145

Chapter 145 - Crisis at Dasoegak - 5

I bear some responsibility for the situation turning out this way.

It was a countermeasure I had prepared for the moment the Sachun Dangga family decided to cause trouble over Dangga Pungwoon. It was this countermeasure that set off the accident.

Hwarin, thankfully, had said that if the Sachun Dangga family made a fuss over Dangga Pungwoon, I should use her as a shield, but I had not wanted the situation to reach that point.

To prevent such a situation where Hwarin would be used as a shield, I activated another countermeasure I had considered.

One was the tried-and-true situation of making the protagonist, Dang Jeong, an official of mutual consent, and unavoidably sharing a destiny with him — a true wuxia novelist's scenario. The other was...

"It involved using the Bulmanghwan."

While on the way to the Song family following Cheon Sohee's assassination mission, we encountered bandits who had already killed a man. That man had treasured a Bulmanghwan.

Initially, I assumed that the Bulmanghwan, which originally belonged to Dang Hwarin in the source material, had somehow come into my possession by chance.

- Bulmanghwan? Why would you have that?

- I've heard that every member of the Sachun Dangga carries one. You don't have one, so I was just curious.

While traveling with Hwarin, I casually asked why she didn't carry a Bulmanghwan with her.

- Not everyone does. Only the direct bloodline carries it. Well... that bastard Dang Geoho did say that once my martial arts improve, he'd welcome me as a member of the clan and give me one as a token, but that was probably a lie.

So that's how you obtained the Bulmanghwan in the original work.

- I was mistaken.

- But how do you have a Bulmanghwan? Ah... right.

Hwarin asked herself, then realizing, apologized with a bowed head. It was nice of her to assume the misunderstanding on her own. Yes, let her think that a venomous friend gave it to me.

In the end, the anonymous Bulmanghwan was not meant to fall into Hwarin's hands.

Then to whom did it belong?

The answer was in the book that the man had asked to be taken to Sachun before he died. The book was badly damaged and bloodstained. Normally, there would have been no way to read it.

- The fifth-ranked assassin said there was no time to restore the book and called for a technician, but you have left already. If you have the book with you, I can restore it for you.

Oh, Sohee. Even as you were leaving, you managed to keep every little promise. This brother is moved. Thanks to Sohee, I was able to read the contents of the restored book from Salma's An'ga.

'It was a diary. The diary of a gisaeng from Joseon named Hyang-Ah.'

The author was a promising top candidate to become the foremost gisaeng in Hobeok, who had not yet spent her first night, thus attracting the utmost attention from many men.

Dae-Bal (戴髮). Who would buy the first night with this gisaeng and tie her hair up?

Even a moderately beautiful gisaeng required the price of a house with tiled roof for the first night. How much more, then, for a woman destined to become the foremost gisaeng in Hobeok?

Despite the prices speculated by the enthusiasts, the price for tying up Hyang-Ah's hair turned out to be love, not money.

- Thank you for saving me. May I have the name of my savior?

- Tang... Choo (唐追).

Two people who met dramatically and fell for each other at first sight. Although the man's name was an alias, in love, such details were unimportant.

They shared a fiery love and shared their first time. The gisaeng house was in an uproar, but the man did not pay the Dae-Bal price, nor did he bow his head.

- How could I buy the first time with my woman with money? If that's the case, I would rather save her fate.

Instead, he paid a much greater sum and took her away from the gisaeng house. Buying the first night was incredibly expensive, to begin with; one could only imagine the amount required to free her from her gisaeng status.

A prince charming who saved her from danger. The man she shared her first experience with. Not to mention the one who saved her from her cursed fate—no wonder the woman couldn't resist falling for him.

The two shared a flaming love and eventually conceived a child.

- I must leave now due to urgent duties, but when I return, I'll take you with me and formally make you a member of the family.

Tang Choo, or rather, the alias he used for a mission. He left her the nameless Bulmanghwan and departed. That was the last Hyang-Ah ever saw of him.

"She was blatantly abandoned."

Hyang-Ah's acceptance into the Sachun Dangga family never came to pass. Months later, she heard the man had returned and sought him out, only to be driven away without meeting him.

A woman with no place to go. A swelling belly. In despair, she chose to return to her homeland of Joseon.

"It's a more common occurrence in this world than you'd think."

It was more common for a gisaeng to have an illegitimate child than one might think.

A government official posted to the provinces impregnates a gisaeng in a moment of passion, or a scholar on a tour dallies with a gisaeng and she becomes pregnant, or a martial artist saves a gisaeng and impregnates her.

In such cases, the gisaeng might be lucky enough to become a concubine, but is often abandoned.

The diary I read was just one of these common tales.

"That man who died... he was Hyang-Ah's son."

Hyang-Ah remarried in Joseon, but died young from a plague.

On her deathbed, she wrote in her diary with weak script, telling her son to take the Bulmanghwan to the Sachun Dangga family if he lived to grow up.

The son, having reached adulthood, came to the central lands following his mother's last wish, but died before making it to Sachun. Their lives were full of bitterness. Yet, their lives also presented a good opportunity for me.

"A bastard of the direct line of the Sachun Dangga family. Let's say I was a friend of that bastard."

I muttered quietly to myself as I wrote Dangga Pungwoon. Let's say my venomous friend mentioned to Hwarin was that friend.

Even among the Sachun Dangga family's direct line, counting back to the previous generation, there were many children and grandchildren. To put it in our terms, it was like one of the many relatives who gather at grandpa's house for the holidays had had an illegitimate child with a woman named Hyang-Ah.

"I wrote Dangga Pungwoon to deliver the belongings of a deceased friend."

Returning the Bulmanghwan of the Sachun Dangga family would be well rewarded. It was one of the unspoken rules of the martial world.

When the Sachun Dangga family comes to Dasoegak to point out issues with the content of Dangga Pungwoon, I should first prime my tears.

"Kuhuh! The truth is, Dangga Pungwoon was written to find the father of a dear friend. The image of Dang Jeong is that of a peerless noble character, just as my closest friend had imagined his father to be. Here! I have the Bulmanghwan. I've heard that if you return a Bulmanghwan, the Sachun Dangga family rewards you handsomely, but I don't need any of that. Please deliver this to my friend's father as soon as possible."

Instead, they're to read Dangga Pungwoon that I wrote and forgive me with a subtle appeal — that's how it ends.

There were no major issues with the protagonist Dang Jeong, and if I simply delivered the Bulmanghwan for a valid reason, they wouldn't mention Dangga Pungwoon anymore.

That was the plan.

'Never would I have imagined that Dang Choo was the clan leader.'

Although there were rumors which led me to suspect, I didn't understand.

In this era, if someone from the direct line had an illegitimate child, it would be a matter for the mother to get slapped on the back, not something that you'd squeeze like a press on the neck of a standing barbarian.

When the word 'illegitimate child' was mentioned by the Head of Righteousness, I finally grasped how the situation was unfolding.

By sheer coincidence, I had written Dang Jeong modeled after the clan leader of the Sachun Dangga family who was pursuing a demon. It's unfair, but from the clan's perspective, I suppose it made sense to be accused of writing about the illegitimate child.

'Would they forgive me if I presented it as the deceased friend's Bulmanghwan?'

The original plan was viable because Dangga Pungwoon didn't contain anything significantly blame-worthy.

If it involved the clan's illegitimate child, that's a different story.

"My deceased friend was actually the illegitimate child of the clan leader. I'll give you the Bulmanghwan, so please have mercy on me."

"You're claiming to be a friend of the clan leader's illegitimate child? And that you wrote about the clan's affairs in a novel without clear consent?"

I wasn't even the rightful owner of the Bulmanghwan; could it really defuse the situation?

If my wrist was like a re-supplying rocket punch or had regenerative powers like some kind of symbiotic organism, it might be worth a shot, but without those, I couldn't risk such a gamble.

There was only one method left to save my wrist.

'I will become the clan leader's illegitimate child.'

--------------

"What?"

"Whaaat?"

"How can this be!"

My claim of being an illegitimate child stunned everyone in the attic. But Hwarin, why are you surprised? You nodded your head before, acknowledging you understood whose Bulmanghwan it was.

I made eye contact with the Head of Righteousness to make sure he didn't see Hwarin's surprised face.

"You're the clan leader's illegitimate child?"

Surprised? I'm also shocked, as this is a setting change I just made up to save my life. Without showing my internal panic, I replied with a resolute face.

"Isn't it strange? How could Hwarin know the tale of Hyang-Ah and the clan leader?"

The culpability lies one-third with the drama team for not writing the venomous demon character, one-third with the author who had used Hyang-Ah's story as insurance for Dangga Pungwoon, and one-third with the predecessors who made the wuxia novel elements too realistic.

Thinking about it, Kang Yoonho is not at fault. It's totally unjust.

"You said you were a storyteller, didn't you? Someone might have heard about a gisaeng who had shared a moment of love with the clan leader somewhere."

The Head of Righteousness looked at me doubtfully. If he doubts even after showing him proof, then I'll tell him a story he's never heard before, about Hyang-Ah.

"It was after the biting winter had thawed, on a day where the spring flowers were budding. In the still of the night, with no one around, my mother, her belly barely swollen, knocked on that door upon hearing her lover had returned. She just wanted to see him. But all that came back was harsh words, being thrown out onto the cold ground as if she was some barbarian who dared to seek him out with another's child. Moreover, the one who spoke those words was a Sachun Dangga warrior she recognized."

Hyang-Ah returned that night covered in dust, fell ill in her sorrow, and upon learning the Sachun Dangga party had left, she set off for Joseon.

"How could you possibly know that?"

"Ha! Who else could I have heard such a tale from? Rather, I should be the one asking: how do you know of it? Could it be that you were the warrior who blocked her path that day?"

"..."

Right?

The Head of Righteousness shifted his gaze away in that instant. I can't miss this opportunity!

"You dare humiliate my mother!"

With feigned rage, I clenched my fist and swung widely toward the Head of Righteousness's face.

"Master! Please, calm down!"

The Deputy Leader quickly grabbed my arm and shoulder.

"Let me go! It's because of this man that my mother!"

Frozen in surprise, I bellowed my anger at the Head of Righteousness, who was now staring at me.

Thank you, Deputy Leader. This is just the response I was hoping for when I exaggerated my movement.

"...I can't believe it. Your hair is not black, is it?"

The Head of Righteousness collected his shocked expression and once again looked at me with suspicion.

I was expecting the black hair objection.

"There's an interesting saying I've heard since coming to the Central Plains. A woman who leaves with a black-haired man never returns."

"That's to warn against despicable barbarians who covet other men's women."

Such an interpretation befits a barbarian discriminator indeed.

"There's another amusing saying. It's easy for a black-haired man to steal a wife but hard to steal a seed. Do you understand why that saying exists?"

"Children born between black-haired barbarians mostly have black hair."

"And black eyes too."

The probability is a bit lower here, but in reality, Hyang-Ah's son also had black hair, black eyes.

"...I can see you have the Bulmanghwan and the story. It's clear you're Hyang-Ah's son. But none of that proves you are the clan leader's child. Rather, it seems to me you're lying to save your wrist."

Sharp as ever, Middle-Aged Detective Head of Righteousness.

Exactly. That's the more rational thought. All of a sudden in a moment of crisis, I claim to be the clan leader's illegitimate child. That would mean I'm your mom. It would be more reasonable to just chop off the wrist.

It's understandable to disbelieve. Honestly, it's ludicrous.

But the existence of the clan leader's illegitimate child is real. Hyang-Ah and her son are dead. And I alone possess all that information now.

"You don't have to believe me. However, if you are loyal to the clan leader, then you must take me with you."

I carefully pulled my arm free from the Deputy Leader and straightened out my clothes.

"Why should I take a liar like you?"

"Because I am your objective."

This whole affair isn't about turning a single tiger into my sworn brother. Once the words are spoken, there are far too many tigers to deceive.

"What does that mean?"

"You all. Didn't you come to get medicine from the Jegal Clan? The illegitimate child of the Sachun Dangga clan leader is wandering in the brink of death, and the Dang household seemingly has no means to cure him."

I casually relayed the news as if it were a minor piece of gossip, though it was actually confidential information a member of Dasoehoe had divulged to me.

"How would you know that?"

I have to invade the tiger's den directly. It wouldn't be easy to survive by merely deceiving one tiger.

To enter the tiger's den, I have to become a tiger myself. Then, what kind of tiger must I become?

With a smile like that of a cub tiger who had been waiting for its prey to weaken over a long time, I began to speak.

"The clan leader's son is in a critical condition, lacking medicine. In that case... Am I not now the only remaining son of the Dang clan leader?"

The cub tiger before which all other tigers must bow.

A being disrespectful just by being doubted.

Yes. Let's become a tiger that no one else can touch.