The dagger flew not for my chest, but for my right shoulder. I twisted my upper body to the side and easily dodged it. I sensed a presence behind me.
As I turned, I swung my scabbard, then hesitated. A child assassin with a dagger in his throat collapsed, spitting bloody foam from his mouth. For it to be a coincidence, the spot where the dagger hit was too precise.
I retreated toward the wall and turned my head. Among the venomous child assassins surrounding me with their blades, only Pung Oh-bok had a different expression. That boy hadn't thrown the dagger at me.
He was aiming for the child assassin who was stealthily approaching from behind. He must have expected that someone of my martial ability could easily dodge it. The child assassin and I were far enough apart that my long blade couldn't reach.
He didn't need to help me, so why did he? Was he showing me through his actions what he couldn't say yesterday? When I nodded to show I understood, an awkward smile formed on Pung Oh-bok's lips.
It was a smile like a faint crack of light in a dark mire soaked in blood. Suddenly, Pung Oh-bok gasped and his eyes flew wide open. A quick-witted child assassin had stabbed the traitor in the back.
Pung Oh-bok turned and threw a punch. The child assassin who was struck in the face tenaciously stabbed at his abdomen with a blade. Pung Oh-bok tried to counterattack, but he was empty-handed.
He was stabbed once more and collapsed on the spot. I rushed over, beating the brats away with my scabbard. The scary thing about the child assassins was that they lulled their opponent into a false sense of security, swarmed them, and then launched a surprise attack all at once.
No matter how much of a master one was, it was not easy to deal with that kind of attack. No martial artist would be so easily defeated by mere children if they didn't allow them to get close in the first place, or if they fought them head-on.
I mercilessly swung my scabbard, pushing back the child assassins, then grabbed the fallen Pung Oh-bok by the scruff of his neck and retreated. After being stabbed once, Bok Ha-gyu had also come to his senses and was knocking them down one by one with his scabbard and fists.
It seemed that, like me, no matter how messed up the situation was, he didn't want to stain his blade with the blood of children. This wasn't because of soft emotions like pity or guilt. It was the minimum pride of a martial artist who had walked this path to this day with a single blade in hand.
Hearing the commotion from the alley leading to the Black Night Gang, three members of the dark path came running in a hurry. Seeing their squad master fighting with young beggars and their cruelly murdered comrades, they looked on with disbelief before drawing their blades.
“Squad Master!”
“You sons of bitches! Kill them all!”
Their eyes filled with rage, the subordinates mercilessly slaughtered the child assassins. They were not particularly skilled swordsmen, but they were martial artists with experience in killing. No matter how harshly trained they were as assassins, they were still just children who had not yet fully grown.
They had no skill to block the long blades swung by adults who were much larger and stronger than them. In an instant, seven children were dead. The guild of assassins wouldn't care.
The Central Plains was teeming with orphans; they could just gather more and train them again.
Wheee!
Someone among the children blew a whistle. The child assassins reacted as sharply as hunting dogs. Those who could still walk turned quickly and fled in a rush down the alley.
The members of the Black Night Gang sheathed their blood-stained blades and hurried to support Bok Ha-gyu. I sheathed my long blade, scabbard and all, back at my waist, then lifted Pung Oh-bok's shirt to check his wounds. He was drenched in blood.
He had been stabbed cleanly in at least three places.
“Hero… the money… cough, cough, at home…”
“I know, so shut your mouth. You can live if you just get treatment.”
I applied wound salve and tightly wrapped his lower abdomen and entire waist with bandages. Whether he would live or not, I wouldn't know until he saw a physician. I wiped my bloody hands on the remaining bandage and stood up.
Bok Ha-gyu was staring down in a daze at his subordinates who lay dead, covered in blood. It was nothing new for a martial artist to be struck by a blade and die. But it was extremely rare to be killed at the hands of children.
The bodies of the children scattered in the blood-red sunset were a gruesome sight, like a scene torn from a nightmare. Even in death, the children could not undo the blades wrapped around their hands. I had only ever heard that child assassins existed; this was the first time I had seen them myself.
While wandering the Central Plains as a wandering swordsman, I had fought all sorts of scoundrels, but I had never faced assassins from a guild of assassins. It seemed this was a first for Bok Ha-gyu as well. If he had experience, he would have surely been more careful.
Not being particularly wary because they were common beggars and young children became a painful mistake. Still, it was absurd how easily he had been taken down. Come to think of it, I was the same.
If it hadn't been for the sharp energy that clung stickily in the air, I wouldn't have thought to swing my scabbard to create distance. What was that sensation just now? Had my senses sharpened because I was learning inner energy?
"Are you alright?"
Bok Ha-gyu could not answer easily. It seemed he still couldn't believe the fact that he'd been bested by children more than the fact that his leg was stabbed.
“To get stabbed by a bunch of brats… how absurd. I won't be able to show my face in the Western Village anymore…”
If word of today’s events got out, it was as clear as day that the Black Night Gang would be utterly humiliated. Whispers of them being vicious thugs who killed young beggars. Scornful laughter about them being morons who got stabbed to death while harassing children.
Everyone would secretly gloat and eagerly chew over the story with their drinks. Even if those children were trained assassins, nothing would change. The fact that they were defeated by children remained.
“It must be the guild of assassins.”
“I suppose so. That damn old man, I should have chased him to the end and wrung his neck…”
It was obvious who had hired the guild of assassins, even without asking.
“These bastards, they were sent from the Qingyun Martial Academy.”
Bok Ha-gyu snapped his head around.
“The Qingyun Martial Academy?”
“There was a familiar face among the child assassins. I heard he entered the academy, and it seems this is what became of him.”
“We need to sort this out before it’s too late.”
Bok Ha-gyu’s eyes, grinding his teeth, glinted with a deep murderous intent.
“This isn’t the time to worry about that. Do you think Im Ja-gyeon and Seon Do-mu will stand by when they find out Squad Master Bok was ambushed and injured?”
They were already eager to push out Jeok Chu-yeong and take over the Black Night Gang. There was no way they would miss this golden opportunity. At the earliest, tonight.
At the latest, within a few days, they would try to wipe out both Bok Ha-gyu and Jeok Chu-yeong. Coincidentally, some of Bok Ha-gyu’s subordinates were away from the Black Night Gang, having gone to take over the Blood Snake Gang’s business.
“So?”
“There is someone targeting Ban Ho-yang, the house guest that Im Ja-gyeon brought in, whom I mentioned before.”
Bok Ha-gyu’s eyes twitched.
“Are you suggesting we use someone else to do our killing?”
“Our goals are the same, so there’s no harm in joining hands for a while, is there? Are you just going to wait for them to strike first? I would like to see Master Jeok alive.”
If I followed Bok Ha-gyu inside now, I would probably be able to meet Jeok Chu-yeong. The problem was what came after. If things went wrong, I could be attacked along with Bok Ha-gyu, and the Black Night Gang could suddenly become a place of certain death.
It would be a little safer to meet Jeok Chu-yeong while Won Seo-gang's group was causing a commotion and storming their side. If things went awry, I might have to kidnap Jeok Chu-yeong, so it was better to have at least a few people to help.
Bok Ha-gyu stared toward the Black Night Gang with a hardened face, then slowly took a deep breath.
“I will give you an answer by tonight.”
“Send a man to the Wind River Inn. Not the Wandering Swordsmen Inn.”
I lifted Pung Oh-bok with both hands and left the alley strewn with the bodies of children. I knew where Pung Oh-bok lived, but it was too far. I also didn't have the confidence to lay the son who had been stabbed and lost consciousness before Pung-chil.
First, I had to stop by a physician’s. Fortunately, there was one physician in the Western Village I could trust and visit. He stanched the bleeding, applied medicine, and wrapped the wounds with bandages. Physician Sang finished the treatment by mixing a powdered medicine with water and feeding it to him, then washed his hands without a word.
Pung Oh-bok was still unconscious. Shivering with a high fever, he looked precarious, as if walking the line between life and death.
“Will he be alright?”
“I’ve done all I can for now.”
“Can he live?”
Physician Sang carefully explained Pung Oh-bok’s condition.
“He was stabbed in several places, but fortunately the wounds aren’t that deep. Seeing as there's no dark or murky color in the blood he lost, it seems the blade missed his organs. There's nothing I can do about the amount of blood he lost. We'll have to wait and see when he wakes up.”
Physician Sang had saved Gu-sam when he had been beaten into a coma. I had no choice but to trust him again this time. I put down one silver tael and headed to the Wind River Inn.
I would have preferred to handle the Black Night Gang's business at the Wandering Swordsmen Inn, but I couldn't spend the night there. The Wind River Inn was bustling with evening customers. I had never come at this time before, so Gu-sam tilted his head when he saw me.
“Are there any empty rooms?”
“A room? There is, but are you really planning to stay?”
“If anyone comes looking for me, let me know right away.”
I paid a generous amount and lay down on the bed in the guest room. As I relaxed and stared at the ceiling, I was once again dumbfounded. How could things get twisted up like this…
What if Bok Ha-gyu had taken me to the main gate instead of the back door earlier? Would the child assassins have been camped out there too? If it weren't for the child assassins, I would have met Jeok Chu-yeong by now.
Perhaps it was for the best. It was obvious to anyone that an internal conflict was about to break out in the Black Night Gang. If Jeok Chu-yeong was not in a state to talk, Bok Ha-gyu would have to make the first move and seize control of the Black Night Gang to prolong his own life.
Bok Ha-gyu knew that fact well. Seeing as the time he took to consider was not as long as I expected. About half an hour later, Gu-sam knocked on my door.
When I went down, one of Bok Ha-gyu's subordinates was waiting at the back door. He delivered the message verbally, not through a letter.
“Tonight, at the first hour of the Ox. He said to come to the back door.”
“Tonight? Are you sure?”
“I am certain.”
The first hour of the Ox was only two hours away. If I was going to respond, I had to hurry. Fortunately, Won Seo-gang hadn't gone anywhere and was holed up in a detached house at the Deep Fragrance Pavilion.
“Let's go over the wall tonight.”
“What are you talking about? So suddenly?”
He didn't yet know what had happened in the back alley. I calmly explained everything, one by one. The child assassins from the guild of assassins.
Bok Ha-gyu's injury, and the fact that he had decided to strike first before the other two squad masters made their move. Won Seo-gang's bewildered expression gradually turned into one of intense joy.
“This is a very strange turn of events.”
“Is it possible? If not, we can postpone it until tomorrow.”
Won Seo-gang shook his head firmly.
“The fact that Bok Ha-gyu said tonight means the atmosphere inside the Black Night Gang is not good. If I were Im Ja-gyeon or Seon Do-mu, I would never let tonight pass by quietly. If we miss this, we might never get another chance. Let’s see it to the end tonight.”
“Will there be enough time to contact the masters who will go with us?”
“There will. They are all here.”
“... They’re in the detached house?”
Won Seo-gang smirked at my surprised reaction.
“Is there a better place in the Western Village to gather people without worrying about prying eyes?”
“Who? Who are they?”
Won Seo-gang licked his lips and said.
“First, there’s one from a righteous sect with the title Ho Yeon-geom…”
I was so dumbfounded that I blinked and cut him off.
“Ho Yeon-geom? You brought him in?”
“You know Ho Yeon-geom?”
“I know him well.”
I told him how Ho Yeon-geom and his group, instigated by Choi Sa-deuk, had ambushed a carriage and committed murder and robbery. Won Seo-gang stared at me with a serious expression.
“Just in case you don’t know, what we are about to do is climb over someone else's wall. It's theft. We'll probably end up killing people too. They are all from the dark path, but murder is still murder. It's a bit much to scold a murderous robber, wouldn't you say?”
I didn't particularly like it, but he wasn't wrong.
“Is it just Ho Yeon-geom?”
“There's one more. A righteous hero with a decent reputation. I looked into him, and his martial ability isn't bad, and he's definitely not the type to stab you in the back. Let’s go see.”
As we crossed the rear garden and went to the detached room opposite, familiar faces came into view. A stern-looking man in black robes who appeared to be in his thirties, and two young women of about my age. It was Ho Yeon-geom and his junior female martial siblings.
As I was exchanging polite greetings, I was struck dumb. A middle-aged man with a magnanimous air who looked like a righteous hero in every way clasped his fists to me.
“I am Hwang Kang-ju. It is an honor to lend a hand in the righteous act of punishing the vicious dark path factions who suck the blood of the common people.”
I don't know how much he was paid, but Hwang Kang-ju's face was brighter than ever. The difference was as stark as that between heaven and hell compared to when he was crushed by despair in the back alley outside the tournament grounds.
He was so excited, like a young warrior setting out to subjugate bandits, that he didn't even recognize me, the one who had written his name for him at the tournament grounds. After we exchanged names, Won Seo-gang spoke.
“You must have been bored waiting. The time has come. Great Hero Ho Yeon-geom. We must carry out our great undertaking tonight.”
“That’s great. I was feeling quite uneasy about being treated so well without doing anything.”
As Ho Yeon-geom showed his confidence, Won Seo-gang turned his gaze.
“Is Great Hero Hwang ready?”
“All I need is a righteous heart without a speck of shame and a single blade. What more preparation is there to be made?”
As Hwang Kang-ju declared the aspirations of a great hero, Won Seo-gang concluded the short conversation with a satisfied look on his face.
“Good. Then we will depart in an hour and a half. Our target is the Black Night Gang.”