Chapter 72: Good Shall Be Repaid (2)
“Martial garb makes the warrior. A naked chivalrous gentleman can wield little, if any, influence in the martial world.”
–Mark Twain1
To oppose Moriarty, I must become stronger myself.
And for a martial artist to grow stronger, time, rare elixirs, and fortuitous encounters leading to enlightenment are essential.
While he plots new crimes in the shadows, I must seize every opportunity to attain new heights of mastery.
For that, I would need to extract every possible reward from the influential figures who had begun to show me favor.
Just as these thoughts passed through my mind.
“It is regrettable that we cannot sweep away the entire conspiracy at once, but that does not diminish your contribution.”
Perhaps he noticed my lingering look of regret.
The Minister gestured to his attendant, giving an order. “Bring the prepared items.”
“Yes, sir.”
The attendant who had left the office returned in less than three minutes, bearing two bundles in his arms.
“This is…”
While the minister’s attendant, Clark, unfolded the two silk-enwrapped bundles, I couldn’t take my eyes off them for even a moment.
Inside the first bundle were two lengths of fine fabric and a white envelope.
The seal upon the envelope bore the clear insignia of the Home Office, pressed firmly into scarlet sealing wax.
The fabric inside the bundle was divided into white and black, with enough material to tailor an entire suit, including a shirt, pants, vest, and coat.
“My word…”
I stepped closer to examine the texture of the fabric.
Threads fine and smooth, with a lustrous sheen.
It was evident at a glance that it was of the highest quality.
No, the term ‘highest quality’ does not do it justice.
This was a luxury, an extravagant rarity so precious that few could ever hope to possess it.
“Fabric woven from the fur of the Vicuña.”
Vicuña wool.
The name given to the fur sheared from the Vicuña, a camelid animal inhabiting the Andes Mountains across the distant South American continent.
In the circles of the London Murim, the term might be met with puzzled expressions, but for the South American Murim people who raise alpacas as livestock, it might feel somewhat familiar.
In simplest terms, the vicuña is the wild ancestor of the alpaca, untamed and elusive.
They were treated as extremely precious animals even before the Spanish began overhunting them, and their unique untamable nature made it difficult to secure their fur stably.
In the ancient Inca Empire, only the emperor could wear clothes made from Vicuña fur, which speaks volumes about its majesty.
Moreover, only the soft underfur, called the fiber of the gods, is used in such luxurious fabrics.
When caught and shorn every three years, the underfur obtained from a single vicuña amounts to just a handful.
Scarcely more than five ounces by the Imperial measure.
What lies before my eyes now is fabric prepared to make a full suit and a scarf from that precious Vicuña underfur.
“I’m at the point where I want to doubt my own eyes.”
And, if I am not mistaken, this isn’t just any ordinary Vicuña wool.
-Zap!
I held both ends of the fabric, letting a small amount of Essence flow from my right hand.
Soon, the Essence flowed smoothly through the long woven cloth, exiting the opposite end and returning to my body through my fingertips.
“My word…”
The energy returned without a single loss.
Even more intriguing was that the Essence passing through the fabric carried with it an unusually strong Yang Qi.
Typically, when internal energy is channeled through fibers used in clothing of this length, most of the energy disperses and is lost.
However, this fabric allowed the Essence to flow smoothly, as if it were an extension of the body, without any resistance.
I’ve never heard of Vicuña’s underfur having such a capability.
“……”
The ability to manipulate Essence through a fabric without any method is a skill possessed only by the fur or skin of certain rare spiritual creatures.
However, even fabrics woven from such heavenly treasures would still inevitably lose some of the energy passing through them.
I recalled the time at the Debutante Ball
when I channeled Essence into the fur of the spiritual creatures kept by Her Majesty.
At that time,
the fur of the Angora cat and two Border Collies attending Her Majesty reacted to the energy and emitted light.
This is akin to the high-temperature luminescence of copper or iron glowing red-hot, and in terms of Kung-Fu Thermodynamics, it could be described as radiation, with the energy dispersing into the surrounding air.
The energy loss in this case is much greater than with ordinary fibers.
Therefore, the remaining possibility is one.
“This fabric is woven solely from the fur of a single spiritual creature, isn’t it?”
“Precisely.”
The Minister nodded.
“This is fur shorn from the back of an Ancient Vicuña.”
“An Ancient Vicuña…?!”
The Ancient Vicuña is a legendary South American spiritual creature known as the incarnation of Yang Qi.
Considering that the value of an ordinary Vicuña is comparable to a significant spiritual creature, one could easily imagine the worth of a Vicuña that has become a spiritual creature.
But the fact that all the large quantity of fabric here is made from the inner fur sheared from the back of a single spiritual Vicuña―
“It must be enormous.”
“It seems so. They say what’s here isn’t even a quarter of the fur collected from the Ancient Vicuña this year.”
At Sir Harcourt’s glance, his attendant Clark cautiously spoke up.
“They say that a Vicuña, having lived a thousand years and transcended into a spiritual creature, is large enough to claim an entire Andean peak as its domain.”
I’ve never been to the Andes myself, but I know well that the ecology of spiritual creatures surpasses human imagination.
So, it’s not at all strange that an ancient Vicuña the size of a mountain peak lives in the highlands of South America.
“A fabric woven solely from the fur of such a creature. This is not something one could obtain with wealth alone.”
“Being that you quelled the chaos wrought by the Worm Poison Immortal’s abomination and severed the roots of treason, this could be considered a modest reward.”
I nodded in agreement.
From my perspective, I had merely disposed of a Worm-ridden Dead Man. But in the eyes of Her Majesty’s government, it seemed a feat worthy of distinction.
“There must be only a handful of craftsmen in London capable of working with fabric of this caliber.”
I picked up the envelope lying on the fabric.
“Then what’s inside must be a letter of introduction written directly by the Minister. Indeed, if it’s a craftsman from Savile Row2, they might be able to handle this.”
“You know well.”
“Well, it’s where my master once lived, after all.”
“Oh.”
I wasn’t sure if he was intrigued by the fact that I knew so much about Savile Row, or if he reacted to the word ‘master’.
However, through this conversation, I was once again able to confirm the Minister’s personal tastes, which were not easy to discern due to the bleak office.
‘At the very least, he seemed to care about formality.’
Savile Row is the name of a street running through the heart of Mayfair in London.
It is well-known as a mecca for bespoke suits, a place any London gentleman would want to visit at least once.
Although I haven’t visited in recent years, the house of the master Mycroft and I trained under was also on Savile Row, making it a very familiar place to me.
Judging by the craftsmanship and materials, the clothes and shoes Sir Harcourt was wearing were also products of an artisan with a store on Savile Row.
The fact that someone as high-ranking as the Home Secretary personally wrote an introduction letter suggests that the artisan, who would make me clothes from fabric woven from the fabric of an Ancient Vicuña, is a picky person who doesn’t take commissions just for money.
“A precious gift indeed.”
“But this is not the end.”
“Oh, right. There was one more. My apologies.”
The Minister’s attendant then untied the knot on the second silk bundle.
As expected, the item inside was quite impressive.
“A Unicorn Salamander horn…”
A sharp, twisted horn about the length of my forearm.
Though it resembled the horn of the spiritual creature, the Unicorn, its bright orange hue made it unmistakable.
“I can feel an immense amount of Yang Qi from it.”
“In terms of value, it’s said to be three to four times more precious than the inner core you received at the Debutante Ball.”
I quietly nodded my head.
The horn was wrapped in a special processed silk, and until the knot was untied, I couldn’t feel the aura emanating from it at all.
Although it wasn’t as much as the fabric wrapped by the attendant in the bundle, this was also a material that wasn’t easily obtainable.
“A fine was imposed on Wenham for installing a passage under the ballroom stage without authorization and expanding a secret audience seat behind the mirror, turning the outcome of the match between Almec and the Debutante Ball into a gambler’s bet.”
“Excellent.”
“This horn was seized in the course of those investigations, forfeited as illicit gain. I am giving it to you at my own discretion.”
“Is it really alright?”
“Had the murder never occurred, you would have won the inner core regardless. In light of the role you played in resolving this affair, I judged further reward appropriate.”
Honestly, this was an unexpected reward.
I had already obtained the inner core at the Debutante Ball and received a monetary reward from Scotland Yard, so I hadn’t expected the Home Secretary to give me anything extra.
“Consider carefully how to use it. You can sell it for money, or it wouldn’t be bad to process it in another way.”
“I’ll gratefully accept it.”
As the Secretary mentioned, unlike the Inner Core, the horn of the Unicorn Salamander could be used in various ways.
In the past, its use was limited to being ground into a fine powder for consumption, much like the Seasoned Pill3, or sprinkled upon wounds inflicted by Cold Yin-Qi Kung-Fu. But with recent advancements in the processing of spiritual creature remains, its uses had expanded dramatically.
One could craft a stiletto, honed razor-sharp, capable of dispatching any opponent wielding Yin Qi with a single, decisive strike.
Or perhaps use its density and overwhelming Yang Qi to reinforce the heel of a shoe, augmenting the power of one’s kicking techniques.
With enough creativity, one could come up with absurd applications, which is why the horn of the Unicorn Salamander is widely known in the martial world for its versatility.
‘They’ve prepared something far more impressive than I expected. Is this what makes a minister-level martial artist different?’
In truth, seeing that this horn was an extreme steroid, brimming with Yang Qi beyond even that of the seasoned pill, the desire to give it to Watson welled up like smoke from a chimney.
According to the theory I established, if the Unicorn Salamander’s horn were ground and prepared using traditional methods, it could potentially be employed to treat her Eight Yin-Qi Nails4
However, unfortunately, this is impossible.
The Yin Qi embedded in Watson’s meridians, and the nail sealing them, had already adapted, developing a tolerance to the Yang Qi of the Unicorn Salamander.
Even if she were to ingest it, it would not have the power to grind away the nails as it might have previously.
Of course, there’s no need to think of this negatively.
Developing a resistance meant, in other words, that Watson’s meridians could now endure the Unicorn Salamander’s Yang Qi.
‘In fact, it’s a good thing.’
I was certain this horn could aid Watson—just not in the conventional manner like that of an inner core.
- TL/N: The original quote is as follows—Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society. ️
- TL/N: Savile Row is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men ️
- TL/N: Inner core of a Unicorn Salamander ️
- TL/N: It seems that the name changed from Eight to Nine because one of the nails had been removed ️