It was the third day.

Gok Taejun lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

A steady sound was the only thing filling the silent room. It was his own finger, drumming on his chest.

Then a stinging pain made him let out a small groan.

“Kuh.”

Gok Taejun propped himself up a little and looked at his chest.

Blood was seeping through and staining the bandage red.

“Damn it.”

Gok Taejun was shut up in his quarters at present, on the excuse of a serious wound.

It was a lie, of course.

The whole thing had been arranged to bind Yoo Geonwoo up.

It was true that he had provoked the man past reason so he would attack, but he had never meant to bleed.

He had even worn chain mail under his clothes.

Gok Taejun looked at the split chain mail lying to one side.

Yoo Geonwoo had clearly twisted the blade aside, and still the armor had been cut cleanly through.

“Bastard’s fit to be beaten to death.”

If he had his way he would have gone down to the torture room that moment and worked the man over himself.

But Cheon Doyun had impressed it on him again and again, so he could not move carelessly.

“Damn it!”

He spat the curse out for nothing and lay back down on the bed.

The rage at that man.

The sting of the wound.

He could bear those.

What he could not bear was the boredom.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

As though it were speaking for how he felt, Gok Taejun’s finger drummed his chest faster.

He wanted to go to a pleasure house.

He wanted a drink.

He wanted to get his hands on a set of gambling tiles.

With everything about him controlled, he was on the point of losing his mind.

“You.”

At the irritation in his voice, the maidservant waiting outside the door flinched.

“Y-you called.”

“Anything going on outside?”

“There has been no particular news.”

Gok Taejun clicked his tongue and sat up again.

Stifled as he was, his eyes went to the window on their own.

People moving about busily in the distance made his gorge rise for no reason.

“Forget it. Who’s going to recognize me if I slip out?”

In the end Gok Taejun lost to his appetites and got to his feet.

The maidservant set to watch him went white as a sheet.

“Y-you must not! The Clan Head said that whatever happened you were not to—”

Gok Taejun snorted.

“Do you imagine I couldn’t get out if you stood in the way? Did you actually believe you alone could stop me?”

“B-but…”

“Tsk, tsk. Child. My father sent you into my room for one thing only. To pass the time when I’m bored. Exactly that much.”

The further his words went, the more the maidservant’s face colored with shame.

Gok Taejun paid it no mind at all and went on with the poison.

“I’ve left you alone because your face doesn’t please me. So know your place and get out of the way. I might crack your skull open.”

The maidservant barely held back tears that were about to burst and slowly stepped aside.

Gok Taejun wore a mean little smile and leaned in slightly.

And looking into her lowered face, he whispered,

“But you should know this much. Since you failed to keep me here in the end, my father will punish you severely. With luck it will stop at being sold to a brothel, but if it goes badly you may lose your head. Hahahaha!”

Having frightened her thoroughly, he started to go out. But he did not manage it, unfortunately for him.

“And where do you think you’re going.”

The face he met the moment he opened the door.

It was Cheon Doyun.

Gok Taejun glanced at Cheon Doyun, his face screwed up.

Then he let out a deep sigh.

“Damn it.”

Cheon Doyun snorted and reproached him.

“You seem to have no idea at all how much this matters. What do you intend to do if you wander around outside and the Alliance Lord’s people spot you? Your wound will be exposed as a lie, and the grounds for holding Yoo Geonwoo will weaken.”

Gok Taejun had clearly heard it several times already, and his face showed it.

“Damn it. I know that. How many times do I have to say I was only stifled and wanted some air? More to the point, Alliance Lord comes out of your mouth easily enough. You gave me your word that man would never become Alliance Lord. Look at you now.”

He was sulking and being snide about it, but Cheon Doyun was unruffled.

“It’s a fact that he passed every trial and became Alliance Lord. There’s no reason not to acknowledge it.”

That, too, rankled Gok Taejun.

“I’m following your plan, but the truth is I don’t understand it. Frankly, can’t he simply cut Yoo Geonwoo loose and be done with it? What obstacle does this plan actually put in his way?”

“The plan was built around the Alliance Lord’s disposition. You can guess at it from how he handled the Baek Clan’s daughter, or from how he deals with the Four Black Dragons and Woon Seorin day to day. Well, as you say, if he cuts Yoo Geonwoo loose, that will do just as well.”

Doubt moved in Gok Taejun’s eyes, and a short laugh escaped Cheon Doyun.

“He may be cold enough to cut the man loose, but the Four Black Dragons will never abandon Yoo Geonwoo. They are certain to overreach trying to save him.”

“Ah!”

“Bind them up as well, and in the end the only one left at the Alliance Lord’s side is Woon Seorin. And by the look of things, the Woon Clan isn’t entirely on his side either.”

Gok Taejun seemed to accept that, and then brought up something else.

“What about your sister? Do you mean to leave her as she is?”

Cheon Doyun’s brow twitched.

The Gok Clan did not know the Cheon Clan’s secret either. The remark had surely been thrown out without a thought behind it, but it was also Cheon Doyun’s one worry.

Cheon Doyun did not let it show, and answered evenly.

“What is there to do? The Alliance Lord has taken a liking to my sister and means to keep her as a guard. She will never become a weakness, so don’t concern yourself.”

Something went to a boil in Gok Taejun.

That way of speaking, as though the person in front of him were beneath notice, grated more than anything.

Several days of appetites with no outlet seemed to have brought his resentment up to its limit.

Tak.

The sound of Cheon Doyun setting down his teacup brought Gok Taejun back to himself.

Cheon Doyun did not read what was inside him and rose from his seat.

“It won’t take long. It will be stifling, but bear it a few more days. Ah. I’ll let you carry out Yoo Geonwoo’s execution personally. Naturally the day will be set after we’ve watched what the Alliance Lord does.”

“…”

When Gok Taejun did not answer, Cheon Doyun frowned and looked at him.

“Well? Is there a problem?”

“…No.”

Cheon Doyun gazed at him for a while, then sighed and turned his head.

“I’ll send someone next time. Restrain yourself until then.”

With that, he left.

Gok Taejun glared at the door he had gone through, killing intent in his eyes.

And then he could not hold his temper.

BANG! Crashhh—!

He brought his fist down on the tea table and it split in two, and the tea things on top of it fell wretchedly and shattered.

It might have been an omen of how the two of them would end, before long.

“Someone—!”

He shouted toward the outside, and a warrior stepped in.

He belonged to the Blood Breaker Unit, the armed force that handled the Gok Clan’s external business.

The Blood Breaker Unit’s Tenth Squad was attached to Gok Taejun as his permanent guard, which was why the man answered his call so promptly.

“You called.”

“Wi Jinho. How many subordinates can you move right now?”

Wi Jinho, the Tenth Squad’s squad leader, thought for a moment and then gave his answer.

“The whole of the Tenth Squad can move. Moving any other Blood Breaker warriors would require the Clan Head’s permission.”

Gok Taejun clicked his tongue. Gok Cheonmu would start by roaring at him not to do anything stupid.

“What is White Blossom Hall doing at present?”

“The doors are shut, and the courtesans and staff are all confined inside the hall. Though we’re told the one called Aengwha was taken away by the Four Black Dragons.”

“Damn it. If your people hadn’t made such a fuss at the time.”

By rights the Blood Breaker warriors should have held the place and let no one out.

But when he actually bled, they had panicked too.

Unlike the other Blood Breaker warriors, who had carried out all kinds of missions, the Tenth Squad had only ever done guard duty, and the mistake had come from that.

The one mercy was that most of White Blossom Hall’s courtesans were still there.

And the most important one, the woman Baekwha, was being held securely by the magistrate.

“White Blossom Hall opens its doors in three days. Spread the word widely that, unlike before, the courtesans of White Blossom Hall can be had. The animals will come running with their gold.”

“Understood.”

“Ah! Set that one called Hongryeon aside.”

The filthy appetite was out in the open. Wi Jinho paid it no mind and nodded.

“I’ll see to it.”

“And another thing.”

“Yes. Give the order.”

Gok Taejun stroked his chin and spoke in a leading tone.

“Seo Woojin has become Alliance Lord, so the streets of Hangzhou will be loud with it. Find out what the reaction is. And if the reaction isn’t bad, turn people loose and spread some false stories. You know what I mean.”

Wi Jinho wore a smile with blood in it and nodded.

“I’ll move at once.”

Only then did Gok Taejun get to his feet, looking unburdened.

Petty as it was, this was all he could do, and he did not care. If a thing like this scratched Seo Woojin’s name even slightly, that was satisfaction enough.

“It looks like going out today is off. Bring me the maidservant my father set to watch me, washed clean.”

Saying it, Gok Taejun went out as well. To empty out his filthy appetite.

Gok Taejun had to wake in the dead of night. Wi Jinho had come for him urgently.

Gok Taejun sat up with his face twisted.

“Come in.”

His voice was thick with irritation. But nothing of that registered on Wi Jinho’s face as he stepped inside.

“My apologies. I’ve disturbed your sleep.”

“Damn it. Then don’t do things you have to apologize for. What is it! What is it that brings you here in the middle of the night!”

Wi Jinho started to speak quickly, then spotted the half-naked woman lying beside Gok Taejun.

Wi Jinho called out toward the door.

“Someone. Come in and clear that thing away.”

The Tenth Squad men waiting outside came in fast and dragged the maidservant out as she was.

Startled by the suddenness of it, she panicked and screamed, and nobody listened to the sound.

If anything, Gok Taejun dug at his ear as though the noise annoyed him and pressed the man on.

“Now talk. What is it that has you in such a state.”

Wi Jinho checked once more for anyone nearby, then spoke in a low voice.

“As the Young Clan Head ordered, I looked into the mood on the streets of Hangzhou.”

“And?”

“While I was at it, I heard a strange rumor.”

“A rumor? What rumor?”

Wi Jinho swallowed, and lowered his voice further.

“A rumor about the Dark Alliance Lord. The rumor is: the Dark Alliance Lord has been colluding with the Murim Alliance.“

For a moment Gok Taejun did not understand and sat there blank.

Then he started violently and raised his voice.

“What!! Colluding?!”

Wi Jinho raised a hand quickly and calmed him.

“Please, be calm. For now the rumor hasn’t spread far. So I’ve arrested everyone who had it in their mouths and put them in the cells.”

Gok Taejun was hugely pleased and broke into a roar of laughter.

“Hahahaha! Well done! Even so, keep watching, in case.”

“Yes. I’ve placed rank-and-file warriors all over the streets, so if the rumor is heard we can respond immediately.”

Gok Taejun nodded along, unable to hide his excitement.

“Good. Let’s think this through first. What if it’s true that Seo Woojin has been colluding with the Murim Alliance? What if we can find the proof?”

Wi Jinho picked up where Gok Taejun had left off.

“The Dark Alliance Lord is finished. If that came out, the warriors’ goodwill toward him would collapse. We could pull him down out of the Alliance Lord’s seat. You could, personally.”

Wi Jinho was trying to stay as calm as he could, and he could not hide his excitement either.

He had staked everything on Gok Taejun as well. If Gok Taejun rendered a great service, then he, as the man’s right hand, stood to gain a lot from it.

Gok Taejun seemed to feel the opportunity too, and unusually for him, his mind moved fast.

“Can you trace the rumor to its source?”

“He’s under interrogation now. We’ll have it shortly.”

“No, this won’t work! I’ll go myself!”

In the end Gok Taejun could not hold still and moved.

Right now, in this moment.

More than anything else, Cheon Doyun’s voice was circling in his ear.

‘Even without you I am well able to handle it. And better than any of your cluttered scheming.’

His feet moved as fast as his excitement did.

“This way.”

The place Wi Jinho led him into.

It was a room attached to the cells, set aside for interrogation.

A man was kneeling there with fear on his face.

“We found him sooner than expected. All I had to do was show them a hint of what interrogation looks like, and every one of them pointed at him.”

Gok Taejun wore a smile with blood in it.

Nobody alive wants to suffer pain.

And how bitter it must be to suffer for something that is not even your own doing.

Gok Taejun walked forward and stood in front of the man.

“Lift your head.”

The man flinched, and then slowly raised his head.

“What is your name.”

The man swallowed and spoke, slowly.

There was open fear in his stammering voice.

“I, I’m… I’m called K-Kang Boksu…?”

The gang that had helped Seo Woojin in Ningbo a while back. The Black Tide Gang.

It was Kang Boksu, its second and Mun Seok’s right hand.

(End of Chapter 53)