“Aigo, Young Master Seo! Well, well! No wonder I felt like hurrying home today. It must have been because a guest this welcome was on his way.”

The man had been standing there blankly a moment before, and this sudden, overblown welcome drew a dry laugh out of Seo Woojin.

“My apologies. Had I known Young Master Seo would be coming, I’d have dropped everything and come home sooner.”

Seo Woojin shook his head.

“Not at all. Coming without an appointment was my fault.”

“Haha. Well now. To be understood so generously — I hardly know where to put myself. Ah! Never mind all that, sit, sit! You there! What are you standing about for! Bring tea at once!”

“No. Tea won’t be necessary.”

“Ah, is that so? Well, fine. What good is tea this late at night anyway. You’d only wake needing to relieve yourself… Ah. There I go talking too much again. Do sit.”

Seo Woojin sat down, looking worn already. He had known the man was like this and still could not get used to it — he could not even tell whether the manner was deliberately constructed or simply his nature.

Seo Woojin let out a faint sigh and spoke.

“You’ve been out somewhere, I take it.”

Cho Igyeom was at a cabinet against the wall, muttering something about whether he ought to bring out wine, and he gave an awkward smile at the question.

“I may not look it, but I keep quite busy. There’s a great deal of this and that to settle.”

“Is that so. Well, of course. Clan Head Cho must be in a state of emergency too. Clan Head Cheon cut in out of nowhere and ruined the picture you’d been painting, didn’t he?”

Cho Igyeom’s cheek twitched, once. He kept the smile up all the same and sat down across from him.

“Who can say. The picture I’d been painting… I’ve many talents, but no gift with a brush.”

Seo Woojin let out a small laugh.

“Is that right? Well. You needn’t say if you’d rather not. But a man who handed the Crazed Fiend intelligence to the Cheon Clan and presided over the trial on the Seven Families’ behalf, claiming to know nothing… nobody would believe that, would they?”

“Haha… Well now…”

Cho Igyeom only laughed and let it pass. Seo Woojin sighed inwardly.

‘Not one to show his hand easily after all.’

Cho Igyeom was a genuinely peculiar man, as Seo Woojin saw him. His thoughts showed on his face, and his intentions were blatant enough to read easily — and yet nothing of real importance ever came out of him.

It was as though he hid himself inside the truth.

Which was why he could look ridiculous one moment, and the next leave you realizing that Cho Igyeom was a frightening man.

Seo Woojin leaned back in his chair, laced his fingers together, and went straight to the point.

“Let me tell you why I’ve come. I want to buy information.”

Perhaps it was as unexpected as he had hoped. Alarm spread across Cho Igyeom’s face.

“Infor… mation, you say?”

“Yes. Information.”

“That truly is a surprise. Young Master Seo, buying from me. Isn’t the young lady’s intelligence enough for you? On top of the Military Advisor’s Hall, she’ll have men she runs privately as well.”

Seo Woojin shrugged.

“Where information is concerned, more is better, isn’t it?”

Cho Igyeom’s eyes glinted.

“Aha. You’ve come to buy information the young lady doesn’t have.”

Seo Woojin shook his head, put upon.

“Was it written on my face? I thought I’d hidden it reasonably well.”

“It’s only that I’d expect Young Master Seo to think unreliable information worse than none at all. If the young lady had what you wanted, you’d hardly trouble yourself coming to me — a perfectly reasonable inference, that’s all. There was nothing wrong with your face, so don’t look so wounded.”

Seo Woojin clicked his tongue. It struck him again that Cho Igyeom had taken his measure in some detail, and his guard went up of its own accord.

‘But I need this man’s help right now.’

Seo Woojin cleared his throat softly and spoke again.

“Let me be direct. I need information about Cheon Suryeon.”

Cho Igyeom groaned quietly and folded his arms, apparently sunk deep in thought. Before long he shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

Seo Woojin’s brow furrowed.

“The Cho Clan doesn’t have information on Cheon Suryeon either?”

“No, no. I mean I don’t know what Young Master Seo intends to sell me in exchange for it. Unfortunately, I have a great deal of wealth. And my position within the Dark Alliance is by no means low. What could you possibly give a man like me? Ah — and for reference, since it’s information the young lady doesn’t have either, you understand it comes dear.”

Thorough, when it suited him.

Seo Woojin grumbled under his breath and leaned forward a little.

“As you know, I have no wealth, and my position in the Dark Alliance is still ambiguous. But isn’t it about time the Clan Head made a judgment?”

Cho Igyeom tilted his head.

“Hm? A judgment?”

“Yes. A judgment about who the next Alliance Lord will be.”

“Ah. Haha, well now.”

Cho Igyeom laughed like a man put on the spot, then answered with a hardened face.

“Do I seem not to have made one?”

Seo Woojin shook his head.

“If your judgment were settled, you’d have no reason to keep listening to me. No — even if you had judged the Cheon Clan would win, you couldn’t cast me off so easily.”

“Ho. And why do you think that?”

“Because if the Cheon Clan wins, there’s nothing in it for you.”

The skin at the corner of Cho Igyeom’s eye twitched.

“Who can say? That’s a matter for my own abilities to resolve.”

“No. Seeing the Cheon Clan’s head settled it for me. That is not a man who shares what is his. Gain something from the Cheon Clan? Saying that is no different from saying you’ll go under them.”

“…”

“Or are you genuinely prepared to betray the Woon Clan and go under the Cheon? No. If you were, you’d have cast me off already, as I said.”

The smile was nowhere to be found on Cho Igyeom’s face now.

“I’m not certain what it is you’re trying to say.”

“It’s simple. If the Cheon Clan wins, both the Cho and the Woon will find their footing unsteady. You’ll have prepared for that — but the preparation is a second-best option, quite literally. Or perhaps ‘lesser evil’ suits it better.”

“…”

Seo Woojin straightened and gave a thin smile.

“My point is simple. The best is better than the lesser evil. A five-year-old could grasp that truth. Which makes Clan Head Cho’s choice simple too. Back me. See that I become Alliance Lord. There will be more in it for you that way.”

Cho Igyeom made a low sound in his throat.

He did not let it show, but he was startled. Seo Woojin’s growth was becoming visible by the day.

Rub your eyes and look again, as the saying went. It fit the man exactly.

No — even that felt inadequate. For a moment this stripling in front of him had made him feel he was sitting across from the Woon Clan’s head.

But startled was startled, and reality was reality. He shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but words that vague won’t buy my information. Something rather more definite—”

“I didn’t know.”

Seo Woojin cut him off. Enjoying the questioning look he got, he continued.

“There’s a library in the Dark Alliance where martial arts manuals are gathered. Entry is permitted only to the Alliance Lord, the direct line, and those he allows in.”

“…”

“Ah — of course I haven’t been able to enter yet either, so I don’t know what manuals are in there. Frankly, I’m not even curious.”

A significant smile hung at Seo Woojin’s mouth. He had worked out before coming here what thirst the Cho Clan suffered from.

“But what about you, Clan Head? Have you no interest in the manuals in that library either?”

“…”

Cho Igyeom kept his mouth firmly shut and did not answer. But the wavering behind his eyes gave his confusion away plainly enough.

“Let me make you a promise. If I become Alliance Lord, I’ll permit you to read three manuals from that library. Ah — copying only, of course.”

Cho Igyeom swallowed hard.

‘Does this man know? What that place is worth?’

The Pavilion of All Martial Arts.

The hall where everything of the martial way had been gathered. Perhaps for that reason, only a very few knew where it stood — and knowing was not enough to break into it, with all manner of formations laid around it.

It was the Alliance Lord’s authority, and the dark path’s symbol.

And for the Cho Clan, whose martial strength lagged far behind its intelligence, it was bait enough to make the mouth water. More than half of what was stored there was said to be of poor quality — but some of it was certainly worth calling peerless.

They could not help coveting it. Martial arts of the caliber called supreme arts were not to be bought with money, and it was a thirst even the Woon Clan he served could not slake.

Cho Igyeom made no effort to hide his agitation, rubbing his face again and again as he followed the thought through.

‘Three manuals. That much, if not immediately, then in the distant future. No — from the generation after mine, the Cho Clan’s standing would be different. Perhaps past the Cheon and the Gok—’

It was a dream of a thought. He let out a long breath, settled his rising mood, and looked at Seo Woojin with a smile again.

“You say the most interesting things. Above all, there’s no guarantee Young Master Seo will keep the promise—”

“I’ve given you the carrot so far. Let me give you the stick this time.”

“Sorry?”

A bleak light came into Seo Woojin’s eyes.

“On the off chance I do become Alliance Lord — won’t you regret today, when the time comes? Since you don’t seem to know, let me tell you: I’m smaller-minded than you’d think. What’s done to me has to be repaid before I’m satisfied. Ah! Thinking of the four places annihilated alongside the Bonghwa Jang Clan should make that easier to understand.”

“Haha… That sounds rather like a threat.”

“Let’s call it concern rather than a threat. I’d hate to have to remove a talent as capable as Clan Head Cho.”

Their eyes locked for a while, as if sparks were leaping between them.

When Cho Igyeom spoke, his voice had none of its usual flippancy. It was cold, and there was will behind it.

“Then let me offer a concern of my own. I’m a trader who buys and sells information — but you shouldn’t take these trader fellows’ persistence lightly. If you don’t keep your promise, Young Master Seo will have to live in unease every single day. You’ll come to trust no one. And you may well end up walking the same road the Alliance Lord did.”

The corner of Seo Woojin’s mouth drew slowly upward.

“I’ll bear it in mind.”

Clap!

Cho Igyeom nodded deeply and clapped his hands together.

“Well now. Having a frank conversation like this with Young Master Seo — I feel we’ve grown a great deal closer. Wouldn’t you say?”

“You’ve made a great show of gravity, but do you actually have the information? If it turns out to be nothing much, this promise is void.”

At the joke, Cho Igyeom took on a wounded expression.

“Hah. How can you say something so cruel… That is a remark that tramples on my pride. My information may come dear, but I don’t cheat people with cheap goods. So set that worry aside and… let me see. Where to begin. Ah! You’ll have heard from the young lady, I take it? The rough outline of the Cheon Clan’s killing machine.”

As the talk ran long again, Seo Woojin felt the fatigue of it and nodded with a slightly worn face.

“Hah… Yes. I heard. That only blood and corpses are left where she has passed.”

Snap!

Cho Igyeom snapped his fingers and pointed at him.

“Here’s the question! Did you notice anything strange about it?”

“I did wonder. Why they hide her away so thoroughly.”

Clap, clap, clap!

Cho Igyeom clapped in admiration.

“Ha! Well, well. With a mind as sharp as yours, there’s some satisfaction in the telling, hahaha. That’s exactly it. Ordinarily, fear works better seen than unseen. But with the Cheon Clan, nothing is seen at all.”

Seo Woojin tilted his head.

“Even so, she earned the epithet of killing machine, didn’t she? Isn’t that enough to call the fear a success?”

“Tsk, tsk. No. However little is seen, if that sort of result keeps appearing, fear is bound to arise. What I’m asking is this — whether that fear was intended, or not.”

“You’re saying it wasn’t?”

Cho Igyeom nodded again, deeply.

“For intended fear, it’s far too inefficient. And there doesn’t seem to be any particular advantage they’re after by it. So where does their intent lie? In Cheon Suryeon herself. Concealing, thoroughly, what martial arts she uses — that is their intent.”

“Deliberate concealment?”

“Just so. And why must it be concealed? This thoroughly?”

Cho Igyeom raised a single index finger.

“It’s simple. Because it must never be shown to anyone.”

Cho Igyeom wore a significant smile.

Looking at it, Seo Woojin thought that coming here had been the right call after all.

“Go on.”

And with a satisfied face, he listened.

(End of Chapter 38)