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Chapter 124: I'll Tell the Story of Baekbaekgyo's Downfall (2)

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Unlike in Han San's previous life, the death of Jeon Yong-hae, Baekbaekgyo[1]'s leader, which had occurred three years earlier, caused no ripples in the world.

"Jeon Yong-hae is dead!"

"Who?"

"Baekbaekgyo's leader!"

"What's Baekbaekgyo?"

"You know, those people who went around wearing white! They were in the newspapers a few times!"

"Oh. The ones who killed a few people in some backwater called Hongcheon or whatever? Their boss died. So?"

"No, I'm just saying he's dead."

"Well, he's dead."

That was all.

The cult leader who should have been the most notorious figure on the peninsula under the Japanese Empire, the evil spirit who remained an object of fear even after death, with people asking, [Is he really dead?], [Didn't he fake his death and disappear?], and [Ah, that face! That corpse's face, so mutilated it can't be recognized!], simply faded away.

Just like one of the people without household registers Baekbaekgyo had killed.

A few people still mentioned him, but even they gave him no more attention than Mr. Choi, the fish-shop owner and one of Baekbaekgyo's civilian victims.

That was only how the public saw it.

On another level, Jeon Yong-hae's death was setting off a massive upheaval.

As if they had all caught a plague, every last Baekbaekgyo remnant had become exceptionally [wise]!

[ Q. While the organization is in chaos, the second-in-command removes the first-in-command. Choose the wisest course of action for those ranked third and below. ]

[ 1. The order of succession is sacred. Pledge loyalty to the second-in-command who removed the first. ]

[ 2. Screw that! The first is dead, and the second is a bastard usurper with no legitimacy! First come, first served! ]

Before a day had even passed.

Every branch of Baekbaekgyo had launched into a struggle against the others.

"The Great Magistrate's spirit has passed into me!"

Yi Gyeong-deuk's faction, after he murdered Jeon Yong-hae and barely escaped with his life.

"That bastard Yi Gyeong-deuk keeps getting ahead of himself. Hey! When we caught Great Dharma Master Gwanghyeon together, we were on the same level! Let me have some too, you bastard!"

Kim Seo-jin's faction. Kim Seo-jin was Baekbaekgyo's resident career failure, having endured every hardship yet never been given a chance at real power beyond the empty honorary title of elder.

"We Thunderbolt Masters shall remain absolutely neutral and observe until a proper successor rises. That said, from the perspective of this chief seat maintaining absolute neutrality, hmm, it seems that I, the chief of the Thunderbolt Masters, may be the true candidate for the Great Magistrate."

Kim Gun-ok's faction, led by Kim Gun-ok, the commander who oversaw the Thunderbolt Masters, the cult's enforcement force.

"To speak plainly, I was Baekbaekgyo's Great Magistrate from the very beginning!"

Cha Byeong-gan's faction. Cha Byeong-gan really was Baekbaekgyo's first leader, at least on paper.

"The Great Magistrate's will has been found! According to it, he leaves all of the cult's rightful lineage to me!"

Park Dal-jun's faction. Park Dal-jun, one of the cult's few literate people, waved around a sheet of paper whose ink had barely dried.

"How dare you fabricate a will while leaving out this Seon-nyeo, Jeon Seon-nyeo? Father! Father, you agree, do you not?

Oh! Did you hear that!? This Seon-nyeo heard Father's precious voice loud and clear!"

The faction led by Jeon Seon-nyeo, Jeon Yong-hae's daughter, which had scraped together the entire Jeon family down to relatives twice removed through marriage.

"Before the Great Magistrate entered nirvana, he passed Maitreya's lineage to me. The Baekbaek Era has ended, and the Dragon Flower World shall open. He asked me, Jin Gonghyeonmu Maitreya Venerable Master, the Dragon Flower True Man, to take charge of the next age."

Even an outsider named Seo Baek-il, who had heard the rumors and come up from Gurye, joined in.

The Great Great Great Magistrate Era was off to one hell of an opening.

Yesterday's do-yusa[2] was reduced to a demon today, while today's heretic became tomorrow's orthodoxy. In that kaleidoscopic chaos, they tore at one another with such gusto that the Jeon family's statecraft, honed since Baedogyo's founding, could be said to have fully blossomed.

To make matters worse.

"Ahem! There you are, Mr. Yi Gyeong-deuk!

Shall we have a little talk, just the two of us?"

"Aaah! The Empire's Silver Fox!

You lot! Stop them! I... Ah, right! Closed-door cultivation! I shall leave first and enter closed-door cultivation to gather the Great Magistrate's power..."

"Kazuo! Please take care of the small fry!"

"Understood. Let's go, Kim Gang-cheol."

"Yes, sir!!!!"

Once the Empire's security forces went into indiscriminate beatdown mode, Baekbaekgyo was driven to the brink of collapse in an instant.

Meanwhile.

Han San, the cause of every butterfly effect that had sent Baekbaekgyo off course from its original history, paid no more attention than necessary to all the chaos unfolding above and behind him.

He had something a hundred times more important to deal with.

That thing was...

"All right! We're a little late, but you all worked incredibly hard last year!

Let's do well this year too!"

Returning to Middle Hamlet, his own domain, and holding a belated Lunar New Year festival!

"Eat as much as you want! If you need anything, just tell us!"

Han's Myriad Commerce had skipped the Lunar New Year while doing business, and now it had come to repay that overdue holiday with interest.

Most of Han's Myriad Commerce's rank-and-file employees were from Sebeom Valley. They had returned to their hometown in a crowd after a long time and sat together.

"They say this vacation of ours is nearly a whole week?"

"Do people usually get this much time off?"

"Who knows? It's not like we've ever had jobs like this before..."

"We worked all winter, had just one day off on January first, then worked ourselves half to death without even being able to come back for Lunar New Year. I suppose we do deserve a break..."

As such talk passed between the employees, one member of the Husband Youth Corps came rushing over.

"No, that's not it! Whether it's factories or stores run by Japanese people, there isn't a single place that takes this much time off!"

"Really?"

"Really! That's why the leader of those Reds they caught this time, whatever it was, Troika, has gained such a following. Like Im Kkeok-jeong."

"Ah! So this long vacation is another blessing from the sajang?"

"You again... Sajang..."

After that, it was the same old chorus.

"I knew it from the start! Our sajang surpassed being a young enlightened ruler long ago. He's a young sage-king who brings a peaceful world!"

"Me too! I knew it too!"

"The song of a peaceful world echoes through Sebeom Valley...!!"

While the Middle Hamlet friends' hymn of praise covered Sebeom Valley, the kitchen at the House of the Taste Magistrate bustled with activity.

"The dakgalbi is ready!"

"More chicken! This soy sauce chicken is so good!"

"That tangsuyuk San mentioned is ready too! The sauce is nicely sweet and sour!"

Having earned several times more than they had during Hangawi, the House of the Taste Magistrate's feast had grown by just as much.

Golden Pollock soup bubbled away in huge cauldrons, empty plates were refilled the moment the fried chicken ran out, wooden boards piled with pounded glutinous-rice cakes[3] went around, and there was everything from makgeolli and soju to precious beer.

As children ran about laughing with red sauce and grease smeared around their mouths, the adults tucked thick bonus envelopes into their clothes and beamed.

Among them, Ham Byeong-cheol, memorable for his buck teeth, tore into chicken and drank beer. He had grown so thin that the lines of his nose and chin stood out like a slide.

"Ahh... I'm crying...!"

The pain of labor he had suffered while being ground down at the drying racks, along with the cold fizz of beer that made him forget it all, blended together. He truly felt reborn.

"I thought money was everything, but only now, having learned it through my own body, do I finally understand how important the balance between money and rest is..."

Ham Ssang-sim, the Madam Grand Sajang of the House of the Taste Magistrate, patted Ham Byeong-cheol's shoulder twice.

"That's right! Didn't I say money isn't everything in life, Byeong-cheol?"

"Auntie! Sob!"

"But don't people need to work to make money in life? This pollock season seems a little long, so we need to work hard until it's over. As soon as vacation ends, bring everyone from my side of the family to the second drying racks and assemble in five columns!"

"Wha, what...! No... No...!!"

Ham Byeong-cheol trembled and shook his head wildly. If he had been some small, white creature resembling a hamster, he might have looked tiny and cute.

Of course, Ham Byeong-cheol was no such thing, so he only looked scruffy and unpleasant.

In any case.

While a worker at the bottom of society sank into despair, the holiday festival programs that had proved so effective during Hangawi began.

"Chuk Hyeong-don, Chuk Jun-ha, Chuk Myeong-su! How many chickens can you dispatch within the allotted time!"

"Registrations are now open for the Second Sebeom Valley janggi[4] King Tournament!"

Naturally, like the holiday table, this was an expanded version with a little extra added on.

"There's a bingo drawing tonight! Everyone, come collect your bingo cards!"

"Treasure hunt! Only children ten and under may participate!"

One thing in particular caught everyone's eye.

"Huh? What's that?"

"A wooden frame box?"

Just as they said.

A wooden frame stood in the middle of the Han family's yard. Brightly colored pictures had been drawn inside it.

A man with eyes as narrow as threads waved a fan and called out.

"Come one, come all!

This benshi Myo[5] shall now guide you into the world of a story!"

His fan snapped shut.

"The very story whose first printing sold out in Busan within fifteen days, author Kim Yu-jeong[6]'s [The Camellia Heavenly Demon]!"

Flap, a sheet of paper turned.

Drawn in ink was a raggedly dressed boy clutching his head as he was chased, a large man tormenting the boy mercilessly, and a handsome young man seated atop a mountain peak, watching the scene below while suppressing his anger.

"[Today again, a disciple of our Mount Zhongnan Sect has been chased away...]"

The moment the benshi opened his mouth, the yard fell quiet.

His voice rose and fell, and every time Jeomsoon committed another wicked act against the protagonist, the indignant reactions of the crowd filled Sebeom Valley.

"What a vile wench!"

"Why's that guy such a pathetic sucker!"

Once the ahead-of-its-time paper-theater sensation of The Camellia Heavenly Demon, a one-source, multi-use project that even featured a benshi, came to an end, Han San smiled and patted Myo's shoulder.

"Wow, you're good, Benshi Myo. Just like I expected."

"You're too kind, Sajang!"

Myo took out a white handkerchief and wiped his cheek before bowing deeply.

"All right, keep your head down here for a while. You can do that, right?"

"Of course, Sajang!

You've even given me a place to shelter from the wind. I, Myo Gang, owe you a debt of gratitude for life!"

"Come on, what debt? You're useful, that's all. The information you brought when you signed on under me is useful too..."

As he spoke, Han San handed Myo Gang a book.

"Oh. This is called the [Han Family Code]. Read it carefully.

I heard you've had a rough time. At the very least, I don't go after my own people's necks. The enemy's necks, sure."

Myo Gang accepted the book with both hands and bowed even deeper. His hands trembled.

After all, when Myo Gang surrendered to Han San this time, he had also learned how the Misiryeong Pass bandits had been wiped out to the last man.

"Yes, sir! Loyal service!

Even if I cast aside my name and change my trade, how could my loyalty to you ever disappear? This shall be my motto from now on!"

"You don't need to go as far as loyalty. Let's just not cross each other's lines. We're both smart people.

Anyway, get some rest. Once things outside quiet down, I'll give you a chance to show what you can do. I may even put Chuncheon entirely in your hands..."

"Understood!"

As Baekbaekgyo collapsed in screaming turmoil, Han San picked up a rare cat from the wreckage, one who would someday run automated hunting in Chuncheon.

It truly was a case of Save the Cat.

[1] Baekbaekgyo was a Korean millenarian religious movement led by Jeon Yong-hae, notorious for a mass-murder case in colonial Korea.

[2] A do-yusa was an administrative title within Baekbaekgyo, here used for a senior cult official.

[3] Injeolmi is a chewy Korean rice cake made from pounded glutinous rice, commonly coated in bean powder.

[4] Janggi is Korean chess, a board game related to Chinese xiangqi.

[5] Benshi were Japanese live narrators who provided dialogue and commentary for silent films and picture-story performances.

[6] Kim Yu-jeong was a major Korean writer celebrated for his vernacular stories of rural life.

Footnotes:

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