WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: HidingTurtle
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◈ Raised by a Ruthless Swordsman ◈
Chapter 44: A Plan in Mind
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When I opened my eyes, pale dawn light filled the paper window.
Just as I tried to rise, thinking morning had come, every bone in my body screamed.
Whenever I moved, there was not a spot from my shoulders to my waist that did not ache.
After all, I had swung my sword without rest for more than half a day yesterday.
As I endured the pain and tried to get up, my head began to throb as well, perhaps because of all the wine I had drunk.
That damned wine.
The thought of Wi Jin-ak yesterday made me shudder. I had never seen such a tremendous drinker.
While I had barely sipped a mouthful, he had emptied cup after cup without so much as a change in expression. Whenever a bottle grew light, he would emerge from his room carrying a fresh one.
Had he buried wine jars in that room? The wine kept flowing well into the night. Who would have thought such a wine fiend hid behind that placid face?
Fortunately, I was not so bad that I could not get up. After pressing my temples a few times, I could bear it well enough.
Lying here would only make me feel worse. I got up, belted on my sword, and dragged my stiff body into the courtyard.
The dawn air brushed coolly against my skin. First, I loosened my stiff body. I slowly stretched my limbs, turned my waist, and swung my knotted shoulders a few times.
Crack. My joints popped as though whatever had been locked within them was coming loose.
As I finished warming up, the door opened and Wi Jin-ak walked out.
Even after pouring that much wine down his throat last night, his complexion was as clear as well water. His steps were straight, and he had brought his sabre, so it seemed he had come out to limber up as well.
“You’re up.”
“You’re up early too.”
Wi Jin-ak lightly tapped his shoulder with the hilt of his sabre and asked as though in greeting.
“How about a few moves?”
Was wine medicine to that man? I could not help but laugh at the sight of him looking so perfectly fine.
I dearly wanted to exchange a few moves. I was itching to test the Four Ounces Deflect a Thousand Pounds principle I had grasped yesterday.
But if I received Brother Wi’s heavy sabre in this condition, something would break before we had even exchanged a single blow.
“I’ll have to decline for now. My body simply won’t listen to me.”
Wi Jin-ak snorted with laughter and nodded. Only then did I realize he had been joking.
Leaving Wi Jin-ak behind as he came down and began to warm up, I left the separate residence.
I reached the lakeshore that curved around Mist and Sunset Pavilion and ran slowly along the waterway.
My legs had felt heavy at first, but they gradually loosened with every step. As the cold dawn air cleansed my lungs on each breath in and stale energy left with every breath out, the throbbing in my head cleared a little as well.
I lightly kicked off the ground as I sorted through my thoughts.
What the Alliance wanted was not to hand Nangong over to the authorities, but to quietly recover the tea that had been diverted before word of it reached the imperial court.
That was as far as I had gotten yesterday.
But if that was so, what did Haomun want by joining this affair?
They were said to be merchants who bought and sold information. They were not a great clan bound by blood, nor did they seem to be the sort to stake their lives beneath a single banner. Why would people like that involve themselves so deeply in something that earned them no payment?
Yet when I thought it over, it was not as though nothing came to mind.
Their capital was not silver ingots, but knowing what others did not and holding what others could not easily touch.
Was the tea brick I had salvaged and handed over not precisely such a thing? It was a thread that could bind Nangong, shake the Alliance’s standing, and, if handled poorly, reach even the imperial court.
If they could hold that thread and quietly settle the matter in exchange for putting the Alliance in their debt, then that debt would be worth more than carts full of silver ingots. The Alliance bound together the Nine Sects and One Gang, after all.
But that was only conjecture. I could not set my course by a guess, so I had no choice but to ask Chae Wol again.
I needed to know clearly what they had their sights set on before I could judge how far I should walk alongside them and where I should let go.
But sitting still and calculating would not make an answer fall into my lap.
The same was true of my family.
Even if someone returned to the village, it would be different for a stranger to ask questions than for someone born and raised in the same village. Rather than wait for word with no promise of when it might come, I needed to go there and ask myself.
Besides, if it was Yeongpa, was that not both the place my scattered family would return to and the destination the protection convoy had been heading for from the beginning?
It had been the place I needed to go from the start.
Once my thoughts were untangled, the scenery around me finally came into view.
The sun had just risen beyond the city walls behind me. Dawn mist lay thick over the lake, erasing the boundary between water and sky.
Even after running along the shore for a long while, I could see no end to it. West Lake truly was vast.
Just as I thought it was time to turn back, I saw a pagoda piercing the fog atop a low mountainside across the water.
It was not by the water, but on the mountain’s summit. High above, a many-storied structure stood with its levels stacked one atop another. Eaves extended outward from every floor, their corners curving gracefully toward the sky.
Its base was hidden in the mist, while only its upper portion caught the rising sun and glowed faintly red.
As I looked at it, it seemed as though someone had piled it up in a determined attempt to reach the heavens.
As I let out an admiring exclamation, a breeze carried a faint metallic jingle from somewhere.
After taking in that towering sight one last time, I turned around.
* * *
When I returned to the separate residence, the courtyard was already bustling.
Women drawing water, children sweeping, and men wearing swords making their rounds. Everyone seemed busy with their own work, as though driving the dawn out from within the walls.
As I passed them and entered the side building, I saw that Wi Jin-ak had already gone somewhere.
I went to the well in one corner of the courtyard and drew up a bucket. When I splashed the cold water over my face with both hands, a chill rose on my skin. After wiping down to the back of my neck, I finally felt refreshed.
I tied up my disheveled hair, straightened my clothes, and headed directly for the main hall.
It was still early, so Chae Wol would likely be inside. Yet as I approached, Wi Jin-ak unexpectedly came walking out.
“Brother Wi? What are you doing here?”
“Drinking a cup of tea with the branch chief every morning is part of my routine.”
Wi Jin-ak answered as though it were nothing and gave a slight shrug.
So he shared tea with Chae Wol every morning. I briefly wondered what relationship the two had, but I too was staying under this roof and crossing swords with Wi Jin-ak every day.
Such things were surely common between people who had lived beneath the same roof for a long time.
“But what brings you here so early?”
I hesitated for a moment, but there was no reason to hide it.
“I came to see the branch chief. I thought it only proper to say something before leaving for Yeongpa.”
Wi Jin-ak’s eyes seemed to widen slightly, but they soon returned to normal. Then he gave me a quick once-over.
“You look like your body has loosened up.”
He lightly raised the hilt of his sabre.
“Why not have a few moves before you go?”
Even if he did not show it, he would feel disappointed. I would feel the same if someone I had crossed swords with for days suddenly left.
Knowing what he meant, I smiled as well.
“Let’s do that.”
Wi Jin-ak grinned and tilted his chin toward the main hall.
“She’s inside. Go on.”
I gave him a light nod and approached after passing him.
The gazes of the two men standing guard turned toward me.
“I came to see the branch chief.”
One of the men studied me briefly, then gave his companion a short glance. The other man entered without a word.
I waited while facing the remaining man. Before long, there was movement within, and Chae Ryeon came out as before.
“Young Master, welcome. The branch chief is waiting inside.”
She bowed gracefully, then led the way. I followed her up the stairs.
A familiar corridor greeted me. I had walked this path behind this girl once a few days ago, and today I was following her again.
After the corridor turned once, it opened into a broad hall.
The lattice doors facing the inner courtyard had all been thrown open, and the morning sunlight stretched long across the wooden floor.
Chae Wol sat at one side of that sunlit floor.
“What brings you here so early, Young Hero Jin?”
Chae Wol watched me quietly over the rim of her cup. Her faint smile and eyes that revealed nothing were exactly as they had been on the night I first came here. Yet for some reason, she looked different today.
She invited me to sit, so I took a seat across the table from her. Chae Ryeon came over, filled a fresh cup, and set it before me.
“To be honest, I intend to leave for Yeongpa.”
There was no reason to circle around it, so I came straight to the point.
“I thought it would not be proper to leave without a word after receiving your hospitality, so I came to bid you farewell.”
For a moment, the sound of tea pouring into a cup stopped, then soon resumed with a soft trickle. What expression was Chae Ryeon wearing now? I briefly wanted to look, but I stopped myself. I was about to leave.
Chae Wol did not answer immediately. She set down the cup in her hand. The sound of its base touching the table rang clearly through the quiet hall.
Then she examined me in silence. From my face to my hands, from my hands to the sword at my waist. Her gaze was slow and thorough enough to make me feel like an object laid before a merchant.
After looking me over once, her gaze shifted briefly to Chae Ryeon at her side, then returned to me.
For a moment, she lowered her eyes as though choosing her words. Steam rose from the cooling cup and drifted thinly through that brief silence.
“How could I not understand how you feel, Young Hero Jin?”
Chae Wol raised her eyes again. The smile on her lips remained, but its edges seemed somehow heavy.
“But if I am being honest, I cannot put my mind at ease.”
At the end of her words, the fingers caressing her cup came to a stop. Her polished nail had brushed its surface once and then gone still.
Was she reluctant to let go of the card she held?
I waited for her to continue.
“Have you forgotten? You were the one who personally salvaged and brought over that tea brick. You are the very person Nangong is searching for with gritted teeth.”
It was nothing new. I had already accounted for the possibility that Nangong’s shadow hung over Yeongpa.
But Chae Wol had no reason not to know that, and yet she was deliberately bringing up the obvious. What lay behind her words did not seem to be concern for me alone.
I studied her expression as I replied.
“I appreciate your concern. But I cannot abandon the road I must travel simply because I fear Nangong.”
“Of course you cannot.”
Chae Wol smiled faintly. She did not seem to be trying to stop me. Still, there was a brief pause at the end of that smile.
“Then how about this?”
Chae Wol set down her cup and turned her gaze toward Chae Ryeon, who stood beside her.
“Take Ryeon with you.”
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