“Ngh. Now that I’m old, the night wind is cold enough.”
The Crazed Fiend appeared as abruptly as he had vanished, and Seo Woojin stared at him in disbelief.
“What is this? Where in the world have you been? A little longer and I’d have turned the whole Dark Alliance upside down.”
He chewed each word out, holding his anger down. The Crazed Fiend answered with a bored face.
“Went to see the Cheon Clan’s head.”
Seo Woojin’s mouth fell open.
How he had fretted, the man vanishing while he was off washing. He had even worried the old man had failed to set his hatred down and gone to kill the Cheon Clan’s daughter.
And instead he had gone one better and paid a call on the Cheon Clan’s head?
The absurdity of it left him without words.
The Crazed Fiend seemed to find his fluster amusing, and chuckled away at it.
“Heh heh. That’s the face of a man wondering how I got as far as him. Well, it wasn’t difficult. I caught one of the Cheon Clan’s warriors and asked politely, and he told me obligingly enough.”
Seo Woojin pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Haha… And as his reward that warrior will have got an arm broken, I suppose. He’ll be able to skip his training and his duties, thanks to it.”
It was said as a barb. The Crazed Fiend widened his eyes and nodded.
“Ho. You know a thing or two. Well — the order was rather the reverse, but I did break exactly the one arm.”
Seo Woojin let out a hollow laugh.
He would have liked nothing better than to throw the old man out of the room that instant. But then it would be his own arm broken this time.
He sighed deeply and asked,
“Coming back in one piece like this, there can’t have been much of a clash. Why did you go to him at all? What was there to say?”
“Say? I told him to conduct himself accordingly if he didn’t care to die.”
“Haha.”
Seo Woojin had already given up.
The old lunatic was clearly still afflicted with his madness. Thought of that way, the impulsiveness even made a kind of sense.
Seo Woojin shook the thoughts off.
“Hah. It’ll work out somehow. More to the point, there are people I want to introduce.”
“Hm? Who?”
“I’ve sent word, so they’ll be along shortly.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than there was a presence outside.
“Military Advisor Woon Seorin and the Four Black Dragons have come.”
At the maidservant’s word, Seo Woojin answered at once.
“Show them in.”
A moment later the door opened, and Woon Seorin came in with three of the Four Black Dragons. Yoo Geonwoo was not among them this time either.
Seo Woojin clicked his tongue quietly and offered the arrivals seats.
“You’ve come. Sit here, please.”
The four of them were taking the offered seats when they caught sight of the Crazed Fiend and flinched. His face was screwed up with displeasure.
Seo Woojin cleared his throat and got in quickly.
“You’ll all know him. This is the Elder, the Crazed Fiend. Ah — although… is it all right to keep calling him the Crazed Fiend?”
The Crazed Fiend waved a hand as though it were a nuisance.
“Call me what you like. What does a name matter.”
Spare a thought for the people doing the calling.
Seo Woojin grumbled under his breath and went on.
“This is Military Advisor Woon Seorin, who assists me. And these three are masters of an organization called the Black Dragon Guard — among the highest ranked within it.”
“Hmph. Dark path fellows, masters? That’s amusing.”
At the dismissal, Song Biryeong — the hottest-tempered of them — reacted first.
“Old men really are shameless. Does he even remember the harm he did to any number of people while out of his mind? He ought to be grateful he came back to himself thanks to our Young Lord.”
For the first time, something like interest showed in the old man’s bored eyes.
“The girl says interesting things. Being grateful to your Young Lord and acknowledging you lot are different matters. If you mean to borrow a tiger’s authority, pick who you do it in front of.”
“Ho ho. Is it because your day in the underworld isn’t far off? Or have you forgotten you’re inside the Dark Alliance? Shall this girl offer the Elder a word of advice? Keep wagging that tongue and you might die without anyone the wiser.”
The corner of the Crazed Fiend’s mouth drew slowly upward.
“Woojin. Your reason for putting this creature in front of me had better be a good one. Otherwise I think I’ll be cracking her skull open.”
“Young Lord? If I die at this old man’s hands you won’t forget me, will you? I’ll trust you to avenge me, and I’ll be sure to put my fist through his face first.”
Neither of them gave an inch, and Seo Woojin looked thoroughly satisfied by it.
“Haha. It gladdens me to see the two of you getting on so well.”
Two murderous looks turned on him together.
Seo Woojin felt it in his gut, and did not stop smiling.
“We have to take the long view of our future here. Don’t we?”
“…”
“…”
Nobody answered. Seo Woojin, of course, paid it no mind.
“Four Black Dragons. I know your level is nothing low. But I also suspect that by now your growth has stalled.”
The three of them stiffened.
It was as he said — they had been on a plateau for some time.
“Of course you could break through the wall in front of you eventually. But when there’s a shortcut, is there any need to take the long way around?”
All three looked at the Crazed Fiend in the same moment.
Seo Woojin turned to him.
“How about it? Four more toys you can torment every day. Ah — do you happen to remember? These are the ones who challenged you most persistently while you were unwell.”
The Crazed Fiend, about to spit out a curse, tilted his head instead, and looked the Four Black Dragons over carefully.
“Ho. Yes. I think I do faintly recall it. There were some who kept provoking me and never seemed to tire.”
Seo Woojin nodded, deeply.
“They troubled you at the time, so oughtn’t you to have your revenge? I’ll give you the chance.”
The Crazed Fiend sighed.
“You are a truly cunning creature.”
He had made the offer this openly, as though bestowing a favor. Who would fall for a provocation that clumsy?
But Seo Woojin knew the old man could not refuse him.
Which was why he had been so openly clumsy about it — as though asking to have his sulking and his unreasonable demands indulged.
Rather like a grandson throwing a tantrum.
The Crazed Fiend looked at the three of them.
Even Song Biryeong, trading words at the risk of her life a moment ago, had gone quiet and was watching for his answer.
They knew it as well as anyone — a chance to be instructed by a master of the realm of transformation was an exceedingly rare thing.
The Crazed Fiend let out a deep sigh.
“Damn the boy. Every day, the Hour of the Tiger. Come to the Dark Bamboo Court. Hell. That grove will turn into the underworld, just as its name says.”
Seo Woojin took a cupped-fist salute, smiling brightly.
“Your great generosity moves me to admiration.”
“Wretched brat. Don’t say things you don’t mean. And you lot needn’t thank him either. He hasn’t the confidence to take my training alone, so he’s dragged you in with him like a drowning man.”
Seo Woojin gave an awkward laugh.
“Haha… What a thing to joke about.”
“Hmph. You’ll find out.”
Seo Woojin avoided the Four Black Dragons’ eyes.
He did want them to grow, certainly — but as the old man said, easing his own burden had crossed his mind too.
He cleared his throat needlessly and looked at Woon Seorin.
“The Elder has agreed to help me.”
She had evidently worked out where it was going from watching it unfold, and showed no surprise.
“I see.”
“And there’s something else I want to discuss.”
Woon Seorin shook her head.
“Before that, let me go first.”
“Sorry?”
“Word came from Clan Head Cho.”
“…?”
“That he has arranged the meeting with my father.”
A small sound escaped Seo Woojin.
“Ah. Has he? When?”
“Today.”
“What?”
“I came to see you in order to take you to the appointed place.”
Seo Woojin tilted his head.
It was only a meeting; did it require an escort? He knew perfectly well where the Woon Clan was situated.
And more than that, her stiff expression puzzled him.
It seemed she had not been unsurprised earlier so much as rigid.
Seo Woojin had a great many questions. He nodded for the moment.
“Then I’ll go. You should rest well today, Elder.”
“Shall I come with you?”
“No. It’s all right. The Woon Clan’s head can hardly do anything to me.”
“Tsk. The Woon Clan’s head. Is it Woon Taeryun who holds the seat now?”
Seo Woojin’s brow furrowed.
“You know him?”
“Well… I know of him. In any case the girl looks pressed, so be off with you.”
Seo Woojin glanced at Woon Seorin and nodded.
“Understood. Then—”
He made his farewells and went out with Woon Seorin and the Four Black Dragons.
Left alone, the Crazed Fiend closed his eyes over some thought of his own.
“Woon Taeryun, is it…”
Murmuring the name in a tone weighted with meaning.
They parted from the Four Black Dragons along the way, and Seo Woojin raised it immediately.
“They aren’t coming with us?”
“No.”
A flat, short answer.
He frowned and asked again.
“Aren’t we going to the Woon Clan now?”
“No.”
“Then where—?”
What came back was a question rather than an answer.
“Why… why did you refuse the Crazed Fiend’s offer?”
“Offer?”
“The offer to come with you.”
The more they talked, the more he felt he was being led into a maze.
“Didn’t I just say it? Clan Head Woon can hardly harm me.”
Woon Seorin shook her head.
“Don’t say that with certainty. There is no absolute where my father is concerned.”
Seo Woojin let out a dry laugh.
“Then why not say so at the time? What use is telling me now, is what I mean.”
“You’re right. There’s no use in it. The Crazed Fiend couldn’t have stayed at your side anyway.”
Seo Woojin, frustrated, was on the point of stopping her when—
“This is the place.”
They had reached where they were going.
A tall hall stood in front of them. There was no signboard on it.
Seo Woojin looked around.
‘When did we—?’
They had certainly been walking the market streets. They had drifted toward the outskirts briefly, but he had heard the noise of people the whole while.
What stood in front of him now was another matter entirely — as though the hall sat alone on an empty plain.
“What… is this?”
Woon Seorin, opaque until now, answered readily enough this time.
“The Soul-Illusion Maze Formation. A formation the Woon Clan has held for a long time. It’s an illusion formation at base, but once you’re inside the hall it will disorder your qi-sense as well. And there will be attacks.”
It came out of nowhere, and none of it lodged.
“W-wait. What in the world are you saying?”
“My father will not show himself easily. He’ll meet you only if you break through the obstacles he has prepared.”
Seo Woojin let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re telling me he means to test me?”
Woon Seorin bit her lip.
Then, as though she had settled something, she looked him straight on.
“I can’t disobey my father. That’s why I brought you here without any explanation.”
“…”
“You said he wouldn’t harm you easily?”
Woon Seorin shook her head.
“My father always assigns people a value. And I’m sorry, but yours is still undecided. Which means… even if you break here, it will not trouble him in the slightest. If a tool you meant to use is ruined, you discard it and find another.”
It was cold.
There was a grief in her voice whose source he could not name — a feeling so cold and so bleak that it seemed to freeze his own heart.
“Having come this far, you can’t run either. Try to leave carelessly and you might wander this place the rest of your life.”
Her voice began to shake, by degrees. Guilt, perhaps. Or worry.
“The hall has five floors. On each floor is a formation stone that holds the array together. You have to destroy all of them to break it. But… naturally there will be interference.”
Seo Woojin could tell what it was costing her to say it. The fine tremor running through her showed as much.
“If. If you can’t endure any longer… beg.”
“…”
“Kneel, press your head down, and beg. If you can’t prove yourself, then look like a tool that does as it’s told. If you do that—”
Seo Woojin smiled.
And the smile stopped her.
“You know I won’t do that.”
“…You could die.”
“I told you before. From the moment I came here, I was resolved to die.”
“You might not achieve what you came for.”
“That would be a shame. It would mean my ability amounted to no more than this.”
Put like that, she could say nothing.
Seo Woojin’s smile deepened as he looked up at the hall.
“If anything, this suits me.”
“…?”
“If I break through that and face Clan Head Woon, I’ll put one condition on the table.”
“What—?”
“I’ll have to take the Military Advisor.”
Woon Seorin’s eyes went wide.
“Not as Clan Head Woon’s proxy. As entirely my own. So wait for me. To gain a capable talent, one has to endure a matching hardship.”
He grinned once and started walking.
Into the hall.
Left alone, Woon Seorin could only watch him go, her face blank. Until he was out of sight.
Only once he had vanished could she murmur it, quietly.
“Please… be safe. If you come out hurt I won’t forgive you. As your Military Advisor.”
Wishing for that very small thing.
She went on looking up at the hall, and could not stop.
(End of Chapter 44)