WeTried Translations

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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 37: Choi Family Manor

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Several carriages stopped before the main gate of Choi Estate.

Dozens of Hao clan members piled out and drew their swords.

The gatekeepers had only been watching because they thought their master's party had returned from Seochon. They fled toward the mountains in terror.

A Hao clan member vaulted over the wall and threw open the gates.

Only servants and maids remained in the estate.

Thinking a band of thieves had stormed in, the trembling servants begged for their lives. Through them, we confirmed that none of the remaining guards were there.

Choi Sadeuk's wife and children were gone as well. Apparently, he had sent them to her family home several days ago.

“Search every corner and bring everything out.”

“Yes!”

The Hao clan members split into groups and scattered through the many buildings of the sprawling estate.

“Are you looking for evidence of salt smuggling and human trafficking?”

“We have enough evidence already. It was our clan that told the leader of the Black Night Gang who Choi Sadeuk really is.”

For a moment, I was speechless at the sheer absurdity of it.

“...The Hao clan joined hands with the Black Night Gang?”

“We're just using each other. For the moment.”

It truly was the martial world, where schemes and underhanded dealings ran rampant.

This was not simply looting an empty house.

If the Hao clan had planned this together with them, the Black Night Gang would already know that the Blood History Gang and the Heaven-Breaking Sect were coming.

The outcome of the fight was obvious.

The Blood History Gang and the Heaven-Breaking Sect would suffer a crushing defeat, while Choi Sadeuk would lose everything.

“If you have evidence, it would have been much easier to hand Choi Sadeuk over to the authorities.”

There was no need to seek the help of the Prefectural Magistrate or County Magistrate. No official would turn down the merit of arresting a salt smuggler and human trafficker.

Yehyang shook her head resolutely.

“We can't leave revenge in someone else's hands. We'll handle this ourselves, by the martial world's methods. Let's go inside too.”

There were more buildings to search than one or two, a testament to how much money he had made.

I climbed the steps onto the veranda and slid open the door to the family head's hall, which the Hao clan members had not entered yet.

Yehyang headed for the inner chamber along the corridor, while I went to the study.

The doors, covered in high-quality paper, stood open on both sides. They must have left in a hurry.

I stopped as I stepped inside.

It was a complete mess.

Books from the shelves lay scattered across the floor, and every drawer had been pulled out.

Behind a fallen folding screen, even the door to the hidden safe in the wall had been half torn off. I looked inside just in case, but it was empty.

Had one of the servants become greedy and run away with the valuables?

It was a plausible guess, but one familiar face came to mind.

Hoyeongeom.

Despite not being paid for the robbery, he had withdrawn without a single complaint.

I had thought he was plotting something. It seemed he had waited until Choi Estate was empty, then climbed over the wall.

No, he probably had not even left Choi Estate. He must have hidden somewhere in a storage building or pavilion, then crawled out after everyone had gone.

With everyone distracted by the confrontation with the Black Night Gang, it would not have been difficult.

For someone who called himself an orthodox martial artist, he had truly sunk as low as he could go.

Murder and robbery by day, burglary by night.

How had a major criminal better suited to the Black Path earned such an undeserved alias as Hoyeongeom, a sword imbued with righteous spirit?

It was not as though I was in any position to criticize, but at least I did not have a hypocritical alias like that attached to my name.

Yehyang entered the study.

“Did you find anything?”

“I wasn't the one who searched this. Someone came before us.”

“What? Who...?”

“Do you remember the middle-aged martial artist we saw in the inner quarters earlier?”

“You mean Hero Hoyeongeom?”

“You know him?”

“He's visited Simhyang Pavilion a few times and made requests of the Hao clan. I only saw his face briefly then.”

“I think this was Hoyeongeom's doing. He was quiet earlier because he planned to loot the empty house.”

“If it's Hero Hoyeongeom... he certainly could have done that.”

Yehyang agreed far too readily, enough to surprise me.

“What kind of person is Hoyeongeom?”

“I heard he used to be a successful rising junior talent. After his sect fell apart, he traveled the martial world, living by performing Chivalrous deeds.”

What Chivalrous deeds? More like murder-and-robbery deeds.

I almost revealed that it was Hoyeongeom who ambushed the carriage during the day, slaughtered everyone, and stole whatever cultivation method it was, but stopped myself.

There was no clear evidence. I was only instinctively certain from the sharp smell of blood, his build, and the circumstances.

If I spoke carelessly now, it might cause needless trouble if I encountered Hoyeongeom later.

“There were young ladies traveling with him.”

“They're probably his junior sisters.”

Should I call that close fellowship among fellow disciples, or say their sect had bad foundations...?

After searching all the other rooms, we went outside. A young Hao clan member came running from behind an annex.

“We found it! It's in the annex!”

* * *

The stairs leading underground opened into a broad space about the size of three rooms.

A stale, foul stench filled the thick darkness.

When I held up a torch, large chests stacked to one side emerged from the darkness.

I moved the light to the other side, and something twitched inside a barred prison cell. Before I could stop her, Yehyang strode toward it.

Standing before the bars, Yehyang's breathing grew rough. I stood beside her and shone the torch inside.

Emaciated little girls amid filth stared blankly up at the adults with hollow eyes like ashes after a fire.

Even after reviving his family and laundering his business, it appeared Choi Sadeuk had not completely washed his hands of it.

Or perhaps he had abducted the children for personal use.

Yehyang yanked hard on the door. It did not budge. After seeing the chains wrapped around it and the lock, she drew her sword.

“Wait. Your sword won't do any good. You'll only ruin the blade.”

Looking around, I found something suitable.

Among the weapons on the wall, whose purpose I did not want to imagine, I found a hammer and picked it up.

I smashed the lock in one blow and opened the door.

The children shrank back into the corner. The children taken from here had probably never returned, so it was only natural that they were afraid.

Yehyang could not easily step into the prison cell, filled with such deep despair. It did not seem to be because of the smell, which stung my nose badly enough to give me a headache.

“...Please give me the water container. Tell the kitchen to make porridge.”

There were Hao clan members here, yet she had asked me. It seemed she wanted me to give her some space.

I handed her the water container without argument and turned away. The Hao clan members opened the chests and checked their contents. Palm-sized silver ingots gleamed blood-red in the torchlight.

I went back aboveground. The night air cleared away the stench, but the dark clouds hanging over my heart only grew heavier.

I took the oldest maid to the kitchen and had her prepare porridge.

“There were children imprisoned underground. Do you know anything about it?”

The maid stirred the porridge with her head lowered, trembling all the while.

“...We don't know what our master does.”

Even if they did know, what could they have done? There was no point pressing them.

Before the porridge had even finished cooking, Yehyang came out with the children.

They were thin as burnt wood. It was so miserable that it was hard to hope fresh shoots would one day grow from every branch, bloom into flowers, and bear fruit of their own.

I did not know how she had comforted them, but the children clung tightly to Yehyang's clothes as they walked. One small child, too weak even to move, lay limply in Yehyang's arms.

They had only met today, yet there was something strangely similar in their eyes and bearing.

As though Yehyang herself had been trapped in that prison cell with them for a long time.

A senior Hao clan member took the servants underground and had them bring out the chests of silver ingots, loading them onto the carriages.

They were heavy enough that even three grown men strained to lift them.

Every valuable possession in Choi Estate, except grain such as rice and mixed cereals, was loaded into the baggage compartments. Silver, scroll paintings, porcelain, even swords and sabers.

Once the work was done, all the servants and maids were locked in a storage building.

I thought that was the end, but Yehyang placed a chair before the main residence and sat down.

“There is still one thing we have to take.”

It was not hard to guess.

“Choi Sadeuk's head?”

Yehyang nodded and spoon-fed porridge to the child in her arms.

It was midsummer, but without the sun, the mountain wind at night was rather cold.

Not knowing when Choi Sadeuk and the remnants of the Blood History Gang might return, everyone lit braziers around the courtyard, rested, and kept watch.

The rescued children did not want to go inside either. They all fussed and stayed close to the Hao clan members.

They seemed to instinctively understand that they would be safe only if they stayed with the people here.

The Hao clan members, their expressions troubled, served porridge into bowls and fed the children.

No one asked how children at an age when they should have been playing at home and receiving affection had been abducted and brought here.

The situation was not over yet. It was too early to lower our guard and lose ourselves in sentiment.

After seeing to the children's food, the adults filled their stomachs with food brought from the kitchen as well.

Neigh! Snort!

Perhaps they smelled the food. The horses tied to the carriages whinnied and snorted.

The Hao clan members acting as drivers hurried over and led the horses and carriages inside the estate. They unharnessed the horses and gave them water and hay.

The children, full from eating, began nodding off by the fire. We carried them into rooms one by one and covered them with blankets.

People and horses alike ate and rested in the ownerless estate, living quite comfortably.

Meanwhile, the estate's true owner was probably caught in the trap laid by the Black Night Gang, struggling amid hellish chaos.

Perhaps he had already become a companion on the road to the underworld alongside the Blood History Gang and Heaven-Breaking Sect.

Swords and sabers have no eyes, and on a dark night like this, it is difficult to distinguish friend from foe.

When screams ring out and blood starts spraying in such dim conditions that nothing can be seen properly, human instinct makes people swing their swords first and think later.

When people are worked into a frenzy and stab at anything they see, they sometimes end up attacking their own side.

I had been caught in such melees several times myself, barely surviving. They were fucked-up, dog-eat-dog brawls so chaotic that I did not know whom I had stabbed or where I had been stabbed.

Summer nights were short, but the night spent at Choi Estate felt longer than the depths of winter.

By the time the last embers in the braziers lost their warmth, the sky had turned a hazy gray. Mountain birds noisily welcomed the morning.

“They're coming.”

A Hao clan member on watch looked beyond the gate, then returned to wake the others. Everyone rose quietly and loosened up.

The rattling of carriages grew louder, then stopped before the main gate.

A dull thud as something tumbled to the ground. A strained groan followed.

Someone coughed painfully as they pushed open the gate and entered.

It was Choi Sadeuk.

Had he escaped disaster by following the Blood History Gang from a slight distance?

Or perhaps the Hao clan had arranged in advance with the Black Night Gang not to kill Choi Sadeuk.

Even if he had narrowly survived, the only place Choi Sadeuk could return to was Choi Estate.

Over a single night, Choi Sadeuk looked like a beggar. His expensive silk clothing was torn in places, and blood stained his face.

There was no trace of the influential local figure, the family hero who had restored the fallen Choi family.

The ambition and confidence with which he had boldly declared he would take Jeok Chuyeong's head had ended as hollowly as a drunkard's boast.

All that remained was a shabby appearance and helpless defeat.

Perhaps because he was so exhausted and had relaxed upon returning home, Choi Sadeuk did not even notice the dozens of martial artists standing before him with swords drawn.

Only after taking several steps and absentmindedly raising his head did he start in shock, his eyes widening.

The guard entering behind him noticed the situation, backed away, then fled outright.

Five Hao clan members climbed the ladder propped against the wall and pursued them over it.

The sound of weapons clashing rang out, followed by a dying scream as the guard's life ended.

Choi Sadeuk swallowed dryly and slowly backed away. Then he saw Yehyang and me, blinking at us with vacant eyes.

His gaze held more confusion than fear.

He seemed to understand that the unidentified martial artists were Hao clan members, but could not comprehend why they were here.

As his stiff mind gradually began to work, Choi Sadeuk's face twisted viciously. Killing intent filled his bloodshot eyes.

Gripping the Wind-Splitting Saber, which had no scabbard, Choi Sadeuk ground his teeth.

“You fucking bastards dare set me up?”

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