Portents

Now was the time when Golden Lady finished her day, and it was the time she considered most important in her daily routine.

It was none other than her bath.

Today too, she was deeply immersed in her granite bathtub specially made just for her.

Since it was the historic day she obtained the Sword Clan's Bronze Badge, this bath time finishing her day couldn't help but be more enjoyable.

Moreover, she was even happier having dealt a blow to the Crescent Moon Pavilion that had been like a thorn in her eye.

However, she felt something unsettling in a corner of her mind.

'That Swordless One...'

The Luoyang Sword Clan's First Young Master, Yuan Zhaoxian.

Meeting him today was something she hadn't predicted at all.

Thanks to that, her plan to give the Crescent Moon Pavilion Master a firm warning only achieved half its intended effect.

If that was all, it wouldn't have bothered her much.

As someone who did 'business,' she well knew that plans start going awry from the moment they're made.

Nevertheless, something still bothered her mind.

It was that this morning's information from the Sword Clan had shown no plans at all for the First Young Master to go out.

Of course, there was no reason at all to give her information about Yuan Zhaoxian, who held the position of First Young Master.

But.

The one who had given her the information along with the Bronze Badge knew she would visit the Crescent Moon Pavilion today.

Wasn't that what they had guided her to do?

Yet why hadn't they given her the information about the First Young Master's outing?

She bit her nail.

Perhaps even the Second Young Master's side didn't have authority to access information about the First Young Master's plans?

But that possibility was slim.

Then,

"...Did no one know the First Young Master's plans from the start?"

"What do you mean?"

The goateed steward waiting at her side asked, but she didn't answer.

Come to think of it, the First Young Master she met today was far too different from the Swordless One she had heard about in rumors until now.

"What are you doing? Give that here."

She recalled how he had held out his palm casually, asking for the Bronze Badge.

'His attitude was strangely confident.'

Even with a master guard, could one be so composed in a space full of armed people?

Perhaps the First Young Master had some secret she didn't know...

'No. That's thinking too far.'

Golden Lady who had been building up her imagination shook her head.

That composed attitude must surely have been because he was the Sword Clan's First Young Master.

Why would he be afraid when he clearly knew no one in Luoyang would dare touch him?

Moreover, it was right to consider that rumors are naturally exaggerated, so the rumors about the Swordless One must have some exaggeration too.

'Besides, even when I poured out such insults in front of him, he couldn't do anything in the end because he had no power.'

With her thoughts sorted out that far, her mind felt much lighter.

"...Steward, the water is cold."

At those words, the steward's face instantly stiffened.

The maids waiting around the bathtub to attend to Golden Lady also tried to hide their expressions.

The steward swallowed his curses and called out toward outside.

"The Young Lady says the water is cold!"

Then the door opened and Golden Lady's direct subordinates carried in bound girls.

All looked no more than twelve years old, had gags in their mouths, and their eyes were full of fear.

"Mmph!"

The subordinates laid them down in a line with their upper bodies hanging over the bathtub.

The girls sensed their fate and tried to resist, but were roughly pushed down from behind by the subordinates.

"Hmm, they seem a bit lacking in freshness...?"

As Golden Lady examined the girls, the steward answered while hiding his disgust.

"...I will guide them to select more properly."

At Golden Lady's flashing hand, the girls' throats were all cut at once.

The subordinates held the girls' hair to keep their severed heads from falling into the bathtub as they backed away.

"Sigh, lately I'm worried about increasing wrinkles..."

Golden Lady grumbled while touching her skin in the bathtub being reheated by the gushing fresh blood.

'Crazy bitch...'

The goateed one cursed Golden Lady inside.

Though he had lived seeing all sorts of filthy things in back alleys until now, he had never seen someone more vicious than his boss.

This woman called Golden Lady was without question an evil woman among evil women.

"Not at all. How could that be? Golden Lady's skin is finer than silk."

Of course, what came out of his mouth was completely different.

Whether Golden Lady was evil or a witch, it was irrelevant to him.

Besides, hadn't he himself been doing things that made him feel too guilty to criticize her?

If not for that, how could he have lived so well in this damned world?

He was just getting more sentimental lately as he aged.

Just then the door burst open and a subordinate tumbled in.

"Urgent news!"

The steward's expression hardened.

"What is it?"

"A meat factory was attacked! Completely destroyed!"

"What?!"

Golden Lady shot up.

"I don't know the details. The suppliers found a few dying people..."

"Who did it?!"

At Golden Lady's sharp voice, the subordinate shrank his neck as he answered.

"They were all out of their minds and died soon..."

The steward pressed him.

"But they must have said something?!"

The subordinate stammered his answer.

"They saw some evil spirit, or an evil ghost did it, or it was a monster..."

The steward's eyebrows rose.

"Evil spirit? Evil ghost? Monster?"

"Y-yes. There was also talk of seeing a white mask..."

Golden Lady asked about the rambling words.

"White mask?"

"Yes, but they all died right away so no proper story..."

She frowned deeply.

After standing to gather her thoughts briefly, she sank back into the bathtub.

It wasn't yet time to think seriously about this.

"Must have gotten into trouble with some master."

The steward picked up the conversation.

"Come to think of it, last year too a branch was completely wiped out after wrongly provoking a wandering master."

To begin with, those born with talent to handle qi are limited.

And among them, those who properly learn martial arts and become martial artists are even rarer.

And among those martial artists, those who break through to become masters are even fewer.

"...Doing business in this field, I feel we meet such rare masters too often."

"Yes, that's right. There does seem to be such a tendency."

Golden Lady sighed and leaned her head back on the bathtub.

"Tell the kids not to cause trouble for a while. If we just lie low, that bastard will get tired after venting here and there and go his own way."

"I'll have additional investigation done when day breaks."

As the subordinate closed the door and left, Golden Lady got irritated.

"Wonder which bastard with nothing better to do it is this time. Really shouldn't raise kids filling their heads with strange ideas about being heroes and such from childhood."

Sensing her mood rapidly worsening, the steward hurriedly gestured to the maids.

The maids bustled about bringing wine and cups and burning incense.

"Running in getting worked up over unprofitable things. Should learn to live flexibly, adapting to the ways of the world."

"Yes, yes. Very true words."

The steward worked hard to humor her.

Just then one of Golden Lady's guards sitting to the side muttered.

"Evil ghost...?"

Hearing that, Golden Lady asked the guard.

"What? Have you heard something?"

"Ah, well..."

Displeased by the guard trailing off, Golden Lady frowned.

"Why are you drawing it out too?!"

Then the guard quickly said to the steward.

"Steward, didn't those outsourced guys handling the gambling den disappear a few days ago?"

The steward nodded.

"They vanished suddenly. But since outsourced guys often disappear like that, we just let it slide, didn't we?"

"Yes, but..."

As the guard kept drawing it out, an impatient Golden Lady urged him on.

"But?!"

"Ah, no. Well, I'm something of a regular at that gambling den. Just remembered a rumor I heard there..."

"Rumor?"

"Yes yes. According to rumors, so many people saw ghosts that day. Many said it was an evil ghost."

The guard scratched his chin.

"Actually, I don't believe in such things, but with so many people saying they saw it, can't completely ignore it..."

Golden Lady burst out angrily.

"What does that have to do with the current story? Are you bringing up such nonsense because dying men were talking nonsense?!"

"So-sorry."

"People doing business should talk productively! Productively!"

The embarrassed guard returned to his position.

'Surely not...'

But despite getting angry like that, anxiety was sprouting in Golden Lady's mind.

'...There couldn't be another being like Master?'

Golden Lady's skin crawled as she recalled her master.

Wasn't that bizarre old one who had taught her martial arts of unknown origin truly an incomprehensible being?

"Bi-big trouble!"

Just then the subordinate who had left earlier burst in through the door.

"What now?!"

"Another branch has been destroyed!"

Golden Lady's brow twisted sharply.

"The same one again?"

"Ye-yes, they say it was the white mask."

Golden Lady held her forehead.

"Huu..."

She rubbed her throbbing temples while muttering.

"...I expected a few more places would fall before his temper cooled anyway."

"That may be so, but..."

Golden Lady waved her hand dismissing the subordinate.

"Looking at how quickly they're being hit even with martial artists stationed at each business, this white mask or whatever must be a master."

"That's right."

The steward picked up.

"Then, as we first thought, just leaving it be is profitable. Even if some kids die, they're quickly replaced, right?"

Behind the increasingly luxurious streets of Luoyang was an explosively growing poor class.

The vast majority of children growing up there end up begging in back alleys.

And when such children grow up, they were always destined to join the underworld.

"...Since hiring wandering masters or dark path masters is expensive."

"That's right."

Though he spoke the words himself, the goateed one's expression was not good.

Though he knew this field's ecology too well, sometimes he wondered if this place wasn't hell.

Having organized her thoughts, Golden Lady waved her hand dismissing them.

"That's enough now, all of you get out. And prepare a masseur. I need a massage."

"Yes, then..."

Just as the steward was about to withdraw.

"Big trouble!"

An urgent cry came as the door burst open.

"Surely not, again...?"

The situation was becoming far more serious than they thought.