The inside of the inn was a complete mess. As I stepped over the fallen door to enter, a middle-aged man who was fixing a broken table shot to his feet.
"Welcome! How many in your party?"
"Are you the owner here?"
"Yes. The inn is small, so I run it by myself. Please, have a seat. I'll bring some tea right away."
The innkeeper hastily gathered a table and chairs that were still in one piece. His business was already struggling, and since some martial artists had brawled and smashed the place up, it seemed it would be difficult to operate properly for a while. Still, it looked like he didn't want to lose any customer who walked in.
Tang Hye-seo surveyed the interior and spoke.
"We don't need tea. I have something to ask. Did some martial artists fight here a while ago?"
The forced smile on the innkeeper's face stiffened. Only his eyes moved as he desperately tried to read our expressions. Sensing that we were tracking those martial artists, his tone became cautious.
"Yes. Well, it's a common occurrence..."
"Where did they all go?"
The innkeeper had a troubled expression. It wasn't that he was afraid of getting into trouble by getting involved in a martial artists' fight. He wanted a price for taking the risk.
Tang Hye-seo took out half a tael of silver from her pouch. Only then did the innkeeper's expression relax, and his tongue loosened.
"About an hour ago, a group of masked men suddenly burst in and attacked the customers who were drinking on the first floor. It was a complete madhouse."
Won Seo-gang, who had been listening with his arms crossed, asked.
"Wasn't there a carriage that came in before that?"
"A carriage?"
The innkeeper tilted his head as if puzzled, then clapped his hands as if he remembered.
"Ah, yes. The three guests who arrived earlier came in a carriage. They fought with some robber-like guys and then left in the carriage."
I tilted my head and interjected.
"Were the horses put away in the stable?"
"Yes, of course. I even fed them their fill of fodder."
"So you're saying that in the middle of a fierce fight, they took the horses from the stable, put on the harnesses, and hitched them to the carriage? And the attackers just watched them do it?"
The innkeeper blinked his eyes in confusion.
"... I don't know about that. I quickly hid in my room, afraid I'd get hit by a stray blade. Suddenly, the sounds of fighting stopped, and a moment later, I heard a carriage moving. When I peeked the door open and came out, everyone was gone, and the inn was in this state..."
"Have you cleaned up all the bodies?"
"No. There were no bodies."
The Tang Clan member who had been following the escorts also shook his head.
"No one left through the inn's front door."
"They probably escaped through the back door."
I watched the direction the innkeeper pointed to, then started walking.
"Is the stable over there?"
"Yes? Ah, yes..."
The stable was large enough for about four horses. In the long manger, there were traces of fodder having been eaten, just as the innkeeper said. When I opened the adjacent warehouse, it had a surprisingly ample supply of hay, contrary to what I expected.
It was a pleasant light brown color, and when I touched it, it was dry enough to be crisp. In one corner of the warehouse, several sacks of beans were also stacked. As I stared at the hay and bean sacks with a strange sense of unease, Won Seo-gang approached.
"That innkeeper. I think he's lying."
"Did you find something?"
Won Seo-gang scratched his chin and narrowed his eyes.
"It's a feeling. People with something to hide have a strangely awkward way of speaking and acting."
A person's intuition is often arbitrary and can be forced. Even in the case of martial artists, it was common for them to accuse an innocent person with certainty. But if that intuition wasn't felt by just one person, the story changes.
Tang Hye-seo, who came to the stable with her subordinates, also had a look of suspicion.
"Are you going to follow them further?"
Tang Hye-seo nodded.
"Whether they're dead or alive, I have to see their faces to put an end to this."
"Do you have anyone tailing them?"
"No. I'll ask around a bit, and if that doesn't work, we'll have to go back. Before that, I need to check something."
Tang Hye-seo took out a finger-sized flute from her robes. She put it to her lips and blew with all her might, but strangely, no sound could be heard.
Hee-hee-hee-hing!
As she continued to blow, changing directions, the sound of a horse's neigh came from somewhere over the wall, as if in response.
"Just as I thought."
Tang Hye-seo triumphantly blew the flute and led us down a back alley. We all went out to the street and delved into the alleyways. With every corner we turned, the horse's neigh grew closer.
After passing a stinking pile of trash, a carriage with two horses, cleverly hidden, appeared.
"How did you do that?"
"Animals' senses are much more sensitive than humans'. They can smell scents humans can't and hear sounds humans can't." In other words, it was a flute that made a sound inaudible to human ears but stimulated the hearing of animals.
It was an unimaginable device. If a mere flute was this amazing, I wondered just how incredible a thing the Iron Arm Guards, said to be one of the three great divine artifacts, must be.
Seeing how they came all the way to the Western Village and were trying so hard to get it back, it must be a brutally vicious weapon. Just in case, everyone drew their weapons and slowly approached the carriage from both sides. The driver's seat was empty.
There was no one in the cargo bed either. Only familiar chests lay scattered about with their lids open. Tang Hye-seo tilted her head and picked up a scattered paper wrapper.
After touching it and smelling it, all expression vanished from her face. It seemed she recognized it was paper used to wrap opium.
"Bi-hyeon."
Bi-hyeon, who received the wrapper and held it to his nose, also became serious.
"Young Lady, this is..."
"It's them, right?"
"Yes."
While the two were talking, Won Seo-gang examined the carriage with sunken eyes.
"Why is this here?"
"It seems they packed the opium from the chests into their bundles and fled."
As I whispered lowly, Won Seo-gang nodded, then tilted his head.
"It looks like they intended to abandon the carriage, but leaving the horses behind is strange."
"Bring the innkeeper."
A Tang Clan member, following Tang Hye-seo's order, quickly dragged the innkeeper over and threw him to the ground. The innkeeper's eyes went wide when he saw the horses and carriage.
"They left the horses and carriage behind in a hurry to escape, so you thought it was a good opportunity and hid them away to take for yourself, right?"
It was a situation anyone could see. If they had been ambushed and fled, they wouldn't have had time to get the horses. It was reasonable to assume that the innkeeper was the one who hitched the horses to the carriage and hid it in the alley.
He probably hid it in case the owner came back to look for it later. Just those two horses alone could fetch at least ten silver taels. If he sold the carriage with them, it would be enough to close his failing inn and start fresh somewhere else.
The innkeeper, his face pale, waved his hands frantically.
"No! I don't know anything about this! Keok!"
A Tang Clan member grabbed the innkeeper by the collar and glared at him.
"Where did those bastards go?"
"Gag, I-I really don't kno—" No matter how much they threatened and intimidated him, they got nothing.
We inquired at the surrounding shops and other inns. Since it was now daytime, there were quite a few witnesses. They all pointed in the same direction.
Traveling by carriage and asking along the way, we arrived at the foot of a mountain where five bodies greeted us. They were all martial artists dressed in black robes and armed with sabers and swords. Their weapons and pouches were still there, but not one of the bulging bundles they must have been carrying was left.
"Tsk. We're a step too late."
Won Seo-gang clicked his tongue and scanned the mountain forest where the culprits had fled. A Tang Clan member turned over a body to search it.
"Cough, cough."
The body, thought to be dead, suddenly coughed. Bi-hyeon rushed over, tore open the man's shirt, and examined his wound.
"He's heavily injured, but he won't die right away."
"Just keep him alive, no matter what."
Tang Hye-seo hurriedly checked the other bodies. Unfortunately, only one of them was alive. They were all unfamiliar faces.
Geuk-hwan had said he had assigned skilled trackers from the Underworld Information Clan to tail them closely. Among the Underworld Information Clan members of the Western Village branch, there is no one who doesn't know my and Won Seo-gang's faces. As a house guest of the Underworld Information Clan, if they were nearby, they would have come to make contact.
I waited for more than two hours just in case, but no one appeared. Could they have followed the ones who killed these men? The direction where the culprits disappeared was all forest.
It might have been worth following further with the Tang Clan's tracking skills, but Tang Hye-seo shook her head.
"Let's go back. First, we need to get some information out of this one."
Since the Dragon Sky Escort Agency escorts were the likely suspects, the destination was obvious even if we pursued them further. We put the survivor in the carriage and headed back to the Western Village, retracing our steps. The streets, now fully bright, were beginning a vibrant and peaceful day despite the cold weather.
Among the open shops and passing pedestrians, the shabby inn from before came into view.
"Stop the carriage."
"Why?"
"Let's go in quietly."
I mentioned the part that had been bothering me all along to a puzzled-looking Tang Hye-seo.
"That inn's warehouse has too much hay."
It was hay of a quality that didn't suit the inn's poor condition. Guests with horses don't stay at just any inn. It's because there are so many thieves who target horses.
The fact that they had several sacks of beans prepared for the horses, and that the Underworld Clan members hadn't shown up, was all too unsettling to just dismiss. It was on our way anyway, so we had nothing to lose. We stopped the carriage at a distance and approached the back of the inn through an alley.
We passed the stable and silently infiltrated through the back door. The inside of the inn was now neatly cleaned up. Exchanging hand signals, I headed for the kitchen.
Messily neglected ingredients and cooking utensils. It was so dirty I was glad I hadn't eaten here. A spooky stench emanated from a large, unidentifiable chunk of meat hanging from a hook on the ceiling.
Dripped blood had dried black on the floor. With a surge of tension, I quietly drew my long blade. I checked the floor and ceiling and grabbed the doorknob of the pantry.
I listened for a moment. I could feel shallow breathing from beyond the thin wooden door. Something was inside.
After quietly steadying my breath, I pulled the door open. I took several steps back, protecting myself with my long blade in preparation for an ambush. In the warehouse, where turbid dust floated, sacks of rice and flour were piled up haphazardly.
And between them, three men, tightly bound, were left on the floor. I approached slowly, on guard. The moment I confirmed their faces in the seeping light, a commotion erupted outside the kitchen.
"There!"
With a thorny shout, my companions rushed up the stairs. Someone jumped out of a second-floor window. It was the innkeeper.
The kitchen window, perhaps to prevent break-ins, was too small to jump out of. I was just watching the innkeeper flee into the alley when Bi-hyeon, who had quickly followed, threw a hidden weapon.
"Aaargh!"
The innkeeper, with the hidden weapon stuck in his leg, fell flat on his face. Bi-hyeon ran over, gagged him, and tied his arms. I went back to the kitchen warehouse.
I confirmed their faces and untied them. The Underworld Clan members, whom I knew, let out deep sighs as if they had just escaped death and bowed their heads.
"Great Hero Jeong, thank you. You saved our lives."
"What happened?"
"We were watching them and got ambushed from behind."
It seemed they had accomplices hiding around the inn. The fact that the men who took the ransom stayed at this inn was no coincidence after all. This inn must have been in on it from the beginning.
Since we were lucky enough to capture him alive, either the Tang Clan or the Underworld Information Clan would surely squeeze him dry. We loaded the tightly bound innkeeper onto the carriage and set off for the Western Village again. The Underworld Clan members followed behind in the carriage the innkeeper had hidden.
* "Ughhh."
Every time the carriage jolted, his shoulder throbbed with pain. Pung Kang-ik clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. Even though it was a perfect surprise attack that caught them off guard, he took a blade to the shoulder.
In the process, he had also lost one of his men. They were not easy opponents. The guys who make a living selling drugs are scarier than the ones who take them and charge at you.
Even the men who died by his blade might be shaking their heads in the afterlife. He turned his eyes to the pile of bundles on one side of the carriage. He had never used opium, but just looking at it felt like the pain was subsiding.
He had recovered the escorted goods that were stolen in Xinjiang, so this was enough. For a single night of frantic movement, the results were better than expected. The report from the falconer holed up in the mountains had come in only a few hours ago.
At first, he thought they had intercepted a Murim Alliance carrier pigeon meant for the Western Village Underworld Information Clan. The contents were confusing. Last night at Deep Fragrance Pavilion, the prefectural city lord's party held a banquet all night.
The guards' security was so tight that even internal patrols had to be halted. In the early evening, a large carriage left Deep Fragrance Pavilion. Who was in it and where it was headed was unknown.
And a short while later, the Underworld Information Clan got into big trouble near an abandoned inn far from the Western Village. He couldn't understand what was going on, so he just observed at first. The situation became urgent the moment he witnessed the opium chests.
His head had been throbbing, wondering how to recover what had fallen into the hands of the Underworld Information Clan, but he never imagined things would turn out like this... It felt as if heaven had helped him somehow. It was quite a stretch, but if he failed to supply the opium on time, he would die either way.
Riding the Tiger's Back. Since he was already on the tiger's back, all he could do was his best in every moment.
"Hoo..."
He sighed and lifted his head. The carriage raced on without stopping toward the Dragon Sky Escort Agency.