Gok Taejun went out for the first time in a long while, a bamboo hat pulled low over his face.

Wi Jinho had cleared away the maidservant who had been watching him, so getting out was not difficult.

His father’s wrath was a fearful thing, but once the man saw what his son had accomplished he would surely understand.

Perhaps this time his father would even make his position as heir secure.

Gok Taejun let a foolish smile slip without noticing and tipped back his cup.

A quiet inn.

How many cups had he emptied on his own?

Wi Jinho stepped inside.

He spotted Gok Taejun in the corner at once and went over to him.

“I’m back.”

Gok Taejun nodded and waved him to the seat opposite.

“Well. What did the check turn up?”

At the question about Kang Boksu’s background, Wi Jinho gave a faint smile.

“What he said was true. There is a gang in Ningbo called the Black Tide Gang, and he’s said to be its second.”

Gok Taejun let a sneer show.

“Second, for what that’s worth? Vermin, all of them. The whole nest ought to be swept out. They’ll have been strutting around calling themselves warriors, no doubt.”

“Hoho. Even so, the Black Tide Gang seem to be men who know their place. They don’t lay a finger on the interests of any sect or clan enrolled in the Dark Alliance if they can help it, and they don’t want to be entangled with them either.”

The last of the doubt in Gok Taejun’s eyes washed away. They were nothing but street riffraff.

“Then there’s little chance they got entangled with Seo Woojin when he went to Ningbo.”

Wi Jinho nodded.

“What help could men like that give him in the first place? Seo Woojin must have a head on his shoulders.”

“Heh heh. True enough. He’s detestable, but he does look capable. He can’t be so far gone as to ask a pack of thugs for help. Good. What is Kang Boksu doing now?”

“He didn’t look likely to try anything. He’s busy at the moment getting the place ready to open.”

Gok Taejun looked satisfied and pressed the point once more.

“Even so, tell them not to take their eyes off him for a moment. Give a man like that the smallest gap and his mind starts wandering.”

“Yes. Don’t concern yourself. My own squad is watching him personally.”

Gok Taejun was filling his cup when something occurred to him and he made a small sound.

“Ah, that’s right. What about support?”

Wi Jinho made a low sound in his throat.

“Mm. We have to move quietly, so I couldn’t draw support from the other squads. Instead I’ve readied the rank-and-file warriors who follow us and some thugs from Hangzhou’s back alleys.”

Gok Taejun frowned and tilted his head.

“Hm. If the righteous-path man is stripped bare a second time, there’s no telling how he’ll react. If his rank in the Murim Alliance is high, that could turn into a headache.”

“I’m aware. But for all that, they are standing in dark path territory. They can’t have prepared much on short notice. Overwhelm them in numbers and they won’t dare try anything. And whatever we lack in martial prowess, the Blood Breaker Unit’s Tenth Squad is enough to cover.”

Had his pride been pricked a little?

Wi Jinho’s voice came up slightly.

But Gok Taejun found that spirit reassuring.

“Hahaha. I don’t doubt Squad Leader Wi’s ability. It only weighs on me that my own men might be put to trouble for nothing, so don’t take it badly.”

Wi Jinho bowed his head and denied it.

“How could this humble one think such a thing? I only swear my loyalty to the Young Clan Head, always.”

“Heh heh. Yes, yes. On the day I become the Gok Clan’s head, Squad Leader Wi will be standing at my side. So let’s finish this business without a mistake.”

Saying it, Gok Taejun poured into the empty cup.

Wi Jinho emptied the cup he was handed and bowed his head again.

“Sir.”

At the short answer, Gok Taejun broke into wild laughter again.

Dreaming of the brilliant future about to unfold.

That night. The Hour of the Pig.

Gok Taejun followed Kang Boksu’s lead toward the gambling den.

After a long stretch of winding through alleys, they arrived at a building that looked ready to fall down.

Gok Taejun, who was used to gambling in places like pleasure houses, could not help the face he made.

“Is this the place?”

At the question, Kang Boksu bent at the waist.

“Yes, yes. We arranged the place in a hurry, so it’s a little shabby. But once you’re inside you won’t be disappointed, I promise!”

Gok Taejun looked unimpressed by the assurance, but he nodded soon enough.

“Fine. Lead on.”

“Yes. This way, then.”

Kang Boksu opened the old door and stepped inside.

Gok Taejun and the Blood Breaker Tenth Squad followed him.

Inside, there was another door, leading down.

Kang Boksu opened it, and a steep staircase came into view.

“The stairs are steep. Please follow carefully, heheh.”

Kang Boksu got one piece of flattery in and went down.

Gok Taejun followed without hesitating, and Wi Jinho gave his squad their orders.

“Half of you hide yourselves around this place and watch. If anything looks wrong, report it without delay. The other half, follow me.”

“Sir!!”

Once they too had gone inside, the shabby building settled back into silence.

As though giving warning of the wind of blood soon to come.

It was hot.

Heat, you might call it.

Or perhaps madness.

The sight that finally opened up after going underground and passing through one more iron door.

The reek of liquor and sweat driving into the nose.

And the noise boring into the ears.

Shouting. Cheering. Groans. Curses.

All of it tangled together, filling that wide space.

Every table was packed with people.

Men who looked to have nothing were pouring everything they owned onto the tables.

Somewhere there was the sound of weeping, and somewhere else, laughter.

A world where grief and delight lived side by side.

The corner of Gok Taejun’s mouth climbed without his meaning it to.

Kang Boksu had not been lying.

Far from disappointment, the scale of it was well beyond what he had expected, and admiration came out of him on its own.

Gok Taejun drew a deep breath.

It had been a long time.

This smell.

The smell of losers.

“Over here, Young Clan Head.”

Kang Boksu pointed to one side, still bent at the waist.

Gok Taejun grinned and nodded along.

They pushed through the crowd and found a space set apart.

There was nothing to it but a single hanging curtain, and yet, unlike the open floor, it felt like a severed world of its own.

Gambling tiles lay scattered across the table.

“This is where we seat only our high guests, heheh.”

As Kang Boksu said, the men seated there wore clothes of a different cut and bearing.

Among them a rough-looking man stood up from his seat and gave a cupped-fist salute.

“Boksu told me about you. I’m Mun Seok of the Black Tide Gang.”

Gok Taejun glanced behind him, and Wi Jinho gave a slight nod.

Gok Taejun smirked and took a seat.

“Names at a gambling table, my ass. Just match the tiles.”

Mun Seok looked awkward for a moment, but a laugh came soon enough.

“Hahaha. Well said. Should we begin right away, then?”

“Let’s.”

Thud!

Gok Taejun gestured behind him, and Wi Jinho set a chest on the table.

Opened a crack, the chest showed itself full of silver. There was even a little gold, ingots showing here and there among it.

“I wonder whether everyone brought a decent stake.”

Mun Seok swallowed at the overwhelming difference in wealth.

He glanced at the man sitting across from Gok Taejun.

A plain-faced man with a goatee. He seemed to feel Mun Seok’s eyes on him, and gave a small nod where Gok Taejun could not see.

Mun Seok barely swallowed a sound that wanted to come out and sat back down.

“Then I’ll deal. As you all know, anyone caught cheating won’t walk out whole. However… honored the guest may be.”

Gok Taejun smiled brightly.

“Naturally. A gambling table has its own rules. Who cares about rank. Deal them.”

Mun Seok nodded and put the tiles into a cup. He shook them until they were thoroughly mixed, then dealt to each of the two men.

And last of all, Mun Seok drew two tiles for himself.

The three of them each checked their own.

The corner of Gok Taejun’s mouth climbed. The numbers written there were satisfying.

He raised his head and looked at the man across from him.

A dopey-looking fellow was glaring at his own tiles as though he meant to kill them.

Gok Taejun examined the backs of the tiles in the man’s hand.

There were faint lines scratched into them, two and three exactly.

Lines faint enough that without sharpening his sight he would not have caught them.

‘Two and three. Five together.’

If the marking code was what he took it for, the Murim Alliance warrior’s hand was a five, and no more.

“I’ll open with five taels of silver.”

Clatter.

Mun Seok threw five taels of silver into the middle of the table, and the Murim Alliance warrior threw in ten more.

Gok Taejun would have liked to pour money in right then, but he had to hold back.

‘Steady. Careful, and careful again.’

The money he had brought was not his own.

He had collected the tribute payments from several of the Gok Clan’s businesses in the name of the Young Clan Head.

It would reach his father’s ear by tomorrow, but that was all right.

He was going to double the money, and carry back something more precious than money besides.

‘So let’s just feel out the first hand.’

There was a saying, after all, that at a gambling table you trust nobody.

Gok Taejun threw in ten taels.

“It’s the first hand. Let’s keep it light.”

Mun Seok turned his tiles over first.

“I fold. My hand is garbage.”

His tiles read three and four. Seven — neither high nor low.

Gok Taejun tipped his head at the Murim Alliance warrior.

“Show me.”

The Murim Alliance warrior smirked and turned his tiles up.

Gok Taejun’s hand closed into a fist on its own.

Two, three.

Exactly as the marks on the backs had said.

“Oh, come on! A five? You built the pot on a five? Aigoo, why do you do this to yourself? That is not how you gamble!”

Mun Seok was as frustrated as if it were his own money going.

Gok Taejun clicked his tongue and threw down his tiles.

“Four, five. Nine.”

Gok Taejun grinned and dragged the silver in the middle over to himself.

He tossed the tiles back, his face flushed.

“Then let’s keep them coming.”

He had taken to the place quickly. Full madness was already coloring his eyes.

How many hands had gone around?

Gok Taejun had won most of them, and Mun Seok next. The Murim Alliance warrior had won only once, by chance.

And even that had been a small pot, so there had been no real profit in it.

The Murim Alliance warrior seemed frustrated; he let out a long sigh and threw down his tiles.

“The air in here is stale, and my head won’t work. Might I step out for some air?”

Gok Taejun, who had only just hit his stride, made a face.

“Now, that’s bad luck. Who gets up in the middle of a deal?”

He voiced his displeasure, but he could not press it any harder.

If the Murim Alliance warrior’s mood soured, there was a chance he might leave the table altogether.

‘Tch. It would be easier if interrogation worked on him.’

Men in the Murim Alliance’s intelligence organization had a name for not opening their mouths under any torture, however severe.

Which was why he was sitting at this table and going to all this trouble.

Torture might not work, but a man mad for gambling can be made to talk with a stake.

Gok Taejun let out a small sigh and threw down his tiles.

“Go and come back quickly. There won’t be a second time, so rest as much as you need.”

The Murim Alliance warrior glared at Gok Taejun a moment, then went out past the curtain.

And Kang Boksu followed him out, saying he would show him the way himself.

The Murim Alliance warrior followed behind Kang Boksu without a word.

Kang Boksu led him not by the way he had first brought Gok Taejun, but to the back door.

They had to walk some distance farther after leaving the place.

Only when the noise of the gambling den had almost stopped reaching them did Kang Boksu let out a great sigh.

“Haah… I feel like my heart has shriveled up and killed me.”

The Murim Alliance warrior smirked and walked past him.

He went toward a mirror standing to one side.

And he looked into it, examining his own face from every angle.

“Flawless, the more I look at it.”

Kang Boksu nodded as though he agreed entirely.

“Even in our line of work there are places that specialize in human-skin masks, and this is far finer than any of them. I saw it back in Ningbo when the false corpses were made, but… you really are remarkable.”

The Murim Alliance warrior turned his head.

“Good for you. Recognized by the trade.”

Where he had turned, three people, two men and a woman, were sitting comfortably in chairs to one side.

Three of the Four Black Dragons.

Muk-yeong turned his head away, embarrassed.

Bae Seokjin had his eyes closed, meditating.

Only Song Biryeong was glaring at the Murim Alliance warrior, her brow furrowed.

He seemed to feel the look, because the Murim Alliance warrior tilted his head.

“What. Why are you looking at me like that.”

“That’s petty.”

“What is.”

“I wanted to stamp on that one myself. Becoming Alliance Lord and then ignoring what I asked for.”

The Murim Alliance warrior.

No — Seo Woojin, disguised in a human-skin mask, gave a hollow laugh.

“Come on, a woman sitting down at a gambling table is strange to begin with!”

“That’s prejudice! A woman can go to a gambling table, and she can go to a pleasure house too!”

At the childish sulking, Seo Woojin felt a headache coming and pressed his forehead.

Since Yoo Geonwoo had been taken, her temper seemed shorter than usual.

Seo Woojin waved a hand and pulled rank, this time for real.

“I’m giving an order as Dark Alliance Lord. Gok Taejun looks to have set his suspicion down, so I’ll be starting as well. So the Four Black Dragons had better be ready.”

The moment he finished.

The eyes of all three changed.

Muk-yeong’s settled into stillness, and when Bae Seokjin opened his, the light in them flashed.

And in Song Biryeong’s eyes a fire rose like an active volcano.

Their faces seemed to please him; the corner of Seo Woojin’s mouth climbed.

“Let’s go. To hunt Gok Taejun.”

Seo Woojin turned and headed back toward the table.

There was nothing whatsoever holding back his stride.

(End of Chapter 55)