WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 20: Decisive Move

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When I reported for work at dusk, I noticed some constables.

Of all things, damn officials at my sacred workplace.

I wanted to spit and turn around, but avoiding them without a plan would not solve anything.

After changing into my escort uniform, Jo Gyeongjik took me somewhere secluded.

“What is it?”

“A Criminal Judge has come from the authorities. They want to see you.”

“A Criminal Judge?”

“An official responsible for public security and criminal matters.”

I hadn't asked because I didn't know. What I wanted to know was what the escort agency had been doing while the Criminal Judge made their way here.

It wouldn't be good to provoke the pavilion master.

“Even the Prefectural Magistrate visits Simhyang Pavilion from time to time. Since a murder occurred here, it seems the authorities can't simply ignore it.”

It was one of two things.

Either they were panicking and trying to do something, or they had decided they had found a chance to earn merit.

“Am I being arrested?”

“No. If that were the case, they would've taken you already. Considering the escort agency’s position, they've decided to put on a show and leave it at that. The escort agency master personally visited the county magistrate, so it should work out. Just tell them what you told the pavilion master yesterday.”

Jo Gyeongjik looked around before lowering his voice.

“Remember this. The black-clad masked man is our only way out. You live, and the escort agency lives. This must be an affair between martial artists. That way, the authorities lose their grounds to interfere.”

“Understood.”

I answered without argument and studied Jo Gyeongjik’s expression.

Fortunately, he didn't seem to truly believe that nonsense about officials and martial artists not interfering with one another.

“Did the late Escort Bang Join have gambling tiles in his hand?”

“Gambling tiles? I don't know. Come with me first.”

Jo Gyeongjik answered as though it were unimportant and headed for his office.

The constable guarding the door looked me up and down with a disdainful gaze.

“This is the escort?”

“That is correct.”

The constable pointed at the willow-leaf saber hanging at my waist.

“Leave your saber and go in.”

“That'll be difficult.”

“What?”

The constable glared.

“It’s practically part of my body. It can only be separated from me after I die.”

Something could happen inside. To my ears, ordering me to enter unarmed sounded like they intended to seize me if they had the chance.

“Hah. A young pup who doesn't know to fear officials. Do you even know who is inside...?”

“Enough. A martial artist’s weapon is as precious as their life. This isn't a government office, is it? We're cooperating with the Criminal Judge, not being interrogated. Don't look down on the Yongcheon Escort Agency any further.”

When Jo Gyeongjik stepped in, the constable reluctantly backed down.

Constables responsible for public security on the front lines were working people, just like escorts.

They had families to support and likely received a fair amount in bribes. There was no benefit in earning the displeasure of Yongcheon Escort Agency’s chief of security.

The constable announced us and opened the office door. Jo Gyeongjik went in first, and I followed.

The Criminal Judge was sitting in the same room as before, dressed in red and black official robes and wearing an official hat.

Two military officers wearing swords stood at attention on either side, perhaps to display the Criminal Judge’s authority.

The Criminal Judge frowned when I entered carrying a weapon. Still, they did not rebuke me.

As Jo Gyeongjik said, this was not a government office. Even at one, only criminals had their weapons confiscated.

“Are you the first person to find the dead escort?”

“The first to find him was the servant girl you saw earlier. This escort heard her scream, ran over, and confirmed the body.”

“I understand. You may leave.”

Despite the blatant condescension, Jo Gyeongjik calmly gave a fist-and-palm salute and turned away.

“Sit there.”

The Criminal Judge gave the order quietly. Their tone was lofty and imposing, the tone of someone accustomed to issuing commands.

A timid fool would have been overwhelmed by the atmosphere and dropped into the chair without thinking.

I remained standing with strength in my legs, quickly assessing their martial ability and working out how to escape if things turned hostile.

This was not the first time I had been in such a situation. An escape route soon formed in my mind.

First, I would shove the table with all my strength into the Criminal Judge’s chest, knocking them backward. Then I would throw the chair at the officer on the right as they drew their sword.

I would launch myself forward, strike the stomach or jaw of the officer on the left, who had only just grabbed their sword hilt, then leap through the window.

I would subdue the officer on the right first before charging the one on the left because the window was behind the left officer.

The officer on the left was also smaller, and their appearance and bearing made them seem less formidable than the one on the right.

It was only the first floor. I wouldn't be badly hurt.

Outside the office was a small clearing. I would leave the constables, their bellies slick with fat, far behind and sprint for the detached residence.

If I stepped on that pine tree from yesterday, I could easily get over Simhyang Pavilion’s wall.

I would have to leave my hometown afterward, but that was better than being arrested and dragged to the government office.

Only after calculating my route and steeling myself in an instant did I perch on the edge of the chair.

I watched for any sign that the officers might take even one step closer, ready to stand and widen the distance again. Neither moved from the Criminal Judge’s side.

All three looked different, but the contemptuous looks and expressions they gave me were identical.

They did not seem hostile because they suspected me of murder. Officials everywhere always looked at martial artists that way.

To officials, martial artists were all the same, whether they were righteous heroes or members of the Black Path. They were thugs and murderers.

In truth, most criminals who caused trouble for ordinary people were martial artists.

So it was understandable that officials stood by and watched martial artists fight, cut one another down, and kill each other under the principle that officials and martial artists did not interfere with one another.

When one martial artist died, three or four ordinary people would be spared suffering. In a way, it was a righteous act that prevented future crimes.

Of course, the officials here were no less skilled than bandits at tormenting ordinary people and sucking them dry.

The Criminal Judge appeared absorbed in the thick documents on the table, as though something truly important were written there.

Important people everywhere used similar methods to establish their authority.

Even small factions summoned people, then busied themselves with something else to impress upon them that they held the initiative.

Whenever this happened, I felt like a dog ordered to wait in front of food.

Without looking away from the documents, the Criminal Judge spoke.

“The dead escort was a gambler. He had debts and had taken King Yama loans from gambling-tile dens. Have you heard anything?”

“I haven't been with the escort agency long, so I don't know much. We weren't close.”

“Is that so?”

The Criminal Judge lifted their eyes from the documents and stared at me intently.

“If there's something you wish to confess, now would be best. It'll be too late if you do so at the government office. At that point, it'll be difficult to treat you as a person. As a martial artist, you should know enough about what government interrogation rooms are like...”

The Criminal Judge calmly continued their threats.

They did not sound as though they were making empty threats. They sounded like a judge reading a prepared verdict, telling me facts that would soon come to pass.

Their dry voice and bored expression dripped with the weary cruelty of someone who would yawn and eat a pancake while judicial functionaries seared a criminal’s flesh with hot irons and pulled out their intestines while they were still alive.

A Criminal Judge was an expert in torture and interrogation.

They might not do it personally, but who knew how many people they had turned into blood-soaked lumps of meat?

Not all of them could have been criminals. There must have been many innocents among them.

Officials did not care about such things. As long as they caught a criminal somehow, that was enough.

The situation should have made my hair stand on end, but my heart instead grew calmer.

If I had been an insignificant martial artist, I would already have been tied up and dragged away.

Even highly skilled and famous masters needed connections among high-ranking officials if they had much to protect.

Those affiliated with a sect, gang, or martial family, or those with wives and children, could not become enemies with the authorities without harming those around them.

But wandering martial artists like floating duckweed, possessing nothing but a saber and a tenacious hold on life, were different.

Their lives mattered most. If things turned bad, they would ignore officials and everything else and run.

If there had been even the slightest sign that they intended to take my weapon or bind me, I would have done the same without hesitation. I would have followed the route I had just planned.

Perhaps one day I would die miserably after being stabbed by a blade and become food for wild beasts, but I had not the slightest intention of meekly being dragged to the authorities, tied to a torture rack, and beaten into a bloody pulp.

Fortunately, that danger seemed low.

No matter where one went, fiercely barking dogs did not bite.

The Criminal Judge was the same. They only growled and could not lay a hand on me.

It was probably because I wore Yongcheon Escort Agency’s uniform.

An escort had died at an establishment managed by Yongcheon Escort Agency, yet they were accusing and interrogating a fellow escort as the culprit without any evidence...

That would be openly insulting the escort agency and damaging the escort agency master’s reputation and prestige.

The Prefectural Magistrate and many influential people had attended Yi Yunjae’s celebration for passing the provincial examination.

The escort agency master had arrived a little late and joined them.

Since the escort agency master had entered the main building, they must have greeted the Prefectural Magistrate as well.

They might have known each other beforehand.

I did not know how strong their connection was, but it would be enough to reprimand one Criminal Judge.

Even if the Criminal Judge had come simply to do their duty without any desire for merit, it would be difficult to accuse me of a crime.

I had neither the motive nor the time to kill Bang Join, and there was no evidence. The servant girl who first found the body could also testify to my innocence.

After questioning me for a long time, picking at every detail and pressing me, the Criminal Judge eventually shook their head.

“I gave you ample opportunity. If we meet again at the government office, do not resent me. You may go.”

Certain that we would meet again soon, the Criminal Judge waved me away.

When I stepped outside, Jo Gyeongjik, who had been whispering with the constable, flinched and approached me.

After we moved elsewhere, I told him about my exchange with the Criminal Judge. Jo Gyeongjik sighed and patted my shoulder.

“You've suffered enough. Go home today. Rest there until someone comes to summon you, and don't come in for a while. Your daily pay will remain the same, so don't worry.”

Jo Gyeongjik seemed relieved, as though we had overcome the greatest hurdle, but I had a bad feeling.

The Criminal Judge had seemed too rigid for it to be a simple threat. I did not think I should return home like this.

As I walked toward the main gate, I watched my surroundings and quietly headed for the detached residence.

The setting sun burned the western mountains red. There was not enough time to search the entire area around the detached residence.

My feet naturally carried me toward the pavilion master’s residence.

I walked while watching the ground, then stopped in front of a wall more than ten jang from where I had found the Maek Jade.

Crouching down, I moved aside the gravel and picked up a familiar gambling tile.

Its rounded, worn edges made it unmistakably the gambling tile I had handled before, Bang Join’s.

Had someone gone over the wall here?

I looked up at the high wall and carefully reviewed all the information I had gathered so far.

It had begun with the song the pavilion master hummed softly at the detached residence.

The same tune had flowed from Yi Yunjae’s and Bang Join’s lips at slightly different times.

Bang Join had said it was a lullaby sung to put children to sleep in ordinary households in Hubei.

The Maek Jade I had found by chance was also mainly given to babies in Hubei to pray for their health and long lives.

Yi Yunjae had come from Hubei. He visited the pleasure house every day, and each time, his face was filled with concern and worry.

The pavilion master had seemed relieved, yet disappointed, when I said I had seen nothing unusual at the scene of Bang Join’s murder.

As though the pavilion master knew who the murderer was. As though there was something they were looking for.

Why hold the celebration for Yi Yunjae, who lived in Hubei, at a pleasure house in distant Seochon?

Who had arranged this place and paid for the celebration?

Why here, of all places...?

When I linked together the facts scattered like stepping stones with guesses and assumptions, a plausible hypothesis took shape.

I did not know whether it was correct, but I thought I knew whom I needed to find.

Until moments ago, I had been cautious, wondering whether I was acting too hastily. After being threatened by the Criminal Judge, I thought differently.

The instincts and intuition honed by surviving countless brushes with death told me this.

If I was taken by the authorities without even making this decisive move, I would never have another chance.

I had done nothing, yet the situation had suddenly become as perilous as standing on a blade’s edge.

Jo Gyeongjik said I had cleared myself of suspicion, but with the authorities involved, my future could no longer be guaranteed.

I had seen and heard too much to take him at his word and do nothing.

No matter how much the escort agency claimed that the unidentified master who raided the Black Night Gang was the murderer, if the authorities needed results, they would need a culprit.

When strong winds blew, shallow-rooted trees were uprooted first. When a stone rolled in, it was the first to be kicked.

The authorities needed a culprit, and if the pavilion master joined in, even the escort agency master would seek a compromise at a suitable point.

Who would be the ideal person to take the blame for the escort agency?

The other escorts, who had worked there for a long time, would burden the escort agency as well.

If a new recruit had caused the trouble, it would reduce the escort agency’s responsibility to some extent.

That new recruit had been the first to approach the body and confirm the death. If they silenced the servant girl, turning that person into a murderer would not be impossible.

The chief head escort was a calculating person, capable of linking the unidentified assailant who had ambushed the Black Night Gang with Bang Join’s death.

The chief head escort seemed to think well of me, but had no personal friendship with me or debt to repay me.

For the escort agency’s safety, they would hand me over to the authorities without hesitation.

They would say there was no personal grudge, that they were sorry it had come to this, that they hoped I would understand, or perhaps that they did not expect me to understand...

While spouting that useless bullshit.

I had been betrayed like that twice before.

I was told it was over, but when I went there, swordsmen were waiting.

If it bothered me not knowing what might be happening beneath the surface and how it might come down on me, I needed at least one place to rely on in the worst-case scenario.

I did not need to reveal every one of my suspicions exactly as they were.

I had a rough idea whom the Maek Jade belonged to.

It had been treasured enough to be repaired with expensive gold rather than thrown away when it broke. Its owner would surely be desperately searching for it.

Would that not be enough to make a deal with the pavilion master?

When I knocked on the detached residence’s door, the same pale guard appeared.

“What is it?”

“I found something on my way back after visiting yesterday. I came because I wondered whether the pavilion master might have lost it.”

Perhaps recognizing what I held out, the guard’s eyes twitched. They studied me silently with an unreadable expression, then accepted the Maek Jade and closed the door.

A short while later, the door opened again. The guard stepped aside and gestured.

“Come in.”

It seemed my decisive move had worked.

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