Chapter 35
Chapter 35
“Vice Captain Un, Vice Captain Un, may I ask you a few things I’m curious about?”
Un Jongak had decided to get along with Seo Mugyeom, so he nodded willingly as if he had been waiting.
“It’s about Vice Captain Jang Ilmun.”
Un Jongak was quite surprised — he had not expected Jang Ilmun’s name to pop up out of nowhere. Still, even though it was clearly an unexpected name, he did not show much agitation. He only flinched very slightly; if one had not been paying close attention it would have been difficult to notice.
Seo Mugyeom thought that Un Jongak seemed to possess that talent by nature. He was more brazen than anyone Seo Mugyeom had ever met and felt no guilt about what he had done.
“Alright. What do you want to know?”
“I heard Vice Captain Jang Ilmun was murdered, so I was a bit curious about what happened. I heard that you caught the killer, Vice Captain Un, and I wondered how you managed to catch that killer. After the killer was caught everything fit together, but finding the person in the shadows from trivial clues before anything was revealed must have been very difficult.”
When Seo Mugyeom flattered him just enough, Un Jongak misunderstood his intent. He took it as genuine admiration and believed Seo Mugyeom thought highly of him.
“First, it’s important to narrow down suspects. To do that you have to know the dead man’s usual comings and goings, ask the people around him to learn his range of movement and the places he frequented.”
Then Un Jongak elaborated in considerable detail to win favor.
Seo Mugyeom listened attentively and asked things now and then, never forgetting to praise how impressive it was. If he said it was something he could never have imagined doing, Un Jongak could not help feeling puffed up.
“But wasn’t the madam who exposed the story about Jang Ilmun and the courtesan later killed? Who could have killed that madam?”
“Who would know? Vice Captain Jang was a vice captain of the Guardian Ten Division, so there had been active interest and support in finding the killer, but who would bother about a single madam being killed?”
Un Jongak seemed to think that would stop Seo Mugyeom’s questioning.
“I was curious about that. So I looked into it a bit and I even met the constable who took charge of the body.”
That was not true. But Un Jongak probably could not imagine Seo Mugyeom lying.
He flinched again, very slightly.
Where another person’s shoulders might have risen in shock, Un Jongak hid his surprise skillfully.
Seo Mugyeom had been talking earnestly and then stopped at that point.
He looked as if he had just remembered something in passing and had not come there specifically to tell that story.
Seo Mugyeom even changed the subject entirely.
“You probably did not care about the madam’s death anyway, so I fear I’ve talked for too long about something dull. You’ll leave early tomorrow, right? Who would attack the Ak Clan’s establishments? Seeing it here, the Ak Clan’s influence is considerable — who would dare target the Ak Clan?”
“I don’t know that.”
Un Jongak spoke casually when Seo Mugyeom abruptly turned the subject.
He thought Seo Mugyeom would return to the original matter on his own without his urging. But time passed and there was no sign of that. Growing impatient, he asked first.
“So what became of that madam? What did the constable say when you met him? I’m curious too. Until I heard you just now I didn’t even know the madam had been killed — it’s strange. He must have made many enemies in his time.”
“That’s likely. One of the constables took the body outside the city and buried it. Of course, the constable did not do it personally but had someone else do it. Still, the constable remembered the wounds on the madam’s body in fairly good detail.”
“The constable must have been awfully free then.”
Seo Mugyeom laughed when Un Jongak asked without much interest.
“If he was a warrior of the Divine Martial Sect’s Guardian Ten Division, the constable would not have treated him lightly. He seemed to consider it an honor that I spoke to him.”
Un Jongak thought Seo Mugyeom’s talk was unusual. The more he observed him, the more he seemed smooth and not someone to be taken lightly.
“Continue what you were saying.”
“All right. That constable had an interesting past. He had been very interested in martial arts before becoming a constable. He didn’t find my questions bothersome and answered well — but he had his own reasons, it seemed. He said the one who killed the madam looked like a martial arts master. I asked why he thought that. I figured killing a madam who knew nothing of martial arts would not require any special skill.”
Un Jongak still kept an indifferent expression. His gaze was not directed at Seo Mugyeom, and he showed no sign of particular interest in the story. Yet Seo Mugyeom could tell that all of Un Jongak’s senses were on him.
“The constable said that if an ordinary person had stabbed with a knife, the blade would have caught on bone and not gone in that deeply. I found that curious. Aren’t the people around me all warriors? So it struck me as strange to hear that an ordinary person’s stab would differ like that.”
“That could be. What’s ordinary to others might be routine for us, and what’s routine for others might seem strange to us.”
Un Jongak encouraged him, hoping Seo Mugyeom would continue.
“If there are warriors nearby, wouldn’t it be the Divine Martial Sect? Besides, that madam testified about our Divine Martial Sect’s Vice Captain Jang Ilmun’s death, so I felt uneasy. I wondered if she suspected one of us.”
“What did she say?”
“She didn’t say anything. She only thought it in her heart. Though I’m of the Guardian Ten Division of the Divine Martial Sect, that doesn’t mean I could bully a constable about. What if I had been dragged before the magistrate? I’m not that bold.”
Seo Mugyeom smiled as if it were amusing, and then, embarrassed, added,
“I should leave early tomorrow, so I fear I’ve talked on too much. It’s strange — I feel comfortable talking with you, Vice Captain Un. I thought after the Ak Young Mistress incident it would be hard to speak freely, but you reached out first, and I don’t know how grateful I am.”
“I was wrong, so of course I should apologize.”
Un Jongak even put on a plausible smile.
“Now rest, Vice Captain Un.”
“All right. Seo Mugyeom, rest as well.”
After hearing Un Jongak, Seo Mugyeom left the room.
When the door closed, different expressions came over the two men’s faces.
A smile crossed Seo Mugyeom’s face, and Un Jongak’s visage grew cold and hard.
Seo Mugyeom’s chatter had been so disorienting that Un Jongak’s mind swirled.
‘Does he suspect me? That can’t be. No, that’s impossible. There’s no reason to point at me. It didn’t look like a Guardian Ten Division warrior’s blade…’
But the events of that day did not come back to him clearly. He had not used a Guardian Ten Division sword to kill the madam. He had deliberately used an ordinary, commonly obtainable blade so the weapon might not be revealed through the wound.
He did not even remember whether the blade had hit bone. It had been a long time. He had not thought it significant then.
‘Why bring that up now? Was he trying to feel me out? Does Seo Mugyeom know something?’
Though he thought it unlikely, the question surfaced again.
‘Seo Mugyeom. What do you know?’
Un Jongak’s blazing gaze aimed at the void.
At this point there was nothing to be done.
Un Jongak had always been like that. He did not spare those who kept coming to mind and irritated him.
He had quietly dealt with more than one person up to now; adding Seo Mugyeom to that number would make no difference.
‘The timing is convenient.’
He did not know who targeted the Ak Clan’s holdings, but would they not attack a few times on the road to the Imperial City? It didn’t have to happen, but even if it didn’t, he could follow behind with Seo Mugyeom at the rear and kill him, leaving it to look like an assassin’s work.
‘Seo Mugyeom. You’re foolish. If you hadn’t loitered in front of me, you might have lived at least a few more years.’
Un Jongak who thought this had no idea in his dreams that Seo Mugyeom had laid out the exact same plan against him.
Early the next morning a number of men and carriages thundered out from the Ak Clan.
Seo Mugyeom rode beside Un Jongak.
Un Jongak was astonished that the irritating Seo Mugyeom had naturally come to ride by his side, but he tried to look smiling.
He could not know what Seo Mugyeom had been thinking by hovering at his side, but that very thing would draw out his death.
“I’m really looking forward to this, Vice Captain Un. This is my first time on such a mission.”
“One might think you were out for pleasure.”
“Indeed. Even if they said that, I wouldn’t mind. That’s how it felt to me.”
Then Seo Mugyeom suddenly smacked his forehead as if he had completely forgotten something.
“Oh dear, get a grip. I have something to do, so I’ll have to fall back now.”
When Seo Mugyeom had clung and chattered, it had been annoying, but now that he said that all of a sudden, Un Jongak wondered why.
“Why is that?”
“The Vice Captain said there was something to attend to. The Clan Head said he wanted it done and gave me a note to exchange for money at the Gold-Silver Exchange to help with travel expenses. He said the Gold-Silver Exchange vouchers couldn’t be converted in the Imperial City — apparently there’s no branch there.”
As Seo Mugyeom began to shift the subject, a bright thought flashed into Un Jongak’s head.
Wasn’t heaven helping him?
From the way he spoke, it seemed Seo Mugyeom had been assigned that errand alone. If so, Un Jongak could offer to accompany him, set out together, and then kill Seo Mugyeom in some place where there were no witnesses.