother’s persuasion.
“Then what about Ian? Is it all right if she isn’t the protagonist?”
She thought that, given her brother’s personality, he would be flustered.
“Martial Artist Lee is not my sister.”
Because she could tell he meant it sincerely, Jin Haryeong was touched, yet at the same time surprised.
“Are you sick or something? Do you have some fatal illness?”
At Jin Haryeong’s half-serious, half-joking words, Jin Hagun calmly conveyed the rest of his feelings.
“You never received your parents’ love, Grandfather was busy as the Alliance Leader, and this brother of yours was busy with the affairs of the Demon Extermination Unit. I’d like it if at least your husband were someone who would always stay by your side and take good care of you.”
Because if it was his sister, even if it wasn’t Geom Mugeuk, she would surely be able to meet a truly good man.
“Not because I’m selfish and only think of myself?”
“There is that too.”
“You’re even saying things like this to me. Brother, you really have changed a lot.”
The two looked at each other and smiled.
“If you really can’t manage it, then I’ll just give up being Alliance Leader.”
“Where are the two people saying things they don’t even mean?”
“Over there, at the weapons shop and the fabric store.”
Jin Haryeong strode off toward that place.
As he watched her enter the weapons shop, Jin Hagun said quietly,
“That’s not the right one.”