EP.8 Nine Dragon Assembly (2)
It was shortly before the start of the Nine Dragon Assembly. I was being held captive by a bear-like man.
The man spoke to me.
"So you didn't run away this time."
If someone were to be called Mount Tai, this would be their appearance.
At least eight chi in height with broad shoulders, the overwhelming sense of presence he emanated was exceptional.
His pure white hair and the wrinkles across his face spoke of the years he had lived through.
Yet, he was still someone to whom the title "warrior" suited better than "old man."
He was the Gu Family's Second Elder, Gu Ryun.
"You brat who'd pull his feet out the moment he saw this old man, why have you graced us with your presence?"
"You said you'd cut it in half if I didn't show up... And how could I skip the Nine Dragon Assembly?"
"Oh? Now you're even talking back."
Speaking fiercely, the Second Elder recklessly ruffled my hair with his massive hand.
The Second Elder had always been oddly fixated on me. The fact that I was the Family Head's only son was probably the biggest reason.
He didn't seem to know his own strength; every time he ruffled my hair, my entire body jerked along with his hand.
'Gonna... gonna throw up...'
Just as I was on the verge of passing out, Gu Yeonseo appeared. She was a ray of light to me.
Gu Yeonseo frowned upon seeing me being shaken about, but quickly corrected her expression and paid her respects to the Second Elder.
"I greet the Second Elder."
"Oh! Our Yeonseo is here too!"
Upon seeing Gu Yeonseo, he released me from his shaking and abruptly pulled something out of his robes. It was yakgwa.
Haven't I seen this scene somewhere before...?
"This mischievous brat never has a cute day, and Yeonseo, you must have worked hard coming from afar. This old man came in a hurry and didn't bring anything to offer... Would you like some yakgwa at least?"
Seeing the yakgwa offered from his robes, Gu Yeonseo stiffened slightly. Then, with a faint smile, she declined.
"I apologize. My stomach is not feeling well at the moment..."
"Oh my...! We must call a physician!"
"That won't be necessary, Second Elder. I think it's just nerves from the Nine Dragon Assembly. I will gratefully accept the yakgwa next time."
After giving a respectful bow, Gu Yeonseo left to change her clothes.
"Unlike someone, she is very well-mannered and proper."
"I feel like I'm going to pass out from being shaken so much, may I go find a physician?"
"Things like that heal if you apply some saliva. Be quiet."
...What is this nonsensical favoritism?
I felt a bit unjustly treated, but he was a person with such a peculiar personality to begin with, so I let it be.
"Second Elder, if you're not going to eat that yakgwa, please give it to me."
"I've told you before, you need to eat less. A child of the martial house coveting yakgwa, how absurd is that?"
"No, weren't you just about to give yakgwa to a child of the martial house? And what does yakgwa have to do with being a martial house...?"
"Yeonseo eats and consistently trains, doesn't she? What good is a brat who only eats, sleeps, and lazes about?"
"I'm not the one eating it, so it's fine."
Saying so, I pocketed the yakgwa from the Second Elder. Naturally, it was for Wi Seol-ah.
Before I knew it, the sight of yakgwa automatically reminded me of Wi Seol-ah. Was it because I watched her eat it so deliciously?
As I pocketed the yakgwa, I saw Wi Seol-ah approaching from afar with the other servants.
The servants paid their respects upon seeing me and the Second Elder, and Wi Seol-ah followed their actions.
The Second Elder waved his hand slightly to signal it was fine, and everyone relaxed their posture.
Wi Seol-ah then trotted over to me.
"Young Master! There are so many people outside!"
"There would be, it's a festival of sorts."
"They're selling dumplings! And skewers! And noodles too!"
"...Didn't you just say there were a lot of people? Why is it all food talk?"
"But the dumplings...!"
Wi Seol-ah, who had been excitedly chattering, suddenly startled and hid behind me.
Wondering what it was, I turned around and saw the Second Elder looking down at Wi Seol-ah with peculiar eyes.
Being looked down upon by a massive frame well over eight chi was deeply intimidating.
Moreover, the Gu Family bloodline was known for their fierce eyes generation after generation, making them a household that rarely heard compliments about their impressions.
"...Elder, if you stand like that, people will be frightened."
"Hmm..."
"What is it?"
"Is that child your concubine?"
"...What kind of nonsense is that, look at her clothes, Elder. She is a servant."
Among the household staff, the bloodline's servants wore yellow clothing. Wi Seol-ah was no exception.
"Is that so? If you say so, then it must be."
When I denied it, the Second Elder lost interest and took his leave. If we stayed there any longer, the sun would set and we truly needed to prepare.
I handed the yakgwa to Wi Seol-ah.
"Eat this and stay quiet."
"Huh? I just had some earlier..."
"What? You said it was delicious, are you tired of yakgwa?"
"No... Grandfather told me not to eat more than five a day."
"...When on earth did you eat five of them?"
I only recall giving her one from the carriage? I glanced over at the servants, and they all seemed to be averting their gazes.
"It was them, huh..."
They wouldn't have touched my snacks, so they must have used their own pocket money to feed her.
I told her to save the yakgwa and eat it later or tomorrow, and I also hurried to change my clothes.
There wasn't much to prepare. I simply draped myself in the red robe, the symbol of the Gu Family.
As the sun set and the evening glow painted the sky, lanterns were lit throughout the assembly grounds.
In the center of the assembly grounds, the Second Elder stood in the middle, with me and Gu Yeonseo standing on either side.
Since it was the Nine Dragon Assembly, the bloodline members had to participate, but the youngest was not at the estate, and the eldest was also absent due to being with the Sword Unit, leaving only me and Gu Yeonseo.
In principle, the Family Head should personally attend the Nine Dragon Assembly, but having just returned from the Jinma Scripture Gate, he couldn't move easily from the estate.
The same went for the First Sword Unit, directly under the Family Head.
Therefore, the Sword Units currently participating were the Second Sword Unit, and the Third and Fourth Sword Units, excluding the Fifth Sword Unit which was away on a long-term mission, and the First Sword Unit directly under the Family Head.
This year's first Nine Dragon Assembly had a relatively small number of personnel.
'Thanks to the Cheonil Commercial District, the size is at its maximum, though.'
Compared to the number of personnel, the scale of the assembly grounds was truly enormous.
Thanks to that, many spectators were able to enter, but it was so crowded that one never knew what accident might occur.
Of course, with the Gu Family's Sword Units gathered, there wouldn't be any madmen causing incidents.
Excluding the Second Elder, Gu Yeonseo, and myself, the hundred or so people gathered in front were the Gu Family's Sword Unit.
Even with their light armor, the sharp aura they radiated proved that each and every one of them was an outstanding warrior.
"Commanders of each Sword Unit, step forward."
Where had the Second Elder's playful demeanor from earlier gone? Now he embodied the dignity of an elder of a noble family.
His short-spoken words, carrying the inner qi accumulated within his body, reverberated throughout the entire assembly grounds.
Following the Second Elder's words, a few individuals from the numerous Sword Unit members lined up in front stepped forward before him.
"Acting Commander of the Second Sword Unit, Woo Anseon! I greet the Elder of the Gu Family."
"Commander of the Third Sword Unit, Ma Cheolhyeon, I greet the Second Elder."
"Acting Commander of the Fourth Sword Unit, Hyeok Juyeom, I greet the Second Elder."
One Sword Unit Commander and two Acting Commanders.
This was a measure put in place in case of unforeseen mishaps that could occur if multiple Commanders left their posts at the same time.
Naturally, this was an arrangement mutually agreed upon by the Sword Units themselves.
The Second Elder nodded once at the sight of the Sword Unit members and continued speaking.
"For the Gu Family and the common people..."
The words that followed were so long that I erased them from my mind halfway through.
To summarize, it was: You've worked hard. You will work hard in the future. And since you've worked hard, you will be rewarded.
The rewards given to each Sword Unit were a considerable amount of spiritual pills and double the amount of their monthly stipend.
To the Sword Unit members, the Second Elder's words seemed more moving than such material goods.
It was a part I couldn't quite understand...
My role, and Gu Yeonseo's, was simply to stand there. It was a formal gesture to show that as the bloodline, we had witnessed their hardships.
But this was likely necessary for the morale of the Sword Units.
"...I express my gratitude for your hard work."
By the time I came to my senses, the Second Elder's speech was finally ending.
As the Second Elder expressed his gratitude, not only the Sword Unit members but even the spectators all broke into applause.
Looking up at the sky for a moment, I saw that the sun had already fully set.
The first day of the two-day Nine Dragon Assembly schedule was coming to an end.
'Fortunately, there were no annoying incidents.'
Who would cause a troublesome incident at a gathering of the Gu Family's elite? Still, it was something I was always cautious about.
This faulty skull of mine couldn't remember everything.
I remembered major events significant enough to stir the Central Plains' murim, but my memories of this particular time were especially hazy.
It could be because I was young and couldn't remember well.
Or perhaps I had intentionally tried to forget in order to leave only happy memories behind.
'At least there doesn't seem to have been any major incident at this Nine Dragon Assembly.'
I remembered the 'incident' that would occur in winter, but I had no particular memories of the Nine Dragon Assembly in spring.
As the applause died down, we moved to our seats guided by the members of the Cheonil Commercial District.
******************
When night fell, the remaining time was a small festival for the Gu Family's Sword Unit.
A festival, you could call it, but it was simply filled with an abundance of food and alcohol prepared by the Cheonil Commercial District.
The Commanders and Acting Commanders asked to remove the alcohol, fearing they might be tempted, but the Second Elder told them to drink, at least for today.
The Sword Unit members cheering even louder than when they received their stipends or spiritual pills was a given.
"It's chaos."
Being human, they must have craved alcohol and rich food.
But as warriors, they simply endured it.
The Second Elder had released those restraints, so to put it nicely, the atmosphere was burning, and to be precise, it had become a riot.
Stepping outside the commercial district for some fresh air, Muyeon followed me as if he had been waiting.
"What is it, why didn't you drink and follow me out?"
"Would a guard drink alcohol? That is for the Sword Unit members, not for me, so it's fine."
"Aren't you part of the Sword Unit to begin with?"
Muyeon hesitated at my words.
The warriors who served as the Gu Family's guards were also affiliated with the Sword Units. That meant Muyeon was also a warrior who belonged to a Sword Unit.
"I am... Well..."
"Whatever, it's fine. Shall we look around the streets?"
Since he seemed uncomfortable and held his words, I changed the subject. I wasn't curious enough to pry, and it wasn't something to ask further about.
"It's Shinwol-hyeon, so it's to be expected, but the scale is truly different."
With Shanxi's foremost commercial district here, the streets were much more vibrant than the area where the Gu Family resided.
Especially since it was night, the taverns that had been quiet during the day were now lit up.
With this level of street activity, couldn't it even rival Anhui where the Murim Alliance was, or Sichuan where the Central Plains' greatest commercial district was located?
I felt sorry for Muyeon, who was on high alert behind me in case something happened, but I enjoyed coming out to the bustling streets.
Seeing people walking about peacefully meant the blood catastrophe of the past had not yet occurred.
And I could truly feel that the future I had experienced had been rendered nonexistent, as I too could walk around without a care.
"Shall we buy some dumplings?"
I suddenly remembered Wi Seol-ah mentioning dumplings.
"It's because of Servant Wi, isn't it?"
When I brought up the dumplings, Muyeon brought up Wi Seol-ah.
"Hmm, not necessarily, but if I buy them, everyone will be happy."
Might as well buy some for the others while I'm at it. At my words, Muyeon wore a somewhat proud expression.
"...You really are completely different from the rumors, Young Master. They say you shouldn't judge a person by rumors alone. It seems I still have much to learn."
"You're saying all that just because I'm buying dumplings? Wait, it hasn't been that long since you became my guard, has it...?"
"It's been a little less than half a month now."
...He must have been assigned just before I regressed. That's why he could say such things.
Should I call this Muyeon's good luck, or my good luck?
Thinking about Muyeon, since I didn't have much memory of him, he must have been replaced not long after, like the guards who changed day by day.
"Young Master, I think they're selling dumplings over there?"
Looking in the direction Muyeon indicated during my idle thoughts, I saw a building with steam billowing out. Even I, who didn't have much of an appetite, felt my stomach rumble just from the smell.
"That looks good, let's go."
My hesitation was brief.
As I rummaged through my coin pouch and headed toward the dumpling shop.
"Miss, you shouldn't be walking around so dangerously."
"You worry too much, Yeobi. I heard the Nine Dragon Assembly is being held. With so many people from the Gu Family, what could possibly happen to me?"
I saw a familiar face.
"That's why I'm even more anxious... What if you were to run into Young Master Gu?"
"That couldn't possibly happen, could it? With this many people around."
Ah, she shouldn't have said that.
The moment the girl spoke, her eyes met mine.
As our eyes met, the girl froze like a stone.
The woman behind her, who appeared to be the girl's guard, also looked appalled.
Her bobbed hair reaching her shoulders and her pitch-black eyes like baduk pieces were distinctive.
Then, the black ring on her hand caught my eye.
It was a pattern that couldn't be recognized without looking closely, but for me who already knew her, I could easily tell what that ring meant.
The Hebei Peng Family.
The girl was a bloodline member of the prestigious Hebei family that cultivated the blade and sword among the Four Great Families of the Central Plains.
And my former fiancée.