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Chapter: 10
“I’m back.”
As Jin Cheong-un pushed open the door and stepped inside, Jeong Soso flinched and quickly turned her head.
“Y-You’re back early.”
She avoided his gaze. When he looked closer, he noticed her eyes were slightly red. She quickly composed herself and spoke firmly.
“I’ve cleaned up most of it. We just need to deal with the larger debris…”
“Good. Let’s finish it together and get some rest.”
With an expression that practically screamed annoyance, Jin Cheong-un lazily began clearing away the wreckage.
As Jeong Soso quietly swept the floor, she suddenly spoke.
“What… should we do now?”
“About what?”
“The Black Tiger Gang has close ties with the local officials. Since we handed them over to the authorities, they’ll find out about today’s incident soon. I don’t think they’ll just let it go…”
Jin Cheong-un answered indifferently.
“It won’t make much difference whether they know or not.”
“Huh?”
“From what I’ve heard, they’ve already set their sights on the Jeong estate. In that case, no matter how today’s incident ended, things were never going to end peacefully.”
He casually tossed a large piece of broken wood over his shoulder.
“Whether we secretly buried everyone who came today without anyone finding out, or persuaded them to leave without fighting… it wouldn’t have mattered. They’ll probably keep causing trouble until they take this estate, even if every last debt is repaid.”
“…”
Jeong Soso bit her lip.
Then… no matter what they did, there was no escaping this.
If that’s the case…
She stared at Jin Cheong-un’s back as he squatted on the floor clearing the debris.
Then, keeping her voice as calm as possible, she said,
“Then… Uncle, you should leave Cherry Blossom Village immediately.”
Jin Cheong-un stopped what he was doing and turned around.
Jeong Soso continued quietly.
“What they’re after is the Jeong estate. If you leave, they won’t have any reason to come after you because of this.”
Silence filled the room.
Outside, the sun had already begun to set, and darkness slowly crept across the sky.
After looking at her silently for a moment, Jin Cheong-un casually remarked,
“So this is your way of driving the homeowner out?”
“…What?”
“Nice attempt. But it won’t work.”
“N-No! That’s not what I meant!”
“Either way, I’m not leaving. No, I can’t leave. Do you know how much money I poured into buying this estate? Do you know what kind of money that was?!”
Jeong Soso, momentarily dumbfounded, let out a long sigh.
“There have been a lot of terrible rumors about the Black Tiger Gang lately. No matter how important money is, it isn’t more important than your life.”
“Terrible rumors?”
She nodded with a complicated expression.
“They say gang members have made people disappear without a trace… kidnapped families to threaten them…”
“Hmm.”
“If this were before, I would’ve tried to settle things peacefully too. Despite being a criminal gang, the Black Tiger Gang usually handled matters reasonably. But even back then, they never showed mercy to anyone who crossed them… and now?”
Just then, Jin Cheong-un suddenly asked,
“What about you?”
“Huh?”
“If anyone’s running away, shouldn’t you and your brother leave first?”
“I… I have to protect this house. Unlike you, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Nowhere else to go…
He was in exactly the same situation.
“Why are you so attached to this estate?”
“Because… it’s the house I’ve lived in my entire life.”
“So?”
“…What?”
“People your age are supposed to hate being at home, run away whenever they feel like it, make some bad friends, get into trouble, maybe even get hauled off by the authorities once or twice before growing up. Tsk, tsk.”
…What kind of adulthood was that supposed to be?
As Jeong Soso stood there speechless, Jin Cheong-un casually continued,
“Well, I’m sure you’ve got your own reasons. Fine. I get it.”
“Then… please leave as soon as it gets light tomorrow. Don’t worry about what happens afterward.”
Jin Cheong-un tilted his head.
“I don’t remember saying I was leaving.”
“…You’re not leaving?”
“I said quit worrying about what comes next and help clean this up already. Seriously, why is there so much junk?”
His carefree attitude made Jeong Soso finally raise her voice.
“Uncle! I’m not joking! There’s no reason for you to keep helping us! If you stay here, you’ll end up caught in something terrible!”
That was when—
“Master.”
“…?”
“You should call me Master, not Uncle.”
A seriousness she’d never seen before emanated from Jin Cheong-un.
For a moment, Jeong Soso forgot how to speak.
“I… I never agreed to that.”
“I’ve decided.”
“W-What do you mean?”
“You don’t know this, but the Cheong-un Martial Hall has always done things this way.”
Jin Cheong-un grinned.
“It’s my first time being a master too, but even I know that once you become someone’s master, you don’t abandon your disciple. Leave the rest to the adults and stop worrying.”
Why?
Why did those words suddenly make her chest tighten?
Before she could hold it back, tears welled up in her eyes.
“But… you said you were injured… You said you finally managed to retire…”
Jin Cheong-un let out a deep sigh.
“I’m frustrated too. Really frustrated. Sometimes I wonder why I even retired. I finally escaped all that only to end up like this. What kind of retirement is this? I can’t even get any proper rest… Ah, heavens.”
After grumbling for a while, he looked at Jeong Soso and smiled.
“But since I’ve decided to become your master, what choice do I have? My disciple’s in trouble. Of course I’m going to help.”
Jeong Soso stared blankly at him.
At that moment, the smile she saw on his face was the gentlest one she had ever seen.
“…Um…”
Her nose suddenly stung, and she bit down hard on her lip.
She didn’t even know what to say anymore.
So she simply bowed deeply.
“I’m sorry.”
“…?”
“I wanted to say that first… but I ended up shouting instead… I mean…”
She stumbled over her words.
“I didn’t want to trouble you. But I dragged you into our family problems… You even said you’d restore the martial hall and heal my little brother… Yet instead of repaying someone who’s done so much for us, I just keep asking for more… So… what I’m trying to say is…”
She lowered her head again.
“I’m truly sorry. Someday, I promise I’ll repay this kindness.”
Jin Cheong-un quietly looked at the neatly parted crown of her head before chuckling.
“You’re just a little kid pretending to be an adult already. Kids shouldn’t say things like that.”
Jeong Soso blinked and looked up.
“A… a kid? I’m eighteen.”
“That’s still a kid.”
Speechless, she could only open and close her mouth.
Jin Cheong-un stretched with a long yawn and patted his lower back.
“When an adult helps you, all you have to do is say thank you. Got it? Now quit standing around and finish cleaning. At this rate we’ll be up all night.”
Jeong Soso’s eyes trembled.
Master…
No one had ever stepped forward for that reason before.
No…
She had never even expected anyone to.
Nothing in this world was free.
Help always came with a price.
Every act of kindness had calculations behind it.
And even if selfless kindness did exist, she believed it could only exist between blood relatives.
Yet even her own father had abandoned her.
From the moment she resolved to survive alone, she had repeated those words to herself over and over.
And yet…
“…Thank you.”
She bowed deeply once more.
“Thank you for helping me… Master.”
So there really were adults like this.
An adult willing to help someone with whom he barely had any connection…
Someone he’d only known for two days…
Someone who hadn’t even met him under good circumstances…
…Her master.
“Mm.”
Jin Cheong-un simply answered in his usual indifferent tone.
The center of Yichang County.
At the top floor of a luxurious multi-story pavilion, Black Tiger Gang Leader Yeop Ji-chang took a sip of wine before speaking.
“I suppose I should at least hear your excuse. Go on.”
The gang member kneeling before him lay flat against the floor, cold sweat pouring down his face.
“W-Well…”
After the man finished his stammering report, Yeop Ji-chang let out a dry laugh.
“A martial hall master?”
“Y-Yes! A man who looks to be around thirty. It seems that little girl from the Jeong family somehow brought in a martial artist from outside.”
“So some strange fool has wandered in.”
A man that age opening a martial hall in a tiny village…
He could already imagine what sort of person he was.
“So four of you were beaten by someone like that.”
The man flinched.
“T-There’s a reason for it!”
“A reason?”
“Didn’t you order us not to cause any disturbances, Gang Leader? Squad Leader Song tried to avoid fighting as much as possible, and that’s how it happened!”
Of course, Song Un-chan hadn’t been trying to avoid a fight at all.
He had simply lost his temper and gotten beaten.
But the man desperately needed an excuse and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“So you’re saying they ended up like that because they obeyed my orders.”
“Y-Yes!”
Yeop Ji-chang turned toward the man standing beside him.
“Chief Steward, perhaps my orders were the problem. How are the other districts?”
The Chief Steward bowed respectfully.
“Everything has been going smoothly except for one or two places.”
Only then did the kneeling man realize the mistake he’d made.
His face turned pale.
“G-Gang Leader…!”
Smash!
Without warning, the man’s head snapped violently backward.
Thud!
Blood pooled beneath the body as it collapsed.
No one had even seen when he threw it.
The only sound in the silent room was a bloodstained wine cup rolling across the floor.
The guards outside entered as though this were routine and dragged the corpse away.
“Shall I send word to the magistrate?”
The Chief Steward poured fresh wine into another cup.
“No need. It’s a waste of money to bail out a dead man.”
Draining the cup in one gulp, Yeop Ji-chang clicked his tongue.
“I never liked the people who were already living in this town. This is what happens when they’re handling the work.”
“Still, we’ve already replenished our numbers.”
Seeing the empty cup, the Chief Steward reached for the wine bottle again.
Yeop Ji-chang waved him away and filled his own cup instead.
“Come to think of it, that fool wasn’t entirely wrong.”
“…Sir?”
“Always worrying about laws… always worrying about appearances… These days I almost forget whether I’m running a righteous sect instead of the underworld. Don’t you think?”
The Chief Steward broke into a cold sweat.
Though Yeop Ji-chang sounded self-deprecating, anyone who knew his personality understood those words shouldn’t be taken at face value.
“…Thanks to your careful decisions, our gang has been able to establish itself here peacefully.”
Yeop Ji-chang snorted.
“You’ve got quite the way of dressing up ‘living like a coward in hiding.'”
“G-Gang Leader…”
“Haha. The great Yeop Ji-chang has become a toothless tiger. First the Janggeum Sect and the Youth Association started poking around… and now even some outsider dares to attack my men.”
The Chief Steward swallowed nervously.
It was true.
Ever since taking control of Yichang’s underworld, Yeop Ji-chang had deliberately kept a low profile.
Protection fees had been cut to half of what they once were.
Violence was avoided whenever possible.
Whenever they took action, they made sure they had a proper justification.
And whenever one of his subordinates caused trouble, he personally bowed his head before the local officials and influential families.
Considering what the Gang Leader used to be like… it’s amazing he endured this long.
Yeop Ji-chang had once been feared as a ruthless master.
Perhaps years of restraint had finally reached their limit.
“If you give the order… I’ll quickly eliminate every obstacle.”
Silence lingered.
Yeop Ji-chang rolled the wine cup across his palm for a long while before finally speaking.
“No. We’ve got something bigger coming.”
“…”
“The Martial Alliance has apparently finished cleaning up after the war and is starting to stick its nose into things again. We should avoid attracting unnecessary attention.”
It almost sounded like he was making excuses to himself.
The Chief Steward secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
“We’re only one step away now. Once our current operation is complete, Yichang will belong entirely to you.”
“…”
“I’ll take care of this matter personally.”
Yeop Ji-chang emptied another cup, clearly uninterested.
“Do as you please. But that martial hall master seems hot-blooded and quick to fight… Just make sure there’s no disturbance.”
“No disturbance… Understood.”
The Chief Steward smiled meaningfully and bowed.
Suddenly, Yeop Ji-chang asked,
“Where’s that brat Ping?”
“Young Master is currently devoted to his training.”
“Training? He’s probably drinking somewhere.”
Clicking his tongue, Yeop Ji-chang casually added,
“Take him with you.”
“Young Master… as well?”
“He’s still a good-for-nothing brat, but he’s my only son. I can’t let him idle away forever. Start teaching him with something simple.”
The Chief Steward knew perfectly well that the Young Master wasn’t the type to obediently learn anything.
The Gang Leader probably considered this a trivial task and wanted his son to gain experience.
But from the Chief Steward’s perspective, bringing the Young Master along was the last thing he wanted while trying to handle this quietly.
“…Yes. Then I’ll bring him with me.”
Unable to refuse the Gang Leader’s command, the Chief Steward silently decided he’d find some tavern to dump the Young Master in during the trip.
“You may go.”
Looking too lazy to concern himself any further, Yeop Ji-chang waved him away and picked up his wine cup once more.
