WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Oblivious
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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈
Chapter 70: Prefectural Magistrate
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“The scent is lovely.”
Tang Johui frowned slightly after making the thoughtless remark.
She did not like it.
Once, they had been closer than anyone in the world. Yet now, they could barely exchange such formal words.
The aftertaste that seeped into the faint floral fragrance filling her mouth felt especially bitter.
She set down her teacup and looked up.
Du Jaryeom, seated across from her, kept his gaze somewhere on the table between them.
Only a table separated them, yet the distance felt immense.
The marks of time were clear on Du Jaryeom’s face after all the years they had not met.
His wrinkles had deepened, and there was more gray in his hair. The light in his deep-set eyes no longer burned as fiercely as before.
She, too, had aged and withered. Was that why he deliberately avoided her gaze?
Could he not bear to look at his former lover, now so diminished? Or was he afraid that disappointment might show in his eyes or expression without him realizing it...?
Tang Johui had always wanted to know many things.
How poisons and medicines worked to harm and save lives. What adults truly felt when they praised or scolded her.
Why Tang Clan women were used as a means to bring the talented men needed by the clan in as sons-in-law...
More than anything, she had wanted to know the heart of the man before her.
She had been desperate to know what he was thinking and what he truly felt.
The love of her youth had long since scattered, but perhaps the passion from back then remained as a habit.
After all, she still desperately wanted to know what Du Jaryeom was thinking when he would not meet her eyes.
“This is scented tea recently brought in from Fujian. I’m glad it suits your taste.”
Du Jaryeom’s exceedingly polite speech no longer sounded awkward to her.
Tang Johui felt relieved, yet one part of her chest ached strangely.
“...Is the escort agency master well?”
“He is unharmed. He has temporarily left the agency for an Escort Run.”
She remembered the day Flying Steel Sword Gam Hujeong had left Sichuan seven years ago.
Gam Hujeong had been a cautious and taciturn man.
His martial skill was exceptional among Mount Qingcheng Sect’s lay disciples, but his family had been poor, preventing him from fully realizing his ambitions.
Even after struggling to gather enough capital to establish an escort agency, the agency was gradually driven into decline by the hostility of established local powers.
Then, after losing his younger sibling in an accident during an Escort Run, he changed completely.
With a resolve and ruthlessness he had never shown before, he stubbornly built the escort agency up.
He was no ordinary man to have left Sichuan, settled in Seochon when it had been little better than a wasteland, and built the agency into what it was now.
“You know about the unfortunate incident within the Tang Clan, do you not?”
No matter how much the Tang Clan killed people to silence them and pressured others to keep quiet, they could not stop every rumor.
This was no minor scandal. It was a major incident involving the loss of Iron Armguard, one of Tang Clan’s Three Great Divine Treasures.
If there was any consolation, it was that they had thoroughly concealed the fact that Gentleman-Dissolving Powder and Immortal-Extinguishing Poison, both Inner-Power-Dispersing Poisons, had been leaked.
Du Jaryeom set down his teacup and spoke carefully.
“I heard about it through rumors while on the Sichuan Escort Run. I do not know whether it was resolved properly.”
“We confirmed that a Sichuan Black Market Merchant, the leading suspect, sent a carrier pigeon near Seochon. The escort agency uses carrier pigeons as well, does it not?”
Du Jaryeom straightened up and looked Tang Johui directly in the eyes. When their gazes met, neither spoke for a moment.
In the strange, awkward silence, Du Jaryeom shook his head as if drawing a line between them.
“...We do use them, but managing carrier pigeons is not easy. We use them only in limited circumstances, such as when an escort party is attacked or in an extreme emergency.”
“Is that so?”
Their conversation remained strictly businesslike.
They carefully skirted around old emotions that still had the potential to be dangerous.
Only after they had run out of tea to moisten their increasingly dry mouths did Tang Johui rise from her seat.
Hoo...
Her steps were heavy as she left the reception hall. She had not come expecting anything, yet the sense of loss was strong enough to leave one part of her heart empty.
The feelings that had once shone so brightly had faded. The promises she had believed would never change had been forgotten and left unresolved.
It was not merely because of the hardships of time.
Their ending had been too unpleasant for them to meet again with smiles.
A subordinate waiting nearby approached. Tang Johui composed her expression into one of coldness and turned toward them.
“Did you confirm it?”
“Yes. The Carrier Pigeon Office’s records show no correspondence from Sichuan. There were no signs of tampering, and we questioned the keeper, but we found nothing suspicious.”
So it was not Yongcheon Escort Agency...
Tang Johui looked back from beside the carriage.
Du Jaryeom was nowhere to be seen, though he might have come out to see her off.
It was bitter and disappointing, but appropriate conduct.
Sichuan was far from here, but rumors traveled far, and the eyes and ears of the subordinates accompanying her were connected to the Tang Clan.
Tang Johui swallowed her deep regret and climbed into the carriage.
The carriage slowly departed from the escort agency.
The fragrance of the scented tea she had just drunk lingered deep in her nose and would not fade. As she absentmindedly savored it, Tang Johui finally realized something.
Though it seemed insignificant, the tea perfectly suited her taste.
It seemed Du Jaryeom had not forgotten her preferences. He likely still vividly remembered how she had looked in the days when he had fallen in love with her at first sight.
Just as she remembered him.
It was not enough, but it would do.
One who held a small ember close to their heart would not forget the spring that had passed, even on a snowfield swept by a bitter northern blizzard...
The carriage left the escort agency and headed straight for Seochon’s town center along the main road.
Du Jaryeom silently watched the departing carriage through the reception hall window.
He immersed himself in the joys and sorrows of days gone by, but when his thoughts reached the future ahead, his expression hardened.
“I’m sorry, Johui...”
With a sigh, Du Jaryeom closed the window.
* * *
As early winter set in, the weather grew colder by the day.
If I fell asleep after lighting charcoal in the brazier, I would wake shivering at dawn and have to relight the extinguished brazier fire.
Even in the icy morning air after the sun had risen, I did not neglect my daily training.
In the mornings, I devoted myself to sword practice I did not enjoy.
I repeated the Jade Spring Sword Method around ten times, reviewing its forms and sword paths, then erased every form with the Immortal Radiance Evening Sword.
It was a somewhat strange method of training, like building a house from sand and tearing it down again, but it was certainly effective.
I could feel myself gradually grasping the meanings and limits of the forms and sword paths.
Around noon, I roughly satisfied my hunger with jerky and travel rations, then practiced the Heavenly Steel Saber Method until Gusam brought me a meal.
Swinging my long saber freely made my mind feel as open as though I had climbed a high mountain.
With the saber method as well, I repeatedly checked the forms and sequence of the First Eighteen Forms, then erased them all with the ambiguous movements of the Latter Eighteen Forms.
It took one pill to replenish the internal energy I had expended in the Black Night Gang.
Only four pills remained.
The very sight of them made my blood run dry, but there was no need to be anxious.
Once the medicinal preparation of the Gaho Water Lotus Herb was complete, I would be able to fill the empty wooden case with new pills.
Though the weather was cold, I had sweated considerably, so after each day’s training, I boiled water and washed despite the inconvenience.
When I slept, I wore my martial clothes and kept my long saber beneath my pillow.
I had a feeling that the monk tending to Jeok Chuyeong’s Hidden Force would knock on my door in the middle of the night.
Even if the monk had pretended not to recognize me in the Black Night Gang because Bok Hagyu was watching, surely they would approach me at least once.
Yet the monk showed no sign of appearing.
Had they truly failed to recognize me? Or did they have other intentions?
Several days passed amid diligent training and strange waiting.
Instead of the monk I had been expecting, a servant from the Hao clan came to find me.
“The Pavilion Master requests your presence.”
Had the proceeds from the Martial Alliance Inspector’s identity plaque and seal, which I had entrusted to them before, finally come through?
I went there expectantly, but rather than Geuk Hwan, Pavilion Master Hong Hui personally received me.
The Pavilion Master managed not only Simhyang Pavilion but also the Hao clan’s branch, so she was always busy. She did not personally intervene unless the matter was significant.
After hearing her out, it was certainly no ordinary request.
“...The Prefectural Magistrate?”
The Pavilion Master mentioned a high official I had never imagined.
“I do not know whether you have seen them before.”
“I saw them once from a distance when I worked as a doorman.”
They were a gaunt older person, upright as an iron rod.
Their appearance was unimpressive, but they were the most powerful person in Zhongjing.
“This is a request directly from the Prefectural Magistrate.”
“What is it?”
“You are to guard them for one night.”
I narrowed my eyes and tilted my head. I could not understand it.
“Doesn’t the Prefectural Magistrate have martial officials as guards? They looked like quite an elite group.”
The Prefectural Magistrate’s guards I had seen before were clearly not weak martial artists.
They must have passed the military civil-service examination to obtain official posts, so their loyalty to their superior would be strong as well.
There was no reason to hire a wandering martial artist like me through the Hao clan.
“The martial officials belong to the military. Since they are not private guards, their movements are inevitably restricted. They are required to report through the chain of command, so keeping it secret where they went, whom they met, and what happened is virtually impossible... Does this request not appeal to you?”
I was at a loss for what to say.
The Pavilion Master was very favorable toward me because I had found her son’s Maek Jade.
There would be no trouble even if I spoke honestly.
“...I have never seen anything good come from getting involved with government officials.”
The Pavilion Master smiled leisurely, as though she understood what concerned me.
“The Hao clan does not deal in information solely with martial artists. Martial arts may interest only martial artists, but everyone in the world needs information...”
A merchant who learned through the Hao clan, before anyone else, that there had been flooding in Jiangnan bought large quantities of rice and cotton cloth, making enormous profits.
The same was true for a trading company that heard from the Hao clan that wokou raiders had invaded Zhejiang Province.
They predicted that a large army would be mobilized and bought horses, making a tremendous profit.
“High officials like the Prefectural Magistrate are no different. To survive in the imperial court, a place like a den of monsters, it is basic self-preservation to watch the movements of political enemies and find their weaknesses. The Prefectural Magistrate did not become Simhyang Pavilion’s patron simply because they favored me.”
It was a kind of mutually beneficial relationship, meaning that even the Prefectural Magistrate could not treat the Hao clan carelessly.
“I will not be going alone, right?”
“Great Hero Won has agreed, and we will secure additional people.”
“What is the payment?”
“Ten taels of silver. The date is two nights from now.”
* * *
Even on the cold winter night, Simhyang Pavilion was brightly lit and filled with cheerful music and drunken excitement.
After the Prefectural Magistrate arrived noisily in several large carriages in the early evening, security around the area became tight.
I shut myself in an annex, chewing jerky as I waited to be summoned.
Won Seogang was carving a statue of Maitreya Buddha from a block of wood.
He had carved before, but since avenging himself against Ban Hoyang, he seemed to devote himself to Maitreya Buddha even more.
“It seems certain that the two of us are going... Do you know who else will come?”
Carving Maitreya’s eyes, Won Seogang shook his head.
“I don’t know. There is nothing to worry about. This is the Prefectural Magistrate, after all. The Pavilion Master will have taken particular care.”
As evening turned to night, a servant informed us that it was time to prepare for departure.
When we went outside, Geuk Hwan appeared with someone dressed in black, wearing a bamboo rain hat pulled low. The black-clad person slightly lifted the brim.
Their older face was severe, and the stubborn light in their eyes was as cold as a judge’s.
“Are these the people going with us?”
“Yes. They are masters carefully selected by our clan, so you may entrust the matter to them.”
When our eyes met and I prepared to offer my respects, the Prefectural Magistrate quietly stopped me.
“That will not be necessary. Do your best for me tonight.”
A large carriage used by the Hao clan was waiting beside one side of the wall.
As we approached, someone walked out from behind it. It was the monk who was a guest retainer of the Hao clan and tended to Jeok Chuyeong’s Hidden Force.
Today, the monk wore monk’s robes instead of a long robe and conical hat.
The monk said nothing even after seeing me. Their expression was impassive, and their eyes were empty.
Their cold expression made it difficult to gauge not only their level, but even their intentions.
It had been the same when I saw them before. They wore monk’s robes, but the aura they gave off was unmistakably that of a martial artist.
The Prefectural Magistrate climbed into the carriage. After Geuk Hwan and Won Seogang, I boarded, followed by the monk.
The driver slowly urged the horses onward.
The carriage departed from before the annex, turned around the corner along the wall, passed the main building surrounded by martial officials, and left Simhyang Pavilion.
It passed through the busy district and headed straight out of Seochon.
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